1,411 research outputs found
Two Species Evolutionary Game Model of User and Moderator Dynamics
We construct a two species evolutionary game model of an online society
consisting of ordinary users and behavior enforcers (moderators). Among
themselves, moderators play a coordination game choosing between being
"positive" or "negative" (or harsh) while ordinary users play prisoner's
dilemma. When interacting, moderators motivate good behavior (cooperation)
among the users through punitive actions while the moderators themselves are
encouraged or discouraged in their strategic choice by these interactions. We
show the following results: (i) We show that the -limit set of the
proposed system is sensitive both to the degree of punishment and the
proportion of moderators in closed form. (ii) We demonstrate that the basin of
attraction for the Pareto optimal strategy
can be computed exactly. (iii) We demonstrate that for certain initial
conditions the system is self-regulating. These results partially explain the
stability of many online users communities such as Reddit. We illustrate our
results with examples from this online system.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, submitted to 2012 ASE Conference on Social
Informatic
Risk Based Urban Watershed Management Under Conflicting Objectives
Ecological impairment and flooding caused by urbanization can be expressed numerically by calculating the risks throughout the watershed (floodplain) and along the main stems of the streams. The risks can be evaluated in terms of the present and/or future. This article describes the methodologies for ascertaining the risks in the Geographical Information Systems (GIS) environment. The objectives of urban flood controls and ecological preservation/restoration of urban waters are often conflicting and, in the past, the sole emphasis on flood control led to destruction of habitat and deterioration of water quality. An optimal solution to these two problems may be achieved by linking the risks to the concepts of risk communication, risk perception, and public willingness to pay for projects leading to ecological restoration and ecologically sustainable flood control. This method is appropriate because, in each case, public funds are used and the projects require approval and backing of policy makers and stakeholders. This article briefly describes a research project that attempts to resolve the conflict between the flood protection and stream ecological preservation and restoration and suggests alternative ways of expressing benefits of urban stream flood control and restoration projects
Self-organisation in companies is essential to do business"
Interview with Douglas Griffin about complexity in organisations
Complexity in organizations, Management, Leadership, Success, Sociology
Introduction to News Media Law and Policy in Jordan
The goal of this volume is to examine and assess the legal environment-the institutions, laws, and practices in which news media operate in Jordan. It is designed for those in Jordan for whom information and communication is important: citizens, government officials, organizations or civil society, indeed, almost everyone. We seek to describe the system of laws and policies, including basic rights, that affect the way in which information and ideas about public affairs are selected, packaged, distributed, and received. We try to place rules and regulations in context, at least a public context. It is impossible, here, to describe the complex history, the religious institutions, the geopolitical events and other very considerable matters that affect how speech flows. We concentrate, therefore, on press and media laws and their implementation
Toward an Understanding of Media Policy and Media Systems in Iraq
Part 1: Policy Recommendations Concerning Broadcasting in Iraq- Communications and Media Commission of Iraq
This study was commissioned by the Communications and Media Commission of Iraq (CMC) as part of its efforts to stimulate debate on ways to improve the broadcasting sector in Iraq. The most immediate goal of this document is to describe the current regulatory framework in Iraq and to make policy recommendations for change for use by the CMC, Iraqi policy makers and international and local donors and implementing organizations. This draft was presented at a conference on Iraqi media funded by the CMC and co-hosted by UNESCO and UNDP, with the support of Official Development Assistance of Japan and the European Union. This conference took place at UNESCO headquarters in Paris in January 2007.
A future goal of the study will be to provide a snapshot of the Iraqi broadcasting sector as it is today. A more comprehensive version of this study addressing this aim is being prepared and is to be published by the CMC at a later date. The subsequent draft will take into consideration comments submitted on this draft. It is important to note that the CMC’s commissioning and publication of this report does not mean it endorses its content or its recommendations. It remains a working document pending further discussions.
The CMC would like to express its gratitude to the Stanhope Centre for undertaking this important study in very challenging circumstances.
Part 2: The Dynamics of Iraq’s Media- Ibrahim Al-Marashi
A recurring theme in debates on the future of Iraq is that the state is facing an imminent civil war among ethnic Kurds, Turkmens and Arabs, and among the Sunni and Shi’a Muslim sects. As tensions continue to escalate, the Iraqi media will play a crucial role in these developments. The pluralization of a private media sector in post-Ba’athist Iraq has served as a positive development in Iraq’s post-war transition, yet this has also allowed for the emergence of local media that are forming along ethno-sectarian lines. The Iraqi media have evolved to a stage where they now have the capability of reinforcing the country’s ethno-sectarian divisions. This policy paper examines the evolution and current state of Iraq’s media and offers recommendations to local Iraqi actors, as well as regional and international organizations, as to how the media can counter employment of negative images and stereotypes of other ethno-sectarian communities and influence public attitudes in overcoming such tensions in Iraqi society
The Mountain of a Thousand Holes: Shipwreck Traditions and Treasure Hunting on Oregon\u27s North Coast
“Euro-Americans in coastal communities conflated and amplified Native American oral traditions of shipwrecks in Tillamook County, increasingly focusing on buried treasure,” write authors Cameron La Follette, Dennis Griffin and Douglas Deur. In this article, the authors trace the Euro-American blending of Native oral tradition with romances and adventure tales that helped create the “legends contributing to Neahkahnie [Mountain]\u27s reputation as Oregon\u27s treasure-seeking haven.” They also examine the history of treasure-seeking in the area and describe the escalating conflict between Oregon\u27s treasure-hunting statute and cultural resources protection laws, which led finally to statutory repeal that ended all treasure-hunting on state lands. While treasure hunting is no longer allowed in Oswald West State Park where Neahkahnie Mountain is located, the “Beeswax Wreck” lore continues to fascinate visitors to the north Oregon coast
Toward an Understanding of Media Policy and Media Systems in Iraq: A Foreword and Two Reports
In the avalanche of analyses about what went wrong in Iraq, one area should be of particular interest to communications scholars: the development of a media system in Iraq. The emerging media system incorporates many significant strands: the conflict-related and post-conflict actions concerning media policy, the considerable growth of faction-related and entrepreneurial broadcasters after the conflict, the efforts by interests in the region (Iran, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon and others) to affect the media environment, interventions by the United States and other Western countries, and their complex and often inept media-related reconstruction initiatives, the effort of non-government organizations (NGOs) to repeat or adopt practices from other conflict zones.
There\u27s a tendency in the communications studies literature to be concerned with particular U.S.-centric frames of discussion: access by Western journalists to information, depiction of the United States on Al-Jazeera and other satellite broadcasters, the combination of media and Islam as a mode of altering general public attitudes. I focus here — as an introduction to the two accompanying papers — on the emerging structure of media or media influences domestically in Iraq to understand the influence of the successor to Saddam\u27s state television, the relationship between external state-sponsored influences, and pluralism within, and what consequence media policy or subsidy and private or party patronage has had on media institutions there. Finally, it will become increasingly important to understand the relationship between these media institutions and the actuality of continuing conflict and search for political solutions within Iraq.
This Occasional Paper includes two reports. The first is a paper written by Ibrahim Al-Marashi, one of the few scholars systematically tracking media developments within Iraq. Dr. Al-Marashi was a Visiting Scholar at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania in 2006 and has, for the last year, been an Open Society Institute (OSI) Policy Scholar at the Center for Policy Studies at Central European University in Budapest. He has recently joined the faculty at Koç University in Istanbul. The second was commissioned by the Republic of Iraq Communications and Media Commission (CMC), the agency established first under the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) then maintained by the Iraqi governing authorities, and presented at a conference at UNESCO in January 2007. The report is the result of a contract between the CMC and the Stanhope Centre for Communications Policy Research in London
Numerical Solutions for Two- and Three-Dimensional Non-Reacting Flowfields in an Internal Combustion Engine
The numerical solution for the flowfield established in a spark-
ignition internal combustion engine during the four-stroke (intake,
compression, power, exhaust) cycle is considered. Only fluid-dynamic
effects are treated with combustion simulated by constant- volume heat
addition near top-dead-center on the compression stroke. The working
fluid is assumed to be air of constant specific heat, with both viscous
and inviscid models considered. Two- and three-dimensional engine models
are examined, with the three-dimensional models including both rectangular
and cylindrical geometries. The difficulties associated with obtaining
numerical solutions in cylindrical coordinates for three-dimensional
non-axisymmetric problems when the centerline is included in the region
of interest are discussed. A new method which avoids the coordinate-
singularity problems associated with such cases is presented and used
to obtain the first known four-stroke inviscid-flow solution for a
three- dimensional cylindrical engine model. Similar results are presented
for a three-dimensional rectangular model, and for the first known
two-dimensional four-stroke calculation for a viscous fluid. The inviscid
three-dimensional results are compared with each other and with
previously obtained two-dimensional inviscid-flow calculations. The use
of two-dimensional models is found to be justified for the non- reacting
flowfields considered, since the results obtained from a two-dimensional
calculation in the valve plane are apparently not strongly dependent on
the flowfield perpendicular to the valve plane. It is found that significant
flowfields do exist in all I.C. engine models considered. It is
shown that the unit-cell-Reynolds-number criterion limits viscous flow
calculations to Reynolds numbers of approximately one ten-thousandth
the realistic value, and that this produces flowfields which are strongly
piston-dominated. In contrast, inviscid results show marked circulatory
patterns, which are more realistic. The velocity patterns which develop
in the three-dimensional cylindrical engine model are shown to exhibit
a marked swirl in planes parallel and perpendicular to the cylinder
axis
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