Papers by Gianluca Miscione
The broad and continued success of Free/Libre and Open Source Software (FLOSS) has helped to spre... more The broad and continued success of Free/Libre and Open Source Software (FLOSS) has helped to spread its ideology to many other domains, including Open Government Data (OGD), which has recently gained prominence due to its potential for feeding algorithms. Despite the anti-market and anti-corporation values around free sharing, citizen participation, and unrestricted transparency propagated in particular by a highly idealized academic discourse on OGD, our case study of the development of Switzerland's national OGD portal suggests that the altruistic and philanthropic notion that is often associated with OGD needs to be reconsidered. We show that low use, on one side, and the practical necessity towards cost-recovery behaviors, on the other side, have led to a compromise of the altruistic ideological beginnings of OGD and paved the way for a pragmatic shift towards a more utilitarian, partly even protectionist, view on liberating and sharing data.
Research on information and organization is used to highlight how organizations and their practic... more Research on information and organization is used to highlight how organizations and their practices are digitalized. In this contribution, the opposite angle is taken: the focus is on how values and organizing practices originated on the internet avoid, encounter, and clash-not without controversies-with existing organizations. WikiLeaks and Snowden's revelations regarding governments' secret activities marked a breakdown in journalist organizations, just as they have been having largely unimaginable consequences including the widely spreading adoption of cryptography and the European Union GDPR. The peculiar ways in which WikiLeaks and Snowden pulled together people and information technologies exemplify two distinct modes of digital organizing: one more closely derived from the original culture of the internet based on radical openness, the other more sensitive to broadly established Western institutions such as freedom of speech and freedom of the press. The contrast between these distinct modes of organizing suggests that recognizable narratives fill the gaps left open by the diverse social orders spanned by digital infrastructures. Overall, these case studies illustrate some peculiarities of digital transformation in contemporary organizations and societies.
Sui Limiti Della Rete (On the Net Boundaries)
SSRN Electronic Journal, 2005
Italian Abstract: L'idea di cercare e focalizzarmi sui limiti della comunicazione telematica ... more Italian Abstract: L'idea di cercare e focalizzarmi sui limiti della comunicazione telematica -o del cosiddetto 'ciberspazio'- ha preso forma nell'autunno del 1998, nel pieno dell'entusiasmo collettivo per Internet. Tale immaginario collettivo, visto dalla prospettiva di pubblicista per una rivista di settore, e vissuto da un corso di laurea in Scienze della Comunicazione (in un momento in cui forse quell’entusiasmo lo legittimava piu del dovuto) informava eccessivamente le mie attivita e pensieri quotidiani. Una certa attitudine critica e la frequentazione di autori del 'poststrutturalismo francese' mi spinse a proseguire gli studi in Spagna, dove questo lavoro e nato, ha trovato slancio e -alcuni anni dopo- si e concluso. Presento qui un discorso con riferimenti a casi empirici, con l'obiettivo di criticare l'idea che i nuovi media producano uno spazio di comunicazione autonomo. L'entusiasmo collettivo coagulatosi attorno alle promesse fatte dalle tecnologie dell'informazione e della comunicazione ha diffuso e sostenuto una concezione eterea della comunicazione. In questa ricerca si argomenta invece come i nuovi media estendano lo spazio di comunicazione e azione degli attori, ponendo di conseguenza specifiche questioni sociali e politiche. Mi occupo quindi di limiti non fisici, ma legati a cio contro cui questo immaginario leviatano logico andava a scontrarsi: le esistenti relazioni sociali e di potere. Il risultato e una critica all'allora egemonico, e tuttora latente, libertarismo naif di numerose interpretazione della Rete. Se forse studiando la comunicazione non si puo comprendere il silenzio, su cui concludo questo testo, approcci provenienti dalla scienze sociali come l'etnografia, permettono di proseguire la ricerca. Suddetta traiettoria ha portato la mia attivita di ricerca sui margini della cosiddetta societa della conoscenza (che sulla comunicazione presuppone di basarsi): su cosa avviene attorno a progetti di sviluppo nel 'Terzo Mondo' basati sulle tecnologie della comunicazione.English Preface:The sociology of communication has evolved through a number of iterations since the end of the Second World War. The initial engagement with social effects and functional uses of communications technology gradually gave way to alternative preoccupations with cultural studies, deconstruction, hermeneutics of different stripes, media imperialism, anthropology of media, postmodernism, critical theory, political economy of media, among other explanatory conventions too numerous to list here. While varied in assumptions and method, all approaches of the past half century can be distilled down to a fundamental question: how does a communications medium or technology alter the information environment and thus the basis of society and do these modifications improve or undermine the quality and breadth of social communications? While woven into the premise of all schools of thought in communication research, few seemed to recognize or clearly articulate this central and crucial question even though it may be assumed at some deeply embedded level. This study does.
Telemedicine and Development
Untouchable" Metro of Delhi - Dilemmas of Participation
Blockchain as organizational technology
University of Zurich, Department of Informatics IFI Colloquium, Zurich, Switzerland, 28th Februar... more University of Zurich, Department of Informatics IFI Colloquium, Zurich, Switzerland, 28th February 2019
A Geographic and Mixed Methods Approach to Capture Unequal Quality-of-Life Conditions
The aim of this chapter is to present a methodological approach to map unequal quality-of-life an... more The aim of this chapter is to present a methodological approach to map unequal quality-of-life and citizen’s self-perceived living conditions. The objective is to critically explore new approaches where the combination of multiple sources of information collected via mixed methods offers new insights at the same time as raises new challenges. This chapter draws from various case studies carried out in the global South and North. All the cases made use of adjustments of our framework that combines measures of objective and subjective quality-of-life in a mixed method approach. Although the cases are located in cities of different countries, the results show the emergence of similar questions and concerns related to the construction, use and validity of the collected information and poses new questions about what knowledge can be derived from it. The results also show the policy relevance of mapping and explaining self-perceived quality-of-life conditions for targeting and implementin...
Geo - ICT in public governance
Introduction Governance refers to the processes, rules and rationalities that affect the way in w... more Introduction Governance refers to the processes, rules and rationalities that affect the way in which power is exercised at different jurisdictional levels, particularly regarding openness, participation, accountability, effectiveness and coherence. Governance processes include a) inter-governmental processes, b) participatory public policy formulation, and c) the provision of relevant information services to citizens. These processes often have a geographic component when related to spatial problems. When governance is mediated by flexible information ...
Organization, 2019
The global financial crisis and the contemporaneous emergence of the digital currency Bitcoin inv... more The global financial crisis and the contemporaneous emergence of the digital currency Bitcoin invite us to think about money and how it often functions almost imperceptibly in society. In this article, we show that Bitcoin is a ‘new object of concern’ that also compels us to reimagine ethnography in a digital age. We present a method, which we term ethno-resonance, that is both a reaction to the conditions presented by the Bitcoin phenomenon and a way of maintaining critical distance from its cyberlibertarian politics. We explicate six aspects of the method, framed around answers to what, why, how, who, when and where questions. Applied to cryptocurrencies, the method leads us to depict Bitcoin as a game, and we analyse the game’s dynamics through mapping the interplay between four foundational myths that animate, complicate and sustain the game. More broadly, this contributes to our understanding of the nature of money and alternative currencies.
Tittel: Exploring the use and effect of Intermediary Objects in a global open source organisation Publisert år: 2008 Dokumenttype: Masteroppgave Språk: Engelsk
Global Visibility and Local Accountability
Information Infrastructure Growth: Installers as Frontier Objects
Challenges of Open Source Software Capacity Building among DHIS2 developers in India
Investigating the Influence of Resource Dependencies on Compliance to National Policies of Geo-information: A Resource Dependence Perspective in Uganda (Msc)
Understanding of data quality in human sensor web
Applicability of Volunteered Geographic Information in Assessing Subjective Quality of Life: Case from Zanzibar
Investigating Justice Systems in Land Conflict Resolution: A Case Study of Kinondoni Municipality, Tanzania
... Resolution: A Case Study of Kinondoni Municipality, Tanzania by Gertrude Sackey ... To all my... more ... Resolution: A Case Study of Kinondoni Municipality, Tanzania by Gertrude Sackey ... To all my Ghanaian friends: Kwame, Amos, Angela, Sammy Snr., Sammy Jnr., Gavu, Eric,Ben and Ernest you made this place more than home for me. ...
CRC Press eBooks, Apr 5, 2011
This book contains information obtained from authentic and highly regarded sources. Reasonable ef... more This book contains information obtained from authentic and highly regarded sources. Reasonable efforts have been made to publish reliable data and information, but the author and publisher cannot assume responsibility for the validity of all materials or the consequences of their use. The authors and publishers have attempted to trace the copyright holders of all material reproduced in this publication and apologize to copyright holders if permission to publish in this form has not been obtained. If any copyright material has not been acknowledged please write and let us know so we may rectify in any future reprint. Except as permitted under U.S. Copyright Law, no part of this book may be reprinted, reproduced, transmitted, or utilized in any form by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying, microfilming, and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without written permission from the publishers.
Uploads
Papers by Gianluca Miscione