Pioneers, subcultures and cooperatives: The grassroots augmentation of urban places

About the book: There have been numerous possible scenarios depicted on the impact of the internet on urban spaces. Considering ubiquitous/pervasive computing, mobile, wireless connectivity and the acceptance of the Internet as a non extraordinary part of our everyday lives mean that physical urban space is augmented, and digital in itself. This poses new problems as well as opportunities to those who have to deal with it. This book explores the intersection and articulation of physical and digital environments and the ways they can extend and reshape a spirit of place. It considers this from three main perspectives: the implications for the public sphere and urban public or semi-public spaces; the implications for community regeneration and empowerment; and the dilemmas and challenges which the augmentation of space implies for urbanists. Grounded with international real -life case studies, this is an up-to-date, interdisciplinary and holistic overview of the relationships between cities, communities and high technologies

The Study of the Pioneer Anomaly: New Data and Objectives for New Investigation

Radiometric tracking data from Pioneer 10 and 11 spacecraft has consistently indicated the presence of a small, anomalous, Doppler frequency drift, uniformly changing with a rate of ~6 x 10^{-9} Hz/s; the drift can be interpreted as a constant sunward acceleration of each particular spacecraft of a_P = (8.74 \pm 1.33) x 10^{-10} m/s^2. This signal is known as the Pioneer anomaly; the nature of this anomaly remains unexplained. We discuss the efforts to retrieve the entire data sets of the Pioneer 10/11 radiometric Doppler data. We also report on the recently recovered telemetry files that may be used to reconstruct the engineering history of both spacecraft using original project documentation and newly developed software tools. We discuss possible ways to further investigate the discovered effect using these telemetry files in conjunction with the analysis of the much extended Doppler data. We present the main objectives of new upcoming study of the Pioneer anomaly, namely i) analysis of the early data that could yield the direction of the anomaly, ii) analysis of planetary encounters, that should tell more about the onset of the anomaly, iii) analysis of the entire dataset, to better determine the anomaly's temporal behavior, iv) comparative analysis of individual anomalous accelerations for the two Pioneers, v) the detailed study of on-board systematics, and vi) development of a thermal-electric-dynamical model using on-board telemetry. The outlined strategy may allow for a higher accuracy solution for a_P and, possibly, will lead to an unambiguous determination of the origin of the Pioneer anomaly.Comment: 43 pages, 40 figures, 3 tables, minor changes before publicatio

Pioneer Anomaly: Evaluating Newly Recovered Data

The Pioneer 10/11 spacecraft yielded the most precise navigation in deep space to date. However, their radio-metric tracking data received from the distances between 20--70 astronomical units from the Sun consistently indicated the presence of a small, anomalous, Doppler frequency drift. The drift is a blue frequency shift that can be interpreted as a sunward acceleration of a_P = (8.74 +/- 1.33) x 10^(-10) m/s^2 for each particular spacecraft. This signal has become known as the Pioneer anomaly; the nature of this anomaly remains unexplained. New Pioneer 10 and 11 radio-metric Doppler data recently became available. The much extended set of Pioneer Doppler data is the primary source for new upcoming investigation of the anomaly. We also have almost entire records of flight telemetry files received from the the Pioneers. Together with original project documentation and newly developed software tools, this additional information is now used to reconstruct the engineering history of both spacecraft. To that extent, a thermal model of the Pioneer vehicles is being developed to study possible contribution of thermal recoil force acting on the two spacecraft. In addition, to improve the accuracy of orbital reconstruction, we developed a new approach that uses actual flight telemetry data during trajectory analysis of radio-metric Doppler files. The ultimate goal of these efforts is to investigate possible contributions of the thermal recoil force to the detected anomalous acceleration.Comment: 12 pages, 15 figures, invited talk at the "III Mexican Meeting on Mathematical and Experimental Physics," Mexico City, Mexico, 10-14 September 200

The role of industry, occupation, and location specific knowledge in the survival of new firms

How do regions acquire the knowledge they need to diversify their economic activities? How does the migration of workers among firms and industries contribute to the diffusion of that knowledge? Here we measure the industry, occupation, and location-specific knowledge carried by workers from one establishment to the next using a dataset summarizing the individual work history for an entire country. We study pioneer firms--firms operating in an industry that was not present in a region--because the success of pioneers is the basic unit of regional economic diversification. We find that the growth and survival of pioneers increase significantly when their first hires are workers with experience in a related industry, and with work experience in the same location, but not with past experience in a related occupation. We compare these results with new firms that are not pioneers and find that industry-specific knowledge is significantly more important for pioneer than non-pioneer firms. To address endogeneity we use Bartik instruments, which leverage national fluctuations in the demand for an activity as shocks for local labor supply. The instrumental variable estimates support the finding that industry-related knowledge is a predictor of the survival and growth of pioneer firms. These findings expand our understanding of the micro-mechanisms underlying regional economic diversification events

Are we there yet? The journey of ICT integration

[Abstract]: “Are we there yet, are we there yet, how much longer?” This plea can be heard from teachers throughout the world. The ICT integration pioneers beam at the thought of what’s next, however the middle and late adopters shudder at the thought of what is coming next and wonder if and when they are going to get there, wherever there is? This differentiating attitude in ICT integration can be attributed to the teachers’ personal confidence in using ICTs. This paper explores the ICT integration journey of teacher’s from 10 provincial primary schools in Queensland, Australia. It will examine the teachers’ past and present attitudes toward the integration of ICTs in their classrooms and attempt to predict their future attitudes. Participants will also be invited to discuss attitudes towards ICT integration from their perspective