Digital constitutionalism and the role of the rule of law in the governance of virtual communities

This project proposes a new conceptual framework for the regulation of social networks and virtual communities. By applying a model based upon the rule of law, this thesis addresses the growing tensions that revolve around the public use of private networks. This research examines the shortcomings of traditional contractual governance models and cyberlaw theory and provides a reconstituted approach that will allow public constitutional-type interests to be recognised in the interpretation and enforcement of contractual doctrine.

Using digital rights management for securing data in a medical research environment

We propose a digital rights management approach for sharing electronic health records in a health research facility and argue advantages of the approach. We also give an outline of the system under development and our implementation of the security features and discuss challenges that we faced and future directions.

The use of phase in complex spectrum subtraction for robust speech recognition

In this paper we propose a new method for utilising phase information by complementing it with traditional magnitude-only spectral subtraction speech enhancement through Complex Spectrum Subtraction (CSS). The proposed approach has the following advantages over traditional magnitude-only spectral subtraction: (a) it introduces complementary information to the enhancement algorithm; (b) it reduces the total number of algorithmic parameters, and; (c) is designed for improving clean speech magnitude spectra and is therefore suitable for both automatic speech recognition (ASR) and speech perception applications. Oracle-based ASR experiments verify this approach, showing an average of 20% relative word accuracy improvements when accurate estimates of the phase spectrum are available. Based on sinusoidal analysis and assuming stationarity between observations (which is shown to be better approximated as the frame rate is increased), this paper also proposes a novel method for acquiring the phase information called Phase Estimation via Delay Projection (PEDEP). Further oracle ASR experiments validate the potential for the proposed PEDEP technique in ideal conditions. Realistic implementation of CSS with PEDEP shows performance comparable to state of the art spectral subtraction techniques in a range of 15-20 dB signal-to-noise ratio environments. These results clearly demonstrate the potential for using phase spectra in spectral subtractive enhancement applications, and at the same time highlight the need for deriving more accurate phase estimates in a wider range of noise conditions.

Implications for the design of a digital stethoscope for anaesthetic preadmission consultations

Background This research addresses the development of a digital stethoscope for use with a telehealth communications network to allow doctors to examine patients remotely (a digital telehealth stethoscope). A telehealth stethoscope would allow remote auscultation of patients who do not live near a major hospital. Travelling from remote areas to major hospitals is expensive for patients and a telehealth stethoscope could result in significant cost savings. Using a stethoscope requires great skill. To design a telehealth stethoscope that meets doctors’ expectations, the use of existing stethoscopes in clinical contexts must be examined. Method Observations were conducted of 30 anaesthetic preadmission consultations. The observations were video- taped. Interaction between doctor, patient and non-human elements in the consultation were “coded” to transform the video into data. The data were analysed to reveal essential aspects of the interactions. Results The analysis has shown that the doctor controls the interaction during auscultation. The conduct of auscultation draws heavily on the doctor’s tacit knowledge, allowing the doctor to treat the acoustic stethoscope as infrastructure – that is, the stethoscope sinks into the background and becomes completely transparent in use. Conclusion Two important, and related, implications for the design of a telehealth stethoscope have arisen from this research. First, as a telehealth stethoscope will be a shared device, doctors will not be able to make use of their existing expertise in using their own stethoscopes. Very simply, a telehealth stethoscope will sound different to a doctor’s own stethoscope. Second, the collaborative interaction required to use a telehealth stethoscope will have to be invented and refined. A telehealth stethoscope will need to be carefully designed to address these issues and result in successful use. This research challenges the concept of a telehealth stethoscope by raising questions about the ease and confidence with which doctors could use such a device.

A story worth telling : putting oral history and digital collections online in cultural institutions

Digital platforms in cultural institutions offer exciting opportunities for oral history and digital storytelling that can augment and enrich traditional collections. The way in which cultural institutions allow access to the public is changing dramatically, prompting substantial expansions of their oral history and digital story holdings. In Queensland, Australia, public libraries and museums are becoming innovative hubs of a wide assortment of collections that represent a cross-section of community groups and organisations through the integration of oral history and digital storytelling. The State Library of Queensland (SLQ) features digital stories online to encourage users to explore what the institution has in the catalogue through their website. Now SLQ also offers oral history interviews online, to introduce users to oral history and other components of their collections,- such as photographs and documents to current, as well as new users. This includes the various departments, Indigenous centres and regional libraries affiliated with SLQ statewide, who are often unable to access the materials held within, or even full information about, the collections available within the institution. There has been a growing demand for resources and services that help to satisfy community enthusiasm and promote engagement. Demand increases as public access to affordable digital media technologies increases, and as community or marginalised groups become interested in do it yourself (DIY) history; and SLQ encourages this. This paper draws on the oral history and digital story-based research undertaken by the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) for the State Library of Queensland including: the Apology Collection: The Prime Minister’s apology to Australia’s Indigenous Stolen Generation; Five Senses: regional Queensland artists; Gay history of Brisbane; and The Queensland Business Leaders Hall of Fame.

China's Creative Industries : Copyright, Social Network Markets and the Business of Culture in a Digital Age

China’s Creative Industries explores the role of new technologies, globalization and higher levels of connectivity in re-defining relationships between ‘producers’ and ‘consumers’ in 21st century China. The evolution of new business models, the impact of state regulation, the rise of entrepreneurial consumers and the role of intellectual property rights are traced through China’s film, music and fashion industries. The book argues that social network markets, consumer entrepreneurship and business model evolution are driving forces in the production and commercialization of cultural commodities. In doing so it raises important questions about copyright’s role in the business of culture, particularly in a digital age.

The digital economy bill and the UK’s creative industries : a perspective from China

The Digital Economy Bill has been heavily criticized by consumer organizations, internet service providers and technology experts on the grounds that it will reduce the public’s ability to access politically sensitive information, impinge on citizens’ rights to privacy, threaten freedom of expression and have a chilling effect on digital innovation. Its passage in spite of these criticisms reflects, among other things, the power of the rhetoric that has been employed by its proponents. This paper examines economic arguments surrounding the digital economy debate in light of lessons from one of the world's fastest growing economies: China.

What learners "know" through digital media production : learning by design

The power to influence others in ever-expanding social networks in the new knowledge economy is tied to capabilities with digital media production that require increased technological knowledge. This article draws on research in elementary classrooms to examine the repertoires of cross-disciplinary knowledge that literacy learners need to produce innovative digital media via the “social web”. The article builds on Learning by Design and the Knowledge Processes to describe “how” learning occurs, while presenting a model to theorise “what” students know – the Knowledge Assets – when learners produce digital and multimodal texts.

Visualizing digital media interactions : providing feedback on jam2jam AV performances

Instrumental music performance is a well-established case of real-time interaction with technology and, when extended to ensembles, of interaction with others. However, these interactions are fleeting and the opportunities to reflect on action is limited, even though audio and video recording has recently provided important opportunities in this regard. In this paper we report on research to further extend these reflective opportunities through the capture and visualization of gestural data collected during collaborative virtual performances; specifically using the digital media instrument Jam2jam AV and the specifically-developed visualization software Jam2jam AV Visualize. We discusses how such visualization may assist performance development and understanding. The discussion engages with issues of representation, authenticity of virtual experiences, intersubjectivity and wordless collaboration, and creativity support. Two usage scenarios are described showing that collaborative intent is evident in the data visualizations more clearly than in audio-visual recordings alone, indicating that the visualization of performance gestures can be an efficient way of identifying deliberate and co-operative performance behaviours.

Listening to voices of self : digital journaling among gifted young adolescents

The lives of gifted young adolescents are often subject to adult-generated and expert narratives that can impact a developing sense of self. However, opportunities for gifted young adolescents to represent themselves as informants can emerge through digital forms of qualitative research. This paper reports on the value of digital writing of journal entries, delivered by email to a researcher over several months, as an alternative to face-to-face interviews. Journaling methods combined with techniques of 'listening for voices' can support young adolescents in generating their own multi-vocal narratives of self. This method capturing self-narratives in email form has the potential to produce rich understandings of individual young adolescents' self-constructions.

Self-narratives of children : using digital journals

This paper takes the position that children are at risk of being marginalised when research methods are not tailored to their requirements. In particular, children who are negotiating early adolescence are presented as an ideal group for involvement with narrative research approaches that attempt to be flexible and creative. With the premise that the need to juggle multiple realities within complex societal structures is challenging and isolating for such children, narrative methods offer a promising mode of access to their individual realities. Children's own self-narratives in the form of email journal entries are proposed as research tools that can help to minimise issues arising from resistance to adults and problems of shared vocabulary that may occur using more traditional methods. Digital journaling, as a means of capturing self-narratives, can provide a convenient space for young people to generate and share their own personal accounts of their lives and their experiences that can also serve to inform others. Guidelines are offered for how to manage a journaling project that is not reliant on children's physical presence within school settings. Digital journals are thus described as multi-function mechanisms that can support personal growth as well as promote shared understandings and social fairness between adults and children.

iPed : pedagogy for digital text production

Reading and writing are being transformed by global changes in communication practices using new media technologies. This paper introduces iPed, a research-based pedagogy that enables teachers to navigate innovative digital text production in the literacy classroom. The pedagogy was generated in the context of a longitudinal digital literacy intervention in a school that services low-socioeconomic and ethnically diverse students. iPed synthesizes four key pedagogies that were salient in the analysis of over 180 hours of lesson observations – Link, Challenge, Co-Create, and Share. The strengths of the pedagogy include connecting to students’ home cultures, critical media literacy, collaborative and creative digital text production, and gaining cosmopolitan recognition within global communities.