Search Results (22)

The introduction of remote sensing technologies, AI and big data analytics in the utility sector is warranted by the need to provide critical services with the least disruption to customers, but also to enable preventive maintenance, extend the life cycle of infrastructure components and reduce grid loss—or overall, to exhibit ‘durability’ and ‘resilience’ when faced with the certainty of breakage and decay. In this paper, we first explore the concept of ‘resilience’ and the nature of practice from a performativist perspective in order to set the scene for discussing the impact of ‘datafication’ on maintenance practices and infrastructure durability. We then describe an instance of introducing remote sensing technologies in district heating network surveillance and leak detection: drone-operated thermographic cameras and underground wire sensors. Based on insights from this case study, we discuss the specificity of data-driven infrastructure maintenance practices, and what it means to exhibit practical resilience in relation to how such practices unfold, interrelate and evolve over time. We reflect on how the use of remote sensing technologies and data analytics (1) potentially changes district heating workers’ epistemic worlds (i.e., how knowledge emerges, is negotiated and ordered in practice) and (2) provides opportunities for ‘messy’ pipe repair work to tacitly adopt proactive and preventive logics to meet continuously evolving organizational and societal needs. Full article

In an era of rapid technological advancement, decisions about the ownership and governance of emerging technologies like Artificial Intelligence will shape the future of both urban and rural environments in the Global North and South. This article explores how AI can move beyond the noise of algorithms by adopting a technological humanistic approach to enable Social Innovation, focusing on global inequalities and digital justice. Using a fieldwork Action Research methodology, based on the Smart Rural Communities project in Colombia and Mozambique, the study develops a framework for integrating AI with SI. Drawing on insights from the AI4SI International Summer School held in Donostia-San Sebastián in 2024, the article examines the role of decentralized Web3 technologies—such as Blockchain, Decentralized Autonomous Organizations, and Data Cooperatives—in enhancing data sovereignty and fostering inclusive and participatory governance. The results demonstrate how decentralization can empower marginalized communities in the Global South by promoting digital justice and addressing the imbalance of power in digital ecosystems. The conclusion emphasizes the potential for AI and decentralized technologies to bridge the digital divide, offering practical recommendations for scaling these innovations to support equitable, community-driven governance and address systemic inequalities across the Global North and South. Full article

The aim of this study is to reveal in an interpretive way how computer-mediated communication, the Internet, and social media can be grasped by authority models and how these new types of authority influence religious communities that are (also) present on online platforms. In some cases, computer-mediated communication weakened and made traditional church authorities porous, but in other cases, it specifically helped and strengthened them. In other words, the impact of digital media is not uniform or unidirectional in this respect. Although there is no doubt that the Internet has multiplied it, made it optional, and personalized it from the user’s point of view, it has made religious authority customizable. The power of choice means that, in the digital sphere, the user decides when, what form of network authority they will submit to, for how long, and why they do so. In the classics of the sociology of religion, the concept of authority appears in a hierarchical representation under the concepts of (social) order and rationality. In other words, it cannot be thought of in a way that is contrary to rationality and contrary to social order. In network communication, the concept of authority is subordinated to technology, or as Castells puts it, power can only be interpreted with the logic of the network. Of course, the technological network and its contents are under external (legal) control, but it is precisely the power of the symbolic struggles taking place here that shows how important this issue is in the 21st century. The concept of authority classified under technology will no longer be linked to order or rationality, but to the processes of control, datafication, and attention management on the part of the owners of the platforms, while from the users’ side to concepts such as identity, authenticity, choice, and voluntariness. Its boundaries will be malleable, and the phenomenon itself will multiply. In summary, we cannot talk about one single online religious authority but more types of religious authorities, which are continuously and discursively formed, change, and occasionally hybridize. Full article

Through the conceptual framework of datafication, dataism and dataveillance, this study investigates beliefs and attitudes regarding datafication and the related privacy and security concerns among individuals with Type 1 diabetes. Qualitative research was conducted through interviews among fifty-two individuals with Type 1 diabetes in Poland and Italy. The findings reveal a dynamic interplay between self-discipline and empowerment. The majority of interviewees emphasized the benefits of technologies for gaining a better understanding of their health condition and for more effective disease management. However, a minority of interviewees perceived the negative effects of datafication, including dataveillance, which leads to hyper-control of the disease, and dataism, characterized by excessive reliance on and dependency on technology. Critical beliefs about technologies fuelled rejection attitudes, leading some interviewees to suspend or abandon their use. Lastly, reflexivity on privacy and security issues appears to be low, particularly among older individuals with lower levels of education and socioeconomic status. This results in a poor understanding and underestimation of the potential risks associated with security and privacy. The findings increase the understanding of the factors that can facilitate or hinder the adoption of technology among people with diabetes. Full article

This article investigates the intricate dynamics of data monopolies, referred to as “data-opolies”, and their implications for democratic erosion. Data-opolies, typically embodied by large technology corporations, accumulate extensive datasets, affording them significant influence. The sustainability of such data practices is critically examined within the context of decentralized Web3 technologies amidst Artificial Intelligence (AI) disruption. Additionally, the article explores emancipatory datafication strategies to counterbalance the dominance of data-opolies. It presents an in-depth analysis of two emergent phenomena within the decentralized Web3 emerging landscape: People-Centered Smart Cities and Datafied Network States. The article investigates a paradigm shift in data governance and advocates for joint efforts to establish equitable data ecosystems, with an emphasis on prioritizing data sovereignty and achieving digital self-governance. It elucidates the remarkable roles of (i) blockchain, (ii) decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs), and (iii) data cooperatives in empowering citizens to have control over their personal data. In conclusion, the article introduces a forward-looking examination of Web3 decentralized technologies, outlining a timely path toward a more transparent, inclusive, and emancipatory data-driven democracy. This approach challenges the prevailing dominance of data-opolies and offers a framework for regenerating datafied democracies through decentralized and emerging Web3 technologies. Full article

This study investigates the function of data journalism in a UK newsroom using Bourdieu’s field theory. The collection of study data was conducted through in-depth interviews, utilising a qualitative research methodology. The data obtained revealed that data journalism, a sub-field of journalism, continues to develop in an interdisciplinary structure and creates a new type of habitus (data habitus) within the field of journalism. This study also shows that the data journalism team in the newspaper has moved from being niche to being established as one of the most active and effective main sections of the newsroom, and that data-driven journalism has the potential to influence other teams. Lastly, this study suggested that the newsroom is undergoing a process of datafication by indicating the newspaper’s intention to develop data skills beyond the data journalism team. Full article

Education is important for sustainable development and drives innovation within national innovation systems. As developed economies move to matured stages of the fourth industrial revolution, the quality of education needs to keep up with the required technological changes brought about by the digital transformation created by these technologies. However, studies on the impact of the digital transformation of the higher education system and its effect on sustainability are few. This study bridged this gap by providing empirical evidence on the subject matter through a synergy of extant studies. The methodology used herein involves a combination of a systematic literature review and a bibliometric analysis. The results of this study show that the digital transformation of the higher education sector is leading to the development of sustainable curriculums, digitalization of the higher education, enhancement of innovation, and an improvement in the performance of students. It also shows that the future of the digital transformation of the higher education sector will include—the advancement of the concept of ‘Education 4.0’, an increase in gamification within the sector, a rise in the use of datafication in decision making, and the integration of artificial intelligence/augmented intelligence to reform higher education. Full article

In the context of the current energy crisis and climate change, the importance of discussions on how to incorporate monument protection into sustainable strategies that mitigate the human impact on the environment and implement renewable sources while preserving cultural values is raised. Through the case study of the Monument Reserve in Bratislava, Slovakia, this article presents the potentials and limits of the integration of photovoltaic systems in historic urban structures that directly affect their feasible participation in smart city and positive energy district concepts by means of energy cooperativeness. This study highlights the most current recommendations and basic principles on how to assess their visual impact and select the most appropriate solutions. Using the datafication process, it analyzes the irradiance of pitched and flat roof polygons of the set area based on their characteristics such as the normal vector azimuth and slope of the rooftops. For this purpose, a 3D morphological model in LOD3 detail and the open-source solar irradiation model r.sun implemented in GRASS GIS / QGIS were used. The data obtained provided an estimate of the output potential to endow the city’s power grid and were compared to the electricity consumption of the particular city district. Furthermore, these data are suitable for designing a customized technical and aesthetic solution for the integration of photovoltaics with respect to cultural sustainability, as well as for decision- and policy makers. Full article

Emerging technologies are part of the constituting datafication and digitalization process that poses major challenges to the current educational infrastructure. Clearly, universities are challenged to respond to the demands that seem to develop faster and become more complex over time. The complexity, though, is not just technical; it is the combination of technology, and specifically big data use, with job requirements, educational practices, ethical responsibilities, and the socio-cultural aspects of education. The purpose of this paper is to analyze and discuss elements of these issues in trying to clarify the complexity and lower the threshold for those who are involved and to look for a better understanding of the opportunities and challenges. Therefore, different issues related to emerging technologies are discussed, with a focus on big data and artificial intelligence, as core technologies, followed by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic as a societal development, the EdTech industry, and the ethical dimensions of the technological change and the consequences for education. Ethics have been shown to be of value, also, in times of increasing complexity and can guide the use and development of emerging technologies in higher education. Full article

This theoretical essay argues that the development of so-called ‘smart innovations’ is based on the monotonous application of seven standardized principles: electrification, digitalization, webification, datafication, personalization, actuation, and marketization. When a new smart innovation appears, what has typically occurred was the implementation of these principles to an object or process that, until that moment, had managed to remain unscathed by the smart innovation monoculture. As reactions to this dominant logic, ten major critical arguments against smart innovations have emerged in the academic literature: smart innovations are considered to be superseding, unhealthy, subordinating, exploitative, manipulative, addictive, fragile, colonial, labyrinthine, and both ecologically and socially unsustainable. To a certain extent adopting the traits of a manifesto, this essay aims to challenge the monoculture of smart innovations by means of proposing the development of a charter potentially capable of promoting change on two fronts. First, facilitating technologists to develop truly creative ideas that are not based on the application of the monotonous principles of smart innovation. Second, challenging technologists to develop new ideas and concepts that are effectively beyond the above-mentioned ten criticisms. This is a highly relevant area for citizen-driven, political, and academic activism, as smart innovations, despite their conceptual weaknesses and patent negative consequences, surprisingly continue to be preferred beneficiaries for funding in contemporary policy-making and academic research circles. Full article

Objective: The aim of this manuscript is to give an overview of structured reporting in radiological settings. Materials and Method: This article is a narrative review on structured reporting in radiological settings. Particularly, limitations and future perspectives are analyzed. RESULTS: The radiological report is a communication tool for the referring physician and the patients. It was conceived as a free text report (FTR) to allow radiologists to have their own individuality in the description of the radiological findings. However, this form could suffer from content, style, and presentation discrepancies, with a probability of transferring incorrect radiological data. Quality, datafication/quantification, and accessibility represent the three main goals in moving from FTRs to structured reports (SRs). In fact, the quality is related to standardization, which aims to improve communication and clarification. Moreover, a “structured” checklist, which allows all the fundamental items for a particular radiological study to be reported and permits the connection of the radiological data with clinical features, allowing a personalized medicine. With regard to accessibility, since radiological reports can be considered a source of research data, SR allows data mining to obtain new biomarkers and to help the development of new application domains, especially in the field of radiomics. Conclusions: Structured reporting could eliminate radiologist individuality, allowing a standardized approach. Full article

Under the current setting of a booming digital economy, digital transformation (DT) has become the only strategy available to enterprises for their development; however, it has also become a common concern in domestic and foreign academic circles. Focusing on the specific process of enterprise DT, this study builds a theoretical research framework that comprises input (I)–process (P)–output (O), and creatively divides process into three evolution stages (i.e., informatization, datafication, and intelligentization) in a dynamic manner. It selects Ping An Group, Suning Group, and Midea Group for case analysis. Through a dynamic comparison of the DT processes of the three enterprises from different fields, this study probes into the driving elements of their DT at different stages. The following differences were found: crucial driving elements originate from the technical and environmental levels during the informatization stage, the technical and participant levels during the datafication stage, and the technical and organizational levels during the intelligentization stage, with the technical driving element running through all the stages of enterprise DT. From the perspective of multiple cases, this study discusses the driving elements of enterprise DT and proposes a theoretical framework of dynamic evolution as a theoretical reference for practices in enterprise DT. Full article

The large number of new services and applications and, in general, all our everyday activities resolve in data mass production: all these data can become a golden source of information that might be used to improve our lives, wellness and working days. (Interpretable) Machine Learning approaches, the use of which is increasingly ubiquitous in various settings, are definitely one of the most effective tools for retrieving and obtaining essential information from data. However, many challenges arise in order to effectively exploit them. In this paper, we analyze key scenarios in which large amounts of data and machine learning techniques can be used for social good: social network analytics for enhancing cultural heritage dissemination; game analytics to foster Computational Thinking in education; medical analytics to improve the quality of life of the elderly and reduce health care expenses; exploration of work datafication potential in improving the management of human resources (HRM). For the first two of the previously mentioned scenarios, we present new results related to previously published research, framing these results in a more general discussion over challenges arising when adopting machine learning techniques for social good. Full article

The Metaverse, as a gigantic ecosystem application enabled mainly by Artificial Intelligence (AI), the IoT, Big Data, and Extended Reality (XR) technologies, represents an idea of a hypothetical "parallel virtual environment" that incarnates ways of living in virtually inhabitable cities. It is increasingly seen as a transition from smart cities to virtual cities and a new target for city governments to attain “new” goals. However, the Metaverse project was launched amid the COVID-19 pandemic, a crisis purported to be a rare opportunity that should be seized to reset and reimagine the world—though mainly in regard to its digital incarnation, and what this entails in terms of both cementing and normalizing the corporate-led, top-down, technocratic, tech-mediated, algorithmic mode of governance, as well as new forms of controlling ways of living in urban society. The “new normal” has already set the stage for undemocratically resetting and unilaterally reimagining the world, resulting in an abrupt large-scale digital transformation of urban society, a process of digitization and digitalization that is in turn paving the way for a new era of merging virtuality and urbanity. This has raised serious concerns over the risks and impacts of the surveillance technologies that have been rapidly and massively deployed in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. These concerns also relate to the global architecture of the computer mediation of the Metaverse upon which the logic of surveillance capitalism depends, and which is constituted by control and commodification mechanisms that seek to monitor, predict, control, and trade the behavior of human users, as well as to exile them from their own. This viewpoint paper explores and questions the Metaverse from the prism of the social and economic logic of surveillance capitalism, focusing on how and why the practices of the post-pandemic governance of urban society are bound to be undemocratic and unethical. The novelty of the viewpoint lies in providing new insights into understanding the dark side of the ostensible fancier successor of the Internet of today, thereby its value and contribution to the ongoing scholarly debates in the field of Science, Technology, and Society (STS). In addition, by shedding light on the emergence of the Metaverse as a computing platform, the viewpoint seeks to help policymakers understand and assess the ramifications of its wide adoption, as well as to help users make informed decisions about its usage in everyday activity—if it actualizes. Full article

Every day employees learn about things happening in their company. This includes plain facts witnessed while on the job, related or not to one’s job responsibilities. Many of these facts, which we call “occurrence data”, are known by employees but remain unknown to the company. We suppose that some of them are valuable and may improve the company’s situational awareness. In the spirit of mobile crowdsensing, we propose intra-company crowdsensing (ICC), a method of “extracting” occurrence data from employees. In ICC, an employee occasionally responds to sensing requests, each about one plain fact. We elaborate the concept of ICC, proposing a model of human-system interaction, a system architecture, and an organizational process. We position ICC with respect to related concepts from information technology, and we look at it from selected organizational and managerial viewpoints. Finally, we conducted a survey, in which we presented the concept of ICC to employees of different companies and asked for their evaluation. Respondents positive about ICC outnumbered skeptics by a wide margin. The survey also revealed some concerns, mostly related to ICC being perceived as another employee surveillance tool. However, useful and acceptable sensing requests are likely to be found in every organization. Full article