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Books > Computing & IT > Social & legal aspects of computing > Impact of computing & IT on society
Not long ago, projections of how office technologies would revolutionize the production of documents in a high-tech future carriedmany promises. The paper less office and the seamless and problem-free sharing of texts and other work materials among co-workers werejust around the corner, we were told. To anyone who has been involved in putting together a volume of the present kind, such forecasts will be met with considerable skepticism, if not outright distrust. The diskette, the email, the fax, the net, and all the other forms of communication that are now around are powerful assets, but they do not in any way reduce the flow of paper or the complexity of coordinating activities involved in producing an artifact such as a book. Instead, the reverse seems to be true. Obviously, the use of such tools requires considerable skill at the center of coordination, to borrow an expression from a chapter in this volume. As editors, we have been fortunate to have Ms. Lotta Strand, Linkoping University, at the center of the distributed activity that producing this volume has required over the last few years. With her considerable skill and patience, Ms. Strand and her work provide a powerful illustration of the main thrust of most of the chapters in this volume: Practice is a coordination of thinking and action, and many things had to be kept in mind during the production of this volume."
Personal data is increasingly important in our lives. We use personal data to quantify our behaviour, through health apps or for 'personal branding' and we are also increasingly forced to part with our data to access services. With the proliferation of embedded sensors, the built environment is playing a key role in this developing use of data, even though this remains relatively hidden. Buildings are sites for the capture of personal data. This data is used to adapt buildings to people's behaviour, and increasingly, organisations use this data to understand how buildings are occupied and how communities develop within them. A whole host of technical, practical, social and ethical challenges emerge from this still developing area across interior, architectural and urban design, and many open questions remain. This book makes a contribution to this on-going discourse by bringing together a community of researchers interested in personal informatics and the design of interactive buildings and environments. The book's aim is to foster critical discussion about the future role of personal data in interactions with the built environment. People, Personal Data and the Built Environment is ideal for researchers and practitioners interested in Architecture, Computer Science and Human Building Interaction.
Using both a theoretical argumentation and an empirical investigation, this book rationalizes the view that in order to understand people's privacy perceptions and behaviors, a situational perspective needs to be adopted. To this end, the book is divided into three parts. Part I advances the theory of situational privacy and self-disclosure by discussing impacts of new information and communication technologies on traditional theories of privacy and self-disclosure. Based on five basic suppositions, it describes three major processes of the theory: pre-situational privacy regulations processes, situational privacy perception and self-disclosure processes, and post-situational evaluation processes. Next, Part II presents the application of the theory to smartphone-based communication. It first analyses how people choose certain communication environments on their smartphones, how they manipulate them, and how these external factors affect self-disclosure within these environments. It then details a multi-method study conducted to test the derived assumptions and discusses the obtained results. Part III reflects on the overall implications of the theory, summarizes the major findings and lastly considers possible extensions and perspectives on future research. Intended mainly for researchers in privacy and communication studies, the book offers privacy scholars a systematic review of both classic and contemporary theories of privacy and self-disclosure. At the same time, communication scholars benefit from an additional methodological discussion of the mobile experience sampling method, which provides an invaluable approach to measuring situational communication processes.
Slated as 'the next big thing in tech', augmented reality promises to take the screen out of our hands and wrap it around the world via 'smart spectacles'. As a pervasive, invisible interface between the world and our senses, AR offers unparalleled capacity to reveal hidden digital depths, but it also comes at a cost to our privacy, our property, and our reality. In this crucial and provocative book, Mark Pesce draws on over thirty years' experience to offer the first mainstream exploration of augmented reality. He discusses the exciting and beneficial features of AR as well as the issues and risks raised by this still-emerging technology - a technology that moulds us by shaping what we see and hear. Augmented Reality is essential reading for anyone interested in the growing influence of this impressive but deeply concerning technology. As the book reveals, reality - once augmented - will never be the same.
This book is for people who work in the tech industry-computer and data scientists, software developers and engineers, designers, and people in business, marketing or management roles. It is also for people who are involved in the procurement and deployment of advanced applications, algorithms, and AI systems, and in policy making. Together, they create the digital products, services, and systems that shape our societies and daily lives. The book's aim is to empower people to take responsibility, to 'upgrade' their skills for ethical reflection, inquiry, and deliberation. It introduces ethics in an accessible manner with practical examples, outlines of different ethical traditions, and practice-oriented methods. Additional online resources are available at: ethicsforpeoplewhoworkintech.com.
This book challenges the view that digital communication in Africa is limited and relatively unsophisticated and questions the assumption that digital communication has a damaging effect on indigenous African languages. The book applies the principles of Digital African Multilingualism (DAM) in which there are no rigid boundaries between languages. The book charts a way forward for African languages where greater attention is paid to what speakers do with the languages rather than what the languages look like, and offers several models for language policy and planning based on horizontal and user-based multilingualism. The chapters demonstrate how digital communication is being used to form and sustain communication in many kinds of online groups, including for political activism and creating poetry, and offer a paradigm of language merging online that provides a practical blueprint for the decolonization of African languages through digital platforms.
This book challenges the view that digital communication in Africa is limited and relatively unsophisticated and questions the assumption that digital communication has a damaging effect on indigenous African languages. The book applies the principles of Digital African Multilingualism (DAM) in which there are no rigid boundaries between languages. The book charts a way forward for African languages where greater attention is paid to what speakers do with the languages rather than what the languages look like, and offers several models for language policy and planning based on horizontal and user-based multilingualism. The chapters demonstrate how digital communication is being used to form and sustain communication in many kinds of online groups, including for political activism and creating poetry, and offer a paradigm of language merging online that provides a practical blueprint for the decolonization of African languages through digital platforms.
This book features peer reviewed contributions from across the disciplines on themes relating to protection of data and to privacy protection. The authors explore fundamental and legal questions, investigate case studies and consider concepts and tools such as privacy by design, the risks of surveillance and fostering trust. Readers may trace both technological and legal evolution as chapters examine current developments in ICT such as cloud computing and the Internet of Things. Written during the process of the fundamental revision of revision of EU data protection law (the 1995 Data Protection Directive), this volume is highly topical. Since the European Parliament has adopted the General Data Protection Regulation (Regulation 2016/679), which will apply from 25 May 2018, there are many details to be sorted out. This volume identifies and exemplifies key, contemporary issues. From fundamental rights and offline alternatives, through transparency requirements to health data breaches, the reader is provided with a rich and detailed picture, including some daring approaches to privacy and data protection. The book will inform and inspire all stakeholders. Researchers with an interest in the philosophy of law and philosophy of technology, in computers and society, and in European and International law will all find something of value in this stimulating and engaging work.
Highlights the importance and applications of Swarm Intelligence and Machine learning in Healthcare industry. Elaborates Swarm Intelligence and Machine Learning for Cancer Detection. Focuses on applying Swarm Intelligence and Machine Learning for Heart Disease detection and diagnosis. Explores of the concepts of machine learning along with swarm intelligence techniques, along with recent research developments in healthcare sectors. Investigates how healthcare companies can leverage the tapestry of big data to discover new business values. Provides a strong foundation for Diabetic Retinopathy detection using Swarm and Evolutionary algorithms.
The tremendous growth of the Internet is successfully making a variety of e-services a part of citizens' everyday life. E-services such as: Web-banking, Web shopping, e-learning, e-healthcare, and e-government, are available in most countries around the world. Trust in E-Services: Technologies, Practices and Challenges provides an overview of e-service trust issues, including: definitions, constructs, and relationships with other research topics such as security, privacy, reputation, and risk. Trust in E-Services: Technologies, Practices and Challenges introduces and discusses the existing trust platforms and management tools such as trust evaluation, reasoning approaches, and mechanisms for e-services. This book also offers contributions from researchers and practitioners with real-life experience and practice on how to build a trust environment for e-government services.
Shows how social services provided now and in the future can be enhanced through digitization. Contains country case-studies from USA, Brasil, Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong (China), India, Zimbabwe, Morocco, Spain, Portugal, Ireland and Singapore. Will be of interest to all scholars and students of social work, social policy and social welfare provision.
Portrays material through multidisciplinary lens of psychology, criminal justice, law, and security Provides consistent, practical information about online criminals and victims Compares online to offline versions of the same crime Discusses adequacy of current laws for prosecuting cybercriminals Considers elements of the online environment that foster criminal activity Describes social engineering techniques Considers the role of intimate partner violence in cybercrimes Reviews 21st century skills needed to educate and protect potential targets
Drawing on vivid ethnographic field studies of youth on the transnational move, across Seoul, Toronto, and Vancouver, this book examines transnational flows of Korean youth and their digital media practices. This book explores how digital media are integrated into various forms of transnational life and imagination, focusing on young Koreans and their digital media practices. By combining theoretical discussion and in depth empirical analysis, the book provides engaging narratives of transnational media fans, sojourners, and migrants. Each chapter illustrates a form of mediascape, in which transnational Korean youth culture and digital media are uniquely articulated. This perceptive research offers new insights into the transnationalization of youth cultural practices, from K-pop fandom to smartphone-driven storytelling. A transnational and ethnographic focus makes this book the first of its kind, with an interdisciplinary approach that goes beyond the scope of existing digital media studies, youth culture studies, and Asian studies. It will be essential reading for scholars and students in media studies, migration studies, popular culture studies, and Asian studies.
This book shares Chinese scholars' philosophical views on artificial intelligence. The discussions range from the foundations of AI-the Turing test and creation of machine intelligence-to recent applications of AI, including decisions in games, natural languages, pattern recognition, prediction in economic contexts, autonomous behaviors, and collaborative intelligence, with the examples of AlphaGo, Microsoft's Xiao Bing, medical robots, etc. The book's closing chapter focuses on Chinese machines and explores questions on the cultural background of artificial intelligence. Given its scope, the book offers a valuable resource for all members of the general public who are interested in the future development of artificial intelligence, especially from the perspective of respected Chinese scholars.
This book argues for the value of digital literacy in the multilingual writing classroom. Against the background of huge changes in literacy practices prompted by online communication, and a growing acceptance of a broader definition of academic literacy that encompasses multimodality, the book examines the relationship between digital and print literacies and addresses the design of literacy spaces for multilingual classrooms. The author critically evaluates the latest developments in the use of technology in multilingual writing spaces, and focuses on the role of teachers in their design; it also addresses areas that are not often discussed in relation to multilingual students, from blogging to publishing and intellectual property. The book will help teachers meet the challenges created by rapidly shifting technology, as well as making an innovative contribution to research on multilingual writing classrooms.
This book argues for the value of digital literacy in the multilingual writing classroom. Against the background of huge changes in literacy practices prompted by online communication, and a growing acceptance of a broader definition of academic literacy that encompasses multimodality, the book examines the relationship between digital and print literacies and addresses the design of literacy spaces for multilingual classrooms. The author critically evaluates the latest developments in the use of technology in multilingual writing spaces, and focuses on the role of teachers in their design; it also addresses areas that are not often discussed in relation to multilingual students, from blogging to publishing and intellectual property. The book will help teachers meet the challenges created by rapidly shifting technology, as well as making an innovative contribution to research on multilingual writing classrooms.
'Ground-breaking and ambitious' - Nick Srnicek, author of Platform Capitalism Whoever controls the platforms, controls the future. Platform Socialism sets out an alternative vision and concrete proposals for a digital economy that expands our freedom. Powerful tech companies now own the digital infrastructure of twenty-first century social life. Masquerading as global community builders, these companies have developed sophisticated new techniques for extracting wealth from their users. James Muldoon shows how grassroots communities and transnational social movements can take back control from Big Tech. He reframes the technology debate and proposes a host of new ideas, from the local to the international, for how we can reclaim the emancipatory possibilities of digital platforms. Drawing on sources from forgotten histories to contemporary prototypes, he proposes an alternative system and charts a roadmap for how we can get there.
This book analyses the phenomenon of digitally mediated property and considers how it problematises the boundary between human and nonhuman actors. The book addresses the increasingly porous border between personhood and property in digitized settings and considers how the increased commodification of knowledge makes visible a rupture in the liberal concept of the property owning, free, person. Engaging with the latest work in posthumanist and new materialist theory, it shows, how property as a concept as well as a means for control, changes fundamentally under advanced capitalism. Such change is exemplified by the way in which data, as an object of commodification, is extracted from human activities yet is also directly used to affectively control - or nudge - humans. Taking up a range of human engagements with digital platforms and coded architectures, as well as the circulation of affects through practices of artificial intelligence that are employed to shape behaviour, the book argues that property now needs to be understood according to an ecology of human as well as nonhuman actors. The idea of posthuman property, then, offers both a means to critique property control through digital technologies, as well as to move beyond the notion of the self-owning, object-owning, human. Engaging the most challenging contemporary technological developments, this book will appeal to researchers in the areas of Law and Technology, Legal Theory, Intellectual Property Law, Legal Philosophy, Sociology of Law, Sociology, and Media Studies.
Conceptually, as well as practically, digitalization is similar to the implementation of a modern computation model - the model may be a centralized setup using a mainframe or it may be extended to an N-tier architecture. Regardless of the specifics of the implementation, however, the conceptual model of data processing remains the same. Digitalization is nothing but a system relying on digital technologies to create, conduct and, potentially, expand a business activity of some sort. Digitalization can be used to create an e-commerce model for a small business or to create a global supply and distribution chain geared toward almost any kind of a business. It could also be used for non-profit purposes, such as on-line education and telemedicine or e-government. Digitalization: Contexts, Roles, and Outcomes is a contemplation and analysis of the socio-technical system that is known as digitalization. It considers the context of digitalization as well as the ways by which digitalization offers value to the context within which it operates. This book aims to offer readers an entry point to a path of inquiry into the different aspects of digitalization. The goal is to identify main directions for further inquiry as well as to outline the most obvious obstacles along the way. The book aims to guide readers on their own unique journeys using the basic ideas, principles, and concepts synthesized, developed, and presented in the book. It is beneficial to both practitioners and researchers. The book covers: The functionality of digitalization The significance of digitalization Identifying the context of digitalization Designing a control system A cognitive model for the theory of digitalization Designing a theory of digitalization The book helps readers to consider the subject of digitalization in a rigorous and rational way so their own perspectives can emerge stronger and be substantiated and reinforced by building an argument vis-a-vis perspectives and points examined in this book.
This book explores online resilience and safety from a new perspective, by drawing extensively upon the youth voice. While "online safety" as a concept has now existed for well over ten years, the majority of policy and narrative is driven by preventative and adultist views of ensuring safety from harm. Underpinned by extensive empirical work, this book argues that safety, or freedom from harm, is not an achievable goal and we should refocus upon harm reduction and risk mitigation. Fundamental to this argument is that the youth voice clearly states that they will not disclose, or ask adults for support, because they do not believe they will get help or worse, will be punished as a result of disclosure. The research shows that professionals often bring their own digital value biases into safeguarding decisions, and feel that they should be white knights to young people, rather than listening to them and supporting them in a non-judgemental way. The book will be of great value to researchers and students as well as practitioners, teachers and parents interested in digital resilience and safeguarding, internet security and youth online behaviour and wellbeing.
We live in an algorithmic society. Algorithms have become the main mediator through which power is enacted in our society. This book brings together three academic fields - Public Administration, Criminal Justice and Urban Governance - into a single conceptual framework, and offers a broad cultural-political analysis, addressing critical and ethical issues of algorithms. Governments are increasingly turning towards algorithms to predict criminality, deliver public services, allocate resources, and calculate recidivism rates. Mind-boggling amounts of data regarding our daily actions are analysed to make decisions that manage, control, and nudge our behaviour in everyday life. The contributions in this book offer a broad analysis of the mechanisms and social implications of algorithmic governance. Reporting from the cutting edge of scientific research, the result is illuminating and useful for understanding the relations between algorithms and power.Topics covered include: Algorithmic governmentality Transparency and accountability Fairness in criminal justice and predictive policing Principles of good digital administration Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the smart city This book is essential reading for students and scholars of Sociology, Criminology, Public Administration, Political Sciences, and Cultural Theory interested in the integration of algorithms into the governance of society.
This book offers a unique interdisciplinary perspective on the ethics of 'artificial intelligence' - autonomous, intelligent, (and connected) systems, or AISs, applying principles of social cognition to understand the social and ethical issues associated with the creation, adoption, and implementation of AISs. As humans become entangled in sociotechnical systems defined by human and artificial agents, there is a pressing need to understand how trust is created, used, and abused. Compounding the difficulty in answering these questions, stakeholders directly or indirectly affected by these systems differ in their motivations, understanding, and values. This volume provides a comprehensive resource to help stakeholders understand ethical issues of designing and implementing AISs using an ethical sensemaking approach. Starting with the general technical affordances of AIS, Dr. Jordan Richard Schoenherr considers the features of system design relating data integrity, selection and interpretation of algorithms, and the evolution processes that drive AISs innovation as a sociotechnological system. The poles of technophobia (algorithmic aversion) and technophilia (algorithmic preference) in the public perception of AISs are then described and considered against existing evidence, including issues ranging from the displacement and re-education needs of the human workforce, the impact of use of technology on interpersonal accord, and surveillance and cybersecurity. Ethical frameworks that provide tools for evaluating the values and outcomes of AISs are then reviewed, and how they can be aligned with ethical sensemaking processes identified by psychological science is explored. Finally, these disparate threads are brought together in a design framework. Also including sections on policies and guideline, gaming and social media, and Eastern philosophical frameworks, this is fascinating reading for students and academics in psychology, computer science, philosophy, and related areas, as well as professionals such as policy makers and those working with AI systems.
This book offers a unique interdisciplinary perspective on the ethics of 'artificial intelligence' - autonomous, intelligent, (and connected) systems, or AISs, applying principles of social cognition to understand the social and ethical issues associated with the creation, adoption, and implementation of AISs. As humans become entangled in sociotechnical systems defined by human and artificial agents, there is a pressing need to understand how trust is created, used, and abused. Compounding the difficulty in answering these questions, stakeholders directly or indirectly affected by these systems differ in their motivations, understanding, and values. This volume provides a comprehensive resource to help stakeholders understand ethical issues of designing and implementing AISs using an ethical sensemaking approach. Starting with the general technical affordances of AIS, Dr. Jordan Richard Schoenherr considers the features of system design relating data integrity, selection and interpretation of algorithms, and the evolution processes that drive AISs innovation as a sociotechnological system. The poles of technophobia (algorithmic aversion) and technophilia (algorithmic preference) in the public perception of AISs are then described and considered against existing evidence, including issues ranging from the displacement and re-education needs of the human workforce, the impact of use of technology on interpersonal accord, and surveillance and cybersecurity. Ethical frameworks that provide tools for evaluating the values and outcomes of AISs are then reviewed, and how they can be aligned with ethical sensemaking processes identified by psychological science is explored. Finally, these disparate threads are brought together in a design framework. Also including sections on policies and guideline, gaming and social media, and Eastern philosophical frameworks, this is fascinating reading for students and academics in psychology, computer science, philosophy, and related areas, as well as professionals such as policy makers and those working with AI systems.
It has become popular in recent years to talk about 'identity' as an aspect of engagement with technology - in virtual environments, in games, in social media and in our increasingly digital world. But what do we mean by identity and how do our theories and assumptions about identity affect the kinds of questions we ask about its relationship to technology and learning? Constructing the Self in a Digital World takes up this question explicitly, bringing together authors working from different models of identity but all examining the role of technology in the learning and lives of children and youth. |
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