Networks, complexity and internet regulation: scale-free law

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Forecasting transportation service demand for fleet optimization: the case of a third party logistics provider

Outsourcing is becoming increasingly popular in today’s age where customers have higher expectations from suppliers than ever before. Businesses are collaborating to aim to meet customer demand and stay competitive in the market. Some businesses turn to outsourcing. This industry is rapidly growing and faces a unique set of challenges. Customers value flexibility and punctuality in this service provided. In order to do this, logistics providers have to account for the stochastic nature of customer demand and thereby incur additional costs. The focus of the project is on a transportation based logistics provider that provides transportation-, cross docking- and distribution services to a collection of retail clients. The company is a leveraged logistics provider, which means that it uses its own vehicles as well as vehicles hired from external companies to provide the service. This project aims to investigate ways to reduce the operating costs of a division in a logistics provider company specifically by suggesting the optimal fixed fleet size the company should maintain. This was done by forecasting the anticipated number of vehicles that will be required to meet customers’ service demand for a period of twelve months and finding the optimal fleet size of the 3PL’s fixed fleet. The primary challenge for the 3PL is to maintain their flexibility in the service they provide to clients while introducing stability in their own operations. The report gives a detailed plan that was followed to achieve this goal and outlines the tools and techniques that was applied to obtain the results. Furthermore, a literature study specifically aimed at forecasting and optimization models was done to broaden knowledge and understanding of these subjects. The results suggests that the 3PL should maintain a fixed fleet size of 129 vehicles in order to meet the following twelve months of anticipated customer service demand. This was calculated as the optimal fixed fleet size that will ensure their customer service level is not affected and lead to a potential saving of almost R 40 000. This analysis will enable the 3PL to make informed decisions regarding the available options they have to reduce their operating expenses.Mini Dissertation (B Eng. (Industrial and Systems Engineering))--University of Pretoria, 2017

Networks, complexity and internet regulation scale-free law

This book, then, starts with a general statement: that regulators should try, wherever possible, to use the physical methodological tools presently available in order to draft better legislation. While such an assertion may be applied to the law in general, this work will concentrate on the much narrower area of Internet regulation and the science of complex networks The Internet is the subject of this book not only because it is my main area of research, but also because –without over-emphasising the importance of the Internet to everyday life– one cannot deny that the growth and popularisation of the global communications network has had a tremendous impact on the way in which we interact with one another. The Internet is, however, just one of many interactive networks. One way of looking at the complex and chaotic nature of society is to see it as a collection of different nodes of interaction. Humans are constantly surrounded by networks: the social network, the financial network, the transport network, the telecommunications network and even the network of our own bodies. Understanding how these systems operate and interact with one another has been the realm of physicists, economists, biologists and mathematicians. Until recently, the study of networks has been mainly theoretical and academic, because it is difficult to gather data about large and complex systems that is sufficiently reliable to support proper empirical application. In recent years, though, the Internet has given researchers the opportunity to study and test the mathematical descriptions of these vast complex systems. The growth rate and structure of cyberspace has allowed researchers to map and test several previously unproven theories about how links and hubs within networks interact with one another. The Web now provides the means with which to test the organisational structures, architecture and growth of networks, and even permits some limited prediction about their behaviour, strengths and vulnerabilities. The main objective of this book is first and foremost to serve as an introduction to the wider legal audience to some of the theories of complexity and networks. The second objective is more ambitious. By looking at the application of complexity theory and network science in various areas of Internet regulation, it is hoped that there will be enough evidence to postulate a theory of Internet regulation based on network science. To achieve these two goals, Chapter 2 will look in detail at the science of complex networks to set the stage for the legal and regulatory arguments to follow. With the increase in reliability of the descriptive (and sometimes predictive) nature of network science, a logical next step for legal scholars is to look at the legal implications of the characteristics of networks. Chapter 3 highlights the efforts of academics and practitioners who have started to find potential uses for network science tools. Chapter 4 takes this idea further, and explores how network theory can shape Internet regulation. The following chapters will analyse the potential for application of the tools described in the previous chapters, applying complexity theory to specific areas of study related to Internet Law. Chapter 5 deals with the subject of copyright in the digital world. Chapter 6 explores the issue of peer-production and user-generated content using network science as an analytical framework. Chapter 7 finishes the evidence section of the work by studying the impact of network architecture in the field of cybercrime, and asks whether the existing architecture hinders or assists efforts to tackle those problems. It is clear that these are very disparate areas of study. It is not the intention of this book to be overreaching in its scope, although I am mindful that it covers a lot of ground and attempts to study and describe some disciplines that fall outside of my intellectual comfort zone. While the focus of the work is the Internet, its applications may extend beyond mere electronic bits. Without trying to be over-ambitious, it is my strong belief that legal scholarship has been neglectful in that it has been slow to respond to the wealth of research into complexity. That is not to say that there has been no legal research on the topic, but it would seem that lawyers, legislators and policy-makers are reluctant to consider technical solutions to legal problems. It is hoped then that this work will serve as a stepping stone that will lead to new interest in some of the theories that I describe

Internet of Things. Information Processing in an Increasingly Connected World

This open access book constitutes the refereed post-conference proceedings of the First IFIP International Cross-Domain Conference on Internet of Things, IFIPIoT 2018, held at the 24th IFIP World Computer Congress, WCC 2018, in Poznan, Poland, in September 2018. The 12 full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 24 submissions. Also included in this volume are 4 WCC 2018 plenary contributions, an invited talk and a position paper from the IFIP domain committee on IoT. The papers cover a wide range of topics from a technology to a business perspective and include among others hardware, software and management aspects, process innovation, privacy, power consumption, architecture, applications

Copyright and shared networking technologies

PhDThe technological zeitgeist has transformed the social-cultural, legal and commercial aspects of society today. Networking technologies comprise one of the most influential factors in this. Although this transformation can be discounted as a mere historical phenomenon dating back to the advent of the printing press, empirical data concerning usage of these technologies shows that there has been a radical shift in the ability to control the dissemination of copyright works. Networking technologies allow, in an unprecedented manner, user-initiated activities including perfect replications, instantaneous dissemination, and abundant storage. They are immune to technological attempts to dismantle them, and impervious to legal attempts to control and harness them. They affect a global audience, which in turn, undermine at negligible costs, the legal and business parameters of copyright owners. The problem is whether it will now be possible to establish a copyright framework which balances the interests of the following groups: (a) copyright owners in their control of the dissemination of their works; (b) authors demanding remuneration for the exploitation of their works; (c) users wishing to consume works with clear immunity guidelines using networked technologies; (d) technologists striving to continuously innovate without legal and policy restrictions. Copyright law is not a mechanism for preserving the status quo or a particular business model. It is, as suggested above, a reflection of the needs and interests of authors, copyright owners, entertainment industries, users and technologists. This thesis examines whether the balance between these actors can be achieved and, if so, how it can be implemented within international, regional and national copyright laws. It finds that a balance can be struck; but that this balance should be aligned along three key concepts: user integrity; technological innovation; and authors‘ and owners‘ remuneration. The proposal is that the optimal method for achieving this triptych is the introduction and global implementation of a reasonable and unobtrusive system of remuneration

Game Production Studies

Video games have entered the cultural mainstream and in terms of economic profits they now rival established entertainment industries such as film or television. As careers in video game development become more common, so do the stories about precarious working conditions and structural inequalities within the industry. Yet, scholars have largely overlooked video game production cultures in favor of studying games themselves and player audiences. In Game Production Studies, an international group of established and emerging researchers takes a closer look at the everyday realities of video game production, ranging from commercial industries to independent creators and cultural intermediaries. Across sixteen chapters, the authors deal with issues related to labour, game development, monetization and publishing, as well as local specificities. As the first edited collection dedicated solely to video game production, this volume provides a timely resource for anyone interested in how games are made and at what costs

Reviews and Perspectives on Smart and Sustainable Metropolitan and Regional Cities

The notion of smart and sustainable cities offers an integrated and holistic approach to urbanism by aiming to achieve the long-term goals of urban sustainability and resilience. In essence, a smart and sustainable city is an urban locality that functions as a robust system of systems with sustainable practices to generate desired outcomes and futures for all humans and non-humans. This book contributes to improving research and practice in smart and sustainable metropolitan as well as regional cities and urbanism by bringing together literature reviews and scholarly perspective pieces, forming an open access knowledge warehouse. It contains contributions that offer insights into research and practice in smart and sustainable metropolitan and regional cities by producing in-depth conceptual debates and perspectives, insights from the literature and best practice, and thoroughly identified research themes and development trends. This book serves as a repository of relevant information, material, and knowledge to support research, policymaking, practice, and the transferability of experiences to address challenges in establishing smart and sustainable metropolitan as well as regional cities and urbanism in the era of climate change, biodiversity collapse, natural disasters, pandemics, and socioeconomic inequalities