bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
The Right(s) to the Hybrid City and the Role of DIY Networking
Authors: Antoniadis Panayotis , Apostol Ileana 
Published: December 2020

We reconsider the concept of “the right to the city”, introduced by French philosopher Henri Lefebvre, in the light of the new information space that ICTs create in contemporary urban environments. Such spaces include the use of global online social networks, locative media, e-participation platforms, online neighbourhood communities and so forth. Unlike the physical urban space that it overlays, this new and rapidly emerging virtual space has practically no capacity constraints. However, it is subject to inequalities in terms of access, representation, participation, and ownership. In this research note—an interdisciplinary collaboration between a computer scientist and an urban planner—we wish to study the role of wireless technology, which enables the easy deployment of local networks operating outside the public Internet, and the role of the free and open source social software, which facilitates the easy development of customized local applications, allowing citizens to shape their emerging hybrid space. We suggest that this sort of do-it-yourself (DIY) networking can be realised according to citizens’ values, objectives and the particularities of the environment, and could ultimately enable them to compete with large ICT corporations such as Google and Facebook for their “right(s) to the hybrid city”. We employ the urban sidewalk metaphor as an application that is subject to hybrid design and can profit significantly from the special characteristics of DIY networks.
Information Kiosk Based Indian E-Governance Service Delivery: Value Chain Based Measurement Modelling
Authors: Misra Harekrishna 
Published: December 2020

Globally, e-governance systems are evolving towards wider acceptance. Almost all the countries have embraced e-governance as part of their long term policy. Contemporary e-governance implementation efforts however, are not free from challenges. While some argue in favour of convergence among business, government, civil society etc., many feel citizen acceptance needs to be the primary objective. In cases like European Union (EU), citizen acceptance of e-governance services has become very important because of member-driven benefits. In developing countries, this challenge is enormous despite having prolific growth in e-governance infrastructure. In Indian context, e-governance infrastructure has evolved to a stage of consolidation. National e-Governance Plan (NeGP), National Knowledge Network (NKN) and Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) etc., provide the scope for such consolidation. In this paper, it is argued that value chain management approach is necessary to consolidate the efforts made so far. Consolidation needs wider citizen acceptance and value added services are the basic imperatives. This consolidation phase needs to ensure e-governance efforts having longer life cycles, better convergence and connected e-governance. A measurement and acceptance model is presented in this paper with two case studies drawn from India for validation.
Embedding Digital Advantage: A Five-Stage Maturity Model for Digital Communities
Authors: Williamson Andy 
Published: December 2020

Information and Communications Technology (ICT) has the potential to offer citizens new ways with which to engage in the process of democracy. It is not sufficient that communities and citizens have access to ICT for the digital divide to be bridged; such communities need to also become literate in the new technologies. Resources need to be made available that are useful, interesting and relevant. Ultimately, communities need to be empowered to become more than receivers of information and services via technology; they must become producers of new knowledge and information. Such publications are then able to represent a community’s unique viewpoint to a wider audience. This paper describes a five stage model for community ICT engagement and maturity. This model is non-linear and temporal and can be used as an audit of current community technology capability for assessing maturity and for establishing clear milestones within a community ICT framework. Such a model is useful for assessing and developing eDemocracy issues within individual groups and communities and as a way of mapping progress within a wider community, city or regional setting.
Cooperating community connections: A changing political reality
Authors: Graham Garth 
Published: December 2020

Community Informatics has declared that the global is a federation of locals. James Quilligan has written an essay to the effect that applying such a definition of global requires a world institution of democratic governance. Some members of the community of community informatics researchers have come to a similar conclusion. This essay outlines an alternative interpretation based on complex adaptive systems theory, and with consequent results for a different definition of the individual, the community and their interdependence. It asks the question – where does the predominance of opinion in community informatics about the changing nature of governance and community reside?
Government Public Access Centres (PACs): A beacon of hope for marginalised communities
Authors: Uys Corrie , Pather Shaun 
Published: December 2020

Notwithstanding massive injections into broadband infrastructure, large sectors of the world’s population remain without access to the internet. One of the strategies employed by Government and the private sector to address the digital divide has been to provide basic computing services and internet access to communities in the form of public access centres (PACs) or otherwise known as telecentres. Over the years PAC related interventions have been subjected to much introspection, and critique, given a number of examples of failures. This paper examines a PAC program in South Africa which has been running with success for ten years. The paper reports on a study which includes data collected from more than two thousand four hundred users of PACs. The findings provide critical insights into the value proposition of PACs for communities in impoverished areas and whether this is still relevant from a policy perspective to tackle the digital divide. The findings also provide insights into the profile of users; the factors which impact on their choice of a PAC as an internet access point; and the extent to which there is a reliance on PACs. The most revealing finding from the study indicates that PACS provided the average user with something more than just an internet access point. The study has determined that PACs have a significant effect on the hopefulness a citizen has for his or her self, community and country.
Open Data and Evidence-based Socio-economic Policy Research in India: An overview
Authors: Larquemin Aurelie , Mukhopadhyay Jyoti Prasad , Buteau Sharon 
Published: December 2020

Public entities are one of the main producers of socio-economic data around the world. The Open Government Data (OGD) movement encourages these entities to make their data publicly available in order to improve transparency and accountability, which may lead to good governance. Thus, OGD can promote evidence-based public policy by supporting empirical research through making quality data available. Hence, in this paper we discuss the current status of OGD initiative in India, how its principles are considered and applied by the public authorities, and the feedback of the research community about OGD in India. Les institutions publiques sont parmi les principaux producteurs de données socio-économiques. Le mouvement « Données Gouvernementales ouvertes » les encourage et assiste parfois dans la mise à disposition de leurs données au public, pour améliorer la transparence, ce qui peut conduire à une meilleure gouvernance. Ainsi, les données ouvertes gouvernementales peuvent conduire à de meilleures politiques publiques basées sur leurs résultats en soutenant la recherche par la publication de données de qualité. Ce document traite de la situation des données ouvertes en Inde, leur publication et usage par les institutions publiques et par la communauté de recherche. Las instituciones públicas son los principales productores de datos socio-económicos. El movimiento de " datos gubernamentales abiertos" alienta estas entidades de poner sus datos a disposición del público para mejorar la transparencia, y la gobernanza. Por lo tanto los datos gubernamentales abiertos pueden promover políticas públicas basadas en evidencia, mediante el apoyo a la investigación empírica a través de hacer datos de calidad disponibles. En este trabajo se discute lo que es la realidad de los datos gubernamentales abiertos en la India, cómo sus principios están consideradas y aplicadas por las autoridades públicas y la comunidad de investigación.
To the Cloud: Big Data in a Turbulent World by Vincent Mosco
Authors: Fink Alexander 
Published: December 2020

Vincent Mosco begins and ends To The Cloud: Big Data in a Turbulent World by exploring metaphors about clouds and applying them to cloud computing. These metaphors offer a way into understanding the history of cloud computing: where it came from, why it began, how its evolved, and the ways it works in our everyday lives. He draws on literature, including a book entitled The Cloud of Unknowing by a medieval English monk (pg. 13). As I write this, I switch over to my streaming music service momentarily and discover it playing a song of the same name, this time by a contemporary artist, James Blackshaw. Given that I’d heard of neither the song nor artist until this very moment, this makes me a bit suspicious about how closely I’m being watched by my music player. Was it reading my email? Did it discover my notes, uploaded to the cloud on Evernote? Does it know this book was shipped to me? It’s almost difficult to believe it is complete coincidence. And yet this is one of the promises of the cloud and big data - a world where what we want (even when we didn’t know we wanted it) is at our finger tips exactly when we want it.
Urban Data in the primary classroom: bringing data literacy to the UK curriculum
Authors: Wolff Annika , Cavero Montaner Jose J , Kortuem Gerd 
Published: December 2020

As data becomes established as part of everyday life, the ability for the average citizen to have some level of data literacy is increasingly important. This paper describes an approach to teaching data skills in schools using real life, complex, urban data sets collected as part of a smart city project. The approach is founded on the premise that young learners have the ability to work with complex data sets if they are supported in the right way and if the tasks are grounded in a real life context. Narrative principles are used to frame the task, to assist interpretation and tell stories from data and to structure queries of datasets. An inquiry-based methodology organises the activities. This paper describes the initial trial in a UK primary school in which twelve students aged 9-10 years learnt about home energy consumption and the generation of solar energy from home solar PV, by interpreting existing visualisations of smart meter data and data obtained from aerial survey. Additional trials are scheduled with older learners which will evaluate learners on more challenging data handling tasks. The trials are informing the development of the Urban Data School, a web-based platform designed to support teaching data skills in schools in order to improve data literacy among school leavers.
DataBasic: Design Principles, Tools and Activities for Data Literacy Learners
Authors: D'Ignazio Catherine , Bhargava Rahul 
Published: December 2020

The growing number of tools for data novices are not designed with the goal of learning in mind. This paper proposes a set of pedagogical design principles for tool development to support data literacy learners. We document their use in the creation of three digital tools and activities that help learners build data literacy, showing design decisions driven by our pedagogy. Sketches students created during the activities reflect their adeptness with key data literacy skills. Based on early results, we suggest that tool designers and educators should orient their work from the outset around strong pedagogical principles.
MobiSAM: Reflections from a four year case study using technology to increase public participation in local government in South Africa
Authors: Thinyane Hannah , Siebörger Ingrid 
Published: December 2020

This paper reflects on a four year evaluation on the use of a mobile platform, MobiSAM, to support increased public participation in local government. It describes the lessons learnt in the design, development and evaluation of the initiative. MobiSAM uses a community based co-design methodology, emphasizing the importance of community’s voices throughout the design and evaluation of the project. Attention is drawn to the education and awareness raising interventions undertaken in order to scaffold the deployment of the system. A discussion of the findings of the project is also provided in order for other actors in the field to learn from MobiSAM’s successes and failures. Special attention is focused on the political stability and communication capacity required to successfully undertake initiatives such as this.
An empirical study on the effects of mobile telephony usage on livelihoods in Brong Ahafo region of Ghana
Authors: Bekoe Stephen , Ayoung Daniel Azerikatoa , Boadu Paul , Folitse Benjamin 
Published: December 2020

Meaningful use of mobile telephony can enhance human development and capabilities thereby empowering people to lead lives they value. They are enabling technologies to deliver human-centred development. This article explores the effects of mobile phone use on livelihoods of users in eight districts in Brong Ahafo region of Ghana. A mixed method approach was employed and qualitative research was used as a dominant paradigm. Interview questionnaires, focus group discussions and observation were used. The study showed that mobile phone ownership was high and their uses were characterised by greater uniformity across socio-economic groups and gender. Mobile phones enhanced traditional structures, facilitated business links, and face-to-face interactions as well as strengthening community ties. Users acknowledged the impact of mobile phones in their ability to deal with family emergencies. Poor network connectivity and power outages were major obstacles to mobile phone usage. The study makes original contributions to the knowledge of practical relevance in the ICT4D field as well as with respect to these under-researched Ghanaian regions and provides evidence for policy formulation to improve quality of services in Ghana and elsewhere. The participatory Field Research also provided space for in-depth engagement with local people to understand the technology in social and development contexts.
Online communities sustainability: some economic issues
Authors: Ripamonti Laura Anna , De Cindio Fiorella , Benassi Mario 
Published: December 2020

Nowadays a growing attention is put on community networking and community informatics, due to the role both can play in building the Information Society through the active involvement of citizens and local communities. Hence, the issue of online communities sustainability becomes more and more relevant: multiple aspects  social, institutional and economical  have to be jointly analyzed to understand how and if a project is really worth.
In this paper we address the economic sustainability aspect, a key component still not deeply investigated. Actually, survival and growth are common themes in organizational and businesses literature since the beginning of the 60s, nevertheless, online communities only partly comply with the existing available frameworks and we are left with a panorama where communities emerge and evolve as if they were either completely bottom-up, unplanned entities or rational top down quasi-organizations. Hence, our aim is to offer a first attempt to define several theoretical propositions on economical sustainability, mainly derived from our ongoing experience and research on online communities.
La Promoción de las TIC para el Desarrollo en Pueblos Indígenas: Extensión o Comunicación
Authors: Medellin Urquiaga Sofía Irene , Huerta Velázquez Erick 
Published: December 2020

A partir de la pregunta planteada por Paolo Freire en su ensayo ¿Extensión o Comunicación? (1976). El artículo examina el proceso en que el desarrollo de las TIC ha sido instrumentado por algunas políticas gubernamentales en Latinoamérica ¿Ha sido este un proceso extensionista, que impone una forma de entender la realidad sobre otra; o un proceso de comunicación, guiado por un diálogo recíproco que permita a las comunidades definir las ventajas y utilidades de la incorporación de las TIC en su vida cotidiana?
Trustworthy Records and Open Data
Authors: Thurston Anne Catherine 
Published: December 2020

The Open Data movement has assumed that that accurate data is available to demonstrate government expenditure and actions. However, in many countries, the records of government policies, activities and transactions that should provide the basis for a large proportion of government data are incomplete, inaccurate or inaccessible. This will result in inaccurate data. This paper suggests that alongside the enthusiasm for Open Data, there needs to be parallel attention to ensuring that government records are managed as the evidence base for Open Government. The paper explores key records issues that will affect Open Data and draws attention to the value of international records management standards.
‘MYBus’: Young People's Mobile Health, Wellbeing and Digital Inclusion
Authors: Nansen Bjorn , Chakraborty Kabita , Gibbs Lisa , MacDougall Colin , Vetere Frank 
Published: December 2020

As part of an ethnographic study researching the role of information and communication technology use in mediating young people’s social inclusion in an outer urban growth area of Melbourne, Australia, this paper reports on a case study of a community mobile youth centre, named MYBus. The MYBus is a converted passenger coach that operates as a mobile youth centre for young people aged 12-25. It aims to provide young people with up-to-date youth-specific information and resources, especially access to health and wellbeing information and services. The bus has been fitted with laptop computers, Internet access, Wii games, D.J. console and other gaming devices to support this engagement. This paper examines how the aggregation of digital media on MYBus not only has direct healthcare benefits, but also enables a broader approach to young people’s wellbeing by providing resources for digital access and participation. In particular, the mobilisation of these technologies operates to redress geographic and socioeconomic inequities for young people living on the urban fringe. We discuss this digital inclusion through research findings related to young people’s digital access, mediation, and mobility in the use of the MYBus technologies. This empirical work is situated theoretically by connecting this mobile digital inclusion with literature on young people’s social capital, to develop the concept of children’s e-mobility capital.
The ecology of linking technologies: toward a non-instrumental look at new technological repertoires
Authors: Gómez Rocío 
Published: December 2020

The article examines one of the analytical fronts dealt with in the doctoral thesis “Making Sense in the Contemporary City: Young People and New Technological Repertoires”. The paper focuses on the follow-up and examination of the framework of technological relationships between human and non-human agents. The study allowed us to advance in the comprehension of the new technological repertoires (mobile telephone, chat, Internet) not as isolated instruments which are added to the social life of the subjects, but as technological mediations for the construction of social links, that is, as linking machines. The people do not relate with discrete and individualized technologies but with authentic technological settings in which both convergent and divergent relationships are generated. We denominate this conjunction of technologies as the ecology of technologies. It proposes eight technological techno-mediation linking systems which are useful for analyzing the variations of the techno-linking settings of the urban young people, that is, the variation of ways in which young people operate different technologies to build and strengthen their social links.. It questions some of the frequently simplifying conceptions regarding “the young user of new technologies”.
Telecentre functionality in South Africa: Re-enabling the community ICT access environment
Authors: Attwood Heidi , Diga Kathleen , Braathen Einar , May Julian 
Published: December 2020

The problems with telecentres are well documented. Based on a participatory action research project that directly contributed to improved quality of life for 35% of participants and indirectly for another 41% of participants, this paper presents key factors affecting the use of telecentres by poorer people to empower themselves to improve their quality of life. Understanding the numerous interlinking problems surrounding the functionality and use of telecentres as factors of structure and agency as presented in Kleine’s Choice Framework (2011), provides a useful departure point to re-invent telecentres as active citizen development centres.