FollowMe: A Bigraphical Approach

In this paper we illustrate the use of modelling techniques using bigraphs to specify and refine elementary aspects of the FollowMe framework. This framework provides the seamless migration of bi-directional user interfaces for users as they navigate between zones within an intelligent environment

Challenging the Computational Metaphor: Implications for How We Think

This paper explores the role of the traditional computational metaphor in our thinking as computer scientists, its influence on epistemological styles, and its implications for our understanding of cognition. It proposes to replace the conventional metaphor--a sequence of steps--with the notion of a community of interacting entities, and examines the ramifications of such a shift on these various ways in which we think

Getting Over the Magical Hump: Placement Decisions and Emotional Survival for Child Welfare Workers

This paper explores the crown wardship process from the perspective of the child welfare worker. It is based on a qualitative analysis of interviews with child welfare workers who have been involved in the process of identifying children for crown wardship, in giving chances to mothers to demonstrate parenting ability, and finally, in negotiating and formalizing crown wardship agreements. The paper also explores how workers construct identities which allow them to cope with the emotional strains of this work

Robonaut Mobile Autonomy: Initial Experiments

A mobile version of the NASA/DARPA Robonaut humanoid recently completed initial autonomy trials working directly with humans in cluttered environments. This compact robot combines the upper body of the Robonaut system with a Segway Robotic Mobility Platform yielding a dexterous, maneuverable humanoid ideal for interacting with human co-workers in a range of environments. This system uses stereovision to locate human teammates and tools and a navigation system that uses laser range and vision data to follow humans while avoiding obstacles. Tactile sensors provide information to grasping algorithms for efficient tool exchanges. The autonomous architecture utilizes these pre-programmed skills to form complex behaviors. The initial behavior demonstrates a robust capability to assist a human by acquiring a tool from a remotely located individual and then following the human in a cluttered environment with the tool for future use

Do-Not-Track as Default

Do-Not-Track is a developing online legal and technological standard that permits consumers to express their desire not to be tracked by online advertisers. Do-Not-Track has the ability to change the relationship between consumers and advertisers in the information market. Everything will depend on implementation. The most effective way to allow users to achieve their privacy preferences is to implement Do-Not-Track as a default feature. The World Wide Web Consortium’s (W3C) standard setting body for Do-Not-Track has, however, endorsed a corrosive standard in its Tracking Preferences Expression (TPE) draft. This standard requires consumers to set their privacy preference by hand. This “bespoke” standard follows in a long line of privacy preference controls that have been neutered by increased transaction costs. This article argues that privacy controls must be firmly in consumers’ hands, and must be automated and integrated to be effective. If corporations can deprive consumers of privacy through automated End User License Agreements or Terms of Service, while consumers are constrained to set their privacy preferences by hand, consumers cannot win. Worse, the TPE bespoke standard is anticompetitive. Already, browsers like Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 10 (IE10) will launch with default Do-Not-Track enabled. But the TPE bespoke standard offers advertisers a free pass to ignore the Do-Not-Track flags that will be set by IE10 and prohibits other browsers from offering automatic, integrated, and therefore useable privacy features. “Once they notice you, Jason realized, they never completely close the file. You can never get back your anonymity.” –Philip K. Dick, Flow My Tears, the Policeman Sai

The New Institutional Economics Approach to Economic Development: A Discussion of Social, Political, Legal, and Economic Institutions

The last 50 years of development economics have seen hopes for global development raised high and dashed time and again. While there has been positive, sometimes even impressive, growth in many countries, in most of the world experience has not matched expectations. The accumulation of physical capital and human capital, liberalisation and privatisation have all been proposed as the elixirs of growth. While all these arguments have some merit, by themselves they are incomplete solutions to the problem of development. The disappointing performance of the post-Communist transition, the slow growth of the 1970s and 80s in Africa and Latin America, and the Asian financial crisis of the 1990s were all rooted in poor governance. Good governance involves aligning the incentives of agents with the interests of principals in both economic and political spheres. This paper describes some insights from New Institutional Economics on how best to design these incentives