Digital divide case Filomena lives in Zillergrund, a rural area in a side valley in Tyrol where she has been born. She is 62 years old and seldomly leaves the valley. Her life has not

To work on the individual assignment, conduct own research and

come up with your own solution, reflecting the concepts discussed in

class.

1. Digital divide case

Filomena lives in Zillergrund, a rural area in a side valley in Tyrol where she has been born. She

is 62 years old and seldomly leaves the valley. Her life has not been easy. After the death of her

brother, she lives on the little farm alone that she inherited from him. Her life is full of farm

work, she has little time, and opportunity to leave the farm and her cattle that needs care. Her

only daughter moved to Paris for studying history two years ago. Neighborhood-help has been

always great in the area where she lives, but recently more and more people have been moving

from the narrow valley into more urban areas in the Inntal valley. Filomena suffers from gout

and fine motorics can be already difficult for Filomena.

Answer the questions in full sentences:

1. You are an ICT solution designer in the think tank “SilverTyrol”. Select one out of the

following system goals supporting people like Filomena

o ▪ with managing the household

o ▪ with connecting with family members living far away

o ▪ with servicing farming machines and cars

o ▪ with delivering groceries to farmers markets in the city

Envision an ICT solution supporting your system goal. Which functions,

characteristics and system traits does your envisioned solution have? (min. 300

words)

2. In which ways does your solution help to reduce the digital divide? (min. 250 words)

2. Our minds can be hijacked

Read the Guardian article ‘Our minds can be hijacked’: the tech insiders who fear a smartphone

dystopia in the October 5th, 2017 issue.

The article can be accessed online here:

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/oct/05/smartphone-addiction-silicon-valley-

dystopia

Answer the following questions in full sentences:

1. Which potentially addictive user interface design patterns are described in the article?

List them and explain how they work and why they could be potentially addictive. (min.

400 words).

2. Which technologies may contribute to people suffering from “continuous partial

attention”? (min. 300 words).

Digital Society

SE Current Topics of Information Systems, Especially the Digital Society

Dr. Alexander Novotny

Edition 1

Specific concepts of the digital society

Overview

» Introduction: Social beliefs about ICT innovation » Introduction: Social media and power » Digital Divide » Factors influencing the use of digital technology

Social beliefs about ICT innovation

An introductory example

Let‘s travel to the silicon valley together

» Watch the video „Welcome to Silicon Valley“ by Ympact – Global Startups, Entrepreneurs, and Changemakers

» https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4OjGf0t2sQ

In-class discussion: Let‘s travel to the silicon valley together

What do you think about the following quotes taken from the video?

» „Put your foot on the pedal, go as fast as you can go!“

» „The energy that exists here is intoxicating.“

» „You don‘t have to be a 50 year-old professional to start a company, you can be a 20 year-old dreamer.“

Social media and power

Another introductory example

Donald Trump’s tweet activity from his first tweet in May 2009 up to now.

Digital communication between individuals suffers from perturbance

» Some examples:

» Disinformation caused by cybersecurity threats Botnets Manipulation of artificial intelligence Troll factories Fake online groups, fake emails Evasion and poisioning of AI engines with fake input data

» Self-reinforcing system by filter / personalization algorithms (echo chambers + filter bubbles: “only see what you like“)

Facebook‘s content moderation center in Berlin

Digital divide

What is the digital divide?

» “Uneven distribution in the

» access to, » use of, or » impact of

» information and communications technologies (ICT) » between any number of distinct groups, which can be defined based on

» social, » geographical criteria, » or otherwise.” (NTIA 1995)

» Often also called “digital inequality”

Levels for analysing digital inequality

» level of analysis » Individuals » Organizations » Societies, countries, regions

» attributes » income, education, geography, age, gender, size, profitability, sector, etc.

» technology layer in digital solution stacks » access vs. usage vs. impact » phone, Internet, computer, digital TV, etc.

Social media use of different demographic groups in the U.S.

Physical access to the Internet

Geographical divide: Internet users as a percentage of population

Source: ITU (2015)

Gini coefficient

» Statistical dispersion measure of income/wealth inequality » Based on the Lorenz curve

» Development of the Gini coefficient can be observed over time

„Young“ and „old“ social media

Timeline of major demographic cohorts

Cmglee / CC BY-SA https://commons.wikimedia.org/ wiki/File:Generation_timeline.svg

Digital natives and digital immigrants

» Digital native: person born and grown up after digital technology has emerged » interacting with digital technology from early childhood on

» Digital immigrant: person born and grown up before digital technology has emerged » First contact with digital technology in adult age

» Some common misconceptions about digital natives and digital immigrants » Digital natives have greater computer efficacy than digital immigrants. Digital immigrants can be computer

experts and digital natives not be able to set up an Internet connection. » To be a digital native is “better” than being a digital immigrant.

e.g., Loss of attention through digital technology » Digital natives have “inherited” digital media competence, e.g., how to distinguish fake news, etc.

Social factors influencing the use of digital technology

» Culture » Traditions » Religion » Economics » Education » Politics

Cultural influences

» Culture consists of human values, norms, beliefs and knowledge shared by group or society

» Socialization: process of internalizing the norms of a society

» Culture on different levels » Global regions » Countries » States and local regions » Organizations » Groups

» The GLOBE model of societal clusters

Bozkurt, et al. (2018)

Traditions

» Pass on cultural patterns from one generation to the next

» Basically: oral tradition or by observation

» Custom, stories, beliefs, etc.

» Social interaction (greeting, “Thank you” …)

» “Loss of traditions”: e.g., regional Tyrolean traditions

» Evolvement of new traditions in digital culture: Netiquette, “privacy week” in October, etc.

Sources

» U.S. Department of Commerce, National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA). (1995). Falling through the net: A survey of the have nots in rural and urban America. http://www.ntia.doc.gov/ntiahome/fallingthru.html , accessed on 01 Sep 2020.

» Hilbert, Martin (2013). Technological information inequality as an incessantly moving target: The redistribution of information and communication capacities between 1986 and 2010. Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology. 65 (4): 821–835.

» Bozkurt, Aras & Yazıcı, Müjgan & Aydın, Irem. (2018). Cultural Diversity and Its Implications in Online Networked Learning Spaces. 10.4018/978-1-5225-3076-3.ch004.

USEFUL NOTES FOR:

You are an ICT solution designer in the think tank “SilverTyrol”. Select one out of the following system goals supporting people like Filomena o ▪ with managing the household o ▪ with connecting with family members living far away o ▪ with servicing farming machines and cars o ▪ with delivering groceries to farmers markets in the city Envision an ICT solution supporting your system goal. Which functions, characteristics and system traits does your envisioned solution have?

Introduction

Filomena is an ICT solution designer in the think tank “SilverTyrol”. She has been working on improving the way people like Filomena manage their household, connect with family members living far away and serve farmers markets in the city. The solution she has designed is a set of functions, characteristics and system traits that together enable Filomena to reach her goal as quickly as possible without compromising quality or security.

With managing the household

Filomena is a busy woman, who runs her own farm. She has to manage the household and the farm.

She is interested in ICT solutions that help her with this.

She needs to be able to connect with family members living far away

With connecting with family members living far away

The solution is to use a video conferencing app.

The solution is to use a messaging app.

The solution is to use social media apps (Facebook, Instagram).

With servicing farming machines and cars

The solution is:

The system has the following functions and characteristics:

The system has the following traits:

With delivering groceries to farmers markets in the city

With delivering groceries to farmers markets in the city

Your solution is a delivery service. You can deliver it by drone, car, truck or bicycle. Or maybe you’re just going to get some people together who want their groceries delivered and give them a ride!

The solution is

The solution is

The solution is for Filomena to manage the household.

The solution is for Filomena to connect with family members living far away.

The solution is for Filomena to service farming machines and cars, delivering groceries to farmers markets in the city.

Conclusion

I hope that you have found this article useful and that it has helped to inspire your own design process. In the next blog post, I will provide some guidelines for how to take the first steps of this journey by discussing what ICT solutions look like, how they work and how they can impact people’s lives.