Fitness Tracking Technologies: Data Privacy Doesn’t Matter? The (Un)Concerns of Users, Former Users, and Non-Users

To be concerned about data privacy in the fitness tracking world is apparently not the question of age or fitness level. It also does not necessarily influence the actual use of fitness tracking technologies. In this empirical study, 590 participants from the EU and USA, who are current users, former users or non-users of fitness tracking applications, were surveyed (online) on their sensitivity perception of several data pieces collected with fitness trackers as well as their data privacy concerns. Furthermore, subgroups of different fitness tracking users were detected based on their different privacy unconcerns

Investigating usage of social media platforms in South Africa

This study investigated the differences in usage of different social media platforms within the South African context, broken down by user characteristics, specifically gender and age, in addition to investigating the correlation between usage of differing social media platforms. This was carried out to determine which social media needs do the different population groups aim to fulfill when using different social media platforms. Based on the results, the study confirmed the existence of preferences between types of social media platforms and groups of social media platforms in South Africa, based on frequency of use by age group and gender. Social media can thus be seen as a useful tool for collaboration and sharing knowledge to users in a South African context but must be tailored for specific audience needs

Introduction to the Minitrack on Streaming Media in Entertainment

publishedVersionNon peer reviewe

Interpersonal Relations and Social Actions on Live Streaming Services. A Systematic Review on Cyber-social Relations

This article provides a systematic review on interpersonal relations and social actions on live streaming services as, for instance, Twitch, Chaturbate, YouNow, or Taobao Live. Are those relations social, parasocial, or is there another specific kind of relation? Based on 77 articles, we give a short bibliometric overview and discuss interactions on live streaming services, social actions of streamers, social actions of viewers, shopping relations on live streaming services, and the streamers’ and viewers’ intentions to continuous actions leading (also supported by elements of gamification) the audience to a kind of stickiness towards individual streams, streamers, and services. Due to highly interactive communication between audience and broadcasters and among the viewers, social actions on live streaming services take a middle position between social and parasocial relations and―concerning shopping―also a middle position between physical event-shopping and ordering on an e-commerce platform. They form a new human-human relation, which we name “cyber-social relation.

Challenges for social media: Misinformation, free speech, civic engagement, and data regulations

Social media has arguably brought one of the greatest changes to Internet communication since the invention of the Web but challenges as well. Apart from helping people to have access and to exchange information, social media has also been used to spread misinformation, hate speech, and the user‐generated data is adopted for targeted commercial and political advertising based on personal profiles. Moreover, the most popular applications available are owned by a small number of companies who may have an undue influence on how civic engagement takes place on their platforms. In this panel, four panelists will discuss the following: misinformation and the role of pseudo‐cognitive authorities; hate speech and Germany’s Network Enforcement Act (NetzGD); civic engagement and market capture by social media companies; and finally, personal data processing and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). We intend to raise interesting questions helping to understand these issues, and to find solutions for the beneficial use of information technologies as well as to scope out all its advantages.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/147854/1/pra214505501076.pd

Anonymous and Non-anonymous User Behavior on Social Media: A Case Study of Jodel and Instagram

Anonymity plays an increasingly important role on social media. This is reflected by more and more applications enabling anonymous interactions. However, do social media users behave different when they are anonymous? In our research, we investigated social media services meant for solely anonymous use (Jodel) and for widely spread non-anonymous sharing of pictures and videos (Instagram). This study examines the impact of anonymity on the behavior of users on Jodel compared to their non-anonymous use of Instagram as well as the differences between the user types: producer, consumer, and participant. Our approach is based on the uses and gratifications theory (U&GT) by E. Katz, specifically on the sought gratifications (motivations) of self-presentation, information, socialization, and entertainment. Since Jodel is mostly used in Germany, we developed an online survey in German. The questions addressed the three different user types and were subdivided according to the four motivation categories of the U&GT. In total 664 test persons completed the questionnaire. The results show that anonymity indeed influences users' usage behavior depending on user types and different U&GT categories

Informational Urbanism. A Conceptual Framework of Smart Cities

Contemporary and future cities are often labeled as “smart cities,” “digital cities” or “ubiquitous cities,” “knowledge cities,” and “creative cities.” Informational urbanism includes all aspects of information and (tacit as well as explicit) knowledge with regard to urban regions. “Informational city” (or “smart city” in a broader sense) is an umbrella term uniting the divergent trends of information-related city research. Informational urbanism is an interdisciplinary endeavor incorporating on the one side computer science and information science as well as on the other side urban studies, city planning, architecture, city economics, and city sociology. In this article, we present both, a conceptual framework for research on smart cities as well as results from our empirical studies on smart cities all over the world. The framework consists of seven building blocks, namely information and knowledge related infrastructures, economy, politics (e-governance) and administration (e-government), spaces (spaces of flows and spaces of places), location factors, the people’s information behavior, and problem areas. \

CREATIVITY AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN INFORMATIONAL METROPOLITAN REGIONS

Due to the growing importance of metropolitan regions for the economy this work aims at analyzing what fosters economic prosperity. We propose the theory that creativity generates new ideas and enhances the entrepreneurship level in the city. In this research the focus lies on metropolitan regions, located around 30 Informational World Cities, which are prototypical cities of the knowledge society. Referring to Friedmann, we extended our focus to regions (surrounding the cities) and went beyond administrative boundaries for the purpose of economic integration and commuting flows to be included. The main task entails finding a possible correlation between creativity, entrepreneurship and economic prosperity. In order to do so, we had to determine adequate indicators describing these aspects. Regarding the economic prosperity we elaborated the GDP per capita. As for entrepreneurship, we focused on the self-employment rate and establishment of new firms. For the purpose of measuring the creativity we had to define it first, namely as constructiveness and innovative problem solving. This means creativity is not only to be found in the field of arts, but also in the fields of science, technology and research. Therefore, we chose the following four indicators to measure the level of creativeness: the Bohemian Index according to Florida which measures the amount of creative people within the city, the creative infrastructure, the scientific (publications) and the technological output (patents). To sum up, our research questions are: Can it be stated that in the informational metropolitan regions the more creative the city is, the more entrepreneurs it has? And, is there any correlation between creativity, economic prosperity, and entrepr eneurship