scholarly journals Mine the gap: Bitcoin and the maintenance of trustlessness

2018 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 42-59 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gili Vidan ◽  
Vili Lehdonvirta
Keyword(s):  
Ad Hoc ◽  
Technical Expertise ◽  
Economic Rationality ◽  
Peer Production ◽  
Alternative Currency ◽  
The Face

Subscribing to a techno-utopian discourse replacing institutions and experts with “trust in code,” digital alternative currency Bitcoin is pitched as a “math-based money” governed by incorruptible code rather than human regulators. In three cases, which occurred between 2013 and 2015, we examine this system at moments of breakdown. In contrast to the discourse, we find that power is concentrated to critical sites and individuals who manage the system through ad hoc negotiations, and who users must therefore implicitly trust—a contrast we call Bitcoin’s “promissory gap.” But even in the face of such contradictions between premise and reality, the discourse is maintained. We identify four authorizing strategies used in this work: conflating people with devices, assuming actors conform to notions of economic rationality, appealing to technical expertise, and explaining contradictions as temporary bugs. We contend that these strategies are mobilized widely to legitimize a variety of applications of algorithmic regulation and peer production projects.

Equity and Sustainability in the Old Growth Forests of the Central Highlands of Victoria

1997 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Dragun
Keyword(s):  
Forest Management ◽  
Ad Hoc ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Economic Power ◽  
General Issue ◽  
The Face ◽  
Human Effort ◽  
Forest Use ◽  
The Many ◽  
Variable Efficiency

The general issue of forest use has been highly contentious in Victoria and considerable human effort has been exerted to establish the “best” use of forests. This economic, bureaucratic and political contemplation has yielded a multitude of different policy prescriptions with quite variable efficiency and equity outcomes. However, a feature of the analysis is that nowhere-on the grounds of efficiency or equity-is forestry logging the clearly desired outcome. Yet in the face of insurmountable evidence against logging, governments in Victoria prevaricate over making a formal decision not to log the forests-in fact the ad hoc approach to forest management favours the established forest interests. Clearly the narrow economic power and interests of a few logging companies are sufficient to counterbalance the much greater-but diffuse-well being of the many citizens in the state.

A Context-Aware Model of Trust for Facilitating Secure Ad Hoc Collaborations

2010 ◽  
pp. 250-281 ◽  
Author(s):  
Indrajit Ray ◽  
Indrakshi Ray ◽  
Sudip Chakraborty
Keyword(s):  
Incomplete Information ◽  
Ad Hoc ◽  
Sensitive Information ◽  
Trust Value ◽  
Trust Relationships ◽  
The Face ◽  
Trust Models ◽  
Almost All ◽  
Ad Hoc Collaborations ◽  
The Given

Ad hoc collaborations often necessitate impromptu sharing of sensitive information or resources between member organizations. Each member of resulting collaboration needs to carefully assess and tradeoff the requirements of protecting its own sensitive information against the requirements of sharing some or all of them. The challenge is that no policies have been previously arrived at for such secure sharing (since the collaboration has been formed in an ad hoc manner). Thus, it needs to be done based on an evaluation of the trustworthiness of the recipient of the information or resources. In this chapter, the authors discuss some previously proposed trust models to determine if they can be effectively used to compute trustworthiness for such sharing purposes in ad hoc collaborations. Unfortunately, none of these models appear to be completely satisfactory. Almost all of them fail to satisfy one or more of the following requirements: (i) well defined techniques and procedures to evaluate and/or measure trust relationships, (ii) techniques to compare and compose trust values which are needed in the formation of collaborations, and (iii) techniques to evaluate trust in the face of incomplete information. This prompts the authors to propose a new vector (we use the term “vector” loosely; vector in this work means a tuple) model of trust that is suitable for reasoning about the trustworthiness of systems built from the integration of multiple subsystems, such as ad hoc collaborations. They identify three parameters on which trust depends and formulate how to evaluate trust relationships. The trust relationship between a truster and a trustee is associated with a context and depends on the experience, knowledge, and recommendation that the truster has with respect to the trustee in the given context. The authors show how their model can measure trust in a given context. Sometimes enough information is not available about a given context to calculate the trust value. Towards this end the authors show how the relationships between different contexts can be captured using a context graph. Formalizing the relationships between contexts allows us to extrapolate values from related contexts to approximate a trust value of an entity even when all the information needed to calculate the trust value is not available. Finally, the authors develop formalisms to compare two trust relationships and to compose two or more of the same – features that are invaluable in ad hoc collaborations.

Doubts about “Genuinely Normative” Epistemic Reasons

2018 ◽  
pp. 122-140 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hille Paakkunainen
Keyword(s):  
Ad Hoc ◽  
Epistemic Reasons ◽  
The Face

Instrumentalist and teleologist views in metaepistemology hold that epistemic reasons are goal-relative or value-relative. In the face of counterexamples involving apparently pointless or counterproductive beliefs that are nonetheless supported by excellent epistemic reasons, some have retreated to the following view: while even pointless or counterproductive beliefs can be supported by excellent epistemic reasons in a not-genuinely-normative sense, we can have genuinely normative epistemic reasons only for beliefs that do serve some goal or value. In this chapter doubts are raised about the distinction between genuinely normative and not-genuinely-normative epistemic reasons employed here. It is suggested that there’s no real need or intuitive motivation for the distinction, beyond the ad hoc need of salvaging instrumentalist and teleologist views from counterexamples. The sense in which all epistemic reasons—even reasons for apparently pointless or counterproductive beliefs—seem to be equally normative is explained; and the implications for instrumentalists and teleologists are outlined.

Imagining Justice for Syria

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Beth Van Schaack
Keyword(s):  
Transitional Justice ◽  
Ad Hoc ◽  
Institutional Design ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
International Community ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
International Crimes ◽  
The Face ◽  
Justice Program ◽  
State Of Affairs

This book situates the war in Syria within the actual and imagined system of international criminal justice. It explores the legal impediments and diplomatic challenges that have led to the fatal trinity that is Syria: the massive commission of international crimes that are subject to detailed investigations and documentation but whose perpetrators have enjoyed virtually complete impunity. The book tracks a number of accountability solutions to this tragic state of affairs that are being explored within multilateral gatherings, by states, and by civil society actors, including innovations of institutional design; the reactivation of a range of domestic jurisdictional principles (including universal jurisdiction in Europe); the emergence of creative investigative and documentation techniques, technologies, and organizations; and the rejection of state consent as a precondition for the exercise of jurisdiction. Engaging both law and policy around international justice, the text offers a set of justice blueprints, within and without the International Criminal Court. It also considers the utility, propriety, and practicality of establishing an ad hoc tribunal and pursuing a transitional justice program without a genuine political transition. All told, the book attempts to capture the creative energy radiating from members of the international community intent on advancing the accountability norm in Syria even in the face of geopolitical blockages within the U.N. Security Council. In so doing, it presents the range of juridical measures—both criminal and civil—that are available to the international community to respond to the crisis, if only the political will existed.

Who Succeeds In The Murky Middle?

2011 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Timm L. Kainen ◽  
David P. Boyd
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Exploratory Study ◽  
Ad Hoc ◽  
Middle Managers ◽  
Technical Knowledge ◽  
Technical Expertise ◽  
Key Staff ◽  
Type 3

This exploratory study examines technically educated middle managers performing ad hoc projects in flat organizations and develops a typology for examining the behavioral patterns associated with their effectiveness. Initial findings indicate the greatest success was achieved by “Type 1” managers (the Leaders) who were able to integrate collaborative selling skills and technical expertise within a web of both formal and informal interactions. Moderate success accrued to “Type 2” managers (the Learners) who used collaborative selling skills to develop social networks that allowed them to expand their own technical expertise. “Type 3” managers (the Leapers) primarily relied upon technical expertise as the tool for interacting with others and enjoyed only modest success. Although “Type 4” managers (the Laggards) had the requisite technical knowledge base, they were the least successful because their lack of collaborative selling skills made it difficult to utilize a compensatory social network. Suggestions are provided for leaders seeking to leverage and direct the abilities of key staff.

Seven Equivocal Theses about Amazonia

1985 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 231-238 ◽  
Author(s):  
O Velho
Keyword(s):  
Catholic Church ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Ad Hoc ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Roman Catholic Church ◽  
Socioeconomic Conditions ◽  
Political Processes ◽  
Partial Truth ◽  
The Face ◽  
The One

This paper underlines the importance of the debate now being carried on in Brazil with reference to Amazonia and stresses the symbolical character with which it has been clothed. This debate is more than a clash between intellectual and political conceptions, the conflict-ridden encounter of the nation with its own destiny is dramatized within it. Seven theses stand out, representing the main prospects in question and their variants. In dismantling them one by one, the author proposes alternatives and above all suggests a kind of analysis epistemologically oriented by successive shiftings of viewpoint. This mobile approach makes it possible to reveal the partial truth of each thesis over the others. Theses (1) and (3) refer to the inexorable and all-encompassing character of capitalist expansion in rural areas, qualities which are regarded as likely to cause the reactive social movements themselves to succumb. It is shown that economic and political processes are often episodic, reversible, and subject to political interventions, especially to selective action on the part of the State. Theses (2), (4), and (5) affirm that the peasantry possesses its own conceptions of the land, that it is autonomous at productive level, and that it resists the advance of capitalism. It is demonstrated that these theses oversimplify, deny ambiguities, and are based on a logic that wrongly presupposes two homogenized social processes and blocs. Alternatively, the existence of multiple actors should be recognized, oriented by various strategies which are redefinable because they are not deterministically derived from socioeconomic conditions; the peasantry is not fighting to defend the essence of an idealized peasant being, but a particular series of ad hoc negotiable values, in the face of different concrete situations. In the discussions of theses (6) and (7), the author comes to grips, on the one hand, with the view that explains the apparent mobilizing success of the Roman Catholic Church through its ‘option on behalf of the poor’ and, on the other hand, the political criticisms usually directed at intellectuals who question traditional conceptions, when these supposedly favour the underprivileged.

scholarly journals “Design Thinking”: Defending Silicon Valley at the Apex of Global Labor Hierarchies

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lilly Irani
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Design Thinking ◽  
Business Schools ◽  
Silicon Valley ◽  
The United States ◽  
Technical Expertise ◽  
Public Debates ◽  
The Face ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject

This paper examines the emergence of “design thinking” as a form of technical expertise. It demonstrates that “design thinking” articulates a racialized understanding of labor, judgment, and the subject and attempts to maintain whiteness at the apex of global hierarchies of labor.“Design thinking” is a form of expertise that poses design not as form giving, but as a form of empathic reason by which executives can plan products, services, and accumulation. Silicon Valley, business schools, and reformers promote it as a form of caring technical expertise by which some guide futures for others. The paper will examine the history of the concept of “design thinking” – a category forged by Silicon Valley designers in the face of mounting competitive pressures on design professions in the United States in the mid-2000s. By drawing on artifacts, documents, public debates about the design profession from this period, I will demonstrate how champions of “design thinking” responded to expanded availability of design labor globally by figuring Asians and machines as the creative subject's Other.

scholarly journals Methodological Proposal for the Detection of the Composing Elements of Vulnerability Regarding Disinformation

Publications ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 44
Author(s):  
Belén Puebla-Martínez ◽  
Nuria Navarro-Sierra ◽  
Gema Alcolea-Díaz
Keyword(s):  
Online Community ◽  
Ad Hoc ◽  
Orthogonal Design ◽  
Discussion Groups ◽  
Vulnerability Factors ◽  
The Face ◽  
Quasi Experimental ◽  
Mixed Approach ◽  
Intensive Approach ◽  
Informed Society

We live in a hyper-informed society that is constantly being fed with information stimuli. That information may not be correct, and society may be vulnerable to it. We present a methodological proposal with a mixed approach that allows the learning of the characteristics and weaknesses of news consumers in the face of disinformation. Said methodology moves away from the traditional model, and with it a new, much more complete and complex way of conducting discussion groups is carried out. The qualitative approach is carried out through the creation of an online community in which subjects are encouraged to participate in different activities and tests. On the other hand, in order to obtain quantitative data, a quasi-experimental survey where respondents are exposed to various stimuli created ad hoc, which seeks to measure the interest and credibility of different news items through an orthogonal design, is carried out. The use of this methodology will allow for an expansive and intensive approach to the knowledge of societal vulnerability factors, and with the subsequent results, a solid basis of disinformation can be established, which will allow for the development of a series of strategies to combat disinformation.

scholarly journals COVID-19 and social services in Spain

PLoS ONE ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (11) ◽  
pp. e0241538 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rocío Muñoz-Moreno ◽  
Alfonso Chaves-Montero ◽  
Aleix Morilla-Luchena ◽  
Octavio Vázquez-Aguado
Keyword(s):  
Social Services ◽  
Personal Development ◽  
Ad Hoc ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Vulnerable Population ◽  
The State ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
Health Crisis ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Impact

During the state of alarm declared in Spain by COVID-19 due to the pandemic, the country's authorities declared Social Services and their workers to be essential, considering that the activity of these professionals with the vulnerable population was crucial and that services should continue to be provided to guarantee the well-being of users in this exceptionally serious situation. This article analyzes the impact that the COVID-19 and the state of alarm has had on Spanish social service professionals. An ad hoc questionnaire was used, administered on-line, individually, voluntarily and anonymously to 560 professionals working in social services, both in the public and private sectors, based throughout Spain. This questionnaire has five different parts: socio-demographic profiling, impact that the health crisis has had on the practice of professional functions, degree of knowledge of the measures imposed to guarantee the protection and safety of professionals and users, impact that it has had on the professional and personal development of social services professionals and, the fifth and last part, degree of adaptation of the measures aimed at the care of the vulnerable population. These results are discussed based on the situation in which professionals working in this sector find themselves in the face of the changes they are experiencing in the development of their work, and we are able to determine the profile of the workers who have felt most affected by the situation, with the consequent and foreseeable mental and emotional affectation that this implies. These professionals tend to value more negatively the set of measures developed to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on Spanish social services.

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