Flying green from a carbon neutral airport : the case of Brussels

The aviation sector is one of the fastest growing emitters of greenhouse gases worldwide. In addition, airports have important local environmental impacts, mainly in the form of noise pollution and deterioration in air quality. Although noise nuisance in the vicinity of airports is recognized as an important problem of the urban environment which is often addressed by regulation, other environmental problems associated with aviation are less widely acknowledged. In the climate debate, the importance of which is rising, aviation has remained under the radar for decades. In the present paper, we use the case of Brussels Airport (Belgium) to demonstrate that the local perception of air travel-related environmental problems may be heavily influenced by the communication strategy of the airport company in question. Basing our analysis on publicly available data, communication initiatives, media reports, and policy documents, we find that (1) the noise impact of aviation is recognized and mainly described in an institutionalized format, (2) the impact of aviation on local air quality is ignored, and (3) the communication on climate impact shows little correspondence or concern with the actual effects. These findings are relevant for other airports and sectors, since the type of environmental communication produced by airport companies can also be observed elsewhere

The Internet’s Influence on Environmental Awareness

This paper examines the influence that the mass media have had on environmentalism issues since the early 1960s, and how the convergence of media on the Internet has changed the way environmental topics are communicated to and perceived by the public. For the purpose of this paper, mass media refers to all media technologies which are used for mass communication including radio, television, newspapers, the Internet, and films. Using BeGreenWeb, a web site about environmentalism, as a case study, this paper will examine the role of media in environmental awareness and how the Internet can be used effectively to inform the public about environmental issues

Security, Privacy and Economics of Online Advertising

Online advertising is at the core of today’s Web: it is the main business model, generating large annual revenues expressed in tens of billions of dollars that sponsor most of the online content and services. Online advertising consists of delivering marketing messages, embedded into Web content, to a targeted audience. In this model, entities attract Web traffic by offering the content and services for free and charge advertisers for including advertisements in this traffic (i.e., advertisers pay for users’ attention and interests). Online advertising is a very successful form of advertising as it allows for advertisements (ads) to be targeted to individual users’ interests; especially when advertisements are served on users’ mobile devices, as ads can be targeted to users’ locations and the corresponding context. However, online advertising also introduces a number of problems. Given the high ad revenue at stake, fraudsters have economic incentives to exploit the ad system and generate profit from it. Unfortunately, to achieve this goal, they often compromise users’ online security (e.g., via malware, phishing, etc.). For the purpose of maximizing the revenue by matching ads to users’ interests, a number of techniques are deployed, aimed at tracking and profiling users’ digital footprints, i.e., their behavior in the digital world. These techniques introduce new threats to users’ privacy. Consequently, some users adopt ad-avoidance tools that prevent the download of advertisements and partially thwart user profiling. Such user behavior, as well as exploits of ad systems, have economic implications as they undermine the online advertising business model. Meddling with advertising revenue disrupts the current economic model of the Web, the consequences of which are unclear. Given that today’s Web model relies on online advertising revenue in order for users to have access and consume content and services for “free”, coupled with the fact that there are many threats that could jeopardize this model, in this thesis we address the security, privacy and economic issues stemming from this fundamental element of the Web. In the first part of the thesis, we investigate the vulnerabilities of online advertising systems. We identify how an adversary can exploit the ad system to generate profit for itself, notably by performing inflight modification of ad traffic. We provide a proof-of-concept implementation of the identified threat on Wi-Fi routers. We propose a collaborative approach for securing online advertising and Web browsing against such threats. By investigating how a certificate-based authentication is deployed in practice, we assess the potential of relying on certificate-based authentication as a building block of a solution to protect the ad revenue. We propose a multidisciplinary approach for improving the current state of certificate-based authentication on the Web. In the second part of the thesis, we study the economics of ad systems’ exploits and certain potential countermeasures. We evaluate the potential of different solutions aimed at protecting ad revenue being implemented by the stakeholders (e.g., Internet Service Providers or ad networks) and the conditions under which this is likely to happen. We also study the economic ramifications of ad-avoidance technologies on the monetization of online content. We use game-theory to model the strategic behavior of involved entities and their interactions. In the third part of the thesis, we focus on privacy implications of online advertising. We identify a novel threat to users’ location privacy that enables service providers to geolocate users with high accuracy, which is needed to serve location-targeted ads for local businesses. We draw attention to the large scale of the threat and the potential impact on users’ location privacy

JOHANNESBURG METRO POLICE DEPARTMENT (JMPD) FINESONLINE.CO.ZA TRAFFIC FINE SYSTEM

The Johannesburg Metro Police Department (JMPD) Finesonline.co.za system aims to serve as part of a company called 2Big Mobile's Integrated Information System (I2MS), a five-part project, of which three phases have now been implemented by the Johannesburg Metro Police Department. The system seeks to offer Johannesburg motorists the chance to search for and view details of their fines, thus allowing motorists to verify their fines by viewing online pictures from speed and red light cameras as well as give them the opportunity to query and or contest the summons or warrant(s). There are far too many people issued with traffic fines daily on South African roads throughout the country. There are also equally as many if not more motorists who are arrested on a daily basis because of unpaid fines; but are reluctant to pay because they do not have the time to stand in winding queues at traffic departments or local municipalities to do it. At the moment, if a motorist wants to check traffic camera photos they have to visit the traffic department in person, sometimes more than once. That is very inconvenient and usually impossible for people who were a long way from home when they incurred the fine. There is only one main municipal court in the Johannesburg CBD that handles traffic fines as well as all the other by-laws contraventions, and hears many cases daily. This leads to reluctance of offenders to contest/query their fine which ultimately leads to more offenders neglecting their sununonses/warrants; which in turn leads to more motorists being arrested at roadblocks. Many researchers have found that E-commerce and usability issues are inextricably linked, since unusable E-commerce sites are often also unsuccessful. It has been discovered that usability plus security issues are the major setbacks to a lot of E-Commerce website in South Africa. Through this project, the author aspires to discover ways to achieve this fourth phase of the JMPD project by developing a website that will facilitate a good and up to date database system which allows for good capturing of data, including images, a sound search capability; being able to retrieve the correct fine/warrant with its relevant and corresponding information for that specific user together with the images of the offense. Lastly, the system should, provide a means to or act as an intermediary between the Johannesburg traffic department and the mnnicipal court to facilitate simpler and specialized querying of fines and or warrants. While striving to achieve, this, the system should also be usable and secure meeting nniversal E-Commerce standards. The system was developed in accordance with System Development Life Cycle (SDLC) ; comprising Analysis phase, Requirements Specification phase, Designing phase, Implementation and Testing, all following Royce's Final Model of the Waterfall Model with the output of each phase serving as the input in the subsequent phase, allowing jumping back and forth between phases to accommodate changing requirements. The selection of tool for this system was done without compromise to ensure that all the objectives of the system would be met and the successful development of the JMPD Finesonline.co.za realised. In conclusion, the JMPD Finesonline.co.za System will be a solution for the problems faced with the current manual system. It will therefore enhance service delivery on the part of the JMPD as well as the mnnicipal courts by better serving South African citizens efficiently and conveniently

Campus News September 10, 2004

https://digitalcommons.lasalle.edu/campus_news/1024/thumbnail.jp

Campus News September 10, 2004

https://digitalcommons.lasalle.edu/campus_news/2590/thumbnail.jp

Information Outlook, April 2007

Volume 11, Issue 4https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/sla_io_2007/1003/thumbnail.jp