Social Networking

In the field of identity politics and cultural identity, the representation of differences plays a crucial role. The extent of the differences a society has determines the social outcomes in divergent ways. Surely, there are other variables that cause social anxiety or communal solidarity such as religious views, socio-political conditions and also gender relations. To the point of departure, the case of homosexuality, or in a general way, the boundaries of sexuality is very controversial field so as to reveal the effects of ideologies, social conditions and historical past where all of these evolved through times. In order to understand and to reach a general view, the experiences of small towns are very decisive and unavoidable parts of such studies. As a basic explanation, that is why Arlene Stein chooses to make an ethnographic study in the USA around 1990s. In this paper, I will try to make a basic analysis of ‘The Stranger Next Door: The Story of a Small Community’s Battle Over Sex, Faith and Civil Rights’ by presenting my reading of this story and through reacting to the general points.

This entry reviews and discusses several issues regarding online friendship. After introducing two opposite perspectives: the cues-filtered-out perspective and the social information process theory, it examines empirical studies with particular focuses on online friendships development, comparisons between online friendship and its offline counterpart, and the impacts of online friendship on the offline life.

Com o fenômeno global do envelhecimento populacional, as atenções recaem na busca da melhoria de qualidade de vida para idosos. A Organização Mundial da Saúde [1] destaca aspectos como transporte, habitação, trabalho, proteção social, serviços de saúde e cuidados de longo prazo. Assim, o conceito Cohousing vem ao encontro do Envelhecimento Saudável, otimizando a capacidade funcional do idoso, permitindo-o realizar tarefas que lhe sejam importantes [1]. As Cohousings são comunidades intencionais surgidas em 1972 na Dinamarca [2], resgatando valores de comunidade e estilos de vida saudáveis. As Senior Cohousings, destinadas a maiores de 50 anos, favorecem o acesso a cuidados intensivos de saúde, autonomia e convivência social, representando diferentes significados e experiências nos campos físico, psicológico e social [3]. No Brasil, a internet vem auxiliando na informação e na organização social de grupos com afinidades e objetivos comuns [4]. De 2011 a 2013, o número de idosos brasileiros utilizando redes sociais, especialmente sites de relacionamento, aumentou 39,3% [5]. Esse perfil do “novo idoso” integra o conceito do Envelhecimento Ativo, um processo de otimização das oportunidades de saúde, participação e segurança. Estudos anteriores revelam traços do perfil dos moradores mais velhos das cohousings na Suécia [6] e identificam diretrizes projetuais através do processo participativo com futuros moradores no Brasil, porém sem foco etário [2]. O artigo objetiva traçar um perfil dos possíveis futuros usuários idosos dessas comunidades, pelo acompanhamento de postagens e comentários espontâneos em redes sociais e sites, buscando (i) identificar as razões que levariam adultos mais velhos a viver em cohousings no Brasil e (ii) avaliar a importância de fatores físicos, psicológicos e sociais nesta escolha. Para isso, realizou-se uma pesquisa bibliográfica sobre cohousing, psicologia ambiental e idosos e análise de conteúdo [7] em sites com grupos brasileiros da rede social Facebook que tenham como tema cohousing e participantes idosos interessados em adotar este modo de habitação. A análise, feita a partir de palavras-chave, identifica aspectos do significado da casa: Psicológica, Social, Econômica, Material, Temporal e Tempo- Espaço [3]. Partindo dos resultados obtidos através da categorização das palavras chaves dentro das 6 dimensões analisadas conclui-se que existe uma maior ocorrência de intensões a respeito de moradias compartilhadas dentro de duas categorias em especial: material e psicológica. As expectativas por parte dos relatos dentro da dimensão psicológica são quase tão importantes quanto as expectativas na material. Essa busca por amparo psicológico em seu ambiente de moradia, pode ser creditada a perdas nas capacidades físicas, cognitivas e sociais, levando a um estreitamento da inserção social dos idosos e um consequente sentimento de abandono e solidão [8]. Também relevante, é a presença maior de depoimentos femininos, totalizando 90,47% dentre os coletados. Uma das hipóteses para essa ocorrência maior entre mulheres é a busca por afirmação de independência [6]. O perfil do novo idoso dentro do conceito de Envelhecimento Ativo, auxilia na compreensão do aumento da procura por moradias alternativas, especialmente pelas cohousing, pois a organização deste tipo de comunidade, reforça os valores buscados por este novo perfil, presentes nos depoimentos dos idosos analisados.

There is relatively little research considering motivations of passive Facebook use. However, research regarding motivations of general Facebook use indicates that people use Facebook to escapee and that escapism may motivate passive Facebook use. Research also suggests that using Facebook to escape is associated with Facebook addiction. Using an experimental vignette design, the present research investigated whether passive Facebook use is motivated by escapism and whether this escape motivation is associated with passive Facebook addiction. A within-participant experimental design using vignettes was used to explore the effect of positivity and, in addition, socialness on passive Facebook use. Addiction to passive Facebook use and perceived effect of passive Facebook use on mood were also assessed. Participants (n ¼ 69) responded to 16 vignettes describing daily life events, as well as responding to a question about passive Facebook use on mood and completing the Bergen Facebook Addiction Scale. Results suggested that individuals did not use Facebook to escape. There was no association between escapism in passive Facebook use and passive Facebook addiction. Social contact had a positive effect on passive Facebook use, and participants perceived passive Facebook use to have no effect on mood. Findings suggest that passive Facebook use is a less effective method of escape than general Facebook use, and reducing individuals' likelihood of experiencing Facebook addiction symptoms.

L’aumento dei canali di contatto e di comunicazione ha, per un museo, effetti anche di natura strettamente commerciale: l’aumento dell’utenza potenziale e, dunque, della domanda potenziale, può rendere il museo un ‘prodotto’ commercialmente più appetibile dal punto di vista degli investimenti o delle sponsorizzazioni, una ulteriore occasione per i finanziatori di pubblicizzare il proprio marchio o la propria azienda. Attraverso un'analisi 'empirica' dell'utenza remota di alcuni siti web museali italiani e stranieri a confronto, si analizzano criticità e potenzialità dell'uso del web per queste istituzioni museali.

The semiotics of the face studies the meaning of the human face in contemporary visual cultures. There are two complementary research foci: widespread practices of face exhibition in social networks like Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and Tinder; and minority practices of occultation, including the mask in anti-establishment political activism (Anonymous) and the veil in religious dressing codes. The meaning of the human face is currently changing on a global scale: through the invention and diffusion of new visual technologies (digital photography, visual filters, as well as software for automatic face recognition); through the creation and establishment of novel genres of face representation (the selfie); and through new approaches to face perception, reading, and memorization (e.g., the ‘scrolling’ of faces on Tinder). Cognitions, emotions, and actions that people attach to the interaction with one’s and others’ faces are undergoing dramatic shifts. In the semiotics of the face, an interdisciplinary but focused approach combines visual history, semiotics, phenomenology, visual anthropology, but also face perception studies and collection and analysis of big data, so as to study the social and technological causes of these changes and their effects in terms of alterations in self-perception and communicative interaction. In the tension between, on the one hand, political and economic agencies pressing for increasing disclosure, detection, and marketing of the human face (for reasons of security and control, for commercial or bureaucratic purposes) and, on the other hand, the counter-trends of face occultation (parents ‘hiding’ their children from the Internet, political activists concealing their faces, religious or aesthetic veils, writers and artists like Bansky or Ferrante choosing not to reveal their identity), the visual syntax, the semantics, and the pragmatics of the human face are rapidly evolving. The semiotics of the face carries on a comprehensive survey of this socio-cultural phenomenon.

İletişim olgusu, toplumsal bir varlık olan insan için her dönem önemli bir konuma sahip olmuştur. Tarihin ilk dönemlerinden itibaren doğa ile iç içe yaşayan insan beslenme, barınma ve korunma gibi temel ihtiyaçlarını giderirken iletişim kurmaya çabalamıştır. İletişim her dönem insanların hayatlarını biçimlendirmiş, yaşayışlarına yön vermiştir. Toplumsal dönüşümü hızlandıran ve sosyalleşmeyi biçimlendiren iletişim olgusu, medyanın etkisiyle birlikte daha zengin bir yapıya kavuşmuştur. Geleneksel medyadan yeni medyaya dönüşüm sürecinde iletişim teknolojileri etkisini derinden hissettirmiş ve içinde yaşadığımız dönem “medya çağı” olarak ifade edilmeye başlamıştır. İletişim bugün gerek sokakta, gerek evde izlediğimiz televizyonlarda, gerek sanal ortamda ve gerekse de reel hayatımızda vazgeçemediğimiz olgular arasında yer almaktadır. 23 farklı çalışmadan oluşan bu kitap, altı farklı kategoride bulunan bilimsel çalışmaları kapsamaktadır. Bu kategoriler sırasıyla; “Halkla İlişkiler ve Medya”, “Bilişim ve Medya”, “Sinema ve Medya”, “Sanat ve Medya”, “Kültür ve Medya”, “Siyasal İletişim ve Medya”dır.

Il progetto Cultura e Turismo “DiCet‐INMOTO-ORCHESTRA” ha l’obiettivo di definire e realizzare modelli, processi e strumenti innovativi per lo sviluppo sostenibile di un territorio intelligente, sia attraverso la valorizzazione dei suoi beni culturali e delle sue risorse ambientali, sia mediante la promozione e commercializzazione della loro offerta turistica.
Il progetto è organizzato come un cluster integrato di tre linee d’intervento (stream) concentrate su tre aspetti complementari:
- la capitalizzazione dell’offerta culturale (stream "DiCeT" - LivingLab Di Cultura e Tecnologia);
- l’organizzazione e valorizzazione della domanda turistica (stream "InMOTO" - Information MObility for TOurism);
-  lo sviluppo di un insieme di soluzioni tecnologiche orientate alla valorizzazione intelligente del patrimonio culturale, materiale e immateriale, della Regione Campania ad uso e fruizione di turisti, visitatori e cittadini, nel rispetto dei principi di sostenibilità ed eco‐compatibilità (stream "ORCHESTRA").
I tre stream di progetto hanno come filo comune l'utilizzo delle più innovative tecnologie del cosiddetto Internet del Futuro e il paradigma del Social‐Network per realizzare un ecosistema in cui convivono aziende, pubblica amministrazione, cittadini e turisti.
Lo stream "DiCeT" ha lo scopo di definire e sviluppare una piattaforma abilitante aperta di servizi intelligenti di capitalizzazione dei beni culturali, in grado di migliorare l’esperienza culturale, rafforzare l’inclusione sociale e favorire la formazione di luoghi virtuosi, reali o digitali, in cui si possano creare, condividere ed elaborare informazioni, al fine di migliorare la vita dei cittadini e delle imprese in un quadro di auspicabile crescita sociale ed economica. Lo stream studierà e costruirà soluzioni innovative per l’offerta culturale: la conoscenza sul patrimonio culturale da offrire agli utenti (turisti, cittadini, curatori, ricercatori, studiosi, etc.); la fruizione dello stesso; la sua conservazione e salvaguardia.
Lo stream "InMOTO" ha lo scopo di definire e sviluppare un sistema integrato di servizi e applicazioni innovativi per la creazione, certificazione, organizzazione, monitoraggio e promozione dell’Offerta Turistica e Culturale, e una piattaforma real‐time di supporto alla Mobilità Turistica. Lo stream adotterà un nuovo modello strategico di Destination Management Organization e implementerà una declinazione Turismo 4.0 come una formulazione innovativa di strumenti e servizi per la promo‐commercializzazione dell’Offerta Turistica e Culturale attraverso: standardizzazione e razionalizzazione dello scambio di contenuti turistici, processi efficienti di distribuzione di servizi turistici, sostegno pervasivo al turismo in mobilità e promozione di percorsi e itinerari turistici esperienziali.

There are more types of borders today than ever before in history. Borders of all kinds define every aspect of social life in the twenty-first century. From the biometric data that divides the smallest aspects of our bodies to the aerial drones that patrol the immense expanse of our domestic and international airspace, we are defined by borders. They can no longer simply be understood as the geographical divisions between nation-states. Today, their form and function has become too complex, too hybrid. What we need now is a theory of the border that can make sense of this hybridity across multiple domains of social life.

Rather than viewing borders as the result or outcome of pre-established social entities like states, Thomas Nail reinterprets social history from the perspective of the continual and constitutive movement of the borders that organize and divide society in the first place. Societies and states are the products of bordering, Nail argues, not the other way around. Applying his original movement-oriented theoretical framework "kinopolitics" to several major historical border regimes (fences, walls, cells, and checkpoints), Theory of the Border pioneers a new methodology of "critical limology," that provides fresh tools for the analysis of contemporary border politics.

Unlike traditional mass media, peer interaction between individuals is of critical importance in the dissemination mechanisms for social media. There is emerging interest in the possible novel application of social media in disseminating public health information or messages. In this paper, we analyze tweet and re-tweet behaviour in the context of Australian public health-related micro-blog posts to provide preliminary insights into the characteristics of widely disseminated tweets (including characteristics of re-tweeting accounts). In this way we also consider the nature and role of human computer-mediated interactions in affecting the level of dissemination of Twitter-based public health messages.

Abstract: In this paper, we outline a number of features of an interdisciplinary and pluralistic approach to economics. As a suitable example of how an interdisciplinary cooperation can unfold, we focus attention on the relations between institutional economics and psychoanalysis. In the first ...

"Transversalités, des concepts aux pratiques"

Nouveau numéro de

Diversités et Citoyennetés. La lettre de l’IRFAM
N° 38-39 – Septembre 2014

Transversalités, travail en réseau, coopération, concertation… Autant de concepts dans l’air du temps qui nous sont devenus familiers et qui animent notre travail quotidien ou restent dans la liste des objectifs à atteindre… Travailler en transversalité c’est non seulement chercher la croisée des chemins et la complémentarité dans l’intersectorialité, l’interdisciplinarité, mais aussi impulser une dynamique dont le partenariat en est l’un des outils principaux

L’IRFAM et ses partenaires ont accompagné ou observé, ces dernières années, plusieurs équipes locales dans la co-construction de transversalités pour une meilleure valorisation des diversités. La transversalité est comprise tant comme une thématique de réflexion qu’une pratique solidarisant des initiatives variées sur le terrain local.

Ce « double numéro » — tant la question est riche — présente plusieurs situations en Wallonie, à Bruxelles et ailleurs. Le cahier propose des réflexions et de relations de pratiques en matière de transversalité des politiques d’intégration des populations issues de l’immigration. Il a pour ambition de montrer le chemin parcouru localement et celui qu’il reste à réaliser… En somme, une démonstration par les pratiques.

Altay Manço et Laurence Dufaÿ, IRFAM

In this thesis, I have examined whether the current approach to competition policy is suitable for the distinct characteristics of the digital economy. It is particularly difficult to define the relevant market and rely on market share test as a proxy for market power in the digital economy mainly because of its dynamic nature. As the market boundaries shift so rapidly in dynamic markets, having a static perspective when defining the relevant market might fall short when assessing competitive constraints that an undertaking may face in the near future. In this regard, this thesis calls for a change in the traditional assessment of market power, and it proposes to replace the relevant market/market share paradigm with a more economic effects-based method, such as estimating the elasticity of residual demand. By doing so, competition authorities can assess competitive constraints from a broader perspective without necessarily being limited to a particular relevant market or any formalistic structure.

In order to identify the most suitable way to assess market power in the digital economy, this thesis is structured as follows. Chapter II explains what digital economy is, how it emerged, and what makes it different from the rest of the economy by identifying its distinguishing characteristics. After providing an overview of the digital economy, Chapter III gives more theoretical insight to the concept of market power. First, it explains the importance of market power within the social market economy. In the second part, it introduces various definitions of market power as provided by different institutions and scholars, describing the defining characteristics of these definitions afterwards. Having explained the concept of market power, Chapter IV focuses on how market power is assessed. By doing so, it explains not only the traditional indirect assessment of market power, but also the direct assessment of the latter. After clarifying what the digital economy is, as well as the concept of market power and how it is assessed, Chapter V evaluates the suitability of current understanding of market power in the digital economy. Then it explains what the challenges of assessing market power in the digital economy are when applying conventional techniques. In the light of these findings, it finally suggests a blueprint of how to assess market power in the digital economy. Lastly, Chapter VI provides the summary of findings and the final conclusion.

Purpose – This article examines peer-to-peer sharing platform business models, their sources of competitive advantage, and the roles, motivations, and behaviors of key actors in their ecosystems.
Design/methodology/approach – This paper uses a conceptual approach that is rooted in the service, tourism and hospitality, and strategy literature.
Findings – First, this paper defines key types of platform business models in the sharing economy and describes their characteristics. In particular, we propose the differentiation between sharing platforms of capacity-constrained versus capacity-unconstrained assets and advance five core properties of the former. Second, we contrast platform business models with their pipeline business model counterparts to understand the fundamental differences between them. One important conclusion is that platforms cater to vastly more heterogeneous assets and consumer needs, and therefore, require liquidity and analytics for high quality matching. Third, we examine the competitive position of platforms and conclude that their widely taken “winner takes it all” assumption is not valid. Primary network effects are less important once a critical level of liquidity has been reached and may even turn negative if increased listings raise friction in the form of search costs. Once a critical level of liquidity has been reached, a platform’s competitive position depends on stakeholder trust and service provider and user loyalty. Fourth, we integrate and synthesize the literature on key platform stakeholders of platform businesses (i.e. users, service providers, and regulators) and their roles and motivations. Finally, directions for further research are advanced.
Practical implications – This article helps platform owners, service providers, and users understand better the implications of sharing platform business models and how to position themselves in such ecosystems.
Originality/value – This article integrates the extant literature on sharing platforms, takes a novel approach in delineating their key properties and dimensions, and provides insights into the evolving and dynamic forms of sharing platforms including converging business models.

This paper presents a frame work for hardware acceleration for post video processing system implemented on FPGA. The deblocking filter algorithms ported on SOC having Altera NIOS-II soft core processor.SOC designed with the help of SOPC builder .Custom instructions are chosen by identifying the most frequently used tasks in the algorithm and the instruction set of NIOS-II processor has been extended. Deblocking filter new instruction added to the processor that are implemented in hardware and interfaced to the NIOS-II processor. New instruction added to the processor to boost the performance of the deblocking filter algorithm. Use of custom instructions the implemented tasks have been accelerated by 5.88%. The benefit of the speed is obtained at the cost of very small hardware resources.

This paper describes the use of adaptation patterns in the task of formulating standards for adaptive educational hypermedia (AEH) systems that is currently under investigation by the EU ADAPT project. Within this project, design dimensions for high granularity patterns have been established. In this paper we focus on detailing lower granularity adaptive patterns based upon learning styles. Several patterns from existing AEH system case studies are identified and classified according to an extended learning style "onion" model. This model forms the basis of a learning style taxonomy, introduced here, whose components determine adaptation patterns for AEH. These patterns are of importance both for authoring, as well as for interfacing between adaptive hypermedia systems. From an authoring point of view, these patterns may be used to establish a fine-grain approach to instructional strategies that can be implemented in AEH systems, as a response to a particular learning style. The implementation of this adaptation pattern taxonomy is discussed, both generally and in detail.

The current study investigated forms of technology (phone calls, texts, email and Facebook) for maintaining contact with homeless youth over baseline, 1-week, 6-week, and 3-month follow-up interviews. The study combined quantitative tracking of youths’ response patterns and open-ended interviews regarding youths’ preferred methods of communication. Results indicate that maintaining communication with homeless youth requires persistence, including frequent contact attempts over several days. Cell phone contacts (calls or texts) were most successful in communicating with youth, with e-mail and Facebook messaging useful when phones were lost or stolen. Youth who maintained contact were strikingly similar to youth who discontinued contact.

Au cours des trois dernières décennies, la catégorie marxienne de «subsomption réelle*» a souvent été utilisée comme un papier tournesol pour lire de manière matérialiste les changements faisant date auxquels la révolution technologique et la mondialisation nous confrontaient. Dans son livre très riche Neurocapitalismo , Giorgio Griziotti démontre, très efficacement, comment cette même catégorie a été dépassée, comment on est passé de la subsomption réelle à la "subsomption vitale". Nous sommes entrés dans une ère où la valorisation capitaliste réussit à extraire de la valeur non seulement des formes de travail et de coopération sociale, mais de la vie elle­même, dans son intelligence, dans ses potentialités relationnelles, dans son éventail de désirs et d'attentes, jusque dans son essence nue. Le neurocapitalisme est la phase bio­cognitive de la valorisation: la connexion entre esprit, corps, appareils et réseaux semble inextricable et détermine l'omniprésence envahissante de la médiation technologique. Le sujet, ses désirs, son potentiel, sont entièrement "mis en valeur" dans la dimension d'hyper­connexion mondiale où toute l'humanité, des savanes à la métropole, est maintenant, à des degrés divers, complètement immergée. Pour pouvoir écrire un tel texte il fallait remplir deux conditions: avoir une grande expertise scientifique sur les révolutions technologiques en marche depuis 30 ans et une inclination jamais éteinte vers la perspective de libération anticapitaliste. La biographie de l'auteur, militant autonome dans le mouvement milanais de 1977 puis ingénieur dans des grandes multinationales des communications, répond à ces deux conditions (s'il pouvait y avoir plus de «rouges et experts», à une époque où les uns comme les autres sont rares...). Griziotti part des catégories marxiennes classiques ­ la «subsomption réelle», le general intellect, la science comme une force productive centrale et la loi de la valeur/travail comme horizon constamment en voie d'être dépassé, le Marx des Gundrisse et du «Fragment sur les machines» (qui comme tous les textes prophétiques s'est prêté en 100 ans à toutes sortes d'interprétations) ­ pour connecter ces catégories macro à des changements concrets, technologiques, qui ont marqué l'hégémonie de la méta­machine informatique. Et il explique (dans un passage qui n'était pas acquis) comment tous ces seuils technologiques ont marqué les grands événements politiques et économiques au tournant du siècle: la fin du système de Bretton Woods, le déclenchement de la révolution libérale, l'hégémonie du capital financier, la défaite ouvrière en Occident et la relocalisation géante de la division internationale du travail qui ­ justement grâce à la révolution

This essay examines the governance of small towns in the United States. Small towns have received little attention in the public administration literature to date, yet 1 in 10 Americans still lives in one, representing roughly 75 percent of all municipalities in the United States and some 33 million people. Small towns are characterized as dense, multiplex networks that lend unique dynamics to local politics. However, they face significant social, economic, technological, and demographic trends that compromise towns’ prevailing frame of reference, fracture their networks, and alter the traditional setting of small-town governance. In the face of these issues, “thicker,” more active ways of engaging the public are needed to reknit community bonds and build civic capacity. Service learning for master of public administration students is proposed as a way to develop the emotional intelligence necessary to make sense of the complex social dynamics of small towns and to facilitate the hard work of building enabling relationships.

Wikipedia's coverage of breaking news and current events dominates editor contributions and reader attention in any given month. Collaborators on breaking news articles rapidly synthesize content to produce timely information in spite of steep coordination demands.

Introduzione: ogni sera, una pillola contro la paura Cosa fare se da un giorno all'altro ti rinchiudono in casa e ti chiudono biblioteche, librerie e sale di lettura? Si può rimediare con la tecnologia, certo, ma non tutti i libri si trovano negli archivi online o sotto forma di e-book, e un libro digitale non dà lo stesso gusto di una lettura serale cartacea, specialmente se hai già passato tutta la giornata su uno schermo per fare quello che chiamano smart working. Qual è stata dunque l'idea di Gianandrea, libraio militante, autore tra le altre cose di pionieristici cataloghi tematici sull'Anarchismo, sul Sindacalismo Rivoluzionario, sul Sessantotto, sui Mazziniani, sul Movimento Federalista Europeo, sul Liberalsocialismo? Usare la tecnologia per socializzare i contenuti dei libri che per lavoro e passione aveva sottomano. Perché bisogna ricordare che questo lavoro non nasce solo in un contesto librario, ma anche in un contesto libertario. Le prime di queste "pillole" vengono inviate nel gruppo Signal dell' Area Libertaria Reggiana: ogni sera una citazione da un classico dell'anarchismo accompagnata da un breve profilo dell'autrice o dell'autore. Ben presto l'iniziativa si allarga, raggiungendo tutti quei compagni e compagne, soprattutto giovani, che avevano l'abitudine di vedersi tutti i giorni al Circolo "Berneri" di via Don Minzoni. Se ci pensiamo questa è stata la prima volta che la nostra generazione si è confrontata con il divieto formale di riunione e di manifestazione, e con degli arresti domiciliari di fatto, che per chi studia la storia dell'anarchismo e dei movimenti sociali richiama alla mente le limitazioni alla libertà sofferte sotto i regimi totalitari. Anche se per ragioni (e con modalità) molto diverse, abbiamo assaggiato un po' delle biografie da quelle nostre compagne e compagni che tra il diciannovesimo e il ventesimo secolo hanno vissuto il carcere, l'esilio, il confino, la lotta clandestina nella resistenza antifascista. Ma rispetto a loro, nel 2020 abbiamo un'arma in più: la tecnologia. Da Signal, il gruppo passa a Whatsapp e si è propagato in maniera virale (è il caso di dirlo) a più gruppi e liste, tanto che non si riesce più a sapere quanta gente direttamente o indirettamente ha ricevuto queste pillole. Chiusi in casa durante il lockdown, in momenti in cui il morale effettivamente si abbassava molto, ogni sera arrivava un messaggio con questi stralci anarchici di vita e di pensiero. Ed eravamo tutte e tutti un po' meno sole e soli.

This is Damian Radcliffe’s fifth annual study on the state of social media in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), following previous publications covering developments in 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015.


The slides - presented at a conference hosted by the BBC in December 2015 - highlight the key themes from his report including: the continued rise of visually orientated social networks, the dominance of Middle East social media by Facebook and the wider Facebook family, and continued tensions between telecoms providers and services which allow free internet calls, are all charted in a new report from the journalist and academic Damian Radcliffe. The study offers an up-to-date analysis of how people across the Middle East use social media.

Mobile operators currently prefer optimizing their radio networks via re-homing or cutting over the cell sites in 2G
or 3G networks. The core network, as the parental part of radio network, is inevitably impacted by the re-homing in radio domain. This paper introduces the cell site re-homing in radio network and analyzes its impact on the performance of GSM/UMTS core network. The possible re-homing models are created and analyzed for core networks. The paper concludes that appropriate re-homing in radio domain, using correct algorithms, not only optimizes the radio network but also helps improve the QoS of the core network and saves the carriers’ OPEX and CAPEX on their core networks

This study examined the types of social support messages exchanged between parents and/or caregivers of children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs) who communicate via Facebook (FB); it studies two autism support groups: Autism Malaysia (AM) and Autism Children Club (ACA). A total of 3637 messages including both postings (381) and comments (3256) were gathered from August to November 2013. The study employed a deductive content-analysis approach. The qualitative data were analyzed for social support themes adapted from the Social Support Behavior Code (SSBC). Before collecting the data, email was sent to the FB groups' moderators to gain formal consent from the members. The finding indicated that the highest percentage of messages offered dealt with Informational support (30.7%) followed by Emotional support (27.8%). Network and Esteem support messages were responsible for 20.97% and 20.2%, respectively. Tangible Assistance was the least frequent category (0.4%). A majority of these messages discussed and addressed challenges and difficulties associated with caring and raising ASD children, as well as issues such as children's social lives and self-care routines. Understandings of how FB is used to seek social support could impact supporting and maintaining effective communication among parents and/or caregivers of children with ASDs. This information could also improve approaches used by health professionals in developing, improving and evaluating social support systems for parents/caregivers.

Power Control in Mobile Ad Hoc networks is a critical issue, since nodes are powered by batteries.The main idea of power control schemes is to use different power levels for RTS/CTS and DATA/ACK. These schemes may degrade network throughput and reduce energy efficiency of the network. In this paper we have evaluated the performance of Improved Autonomous Power Control MAC Protocol (IAPCMP),that allows nodes to dynamically adjust power levels for transmission of DATA/ACK according to the distance between the transmitter and its neighbors.In IAPCMP power level for transmission of RTS/CTS is also adjustable. This also used maximum power level for transmitting DATA/ACK periodically to make neighboring nodes aware about ongoing transmission. The performance of IAPCMP is evaluated through the metrics namely, packet delivery ratio and rate of energy efficiency.The simulation results show significant improvement in protocol.

This thesis examines the central driver of recent mobilizations to be the need felt by society to seek a reinterpretation of democracy. This need for change is seen to emerge due to the damages caused to the social fabric by the impact of economic globalization. It is argued that every social movement has its own particular reasons. However, in the current globalization era, everything is connected to each other and drivers of recent social movements are dependent on the ‘legitimation crisis’ of the political economy. This aspect is focused through a case study on the Gezi Park movement as part of the recent wave of social movements. While investigating these aspects, it appears necessary to go beyond the new social movement theory in order to observe accurately this even newer wave of mobilizations. These issues must be addressed, and if they would be, it is argued that recent social movements can be the pioneers of an honorable social and political system in the future.