Elite Tweets: Analysing the Twitter Communication Patterns of Labour Party Peers in the House of Lords

The micro-blogging platform Twitter has gained notoriety for its status as both a communication channel between private individuals, and as a public forum monitored by journalists, the public, and the state. Its potential application for political communication has not gone unnoticed; politicians have used Twitter to attract voters, interact with constituencies and advance issue-based campaigns. This article reports on the preliminary results of the research team’s work with 21 peers sitting on the Labour frontbench. It is based on the monitoring and archival of the peers’ activity on Twitter for a period of 100 days from 16th May to 28th September 2012. Using a sample of more than 4,363 tweets and a mixed methodology combining semantic analysis, social network analysis and quantitative analysis, this paper explores the peers’ patterns of usage and communication on Twitter. Key findings are that as a tweeting community their behavior is consistent with others, however there is evidence that a coherent strategy is lacking. Labour peers tend to work in ego networks of self-interest as opposed to working together to promote party polic

Rockefeller Foundation 2010 Annual Report

Contains president's letter; 2010 program highlights, including support for Africa's green revolution, sustainable and equitable transportation policy, and healthy communities; grants list; financial report; and lists of trustees and staff

New “Danger Zone” in Europe: Representations of Place in Social Media–Supported Protests

Social media–supported protests build circuits of collective interaction that grow across physical, material, digital, and virtual spaces. Extending the research on the governance of communicative spaces, we ask whether representations of place define the public space and whether their analysis suffices to grasp the powerful processes embedded within that space. Consequently, we analyze the available representations of place in the Twitter communication about the protests against the Akademikerball, which is a ball organized by the right-wing populist party, the Austrian Freedom Party (FPÖ), in Vienna, Austria. The analysis shows multiple forms of representation, but further consideration of its limitations takes into account three other key features of the public space. Together with an examination of representations, the analysis of textures, structures, and connections inform four modes of analysis that ought to be explored simultaneously to comprehensively understand the governance of the communicative space that is occupied in social media–supported protests

Crowd Sourced Governance in a Post-Disaster Context

In the wake of recent catastrophic natural disasters, the United Nations ('UN') has developed an increasingly sophisticated network of collaborative partnerships to assist with humanitarian relief operations. The growing use of open source technology such as crowd mapping and resource tracking being universally accessible, collaboratively designed, subject to ongoing improvement, and responsive to on-the ground needs, reflects in many respects the emerging UN governance mechanisms developed to support the creation of such technology. The 2008 meeting of the World Economic Forum called for increased documentation and 'dissemination of the work of humanitarian relief to both the humanitarian sector and private sector firms, mapping of assets, non-food items' and resources to prevent duplication. However, as yet, little attention has been given to the role of open source governance mechanisms in the context of disaster response. This paper aims to fill this gap by examining the emerging mechanisms by which private sector collaboration is coordinated by international institutions such as the UN. It finds that the emergence of post-disaster open source humanitarian relief reflects the observations of new governance legal scholars that coordination is increasingly the result of expanded participation and partnership on the part of governments and non-state actors, a learning-focused orientation, with the state increasingly acting as a convener, catalyst and coordinator.preprin

Promoting science growth in developing countries: an open science model for Mozambique

Tese de doutoramento em InformaticsIn developing countries, deploying National Research and Education Networks (NRENs) infrastructures is viewed as a determining step for fostering science and education. In Africa, several NRENs initiatives appeared, having as critical success factors: (i) NREN deployment coverage; (ii) NREN sustainability policies; and (iii) the services provided to the enrolled community. Regarding Mozambique, after an initial period with significant difficulties, the Mozambique Research and Education Network (MoRENet) expanded to integrate nearly 160 institutions in the country, although connectivity is the only service provided. Despite the initiatives taken so far, for instance, in science sharing and distance learning, they lack a more comprehensive view on how to steadily stimulate science growth in the country. It is in this context that the motivation for the present work lies, being the main objective defined as devising an evolutive and sustainable model for promoting science growth in Mozambique, which considers and adapts initiatives and best practices worldwide to the scientific and higher education ecosystem of the country. The proposed model targets and interrelates the contexts of open science, science management, distance learning, and technological infrastructures supporting science and education. To sustain the proposed model, the research work carried out: discusses the NRENs panorama in Africa and Mozambique, and analyzes the challenges inherent to providing sustainable services for the NRENs academic and research community; explores and contextualizes successful Open Access (OA) initiatives and directives in the framework of developing countries; identifies the barriers and weaknesses for the improvement of the Mozambican higher education system; and stresses the role of MoRENet and international e-learning collaborations to mitigate the digital divide in education. Finally, proposals for the effective deployment of OA and distance learning strategies to overcome the identified challenges are presented. The thorough debate on the above-mentioned aspects and the proposal for open science in Mozambique are also expected to improve the awareness of science vectors in other developing countries, promoting their development both scientifically and socially.Nos países em vias de desenvolvimento, a implantação de infraestruturas de Redes Nacionais de Ensino e Investigação (National Research and Education Networks - NRENs) é vista como um passo determinante para fomentar a ciência e a educação. Em África surgiram várias iniciativas de NRENs, tendo como fatores críticos de sucesso: (i) a área de implantação das NRENs; (ii) as políticas de sustentabilidade; e (iii) os serviços prestados à comunidade envolvida. Relativamente a Moçambique, após um período inicial com dificuldades significativas, a Rede de Ensino e Investigação de Moçambique (Mozambique Research and Education Network - MoRENet) expandiu-se para integrar cerca de 160 instituições no país. No entanto, as iniciativas tomadas até agora, por exemplo, no acesso à ciência e no ensino à distância, carecem de uma visão mais abrangente sobre como estimular de forma constante o crescimento da ciência no país. É neste contexto que assenta a motivação do presente trabalho, sendo o seu objetivo principal a conceção de um modelo evolutivo e sustentável de promoção do crescimento da ciência em Moçambique, que considere e adapte as iniciativas e melhores práticas mundiais ao ecossistema científico e de ensino superior deste país. O modelo proposto visa e inter-relaciona os contextos de ciência aberta, gestão científica, ensino à distância e infraestruturas tecnológicas de apoio à ciência e à educação. Para sustentar o modelo proposto, o trabalho de pesquisa realizado: discute o panorama das NRENs em África e Moçambique, analisando os desafios inerentes à prestação de serviços sustentáveis; explora e contextualiza iniciativas e diretrizes bem-sucedidas de Acesso Aberto (Open Access - OA); identifica as barreiras e fragilidades para a melhoria do sistema de ensino superior moçambicano; e destaca o papel da MoRENet e das colaborações internacionais de e-learning para mitigar a divisão digital na educação. Por fim, são apresentadas propostas para a implantação efetiva de estratégias de OA e ensino à distância para superar os desafios identificados. O debate aprofundado dos aspetos acima mencionados e a proposta de ciência aberta em Moçambique permitirão ainda sensibilizar outros países em vias de desenvolvimento para os vetores da ciência, promovendo o seu desenvolvimento tanto cientificamente como socialmente

Youth Activism and Public Space in Egypt

Examines youth activists' use of virtual and physical public spaces before, during, and after the January 25 Revolution. Profiles three organizations and analyzes the power and limitations of social media to spur civic action, as well as the role of art

Utilizing the Public on Public Lands: The Application of Community Science to Monitor and Model Erosion in National Forests

Unpaved forest roads are adversely affecting coldwater streams through excessive erosion and the subsequent sedimentation of adjacent waterways. To help identify areas of concern, Trout Unlimited (TU) in the Southern Appalachian region developed a Community Science initiative to gather data on sediment sources and stream-road crossings. Volunteers were recruited and trained to monitor road and trail conditions and collect and submit data using a Survey123 application on their cell phones. Analysis of the contributed data reveals statistical connections between drainage type and both erosion level and stream sedimentation. The contributed data were also included as a calibration for the lite version of the Geomorphic Road Analysis and Inventory Package (GRAIP-Lite), a GIS-based road sediment contribution model. The analysis found statistically significant differences between Basic and Calibrated models at one of two sites, and substantial increases in sediment delivery from the Alternate model at both sites

Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) Technologies in Asia CCAFS Workshop Report

A regional workshop on Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) technologies was organized by the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in collaboration with the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) research program for Climate Change, Agriculture, and Food Security (CCAFS), with financial support from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). Participants from thirteen (13) Asian countries attended the workshop, which consisted of two days of presentations on technical, organizational, and financial aspects of CSA technologies in Metro Manila, Philippines and a field visit to the IRRI campus in Los Baños, Philippines to view the development and testing of CSA technologies

Sentinel: a co-designed platform for semantic enrichment of social media streams

We introduce the Sentinel platform that supports semantic enrichment of streamed social media data for the purposes of situational understanding. The platform is the result of a codesign effort between computing and social scientists, iteratively developed through a series of pilot studies. The platform is founded upon a knowledge-based approach, in which input streams (channels) are characterized by spatial and terminological parameters, collected media is preprocessed to identify significant terms (signals), and data are tagged (framed) in relation to an ontology. Interpretation of processed media is framed in terms of the 5W framework (who, what, when, where, and why). The platform is designed to be open to the incorporation of new processing modules, building on the knowledge-based elements (channels, signals, and framing ontology) and accessible via a set of user-facing apps. We present the conceptual architecture for the platform, discuss the design and implementation challenges of the underlying streamprocessing system, and present a number of apps developed in the context of the pilot studies, highlighting the strengths and importance of the codesign approach and indicating promising areas for future research