Integrating Blockchain Platforms With Big Data Solutions for Regional Innovation Development

The chapter discusses the creation of a mechanism for ensuring reliable and secure interaction among participants in regional innovation systems based on the establishment of smart contracts in the blockchain. The technology allows to reduce the possibility of fraud by dishonest participants, as well as to exclude the need for a third party by transferring its functions to a smart contract. This is important for ensuring confidential and transparent relations between participants in innovative projects, as well as with interested subjects of social and economic activities in the regions. The Ethereum blockchain platform was chosen to create smart contracts. On its basis, there were developed components to perform transactions in contracting, creating, and implementing innovations, transferring intellectual property rights, using rights and licenses for innovation, etc. The main component of the system is a distributed transaction register with digital copies of innovation objects.

Development of Avatar-Based Models and Tools for People With Intellectual Disabilities

The chapter is about development of consciousness, emotion, motivation, and level of aspiration, with the ways that people react to the psychological, traumatic experience caused by the gradual realization of incapacity. Some people with an intellectual disability are capable of learning together with normally-developing peers if provided with special support; however, there are others who will need an individual education program adapted to their capabilities. The most important focus in working with such students is the individual approach with regard to the specific mentality and health of each person. Such an approach can be achieved through instructional methods like avatar-based learning as the improved development of project-based learning.

Avatar-Based Modeling of Digital Communication in Political Conflicts

Many of the findings within the data have generated more questions than answers; but in doing so, illuminated several paths of further investigation that may provide greater insights into the complexities of stabilizing troubled states. This chapter then, is a starting point on a journey to discover more effective means to deliver humanitarian and development aid to conflicted societies without doing greater harm in the process. Holland discusses the utility of flight simulators in helping commercial airline pilots experience a variety of scenarios that would be unthinkable to expose passengers to in the real world. The value of the pilot's experience in the simulator depends on how closely the simulator matches the aircraft it models. With even greater numbers of lives and resources at stake, utilizing agent-based modeling as a policy simulator would allow leaders to experiment with numerous response and intervention strategies in a very short period of time.

Digital Marketing and E-Tailing Technological Innovations

In an age of public mistrust of the most basic institutions, businesses are not exempted. Essentially all e-tailers want to deliver personalized and real-time communications to customers that are tailored to their interests and preferences, and are based on big data mining that customers will value over privacy concerns. This is an era in which e-commerce retailers continue to dominate the marketplace and it is integral that consumers are able to trust the manufacturers, retailers, and the service/product reviews that they read online. Such trust is particularly important if their ultimate purchase decision is a successful one. A survey of middle-level managers was analyzed to identity the basic elements: e-personalization, namely online purchasing behaviors, personalized communications, information-retrieval services, degree of personal web presence, quality assurance of customer service, and the promotion of customization services. These elements were found to be conceptually and statistically related to retailer benefits of increased buying and customer loyalty.

Open Education in Digital Era With Avatar-Based Control and Estimation

Open education becomes the important approach for education in the digital age and it plays a significant role in broadening educational access and increasing higher educational opportunities. The author of the chapter considers the basic principles and emerging trends in quality assurance of distance higher education in the digital age. Considering the intelligent distance education system as a dynamic, time-developing system, one can speak of the underlying computer imitation model that has an independent theoretical and practical value. The objective of this chapter is to explore how can information technologies influence the distance education quality assurance, specifically, to develop a conceptual framework for the intelligent distance education system. In addition to direct application for educational quality management system's evaluation, the simulation model can be used to solve a much wider range of tasks: forecasting, risk assessment, rating of courses, individual teachers, and individual institutions.

Training for the Digital Economy

In this chapter, we will focus on training because the success of the digital economy is determined by knowledge, and therefore the people who create and apply knowledge. In the context of the digital economy, training has two main contexts: training with competencies that are in demand for the digital economy (regardless of the learning technology), and e-learning, in fact, implementing digital technologies in education, for training in any field. In general, the Federal project “Personnel for the digital economy” offers a fairly comprehensive approach to training. It is planned to create conditions for the implementation of personal trajectories of development and profiles of competencies of citizens, the development of the education system for the training of competent specialists in the field of digital economy, the implementation of retraining programs for the professions in demand in the digital economy, the involvement of highly-qualified foreign specialists, and the implementation of promising educational projects with the support of the venture fund.

Development and Implementation of Digital Tools, Neural Networks, and Cyber Control Systems in Sliding Modes

This chapter seeks to understand the EU-ACP trade relations under the economic partnership agreement (EPA) arrangement and its implications on economic nationalism of developing nations with specific reference to Zimbabwe. The research strongly leans on the view that EPAs have little or no economic benefit to the ACP. Even though the EU tagged the ensuing trade relationship with the ACP as partnership, in the real sense, it is more of paternalism. This is especially so as the EU dictates the terms and the pace of the negotiation, owns the incentives (in the form of aid and technical assistance), and either dispenses or withdraws it at will, depending on the “behavior” of the ACP countries. In order to benefit from EPAs, ACP countries must fund their own economies. ACP states should also address internal political challenges before committing to multiple economic fronts such as the EPAs.

Blockchain Technology Is Changing the Innovation Aspect in the Digital Economy

In the digital era, banks are moving from their traditional methods of innovation to high-tech technologies. They have been working hard to provide a secure platform to their customers. With their continuous efforts and hard work, the concept of Blockchain technology came into notice. Blockchain technology is popularly known for Bitcoins. Nearly every third person or organization either knows about blockchain technology or uses it. Blockchain technology can address most of the issues related to Digital Transactions, Double Spending, and Currency Reproduction. The chapter will discuss the basic concept of Blockchain, its history, how its networks and technology work, and how its primary technologies evolved. By the end of the chapter, the technical design and expected outcomes will be clearly understood. The chapter also tries to review other research done in this domain.

Ethical Implications of Cooperation and Safety vis-à-vis Cyber Security in Africa

Discourses on the threats to cyber security in today's digital society have revealed that cyberspace has become an arena of complex national security concern. This lends credence to the fact that many countries, especially in Africa, need to urgently scale up their efforts to effectively secure the Internet and ICT infrastructures. Drawing upon extensive literature on cyber-security challenges, this chapter examines the phenomenon of cybercrime using Ronald Rogers' “protection motivation theory”. The study employs qualitative analysis of the current cyber-security landscape in Africa. Findings posit that with the risk and vulnerability of the cyberspace, cyber security in Africa poses a number of unique challenges which predicate a coordinated response for security and safety engagement. The study suggests collaborative measures to counter cybercrime through investigation, prosecution, and sharing information.

Cross-Cluster Projects in Development of Innovations and New Industries

In modern conditions, innovations appear not so much as a result of successive linear processes, but as a result of cross-functional interactions between different industries. Modern innovative projects are the results of cross-cultural, cross-information, cross-disciplinary collaborations. Their results are not only the development of perspective projects, but also the emergence of new industries in the economy. In the Chapter, the model of implementation of cross-innovative projects in the cluster as an EFFECTIVE modern production system is considered. Prerequisites are investigated and the model of realization of cross-cluster projects is offered. Considered are examples of successful implementation of collaborative projects within the clusters of countries in Western Europe and the USA. The perspective directions of cross-cluster projects for the development of the economy of Russian regions are determined. Dedicated perspective purposes for the management companies of clusters to promote cross-cluster innovation.