Smartphone Use: Good for Healthcare

Manos, Diana. "Smartphone Use: Good for Healthcare." Healthcare IT News, December 10, 2012.  

Electronic tools, including smartphones, can help patients, but the adoption of apps for healthcare is still lagging, according to a new report released by the Bipartisan Policy Center in Washington, D.C.

At a Dec. 10 report-release briefing, Janet Marchabroda, chair of the Health IT Initiative at the Bipartisan Policy Center, said smartphones have changed every aspect of American life, including the way Americans shop, travel and manage their finances. "If we could apply that use of smartphones to healthcare, great things would result, she said.

Barriers on the consumer side often include lack of awareness that the apps are out there, and more innovation is still needed in the marketplace.

See also

"Improving Quality and Reducing Costs in Healthcare: Engaging Consumers Using Electronic Tools." Bipartisan Policy Center Health Information Technology Initiative, December 2012. 

Most Children's Apps Are Failing on Privacy, FTC Finds

Holpuch, Amanda. "Most Children's Apps Are Failing on Privacy, FTC Finds." The Guardian, December 10, 2012. 

From the article: "Most mobile applications aimed at children collect information – including device IDs, location data and phone numbers – without their parents' permission, according to a Federal Trade Commission report released Monday.

The FTC is also launching investigations to see whether some of these app companies are acting in violation of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (Coppa) or the Federal Trade Commission Act." Read more

See also 

"Mobile Apps for Kids: Disclosures Still Not Making the Grade." Federal Trade Commission Staff Report,  December 2012.

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

Cyber Early Warning Deal Collapses After Russia Balks

Sternstein, Aliya. "Cyber Early Warning Deal Collapses After Russia Balks." Nextgov, December 7, 2012. 

From the article: "An accord involving the United States, Russia and other countries requiring that each nation provide advance warning of government cyber operations that might otherwise spark unintentional conflict collapsed on Friday after Russia dissented, U.S. officials said.

The 57-nation Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe failed to reach the unanimous consensus needed to adopt the resolution. It was aimed at building trust and open communication to avoid cyberwar." 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

Increasing Control Over Release of Information Leads People To Divulge More Online, Carnegie Mellon Researchers Find

"Increasing Control Over Release of Information Leads People To Divulge More Online, Carnegie Mellon Researchers Find." Carnegie Mellon University, November 26, 2012.

From the press release: "When perceiving they have more control over their personal information, people increase their willingness to disclose sensitive information that allows them to be personally identified, according to a study done by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University. 

The study investigated how people respond when given control over their personal information, allowing them to choose how much to reveal about themselves. CMU researchers Laura Brandimarte, Alessandro Acquisti and George Loewenstein found that users given more privacy controls share more sensitive information with larger, and possibly riskier, audiences." Read more

See also

Brandimarte, Laura, Acquisti, Alessandro, and George Lowenstein. "Misplaced Confidences: Privacy and the Control Paradox." Social Psychological and Personality Science, August 9, 2012.

House Approves Resolution to Keep Internet Control Out of UN Hands

Kasperowicz, Pete. "House Approves Resolution to Keep Internet Control Out of UN Hands." The Hill Blog, December 5, 2012. 

From the article: "The House on Wednesday unanimously passed a Senate resolution introduced by Sens. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) that calls on the U.S. government to oppose United Nations control of the Internet.

The 397-0 vote is meant to send a signal to countries meeting at a U.N. conference on telecommunications this week." Read more

ONC to Roll Out Plan for Consumer Connection to Health Information

Rowe, Jeff. "ONC to Roll Out Plan for Consumer Connection to Health Information." Phys Biz Tech, December 5, 2012. 

From the article: "The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) will soon release the draft version of its consumer engagement plan with details on how patients can get more connected with their own healthcare. A 45-day period of public comment will allow interested parties to give feedback on the plan." Read more

Computerized Health Records Breed Digital Discontent For Some Doctors

Whitney, Eric. "Computerized Health Records Breed Digital Discontent For Some Doctors." NPR, December 4, 2012. 

From the article: "Two years and $8.4 billion into the government's effort to get doctors to take their practices digital, some unintended consequences are starting to emerge.

One is a lot of unhappy doctors. In a big survey by Medscape, an online site for doctors, 38 percent of the doctors polled said they were unhappy with their electronic medical records system." Read more

U.N. Report Reveals International Protocol for Tracking People Online

Gallagher, Ryan. "U.N. Report Reveals International Protocol for Tracking People Online." Slate, December 4, 2012. 

From the article: "In the shadowy world of electronic surveillance, tactics used by law enforcement agencies are rarely revealed. But now an international protocol about how to best monitor and track people online has been disclosed for the first time—offering a unique insight into covert police methodology.

Buried in a recent 158-page U.N. report on how terrorists use the Internet is the so-called “protocol of a systematic approach.” The protocol, which was authored by an elite Italian special operations unit called the Raggruppamento, is significant because it has been implemented by authorities across the world, according to the United Nations." Read more

See also 

"The Use of the Internet for Terrorist Purposes." Report prepared by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Vienna, 2012.

Why Data is the Key to Better Medicine — and Maybe a Cure for Cancer

Harris, Derrick, "Why Data is the Key to Better Medicine — and Maybe a Cure for Cancer." GigaOm, November 27, 2012. 

From the article: "The health care industry might have embraced the big data movement with open arms, but embracing it with open data probably would be more effective. Hospital organizations, researchers and the tech companies serving them have lots of great ideas — and have achieved some great results, too — but, ultimately, efforts to use big data to transform the industry will only be as good as the data these stakeholders have to work with. Right now, that isn’t always everything they need." Read more

Policy Debates in the Internet Age

Peha, Jon. "Policy Debates in the Internet Age." Reuters, December 5, 2012.

From the article: "If targeted messaging becomes an important force in policy debates, the impact will depend on which groups are being targeted. As both sides seek to reach beyond their base to swing voters in contested congressional districts, this may even give our leaders a newfound incentive to work together toward shared solutions.

While many activists like to hear the kind of tough rhetoric that leaves little room for compromise, a politician usually gets more support from swing voters with pragmatic proposals that actually can get things done." Read more

Toward an International Law of the Internet

Land, Molly. "Toward an International Law of the Internet." Harvard International Law Journal 54 (2013; forthcoming).

From the report: "This Article presents the first and only analysis of Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights as it applies to new technologies and uses this analysis to develop the foundation for an “international law of the Internet.” Although Article 19 does not guarantee a right to the “Internet” per se, it explicitly protects the technologies of connection and access to information, and it limits states’ ability to burden content originating abroad. The principles derived from Article 19 provide an important normative reorientation on individual rights for both domestic and international Internet governance debates." Read more

The Internet’s Future Depends on Maintaining Its Free Spirit

Cerf, Vint. "The Internet’s Future Depends on Maintaining Its Free Spirit." MIT Technology Review, December 4, 2012.

From the article: "Perhaps the most profound observation made about the early Internet was that it was unlikely to spread across the globe. And yet, slowly at first, and faster with the advent of the World Wide Web, the Internet has found purchase on every continent–even Antarctica. This penetration is a consequence of the independent decisions made by hundreds of thousands of Internet operators whose business models range from nonprofit to for-profit to government operated and every other variation you can imagine.

But a meeting of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), taking place in Dubai this week, threatens to stifle further Internet expansion and innovation." Read more

Opinion: ITU Meeting 'No Threat to Free Speech'

Toure, Hamadoun I. "Opinion: ITU Meeting 'No Threat to Free Speech.'" CNN, December 5, 2012. 

From the article: "It is our chance to chart a globally-agreed roadmap to connect the unconnected, while ensuring there is investment to create the infrastructure needed for the exponential growth in voice, video and data traffic….As the neutral convener of the conference and in an effort to engage opinion worldwide, ITU has encouraged all its membership (including over 700 private-sector entities), as well as civil society organizations and the press and public at large, to contribute their views. Much of the conference itself is webcast. WCIT is not a "closed-door" event. In fact, compared with other intergovernmental meetings of such importance, WCIT is as open as it possibly can be." Read more

Google's Media Campaign Against the UN Slapped Down

Westby, Jody. "Google's Media Campaign Against the UN Slapped Down." Forbes, December 4, 2012. 

From the article: "Google has been a forerunner and one of the most outspoken companies in protecting the right to freedom of information and expression.  That is laudable and earned the company respect around the globe.  What is less admirable is the hyperbole that it has been spewing about the freedom and future of the Internet being in jeopardy at United Nations’ (UN) meetings being held in Dubai December 3-14.  Not only did Google’s position turn out to be ill-informed, it appears to be self-serving." Read more

Trust And Information Sharing Key In Tight Fiscal Times

Kenyon, Henry. "Trust And Information Sharing Key In Tight Fiscal Times." AOL Government, November 29, 2012. 

From the article: "Secure information sharing is another important and complex issue for federal agencies, he said. There is often a tension between local islands of network use and the enterprise, Wennergren said. He describes these issues as a "polarity" about information sharing between the different professional communities in an organization. Instead of viewing the situation as one about information security, he prefers to call it a "secure relationship."

The challenge is that many government agencies polarize themselves because they see many technology issues as a single problem, rather than a conflict between different mission needs within the organization, he said." Read more

The Value of Reputation in an Online Freelance Marketplace

Yoganarasimhan, Hema. "The Value of Reputation in an Online Freelance Marketplace." Working paper prepared for The University of California, Davis, Graduate School of Management, October 17, 2012. 

From the paper: "Online freelance marketplaces are websites that match buyers of electronically deliverable services with freelancers. While freelancing has grown in recent years, it faces the classic ‘information asymmetry’ problem – buyers face uncertainty over seller quality. Typically, these markets use reputation systems to alleviate this issue, but the effectiveness of these systems is open to debate. We present a dynamic structural framework to estimate the returns to seller reputations in freelance sites. In our model, each period, a buyer decides whether to choose a bid from her current set of bids, cancel the auction, or wait for more bids. In the process, she trades-off sellers’ price, reputation, other attributes, and the costs of waiting and canceling. Our framework addresses ‘dynamic selection’, which can lead to underestimation of reputation, through two types of persistent unobserved heterogeneities – in bid arrival-rates and buyers’ unobserved preference for bids. We apply our framework to data from a leading freelance firm. We find that buyers are forward-looking, that they place significant weight on seller reputation, and that not controlling for dynamics and selection can bias reputation estimates. Using counterfactual simulations, we infer the dollar value of seller reputations and provide guidelines to managers of freelance firms." Read more

Social Media Use Exploded in 2012, Led by Pinterest

Mlot, Stephanie. "Social Media Use Exploded in 2012, Led by Pinterest." PC Magazine, December 3, 2012. 

From the article: "Consumers spend more time on social networks than any other site — about 20 percent via a PC, and 30 percent using a mobile device, Nielsen's Social Media Report revealed.

Still not impressed? The report also tips a 37 percent increase in the total time spent on social media in the U.S., reaching 121 billion minutes in July, compared to 88 billion in summer 2011.

The ultimate social network, Facebook, remains the most-visited in the U.S., and earned the title of most popular Web brand in the U.S. this year. It reached 152.2 million PC visitors, 78.4 million app users, and 74.3 million mobile Web surfers. That dwarfs social sites in all categories (see graphic below), beating No. 2 Blogger by more than 93.7 million PC users. In the mobile app race, Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, Google+, and Pinterest carry the top five spots." Read more

See also
"The State of the Media: The Social Media Report 2012." Nielsen, 2012.

Rise of the Datavores: How UK Businesses Analyse and Use Online Data

Bakhshi, Hasan and Juan Mateos-Garcia. "Rise of the Datavores: How UK Businesses Analyse and Use Online Data." Nesta, November 2012. 

From the report: "The internet economy is growing, and so is the amount of data that it generates. Are UK businesses making the most of this data to innovate and grow? Or are they missing out on the opportunities of online data?

A business survey by Nesta shows how a small but significant group of UK companies - the datavores - are making sophisticated use of data to drive business decisions.

This paper illustrates both the opportunities and challenges that online data presents for UK businesses." Read more

Syrian Internet Outage Raises Question “Could It Happen Here?”

Hesseldahl, Arik. "Syrian Internet Outage Raises Question “Could It Happen Here?”" All Things D, November 30, 2012. 

From the article: "If a country has more than 40 companies providing Internet infrastructure at its international border, it is categorized as “resistant,” meaning that it would be difficult if not impossible under whatever circumstances for anyone to order a coordinated takedown of the Internet. There are simply too many moving parts to make it a realistic worry. The good news is that much of the world is in this category, including the U.S., Canada, most of Europe and Russia." Read more

Who Do Online Advertisers Think You Are?

Rosen, Jeffrey. "Who Do Online Advertisers Think You Are?" The New York Times Magazine, November 30, 2012. 

From the article: "Should we worry about ads aimed specifically at us everywhere we go on the Web and, increasingly, on our mobile devices too? Yes, and not just because the ads can be invasive and annoying. Real-time bidding also makes the online marketplace less of an even playing field, allowing companies to send loyalty points or discounts — or price increases — to individuals based on their perceived spending power." Read more

Verizon Attack on Internet Misguided

"Verizon Attack on Internet Misguided." SF Gate, December 2, 2012.

From the article: "Verizon takes the prize for most outrageous claim of a First Amendment right. Its challenge to the 2010 Federal Communications Commission rule that requires an open Internet - effectively preventing the companies that provide online connections from censoring or favoring content - as an abridgement of Verizon's free speech.

If Verizon's argument as presented to a federal appeals court holds, then the constitutional guarantee of "free speech" suddenly would include the right to suppress someone else's ability to transmit or receive information." Read more

Governing the Web (and Everything Else)

Tapscott, Dan. "Governing the Web (and Everything Else)." The Globe and Mail, December 3, 2012.

From the article: "The successful governance of the Internet to date suggests a completely different form of global co-operation to supplement or even succeed those based on the nation-state, just as the nation-state itself was built on the foundations of earlier forms of government.

The Internet radically drops collaboration costs on a global basis, enabling new models of problem-solving. It’s increasingly clear that governance will be co-owned by a variety of stakeholders, including NGOs, transnational corporations, emerging countries and traditional government entities. Even individuals have an unprecedented ability to participate in global activities." Read more

The Information Economy Report 2012

"The Information Economy Report 2012: The Software Industry and Developing Countries." The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, November 28, 2012. 

From the report: "The Information Economy Report 2012 finds that, because software is increasingly permeating societies at all levels of development and activity, it is becoming more important for countries to develop the technological capabilities needed to adopt and adapt existing software solutions, and eventually to innovate. Software and service activities represent an opportunity for developing countries, thanks to the low capital entry requirements, the sector's high-value, high-growth nature and knowledge-rich profile. Due to changes in the ICT landscape, even small-scale developers in developing countries can now participate in software development and production, for example in the area of mobile applications. The Report suggests that there is considerable room for developing countries to make better use of the software potential.

The Report introduces the concept of the national software system. It emphasizes that domestic software producers and users are greatly influenced by the quality and affordability of ICT infrastructure, access to relevant human resources and capital, the legal framework, an enabling business infrastructure, as well as by the links with software networks in the rest of the world." Read more