Category — Internet Research

Information Policy: Evaluation Report on UNESCO’s Community Multimedia Centre Initiative:

UNESCO’s Community Multimedia Centre initiative is contributing “to improving quality of life through access to information” according to an independent evaluation report carried out by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD).

UNESCO’s CMC initiative promotes sustainable local development through community-based facilities that combine traditional media like radio, television and print with new information communication technologies (ICTs) such as computers, the Internet, and mobile devices.

Since 2001, UNESCO has established more than 87 CMCs in over 22 developing countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean with major funding provided by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC).

The evaluation describes the initiative’s main achievement: “The CMCs are accepted by and fully integrated into the communities and can in many cases be sustained beyond the pilot phase without core operating grants. The effort and funding that UNESCO has channeled into this transformative initiative have been exceeded by the hard work and commitment of the CMC staff and the communities where they are based.”

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this report has some significant findings. one of which i want to reaffirm…. people matter more than technics.

UNESCO’s Basic Texts on the Information Society:

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some interesting key unesco texts.

Virginia law requires internet safety in schools:

The state of Virginia has passed a law requiring schools to teach internet safety as part of the curriculum, reports the Washington Post:

“The measure’s sponsor, Del. William H. Fralin Jr. (R-Roanoke), said he wrote the bill after his oldest son turned 10 and started competing with his parents for computer time. It raised a question in my mind,” he said. “We teach our kids not to talk to strangers. We teach our kids not to take candy. But in today’s world on the Internet, not only can you be talking to strangers without supervision, but you can be talking to someone you think is not a stranger, but who is one. There needs to be some sort of basic training on that.”

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this should be an interesting experiment….

New study says Net opens closet doors:

A dissertation from Malmo University College in Sweden posits the Internet has created a space where people can experiment with their sexuality.

Doctoral candidate Michael Ross says many heterosexual men, who have previously fantasized about it, experiment in cyber sex with other men.

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yes, here is some internet research worth noting

bridges.org:

Comparison
Study of Free/Open Source and Proprietary Software in an African
Context: Implementation and Policy-making to Optimise Community Access
to ICT
The Software
Comparison research project provides
the needed background information and advice to
people who want to make
sound software choices for public computer labs in Africa.
The
final report represents the first comprehensive analysis of software
choices
in the African public-access context. The study looked at 121 computer
labs in Namibia, South Africa and Uganda, examining the range of
factors that affect software choices; the realities of the current
situation in Africa; and the long-term implications of software choices
for Africa. This
research was led by bridges.org and supported by Collaborating Partners
SchoolNet Africa, the International Development Research Centre (IDRC)
and the Open Society Institute (OSI). In addition, a number of
field-study partners provided access to computer labs for the study. A
high-level
Advisory Group, comprised of experts in the field from both sides of
the debate, was actively involved in the study on a regular
basis: reviewing project documents (methodology, report drafts etc.),
providing feedback and additional resources.

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interesting study

New Open Access Journal for human-centered ICT research:

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interesting new journal.

Women and ICT Policy:

Focusing efforts into increasing women’s participation in policy, regulatory and advocacy issues is an effective and powerful way to achieve competitive and fair levels in the ICT sector. This has the potential to increase the role of women in community decision making, where they can influence policy issues at any government level. With increased participation, women can then ensure that gender issues are taken into account in ICT resource planning and administration.

http://www.dot-com-alliance.org/newsletter/article.php?article_id=122

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this could be a very good thing.

FREE SOFTWARE, FREE SOCIETY
The Thiruvananthapuram Declaration
May 29, 2005

We are currently living in a world that is increasingly gettinginterconnected and the issues of our concern are becoming global.Along the way, new Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs)transformed the process of knowledge construction and dissemination inour society. This process is transforming other fields of humancreativity as well — including music, painting or writing. Humanhistory is calling us to take note of this change. Creative workstoday live in a digital world, travel at the speed of light, gettransformed in seconds, become part of several other creations, andgrow in a number of other ways.

As society transforms drastically, we — students, engineers, ITprofessionals, social activists, lawyers, elected publicrepresentatives, media persons, film-makers and concerned citizens —urge our world to take note of the immense potential opening up forhumanity, and to ensure that technology is harnessed in the needs ofthe time to tackle the wider concerns of our planet.

Free Software has convincingly demonstrated to the world we know thatknowledge building is enhanced by freedom, openness and socialconsciousness; and that such features are very effective in creating afairer society and enhance the cause of the social good.
In the new networked and digitized society, the intangible(non-materialistic) aspects of reality are becoming more important incomparison with the material ones. Several years of material-centereddevelopment has not helped humanity to create a better world for all;or even for the majority on this planet.

To face the challenges of the day, we need a new model of developmentcentered around non material aspects of life — includingcollaboration, sharing, and compassion. Such a society is evolvingtoday on the foundations of freedom, collaboration and sharedknowledge.

We call it the gnowledge society (see http://www.gnowledge.org).
In our view, the gnowledge society will and must prefer:

freedom over bondage; sharing over monopoly; public good over privateprofit; participation over exclusion; cooperation over competition;diversity over uniformity.

We find that patent, copyright and other legal and institutionalsystems related to human knowledge are not suitable for thedevelopment of the gnowledge society. These systems were createdduring the industrial revolution, and then continued in spite of majorchanges in how technology shapes our lives. These systems were notdesigned for, and therefore cannot cater to, the emerging gnowledgesociety. For the development of human society, it is imperative thatwe promote the collaborative development and free sharing ofknowledge.
Such principles are not only consistent with, but even mandated by,the spirit of human rights as defined by the present legal system.

We, the participants at the Free Software, Free Society conference inThiruvananthapuram underline the following:

We call upon the social and political institutions to eliminatesystems that hinder the development of the gnowledge society.

We demand that every human being works for a more fair distribution ofknowledge for all, and for a world based on knowledge sharing andcollaboration.

Agreed upon in Thiruvananthapuram, South India, amongst theparticipants at the Free Software, Free Society Conference, byparticipants from the countries of:Bangladesh,Brazil,India,Italy,NorwayUruguayVenezuela.

—————————————————————
Declaration: http://fsfs.hipatia.net/wiki
FSFS: http://fsfs.hipatia.net

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CALL FOR WORKSHOP PAPERS
——————————————————————–
„Abuse: the darker side of human-computer interaction‰
An INTERACT 2005 Workshop
====================================================================
Date: Monday, September 12 (Full day)
Location: Rome, Italy
Submission Deadline: extended to May 30
Web-site: www.agentabuse.org
====================================================================

AIMS AND SCOPE OF THE WORKSHOP
==============================
Computers are often the subject of our wrath and often, we feel,
with good reason. There seems to be something intrinsic to this
medium which brings out the darker side of human nature. This may
be due to the computer complexity which induces errors and
frustrations in the user (bad interface design), to the human
tendency to respond socially to computers (media equation), or to a
disinhibition effect induced by the interaction with a different
form of information processor, perceived as inferior (master/slave
relationship).

As software is evolving from the tool metaphor to the agent one,
understanding the role of abusive behaviour in HCI and its effect on
the task-at-hand becomes increasingly important. The reaction of
traditional software to abuse is obvious – it should, like a hammer,
ignore it. With the agent model, however, software can be
autonomous and situated. That is, it should be possible to create
software that takes note of its surroundings, and responsibility for
its actions. Conversational agents are a clear case of a software
entity which might be expected to deal with abuse. Virtual
assistants, to take a classic application instance, should not just
provide timely information; a virtual assistant must also be a
social actor and participate in the games people play. Some of
these games appear to include abusive behaviour.

This workshop aims to bring together papers that transcend
disciplinary boundaries. Papers are solicited from researchers and
practitioners who have encountered the occurrence of abuse in HCI
and CMC and given some thought to why and how it happens. Papers
that explore virtual abuse and the abuse of agents as cultural
artifacts are particularly welcome. We hope this will provide a
forum for discussing both the reasons behind aggressive behaviour
and suggestions for how software should deal with abuse.

Relevant topics include but are not limited to
* determinants and correlates of end user frustration
* emotional reactions to computing technology
* emotional interfaces ˆ how to deal with negative emotions
* conversational agents and abusive language
* conflict resolution in face-to-face communication and CMC
* flaming and disinhibition in HCI and CMC
* art on the edge
* relationship of the virtual and the real, the literal and metaphor
* Outing, passing, hiding, covering — how are agents designed to seem
“normal”
and what are the assumptions about “being human” that inform the design

INTENDED AUDIENCE AND WORKSHOP FORMAT
=====================================
The workshop will bring together an interdisciplinary group of
researchers and practitioners in human computer interaction,
computer mediated communication, intelligent virtual agents, game
design, social psychology, cultural critics and art. The program
will feature the presentation of refereed papers, demos and poster
followed by interactive sessions drawn on a number of scenarios
which will be distributed prior to the workshop. A part of the
discussion will concentrate on the definition of a roadmap for
future research.

SUBMISSIONS AND DISSEMINATION
================================
We seek:
- Position papers (4 pages) reporting on experiences, theories, case
studies and experiments.
- Theoretical papers (4 pages) discussing cultural, artistic,
political, and philosophical issues.
- Demo submissions (4 pages).
- Poster submission (1 page description of the poster or 1 page
sketch of the poster)

Position and theoretical papers as well as demo submissions will be
peer reviewed and should be formatted according to the LNCS (Lecture
Notes in Computer Science) format (templates are available at
Springer-Verlag LNCS Authors‚ Instructions page and at
www.Interact2005.org at the Submission page ).

Please e-mail your submission in PDF to
Antonella.de-angeli@manchester.ac.uk
(cc pwallis@acm.org)

Accepted papers will appear in the workshop proceedings and will be
posted on the web (www.agentabuse.org). Outcomes of the workshop
will be summarised and posted on agentabuse.org, which is intended
to become a dynamic repository for relevant research. If enough
interest is gathered from the participants, we will explore
alternatives such as a special journal issue or a book collection.

IMPORTANT DATES
===============
May 23: submission
June 6: Notification of acceptance
June 10: Registration dead-line for presenters
July 1: camera ready copies
September 12: workshop

REGISTRATION
===============
Registration will cost 150 Euro before June 10 and 200 Euro after
this date. Participants will register through the conference
website (http://www.interact2005.org/).

ORGANISING COMMITTEE
===================
Co-Chairs:
Sheryl Brahnam (Missouri State University), US
Antonella De Angeli (University of Manchester), UK
Peter Wallis (University of Sheffield), UK

Programme Committee
Pamela Briggs (Northumbria University), UK
Alan Dix (Lancaster University), UK
Dirk Heylen (University of Twente), Holland
Graham Johnson (NCR), UK
Catherine Pelachaud (Universite de Paris 8), France
Daniela Petrelli (University of Sheffield), UK
Laurent Romary (INRIA), France
Daniela Romano (University of Sheffield), UK
Oliviero Stock (IRST), Italy
Alistair Sutcliffe (University of Manchester), UK
Sean Zdenek (Texas Tech University), US
Yorick Wilks (University of Sheffield), UK

Contact Information.
For information, expressions of interest and/or submission please
contact
Antonella De Angeli
Centre for Human-Computer Interaction Design
School of Informatics, the University of Manchester,
Manchester
M60 1QD
United Kingdom
Antonella.de-angeli@manchester.ac.uk

Anonymity and Privacy :

some interesting compsci type readings on the topic