Smart speakers and the news in Portuguese: consumption pattern and challenges for content producers

The voice assistants popularized by smartphones are now the driving force behind a device that is making its way into homes in recent years: smart speakers. Since 2018, these devices are available in Brazilian Portuguese. These devices are also a new platform for news distribution and consumption. How does the platform define the content that will be delivered to the user? What challenges do content producers face? How does the user access this news? To try to find the answers to these questions, we conducted a literature review, a market situation point through business reports, developed an online survey with smart speaker users and also interviewed content producers. The answers show that there is influence of algorithms and the business model. An extra challenge for Portuguese content producers is the language itself. The voice assistant systems still have difficulty understanding words and expressions in Portuguese for users. This work may be helpful for content producers, especially Portuguese-speaking ones, to find ways to reach their audience.Os assistentes de voz popularizados pelos smartphones são agora o motor de um aparelho que está entrando nas casas nos últimos anos: os smart speakers. Desde 2018, Esses equipamentos estão disponíveis em português do Brasil. Tais aparelhos são também uma nova plataforma para distribuição e consumo de notícias. Como a plataforma define o conteúdo que será entregue ao usuário? Quais os desafios que os produtores de conteúdo enfrentam? Como o usuário acessa essas notícias? Para tentar encontrar as respostas a essas questões, fizemos uma revisão de literatura, um ponto de situação do mercado através de relatórios empresariais, desenvolvemos um inquérito online com usuários de smart speakers e também entrevistamos produtores de conteúdo. As respostas mostram que há influência dos algoritmos e do modelo de negócio. Um desafio extra para os produtores de conteúdo em português é a própria língua. Os sistemas dos assistentes de voz ainda apresentam dificuldade de compreensão de palavras e expressões em português para os usuários. Este trabalho poderá ser útil para produtores de conteúdo, especialmente de língua portuguesa, encontrarem maneiras de chegar ao público

THE ROLE OF THE STRICT CIVIL LIABILITY IN CONSUMER PROTECTION AND THE NEED FOR ITS APPLICATION IN THE ADVERTISING FIELD

 In this paper, we discuss the role of strict liability in consumer protection, in terms of reviewing the basis of substantive responsibility and reviewing many of its applications in this field. To extend their scope to civil liability in advertising. Accordingly, we will show the contemporary legislative direction to extend the strict liability in many areas with a view to protecting members of society from harm that may affect them, by recognizing their right to compensation without requiring the fault of the defendant, with the creation of financial resources allocated for this purpose, such as compensation For damages associated with medical treatment, compensation for damage caused by defective products, and the responsibility of the air carrier for the safety of passengers. Thus, we will focus on TV channels ads as well as new media technologies advertisement methods and the responsibilities of adviser or provider and how regulations could adapt to these new innovated ads techniques. The research has two parts, first part related to the law perspective point of view, the second one is related to the media advertisement field

RELATIONAL AESTHETICS: CREATIVITY IN THE INTER-HUMAN SPHERE

RELATIONAL AESTHETICS: CREATIVITY IN THE INTER-HUMAN SPHERE By Carl Patow, MD, MPH, MBA A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Fine Art at Virginia Commonwealth University, 2019. Major Director: Pamela Taylor Turner, Associate Professor, Kinetic Imaging, VCU Arts Relational Art was first described as an art movement in Nicolas Bourriaud’s catalogue for the exhibition Traffic in 1995, and in an eponymous book in 1998. He observed that contemporary artists were shifting the focus of their work away from creating objects of spectacle to interaction with viewers through dialogue. Examination of a sample of representative artists’ work demonstrates a wide variety of applications that variously include objects. Inclusion of objects in relational artwork raises important theoretic considerations about the definition of the genre and its application to specific artworks. In the thesis artwork, WORKS WHEN, Carl Patow engages individuals in Richmond, Virginia, in conversations, documenting the location of their neighborhood and recording observations they make about their neighborhoods on polychrome tiles. The collected tiles are formed into “communities” on a floor map of the city. The work includes both conversation and objects in its creation, realization and exhibition. In doing so, WORKS WHEN is both an example of Relational Aesthetics and an expansion of its scope as a genre

Exploring the use of conversational agents to improve cyber situational awareness in the Internet of Things (IoT).

The Internet of Things (IoT) is an emerging paradigm, which aims to extend the power of the Internet beyond computers and smartphones to a vast and growing range of "things" - devices, processes and environments. The result is an interconnected world where humans and devices interact with each other, establishing a smart environment for the continuous exchange of information and services. Billions of everyday devices such as home appliances, surveillance cameras, wearables and doorbells, enriched with computational and networking capabilities, have already been connected to the Internet. However, as the IoT has grown, the demand for low-cost, easy-to-deploy devices has also increased, leading to the production of millions of insecure Internet-connected smart devices. Many of these devices can be easily exploited and leveraged to perform large-scale attacks on the Internet, such as the recently witnessed botnet attacks. Since these attacks often target consumer-level products, which commonly lack a screen or user interface, it can be difficult for users to identify signs of infection and be aware of devices that have been compromised. This thesis presents four studies which collectively explored how user awareness of threats in consumer IoT networks could be improved. Maintaining situational awareness of what is happening within a home network is challenging, not least because malicious activity often occurs in devices which are not easily monitored. This thesis evaluated the effectiveness of conversational agents to improve Cyber Situational Awareness. In doing so, it presented the first study to investigate their ability to help users improve their perception of smart device activity, comprehend this in the context of their home environment, and project this knowledge to determine if a threat had occurred or may occur in the future. The research demonstrated how a BLSTMRNN with word embedding could be used to extract semantic meaning from packets to perform deep packet inspection and detect IoT botnet activity. Specifically, how the models use of contextual information from both the past and future enabled better predictions to be made about the current state (packet) due to the sequential nature of the network traffic. In addition, a cross-sectional study examined users' awareness and perception of threats and found that, although users value security and privacy, they found it difficult to identify threats and infected devices. Finally, novel cross-sectional and longitudinal studies evaluated the use of conversational agents, and demonstrated them to be an effective and efficient method of improving Cyber Situational Awareness. In particular, this was shown to be true when using a multi-modal approach and combining aural, verbal and visual modalities

A dialogue based mobile virtual assistant for tourists: The SpaceBook Project

Ubiquitous mobile computing offers innovative approaches in the delivery of information that can facilitate free roaming of the city, informing and guiding the tourist as the city unfolds before them. However making frequent visual reference to mobile devices can be distracting, the user having to interact via a small screen thus disrupting the explorative experience. This research reports on an EU funded project, SpaceBook, that explored the utility of a hands-free, eyes-free virtual tour guide, that could answer questions through a spoken dialogue user interface and notify the user of interesting features in view while guiding the tourist to various destinations. Visibility modelling was carried out in real-time based on a LiDAR sourced digital surface model, fused with a variety of map and crowd sourced datasets (e.g. Ordnance Survey, OpenStreetMap, Flickr, Foursquare) to establish the most interesting landmarks visible from the user's location at any given moment. A number of variations of the SpaceBook system were trialled in Edinburgh (Scotland). The research highlighted the pleasure derived from this novel form of interaction and revealed the complexity of prioritising route guidance instruction alongside identification, description and embellishment of landmark information – there being a delicate balance between the level of information ‘pushed’ to the user, and the user's requests for further information. Among a number of challenges, were issues regarding the fidelity of spatial data and positioning information required for pedestrian based systems – the pedestrian having much greater freedom of movement than vehicles

Glitched Rhetorics: Online Deliberation of New Technology

This dissertation examines public deliberation on the social media site reddit regarding two controversial technologies: Alexa and Bitcoin. Such vernacular deliberation of prominent new technologies is widespread online and increasingly significant—with Alexa and Bitcoin generating numerous controversies throughout the 2010s & early 2020s—yet understudied by rhetoric and media scholars. Arguments for and against the technologies consistently emerge, and so I ask: What are the terms, patterns, and logics in the binarized reddit deliberations of emergent technology? There is also an alternative rhetorical practice of those conflicted and ambivalent, yet not absent from the deliberations. I name it glitching, a paleologism used to describe a digital version of a transhistorical and transgressive anti-idealism (i.e., kynicism). My second question is: In what way do redditors glitch the deliberation of emergent technology? Rhetorical-archaeological analysis and digital rhetorical ethnography are the methods I utilize to answer the first and second questions, respectively. Arguments for Alexa employ terms “connect,” “work,” and “convenience,” in patterns emphasizing expertise and rationality, toward a logic of technological progress. “Listening” and “labor” are the terms which appear throughout anti-Alexa posts and comments, in patterns resembling investigative journalism, to advance a logic of economic justice. Pro-Bitcoin arguments employ terms “buy” and “celebration,” in a pattern resembling that of speculative finance, undergirding a logic of prosperity technology. “Privacy” and “scam” are the terms which appear throughout anti-Bitcoin posts and comments, in a pattern of technical expertise which supports logics of technological and financial skepticism. Glitched rhetorics are ambivalent and irreverent interruptions in the binary oscillation of vernacular deliberation about technology which frequently appear in online fora, and closely resemble the kynicism of Diogenes of Sinope. The glitched rhetorics about Alexa and Bitcoin diverge in extremeness, but share embrace of risk and use of sexual vulgarity to challenge customs and interrupt sober deliberations which otherwise lead to the synthesis of managed decline. Glitched rhetorics are not the collective action necessary for systemic change in the matter of society’s relationship to technology, but as a kynical signal not unlike the barking of a dog they persistently reveal that such action is necessary

The Fourth Industrial Revolution: A Technological Wave of Change

This chapter focuses on the technological wave of change called the fourth industrial revolution (4IR), which is also known as the information age or industry 4.0. It starts off with a brief history of the concept, describing the evolution through the ages, from the age of industrialization to the current technological age. The chapter then presents industry 4.0 through three lenses, which are i) the key enabling technologies that serve as its foundational pillars, such as the Internet and Cloud Computing; ii) technologies and concepts that emanate from 4IR, as well as their applications, which are discussed using use-cases; iii) the impacts of industry 4.0 on the wider society (both positive and negative). Finally, the chapter closes with a discussion on some open challenges that need to be considered in future research works to enhance the widespread adaptation and/or implementation of industry 4.0

Digital Transformation

The amount of literature on Digital Transformation is staggering—and it keeps growing. Why, then, come out with yet another such document? Moreover, any text aiming at explaining the Digital Transformation by presenting a snapshot is going to become obsolete in a blink of an eye, most likely to be already obsolete at the time it is first published. The FDC Initiative on Digital Reality felt there is a need to look at the Digital Transformation from the point of view of a profound change that is pervading the entire society—a change made possible by technology and that keeps changing due to technology evolution opening new possibilities but is also a change happening because it has strong economic reasons. The direction of this change is not easy to predict because it is steered by a cultural evolution of society, an evolution that is happening in niches and that may expand rapidly to larger constituencies and as rapidly may fade away. This creation, selection by experimentation, adoption, and sudden disappearance, is what makes the whole scenario so unpredictable and continuously changing.The amount of literature on Digital Transformation is staggering—and it keeps growing. Why, then, come out with yet another such document? Moreover, any text aiming at explaining the Digital Transformation by presenting a snapshot is going to become obsolete in a blink of an eye, most likely to be already obsolete at the time it is first published. The FDC Initiative on Digital Reality felt there is a need to look at the Digital Transformation from the point of view of a profound change that is pervading the entire society—a change made possible by technology and that keeps changing due to technology evolution opening new possibilities but is also a change happening because it has strong economic reasons. The direction of this change is not easy to predict because it is steered by a cultural evolution of society, an evolution that is happening in niches and that may expand rapidly to larger constituencies and as rapidly may fade away. This creation, selection by experimentation, adoption, and sudden disappearance, is what makes the whole scenario so unpredictable and continuously changing