Science and Technology Studies Commons^™

Telecommunications Technology And Sovereignty: Effects On States As Information Transfer Increased From The Speed Of Oxcart To The Speed Of Light, James H. Radford

Graduate Program in International Studies Theses & Dissertations

Sovereignty---the absolute and unlimited power of the state---provides independence of action. Information about actions or intentions of competitors, enemies, or even friends, arriving after extended periods of time, resulted in responses to fait accompli. When information travels nearly instantaneously, states must consider potentially rapid international reactions before the fact. This suggests that since a state's freedom of action has been abridged, the nature of their sovereignty has altered.

This study pursues the research question: In what ways does telecommunications technology affect state sovereignty? The evolution of sovereignty is compared to development of telecommunications technology over four distinct eras, each …

Advanced Active Pixel Architectures In Standard Cmos Technology, Alessandro Marras, Daniele Passeri, Guido Matrella, Pisana Placidi, Marco Petasecca, Leonello Servoli, Gian Mario Bilei, Paolo Ciampolini

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

This paper aims at exploring and validating the adoption of standard fabrication processes for the realization of CMOS active pixel sensors, for particle detection purposes. The goal is to implement a single-chip, complete radiation sensor system, including on a CMOS integrated circuit the sensitive devices, read-out and signal processing circuits. A prototype chip (RAPS01) based on these principles has been already fabricated, and a chip characterization has been carried out; in particular, the evaluation of the sensitivity of the sensor response on the actual operating conditions was estimated, as well as the response uniformity. Optimization and tailoring of the sensor …

Is Necessity The Mother Of Innovation? The Adoption And Use Of Web Technologies Among Congressional Offices, Kevin M. Esterling, David M.J. Lazer, Michael Neblo

National Center for Digital Government

From first paragraph: Communication between legislator and constituents is fundamental to effective democratic representation, and devising the institutional means for citizen/legislator communication stands as one of the core and persistent problems in the practice of democracy. A legislator needs information about the preferences, ideals, norms, and beliefs of her constituents in order to do her job well. Similarly, citizens need information about the actions and decisions of their representative in order to maintain appropriate accountability. But as national problems become more complex, and as the political process grows more and more dominated by experts and organized groups, it is becoming …

Using Self-Regulated Learning To Manage The Discomfort Of Becoming Fluent With Information Technology, Victoria M. Neville, Sue Bennett

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

The technologically complex and changing world of the twenty first century requires teachers who are both knowledgeable and skilled in using information technology in their pedagogical practices. The changing nature of information technology means that teachers need to be flexible in how they use information technology in their teaching, adaptable to the changes in technological developments, problem solvers in unfamiliar circumstances, and continuing learners throughout their professional life. These ideas are encapsulated in the concept of fluency with information technology, or FITness (Committee on Information Technology Literacy, 1999). This research study, in progress, uses an interpretive, qualitative methodological approach to …

Community Technology Centres: A Proposed Framework For Sustainability, William J. Tibben, Carole A. Alcock

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

The effectiveness of Community Technology Centres (CTCs) in meeting many of the challenges presented by the digital divide invites a closer scrutiny of factors that contribute to their sustainability. The success of CTCs appears to be related to the way in which these initiatives are able to respond to the multifaceted nature of the digital divide problem. However, more systematic approaches are required to enable the identification of common factors that contribute to sustainability in different contexts. The paper responds to this challenge by initially reviewing recent contributions on the digital divide debate. From a more refined understanding of what …

Race, Place, And Information Technology, Karen Mossberger, Caroline J. Tolbert

National Center for Digital Government

What role does environment play in influencing information technology access and skills – over and above individual characteristics such as income, education, race, and ethnicity? One of the puzzles that emerged from our recent research on the “digital divide” was that African-Americans, and to a lesser extent, Latinos, had more positive attitudes toward information technology than similarly-situated whites. And yet, African-Americans and Latinos are less likely to have information technology access and skills, even when controlling for other factors such as income and education (Mossberger, Tolbert and Stansbury 2003). The research presented in this paper takes a first step toward …

Technology Goes Home Evaluation – Executive Summary, Donna H. Friedman, Michelle Kahan, Tatjana Meschede, Consuela Greene

Center for Social Policy Publications

Technology Goes Home (TGH) is an innovative program designed to bridge the digital divide by bringing technology into low-income families’ homes. This Boston Digital Bridge Foundation (BDBF) program strives to prepare adults for employment opportunities and to help children improve academic performance by offering computer training and equipment to families in Boston neighborhoods and schools. Classes are offered in groups, with parents and children learning together in order to strengthen families and build community as well as skills. Neighborhood programs are operated in six communities through Neighborhood Technology Collaboratives, coalitions of community-based organizations. These coalitions select participating families, and provide …

E-Government Cross-Agency And Intergovernmental Initiatives Research Project: Web Survey Results, Jane E. Fountain, Robin Mckinnon, Eunyun Park

National Center for Digital Government

One of the central challenges of E-Government is organizational and institutional change. Professor Jane E. Fountain, the founder and Director of the National Center for Digital Government at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, and her research team are currently continuing a practical research program on the development of crossagency collaboration and integration using information technologies. The project is designed to describe and explain critical success factors in successful E-Government cross-agency collaborative projects. The study should contribute significant management, economic and policy benefits as a result of better understanding how to structure conditions for success in cross-agency initiatives that …

Bureaucratic Networks Or Networked Bureaucracies? Knowledge Sharing In Ict-Enabled Innovation Projects, Maria C. Binz-Scharf

National Center for Digital Government

This paper examines knowledge sharing processes in digital government projects (DGPs). Although knowledge sharing processes are a central feature of the functioning of government, they have received little attention in the literature. The importance of knowledge sharing has become even more evident with the rise of digital government initiatives, as these have a networking effect on bureaucracies. With multiple agencies and multidisciplinary knowledge coming together, it is necessary to combine and reconnect the required knowledge. Based on empirical data from four DGPs in Switzerland and the United States, a theoretical model for knowledge sharing in DGPs is proposed. The model …

Electronic Government And Electronic Civics, Jane Fountain

National Center for Digital Government

Electronic government and electronic civics embrace a wide range of topics. Electronic government and electronic civics include in their purview the development, use, and implications of new practices, processes, forms and interests in government and civic life occasioned by the Internet, World Wide Web and related information and communication technologies. They are concerned with individuals and the groups they form and sustain in order to bring coherence and stability to community life. At a slightly higher level of analysis, electronic government and electronic civics take account of the use and implications of the Internet for all forms of civic engagement …

Local Government Stimulation Of Broadband: Effectiveness, E-Government, And Economic Development, David Clark, Sharon Gillett, William Lehr, Marvin Sirbu, Jane E. Fountain

National Center for Digital Government

Access to broadband is widely recognized as a prerequisite for a community’s economic welfare and the delivery of government services. In communities where the private sector is perceived as having failed to deliver adequate and affordable broadband services, municipal and county governments face pressures to stimulate broadband deployment. However, no systematic data documents the nature and status of municipal broadband initiatives, the comparative effectiveness of alternative policies for promoting broadband access, or their implications for local economic development, private provisioning of infrastructure, and the operation of local government. As a result, hundreds of communities are proceeding independently to develop their …

Information, Institutions And Governance: Advancing A Basic Social Science Research Program For Digital Government, Jane Fountain

National Center for Digital Government

From the Executive Summary: 'To provide guidance and discussion meant to support the development of the Digital Government Program to include research in the social and applied social sciences, more than 30 experts gathered at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government in Cambridge from May 30 to June 1, 2002 for a national workshop to aid in the development of a broadly-based, multidisciplinary social science research agenda for digital government. In spite of significant innovations in information and communication technologies, digital government remains at an early stage of implementation. Moreover, the implications of IT for the future of government are as …

Reducing Automobile Emissions In Southern California: The Dance Of Public Policies And Technological Fixes, Rudi Volti

Pitzer Faculty Publications and Research

For many years I have taught at a small liberal arts college in Southern California. When first-year students arrived at the college in the early 1970s, they settled into the usual things that occupy freshmen. A few weeks would go by, and then they would make a remarkable discovery: tall mountains would appear to the north as autumn weather dissipated the heavy blanket of smog that had obscured them. Today, the air is not perfectly clear in September, but students are aware of the mountains from the day they move into the dormitories. The region's partial victory over smog illustrates …

Militant Segregationists, Control Freaks, And Techno-Believers, Craighton T. Hippenhammer

Faculty Scholarship – Library Science

Twenty-first century librarians need to be comfortable with and knowledgeable in technology. Library departments that don't integrate technology into the way they operate are likely to be eliminated along with their librarians. Librarians who have special expertise, especially technical expertise, need to be free to exercise it and use it without being dragged into library tasks that do not use those skills. If librarians do not get out in front of the new technologies that deliver information, then they will be giving up their libraries to techno-businesses that will spring up to fill the information gap. Librarians must retain or …

A Case For Implementing An Electronic Document Managament System (Edms), Scott D. Seiler

Critical and Creative Thinking Capstones Collection

We live in a world where documentation and record keeping are considered not only necessary but also essential. This documentation produces and unprecedented amount of paperwork. Keeping track of this volume of paper is a task of monumental proportions. Faced with this task, I sought to sell the idea of an Electronic Document Management System (EDMS) to the senior staff of the governmental agency that employs me. Participation in the Creative Critical Thinking Program at the University of Massachusetts Boston, has afforded me the opportunity to formulate an implementation scheme to accomplish this. Included in my synthesis project are the …

The Proceedings Of The Nasa Aerospace Technology Symposium 2002, Brent D. Bowen, Mary M. Fink, Michaela M. Schaaf, Uno Aviation Institute

Faculty Books and Monographs

UNOAI Report 02-4

Addressing The Inadequacies Of Information Available On The Internet: The Prospect For A Technical Solution, Alan I. Goldman

Critical and Creative Thinking Capstones Collection

In the past ten years the Internet has been the carrier and transmitter of vast amounts of information. Most of it has never been subjected to peer review or even casual review and has therefore been the source of misinformation. Additionally, there is need for more researchers to utilize critical thinking techniques of evaluating the credibility of sources.

This paper chronicles my critical and creative thinking processes and results regarding these three areas of the information problems that are prevalent on the Internet. The first area is the problem of bad, biased or incorrect information including hoaxes and scams. I …

The Millennium Problem And The Marketplace Of Ideas: Insights Into Freedom, Responsibility, And Technological Development, Scott Devito, Dennis R. Cooley

Scott DeVito

20 Questions Toward Better Thinking: A Look At Internet Based Learning, Robert B. Mendelsohn

Critical and Creative Thinking Capstones Collection

New technology and good teaching practices must be combined to produce the most up-to-date and effective Internet-based learning. Critical and creative thinking techniques incorporated with technological enhancements will stimulate better comprehension of a variety of resources including in Internet-based learning. Two key concepts of critical and creative thinking that I focus on are Metacognition and Frame of Reference. Metacognition is the self-awareness of one’s thought process. It includes knowing why one makes decisions, what factors contribute to a choice, and why the opposite decision was not chosen. While most people disregard or ignore metacognition it can have numerous positive effects …

Democracy, Technology And The Civil Rights Project, Caesar L. Mcdowell, Marianne S. Castano

Trotter Review

Democracy has been defined as "a political system in which the whole people make, and are entitled to make, the basic determining decisions on important matters of public policy." While the United States is often touted as the world's leading proponent of democracy, many U.S. citizens find themselves unable to engage in one of the central acts of democracy—creating public voice through public engagement. Public engagement in the United States is constrained by our inability to talk through our shared, complementary and divergent values. This lack of public engagement and our inability to speak in a "public voice" is also …

Technological Revolution And The Black Studies Curriculum: A Course Proposal, Abdul Alkalimat

Trotter Review

A technological revolution is changing the world. The computer is fast becoming the universal tool in all aspects of work, production and communication, and innovations in bio-technology are fast transforming agriculture and health. The main impact of this technological revolution has been to restructure the economy, both the centers of accumulation as well as the labor process. It is also restructuring the methods by which people communicate, form and maintain communities. In general, the objective basis of social life is being fundamentally changed.

This essay proposes a basic course that not only focuses on the technological revolution, but should be …

Technical Risk In The Mass Media: Introduction, Allan Mazur

RISK: Health, Safety & Environment (1990-2002)

Special editor, Professor Mazur introduces and explains the origins of the symposium.

Acceptable Risk: A Conceptual Proposal, Baruch Fischhoff

RISK: Health, Safety & Environment (1990-2002)

Challenging the "de minimis risk" concept, Dr. Fischhoff argues that risks ought not to be considered apart from a particular technology's benefits. He argues, too, that the acceptability of particular kinds of risks should not be determined without considering the views of all persons who may be exposed. Finally, building upon the "reasonable person" construct, he suggests ways those goals might be achieved.

"Who Is A Scientist?": Effects Of An Intervention To Change Students' Ideas About Science And Scientists, Lauren A. Foley

Critical and Creative Thinking Capstones Collection

Advocates for improving science literacy have focused much attention on the negative impressions about science and scientists held by many Americans. The image of scientists as 'nerdy' bespectacled men in laboratories has been related by some researchers to people's lack of interest in pursuing science. This thesis analyzes one component of a program aimed at changing that stereotype. The Science-By-Mail (tm) program at the Museum of Science in Boston was designed to give students a more inclusive image of scientists. Central to the program was the creation of pen-pal relationships between students in grades 4-9 with scientists who did not …

Foundations Of Responsible Technology, Charles C. Adams

Pro Rege

No abstract provided.

"Large Systems", Richard Ernest Bellman

Special Collections: Oregon Public Speakers

No abstract provided.