Developing a Local-First Application with Automerge

In modern time, cloud services have been the go-to approach to store information and documents, and cloud makes documents accessible for users and make it easier to manage items. Cloud is an excellent option to have when data need to be available, but what if collaboration is only needed a few times a week? Once a month? Or unstable connection leading to disconnection to the network? A solution is a Local-first approach. This means all items and documents a user has created is store locally on the device it is created on and provide a feeling of ownership to what is created. Local documents are treated as primary copies, and potential backups stored in an external cloud own by big companies are secondary copies. Different communication technologies are explored, tested, and evaluated in this thesis in combination with a Local-fist approach and Automerge. A prototype is developed to connect all these ideas and concepts and to better understand which technologies do fit together and provide the necessary features to achieve a Local-first application for collaboration between computers and mobile

Increasing Access to Food: A Comprehensive Report on Food Supply Options

Access to food is one of the most important aspects of a healthy, sustainable community. Grocery stores and other suppliers can serve as an economic anchor to provide social benefits to communities. Unfortunately, many communities do not have convenient and/or affordable access to grocery items, particularly fresh produce. As part of Virginia Commonwealth University\u27s Fall 2019 graduate course on Urban Commercial Revitalization, class members researched 13 retail and other food access options, which are described in this report. Each chapter covers a food access option and provides basic information that will be useful to individuals, organizations, or government agencies that wish to attract and/or develop grocery operations in their communities

Mobile Value Added Services: A Business Growth Opportunity for Women Entrepreneurs

Examines the potential for mobile value-added services adoption by women entrepreneurs in Egypt, Nigeria, and Indonesia in expanding their micro businesses; challenges, such as access to digital channels; and the need for services tailored to women

Leveraging Client Processing for Location Privacy in Mobile Local Search

Usage of mobile services is growing rapidly. Most Internet-based services targeted for PC based browsers now have mobile counterparts. These mobile counterparts often are enhanced when they use user\u27s location as one of the inputs. Even some PC-based services such as point of interest Search, Mapping, Airline tickets, and software download mirrors now use user\u27s location in order to enhance their services. Location-based services are exactly these, that take the user\u27s location as an input and enhance the experience based on that. With increased use of these services comes the increased risk to location privacy. The location is considered an attribute that user\u27s hold as important to their privacy. Compromise of one\u27s location, in other words, loss of location privacy can have several detrimental effects on the user ranging from trivial annoyance to unreasonable persecution. More and more companies in the Internet economy rely exclusively on the huge data sets they collect about users. The more detailed and accurate the data a company has about its users, the more valuable the company is considered. No wonder that these companies are often the same companies that offer these services for free. This gives them an opportunity to collect more accurate location information. Research community in the location privacy protection area had to reciprocate by modeling an adversary that could be the service provider itself. To further drive this point, we show that a well-equipped service provider can infer user\u27s location even if the location information is not directly available by using other information he collects about the user. There is no dearth of proposals of several protocols and algorithms that protect location privacy. A lot of these earlier proposals require a trusted third party to play as an intermediary between the service provider and the user. These protocols use anonymization and/or obfuscation techniques to protect user\u27s identity and/or location. This requirement of trusted third parties comes with its own complications and risks and makes these proposals impractical in real life scenarios. Thus it is preferable that protocols do not require a trusted third party. We look at existing proposals in the area of private information retrieval. We present a brief survey of several proposals in the literature and implement two representative algorithms. We run experiments using different sizes of databases to ascertain their practicability and performance features. We show that private information retrieval based protocols still have long ways to go before they become practical enough for local search applications. We propose location privacy preserving mechanisms that take advantage of the processing power of modern mobile devices and provide configurable levels of location privacy. We propose these techniques both in the single query scenario and multiple query scenario. In single query scenario, the user issues a query to the server and obtains the answer. In the multiple query scenario, the user keeps sending queries as she moves about in the area of interest. We show that the multiple query scenario increases the accuracy of adversary\u27s determination of user\u27s location, and hence improvements are needed to cope with this situation. So, we propose an extension of the single query scenario that addresses this riskier multiple query scenario, still maintaining the practicability and acceptable performance when implemented on a modern mobile device. Later we propose a technique based on differential privacy that is inspired by differential privacy in statistical databases. All three mechanisms proposed by us are implemented in realistic hardware or simulators, run against simulated but real life data and their characteristics ascertained to show that they are practical and ready for adaptation. This dissertation study the privacy issues for location-based services in mobile environment and proposes a set of new techniques that eliminate the need for a trusted third party by implementing efficient algorithms on modern mobile hardware

Technology for Good: Innovative Use of Technology by Charities

Technology for Good identifies ten technologies being used by charitable organizations in innovative ways. The report briefly introduces each technology and provides examples of how those technologies are being used.Examples are drawn from a broad spectrum of organizations working on widely varied issues around the globe. This makes Technology for Good a unique repository of inspiration for the public and private sectors, funders, and other change makers who support the creation and use of technology for social good

Privacy in Gaming

Video game platforms and business models are increasingly built on collection, use, and sharing of personal information for purposes of both functionality and revenue. This paper examines privacy issues and explores data practices, technical specifications, and policy statements of the most popular games and gaming platforms to provide an overview of the current privacy legal landscape for mobile gaming, console gaming, and virtual reality devices. The research observes how modern gaming aligns with information privacy notions and norms and how data practices and technologies specific to gaming may affect users and, in particular, child gamers. After objectively selecting and analyzing major players in gaming, the research notes the many different ways that game companies collect data from users, including through cameras, sensors, microphones, and other hardware, through platform features for social interaction and user-generated content, and by means of tracking technologies like cookies and beacons. The paper also notes how location and biometric data are collected routinely through game platforms and explores issues specific to mobile gaming and pairing with smartphones and other external hardware devices. The paper concludes that transparency as to gaming companies’ data practices could be much improved, especially regarding sharing with third party affiliates. In addition, the research considers how children’s privacy may be particularly affected while gaming, determining that special attention should be paid to user control mechanisms and privacy settings within games and platforms, that social media and other interactive features create unique privacy and safety concerns for children which require gamer and parent education, and that privacy policy language is often incongruent with age ratings advertised to children and parents. To contribute additional research value and resources, the paper attaches a comprehensive set of appendices, on which the research conclusions are in part based, detailing the technical specifications and privacy policy statements of popular games and gaming platforms for mobile gaming, console gaming, and virtual reality devices

Exploring people’s candidacy for mobile health–supported HIV testing and care services in rural Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa: qualitative study

BACKGROUND: The use of mobile communication technologies (mHealth: mobile health) in chronic disease management has grown significantly over the years. mHealth interventions have the potential to decentralize access to health care and make it convenient, particularly in resource-constrained settings. It is against this backdrop that we aimed to codevelop (with potential users) a new generation of mobile phone-connected HIV diagnostic tests and Web-based clinical care pathways needed for optimal delivery of decentralized HIV testing, prevention, and care in low- and middle-income countries. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to understand ways in which an mHealth intervention could be developed to overcome barriers to existing HIV testing and care services and promote HIV self-testing and linkage to prevention and care in a poor, HIV hyperendemic community in rural KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. METHODS: A total of 54 in-depth interviews and 9 focus group discussions were conducted with potential users (including health care providers) in 2 different communities. Theoretically informed by the candidacy framework, themes were identified from the interview transcripts, manually coded, and thematically analyzed. RESULTS: Participants reported barriers, such as fear of HIV identity, stigma, long waiting hours, clinic space, and health care workers' attitudes, as major impediments to effective uptake of HIV testing and care services. People continued to reassess their candidacy for HIV testing and care services on the basis of their experiences and how they or others were treated within the health systems. Despite the few concerns raised about new technology, mobile phone-linked HIV testing was broadly acceptable to potential users (particularly men and young people) and providers because of its privacy (individual control of HIV testing over health provider-initiated testing), convenience (individual time and place of choice for HIV testing versus clinic-based testing), and time saving. CONCLUSIONS: Mobile phone-connected HIV testing and Web-based clinical care and prevention pathways have the potential to support access to HIV prevention and care, particularly for young people and men. Although mHealth provides a way for individuals to test their candidacy for HIV services, the barriers that can make the service unattractive at the clinic level will also need to be addressed if potential demand is to turn into actual demand

Risk, rescue and emergency services: The changing spatialities of Mountain Rescue Teams in England and Wales

This paper considers the role of the emergency services in society and, in particular, their role in controlling, mitigating and resolving risk. Using a network approach, Mountain Rescue Teams are studied in order to examine how people, agencies, animals, technology and knowledge are deployed to resolve emergencies. The paper traces the changing nature of risk in rural places and the impact of state regulation on the deployment, spatialities and practices of the emergency services. In doing so, it argues that greater attention should be paid to the emergency services by geographers. © 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Rural transport and older people in Lincolnshire : research report in association with the Policy Studies Research Centre and Lincoln Business School

Executive Summary • The population of the UK is ageing and it is predicted that by 2035 people aged 65 and over will comprise 23% of the total UK population. • These changing demographics are particularly noticeable in rural areas of the UK, where the median age of a rural resident is 42, compared to 36 for an urban resident. The out-migration of younger age groups and the selective re-population of many of England’s rural areas with older age groups, means that the rural population is simultaneously growing and ageing. • Research indicates that among post-retirement older people there is a clear connection between transport and social exclusion, which is especially marked in rural areas. Accessible transport is therefore a key factor in preventing social isolation, facilitating independence and maintaining a high quality of life. • This report was commissioned to examine these issues and investigate the current and future transportation needs of older people in Lincolnshire after transport was listed as one of three top priorities for older people in a consultation with this age group in the county. • The report will form part of a wider proposal to develop a community transport strategy for Lincolnshire, supported by a marketing and communication plan for transport services for older people. • If well planned, community transport can form a vital component of an integrated transport system as it provides an important passenger transport resource, which complements other transport services such as local bus and rail networks and Demand Responsive Transport (DRT) schemes such as CallConnect. • In so doing, community transport helps to provide and enhance passenger transport accessibility and reduce social isolation in rural areas and for particular categories of people (such as older people), who can find it difficult to access public transport. The main conclusions which emerged from the research are as follows: • There was a severe lack of knowledge amongst participants about what community transport schemes existed, how they operated and what services they offered. • There appeared to be a negative relationship between the number of community transport providers and high levels of socio-economic deprivation. For example, in Gainsborough there were no voluntary/community car schemes, whilst in Louth, there was a large scheme, well operated and well used. However, despite these findings, there were still people living in Louth attending the focus group who had little or no idea about what a voluntary/community car scheme was or what other services like CallConnect could do for them. • The dominant role of the car in older people’s lives was noticeable: both men and women were very reluctant to give up driving and continued to drive into their 80s. • While some older people felt that their free bus passes were a ‘lifeline’, others felt they were less useful as there were not enough buses to use them on, could not use them due to mobility issues and the distance from their homes to a bus stop, or were not aware that they could be used on DRT services e.g. CallConnect. • A severe lack of coordination between transport services was reported by older people. These included connection times between different bus operators and also to railway stations. Furthermore there was also a variety of health care providers who older people felt gave little or no consideration as to how they were to get to appointments and how to deal with potential life changing events, e.g. the cessation of driving. • While many older people appeared to own mobile phones, very few used these to send text messages and no participants used their phone to access the internet. • Very few of the people interviewed used a computer, instead relying on their sons and daughters to find out information when they had no other option but to use a computer and access the internet. However, some older people did express a desire to learn more about computer technology and how to access the internet. • There are a lack of public and community transport services that operate during the evenings and at weekends in rural communities. This creates a feeling of isolation amongst the older people interviewed and difficulties in accessing essential amenities and services. Based on the research in this report, a series of short and longer term recommendations are suggested to increase the use of public and community transport services by older people in rural communities: Short term 1. The implementation of a promotional and marketing campaign that would raise awareness of different rural transport services available to older people 2. Further development of the Lincolnshire Community Transport Forum 3. The promotion of voluntary/community transport as a way to access healthcare Longer term 4. Greater opportunities for older people to access and learn about ICT for transport 5. The expansion of the concessionary bus pass scheme to be used on other transport service