Theoretical and methodological approaches to the study of information need in the context of the impact of new information and communications technologies on the communication of parliamentary information.

This paper discusses critically the theoretical and methodological background to an Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) research project designed to investigate the impact of information and communications technologies (ICTs) on the communication of parliamentary and legislative information to the general public or citizen. It sets out the context of the study in terms of the changes in governance, resulling from devolution and, via a wide ranging literature review, describes the ways in which the authors' research approach has developed The design of the project methodology, that of an interactive online interview executed via a roadshow, is also described

An exploration of the effectiveness for the citizen of web-based systems of communicating UK parliamentary and devolved assembly information.

This article reports on an exploratory study, funded by the UK Economic and Social Research Council, which investigated the impact of technology on the communication of parliamentary information to the general public. This study tested the application of a new data collection tool: an interactive, electronically assisted interview that was taken out across the UK as part of a pilot roadshow to organizations such as public libraries, community centers, sheltered accommodation, and universities. Here, members of the public were invited to explore and respond to the Web sites of the UK Parliament, the Scottish Parliament, and the National Assembly for Wales. During these sessions, online activities were recorded in a data transaction log, while search behavior and verbal responses were coded in a protocol analysis approach. The article provides full details of the results of these interactive interviews. They appear to indicate that the availability of information in readily accessible electronic form is insufficient alone to encourage citizen participation. Other motivators and forms of support are required to encourage and enable people to access, use, and apply that information and to encourage them to use technology to interact with democracy

The impact of new technology on the communication of parliamentary information.

This article discusses the results of an exploratory study, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, which investigated the impact of technology on the communication of parliamentary information to the general public in the United Kingdom. As Stage 1 of the project, interviews were conducted with representatives of the public information services of the UK Parliament, the Scottish Parliament, the National Assembly for Wales and the Northern Ireland Assembly. Stage 2 consisted of interactive, electronically-assisted interviews, delivered in a roadshow environment, where members of the public were given the opportunity to explore, and provide critical feedback on, parliamentary websites

Data collection using electronically assisted interviews in a roadshow: a methodological evaluation.

Discusses the second stage of a pilot study, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, which investigated the impact of technology on the communication of parliamentary information to the general public. This second stage tested the application of a new data collection tool - An interactive, electronically assisted interview delivered in a roadshow environment. The approach was tested in the context of the public's need for information about the UK Parliament, the Scottish Parliament and the National Assembly for Wales. Interviews were carried out by a researcher, aboard a minibus equipped with a laptop and mobile data transmission equipment, who assisted members of the public in exploring and responding to parliamentary and devolved Assembly Websites. Roadshows took place across the UK at organisations such as public libraries, community centres, sheltered accommodation and universities. Discusses in critical detail all aspects of the execution of the methodology and draws conclusions as to its validity for future research

The impact of new technology on the communication of parliamentary information.

This report details the results of a pilot study, funded by the ESRC, to test the application of a new data collection tool - an interactive, electronically-assisted interview delivered in a roadshow environment - in the context of the public's need for parliamentary and devolved legislature information. This data collection approach was deemed suited to the exploration of a complex area of information need, in particular the relationship between information and democratic participation, combining, as it does, the capacity for observation of online activity with the opportunity to ask probing questions about both the quality and usefulness of information located and respondents' perceptions of the relationship between information and the 'active citizen'. The tool has potential for application in a variety of information behaviour contexts. Given that the interview is conducted in an electronic environment, it is particularly suited to gauging the potential impact of information and communication technologies (ICTs) on patterns of behaviour

The effectiveness of parliamentary information services in the United Kingdom.

This paper describes the results of a pilot project, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, which explored the effectiveness of the public information and communications policies of the UK Parliament in London and the new devolved legislatures in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The study consisted of two elements: a series of indepth interviews with service providers; and interactive, electronically assisted interviews with the general public conducted in a roadshow environment. The paper focuses primarily on the results of the first stage of the research, relating these where appropriate to what was learned about user information behavior in the second stage

The Uncertainty of Fluxes

In the ordinary quantum Maxwell theory of a free electromagnetic field, formulated on a curved 3-manifold, we observe that magnetic and electric fluxes cannot be simultaneously measured. This uncertainty principle reflects torsion: fluxes modulo torsion can be simultaneously measured. We also develop the Hamilton theory of self-dual fields, noting that they are quantized by Pontrjagin self-dual cohomology theories and that the quantum Hilbert space is Z/2-graded, so typically contains both bosonic and fermionic states. Significantly, these ideas apply to the Ramond-Ramond field in string theory, showing that its K-theory class cannot be measured.Comment: 33 pages; minor modifications for publication in Commun. Math. Phy