Do Archives Have a Future in the Digital Age?

The rapid development of information and communication technologies pose significant challenges to archival theory and practice. The analysis of the dominant information operators of the archival institutions in the respective paradigms of archival history shows that today’s internet-based services can replicate all the main functions of the archival institutions, at least at the level of the fundamental information operators, on a mass scale. Despite these developments, the author argues that archives are under no direct threat of abolition or loss of function in the digital age, not only because of institutional inertia and traditions, but also their role in preserving context and preserving physical copies, and their institutional responsibility which will continue to be an important social, legal and administrative requirement in the future, too

Questioning surveillance

The aim of this article is to make suggestions that could empower different socio-political groups to question surveillance. It does so by formulating sets of questions that different stakeholders can ask of themselves, of the private sector, and of government, including intelligence agencies. It is divided into three main parts. The first part provides some background on resilience in surveillance societies. It defines the terms and identifies features of resilience and today’s surveillance society. The second part lays out a set of questions addressed to each of the stakeholder groups. The questions are intended to promote consideration of a proposed or existing surveillance system, technology, practice or other initiative in terms of the necessity and proportionality of the system, and of whether stakeholders are being consulted. The third part offers a list of measures that can be taken to increase resilience in a surveillance society, to restrict the scope of surveillance systems to what can be legitimately justified, and to minimise the impacts of surveillance systems on the individual, groups and society

SANS study on influence of temperature on nanophase separation in epoxy-based hydrogels

Effect of temperature on nanophase separated structure of epoxy-based hydrogels containing polyoxyethylene (POE), polyoxypropylene (POP) and diglycidyl ether of Bisphenol A propoxylate (PDGEBA) was studied using small-angle neutron scattering (SANS). At the macroscopic level, increase of temperature causes an expulsion of water from the hydrogels. At the microscopic level, the expulsion of water is accompanied by redistribution of water and POE inside the hydrogels. Two kinds of structure have been revealed in the hydrogels by SANS. The structure with shorter characteristic length measured by Bragg’s distance (ca 70–80 Å) is observed in all hydrogels and at all investigated temperatures (5–80 °C). It is attributed to a distribution of water into water-rich and water-poor domains caused by nanophase separation of the crosslinked system due to differences in interaction of individual network building blocks with water. The water-rich domains consist of a part of POE blocks mixed with water. The water-poor domains consist of POP and PDGEBA blocks mixed with a small amount of water and remaining POE blocks. The domains are separated by a diffuse interface with effective thickness ca 7–10 Å as estimated from deviations from Porod’s law. Formation of a new structure with longer characteristic length (ca 240 Å) is observed in the highly non-stoichiometric hydrogels. Its contribution to SANS becomes more pronounced with increasing temperature. This contribution is attributed to the formation of regions of pure water (water pools) as a new hydrogel phase that is enabled by low network density and high amount of pending chains in the highly non-stoichiometric epoxy networks subject to swelling

SANS study on the surfactant effect on nanophase separation in epoxy-based hydrogels prepared from α,ω-diamino terminated polyoxypropylene and polyoxyethylene bis(glycidyl ether)

Effect of a cationic surfactant (myristyltrimethylammonium bromide, C14TAB) on swelling behaviour of epoxy network containing polyoxyethylene (POE) and polyoxypropylene (POP) and structure of resulting hydrogels was studied using small-angle neutron scattering (SANS).Nanophase separated structure of hydrogel prepared by swelling of the network in pure water was revealed. Characteristic length scale of the structure as measured by Bragg’s distance is ca 78 Å. The structure consists of water-poor and water-rich nanodomains separated by a diffuse interface of effective thickness ca 5 Å. Presence of the surfactant in swelling solution has a strong effect on swelling behaviour of the epoxy network and structure of resulting hydrogels. At the macroscopic level, both, the swelling degree and surfactant uptake by the network increase considerably with growing surfactant concentration in swelling solution. At the microscopic level, the two-phase nanophase separated structure is preserved, however, it becomes finer as expressed by a continuous decay of Bragg’s distance from 78 Å (in absence of the surfactant) to 61 Å (highest surfactant concentration). Effective thickness of interface varies between ca 3–6 Å. Presence of the surfactant also induces variation of the neutron scattering length density at much longer length scale of ca 200–1200 Å. Strong binding of the surfactant to POP chains in epoxy network is responsible for the effects observed

Timing the Right to be Forgotten: A study into "time" as a factor in deciding about retention or erasure of data

The so-called “Right to Be Forgotten or Erasure” (RTBF), article 17 of the proposed General Data Protection Regulation, provides individuals with a means to oppose the often persistent digital memory of the Web. Because digital information technologies affect the accessibility of information over time and time plays a fundamental role in biological forgetting,‘time’ is a factor that should play a pivotal role in the RTBF.This chapter explores the roles that ‘time’ plays and could plain decisions regarding the retention or erasure of data. Two roles are identified: (1) ‘time’ as the marker of a discrete moment where the grounds for retention no longer hold and ‘forgetting’ of the data should follow and (2) ‘time’ as a factor in the balance of interests, as adding or removing weight to the request to ‘forget’ personal information or its opposing interest. The chapter elaborates on these two roles from different perspectives and highlights the importance and underdeveloped understanding of the second role