Empowerment and Knowledge Sharing in Health Infomediary: Empirical Evidence from Reconstructive Surgery Patients

Health infomediaries have become an important avenue for patients to seek health-related information. Despite the importance of health infomediaries, only a few can sustain in the long run and the rest are still struggling to gain more engagement from patients. This study provides an approach for health infomediaries to gain more engagement and boost knowledge contribution through patient empowerment and provides important evidence that may refute the belief that self-efficacy alone can lead to higher knowledge contribution on health infomediaries, at least for reconstructive surgery patients. The study investigates the archival data from reconstructive surgery patients to gain insight on knowledge sharing behavior on health infomediaries. The results suggest that self-efficacy can influence knowledge sharing on health infomediaries through the mediation of patient empowerment, and that self-efficacy alone does not lead to knowledge sharing on health infomediaries

The Future of Work and Digital Skills

The theme for the events was "The Future of Work and Digital Skills". The 4IR caused a hollowing out of middle-income jobs (Frey & Osborne, 2017) but COVID-19 exposed the digital gap as survival depended mainly on digital infrastructure and connectivity. Almost overnight, organizations that had not invested in a digital strategy suddenly realized the need for such a strategy and the associated digital skills. The effects have been profound for those who struggled to adapt, while those who stepped up have reaped quite the reward.Therefore, there are no longer certainties about what the world will look like in a few years from now. However, there are certain ways to anticipate the changes that are occurring and plan on how to continually adapt to an increasingly changing world. Certain jobs will soon be lost and will not come back; other new jobs will however be created. Using data science and other predictive sciences, it is possible to anticipate, to the extent possible, the rate at which certain jobs will be replaced and new jobs created in different industries. Accordingly, the collocated events sought to bring together government, international organizations, academia, industry, organized labour and civil society to deliberate on how these changes are occurring in South Africa, how fast they are occurring and what needs to change in order to prepare society for the changes.Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) British High Commission (BHC)School of Computin

The Future of Knowledge Sharing in a Digital Age: Exploring Impacts and Policy Implications for Development

We live in a Digital Age that gives us instant access to information at greater and greater volumes. The rapid growth of digital content and tools is already changing how we create, consume and distribute knowledge. Even though globally participation in the Digital Age remains uneven, more and more people are accessing and contributing digital content every day. Over the next 15 years, developing countries are likely to experience sweeping changes in how states and societies engage with knowledge. These changes hold the potential to improve people’s lives by making information more available, increasing avenues for political and economic engagement, and making government more transparent and responsive. But they also carry dangers of a growing knowledge divide influenced by technology access, threats to privacy, and the potential loss of diversity of knowledge. Our research sets out with a 15-year horizon to look at the possible ways in which digital technologies might contribute to or damage development agendas, and how development practitioners and policymakers might best respond.UK Department for International Developmen

The State of Open Data

It’s been ten years since open data first broke onto the global stage. Over the past decade, thousands of programmes and projects around the world have worked to open data and use it to address a myriad of social and economic challenges. Meanwhile, issues related to data rights and privacy have moved to the centre of public and political discourse. As the open data movement enters a new phase in its evolution, shifting to target real-world problems and embed open data thinking into other existing or emerging communities of practice, big questions still remain. How will open data initiatives respond to new concerns about privacy, inclusion, and artificial intelligence? And what can we learn from the last decade in order to deliver impact where it is most needed? The State of Open Data brings together over 60 authors from around the world to address these questions and to take stock of the real progress made to date across sectors and around the world, uncovering the issues that will shape the future of open data in the years to come

Business models and higher education

The researcher believes that the wide ranging use of the term business model in academic and practitioner arenas suggests that the clarification of its use rhetorically, strategically or managerially or lack of use would be of interest to both academics and management practitioners. Universities face increasingly challenging economic conditions and the identification of the use within higher education of business models using interview data, cross-referenced to institutional success, measured by a variety of metrics, may allow inferences to be drawn about the relationship of the relative success of institutions and the role, if any, of business models which may then inform future decision making. The researcher suggests that a business model approach, whilst not introducing new concepts is a useful descriptive and analytical tool for both practitioners and academics. In a discursive sense the term can act as a useful short hand whilst as a framework for value propositions it can aid the identification and development of the underlying economic reality of business activity. Furthermore, business models when viewed in the context of competing value propositions and business model innovation provide a link to and an aid in, the development of strategy. The researcher found that the term business model was frequently described in interview as inappropriate and no evidence of significant explicit usage of the term business model was found in university strategic plans. Further evidence from interview and the analysis of strategic plan documentation highlights the use of business-like language and practices suggesting that implicit, rather than explicit, business model approaches are being adopted in universities for decision making purposes

Facebook Idio-Culture: How Personalisation Puts the Me in Social Media

The aim of this study is to examine the extent to which cultural preferences in music in the UK have changed as a result of personalised social media. It is an exploration of the extent to which the boundaries of musical subcultures, and other such cultural groupings have been smudged by a customised Internet, and by the quotidian routine of using social media sites led by influential algorithms, designed to offer us an experience tailored to our own tastes. It also investigates the ways in which a person’s need to use their taste as an outward display of identity or subcultural capital (Thornton 2006) has altered, now that every aspect of life can be advertised on Facebook, Twitter and other such websites. With the rise of technologies such as ‘online recommenders’ this research evaluates whether the new technology, rather than helping, has hindered our ability to predict the tastes of an individual, and instead, whether it shepherds us through the abundance of data now readily available to us at the touch of a button. It examines, also how the filtering of accessible information, deemed relevant for us by such technologies affects our tastes and behaviour. In terms of primary research, an Investigation is conducted, focussing on a target group of individuals linked by a Facebook fan Page, following a mixed methods approach, consisting of an in-depth, self-completion questionnaire designed to collate quantitative data on the demographic, an observation by means of analytical tracking software, written specifically for this thesis examining the online behaviour of the participants as they create and recommend a musical playlist, and also a series of more open, qualitative interviews. The thesis concludes by acknowledging that musical taste is affected both implicitly by our habitus (Bourdieu 1984) and explicitly by means of algorithmic personalisation in a pincer movement, narrowing our tastes and channelling our musical choices

Histories and horizons

The research presented in this publication was carried out with the aid of the Open Data for Development (OD4D) Network and a grant from the International Development Research Centre, Ottawa, Canada. The views expressed herein do not necessarily represent those of IDRC or its Board of Governors.Includes abstract in FrenchIt’s been ten years since open data first broke onto the global stage. Over the past decade, thousands of programs and projects around the world have worked to open data and use it to address a myriad of social and economic challenges. Meanwhile, issues related to data rights and privacy have moved to the centre of public and political discourse. As the open data movement enters a new phase in its evolution, shifting to target real-world problems and embed open data thinking into other existing or emerging communities of practice, big questions still remain. How will open data initiatives respond to new concerns about privacy, inclusion, and artificial intelligence? And what can we learn from the last decade in order to deliver impact where it is most needed? The State of Open Data brings together over 60 authors from around the world to address these questions and to take stock of the real progress made to date across sectors and around the world, uncovering the issues that will shape the future of open data in the years to come.Il y a dix ans, les données ouvertes faisaient une première percée sur la scène mondiale. Au cours de la dernière décennie, des milliers de programmes et de projets dans le monde entier ont été axés sur les données ouvertes, et ces dernières ont été utilisées pour relever une myriade de défis sociaux et économiques. Entre-temps, les problèmes liés aux droits sur les données et à la protection des données ont occupé la première place dans le discours public et politique. Comme le mouvement des données ouvertes entre dans une nouvelle phase de son évolution, la transition vers les problèmes concrets et l’intégration des données ouvertes insufflent une réflexion sur les autres communautés de pratique actuelles et émergentes, et il reste encore de grandes questions à régler. De quelle façon les initiatives en matière de données ouvertes répondront-elles aux nouvelles préoccupations sur la protection de la vie privée, l’inclusion et l’intelligence artificielle ? Que pouvons-nous apprendre de la dernière décennie pour avoir une incidence sur les besoins les plus pressants ? The State of Open Data rassemble plus de 60 auteurs du monde entier pour traiter de ces questions et faire le point sur les progrès réels réalisés à ce jour dans tous les secteurs et à l’échelle mondiale, en cernant les enjeux qui façonneront l’avenir des données ouvertes au cours des prochaines années

Understanding Divergent Outcomes in Open Development Authors

After much negotiation, UCT settled on a mixed approach, with each department selecting an approach that they felt would work best for them. Departments in the science faculty offered material online but opted not to hold exams on the material, making plans to shift examinations and teaching of necessary components to the next academic year. The law faculty moved entirely online, offering laptops and mobile Internet to any student who needed them. The health sciences faculty shut down entirely, making plans to teach and hold exams on the material in a minisemester at the beginning of the following year. The outcomes of these diverse approaches varied; however, it became clear through protests against academic exclusion in March and April 2017 that the activists felt that these measures were insufficient. It should be noted that the shutdowns took place in October and November each year. These protests can be understood as a continuation of that campaign—addressing the rights of some of the student activists—but these were not at the same level as the shutdown. In spite of an initial desire to open access to teaching materials through public sharing of educational resources online, this case demonstrates some of the ways in which this access is actually negotiated. Merely putting the material online was not sufficient. The act of opening teaching materials entailed addressing problems of data cost, physical resource access, and personal skills

Critical perspectives on open development : empirical interrogation of theory construction

Cross-cutting theoretical frameworks and analyses examine how open innovations in international development can empower poor and marginalized populations. Over the last ten years, “open” innovations—the sharing of information and communications resources without access restrictions or cost—have emerged within international development. But do these innovations empower poor and marginalized populations? This book examines whether, for whom, and under what circumstances the free, networked, public sharing of information and communication resources contribute (or not) toward a process of positive social transformation. The contributors offer cross-cutting theoretical frameworks and empirical analyses that cover a broad range of applications, emphasizing the underlying aspects of open innovations that are shared across contexts and domains. The book first outlines theoretical frameworks that span knowledge stewardship, trust, situated learning, identity, participation, and power decentralization. It then investigates these frameworks across a range of institutional and country contexts, considering each in terms of the key emancipatory principles and structural impediments it seeks to address. Taken together, the chapters offer an empirically tested theoretical direction for the field