Developing ethical approaches to data and civil society: from availability to accessibility

This research note reflects on the gaps and limitations confronting the development of ethical principles regarding the accessibility of large-scale data for civil society organizations (CSOs). Drawing upon a systematic scoping study on the use of data in the United Kingdom (UK) civil society, it finds that there are twin needs to conceptualize accessibility as more than mere availability of data, as well as examine the use of data among CSOs more generally. In order to deal with the apparent “digital divide” in UK civil society – where, despite extensive government rhetoric about data openness, organizations face not only the barriers of limited time, funds, and expertise to harness data but also the lack of representation within existing data – we present a working model in which ethical concerns accompanying data utilization by civil society may be better accounted. This suggests there is a need for further research into the nexus of civil society and data upon which interdisciplinary discussion about the ethical dimensions of engagement with data, particularly informed by insight from the social sciences, can be predicated.     

微机在万能液压材料试验机测绘系统中的应用

简述了对600kN万能液压材料试验机测绘系统进行微机数字化测量系统的改造的基本原理，系统构成和技术要求，解决了主要的问题，并对关键技术的解决和实现，系统特点作了说明。     

电影--一个存在主义的文本--科技进步与电影艺术的发展与终结

电影是现代科技进步的产物,且紧随科学技术的发展而发展.其本质并非固定不变的,而是变动不居的.本文除回顾历史上已经发生的电影技术革命(如声音技术、电视技术)引发的电影美学革命外,着重阐述电子计算机成像技术特别是数字化技术以及互联网技术所引发的、正在出现和已经出现的电影艺术的本体性变革,并指出由之而可能导致的电影艺术的终结.     

THE PARTICIPATION DIVIDE: Content creation and sharing in the digital age

This paper looks at the prevalence of creative activity and sharing in an age when the barriers to disseminating material have been considerably lowered compared with earlier times. The authors use unique data to explore the extent to which young adults create video, music, writing and artistic photography, as well as the prevalence of sharing such material online. Findings suggest that despite new opportunities to engage in such distribution of content, relatively few people are taking advantage of these recent developments. Moreover, neither creation nor sharing is randomly distributed among a diverse group of young adults. Consistent with existing literature, creative activity is related to a person's socioeconomic status as measured by parental schooling. The novel act of sharing online, however, is considerably different by gender with men much more likely to engage in it. However, once internet user skill is controlled for, men and women are equally likely to post their materials on the Web.     

Attracting Micro‐Enterprises To Learning

Micro‐enterprises, i.e. firms with less than 10 employees, are traditionally the hardest to engage in learning; they are also least likely to participate in such measures as business advice and guidance provision and initiatives to support information communication technology (ICT) adoption. Through a community‐based initiative initially targeting parents (unemployed or employed) to participate in ICT, 30 micro‐enterprises were attracted to learning for the first time. These companies had carefully avoided similar initiatives taking place locally, which emphasized business success and growth; they had only participated in this ICT skills training because of their children. The paper takes a case study approach to evaluate the reasons for participation, explores barriers and implications for those organizing similar activities, and calls for a more holistic view of owners and managers of small firms as fathers, mothers, etc. rather than just as ‘entrepreneurs’.     

Communicating Global Activism

Many observers doubt the capacity of digital media to change the political game. The rise of a transnational activism that is aimed beyond states and directly at corporations, trade and development regimes offers a fruitful area for understanding how communication practices can help create a new politics. The Internet is implicated in the new global activism far beyond merely reducing the costs of communication, or transcending the geographical and temporal barriers associated with other communication media. Various uses of the Internet and digital media facilitate the loosely structured networks, the weak identity ties, and the patterns of issue and demonstration organizing that define a new global protest politics. Analysis of various cases shows how digital network configurations can facilitate: permanent campaigns; the growth of broad networks despite relatively weak social identity and ideology ties; transformation of individual member organizations and whole networks; and the capacity to communicate messages from desktops to television screens. The same qualities that make these communication-based politics durable also make them vulnerable to problems of control, decision-making and collective identity.     

“数字鸿沟”：当代社会阶层分析的新视角*

当代社会，随着信息技术的发展以及信息重要性的增强，以互联网等为基础的电子信息网络已经浸透于社会的各个领域之中，在产业、经济和社会中生成着一种新的信息场域，影响着人们的社会生活。本文从社会阶层的研究视角出发，透过“现代——后现代”的二维分析模式对信息及信息技术带来的“数字鸿沟”现象进行理论上的阐释，对其究竟是实现着“阶层化”还是“去阶层化”进行探讨，并对信息化高度发达的日本社会进行了“数字鸿沟”的实证分析。可以看出：信息、信息技术已经成为一种新的变量，并与社会阶层之间产生着密切的关系，重塑着社会阶层化机制。     

基于DEPA探究亚太地区数字贸易治理前景

随着全球数字贸易的迅猛发展,当前WTO多边框架下数字贸易规则存在缺失,使得数字贸易治理呈现出区域化趋势。为探究亚太地区数字贸易治理前景,预判亚太经济体参与数字贸易治理的可能路径,基于《数字经济伙伴关系协定》(DEPA),采用文献分析、规则文本对比、逻辑推演等研究方法,对亚太地区数字贸易治理的议题广度和深度、谈判模式、模块特征、关注焦点及竞争格局进行全面系统的分析研判。研究认为,未来亚太数字贸易治理主要呈现以下趋向:数字贸易治理将涵盖更多新兴技术领域,传统议题也会趋于更高标准; 专门协定的高效率将驱使数字贸易议题逐渐与传统议题相剥离,协定的框架形式也将采取开放、灵活、包容的“主题模块”形式。数字包容性发展、数字便利化等议题将是亚太数字贸易治理的焦点议题; 亚太数字贸易治理的大国博弈将以中美两国为中心,中小经济体也会以“联合抱团”来争取某些议题的话语权。     

R&D cooperation in collaborative consumption of research equipment: An ERGM approach

High-tech research infrastructure is essential for state-of-the-art research, but requires many resources. Relatively weak actors, such as SMEs, cannot secure enough of those. Applying the concept of collaborative consumption via digital platforms, we examine the cooperative behavior of Korean SMEs that share research equipment to overcome their lack of resources. Also, we analyze configurations of a collaborative consumption network using the Exponential Random Graph Model. Network structural factor analysis shows sufficient effects of network positive feedback through cooperative consumption with a variety of popular providers and attributes analysis shows that SMEs frequently engage in collaborative consumption with their counterparts in the same region. This new cooperative model can achieve a virtuous cycle of policies, as it increases the efficiency of research infrastructure, preventing the unnecessary building of new research equipment and enabling relocation of underutilized infrastructure and online reservation of equipment.     

Composite quantile regression for massive datasets

Analysis of massive datasets is challenging owing to limitations of computer primary memory. Composite quantile regression (CQR) is a robust and efficient estimation method. In this paper, we extend CQR to massive datasets and propose a divide-and-conquer CQR method. The basic idea is to split the entire dataset into several blocks, applying the CQR method for data in each block, and finally combining these regression results via weighted average. The proposed approach significantly reduces the required amount of primary memory, and the resulting estimate will be as efficient as if the entire data set is analysed simultaneously. Moreover, to improve the efficiency of CQR, we propose a weighted CQR estimation approach. To achieve sparsity with high-dimensional covariates, we develop a variable selection procedure to select significant parametric components and prove the method possessing the oracle property. Both simulations and data analysis are conducted to illustrate the finite sample performance of the proposed methods.