Rationalizing Sociality: An Unfinished Script for Socialbots

This article takes the concept and some of the existing applications of socialbots—software robots that operate on social networking sites and present themselves as human users—as an occasion to trace the evolution of online sociality. The argument mobilizes theories of social rationalization from Max Weber to contemporary critical theory to demonstrate that the appearance of automated profiles (socialbots) on social networking platforms can be seen as a logical step in the progressive enclosure of online social interaction in standardized, simplified, and trivialized forms, frames, and gestures. Critical questions concerning what the growth of robo-sociality may mean for individual users and the online public sphere are posed with a view to charting the directions for a needed public debate.     

A Strategy for the Management,Preservation, and Reutilization of Geographical Information Based on the Lifecycle of Geospatial Data: An Assessment and a Proposal Based on Experiences from Spain and Europe

In recent years, there has been a growing recognition of the fact that the proper management of information has to include concern for its preservation and future re-use. This ambition is particularly significant for geospatial data. The primary aim of this article is to define the European and Spanish frameworks for the preservation and reutilization of geographical information, with the ultimate goal of proposing an articulated, lifecycle-based data management model. With this, the intent is to shed some light on a complex, difficult and ever-evolving subject.

The article is divided into two main parts. The first part begins with a conceptual justification for geospatial data management and continues by synthesizing the current normative and technological framework for the preservation and reutilization of geographical information. Within this context, the implementation of Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDI) in Spain is evaluated. The second part begins with a case study from Spain that aims to identify different agents and flows that influence the lifecycle of geographical data, as well as the strengths and weaknesses found in each stage of the process under examination. Finally, the foregoing ideas are used in order to propose a SDI-related system for the management of geographical information.     

Child and Adolescent Predictors of Personality in Early Adulthood

This study investigated development of the Big Five personality traits from early childhood into adulthood. An initial group of 137 Swedish children were assessed eight times between ages 2 and 29 years. Initial decreases in extraversion leveled off in early adulthood; agreeableness and conscientiousness increased from ages 2 to 29; neuroticism initially increased, leveled off in later childhood and adolescence, and decreased throughout early adulthood; while openness to experience showed an initial increase, then decreased and leveled off in early adulthood. Individual developmental trajectories varied significantly, particularly in relation to gender. Personality traits became increasingly stable, and the fact that childhood scores predicted scores in adulthood indicated that personalities are fairly stable across this portion of the life span.