The First Amendment is an Information Policy

Balkin, Jack M. "The First Amendment is an Information Policy." Hofstra Law Review 41 (2013).

From the report: "This essay, based on the 20th annual Hugo Black lecture at Wesleyan University, argues that we should think about individual liberties of freedom of speech, press, and assembly not in isolation, but in the larger context of policies for the spread and growth of knowledge and information.

Although we normally think about the First Amendment as an individual right, we should also see it as an integral part of a knowledge and information policy for a democratic state. That is because the practical ability to speak rests on an infrastructure of free expression that involves a wide range of institutions, statutory frameworks, programs, technologies and practices.

Using the examples of democratic protests in the Middle East and the controversy over WikiLeaks, the essay explains how free speech values are implicated in knowledge and information policies, in the design of digital networks and in the maintenance of infrastructure.

Around the world today, the fight over free speech is a fight over knowledge and information policy, and, in particular, how the infrastructure that makes free speech possible will be designed and implemented. Although the First Amendment is a crucial information policy for democracy, it is only one information policy among many. It needs the assistance of an infrastructure of free expression to make good on its promises. We must design democratic values into the infrastructure of free expression if we want an infrastructure that protects democracy." Read more

Digitization, Innovation, and Copyright: What is the Agenda?

Greenstein, Shane, Lerner, Josh, and Scott Stern. "Digitization, Innovation, and Copyright: What is the Agenda?" Strategic Organization 11 (2013): 110-121.

From the report: "This essay discusses the need for research on the consequences of digitization, as well as the impact of alternative policies governing the creation and use of digital information. This agenda focuses on the development of research to investigate the economics of digitization, to analyze the governance of intellectual property in this sector, particularly through copyright, and to pioneer approaches to analyzing measurement of digitization. This agenda overlaps with many related open questions in organizational and strategy research." Read more

Informational Capabilities - The Missing Link for the Impact of ICT on Development

Gigler, Bjorn-Soren. "Informational Capabilities - The Missing Link for the Impact of ICT on Development." Available at SSRN, December 19, 2012. 

From the article: "Under what conditions can information and communications technologies (ICTs) enhance the well-being of poor communities? The paper designs an alternative evaluation framework (AEF) that applies Sen’s capability approach to the study of ICTs in order to place people’s well-being, rather than technology at the center of the study. The AEF develops an impact chain that examines the mechanisms by which access to, and meaningful use of, ICTs can enhance peoples “informational capabilities” and can lead to improvements in people’s human and social capabilities. This approach thus uses peoples’ human capabilities, rather than measures of access or usage, as its principal evaluative space. Based on empirical evidence from rural communities’ uses of ICTs in Bolivia, the study concludes that enhancing people’s informational capabilities is the most critical factor determining the impact of ICTs on their well-being. The findings indicate that improved informational capabilities, like literacy, do enhance the human capabilities of the poor and marginalized to make strategic life choices to achieve the lifestyle they value. Evaluating the impact of ICTs in terms of capabilities thus reveals that there is no direct relationship between improved access to, and use of, ICTs and enhanced well-being; ICTs lead to improvements in people’s lives only when informational capabilities are transformed into expanded human and social capabilities in the economic, political, social, organizational and cultural dimensions of their lives." Read more

How Much of the Web Is Archived?

Ainsworth, Scott G., AlSum, Ahmed, SalahEldeen, et al. "How Much of the Web Is Archived?" Unpublished paper available through Cornell University Libraries,  January 6, 2013. 

From the report: "Although the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine is the largest and most well-known web archive, there have been a number of public web archives that have emerged in the last several years. With varying resources, audiences and collection development policies, these archives have varying levels of overlap with each other. While individual archives can be measured in terms of number of URIs, number of copies per URI, and intersection with other archives, to date there has been no answer to the question - "How much of the Web is archived?" We study the question by approximating the Web using sample URIs from DMOZ, Delicious, Bitly, and search engine indexes; and, counting the number of copies of the sample URIs exist in various public web archives. Each sample set provides its own bias. The results from our sample sets indicate that range from 35%-90% of the Web has at least one archived copy, 17%-49% has between 2-5 copies, 1%-8% has 6-10 copies, and 8%-63% has more than 10 copies in public web archives. The number of URI copies varies as a function of time, but no more than 31.3% of URIs are archived more than once per month." Read more

Moving from Access to Use of the Information Infrastructure: A Multi-Level Socio-Technical Framework

Racherla, Pradeep and Munir Mandviwalla. "Moving from Access to Use of the Information Infrastructure: A Multi-Level Socio-Technical Framework." Social Science Research Network, December 9, 2012. 

From the report: "‘Universal access’ (UA) to the Internet and the associated information infrastructure has become an important economic and societal goal. However, UA initiatives tend to focus on issues such as physical access and geographical ubiquity, and measure adoption through penetration rates. In this paper, we apply an interpretive case study approach to analyze the Philadelphia wireless initiative to provide insights into the nature of UA and extend this concept to also consider Universal Use (UU). UU is important because simply providing access does not guarantee use. UU is presented as a conceptual goal that starts with the challenge of physical access but which necessarily also leads to considerations of use. The results show that the human and technological elements underlying individual access and use are deeply embedded within various institutional elements and collectives that enable but also constrain meaningful use. We integrate our findings into a multi-level framework that shows how access and use are influenced by both micro and macro factors. This framework provides new insights into the study of the information infrastructure, digital divide, and public policy." Read more

Internet Censorship Circumvention Technology Use in Human Rights Organizations: An Exploratory Analysis

Maitland, Carleen, Thomas, Herschel F. and Louis-Marie Ngamassi Tchouakeu. "Internet Censorship Circumvention Technology Use in Human Rights Organizations: An Exploratory Analysis." Journal of Information Technology 4 (2012): 285-300.

From the report: "Using an organizational informatics approach, this study explores the implications of human rights organizations’ use of censorship circumvention technologies. Through qualitative analyses of data collected through in-depth interviews, the research examines the factors influencing the use of circumvention technologies and the organizational effects of their use. The outcomes include a revised model of censorship circumvention technology use as well as a new model situating human rights organizations and their audiences in bidirectional information flows. The research provides recommendations for practice as well as insight for organizational informatics and information systems security research in the areas of protective technologies, awareness, detection, and physical security." Read more

Post Industrial Journalism: Adapting to the Present

Anderson, C.W., Bell, Emily and Clay Shirky. "Post Industrial Journalism: Adapting to the Present." Tow Center for Digital Journalism, Columbia Journalism School, November 27, 2012. 

From the report: "If you wanted to sum up the past decade of the news ecosystem in a single phrase, it might be this: Everybody suddenly got a lot more freedom. The newsmakers, the advertisers, the startups, and, especially, the people formerly known as the audience have all been given new freedom to communicate, narrowly and broadly, outside the old strictures of the broadcast and publishing models. The past 15 years have seen an explosion of new tools and techniques, and, more importantly, new assumptions and expectations, and these changes have wrecked the old clarity." Read more

Are We Making a Better World with Icts? Reflections on a Future Agenda for the is Field

Walsham, Geoff. "Are We Making a Better World with Icts? Reflections on a Future Agenda for the is Field." Journal of Information Technology 27 (2012): 87-93. 

From the report: "Dramatic changes in context have occurred over the last 25 years for those of us working in the information systems (IS) field, with ICTs becoming pervasive in many areas of human activity and in all countries of the world. It is ironic that the success of ICTs has led to concerns that the distinct research contribution of the IS field could become lost and that the field itself may decline. The literature over the last decade or so has offered different and sometimes opposing suggestions as to how the field should respond to these concerns. In this paper, I discuss these debates and I use the discussion as a basis for putting forward a skeleton future agenda for the IS field as a whole. This agenda emphasises the need for a focus on ethical goals, increased use of critical approaches, welcoming other disciplines with open arms, widening our field of study to many non-traditional settings and rejecting a dominant methodological paradigm." Read more

Health Care System To Benefit From Recent HIE Progress

Ahier, Brian. "Health Care System To Benefit From Recent HIE Progress." iHealthBeat, November 26, 2012.

From the article: "The stars seem to be aligned for rapid progress in health information exchange. We are fast approaching a point in the development of the Health Internet where ubiquitous exchange of health data to improve care coordination and health care quality and ultimately lower costs might be possible. We still face some problems, and standards and policies must be aligned, but there is some great synergy in play that will help drive this vision forward. There are a variety of different initiatives which are coalescing, but there is also a great deal of work still left to do." Read more

European Parliament Warns Against UN Internet Control

"European Parliament Warns Against UN Internet Control." BBC, November 22, 2012. 

From the article: "Members of the European Parliament backed a resolution which urged member states to reject changes to the International Telecommunication Regulations (ITR) which would "negatively impact the internet, its architecture, operations, content and security, business relations, internet governance and the free flow of information online"…. The European Parliament's objection follows loud opposition from search giant Google, which has invited concerned internet users to sign a petition.

"The International Telecommunication Union is bringing together regulators from around the world to renegotiate a decades-old communications treaty," the company wrote." Read more

See also
"European Parliament Resolution on the Forthcoming World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT-12) of the International Telecommunication Union, and the Possible Expansion of the Scope of International Telecommunication Regulations." European Parliament, November 19, 2012.

Government Transparency and Secrecy: An Examination of Meaning and Its Use in the Executive Branch

Ginsberg, Wendy, et al. "Government Transparency and Secrecy: An Examination of Meaning and Its Use in the Executive Branch." Congressional Research Service, November 8, 2012. 

From the report: "This report subsequently examines the statutes, initiatives, requirements, and other actions that make information more available to the public or protect it from public release. It also examines transparency and secrecy from the standpoint of how the public accesses government information, and whether the release of government data and information may make operation of the federal government more or, counter-intuitively, less transparent. Finally, this report analyzes whether existing transparency initiatives are effective in reaching their stated goals." Read more

The Two Key Investments to Build Back Better Post-Sandy

Crawford, Susan. "The Two Key Investments to Build Back Better Post-Sandy." Huffington Post, November 6, 2012.

From the article: "What disempowered New Yorkers most wanted during the storm, in addition to safety and electricity, was a way to communicate. My suggestion: Prioritize rebooting communications infrastructure for New York City and its environs at the same time that we think seriously about water barriers and other infrastructural needs.

Our communications problems boil down to two central issues: Lack of capacity and lack of a safety net." Read more

Holsen, Sarah and Martial Pasquier. "Insight on Information: The Role of Information Commissioners in the Implementation of Access to Information Policies." Journal of Information Policy 2 (2012): 214-241. 

From the report: "What factors impede “Access to Information (ATI)” laws – or make them effective? Drawing on international experience and analyses of ten different countries, Holsen and Pasquier describe and analyze several different forms of ATI implementation. Factors considered include the oversight bodies’ powers, independence, resources, and leadership. Special consideration is given to appeals processes and types of enforcement. In this context, the benefits of the “Information Commissioner” model have been found to outweigh its drawbacks." Read more

Exclusive: White House Review Finds No Evidence of Spying by Huawei - Sources

Menn, Jospeh. "Exclusive: White House Review Finds No Evidence of Spying by Huawei - Sources." Reuters, October 17, 2012. 

From the article: "A White House-ordered review of security risks posed by suppliers to U.S. telecommunications companies found no clear evidence that Huawei Technologies Ltd had spied for China, two people familiar with the probe told Reuters.

Instead, those leading the 18-month review concluded early this year that relying on Huawei, the world's second-largest maker of networking gear, was risky for other reasons, such as the presence of vulnerabilities that hackers could exploit.

These previously unreported findings support parts of a landmark U.S. congressional report last week that warned against allowing Chinese companies Huawei and ZTE Corp to supply critical telecom infrastructure.

But it may douse speculation that Huawei has been caught spying for China." Read more

See also
Martinez, Jennifer. "White House Denies Huawei Investigation Report." The Hill, October 17, 2012.  

The Dynamic Internet: How Technology, Users, and Businesses are Transforming the Network

Yoo, Christopher S. "The Dynamic Internet: How Technology, Users, and Businesses are Transforming the Network." U of Penn Law School, Public Law Research Paper No. 12-40, 2012. 

From the paper: "Since the Internet burst into the public’s consciousness during the mid-1990s, it has transformed almost every aspect of daily life. At that time, the economic and technological environment surrounding the Internet remained relatively simple: a small number of users ran a handful of applications over a narrow range of technologies interconnected by a simple set of business relationships.

Time has undermined each of these premises. The population of end users has grown exponentially and become increasingly diverse. The applications that dominated the early Internet — email and web browsing — have been joined by new applications such as video and cloud computing that place much greater demands on the network. Wireless broadband and fiber optics have emerged as important alternatives to transmission services provided via legacy telephone and cable television systems, and mobile devices are replacing personal computers as the dominant means for accessing the Internet. At the same time, the networks comprising the Internet are interconnecting through a wider variety of locations and economic terms than ever before.

These changes are placing pressure on the Internet’s architecture to evolve in response. The Internet is becoming less standardized, more subject to formal governance, and more reliant on intelligence located in the core of the network. At the same time, Internet pricing is becoming more complex, intermediaries are playing increasingly important roles, and the maturation of the industry is causing the nature of competition to change. Moreover, the total convergence of all forms of communications into a single network predicted by many observers may turn out to be something of a myth.

In short, policymakers and scholars must replace the static view that focuses on the Internet’s past with a dynamic view flexible enough to permit the Internet to evolve to meet the changing needs of the future." Read more

Infostructure Is the New Infrastructure

Mead, Walter Russell. "Infostructure Is the New Infrastructure." The Wall Street Journal, October 15, 2012.

From the article: "The question is no longer whether government has a role to play, but what that role is in today's economy. In the 1820s and 1830s, many states jumped on the canal bandwagon after the success of the Erie Canal, but the arrival of the railroads made that investment essentially worthless. Mule-drawn canal barges don't compete with trains. Even the Erie Canal soon became more tourist attraction than working piece of infrastructure.

In today's economy there are three big problems with the conventional case for infrastructure spending. The first is that nothing is shovel-ready anymore. Not-in-my-backyard, or "Nimby," lawsuits and environmental requirements tie up significant projects for years if not decades." Read more 

The Doctor Can See You Now. Really, Right Now.

Barrow, Karen. "The Doctor Can See You Now. Really, Right Now." The New York Times, October 15, 2012. 

From the article: "That realization led Mr. Oks to create Appointment Status, a Web site devoted to improving appointment efficiency and providing patients with information to avoid long waits. …It’s one of several innovations meant to help patients. While many digital developments — electronic medical records and mobile medical encyclopedias — have streamlined doctors’ work, new tools for patients are starting to hit cellphones and the Internet offering help in keeping track of medications, recording heart rate and glucose levels and managing personal and family medical history, among other tasks." Read more

Measuring the Information Society 2012

Measuring the Information Society 2012, prepared by the International Telecommunication Union (Geneva, Switzerland, 2012).

From the report: "For the fourth consecutive year, this report presents two authoritative benchmarking tools to monitor information society developments worldwide. The ICT Development Index (IDI) ranks 155 countries’ performance with regard to information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure and uptake. The ICT Price Basket (IPB) is a unique metric that tracks and compares the cost and affordability of ICT services in more than 160 countries globally. Both the IDI and the IPB combined are powerful measures for benchmarking and explaining differences among countries and within regions when it comes to ICT developments. This year’s edition of the report also features brand new data and analyses on revenue and investment in the ICT sector and proposes a new methodology to measure the world’s telecommunication capacity." Read more