Cultural transmission modes of music sampling traditions remain stable despite delocalization in the digital age

Music sampling is a common practice among hip-hop and electronic producers that has played a critical role in the development of particular subgenres. Artists preferentially sample drum breaks, and previous studies have suggested that these may be culturally transmitted. With the advent of digital sampling technologies and social media the modes of cultural transmission may have shifted, and music communities may have become decoupled from geography. The aim of the current study was to determine whether drum breaks are culturally transmitted through musical collaboration networks, and to identify the factors driving the evolution of these networks. Using network-based diffusion analysis we found strong evidence for the cultural transmission of drum breaks via collaboration between artists, and identified several demographic variables that bias transmission. Additionally, using network evolution methods we found evidence that the structure of the collaboration network is no longer biased by geographic proximity after the year 2000, and that gender disparity has relaxed over the same period. Despite the delocalization of communities by the internet, collaboration remains a key transmission mode of music sampling traditions. The results of this study provide valuable insight into how demographic biases shape cultural transmission in complex networks, and how the evolution of these networks has shifted in the digital age

Close relationships: A study of mobile communication records

Mobile phone communication as digital service generates ever-increasing datasets of human communication actions, which in turn allow us to investigate the structure and evolution of social interactions and their networks. These datasets can be used to study the structuring of such egocentric networks with respect to the strength of the relationships by assuming direct dependence of the communication intensity on the strength of the social tie. Recently we have discovered that there are significant differences between the first and further "best friends" from the point of view of age and gender preferences. Here we introduce a control parameter $p_{\rm max}$ based on the statistics of communication with the first and second "best friend" and use it to filter the data. We find that when $p_{\rm max}$ is decreased the identification of the "best friend" becomes less ambiguous and the earlier observed effects get stronger, thus corroborating them.Comment: 11 pages, 7 figure

Conversing with personal digital assistants: on gender and artificial intelligence

This paper aims to explore the relationship between gender and artificial intelligence, seeking to understand how and why chatbots and digital assistants appear to be mostly female. To this end, it begins by addressing artificial intelligence and the questions that emerge with its evolution and integration in our daily lives. It then approaches the concept of gender in light of a binary framework, focusing on femininity. These topics are then related, in order to shed some light on how chatbots and digital assistants tend to display feminine attributes. In an attempt to observe these aspects, an analysis of Alexa, Cortana and Siri is developed, focusing on their anthropomorphization, the tasks they perform and their interactions. Complementing this discussion, the project Conversations with ELIZA is presented as an exploration of femininity in AI, through the development of four chatbots integrated into a web-based platform, each performing specific tasks and simulating particular personalities, with the purpose of emphasizing feminine roles and stereotypes. In this manner, this study aims to understand and explore how gender relates to AI, why femininity seems to be often present in AI and which gender roles or stereotypes are reinforced in this process

Harnessing Women’s Potential as a Soft Engine for Growth – Lessons from Contrasting Trajectories between Finland and Japan for Growing Economies

Harnessing the vigor of women’s potential is essential for inclusive economic growth in a digital economy moving toward aging society. This can be a soft engine for sustainable growth substitutable for costly hard investment. While there exists explicit evidence of a virtual cycle between economic growth and gender balance improvement, emerging countries cannot afford to overcome the constraints of low income. Given the foregoing, this paper analyzed possible co-evolution between economic growth, gender balance improvement and digital innovation initiated by information and communication technology (ICT) advancement. Using a unique dataset representing the state of gender balance improvement in the function of economic growth and ICT advancement, an empirical numerical analysis of 44 countries was attempted. These countries were classified as emerging, industrialized and with a specific culture. It was found that while industrialized countries, typically Finland, have realized high performance in co-evolution, emerging countries have been constrained by low ICT advancement, and countries with a specific culture have, notwithstanding their high economic level, also been constrained by a traditional male-dominated culture. Japan is a typical case. Based on these findings, lessons from contrasting trajectories between Finland and Japan for emerging countries were analyzed. It is suggested that advancement of ICT, not only quantitatively but also qualitatively in such a way as constructing a self-propagating system, is crucial for emerging countries. A new practical approach for harnessing the potential resources for sustainable growth was thus explored

Monitoring Gender Gaps via LinkedIn Advertising Estimates: the case study of Italy

Women remain underrepresented in the labour market. Although significant advancements are being made to increase female participation in the workforce, the gender gap is still far from being bridged. We contribute to the growing literature on gender inequalities in the labour market, evaluating the potential of the LinkedIn estimates to monitor the evolution of the gender gaps sustainably, complementing the official data sources. In particular, assessing the labour market patterns at a subnational level in Italy. Our findings show that the LinkedIn estimates accurately capture the gender disparities in Italy regarding sociodemographic attributes such as gender, age, geographic location, seniority, and industry category. At the same time, we assess data biases such as the digitalisation gap, which impacts the representativity of the workforce in an imbalanced manner, confirming that women are under-represented in Southern Italy. Additionally to confirming the gender disparities to the official census, LinkedIn estimates are a valuable tool to provide dynamic insights; we showed an immigration flow of highly skilled women, predominantly from the South. Digital surveillance of gender inequalities with detailed and timely data is particularly significant to enable policymakers to tailor impactful campaigns.Comment: 10 page

Digital Surveillance, Civil Society and the Media during the Covid-19 Pandemic

As the COVID-19 pandemic unfolded, so did many digital technologies promising to improve the public health response. These technologies raised various concerns for civil liberties in the digital age, from infringing on privacy to institutionalizing mass surveillance capacities. This media monitoring projects explores how English-language news organizations worldwide reported on these digital surveillance initiatives over the period of a year. By analyzing news framing, it provides insights into the contours of public debates on digitally driven public health surveillance. The report sheds light on the evolution of coverage over time, its geographic distribution, whose voices were included and excluded from these debates, and the prevalence of mis/dis-information. It also highlights the place of civil society in these narratives; which civil society organizations appeared most often in the media; what roles they played vis-à-vis digital surveillance; and the racial and gender make up of civil society voices appearing in news coverage. It provides a set of recommendations and resources for civil society groups and journalists working on the intersection of civil liberties, public health, and digital technologies

Digitalization and skills in Spain: regional differences and gender gaps

Digital skills are increasingly necessary. When their level is unequal, problems of exclusion can arise in the regional and gender spheres. This paper analyzes both types of digital divides in Spain and their recent evolution. The indicator used is IRIS-DESI and its five dimensions: Connectivity, Human capital, Internet use, Integration of digital technology in companies and Digital public services. Using a hierarchical cluster analysis, the Spanish regions are classified according to their digital development. However, considering the gender gap, no clear regional pattern has been found, possibly due to the very complex and multifaceted nature of the digital economy

Temas clave de las relaciones públicas en Europa: Resultados del European Communication Monitor 2007-2014

European Communication Monitor is the largest longitudinal research project in public relations practice in the world. Data collected annually from 2007 to 2014 show that practitioners perceive five issues as the most important for their work: linking business strategy and communication, coping with the digital evolution and social web, building and maintaining trust, dealing with the demand for more transparency and active audiences, and dealing with the speed and volume of information flow. Perception of the importance of various issues for the practice of public relations is largely dependent on the gender, geography (division between Northern and Western vs. Southern and Eastern Europe), and sector in which a practitioner works (corporate, government, NGO or agency). While gender and sectorial differences studied in academic public relations literature, divisions in public relations practice between North-Western and South-Eastern Europe are largely ignored

Evolution of Privacy Loss in Wikipedia

The cumulative effect of collective online participation has an important and adverse impact on individual privacy. As an online system evolves over time, new digital traces of individual behavior may uncover previously hidden statistical links between an individual's past actions and her private traits. To quantify this effect, we analyze the evolution of individual privacy loss by studying the edit history of Wikipedia over 13 years, including more than 117,523 different users performing 188,805,088 edits. We trace each Wikipedia's contributor using apparently harmless features, such as the number of edits performed on predefined broad categories in a given time period (e.g. Mathematics, Culture or Nature). We show that even at this unspecific level of behavior description, it is possible to use off-the-shelf machine learning algorithms to uncover usually undisclosed personal traits, such as gender, religion or education. We provide empirical evidence that the prediction accuracy for almost all private traits consistently improves over time. Surprisingly, the prediction performance for users who stopped editing after a given time still improves. The activities performed by new users seem to have contributed more to this effect than additional activities from existing (but still active) users. Insights from this work should help users, system designers, and policy makers understand and make long-term design choices in online content creation systems

Gender equity in disaster early warning systems

Capacities of societies, communities and individuals or a social-ecological system to deal with adverse consequences and the impacts of hazard events define the resilience. New and innovative Emergency Communications, Warning Systems (ECWS) technologies and solutions improve resilience of the nations. Research shows that different types of systems (e.g. decision support, resource management, early warning, communications, and inter-agency) are highly valued in emergency and disaster events reducing live losses. As many individuals have online access today and young women have increased their online communication and young men tend to explore technology resources, the potential of using user friendly third revolution digital technology such as semantic features and devices (e.g. SMART phones) have the potential to improve the access to early warning/risk in-formation supporting community decision making saving lives. These personal and social relations that reflect gender dimensions can certainly be examined improving resilience making communities more prepared for disasters with proactive decision making for early warning. Fostering awareness about gender equity which is the recognition of women and men as active participants in development can tailor made within the context of resilience and more specifically within early warning systems saving lives of the people at immediate risk including the dependence of mother’s care (children and older people). In this context, this paper attempts to synthesis literature on the topic of gender equity within disaster early warning systems