127,577 research outputs found
TechNews digests: Jan - Nov 2008
TechNews is a technology, news and analysis service aimed at anyone in the education sector keen to stay informed about technology developments, trends and issues. TechNews focuses on emerging technologies and other technology news. TechNews service : digests september 2004 till May 2010 Analysis pieces and News combined publish every 2 to 3 month
Sybil attacks against mobile users: friends and foes to the rescue
Collaborative applications for co-located mobile
users can be severely disrupted by a sybil attack to the point of
being unusable. Existing decentralized defences have largely been
designed for peer-to-peer networks but not for mobile networks.
That is why we propose a new decentralized defence for portable
devices and call it MobID. The idea is that a device manages two
small networks in which it stores information about the devices
it meets: its network of friends contains honest devices, and its
network of foes contains suspicious devices. By reasoning on these
two networks, the device is then able to determine whether
an unknown individual is carrying out a sybil attack or not.
We evaluate the extent to which MobID reduces the number
of interactions with sybil attackers and consequently enables
collaborative applications.We do so using real mobility and social
network data. We also assess computational and communication
costs of MobID on mobile phones
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The potential for a negotiated stopping approach in London
Travelling is a significant part of Gypsies and Travellersâ
culture and way of life and many families continue to
travel in and around London following in the footsteps of
past generations. Being able to stop in safe and secure
conditions and having access to basic facilities such as
sanitation and waste disposal are essential to travelling.
Negotiated stopping is a balanced and humane
approach to managing roadside camps, based on a
mutual agreement between the local authority and
Gypsy and Traveller families on matters such as
correct waste disposal and basic temporary facilities,
sometimes directing Gypsy and Traveller communities
away from contentious public spaces to more
appropriate council land.
This approach is proven to achieve significant savings
in public spending and decreased social costs for
Gypsy and Traveller communities. However, across
London the preferred approach for most local
authorities is rapid eviction of roadside families which
has significant negative impacts
Maintaining, changing and crossing contexts: an activity theoretic reinterpretation of mobile learning
Although mobile learning is a popular topic in current research, it is not well conceptualized. Many researchers rely on underâtheorized conceptions of the topic, and those who have tried to refine the ideas involved have found this to be complex and difficult. In this paper a new interpretation of the concept âmobile learningâ is offered, drawing on the tradition of activity theory. The interpretation focuses on the continuity of learning activities that take place in multiple contexts, which are embodied as the combination of the physical and social setting of the learning activities. The paper starts by sketching the current research context and then outlines the theoretical tradition within which the interpretation of âmobile learningâ is located. Then the new interpretation is offered and the concepts are applied to case studies to illustrate how this new understanding develops current thinking in the area. The paper concludes by discussing the implications for research of adopting such a perspective
Reading with new tools: An evaluation of Personal Digital Assistants as tools for reading course materials
Lightweight, palmtop devices such as personal digital assistants (PDAs) can now be used for reading electronic text, opening up their potential as learning tools. This paper reports a study that evaluated the use of PDAs for reading course materials by students on an Open University master's course. The research is grounded in activity theory, which provides a useful framework for examining how the introduction of a new tool changes an existing activity. Student perceptions of the possibilities and constraints of the PDA, as determined by questionnaires and interviews, reveal the impact the new tool had upon reading. The PDA constrained reading with limitations such as the small screen size, new requirements for navigating through the text and awkward methods for taking notes. These conditions made it difficult for students to skimâread the text, to move back and forth within the document and to interact with the text as easily as they could with paper. Nevertheless, students welcomed the opportunity to have the course materials on a portable, lightweight device that could be used at any time and in any place. This made it easier to fit the reading activity around the various other activities in which students were involved In addition, the PDA was used in conjunction with existing tools, such as the printed version of the course materials and the desktop computer. Therefore, it was not seen to replace paper but rather to extend and complement it. The findings are discussed using concepts from activity theory to interpret how the new tool modified the reading activity
The Hankie Probe: A Materialistic Approach to Mobile UX Research
Mobile user experience (UX) research can benefit from unexplored opportunities from theory and practice. Contemporary sociology has developed sophisticated understandings of mobilities that can expand the scope of mobile HCI research. At the same time, we need to extend the scope of mobile experience beyond its current main foci on the portable device and moments of experience. We report the interim results of exploratory pilot studies of a fabric based probe that has been developed to extend the scope of mobile experience research both theoretically and in the range of insights that can be collected in mobile user studies. We report our initial experiences with a 'hankie' (handkerchief) probe that aims to gather rich usage and experience insights for early stages of design
The History of the iPad
The purpose of this paper is to review the history of the iPad and its influence over contemporary computing. Although the iPad is relatively new, the tablet computer is having a long and lasting affect on how we communicate. With this essay, I attempt to review the technologies that emerged and converged to create the tablet computer. Of course, Apple and its iPad are at the center of this new computing movement
M-health review: joining up healthcare in a wireless world
In recent years, there has been a huge increase in the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) to deliver health and social care. This trend is bound to continue as providers (whether public or private) strive to deliver better care to more people under conditions of severe budgetary constraint
Technology for Good: Innovative Use of Technology by Charities
Technology for Good identifies ten technologies being used by charitable organizations in innovative ways. The report briefly introduces each technology and provides examples of how those technologies are being used.Examples are drawn from a broad spectrum of organizations working on widely varied issues around the globe. This makes Technology for Good a unique repository of inspiration for the public and private sectors, funders, and other change makers who support the creation and use of technology for social good
Definitions, good practices, and global estimates on the status of social protection for international migrants
This paper analyzes the issue of social protection for migrants by looking at formal and informal social protection provisions. In particular, it presents the latest global data on the social protection status on migrants, including undocumented migrants. The paper gives special attention to lower-income countries drawing upon recent studies from the Southern African Development Community (SADC). It finds that migrants in poorer countries have very limited access to formal social protection such as social security systems, and that the legal social protection frameworks are far from making benefits portable. Rather, migrants have to rely on informal social protection, and it is often migration itself that constitutes a form of social protection for migrants and their families. This means that making migration safer for low-income migrants is vital to allow migrants to fully benefit from their migration experience and to ultimately enhance their social protection.Population Policies,,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Emerging Markets,International Migration
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