InfoInternet for Education in the Global South: A Study of Applications Enabled by Free Information-only Internet Access in Technologically Disadvantaged Areas (authors' version)

This paper summarises our work on studying educational applications enabled by the introduction of a new information layer called InfoInternet. This is an initiative to facilitate affordable access to internet based information in communities with network scarcity or economic problems from the Global South. InfoInternet develops both networking solutions as well as business and social models, together with actors like mobile operators and government organisations. In this paper we identify and describe characteristics of educational applications, their specific users, and learning environment. We are interested in applications that make the adoption of Internet faster, cheaper, and wider in such communities. When developing new applications (or adopting existing ones) for such constrained environments, this work acts as initial guidelines prior to field studies.Comment: 16 pages, 1 figure, under review for a journal since March 201

Digital Literacy Key Performance Indicators for Sustainable Development

The concept of digital literacy has been defined in numerous ways over the last two decades to incorporate rapid technological changes, its versatility, and to bridge the global digital divide. Most approaches have been technology-centric with an inherent assumption of cultural and political neutrality of new media technologies. There are multiple hurdles in every stage of digital literacy implementation. The lack of solutions such as local language digital interfaces, locally relevant content, digital literacy training, the use of icons and audio excludes a large fraction of illiterate people. In this article, we analyse case studies targeted at under-connected people in sub-Saharan Africa and India that use digital literacy programmes to build knowledge and health literacy, solve societal problems and foster development. In India, we focus on notable initiatives undertaken in the domain of digital literacy for rural populations. In Sub-Saharan Africa, we draw from an original project in Kenya aiming at developing digital literacy for youth from low-income backgrounds. We further focus on Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso and Tanzania, where field studies have been conducted on the use of digital technologies by low-literacy people and on how audio and icon-based interfaces and Internet lite standard could help them overcome their limitations. The main objective of this article is to identify key performance indicators (KPIs) in the context of digital literacy skills as one of the pillars for digital inclusion. We will learn how digital literacy programmes can be used to build digital literacy and how KPIs for sustainable development can be established. In the final discussion, we offer lessons learned from the case studies and further recommendation for stakeholders and decision-makers in the field of digital health literacy

Making Sense of Microposts (#Microposts2016) Computational Social Sciences Track

For the second time, the #Microposts workshop features a track to highlight social science perspectives on micro communication structures in online environments. This paper introduces the #Microposts2016 (Computational) Social Science Track, which all contribute to connecting research methods and approaches in computer science and social science. By providing a forum for closer interaction between the two fields, the track is becoming a platform for interdisciplinary projects and new ideas to combine different methodologies and theories. For this year’s special track we see the trend of relating Microposts to external demographics or survey data as a way to better understand Microposts in their broader contexts

Can cyber technology be resilient and green?

There are some key events that have characterised the recent period one of these is the so-called digital transformation considered the natural evolution of the current society in the light of a pervasive technology like digital technology. Digital technology is intertwined with almost all the life sectors. Since the dawn of digital technology, the number of application and solutions based on such technology had a surprising rate of growth. Nowadays there is no field of human knowledge that doesn’t take advantage or is based on digital: communication, education, government, health, energy, mobility, etc.. We are increasing leaving the analog, face to face, paper-based world to enter the intangible digital mediated one. At the same time, society already faced several relevant cyber infrastructure malfunctions and attacks due to hackers, some targeting Governmental or Law Enforcement agencies and Institutions, some targeting critical infrastructures, others targeting big companies. Nowadays we are surrounded by “critical infrastructures” managed by cyber components that, in case of attacks, may create minor or mayor impacts on our daily life. The actual trend is to transfer to the digital domain as much as possible any “traditional” process and document, so in a glimpse government procedures and citizens documents and data will flow in the format of bit streams, sometimes, under the pressure of critical events this process wasn’t designed to ensure security. Consequently, the more we become digitalised, the more we are vulnerable to hackers and hybrid threats. Of course, the overall scenario includes many other aspects and “shades”. In the “analogue” world we had different pipelines and “channels” to perform, thanks to different tools and means, our activities, in the cyber world the whole activity depends on a single “pillar”: cyber technology. The pervasiveness of cyber technology, the internet and the quick deployment of emerging number crunching applications is emphasizing energy consumption, at the same time the rapid pace of innovation in the field of consumers’ devices produces significant amount of waste to be recycled or disposed. As a consequence, can cyber technology be considered green and resilient

6G for Bridging the Digital Divide: Wireless Connectivity to Remote Areas

In telecommunications, network service accessibility as a requirement is closely related to equitably serving the population residing at locations that can most appropriately be described as remote. Remote connectivity, however, would have benefited from a more inclusive consideration in the existing generations of mobile communications. To remedy this, sustainability and its social impact are being positioned as key drivers of the sixth generation's (6G) research and standardization activities. In particular, there has been a conscious attempt to understand the demands of remote wireless connectivity, which has led to a better understanding of the challenges that lie ahead. In this perspective, this article overviews the key challenges associated with constraints on network design and deployment to be addressed for providing broadband connectivity to rural areas, and proposes novel approaches and solutions for bridging the digital divide in those regions

A 6G White Paper on Connectivity for Remote Areas

In many places all over the world rural and remote areas lack proper connectivity that has led to increasing digital divide. These areas might have low population density, low incomes, etc., making them less attractive places to invest and operate connectivity networks. 6G could be the first mobile radio generation truly aiming to close the digital divide. However, in order to do so, special requirements and challenges have to be considered since the beginning of the design process. The aim of this white paper is to discuss requirements and challenges and point out related, identified research topics that have to be solved in 6G. This white paper first provides a generic discussion, shows some facts and discusses targets set in international bodies related to rural and remote connectivity and digital divide. Then the paper digs into technical details, i.e., into a solutions space. Each technical section ends with a discussion and then highlights identified 6G challenges and research ideas as a list.Comment: A 6G white paper, 17 page

PRESENTING SEARCH RESULT WITH REDUCED UNWANTED WEB ADDRESSES USING FUZZY BASED APPROACH

Big Data is now the most talked about research subject. Over the year with the internet and storage space expansions vast swaths of data are available for would be searcher. About a decade ago when a content was searched, due to minimum amount of content often you end up with accurate set of results. But nowadays most of the data, if not all are sometimes vague and not even sometime pertain to area of search it was indented to. Hence here a novel approach is presented to perform data cleaning using a simple but effective fuzzy rule to weed out data that won’t produce accurate data