Rethinking data and rebalancing digital power

This report highlights and contextualises four cross-cutting interventions with a strong potential to reshape the digital ecosystem: 1. Transforming infrastructure into open and interoperable ecosystems. 2. Reclaiming control of data from dominant companies. 3. Rebalancing the centres of power with new (non-commercial) institutions. 4. Ensuring public participation as an essential component of technology policymaking. The interventions are multidisciplinary and they integrate legal, technological, market and governance solutions. They offer a path towards addressing present digital challenges and the possibility for a new, healthy digital ecosystem to emerge. What do we mean by a healthy digital ecosystem? One that privileges people over profit, communities over corporations, society over shareholders. And, most importantly, one where power is not held by a few large corporations, but is distributed among different and diverse models, alongside people who are represented in, and affected by the data used by those new models. The digital ecosystem we propose is balanced, accountable and sustainable, and imagines new types of infrastructure, new institutions and new governance models that can make data work for people and society. Some of these interventions can be located within (or built from) emerging and recently adopted policy initiatives, while others require the wholesale overhaul of regulatory regimes and markets. They are designed to spark ideas that political thinkers, forward-looking policymakers, researchers, civil society organisations, funders and ethical innovators in the private sector consider and respond to when designing future regulations, policies or initiatives around data use and governance. This report also acknowledges the need to prepare the ground for the more ambitious transformation of power relations in the digital ecosystem. Even a well-targeted intervention won't change the system unless it is supported by relevant institutions and behavioural change

Digitized Archival Primary Sources in STEM: A Selected Webliography

Popular connotations of archives and special collections are most closely aligned with the arts and humanities fields, with history being the most seamless affiliation. However, archival documentation extends far beyond common disciplinary assumptions, with strong holdings relevant to the sciences, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields, as well as medicine and other allied disciplines. These archival collections provide largely untapped educational, enrichment, and research opportunities for STEM students and researchers. Given the profound influx of digitization during the last two decades, many archival primary source materials have been digitized and are now freely available online, with more assuredly in progress. This digital content is in large part unique, oftentimes representing digital surrogates of the only tangible copy of a document, image, object, or unique assemblage of materials ever created. An intrinsic value in archives is their uniqueness in addition to their authenticity, diversity, breadth, and depth of documentation. Digitized archival collections can serve to supplement an institution\u27s physical archival holdings, if available, as well as make particularly unique or historically significant physical collections (i.e., the papers of Charles Darwin), once limited by geography, easily accessible to librarians, archivists, researchers, educators, and students around the world. Accessibility and findability of digitized archival resources can be a challenge, particularly for students or researchers not familiar with archival formats and digital interfaces, which adhere to different descriptive standards than more widely familiar library resources. Numerous aggregate archival collection databases exist, which provide a means by which to search across collections from many institutions. However, no single database is comprehensive, and many also lack robust capabilities for subject-based browsing to target STEM collections. The selected resources in this webliography are intended as a starting point by which librarians, archivists, educators, and students may discover digitized archival primary sources related to STEM and allied disciplines, which may be creatively used as tools to inform instruction, teaching, research, library collection development, marketing, and reference services. The resources embody a wide-ranging selection of noteworthy, historically significant STEM-focused archival primary source collections currently digitized and publicly accessible

The resilience of pandemic digital deliberation:An analysis of online synchronous forums

Quality deliberation is essential for societies to address the challenges presented by the coronavirus pandemic effectively and legitimately. Critics of deliberative and participatory democracy are highly skeptical that most citizens can engage with such complex issues in good circumstances and these are far from ideal circumstances. The need for rapid action and decision-making is a challenge for inclusivity and quality of deliberation. Additionally, policy responses to the virus need to be even more co-ordinated than usual, which intensifies their complexity. The digitalisation of the public sphere may be seen as a further challenge to deliberating. Furthermore, these are stressful and emotional times, making a considered judgement on these issues potentially challenging. We employ a modified version of the Discourse Quality Index to assess the deliberative quality in two facilitated synchronous digital platforms to consider aspects of data use in light of COVID 19. Our study is the first to perform a comprehensive, systematic and in-depth analysis of the deliberative capacity of citizens in a pandemic. Our evidence indicates that deliberation can be resilient in a crisis. The findings will have relevance to those interested in pandemic democracy, deliberative democracy in a crisis, data use and digital public spheres

The Lovelace Effect: Perceptions of Creativity in Machines

This article proposes the notion of the ‘Lovelace Effect’ as an analytical tool to identify situations in which the behaviour of computing systems is perceived by users as original and creative. It contrasts the Lovelace Effect with the more commonly known ‘Lovelace objection’, which claims that computers cannot originate or create anything, but only do what their programmers instruct them to do. By analysing the case study of AICAN – an AI art-generating system – we argue for the need for approaches in computational creativity to shift focus from what computers are able to do in ontological terms to the perceptions of human users who enter into interactions with them. The case study illuminates how the Lovelace effect can be facilitated through technical but also through representational means, such as the situations and cultural contexts in which users are invited to interact with the AI

Joint analysis of the intention to vaccinate and to use contact tracing app during the COVID-19 pandemic

Pharmacological and non-pharmacological measures will overlap for a period after the onset of the pandemic, playing a strong role in virus containment. We explored which factors influence the likelihood to adopt two different preventive measures against the COVID-19 pandemic. An online snowball sampling (May–June 2020) collected a total of 448 questionnaires in Italy. A Bayesian bivariate Gaussian regression model jointly investigated the willingness to get vaccinated against COVID-19 and to download the national contact tracing app. A mixed-effects cumulative logistic model explored which factors affected the motivation to adopt one of the two preventive measures. Despite both COVID-19 vaccines and tracing apps being indispensable tools to contain the spread of SARS-CoV-2, our results suggest that adherence to the vaccine or to the national contact tracing app is not predicted by the same factors. Therefore, public communication on these measures needs to take in consideration not only the perceived risk associated with COVID-19, but also the trust people place in politics and science, their concerns and doubts about vaccinations, and their employment status. Further, the results suggest that the motivation to comply with these measurements was predominantly to protect others rather than self-protection

The Free Press Vol 44 Issue 6, 10-22-1012

Higgins appointed student body president--Student’s efforts putting USM on international map--Eliot Cutler lectures on public service--Robotics company wants NAO 25 to find a home at USMhttps://digitalcommons.usm.maine.edu/free_press/1076/thumbnail.jp

Developing STEM Activities for the Museum of London

Our team collaborated with the Museum of London to develop STEM-based activities for children and families. We reviewed published literature about family learning in museums and observed childrens programs at London museums, then designed, developed, and delivered two activities for the Easter half-term. Based on observations and participant feedback, we developed recommendations for the design and implementation of future activities. Finally, we presented th

In Pursuit of Women Scientists: Using Science Plays to Promote Women Entering STEM Disciplines

Higher education currently seeks to increase female enrollment in STEM. Women face many challenges attempting to breach this male dominated arena with misconceptions, gender stereotypes, and few female role models. With the recent trend in higher education to encourage more women to enter the STEM disciplines and K-12 schools cutting funding for arts programs, theatre may be losing its value in the education system. The value of interdisciplinary studies is beginning to be forgotten during the grade school years as school boards battle budget cuts, but we can remind society of it through science plays. Theatre artists use other disciplines such as psychology, history, and science to enhance their work, but I argue that theatre can also help promote the needs of other disciplines. Science plays have become increasingly popular over the last two and a half decades and have done much for theatre. Science plays can assist in addressing the issues facing women attempting to enter STEM disciplines. The majority of science plays feature historical people and can therefore provide the much needed role models and address the other issues and misconceptions. To do this, science plays featuring women should target middle and high school girls as well as their teachers, parents, and guidance counselors who often discourage girls from pursing STEM interests

Towards Developing AI Literacy: Three Student Provocations on AI in Higher Education

This article reports the reflections of the co-organisers on a recent AI in Higher Education event which was led by students from the University of Leeds and University College London. While academic communities and experts have contributed significantly to the discourse, students’ perspectives have so far been underrepresented. Three student provocations are shared which provided the focus of the discussions during the event. The student co-authors present future-gazing visions of the impact of AI in higher education and beyond. Our collaborative reflections highlight that whether we are seeking to bring about desirable, AI-empowered futures, or aspiring to evade undesirable consequences of these new technologies, it will be vital to develop and enhance the AI literacy of students and educators alike in order to make use of it ethically, creatively and critically

Future Interaction between Man and Robots from Islamic Perspective

Technology improves exponentially every second and becomes more complex beyond our grasp. Without we realize, everything about ourselves can be found on the internet from mundane things such as our food preferences to private matters such as saving accounts. To manage these information, an artificial intelligence system is required to safeguard, validate and even facilitate our daily tasks. Hypothetically, this issues will lead to the creation of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), a (hypothetical) machine that could successfully perform any intellectual task that a human being can. Without a doubt, AGI will be a central component to our future society. As AGI further improved itself, roaming fully robotic android may be a common sight in future cities. This is a common plot setting in science fiction stories and is commonly discussed from Western perspective. However, this issue is rarely discussed from the Islamic perspective. Will AGI differentiate between fitna and facts (tabayyun)? Is a humanized android considered human (nas)? Does matter of fiqh relevant to a humanized android? Although seems fictional, it is imperative for the Muslim world to initiate discussion on these issues