Some ethical and legal considerations in the use of Web 2.0

This chapter explores ethical and legal issues that need to be considered by health information professionals when using Web 2.0 technologies. It reviews how the Internet and the Web have affected standards of professional behaviour, and highlights the problems that result when legal frameworks lag behind a rapidly developing technology. It discusses the need for appropriate forms of risk assessment with particular reference to issues of defamation, data protection, and intellectual property rights. A bibliography of further reading is appended

Internet: turning science communication inside-out?

In the four decades since two university computers were first linked to each other over the prototype internet, scientific researchers have been innovators, early adopters and prolific adapters of internet technologies. Electronic mail, file transfer protocol, telnet, Gopher and the World Wide Web were all developed and applied first in research communities. The Web's development for sharing of information in the high-energy physics community unexpectedly heralded the internet's extension into many aspects of commerce, community, entertainment and governance. But despite the rapid proliferation and diversification of both over the past 15 years, the internet in its various forms has scientific communication indelibly inscribed into its fabric, and internet communication is thoroughly integrated into the practice of science. This chapter reviews some effects of the internet's emergence as a principal means of professional scientific communication, and of public communication of science and technology. It notes several paradoxes that characterise these developments, for example the contradictory trends towards easier collaboration across continents, and towards greater fragmentation. It notes the very significant disturbances caused by electronic publishing in the all-important field of scientific journals. It suggests that these and other developments have made more completely porous than before the boundaries between professional and public communication, facilitating public access to previously private spaces, and thus 'turning science communication inside-out'

Marco civil de internet en Brasil y referentes en la región Américas

This article reviews the development of the internet civilian framework (ICF) in Brazil - to be until now the only country in the American continent with a political Internet constitution; As well as the policies that have been implemented in the Americas Region. For the above, the Brazilian policies that guarantee the rights of privacy and neutrality of the network against those of the same type in the continent that are contrasted, evidencing the failure of the latter to violate - precisely - the rights that they pretended to claim; In this sense, the Colombian case is examined. The document provides a baseline for research on regulation of the use of this service in the region, as well as on the impact it generates among Internet users.El presente artículo revisa el desarrollo del marco civil de internet (MCI) en Brasil -por ser hasta ahora el único país del continente americano con una constitución política de internet-; así como las políticas que, al respecto, se han implementado en la Región Américas. Para lo anterior, se contrastan las políticas brasileñas con las que se garantizaron los derechos de privacidad y neutralidad de la red, frente a las del mismo tipo en el continente, evidenciándose el fracaso de estas últimas por violar –precisamente- los derechos que pretendían reivindicar; en este sentido, se examina el caso colombiano. El documento da una línea de base para investigaciones sobre regulación del uso de este servicio en la región, así como sobre el impacto que el mismo genera entre los internautas

Veteran Educators\u27 Perceptions of the Internet\u27s Impact on Learning and Social Development

In a time where some 2.4 billion Internet users exist worldwide, children are increasingly impacted by the Internet\u27s influence, both directly and indirectly. With technology now playing a significant role in childhood learning and social development, many unforeseen shifts are occurring that will ultimately impact lifespan development. Although researchers have provided mixed results concerning the impact of the Internet on learning and social development, the body of evidence indicates that veteran K-8 educators who are comfortable and experienced with the Internet view it more favorably. This grounded theory study systematically generated the multisystem technological engagement theory (MSTET) to explain the impact of the Internet on childhood learning and social development. Semistructured interviews were conducted with 14 self-identified veteran K-8 educators. Analysis of the data was conducted using a 3-tiered method of coding that was verified through the process of triangulation and member-checking. Results of this study indicate that the veteran K-8 educators perceived the Internet\u27s impact as positive, given a specific set of conditions: experience and comfort with the Internet, collaboration with parents, a healthy balance between face-to-face and online social interactions, boundaries, and maximization of benefits from available information and resources. These findings may enhance social change initiatives by providing an evidence basis for both targeted instruction and school counseling practice that facilitates healthy K-8 learning and social development in the Internet Age

Jihad online : how do terrorists use the internet?

Terrorism is designed to attract attention to the terrorist's cause and to spread fear and anxiety among wide circles of the targeted population. This paper provides information about the ways terrorists are using the Internet. The threat of terrorism is real and significant. As the Internet becomes a major arena for modern terrorists, we need to understand how modern terrorism operates and devise appropriate methods to forestall such activities

See you on Facebook: the effect of social networking on human interaction

This paper proposes an evolutionary framework to explore the dynamics of social interaction in an environment characterized by online networking and increasing pressure on time. The model shows how time pressure encourages the choice to develop social interactions also through online networking instead of relying exclusively on face to face encounters. Our findings suggest that the joint influence exerted by the reduction in leisure time and the new opportunities of participation offered by web-mediated communication may progressively lead a growing share of the population to adopt networking sites as an indispensable environment for the development of interpersonal relationships.internet, computer-mediated communication, social networking, online networks, Facebook, human interaction, social capital

E-strategy in the UK retail grocery sector

After a decade of Internet trading, retailers in the UK have experienced mixed fortunes with their Internet-based ventures. Online shopping success stories include; Tesco’s, which has positioned itself as a world leader in online grocery retailing by providing an Internet-based home delivery of over 40,000 products and making the service available to almost 95 per cent of UK residents. Similarly, Sainsbury’s offers 71% per cent of UK residents the opportunity to shop online however the company does not have the same international recognition. Waitrose too has expanded its Internet-based shopping services, aided by its acquisitions in OCADO. By contrast, Somerfield, and more recently Iceland have stopped their Internet shopping operations due to poor trading results and economic difficulties, despite the fact that Iceland was the first grocery retailer to offer online shopping to the majority of the UK mainland. The key aims of this paper are to explore how major grocery retailers coming to the one line market; to consider why some are more successful than others and to develop an understanding of the role of strategic thinking in online retailing. More specifically, the paper will initially, investigate the strategic options open to retailers developing activities online and finally, discuss the extent to which e-strategies represent a long-term approach to planning. The paper presents a literature review, which provides the conceptual foundations for investigation of the significance of e-strategy development within retailing. This model is then compared with evidence from secondary data sources and business results from leading UK grocery retailers in order to debate and analyse the likely importance of e-strategies in the success of online grocery retailing in the UK

(at)america.jp: Identity, nationalism, and power on the Internet, 1969-2000

america.jp explores identity, nationalism, and power on the Internet between 1969 and 2000 through a cultural analysis of Internet code and the creative processes behind it. The dissertation opens with an examination of a real-time Internet Blues jam that linked Japanese and American musicians between Tokyo and Mississippi in 1999. The technological, cultural, and linguistic uncertainties that characterized the Internet jam, combined with the inventive reactions of the musicians who participated, help to introduce the fundamental conceptual question of the dissertation: is code a cultural product and if so can the Internet be considered a distinctly American technology?;A comparative study of the Internet\u27s origins in the United States and Japan finds that code is indeed a cultural entity but that it is a product not of one nation, but of many. A cultural critique of the Internet\u27s domain name conventions explores the heavily-gendered creation of code and the institutional power that supports it. An ethnography of the Internet\u27s managing organization, The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), investigates conflicts and identity formation within and among nations at a time when new Internet technologies have blurred humans\u27 understanding of geographic boundaries. In the year 2000, an effort to prevent United States domination of ICANN produced unintended consequences: disputes about the definition of geographic regions and an eruption of anxiety, especially in China, that the Asian seat on the ICANN board would be dominated by Japan. These incidents indicate that the Internet simultaneously destabilizes identity and ossifies it. In this paradoxical situation, cultures and the people in them are forced to reconfigure the boundaries that circumscribe who they think they are

The Reality of Bytes: Regulating Economic Activity in the Age of the Internet

By utilizing both a backward and forward looking perspective, this Article develops a model conducive to better understand the Internet\u27s legal implications on economic regulation. The model is also intended to help legislators and regulators adapt their legal and regulatory frameworks to the Internet. This Article canvasses and builds upon the burgeoning development of Internet law. It suggests that the Internet\u27s impact on economic regulation is best understood by classifying its effects into four categories, each of which requires a different regulatory response. It also considers potential solutions for adapting economic regulation to the Internet. This Article concludes that no single suitable solution or analogy remedies the regulatory challenges posed by the Internet. Rather, as in real space, a combination of approaches is necessary to create an effective regulatory framework