We are the Change that we Seek: Information Interactions During a Change of Viewpoint

There has been considerable hype about filter bubbles and echo chambers influencing the views of information consumers. The fear is that these technologies are undermining democracy by swaying opinion and creating an uninformed, polarised populace. The literature in this space is mostly techno-centric, addressing the impact of technology. In contrast, our work is the first research in the information interaction field to examine changing viewpoints from a human-centric perspective. It provides a new understanding of view change and how we might support informed, autonomous view change behaviour. We interviewed 18 participants about a self-identified change of view, and the information touchpoints they engaged with along the way. In this paper we present the information types and sources that informed changes of viewpoint, and the ways in which our participants interacted with that information. We describe our findings in the context of the techno-centric literature and suggest principles for designing digital information environments that support user autonomy and reflection in viewpoint formation

Addressing the cyber safety challenge: from risk to resilience

Addressing the cyber safety challenge: from risk to resilience describes the cyber safety issues emerging from a range of technology trends, how different populations are using technologies and the risks they face, and how we can effectively respond to each group’s unique cyber safety needs. Written by the University of Western Sydney for Telstra Corporation Ltd, the report advocates for continuing to move cyber safety from a ‘risk and protection’ framework to one that focuses on building digital resilience, as well as fostering trust and confidence in the online environment. To do this we need to: Address the needs of populations often neglected by current policies and programs – including adults, seniors, parents, and small to medium enterprises Continue to build the digital literacy skills of all populations, because digital literacy strongly influences users’ ability to engage safely online – this is best achieved by a hands-on learning approach Keep risk in perspective – the risks and benefits of digital participation go hand in hand Broaden the focus from awareness-raising to long-term behaviour change. As digital technologies become further integrated into the everyday lives of Australians, users are potentially exposed to greater risks. However, the risks and benefits of digital participation go hand in hand. The challenge, therefore, is to support users to minimise the risks without limiting their digital participation and their capacity to derive the full benefits of connectivity. If Australians are to benefit as either consumers or providers of online services and products in the e-commerce environment, consumer safety and trust need to be improved. Cyber safety needs to be considered against a transforming backdrop of technology trends, products and practices. While the rise of social media has tended to dominate recent debate and developments in cyber safety, particularly in relation to young people, a range of other trends is also shaping how users engage online, the risks they potentially face in the new media landscape, and the strategies used to address them. These trends include the rise of user generated content and content sharing platforms; the uptake of mobile technologies and, in particular, the adoption of smartphones; cloud computing; platform integration and single sign-on mechanisms; and the rise of GPS and location based services

Online victimization: A report on the nation’s youth.

The Internet is an exciting new territory for many young people. Nearly 24 million youth ages 10 through 17 were online regularly in 1999, and millions more are expected to join them shortly. They go there to Iearn, play, meet people, and explore the world. But stories from law-enforcement officials, parents, and young people themselves suggest that not every online adventure is a happy one. The Internet has a seamier side that young people seem to he encountering with great frequency. This national survey confirms many of the stories. Large numbers of young people are encountering sexual solicitations they did not want, sexual material they did not seek, and people who threatened and harassed them in a variety of ways. While many are able to glide past these encounters as mere litter on the information super highway, some experience them as real collisions with a reality they did not expect and were distressed to find. Some of these young people report being upset and afraid in the wake of their encounters and have elevated symptoms of stress and depression. This report describes the variety of disconcerting experiences young lnternet users say they have online and ways they react. It also provides a window into how families and young people are addressing matters of danger and protection on the Internet. Some of the news is reassuring. At the same time, it suggests that the seamy side of the Internet spills into the lives of an uncomfortably large number of youth and relatively few families or young people do much about it. It highlights a great need for private and public initiatives to raise awareness and provide solutions. Nothing in this report contradicts the increasingly well-documented fact that youth and their families are excited about the Internet and its possibilities. They are voting for the Internet with their fingers and pocket books, even as they are aware of some of its drawbacks. But because it is destined to play such an important role in the lives of those growing up today, the question of how to temper some of the drawbacks of this revolutionary medium is worthy of thorough consideration now at the dawn of its development

Reaching out with OER: the new role of public-facing open scholar

Open educational resources (OER) and, more recently, open educational practices (OEP) have been widely promoted as a means of increasing openness in higher education (HE). Thus far, such openness has been limited by OER provision typically being supplier-driven and contained within the boundaries of HE. Seeking to explore ways in which OEP might become more needs-led we conceptualised a new ‘public-facing open scholar’ role involving academics working with online communities to source and develop OER to meet their needs. To explore the scope for this role we focused on the voluntary sector, which we felt might particularly benefit from such collaboration. We evaluated four representative communities for evidence of their being self-educating (thereby offering the potential for academics to contribute) and for any existing learning dimension. We found that all four communities were self-educating and each included learning infrastructure elements, for example provision for web chats with ‘experts’, together with evidence of receptiveness to academic collaboration. This indicated that there was scope for the role of public-facing open scholar. We therefore developed detailed guidelines for performing the role, which has the potential to be applied beyond the voluntary sector and to greatly extend the beneficial impact of existing OER, prompting institutions to release new OER in response to the needs of people outside HE

The Harkive Project: Popular Music, Data & Digital Technologies

This thesis is about research around Harkive, an online project designed by this researcher, which gathers stories, reflections, and other data from people about their everyday engagement with popular music. Since 2013, over 1,000 people have contributed to the project, producing around 8,000 texts and highlighting the music reception activities of contemporary music listeners. The thesis presents an analysis of the texts and other data generated, answering a key research question: What can an analysis of the data generated by The Harkive Project reveal about the music reception practices of respondents? To answer this question, the researcher developed an experimental, innovative approach that conceives of Harkive as a space in which people can reflect upon their engagement with music, whilst simultaneously acting as a place that is able to replicate many of the commercial practices related to data collection and processing that have recently emerged as influential factors in the ways that popular music is produced, distributed and consumed. By focusing on a set of findings about the way people reflect on their engagement with music within the Harkive space, this thesis engages practically and critically with these new conditions. Simultaneously, the research explores how the systems of data collection and analysis that facilitate this are technologically complex, subject to rapid change, and often hidden behind commercial and legal firewalls, making the study of them particularly difficult. This then enables us to explore how the use of digital, data and Internet technologies by many people during the course of their everyday lives is providing scholars with new opportunities and methods for undertaking research in the humanities, and how this in turn is leading to questions about the role of the researcher in popular music studies, and how the discipline may take into account the new technologies and practices that have so changed the field. Ultimately, the thesis makes the argument that a greater practical understanding and critical engagement with digital, data and Internet technologies is essential, both for music consumers and popular music scholars, and demonstrates how this work represents a significant contribution to this task

Ethics and social networking sites: A disclosive analysis of Facebook

Paper has been accepted for publication in Information, Technology and People.Purpose: This paper provides insights into the moral values embodied by a popular social networking site (SNS), Facebook. We adopt the position that technology as well as humans has a moral character in order to disclose ethical concerns that are not transparent to users of the site. Design/methodology/approach: This study is based upon qualitative field work, involving participant observation, conducted over a two year period. Findings: Much research on the ethics of information systems has focused on the way that people deploy particular technologies, and the consequences arising, with a view to making policy recommendations and ethical interventions. By focusing on technology as a moral actor with reach across and beyond the Internet, we reveal the complex and diffuse nature of ethical responsibility in our case and the consequent implications for governance of SNS. Research limitations/implications: We situate our research in a body of work known as disclosive ethics and argue for an ongoing process of evaluating SNS to reveal their moral importance. Along with other authors in the genre, our work is largely descriptive, but we engage with prior research by Brey and Introna to highlight the scope for theory development. Practical implications: Governance measures that require the developers of social networking sites to revise their designs fail to address the diffuse nature of ethical responsibility in this case. Such technologies need to be opened up to scrutiny on a regular basis to increase public awareness of the issues and thereby disclose concerns to a wider audience. We suggest that there is value in studying the development and use of these technologies in their infancy, or if established, in the experiences of novice users. Furthermore, flash points in technological trajectories can prove useful sites of investigation. Originality/value: Existing research on social networking sites either fails to address ethical concerns head on or adopts a tool view of the technologies so that the focus is on the ethical behaviour of users. We focus upon the agency, and hence the moral character, of technology to show both the possibilities for, and limitations of, ethical interventions in such cases

Assessment on project monitoring and evaluation system: the case of Meda, "Edget" Project

The aim of this thesis is to provide an in-depth understanding of the various Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) activities involved and their effect on the organization’s productivity. The study has employed a qualitative research methodology by interviewing the key informants of the studied project called Ethiopians Driving Growth, and Entrepreneurship and Trade (EDGET), implemented by Mennonite Economic Development Associates (MEDA). The findings from the key informants interview and M&E process document review of EDGET project tell that the project lacks some essential elements of an effective M&E system for evidence based decision making process. Receiving and processing complete and accurate data in a timely manner was one of the challenges that the project faces. In addition to that financial and human resources and insufficient technological systems hinder the effectiveness of the M&E activities of the project. In order to enhance productivity, hiring additional staff dedicated to check the quality of data and to work on the dissemination of information, provide appropriate trainings to all levels of the M&E staff, appropriate technological advancement, and sufficient allocation of funds, and decentralization of decision making on M&E results are some of the vital recommendations made in this research

Fear and belonging in Kontula : negotiating difference in everyday urban encounters at an East Helsinki shopping centre

Tässä tutkielmassa tarkastellaan arkisia kohtaamisia ja sosiaalista vuorovaikutusta helsinkiläisessä lähiössä. Tutkimus käsittelee, kuinka Kontulan lähiön asukkaat kohtaavat sosiaalista ja kulttuurillista erilaisuutta arkielämässään. Tutkimuksessa keskitytään Kontulan ostoskeskuksen puolijulkisiin tiloihin ja tarkastellaan asukkaiden kykyä sopeutua sekä kohdata erilaisuutta. Työ osallistuu lähiötutkimuksen tieteelliseen keskusteluun tuomalla esiin moniäänisen ja paikallishistoriaan nojautuvan käsityksen niistä prosesseista, jotka muovaavat etnisesti ja sosiaalisesti moninaista naapurustoa. Tutkimus perustuu etnografiseen kenttätyöhön, joka suoritettiin kahdessa osassa elokuun 2019 ja helmikuun 2020 välillä. Työssä sovelletaan osallistuvan havainnoinnin ja laadullisen haastattelun menetelmiä. Tutkimuksen yksitoista haastateltavaa ovat aikuisia 30 ja 71 ikävuoden väliltä. Haastateltavat asuvat Kontulassa, ja heillä on laaja kokemuspohja ostoskeskuksen arjesta. Vaikka haastatteluaineisto on tärkeä osa tutkimusta, pohjautuu työ ennen kaikkea niihin tulkintoihin ja analyysiin, jotka syntyivät osallistuvan havainnoinnin kautta ja niissä vuorovaikutustilanteissa, joista työ kertoo. Tutkimusta taustoitetaan tarkastelemalla, kuinka Kontulan alueellinen leimautuminen synnyttää monisyisiä moraalisia tulkintoja ”hyvästä” ja ”huonosta” asuinalueesta. Kun osa asukkaista vahvistaa negatiivisten stereotypioiden todenperäisyyden ja kuvailee sosiaalisten ongelmien ja turvattomuuden kasautumista ostoskeskuksen alueella, toiset asukkaat taas vähättelevät ongelmia ja painottavat, kuinka hyväksyvä ja seurallinen paikka ostoskeskus on kaupunkitilana. Havainnoinnit ostoskeskuksen negatiivisesti leimautuneissa paikoissa osoittavat, kuinka marginalisoitujen henkilöiden ja etnisten vähemmistöjen osallistuminen paikalliseen elämään haastaa niitä prosesseja ja diskursseja, jotka asettavat nämä ryhmät pelon ja riesan kohteiksi. Työssä hyödynnetään leppoisan rinnakkaiselon ja kosmopoliittisen suojan käsitteitä. Tuloksien pohjalta vaikuttaa siltä, että arkiset kohtaamispaikat, kuten baarit ja kahvilat, luovat mahdollisuuden kohdata erilaisuutta ja sopeutua paikalliseen moninaisuuteen. Vaikka etninen eronteko ja rajatyö edelleen määrittävät miten paikalliset suunnistavat ostoskeskuksen sosiaalisessa ympäristössä, kohtaamispaikat ajoittain uudelleenmäärittävät paikallisen kuulumisen rajaehtoja ja käytänteitä ja siten laajentavat paikallisia käsityksiä ”meistä”. Tutkimuksen johtopäätös on, että avoin ja monietninen yhteiskunta syntyy nimenomaan niistä prosesseista, joissa kuulumisen käytänteitä ja merkityksiä haastetaan. Tutkimus esittää, että yhteisön konsensuksen sijasta tasa-arvoinen oikeus osallistua yhteiseen kaupunkitilaan ja avoin arkinen vuorovaikutus ovat merkkejä yhteisön kyvystä kohdata erilaisuutta sekä sopeutua muutokseen.This master’s thesis is an ethnographic study about everyday urban encounters and social interaction. It explores how residents in the suburban housing estate of Kontula in East Helsinki negotiate social and cultural difference in their everyday lives. The study focuses on the semi-public spaces of the local shopping centre and examines residents’ capacity to live with difference. The study contributes to a multi-vocal and historically informed understanding of the processes that shape the social landscapes of a socially mixed and multi-ethnic neighbourhood. The study is based on fieldwork carried out in two phases between August 2019 and February 2020. The study applies anthropological methods of participant observation and qualitative interviews. The eleven research participants are adults between the ages of 30 and 71 who live in the neighbourhood and have extensive personal experience of the shopping centre. Although the interviews were a crucial aspect of the meaning-making process, the study relies primarily on participant observation in constructing an interpretation and analysis of social interaction at an intimate scale. In order to contextualise everyday encounters at the shopping centre, this thesis assesses how Kontula, as a stigmatised territory in the urban margins, encapsulates a complex interplay between moral claims of a “good” and “bad” neighbourhood. While some residents confirm negative stereotypes about the shopping centre and bring attention to local social problems and issues of unsafety, others downplay these problems and instead emphasise how tolerant and sociable the shopping centre is. Observations of stigmatised territories reveal how the participation of marginalised individuals and ethnic minorities at the shopping centre challenges the processes and discourses that constitute them as objects of fear and nuisance. The concepts of conviviality and cosmopolitan canopies are used to analyse local social interactions. The analysis suggests that the capacity to live with difference is enabled by ordinary meeting places, such as pubs and cafés, where residents come into regular social contact and engage with diverse individuals and groups. While the maintenance of ethnic boundaries remains salient in the way residents negotiate the social landscapes, these ordinary spaces of encounter situationally reconfigure categories of “us” and “them” and thus expand local meanings of who belongs. The analysis concludes that the contested meanings of belonging and the everyday negotiation of difference are attributes of an open multi-ethnic society coming to terms with difference and change. The analysis suggests that an equal right to participate and interact in shared urban spaces, rather than community consensus, is the hallmark of a society’s capacity to live with difference

Measuring the unknown: evaluative practices and performance indicators for digital platforms

Purpose In the current digital era where online content is riddled with fabricated metrics and rankings, this research aims to investigate the underpinning mechanisms of the calculative practices which actors engage with to evaluate digital platform content in the absence of well-defined performance measures. Design/methodology/approach The paper focuses on the online, photo-sharing platform Instagram which is devoid of common performance measures such as rankings, ratings and reviews. The authors applied netnographic methods to capture users' actions and interactions at the Greek Instagram community. The authors adopt a practice lens as informed by Schatzki's ‘site ontology’ to capture actors' calculative practices as organised by rules, teleoaffective structures and general and practical understandings. Findings Platform actors engage in aesthetic and palpable evaluations of other user profiles and their posted content. They employ permissible (e.g., using third-party apps) and illicit (e.g., lobbying and procuring engagement) tactics to measure and manage digital platform performance, fabricate metrics and blur others' evaluations, in pursuit of prestige and material teleologies. Their calculative practices are conditioned by an implicit social etiquette, which permeates the platform both horizontally and vertically. Originality/value First, the paper captures and theorises the mechanisms which underpin actors' calculative practices for performance measurement in the absence of robust judgement devices. Second, it demonstrates how ambiguous assemblages of material and prestige teleologies, aesthetic and palpable evaluative regimes and implicit rules and practical expertise collectively invoke platform actors' calculative practices and the construction of performance measures. In doing so, it contributes to performance measurement literature via demonstrating how management accounting is implicated in the evaluation of digital platform outputs. Practical implications The paper provides insight on how platform actors fabricate performance metrics, what they perceive as ‘good’ online content and what constitutes an ‘impactful’ user account or a ‘successful’ social media campaign. Such findings are valuable to management accountants, entrepreneurs and practitioners who seek to evaluate digital platform performance