Open budget data: mapping the landscape

This report offers analysis of the emerging issue of open budget data, which has begun to gain traction amongst advocates and practitioners of financial transparency. Issues and initiatives associated with the emerging issue of open budget data are charted in different forms of digital media. The objective is to enable practitioners – in particular civil society organisations, intergovernmental organisations, governments, multilaterals and funders – to navigate this developing field and to identify trends, gaps and opportunities for supporting it. How public money is collected and distributed is one of the most pressing political questions of our time, influencing the health, well-being and prospects of billions of people. Decisions about fiscal policy affect everyone - determining everything from the resourcing of essential public services, to the capacity of public institutions to take action on global challenges such as poverty, inequality or climate change. Digital technologies have the potential to transform the way that information about public money is organised, circulated and utilised in society, which in turn could shape the character of public debate, democratic engagement, governmental accountability and public participation in decision-making about public funds. Data could play a vital role in tackling the democratic deficit in fiscal policy and in supporting better outcomes for citizens

Designing a Robotic Platform for Investigating Swarm Robotics

This paper documents the design and subsequent construction of a low-cost, flexible robotic platform for swarm robotics research, and the selection of appropriate swarm algorithms for the implementation of a swarm focused predominantly on target location. The design described herein is intended to allow for the construction of robots large enough to meaningfully interact with their environment while maintaining a low per-robot cost of materials and a low assembly time. The design process is separated into three stages: mechanical design, electrical design, and software design. All major design components are described in detail under the appropriate design section. The BOM for a single robot is also included, along with relevant testing information

Democratising the data revolution

What will the data revolution do? What will it be about? What will it count? What kinds of risks and harms might it bring? Whom and what will it serve? And who will get to decide? This brief discussion paper is intended to advance thinking and action around civil society engagement with the data revolution. It looks beyond the disclosure of existing information, towards more ambitious and substantive forms of democratic engagement with data infrastructures. It concludes with a series of questions for discussion about what practical steps institutions and civil society organisations might take to change what is measured!and! how, and how these measurements are put to work

Exfoliated Graphite Resistance Based Pressure Sensor for Mapping Plantar Pressure

Undergraduate Basi

Development of Exfoliated Graphite-Based Human Breast Probe Sensor

Undergraduate Basi

Low-Cost Biaxial Skin Sensors for Large Strain Measurement

Undergraduate Basi

Leading Communities of Practice in Social Work. Groupwork or management?

Social work in the UK has undergone a period of momentous change in the last decade with the introduction of a ‘modernising agenda’ that has increased managerial approaches to the organisation, development and delivery of services. Whilst posing a threat to some, these approaches are embedded and social workers must find ways of working within them to synthesise appropriate responses that promote the values and cultural heritage of social work within the new context. This paper considers the possibilities offered by communities of practice to develop learning organisations in which a managed and participatory approach to social care can be generated. A super-ordinate model of contending cultures is developed and practice that draws on and is predicated by groupwork principles is presented as a potential way forward

It is time for institutions to ensure data infrastructures are more responsive to their publics

Contemporary data infrastructures have had transformative effects; not only on methods, technologies and standards relating to data but also on our social, political, economic and cultural worlds. Building on the open data movement’s successes in the opening and sharing of data sets, Jonathan Gray argues it is time for a broader conversation around the making and development of data infrastructures. Until we institute processes to ensure data infrastructures reflect the concerns of their various publics, we risk sustaining systems that are disengaged from, or even damaging towards, those they are intended to benefit

Book review: open access and the humanities: contexts, controversies and the future by Martin Eve

Martin Eve’s new book is essential reading for anyone interested in the future of open access and scholarly communication in the humanities. With chapters on digital economics, open licensing, and technological innovations, the book represents a rallying call for researchers to shape the future of open scholarly communication and public engagement, writes Jonathan Gray