INTRODUCTION: Internet Research as It Isn't,Is, Could Be,and Should Be

One interesting problem arising from Kling and Iacono's pioneering work on computerization movements (CMs) is the question of empirically determining a movement's success or failure. This article questions the question and argues that it is based on two assumptions that upon closer examination seem problematic. The first is that Kling and Iaconco's concept of a CM is sufficient to cover the range of CMs. Their approach to CMs is explicated, pointing out three ways in which it is limited, concluding that it should be reconceptualized. The second is that CMs are similar enough so that a single set of criteria is sufficient to judge the success or failure of any given CM. Using a heuristic analysis to examine a set of 41 CMs, a typology is introduced demonstrating that there are important differences among CMs. The article concludes that since a single set of criteria is no longer appropriate, different sets of criteria are needed to evaluate the success or failure of different types of CMs.     

The Evolution of Agency: Spectra of Bioagency and Cyberagency

This article examines nonhuman agency, or the capacity of nonhumans to carry out goal-directed action. The central argument is that agency should be conceptualized not as a binary (someone/something does or does not have agency) but rather as a spectrum, with degrees of agency. Based upon an empirical study of the design and use of frog dissection simulations (cyberfrogs) in high school biology classes, the author develops two parallel spectra of agency, bioagency and cyberagency, to describe the degrees of agency experienced by biological life forms and technologies. These spectra put agency into an evolutionary perspective, comparing how humans evolved agency over time to how technologies are now evolving agency. The article concludes with challenges for future research to further explore the validity and implications of a notion of cyberagency that evolves over time, can be represented on an analog spectrum, and is independent of human agency.     

The Evolution of Agency: Spectra of Bioagency and Cyberagency

This article examines nonhuman agency, or the capacity of nonhumans to carry out goal-directed action. The central argument is that agency should be conceptualized not as a binary (someone/something does or does not have agency) but rather as a spectrum, with degrees of agency. Based upon an empirical study of the design and use of frog dissection simulations (cyberfrogs) in high school biology classes, the author develops two parallel spectra of agency, bioagency and cyberagency, to describe the degrees of agency experienced by biological life forms and technologies. These spectra put agency into an evolutionary perspective, comparing how humans evolved agency over time to how technologies are now evolving agency. The article concludes with challenges for future research to further explore the validity and implications of a notion of cyberagency that evolves over time, can be represented on an analog spectrum, and is independent of human agency.     

Researching Internet Communities: Proposed Ethical Guidelines for the Reporting of Results

Communication researchers and social scientists are quickly discovering the value of data that exists in the postings of members of Internet e-mail, Usenet, and real-time groups. The ability to communicate with one's peers, no matter how esoteric the interests, is causing an explosion in the number of new virtual communities. The interpersonal dynamics of these groups are increasingly coming under the scrutiny of academic research. The publicly available archived records of Internet virtual communities are being analyzed for a wide variety of research interests. The ability to do naturalistic observations of group dynamics, as they are exhibited in these exchanges of text, has captured the attention of many researchers. The institutional review boards of major universities are granting researchers exempt or expedited (exempt from full review) status for this work, due to the public nature of the notes being analyzed. These studies often involve the lack of informed consent, where the group members under study are unaware they are being monitored. There is a potential for psychological harm to the members of these groups, depending on the way results are reported. This article explores the ethical considerations that must be taken into account to protect cyberspace participants. The guidelines proposed are based on the American Psychological Association ethical guidelines for use of human subjects in research. An explanation is offered as to how such guidelines can best be applied to the study of Internet communities. The constructs of Group Accessibility (the public/private nature of the actual cyberspace occupied by a group) and Perceived Privacy (the level of privacy that group members assume they have) are defined and proposed as two dimensions by which individual Internet communities may be evaluated in order to assure the ethical reporting of research findings.     

Rethinking disability in Amartya Sen’s approach: ICT and equality of opportunity

This article presents an analysis of the concept of disability in Amartya Sen’s capabilities and functionings approach in the context of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). Following a critical review of the concept of disability—from its traditional interpretation as an essentially medical concept to its later interpretation as a socially constructed category—we will introduce the concept of functional diversity. The importance of human diversity in the capabilities and functionings approach calls for incorporating this concept into the analysis of well-being and quality of life in persons with disability—aspects in which ICT currently plays a major role. When one contemplates these technologies, it becomes clear that factors such as accessibility, design for all, and user participation in development and implementation processes are key strategies in promoting equal rights and equal opportunity for persons with disability in the different environments of the information society.     

COMMUNICATION AND THE LIMITS OF KNOWLEDGE

This paper explores the concept of an infrastructure of human understanding and a new approach to communication research using a logic of positions. Communication is not, as is sometimes supposed, an instrument for conveying information from one point to another nor are the forms, languages, or capacity for understanding uniformly distributed throughout society. The infrastructure of understanding is an extraordinarily complex phenomenon which cannot be explored with traditional methods. Before taking investigations further in this new area it is necessary to redefine the nature of knowledge.     

Rodents,evolution, and prehistory

The rodents, especially voles, evolved very rapidly during the Quaternary era. Their remains, particularly the teeth, were fossilised by the thousand in prehistoric deposits. The sites can be dated from the degree of evolution attained by the teeth. Since rodents are closely adapted to their biotopes and live under well defined climatic conditions, they are extremely valuable for reconstructing the landscapes and climates of prehistory. In many cases, a single rodent tooth can be used to assess the age of a human skull or a prehistoric settlement, and throw light on the environment and climate of the time.     

Historical mathematics in the French eighteenth century

At least since the seventeenth century, the strange combination of epistemological certainty and ontological power that characterizes mathematics has made it a major focus of philosophical, social, and cultural negotiation. In the eighteenth century, all of these factors were at play as mathematical thinkers struggled to assimilate and extend the analysis they had inherited from the seventeenth century. A combination of educational convictions and historical assumptions supported a humanistic mathematics essentially defined by its flexibility and breadth. This mathematics was an expression of l'esprit humain, which was unfolding in a progressive historical narrative. The French Revolution dramatically altered the historical and educational landscapes that had supported this eighteenth-century approach, and within thirty years Augustin Louis Cauchy had radically reconceptualized and restructured mathematics to be rigorous rather than narrative.     

区域创新系统运行的 "四三结构"模型解析——武汉东湖高新区国际通信专用通道建设分析

区域创新是一项复杂的系统工程.在建设创新型国家的宏观背景下,为保证区域创新系统功能的正常发挥,开展区域创新系统运行(以下简称RISO)的研究具有较强的理论和实际意义.在简单介绍RISO"四三结构"模型的基础上,以湖北武汉东湖高新区国际通信专用通道建设这一区域创新的典型案例为对象,实证研究了RISO"四三结构"模型的内在机理.     

The importance of capabilities in the sustainability of information and communications technology programs: the case of remote Indigenous Australian communities

The use of the capability approach as an evaluative tool for Information and Communication Technology (ICT) policy and programs in developing countries, in particular at a grass-roots community level, is an emerging field of application. However, one of the difficulties with ICT for development (ICT4D) evaluations is in linking what is often no more than a resource, for example basic access, to actual outcomes, or means to end. This article argues that the capability approach provides a framework for evaluating the strength of this linkage and that the latter is a key determinant of whether or not communities sustain ICT4D programs beyond the initial start-up phase. The argument is made by describing an evaluative application of the capabilities approach to community ICT4D programs using two Indigenous community case studies conducted in Cape York, in the far north-east of Australia. Key to the evaluative approach is the identification of community defined, context specific concepts of well-being and constitutive valued functionings and the derivation from this of required capabilities. This move away from normative definitions of capabilities or capability types to a definition that reflects the Indigenous culture, history, circumstances, and well-being aspirations of each community is intended to give a voice to the people and at the same time provide a deeper informational base—through narrative—for policy and program design than has previously been available. The article concludes that by operationalising the capability approach in a context and purpose specific way, policy and program design can be improved so as to include more communities on the margin and thereby achieve more socially inclusive ICT based development. A process is also outlined for using the evaluative application of the capability approach for community ICT4D within a policy feedback loop.     

中国微生物组计划:机遇与挑战

微生物组是指一个特定环境或者生态系统中全部微生物及其遗传信息,包括其细胞群体和数量、全部遗传物质(基因组),它界定了涵盖微生物群及其全部遗传与生理功能,其内涵包括了微生物与其环境和宿主的相互作用。微生物组学是一个崭新的学科,微生物组研究取得的成果,必将为国家经济社会发展、人类生活质量改善提供源源不断的创新活力。因此,微生物组学也是一个世界各国争相发展的战略性科技领域,美国、日本等发达国家已经部署了支持微生物组研究的国家计划。在分析国内发展现状的基础上,结合我国发展过程中的国家需求,文章分析了我国微生物组研究面临的机遇和挑战,提出了部署中国微生物组计划"国家需求导向、科学假设驱动、技术创新支撑"的基本原则。建议设立中国微生物组计划国家重点研发计划;探讨了中国微生物组计划的重点领域和内容,涉及健康、环境、工农业和海洋等领域。希望通过中国微生物组计划的实施,主导国际大科学计划并强化我国在相应领域的话语权,显著提升我国科技创新和科技成果转化能力,催生一批基于颠覆性技术的战略性新兴产业,为我国经济社会发展和人类文明进步作出应有的贡献。     

我国战略性新兴产业“政策碎片化”原因及对策分析

基于传播学中"碎片化"理论的研究,通过具体产业举例分析战略性新兴产业政策"碎片化"的表现,然后分析政策碎片化形成的原因,最后提出解决政策"碎片化"的政策建议。     

When Nightingales Break the Law: Silence and the Construction of Reality

Strikingly, theorizing about digital technologies has led us to recognize many habitual subjects of research as figures against fields that are also worthy of study. Communication, for example, becomes visible only against the field of silence. Silence is critically important for the construction of reality – and the social construction of reality has a complement, the also necessary contemplative construction of reality. Silence is so sensitive and fragile that an inability to achieve it, or to get rid of it, or to correct the wrong kind of silence often provides early indicators of individual, group, communal, and society-wide stresses from information technologies. Indeed, we might treat difficulties with silence as miners treated canaries in coal mines, as early warning signals. The story has already been told that nightingales in London now have to sing so loudly in order to be heard above the ambient noise that the birds are in danger of breaking the noise ordinance law. Surely something has gone awry if nightingales break the law when they sing. Finding ways to protect silence as an arena of personal and social choice is a particularly poignant, evocative, and instructive ethical and policy horizon at this frontier moment for the human species. This article introduces the theory of the contemplative construction of reality, explores what the study of silence tells us about reality construction processes, and outlines a research agenda.     

Japanese-style evaluation systems for R&D projects: The MITI experience

This article examines some of the key features of Japanese evaluation systems utilized in evaluating R&D policies. The distinctive features of the system are that Japan depends upon in-house self-assessment combined with close cooperation and consensus-seeking behavior with the government and its advisory bodies. This system is markedly different from those predominant in countries where R&D policies are evaluated separately, independent from the sphere of decision-making. The system described here is subjective rather than objective in that the direct promoters of R&D plans were directly included in the evaluation activities. The system has evolved gradually in the course of Japanese technological development, and has been influenced also by Japan's particular internal and external environment. The system appears to have worked well in areas where research programs were modified to obtain incremental improvement or to create new types of R&D programs. However, recent constraints caused by budget deficits, together with the shift from applied to more basic research, have required a new type of evaluation system for Japan's R&D policy.     

From fighting COVID-19 pandemic to tackling sustainable development goals: An opportunity for responsible information systems research

The recent outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has posed a significant threat to the healthy lives and well-being of billions of people worldwide. As the world begins to open up from lockdowns and enters an unprecedented state of vulnerability, or what many have called “the new normal”, it makes sense to reflect on what we have learned, revisit our fundamental assumptions, and start charting the way forward to contribute to building a sustainable world. In this essay, we argue that despite its significant damage to human lives and livelihoods, the coronavirus pandemic presents an excellent opportunity for the human family to act in solidarity and turn this crisis into an impetus to achieve the United Nation’s (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). In this article, we will highlight the six relevant themes that have evolved during the pandemic and the corresponding topics that future researchers could focus on. We conclude by issuing a call for more research attention on tackling SDG through developing the concept and practice of digital sustainability.     

企业竞争情报作战室研究

企业竞争情报作战室是商业竞争情报工作借鉴军事"作战室"的模式演变而来的.本文正是根据企业竞争情报的实际要求,通过对竞争情报作战室概念、功能等基础知识的引入,初步探索其设计理念与模型,力求建立一个比较完整的理论体系,以作为研究竞争情报作战室实际应用的理论基础,有效地指导和完善作战室的具体实施和安全保护工作.文中辅以中外各国案例,以便深入分析现实问题、寻求解决方法,试图更为科学地研究企业竞争情报作战室的现状及未来走向.     

声誉模型在专业化人力资本形成中的应用

人力资本的形成对于经济发展具有显著的作用。专业化人力资本的形成实际上是一个典型的委托—代理关系。文中将人力资本形成过程中的个人确定为委托人,具体形成部门为代理人;并引用声誉模型对其形成机理进行了博弈分析。结果证明:委托人可以依据“声誉”(用“长寿”表示)这一可观测的信号来选择代理人(人力资本形成部门),以降低自身人力资本化的风险。     

The Ignorance Economy 1

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to investigate the concept of ignorance. The article employs ignorance and related writings on the lack of knowledge and new Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), education, and on the state of being ignorant with the aim of expounding an ignorant approach to the critique of the knowledge economy. This perspective necessitates a discussion of those subjects and objects apparently lacking in knowledge in addition to deliberations on the nature of new ICTs. Various studies by educators, economists, and management theorists are introduced and examined as instances of an ignorant standpoint on the knowledge economy. The authors argue and find that whilst an ignorant viewpoint regarding the knowledge economy might initially appear as one that is itself founded on a state of ignorance, a deeper investigation reveals its usefulness when considering the knowledge economy. Thus, the value of the article is that it introduces the concept of the ignorance economy and considers it from an original standpoint in the light of ongoing debates over the knowledge economy.     

Understanding expert systems applications from a knowledge transfer perspective

Expert systems (ESs) were introduced more than two decades ago, but their effectiveness and success are still in debate. This paper attempts to make a contribution to the better understanding of ES applications from a knowledge transfer perspective. This paper argues that an ES application is knowledge transfer that uses Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). Underpinned by knowledge transfer theories and through a series of empirical investigations of ES projects in agriculture, this study recognises the importance of human interactions in the ESs implementation process. Based on the evidence collected, a number of key players are examined. They are knowledge provider/sender, knowledge engineer, knowledge extensionist and knowledge recipient. This paper represents a first attempt to acknowledge the role of a knowledge extensionist in the ICT-based knowledge transfer process. The name ‘extensionist’ is borrowed from earlier literature and describes an actor whose role is an intermediary in supporting transferring knowledge towards the knowledge user. Findings demonstrate the significant contributions made by extensionists towards the success of ESs applications. It is argued that the rigidity and limitations of ESs in ICT-based knowledge transfer can be significantly reduced with the involvement of close human interactions with the knowledge recipient.