Catalogue Search | MBRL
Are you sure you want to remove the book from the shelf?
{{itemTitle}}
80,043
result(s) for
"INFORMATION INFRASTRUCTURE"
Sort by:
Studying Infrastructuring Ethnographically
This paper is motivated by a methodological interest in how to investigate information infrastructures as an empirical, real-world phenomenon. We argue that research on information infrastructures should not be captive to the prevalent method choice of small-scale and short-term studies. Instead research should address the challenges of empirically studying the heterogeneous, extended and complex phenomena of infrastructuring with an emphasis on the necessarily emerging and open-ended processual qualities of information infrastructures. While existing literature identifies issues that make the study of infrastructuring demanding, few propose ways of addressing these challenges. In this paper we review characteristics of information infrastructures identified in the literature that present challenges for their empirical study. We look to current research in the social sciences, particularly anthropology and science and technology studies (STS) that focus on how to study complex and extended phenomena ethnographically, to provide insight into the study of infrastructuring. Specifically, we reflect on infrastructuring as an object of ethnographic inquiry by building on the notion of “constructing the field.” Recent developments in how to conceptualize the ethnographic field are tied both to longstanding traditions and novel developments in anthropology and STS for studying extended and complex phenomena. Through a discussion of how dimensions of information infrastructures have been addressed practically, methodologically, and theoretically we aim to link the notion of constructing the ethnographic field with views on infrastructuring as a particular kind of object of inquiry. Thus we aim to provide an ethnographically sensitive and methodologically oriented “opening” for an alternative ontology for studying infrastructuring ethnographically.
Journal Article
Signal Traffic
The contributors to Signal Traffic investigate how the material artifacts of media infrastructure--transoceanic cables, mobile telephone towers, Internet data centers, and the like--intersect with everyday life. Essayists confront the multiple and hybrid forms networks take, the different ways networks are imagined and engaged with by publics around the world, their local effects, and what human beings experience when a network fails.
Some contributors explore the physical objects and industrial relations that make up an infrastructure. Others venture into the marginalized communities orphaned from the knowledge economies, technological literacies, and epistemological questions linked to infrastructural formation and use. The wide-ranging insights delineate the oft-ignored contrasts between industrialized and developing regions, rich and poor areas, and urban and rural settings, bringing technological differences into focus.
Contributors include Charles R. Acland, Paul Dourish, Sarah Harris, Jennifer Holt and Patrick Vonderau, Shannon Mattern, Toby Miller, Lisa Parks, Christian Sandvig, Nicole Starosielski, Jonathan Sterne, and Helga Tawil-Souri.
eBook
Measuring the Flexibility of Information Technology Infrastructure: Exploratory Analysis of a Construct
Researchers and practitioners alike have taken note of the potential value of an organization's IT infrastructure. IT infrastructure expenditures account for over 58 percent of an organization's IT budget and the percentage is growing at 11 percent a year. Some even have called IT infrastructure the new competitive weapon and see it as being crucial in developing a sustained competitive advantage. Unique characteristics of an IT infrastructure determine the value of that infrastructure to an organization. One characteristic, IT infrastructure flexibility, has captured the attention of researchers and practitioners. In fact, in most recent surveys featuring issues of most importance to IT executives, the development of a flexible and responsive IT infrastructure and related topics are always at or near the top of the responses. Although the importance of IT infrastructure flexibility has been established, the development of a valid, reliable instrument to measure this construct has not been reported in the literature. The purpose of this paper is to better define the IT infrastructure flexibility construct and to develop a valid, reliable measurement instrument for this construct. In addition to the definition and operationalization of the IT infrastructure flexibility construct, this study explores the instrument's predictive validity with possible antecedent and consequent variables.
Journal Article
Qualitative Research on Information Poverty in Rural Areas: Taking Guizhou Province as an Example
[Purpose/Significance] The targets and tasks for poverty alleviation in the new era have been met as scheduled, and all rural residents living under the current poverty line have been lifted out of poverty. However, information dissemination remains a weak spot. Therefore, this study explores the influencing factors of information poverty in rural areas of Guizhou Province to provide a basis for promoting the coordinated development of urban and rural information communication. [Method/Process] Based on the in-depth interviews of 87 farmers in poor rural areas in five years, this paper sorted out the interview data based on NVIVO11 software according to the grounded theory principle in qualitative research. This paper makes a qualitative analysis on the influencing factors of rural information poverty from three aspects: farmers' self-factors, information infrastructure construction factors and information acquisition content factors. [Results/Conclusions] Influencing factors lead to the farmers' weak awareness of information, information dissemination is not smooth and the content of dissemination is not complete and accurate, and the information utility is unsatisfactory.
Journal Article
Cybersecurity Resilience Maturity Assessment Model for Critical National Information Infrastructure
Critical National Information Infrastructure (CNII) that supports modern society is faced with constantly evolving threats due to inherent vulnerabilities and complex interlace of interdependencies. Thus, traditional approaches in protecting critical infrastructure can no longer suffice. Successful cyberattacks against CNII may have a debilitating impact on a nation due to cascading or common cause effects. Therefore, to ensure the continuous availability of CNII, the infrastructure must be prepared to be resilient to cyberattacks. Consequently, CNII organisations need to understand their cybersecurity maturity status and identify the gaps to aid improvement. Current approaches in gauging infrastructural resilience are qualitative and cannot quantify the degree of maturity. Thus, this article presents a Cybersecurity Resilience Measurement Model (CRMM) for quantitative assessment of CNII resilience maturity. Considering the effects of
pre-event
,
during-event
and
post-event
factors, the concept of CNII Resilience Quadrant (CNIIRQ) was developed for the comparative analysis of organisations. The CRMM was evaluated using data collected from 20 CNII organisations and it accurately gave the CNII Resilience Index. A grouping of CNIIRI of the organisations in CNIIRQ showed that 35% of them fall in Q4—a level of optimised resilience, 10% are in Q1, depicting an initial and weak resilience. Analysis of the Resilience Temporal Dimensions (RTDs) and Resilient Functions (RFs) revealed that while most of the organisations are prepared to resist attacks (pre-event), there is weak preparedness to respond to or recover from successful cyberattacks. The implication is that these organisations have gaps in
during-event
and
post-event
capabilities that need to be addressed.
Journal Article
From Gutenberg to the Global Information Infrastructure
Will the emerging global information infrastructure (GII) create a revolution in communication equivalent to that wrought by Gutenberg, or will the result be simply the evolutionary adaptation of existing behavior and institutions to new media? Will the GII improve access to information for all? Will it replace libraries and publishers? How can computers and information systems be made easier to use? What are the trade-offs between tailoring information systems to user communities and standardizing them to interconnect with systems designed for other communities, cultures, and languages?This book takes a close look at these and other questions of technology, behavior, and policy surrounding the GII. Topics covered include the design and use of digital libraries; behavioral and institutional aspects of electronic publishing; the evolving role of libraries; the life cycle of creating, using, and seeking information; and the adoption and adaptation of information technologies. The book takes a human-centered perspective, focusing on how well the GII fits into the daily lives of the people it is supposed to benefit.Taking a unique holistic approach to information access, the book draws on research and practice in computer science, communications, library and information science, information policy, business, economics, law, political science, sociology, history, education, and archival and museum studies. It explores both domestic and international issues. The author's own empirical research is complemented by extensive literature reviews and analyses.
eBook
The Generative Mechanisms of Digital Infrastructure Evolution
The current literature on digital infrastructure offers powerful lenses for conceptualizing the increasingly interconnected information system collectives found in contemporary organizations. However, little attention has been paid to the generative mechanisms of digital infrastructure, that is, the causal powers that explain how and why such infrastructure evolves over time. This is unfortunate, since more knowledge about what drives digital infrastructures would be highly valuable for managers and IT professionals confronted by the complexity of managing them. To this end, this paper adopts a critical realist view for developing a configurational perspective of infrastructure evolution. Our theorizing draws on a multimethod research design comprising an in-depth case study and a case survey. The in-depth case study, conducted at a Scandinavian airline, distinguishes three key mechanisms of digital infrastructure evolution: adoption, innovation, and scaling. The case survey research of 41 cases of digital infrastructure then identifies and analyzes causal paths through which configurations of these mechanisms lead to successful evolution outcomes. The study reported in this paper contributes to the infrastructure literature in two ways. First, we identify three generative mechanisms of digital infrastructure and how they contingently lead to evolution outcomes. Second, we use these mechanisms as a basis for developing a configurational perspective that advances current knowledge about why some digital infrastructures evolve successfully while others do not. In addition, the paper demonstrates and discusses the efficacy of critical realism as a philosophical tradition for developing substantive contributions in the field of information systems.
Journal Article
Review of the monograph “Begishev I. R., Bikeev I. I. Crimes in the sphere of digital information circulation. Kazan: Poznaniye Publishers, 2020, 300 p.”
Objective: to conduct a detailed and comprehensive analysis of the monograph by I. R. Begishev and I. I. Bikeev devoted to the study of a wide range of issues related to liability for crimes in the field of digital information circulation.Methods: the methodological basis of the study is a set of general and specific scientific methods of cognition traditional for works in Law.Results: the main provisions, conclusions and the authors’ suggestions set out in the reviewed monograph are analyzed, which are related to the legal nature of crimes in the sphere of digital information circulation and regulation of criminal liability for their commission. In particular, the basic definitions of digital information concepts, crimes in the sphere of digital information circulation and other terms are formulated for various branches of knowledge; the problems of “safe computer attack” are considered; based on the authors’ interpretation of crimes in the sphere of digital information circulation, suggestions are made for improving Articles 137, 138, 141, 159.6, 183, 226.1, 272, 273, 274, 274.1 272.1 of the Russian Criminal Code, and complementing Article 272.1 “Acquisition or sale of legally protected digital information, knowingly obtained by criminal means\" and Article 273.1 “Illegal circulation of special technical means intended for violation of digital information protection systems”.Scientific novelty: theoretical and applied aspects of countering crimes in the sphere of digital information circulation are evaluated. It is concluded that the monograph makes a significant contribution to the development of the Russian legal doctrine on the legal regulation of responsibility for committing socially dangerous acts in the sphere of digital information circulation.Practical significance: the reviewer concluded that the monograph by I. R. Begishev and I. I. Bikeyev has a practice-oriented character, and can also serve as an impetus for a new scientific discussion on the problems identified in the study.
Journal Article