The Politics of Micro-Decisions

Be it in the case of opening a website, sending an email, or high-frequency trading, bits and bytes of information have to cross numerous nodes at which micro-decisions are made. These decisions concern the most efficient path through the network, the processing speed, or the priority of incoming data packets. Despite their multifaceted nature, micro-decisions are a dimension of control and surveillance in the twenty-first century that has received little critical attention. They represent the smallest unit and the technical precondition of a contemporary network politics – and of our potential opposition to it. The current debates regarding net neutrality and Edward Snowden’s revelation of NSA surveillance are only the tip of the iceberg. What is at stake is nothing less than the future of the Internet as we know it

Exploring Cyberterrorism, Topic Models and Social Networks of Jihadists Dark Web Forums: A Computational Social Science Approach

This three-article dissertation focuses on cyber-related topics on terrorist groups, specifically Jihadists’ use of technology, the application of natural language processing, and social networks in analyzing text data derived from terrorists\u27 Dark Web forums. The first article explores cybercrime and cyberterrorism. As technology progresses, it facilitates new forms of behavior, including tech-related crimes known as cybercrime and cyberterrorism. In this article, I provide an analysis of the problems of cybercrime and cyberterrorism within the field of criminology by reviewing existing literature focusing on (a) the issues in defining terrorism, cybercrime, and cyberterrorism, (b) ways that cybercriminals commit a crime in cyberspace, and (c) ways that cyberterrorists attack critical infrastructure, including computer systems, data, websites, and servers. The second article is a methodological study examining the application of natural language processing computational techniques, specifically latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) topic models and topic network analysis of text data. I demonstrate the potential of topic models by inductively analyzing large-scale textual data of Jihadist groups and supporters from three Dark Web forums to uncover underlying topics. The Dark Web forums are dedicated to Islam and the Islamic world discussions. Some members of these forums sympathize with and support terrorist organizations. Results indicate that topic modeling can be applied to analyze text data automatically; the most prevalent topic in all forums was religion. Forum members also discussed terrorism and terrorist attacks, supporting the Mujahideen fighters. A few of the discussions were related to relationships and marriages, advice, seeking help, health, food, selling electronics, and identity cards. LDA topic modeling is significant for finding topics from larger corpora such as the Dark Web forums. Implications for counterterrorism include the use of topic modeling in real-time classification and removal of online terrorist content and the monitoring of religious forums, as terrorist groups use religion to justify their goals and recruit in such forums for supporters. The third article builds on the second article, exploring the network structures of terrorist groups on the Dark Web forums. The two Dark Web forums\u27 interaction networks were created, and network properties were measured using social network analysis. A member is considered connected and interacting with other forum members when they post in the same threads forming an interaction network. Results reveal that the network structure is decentralized, sparse, and divided based on topics (religion, terrorism, current events, and relationships) and the members\u27 interests in participating in the threads. As participation in forums is an active process, users tend to select platforms most compatible with their views, forming a subgroup or community. However, some members are essential and influential in the information and resources flow within the networks. The key members frequently posted about religion, terrorism, and relationships in multiple threads. Identifying key members is significant for counterterrorism, as mapping network structures and key users are essential for removing and destabilizing terrorist networks. Taken together, this dissertation applies a computational social science approach to the analysis of cyberterrorism and the use of Dark Web forums by jihadists

What's That Noise? Or, a Case Against Digital Privacy as a Matter of Regulation and Control

Digital privacy is typically understood as the restriction of access to personal information and user data. This assumes regulation and control on the part of governments and corporations, realized through various laws and policies. However, there exists another realm bearing on digital privacy. This realm involves a wider network of actors carrying out practices and techniques beyond merely governmental and corporate means: users who engage and manipulate digital privacy software that is created by coders, as well as the software itself for the ways in which it mediates the relationship between users and coders. The dissertation argues that by focusing attention on this other realm of coders, users and software interacting with one another we as analysts develop alternative understandings of digital privacy, specifically by attending to each actors noisemaking: the deliberate (or even incidental) process of obfuscating, interrupting, precluding, confusing or misleading access to digital information. The dissertation analyzes how each of these three actors engage in noisemaking across three different types of encrypted Internet systems: The Onion Router web browser; the WhatsApp instant messaging service; the SpiderOak One file hosting service. These relatively taken-for-granted actors instruct the academy that digital privacy is less about regulating and controlling information as much as it is about surrendering control over information management and security. The dissertation demonstrates that digital privacy thus ought to be understood as a reflection of the variegated, contingent and incidental nature of social and political forces unfolding at the edge of and even beyond the purview of governments and corporations

Systematic Analysis of the Factors Contributing to the Variation and Change of the Microbiome

abstract: Understanding changes and trends in biomedical knowledge is crucial for individuals, groups, and institutions as biomedicine improves people’s lives, supports national economies, and facilitates innovation. However, as knowledge changes what evidence illustrates knowledge changes? In the case of microbiome, a multi-dimensional concept from biomedicine, there are significant increases in publications, citations, funding, collaborations, and other explanatory variables or contextual factors. What is observed in the microbiome, or any historical evolution of a scientific field or scientific knowledge, is that these changes are related to changes in knowledge, but what is not understood is how to measure and track changes in knowledge. This investigation highlights how contextual factors from the language and social context of the microbiome are related to changes in the usage, meaning, and scientific knowledge on the microbiome. Two interconnected studies integrating qualitative and quantitative evidence examine the variation and change of the microbiome evidence are presented. First, the concepts microbiome, metagenome, and metabolome are compared to determine the boundaries of the microbiome concept in relation to other concepts where the conceptual boundaries have been cited as overlapping. A collection of publications for each concept or corpus is presented, with a focus on how to create, collect, curate, and analyze large data collections. This study concludes with suggestions on how to analyze biomedical concepts using a hybrid approach that combines results from the larger language context and individual words. Second, the results of a systematic review that describes the variation and change of microbiome research, funding, and knowledge are examined. A corpus of approximately 28,000 articles on the microbiome are characterized, and a spectrum of microbiome interpretations are suggested based on differences related to context. The collective results suggest the microbiome is a separate concept from the metagenome and metabolome, and the variation and change to the microbiome concept was influenced by contextual factors. These results provide insight into how concepts with extensive resources behave within biomedicine and suggest the microbiome is possibly representative of conceptual change or a preview of new dynamics within science that are expected in the future.Dissertation/ThesisDoctoral Dissertation Biology 201

Ontology based data warehousing for mining of heterogeneous and multidimensional data sources

Heterogeneous and multidimensional big-data sources are virtually prevalent in all business environments. System and data analysts are unable to fast-track and access big-data sources. A robust and versatile data warehousing system is developed, integrating domain ontologies from multidimensional data sources. For example, petroleum digital ecosystems and digital oil field solutions, derived from big-data petroleum (information) systems, are in increasing demand in multibillion dollar resource businesses worldwide. This work is recognized by Industrial Electronic Society of IEEE and appeared in more than 50 international conference proceedings and journals

Proceedings of the 5th Workshop on Awareness and Reflection in Technology Enhanced Learning

Awareness and reflection are viewed differently across the disciplines informing Technology Enhanced Learning (CSCW, psychology, educational sciences, computer science and others). The ARTEL workshop series brings together researchers and professionals from different backgrounds to provide a forum for discussing the multi-faceted area of awareness and reflection. Through the last ARTEL workshops at EC-TEL the addressed topics are converging towards the usage of awareness and reflection in practice, its implementation in modern organisations, its impact on learners and questions of feasibility and sustainability for awareness and reflection in education and work. To reflect the growing maturity of research in ARTEL over the years the workshop particularly invited contributions that dealt with the application of awareness and reflection in practice. This is encapsulated in the workshop motto: 'Awareness and Reflection in Practice: How can awareness and reflection technology become common in work practice and how does it change work practices?

Software of the Oppressed: Reprogramming the Invisible Discipline

This dissertation offers a critical analysis of software practices within the university and the ways they contribute to a broader status quo of software use, development, and imagination. Through analyzing the history of software practices used in the production and circulation of student and scholarly writing, I argue that this overarching software status quo has oppressive qualities in that it supports the production of passive users, or users who are unable to collectively understand and transform software code for their own interests. I also argue that the university inadvertently normalizes and strengthens the software status quo through what I call its “invisible discipline,” or the conditioning of its community—particularly students, but also faculty, librarians, staff, and other university members—to have little expectation of being able to participate in the governance or development of the software used in their academic settings. This invisible discipline not only fails to prepare students for the political struggles and practical needs of our digital age (while increasing the social divide between those who program digital technology and those who must passively accept it), but reinforces a lack of awareness of how digital technology powerfully mediates the production, circulation, and reception of knowledge at individual and collective levels. Through this analysis, I hope to show what a liberatory approach to academic technology practices might look like, as well as demonstrate—through a variety of alternative software practices in and beyond the university—the intellectual, political, and social contributions these practices might contribute to higher education and scholarly knowledge production at large. I conclude the dissertation with suggestions for “reprogramming” iv our academic technology practices, an approach that I also explored in practice in the production of this dissertation. As I describe in the Afterword, the genesis of this dissertation, as well as the production, revision, and dissemination of its drafts, were generated as part of two digital projects, Social Paper and #SocialDiss, each of which attempted in their own small way to resist the invisible discipline and the ways that conventional academic technology practices structure intellectual work. The goal of this dissertation and its related digital projects is thus to help shine light on the exciting intellectual and political potential of democratizing software development and governance in and through educational institutions

Warez

When most people think of piracy, they think of Bittorrent and The Pirate Bay. These public manifestations of piracy, though, conceal an elite worldwide, underground, organized network of pirate groups who specialize in obtaining media – music, videos, games, and software – before their official sale date and then racing against one another to release the material for free. Warez: The Infrastructure and Aesthetics of Piracy is the first scholarly research book about this underground subculture, which began life in the pre-internet era Bulletin Board Systems and moved to internet File Transfer Protocol servers (“topsites”) in the mid- to late-1990s. The “Scene,” as it is known, is highly illegal in almost every aspect of its operations. The term “Warez” itself refers to pirated media, a derivative of “software.” Taking a deep dive in the documentary evidence produced by the Scene itself, Warez describes the operations and infrastructures an underground culture with its own norms and rules of participation, its own forms of sociality, and its own artistic forms. Even though forms of digital piracy are often framed within ideological terms of equal access to knowledge and culture, Eve uncovers in the Warez Scene a culture of competitive ranking and one-upmanship that is at odds with the often communalist interpretations of piracy. Broad in scope and novel in its approach, Warez is indispensible reading for anyone interested in recent developments in digital culture, access to knowledge and culture, and the infrastructures that support our digital age