What is the Relationship between Science and Spatial Conflict in Aquaculture? A New Zealand Case Study in Environmental Controversy

Aquaculture development in New Zealand (NZ) is a politically controversial topic that is reliant on science for decision-making. Aquaculture causes conflict over use of marine space because the ecosystem is rich with overlapping values and uses, such as recreation, fishing and biodiversity. Science helps decision-makers understand aquaculture's effects on other stakeholders and the environment. This case study investigates the role that science and scientists have in addressing spatial conflict in NZ aquaculture. This is approached from three angles: policy frameworks, scientific knowledge, and the challenges to utilising scientific knowledge in policy frameworks. Data were drawn from documentary analysis and fifty-two semi-structured interviews with members of the aquaculture policy community, marine scientists, and stakeholders in the marine ecosystem. The results of this case study are as follows. First, the Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA) framework employs science to make normative planning decisions. Where there is controversy over planning decisions, science represents different interests in debates over spatial allocation. Second, regarding scientific knowledge, beliefs and policy goals for aquaculture science appear to be oriented towards commercial, civic and Māori epistemologies. Commercial science is the narrowest of the three for considering the full range of values in the debate over aquaculture. Third, when science is used in policy debates, interviewees perceive it to be politicized, revealing the assumption that science should be neutral and objective. Misinformation and mistrust of scientists are barriers to using science effectively to address spatial conflict. This research suggests that science politicization of science may be a natural part of aquaculture development, which implies that the links between science and values must be made transparent to allow debate. It is necessary to ensure appropriate and adequate opportunity for deliberation about the principles and values for use and non-use of space. This removes the focus from employing 'right' and 'wrong' scientific facts to influence the political process. This type of debate is supported by civic-oriented science

Improving (Software) Patent Quality Through the Administrative Process

The available evidence indicates that patent quality, particularly in the area of software, needs improvement. This Article argues that even an agency as institutionally constrained as the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (“PTO”) could implement a portfolio of pragmatic, cost-effective quality improvement strategies. The argument in favor of these strategies draws upon not only legal theory and doctrine but also new data from a PTO software examination unit with relatively strict practices. Strategies that resolve around Section 112 of the patent statute could usefully be deployed at the initial examination stage. Other strategies could be deployed within the new post-issuance procedures available to the agency under the America Invents Act. Notably, although the strategies the Article discusses have the virtue of being neutral as to technology, they are likely to have a very significant practical impact in the area of software

Application of Text Analytics in Public Service Co-Creation: Literature Review and Research Framework

The public sector faces several challenges, such as a number of external and internal demands for change, citizens' dissatisfaction and frustration with public sector organizations, that need to be addressed. An alternative to the traditional top-down development of public services is co-creation of public services. Co-creation promotes collaboration between stakeholders with the aim to create better public services and achieve public values. At the same time, data analytics has been fuelled by the availability of immense amounts of textual data. Whilst both co-creation and TA have been used in the private sector, we study existing works on the application of Text Analytics (TA) techniques on text data to support public service co-creation. We systematically review 75 of the 979 papers that focus directly or indirectly on the application of TA in the context of public service development. In our review, we analyze the TA techniques, the public service they support, public value outcomes, and the co-creation phase they are used in. Our findings indicate that the TA implementation for co-creation is still in its early stages and thus still limited. Our research framework promotes the concept and stimulates the strengthening of the role of Text Analytics techniques to support public sector organisations and their use of co-creation process. From policy-makers' and public administration managers' standpoints, our findings and the proposed research framework can be used as a guideline in developing a strategy for the designing co-created and user-centred public services

Recommendations to improve data sharing agreements for U.S. fisheries in the Pacific region

Based on interviews with participants in U.S. Pacific fisheries mangement, this report presents guidelines for building relationships in support of data sharing. It includes a glossary of key terms around data management to help create a shared understanding across technical, program, and industry, as well as a model template for data sharing agreements

A study of EU data protection regulation and appropriate security for digital services and platforms

A law often has more than one purpose, more than one intention, and more than one interpretation. A meticulously formulated and context agnostic law text will still, when faced with a field propelled by intense innovation, eventually become obsolete. The European Data Protection Directive is a good example of such legislation. It may be argued that the technological modifications brought on by the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) are nominal in comparison to the previous Directive, but from a business perspective the changes are significant and important. The Directive’s lack of direct economic incentive for companies to protect personal data has changed with the Regulation, as companies may now have to pay severe fines for violating the legislation. The objective of the thesis is to establish the notion of trust as a key design goal for information systems handling personal data. This includes interpreting the EU legislation on data protection and using the interpretation as a foundation for further investigation. This interpretation is connected to the areas of analytics, security, and privacy concerns for intelligent service development. Finally, the centralised platform business model and its challenges is examined, and three main resolution themes for regulating platform privacy are proposed. The aims of the proposed resolutions are to create a more trustful relationship between providers and data subjects, while also improving the conditions for competition and thus providing data subjects with service alternatives. The thesis contributes new insights into the evolving privacy practices in the digital society at an important time of transition from the service driven business models to the platform business models. Firstly, privacy-related regulation and state of the art analytics development are examined to understand their implications for intelligent services that are based on automated processing and profiling. The ability to choose between providers of intelligent services is identified as the core challenge. Secondly, the thesis examines what is meant by appropriate security for systems that handle personal data, something the GDPR requires that organisations use without however specifying what can be considered appropriate. We propose a method for active network security in web software that is developed through the use of analytics for detection and by inserting data generators into a software installation. The active network security method is proposed as a framework for achieving compliance with the GDPR requirements for services and platforms to use appropriate security. Thirdly, the platform business model is considered from the privacy point of view and the implication of “processing silos” for intelligent services. The centralised platform model is considered problematic from both the data subject and from the competition standpoint. A resolution is offered for enabling user-initiated open data flow to counter the centralised “processing silos”, and thereby to facilitate the introduction of decentralised platforms. The thesis provides an interdisciplinary analysis considering the legal study (lex lata) and additionally the resolution (lex ferenda) is defined through argumentativist legal dogmatics and (de lege ferenda) of how the legal framework ought to be adapted to fit the described environment. User-friendly Legal Science is applied as a theory framework to provide a holistic approach to answering the research questions. The User-friendly Legal Science theory has its roots in design science and offers a way towards achieving interdisciplinary research in the fields of information systems and legal science

The Proceedings of the 23rd Annual International Conference on Digital Government Research (DGO2022) Intelligent Technologies, Governments and Citizens June 15-17, 2022

The 23rd Annual International Conference on Digital Government Research theme is “Intelligent Technologies, Governments and Citizens”. Data and computational algorithms make systems smarter, but should result in smarter government and citizens. Intelligence and smartness affect all kinds of public values - such as fairness, inclusion, equity, transparency, privacy, security, trust, etc., and is not well-understood. These technologies provide immense opportunities and should be used in the light of public values. Society and technology co-evolve and we are looking for new ways to balance between them. Specifically, the conference aims to advance research and practice in this field. The keynotes, presentations, posters and workshops show that the conference theme is very well-chosen and more actual than ever. The challenges posed by new technology have underscored the need to grasp the potential. Digital government brings into focus the realization of public values to improve our society at all levels of government. The conference again shows the importance of the digital government society, which brings together scholars in this field. Dg.o 2022 is fully online and enables to connect to scholars and practitioners around the globe and facilitate global conversations and exchanges via the use of digital technologies. This conference is primarily a live conference for full engagement, keynotes, presentations of research papers, workshops, panels and posters and provides engaging exchange throughout the entire duration of the conference

Scenarios for the future of the European legal sector, in the context of disruptive technologies, and its implications for the national association of young Portuguese lawyers (Anjap): framing, scoping & External environmental scanning

In the following Work Project, scenarios were developed based on scientific analysis and dealt with how the working environment of European lawyers could potentially develop in the future. The initial phases consisted of framing the focal issue, establishing a suitable time horizon, and performing an expert-examined external environment research. Then, a survey was conducted to build the foundational framework of scenarios and future strategies for the National Association of Young Portuguese Lawyers (ANJAP