From Social Data Mining to Forecasting Socio-Economic Crisis

Socio-economic data mining has a great potential in terms of gaining a better understanding of problems that our economy and society are facing, such as financial instability, shortages of resources, or conflicts. Without large-scale data mining, progress in these areas seems hard or impossible. Therefore, a suitable, distributed data mining infrastructure and research centers should be built in Europe. It also appears appropriate to build a network of Crisis Observatories. They can be imagined as laboratories devoted to the gathering and processing of enormous volumes of data on both natural systems such as the Earth and its ecosystem, as well as on human techno-socio-economic systems, so as to gain early warnings of impending events. Reality mining provides the chance to adapt more quickly and more accurately to changing situations. Further opportunities arise by individually customized services, which however should be provided in a privacy-respecting way. This requires the development of novel ICT (such as a self- organizing Web), but most likely new legal regulations and suitable institutions as well. As long as such regulations are lacking on a world-wide scale, it is in the public interest that scientists explore what can be done with the huge data available. Big data do have the potential to change or even threaten democratic societies. The same applies to sudden and large-scale failures of ICT systems. Therefore, dealing with data must be done with a large degree of responsibility and care. Self-interests of individuals, companies or institutions have limits, where the public interest is affected, and public interest is not a sufficient justification to violate human rights of individuals. Privacy is a high good, as confidentiality is, and damaging it would have serious side effects for society.Comment: 65 pages, 1 figure, Visioneer White Paper, see http://www.visioneer.ethz.c

The Functionality, Interface and Uptake of an energy saving application for mobile devices

Four focus groups involving 18 participants took part in a structured elicitation session in which they gave their views and opinions on the functionality and interface design of a possible energy saving application for mobile devices. A qualitative topical analysis of their discussions indicated a distinct expectation that the application would enable them to save money, and a preference for displaying information in a financial or cost-based format rather than in physical units. Summarising this by time period (especially day), rooms and even devices would be welcomed, as would relating consumption to a personally tailored target or baseline amount, and to normative comparisons (e.g., a typical person / household like you). Comparison of the tariffs of different energy suppliers would be a useful feature to promote initial acquisition of the app. Data entry on first use followed by use of the camera to scan codes would be acceptable. While seen as useful when mentioned, integrating meter-reading functionality into the app was not seen as a key attraction. Provision of basic energy related information for the specific devices owned would be expected by users. Technology permitting, the ability to monitor each device’s usage and to remotely control them would be welcomed – even the ability to turn on a device remotely would allow people to leave it off when away from the home. Alerts should be used with caution: where they are specifically informative and directly help the person reach goals that they recognise as beneficial, they will be acceptable, but they do run the real risk of annoying users. Games might play a useful function for users with children, who might prevent users from deleting the app if the game is attractive to them, but they seem unlikely to be a key attraction. Social networking was seen more as a way of virally spreading uptake of the app and maintaining its use within a community of users than as a way of motivating people to change behaviour. As with use of alerts, the ability to post to networking sites on behalf of users should be treated very cautiously, but allowing people to provide (or pass on) tips to each other might enhance the impact of advice suggested by the app. Any graphical representations should be simple, with complexity presented on demand by the user (‘drilling-down’). There was no consensus on bar or line charts, although dial and rainbow metaphors were well received: optionality would seem to be required here, with users able to select their preferred format. Any use of emoticons should be seen as additional to the main display of information, rather than as the central approach. Physical units such as kWh or joules should be avoided, and consumption expressed in financial terms wherever possible. There was clear awareness of the nature of thermographic images, which suggests that they could play a useful part in communicating consumption, even in simulations. Short-term financial consequences dominated the discussion in all of the groups, but there was a realisation that for some the longer-term environmental benefits of behaviour change might be worth presenting. A jaded awareness of fear-appeal visualisations (e.g., polar bears on melting icebergs) suggests that such negative approaches to the consequences of energy use would have limited effect. Positive consequences were not mentioned often (e.g., ‘saved a child in Tibet’) and might thus have more impact, through being novel and unexpected

ALPS ePortfolio Project Report

The ALPS ePortfolio project was funded by the Yorkshire and Humber Strategic Health Authority (SHA) to involve students in investigating the use, benefits and requirements of ePorfolios in health and social care education. It was undertaken by the ALPS CETL (www.alps-cetl.ac.uk), which involved 5 universities and 16 health and social-care professions. Sixteen students were employed to work on the project, reviewing ePortfolio use and designing an ideal ePortfolio for health and social care education. The main project objectives were achieved; the project team identified benefits that could be achieved through ePortfolio use, wrote guidelines for the effective introduction of ePortfolios and agreed on the specification (a list of desired functionalities) for an ideal ePortfolio. In addition, the use of ePortfolios and reflective diaries increased within the student group and various approaches to championing ePortfolios (to both students and staff) were explored. The students enjoyed working as part of a project team alongside the academic staff; feeling that their work was valued and that they gained important skills and experiences from their involvement. The skills reported as being enhanced were in the common competency areas (teamworking, communication and interprofessional working) that the wider ALPS programme has been supporting. The students identified two key pieces of further work they thought was needed in this area: • To build the improved ePortfolio based on their specification. • To integrate ePortfolios more effectively into the courses and the professions Suggestions for integrating ePortfolios more effectively into their courses included: • linking it to other key university systems (email and submissions) to encourage daily use • ensuring that it provided a place where students could save and manage their own material as well as course reflections • better support and use by staff so that the ePortfolio acted as an interface between students and staff and • better links between HE and the professions' use of ePortfolios to ease the transition from education to the workplace Improved linking between the HE and professional use of ePortfolios is an area that the ALPS CETL is in a good position to investigate further, as the CETL has involved collaboration between the universities and 16 health and social care professions. Work in this area could be taken forward by the ALPS ePortfolio network (ALPS 2010) which was set up in Autumn 2010