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Background: We are studying ways to provide automated, context-specific links (called "infobuttons") between clinical information systems (CIS) and other information resources available on the World Wide Web. As part of this work, we observed the information needs that arose when clinicians used a CIS and we classified those needs into generic questions. We then sought general methods for accessing information resources to answer the questions., Methods: For each generic question, we identified a satisfactory resource and then developed a method for retrieving from it the information relevant to the question. We then studied these methods to characterize them into general approaches., Results: We identified six general approaches and describe them in detail. These approaches range in complexity from simple, hard-coded links to intelligent agents and calculators., Conclusion: Web-based information resources can be exploited using a relatively small number of methods, although the specific methods require custom solutions. Standard methods for accessing Web-based resources would simplify the task of linking to CISs.

This article presents findings regarding collective organisation among online freelancers in middle‐income countries. Drawing on research in Southeast Asia and Sub‐Saharan Africa, we find that the specific nature of the online freelancing labour process gives rise to a distinctive form of organisation, in which social media groups play a central role in structuring communication and unions are absent. Previous research is limited to either conventional freelancers or ‘microworkers’ who do relatively low‐skilled tasks via online labour platforms. This study uses 107 interviews and a survey of 658 freelancers who obtain work via a variety of online platforms to highlight that Internet‐based communities play a vital role in their work experiences. Internet‐based communities enable workers to support each other and share information. This, in turn, increases their security and protection. However, these communities are fragmented by nationality, occupation and platform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Combining data from a sample survey, the 2013 Oxford Internet Survey, with the 2011 UK Census, we employ small area estimation to estimate Internet use in small geographies in Britain. This is the first attempt to estimate Internet use at any small-scale level. Doing so allows us to understand the local geographies of British Internet use, showing that the area with least use is in the North East, followed by central Wales. The highest Internet use is in London and southeastern England. The most interesting finding is that after controlling for demographic variables, geographic differences become nonsignificant. The apparent geographic differences appear to be due to differences in demographic characteristics. We conclude by considering the policy implications of this fact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, Internet connectivity has greatly improved across the African continent. This article examines the consequences that this shift has had for East African firms that are part of global value chains (GVCs). Prior work yielded contradictory expectations: firms might benefit from connectivity through increased efficiencies and improved access to markets, although they might also be further marginalized through increasing control of lead firms. Drawing on extensive qualitative research in Kenya and Rwanda, including 264 interviews, we examine 3 sectors (tea, tourism, and business process outsourcing) exploring overarching, cross-cutting themes. The findings support more pessimistic expectations: small African producers are only thinly digitally integrated in GVCs. Moreover, shifting modes of value chain governance, supported by lead firms and facilitated by digital information platforms and data standards are leading to new challenges for firms looking to digitally integrate. Nevertheless, we also find examples in these sectors of opportunities where small firms are able to cater to emerging niche customers, and local or regional markets. Overall, the study shows that improving connectivity does not inherently benefit African firms in GVCs without support for complementary capacity and competitive advantages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Corporations, development organisations and governments have launched ambitious programmes to ‘connect the unconnected’, reasoning that this creates economic growth and inclusive development. This paper contrasts these actors’ discourses with evidence from academic research. The evidence suggests a highly uneven economic impact of Internet connectivity across geographies and social strata. The analysed sources of discourse (African ICT policies and reports by international organisations) instead propose Grand Visions of connectivity, attributing a self‐evident positive, widespread, and transformational impact to the Internet. We discuss technological determinism, acontextual modernism, and optimistic simplism as underlying this contrast, calling for more reflexivity towards the opportunities of ‘digital development’. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global production networks (GPNs) have become a key framework in conceptualizing linkages, power and structure in globalized production. However, this framework has been less successful in integrating the influence of digital information and ICTs in production, and this problematic in a world where relationships and power are increasingly mediated by digital information flows and resources. We thus look to adapt the GPN framework to allow more substantive analysis of 'the digital'. Primarily, this is done through a theoretical analysis of the three core categories of the GPN framework - embeddedness, value and networks - to highlight how these categories can better integrate a more dynamic and contested conceptualization of the digital. Illustrations from research on the digitalization of tea sector GPNs in East Africa highlight how these theoretical advances provide new insights on the digital and its expanding role in economic production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the increasing prevalence of both geographically referenced information and the code through which it is regulated, digital augmentations of place will become increasingly important in everyday, lived geographies. Through two detailed explorations of 'augmented realities', this paper provides a broad overview of not only the ways that those augmented realities matter, but also the complex and often duplicitous manner that code and content can congeal in our experiences of augmented places. Because the re-makings of our spatial experiences and interactions are increasingly influenced through the ways in which content and code are fixed, ordered, stabilised and contested, this paper places a focus on how power, as mediated through technological artefacts, code and content, helps to produce place. Specifically, it demonstrates there are four key ways in which power is manifested in augmented realities: two performed largely by social actors, distributed power and communication power; and two enacted primarily via software, code power and timeless power. The paper concludes by calling for redoubled attention to both the layerings of content and the duplicity and ephemerality of code in shaping the uneven and power-laden practices of representations and the experiences of place augmentations in urban places. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many of the ways in which we discuss, imagine and envision the internet rely on inaccurate and unhelpful spatial metaphors. This paper focuses on the usage of the 'cyberspace' metaphor and outlines why the reliance by contemporary policymakers on this inherently geographic metaphor matters. The metaphor constrains, enables and structures very distinct ways of imagining the interactions between people, information, code and machines through digital networks. These distinct imaginations, in turn, have real effects on how we enact politics and bring places into being. The paper broadly traces the history of 'cyberspace', explores the scope of its current usage and highlights the discursive power of its distinct way of shaping our spatial imagination of the internet. It then concludes by arguing that geographers should take the lead in employing alternate, nuanced and spatially grounded ways of envisioning the myriad ways in which the internet mediates social, economic and political experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The production of silk occupies a unique place in Thai cultural and economic practices. However, the practice is rarely passed on to the younger generation and is widely considered to be a dying craft. In response, influential organizations have proposed use of the internet as a way to reinvigorate the industry and attract new customers. This paper looks at the discourses used to sell silk and the ways in which sellers are either framing Thai silk as a traditional craft in need of saving or as an enterprise that efficiently engages with the commercial needs of the global economy. The paper reviews the range of, often problematic, emotions, images, and associations used to sell a dying craft. Ultimately, it argues that, in contrast to many of the theorized effects of the internet, it seems to be neither encouraging mass homogenization nor pushing sellers to effectively integrate themselves into global markets. La producción de la seda ocupa un lugar único en la cultura y las prácticas económicas tailandesas. Sin embargo, la práctica pasa muy raramente a la generación más joven y está ampliamente considerada como una artesanía que está desapareciendo. Como respuesta, organizaciones influyentes han propuesto el uso de internet como una vía para reforzar la industria y atraer nuevos clientes. Este artículo examina las discusiones que se usaron para vender la seda y las maneras en que los vendedores están ya sea conceptualizando a la seda tailandesa como una artesanía tradicional que hay que salvar, o como una empresa que se compromete eficientemente con las necesidades comerciales de la economía global. El artículo revisa la serie de asociaciones, imágenes y emociones frecuentemente problemáticas, usadas para vender una artesanía que está desapareciendo. Finalmente, sostiene que en contraste con muchos de los efectos teorizados de internet, parece ser que no está animando a una homogenización de masa ni empujando a los vendedores a integrarse efectivamente a los mercados globales. 丝绸生产在泰国经济与文化的各行业中占据独特地位。然而，此行业却鲜能薪火相传，且被广泛认为是一门挣扎在死亡线上的工艺。为了挽救该行业，有影响力的组织已经提议使用因特网重振该产业，并吸引新的消费者。本文审视用来出售丝绸的话语体系，以及（丝绸）卖家的方式，他们或者定位泰国丝绸为一门需要拯救的传统工艺，或者为一个可以有效地与全球经济的商业需求相联系的企业。本文评估了用来营销一个濒于灭绝行业的做法，尽管它们都是有问题的，例如，动之以情、树立形象和建立联络。最后，与因特网的许多理论化效应做了对比，本文认为，这种做法激励大规模的同质化，有助于卖家有效地融入全球市场。 يحتل إنتاج الحرير مكانةً متفردةً في الممارسات الثقافية والاقتصادية في تايلند. ومع ذلك، فنادراً ما تُنقل هذه الممارسات إلى الأجيال الأصغر، كما يُنظر إليها على نطاق واسع باعتبارها صنعة منقرضة. ورداً على ذلك، اقترحت بعض المنظمات ذات النفوذ استخدام الإنترنت لإعادة إحياء تلك الصناعة واكتساب عملاء جدد. وتتناول هذه الدراسة أنواع الخطاب المستخدمة لبيع الحرير، والطرق التي يلجأ إليها البائعون لتصوير الحرير التايلندي إما باعتباره صنعة تقليدية تتطلب الحفاظ عليها وإما باعتباره استثماراً يدخل بجدارة في المتطلبات التجارية للاقتصاد العالمي. وتتناقش الدراسة أنماط المشاعر والصور والارتباطات المستخدمة لترويج صنعة منقرضة، وهي أنماط كثيراً ما تنطوي على إشكاليات. وتخلص الد&#x63 비단 생산은 타이 문화와 경제에서 독특한 위치를 차지하고 있다. 그렇지만, 비단생산은 젊은 세대에게 거의 전수되지 않고 사라져 가는 수공업으로 간주된다. 대응해서 영향력 있는 조직들이 산업을 다시 부흥시키고 새로운 고객을 유치하기 위하여 인터넷 사용을 제안하였다. 이 논문은 비단을 팔기 위해 사용된 담론과 판매자들이 타이 비단을 보호가 필요한 전통 산업으로 프레이밍하거나 혹은 세계 경제의 상업적 필요에 효율적으로 개입하는 기업으로서 프레이밍하는 방식을 살펴본다. 이 글은 죽어가는 공예품을 팔기 위해 사용되는 때로는 문제가 되는 감정, 이미지와 단체들을 살펴본다. 궁극적으로 이론적으로 다루어진 많은 인터넷 효과와는 대조적으로 인터넷은 대량 동질화를 촉진시키기도 않았고, 판매자들을 세계 시장으로 통합시키지도 않았다는 것을 주장한다. Производство шелка занимает уникальное место в тайской культурной и экономической практиках. Однако, практику ремесла редко передают молодому поколению и, как широко полагают, оно является умирающим. В ответ влиятельные организации предложили использование Интернета как способа вдохнуть новую жизнь в отрасль и привлечь новых клиентов. Эта статья рассматривает дискурс, который используется для продажи шелка и способы, которыми продавцы преподносят тайский шелк в качестве традиционного ремесла, нуждающегося в сохранении или как предприятия, которое эффективно взаимодействует с коммерческими потребностями мировой экономики. В статье рассматрив&#x4 [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper analyzes the digital dimensions of places as represented by online, geocoded references to the economic, social, and political experiences of the city. These digital layers are invisible to the naked eye, but form a central component of the augmentations and mediations of place enabled by hundreds of millions of mobile computing devices and other digital technologies. The analysis highlights how these augmentations of place differ across space and language and highlights both the differences and some of the causal factors behind them. This is performed through a global study of all online content indexed within Google Maps, and more specific analyses of the linguistically and topically segregated layers of information over four selected places. The uneven linguistic geographies that this study reveals undoubtedly influence the many ways in which place is enacted and brought into being. The larger aim of this project is to use these initial mappings of the linguistic contours of the geoweb to push forward a broader debate about how augmented inclusions and exclusions, visibilities and invisibilities will shape the way that places become defined, imagined, and experienced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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It is frequently argued that the ‘digital divide’ is one of the most significant development issues facing impoverished regions of the world. Yet, even though the term is inherently spatial, there have been no sustained efforts to examine the geographic assumptions underlying discourses of the ‘digital divide.’ This article traces the history of the term, reviewing some of its tangible effects and placing a focus on the temporal and spatial assumptions underpinning ‘digital divide’ discourses. Alternative formulations of the ‘digital divide’ are offered which take into account the hybrid, scattered, ordered and individualized nature of cyberspaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines some of the discourses being put forward as justifications for Internet use and altered commodity chains in the Thai silk industry. Those discourses are then compared to data on the relationship between the Internet and prices and wages. The article specifically looks at claims about who is benefiting from value chain reconfigurations, and then it compares those claims to insights about the Thai silk industry collected using a series of surveys and in-depth interviews. The article demonstrates that claims are put forth that altered commodity chain topologies will necessarily result in an accrual of economic and cultural benefits for producers and/or consumers. However, there is little empirical proof that the integration of the Internet into the Thai silk industry is having any noticeable effect on prices or wages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Places have always been palimpsests. The contemporary is constantly being constructed upon the foundations of the old. Yet only recently has place begun to take on an entirely new dimension. Millions of places are being represented in cyberspace by a labour force of hundreds of thousands of writers, cartographers and artists. This paper traces the history and geography of virtual places. The virtual Earth is not a simple mirror of its physical counterpart, but is instead characterised by both black holes of information and hubs of rich description and detail. The tens of millions of places represented virtually are part of a worldwide engineering project that is unprecedented in scale or scope and made possible by contemporary Web 2.0 technologies. The virtual Earth that has been constructed is more than just a collection of digital maps, images and articles that have been uploaded into Web 2.0 cyberspaces; it is instead a fluid and malleable alternate dimension that both influences and is influenced by the physical world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For many people, internet access is an essential part of everyday economic, social, and political activities (c.f. Graham and Dutton 2014). Yet access to the internet is, and has always been, geographically concentrated (Graham, Hale, and Stephens 2012, 2011). As such, it is important to focus on the people and places that are largely left out of digital connectivity. This visualisation looks at these in terms of internet penetration (i.e. the share of their population that have "used the Internet (from any location) in the last 12 months" (source: UN 2015)). The map highlights all territories that either have internet penetration below 10%, or for which no data from the World Bank exists. A lack of data can exist for several reasons, for example: some of these territories are statistically grouped together with bigger entities, no data have been collected or inferred, or the territories lack widespread recognised statehood. The map ultimately highlights an archipelago of land whose population is mostly cut off from the internet. This Archipelago of Disconnection has its centre of gravity in Sub-Saharan Africa where 28 countries have internet penetration rates beneath the 10% threshold we applied. As the internet becomes ever more embedded into global economic flows (Malecki and Morisset 2011), to the inhabitation of urban spaces (Graham 2013), and to other facets of everyday life, those living in the Archipelago of Disconnection are largely barred from participating in the cultural, educational, political, and economic activities that it affords. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines some of the ways in which cyberspace has contributed to redrawing the boundaries between public and private and some of the consequences of this for people, things and ideas in Iran and the Iranian diaspora. Description of the public sphere; Details on the Iranian disapora; Information on Internet access in Iran and the disapora; Conclusion.

The article presents the author's views about the periodical "Ethnos: Journal of Anthropology," which has been sold to Taylor & Francis in early 2009. The author says that from June 1, 2009, the periodical will begin accepting new submissions via its new electronic submission and peer-review system, ScholarOne, which is an Internet-based application. The author further says that this new system will eliminate all the postal delays.