‘The Internet is all around us’: How children come to understand the Internet

Authors : Tina Murray, Rachel Buchanan

While children are living more of their lives online, little is known about what they understand about the implications of their online participation. Here we report on the Best Footprint Forward project which explored how children come to understand the internet.

Thirty-three children (ranging in age from 10 to 12 years old) from three primary schools in regional Australia participated in focus groups and created a work sample depicting the internet.

Analysis of the focus group transcripts and work samples revealed that while the children’s understanding of the internet was not technical, their knowledge was developed through the social activities that they engaged in online, and influenced by the interactions they have in their ‘real life’ with parents, teachers and friends.

The children in the study demonstrated an ambivalence about the internet; they regularly went online for a variety of purposes but these positive experiences were tempered by concerns and fears.

This research presents a nuanced perspective of children’s knowledge of the internet; by rejecting the notion that children are naïve, passive consumers of digital culture, analysis of their understanding reveals it to be balanced and sophisticated.

URL : ‘The Internet is all around us’: How children come to understand the Internet

Alternative location : http://www.digitalcultureandeducation.com/uncategorized/murray-buchanan-html/

De la bibliothèque à l’Internet : la matrice réticulaire

Auteur/Author : Louise Merzeau

Par l’ordonnancement méthodique des livres, la bibliothèque institue la confrontation des raisons qui pourra guider le conseil de lecture, lui-même modèle et condition du conseil au prince ou au peuple souverain.

Dans cette perspective, l’entrée des dispositifs sociotechniques dans l’ère numérique doit être interrogée dans les mêmes termes : quel type de pluralité, de liberté et de discernement autorise-t-elle ? Quelle structure d’autorité organise-telle ?

En un mot, quelle sorte de matrice l’environnement numérique installe-t-il dans l’espace du savoir et de la cité ? Pour répondre, sans doute faut-il d’abord renoncer à penser l’Internet à partir de ce modèle de la bibliothèque.

Pour la très grande majorité des utilisateurs, Internet est en effet tout autre chose qu’une bibliothèque : c’est un milieu de vie plus qu’un support et c’est cette dimension « écologique » qu’il convient aujourd’hui de penser.

Dans ce nouvel écosystème, les individus exercent toutes sortes d’activités très éloignées de l’acte de lecture institué par la bibliothèque, mais ce qui en fait la caractéristique, c’est qu’elles sont toujours en même temps des activités informationnelles.

Ces pratiques informationnelles obéissent à de nouvelles règles, où la médiation identitaire réorganise tous les contenus autour de la personne, elle-même redéfinie comme grappe de données connectées.

Au conseil, tend ainsi à se substituer le principe de la recommandation, qui dépend avant tout d’une économie de l’attention. Ce régime ne suspend pas le principe d’autorité, mais il en modifie profondément l’architecture, les industries de la recommandation dissimulant la complexité croissante de ces procédures derrière une phraséologie de la fluidité, de la transparence et de l’immédiateté.

Il revient alors aux bibliothèques, non de faire entrer de force l’Internet dans leur propre modèle, mais de développer des politiques de médiation, de métadocumentation et d’éditorialisation pour produire une intelligibilité du réseau qui aiderait les citoyens numériques à produire collectivement du conseil.

URL : https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-01546684

Embracing an Innovation Stimulus Package Over the…

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Embracing an Innovation Stimulus Package :

“Over the past several years, Google has partnered with a number of thought leaders to evaluate and quantify the Internet’s impact on the broader macro-economy. Our work has demonstrated that the Internet has a truly phenomenal impact on economic activity and opportunity, contributing to 21% of GDP growth across the G-20 from 2005-2010. However, since 2008 the global economy has fallen into a state of malaise. GDP growth is slowing worldwide and employment is stagnating as we enter a period some are calling “muddling through.” There is widespread recognition that neither a fiscal stimulus nor a prolonged period of austerity will truly remedy the situation. We believe there remain untapped opportunities to innovate across a range of critical macroeconomic activities by applying core characteristics of the Internet, which has been a source of such astounding innovation in the past decade. What we propose here will not be a panacea for our current economic ills, but by embracing the Innovation Stimulus Agenda we outline, we believe policymakers can move the economic needle in meaningful, positive and sustainable ways.”

URL : http://ssrn.com/abstract=2104350

Libraries and the network: Some considerations on how libraries are affected by the network

While the effects of the internet on libraries was recognized relatively early, few works have addressed network dynamics in terms of library operations.

This essay identifies some implications of the shift to a networked environment and its effects on library operations, with the express aim of initiating a dialog within the profession about its broader significance.

Understanding this shift, with its threats and opportunities, is critical for planning the future of libraries.

URL : http://eprints.rclis.org/17278/

La neutralité d’Internet dans les différents pays européens…

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La neutralité d’Internet dans les différents pays européens : état des débats et enseignements à en tirer :

“La neutralité du net peut être définie comme le principe selon lequel toutes les informations sont acheminées sans discrimination sur les réseaux. Ce principe, qui correspond au mode de fonctionnement historique de l’internet, a été remis en cause, sous l’influence notamment de l’accroissement du trafic et du développement des usages – légaux et illégaux -, qui ont conduit certains opérateurs mais aussi certains propriétaires de droits d’auteurs à défendre des pratiques allant contre la neutralité. Dans le prolongement d’un rapport de la mission d’information de l’Assemblée nationale publié en 2011, le ministre chargé de l’industrie, de l’énergie et de l’économie numérique a chargée Mme Laure de La Raudière, députée d’Eure-et-Loir, de dresser un panorama de l’état des débats sur la neutralité du net en Europe, l’objectif étant d’évaluer, dans la perspective d’une éventuelle intervention publique, les enseignements à tirer de la transposition des dispositions du troisième paquet télécoms et des expériences complémentaires faites dans les autres pays européens.”

URL : http://www.ladocumentationfrancaise.fr/rapports-publics/124000255-la-neutralite-d-internet-dans-les-differents-pays-europeens-etat-des-debats-et

A comparison of subscription and open access journals…

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A comparison of subscription and open access journals in construction management and related fields :

“The Internet has profoundly changed the technical infrastructure for the publishing of scientific peer reviewed journals. The traditional business model of selling the content to subscribers is increasingly being challenged by Open Access journals, which are either run at low cost by voluntary academics or which sell dissemination services to authors. In addition authors in many fields are taking advantage of the legal possibilities of uploading free manuscript versions to institutional or subject-based repositories, in order to increase readership and impact. Construction Management is lagging behind many other fields in utilising the potential of the web for efficient dissemination results, in particular to academics outside the leading universities in industrialised countries. This study looks closer at the current publishing situation in construction management and related fields and compares empirical data about 16 OA journals and 16 traditional subscription journals. Of the articles published in 2011 in the subscription journals only 9 % could be found as OA copies. The overall OA availability (including article in OA journals) was 14 % for Construction Management and Economics and 29 for construction IT scholarship.”

URL : http://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/AJCEB/article/view/27

Understanding the net neutrality debate Listening to stakeholders…

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Understanding the net neutrality debate: Listening to stakeholders :

“The Internet is increasingly seen as integral to economic progress and prosperity. Yet how the Internet will be managed as it grows and diversifies remains a hotly contested topic, as the debate on net neutrality demonstrates. Whether the Internet is neutral or not has serious implications for Internet service providers (ISPs), businesses operating online, governments, and civil society. With these stakeholders and varying interests at play, the debate about net neutrality is often characterized in terms of polar positions, and the discussion has seemed intransigent and ongoing with an uncertain end point. To increase understanding about the debate, this paper combines a review of the literature on net neutrality with evidence from interviews with four individuals, each representing the viewpoint of a major stakeholder group in Canada. Analysis of the similarities and differences among key stakeholder positions shows that in fact the positions are more complex and considerably more nuanced than typically depicted. By focussing on components of the issues, and staying away from the politics of contesting net neutrality, progress in the debate can be made. While this paper gives attention to the Canadian context in particular, the findings echo those of international organizations, and adds to the global conversation on the future of the Internet.”
URL : http://firstmonday.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/3857/3205