Global Diffusion of Interactive Networks. The Impact of Culture

The Internet and other interactive networks are diffusing across the globe at rates that vary from country to country. Typically, economic and market structure variables are used to explain these differences. The addition of culture to these variables will provide a more robust understanding of the differences in Internet and interactive network\ud diffusion. Existing analyses that identify culture as a predictor of diffusion do not adequately specificy the dimensions of culture and their impacts. This paper presents a set of propositions to be used in analyses of the impact of culture on the diffusion of interactive networks. The propositions were developed using cultural constructs presented by Hofstede, Herbig and Hall. Diffusion of innovations theory and critical mass theory provide the theoretical base. The development of the propositions resulted from a close examination of the theories for\ud relationships mediated by culture. The resulting propositions use cultural variables in relationships established by the theories. It is hoped that the propositions will serve as a starting point for future research in the area of cultural influences on the diffusion of interactive networks

End-user security in mobile telecommunications: Policy perspectives anda research agenda

The recent advances in mobile technologies have brought about increased functionality, however this increased functionality in turn increases the vulnerability of mobile networks, services and users. In such an environment supplying secure mobile services requires a high degree of coordination among a variety of industry players including equipment manufacturers, application developers, operating system developers and service providers. The scale of the challenge can be assessed by merely observing the difficulties faced by administrators of fixed organizational networks in their attempts to maintain virus-free networks in a context where the end users are to some degree under their control. In this light it is easy to imagine that providing secure services to end users in a highly decentralized public mobile network environment will certainly be a challenge. The complexity such services entail raises questions about whether or not service providers will be able to deliver and even more challenging offer security quality of service guarantees. Whether or not secure mobile services will be offered is a function of both supply and demand. While certain measures can be taken to assist the traditional market mechanisms that face challenges when high degrees of coordination are required there may also be a role for public policy. As both a component of critical infrastructures and as a licensed use of the public spectrum with public interest obligations, there may be a basis for public policy mechanisms to be employed to facilitate the supply of such services. In this paper we address these issues by first exploring factors affecting the supply and demand of security technologies and services. This is followed by a review of the policy context and recent developments in the U.S. and Europe. Information from these synopses are then combined with findings from our companion report "The Delft UMTS Testbed and End-user Security Features: to suggest a research agenda that if implemented will answer fundamental questions concerning the future of end-user mobile security

Bringing Community Back to Community Health Worker Studies: Community interactions, data collection, and health information flows

Community Health Workers (CHWs) have the potential to be a great resource in the further growth of the fledging healthcare systems that exist in many developing countries. Through their position as community members, CHWs can interact with other individuals in the areas where they live and work and serve as valuable health resources by providing basic health information and referrals up the healthcare chain. However, few studies have examined CHWs from a community-based perspective. This study analyzes the work and relationships of several CHWs working for the Mashavu mHealth venture in Nyeri, Kenya. Through the use of participant observation and interviews, the workflows of these CHWs were investigated with a specific eye towards interactions between CHWs and their communities and how these interactions affect potential health data collection opportunities. This community-based perspective reveals unique insights into the workflows of the CHWs and how technology might be designed to support them

Native American Cultural Identity through Imagery: An Activity Theory Approach to Image-Power

Draft of conference paperThe American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) community stands poised to take control of their cultural imagery and image-power through image-heavy social media platforms. Extant research demon- strates the high level of use of social media in AIAN communities, creating the opportunity to overcome negative representation by mass media in the past. However, despite evidence of social media use for cultural preservation, little is known about the exact ways in which image-power is managed. This exploratory study seeks to illuminate the ways in which advocates are presenting imagery, using a qualitative image analysis of advocates’ Instagram posts. Using an Activity Theory framework, particularly the construct of division of labor, we identify a novel taxonomy of imagery cate- gories and advocate roles. The roles, namely Informing, Rallying, Identifying, and Interacting, contribute to our understanding of the relationship between AIAN advocates and imagery, and the mediat- ing effects image-heavy social media platforms and advocate roles have on this relationship. Our findings also contribute to scholar- ship applying Activity Theory in the study of online communities. In particular, our findings delineate roles among material sharers within the construct of Division of Labor

Crossing Borders, Organizations, Levels and Technologies: IS Collaboration in Humanitarian Relief

Humanitarian non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are increasingly facing complex challenges due to the high frequency of natural disasters and the growing number of actors in the humanitarian relief sector. One of these complex challenges is the management of information. In an attempt to mitigate these challenges, NGOs are increasingly collaborating through inter-organizational structures such as collaboration bodies to find mechanisms to coordinate information technologies. These collaboration bodies facilitate four kinds of “cross” collaboration; 1) cross organization, 2) cross border, 3) cross levels, and 4) cross technology. Within each collaboration body the role and function of a project also takes on special significance as much of the cross collaboration activities are channeled through projects that cross all four types of collaboration. In this paper we examine four case studies set in two collaboration bodies focused on IT in the humanitarian sector

Digitization to Support Generations of Refugees: How Can IS Research and Researchers Make a Difference?

In recent years, a new refugee crisis has been sweeping the world due to the continuous violence in different places and countries. These developments have caused unexpected challenges on different levels, ranging from individuals (including migrants and refugees and hosting populations) to organizations, countries, and continents (including those fleeing violence and hosting countries of fleeing individuals). Despite the urgency and the potential risks associated with the current refugee situation, relatively little work has been carried out by IS researchers on how to find the intersection between this societal topic and the use of technology to alleviate this crisis. The outcomes of the panel have implications for both academia and practice. We would like to uncover the beneficial use of digital transformation solutions that could help and empower refugees and host communities using the bright side of existing technologies in integrating refugees into society

STEM Educational Outreach and Indigenous Culture: (Re)Centering for Design Scholarship

Integrating Indigenous culture into STEM education is a critical process in building pathways to justice and diversifying design. This process serves to (re)center our conceptions of STEM education by challenging strictly Western notions of STEM, representing an opportunity for learning not just in curricular design, but in technological design as well. Postcolonial computing scholars have critically examined design processes, highlighting the dominance of Western knowledge undergirding cross-cultural design. However, such efforts have yet to fully leverage insights from national curricular (re) centering initiatives. We take up this opportunity through a qualitative case study of an educational outreach organization in British Columbia, Canada, a subsidiary of a nation-wide effort in curricular integration of Indigenous and Western STEM material. Applying postcolonial computing thought, we offer enrichments to theory by providing an empirical basis for a) integrating resiliency, b) politicization in design, and c) arguments for (re)centering epistemological authority in computing. These contributions both enrich theory and enhance the practice of cross-cultural design by encouraging and exploring an Indigenous (re)centering of our understanding of both curricular and technological design

Simulating inter-organizational collaboration network: a multi- relational and event-based approach

Abstract In this research, we study inter-organizational collaboration from the perspective of multi-relational networks. We develop an agent-based model to simulate how a collaboration network among organizations emerges from organizations' interactions through another network: the inter-organizational communication network. Our model adds links (or edges) into the collaboration network on the basis of events, which correspond to organizations' formation of collaborative teams for joint projects. The proposed approach also models the competitive yet non-exclusive dissemination of information among organizations, organizations' dynamic prioritization of candidate projects, and network-based influence. Applying the model to a case study of the humanitarian sector, we configure and validate the agent-based simulation, and use it to analyze how to promote inter-organizational humanitarian collaboration by encouraging communication. The simulation results suggest that encouraging communication between peripheral organizations can better promote collaboration than other strategies