42,410 research outputs found
Making Evaluation Work in the Nonprofit Sector: A Call for Systemic Change
This position paper is a call for systemic changes that will create an ecosystem within which it is straightforward, efficient, and rewarding for nonprofits and funders to invest in evaluation work. It is also intended to further critical conversations to build a nonprofit sector that is more responsive, accountable, and focused on the best ways to support the communities in which they work
One Bad Apple Spoils the Bunch: Exploiting P2P Applications to Trace and Profile Tor Users
Tor is a popular low-latency anonymity network. However, Tor does not protect
against the exploitation of an insecure application to reveal the IP address
of, or trace, a TCP stream. In addition, because of the linkability of Tor
streams sent together over a single circuit, tracing one stream sent over a
circuit traces them all. Surprisingly, it is unknown whether this linkability
allows in practice to trace a significant number of streams originating from
secure (i.e., proxied) applications. In this paper, we show that linkability
allows us to trace 193% of additional streams, including 27% of HTTP streams
possibly originating from "secure" browsers. In particular, we traced 9% of Tor
streams carried by our instrumented exit nodes. Using BitTorrent as the
insecure application, we design two attacks tracing BitTorrent users on Tor. We
run these attacks in the wild for 23 days and reveal 10,000 IP addresses of Tor
users. Using these IP addresses, we then profile not only the BitTorrent
downloads but also the websites visited per country of origin of Tor users. We
show that BitTorrent users on Tor are over-represented in some countries as
compared to BitTorrent users outside of Tor. By analyzing the type of content
downloaded, we then explain the observed behaviors by the higher concentration
of pornographic content downloaded at the scale of a country. Finally, we
present results suggesting the existence of an underground BitTorrent ecosystem
on Tor
From Seed to Impact: Building the Foundations for a High-Impact Social Entrepreneurship Ecosystem
In this paper GSEN has collaborated with its global network of intermediary organisations to conduct one of the first dedicated investigations into support for early-stage social entrepreneurs. It draws on the data and experiences of 33 GSEN members to uncover the methodologies they use, as well as the opportunities and benefits of joining forces within a network
Life Cycle Costing and Food Systems: Concepts, Trends, and Challenges of Impact Valuation
Our global food systems create pervasive environmental, social, and health impacts. Impact valuation is an emerging concept that aims to quantify all environmental, social, and health costs of food systems in an attempt to make the true cost of food more transparent. It also is designed to facilitate the transformation of global food systems. The concept of impact valuation is emerging at the same time as, and partly as a response to, calls for the development of legal mechanisms to address environmental, social, and health concerns. Information has long been understood both as a necessary precursor for regulation and as a regulatory tool in and of itself. With global supply chains and widespread impacts, data necessary to produce robust and complete impact valuation requires participation and cooperation from a variety of food system actors. New costing methods, beyond basic accounting, are necessary to incorporate the scope of impacts and stakeholders. Furthermore, there are a range of unanswered questions surrounding realizations of impact valuation methods, e.g. data sharing, international privacy, corporate transparency, limitations on valuation itself, and data collection standardization. Because of the proliferation of calls for costing tools, this article steps back and assesses the current development of impact valuation methods. In this article, we review current methods and initiatives for the implementation of food system impact valuation. We conclude that in some instances, calls for the implementation of costing have outpaced available and reliable data collection and current costing techniques. Many existing initiatives are being developed without adequate consideration of the legal challenges that hinder implementation. Finally, we conclude with a reminder that although impact valuation tools are most often sought and implemented in service of market-based tools for reform, they can also serve as a basis for robust public policies
Coopetition of software firms in Open source software ecosystems
Software firms participate in an ecosystem as a part of their innovation
strategy to extend value creation beyond the firms boundary. Participation in
an open and independent environment also implies the competition among firms
with similar business models and targeted markets. Hence, firms need to
consider potential opportunities and challenges upfront. This study explores
how software firms interact with others in OSS ecosystems from a coopetition
perspective. We performed a quantitative and qualitative analysis of three OSS
projects. Finding shows that software firms emphasize the co-creation of common
value and partly react to the potential competitiveness on OSS ecosystems. Six
themes about coopetition were identified, including spanning gatekeepers,
securing communication, open-core sourcing and filtering shared code. Our work
contributes to software engineering research with a rich description of
coopetition in OSS ecosystems. Moreover, we also come up with several
implications for software firms in pursing a harmony participation in OSS
ecosystems.Comment: This is the author's version of the work. Copyright owner's version
can be accessed at
https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-69191-6_10, Coopetition
of software firms in Open source software ecosystems, 8th ICSOB 2017, Essen,
Germany (2017
The State of Network Neutrality Regulation
The Network Neutrality (NN) debate refers to the battle over the design of a regulatory framework for preserving the Internet as a public network and open innovation platform. Fueled by concerns that broadband access service providers might abuse network management to discriminate against third party providers (e.g., content or application providers), policymakers have struggled with designing rules that would protect the Internet from unreasonable network management practices. In this article, we provide an overview of the history of the debate in the U.S. and the EU and highlight the challenges that will confront network engineers designing and operating networks as the debate continues to evolve.BMBF, 16DII111, Verbundprojekt: Weizenbaum-Institut fĂĽr die vernetzte Gesellschaft - Das Deutsche Internet-Institut; Teilvorhaben: Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin fĂĽr Sozialforschung (WZB)EC/H2020/679158/EU/Resolving the Tussle in the Internet: Mapping, Architecture, and Policy Making/ResolutioNe
A First Look at the Crypto-Mining Malware Ecosystem: A Decade of Unrestricted Wealth
Illicit crypto-mining leverages resources stolen from victims to mine
cryptocurrencies on behalf of criminals. While recent works have analyzed one
side of this threat, i.e.: web-browser cryptojacking, only commercial reports
have partially covered binary-based crypto-mining malware. In this paper, we
conduct the largest measurement of crypto-mining malware to date, analyzing
approximately 4.5 million malware samples (1.2 million malicious miners), over
a period of twelve years from 2007 to 2019. Our analysis pipeline applies both
static and dynamic analysis to extract information from the samples, such as
wallet identifiers and mining pools. Together with OSINT data, this information
is used to group samples into campaigns. We then analyze publicly-available
payments sent to the wallets from mining-pools as a reward for mining, and
estimate profits for the different campaigns. All this together is is done in a
fully automated fashion, which enables us to leverage measurement-based
findings of illicit crypto-mining at scale. Our profit analysis reveals
campaigns with multi-million earnings, associating over 4.4% of Monero with
illicit mining. We analyze the infrastructure related with the different
campaigns, showing that a high proportion of this ecosystem is supported by
underground economies such as Pay-Per-Install services. We also uncover novel
techniques that allow criminals to run successful campaigns.Comment: A shorter version of this paper appears in the Proceedings of 19th
ACM Internet Measurement Conference (IMC 2019). This is the full versio
Lifelong guidance policy and practice in the EU
A study on lifelong guidance (LLG) policy and practice in the EU focusing on trends, challenges and opportunities. Lifelong guidance aims to provide career development support for individuals of all ages, at all career stages. It includes careers information, advice, counselling, assessment of skills and mentoring
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