Inequality in digital skills and the adoption of online safety behaviors

ABSTRACT

Cyber-safety behaviors are important in preventing the loss of an individual's digital assets and ensuring the safety of important daily online activities. Individuals’ cyber-safety is also critical for national cybersecurity. The issue is highly relevant for Israel, a country that relies on the digital capabilities of its workers for its major technology industries and is also often a target of cyberwarfare and cybercrime attacks. The purpose of this study is to identify the determinants of cyber-safety behavior. We investigate the role of age, gender and education in the use of safety-related digital skills and antivirus software. Using a 2014 survey of a national sample of Internet users in Israel (N?=?1850), we found that age, gender, education and quality of access are associated with the level of users’ digital security skills. In addition, these skills and the frequency of conducting financial activities online are the main determinants of antivirus behaviors. Our results expand the understanding of cyber-safety by showing that social and digital disparities are reproduced in the use of measures to prevent online threats, putting the digitally disadvantaged at greater risk of becoming victims of online threats.     

#IAmNotAfraidToSayIt: stories of sexual violence as everyday political speech on Facebook

ABSTRACT

The debate about the power and influence of networked publics often focuses on large-scale political events, activist campaigns and protest activity – the more visible forms of political engagement. On the other hand, digitally mediated activism is often questioned and sometimes derided as a lesser form of dissent, as it is easier to engage in, highly affective, and offers few assurances of sustainability of the change it calls for. But what about everyday political speech online, where social media platforms can contribute to a personalisation of politics? Can social media users express their views online and make a difference? This paper analyses around 3500 Facebook posts stemming from the #ЯНеБоюсьСказати (Ukrainian for #IAmNotAfraidToSayIt) online campaign that was started in the Ukrainian segment of Facebook in July 2016 by a local activist to raise awareness of how widespread sexual violence and sexual harassment are in the Ukrainian society. The paper argues that networked conversations about everyday rights and affective stories about shared experiences of injustice, underpinned by the affordances of social media platforms for sharing and discussing information and participating in everyday politics, can emerge as viable forms of networked feminist activism and can have real impact on the discursive status quo of an issue, both in the digital sphere and beyond it.     

Techno-Wizardry and movie magic: the trace of labour (or lack thereof) in 3D digital animation

ABSTRACT

This paper will argue that 3D digital animation, unlike its 2D and stop-motion counterparts, currently lacks recognisable self-reflexive aesthetic devices through which the trace of animators’ labour can be made visible. It will open with a brief history of how animation has previously shown its workings; from the pencil-wielding hand of Émile Cohl to the opening seconds of South Park, plus the intentional and unintentional smears and multiples visible on animation cells. These devices will then be discussed in relation to Marx’s analysis of the commodity in Capital Vol. 1, and how the process of fetishisation is momentarily disrupted by imperfections in the object which have been caused by production errors. These faults reconnect the object to its producer through the trace of (imperfect) labour which remains visible on the surface. In animation, similar (albeit consciously made) ‘errors’ connect the perceptive viewer directly to the work of 2D or stop-motion animators. This paper will argue the need for an equivalent to emerge in 3D digital animation, as well as highlighting some contemporary animators testing and subverting the limits of 3D and sketching some possible ways these might encourage further formal innovations.     

Information society and digital divide in South Africa: results of longitudinal surveys

Integration into the information society implies that information plays an increasingly important role in all sectors of society and holds distinct social and economic benefits. Discourses on the information society are, however, also associated with the digital divide and inequalities in access to and use of information and communication technologies (ICTs). Within sub-Saharan Africa, South Africa is often regarded as one of the most information-integrated societies due to widespread mobile phone ownership, among other things. However, while ICT access has been emphasized, research also points to the role of demographic, socio-economic and cultural factors such as ethnicity, income, education and gender. This article discusses the results of questionnaire surveys conducted by Afrobarometer among probability South African samples in 2008 and 2011. The results indicate that individual Internet use and mobile Internet access were lower than estimated in the literature. Furthermore, gender gaps, as well as considerable gaps between population groups and educational levels, were found in Internet and computer use, mobile ownership and access to mobile Internet and accessing news via the Internet. Conclusions regarding strategies for bridging the digital divide and integrating South Africa into the information society are discussed.     

Curating the Soul: Foucault's concept of hupomnemata and the digital technology of self-care

This paper explores how online actions such as the practice of digital self-writing shape our offline identity. We start with an examination of the concept of hupomnemata – a practice of self-writing in which notes are kept as a ‘material record of things read, heard, or thought’ in the intent of shaping the self [Foucault (1997). Self writing. In P. Rabinow (Ed.), Ethics, subjectivity and truth. The essential works of Foucault, 1954–1984. Volume 1 (pp. 207–222). New York, NY: The New Press p. 209] – before arguing that the practice of digital content curation can be understood as a modern-day variant of the Greco-Roman hupomnemata. Although the work of the digital curator is conducted online, this paper positions contemporary curatorial practices as acts of self-exploration, self-cultivation, and self-care, which nourish offline identity and which ultimately work to shape the offline, corporeal self.     

试论数字色彩应用

介绍色彩数字编程和色彩数字设计方法。将数字的可变性应用到色彩编程和色彩设计之中,以期对艺术设计中手工颜料调配、提高色彩的准确度及色彩的复制与研究提供参考。     

“智慧教育+”环境下高校教育教学方法的探索与实践——以工科基础课教育教学为例

在“智慧教育+”的教育教学环境下,教学仍然存在着传统固有的缺陷,使得学生的学习达不到预期效果。文章以学生发展为中心,注重课程建设的创新与实践,通过构建研究型教学新方法,打造立体化的教学资源与高阶性的教学内容,注重多元化教学手段、数字化教学应用等方面的教育教学探索,从教育教学的“理论、实践、资源”三个维度持续提升学习效果。研究通过构建“研学实践”育人的教学方法,丰富课程内涵,实现了价值引领和能力培养的融合,探索出了符合地方高校实际需求的一种新型的教育教学方法。     

数字时代数字技术崇拜的机制与实质

数字技术崇拜是一种从心理、行为和价值观上深受数字系统影响的社会现象,其特征主要表现为对数字技术及其产品构成的数字系统过于依赖、过度上瘾以及对其塑造的意识形态过度顺服的社会异态关系。这种社会现象的形成主要基于数字化的生存状态,技术理性的迅速扩张和感官系统的极致调动。究其本质,数字技术崇拜背后是经由数字资本逻辑重构社会秩序、数字技术内生意识形态和数字权力塑造单向度人共建而成的机制。面对数字时代人类境遇的遮蔽,并不等于要一刀切地舍弃数据和算法的便利性,而是要唤醒人的数字主体性意识,建立数字权利的政府保障机制和树立正确的数字价值观。     

超大型平台并购初创企业的反垄断法规制研究

超大型平台并购初创企业可能具有反竞争效应,然而在芝加哥学派“假阳性错误”成本大于“假阴性错误”成本的理论观点以及反垄断监管困境的双重影响下,反垄断执法机构对其长期采取宽容的态度。但是芝加哥学派的错误成本理论在应用于超大型平台并购初创企业时存在局限性。频繁实施的初创企业并购非但不会导致超大型平台走向自毁,反将进一步巩固其市场支配地位、抬高市场进入壁垒。即便市场经历漫长期间之后最终完成了自我纠正,规制不足所造成的“假阴性错误”成本也会十分高昂,平台经济领域公平竞争、行业创新发展和消费者权益保护均会受到长期不利影响。因此,在秉持“包容审慎监管”原则的前提下适度加大监管力度,应当成为对超大型平台并购初创企业进行反垄断法规制的基本取向。基于这一取向,未来对超大型平台并购初创企业的反垄断法规制思路需要进行以下调整：以初创企业市值、用户规模、流量规模等补正并购的既有申报标准;确立契合平台经济特点的竞争损害分析框架;针对超大型平台并购初创企业的不同效应建立宽严相济的法律制度;赋予反垄断执法机构更加广泛的证据收集权,强化参与并购经营者的证明责任,并通过结合这二者的方式来化解反垄断执法机构获取监管信息上的...     

我国构建数字经济税收法律制度的现时难题和优化路径

传统税收法律制度在对数字经济企业实施税收征管时存在征管依据缺失、征管技术落后等不足,进而诱发税基侵蚀和利润转移问题,导致无法对数字经济进行充分有效的征管。各国对数字经济的利益诉求不同,使得在国际层面具备广泛共识的数字税方案难以达成。从国内层面来看,我国对于数字经济的税收征管仍旧依靠传统税收模式进行,并未将数字税作为独立税种在法律上予以确认。这种税收模式在数字经济持续发展的当下已经无法满足数字经济税收征管的现实需要。对于当前中国构建数字经济税收法律制度的路径,可以通过升级数字税收监管技术、发挥数字经济平台的监管作用和加强国际税收合作等手段进行优化,并积极参与和推进具有广泛共识的国际数字税收法律规则的制订。