Digital Commons Network^™

Supply System’S Technology Configuration As A Contributor To End-User Vulnerability, Lindsay Robertson, Katina Michael, Albert Munoz

Professor Katina Michael

Individuals requiring goods and services essential to their mode of living, are increasingly vulnerable to failures of the complex, interlinked, and inhomogeneous technological systems that supply those needs. Extant analysis techniques do not adequately quantify, from an end-user’s perspective, the vulnerability that is contributed by such technological systems. This study explores the significance of inherent weaknesses of inhomogeneous technological systems and proposes an approach for measuring vulnerability as the individual end-user ‘exposure level’ for each service. The measure of "exposure" that is developed, is mapped directly from the configuration of a technological system. This measure of exposure allows quantitative evaluation …

Cloud Computing Data Breaches: A Socio-Technical Review Of Literature, David Kolevski, Katina Michael

Professor Katina Michael

As more and more personal, enterprise and government data, services and infrastructure moves to the cloud for storage and processing, the potential for data breaches increases. Already major corporations that have outsourced some of their IT requirements to the cloud have become victims of cyber attacks. Who is responsible and how to respond to these data breaches are just two pertinent questions facing cloud computing stakeholders who have entered an agreement on cloud services. This paper reviews literature in the domain of cloud computing data breaches using a socio-technical approach. Socio-technical theory encapsulates three major dimensions- the social, the technical, …

Keynote: Justifying Uberveillance- The Internet Of Things And The Flawed Sustainability Premise, Katina Michael

Professor Katina Michael

Imagine a world where everything was numbered. Not just homes with street addresses, or cars with number plates, or smart phones with telephone numbers, or email addresses with passwords, but absolutely everything you could see and touch and even that which you could not. Well, that world is here, right now. This vast expanse we call “Earth” is currently being quantified and photographed, inch by inch, by satellites, street cameras, drones and high altitude balloons. Longitude and latitude coordinates provide us with the precise degrees, minutes and seconds of the physical space, and unique time stamps tell us where a …

Social And Economic Sustainability, Jason Sargent, Khanjan Mehta, Katina Michael

Professor Katina Michael

But what about long-term stability in developing nations? For example, as we strive to mainstream alternate energy sources and make them accessible in resource poor communities [ ], how do we think beyond the technological and economic dimensions and ensure respect for social, political and environmental imperatives? Computers, including the tiny but powerful ones on cell phones can be game-changers, but they will not save lives directly. They cannot be eaten by a starving population. And then, they need to be serviced and maintained. Jason, along with Katina’s husband Michael, visited and taught Karen refugee students in camps and remote …

The Impact Of Technology, Katina Michael

Professor Katina Michael

Consumer electronics have revolutionized the way we live and work. Most students that I know would rather forgo expensive clothing labels than do without their branded smartphone. In fact, some of them would forgo food altogether if it meant their phone could be “always on” and “always with them”, clipped onto the belt buckle, strapped into a pants or jacket sleeve or increasingly into the open palm of their hand. Something happens when our basic needs as humans are overtaken by some other need that was once a distant want at best- plainly confusion in our ability to rightly determine …

Perceived Barriers For Implanting Microchips In Humans: A Transnational Study, Christine Perakslis, Katina Michael, M.G. Michael, Robert Gable

Professor Katina Michael

This quantitative, descriptive study investigated if there was a relationship between countries of residence of small business owners (N = 453) within four countries (Australia, India, UK, and the USA) with respect to perceived barriers to RFID (radio frequency identification) transponders being implanted into humans for employee ID. Participants were asked what they believed were the greatest barriers in instituting chip implants for access control in organizations. Participants had six options from which to select. There were significant chi-square analyses reported relative to respondents’ countries and: 1) a perceived barrier of technological issues (χ2 = 11.86, df = 3, p …

The Dark Side Of Online Gaming, Katherine Albrecht, Katina Michael, M.G. Michael

Professor Katina Michael

Horror stories in the media abound in relation to online gaming addiction- of parents disregarding their kids to the point of starvation spouses quarreling or divorcing, students flunking out of school, young men and women dying from heart attacks, even kids poisoning their parents to get online in order to play their favorite game spending copious time away from their family responsibilities. We shake our heads at these previously unimaginable stories of excess, but lately they've begun hitting closer to home. How many readers have seen close friends, even family members seduced away from their meaningful relationships by the promise …

We Got To Do Better, Katherine Albrecht, Katina Michael

Professor Katina Michael

Each year, thousands of film buffs gather at the Sundance International Film Festival in park City, UT, U.S.A., to see the offerings of the world’s brightest filmmakers. If it’s true that movies reflect the preoccupations and obsessions of the larger culture, it’s eye opening that three of the twelve contenders for international documentary film this year address the dark side of screen technology.

Love Child, looks at the tragic 2010 death by neglect of a three-month-old baby named “Sarang” (“Love” in Korean), when her parents spent up to twelve hours a day playing the game Prius, caring for their avatar …

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 utilize 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 …

The Effects Of Knowledge Management On Information Sharing Practices: A Case Study On Nortel Networks, Katina Michael

Professor Katina Michael

In 1999 Nortel Networks deployed the Open Text Livelink knowledge management system (KMS). Livelink allowed for the centralization of key corporate applications and associated content at a global, regional, line-of-business and departmental level. Prior to the implementation of Livelink on an enterprise scale, the corporation’s 80,000 employees relied on fragmented departmental web pages which were scattered across 11 different Web servers making the task of finding information very difficult. This paper describes how the process of knowledge transfer at Nortel Networks changed with the deployment of Livelink and how it enabled the automation of workflows through the company’s Web-based Intranet. …

The Fallout From Emerging Technologies: Surveillance, Social Networks And Suicide, Katina Michael, M G. Michael

Professor Katina Michael

Saint Augustine of Hippo (354-430 CE) [1] one of the most revered doctors of the ecclesia catholica, might not have been so highly esteemed had he fl ourished centuries afterwards in a world of uberveillance [2]. One of the unique aspects of Augustine's life that endeared him to the community of the faithful, both past and present, was his rising up from the "fornications" [3] and the "delight in thievery" [4] to become a paradigm for both the eastern and western churches of the penitent who becomes a saint.

The Emerging Ethics Of Humancentric Gps Tracking And Monitoring, Katina Michael, Andrew Mcnamee, M G. Michael

Professor Katina Michael

The Global Positioning System (GPS) is increasingly being adopted by private and public enterprise to track and monitor humans for location-based services (LBS). Some of these applications include personal locators for children, the elderly or those suffering from Alzheimer's or memory loss, and the monitoring of parolees for law enforcement, security or personal protection purposes. The continual miniaturization of the GPS chipset means that receivers can take the form of wristwatches, mini mobiles and bracelets, with the ability to pinpoint the longitude and latitude of a subject 24/7/365. This paper employs usability context analyses to draw out the emerging ethical …

The Current State Of Commercial Location-Based Service Offerings In Australia, Roba Abbas, Katina Michael, M. G. Michael, Anas Aloudat

Professor Katina Michael

Location-based services (LBS) provide geographic data for a variety of purposes, and through numerous devices such as mobile phones, GPS navigation systems, palm pilots and increasingly desktop computers. Presently, there is scant information relating to the current state of the LBS market, specifically location-based service applications in Australia. This study makes use of usability context analyses to examine Australiapsilas three leading telecommunications operators- Telstra, Optus and Vodafone- with a view to providing an overview of the types of services and solutions presently offered and targeted at the consumer, business and emergency segments. There are two units of analysis (i) the …

Editorial: The Social And Behavioural Implications Of Location-Based Services, Katina Michael, M G. Michael

Professor Katina Michael

The social and behavioral implications of location-based services (LBS) are only now beginning to come to light in advanced markets where the services have been adopted by just a little over half the market (Microsoft 2011). Depending on one's definition of what constitutes location-based services, statistics on the level of adoption differ considerably. While it is helpful to provide as broad a list of applications as possible in what constitutes LBS (e.g. everything from in-vehicle navigation systems to downloading a map using a computer), it can also cloud the real picture forming behind this emerging technology. Emerging not in the …

Heaven And Hell: Visions For Pervasive Adaptation, Ben Paechter, Jeremy Pitt, Nikola Serbedzija, Katina Michael, Jennifer Willies, Ingi Helgason

Professor Katina Michael

With everyday objects becoming increasingly smart and the "info-sphere" being enriched with nano-sensors and networked to computationally-enabled devices and services, the way we interact with our environment has changed significantly, and will continue to change rapidly in the next few years. Being user-centric, novel systems will tune their behaviour to individuals, taking into account users' personal characteristics and preferences. But having a pervasive adaptive environment that understands and supports us "behaving naturally" with all its tempting charm and usability, may also bring latent risks, as we seamlessly give up our privacy (and also personal control) to a pervasive world of …

Editorial: Social Implications Of Technology: "Il Buono, Il Brutto, Il Cattivo", Katina Michael

Professor Katina Michael

Late last year, IEEE SSIT was invited to put together a paper for the centennial edition of the Proceedings of the IEEE for publication in May 2012 [1]. The article, "Social Implications of Technology: Past, Present, and Future," brought together five members of SSIT with varying backgrounds, and involved two intense months of collaboration and exchange of ideas. I personally felt privileged to be working with Karl D. Stephan, Emily Anesta, Laura Jacobs, and M.G. Michael on this project.

Social Implications Of Technology: The Past, The Present, And The Future, Karl Stephan, Katina Michael, M. G. Michael, Laura Jacob, Emily Anesta

Professor Katina Michael

The social implications of a wide variety of technologies are the subject matter of the IEEE Society on Social Implications of Technology (SSIT). This paper reviews the SSIT’s contributions since the Society’s founding in 1982, and surveys the outlook for certain key technologies that may have significant social impacts in the future. Military and security technologies, always of significant interest to SSIT, may become more autonomous with less human intervention, and this may have both good and bad consequences. We examine some current trends such as mobile, wearable, and pervasive computing, and find both dangers and opportunities in these trends. …

Monitoring People Using Location-Based Social Networking And Its Negative Impact On Trust: An Exploratory Contextual Analysis Of Five Types Of "Friend" Relationships, Sarah Jean Fusco, Katina Michael, Anas Aloudat, Roba Abbas

Professor Katina Michael

Location based social networking (LBSN) applications are part of a new suite of social networking tools. LBSN is the convergence between location based services (LBS) and online social networking (OSN). LBSN applications offer users the ability to look up the location of another “friend” remotely using a smart phone, desktop or other device, anytime and anywhere. Users invite their friends to participate in LBSN and there is a process of consent that follows. This paper explores the potential impact of LBSN upon trust in society. It looks at the willingness of individuals to share their location data with family, friends, …

Exploring The Social Implications Of Location Based Social Networking: An Inquiry Into The Perceived Positive And Negative Impacts Of Using Lbsn Between Friends, Sarah Jean Fusco, Katina Michael, M G. Michael, Roba Abbas

Professor Katina Michael

Location based social networking (LBSN) applications are part of a new suite of emerging social networking tools that run on the Web 2.0 platform. LBSN is the convergence between location based services (LBS) and online social networking (OSN). LBSN applications offer users the ability to look up the location of another "friend" remotely using a smart phone, desktop or other device, anytime and anywhere. Users invite their friends to participate in LBSN and there is a process of consent that follows. Friends have the ability to alter their privacy settings to allow their location to be monitored by another at …

The Legal, Social And Ethical Controversy Of The Collection And Storage Of Fingerprint Profiles And Dna Samples In Forensic Science, Katina Michael

Professor Katina Michael

The collection and storage of fingerprint profiles and DNA samples in the field of forensic science for nonviolent crimes is highly controversial. While biometric techniques such as fingerprinting have been used in law enforcement since the early 1900s, DNA presents a more invasive and contentious technique as most sampling is of an intimate nature (e.g. buccal swab). A fingerprint is a pattern residing on the surface of the skin while a DNA sample needs to be extracted in the vast majority of cases (e.g. at times extraction even implying the breaking of the skin). This paper aims to balance the …

Location And Interactive Services Not Only At Your Fingertips But Under Your Skin, Rodney Ip, Katina Michael, M G. Michael

Professor Katina Michael

This paper explores the work of Professor Kevin Warwick, a researcher in the Department of Cybernetics at the University of Reading in the United Kingdom, who has played a major role in propelling the science of humancentric chip implantation. On the 24th of August 1998, just over a decade ago, Professor Warwick became the first man to officially implant a radio-frequency identification (RFID) transponder under his skin. This paper explores Warwick's achievements, motivations, and chipping experience, offering a unique insight into the ethical dilemmas and controversy surrounding implantable devices for identification purposes, interactive environments and the potential for location-based services. …

The Application Of Location Based Services In National Emergency Warning Systems: Sms, Cell Broadcast Services And Beyond, Anas Aloudat, Katina Michael

Professor Katina Michael

Location-based services can be broadly defined as any service that provides information pertinent to the current location of an active mobile handset at a specific window of time, regardless of the underlying delivery technology used to convey its information. To date, the short message service and cell broadcast service have been utilised by several countries during emergencies, however the future indicates that these services while cost-effective today, will almost certainly be superseded in the next five to ten years by newer more powerful capabilities. The path forward in location-based emergency services in Australia is given against a backdrop of the …

The Diffusion Of Rfid Implants For Access Control And Epayments: A Case Study On Baja Beach Club In Barcelona, Katina Michael, M G. Michael

Professor Katina Michael

RFID implants for humans have been used in a variety of contexts since their commercial inception in 2003. The VeriChip product which typically carries a 16 digit number was first marketed as an identification device in the ehealth space (e.g. for emergency response), then as an access control mechanism (e.g. security), and finally as an epayment solution (e.g. the purchase of drinks at clubs). This paper investigates the story behind RFID implants for club patronage access control and epayment. The study uses a two-fold qualitative approach in the collection of data for the single case study of the Baja Beach …

Toward A State Of Überveillance, M G. Michael, Katina Michael

Professor Katina Michael

Überveillance is an emerging concept, and neither its application nor its power have yet fully arrived [38]. For some time, Roger Clarke's [12, p. 498] 1988 dataveillance concept has been prevalent: the “systematic use of personal data systems in the investigation or monitoring of the actions of one or more persons.”

You Talkin' To Me?, Katina Michael

Professor Katina Michael

Advancing knowledge through robust research is an honourable aim- being scientific, finding the right methodology, executing project phases meticulously, and reporting on the outcomes as objectively and accurately as possible. But may I begin my inaugural editorial by saying that an even higher ideal to advancing knowledge is critiquing it as it happens. Reflective practice is not just something to be done by academics in their teaching- reflective practice is what we should all be doing as we go about undertaking our various day-to-day work tasks. For the engineer engaged in research and development, whether in industry or government, reflective …

Emerging Forms Of Covert Surveillance Using Gps-Enabled Devices, Roba Abbas, Katina Michael, M G. Michael, Anas Aloudat

Professor Katina Michael

This paper presents the real possibility that commercial mobile tracking and monitoring solutions will become widely adopted for the practice of non-traditional covert surveillance within a community setting, resulting in community members engaging in the covert observation of family, friends, or acquaintances. This paper investigates five stakeholder relationships using scenarios to demonstrate the potential socio-ethical implications that tracking and monitoring people will have on society at large. The five stakeholder types explored in this paper include: (i) husband-wife (partner-partner), (ii) parent-child, (iii) employer-employee, (iv) friend-friend, and (v) stranger-stranger. Mobile technologies such as mobile camera phones, global positioning system data loggers, …

The Idio-Technopolis [Editorial], Katina Michael

Professor Katina Michael

The rapid rise of social media has brought with it an emphasis on the distinct dimensions of the whole person. Social media recognizes that the individual has a personal network of extensions – a home life, a work life, a social life, a study life, a hobbyist life, and much more – some of these identities even hidden from full view. Each of these online value networks are now accessible by big business, where opinion leaders and early adopters are easily distinguishable, and where brand commentary between consumers matters manifold more than any form of targeted advertising.

Location-Based Services For Emergency Management: A Multi-Stakeholder Perspective, Anas Aloudat, Katina Michael, Roba Abbas

Professor Katina Michael

This paper investigates the deployment of locationbased services for nationwide emergency management by focusing on the perspectives of two stakeholders, government and end-users, in the cellular mobile phone value chain. The data collected for the study came from a single in-depth interview and open comments in a preliminary end-user survey. The themes presented have been categorised using a qualitative analysis. The findings indicate that although governments and end-users believe that location-based services have the potential to aid people in emergencies, there are several major disagreements over the proposed deployment. This paper is an attempt to help determine the underlying motivations …

Location-Based Social Networking: Impact On Trust In Relationships, Sarah J. Fusco, Roba Abbas, Katina Michael, Anas Aloudat

Professor Katina Michael

Location based social networking (LBSN) applications are part of a new suite of social networking tools. LBSN is the convergence between location based services (LBS) and online social networking (OSN). LBSN applications offer users the ability to look up the location of another “friend” remotely using a smart phone, desktop or other device, anytime and anywhere. Users invite their friends to participate in LBSN and there is a process of consent that follows. This paper explores the potential impact of LBSN upon trust in society. It looks at the willingness of individuals to share their location data with family, friends, …

Location Privacy Under Dire Threat As 'Uberveillance' Stalks The Streets, Katina Michael, Roger Clarke

Professor Katina Michael

Citizen consent and issues surrounding location-based people-tracking - location-tracking - smart phones - covert tracking - CCTV cameras - mobile phones - warrantless tracking - Australian Mobile Telecommunications Association (AMTA) new industry guidelines - compliance with privacy legislation - need for a location privacy protection act or GPS act.