From roadman to royalties: Inter-representational value and the hypercapitalist impulses of grime

This paper explores how digital media can cause the representational value of rap artists to be transformed. Ubiquitous access to digital recording, production and distribution technologies grants rappers an unprecedented degree of representational autonomy, meaning they are able to integrate the street aesthetic into their lyrics and music videos, and thus create content that offers a more authentic representation of their (past) lives. Sidestepping the mainstream music industry, the digital enables these integrations and bolsters the hypercapitalist impulses of content creators. I illustrate these ideas through a case study of grime artist, Bugzy Malone, who uses his music to narrate his evolution from a life of criminality (selling drugs on the street; a ‘roadman’), to one in which his representational value is recognised by commercial brands who want to partner with him because of his street credibility (collecting ‘royalties’). Bugzy Malone’s commercial success is not predicated on a departure from his criminal past, but the deliberate foregrounding of it as a marker of authenticity. The representational autonomy provided by digital media can therefore enable artists to maximise the affective cachet of the once-criminal self.

How Blockchain Technology Changes Government

It is widely argued that Blockchain Technology (BCT) is one of the most promising trends nowadays. The most prominent characteristic of this technology is the improved sense of trust to the shared information provided by BCT applications as well as the ubiquitous access to the data ledger. At the same time governments pursue amplified trust from their citizens increasing transparency through shared information and open data. Since BCT supports this strategic goal of governments worldwide, numerous governments try to capitalize on the advances of this technology through testing the results of pilot applications in different vertical governmental sectors. Even though there are several implementations in the Government sector, there is no comprehensive study towards the analysis of the major characteristics of these developments. This paper moves towards the fulfillment of this gap by conducting a thorough analysis of e-Government pilot applications of BCT at a European level providing information to policymakers and practitioners about the grey areas of this technology.

How Blockchain Technology changes Government. A systematic analysis of applications

It is widely argued that Blockchain Technology (BCT) is one of the most promising trends nowadays. The most prominent characteristic of this technology is the improved sense of trust to the shared information provided by BCT applications as well as the ubiquitous access to the data ledger. At the same time governments pursue amplified trust from their citizens increasing transparency through shared information and open data. Since BCT supports this strategic goal of governments worldwide, numerous governments try to capitalize on the advances of this technology through testing the results of pilot applications in different vertical governmental sectors. Even though there are several implementations in the Government sector, there is no comprehensive study towards the analysis of the major characteristics of these developments. This paper moves towards the fulfillment of this gap by conducting a thorough analysis of e-Government pilot applications of BCT at a European level providing information to policymakers and practitioners about the grey areas of this technology.

A Pilot Experience with Software Programming Environments as a Service for Teaching Activities

Software programming is one of the key abilities for the development of Computational Thinking (CT) skills in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). However, specific software tools to emulate realistic scenarios are required for effective teaching. Unfortunately, these tools have some limitations in educational environments due to the need of an adequate configuration and orchestration, which usually assumes an unaffordable work overload for teachers and is inaccessible for students outside the laboratories. To mitigate the aforementioned limitations, we rely on cloud solutions that automate the process of orchestration and configuration of software tools on top of cloud computing infrastructures. This way, the paper presents ACTaaS as a cloud-based educational resource that deploys and orchestrates a whole realistic software programming environment. ACTaaS provides a simple, fast and automatic way to set up a professional integrated environment without involving an overload to the teacher, and it provides an ubiquitous access to the environment. The solution has been tested in a pilot group of 28 students. Currently, there is no tool like ACTaaS that allows such a high grade of automation for the deployment of software production environments focused on educational activities supporting a wide range of cloud providers. Preliminary results through a pilot group predict its effectiveness due to the efficiency to set up a class environment in minutes without overloading the teachers, and providing ubiquitous access to students. In addition, the first student opinions about the experience were greatly positive.

New Sources of Entrepreneurial Finance

Digital technologies are transforming entrepreneurial finance. Near-ubiquitous access to the Internet, platformisation, and advances in cloud computing, machine learning and artificial intelligence, and blockchain are changing the sources, basis, and quantum of funding in ways that were unimaginable at the turn of the century. This chapter outlines the changes to the market for entrepreneurial finance from the perspective of structure and participants. The key sources and characteristics of alternative sources of finance available to entrepreneurs, including start-ups, are presented. Two online alternative finance sources, crowdfunding and token offerings, are discussed in greater detail. These are illustrated with case studies. This chapter concludes with recommendations and a discussion of practical implications.

Disentagling nutrition facts from fiction: Towards healthy and sustainable consumption in industrialized societies

Over the last centuries, in the context of industrialization, globalization and urbanization, profound dietary changes have occurred. Ubiquitous access to cheap, readily available and highly palatable unhealthy products, together with aggressive marketing that forcefully impacts social norms, have led to overconsumption of energy-dense, nutrient-poor foods. This has not only been associated with a higher prevalence of obesity and diet-related non-communicable diseases, but also with detrimental effects on the world’s natural resources. Broader and braver public health measures favoring the availability and affordability of healthy, minimally processed foods should be implemented in conjunction with educational strategies to re-encourage a healthy and sustainable food consumption.

Smart Industries in Industry4.0: An Iot and Cloud Based Real Time Energy Meter Monitoring System

With increase in low cost internet and with advent of 4G technologies increase in internet speed, IoT-based applications are getting more popular day by day and it provides effective solution of many real time monitoring problems. In this research, a cloud based real-time monitoring system for industrial energy meter has been proposed. The prototype system provides continuous and ubiquitous access to energy consumption of the equipment under monitoring to the consumer using IoT technology. To implement the system in any industry it requires a simple and low-cost upgrade to the existing meters rather than complete replacement. Based on the experimental analysis, it is found that from the collected data, it is possible to obtain the pattern of consumption as well as faultiness present in the existing system. In terms of future scope of work, the presented work can also be extended to grid distribution level from which load distributed in the area can be estimated so that the system can be strengthened to enhance performance.

Digital Skills and Behaviours of Youth That Are Relevant for Digital Culture

With the proliferation of ICT and ubiquitous access to the internet, the cultural sector has been strongly affected. It had to rethink its new role by moving from a process of transforming from analogue to digital, to more engaging actions within the digital transformation. Here, one of the most important constituents was digital competencies of cultural sector employees. There is a need to provide the cultural sector with an insight into digital skills of youth that are relevant for digital culture, both in terms of their future employability and the way they consume culture. To this end, the chapter introduces the basics of digital culture and skills needed in the digital era. An exploratory study in two countries was done – Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina based on the self-evaluation of youth digital skills. This chapter evaluates basic, specialized, and advanced digital skills and identifies the gaps and gives propositions relevant to the cultural sector.