Powering the Internet of Things with RIOT: Why? How? What is RIOT?

The crucial importance of software platforms was highlighted by recent events both at the political level (e.g. renewed calls for digital data and operating system "sovereignty", following E. Snowden's revelations) and at the business level (e.g. Android generated a new industry worth tens of billions of euros yearly). In the Internet of Things, which is expected to generate business at very large scale, but also to threaten even more individual privacy, such aspects will be exacerbated. The need for an operating system like RIOT stems from this context, and this short article outlines RIOT's main non-technical aspects, as well as its key technical characteristics.Comment: 4 page

THE ROLE OF TRANSLATION IN THE GLOBAL POLITICAL DISCOURSE

The article analyzes translation aspects in the global political discourse. The author focuses attention on such categories as globality, publicity, mediality, multilingualism, intercivilizationalism and disharmony, which characterize political discourse under the conditions of globalization and creation of the common communication space. Global political discourse on the Internet is of particular interest to the author as the web is becoming the main source of information for the modern man, presenting a wide range of political ideas and world views and forming mass stereotypes of mass consciousness, actualized in political discourse. The study of political discourse on the Internet is important to predict the development trends of the global political discourse and global politics. The author emphasizes a multilingual character of global political discourse and presents recent data from the Internet electronic publication World Stats on the distribution of Internet users by language and the Internet penetration. Besides, the author focuses on the development of machine translation systems, including online translators and automatic telephone interpreters, and their usage in political discourse. Finally the author emphasizes the importance of creation of a sophisticated multilingual thesaurus to harmonize the global communication space and improve political discourse.The article analyzes translation aspects in the global political discourse. The author focuses attention on such categories as globality, publicity, mediality, multilingualism, intercivilizationalism and disharmony, which characterize political discourse under the conditions of globalization and creation of the common communication space. Global political discourse on the Internet is of particular interest to the author as the web is becoming the main source of information for the modern man, presenting a wide range of political ideas and world views and forming mass stereotypes of mass consciousness, actualized in political discourse. The study of political discourse on the Internet is important to predict the development trends of the global political discourse and global politics. The author emphasizes a multilingual character of global political discourse and presents recent data from the Internet electronic publication World Stats on the distribution of Internet users by language and the Internet penetration. Besides, the author focuses on the development of machine translation systems, including online translators and automatic telephone interpreters, and their usage in political discourse. Finally the author emphasizes the importance of creation of a sophisticated multilingual thesaurus to harmonize the global communication space and improve political discourse

How global is the global Internet? First steps towards a policy-economic analysis

Who exactly are the main players behind the technical infrastructure of the Internet? What paths are emerging at a global level about the use of the Internet? Where and by whom is content produced and consumed? To put it more colloquially, who are the ‘spiders’ of the Internet and how are they actually spinning their webs. These aspects, together with the issue of Internet governance, are amongst the most critical and important elements to understand how the Internet’s political economy is articulating itself. In order to start an analysis of the Internet’s political economy, this article concentrates on the first two aspects: a technical analysis, which aims at understanding who is behind the Internet infrastructure, client and server applications, and paths of content production and consumption; and an assessment of which cultures and regions in the world are developing into important Internet players. The two parts are complemented by a critical assessment that aims to clarify why these issues are important in order to establish a first sketch of the Internet political economy. This article presents a multi-level and multi-disciplinary analysis to technology development, very much in line with a socioconstructivist approach, in which technology and infrastructure, players and interests, and models of societal appropriation are considered as equally important. It will hopefully generate a first idea of how to map the main types of shareholders directly and indirectly interested and involved in the issue of Internet governance and what are the most important points of attention for scholars interested in the topic of Internet political economy. This will lead to the formulation of a number of research questions, shaping and building a more articulated and coherent approach into research about the political economy of the Internet

E-Cognocracy and the Participation of Immigrants in E-Governance

This paper develops a new approach for a political support system related to the integration of immigrants using e-governance. Through the Internet the participation of immigrants is possible in both societies, the original and the new one, and at the three different levels: local, regional and national. Using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), we discuss how to consider immigrants as e-citizens and, through a questionnaire, and we measure the relative importance of these attributes for party decision makers. The focus of this paper is less on technological aspects of e-decision making, or the diffusion of knowledge and e-learning; Rather on the new aspects as how to integrate immigrants in e-governance. The mission is to increase the society-oriented knowledge derived from participatory decision-making and to increase the background and the scope of the learning process that goes along with the modification of the initial preferences in the interactive political resolution process.E-cognocracy, E-democracy, E-citizen, E-participation, Immigration, Knowledge society

Politische Internetnutzung von Migranten aus der ehemaligen Sowjetunion

Während politische Angebote im Internet an sich und Entwicklungen in diesem Gebiet häufiger analysiert und beobachtet werden, gibt es wenig detaillierte Informationen über die Nutzer und ihre politischen Online-Aktivitäten. Insbesondere für bislang politisch eher benachteiligte Bevölkerungsgruppen soll das Internet die Teilhabe erleichtern und forcieren, doch über die politischen Interessen und Aktivitäten von diesen Nutzergruppen wie beispielsweise Nutzern mit Migrationshintergrund ist bislang wenig bekannt. Zunächst wird in diesem Paper auf die Entwicklung der Internetnutzung in Deutschland und der Bedeutung politischer Inhalte und Formen politischer Aktivität im Netz eingegangen. Danach werden die Ergebnisse der Online-Befragung von Migranten aus der ehemaligen Sowjetunion dargestellt und diskutiert. Dabei werden fünf Nutzertypen vorgestellt, welche das politische Nutzungsverhalten von Migranten im Internet charakterisieren.While political websites and political dimensions of the internet are frequently observed (see Siedschlag 2005), there is little detailed information on the users and their online political activities. However the possibilities of the users to inform themselves discuss and connect with other people are precisely those aspects that are stressed as the political potential of the Internet (Welz 2002). Especially for politically disadvantaged parts of society the internet is said to facilitate and further participation. But little is still known about the political interests and activities of user groups, such as immigrants. This paper presents recent data on the online political activity of migrants from the former Soviet Union that was collected as part of the research project "Political Potential of the Internet. The Virtual Diaspora of Immigrants from Russia and Turkey in Germany“. First the development of internet usage in Germany and political content on the internet will be outlined. After that the results of the online survey of migrants from the former Soviet Union will be analyzed and discussed. This results in the characterization of five types of immigrant users and their political activities on the internet

Партиципаторні практики інформаційної епохи: „мережа vs держава?”

Впровадження інформаційних технологій у традиційні моделі взаємодії у сфері політики створило умови для появи нових форм політичної участі.Водночас оцінки впливу Інтернету на політичні процеси є неоднозначними, а наслідки – суперечливими. Стаття присвячена аналізу ролі Інтернет-мережі як механізму трансформацій політичної участі. Розглянуто теоретичні й практичні аспекти застосування Інтернет-технологій як інструменту політичного активізму. Application of information technologies in traditional interactive models in political field has created conditions for arise of new political participatory forms. In the same time there is no consensus about what kind of effect internet makes on political process and outcomes of this are contradictory.The article examines the role of Іnternet as a mechanism of political participatory transformation. Theoretical and practical aspects of implementation the internet-technologies as a political activism tool are reviewed

The Internet Journalism Disturb Malaysian Social Political Harmony

Internet journalism has been recognized to provide better efficiency on information gathering and adapting to the modernization of technology and life of our society. Dissemination of news and information is more flexible, efficient and instantaneous covering the widest possible audience across geographical barriers and providing medium for public discussion, public opinion and concerns on various aspects such as political, social and economic development. Internet journalism plays important roles in our society nowadays as the medium to influence public opinion, providing forum for discussion especially on issues of public concern, providing critical monitoring of political development, building up the intellectual environment and cultural interest of the public and setting up political agenda. However, issues arise regarding the reliability and capability of internet journalism in reporting and covering few breaking news in Malaysia, the roles of internet journalism in socio-political harmony and the development of media law to control the distribution of news through online medium. Therefore, this paper will investigate the advantages of utilizing internet journalism as a medium for disseminating news and information, their roles in shaping the social and political harmony of our country, issues regarding disturbance caused by internet journalism and the implementation of laws to control news dissemination

Social Movements on the Internet: The Effect and Use of Cyberactivism in Turkish Armenian Reconciliation

This article aims to explore the use of the Internet as a tool for political activism. Even though there are competing arguments about the virtues of online activism, it is important to demonstrate the use of the Internet for addressing political grievances. The Turkish Armenian reconciliation exemplifies one of the important aspects of the discussion on cyberactivism that is its ability to create public spheres. This paper argues that although the Internet is not as free and self-regulated as it is considered by cyber utopians, it still should be considered and explored further as a useful tool for social movements. Key words: Internet; Social Movements; Online political engagement; Censorship and SurveillanceRésumé: Cet article vise à explorer l'utilisation de l'Internet comme l’outil pour l'activisme politique. Quoiqu'il y ait des arguments de concurrence au sujet des vertus de l'activisme en ligne, il est important de démontrer l'utilisation de l'Internet pour adresser des réclamations politiques. La réconciliation arménienne turque exemplifie un des aspects importants de la discussion sur le cyberactivism qui est sa capacité de créer des domaines publics. Ce document argue du fait que bien que l'Internet ne soit pas aussi librement et autogéré qu'il est considéré par des utopistes de cyber, il devrait être considéré et encore exploré plus plus loin comme outil utile pour les mouvements sociaux. Mots clés: Internet; Mouvements sociaux; Engagement politique en ligne; Censure et surveillanc

The internet and public bureaucracies: towards balancing competing values

Innovation in public administration is one of the central aspects of public sector reforms. Given the procedural nature of government tasks, the adoption of the Internet and related information and communication technologies (ICT) has become critical for government organisations. The aim of this paper is to discuss the implications of the diffusion Internet led innovations in the public sector on balancing public values. Rather than diminishing their benefits, we aim at highlighting challenges and dilemmas that can emerge from ICT implementation in the public sector. The paper starts by reviewing the main trends of e-government research and show a dominant view towards managerial and private sector values embedded in the literature. To propose an alternative approach, we then draw on an empirical example from Mexico, that of the Federal Transparency and Access to Government Information Law. Using Mexico’s available statistics and secondary data, the case explores how a quicker ICT-mediated interaction between citizens and government can result in social and political dilemmas. We propose to bring into play the public value paradigm to highlight these issues. Conclusions follow