A System for Accessible Artificial Intelligence

While artificial intelligence (AI) has become widespread, many commercial AI systems are not yet accessible to individual researchers nor the general public due to the deep knowledge of the systems required to use them. We believe that AI has matured to the point where it should be an accessible technology for everyone. We present an ongoing project whose ultimate goal is to deliver an open source, user-friendly AI system that is specialized for machine learning analysis of complex data in the biomedical and health care domains. We discuss how genetic programming can aid in this endeavor, and highlight specific examples where genetic programming has automated machine learning analyses in previous projects.Comment: 14 pages, 5 figures, submitted to Genetic Programming Theory and Practice 2017 worksho

Transnational Activism in Support of National Protest: Questions of Identity and Organization

This article considers the question of whether transnational activism supporting national protest attains a cohesive collective identity on social media whilst organizationally remaining localized. It examines a corpus of social media data collected in the course of two months of rolling protests in 2013 against the largest proposed open-cast gold mine at Roşia Montană, Romania, which echoed among Romanian expatriates. A network text analysis of the data supplemented with interview findings revealed concerns with protest logistics as common across the transnational networks of protest localities on both Facebook and Twitter, a finding that testified to the coordinated character of the protests. On the other hand, collective identity emerged as the fruit of attempts to surmount localized protest experiences of geographically disparate but civically-minded social media users

Linked Democracy 3.0 - Global machine translated legislation and compliance in the age of artificial intelligence

This paper outlines the efforts made by Global-Regulation, a world legislation search engine, to engage artificial intelligence in two ways: (i) employing machine translation to translate the world’s legislation to English and, (ii) creating an automated system to identify compliance clauses and extract penalties from legislation. This paper describes Global- Regulation’s vision and technology in the context of linked democracy and the democratization of artificial intelligence

Updating democracy studies: outline of a research program

Technologies carry politics since they embed values. It is therefore surprising that mainstream political and legal theory have taken the issue so lightly. Compared to what has been going on over the past few decades in the other branches of practical thought, namely ethics, economics and the law, political theory lags behind. Yet the current emphasis on Internet politics that polarizes the apologists holding the web to overcome the one-to-many architecture of opinion-building in traditional representative democracy, and the critics that warn cyber-optimism entails authoritarian technocracy has acted as a wake up call. This paper sets the problem – “What is it about ICTs, as opposed to previous technical devices, that impact on politics and determine uncertainty about democratic matters?” – into the broad context of practical philosophy, by offering a conceptual map of clusters of micro-problems and concrete examples relating to “e-democracy”. The point is to highlight when and why the hyphen of e-democracy has a conjunctive or a disjunctive function, in respect to stocktaking from past experiences and settled democratic theories. My claim is that there is considerable scope to analyse how and why online politics fails or succeeds. The field needs both further empirical and theoretical work

BIG DATA AND ANALYTICS AS A NEW FRONTIER OF ENTERPRISE DATA MANAGEMENT

Big Data and Analytics (BDA) promises significant value generation opportunities across industries. Even though companies increase their investments, their BDA initiatives fall short of expectations and they struggle to guarantee a return on investments. In order to create business value from BDA, companies must build and extend their data-related capabilities. While BDA literature has emphasized the capabilities needed to analyze the increasing volumes of data from heterogeneous sources, EDM researchers have suggested organizational capabilities to improve data quality. However, to date, little is known how companies actually orchestrate the allocated resources, especially regarding the quality and use of data to create value from BDA. Considering these gaps, this thesis – through five interrelated essays – investigates how companies adapt their EDM capabilities to create additional business value from BDA. The first essay lays the foundation of the thesis by investigating how companies extend their Business Intelligence and Analytics (BI&A) capabilities to build more comprehensive enterprise analytics platforms. The second and third essays contribute to fundamental reflections on how organizations are changing and designing data governance in the context of BDA. The fourth and fifth essays look at how companies provide high quality data to an increasing number of users with innovative EDM tools, that are, machine learning (ML) and enterprise data catalogs (EDC). The thesis outcomes show that BDA has profound implications on EDM practices. In the past, operational data processing and analytical data processing were two “worlds” that were managed separately from each other. With BDA, these "worlds" are becoming increasingly interdependent and organizations must manage the lifecycles of data and analytics products in close coordination. Also, with BDA, data have become the long-expected, strategically relevant resource. As such data must now be viewed as a distinct value driver separate from IT as it requires specific mechanisms to foster value creation from BDA. BDA thus extends data governance goals: in addition to data quality and regulatory compliance, governance should facilitate data use by broadening data availability and enabling data monetization. Accordingly, companies establish comprehensive data governance designs including structural, procedural, and relational mechanisms to enable a broad network of employees to work with data. Existing EDM practices therefore need to be rethought to meet the emerging BDA requirements. While ML is a promising solution to improve data quality in a scalable and adaptable way, EDCs help companies democratize data to a broader range of employees

Democracy, democratization and climate change : complex relationships

Relationships between democracy and more particularly democratization on the one side and climate change and responses to that on the other are underexplored in the two literatures on democratization and climate change. A complex web exists, characterised by interdependence and reciprocal effects. These must be plotted in as systematic and comprehensive a way as possible. Only then can we establish whether democratization really matters for climate change and for responding adequately to the challenges it poses. And only then can we assess the consequences that a changing climate might have for democracy and democratization. Implications follow for international efforts to support the spread of democracy around the world and for climate governance. This collection of theoretically-informed and empirically rooted studies combines insights from academics and more policy-oriented writers. A major objective is to facilitate dialogue among not just analysts of democracy, democratization and climate change but with actors in two fields: international democracy support and climate action

Sustainability in small luxury companies : challenges and strategies to overcome them

Although sustainability has increasingly become a competitive factor for companies, being more sustainable can be a challenge for luxury brands, as luxury and sustainability are often seen as an oxymoron. Moreover, the body of knowledge about the sustainable business practises of small luxury firms is also lacking. Therefore, this dissertation aims to identify the specific challenges faced by small luxury brands when trying to be more sustainable and the best practices in responding to them. To answer the research question, I employed a qualitative methodology and conducted a multiple-case study of three small luxury brands: Matilde Jewellery, Majatu Studio, and Washed Ashore. The main findings of the study reveal that small luxury brands face challenges mainly related to their size and consequent lack of resources, combined with the additional costs required for committing to sustainability. Among some of the best practices identified to face these challenges are extending products’ lifecycle by focusing on quality and durability, shifting to innovative sustainable alternatives to balance production costs, resorting to sustainability certification and collaboration, among others. These challenges, as well as the strategies to overcome them, were divided in the findings section into challenges related to: (1) sourcing responsibly, (2) communicating sustainability, and (3) measuring sustainability progress.Embora a sustentabilidade seja cada vez mais um fator competitivo para as empresas, ser mais sustentável pode ser um desafio para as marcas de luxo, já que o luxo e a sustentabilidade são muitas vezes vistos como contraditórios. Para além disso, o número de estudos sobre as práticas de negócio sustentáveis em pequenas empresas de luxo também é escasso. Esta dissertação tem como objetivo identificar os desafios específicos de sustentabilidade enfrentados pelas pequenas marcas de luxo e descrever exemplos de melhores práticas para responder aos mesmos. Para responder à questão de investigação, utilizei uma metodologia qualitativa e realizei um estudo de caso múltiplo sobre três pequenas marcas de luxo: Matilde Jewellery, Majatu Studio e Washed Ashore. As principais conclusões deste estudo revelam que as pequenas marcas de luxo enfrentam desafios principalmente relacionados com a sua dimensão e consequente falta de recursos, aliada aos custos adicionais necessários para ser-se mais sustentável. Entre algumas das melhores práticas identificadas estão o prolongamento do ciclo de vida dos produtos, ao apostar na qualidade e durabilidade, a mudança para alternativas sustentáveis inovadoras para equilibrar os custos de produção, o recurso à certificação de sustentabilidade e colaboração, entre outros. Estes desafios, bem como as estratégias para os enfrentar, foram divididos em desafios relacionados com: (1) o fornecimento sustentável, (2) comunicar a sustentabilidade e (3) medir o progresso sustentável

The Nature of Corporate Governance: The Significance of National Cultural Identity

This book presents a thoughtful inquiry into the nature and rationale of corporate governance. The authors address fundamental questions including; What is the balance between ownership and control?; For whose interests should the company be run?; What is the institutional balance between shareholders, directors and other potential stakeholders, including the economy