1,721,279 research outputs found
Ethical issues concerning the use of geographic information systems technology with indigenous communities
No full textThis paper discusses the ethical issues involved in the participative development of cultural heritage information systems for indigenous people, based on geographic information systems (GIS) technology. Threats arising from the use of GIS in this context are examined through a detailed analysis of the issues raised by Rundstrom (1995), Miller (1995) and Prickles (1995). A set of indigenous GIS projects reported in the literature are reviewed. A project being carried out by the author with indigenous communities in the Pilbara region of Western Australia is used as an example to explain the practical implications of such ethical issues.
GIS are combinations of hardware, software, data, procedures and people assembled for the capture, storage, retrieval, analysis and display of spatially and temporally referenced information. Miller (1995) and Prickles (1995) highlight the need to address social and ethical questions in relation to GIS.
Kling (1996) summarises the key ethical issues for information systems practitioners and reviews some approaches for dealing with them. Ethical considerations are especially important where the system users may be vulnerable to exploitation, breaches of confidentiality and misrepresentation of concepts (e.g. GIS for indigenous communities). The use of a highly participative system development methodology is critical in such circumstances, however this will not guarantee that all relevant ethical issues are appropriately addressed.
Rundstrom (1995) discusses a large number of ethical issues for cartographyand GIS related to indigenous peoples. He highlights so many potential pitfalls and ethical dilemmas that one could infer that such projects should never be attempted. However, there are strong reasons why at least some indigenous people want to use GIS. This paper examines the issues raised by Rundstrom in some detail.
The author is working with co-researcher Kathryn Trees and the indigenous community at Ieramugadu (Roebourne) Western Australia to develop an information system (ICIS) for the storage of the Ngaluma, Injibandi and Banjima peoples heritage information (Trees and Turk, in press - a; b; Turk and Trees, 1998 - a; b; c). The project seeks to aid in empowerment of indigenous communities through highly participative, culturally appropriate information systems design and implementation.
Because the most fundamental thing in indigenous culture is land (a person's "country"), ICIS must incorporate spatial aspects (Turk and Mackaness, 1995). This is being achieved through the linking of GIS software to multimedia and database elements. Using the government topographic mapping as a spatial base, new maps are being created which use the traditional names and show places of cultural significance. Multimedia elements (such as images, sounds and video sequences) can then be associated with particular locations to help convey the connection between place and traditional law.
This project addresses key ethical issues in the context of post-colonial practice, critical ethnography and visual anthropology. Culturally appropriate technology developments must complement existing oral traditions. They must also engage with specific cultural practices such as naming taboo - the prohibition on using a person's name after death. With the use of photography, film and multimedia in indigenous communities the naming taboo has been redefined to take into account the use of images (Michaels, 1990).
References: Kling, R. (1996) Beyond outlaws, hackers, and pirates: Ethical issues in the work of information and computer science professionals. In: Kling, R. (Ed.) Computerisation and controversy: Value conflicts and social choices (Second Edition). Academic Press.
Michaels, E. (1990) Bad Aboriginal Art: Tradition, Media, and Technological Horizons. Allen & Unwin.
Miller, R. P. (1995) Beyond method, beyond ethics: Integrating social theory into GIS and GIS into social theory. Cartography and Geographic Information Systems, Vol. 22, No. 1, pp. 98-103.
Prickles, J. (ed) (1995) Ground Truth. Guilford Press
Rundstrom, R. A. (1995) GIS, Indigenous Peoples, and Epistemological Diversity. Cartography and Geographic Information Systems, Vol. 22, No. 1, pp. 45-57.
Trees, K., and Turk, A.G. (in press - a) Reconciling Space: Negotiating Connection to an Indigenous Immemorial Past. In: Barcan, R., and Buchanan, I. (eds) Spaciographies: Essays in Australian Space. University of Sydney Press.
Trees, K. A. and Turk, A. G. (in press - b) Culture, Collaboration and Communication: Participative Development of the Ieramugadu Cultural Heritage Information System (ICIS). Critical Arts Journal . Vol 12, No. 1 & 2.
Turk, A.G. and Mackaness, W.A. (1995) Design considerations for spatial information systems and maps to support native title negotiation and arbitration. Cartography . Vol. 24, No. 2, pp.17-28.
Turk, A.G. and Trees, K. A. (1998-a) The Role of Information Systems in Sustaining Indigenous Communities: The Ieramugadu Cultural Project. Proceedings of the 42nd Annual Conference of the International Society for System Sciences, Atlanta, USA. - CD-ROM - 11 pages.
Turk, A.G. and Trees, K. A. (1998-b) Ethical Issues Concerning the Development of an Indigenous Cultural Heritage Information System. Proceedings: Second Symposium and Workshop on Philosophical Aspects of Information Systems: Methodology, Theory, Practice and Critique - PAIS II, University of the West of England, Bristol, UK. - 11 pages.
Turk, A.G. and Trees, K. A. (1998-c) Culture and Participation in Development of CMC: Indigenous Cultural Information System Case Study. In: C. Ess and F. Sudweeks (eds), Proceedings International Cultural Attitudes Towards Technology and Communication - CATaC'98, Science Museum, London, UK (Published by University of Sydney, Australia), pp. 263-267
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Get PDFWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Get PDFWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
Participative development of an indigenous community information system: The Ieramugadu cultural project
Get PDFThis paper describes progress on the participative development of the Ieramugadu Cultural Information System - an example of an indigenous community information system. The project is designed to develop and evaluate innovative procedures for elicitation, analysis, storage and communication of indigenous cultural heritage information. It is investigating culturally appropriate information systems design techniques; multimedia approaches; and ways to ensure protection of secret/sacred information. Effective procedures and products to facilitate the use of heritage information for education and negotiation are also being developed and evaluated. The paper summarises project progress to date and draws preliminary conclusions regarding key aspects of the research
koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist
No full textWe have done our best to complete the author checklist relating to the use of animals in the hut study. Note that the objective for the hut study was to evaluate the IRS treatment applications for residual efficacy against Anopheles mosquitoes, including the local An. coluzzii mosquito population. Cows were only used to attract mosquitoes into the huts and no tests were carried out directly on the cows. The author checklist is intended for use with studies where experiments are carried out on animals, which is why we have had such difficulty in completing this for the hut study, as many of the questions do not relate to how the cows were used
Author-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.
No full textAuthor-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.</p
- …
