Science and Technology Studies Commons^™

Workshop | Body Worn Video Recorders: The Socio-Technical Implications Of Gathering Direct Evidence, Katina Michael, Alexander Hayes

Alexander Hayes Mr.

- From in-car video recording to body-worn video recording

- Exploring available technologies: how do they work, pros and cons

- Storing direct evidence in secure storage: factors to consider

- Citizens “shooting” back with POV tech – what are their rights?

- Crowdsourced sousveillance- harnessing public data for forensic profiling

- Police force policies and practices on the application of new media

Skills Needs Of The Ict Sector In Tanzania, Deirdre Lillis, Fredrick Mtenzi, Diana Mauricaite, Said Jafari, Peter Manifold

Reports

Information and Communication Technology will play a critical role in sustaining the high growth rates experienced by African economies in the last decade. Investment in the ICT sector enables the creation of high quality jobs and acts as an enabling technology for other key industries such as agriculture, mining, finance, health and education. ‘New Software Economy’ models mean international location and company scale are less relevant and enable small organisations to compete globally in niche markets. Unlike many traditional industries which have heavy infrastructure requirements, the key resource of the ICT Sector is its people and the knowledge, skills and …

Patent Value And Citations: Creative Destruction Or Strategic Disruption?, David S. Abrams, Ufuk Akcigit, Jillian Popadak

All Faculty Scholarship

Prior work suggests that more valuable patents are cited more and this view has become standard in the empirical innovation literature. Using an NPE-derived dataset with patent-specific revenues we find that the relationship of citations to value in fact forms an inverted-U, with fewer citations at the high end of value than in the middle. Since the value of patents is concentrated in those at the high end, this is a challenge to both the empirical literature and the intuition behind it. We attempt to explain this relationship with a simple model of innovation, allowing for both productive and strategic …

The Taxation Of Cloud Computing And Digital Content, David Shakow

All Faculty Scholarship

“Cloud computing” raises important and difficult questions in state tax law, and for Federal taxes, particularly in the foreign tax area. As cloud computing solutions are adopted by businesses, items we view as tangible are transformed into digital products. In this article, I will describe the problems cloud computing poses for tax systems. I will show how current law is applied to cloud computing and will identify the difficulties current approaches face as they are applied to this developing technology.

My primary interest is how Federal tax law applies to cloud computing, particularly as the new technology affects international transactions. …

Risk, Oil Spills, And Governance: Can Organizational Theory Help Us Understand The 2010 Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill?, Evelyn Cade

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

The 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico awakened communities to the increased risk of large-scale damage along their coastlines presented by new technology in deep water drilling. Normal accident theory and high reliability theory offer a framework through which to view the 2010 spill that features predictive criteria linked to a qualitative assessment of risk presented by technology and organizations. The 2010 spill took place in a sociotechnical system that can be described as complex and tightly coupled, and therefore prone to normal accidents. However, the entities in charge of managing this technology lacked the …

Game Change: What Have We Learned? Pt. 2, Robert E. Lang, Sonya D. Horsford, Marya L. Shegog, Ramona Denby-Brinson, Fatma Nasoz

Brookings Scholar Lecture Series

Share Knowledge. Change Lives. Transform our Community.

Our Mission: The Lincy Institute at UNLV conducts and supports research that focuses on improving Nevada's health, education, and social services.

Our Research Areas: Education, Health, Social Services, Information Technology

Shots For Tots?, Eric A. Feldman

All Faculty Scholarship

By endorsing the use of a vaccine that makes the experience of puffing on a cigarette deeply distasteful, Lieber and Millum have taken the first few tentative steps into a future filled with medical interventions that manipulate individual preferences. It is tempting to embrace the careful arguments of “Preventing Sin” and celebrate the possibility that the profound individual and social costs of smoking will finally be tamed. Yet there is something unsettling about the possibility that parental discretion may be on the cusp of a radical expansion, one that involves a new and unexplored approach to behavior modification.

Public Land And Its Management: Why The Research Is Not Enough, Corinne Calhoun

Pomona Senior Theses

Ecological research, both basic and applied, can inform management decisions on public land in a number of ways. Most importantly, it can illuminate any negative effects of a given land use practice as well as the causes behind that effect. This type of information can be important to a management agency, such as the BLM, with a multi-use mission as these studies indicate under what management regimes a land use is in contradiction with other goals, such as conservation or restoration.

The current body of research, however, is flawed. In order to make fully informed decisions, land managers are in …

Collaboration: The Effects Of Joint Agency Training For Both National Guard And Department Of Homeland Security, Benjamin J. Rogers

Purdue Polytechnic Directed Projects

Rogers, Benjamin J. M.S., Purdue University, May 2013. Collaboration: The Effects of

Joint Agency Training for Both National Guard and Department of Homeland Security.

Major Professor: Daniel Lybrook.

Using subject matter experts and responders in the field of incident response, this study

was designed to ascertain whether there is a need for more collaborative training among

both National Guard responders and Department of Homeland Security responders. It

did this by answering the key questions of:

1. What areas within training can be collaborative?

2. What are the effects of joint training on first responders?

3. What training processes can be …

Confronting Socially Generated Uncertainty In Adaptive Management, Andrew J. Tyre, Sarah Michaels

Andrew J Tyre

As more and more organizations with responsibility for natural resource management adopt adaptive management as the rubric in which they wish to operate, it becomes increasingly important to consider the sources of uncertainty inherent in their endeavors. Without recognizing that uncertainty originates both in the natural world and in human undertakings, efforts to manage adaptively at the least will prove frustrating and at the worst will prove damaging to the very natural resources that are the management targets. There will be more surprises and those surprises potentially may prove at the very least unwanted and at the worst devastating. We …

Technology And Privacy (Editorial), Michael Friedewald, Ronald J. Pohoryles

Michael Friedewald

No abstract provided.

Reconciling Privacy And Security, Marc Van Lieshout, Michael Friedewald, David Wright, Serge Gutwirth

Michael Friedewald

This paper considers the relationship between privacy and security and, in particular, the traditional ‘‘trade-off’’ paradigm. The issue is this: how, in a democracy, can one reconcile the trend towards increasing security (for example, as manifested by increasing surveillance) with the fundamental right of privacy? Our political masters justify their intrusions upon our privacy with proclamations of the need to protect the citizenry against further terrorist attacks like those that have already marred the early twenty-first century. The surveillance industry has been quick to exploit this new market opportunity, supported as it is by inexorable technological ‘‘progress’’ in devising new …

New Peril + Old Promises = Bad Results, Paul Eschenfelder

Paul F. Eschenfelder

No abstract provided.

Wie Featured Person Of The Month Highlights (Katina Michael), Keyana Tenant, Katina Michael

Professor Katina Michael

The WIE Featured Person of the Month is Katina Michael, editor-in-chief of IEEE Technology and Society Magazine. After working at OTIS Elevator Company and Andersen Consulting, Katina was offered and exciting graduate engineering position at Nortel in 1996; and her career has been fast track from there. Read Katina’s story on Page 7.

Natural Disasters And Early Warning Systems In Australia, Emma Papaemanuel, Katina Michael, Peter Johnston

Professor Katina Michael

Australia's national emergency warning system alerts. Radio program in Greek.

Are Disaster Early Warnings Effective?, Kerri Worthington, Katina Michael, Peter Johnson, Paul Barnes

Professor Katina Michael

Australia's summer is traditionally a time of heightened preparation for natural disasters, with cyclones and floods menacing the north and bushfires a constant threat in the south. And the prospect of more frequent, and more intense, disasters thanks to climate change has brought the need for an effective early warning system to the forefront of policy-making. Technological advances and improved telecommunication systems have raised expectations that warning of disasters will come early enough to keep people safe. But are those expectations too high? Kerri Worthington reports. Increasingly, the world's governments -- and their citizens -- rely on technology-based early warning …

Concern People Without Latest Technology Will Miss Fire Warnings, Sally Sara, Ashley Hall, Peter Johnson, Katina Michael

Professor Katina Michael

But what if the website goes down in the way Victoria's Country Fire Authority website crashed as fires raged a few weeks ago? What about those people who don't own the latest technology? And what happens when the power goes out?

KATINA MICHAEL: Well there's no television, there isn't ability to access the internet potentially.

ASHLEY HALL: Professor Katina Michael is Associate Professor at the School of Information Systems and Technology at the University of Wollongong.

KATINA MICHAEL: I would suggest a long lasting powered radio because we don't want is we don't want when the lights go out, or …

Erau Spring 2013 Newsletter, Paul Eschenfelder

Paul F. Eschenfelder

No abstract provided.

Forecasting Innovation Pathways For New And Emerging Science & Technologies, Douglas Kr Robinson, Lu Huang, Ying Guo, Alan L. Porter

alan l porter

New & Emerging Science & Technologies (“NESTs”) promise tremendous innovation potential, but this is coupled with enormous uncertainties and often many unknowns. This paper offers a framework to analyze NESTs to help ascertain likely innovation pathways. We have devised a 10-step framework based on extensive Future-oriented Technology Analyses (“FTA”) experience, enriched by in-depth case analyses. In the paper, we describe our analytical activities in two case studies. The nanobiosensors experience is contrasted with that of deep brain stimulation in relative quantitative and qualitative emphases. We close the paper by reflecting on this systematic FTA framework for emerging science and technologies, …

Validating Indicators Of Interdisciplinarity: Linking Bibliometric Measures To Studies Of Engineering Research Labs, David Roessner, Alan L. Porter, Nancy J. Nersessian, Stephen J. Carley

alan l porter

This article examines the extent to which specific features of interdisciplinary research are accurately reflected in selected bibliometric measures of scholarly publications over time. To test the validity of these measures, we compare knowledge of research processes and impact based on ethnographic studies of a well-established researcher’s laboratory, together with personal interview data, against bibliometric indicators of cognitive integration, diffusion, and impact represented in the entire portfolio of papers produced by this researcher over time.

Critical Thinking About Political Problems, Robert Hoppe, Margarita Jeliazkova

Robert Hoppe

No abstract provided.

Two Cheers For The Fcc's Mobility Fund Reverse Auction, Scott J. Wallsten

Scott J. Wallsten

The United States held its first competitive bidding, or “reverse auction,” for universal service subsidies in September 2012. While it is far too early to investigate whether this national auction generated improvements in mobile voice and broadband service in underserved areas, it is not too soon to evaluate the auction itself. This paper investigates the outcome of the Mobility Fund Phase 1 Auction (Auction 901) and considers what we could learn from it for universal service and for future planned reverse auctions, such as the upcoming incentive auction, which aims to reallocate spectrum from broadcasters to those who place a …

Pro-Poor Nanotechnology Applications For Water: Characterizing And Contextualizing Private Sector Research And Development, Matthew Harsh, Thomas Woodson

Thomas Woodson

Nanotechnology has been proposed as a possible solution to the dire problems caused by contaminated water in impoverished communities. We characterize the global landscape of nanotechnology research and development using bibliometric and patent data to ascertain how private firms are using nanotechnology to create improved filters and other technologies that might create benefits for the ‘poor’. Research and development on nanotechnology applications for water is very international, but is occurring mostly in China, the USA and wealthy countries. Nanowater patents focus mostly on filtration systems. Other research areas like nanosensors and desalination have fewer nanowater patens which suggest that those …

Seven Types Of Privacy, Rachel L. Finn, David Wright, Michael Friedewald

Michael Friedewald

No abstract provided.

Climate Change Beliefs, Concerns, And Attitudes Toward Adaptation And Mitigation Among Farmers In The Midwestern United States, J. Gordon Arbuckle, Linda Stalker Prokopy, Tonya Haigh, Jon Hobbs, Tricia Knoot, Cody Knutson, Adam Loy, Amber Saylor Mase, Jean Mcguire, Lois Wright Morton, John Tyndall, Melissa Widhalm

Drought Mitigation Center: Faculty Publications

A February 2012 survey of almost 5,000 farmers across a region of the U.S. that produces more than half of the nation’s corn and soybean revealed that 66% of farmers believed climate change is occurring (8% mostly anthropogenic, 33% equally human and natural, 25% mostly natural), while 31% were uncertain and 3.5% did not believe that climate change is occurring. Results of initial analyses indicate that farmers’ beliefs about climate change and its causes vary considerably, and the relationships between those beliefs, concern about the potential impacts of climate change, and attitudes toward adaptive and mitigative action differ in systematic …

Location And Tracking Of Mobile Devices: Überveillance Stalks The Streets, Katina Michael, Roger Clarke

Professor Katina Michael

During the last decade, location-tracking and monitoring applications have proliferated, in mobile cellular and wireless data networks, and through self-reporting by applications running in smartphones that are equipped with onboard global positioning system (GPS) chipsets. It is now possible to locate a smartphone-user's location not merely to a cell, but to a small area within it. Innovators have been quick to capitalise on these location-based technologies for commercial purposes, and have gained access to a great deal of sensitive personal data in the process. In addition, law enforcement utilise these technologies, can do so inexpensively and hence can track many …

Towards A Conceptual Model Of User Acceptance Of Location-Based Emergency Services, Anas Aloudat, Katina Michael

Professor Katina Michael

This paper investigates the introduction of location-based services by government as part of an all-hazards approach to modern emergency management solutions. Its main contribution is in exploring the determinants of an individual’s acceptance or rejection of location services. The authors put forward a conceptual model to better predict why an individual would accept or reject such services, especially with respect to emergencies. While it may be posited by government agencies that individuals would unanimously wish to accept life-saving and life-sustaining location services for their well-being, this view remains untested. The theorised determinants include: visibility of the service solution, perceived service …

The Future Prospects Of Embedded Microchips In Humans As Unique Identifiers: The Risks Versus The Rewards, Katina Michael, M.G. Michael

Professor Katina Michael

Microchip implants for humans are not new. Placing heart pacemakers in humans for prosthesis is now considered a straightforward procedure. In more recent times we have begun to use brain pacemakers for therapeutic purposes to combat illnesses such as epilepsy, Parkinson’s Disease, and severe depression. Microchips are even being placed inside prosthetic knees and hips during restorative procedures to help in the gathering of post-operative analytics that can aid rehabilitation further. While medical innovations that utilise microchips abound, over the last decade we have begun to see the potential use of microchip implants for non-medical devices in humans, namely for …

Tracing The Footprint Of Knowledge Spillover: Evidence From U.S.-China Collaboration In Nanotechnology, Li Tang, Guangyuan Hu

Li Tang

No abstract provided.

Does "Birds Of A Feather Flock Together" Matter: Evidence From A Longitudinal Study On The Us-China Scientific Collaboration, Li Tang

Li Tang

No abstract provided.