Public Services 2.0: The Impact of Social Computing on Public Services

This report presents the findings of the study on "Public Services 2.0: The Impact of Social Computing on Public Services" conducted by TNO and DTI on behalf of IPTS from 2008 to 2009. The report gives an overview of the main trends of Social Computing, in the wider context of an evolving public sector, and in relation to relevant government trends and normative policy visions on future public services within and across EU Member States. It then provides an exhaustive literature review of research and practice in the area of Social Computing and identifies its key impact areas in the public sector. The report goes on to discuss four case studies of Social Computing-enabled communities in different areas: education (Connexions), health (Doctors.net.uk), inclusion (PatientsLikeMe) and governance (Wikileaks). This is followed by the findings of a scenario-building exercise in which two alternative scenarios were developed and related future opportunities and risks discussed. Additionally, the report presents the results of a cross-case analysis and an ad-hoc online survey which identifies the level of usage, the general characteristics and the key drivers of Social Computing for public services. The report concludes with a summary of research challenges and policy-relevant recommendations. Evidence from the study indicates that Social Computing technologies, applications and values have already been adopted in many areas of government activity. Social Computing affects several aspects of public service, related to both the front office (citizen-government relations) and the back office activities of public administrations. Social Computing is leading to new forms of ICT-enabled participation, capable of enhancing users¿ social awareness and involvement. Social Computing is also transforming relationships and ways of working within and between public sector organisations and opens the way to innovative service delivery mechanisms.JRC.J.4-Information Societ

Journalists or Cyber-Anarchists? A qualitative analysis of professional journalists' commentary about WikiLeaks

New media for sharing information online have presented a challenge to professional journalism in a variety of ways, as new tools or media for communicating information allow more of the public to share information in a publicly available way. WikiLeaks, an online site that began publishing secret and classified information in 2007, provides a useful lens through which to examine professional journalists' responses to one such challenge. In responding to these challenges, journalists may engage in paradigm repair, making efforts to reinforce and police their professional norms and practices by identifying and normalizing violations. This study examines the terms and the frames used in commentary about WikiLeaks by professional journalists, in an attempt to understand how professional journalists define and defend their own profession through their efforts at paradigm repair, and to consider the professional, social, and political consequences of those efforts. Journalists primarily framed WikiLeaks as a non-journalist actor, one that threatened the national security of the United States. This framing can be seen as paradigm repair, as journalists excluded WikiLeaks from their profession on the basis of its lack of editorial structure, physical location, and concern for U.S. public interest. The consequences of this exclusion are to leave WikiLeaks and other non-traditional journalistic actors more vulnerable, and to make it more difficult for professional journalists to stay relevant and adopt improved practices in the changing media ecology

WikiLeaks: Balancing First Amendment Rights with National Security

In July 2010, Private First Class Bradley Manning released thou-sands of classified documents with the help of WikiLeaks, a private web-site created to expose government and corporate corruption. During the months that followed, WikiLeaks disseminated several thousand addi-tional classified documents, including the whereabouts of U.S. troops and diplomatic cables. Public concern grew over the rapid release of the documents into Internet space. Lawmakers and government officials questioned whether the release of such information would compromise national security and foreign relations and violate the Espionage Act of 1917. While not all of the information distributed by WikiLeaks violated the law, the vast majority of the documents should not have been re-leased. If asked, the Supreme Court should hold that WikiLeaks did vio-late the Espionage Act, and should be held accountable. Furthermore, lawmakers should change the existing laws to conform to modern times by including sections regarding the dissemination of classified informa-tion over the Internet

Trans∗Vulnerability And Digital Research Ethics: A Qubit Ethical Analysis Of Transparency Activism

Trans communities across the United States are under assault. Researchers seeking to work with trans people and other multiply marginalized and underrepresented communities must attend to ethical research practices within the communities in which they participate. Digital research ethics is particularly murky with issues of embodiment, vulnerability, and unclear IRB guidance. Comparing two transparency activist organizations-Wikileaks and DDoSecrets-we introduce qubit ethics, a trans material, trans-corporeal ethics of care as praxis within vulnerable online communities. We then demonstrate how this unique approach to research design allows for the complex entanglements that is trans life, particularly digital life. Finally, we present clear take-Aways for qubit-ethics informed social justice research

Social Media, Political Change, and Human Rights

In this Essay, the role of social media in progressive political change is examined in the context of the Arab Spring uprisings. The concept of social media is explained, and Clay Shirky’s arguments for and Malcolm Gladwell’s arguments against the importance of social media in revolutions are analyzed. An account of the Arab Spring (to date) is then given, including the apparent role of social media. Evgeny Morozov’s arguments are then outlined, including his contentions that social media and the Internet can be tools of oppression rather than emancipation, and spreaders of hate and propaganda rather than tolerance and democracy. The United States’ policy on Internet freedom is also critiqued. Finally, the role, responsibility, and accountability of social media companies in facilitating revolution are discussed

(Il)Legitimisation of the role of the nation state: Understanding of and reactions to Internet censorship in Turkey

This study aims to explore Turkish citizen-consumers' understanding of and reactions to censorship of websites in Turkey by using in-depth interviews and online ethnography. In an environment where sites such as YouTube and others are increasingly being banned, the citizen-consumers' macro-level understanding is that such censorship is part of a wider ideological plan and their micro-level understanding is that their relationship with the wider global network is reduced, in the sense that they have trouble accessing full information on products, services and experiences. The study revealed that citizen-consumers engage in two types of resistance strategies against such domination by the state: using irony as passive resistance, and using the very same technology used by the state to resist its domination

Revolutionary Ideology in the Information Age: Technology of the Occupy Wall Street Movement

The research presented in this project draws heavily on themes of social justice and human rights. The purpose of this inquiry is twofold. For one, it functions as an SIT Graduate Institute “Capstone,” which meets the graduation requirements for a Master’s degree from the school. Secondly, the function of this project is to provide a space to investigate how the theory and practice of contemporary social change utilizes today’s most powerful non-militaristic technology. The focus of my research is particularly concerned with my own participant observation in the Occupy Wall Street movement, which emerged in the United States in late 2011. The body of this document is divided into three sections, corresponding with the research methodology of a qualitative inquiry. Data is first presented in the form of an experiential testimony. This data is then interpreted as themes are extrapolated and framed in terms of how human rights are related to modern technology. Finally, my findings are then analyzed and discussed in terms of two established theoretical frameworks. These frameworks—which are identified as the Dialectical Method and Technological Determinism—represent two vastly different perspectives of how technology evolves. Yet, the data and analysis presented in this project show how these two frameworks arrive at similar conclusions when considered in conjunction with human rights and social change

Because privacy: defining and legitimating privacy in ios development

Privacy is a critical challenge for the mobile application ecosystem. US policy approaches to mobile data protection rely on privacy by design: approaches that encourage developers to proactively implement privacy features to protect sensitive data. But we know little about how application developers define privacy, how they decide to implement privacy features, and what might motivate them to consider privacy as a primary design value. This project identifies these factors by investigating the discussion of privacy as a professional practice within a community of mobile application developers. Analyzing posts on an iOS forum reveals that privacy is a frequent topic of conversation in this community. This paper describes how iOS developers define and legitimate privacy, and reveals a challenge: iOS developers rely heavily on a definition of privacy provided by Apple which does not reflect current empirical or theoretical understandings of how users understand privacy. Understanding this challenge can help us shape better guidelines for privacy by design, and broach challenges to the widespread adoption of privacy by design principles

SECURITISATION OF #SWEDISH MILITARY #CONSCRIPTION ON TWITTER

On March 02 2017, the Swedish government announced that it is bringing mandatory military services back into practice due to the shortage of military personnel and to meet country’ security needs. The practice had been abandoned in 2010 after being in place for well over a century. The announcement was a hot topic locally and internationally in the context of changing security situation in the Baltics. Political actors took to social media to deliberate with general public and to control the public discourse. This paper looks at securitisation discourse being deliberated through social media. Using a mix methods approach, I examined how social media, Twitter, facilitated securitisation discourse regarding Swedish military conscription. Twitter’s advanced search option is utilised to collect Top tweets posted during the first week of March 2017 that included keywords Sweden conscription or Swedish conscription. I apply van Dijk’s sociocognitive critical discourse analysis and Hansen’s intertextual research model in examining 21 tweets, along with the platform facilitated intertextuality and multimodality. The analysis reveals that political actors framed and centred securitisation discourse through tweets and associated multimodal elements, in particular images and hyperlinks, while the discussion concerning human resource needs of the military was largely ignored. Tweets and comments exposed ideology–based themes and topics, including refugees as threat and Racism–Xenophobia, being exploited as discourse strands within securitisation discourse. Spatial references to Russia and its proximity to the Baltics are invoked by the actors as existential threats against which Swedish sovereignty needs protection. It is evident that the textual and linguistic elements of tweets along with their non–lexical components afforded by the medium are exploited by the actors in framing the discourse. Audience interaction is gauged by the likes, shares, and comments on each tweet; however, comment section more clearly shows discursive production of securitisation. It is imperative that a future comprehensive analysis take into consideration platform specific elements, such as interaction across platforms and Social Network Analysis (SNA) of actors, as this would allow us to understand how various discourse layers treat the same discursive event and how securitisation is being accepted, rejected, or repurposed based on networked communities