Free/Libre Open Source Software for Bridging the Digital Divide

2009 ◽  
pp. 95-101
Author(s):  
Yu-Wei Lin
Keyword(s):  
Digital Divide ◽  
Information Technologies ◽  
Systems Design ◽  
Innovation Process ◽  
Race And Class ◽  
Approaches To Study ◽  
Race Ethnicity ◽  
Class Divisions ◽  
The Impact ◽  
System Designs

As some scholars claim, the digital divide, referring to the perceived gap between those who have access to the latest information technologies and those who do not, entails that not having access to this information is an economic and social handicap (Compaine, 2001). In software design, structured inequalities operate along the main axes of gender, race/ethnicity and class. Each of these in turn generates its own structure of unequal practices giving rise to institutionalised sexism, racism or class divisions/conflict. “Gender, race and class also crosscut each other in various complex ways, sometimes reinforcing and at other times weakening the impact of existing inequalities” (Cohen & Kennedy, 2000, p. 100). For instance, Webster’s research (1996) employing feminist approaches to study computer system designs addresses the issue of a male-dominated system design field, which continuously excludes female users’ needs, requirements, interests and values in the innovation process. She criticises that, “Human factors may be bolted onto existing methods of systems design, local and contingent knowledge of work and information handling processes held by users in an amorphous sense may now even be incorporated into the systems design process, but this does not create an awareness of the way in which skills and knowledge are defined in gender-divided terms” (p. 150).

Free/Libre Open Source Software for Bridging the Digital Divide

2008 ◽  
pp. 961-966
Author(s):  
Yu-Wei Lin
Keyword(s):  
Digital Divide ◽  
Information Technologies ◽  
Systems Design ◽  
Innovation Process ◽  
Race And Class ◽  
Approaches To Study ◽  
Race Ethnicity ◽  
Class Divisions ◽  
The Impact ◽  
System Designs

As some scholars claim, the digital divide, referring to the perceived gap between those who have access to the latest information technologies and those who do not, entails that not having access to this information is an economic and social handicap (Compaine, 2001). In software design, structured inequalities operate along the main axes of gender, race/ethnicity and class. Each of these in turn generates its own structure of unequal practices giving rise to institutionalised sexism, racism or class divisions/conflict. “Gender, race and class also crosscut each other in various complex ways, sometimes reinforcing and at other times weakening the impact of existing inequalities” (Cohen & Kennedy, 2000, p. 100). For instance, Webster’s research (1996) employing feminist approaches to study computer system designs addresses the issue of a male-dominated system design field, which continuously excludes female users’ needs, requirements, interests and values in the innovation process. She criticises that, “Human factors may be bolted onto existing methods of systems design, local and contingent knowledge of work and information handling processes held by users in an amorphous sense may now even be incorporated into the systems design process, but this does not create an awareness of the way in which skills and knowledge are defined in gender-divided terms” (p. 150).

Free/Libre Open Source Software for Bridging the Digital Divide

2005 ◽  
pp. 316-320
Author(s):  
Yu-Wei Lin
Keyword(s):  
Digital Divide ◽  
Information Technologies ◽  
Systems Design ◽  
Innovation Process ◽  
Race And Class ◽  
Approaches To Study ◽  
Race Ethnicity ◽  
Class Divisions ◽  
The Impact ◽  
System Designs

As some scholars claim, the digital divide, referring to the perceived gap between those who have access to the latest information technologies and those who do not, entails that not having access to this information is an economic and social handicap (Compaine, 2001). In software design, structured inequalities operate along the main axes of gender, race/ethnicity and class. Each of these in turn generates its own structure of unequal practices giving rise to institutionalised sexism, racism or class divisions/conflict. “Gender, race and class also crosscut each other in various complex ways, sometimes reinforcing and at other times weakening the impact of existing inequalities” (Cohen & Kennedy, 2000, p. 100). For instance, Webster’s research (1996) employing feminist approaches to study computer system designs addresses the issue of a male-dominated system design field, which continuously excludes female users’ needs, requirements, interests and values in the innovation process. She criticises that, “Human factors may be bolted onto existing methods of systems design, local and contingent knowledge of work and information handling processes held by users in an amorphous sense may now even be incorporated into the systems design process, but this does not create an awareness of the way in which skills and knowledge are defined in gender-divided terms” (p. 150).

Cultural Aspects and Digital Divide in Europe

MedienJournal ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 14-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ursula Maier-Rabler
Keyword(s):  
Digital Divide ◽  
Information And Communication Technologies ◽  
Social Economic ◽  
Innovation Process ◽  
Communication Technologies ◽  
Individual Member ◽  
Policy Practice ◽  
Cultural Aspects ◽  
Information And Communication ◽  
Policy Strategies

This paper aims to make a contribution toward an improvement of European e-policy practice. lt is inspired by the conviction that successfuJ e-policy strategies can lead to ba­lanced chances for all members in certain societies to aquire the absolutely indispensable capabilities for decision-making in the context of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). Following the path of the development of e-policy papers it has to be stated that many goals have not yet been achieved. The techno-deterministic concepts 'access' and 'usage' seem not to reach far enough to get people really involved andin­formed. Many more aspects have tobe considered in order to create a clirnate for inno­vation where different choices made by different individuals according to their different social, economic or cuJtural backgrounds do not lead automatically to the well known either or not, connected or not-connected, haves or have-nots, but to a variety of pat­terns of involvement. In this paper, we argue for different e-policy strategies according to cultural aspects in certain societies. And hereby we will focus on the cultural aspects of information itself, on the notion of information in different information cultures. lt also seems important to mention at this stage that we believe that getting all members of society involved in the ICT-innovation process in order to provide the basis for in­formed decisions by each individual member is the most important task of e-policy.

The Digital Divide and K-12 Student Computer Use

10.28945/2926 ◽  
2005 ◽  
Author(s):  
James N. Morgan ◽  
Craig A. VanLengen
Keyword(s):  
Digital Divide ◽  
Computer Use ◽  
Census Data ◽  
Internet Access ◽  
Demographic Characteristics ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Substantial Impact ◽  
Limited Basis ◽  
K 12 ◽  
The Impact

The divide between those who have computer and Internet access and those who do not appears to be narrowing, however overall statistics may be misleading. Measures of computer availability in schools often include cases where computers are only available for administration or are available only on a very limited basis (Gootman, 2004). Access to a computer and the Internet outside of school helps to reinforce student learning and emphasize the importance of using technology. Recent U.S. statistics indicate that ethnic background and other demographic characteristics still have substantial impact on the availability and use of computers by students outside of the classroom. This paper examines recent census data to determine the impact of the household on student computer use outside of the classroom. Encouragingly, the findings of this study suggest that use of a computer at school substantially increases the chance that a student will use a computer outside of class. Additionally, this study suggests that computer use outside of the classroom is positively and significantly impacted by being in a household with adults who either use a computer at work or work in an industry where computers are extensively used.

scholarly journals AB0142 SOCIOECONOMIC STATUS (SES) AND MEDICATION USE IN RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS (RA): A SCOPING REVIEW

2021 ◽  
Vol 80 (Suppl 1) ◽  
pp. 1098.2-1099
Author(s):  
O. Russell ◽  
S. Lester ◽  
R. Black ◽  
C. Hill
Keyword(s):  
Rheumatoid Arthritis ◽  
Socioeconomic Status ◽  
Scoping Review ◽  
Research Training ◽  
Medication Use ◽  
Study Group ◽  
Knowledge Gaps ◽  
Coverage Area ◽  
Race Ethnicity ◽  
The Impact

Background:Socioeconomic status (SES) influences disease outcomes in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients. (1, 2) Differences in medication use could partly explain this association. (3) A scoping review was used to identify research conducted on this topic and determine what knowledge gaps remain.Objectives:To determine what research has been conducted on this topic, how this research has defined SES and medication use, and establish what knowledge gaps remain.Methods:MEDLINE, EMBASE and PsychInfo were searched from their inception until May 2019 for studies which assessed SES and medication use as outcome variables. Studies were included if they measured medication use and incorporated an SES measure as a comparator variable.SES was defined using any of the “PROGRESS” framework variables (4) including patients’ stated gender, age, educational attainment, employment, occupational class, personal income, marital status, health insurance coverage, area- (neighbourhood) level SES, or patients’ stated race and/or ethnicity. Medication use was broadly defined as either prescription or dispensation of a medicine, medication adherence, or delays in treatment. Data was extracted on studies’ primary objectives, measurement of specific SES measures, patients’ medication use, and whether studies assessed for differences in patients’ medication use according to SES variables.Results:1464 studies were identified by this search from which 74 studies were selected for inclusion, including 52 published articles. Studies’ publication year ranged from 1994-2019, and originated from 20 countries; most commonly from the USA.Studies measured a median of 4 SES variables (IQR 3-6), with educational achievement, area level SES and race/ethnicity the most frequently recorded.Likelihood of disease modifying antirheumatic drug (DMARD) prescription was the most frequent primary objective recorded.96% of studies reported on patients’ use of DMARDs, with glucocorticoids and analgesics being reported in fewer studies (51% and 23% respectively.)Most included studies found at least one SES measure to be significantly associated with differences in patients’ medication use. In some studies, however, this result was not necessarily drawn from the primary outcome and therefore may not have been adjusted for covariates.70% of published studies measuring patients’ income (n=14 of 20) and 58% of those that measured race/ethnicity (n=14 of 24) documented significant differences in patients’ medication use according to these SES variables, although the direction of this effect – whether it led to ‘greater’ or ‘lesser’ medication use – varied between studies.Conclusion:Multiple definitions of SES are used in studies of medication use in RA patients. Despite this, most identified studies found evidence of a difference in medication use by patient groups that differed by an SES variable, although how medication use differed was found to vary between studies. This latter observation may relate to contextual factors pertaining to differences in countries’ healthcare systems. Further prospective studies with clearly defined SES and medication use measures may help confirm the apparent association between SES and differences in medication use.References:[1]Jacobi CE, Mol GD, Boshuizen HC, Rupp I, Dinant HJ, Van Den Bos GA. Impact of socioeconomic status on the course of rheumatoid arthritis and on related use of health care services. Arthritis Rheum. 2003;49(4):567-73.[2]ERAS Study Group. Socioeconomic deprivation and rheumatoid disease: what lessons for the health service? ERAS Study Group. Early Rheumatoid Arthritis Study. Annals of the rheumatic diseases. 2000;59(10):794-9.[3]Verstappen SMM. The impact of socio-economic status in rheumatoid arthritis. Rheumatology (Oxford). 2017;56(7):1051-2.[4]O’Neill J, Tabish H, Welch V, Petticrew M, Pottie K, Clarke M, et al. Applying an equity lens to interventions: using PROGRESS ensures consideration of socially stratifying factors to illuminate inequities in health. J Clin Epidemiol. 2014;67(1):56-64.Acknowledgements:This research was supported by an Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship.Disclosure of Interests:None declared

scholarly journals Conservation and natural resource management: where are all the women?

Oryx ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Robyn James ◽  
Bridget Gibbs ◽  
Laura Whitford ◽  
Craig Leisher ◽  
Ruth Konia ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Resource Management ◽  
Literature Review ◽  
Natural Resource Management ◽  
Natural Resource ◽  
Positive Relationship ◽  
Cultural Norms ◽  
Conservation Actions ◽  
Race Ethnicity ◽  
Management Institutions ◽  
The Impact

Abstract There is evidence from the development and humanitarian sectors that purposeful engagement of women can increase the impact of development. We conducted a literature review to examine whether this is also evident in conservation and natural resource management. The following themes emerged from our review: existing societal and cultural norms affect and generally limit how women can engage in conservation and natural resource management; women interact differently with the environment than men, so if they are excluded, their knowledge and perspectives on particular resources may not be considered in conservation actions; and there is often a lack of resources or dedicated effort by conservation or natural resource management programmes to understand and address the barriers that prevent women's engagement. Although there was evidence of a positive relationship between the engagement of women and environmental outcomes, some studies showed that positive conservation outcomes do not necessarily benefit women, and when women are not considered, conservation activities can perpetuate existing inequities. We conclude that although the importance of integrating gender into conservation is acknowledged in the literature, there is a need to examine how women can be meaningfully engaged in conservation. This must go beyond treating women as a homogenous group, to consider intersectionality including race, ethnicity, age, religion, poverty and disability. In addition, conservation and natural resource management institutions need to address the inclusion of women in their own staff and programmes.

scholarly journals Racial Disparities in Virologic Failure and Tolerability During Firstline HIV Antiretroviral Therapy

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Priya Bhagwat ◽  
Shashi N Kapadia ◽  
Heather J Ribaudo ◽  
Roy M Gulick ◽  
Judith S Currier
Keyword(s):  
Antiretroviral Therapy ◽  
Adverse Events ◽  
Socioeconomic Factors ◽  
Ethnic Groups ◽  
Virologic Failure ◽  
Virologic Suppression ◽  
Factors Associated ◽  
Race Ethnicity ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Racial Ethnic

Abstract Background Racial/ethnic disparities in HIV outcomes have persisted despite effective antiretroviral therapy. In a study of initial regimens, we found viral suppression varied by race/ethnicity. In this exploratory analysis, we use clinical and socioeconomic data to assess factors associated with virologic failure and adverse events within racial/ethnic groups. Methods Data were from AIDS Clinical Trial Group A5257, a randomized trial of initial regimens with either atazanavir/ritonavir, darunavir/ritonavir, or raltegravir (each combined with tenofovir DF and emtricitabine). We grouped participants by race/ethnicity and then used Cox-proportional hazards regression to examine the impact of demographic, clinical, and socioeconomic factors on the time to virologic suppression and time to adverse event reporting within each racial/ethnic group. Results We analyzed data from 1762 participants: 757 self-reported as non-Hispanic black (NHB), 615 as non-Hispanic white (NHW), and 390 as Hispanic. The proportion with virologic failure was higher for NHB (22%) and Hispanic (17%) participants compared with NHWs (9%). Factors associated with virologic failure were poor adherence and higher baseline HIV RNA level. Prior clinical AIDS diagnosis was associated with virologic failure for NHBs only, and unstable housing and illicit drug use for NHWs only. Factors associated with adverse events were female sex in all groups and concurrent use of medications for comorbidities in NHB and Hispanic participants only. Conclusions Clinical and socioeconomic factors that are associated with virologic failure and tolerability of antiretroviral therapy vary between and within racial and ethnic groups. Further research may shed light into mechanisms leading to disparities and targeted strategies to eliminate those disparities.

scholarly journals Recognizing Human Races through Machine Learning—A Multi-Network, Multi-Features Study

Mathematics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 195
Author(s):  
Adrian Sergiu Darabant ◽  
Diana Borza ◽  
Radu Danescu
Keyword(s):  
Race And Ethnicity ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Recognition Rate ◽  
Social Signals ◽  
Image Characteristics ◽  
Race Effect ◽  
Race Ethnicity ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Facial Images ◽  
Ethnicity Classification

The human face holds a privileged position in multi-disciplinary research as it conveys much information—demographical attributes (age, race, gender, ethnicity), social signals, emotion expression, and so forth. Studies have shown that due to the distribution of ethnicity/race in training datasets, biometric algorithms suffer from “cross race effect”—their performance is better on subjects closer to the “country of origin” of the algorithm. The contributions of this paper are two-fold: (a) first, we gathered, annotated and made public a large-scale database of (over 175,000) facial images by automatically crawling the Internet for celebrities’ images belonging to various ethnicity/races, and (b) we trained and compared four state of the art convolutional neural networks on the problem of race and ethnicity classification. To the best of our knowledge, this is the largest, data-balanced, publicly-available face database annotated with race and ethnicity information. We also studied the impact of various face traits and image characteristics on the race/ethnicity deep learning classification methods and compared the obtained results with the ones extracted from psychological studies and anthropomorphic studies. Extensive tests were performed in order to determine the facial features to which the networks are sensitive to. These tests and a recognition rate of 96.64% on the problem of human race classification demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed solution.

Technology in Context: Mediating Factors in the Utilization of Planning Technologies

2005 ◽  
Vol 37 (5) ◽  
pp. 895-907 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ari Goelman
Keyword(s):  
Organizational Structure ◽  
Information Technologies ◽  
Public Access ◽  
Web Gis ◽  
Gis Technology ◽  
Additional Insight ◽  
Mediating Factors ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Insight Into

My research explores the question: how can theorists better understand the ways in which planning technologies are used by municipal planners? In the case-study municipality, a recently introduced web-GIS technology had little demonstrable success in attaining two of its stated goals: enabling increased public access to municipal geographic information and encouraging planners to produce their own maps. My research links these outcomes not only to the technologies themselves, but to organizational structure and human agency. Planners and planning theorists can gain additional insight into the impact of planning technologies through closer attention to the process through which planners come to use information technologies and the way this process both alters and is constrained by existing organizational constraints, including previously adopted technologies.

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