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As more of our everyday lives become digital, it has become crucial to include everyone in the digital society. This special issue is examining the different layers of digital inclusion and data literacy by drawing on research, policy, and practice developments around literacies in various regions and contexts. It highlights the politics around them so as to propose policies that are needed to include more people in datafied societies, and what types of literacies they should learn. This issue includes three commentaries by experts in the field and five peer-reviewed academic papers that go towards tackling digital inclusion. This means to find solutions to the fact that many people are left behind technological advancements, and that these create what is commonly called - the digital divide.

This conceptual paper addresses the issues of transparency as linked to artificial intelligence (AI) from socio-legal and computer scientific perspectives. Firstly, we discuss the conceptual distinction between transparency in AI and algorithmic transparency, and argue for the wider concept ‘in AI’, as a partly contested albeit useful notion in relation to transparency. Secondly, we show that transparency as a general concept is multifaceted, and of widespread theoretical use in multiple disciplines over time, particularly since the 1990s. Still, it has had a resurgence in contemporary notions of AI governance, such as in the multitude of recently published ethics guidelines on AI. Thirdly, we discuss and show the relevance of the fact that transparency expresses a conceptual metaphor of more general significance, linked to knowing, bringing positive connotations that may have normative effects to regulatory debates. Finally, we draw a possible categorisation of aspects related to transparency in AI, or what we interchangeably call AI transparency, and argue for the need of developing a multidisciplinary understanding, in order to contribute to the governance of AI as applied on markets and in society.

Diverse rural Indigenous communities in Canada, like those in many regions of the world, are facing a variety of challenges and opportunities associated with the development, deployment, and adoption of rapidly emerging digital technologies. These include supply-side challenges (such as availability and cost) and demand-side challenges (such as appropriate digital literacy programmes). This article discusses two examples of digital inclusion co-developed with Indigenous peoples in Canada: a supply-side intervention focused on digital access policy, and a demand-side intervention focused on digital adoption.

This article proposes a situational reading of digital exclusion. This is developed using an analytical approach based on life courses. The perspective is to analyse digital exclusion risks around the transitions and ruptures that shape the life courses. The research examines multiple stages within educational, professional and private trajectories and explores the uses of technology in these situations. It analyses the diversity of use in relation to the situations in which they take place and according to their significance at different points in life. Recognising the heterogeneity of courses and of individual experience, this approach allows us to work out the characteristics of digital uses and the potential risks of exclusion to which the individual is exposed.

The function of KUA in the activities surrounding the religion of Islam, including providing service and guidance in the area of present services in terms of marriage and reconcilemen t for Muslims, provide services and guidance in the field of development of Sakina, family consultation conflict or household problems, and so on. Integration between the computer and artificial intelligence into the post-wedding consulting services is one approach in overcoming the limitations of the expert (religious instructor). This research aims to identify conflict in marriage by applying Naive Bayes algorithm at the stage of determining the groups of test data (retrieve), then entered the stage of the search process of the highest similarity value by using the Nearest Neighbor algorithm (reuse). The data source and the test data used are divided into two groups, namely marriage, and history data consultation, While the group conflicts are identified will be divided into five classes, namely an employment factor, the factor of age, educational factors, factors the number of weddings, and social status. Testing is performed by the use of 12 data, consisting of 11 data cases and 1 test data. At the stage of determination of group conflict acquired test data included in group one i.e. F001 (factor of the job), so at the stage of looking for value similarities used only the base case of the class F001 i.e. KK001, KK003, and KK008. The KK001 similarity has a value of 0476, KK003 of 0882, and KK008 of 0142. The case with most high similarity value will be stored as a base case. If the value similarity obtained less than the threshold value that is 0.8, then the solution of the case will be revised by experts. The results of the calculation accuracy, using 35 new test data that gets the value of 82.86% .

The process of final project research consultations is now often done by making a schedule to meet with supervisors within the time set by students and supervisors. It is known that the consultation process by the way it is done now still has problems from the effectiveness of student research time and the distance between the research center and the location of the supervisor. With these problems resulted in students not being timely in conducting research consultations with their supervisors. Therefore, a system is needed that can provide a system of research consultations remotely using internet facilities that are integrated with the consultation notification system via the SMS Gateway. The methodology is built using the phases of context diagrams, data flow diagrams and entity relationships. The system is built using PHP programming, mySQL database and Gammu. The results of the final project consultation information system research integrated with the notification system using the SMS Gateway have produced several tables and forms, namely student forms, lecturer forms, consultation forms and document forms. The form has been able to provide a remote consultation system using web media and has been able to provide notification notifications to students and lecturers regarding the consultation status using the SMS gateway service. It is expected that this information system can facilitate students and lecturers in conducting more effective and efficient consultations.

This research was conducted to see how the effect of using Mobile banking on Customer Interests in Transacting with the Acceptance Model technology and also seeing what happened to transactions. The results of this study resulted in the observation variable usefulness (X) has a significant effect on the interest in transacting (Y) where the coefficient is 11.127 with a significance level of 0.002 and the regression coefficient of use (X) of 0.640 each increase in 1% usability value, the value of Interest increases amounting to 0.640. The regression coefficient is positive, it can be called that the direction X variable towards Y is positive.

Machine Translation Systems are part of Natural Language Processing (NLP) that makes communication possible among people using their own native language through computer and smart media devices. This paper describes recent progress in language dictionaries and machine translation commonly used for communications and social interaction among people or Internet users worldwide who speak different languages. Problems of accuracy and quality related to computer translation systems encountered in web & Apps-based translation are described and discussed. Possible programming solutions to the problems are also put forward to create software tools that are able to analyze and synthesize language intelligently based on semantic representation of sentences and phrases. Challenges and problems on Apps-based machine translation on smart devices towards AI, NLP, smart learning and understanding still remain until now, and need to be addressed and solved through collaboration between computational linguists and computer scientists.

These days cyber-attack is a serious criminal offense and it is a hot debated issue moreover. A man-in-the-middle-attack is a kind of cyberattack where an unapproved outsider enters into an online correspondence between two users, remains escaped the two parties. The malware that is in the middle-attack often monitors and changes individual/classified information that was just realized by the two users. A man-in-the-middle-attack as a protocol is subjected to an outsider inside the system, which can access, read and change secret information without keeping any tress of manipulation. This issue is intense, and most of the cryptographic systems without having a decent authentication security are threatened to be hacked by the malware named ‘men-in-the-middle-attack’ (MITM/MIM). This paper essentially includes the view of understanding the term of ‘men-in-the-middle-attack’; the current work is mainly emphasized to accumulate related data/information in a single article so that it can be a reference to conduct research further on this topic at college/undergraduate level. This paper likewise audits most cited research and survey articles on ‘man-in-the-middle-attack’ recorded on 'Google Scholar'. The motivation behind this paper is to help the readers for understanding and familiarizing the topic 'man-in-the-middle attack'.

Penelitian ini dilakukan untuk melihat pengaruh penggunaan metode pembelajaran VideoCD untuk meningkatkan hasil belajar siswa dengan menggunakan multimedia Corel Video Studio pada siswa kelas VI A dan VI B di MIS Lam Gugop Banda Aceh. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui seberapa besar pengaruh yang didapatkan dalam penggunaan metode VideoCD untuk meningkatkan hasil belajar siswa yang dilaksanakan pada MIS Lam Gugop Banda Aceh tanggal 25 Oktober s/d 1 November 2017 . Untuk mengukur pengaruhnya digunakan pendekatan kuantitatif. Prosedur dilakukan untuk membandingkan metode ceramah dengan metode VideoCD yang telah dibuat, selanjutnya dengan memberikan soal pre-test dan post-test. pre-test diberikan setelah metode ceramah diterapkan dan post-test diberikan setelah metode VideoCD terlaksanakan. post-test berupa soal yang sama dengan pre-test, hal ini bertujuan untuk melihat pengaruhnya. Analisis data menggunakan analisis deskriptif. Berdasarkan hasil analisis data menggunakan uji t dengan kriteria apabila r hitung > r tabel pada taraf signifikannya 0,05 dengan derajat bebas 60 maka H0 ditolak dan H1 deiterima. Didapatkan r tabel senilai 2,000 dan r hasil 4,370, jadi r hitung > r tabel maka H0 ditolak dan H1 diterima yaitu adanya pengaruh yang signifikan terhadap penggunaan metode VideoCD dalam meningkatkan hasil belajar siswa pada mata pelajaran Bahasa Indonesia dengan multimedia Corel Video Studio di MIS Lam Gugop.

This paper presents the first time series clustering benchmark utilizing all time series datasets currently available in the University of California Riverside (UCR) archive -- the state of the art repository of time series data. Specifically, the benchmark examines eight popular clustering methods representing three categories of clustering algorithms (partitional, hierarchical and density-based) and three types of distance measures (Euclidean, dynamic time warping, and shape-based). We lay out six restrictions with special attention to making the benchmark as unbiased as possible. A phased evaluation approach was then designed for summarizing dataset-level assessment metrics and discussing the results. The benchmark study presented can be a useful reference for the research community on its own; and the dataset-level assessment metrics reported may be used for designing evaluation frameworks to answer different research questions., Typos corrected, figures resolution changed

This paper presents a review of Environmental Niche Modeling and a methodology for isolating the environmental niche of an aquatic species, given that prior information is available for characterising the physical tolerances for that species. To test and demonstrate our methodology, the environmental niche of the kelp bass has been isolated within Big Fisherman's Cove, Santa Catalina Island, CA, at specific confidence intervals. The motivation for this examination is to demonstrate the utility of ecological analysis in Robotics. Specifically, the utilisation of physical water properties to provide relative navigation and localisation for an aquatic robot. The environmental niches act as navigational landmarks in the seemingly featureless underwater environment. As water patches tend to stick together, this provides persistent landmarks for use in aquatic navigation problems. We provide the background and development of Environmental Niche Models, and present results from field trials for solving the navigation and localisation problem for underwater vehicles. Specifically, we provide results from a technique developed by the authors that utilises physical water parameters, e.g., temperature, salinity, chlorophyll, etc., to localise an underwater vehicle in a given region. The presented method leverages the concept of Environmental Niche Models to provide accurate position estimation that rivals GPS accuracy.

This article argues that political micro-targeting impacts the fundamental right of the non-targeted citizens to receive information, and consequently, the democratic public discourse. The right to information is the passive side of freedom of expression, among other protected by Article 10 of the European Convention of Human Rights. Freedom of political expression is also an instrument to create a diverse and free public debate; therefore, expressions that counteract this goal cannot avail of the protection.

Facial-recognition software continues to create heated controversy, as illustrated by a year-long pilot run at the Berlin-Südkreuz train station. The test run at one of Berlin’s main arteries was a catalyst for media attention, spurring heated discourse on the efficiency and legitimacy of surveillance technology. Drawing on a critical discourse analysis and (post-)panoptic theory, this paper investigates how the relationship between the public and the state is represented, how automated surveillance technology is linguistically framed and which problematisations were associated with the technology deployed during the 2017 pilot.

Feel like living in a dystopia? Take a deep breath, get a strong coffee, and let us challenge your ideas of where reality ends, and sci-fi begins…

Subsurface networks include mining tunnels, caves, and the urban underground. Each of these environments presents a complex setting with significant challenges in exploration, exploitation, etc. Multiple hazards exist, including environmental and structural, and conditions degrade and change temporally. We present a survey of research in autonomy, networking and mobility focused on exploring and/or mapping subsurface networks in unpredictable and unexplored environments. The focus is on mining tunnels as a proxy subterranean environment; motivated by the proximity of the authors to the Bonita Peak Mining District; a Superfund site consisting of 48 historic mines which have contaminated soil, groundwater and surface water with heavy metals as a result of historic practices. The exploration and assessment of the mining tunnels for remediation efforts presents an extremely challenging problem in subterranean navigation. Arguably, the environment in question is the most extreme and challenging subterranean environment. Unmanned assets must enter to explore and re-map the tunnels to assess safety for subsequent entrance by robots and/or humans for proper remediation. The survey is split into three categories -- Locomotion, GPS-denied navigation and localization, and Communication. It is concluded with a proposed design for a platform that addresses the difficulties of exploring an abandoned mine

The use of pirated computer software among univetrsity’s students today is very vulnerable. This is due to two factors, namely; 1) the lack of awareness of the students from type of software they use, 2) and also the lack of understanding of the students about halal-haram in using pirated software. In this study, the authors intends to know the awareness and understanding of computer users, especially among students of pirated software both in terms of impact, legal, or risk from the use of pirated software. The study involved 200 students of the Faculty of Tarbiyah and Teacher Training of Ar-raniry State Islamic University of Banda Aceh, as selected by random. The results of this study showed 36% of students do not understand about pirated software and almost 65% of students are not aware of the risks caused by the use of pirated software and the legal dangers of the use of pirated software. In addition 62% of students currently using pirated software want to switch to using original software or opensource software.

Nowadays, we are faced with technological era, where the use of information and communication technology in the world is growing rapidly. The government program to realize the application of technology information is E-Government. The implementation of E-Government in Indonesia is highly growing and there are laws and regulations on E-Government from Indonesia government. Currently, the Government of Indonesia has reached the stage of evaluation through E-Government Rating Indonesia. This study aimed to know the obstacles in implementing E-government in Pidie district government. This study used previous studies, frameworks and theories to create a suitable new model in Pidie District. To propose a new model, this study attempted to combine, synthesize and conduct a re-factor. The methodology used in this study is a quantitative approach by using questionnaire distribution technique to government employees. The method for sampling used is nonprobability technique namely purposive sampling. Data analysis technique used in this research is Partial Least Square (PLS). The technique used to test the hypothesis statistically is bootstrapping on the PLS. The hypothesis proposed in the study is that there were 3 obstacles in implementing e-government in Pidie district government. The results of this study shows that the obstacles that greatly affected the implementation of e-government in Pidie government was the organizational factor, while the other two factors, Human Resources (HR) and the infrastructure factor, did not show a significant effect.

Technological developments are very rapid but it does not necessarily with the renewal of information technology to the public due to the limited differences in public interest. Indonesia is one of the most populous countries in the world with the majority of the Muslim population. In line with that, the Muslim community highly upholds the values of Islamic teachings contained in the Qur'an one of the concept of Halalan Toyyiban. Information that is rarely accepted by the public is the halal principle of an industrial product, whether food, beverage, cosmetic or other manufacturing industries. This is also supported by the human lifestyle factors on goods from outside the country regardless of the origin of the goods. As a predominantly Muslim country, it is necessary to have simple and accurate information on the use of materials in an industrial product to determine the absence of an industrial product. One of them is the use of derived compounds or single compounds derived from pigs. From several research results that have been done, obtained the image pattern from the examination result of the sample. So that people can easily obtain information about the source of materials used in everyday life.

Nurse’s scheduling in hospitals becomes a complex problem, and it takes time in its making process. There are a lot of limitation and rules that have to be considered in the making process of nurse’s schedule making, so it can fulfill the need of nurse’s preference that can increase the quality of the service. The existence variety of different factors that are causing the nurse scheduling problem is so vast and different in every case. The study is aimed to develop a system used as an equipment to arrange nurse’s schedule. The working schedule obtained will be checked based on the constraints that have been required. Value check of the constraint falsification used Simulated Annealing (SA) combined with cooling method of Probabilistic Cooling Scheme (PCS). Transitional rules used cost matrix that is employed to produce a new and more efficient state. The obtained results showed that PCS cooling methods combined with the transition rules of the cost matrix generating objective function value of new solutions better and faster in processing time than the cooling method exponential and logarithmic. Work schedule generated by the application also has a better quality than the schedules created manually by the head of the room.

At present, the need to access the data have been transformed into digital data, and its use has been growing very rapidly. This transformation is due to the use of the Internet is growing very rapidly, and also the development of mobile devices are growing massively. People tend to store a lot of files in their storage and transfer files from one media to another media. When approaching the limit of storage media, the fewer files that can be stored. A compression technique is required to reduce the size of a file. The dictionary coding technique is one of the lossless compression techniques, LZW is an algorithm for applying coding dictionary compression techniques. In the LZW algorithm, the process of forming a dictionary uses a future based dictionary and encoding process using the Fixed Length Code. It allows the encoding process to produce a sequence that is still quite long. This study will modify the process of forming a dictionary and use Variable Length Code, to optimize the compression ratio. Based on the test using the data used in this study, the average compression ratio for LZW algorithm is 42,85%, and our proposed algorithm is 38,35%. It proves that the modification of the formation of the dictionary we proposed has not been able to improve the compression ratio of the LZW algorithm.

The accident that occurred to somebody will give much suffering; moreover, if the accident gives the serious injury, such as a broken bone which needs to get more seriously treatment. Not only does the patient need the action towards his/her injury, but also he/she needs the psychological therapy in facing the problems happened which is suggested by a psychologist. One of the reasoning method in expert systems is Case-Based Reasoning (CBR) . In Case-Based Reasoning, a case-based consists of various cases in conditions or symptoms and solution (the psychological therapy) given . To find out the solution from a new problem given, the system will find any cases in the case-based which have higher the degree of similarity between the cases. This research develops a case-based reasoning system to decide the action of the psychological therapy towards the patients in the post-accident who needs seriously treatment. The psychological therapy involves in giving assistance, consultation, psychiatrist support, and the compound of various actions as well. A case study was conducted from the medical records of psychological treatment at ‘Dr Soeharso’ hospital in Surakarta. Based on the result of the research developed, the action of psychological therapy upon the patient has successfully determined. They have accuracy rates of 60% in the threshold 50% compared to the treatments resulted from the psychologist. The result was found by calculating the degree of similarity between the new issue and all cases existing in the case base.

In a software development projects, testing is an activity that can spend time, effort or cost up to 35%. To reduce this, developers can choose automatic testing. Automated testing, especially for functional testing, on web applications can be done by using tools, one of which is Selenium. By default, Selenium testing is done sequentially and without exploiting multithreading, which has an impact a sufficiently long time.In this study, a platform that allows Selenium users to test and utilize multithreading with Ruby language to speed up testing was developed. Thr result shows that Ruby's multithreading has proven to be capable of speeding functional testing up on various web applications. Variations occur depending on the functionality being tested, the testing approach and also the type of browsers used.

Information and communication technology (ICT) in education has been widely used in many schools and learning institutions all over the world. However, the use of ICT in the Muslim world to improve the teaching and learning process is still limited. Indonesia as the most populace Muslim community in the world for instance, still does not have sufficient computer or Internet access in most of learning centers. This poses many challenges particularly in education. Young Muslims nowadays are caught between modernity and tradition. ICT can lead a Muslim to an ambiguous modern lifestyle and at the same time prying integrity of their identity. In some ways, Muslim youngsters are adopting technology with the aim to distance themselves from older people and traditional practices. On the other hand, there are some who challenge Western models. How should ICT education develop within an increasingly digital technological world? This article mainly highlights salient issues of ICT education in the Muslim world and the challenges of Muslim identity in the Internet era. It also examines the impact of digital technology on education for Muslim students and synthesizes ICT education from the Islamic point of view. Finally, some recommendations are appraised accordingly.

Adapting to the technological era, learning activities are required to reduce the use of lecture methods and can be enriched in the use of instructional media, the role of learning media becomes increasingly important. ICT is a program, for tools, manipulation and convey information. The learning process of PAI can further facilitate the search for information, manipulation, management and transfer of science or transfer of information, so that the integration of ICT in the learning process becomes an important role in developing students' thinking ability, developing skills in the field of ICT to smooth the learning process, ICT especially in PAI lessons, and transforming schools into creative and dynamic learning institutions so that students are motivated, always curious in PAI learning. Broadly speaking media can be classified into graphics, audio, silent projections, games and simulations. Effective learning requires good planning of one of the media that will be used in the learning process. ICT is a very effective medium in learning PAI in the era of technology

The use of google drive as a storage area cloud-based is considered able to improve working performance. This technology was introduced in the school MTsS Mon Malem in Aceh Besar region, in order to see the effect of using cloud technology in the working performance of teachers. After conducting several tests, including pre-test and post-test, we analyzed the data using SPSS to obtain the value of R which represents the effect of the use of google drive to the performance of teachers. The result of this work show that by using google drive the performance of the teacher is increasing

Genetic Algorithm is one of famous algorithm and often used in many sector. Usually genetic algoritm is used in solution searching about complex problems. Pencak silat macth scheduling is a complex scheduling and needs a lot of time to made it. Objective this research implements a genetic algorithm as an algorithm which can solve the problem of pencak silat macth scheduling and can satisfy all of hard constraint and minimize soft constraint. In this research genetic algorithm roles as algorithm which solves pencak silat mach scheduling problems in Pimda 02 Tak Suci Bantul. Population which produced by genetic algorithm represents solution alternatives which offered. Best chromosome in a population represents macth scheduling solution. This solution is sequence of match partai based on rules of pencak silat match scheduling. This research produces best fitness value ever in each generation is 1. More and more chromosom number and more and more generation number will make batter solution and batter fitness value. This research is expected helping pencak silat match committes make a pencak silat schedule in pencak silat championship.

Because there is no a system based on Digital Image Processing to determine the degree of ripeness of Salak Pondoh (Salacca zalacca Gaertner Voss.) on tree, then this study has attempted to implement such a system. System was built with consists of several sub-processes. First, the segmentation process, the system will perform a search of pixels alleged pixels salak pondoh, by utilizing the features of color components r, g, b, and gray of each pixel salak pondoh then calculated large the dissimilarity ( Euclidean Distance ) against values of data features , , , and comparison. If the value of dissimilarity less than the threshold value and is also supported by the neighboring pixels from different directions has a value of dissimilarity is less than a threshold value, the pixel is set as an object pixel, for the other condition set as background pixels. For the next, improvements through an elimination noise stage and filling in the pixels to get a perfect binary image segmentation. Second, classification, by knowning the mean value of R and V of the entire pixel object, then the level of ripeness salak pondoh can be determined by using the method of classification backpropagation or k -Nearest Neighbor. From the test results indicate that the success of the system by 92% when using a backpropagatioan classification algorithm and 93% with k-Nearest Neighbor algorithm.

Diabetic retinopathy is a complication caused by diabetes mellitus. Diabetic retinopathy, if not handled properly can lead to blindness. A necessary step to prevent blindness is early detection. Early detection can be done by finding the initial symptoms that microaneurysm. In this research, a system made to detect diabetic retinopathy using algorithms detection microaneurysm with mathematical morphology. The algorithm is divided into three stages of preprocessing, detecting candidate microaneurysm and postprocessing. In this research, the system will be made by using a raspberry pi as the media. To see how well the system detects diabetic retinopathy, the test will be done. in the tests performed, system obtained an accuracy of 90%, sensitivity 90, and specificity of 55% using data diaretdb1. While testing using data from e-ophtha obtained results with an accuracy of 70.5%, a sensitivity of 80% and a specificity of 60%.

Il contributo approfondisce le dinamiche in cui si articola il processo di cooperazione multilaterale esistente, a livello nazionale e internazionale, per la definizione delle politiche di sviluppo dell’ecosistema della Rete. In particolare, viene descritto il ruolo dell’Internet Governance Forum, ripercorrendone le principali tappe evolutive, per poi focalizzare le criticità che nell’immediato futuro pone il governo della Rete, nell’ambito di uno scenario complesso e inedito in cui la gestione di Internet, caratterizzata da una precaria stabilità del suo assetto operativo, risulta progressivamente erosa dal sempre più evidente primato egemonico degli interessi economici di cui sono portatori le grandi multinazionali del settore digitale, con il rischio di indebolire il “peso” dei governi nazionali e delle organizzazioni internazionali. Tutto ciò evidenzia l’importanza strategica di una visione chiara sulla futura governance di Internet, destinata ad incidere sulla tutela dei diritti fondamentali, sui fattori di crescita dello sviluppo economico e sugli standard di libertà degli ordinamenti democratici, costituenti questioni prioritarie dell’attuale agenda politica, ove diventa centrale il tema del controllo della Rete alla ricerca di un delicato equilibrio nei rapporti di forza tra tutti gli attori che partecipano al processo decisionale del governo di Internet in una dimensione sovranazionale esposta ad un’accentuata proliferazione di conflitti tra implicazioni politiche, aspetti tecnici, esigenze di mercato e prerogative giuridiche.

The last few decades, crowd simulation for crisis management is highlighted as an important topic of interest for many scientific fields. As the continues evolution of computational resources increases, along with the capabilities of Artificial Intelligence, the demand for better and more realistic simulation has become more attractive and popular to scientists. Along those years, there have been published hundreds of research articles and have been created numerous different systems that aim to simulate crowd behaviors, crisis cases and emergency evacuation scenarios. For better outcomes, recent research has focused on the separation of the problem of crisis management, to multiple research sub-fields (categories), such as the navigation of the simulated pedestrians, their psychology, the group dynamics etc. There have been extended research works suggesting new methods and techniques for those categories of problems. In this paper, we propose three main research categories, each one consist of several sub-categories, relying on crowd simulation for crisis management aspects and we present the outcomes of the last decade, focusing mostly on works exploiting multi-agent technologies. We analyze a number of technologies, methodologies, techniques, tools and systems introduced throughout the last years. A comparative review and discussion of the proposed categories is presented towards the identification of the most efficient aspects of the proposed categories. A general framework, towards the future crowd simulation for crisis management is presented based on the most efficient to yield the most realistic outcomes of the last decades. The paper is concluded with some highlights and open questions for future directions., Comment: Submitted to Expert Systems with Applications

The Digital Agenda Committee of the Bundestag was a remarkable institutional change in Germany. It represents the first body of its kind among all EU member states. In this article, we analyse it in its first legislative session (2013-2017) and examine the case of data retention legislation to determine if it had the effect sought by internet policy entrepreneurs of the time. Thereby, we contribute to a better understanding of whether internet issues became institutionalised in the Bundestag and, generally, how new policies emerge. Our results show that the new committee did not promote and share a common policy image in the first session. However, it strongly drifted to become a venue for digital policy. International scholars can learn not only about the establishment of new committees in the German parliament but also about an analytical framework to analyse cases in other parliaments or institutional settings.

Demands for a more democratic, transparent and accountable management of the internet were strong when preparing for the World Summit on the Information Society Review (WSIS Review), held in 2015. Partly in response to criticism, the United States initiated a process for transferring responsibility for domain names from the United States to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). Increased accountability was among the key motivations for this change. ICANN practices what have subsequently been termed multi-stakeholder governance. This article finds that this form of governance is preferable to an intergovernmental governance model both in terms of transparency and accountability.

This paper studies the role of domain registries in relation to unlawful or unwanted use of a domain name or the underlying website content. It is an empirical and conceptual contribution to the online content regulation debate, with specific focus on European country code top-level (ccTLD) domain name registries. An analysis of the terms of service of 30 European ccTLD registries shows that one third of the registries contain some use-related provision, which corresponds to approximately 47% of registered domains. The analysis also turns towards examples of notice-and-takedown mechanisms, the emergence of proactive screening and the practice of data validation. Based on the analysis, it calls for more clarity and transparency regarding domain registries’ role in content- or use-related takedowns.

Over the past two decades, Russia has championed the primacy of national governments in managing the global internet. Scholars attribute Russia’s global internet governance philosophy and practices predominantly to its increasingly authoritarian and illiberal regime under President Vladimir Putin. This article, by contrast, explores how Russian ruling elites’ view of Russia as an immutable great power has directed the subsequent Russian governments’ pursuit of a state-based multipolar digital order. To illuminate cultural continuities in Russia’s approach to global communication governance in the post-Soviet period, I examine its state-centric policymaking initiatives at the International Telecommunication Union and the United Nations in the 1990s.

Society is becoming increasingly dependent on data-rich, “Big Tech” platforms and social networks, such as Facebook and Google. But what happens to our data when these companies close or fail? Despite the high stakes involved, this topic has received only limited attention to date. In this article, we use the hypothetical failure of Facebook as a case study to analyse legal and ethical risks related to the closure of data-rich, Big Tech platforms. Focusing on the EU, we argue that existing governance frameworks are inadequate for addressing these risks and make preliminary recommendations with a view to setting an agenda for future research and policymaking on the demise of Big Tech platforms and data-rich companies more broadly.

This contribution discusses the growing importance of cyber attacks directed at the public sphere and the crucial role of non-state actors in cyber attacks from a perspective of just war theory. Going back to Grotius’ and Vitoria’s seminal teachings on international law, the article makes the case for distributed cyber deterrence involving private and public actors. Further, it justifies sanctions for cyber attacks that do not cause physical violence, for example the interference with elections or the hacking of companies. It considers the post-physicality of cyberspace, the attribution problem, private just war theory and national self-determination through deliberation.

News outlets worldwide increasingly adopt user- and system-driven personalisation to individualise their news delivery. Yet, the technical implementation of news personalisation systems, in particular the one relying on algorithmic news recommenders (ANRs) and tailoring individual news suggestions with the help of user data, often remains opaque. In our article, we examine how news personalisation is used by quality and popular media in three countries with different media accountability infrastructures - Brazil, the Netherlands, and Russia - and investigate how information about personalisation usage is communicated to the news readers via privacy policies. Our findings point out that news personalisation systems are predominantly treated as black boxes that indicate a significant gap between practice and theory of algorithmic transparency, in particular in the non-EU context.

A private order of public communication has emerged. Today, social network services fulfill important communicative functions. A lot has been written about the failings of companies in deleting problematic content. This paper flips the question and asks under which conditions users can sue to reinstate content and under which circumstances courts have recognised ‘must carry’ obligations for social network services. Our analysis, an initial comparative analysis of case law on the reinstatement of user-generated content, will point to a larger issue of systemic relevance, namely the differences in treatment of states and private companies as threats to and/or guarantors of fundamental rights in the United States and in Germany. It is a contribution to the important debate on the interaction of states and platforms in governing online content.

This article argues that the United States (US) has been able to exploit the international market dominance of US-based internet companies in order to internationalise state power through surveillance programmes conducted by national security and law enforcement agencies. The article also examines the emerging threat to the US from China, which is attempting to establish ‘geo-economic space’ for its own internet and technology companies. As Chinese companies become more competitive, they threaten both the commercial dominance of US companies as well as the geopolitical power of the US state. Furthermore, the US has concerns that the entrance of Chinese companies into its own market, specifically Huawei, could make it susceptible to the ‘internationalised’ power of China – such as Chinese state surveillance. In response, the US has sought to shrink the ‘geo-economic space’ available to Huawei by using its firms, such as Google, to disrupt Huawei’s supply chains.

Il sorgere dei poteri privati delle piattaforme digitali sta modificando radicalmente i lineamenti dello Stato costituzionale: esternalizzazione delle funzioni di garanzia dei diritti e delle libertà, creazione di una propria giurisdizione domestica, costruzione di aree urbane separate fisicamente dalle altre. Una ragnatela di network che sembra ricordare alcuni episodi storici della prima globalizzazione, come l’emersione della Compagnia delle Indie, non casualmente definita quale prima multinazionale, e fermenti patogeni capaci di inocularsi nella sostanza degli Stati fino a mutarne gli elementi costitutivi. Partendo dal pionieristico romanzo di Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash, che tante suggestioni ha ispirato nella cultura digitale, verranno passati in rassegna i principali fattori di crisi, gli snodi essenziali della cultura digitale e la necessità di una autentica reazione costituzionale che dovrà passare per una commistione di costituzionalismo classico e cyber-costituzionalismo.

Platform power is a societal concern on many levels. Thus, we argue that addressing it with the common market competition approach is limited. The research we present aims to develop and test an alternative approach to conceptualising and assessing platform power. We propose a framework that operationalises the concept of the integrated platform ecosystem by bounding it with theories of harm to citizen wellbeing. Applying it, instead of defining a market, we use a specific, novel theory of harm to define the audiovisual advertising ecosystem. Our investigation into the dynamics of this ecosystem and conditions shaping them incorporated elite interviews with representatives of firms involved, document analysis and an examination of legal frameworks in a sample of four European jurisdictions. The evidence we present points to an inherent bias in the opacity of trading and to systemic advantage in relationship building, as well as potential power imbalances at 'nodes' where data is used for targeting, planning, and metrics. We discuss the policy implications of these findings and suggest specific questions for regulators to be asking.

This paper presents two case studies of Facebook's rapid changes relating to international electoral politics: the "I'm a Voter" affordance and the platform's data and targeting capabilities. The article shows how Facebook changed with respect to its policies, procedures, and affordances, especially given the normative pressure exerted by journalists. Drawing from these case studies, we conceptualise continual and rapid change as "platform transience" and argue that it often arises from external pressure and economic considerations. Platform transience has significant implications for the ability of stakeholders to hold platforms accountable, raises significant issues for electoral fairness, and increases the potential for unequal political information environments.

The use of big data in political campaigns extends far beyond micro-targeting, and has been singled out by journalists and campaign staffers alike as a powerful force that is integral to electoral victory. Current scholarship on the subject remains more mixed, however. This article provides an overview of what we know (and don’t yet know) about the effects of data-campaigning across various goals of political campaigns, alongside more public facing narratives that present data campaigning as an all-powerful tactic, highlighting the gap between these two views.

The same micro-targeted programmatic advertising that has become central to the digital media and marketing ecosystem has now migrated into election campaigns in the US and elsewhere, raising a host of issues around privacy, discrimination, and manipulation. This paper examines the digital strategies and technologies of today’s political campaigns, explaining how they will be deployed in the upcoming 2020 election cycle, and assessing regulatory and policy responses — both enacted and proposed — for increasing transparency and accountability in digital politics.

Researchers in psychology have long known that preferences are constructed in the decision-making process, influenced by choice environments that trigger unconscious biases and heuristics. As a result, choices, including those of voters, can be manipulated by political information. Personalised political messages, designed to influence based on detailed personal profiles, can undermine voter autonomy. We suggest that these practices should therefore be regulated, and discuss policy options and approaches, specifically the appropriate balance between freedom of political speech and privacy rights and interests, the implications of voter analytics for the electoral process, and how and by whom sophisticated voter analytics practices should be regulated.

Data-driven campaigning has become a feature of political campaigns around the world. There is growing evidence that political campaigners at the elite and grassroots level believe that data matters for electoral success. This belief is having important consequences for the way that political campaigns are being performed. However, in practice, data-driven campaigning does not take a single form and there are very different practices in the way data is being used. These variations matter because they have different democratic implications. Whilst some uses of data may be viewed as permissible, others can raise democratic concerns. This article casts light on a diversity of different data-driven practices evident in campaigns by offering a theoretical account of the different ways in which data can be used. Discussing three factors that characterise the activities of political campaigners, this article demonstrates variations in who is using data in campaigns, what the sources of campaign data are, and how data informs communication. Reviewing the landscape of data-driven campaigning within political parties, and drawing extensive analysis of the UK case, this article presents categories that can be used to map campaign practice and identify activities to which regulators may wish to respond.

In the 2018 presidential election, Brazil elected a fringe congressman, Jair Bolsonaro, despite his radical rhetoric that would suffice to shake the public image of any candidate in the world and the lack of traditional resources of his campaign. One of the hypotheses for this electoral success is that his campaign built a specific communication strategy that used internet platforms to communicate directly with different groups of voters. We describe the Brazilian electoral scenario of 2018, focusing on the use of the messaging app WhatsApp. We discuss how Bolsonaro’s campaign tapped into sentiments and perceptions spread by the legacy media, adding a stronger conservatism. We gather evidence of centralised management of WhatsApp chat groups by political actors that emerge from the work of computer scientists research, newspaper articles and our own ethnographic work. The radicalisation of Brazilian politics could be partially explained as an effect of the use of political micro-targeting in a highly concentrated news media ecosystem, and zero-rating policies that fuels WhatsApp popularity, a platform with affordances that favours the spread of misinformation.

NationBuilder connects voters, politicians, volunteers and staffers in an integrated digital system. Political parties across the globe use it to manage data and campaigns. Unlike most political technology providers, NationBuilder is nonpartisan and sells to anyone. Given recent controversy around political technology, this paper looks for empirical examples of questionable use. Drawing on a 2017 scan of NationBuilder installations globally, the study identifies three questionable uses as: (1) a mobilisation tool for hate or groups targeting cultural or ethnic identities, (2) a profiling tool for deceptive advertising or stealth media, and (3) a fundraising tool for entrepreneurial journalism. These questionable uses may require NationBuilder to revise its 'Acceptable Usage Policy' and raises broader questions about the responsibilities of political technology firms to liberal democracy.

Previous research has described how highly personalised paid advertising on social media platforms can be used to influence voter preferences and undermine the integrity of elections. However, less work has examined how search engine optimisation (SEO) strategies are used to target audiences with disinformation or political propaganda. This paper looks at 29 junk news domains and their SEO keyword strategies between January 2016 and March 2019. I find that SEO — rather than paid advertising — is the most important strategy for generating discoverability via Google Search. Following public concern over the spread of disinformation online, Google's algorithmic changes had a significant impact on junk news discoverability. The findings of this research have implications for policymaking, as regulators think through legal remedies to combat the spread of disinformation online.