Beyond the Ebook: Digital Ecologies and the Future of the Author-Publisher Relationship, and Bibliotek: A Novel

This thesis examines changes in book publishing arising from digital distribution and textual ecology, and how these affect the traditional publisher-author relationship. It considers how the inclusion of fan writers into the industry may help publishing develop in positive ways. The critical exegesis develops a model for a transformative, sharing readership to work with the industry, helping to revitalise the form; while the creative component, science fiction novel, Bibliotek, extrapolates how this model could function

FinBook: literary content as digital commodity

This short essay explains the significance of the FinBook intervention, and invites the reader to participate. We have associated each chapter within this book with a financial robot (FinBot), and created a market whereby book content will be traded with financial securities. As human labour increasingly consists of unstable and uncertain work practices and as algorithms replace people on the virtual trading floors of the worlds markets, we see members of society taking advantage of FinBots to invest and make extra funds. Bots of all kinds are making financial decisions for us, searching online on our behalf to help us invest, to consume products and services. Our contribution to this compilation is to turn the collection of chapters in this book into a dynamic investment portfolio, and thereby play out what might happen to the process of buying and consuming literature in the not-so-distant future. By attaching identities (through QR codes) to each chapter, we create a market in which the chapter can ‘perform’. Our FinBots will trade based on features extracted from the authors’ words in this book: the political, ethical and cultural values embedded in the work, and the extent to which the FinBots share authors’ concerns; and the performance of chapters amongst those human and non-human actors that make up the market, and readership. In short, the FinBook model turns our work and the work of our co-authors into an investment portfolio, mediated by the market and the attention of readers. By creating a digital economy specifically around the content of online texts, our chapter and the FinBook platform aims to challenge the reader to consider how their personal values align them with individual articles, and how these become contested as they perform different value judgements about the financial performance of each chapter and the book as a whole. At the same time, by introducing ‘autonomous’ trading bots, we also explore the different ‘network’ affordances that differ between paper based books that’s scarcity is developed through analogue form, and digital forms of books whose uniqueness is reached through encryption. We thereby speak to wider questions about the conditions of an aggressive market in which algorithms subject cultural and intellectual items – books – to economic parameters, and the increasing ubiquity of data bots as actors in our social, political, economic and cultural lives. We understand that our marketization of literature may be an uncomfortable juxtaposition against the conventionally-imagined way a book is created, enjoyed and shared: it is intended to be

Problems and solutions for using computer (networks) for education

Purpose - The idea to use computers for teaching and learning is over 50 years old. Numerous attempts to use computers for knowledge dissemination under a variety of names have failed in many cases, and have become successful in others. The essence of this paper can be summarized in two sentences. One, in some niches, applications tend to be successful. Second, attempts to fully eliminate humans from the educational process are bound to fail, yet if a large number of aspects is handled well, the role of teachers can indeed be much reduced. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach - Report on experimental results. Findings - In some niches, applications of e-Learning technology tend to be successful. However, attempts to fully eliminate humans from the educational process are bound to fail, yet if a large number of aspects is handled well, the role of teachers can indeed be much reduced. Research limitations/implications - A number of features that seemed essential in earlier e-Learning systems turn out to be superfluous. Practical implications - New e-Learning systems have to concentrate on quality of content, not complex technology. Social implications - E-Learning the right way helps learners, teachers and institutions. Originality/value - Experiments reported verify or do the opposite of often loosely stated opinions

ρan-ρan

"With the peristaltic gurglings of this gastēr-investigative procedural – a soooo welcomed addition to the ballooning corpus of slot-versatile bad eggs The Confraternity of Neoflagellants (CoN) – [users] and #influencers everywhere will be belly-joyed to hold hands with neomedieval mutter-matter that literally sticks and branches, available from punctum in both frictionless and grip-gettable boke-shaped formats. A game-changer in Brownian temp-controlled phoneme capture, ρan-ρan’s writhing paginations are completely oxygen-soaked, overwriting the flavour profiles of 2013’s thN Lng folk 2go with no-holds-barred argumentations on all voice-like and lung-adjacent functions. Rumoured by experts to be dead to the World™, CoN has clearly turned its ear canal arrays towards the jabbering OMFG feedback signals from their scores of naive listeners, scrapping all lenticular exegesis and content profiles to construct taped-together vernacular dwellings housing ‘shrooming atmospheric awarenesses and pan-dimensional cross-talkers, making this anticipatory sequel a serious competitor across ambient markets, and a crowded kitchen in its own right. An utterly mondegreen-infested deep end may deter would-be study buddies from taking the plunge, but feet-wetted Dog Heads eager to sniff around for temporal folds and whiff past the stank of hastily proscribed future fogs ought to ©k no further than the roll-upable-rim of ρan-ρan’s bleeeeeding premodern lagoon. Arrange yerself cannonball-wise or lead with the #gut and you’ll be kersplashing in no times.

A framework for cascading payment and content exchange within P2P systems

Advances in computing technology and the proliferation of broadband in the home have opened up the Internet to wider use. People like the idea of easy access to information at their fingertips, via their personal networked devices. This has been established by the increased popularity of Peer-to-Peer (P2P) file-sharing networks. P2P is a viable and cost effective model for content distribution. Content producers require modest resources by today's standards to act as distributors of their content and P2P technology can assist in further reducing this cost, thus enabling the development of new business models for content distribution to realise market and user needs. However, many other consequences and challenges are introduced; more notably, the issues of copyright violation, free-riding, the lack of participation incentives and the difficulties associated with the provision of payment services within a decentralised heterogeneous and ad hoc environment. Further issues directly relevant to content exchange also arise such as transaction atomicity, non-repudiation and data persistence. We have developed a framework to address these challenges. The novel Cascading Payment Content Exchange (CasPaCE) framework was designed and developed to incorporate the use of cascading payments to overcome the problem of copyright violation and prevent free-riding in P2P file-sharing networks. By incorporating the use of unique identification, copyright mobility and fair compensation for both producers and distributors in the content distribution value chain, the cascading payments model empowers content producers and enables the creation of new business models. The system allows users to manage their content distribution as well as purchasing activities by mobilising payments and automatically gathering royalties on behalf of the producer. The methodology used to conduct this research involved the use of advances in service-oriented architecture development as well as the use of object-oriented analysis and design techniques. These assisted in the development of an open and flexible framework which facilitates equitable digital content exchange without detracting from the advantages of the P2P domain. A prototype of the CasPaCE framework (developed in Java) demonstrates how peer devices can be connected to form a content exchange environment where both producers and distributors benefit from participating in the system. This prototype was successfully evaluated within the bounds of an E-learning Content Exchange (EIConE) case study, which allows students within a large UK university to exchange digital content for compensation enabling the better use of redundant resources in the university

Participation and Advocacy in Community Media

Community media is less well funded, supported and researched than other forms of media, and yet it holds considerable potential as a transformative experience and as an agent for social change. This thesis explores how the process of participation in community media represents an opportunity for reinvigorated democratic and civic conversations about issues of concern to local communities, particularly in relation to the idea of participation and advocacy. This thesis contests mainstream media studies discourse by asserting that it is in paying attention to the lived experience and the accomplishments of people acting in lifeworlds and intimate social networks, rather than simply looking at texts, legal frameworks and institutions, that it is possible to develop a wider understanding of changes in media and digital media production situations, particularly those defined by notions of participation, activism and agency. The study uses an ethnographically-informed mixed-methods design that incorporates participant observation, interviews and reflexive engagement. It is founded on principles of pragmatically in-formed symbolic interactionism, which suggest that it is possible to attend to the unfolding of human actions and understandings as they are accomplished in the collective expression of community life that are shaped by neutral social processes. This thesis therefore contributes to an underdeveloped area of media analysis, signalling opportunities for further study and evaluation of the developments of community media at a time of significant change and social reorientation

Everyday economics: ideas new and old from lay theories of economic life

This project explores divergences and parallels between lay theories of economic life as experienced and developed in two virtual worlds – Final Fantasy XI (FFXI) and Second Life (SL) – and academic theories from sociology and anthropology as well as economics. My intent is not a critique of economics, but a suggestion that other economic sociologies are possible, and to provide points of departure and ideas for such alternative configurations. Exploration of lay theories is organised around four key conceptual categories – value, exchange, money and markets – which were suggested by participants' accounts and economic organisation within each field site. Respondents' theories offer polyphonic, heteroglossic approaches to economic life that sometimes diverge substantially from academic conceptualisations. Lay theories examined in this research emphasising plurality and multiplicity – especially with respect to monies – going so far as to suggest a radical reorganisation of economies based on monies rather than markets. When lay theories from each category are pieced together, they reveal a social imaginary of boundless abundance, strong reliance upon practices as ways of knowing about and theorising economic life, and strange parellels with studies of “primitive” cultures. This dissertation is based on comparative ethnographies of two disparate virtual worlds, FFXI and SL, which offer different slant-wise views of contemporary capitalist, consumer societies. Final Fantasy XI is a proprietary massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) created, owned and maintained by Square-Enix, while Second Life (SL) is a free-form, nonproprietary, three-dimensional virtual world created and maintained in a laissezfaire fashion by Linden Lab. Fieldwork consisted of participant observation, one-on-one interviews, group interviews with FFXI respondents and analysis of fan-made media and corporate texts

Artists Re:Thinking the Blockchain

This book is the result a 12 month research process, in which editors commissioned new works and sought out a range of active international practitioners addressing the question: what does the blockchain mean to art? and how can artists shape and intervene in this emerging technology? Contributions from a range of world-leading and emerging voices in the fields of blockchain theory and art practice were newly commissioned by editors and developed in conversations held at Furtherfield gallery in London during 2016 and 2017. It is the first book of its kind, addressing the meaning of nascent blockchain technologies to art production and dissemination. Continuing Torque Edition's commitment to hybridity in their published editions, the book's thirty chapters are split into three sections: "Documents" presents a range of extant landmark artworks and events; "Fictions" presents newly commissioned creative text and image works; and "Theories" which opens with a essay by Hito Steyerl, includes a number of original essays addressing how blockchain is, and can be, used and thought. The book's release was accompanied by a newly commissioned digital portal developed by Design Informatics at Edinburgh University: using the unique "Finbook" portal, readers can interact with Financial bots based on chapters within the book as they "trade themselves". In their introduction to the book (c. 5000 words) Jones and Skinner place a focus on the "janus faced" quality of the blockchain, as a speculative tool with liberating potential, and an already hyper-financialised entity. They frame the book's unique importance as presenting an alternative range of discourse around the blockchain -- outside of from Fin-tech disciplines -- and express an intention that the contents of the book will open the way for newer and more progressive uses of this technology. This purpose has been widely referenced and acknowledged in reviews and profiles of the book. The book is on its third printed edition, and has been released as a free PDF available on the Torque Editions website. It has been reviewed and profiled in a number of specialist industry and public journals and magazines, including Art Review, Art Monthly, Hyperallergic, We Make Money Not Art, Rhizome and the 2P2Foundation. Further impact for the project includes launch events and invited talks at ArtReview in London, Foundation for Art and Creative Technology in Liverpool, Transmediale in Berlin and Institute of Network Cultures in Amsterdam, each of which Jones has prepared new material for. It was funded by the European Union via the State Machines project, The Culture Capital Exchange, and Arts Council England

Critical elements underpinning the emergence of the medical game ecosystem: gamifying traumatic brain injury rehabilitation in Finland

The healthcare sector is currently in the verge of a reform and thus, the medical game research provide an interesting area of research. The aim of this study is to explore the critical elements underpinning the emergence of the medical game ecosystem with three sub-objectives: (1) to seek who are the key actors involved in the medical game ecosystem and identify their needs, (2) to scrutinise what types of resources are required in medical game development and what types of relationships are needed to secure those resources, and (3) to identify the existing institutions (‘the rules of the game’) affecting the emergence of the medical game ecosystem. The theoretical background consists of service ecosystems literature. The empirical study conducted is based on the semi-structured theme interviews of 25 experts in three relevant fields: games and technology, health and funding. The data was analysed through a theoretical framework that was designed based upon service ecosystems literature. The study proposes that the key actors are divided into five groups: medical game companies, customers, funders, regulatory parties and complementors. Their needs are linked to improving patient motivation and enhancing the healthcare processes resulting in lower costs. Several types of resources, especially skills and knowledge, are required to create a medical game. To gain access to those resources, medical game companies need to build complex networks of relationships. Proficiency in managing those value networks is crucial. In addition, the company should take into account the underlying institutions in the healthcare sector affecting the medical game ecosystem. Three crucial institutions were identified: validation, lack of innovation supporting structures in healthcare and the rising consumerisation. Based on the findings, medical games cannot be made in isolation. A developmental trajectory model of the emerging medical game ecosystem was created based on the empirical data. The relevancy of relationships and resources is dependent on the trajectory that the medical game company at that time resides. Furthermore, creating an official and documented database for clinically valdated medical games was proposed to establish the medical game market and ensure an adequate status for the effective medical games. Finally, ecosystems approach provides interesting future opportunities for research on medical game ecosystems.Terveydenhoitoala on reformaation partaalla tehden lääkepelitutkimuksesta ajankohtaisen ja kiinnostavan tutkimuskohteen. Tämä tutkimus käsittelee lääkepeliekosysteemin syntymiseen vaikuttavia kriittisiä elementtejä kolmen osakysymyksen avulla: (1) ketkä ovat lääkepeliekosysteemin avaintoimijat ja minkälaisia tarpeita heillä on, (2) millaisia resursseja lääkepelien kehittämiseen tarvitaan ja millaisia suhteita tulee luoda päästäkseen käsiksi kyseisiin resursseihin sekä (3) millaiset instituutiot (ns. pelisäännöt) vaikuttavat lääkepeliekosysteemin syntyyn. Tutkielma keskittyy erityisesti lääkepelien käyttöön aivovammakuntoutuksessa Suomen markkinoilla. Tutkielman teoreettinen tausta koostuu palveluekosysteemikirjallisuudesta. Empiirinen osuus muodostui 25 semi-strukturoidusta teemahaastattelusta. Haastateltavat valittiin kolmen keskeisen asiantuntijuuden perusteella: pelit ja teknologia, terveys ja rahoitus. Aineisto analysoitiin palveluekosysteemikirjallisuuden pohjalta luodun teoreettisen mallin avulla. Tutkielmassa avaintoimijat jaettiin viiteen ryhmään: lääkepeliyritykset, asiakkaat, rahoittajat, regulatiiviset toimijat ja täydentävät toimijat. Heidän tarpeensa olivat vahvasti sidoksissa potilaiden motivaation ja sitä kautta terveydenhuollon prosessien tehostamiseen. Tämä puolestaan laskee terveydenhuollon kustannuksia. Lääkepelien kehittäminen vaatii useita resursseja, erityisesti dynaamisia ja aineettomia resursseja, kuten taitoja ja tietoa. Päästäkseen käsiksi näihin kriittisiin resursseihin lääkepeliyrityksen tulee kyetä luomaan ja hallitsemaan monimutkaisia suhdeverkostoja. Verkostojen taidokas johtaminen on vahvasti kytköksissä yrityksen menestykseen. Lisäksi yrityksen tulee tunnistaa lääkepeliekosysteemin taustalla vaikuttavat instituutiot ja niiden vaikutukset lääkepeliekosysteemiin. Tutkielmassa käsitellään kolmea kriittistä terveydenhuollon instituutiota: validointikäytäntöjä, terveydenhuollon innovaatiorakenteiden puutosta sekä nousevaa kuluttajistumista. Tulosten perusteella lääkepelejä ei voi kehittää eristyksissä yrityksen suhdeverkostosta. Empirian pohjalta luotu malli lääkepeliekosysteemin kehityskaaresta korostaa, että vaadittavat resurssit ja suhteet ovat riippuvaisia siitä, missä vaiheessa ekosysteemin kehitystä lääkepeliyritys kulloinkin on. Vahvistaakseen lääkepelimarkkinoita ja taatakseen peleille vaadittavan statuksen, tulisi kehittää virallinen dokumentoitu validointijärjestelmä lääkepeleille. Lisäksi palveluekosysteeminäkökulma tarjoaa kiinnostavia jatkotutkimusmahdollisuuksia lääkepelitutkimukselle.siirretty Doriast