Internet... the final frontier: an ethnographic account: exploring the cultural space of the Net from the inside

The research project The Internet as a space for interaction, which completed its mission in Autumn 1998, studied the constitutive features of network culture and network organisation. Special emphasis was given to the dynamic interplay of technical and social conventions regarding both the Net’s organisation as well as its change. The ethnographic perspective chosen studied the Internet from the inside. Research concentrated upon three fields of study: the hegemonial operating technology of net nodes (UNIX) the network’s basic transmission technology (the Internet Protocol IP) and a popular communication service (Usenet). The project’s final report includes the results of the three branches explored. Drawing upon the development in the three fields it is shown that changes that come about on the Net are neither anarchic nor arbitrary. Instead, the decentrally organised Internet is based upon technically and organisationally distributed forms of coordination within which individual preferences collectively attain the power of developing into definitive standards. --

Culture and Commerce

Illustrates the possibilities and challenges of making partnerships between economic development agencies and traditional arts organizations work. Examines the outcome of eight collaborations that were formed as part of a partnership funding initiative

The MacArthur Foundation in Nigeria: Report on Activities 2009

Highlights the foundation's work to build the scientific research capacity of Nigerian universities, to reduce maternal mortality and improve sexual and reproductive health, and to advance human rights. Includes grantee profiles and selected grants list

Increasing Youth Safety and Responsible Behavior Online: Putting in Place Programs that Work.

Hundreds of programs are being developed to promote safe and responsible online behavior among youth. They are being successfully marketed and eagerly adopted because of their appealing content, exciting graphics, engaging games, catchy phrases and cool characters. But that is not enough. The bottom line for everyone to remember -- funders, program developers, communities, schools, and families -- is that these programs need to actually work. They need to change youth attitudes and inspire youth to make smart and ethical choices about how they behave online. If programs are not doing this, then no matter how beautiful the graphics or sophisticated the video production, time and money are being wasted. Children are not safer and parents and teachers may wrongly conclude that they have successfully addressed the problems. Unfortunately, right now, we have no information that Internet safety programs work. Or which ones are most likely to work. We see parents and schools excited about the material. We hear stories about kids who did something important after seeing a program. But prevention and education experts know that “feelings” and stories can be very misleading. We’ve made such mistakes before—particularly in trying to prevent youth drug and alcohol abuse. There are striking parallels in our eagerness to educate youth about Internet safety and the rushed and ultimately disastrous efforts to prevent drug problems in the 1970s and 80s (see Box 1). It is critical that we avoid making the same mistakes. Rigorous, scientific evaluation is necessary to tell us what works. And it is crucial to have this information before programs are disseminated widely. Those unfamiliar with program evaluation might be unsure about why it is so necessary or worry that it will stifle innovation. There can be confusion about how to organize an evaluation. Evaluation can be expensive and it does take time to complete. But lower costs and speedy dissemination are questionable benefits when there is no evidence whatsoever that a program is helping youth. With this paper, we hope to inspire the Internet safety field to make evaluation an integral part of program development, and consumers to insist on information about effectiveness. We make a case for evaluation, try to de-mystify the process, respond to common concerns or questions about evaluation, and propose some steps to ensure that our programs help youth stay safe online

Resources for Child Caring: An Early Childhood Intermediary?

While Minnesota's early childhood (EC) system has many assets, the existing high degree of fragmentation creates resource accessibility problems for both families and providers. Recently, there has been a growing call for a unified voice to facilitate change in Minnesota's early childhood system. This presents an opportunity for an organization like Resources for Child Caring (RCC), a well?established regional organization, to assume a prominent role in efforts to reform the EC system by becoming an intermediary organization. Becoming an intermediary would provide RCC an opportunity to grow and become a leader in efforts to improve services and outcomes for Minnesota's children.Before taking this path, RCC will need to carefully consider the benefits and consequences of such a change and whether such a move would fit the mission and vision of the organization. To help RCC assess its capacity for growth and to fulfill an intermediary role, we conducted an in?depth study of the organization's current state, as well as research on the Minnesota early childhood field and existing models of intermediary organizations. This report presents our literature review, organizational audit of current conditions, and organizational gap analysis

New Hampshire civic health index

The Carsey Institute is participating in a study to examine America\u27s civic health. Led by the Conference on Citizenship (NCoC), America\u27s Civic Health Index is an annual study that measures a wide variety of civic indicators, such as community involvement and helping others. New Hampshire is one of six states partnering with NCoC to produce a state-specific report that examines the civic health in the Granite State

Challenges in Developing Applications for Aging Populations

Elderly individuals can greatly benefit from the use of computer applications, which can assist in monitoring health conditions, staying in contact with friends and family, and even learning new things. However, developing accessible applications for an elderly user can be a daunting task for developers. Since the advent of the personal computer, the benefits and challenges of developing applications for older adults have been a hot topic of discussion. In this chapter, the authors discuss the various challenges developers who wish to create applications for the elderly computer user face, including age-related impairments, generational differences in computer use, and the hardware constraints mobile devices pose for application developers. Although these challenges are concerning, each can be overcome after being properly identified

Iowa Community Empowerment Newsletter, June 2007, Vol.8, no.3

Monthly newsletter for the Iowa Department of Public Healt

Policy Partners: Making the Case for State Investments in Culture

Points to increasing evidence that governors and other state policymakers consider the development of cultural resources integral to comprehensive plans aimed at stimulating regional economic growth