DEVELOPING A METHOD FOR IDENTIFYING AND REDUCING FUNCTIONAL DISCREPANCIES OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS

Currently more than half of Electronic Health Record (EHR) projects fail. Most of these failures are not due to flawed technology, but rather due to the lack of systematic considerations of human issues. Among the barriers for EHR adoption, function mismatching among users, activities, and systems is a major area that has not been systematically addressed from a human-centered perspective. A theoretical framework called Functional Framework was developed for identifying and reducing functional discrepancies among users, activities, and systems. The Functional Framework is composed of three models – the User Model, the Designer Model, and the Activity Model. The User Model was developed by conducting a survey (N = 32) that identified the functions needed and desired from the user’s perspective. The Designer Model was developed by conducting a systemic review of an Electronic Dental Record (EDR) and its functions. The Activity Model was developed using an ethnographic method called shadowing where EDR users (5 dentists, 5 dental assistants, 5 administrative personnel) were followed quietly and observed for their activities. These three models were combined to form a unified model. From the unified model the work domain ontology was developed by asking users to rate the functions (a total of 190 functions) in the unified model along the dimensions of frequency and criticality in a survey. The functional discrepancies, as indicated by the regions of the Venn diagrams formed by the three models, were consistent with the survey results, especially with user satisfaction. The survey for the Functional Framework indicated the preference of one system over the other (R=0.895). The results of this project showed that the Functional Framework provides a systematic method for identifying, evaluating, and reducing functional discrepancies among users, systems, and activities. Limitations and generalizability of the Functional Framework were discussed.

Accuracy and self correction of information received from an internet breast cancer list: content analysis.

OBJECTIVES: To determine the prevalence of false or misleading statements in messages posted by internet cancer support groups and whether these statements were identified as false or misleading and corrected by other participants in subsequent postings. DESIGN: Analysis of content of postings. SETTING: Internet cancer support group Breast Cancer Mailing List. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Number of false or misleading statements posted from 1 January to 23 April 2005 and whether these were identified and corrected by participants in subsequent postings. RESULTS: 10 of 4600 postings (0.22%) were found to be false or misleading. Of these, seven were identified as false or misleading by other participants and corrected within an average of four hours and 33 minutes (maximum, nine hours and nine minutes). CONCLUSIONS: Most posted information on breast cancer was accurate. Most false or misleading statements were rapidly corrected by participants in subsequent postings.

Attitudes, stress and use of force in selected areas of Texas law enforcement

This research aimed to explore the extent to which police use of force was related to attitudes towards violence, agency type, and racism. Previous studies have found a culture of honor in the psychology of violence in the Southern United States. Were similar attitudes measurable among Texas professional line officers? Are there predictors of use of force?^ A self reported anonymous survey was administered to Texas patrol officers in the cities of Austin and Houston, and the Counties of Harris and Travis. A total of seventy-four questionnaires were used in the statistical analyses. Scales were developed measuring use of force, attitudes towards violence, and feelings on racism. Their relationship was examined.^ A regression model shows a strong and significant relationship between the officers' attitudes towards violence and the self-reported use of force. Further, agency type, municipal versus sheriff, also predicts use of force. Attitudes regarding race or racism, as measured by this study, were not predictive of use of force. ^

The International Law of Culture : Prospects and Challenges

This is a conference review of an event on the international law of culture, which took place in late May 2012 at the University of Göttingen, Germany. The review provides context to it considering the complex landscape of international initiatives of hard and soft law nature, which address culture and their impact on the environment, where cultural rights are to be exercised.

Cultural Diversity as a Concept of Global Law : Origins, Evolution and Prospects

“Cultural diversity” has become one of the latest buzzwords on the international policymaking scene. It is employed in various contexts – sometimes as a term close to “biological diversity”, at other times as correlated to the “exception culturelle” and most often, as a generic concept that is mobilised to counter the perceived negative effects of economic globalisation. While no one has yet provided a precise definition of what cultural diversity is, what we can observe is the emergence of the notion of cultural diversity as incorporating a distinct set of policy objectives and choices at the global level. These decisions are not confined, as one might have expected, to cultural policymaking, but rather spill over to multiple governance domains because of the complex linkages inherent to the simultaneous pursuit of economic and other societal goals that cultural diversity encompasses and has effects on. Accounting for these intricate interdependencies, the present article clarifies the origins of the concept of cultural diversity as understood in global law and traces its evolution over time. Observing the dynamics of the concept and the surrounding political and legal developments, the article explores its justification and overall impact on the global legal regime, as well as its discrete effects on different domains of policymaking, such as media, intellectual property and culture. While the analysis is legal in essence, the article is meant to speak also to a broader transdisciplinary public. The article is part of the speacial issue on ethnic diversity and cultural pluralism, which is available under the creative commons licence: http://www.mdpi.com/journal/diversity/special_issues/ethnic-diversity/.

The Law of the WTO and the Communications Law of the EC : On a Path of Harmony or Discord?

This paper presents an overview of the law of the World Trade Organization (WTO) relevant to telecommunications services and correlates this body of law with the current regulatory framework for electronic communications networks and services in the European Community. The latter has been adapted to meet the challenges of technological and market developments in communications, epitomized by the processes of digitization, enhanced transport networks and convergence. The novel solutions embodied in the EC electronic communications regime, notably, a new design of the Significant Market Power mechanism, a projected withdrawal of sector specific regulation and an affirmation of the principle of technological neutrality, pose interesting questions as to the conformity of this reformed EC communications law with the WTO rules on telecommunications services and the obligations of the European Communities and their Member States. Looking beyond the WTO legal compatibility test, essential questions regarding the need for evolution of the WTO telecommunications rules are raised. The present paper contributes to the ongoing debate in that context in light of the EC experience.

The Protection and Promotion of Cultural Diversity in a Digital Networked Environment : Mapping Possible Advances to Coherence

The present paper is the result of a four-year-long project examining the concept and the policies of cultural diversity and the impact of digital media upon the regulatory environment where the goal of cultural diversity is to be achieved. The focus of the project was primarily on the international level and in particular on the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), which also epitomise the often framed as opposing pair of trade and culture. In the broad context of the project, we sought to pinpoint the essential elements of an international trade-and-culture conducive framework that can also overcome the existing fragmentation in the field of international law and move towards more coherent solutions. In a narrower context, we sketched some possible improvements to the WTO law that can make it more suitable to the digital networked environment and to the objective of diverse media that some states aspire. . Our key messages are: (1) Neither the WTO nor UNESCO currently offers appropriate solutions to the trade and culture predicament and allows for efficient protection and promotion of cultural diversity; (2) The trade and culture discourse is overly politicised and due to the related path dependencies, a number of feasible solutions appears presently blocked; (3) The digital networked environment has profoundly changed the ways cultural content is created, distributed, accessed and consumed, and may thus offer good reasons to reassess and readjust the present models of governance; (4) Access to information appears to be the most appropriate focus of the discussions with view to protecting and promoting cultural diversity in the new digital media setting, both in local and global contexts; (5) This new focal point demands also broadening and interconnecting the policy discussions, which should go beyond the narrow scope of audiovisual media services, but cautiously account for the developments at the network and applications levels, as well as in other domains, such as most notably intellectual property rights protection; (6) There are various ways in which the WTO can be made more conducive to cultural policy considerations and these include, among others, improved and updated services classifications; enhanced legal certainty with regard to digitally transferred goods and services; incorporation of rules on subsidies for services and on competition.

Business as Usual? : An Appraisal of the Implementation of the UNESCO Convention on Cultural Diversity into EU’s Media Law and Policies

Irrespective of the diverse stances taken on the effect of the UNESCO Convention on Cultural Diversity in the external relations context, since its wording is fairly open-ended, it is clear to all observers that the Convention’s impact will largely depend on how it is implemented domestically. The discussion on the national implementation of the Convention, both in the policy and in the academic discourses, is only just emerging. The implementation model of the EU could set an important example for the international community and for the other State Parties that have ratified the UNESCO Convention, as both the EU and its Member States acting individually, have played a critical role in the adoption of the Convention, as well as in the longer process of promoting cultural concerns on the international scene. Against this backdrop, this article analyses the extent to which the EU internal law and policies, in particular in the key area of media, take into account the spirit and the letter of the UNESCO Convention on Cultural Diversity. The article seeks to critically evaluate the present state of affairs and make some recommendations for calibration of future policies.

Business as Usual? : The Implementation of the UNESCO Convention on Cultural Diversity and EU Media Law and Policies

Irrespective of the diverse stances taken on the effect of the UNESCO Convention on Cultural Diversity in the external relations context, since its wording is fairly open-ended, it is clear to all observers that the Convention’s impact will largely depend on how it is implemented domestically. The discussion on the national implementation of the Convention, both in the policy and in the academic discourses, is only just emerging, although six years the Convention’s entry into force have passed. The implementation model of the EU can set an important example for the international community and for the other State Parties that have ratified the UNESCO Convention, as both the EU and its Member States acting individually, have played a critical role in the adoption of the Convention, as well as in the longer process of promoting cultural concerns on the international scene. Against this backdrop, this article analyses the extent to which the EU internal law and policies, in particular in the key area of media, take into account the spirit and the letter of the UNESCO Convention on Cultural Diversity. Next to an assessment of the EU’s implementation of the Convention, the article also offers remarks of normative character – in the sense of what should be done to actually attain the objective of protecting and promoting cultural diversity. The article seeks to critically evaluate the present state of affairs and make some recommendations for calibration of future policies.

Global Cultural Law and Policy in the Age of Ubiquitous Internet

Digital technologies and the Internet in particular have transformed the ways we create, distribute, use, reuse and consume cultural content; have impacted on the workings of the cultural industries, and more generally on the processes of making, experiencing and remembering culture in local and global spaces. Yet, few of these, often profound, transformations have found reflection in law and institutional design. Cultural policy toolkits, in particular at the international level, are still very much offline/analogue and conceive of culture as static property linked to national sovereignty and state boundaries. The article describes this state of affairs and asks the key question of whether there is a need to reform global cultural law and policy and if yes, what the essential elements of such a reform should be.

Book Review: Benedetta Brevini, Arne Hintz, and Patrick Mccurdy (eds.): Beyond Wikileaks. Implications for the Future of Communications, Journalism and Society

This is a review of the highly informative and thought-provoking book, Beyond WikiLeaks: Implications for the Future of Communications, Journalism and Society, co-edited by Benedetta Brevini, Arne Hintz and Patrick McCurdy (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013).