The Role of Internet Engagement in the Health-Knowledge Gap

The current research posits that education leads to differential levels of Internet engagement, which moderate the association between Internet use for health information and general health knowledge. Using a nationally representative survey that covers adults between the ages of 40 and 70 in the United States, it is found that education is positively related to Internet engagement. Also, Internet use has stronger associations with health knowledge for people exhibiting high Internet engagement than for people exhibiting low Internet engagement. The implications of these findings for research on both Internet use and knowledge gaps are discussed.     

Differential gains in SNSs: effects of active vs. passive Facebook political participation on offline political participation and voting behavior among first-time and experienced voters

This study collected data before and after the 2012 Taiwanese presidential election to examine active and passive Facebook (FB) participation on subsequent attitudinal and behavioral outcomes. Based on the differential gains model, the results showed that active engagement in FB political activities before the election directly affected offline political participation after the election. However, this direct effect occurred for first-time voters (20–24 years old) but not for the 25 and older generation. Passive exposure to politically related FB activities before the election indirectly affected offline political participation after the election and voting behavior through perceptions of FB use on political engagement. These indirect effects occurred in both first-time voters and in the rest of the voters. The results extend the differential gains model to social network sites (SNSs) and suggest that FB participation is another form of political participation among the younger generation that may serve as a gateway to motivate first-time voters to become more engaged in political participation. In addition to active discussion, passive exposure to politically related activities within FB networks indirectly contributes to voting and offline participation, expanding the current differential gains model.     

Predicting Book Circulation by Subject in a University Library

The purpose of this paper was to identify and measure variables in the academic environment which best predict (estimate) circulation of monographs by academic subjects. Fall 1974 circulation at the University of Southwestern Louisiana was the dependent variable. Academic department was the unit of analysis. Subjects were defined as sixty-three academic departments including one miscellaneous category. The subject of each circulated book was categorized in one of the sixty-three. Twelve independent variables were identified: the hard/soft, pure/applied, and life/nonlife characteristics; credit hours, lower-level course enrollments, upper-level course enrollments, master's-level enrollments, Ph.D. -level enrollments, shelflist, Ph.D. program, master's program, and bachelor's program. Three linear regression hypotheses were formulated: a full twelve-variable hypothesis, an eleven-variable hypothesis excluding shelflist, and a three-variable subject-characteristic hypothesis. For the full 12-variable hypothesis, only shelflist, master's-level enrollments, hard/soft, and upper-level enrollments, in that order, were significant, accounting for 76% of the variance. This was called the shelflist model. For the eleven-variable hypothesis without shelflist, only credit hours, hard/soft, and upper-level enrollments, in that order, were significant, accounting for 60% of the variance. This was called the nonshelflist model. For the three-variable subject-characteristic hypothesis, onyl pure/applied and hard/soft, in that oder, were significant, accounting for 26% of the variance. Regression equations for estimating circulation were formulated. Estimates are given using the shelflist model.     

Audience Valuation in the New Media Era: Interactivity,Online Engagement,and Electronic Word-of-Mouth Value

This national survey of broadband users (N = 200) investigates people’s participatory behavior on Internet video websites by analyzing their use of interactive features. It seeks to identify a group of “interactive audiences” who take full advantage of web interactivity and may be most valuable to advertisers. This study defined audience interactivity based on people’s frequency in using interactive features and three groups were identified—non-interactive audience, average audience, and interactive audience. It compared three audience groups based on traditional audience valuation criteria such as demographics and media consumption levels, as well as newly proposed criteria including online engagement level and electronic word-of-mouth value. Results indicated that interactive audiences are younger, more engaged online, and have higher electronic word-of-mouth value than non-interactive audiences. Because audience interactivity is related to audience value, findings suggest that advertisers should invest more in this highly engaged and influential group online. The results also reveal the need for expanding audience valuation criteria, particularly in the online space, to include other variables such as online engagement level and electronic word-of-mouth influence. The study then offers practical implications for website managers and marketers.     

Making IT work for municipalities: Building municipal wireless networks

The lack of widely available, affordable broadband Internet access has spurred a movement in which municipalities are rolling out wireless broadband networks. This movement has raised a number of questions including: Why are municipalities acting as the early adopters of wireless broadband technology? How does increased state regulation of municipal broadband networks affect this trend and how can cities respond? As cities use wireless broadband technology to enhance services to citizens, the growth of municipal wireless deployments has transitioned from linear to exponential. In response, many states have passed laws to regulate and restrict cities' ability to own, operate, deploy, or profit from either telecommunications or information services. Current and pending laws will be examined to understand how cities can deploy a wireless broadband network under these regulations. An analysis of municipal facilities and technology expertise illustrates the opportunity for public–private cooperation in wireless deployments. This paper will show that cooperation is beneficial in many cases. Finally, current business models will be examined for their ability to foster cooperation between the public and private sectors, bridge the digital divide, and create competition among private sector providers.     

Do We Still Need Reference Services in the Age of Google and Wikipedia?

With the continuing development of web resources and Internet search utilities, the role of reference services is changing in the modern library. Traditional ready reference is in decline, but the need for broad-based research support will continue for the foreseeable future. As librarians adapt to the evolving research environment, libraries are experimenting with alternative models of reference services. Far-reaching calls to adopt one model or abandon another, such as the traditional reference desk, are off target given that each library must adapt to its own local situation and determine how best to serve its constituents.     

互联网时代档案权力的解构与重塑

[目的/意义]互联网渗透了人类社会的方方面面,各种力量在这个虚拟空间中相互角逐,各方的权力差呈现不稳定、不均衡的变化。档案作为客观对象,探索互联网对档案权力产生的影响有利于档案部门及时把握时势、调整自身定位、做出相应变革。[方法/过程]通过思辨法阐释档案实体权力与档案软权力的概念及其关系,指出互联网赋权打破官方叙事、网络安全威胁档案证据力、海量数据冲击档案地位是互联网时代档案权力解构的三大原因,并从话语层面、资源层面剖析互联网时代档案权力初步重塑的表现。[结果/结论]认为档案权力重塑的三条路径是:让渡部分权力融通对话渠道、创新工作机制提升知识服务、整合档案数据驱动行业变革。     

Information retrieval as semantic inference: a Graph Inference model applied to medical search

This paper presents a Graph Inference retrieval model that integrates structured knowledge resources, statistical information retrieval methods and inference in a unified framework. Key components of the model are a graph-based representation of the corpus and retrieval driven by an inference mechanism achieved as a traversal over the graph. The model is proposed to tackle the semantic gap problem—the mismatch between the raw data and the way a human being interprets it. We break down the semantic gap problem into five core issues, each requiring a specific type of inference in order to be overcome. Our model and evaluation is applied to the medical domain because search within this domain is particularly challenging and, as we show, often requires inference. In addition, this domain features both structured knowledge resources as well as unstructured text. Our evaluation shows that inference can be effective, retrieving many new relevant documents that are not retrieved by state-of-the-art information retrieval models. We show that many retrieved documents were not pooled by keyword-based search methods, prompting us to perform additional relevance assessment on these new documents. A third of the newly retrieved documents judged were found to be relevant. Our analysis provides a thorough understanding of when and how to apply inference for retrieval, including a categorisation of queries according to the effect of inference. The inference mechanism promoted recall by retrieving new relevant documents not found by previous keyword-based approaches. In addition, it promoted precision by an effective reranking of documents. When inference is used, performance gains can generally be expected on hard queries. However, inference should not be applied universally: for easy, unambiguous queries and queries with few relevant documents, inference did adversely affect effectiveness. These conclusions reflect the fact that for retrieval as inference to be effective, a careful balancing act is involved. Finally, although the Graph Inference model is developed and applied to medical search, it is a general retrieval model applicable to other areas such as web search, where an emerging research trend is to utilise structured knowledge resources for more effective semantic search.     

A Pressure Chamber of Innovation: Google Fiber and Flexible Capital

On March 17, 2010, the United States Federal Communications Commission identified broadband as “the great infrastructure challenge of the early twenty-first century.” One month earlier, on February 10, 2010, in anticipation of the FCC's announcement, Google announced its intent to build ultra-high-speed broadband networks across the United States to serve as a model for overcoming this challenge. Since then, Google Fiber, as it is called, has succeeded in being recognized as a model for other communities interested in establishing ultra-high-speed broadband infrastructure. This article serves as an analysis of the political economic consequences of this particular configuration of broadband infrastructure, and argues that Google Fiber operates as a mechanism of flexible capital whereby the emphases on short- over long-term relationships, meritocracy over craftsmanship, and the devaluation of past experience in favor of potential outcomes are embedded in the institutional and technical infrastructure of ultra-high-speed Internet.     

Technology knowledge and governance: Empowering citizen engagement and participation

The term technology knowledge (T-knowledge) is used to describe knowledge about and the ability to operate specific technologies such as the internet. T-knowledge also includes the ability required to operate particular technologies. T-knowledge can potentially improve engagement by helping the user to make his/her personal decision in an increasing range of domains. The main purpose of this paper is to investigate the extent to which an extended Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) facilitates t-knowledge in e-government services offered by City Halls. We also investigate whether t-knowledge has an effect on citizen engagement in government initiatives. In this research, an extended TAM is developed to test t-knowledge in online e-government services employing a sample of 307 citizens who used the benefits advisor tool provided by a Spanish City Hall. The results suggest that the core constructs of TAM (perceived usefulness, ease of use and attitude) significantly affect t-knowledge. This study also reveals a general support for t-knowledge as a determinant of citizen engagement.     

The Role of Engagement in Learning From Active and Incidental News Exposure on Social Media

The growing reliance on social media as news platforms may lead to more passive news consumption but also offers greater potential for engaging in news. This study investigates the role of engagement with news content on Facebook and Twitter between news exposure and current events knowledge. An online survey (N = 400) tests the relationships between social media news seeking, incidental exposure to news on social media, engagement in shared news content, cognitive elaboration, and current events knowledge. The results show that both active seeking of and incidental exposure to news on both sites are linked to engagement, which is linked to greater cognitive elaboration about the content. Furthermore, engagement mediates the relationship between both types of news exposure and cognitive elaboration. However, engagement and elaboration are not related to knowledge. These results indicate that the key role of social media in news content is not knowledge gain but the ability to engage users who may be passively receiving news on these sites. This study extends the cognitive mediation model of learning from the news in the context of current social media, with updated news consumption norms such as engagement with news on these sites, and incidental news exposure.     

Broadband Redux: 2013

As the first major federal intervention in improving high speed access to a resource increasingly identified as necessary to contemporary life, the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA) funds devoted to broadband represented a new chapter in building infrastructure in the country and in moving toward a next generation of network connectivity. Though intended to understand what the stimulus funding accomplished as part of this special issue, we realized that it would take several more years to complete the funded projects and to assess their impacts. This special issue explores aspects of the ARRA investments in broadband, and offers some comparisons with earlier assessments collected in special issues in Government Information Quarterly (GIQ, 2003; 2006).     

Mass Media Displacement and Saturation

This study addresses the contradiction between the theoretical displacement of incumbent media by new media versus empirical evidence of rising consumption of both new and incumbent media. By analyzing 4 years of biannual daypart media consumption surveys, this research reveals trends in the consumer use of advertiser-supported media in the United States. Large gains were seen in new media, such as Internet and e-mail, whereas incumbent media such as television, radio, newspapers, and magazines held steady or grew in core dayparts. The differential rates of change, with new media growing at twice the rate of incumbent media, created an overall increase in the consumption of ad-supported media. Implications for the displacement hypothesis, media saturation, simultaneous media consumption, and media management are discussed.     

A new benchmark for Internet use: A logistic modeling of factors influencing Internet use in Canada, 2005

Internet diffusion is not homogeneous and depends on many factors. This study uses data from the Canadian Internet Use Survey (CIUS) to explore the extent demographic variables affect Internet use by individuals in Canada. A logistic model confirms that certain factors, educational attainment, and geography in particular influence Internet use in Canada, controlling for age and income. Education maintains a strong, significant impact on Internet use such that the odds of using the Internet are about three times greater for someone who has some post-secondary education than someone who has, at most, a high school education. An urban–rural digital divide persists in Canada with the odds of using the Internet being almost one-and-a-half times greater for someone who lives in an urban area. While language also has a large effect on Internet use, the presence of children in households no longer seems to be a significant factor. This study thus underscores the changing digital environment in Canada and the need for adaptive, flexible policies addressing national connectivity issues and, in particular, broadband Internet availability.     

Broadband Deployment in the United States: Examining the Impacts of Platform Competition

Emerging broadband communication technologies are providing an infrastructure for a unifying platform for 3 converging industry sectors: computing, telecommunications, and broadcasting. Despite the steady growth of broadband access in the United States (with 14.5% broadband penetration), the country ranks only 12th among 30 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries (OECD, 2005). For rapid growth in broadband diffusion, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has considered access-based competition and facilities-based competition as important policy tools. Through 2 different econometric analyses (time series analysis and multiple regression analysis), this study examines whether platform competition, access-based competition, and other factors have influenced broadband deployment. The result of the time series analysis shows that platform competition has been a key driver of broadband deployment in the United States. The multiple regression analysis suggests the availability of different broadband platforms and the level of income have influenced broadband diffusion. The main findings of this study imply that regulation across platforms should be competitively neutral and that Congress and the FCC should embrace further platform competition through new technologies like broadband over power-line and wireless broadband.     

第二道数字鸿沟在当代大学生群体中的表现、成因及启示

[目的/意义]旨在探究当代大学生群体中第二道数字鸿沟的表现和成因。[研究设计/方法]建构了互联网使用能力和互联网学习指数两个测度指标,通过问卷调查、描述性统计分析和多元线性回归分析收集和分析数据。[结论/发现]社会结构因素(如城乡户籍等)对当代大学生第二道数字鸿沟的影响有所减弱,内在心理情感因素(如网络自我效能等)、知识与学习能力更为关键。高校图书馆应在弥合第二道数字鸿沟中发挥重要作用。[创新/价值]研究建构了新的数字鸿沟测度指标,突出了将互联网应用于学习的动机和能力,为高校信息素养教育提供借鉴。     

The hard sciences and the soft: some sociological observations

The paper focuses on the implications of the terms "hard" and "soft" as they are used to characterize different branches of science; this is one approach to understanding some of the relations between knowledge and social organization. Given the importance to scientists of having their work evaluated accurately, it can be seen that the more rigorously a body of knowledge is organized, the more readily professional recognition can be appropriately assigned. The degree of rigor seems directly related to the extent to which mathematics is used in a science, and it is this that makes a science "hard." Data are presented in support of the hypothesis that "harder" sciences are characterized by more impersonality in their members' relationships where impersonality is indexed by the frequency that only first initials are used in footnotes. Finally, some parallels between the economic and the scientific sectors of society are suggested, viewing money and professional recognition as "generalized media" and noting certain analogies in science to inflation and deflation in the economic system. Implications for the obsolescence of parts of the literature of science are discussed, and the relevance of this analysis to Kuhn's work on scientific revolutions is briefly noted.     

Effect of Internet Literacy in Understanding Older Adults’ Social Capital and Expected Internet Support

This article investigates whether knowledge of Internet usage among older adults is related to social capital as well as their expectations to obtain social support online. A U.S. national survey of adults aged 60 and older (n = 1,101) found that Internet literacy is significantly associated with their expected Internet support and bridging and bonding social capital even after controlling for age, Internet use, and other factors.     

Broadband for public libraries: Importance,issues, and research needs

U.S. public libraries provide free public internet services to the communities that they serve, but require robust, high-speed broadband internet connections to continue meeting public demands. The 2008–2009 Public Library Funding & Technology Access Study (PLFTAS) illustrates challenges that public libraries encounter in achieving broadband connectivity and equipment upgrades, and maintaining acceptable levels of services as they meet continually increasing internet-enabled service demands. This article: 1) analyzes the ability of public libraries to serve as a community-based public internet access point in the context of limited funding and access to telecommunications services and equipment; 2) discusses key policy issues that affect the provision of public library internet-enabled services through broadband; 3) provides recommendations for policy makers to include libraries as part of a larger national-level telecommunications policy; and 4) identifies a number of topics and issues that need further investigation and research in this shifting policy environment.     

关于竞争情报与知识创新互动机制的探讨

针对竞争情报与知识创新两者之间的联系,介绍知识创新的两个传统模型;通过建立竞争情报对知识创新各个维度的支持矩阵,揭示竞争情报与知识创新之间存在的互动、渗透和融合的关系;在探索两者互动机制的基础上,从横向和纵向两个剖面建立竞争情报系统与知识创新系统之间的互动模型,为深入研究竞争情报与知识创新之间的互动机制提供新的视角。