Driving citizenship to connected aged population at digital inclusion program ACESSASP – Brazil

Digital inclusion programs contribute to promote a revolution regarding Internet access. WEB 2.0 platform democratization of access is increasing the opportunities to build digital citizenship. In Brazil one of the most important initiatives is AcessaSP Digital Inclusion Program, awarded in 2013 by Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, a kind of digital inclusion Nobel, that recognizes innovative efforts worldwide to connect people. AcessaSP is a digital inclusion program, which is now 15 years old and already reached 80 million users in almost 850 infocenters in operation, developed by São Paulo state government in partnership with Research Center for New Communications Technologies Applied to Education – School of the Future / USP. This paper presents AcessaSP and discusses some results concerning connected aged populations practices as users of AcessaSP infocenters. The study was carried out as a comparative survey with statistical data collected in 2008, 2009 and 2012 based on a SPSS database originally developed to provide AcessaSP program with statistical data. Main results point an exponential participation in social networks and significant appropriation of WEB 2.0 tools, suggesting aged population empowerment

Modeling the Acceptance and Use of Telecenters in Brazil

This article describes the modeling of factors that affect the adoption and use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in Telecenters context. For such, some conceptual dimensions are used, such as a potential demand model (PDM), which aims at characterizing processes that determine the technological acceptance, and an acceptance dynamics model (ADM). Together, PDM and ADM constitute a simulation combined model based on agents that allow the analysis of the effect of different aspects related to Telecenters and the users’s individual profile, according to the target audience behavior. This modeling approach intends to constitute an analysis tool that is able to help formulate digital inclusion public policies.This article describes the modeling of factors that affect the adoption and use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in Telecenters context. For such, some conceptual dimensions are used, such as a potential demand model (PDM), which aims at characterizing processes that determine the technological acceptance, and an acceptance dynamics model (ADM). Together, PDM and ADM constitute a simulation combined model based on agents that allow the analysis of the effect of different aspects related to Telecenters and the users’s individual profile, according to the target audience behavior. This modeling approach intends to constitute an analysis tool that is able to help formulate digital inclusion public policies.This article describes the modeling of factors that affect the adoption and use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in Telecenters context. For such, some conceptual dimensions are used, such as a potential demand model (PDM), which aims at characterizing processes that determine the technological acceptance, and an acceptance dynamics model (ADM). Together, PDM and ADM constitute a simulation combined model based on agents that allow the analysis of the effect of different aspects related to Telecenters and the users’s individual profile, according to the target audience behavior. This modeling approach intends to constitute an analysis tool that is able to help formulate digital inclusion public policies

Interaction on digital tv : electronic government study and proposal

Orientador: Maria Cecilia Calani BaranauskasDissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de ComputaçãoResumo: A TV digital interativa pode ser considerada uma ferramenta com potencial para contribuir na inclusão digital. Dentro de alguns anos, essa tecnologia estará disponível em grande parte dos domicílios brasileiros, incluindo aqueles que não possuem acesso a outros tipos de Tecnologia de Informação e Comunicação. Além disso, a TV já é um dispositivo conhecido por grande parte da população, o que pode facilitar a transposição de barreiras relacionadas à alfabetização digital. Para oferecer aplicações interativas na TV digital que façam sentido para a população brasileira, é necessário conhecer esses usuários prospectivos e entender como eles poderão interagir com essa nova mídia. Além disso, é preciso despertar o interesse dessa população em experimentar a interação na TV, até que essa tecnologia se torne parte do dia-a-dia dessas pessoas. Nesse contexto, este trabalho faz uma análise do cenário brasileiro para a oferta de interatividade na TV com o objetivo de identificar as principais questões que um designer de aplicações interativas encontra ao projetar uma interface de usuário para toda a população, incluindo usuários inexperientes e com baixa alfabetização digital. Artefatos da Semiótica Organizacional são aplicados na condução dessa análise. Conceber uma aplicação de governo eletrônico com o intuito de abranger a maior parte da sociedade implica em analisar a acessibilidade dessa mídia. Esse tema é estudado, mais uma vez fazendo uso da Semiótica Organizacional, para se chegar a recomendações de acessibilidade que possam ser aplicadas à interface de aplicações em TV interativa. Com base nesses estudos, é proposto um protótipo de aplicação de governo eletrônico na TV. Essa aplicação, chamada ciT-goV, representa um canal de comunicação entre o cidadão e a prefeitura de sua cidade. Sua interface de usuário foi concebida de forma a ser auto-explicativa, auxiliando a interação de usuários na sua primeira experiência com a TV interativa. A validação desse protótipo por grupos de usuários confirmou o interesse potencial da população nesse tipo de aplicação. Também foram avaliadas as decisões de design tomadas na sua concepção, respondendo algumas das questões levantadas no início do trabalho e apontando direções para futuras pesquisasAbstract: The interactive digital TV can be considered a potential tool to cope with digital divide. In some years, this technology will be available to most of Brazilians households, including those without access to other Information and Communications Technologies. Furthermore, as TV is already a familiar device for most part of the population, this may overcome a digital literacy barrier. To offer interactive applications on digital TV that make sense to the Brazilian people, it is necessary to identify the prospective users and to understand how they would interact with this new media. Moreover, it is necessary to attract people¿s interest to try interaction on TV, until this technology become part of their daily life. In this context, this work analyses the Brazilian scenario to offer interactivity on TV aiming at identifying the main questions an application designer faces to design a user interface to the whole population, including non-expert and low digital literacy users. Organizational Semiotics artifacts are applied to conduct this analysis. Conceiving an electronic government application to reach most part of the society implies analyzis of this media accessibility. This topic is studied, once again using Organizational Semiotics artifacts, to determine accessibility recommendations that may be applied to applications interfaces of interactive TV. Based on these studies, a prototype of an electronic government application on TV prototype is proposed. This application, named ciT-goV, stands for a communication channel between the citizen and the municipal administration. Its user interface was conceived to be self-explanatory, helping users during their first experience with interactive TV. The validation of this prototype validation by groups of users confirmed the potential population¿s interest on this kind of application. Design decisions on conception were also validated, answering some questions identified in the beginning of this work and pointing out some directions for future researchesMestradoMestre em Ciência da Computaçã

Aspectos motivacionais no design de tecnologia para mudanças sociais

Orientador: Maria Cecília Calani BaranauskasTese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de ComputaçãoResumo: Conectando pessoas e presente em todos os aspectos da vida, quando projetadas para este fim, as tecnologias têm potencial de influenciar a forma com que pessoas em um grupo social percebem e se relacionam com as coisas no ambiente. Este estudo de doutorado em Interação Humano-Computador (IHC) investiga como elementos motivacionais da Psicologia podem ser aplicados para informar o design, explo- rando esse potencial da tecnologia em promover mudanças sociais. O estudo é instanciado no domínio de consumo de energia elétrica, lidando com o desafio contemporâneo de cons- cientizar a sociedade dos limites naturais do planeta no que diz respeito ao uso de recursos naturais. Informar o design com aspectos motivacionais é uma abordagem recente em IHC. Quando encontrada na literatura, comumente tem foco em aspectos individuais e intrín- secos da motivação. Contudo, como argumentado nessa pesquisa, o contexto sociocultural evidencia a importância de considerar também os fatores externos que motivam as pessoas a se engajarem com uma tecnologia e com uma determinada questão social. Por considerar tanto fontes intrínsecas quanto extrínsecas de motivação, a Teoria da Autodeterminação é então considerada o principal referencial teórico da Psicologia nessa investigação, e a Semiótica Organizacional é a base metodológica para analisar os elemen- tos socioculturais que influenciam a motivação extrínseca. A análise situada dos dados socioculturais por uma perspectiva motivacional levou ao design da Tecnologia Socialmente Informada para Eco-Feedback de Energia (sigla SEET, em inglês), uma arquitetura que tem por objetivo estabelecer um novo padrão de com- portamento, ou uma nova maneira de perceber o consumo de energia coletivamente. O SEET é composto por um sistema interativo que promove colaboração, e pela Árvore da Energia, um dispositivo de feedback tangível para locais onde há encontro de pessoas. O SEET é avaliado em dois cenários complementares: uma Escola de Ensino Funda- mental no Brasil, onde os dados socioculturais foram coletados, analisados e aplicados para informar o design; e no contexto de um departamento de uma universidade no Reino Unido. Aspectos motivacionais da arquitetura do SEET são então analisadas, assim como o impacto dessa tecnologia ao desencadear as esperadas mudanças sociaisAbstract: By connecting people and being present in almost all aspects of life, when properly de- signed for that, technology can potentially influence the way people in a social group perceive and relate with things in their environment. This PhD study in the Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) field investigates how motivational elements from Psychology can be applied to inform the design aiming at exploring this potential of technology for promoting a social change. The study is in- stantiated in the energy consumption domain, coping with the contemporary challenge of raising awareness among the society of the planet¿s natural resources usage and limits. Informing the design with motivational aspects is a recent approach in HCI. When found in literature, it is mostly focused on individual and intrinsic aspects of motivation. However, as argued in this research, the sociocultural context evidences the importance of considering also the external factors that motivate people to be engaged with technology and the social issue. By taking into account both intrinsic and extrinsic sources of motivation, the Self- Determination Theory is then considered the main theoretical background from Psychol- ogy in this investigation, and the Organisational Semiotics the methodological basis to analyse sociocultural elements that influence extrinsic motivation. The situated analysis of sociocultural data with motivational lenses has led to the de- sign of a Socially-informed Energy Eco-feedback Technology (SEET), an architecture that aims at establishing a "new pattern of behaviour", or a new way of perceiving collective energy consumption. The SEET is composed by an interactive system that promotes collaboration and The Energy Tree, a tangible and public feedback device for gathering places. The SEET is evaluated in two complementary scenarios: an elementary school in Brazil, where the sociocultural data was collected, analysed and applied to inform design; and in the context of an university department in the United Kingdom. Motivational as- pects of the SEET architecture are then analysed, as well as the impact of this technology to trigger the desired social changeDoutoradoCiência da ComputaçãoDoutora em Ciência da Computaçã

Res Communis Omnium v. Res Nullius in U.S. Space Mining Law & Policy: A Multilevel Theoretical Analysis of U.S. Public Policy on Space Minerals Mining Under TITLE IV, §51301- §403, U.S. 2015 Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act (Public Law 114-90) & Its Implications for International Space Law Under Articles I & II, 1967 Outer Space Treaty

The outer space territory and celestial bodies are unfathomably rich in strategic mineral resources worth trillions of dollars such as water ice, helium-3, platinum, iron, cobalt, and ammonia. These space resources, distinct from their space territorial and celestial bodies loci, need to be located, characterized, captured, processed, concentrated, and transported to points of use in-situ or on Earth by capable state and private space investors, stakeholders, or national agencies, for private benefits. Investors in this embryonic space mining industry need legal certainty and predictability under unambiguous legal and policy frameworks that guarantee property interests over extracted minerals. The Problem is that space mining activity is not expressly accounted for in the governing outer space law, therefore dueling legal theories abound on the legality of space mining. These notions include strict “Non-Appropriation,” permissible competitive appropriations, and conflict-oriented nationalist exclusive / imperial colonization theories. However, this research study finds that under the better, more coherent, and plausible legal interpretation of the “Non-Appropriation” principle, there is no inherent incompatibility between the terra/res communis omnium philosophical basis of Article II, 1967 OST, and the res nullius policy framework of Title IV, U.S. 2015 Space Act. This qualitative research study examined, catalogued, interpreted, and analyzed an exhaustive compendium of empirical and theoretical extant documentary data of outer space Regimes Theory literature, through the lens of a politico-philosophical and legal-historical perspectives. The study used Glaser and Strauss’ (1967) Grounded Theory methodology, in a rigorous comparative inductive analysis of the themes, concepts, and theoretical frameworks inherent in the primary and secondary data of space law and policy. The overarching theory is that Article II, 1967 OST and Title IV, U.S. 2015 Space Act can straightforwardly be harmonized. Thus the U.S. does not need to unilaterally modify the 1967 OST, withdraw from its tenets, or embark on a unilateral imperial colonization of outer space and celestial bodies in order to implement and actualize the policy goals of Title IV, Sec. 51301-03, U.S. 2015 Space Act. On this basis therefore this study adds two novelties to the study of space mining law and policy: first, this research study proposes that contemporary theoretical constructs and the theorists of space mining law and policy are best understood when structured in accordance with their underlying dominant ideological spectrum as done in this study; and second, in addition to theories of implicit presence and legal historical analysis of the travaux preparatoires of international space law, the legitimacy of Title IV is best defended principally on the 1927 “Lotus” principle due to the explicit silence of space mining policy in the body of general international law and its cognate interna

Postcolonial Piracy

This book is available as open access through the Bloomsbury Open Access programme and is available on www.bloomsburycollections.com. Across the global South, new media technologies have brought about new forms of cultural production, distribution and reception. The spread of cassette recorders in the 1970s; the introduction of analogue and digital video formats in the 80s and 90s; the pervasive availability of recycled computer hardware; the global dissemination of the internet and mobile phones in the new millennium: all these have revolutionised the access of previously marginalised populations to the cultural flows of global modernity. Yet this access also engenders a pirate occupation of the modern: it ducks and deranges the globalised designs of property, capitalism and personhood set by the North. Positioning itself against Eurocentric critiques by corporate lobbies, libertarian readings or classical Marxist interventions, this volume offers a profound postcolonial revaluation of the social, epistemic and aesthetic workings of piracy. It projects how postcolonial piracy persistently negotiates different trajectories of property and self at the crossroads of the global and the local

Postcolonial Piracy

This book is available as open access through the Bloomsbury Open Access programme and is available on www.bloomsburycollections.com. Across the global South, new media technologies have brought about new forms of cultural production, distribution and reception. The spread of cassette recorders in the 1970s; the introduction of analogue and digital video formats in the 80s and 90s; the pervasive availability of recycled computer hardware; the global dissemination of the internet and mobile phones in the new millennium: all these have revolutionised the access of previously marginalised populations to the cultural flows of global modernity. Yet this access also engenders a pirate occupation of the modern: it ducks and deranges the globalised designs of property, capitalism and personhood set by the North. Positioning itself against Eurocentric critiques by corporate lobbies, libertarian readings or classical Marxist interventions, this volume offers a profound postcolonial revaluation of the social, epistemic and aesthetic workings of piracy. It projects how postcolonial piracy persistently negotiates different trajectories of property and self at the crossroads of the global and the local

Living and Learning With New Media: Summary of Findings From the Digital Youth Project

Summarizes findings from a three-year study of how new media have been integrated into youth behaviors and have changed the dynamics of media literacy, learning, and authoritative knowledge. Outlines implications for educators, parents, and policy makers

Information and communication technology (ICT) for development of small and medium-sized exporters in Latin America: Brazil

Includes bibliograph

Organising innovation between multinational companies and innovation systems: the Brazilian ICT sector in the late 1990s and early 2000s

This thesis is concerned with the organisation of innovation in the interaction between multinational companies and host-country innovation systems. It proposes a framework for characterising the decentralised governance of innovation projects in sectors and identifying emerging organisational configurations in this specific context. The general characteristics of the project-based knowledge networks are examined in terms of (i) the shifting boundaries between subsidiaries and technological partners, (ii) the specialisation of actors in types of activities and (iii) the speed of change in the collaborations between multinational companies and technological institutes. The emerging configurations are classified in terms of (i) the knowledge and resources flows in different innovation projects and (ii) the common aims of the different groups of stakeholders. This framework is applied on the decentralised networks of innovation projects in the Brazilian ICT sector promoted by tax incentives to innovation activities (―Brazilian ICT Law‖). The empirical analysis combines the data of more than 10,000 innovation projects and in-depth case studies on the organisation of innovative activities in 11 R&D laboratories in subsidiaries of multinational companies and 11 of their main technological partners. The analysis of the project-based knowledge networks and emerging configurations is recognised as a useful tool for examining the dynamics promoted by the sectoral policy. This research provides insights on how the institutional framework such as the Brazilian ICT Law provided the space for the decentralised interaction between different organisations with very different interests. The analysis also shows that the regulation may support higher investments in R&D, but it does not necessarily enforce a project portfolio that promotes a sustainable knowledge flow between multinational companies and the sectoral innovation system. Finally, the thesis includes specific recommendations for addressing key challenges such as the organisational development of the subsidiaries, the emergence of private research institutes and the coordination of sectoral policies. Keywords: sectoral innovation systems, knowledge network, organisation of innovation, economic sociology, R&D policy, innovation projects, project-based learning, interorganisational networks