Science and Technology Studies Commons^™

The Convergence Of Broadcasting And Telephony: Legal And Regulatory Implications, Christopher S. Yoo

All Faculty Scholarship

This article, written for the inaugural issue of a new journal, analyzes the extent to which the convergence of broadcasting and telephony induced by the digitization of communications technologies is forcing policymakers to rethink their basic approach to regulating these industries. Now that voice and video are becoming available through every transmission technology, policymakers can no longer define the scope of regulatory obligations in terms of the mode of transmission. In addition, jurisdictions that employ separate agencies to regulate broadcasting and telephony must reform their institutional structures to bring both within the ambit of a single regulatory agency. The emergence …

Public Research Lab And Other Scientific Collaborations Of The Manchester City Region: A Bibliometric Analysis, Philip Shapira, Luciano Kay

Philip Shapira

This working paper examines the characteristics of the research collaborations of the Manchester City-Region, UK, based on a bibliometric analysis of co-authorship patterns of scientific publications published during the period 2006-2008. The paper focuses on Manchester City-Region collaborations with UK public research laboratories, but to place these in context the paper also contains overview analyses of all of the city-region’s research collaborations in the UK and internationally.

Blind Matching Versus Matchmaking: Comparison Group Selection For Highly Creative Researchers, Jan Youtie, Philip Shapira, Juan Rogers

Philip Shapira

This research examines approaches for constructing a comparison group relative to highly creative researchers in nanotechnology and human genetics in the US and Europe. Such a comparison group would be useful in identifying factors that contribute to scientific creativity in these emerging fields. Two comparison group development approaches are investigated. The first approach is based on propensity score analysis and the second is based on knowledge from the literature on scientific creativity and early career patterns. In the first approach, the log of citations over the years of activity in the domains under analysis produces a significant result, but the …

Review: The Limits Of Boundaries: Why City-Regions Cannot Be Self-Governing, By Andrew Sancton, Christopher D. Gore

Christopher D Gore

No abstract provided.

Ubiquitäres Computing Im Gesundheitswesen, Michael Friedewald

Michael Friedewald

Der Fortschritt von Mikroelektronik, Kommunikationstechnik und Informations- technologie hält weiter an. Damit rückt auch die Vision einer umfassenden »In- formatisierung« und »Vernetzung« der Welt durch ubiquitäres Computing (Ubi- Comp) näher. Die technischen Voraussetzungen hierfür sind bereits geschaffen. Durch drahtlos kommunizierende Prozessoren und Sensoren, die – immer win- ziger, leistungsfähiger und energieeffizienter – in fast jeden Gegenstand inte- griert werden können, dringt die Informations- und Kommunikationstechnik in so gut wie jeden Bereich des gesellschaftlichen Lebens und Arbeitens vor. Com- puter werden »allgegenwärtig« und gleichzeitig doch weitgehend unsichtbar. Im Folgenden werden Anwendungsperspektiven dieser Technik im Bereich des Gesundheitswesens aufgezeigt und diskutiert.

Innovation For The Manchester City Region: A Discussion Paper, Philip Shapira, Michael Luger, Elvira Uyarra, Chiara Marzocchi

Philip Shapira

After considering what is meant by innovation, we conceptualize the uses and sources of innovation at the level of a city-region. We suggest that this conceptualization, drawing on frameworks available in the literature, can provide a useful basis both for interpretation and policy operationalization. We then consider examples from practice, drawing on mini-case studies of innovation strategies in selected multi-area metropolitan agglomerations in other countries. This leads to a discussion of grand challenges and implementation problems of innovation facing the Manchester city-region. Finally, we consider implications strategy development and for the Manchester city-region innovation prospectus itself.

Scientists Have Been Out For Some Time Now: A Response To Sonia Shah, Clair Apodaca

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Sonia Shah's categorization of the scientific community as having been "by and large. impassively unmoved [by human rights], churning out their papers, applying for grants and debating esoterica at their private professional meetings" is grossly inaccurate on at least two accounts.

March Roundtable: Introduction

Human Rights & Human Welfare

An annotation of:

“Scientists Come Out for Human Rights ” by Sonia Shah. The Nation. January 27, 2009.

Scientists Promoting Human Rights, Edward Friedman

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Scientists have long been involved with work to protect fundamental human rights. The activities of the Federation of American Scientists to expose the health impact of nuclear testing in the atmosphere is typical. In the Soviet Union , many of the leading human rights activists, starting with the great Andrei Sakharov , were scientists. The same is true in China where a major intellectual force inspiring China's 1989 democracy movement was Fang Lizhi , an astrophysicist. Often their contribution to military security even gives them a little bit of protection.

Enlightenment: Science And Human Rights, Christien Van Den Anker

Human Rights & Human Welfare

The subject of science and human rights sparks off thoughts of how this link has historically and geographically been severed, which has the effect of finding it newsworthy that scientists speak out in favor of human rights.

The ancient Greek philosophers were not limited in their subject matters in the same way as we take for granted now: science, society and the self were all deliberated about both empirically and normatively. Moreover, there was no division of labor between thinkers about one or other of these subjects.

Pre-Islamic Persian influences also affected debates on science. In the Middle Ages with …

Measuring The Unconscionable, Sarah Stanlick

Human Rights & Human Welfare

The combination of level-headed scientific approaches and passionate activism seems at first glance an incompatible relationship. For the passionate humanitarian, there is a hesitation in fear of "selling out" to the black and white world of science, that science would somehow take the "human" dimension away from human rights. However, the bigger issue-and opportunity-is the multitude of ways that the partnership between scientific method and human rights can yield possibilities and innovations. As described in Sonia Shah's piece in The Nation , scientists are coming together to lend their unique skills and perspective to the ever-changing global status of human …

Network Neutrality After Comcast: Toward A Case-By-Case Approach To Reasonable Network Management, Christopher S. Yoo

All Faculty Scholarship

The Federal Communications Commission’s recent Comcast decision has rejected categorical, ex ante restrictions on Internet providers’ ability to manage their networks in favor of a more flexible approach that examines each dispute on a case-by-case basis, as I have long advocated. This book chapter, written for a conference held in February 2009, discusses the considerations that a case-by-case approach should take into account. First, allowing the network to evolve will promote innovation by allowing the emergence of applications that depend on a fundamentally different network architecture. Indeed, as the universe of Internet users and applications becomes more heterogeneous, it is …

Making The Case For Community-Based Laboratories, Earthea Nance

Earthea Nance

No abstract provided.

Wobbling Back To The Fire: Economic Efficiency And The Creation Of A Retail Market For Set-Top Boxes, T. Randolph Beard, George S. Ford, Lawrence J. Spiwak, Michael Stern

GEORGE S FORD

Under Section 629 of the Communications Act, Congress directed the FCC to adopt regulations to promote a retail market for set-top boxes. The Commission’s first attempt was the ill-fated CableCard experiment, which—by the Commission’s own admission—was a dismal failure. In response, the Commission is now contemplating an aggressive new “AllVid” regime, whereby the agency would mandate multichannel video program distributors (“MVPDs”) to provide an adapter to serve as a “common interface for connection to televisions, DVRs, and other smart video devices.” Because the FCC is again proceeding without any formal economic analysis of the nature of the service-equipment relationship in …

The Need For Better Analysis Of High Capacity Services, George S. Ford, Lawrence J. Spiwak

GEORGE S FORD

In 1999, the Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) began to grant incumbent local exchange carriers (“LECs”) pricing flexibility on special access services in some Metropolitan Statistical Areas (“MSAs”) when specific evidence of competitive alternatives is present. The propriety of that deregulatory move by the FCC has been criticized by the purchasers of such services ever since. Proponents of special access price regulation rely on three central arguments to support a retreat to strict price regulation: (1) the market(s) for special access and similar services is unduly concentrated; (2) rates of return on special access services, computed using FCC ARMIS data, are …

R. Hoppe, Ex Ante Evaluation Of Legislation: Between Puzzling And Powering, In J. Verschuuren (Ed.), 2009, 81-104, Robert Hoppe

Robert Hoppe

No abstract provided.

Scientific Advice And Public Policy: Expert Advisers' And Policymakers' Discourses On Boundary Work, Robert Hoppe

Robert Hoppe

No abstract provided.

Organizational And Institutional Influences On Creativity In Scientific Research, Thomas Heinze, Philip Shapira, Juan D. Rogers, Jacqueline M. Senker

Philip Shapira

This paper explores institutional and organizational influences on creativity in scientific research. Using a method for identifying creative scientific research accomplishments in two fields of science (nanotechnology and human genetics) in Europe and the US, the paper summarizes results derived from twenty case studies of highly creative research accomplishments, focusing on contextual patterns at the group, organizational, and institutional levels. We find that creative accomplishments are associated with small group size, organizational contexts with sufficient access to a complementary variety of technical skills, stable research sponsorship, timely access to extramural skills and resources, and facilitating leadership. A potential institutional threat …

Nanotechnology Development In Latin America, Luciano Kay, Philip Shapira

Philip Shapira

This article investigates the development of nanotechnology in Latin America with a particular focus on Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Uruguay. Based on data for nanotechnology research publications and patents and suggesting a framework for analyzing the development of R&D networks, we identify three potential strategies of nanotechnology research collaboration. Then, we seek to identify the balance of emphasis upon each of the three strategies by mapping the current research profile of those four countries. In general, we find that they are implementing policies and programs to develop nanotechnologies but differ in their collaboration strategies, institutional involvement, and level of development. …

Technological Diversity, Scientific Excellence And The Location Of Inventive Activities Abroad: The Case Of Nanotechnology, Andrea Fernández-Ribas, Philip Shapira

Philip Shapira

Our contribution to the expanding literature on the globalization of research and innovation is to investigate the extent to which sector-specific developments in an emerging technology (such as increasing interdisciplinarity and complexity) affect inventive activities developed abroad. We look at how technological diversity and scientific excellence of host countries in the field of nanotechnology affect the development of inventive activities by US multinational companies (MNCs). We identify the most active US-based MNCs in nanotechnology-related patenting and examine location decisions of these companies and their international subsidiaries. Econometric results confirm our hypothesis that technological breadth of host countries positively influence the …

Die Zukunft Der Informationstechnik Ist GrüN, Michael Friedewald, Timo Leimbach

Michael Friedewald

No abstract provided.

Privacy, Trust And Policy-Making: Challenges And Responses, David Wright, Serge Gutwirth, Michael Friedewald, Paul De Hert, Marc Langheinrich, Anna Moscibroda

Michael Friedewald

The authors contend that the emerging ubiquitous Information Society (aka ambient intelligence, pervasive computing, ubiquitous networking and so on) will raise many privacy and trust issues that are context-dependent. These issues will pose many challenges for policy- makers and stakeholders because people’s notions of privacy and trust are different and shifting. People’s attitudes towards privacy and protecting their personal data can vary significantly according to differing circumstances. In addition, notions of privacy and trust are changing over time. The authors provide numerous examples of the challenges facing policy-makers and identify some possible responses, but they see a need for improvements …

Primitive Accumulation And Re-Appropriation Of The Information Commons, Wilhelm Peekhaus

Wilhelm Peekhaus

This paper suggests that LIS might benefit from critical political economy as a way of theorizing and responding to enclosures of information commons. The autonomist Marxist re-invigoration of ‘primitive accumulation’ offers a register for apprehending contemporary erosions of the commons. Autonomist Marxism also helps conceptualize resistance to enclosures.

Did Trips Spur Innovation? An Empirical Analysis Of Patent Duration And Incentives To Innovate, David S. Abrams

All Faculty Scholarship

How to structure IP laws in order to maximize social welfare by striking the right balance between incentives to innovate and access to innovation is an empirical question. It is a challenging one to answer, both because innovation is difficult to value and changes in IP protection are rare. The 1995 TRIPS agreement provides a unique opportunity to learn about this question for two reasons. First, the adoption of the agreement was uncertain until shortly before adoption, making it a plausibly exogenous change to patent duration. Second, the nature of the law change meant that the patent duration change was …

Problems Of Equity And Efficiency In The Design Of International Greenhouse Gas Cap-And-Trade Schemes, Jason S. Johnston

All Faculty Scholarship

This article argues that international greenhouse gas (GHG) cap-and-trade schemes suffer from inherent problems of enforceability and verifiability that both cause significant inefficiencies and create inevitable tradeoffs between equity and efficiency. A standard result in the economic analysis of international GHG cap and trade schemes is that an allocation of initial permits that favors poor, developing countries (making such countries net sellers in equilibrium) may be necessary not only to further redistributive goals but also the efficiency of the GHG cap and trade scheme. This coincidence of equity and efficiency is, however, unlikely to be realized under more realistic assumptions …

Environmental Challenges And Opportunities: Local-Global Perspectives On Canadian Issues, Christopher Gore, Peter Stoett

Christopher D Gore

No abstract provided.

Local Government Responses To Climate Change: Our Last, Best Hope?, Christopher Gore, Pamela Robinson

Christopher D Gore

No abstract provided.

Making The Case For Community-Based Laboratories, Earthea Nance

Earthea Nance, PhD (Stanford University, 2004)

No abstract provided.