This paper outlines a selection of technological and organisational developments in the information and communication technology (ICT) sector and analyses their likely challenges for workers and ...trade unions around the globe. It addresses the convergence of telecommunications and information technology, the related developments of ubiquitous computing, ‘clouds’ and ‘big data’, and the possibilities of crowdsourcing and relates these technologies to the last decades' patterns of value chain restructuring. The paper is based on desk research of European and international sources, on sector analyses and technology forecasts by, for instance, the European Union and Organisation for Economic Co‐operation and Development, and some national actors. These prognoses are analysed through the lens of recent research into ICT working environments and ICT value chains, identifying upcoming and ongoing challenges for both workers and unions, and outlining possible research perspectives.
The effect of information communication technologies utilization on profitability was examined among 120 catfish farmers drawn through a multistage sampling procedure. Data were elicited with the aid ...of a structured questionnaire, analysed using percentages, budgetary technique and multiple regression model. Agricultural media information sources utilized by the farmers include mobile phone (79.2%), television (76.7%) and radio (68.3%). The result revealed that ₦592,448.90 was expended as cost per annum on fish production with ₦970,700.54 as revenue and a gross margin of ₦438,880.28 among ICT users while for non-ICT users ₦652,067.47, ₦1,026,428.66 and ₦427,337.41 were obtained as total cost, revenue and gross margin respectively. A value of 0.64 realized on the investment among ICT users implies that for every ₦1 invested in catfish farming, ₦1.64 is gotten as returns, leaving a profit of ₦0.64 while a profit of ₦0.57 is realized among non-ICT users. The factors that determine the profitability of catfish farming include household size (10%), input cost (1%) and television usage (5%) as agricultural media information source. Catfish farmers who utilized ICT have a higher profit level than non-users. Efforts and policies that will promote the farmers’ timely availability and accessibility of agricultural information, particularly through television is recommended
•We assess the productivity effects of R&D and ICT in a sample of nineteen industries in fourteen OECD countries between 1973 and 2007.•We identify four channels of transmission: input accumulation, ...technological change, technical efficiency and spillovers.•ICT has reduced technical inefficiency and generated inter-industry spillovers.•R&D has raised technical change and generated spillovers within sectors.•Over the time frame of our analysis ICT and R&D explain the 95% of TFP growth in the OECD area.
This study explores the channels through which technological investments affect productivity performance of industrialized economies. Using a Stochastic Frontier Model (SFM) we estimate the productivity effects of R&D and ICT for a large sample of OECD industries between 1973 and 2007, identifying four channels of transmission: input accumulation, technological change, technical efficiency and spillovers. Our results show that ICT has been particularly effective in reducing production inefficiency and in generating inter-industry spillovers, while R&D has raised the rate of technical change and favoured knowledge spillovers within sectors. We also quantify the contribution of technological investments to output and total factor productivity growth documenting that R&D and ICT accounted for almost 95% of productivity growth in the OECD area.
Imagining Twitter as an Imagined Community Gruzd, Anatoliy; Wellman, Barry; Takhteyev, Yuri
The American behavioral scientist (Beverly Hills),
10/2011, Letnik:
55, Številka:
10
Journal Article
Recenzirano
The notion of “community” has often been caught between concrete social relationships and imagined sets of people perceived to be similar. The rise of the Internet has refocused our attention on this ...ongoing tension. The Internet has enabled people who know each other to use social media, from e-mail to Facebook, to interact without meeting physically. Into this mix came Twitter, an asymmetric microblogging service: If you follow me, I do not have to follow you. This means that connections on Twitter depend less on in-person contact, as many users have more followers than they know. Yet there is a possibility that Twitter can form the basis of interlinked personal communities—and even of a sense of community. This analysis of one person’s Twitter network shows that it is the basis for a real community, even though Twitter was not designed to support the development of online communities. Studying Twitter is useful for understanding how people use new communication technologies to form new social connections and maintain existing ones.
The current era of industrial development and innovation is revolutionized using the internet, robotics, and artificial intelligence. Nevertheless, the appraisal of global economic progress shows ...increasing trends, there are environmental degradation issues associated with this improvement. The role of renewable energy, urbanization and foreign direct investment received a lot of attention in the literature on environmental issues, however, the simultaneity with information communication technology is missing. Therefore, the present study used data from 10 emerging countries during 1996–2015 and applied the novel Method of Moments Quantile Regression to analyze the nexus among the variables. Further, we applied the second-generation unit root test, and Driscoll Kraay standard errors to reach robust results. The findings revealed an inverted U-shape relationship between economic growth and environmental degradation; thus, the validity of the Environmental Kuznets Curve is revealed. Moreover, foreign direct investment is significant and positive at 0.05th-0.50th quantiles, however, it becomes insignificant at higher quantile levels. Urbanization enhances while renewable energy mitigates carbon dioxide emissions at all quantile levels. Information communication technology proxied by internet usage reduces environmental degradation significantly at 0.25th-0.95th quantile levels. Results of the study suggest insights for the policymakers to mitigate carbon dioxide emissions through encouraging renewable energy and internet use.
In recent decades, information and communication technology (ICT) has revolutionized the world affecting every aspect of life, including education, business, social activities, and environment. ...Consequently, the studies linking ICT and environmental sustainability are growing owing to its positive and adverse effects on environmental sustainability, and the noticeable disagreement in literature. Therefore, current work examines the criticality of ICT, human capital (education and return on education), and globalization in environmental sustainability, controlling urbanization and economic growth in the Latin American and Caribbean (LCA) region, where economic growth and globalization have substantially increased over the past three decades. Reliable panel econometric techniques, including second-generation unit root tests, Westerlund (2007, 2008) cointegration tests, and continuously-updated fully modified (CUP-BC) and continuously-updated bias-corrected (CUP-FM) long-run estimators are employed on the data for the period 1995–2017. The empirical estimations unfold that ICT (computed by a four components ICT index) and globalization contribute to reduce CO2 emissions. On the dark side, economic growth and urbanization degrade environment. Surprisingly, human capital adds to environmental degradation. The panel causality results reveal that ICT and globalization Granger cause CO2 emissions. These unique findings provide new insight to alleviate environmental degradation in the LCA region. Based on these outcomes, a comprehensive set of policies are directed for environmental sustainability.
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This study discusses access to information and communication technology (ICT) in the context of food security in Soshanguve, a slum area of The City of Tshwane, the administrative Capital of South ...Africa. City dwellers access food from retail outlets in a country where dispatching food is a lucrative business. Hence, food price increases pose challenges to urban households. The public broadcaster (i.e., South African Broadcasting Corporation, other private television stations (eTV, eNCA, and radio stations broadcast food marketing information through eleven official languages. Digital food marketing through cellular phone networks is also on the rise. ICT is a potential tool in the fight against food insecurity and hunger, since its use and range of application continue to grow at astonishing rates. Using questions contained in the USAID developed Household Food Insecurity Access Scale (HFIAS), questionnaires were administered to 300 randomly selected households in Soshanguve. Respondents were asked of their experiences of food insecurity (access) with a recall period of four weeks (30 days). Food secure households can utilise ICT tools in any manner to meet their food security needs. Our study finds that ICT access is positively associated with household food security. Transactional purchases of items on credit using cellular or landline telephony are, in particular, important in enhancing food security. Otherwise, households could beg for or borrow food from neighbours. Only the educated in Soshanguve purchase food items online by using computer access. Younger, single, educated, employed individuals mostly use ICT to advance the course of their food security.
To examine how information and communication technology (ICT) access and use are conceptually incorporated in the Successful Aging 2.0 framework.
Using data from the 2011 National Health and Aging ...Trends Study (N = 6,476), we examined how ICT access and use for different purposes are associated with social engagement (i.e., informal and formal social participation) by gender. Weighted logistic regression analyses were performed.
Findings revealed that men were more likely to access and use ICT than women. ICT access was positively associated with all types of women's social engagement, but only with men's informal social participation. Information technology (IT) use for health matters was positively associated with formal social participation for women and with informal social participation for men. IT use for personal tasks was negatively associated with formal social participation for older adults. Communication technology use was positively associated with formal and informal social participation for women and men.
This study supports the expansion of the successful aging model by incorporating ICT access and use. Further, it assists in the identification of specific technologies that promote active engagement in later life for women and men.
The increasing use of the Internet for service delivery has paralleled an increase of e-service users' privacy concerns as technology offers ample opportunities for organizations to store, process, ...and exploit personal data. This may reduce individuals' perceived ability to control their personal information and increase their perceived privacy risk. A systematic understanding of individuals' privacy concerns is important as negative user perceptions are a challenge to service providers' reputation and may hamper service delivery processes as they influence users' trust and willingness to disclose personal information. This study develops and validates a model that examines the effect of organizational privacy assurances on individual privacy concerns, privacy control and risk perceptions, trust beliefs and non-self-disclosure behavior. Drawing on a survey to 547 users of different types of e-services – e-government, e-commerce and social networking – in Rwanda, and working within the framework of exploratory analysis, this study uses partial least square-structural equation modeling to validate the overall model and the proposed hypotheses. The findings show that perceptions of privacy risks and privacy control are antecedents of e-service users' privacy concerns, trust and non-self-disclosure behavior. They further show that the perceived effectiveness of privacy policy and perceived effectiveness of self-regulations influence both perceptions of privacy risks and control and their consequences; users' privacy concerns, trust and non-self-disclosure behavior. The hypotheses are supported differently across the three types of e-services, which means that privacy is specific to context and situation. The study shows that the effect of privacy assurances on trust is different in e-government services than in other services which suggest that trust in e-government may be more complex and different in nature than in other contexts. The findings serve to enhance a theoretical understanding of organizational privacy assurances and individual privacy concerns, trust and self-disclosure behavior. They also have implications for e-service providers and users as well as for regulatory bodies and e-services designers.
•Perceptions of privacy risk-control influence privacy concerns, trust and self-disclosure behavior.•Privacy policy influences perceptions of privacy risk and/or control, privacy concerns, trust and self-disclosure behavior.•Organizational privacy self-regulations influence users’ privacy concerns, trust and non-self-disclosure behavior.•Organization's strategies in executing privacy policies may reflect how effective the organization is in protecting personal information.•Privacy and trust in e-government are influenced by the level of trust users have in the government and its organizations.
The contemporary technological advancements of the twenty-first century are introducing paradigm shifts in every aspect of life. The “Smart City” concept has also brought the latest emerging ...technologies and their applications to the urban areas. The integration of Nano-technological devices collecting and transmitting data coupled with the availability and penetration of high-speed internet will only raise this potential by providing an easy way to receive and send real-time data more swiftly. The devices could also be connected with each other via the internet under the Internet of Things (IoT), making it possible to establish the machine to machine (M2M) communication between them. This large amount of urban Big Data can also deploy machine learning assisted techniques to ensure robust and precise urban analysis for getting significant insights and desired simulations ensuring the proper deployment as well as utilization of the phenomenon of Urban Intelligence. As the cities are entitled to become “Smart” in due course of time, these Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) will play a major role in improving the efficiency and effectiveness of urban services and management. Due to their highly versatile and adaptable nature, these technologies can be linked with different components of Smart City thereby enhancing the efficiency and capability of the existing urban systems. This paper discusses the emerging concept of the Internet of Things (IoT) and other associated technologies within the context of contemporary urban scenarios through relevant case studies. It further presents crucial insights based on the influence of these technologies as well as their associated challenges while also exploring the implications of the concepts like ‘Super City’ on the cities of tomorrow.
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