‘I keep a close watch on this child of mine’: a moral critique of other-tracking apps

Smartphones and mobile applications are omnipresent in our lives. At the core of this article are ‘other-tracking apps’, i.e. mobile applications that make it possible, via location technology, to track others. These apps ensure that we are never unconnected from the network of ubiquitous information and, via that network, from others. In specific, focus lies on apps designed for parents to remotely track the whereabouts of their child(ren). This particular case can be considered as one example of broader reflection on what continuous technical connectivity means in moral terms. Other-tracking apps give new ground to moral queries related to information technologies. Even though there is little doubt that parents might implement these technologies with good intention to extend care and responsibility over a distance, our concern is that they mistake control for care. This article seeks to demonstrate that a critical stance towards other-tracking by parents is required, because these apps raise a number of concerns that should be recognized as they are implemented. A number of moral critiques are expressed and discussed. These apps have the potential to engender a situation of ‘over-proximity’. A framework is hence required that emphasizes maintaining the critical distance to respect the other’s heterogeneity, autonomy, and privacy.     

Using Aristotle’s theory of friendship to classify online friendships: a critical counterview

In a special issue of “Ethics and Information Technology” (September 2012), various philosophers have discussed the notion of online friendship. The preferred framework of analysis was Aristotle’s theory of friendship: it was argued that online friendships face many obstacles that hinder them from ever reaching the highest form of Aristotelian friendship. In this article I aim to offer a different perspective by critically analyzing the arguments these philosophers use against online friendship. I begin by isolating the most common arguments these philosophers use against online friendship and proceed to debunk them one by one by pointing out inconsistencies and fallacies in their arguments and, where needed, offering empirical findings from media and communication studies that offer a more nuanced view on online friendships. I conclude my analysis by questioning the correctness of the application of the Aristotelian theory of friendship by the critics of online friendship: in my view, the critics are applying the Aristotelian theory to online friendships in a rather narrow and limited way. Finally, I conclude my thesis by proposing that in the rapidly changing online landscape, a one-size-fits-all application of the Aristotelian theory on friendship is not sufficient to accurately judge the multitude of relationships that can exist online and that the various positive and valuable elements of online friendships should also be acknowledged and analyzed.     

Anatomy of use-inspired researchers: From Pasteur’s Quadrant to Pasteur’s Cube model

Pasteur’s Quadrant model, published by Stokes in 1997, presents a two-dimensional abstract conceptual framework that proved immensely helpful to study and discuss institutional and policy arrangements in science. However, during the last 10 years the PQ model was also applied in a series of large-scale, survey-based studies worldwide to classify individual modern-day researchers according to their research orientation and performance.This paper argues that such applications are inadequate to capture key characteristics of individual researchers, especially those within the heterogeneous ‘Pasteur type’ group who engage in ‘use-inspired’ basic scientific research. Addressing this shortcoming, Pasteur’s Cube (PC) model introduces a new heuristic tool. Departing from a three-dimensional conceptual framework of research-related activities, the model enables a range of typologies to describe and study the large variety of academics at today’s research-intensive universities. The PC model’s analytical robustness was tested empirically in two interrelated ‘proof of concept’ studies: an exploratory survey among 150 European universities and a follow-up case study of Leiden University in the Netherlands. Both studies, collecting data for the years 2010–2015, applied a metrics-based taxonomy to classify individual academic researchers according to four performance categories: scientific publication output, research collaboration with the business sector, patents filings, and being engaging in entrepreneurial activities.The collective results of both studies provide more clarity on relevant subgroups of use-inspired researchers. The PC model can be used to guide empirical, metrics-based investigations of research activities and productivities, applies this approach to two case studies, and demonstrates the utility of the method while also reinforcing and enriching the growing body of literature showing that cross-sectoral and cross-functional research activities are more scientifically productive than research carried out in isolation of the context of use. Introducing the ‘Crossover Collaborator’ subtype helps to explain why Pasteur type researchers tend to outperform other types of researchers in terms of publication output and citation impact.     

Preserving a combat commander’s moral agency: The Vincennes Incident as a Chinese Room

We argue that a command and control system can undermine a commander’s moral agency if it causes him/her to process information in a purely syntactic manner, or if it precludes him/her from ascertaining the truth of that information. Our case is based on the resemblance between a commander’s circumstances and the protagonist in Searle’s Chinese Room, together with a careful reading of Aristotle’s notions of ‘compulsory’ and ‘ignorance’. We further substantiate our case by considering the Vincennes Incident, when the crew of a warship mistakenly shot down a civilian airliner. To support a combat commander’s moral agency, designers should strive for systems that help commanders and command teams to think and manipulate information at the level of meaning. ‘Down conversions’ of information from meaning to symbols must be adequately recovered by ‘up conversions’, and commanders must be able to check that their sensors are working and are being used correctly. Meanwhile ethicists should establish a mechanism that tracks the potential moral implications of choices in a system’s design and intended operation. Finally we highlight a gap in normative ethics, in that we have ways to deny moral agency, but not to affirm it.     

What faces reveal: Hugh Diamond’s photographic representations of mental illness

Hugh Diamond was a psychiatrist, antiquarian, and photographer, who was the first person to take photographs of female asylum patients. These photographs, using the newly invented technology of the camera, were intended to be objective and accurate visual indicators of mental illness. Considering Diamond’s overlapping interests, his project must be understood within the larger cultural and historical context and the tensions inherent in medical photography and portraiture. Despite the goal of capturing “objective, scientific data,” the photographs instead relied on traditional iconography dating back to the Greeks and Middle Ages and can be analyzed from an art historical perspective. As an antiquarian, Diamond collected portraits of his patients just as he collected various other objects. As such, while Diamond may be considered a humanistic leader of the moral treatment movement, his work in capturing these “specimens,” the female patients, reflects a perpetuation of the stigmatization of mental illness to be put on display for the Victorian audience.     

Blocking probability of massive MIMO: What is the capacity of a massive MIMO IoT system?

In this paper, we provide a methodology to evaluate the capacity of a Massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) supported Internet of Things (IoT) system in which a large number of low cost low power IoT devices transmit and receive sporadic data. Numerous IoT devices are supported by a single cell Massive MIMO base station (BS) with maximum-ratio (MR) processing. Orthogonal reference signals (RSs) or pilots are assigned randomly to all the IoT devices for channel estimation purpose. The number of simultaneously active IoT devices follows Poisson distribution. Due to the tremendous number of IoT devices, orthogonal RSs are heavily reused, which severely degrades the receiver signal quality. One of the most important performance criteria for this kind of system is the blocking probability which shows the percentage of the outage IoT devices, and how we maintain the low blocking probability while supporting all the IoT devices simultaneously is particularly important. Due to RS reuse, we can divide IoT devices into two groups based on their interference levels. We provide detailed theoretical analyses, and show that the blocking primarily happens to the group with higher interference level. Increasing the number of service antennas and/or reducing the number of IoT devices can help to improve the performance of the blocking probability, however there is a regime in which the parameter adjustment helps little to improve the performance. Based on these factors, we provide a useful algorithm to improve the performance of blocking probability. A number of simulation results are also provided to validate the theoretical analysis.     

Enacting taboos as a means to an end; but what end? On the morality of motivations for child murder and paedophilia within gamespace

Video games are currently available which permit the virtual murder of children. No such games are presently available which permit virtual paedophilia. Does this disparity reflect a morally justifiable position? Focusing solely on different player motivations, I contrast two version of a fictitious game—one permitting the virtual murder of children, the other virtual paedophilia—in order to establish whether the selective prohibition of one activity over the other can be morally justified based on player motivation alone. I conclude that it cannot, for reasons discussed.     

The use of material transfer agreements in academia: A threat to open science or a cooperation tool?

The transfer of scientific material and data, which are scientific inputs, is fundamental to knowledge creation dynamics. This transfer is being controlled, more and more, by the use of Material Transfer Agreements (MTAs). Therefore, the effect of MTAs on the dynamic of knowledge creation is an important concern. The aim of this research is to characterise the restrictions imposed by MTAs, and their determinants. We consider MTA diversity based on a comprehensive analysis of the clauses included in 171 MTAs signed by two French universities. We show that the clauses included in MTAs depend on several factors such as kind of material involved, research field, patenting and collection of material. We find that the presence of an industry actor is not associated to more restrictions on publication and intellectual property. We propose a typology of MTAs corresponding to different transfer situations. We discuss the role of MTAs as collaborative tools and the influence of the legal, scientific, political and organisational context.     

Rotary inverted pendulum with magnetically external perturbations as a source of the pendulum’s base navigation commands

The main objective of this paper is to drive a rotary inverted pendulum by following a desired navigation instruction. This navigation is commanded by the user through a new electromagnetic device which is allowed to perturb the pendulum from its upright position. This apparatus consists of an electronic magnetic driving circuit to introduce commands and realized via two operated magnetic coils. So, the external programmed magnetic perturbation can be seen as external commandments. Therefore, the control problem statement is solved via a modified regulation control implementation, to maintain the pendulum on its upright position and giving free manipulation of the base of the rotary inverted pendulum. Hence, by using the corresponding H_∞-linear matrix inequality technique, a static state controller is designed and tested experimentally so supporting our findings.     

Innovation as a vehicle for improving socially vulnerable groups’ access to basic provisions: A research note on the development of a questionnaire module

Reducing inequality and social exclusion is a challenging task that will require a joint effort by all societal stakeholders, including not-for-profit and for-profit organizations. In order to develop and evaluate policy actions in this area, monitoring the contribution of these for-profit and not-for-profit organizations to a more inclusive society becomes crucial. This research note describes the development, cognitive pretesting, and large-scale empirical testing of a module that can be included in (inter)national innovation surveys. The module measures whether not-for-profits’ and for-profits’ innovation activities improve vulnerable groups’ access to basic provisions. It also provides insights in the main drivers for improving beneficiaries’ access to basic provisions through innovation and in the types and numbers of beneficiaries reached. The module was tested in the context of the Community Innovation Survey in Flanders, Belgium.     

Technology,capabilities and critical perspectives: what can critical theory contribute to Sen’s capability approach?

This paper explores what insights can be drawn from critical theory to enrich and strengthen Sen’s capability approach in relation to technology and human development. The two theories share some important commonalities: both are concerned with the pursuit of “a good life”; both are normative theories rooted in ethics and meant to make a difference, and both are interested in democracy. The paper provides a brief overview of both schools of thought and their applications to technology and human development. Three areas are identified where critical theory can make a contribution to the capability approach: conceptually, by providing a critical account of individual agency and enriching the concept of technology beyond the simplistic notion of commodities; methodologically, by sensitising towards reification and hegemony of scientific tools, and, finally, by emphasising reflexivity of researchers.     

Information visualisation: a holistic tool to discover knowledge. Case study – what video-telephone care? What elderly?

Today all parties within the health-care system demand more information and evidence to take more efficient and pinpointed management decisions. Their goal is a better patient and patient-care management. This paper presents an information visualisation approach to discover knowledge for the management of tele-home care for the elderly using the video-telephone: what type of elderly need what type of video-telephone interventions? This document focuses on the synthesis aspects of data mining with a view to knowledge discovery: the global, holistic, synthesis approach. More specifically, it summarises visually the relationships among the types of video-telephony care, among the segments of elderly, and between the types of interventions and the segments of elderly simultaneously. The graphical display allows delineating areas that group elderly with a similar/dissimilar video-telephony care profile. Information visualisation is a promising approach to provide insight into large multidimensional data sets. It fosters knowledge discovery.     

The long march to catch-up: A history-friendly model of China’s mobile communications industry

This paper develops a history-friendly model of the process of catch-up by Chinese firms in the mobile communications industry. It aims to explain how the sectoral environment in terms of segmented markets and generational technological change facilitated the catch-up of domestic firms with respect to foreign multinationals. Segmented markets provided a nurturing environment in peripheral markets for the survival of domestic firms starting with low level capabilities in their infant stage. Generational technological change opened windows of opportunities for domestic firms to catch-up with foreign multinationals in new product segments. Segmented markets and generational technological change allowed domestic firms to leverage their initial advantages in peripheral markets to catch-up in core markets. Counterfactual simulations highlight that the process of catch-up was facilitated by relatedness across technological generations. This paper contributes to the literature on catch-up and industry evolution by illustrating the role of technological change and market regimes in the process of catching-up.