Science and Technology Studies Commons^™

The Future Of Digital Communications Research And Policy, Scott J. Wallsten

Scott J. Wallsten

No abstract provided.

Residential And Business Broadband Prices Part 2: International Comparisons, Scott J. Wallsten, James Riso

Scott J. Wallsten

For this project, we assemble a new dataset consisting of more than 25,000 residential and business broadband plans from all OECD countries from 2007–2009. We explore three issues: the relationship between plan components—such as metering—and consumer prices, price changes over time, and how broadband prices vary across countries.

This paper, part 2 of the project, studies prices and price changes over time in the United States and other OECD countries. We find that residential prices in the U.S. remained fairly stable overall in this time period for both standalone and triple play (voice, video, and data) plans, though prices for …

Between Market And State: Directions In Social Science Research On Disaster, Daniel P. Aldrich

Daniel P Aldrich

In this extended review, I discuss three recent books on disaster: Governing after Crisis: The Politics of Investigation, Accountability, and Learning edited by Arjen Boin, Allan McConnell, and Paul ‘T Hart, Learning from Catastrophes: Strategies for Reaction and Response , edited by Howard Kunreuther and Micheel Useem, and The Next Catastrophe: Reducing Our Vulnerabilities to Natural, Industrial, and Terrorist Disasters by Charles Perrow. All three books invoke the market and state as core forces at work in mitigation and disaster recovery, overlooking the critical role of social capital.

Communication And Collaboration In E-Science Projects, Peter Darch, Matteo Turilli, Marina Jirotka

Peter Darch

Collaborative projects, such as e-Science projects producing software and tools to support the work of scientists, involve the management and coordination of work of a wide range of personnel, and also involve these personnel working together on joint activities. Effective communication practices are essential for the success of e-Science projects, for a number of reasons and in a number of different senses. For instance, there will be many one-way transfers of information, such as project management informing new personnel of the project’s vision and goals, the communication of work plans (including individuals’ roles, the model of software development employed by …

The Power Of People: Social Capital’S Role In Recovery From The 1995 Kobe Earthquake, Daniel P. Aldrich

Daniel P Aldrich

Despite the regularity of disasters, social science has only begun to generate replicable knowledge about the factors which facilitate post-crisis recovery. Building on the broad variation in recovery rates within disaster-affected cities, I investigate the ability of Kobe’s nine wards to repopulate after the 1995 Kobe earthquake in Japan. This article uses case studies of neighborhoods in Kobe alongside new time-series, cross-sectional data set to test five variables thought to influence recovery along with the relatively untested factor of social capital. Controlling for damage, population density, economic conditions, inequality and other variables thought important in past research, social capital proves …

Mother Earth "Speaks": Change Yourself, Change The World, Use The Archetypal Energy "Harmony" As A Guide, Carroy U. Ferguson

Carroy U "Cuf" Ferguson, Ph.D.

In relation to the Cosmos, we all, as human beings, live on this tiny planet we call Earth, a planet that supports and sustains life, as we know it. There are many different kinds of people, plants, and animals functioning in harmony with soil, air, and water--all linked to one another in a complex web of life to form one Earth community. Unfortunately, we often take this miracle and ecosystem of life for granted. When, however, we take the ecosystem of life too much for granted, Mother Earth "speaks," reflecting imbalances and dis-harmonies. When Mother Earth "speaks," her message is …

Communication And Collaboration In E-Science Projects: A Report From The 'Embedding E-Science: Designing And Managing For Usability' Project, Peter Darch, Matteo Turilli, Sharon Lloyd, Marina Jirotka, Grace De La Flor

Peter Darch

No abstract provided.

Shared Understandings In E-Science Projects: A Report From The 'Embedding E-Science Applications: Designing And Managing For Usability' Project, Peter Darch, Annamaria Carusi, Sharon Lloyd, Marina Jirotka, Grace De La Flor, Ralph Schroeder, Eric Meyer

Peter Darch

No abstract provided.

Letter To Faa Administrator Re: Usair 1549 Crash, Paul F. Eschenfelder, Russell P. Defusco Phd, Richard Sowden

Paul F. Eschenfelder

No abstract provided.

The Data Conservancy: Science-Driven Information Science, Christine L. Borgman, Carole L. Palmer

Christine L. Borgman

The Data Conservancy –which is a National Science Foundation funded Datanet project with a diverse array of partners – embraces a shared vision: data curation is not an end, but rather a means to collect, organize, validate, and preserve data to address grand research challenges that face society. Key to the data conservancy approach is information science research on the data practices of the science domains. Three teams are conducting social studies of individual science domains. Prof. Carole Palmer of the University of Illinois will report on their comparative studies of multiple biosciences domains. Prof. Christine Borgman of the University …

Fixing Recovery: Social Capital In Post-Crisis Resilience, Daniel P. Aldrich

Daniel P Aldrich

Disasters remain among the most critical events which impact residents and their neighborhoods; they have killed far more individuals than high salience issues such as terrorism. Unfortunately, disaster recovery programs run by the United States and foreign governments have not been updated to reflect a new understanding of the essential nature of social capital and networks. I call for a re-orientation of disaster preparedness and recovery programs at all levels away from the standard fixes focused on physical infrastructure towards ones targeting social infrastructure. The reservoirs of social capital and the trust (or lack thereof) between citizens in disaster-affected communities …

The Digital Future Is Now: What The Humanities Can Learn From Escience, Christine L. Borgman

Christine L. Borgman

As the digital humanities mature, their scholarship is taking on many characteristics of the sciences, becoming more data-intensive, information-intensive, distributed, multi-disciplinary, and collaborative. While few scholars in the humanities or arts would wish to be characterized as emulating scientists, they do envy the comparatively rich technical and resource infrastructure of the sciences. The interests of all scholars in the university align with respect to access to data, library resources, and computing infrastructure. However, the scholarly interests of the sciences and humanities diverge regarding research practices, sources of evidence, and degrees of control over those sources. This talk will explore the …

The Digital Archive: The Data Deluge Arrives In The Humanities, Christine L. Borgman

Christine L. Borgman

The data deluge has began to overwhelm the sciences, as instruments such as sensor networks and space telescopes are generating far more data than can possibly be inspected manually. Only digital tools can make sense of these vast volumes of data. As the humanities draw more heavily on digital archives, their scholarship is taking on many characteristics of the sciences, becoming more data-intensive, information-intensive, distributed, multi-disciplinary, and collaborative. However, the humanities typically lack the technical infrastructure available to the sciences. The scholarly interests of the sciences and humanities also diverge with respect to research practices, sources of evidence, and degrees …

The Emergence Of Social Science Research In Nanotechnology, Philip Shapira, Jan Youtie, Alan L. Porter

Philip Shapira

This article examines the development of social science literature focused on the emerging area of nanotechnology. It is guided by the exploratory proposition that early social science work on emerging technologies will draw on science and engineering literature on the technology in question to frame its investigative activities, but as the technologies and societal investments in them progress, social scientists will increasingly develop and draw on their own body of literature. To address this proposition the authors create a database of nanotechnology-social science literature by merging articles from the Web of Science’s Social Science Citation Index and Arts and Humanities …

Erau Aviation Wildlife Hazard Newsletter, Paul F. Eschenfelder

Paul F. Eschenfelder

No abstract provided.

The Limits And Opportunities Of Networks: Municipalities And Canadian Climate Change Policy, Christopher D. Gore

Christopher D Gore

Research on climate change policy and politics has become increasingly focused on the actions and influence of subnational governments. In North America, this attention has been particularly focused on why subnational governments have taken action in the absence of national leadership, what effect action might have on future national climate policy, and whether the collective action of networks of municipal governments are reshaping and challenging the character of national and global climate governance. This paper examines Canadian municipal climate in light of the absence of a comprehensive and effective climate national strategy. The paper considers various reasons why local governments …

Regional Development And Interregional Collaboration In The Growth Of Nanotechnology Research In China, Li Tang, Philip Shapira

Li Tang

China is becoming a leading nation in terms of its share of the world’s publications in the emerging nanotechnology domain. This paper demonstrates that the international rise of China’s position in nanotechnology has been underwritten by the emergence of a series of regional hubs of nanotechnology R&D activity within the country. We develop a unique database of Chinese nanotechnology articles covering the period 1990 to mid-2006 to identify the regional distribution of nanotechnology research in China. To build this database, a new approach was developed to clean and standardize the geographical allocation of Chinese publication records. We then analyze the …

Impact Of The Australia-Us Free Trade Agreement On Australian Medicines Regulation And Prices, Thomas A. Faunce, James Bai, Duy Nguyen

Thomas A Faunce

The Australia – United States Free Trade Agreement (AUSFTA) came into force on 1 January 2005. Before and subsequently to the AUSFTA being concluded, controversy surrounded the debate over its impact on Australia ’ s health policy, specifically on regulation of pharmaceutical patents and Australia ’ s cost-effectiveness system relating to prescription medicine prices known as the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS). This article examines the expectations of both parties in the pharmaceutical sector with regard to the AUSFTA, as well as how successfully they were achieved. It seeks to analyse important relevant outcomes for regulators, the public and pharmaceutical industry, …

Nanotechnology And The International Law Of Weaponry: Towards International Regulation Of Nano-Weapons., Thomas A. Faunce, Hitoshi Nasu

Thomas A Faunce

The development of nanotechnology for military application is an emerging area of research and development, the pace and extent of which has not been fully anticipated by international legal regulation. Nano-weapons are referred to here as objects and devices using nanotechnology or causing effects in nano-scale that are designed or used for harming humans. Such weapons, despite their controversial human and environmental toxicity, are not comprehensively covered by specific, targeted regulation under international law. This article critically examines current international humanitarian law and arms control law regimes to determine whether significant gaps exist in the regulation of nanotechnology focused on …

Dissemination Practices In The Spanish Research System: Scientists Trapped In A Golden Cage, Cristobal Torres-Albero, Manuel Fernández-Esquinas, Jesús Rey-Rocha, María José Martín-Sempere

Manuel Fernández-Esquinas

The aim of this paper is twofold. On the one hand, it offers a systematic analysis of the data available regarding Spanish scientists’ dissemination activities; on the other, it seeks to shed light on their behaviour and motivations. To do this, we consider the context of Spanish society and the conditions affecting the work and professional promotion of scientists. We present evidence from two surveys of CSIC researchers and of participants in Spain’s main science fair, with the caveat that the data were obtained in a methodologically favourable scenario. A contrast exists between scientists’ vocation to disseminate and the limitations …

Bibliometric Fingerprints: Name Disambiguation Based On Approximate Structure Equivalence Of Cognitive Maps, Li Tang, John P. Walsh

Li Tang

Authorship identity has long been an Achilles’ heel in bibliometric analyses at the individual level. This problem appears in studies of scientists’ productivity, inventor mobility and scientific collaboration. Using the concepts of cognitive maps from psychology and approximate structural equivalence from network analysis, we develop a novel algorithm for name disambiguation based on knowledge homogeneity scores. We test it on two cases, and the results show that this approach outperforms other common authorship identification methods with the ASE method providing a relatively simple algorithm that yields higher levels of accuracy with reasonable time demands.

The Governance Of Problems. Puzzling, Powering, Participation, Robert Hoppe

Robert Hoppe

No abstract provided.

Airport Wildlife Hazard Control, Paul F. Eschenfelder

Paul F. Eschenfelder

No abstract provided.

Separate And Unequal: Post-Tsunami Aid Distribution In Southern India, Daniel P. Aldrich

Daniel P Aldrich

Objective. Disasters are a regular occurrence throughout the world. Whether all eligible victims of a catastrophe receive similar amounts of aid from governments and donors following a crisis remains an open question. Methods. I use data on 62 similarly damaged inland fishing villages in five districts of southeastern India following the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami to measure the causal influence of caste, location, wealth, and bridging social capital on the receipt of aid. Using two-limit tobit and negative binomial models, I investigate the factors that influence the time spent in refugee camps, receipt of an initial aid packet, and receipt …