Universal Service Obligations in Perspective: Lessons from the Rise and Decline of the Postal Service for Internet Service Providers

Pommerening, Christine. "Universal Service Obligations in Perspective: Lessons from the Rise and Decline of the Postal Service for Internet Service Providers." (August 30, 2012).

From the abstract: "In this paper, it is argued that the shift in the use of mail services reveal underlying attitudes about the availability, affordability, and security of information and communications services in general. Further, it is argued that universal service providers face both consumer expectations and regulatory rules that are not consistent with the actual need for service. In the case of the postal service, its Universal Service Obligation is perceived by many as sacrosanct, including large parts of the postal service itself, even though it is poorly defined, outdated, and costly." Read more

Doctor on Wheels

"Doctor on Wheels." Technology Review, September/October 2012.

From the blog: "Doctors who are away from the hospital can remotely control this robot and use it to videoconference with patients or medical colleagues. The RP-VITA (short for Remote Presence Virtual and Independent Telemedicine Assistant) can also call up patient medical records and display them to the remote doctor on an iPad or PC." Read more

How Google and Apple's Digital Mapping is Mapping Us

Burkeman, Oliver. "How Google and Apple's Digital Mapping is Mapping Us." guardian.co.uk, August 28, 2012.

From the blog: "Digital maps on smartphones are brilliantly useful tools, but what sort of information do they gather about us – and how do they shape the way we look at the world? …We are just beginning to grasp what it means to live in a world in which maps are everywhere – and in which, by using maps, we are mapped ourselves." Read more

The Guardians of the Internet? Politics and Ethics of Cyberactivists (and of their Observers)

Milan, Stefania. "The Guardians of the Internet? Politics and Ethics of Cyberactivists (and of their Observers)." Inter-Asia Roundtable 2012 - Methodological And Conceptual Issues In Cyber Activism Research, August 30-31, 2012, Organised by Asia Research Institute, National University Of Singapore.

From the paper: "In this paper, I explore these norms and ethical discourses. I also reflect on the politics and ethics of approaching cyberactivism as an object of study, taking into account epistemological considerations and methodological challenges. 

In the next section, I offer an historical overview of cyberactivism, in order to help situating different forms of contemporary activism in relation to other progressive communities and subcultures. I then turn my attention to one of the forms of contemporary cyberactivism, namely ‘radical tech activism’, as a case study for looking more closely at the ethics of activists. Further, I discuss the methodological and epistemological challenges of approaching cyberactivism as a researcher, drawing on my own experience with investigating radical tech activism." Read more

How Social Media Will Change Public Health

Dredze, Mark. "How Social Media Will Change Public Health." IEEE Intelligent Systems, Vol. 27, No. 4, pp. 81-84, July-Aug. 2012.

From the abstract : "Recent work in machine learning and natural language processing has studied the health content of tweets and demonstrated the potential for extracting useful public health information from their aggregation. This article examines the types of health topics discussed on Twitter, and how tweets can both augment existing public health capabilities and enable new ones. The author also discusses key challenges that researchers must address to deliver high-quality tools to the public health community." Read more

Agencies Get Better at 'Whole of Government' Info Sharing

Lee, Jolie. "Agencies Get Better at 'Whole of Government' Info Sharing." Federal News Radio.com, August 30, 2012.

From the article: "The head of the federal government's information sharing initiative says agencies are doing a better job of sharing in a post-9/11 environment. …. The federal government has adopted two technological frameworks for standardization. One, the National Information Exchange Model (NIEM) is a data model that sets standards and processes for information. The other framework is the Federal Identity, Credential and Access Management Roadmap, developed by the Federal Chief Information Officers Council." Read more