Collective Action, Politics & Government, Publications

Online collective action and policy change: new special issue from Policy and Internet

by Anastasia Kavada 18/03/2013

The internet has provided citizens with a greater capacity for coordination and mobilisation, which can strengthen their voice and representation in the policy agenda.

by Anastasia Kavada 18/03/2013

The Internet has multiplied the platforms available to influence public opinion and policy making. It has also provided citizens with a greater capacity for coordination and mobilisation, which can strengthen their voice and representation in the policy agenda. As waves of protest sweep both authoritarian regimes and liberal democracies, this rapidly developing field calls for more detailed enquiry. However, research exploring the relationship between online mobilisation and policy change is still limited. This special issue of ‘Policy and Internet’ addresses this gap through a variety of perspectives. Contributions to this issue view the Internet both as a tool that allows citizens to influence policy making, and as an object of new policies and regulations, such as data retention, privacy, and copyright laws, around which citizens are mobilising. Together, these articles offer a comprehensive empirical account of the interface between online collective action and policy making. Within this framework, the first article in this issue, “Networked Collective Action and the Institutionalized Policy Debate: Bringing Cyberactivism to the Policy Arena?” by Stefania Milan and Arne Hintz (2013), looks at the Internet as both a tool of collective action and an object of policy. The authors provide a comprehensive overview of how computer-mediated communication creates not only new forms of organisational structure for collective action, but also new contentious policy fields. By focusing on what the authors define as ‘techie activists,’ Milan and Hintz explore how new grassroots actors participate in policy debates around the governance of the Internet at different levels. This article provides empirical evidence to what Kriesi et al. (1995) defines as “windows of opportunities” for collective action to contribute to the policy debate around this new space of contentious politics. Milan and Hintz demonstrate how this has happened from the first World Summit of Information Society (WSIS) in 2003 to more recent debates about Internet regulation. Yana Breindl and François Briatte’s (2013) article “Digital Protest Skills and Online Activism Against…

Collective Action, Ethics, Mapping, Politics & Government

Did Libyan crisis mapping create usable military intelligence?

by Steve Stottlemyre 14/03/2013

While many people continued to contribute conventional humanitarian information to the map, the sudden shift toward information that could aid international military intervention was unmistakable.

by Steve Stottlemyre 14/03/2013

The Middle East has recently witnessed a series of popular uprisings against autocratic rulers. In mid-January 2011, Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali fled his country, and just four weeks later, protesters overthrew the regime of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. Yemen’s government was also overthrown in 2011, and Morocco, Jordan, and Oman saw significant governmental reforms leading, if only modestly, toward the implementation of additional civil liberties. Protesters in Libya called for their own ‘day of rage’ on February 17, 2011, marked by violent protests in several major cities, including the capitol Tripoli. As they transformed from ‘protestors’ to ‘Opposition forces’ they began pushing information onto Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube, reporting their firsthand experiences of what had turned into a civil war virtually overnight. The evolving humanitarian crisis prompted the United Nations to request the creation of the Libya Crisis Map, which was made public on March 6, 2011. Other, more focused crisis maps followed, and were widely distributed on Twitter. While the map was initially populated with humanitarian information pulled from the media and online social networks, as the imposition of an internationally enforced No Fly Zone (NFZ) over Libya became imminent, information began to appear on it that appeared to be of a tactical military nature. While many people continued to contribute conventional humanitarian information to the map, the sudden shift toward information that could aid international military intervention was unmistakable. How useful was this information, though? Agencies in the U.S. Intelligence Community convert raw data into useable information (incorporated into finished intelligence) by utilising some form of the Intelligence Process. As outlined in the U.S. military’s joint intelligence manual, this consists of six interrelated steps all centred on a specific mission. It is interesting that many Twitter users, though perhaps unaware of the intelligence process, replicated each step during the Libyan civil war; producing finished intelligence adequate for consumption by NATO commanders and rebel leadership. It…

Methods, Politics & Government

Experiments are the most exciting thing on the UK public policy horizon

by Helen Margetts 28/02/2013

Very few of these experiments use manipulation of information environments on the internet as a way to change people’s behaviour. The Internet seems to hold enormous promise for ‘Nudging’ by redesigning ‘choice environments’.

by Helen Margetts 28/02/2013

What makes people join political actions? Iraq War protesters crowd Trafalgar Square in February 2007. Image by DavidMartynHunt.

Experiments—or more technically, Randomised Control Trials—are the most exciting thing on the UK public policy horizon. In 2010, the incoming Coalition Government set up the Behavioural Insights Team in the Cabinet Office to find innovative and cost effective (cheap) ways to change people’s behaviour. Since then the team have run a number of exciting experiments with remarkable success, particularly in terms of encouraging organ donation and timely payment of taxes. With Bad Science author Ben Goldacre, they have now published a Guide to RCTs, and plenty more experiments are planned. This sudden enthusiasm for experiments in the UK government is very exciting. The Behavioural Insights Team is the first of its kind in the world—in the US, there are few experiments at federal level, although there have been a few well publicised ones at local level—and the UK government has always been rather scared of the concept before, there being a number of cultural barriers to the very word ‘experiment’ in British government. Experiments came to the fore in the previous Administration’s Mindscape document. But what made them popular for Public Policy may well have been the 2008 book Nudge by Thaler and Sunstein, which shows that by knowing how people think, it is possible to design choice environments that make it “easier for people to choose what is best for themselves, their families, and their society.” Since then, the political scientist Peter John has published ‘Nudge, Nudge, Think, Think, which has received positive coverage in The Economist: The use of behavioural economics in public policy shows promise and the Financial Times: Nudge, nudge. Think, think. Say no more …; and has been reviewed by the LSE Review of Books: Nudge, Nudge, Think, Think: experimenting with ways to change civic behaviour. But there is one thing missing here. Very few of these experiments use manipulation of information environments on the internet as a way to change people’s behaviour. The Internet…

Child Safety, Governance & Security, Methods

Uncovering the structure of online child exploitation networks

by Martin Bouchard 07/02/2013 2 Comments

Despite large investments of law enforcement resources, online child exploitation is nowhere near under control, and while there are numerous technological products to aid this, they still require substantial human intervention.

by Martin Bouchard 07/02/2013 2 Comments

The Internet has provided the social, individual, and technological circumstances needed for child pornography to flourish. Sex offenders have been able to utilise the Internet for dissemination of child pornographic content, for social networking with other pedophiles through chatrooms and newsgroups, and for sexual communication with children. A 2009 estimate by the United Nations estimates that there are more than four million websites containing child pornography, with 35 percent of them depicting serious sexual assault [1]. Even if this report or others exaggerate the true prevalence of those websites by a wide margin, the fact of the matter is that those websites are pervasive on the world wide web. Despite large investments of law enforcement resources, online child exploitation is nowhere near under control, and while there are numerous technological products to aid in finding child pornography online, they still require substantial human intervention. Despite this, steps can be taken to increase the automation process of these searches, to reduce the amount of content police officers have to examine, and increase the time they can spend on investigating individuals. While law enforcement agencies will aim for maximum disruption of online child exploitation networks by targeting the most connected players, there is a general lack of research on the structural nature of these networks; something we aimed to address in our study, by developing a method to extract child exploitation networks, map their structure, and analyse their content. Our custom-written Child Exploitation Network Extractor (CENE) automatically crawls the Web from a user-specified seed page, collecting information about the pages it visits by recursively following the links out of the page; the result of the crawl is a network structure containing information about the content of the websites, and the linkages between them [2]. We chose ten websites as starting points for the crawls; four were selected from a list of known child pornography websites while the other six were selected and…

Collective Action, Governance & Security, Publications

Papers on Policy, Activism, Government and Representation: New Issue of Policy and Internet

by David Sutcliffe 16/01/2013

Investigating the relationship between Internet-based applications and data and the policy process.

by David Sutcliffe 16/01/2013

We are pleased to present the combined third and fourth issue of Volume 4 of Policy and Internet. It contains eleven articles, each of which investigates the relationship between Internet-based applications and data and the policy process. The papers have been grouped into the broad themes of policy, government, representation, and activism. POLICY: In December 2011, the European Parliament Directive on Combating the Sexual Abuse, Sexual Exploitation of Children and Child Pornography was adopted. The directive’s much-debated Article 25 requires Member States to ensure the prompt removal of child pornography websites hosted in their territory and to endeavor to obtain the removal of such websites hosted outside their territory. Member States are also given the option to block access to such websites to users within their territory. Both these policy choices have been highly controversial and much debated; Karel Demeyer, Eva Lievens, and Jos Dumortie analyse the technical and legal means of blocking and removing illegal child sexual content from the Internet, clarifying the advantages and drawbacks of the various policy options. Another issue of jurisdiction surrounds government use of cloud services. While cloud services promise to render government service delivery more effective and efficient, they are also potentially stateless, triggering government concern over data sovereignty. Kristina Irion explores these issues, tracing the evolution of individual national strategies and international policy on data sovereignty. She concludes that data sovereignty presents national governments with a legal risk that can’t be addressed through technology or contractual arrangements alone, and recommends that governments retain sovereignty over their information. While the Internet allows unprecedented freedom of expression, it also facilitates anonymity and facelessness, increasing the possibility of damage caused by harmful online behaviour, including online bullying. Myoung-Jin Lee, Yu Jung Choi, and Setbyol Choi investigate the discourse surrounding the introduction of the Korean Government’s “Verification of Identity” policy, which aimed to foster a more responsible Internet culture by mandating registration of a user’s real…

Books, Education

UK teenagers without the Internet are ‘educationally disadvantaged’

by Rebecca Eynon 22/12/2012

The researchers’ interviews with teenagers reveal that they felt shut out of their peer group socially and also disadvantaged in their studies as so much of the college or school work set for them to do at home required online research or preparation.

by Rebecca Eynon 22/12/2012

A major in-depth study examining how teenagers in the UK are using the internet and other mobile devices says the benefits of using such technologies far outweigh any perceived risks. The findings are based on a large-scale study of more than 1,000 randomly selected households in the UK, coupled with regular face-to-face interviews with more than 200 teenagers and their families between 2008 and 2011. While the study reflects a high level of parental anxiety about the potential of social networking sites to distract their offspring, and shows that some parents despair at their children’s tendency to multitask on mobile devices, the research by Oxford University’s Department of Education and Oxford Internet Institute concludes that there are substantial educational advantages in teenagers being able to access the internet at home. Teenagers who do not have access to the internet in their home have a strong sense of being ‘educationally disadvantaged’, warns the study. At the time of the study, the researchers estimated that around 10 per cent of the teenagers were without online connectivity at home, with most of this group living in poorer households. While recent figures from the Office of National Statistics suggest this dropped to five per cent in 2012, the researchers say that still leaves around 300,000 children without internet access in their homes. The researchers’ interviews with teenagers reveal that they felt shut out of their peer group socially and also disadvantaged in their studies as so much of the college or school work set for them to do at home required online research or preparation. One teenager, whose parents had separated, explained that he would ring his father who had internet access and any requested materials were then mailed to him through the post. Researcher Dr Rebecca Eynon commented: ‘While it’s difficult to state a precise figure for teenagers without access to the internet at home, the fact remains that in the UK, there…

Health, Wellbeing

Searching for a “Plan B”: young adults’ strategies for finding information about emergency contraception online

by Eszter Hargittai 15/10/2012

While the Internet is a valuable source of information about sexual health for young adults, difficulty in searching and evaluating credibility may prevent them from finding useful information in time.

by Eszter Hargittai 15/10/2012

People increasingly turn to the Internet for health information, with 80 percent of U.S. Internet users (59 percent of adults) having used the Web for this purpose. However, because there is so much health content online, users may find it difficult to find reliable content quickly. Research has also shown that websites hosting information about the most controversial topics—including Emergency Contraceptive Pills, ECPs—contain a great number of inaccuracies. While the Internet is a potentially valuable source of information about sexual health topics for young adults, difficulty in searching and evaluating credibility may prevent them from finding useful information in time. Emergency contraception has long been heralded as a “second chance” for women to prevent pregnancy after unprotected intercourse. However, the commercial promotion and use of ECPs has been a highly contentious issue in the United States, a fact that has had a significant impact on legislative action and accessibility. Due to their limited window of effectiveness and given that people do not tend to obtain them until the moment when they are needed urgently, it is essential for people to be able to find accurate information about ECPs as quickly as possible. Our study investigated empirically how over 200 young college students (18-19 years old) at two college campuses in the Midwestern United States searched for and evaluated information about emergency contraception. They were given the hypothetical scenario: “You are at home in the middle of summer. A friend calls you frantically on a Friday at midnight. The condom broke while she was with her boyfriend. What can she do to prevent pregnancy? Remember, neither of you is on campus. She lives in South Bend, Indiana.” All of the students had considerable experience with using the Internet. Worryingly, a third of the participants, after looking for information online, were unable to conclude that the friend should seek out ECPs. Less than half gave what we consider the ideal response: to…

Education

Understanding low and discontinued Internet use amongst young people in Britain

by Rebecca Eynon 08/10/2012 1 Comment

Why do these people stop using the Internet given its prevalence and value in the lives of the majority of their peers? What difficulties do they face in being unable to connect properly with the online world?

by Rebecca Eynon 08/10/2012 1 Comment

The Internet has become an important feature of the lives of the majority of young British people, providing them with another avenue to support their learning, inform their life choices about work and life opportunities, make and maintain friendships, and learn about and engage with the world around them. For many it is taken for granted. While the extent to which young people engage with the opportunities of the online world varies considerably, the majority of this age group can be considered to be within the digital mainstream. Indeed, in popular discourse many commentators assume that all young people are digitally included, and notions of the ‘google generation’ or ‘net gen’ continue to flourish. However, the reality is far more nuanced and complex than this—when we empirically explore how young people really engage with the Internet and related technology we see a significant amount of diversity in how and why they use it, and the influences it has on their lives. We know from nationally representative survey data that around 10% of young people in the UK (aged 17–23) define themselves as people who no longer use the Internet, that is as ‘lapsed users’. This group is fascinating. Why do these people stop using the Internet given its prevalence and value in the lives of the majority of their peers? What difficulties do they face in being unable to connect properly with the online world? The widely held and very powerful assumption by government, commercial organisations and the wider public that all young people are frequent and confident users of the Internet is clearly inaccurate. Worryingly, however, this public assumption that the current generation of youth is ‘born digital’ is so powerful that it has informed numerous policies and initiatives that determine young people’s lives. Furthermore, the majority of academic research investigating how young people access, use and experience the Internet actually focuses on those we might consider as belonging…

Conferences

The “IPP2012: Big Data, Big Challenges” conference explores the new research frontiers opened up by big data as well as its limitations

by David Sutcliffe 24/09/2012

Big data generation and analysis requires expertise and skills which can be a particular challenge to governmental organisations.

by David Sutcliffe 24/09/2012

Recent years have seen an increasing buzz around how ‘Big Data’ can uncover patterns of human behaviour and help predict social trends. Most social activities today leave digital imprints that can be collected and stored in the form of large datasets of transactional data. Access to this data presents powerful and often unanticipated opportunities for researchers and policy makers to generate new, precise, and rapid insights into economic, social and political practices and processes, as well as to tackle longstanding problems that have hitherto been impossible to address, such as how political movements like the ‘Arab Spring’ and Occupy originate and spread. Opening comments from convenor,Helen Margetts While big data can allow the design of efficient and realistic policy and administrative change, it also brings ethical challenges (for example, when it is used for probabilistic policy-making), raising issues of justice, equity and privacy. It also presents clear methodological and technical challenges: big data generation and analysis requires expertise and skills which can be a particular challenge to governmental organisations, given their dubious record on the guardianship of large scale datasets, the management of large technology-based projects, and capacity to innovate. It is these opportunities and challenges that were addressed by the recent conference “Internet, Politics, Policy 2012: Big Data, Big Challenges?” organised by the Oxford Internet Institute (University of Oxford) on behalf of the OII-edited academic journal Policy and Internet. Over the two days of paper and poster presentations and discussion it explored the new research frontiers opened up by big data as well as its limitations, serving as a forum to encourage discussion across disciplinary boundaries on how to exploit this data to inform policy debates and advance social science research. Duncan Watts (Keynote Speaker) The conference was organised along three tracks: “Policy,” “Politics,” and Data+Methods (see the programme) with panels focusing on the impact of big data on (for example) political campaigning, collective action and political dissent, sentiment…

Collective Action, Politics & Government, Video

Preserving the digital record of major natural disasters: the CEISMIC Canterbury Earthquakes Digital Archive project

by Paul Millar 29/06/2012

The Internet can be hugely useful to coordinate disaster relief efforts, or to help rebuild affected communities.

by Paul Millar 29/06/2012

The 6.2 magnitude earthquake that struck the centre of Christchurch on 22 February 2011 claimed 185 lives, damaged 80% of the central city beyond repair, and forced the abandonment of 6000 homes. It was the third costliest insurance event in history. The CEISMIC archive developed at the University of Canterbury will soon have collected almost 100,000 digital objects documenting the experiences of the people and communities affected by the earthquake, all of it available for study. The Internet can be hugely useful to coordinate disaster relief efforts, or to help rebuild affected communities. Paul Millar came to the OII on 21 May 2012 to discuss the CEISMIC archive project and the role of digital humanities after a major disaster (below). We talked to him afterwards. Ed: You have collected a huge amount of information about the earthquake and people’s experiences that would otherwise have been lost: how do you think it will be used? Paul: From the beginning I was determined to avoid being prescriptive about eventual uses. The secret of our success has been to stick to the principles of open data, open access and collaboration—the more content we can collect, the better chance future generations have to understand and draw conclusions from our experiences, behaviour and decisions. We have already assisted a number of research projects in public health, the social and physical sciences; even accounting. One of my colleagues reads balance sheets the way I read novels, and discovers all sorts of earthquake-related signs of cause and effect in them. I’d never have envisaged such a use for the archive. We have made our ontology is as detailed and flexible as possible in order to help with re-purposing of primary material: we currently use three layers of metadata—machine generated, human-curated and crowd sourced. We also intend to work more seriously on our GIS capabilities. Ed: How do you go about preserving this information during a period of…

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