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The article presents a review of four recent books by authors Meredith Broussard, Tonia Sutherland, Wendy Hui Kyong Chun, and Catherine Knight Steele relating to the topic of racial and gender inequalities inherent in emerging digital technologies. The reviewer relates her approach to developing a lesson plan around these books.

Media systems have changed significantly as a result of the development of information technologies. However, typologies of media systems that incorporate aspects of digitalization are rare. This study fills this gap by identifying, operationalizing, and measuring indicators of media systems in the digital age. We build on previous work, extend it with new indicators that reflect changing conditions (such as online news use), and include media freedom indicators. We include 30 countries in our study and use cluster analysis to identify three clusters of media systems. Two of these clusters correspond to the media system models described by Hallin and Mancini, namely the democratic-corporatist and the polarized-pluralist model. However, the liberal model as described by Hallin and Mancini has vanished; instead, we find empirical evidence of a new cluster that we call "hybrid": it is positioned in between the poles of the media-supportive democratic-corporatist and the polarized-pluralist clusters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The idea that ordinary people might contribute to verification of arms control treaties is not new; abstract discussions of the concept date back decades. But powerful and portable electronic devices have spread so widely in recent years that societal verification now seems an imminent reality. Motivated individuals might, for instance, collect treaty-relevant data through onboard sensors that smartphones can carry and then transmit the information to multilateral verification bodies or, as is already happening, share it online with global communities that subject it to crowdsourced analysis. But will societal verification generate enthusiasm in the developed and developing worlds alike? What legal protections must be established for participants? And will information gathered through societal verification ultimately prove useful and trustworthy? Three authors explore these emerging questions: from Burkina Faso and representing the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization, Lassina Zerbo (2013); from the United States, research fellow Nima Gerami; and from Malaysia, nuclear engineer Jamal Khaer Ibrahim (2013). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mediated communication enabled by information technology has immense potential to positively affect personal health. Although existing theories of technology use and adoption have advanced our understanding of information technology, they do not fully address voluntary adoption in community settings, adoption across the lifespan, and privacy concerns. Drawing on evidence collected during more than five years of field research, we start to address those issues, especially as they pertain to HealthIT (e.g. mHealth, e-Health, and/or connected health) use. Our goals include advancing theoretical discussions on technology acceptance and offering practical applications useful for medical professionals serving patients of all ages. We discuss our findings related to mandatory adoption learning heuristics, pressured voluntary adoption, digital immigrants' self-reported technology use and skill, perceived versus actual support, concerns about online privacy and information sharing, potential loss of control over personal information, online–offline boundary incongruence, and adoption barriers related to technological features. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates how information technology (IT) facilitates a firm's customer agility and, in turn, competitive activity. Customer agility captures the extent to which a firm is able to sense and respond quickly to customer-based opportunities for innovation and competitive action. Drawing from the dynamic capability and IT business value research streams, we propose that IT plays an important role in facilitating a "knowledge creating" synergy derived from the interaction between a firm's Web-based customer infrastructure and its analytical ability. This will enhance the firm's ability to sense customer-based opportunities. IT also plays an important role in "process enhancing" synergy obtained from the interaction between a firm's coordination efforts and its level of information systems integration, which facilitates the firm's ability to respond to those opportunities. We also leverage the competitive dynamics and strategic alignment literature to propose that the alignment between customer-sensing capability and customer-responding capability will impact the firm's competitive activity. We test our model with a two-stage research design in which we survey marketing executives of high-tech firms. Our results show that a Web-based customer infrastructure facilitates a firm's customer-sensing capability; furthermore, analytical ability positively moderates this relationship. We also find that internal systems integration positively moderates the relationship between interfunctional coordination and a firm's customer-responding capability. Finally, our results show that agility alignment affects the efficacy of a firm's competitive actions. In particular, action efficacy is higher when sensing and responding capabilities are both high. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents an introduction to literature review essays that will summarize and critique four current books on the topic of inherent racial and gender bias in digital technologies. The books to be examined are "Discriminating Data," by Wendy Hui Kyong Chun, "Digital Black Feminism," by Catherine Knight Steele, "Resurrecting the Black Body," by Tonia Sutherland and "More Than a Glitch," by Meredith Broussard.

This study investigates the effect of varying project complexity on the group interaction processes of small information technology (IT) project teams. The projects included two complex tasks (i.e., LAN and WAN development tasks) and a less complex development task (i.e.. a small business Web site development task). The study found that project complexity can affect the group interaction process. Participants reported significantly higher expectations, group integration, communication, and participation while working on less complex projects. Efforts to organize project personnel and define roles were more effective with less complex projects. Power struggles and noninvolvement remained a problem for teams regardless of project complexity. This study identifies and confirms key problem areas that can lead to project failure as IT projects become more complex. The results should interest both researchers and information systems managers, because the study is among the first to extend the common body of knowledge concerning group interaction and task complexity to IT projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses articles in the issue on topics including assessment and development of Information and Communications Technologies for Development (ICT4D) innovations; ICT theory; and impact of ICT on social capital.

Proposes a free and diverse language standard for online communication in the Internet for augmented perception and enhanced reality perception in textual and multimedia information. Text translations and their consequences; Structure of enhanced reality; Social implications of information technologies.

Presents modified transcripts of talks presented at the American Library Association (ALA) Conference in New Orleans, sponsored by the Imagineering Interest Group of LITA. Prescient commentators; Information revolution and science fiction writing; Technology and its future prospects.

The article examines the potential for Information Technology (IT) to support global organization for companies in the U.S. The authors suggest that IT will be able to eliminate a great deal of the inefficiency in business processes associated with the coordination of activity between consumers and providers of goods. They note that IT has capabilities to reduce time frames associated with the delivery of goods and services. They also praise IT for being able to create greater organizational autonomy and provide more efficient access to information. They believe that together IT and globalization will revolutionize the business world. They also discuss some of the obstacles that the business world will have to overcome in order to maximize the benefits of globalization.

Building upon a framework of the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology, this study explores the determinants of citizens' intentions to use the government's mobile application for public health risk communication. An online survey was conducted with a quota sample of 700 Korean citizens. The results from structural equation modeling suggest that social media competence and trust in government information are primary determinants of willingness to accept the new application and intention to use it. Trust in government information appeared to influence the acceptance of the application both directly and indirectly through performance expectancy and effort expectancy. More confidence in the use of social media led to higher levels of performance expectancy, effort expectancy, and facilitating conditions, all of which subsequently contributed to willingness to accept the application. The acceptance of the application further influenced intention to use the application and the likelihood of positive recommendations. The findings suggest that while developing applications that meet public expectations for informational benefits and time efficiency is important, it is also necessary for the government to build trust and improve citizens' ability to use new tools in order for new information technology initiatives to fully benefit citizens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As health organisations battle fraud, data theft and cyber-attacks that cost millions of dollars and threaten their ability to provide quality patient care, biometric technology is poised to gain greater traction across this industry – helping hospitals and other health-related organisations to protect patient data, prevent fraud, improve their patient-matching abilities and safeguard their reputations. This article examines the current and likely future impact of biometric systems on healthcare security and patient identification, focusing on the US market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents an interview with Luciano Floridi, MBCS, and Oxford Internet Institute's Professor of Philosophy and Ethics of Information. He presents his views on possible effects of unprofessional or unethical behaviour related to Information and communications technology (ICT) and trolley problem, a thought experiment in ethics and data privacy and data protection and gig economy. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The “end of art” thesis, especially as Danto’s interpretation of Hegel, has been able to address the radical pluralism of the contemporary art institution. However, since the 1990s two challenging and correlated shifts in contemporary art seem to have appeared: firstly, the interactions with - and the reiterations through - digital media, and secondly, a sheer rise of artistic production to an unprecedented level on a global scale. How is the “end of art” still holding against these new and interrelated constellations of new media and overproduction? Against claims for a medium-specificity of digital tools, this article will argue that a post-medium condition of digitality is connected with the sheer quantity of art in a global level. Although this cannot cancel the institutional cornerstones of contemporary art and the concomitant thesis on the “end of art”, it does introduce new parameters for the conceptions and historizations of contemporary art. In this perspective, the “end of art” discourse may not be discarded but it tends to describe more the institutionalization of an individual artwork and less the global dynamics of contemporary art. These involve new modes of spectatorship that do not appear to be entirely reducible to institutional norms and theoretical tropes, implied by the “end of art” thesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The paper investigates the determinants of Internet adoption in poor countries, focusing on the role of macro‐geographic location (neighborhood). It is argued that neighboring countries are interconnected by various kinds of spillovers, including knowledge spillovers as well as spillovers of norms and attitudes that affect individual adoption behavior. The empirical findings support the view that Internet adoption is affected by adoption rates in neighboring countries, even when controlling for a wide range of covariates. Addressing potential endogeneity concerns using an instrumental variable approach moreover suggests these relationships to be causal. The findings imply that international policies to support Internet adoption in poor countries might be more effective if they target groups of neighboring countries rather than single countries in order to better exploit spillovers between neighboring countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Technology implementation at the individual level within an organization, after the organization has adopted the technology, has been an ongoing challenge in every field. In this study, we develop a hierarchical Bayesian learning model to examine the impact of social learning, through both targeted early adopter effects and general peer effects, and experiential learning on the information technology implementation process by physicians in a community health system. Our unique data allow us to disentangle the most common and challenging endogeneity issues associated with most social influence studies. We find that the experiential learning signal is more accurate than the social learning signals in the technology implementation process; and, between the two types of social learning signals studied here, targeted early adopter effects are much more informative than general peer effects. Furthermore, we experiment with several policy simulations to illustrate and quantify the two different types of social influence on this implementation process. The simulation results suggest that maintaining consistency in technology usage by targeted early adopters is more effective than increasing the frequency of their technology usage in reducing their colleagues' perceptions of uncertainty about the new technology. More specifically, we find that technology implementation probability would increase: (a) by 15%, on average, by adding a targeted early adopter to a group without early adopters; (b) by 25% by adding peer effects to solo users; and (c) by 47% by adding early adopter effects to solo users. The model can be adapted and generalized to other similar settings that examine social influence on the technology implementation process and also provide quantifiable measures of the improvements that the interventions may produce. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In most developed and developing nations seniors lag behind the general population in information technology (IT) adoption and use. This phenomenon has been labeled the “gray divide” by various authors. This study examines the use of IT by seniors in Taiwan. We conducted a survey to examine Taiwanese seniors’ computer and cell phone ownership and use as well as attitudes and behaviors that result from and influence use, to better understand the extent to which Taiwanese seniors have and will utilize IT. We found that seniors in Taiwan had generally high usage and access to computers and cell phones; however, the duration of use these two devices was relatively low. Our focus was on computers and mobile phones because they are the most commonly used personal IT appliances. These devices are the “face” of IT to users. This study also examined self-efficacy, satisfaction, and comfort with these devices, as well as positive and negative attitudes, because research has shown these to influence the use of IT. Taiwanese seniors had generally positively attitudes and beliefs toward information technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A change in social relations ensuing from the onset and rapid development of information technologies drives the need for a prompt and adequate response on the part of law. At the same time, today’s legal framework for regulation and protection of social relations is not fully able to adequately ensure appropriate changes resulting from the expansion of IT. The purpose of this article is to make an initial analysis of whether the national legal system is ready for changes in social relations occurring as a result of rapid IT development, and also to make a prognostic identification of the main areas of social life which should be well-prepared for the development and implementation of new legal mechanisms. The regulatory legal framework of the IT sector in Ukraine is currently at the initial level allowing nothing more than attempting to catch up with well-developed legal orders rather than playing the leading role. Currently there is even not a hint of establishment of a uniform, conceptually new, systematic and comprehensive legal mechanism which would comprehensively allow ensuring the dynamics of social relations resulting from rapid development of the IT sector. Neither legal scholars nor legislators are ready to formulate the legal policies in this area, determine the limits and terms of comprehensive legal regulation of the use of up-to-date innovative approaches, methodologies and technologies, in particular, Blockchain, the Internet of things, cloud infrastructure, Mobile ID, sharing economy, promote large dataset processing methods (Big Data), define the legal nature of crypto currency, mining process, smart contracts, tokens, ICO, etc. IT development, as well as further integration of the Internet into social life, are unavoidable and do not depend on the intentions of the State. The main question will be whether law will be ready to propose, in connection with these changes, a modern, systematic and adequate approach with a view to ensuring appropriate regulation of this sector to make it useful for the benefit of society in general and an individual in particular. Today, formulation of legal policies with a focus on the processes of human and social relations digitalization seems a promising trend. This process could be underlain by the blockchain technology which will facilitate transparency, efficiency, and acceleration of processes in most areas of human life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The IT sector is one of the key branches of the national economy, and today it is developing rapidly. Business activities of enterprises in this area are associated with a range of legal risks with adverse consequences for a business entity. Consequently, an urgent need arises to examine such risks and the ways of their mitigation. Given the dynamic development of social relations within the framework of doing business in the IT sector, and also the daily emergence of new legal tools to act in this sector, a study of legal risks from a scientific perspective seems reasonable. The purpose of this article is to examine the risks encountered by business entities of Lviv city in the IT-sector, and to identify the ways of mitigating such risks. Based on the results of the conducted research, the author offers own definition of the concept of a legal risk in business. It is found that the main risks faced by business entities are the risks associated with supervisory and regulatory activities of state bodies, the risks ensuing from legal relations with the staff, and the risks of possible debts for the services performed. It is absolutely possible to mitigate any risk which arises while doing business in the IT-sector by means of the following measures: 1) ongoing explanations and clarifications addressed to the staff; 2) signing of agreements on confidential information non-disclosure and absence of competition; 3) drawing up of appropriate civil contracts with contractors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]