Maria Lucia Miotto Master Thesis Abstract in English Although more and more works are showing convergence between the many documents regarding the ethics of artificial intelligence, none of them has tried to explain the reasons for this convergence. The thesis here proposed is that the diffusion of these principles is due to the underlying action of an epistemic community that has promoted the spread and the adoption of these values. Then, through network analysis, this thesis describes the AI ethics epistemic community and its methods of value diffusion, testing for the most effective. Then, to test the first result, two case studies, representative of political opposites, the United States and the People Republic of China have been analysed to see which method of diffusion has worked the most. What seems evident is that scientific conferences remain a primary factor in the transmission of knowledge. However, particular attention must also be given to the role played by universities and research labs (also those of big tech-companies) because they have revealed to be great aggregators for the epistemic community and are increasing their centrality in the network.

Thesis advisor: Stephen Pfohl / The purpose of this study is to investigate the new media ecologies of urban, low-income youth and youth of color, and how they develop literacies and competencies around technology in the particular spaces of Community Technology Centers (CTCs), while placing them within their broader technological experiences and raced, classed, and gendered identities. This study builds on the concept of youth as experiencing a "new media ecology" in which youth engagement with technology is understood as a phenomenon which connects all spheres of experience. Through this work, I refine the understanding of how marginalized young people engage with technology in order to expand our understanding of digital inequality and its effects, as well as how digital inequality and inclusion interact with young people's identities and social worlds more broadly. Young people, marginalized by their raced, classes, and gendered identities, are both accused of being wasteful in their technology engagement, and are welcomed into these non-traditional learning spaces in order to cultivate their uses of technology into more meaningful and productive outcomes. There is a growing proliferation of informal and creative digital learning programs, and corresponding research and interrogation of the activities within these spaces. However, we lack a full and holistic understanding of who these young people are as technological citizens and consumers, an understanding that is necessary to inform effective interventions around digital inequality. Through qualitative research within two Boston-area Community Technology Centers, including participant observation and interviews, this study presents an analysis of how young people as agentic individuals interact with the contexts they enter into to produce new forms of agency and disempowerment. Rather than focusing on one area of the digital learning environment or youth technological experience, as other researchers have done, I delineate a more complete and dialogic view of less-advantaged young people and their technological engagement. My findings build on the need for supportive informal technology learning environments for marginalized youth, both in terms of providing stable environments with rich resources for technological exploration and skill-building, as well as providing learning environments which valorize and encourage youth agency and identity work. It is also necessary to recognize and allow for differences among youth in these spaces, who vary not only in terms of race, class, and gender, but also skills, abilities, interests, and motivations. I also call attention to the ways in which structural inequalities enter into these informal learning environments, resulting in their reproduction. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2014. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Sociology.

Globalization and the rise of the Information Society pose many challenges to developing nations. In adherence to the Millennium Development Goal of digital inclusion, the government of the Dominican Republic established a national program of community technology centers, or telecenters, that aim to promote digital literacy among the poor. This study examined how these telecenters promote the adoption of information and communication technologies (ICTs) and tested whether perceived structural factors, individual motivation or demographics predict adoption. Results from a survey conducted in the rural villages of El Seybo, Navarrete, and Oviedo confirm that telecenter users learn how to use information and communication technologies as a resource for information about civic life, entertainment, and professional development. The study concludes that telecenters can succeed in decreasing digital poverty, provided issues of sustainability are addressed with consistent and continued government funding and support. The field of information and communication technologies for development (ICT4D) is in its infancy and has yet to develop strong methodological or theoretical standards. This study of ICT adoption and telecenter use in rural areas of the Caribbean contributes empirical evidence to the literature of this emerging discipline.

Thesis (M.A. (Human Rights))--Mahidol University, 2006.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-27T14:32:04Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao Ana Maria Moraes.pdf: 1040774 bytes, checksum: b9dc4b892a91fd181fe47a9ac8e69ec5 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2005-05-11 / The present study aimed in identifying operational indicators of Young Activist Network project involving two groups of children ages 9 to 12 years old; the groups Young Activist and the Juventude Ativa. This study is part of an educational program that uses digital applied-technology as tool for developing events related to youth activism. This research was conducted in the community-based technology centers Juventude Interativa Social Lab and Telecentro Padre Joseph Alan Black located at Jardim Antartica in the north side of Sao Paulo city. This study is a qualitative research that uses the action research metodology (Hart). The proposed work approached digital inclusion as a mean to achieve social inclusion while attempts to overcome the digital gap on the fluency of the computer language and knowledge in building community-assets. Juventude Ativa group developed a workshop based on citizenship and environmental education and the Young Activist workshop had the foundation of Roger Hart s participation, theory of technological fluency (Resnick), citizenship (Pina) and other categories related from social aspects that emerged from Vygostky´s scope. Data collected were qualitative only, which were analyzed in two categories as follows; the Pina procedure for citizenship and Hart s participation and technological fluency with Resnick procedure. Our results support the development of youth activism actions using different models/focus. The action research cycle and the development of youth activism mediated by the use of digital technology was not developed in the Environmental Education Workshop by the Juventude Ativa group, but it was developed at the Young Activist Network Workshop using bottom-up model. Although, there was an obvious gain in their learning process using digital technology, the lack of technological fluency still exists causing a gap, which was well noticed in both workshops/ community technology centers. / O presente trabalho analisou a operacionalização dos projetos Rede de Jovens Ativistas e Juventude Ativa, através do desenvolvimento de ações de protagonismo juvenil. Foram desenvolvidas duas oficinas com 18 jovens de 9 a 12 anos ocorridas nos centros de tecnologia comunitária Laboratório Social Juventude Interativa e Telecentro Padre Joseph Alan Black situados no bairro do Jardim Antártica, zona norte da cidade de São Paulo. Esta é uma pesquisa qualitativa que utiliza da metodologia da pesquisa-ação (Hart) e realizou uma análise de dados de acordo com o modelo misto. A inclusão digital foi debatida através dos conceitos de uso da tecnologia para a inclusão social e da brecha digital gerada pela falta da fluência tecnológica, sendo associada esta temática ao protagonismo juvenil. As categorias previamente selecionadas para a análise dos dados foram cidadania (Pina), participação (Hart) e fluência tecnológica (Resnick) e outras relacionadas ao aspecto social emergiram da leitura dos dados tais como a leitura realizada do aspecto social sob a ótica de Vygotsky. Os resultados obtidos corroboram para o desenvolvimento de ações de protagonismo juvenil sob diferentes enfoques/modelos, onde o ciclo da pesquisa-ação não foi evidenciado na oficina de educação ambiental e na da Rede de Jovens Ativistas ocorreram algumas etapas. Conclui-se neste trabalho que apesar de ter havido um aprimoramento no uso das tecnologias digitais, a brecha digital gerada pela falta de fluência tecnológica continuou a existir nas duas oficinas realizadas em decorrência de problemas, tais como: o analfabetismo, pouco tempo para utilizar as tecnologias digitais. As ações de protagonismo juvenil só foram evidenciadas na oficina da Rede de Jovens Ativistas de acordo com um modelo bottom-up .

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Aus der EINLEITUNG: Nicht immer sind organisationale Veränderungsprozesse von Erfolg gekrönt – wie bei 1000 befragten Unternehmen die vergleichsweise hohe Quote von 38 % an Prozessen belegt, die als gescheitert betrachtet werden [18]. Als häufigste Ursache werden dabei „Widerstände der Mitarbeiter“ genannt. Auch die Implementierung einer neuen Technologie in einer Organisation stellt einen derartig verändernden Eingriff dar, dessen Gelingen nicht zuletzt auch an die Nutzung der neuen Technologie geknüpft ist [10]. Um diesem Ziel gerecht zu werden, existieren in der Informatik zahlreiche Ansätze, die Schnittstellen zwischen Mensch und Technik anwenderfreundlich zu gestalten. Dabei ist insbesondere die Akzeptanz der (neuen) Technologie seitens der Nutzer von zentraler Bedeutung [5]. Denn wenn sich beispielsweise bei der Einführung eines ERP-Systems zur integrierten IT-Portfolio-Planung die Mitarbeiter überwacht und kontrolliert fühlen und aus diesen Motiven heraus Vorwände und Ausreden finden, das System nicht zu nutzen, können sie die Implementierung massiv beeinträchtigen und verzögern, was sich in erhöhtem Aufwand und höheren Kosten niederschlägt. [...]

1 EINLEITUNG Nachdem in den vergangenen Jahren die Bedeutung von Web 2.0-Anwendungen neben dem privaten vor allem auch für den unternehmerischen Bereich untersucht wurde [18], werden seit einiger Zeit auch Einsatzmöglichkeiten in Forschung und Lehre berücksichtigt. Wagner und Schroeder zufolge ermöglicht die Nutzung von Web 2.0-Anwendungen die gemeinsame Schaffung von Inhalten im Internet, die häufigen und unvorhergesehenen Änderungen unterliegen [24]. Viele dieser Anwendungen sind hedonistisch [10] und im privaten Internetnutzungsverhalten von Studenten weit verbreitet [27]. Bereits 2009 hatten Kane und Fichman gefordert, die Möglichkeiten, die die neuen webbasierten Technologien als IT-basierte Kooperationswerkzeuge für den Umgang von Studierenden, Lehrenden und Forschern unter- und miteinander bieten, stärker zu untersuchen [14]. Erste Studien haben sich seitdem mit dem studentischen Arbeitsalltag, in dem Web 2.0 eingesetzt wird, um Kursinhalte unter Kommilitonen zu besprechen und zu verarbeiten [17] oder um gemeinschaftliches Lernen besser zu gestalten [15,16] beschäftigt. Weitere Untersuchungen widmen sich sozialpsychologischen Aspekten, wie z.B. der Frage, wie sich Studierende durch Web 2.0 schneller an das Universitätsleben gewöhnen können [4] oder welche Rolle soziale Netzwerkseiten, wie z.B. Facebook, bei der Formung der studentischen Identität spielen [22]. Die Frage, wie Unterrichtende Web 2.0-Anwendungen nutzen können, um ihre Lehrinhalte zu unterstützen, wurde ebenfalls adressiert [7], wobei insbesondere die Anpassung bestehender Anwendungen auf Unterrichtsbedürfnisse im Mittelpunkt stand [9]. [...]