Automated and/or authentic intimacy: What can we learn about contemporary intimacy from the case of Ashley Madison’s bots?

First Monday ◽  
2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katherine Harrison
Keyword(s):  
Short Story ◽  
Web Site ◽  
Public Access ◽  
Ashley Madison

In July 2015 the well-known affairs Web site, Ashley Madison, was hacked and both customer details and internal company correspondence were stolen, and later dumped online for public access. In the analysis of the data, it became clear that the site had extensively used bots to attract customers. This paper brings together these bots with a short story by Candas Jane Dorsey about the discomfiting potential of human-machine intimacies. I use the two to help me explore what I argue is an inbuilt and little discussed expectation/requirement of “authentic” intimacy: humanness.

scholarly journals 340 The Plant Tissue Culture Information Exchange Media Database

HortScience ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 450E-450
Author(s):  
April S. Herring ◽  
R. Daniel Lineberger
Keyword(s):  
Tissue Culture ◽  
Public Schools ◽  
Information Exchange ◽  
Web Site ◽  
Public Access ◽  
Tissue Cultures ◽  
User Input ◽  
Link Type ◽  
Micropropagated Plants ◽  
Types Of Information

The Univ. of Minnesota hosts the PLANT-TC Listserv as a service to the international tissue culture community (http://www.agro.agri.umn.edu/plant-tc/listserv/). One of the most frequently sought types of information is a recommendation for a “beginning point” for culturing a wide variety of plant species. Many of these inquiries come from individuals without ready access to extensive library holdings, including those in industry, public schools, and international sites. A Web site prototype that includes a searchable database of tissue culture recipes is being constructed and offered for user input. The database currently is located at http://webtutor.tamu.edu/students/herring/project/, but will be redirected to its own URL if user feedback is positive. The database also includes information about equipment and materials, media suppliers and domestic and foreign sources for tissue cultures and micropropagated plants. Other educational resources, including a virtual tour of a commercial tissue culture lab, are available on the site. The Web site and database will be reviewed by a panel of experts and modified according to their input prior to being posted for public access.

The False Claims Act: a review and policy recommendations

2014 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 295-313 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary E. Schramm ◽  
Jennifer L. Herbst ◽  
Angela Mattie
Keyword(s):  
Web Site ◽  
Public Access ◽  
Annual Reports ◽  
Marketing Activity ◽  
Content Type ◽  
False Claims Act ◽  
Off Label ◽  
The Us ◽  
Us Government ◽  
The Law

Purpose – The purpose of the study is to review The False Claims Act (FCA) settlements and challenges facing the industry to suggest the motivation behind firms’ alleged fraudulent activity. FCA has been applied against pharmaceutical companies by the US Government to combat marketing fraud including kickbacks, improper pricing and off-label promotion. The interests of the US Government and medical professionals are also considered. Changes to the law governing pharmaceutical marketing practices are recommended. Design/methodology/approach – Cases settled under the FCA between 2005 and 2012 were identified by accessing the US Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) Corporate Integrity Agreements Web site and annual reports and the quitamhelp.com Web site. Case details were collected from US Department of Justice press releases, DHHS annual reports, and case documents in the Public Access to Court Electronic Records database. Findings – Of the settled cases in the final sample, improper pricing practices were evident in 33 per cent of the cases; off-label promotion in 52 per cent; and both in 15 per cent of the cases. Forty-eight per cent of the alleged fraudulent marketing activity occurred within the brands’ first year and 68 per cent within the first two years on the market. Reported settlements ranged from US$4 million to US$4.3 billion. Originality/value – This research simultaneously considers business issues facing the pharmaceutical industry and alleged fraudulent marketing activity to recommend changes to the law governing drug promotion. Changes have the potential to improve the balance between the respective interests of industry, medicine and government and to improve compliance and patient care in the future.

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