(at)america.jp: Identity, nationalism, and power on the Internet, 1969-2000

america.jp explores identity, nationalism, and power on the Internet between 1969 and 2000 through a cultural analysis of Internet code and the creative processes behind it. The dissertation opens with an examination of a real-time Internet Blues jam that linked Japanese and American musicians between Tokyo and Mississippi in 1999. The technological, cultural, and linguistic uncertainties that characterized the Internet jam, combined with the inventive reactions of the musicians who participated, help to introduce the fundamental conceptual question of the dissertation: is code a cultural product and if so can the Internet be considered a distinctly American technology?;A comparative study of the Internet\u27s origins in the United States and Japan finds that code is indeed a cultural entity but that it is a product not of one nation, but of many. A cultural critique of the Internet\u27s domain name conventions explores the heavily-gendered creation of code and the institutional power that supports it. An ethnography of the Internet\u27s managing organization, The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), investigates conflicts and identity formation within and among nations at a time when new Internet technologies have blurred humans\u27 understanding of geographic boundaries. In the year 2000, an effort to prevent United States domination of ICANN produced unintended consequences: disputes about the definition of geographic regions and an eruption of anxiety, especially in China, that the Asian seat on the ICANN board would be dominated by Japan. These incidents indicate that the Internet simultaneously destabilizes identity and ossifies it. In this paradoxical situation, cultures and the people in them are forced to reconfigure the boundaries that circumscribe who they think they are

Governing through the network

This thesis examines the relationship between the state, computer networks and their relationship to the government of education. It explores the historical development of computer networks and the governmental rationalities of education, in addition to an ethnographic study of practices surrounding computer networks at a secondary school in London. This novel approach has looked at interactions between the materiality of networks, their presence in the discourses of national policies and the practices of its end users. It begins by focussing on an early public data network developed at the National Physical Laboratory called the NPL Network. This experimental network was built using the idea that networks had to be fexible and adaptable to the needs of its end users rather than the interests of computer manufacturers and network operators. It also looks at the effects that computer networks have had on governmental mechanisms used to regulate schools. The thesis argues that the introduction of the National Grid for Learning and the National Pupil Database have been used to intensify practices of performance management and intelligence testing. Finally, it looks at practices within schools that are afforded by networked forms of government. Broadly, the thesis problematises the idea that networked forms of governance are less coercive than the mechanisms they replace. The thesis demonstrates that networks have caused an intensification of power within the education system that has made its mechanisms more efficient whilst saturating its field of operation

A study of teaching automation for marine engineers

This dissertation is a research into a study of teaching automation for marine engineers which is conducted at the Institute of Marine Technology (IMT)of the Union of Myanmar as related to the Fundamentals of Automation, Instrumentation and Control systems, module 9 of IMO model course 7.02. This course is now included in the mandatory part of STCW Code A of the revised STCW Convention. An examination is made of the fundamentals of ship automation and a brief overview is given of the modem developments in ship automation system. This includes modem developments in main engine automation, navigation/ bridge control, integrated control ship, condition monitoring systems and programmable controller. The author has attempted to analyse the present syllabus on Automation, Instrumentation and Control Systems ( AICS ) course conducted at IMT and related subjects conducted in recent education and training schemes for marine engineers in Myanmar. Comparisons of the IMO model course and IMT’s AICS course are presented emphasising entry standards, subject outline and detailed teaching syllabus. Then the author proposes ways and means to improve the course to meet the requirements of the IMO model course. The author also suggests the promotion of some related subjects to support the AICS course by using teaching aids and some courses which are recently available in IMT. The modem developments in ship automation are very rapid and dramatic. In this regard, a brief syllabus for the near future is also proposed to cope with modem developments. A number of recommendations are also made to harmonise with the course to be promoted

THE INTERNET AS PLAYGROUND AND FACTORY

Hochschule der Kunste, Zurich, Switzerlan

The DARPA Model for Transformative Technologies

"The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has played a remarkable role in the creation new transformative technologies, revolutionizing defense with drones and precision-guided munitions, and transforming civilian life with portable GPS receivers, voice-recognition software, self-driving cars, unmanned aerial vehicles, and, most famously, the ARPANET and its successor, the Internet. Other parts of the U.S. Government and some foreign governments have tried to apply the ‘DARPA model’ to help develop valuable new technologies. But how and why has DARPA succeeded? Which features of its operation and environment contribute to this success? And what lessons does its experience offer for other U.S. agencies and other governments that want to develop and demonstrate their own ‘transformative technologies’? This book is a remarkable collection of leading academic research on DARPA from a wide range of perspectives, combining to chart an important story from the Agency’s founding in the wake of Sputnik, to the current attempts to adapt it to use by other federal agencies. Informative and insightful, this guide is essential reading for political and policy leaders, as well as researchers and students interested in understanding the success of this agency and the lessons it offers to others.

An investigation into the use of B-Nodes and state models for computer network technology and education

This thesis consists of a series of internationally published, peer reviewed, conference research papers and one journal paper. The papers evaluate and further develop two modelling methods for use in Information Technology (IT) design and for the educational and training needs of students within the area of computer and network technology. The IT age requires technical talent to fill positions such as network managers, web administrators, e-commerce consultants and network security experts as IT is changing rapidly, and this is placing considerable demands on higher educational institutions, both within Australia and internationally, to respond to these changes

The DARPA Model for Transformative Technologies

"The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has played a remarkable role in the creation new transformative technologies, revolutionizing defense with drones and precision-guided munitions, and transforming civilian life with portable GPS receivers, voice-recognition software, self-driving cars, unmanned aerial vehicles, and, most famously, the ARPANET and its successor, the Internet. Other parts of the U.S. Government and some foreign governments have tried to apply the ‘DARPA model’ to help develop valuable new technologies. But how and why has DARPA succeeded? Which features of its operation and environment contribute to this success? And what lessons does its experience offer for other U.S. agencies and other governments that want to develop and demonstrate their own ‘transformative technologies’? This book is a remarkable collection of leading academic research on DARPA from a wide range of perspectives, combining to chart an important story from the Agency’s founding in the wake of Sputnik, to the current attempts to adapt it to use by other federal agencies. Informative and insightful, this guide is essential reading for political and policy leaders, as well as researchers and students interested in understanding the success of this agency and the lessons it offers to others.

Contemporary pseudo-events: An analysis of the advertising in Wired magazine

The dot-corn and technology boom of the mid-to-late 1990s captured the imagination of the public in both the way they thought about and invested in the future. This study looks at the role the advertising of Wired magazine played in promoting the dot-com boom. Daniel Boorstin (1987) claims that pseudo-events, or events that are manufactured, set society\u27s expectations to levels that cannot be attained. This study examines 75 advertisements taken from issues of Wired published in 1995 and uses criteria outlined by Boorstin to determine if these advertisements are pseudo-events. Traits of the design of Wired magazine framed by Stewart Millar (1998) are used to examine the advertisements and relate them to the content of the magazine itself. This study found that the majority of the advertisements studied can be classified as a pseudo-event under Boorstin\u27s definition and that the advertisements did share design traits in common with the magazine as a whole. These findings support the argument that Wired both contained pseudo-events and acted as a pseudo-event, which helped to heighten society\u27s expectations during the mid-to-late 1990s