Social networking sites such as MySpace and virtual communities such as on-line support groups can be a rich source of data for researchers. These sites can be an effective way of reaching and researching young people in order to address their particular health needs. Internet-based research is also potentially risky and exploitative. There is some guidance for conducting research online, but there are no detailed or universally accepted ethics guidelines for research of webspaces such as (...) MySpace or virtual communities in which young people participate. One question that arises is — If MySpace is a public webspace, can research be done without consent? In this paper I investigate ethical issues surrounding young people’s consent in cyber research. I identify issues that help determine whether consent is needed, offer suggestions for dealing with consent in cyberspace and add my voice to the call for a resource of case studies — indispensible in the development of guidelines and the education of researchers and research ethics committees. (shrink)

This article examines the possible basis for legal liability of researchers who use the Internet in the collection of research data. In particular, it examines the potential legal issues associated with the protocols of ethnographers who use listserv, discussion board, blog, chat room and other sorts of web or Internet-based postings as the source of their data. The author assumes that the forum for participation is legitimate, in that the list, board, blog, chat, etc. is not (...) created or otherwise concocted by the researcher, but involves situations akin to off-line practices where a researcher would be listening to the conversation or watching the behavior of subjects in a public place. Since these practices do not involve direct interview or interaction with or treatment of "human subjects", much of the precedent involving negligence, informed consent, and related issues is not relevant; however, it is reviewed initially for guidance in suggesting the applicable, legal standards of conduct. This article does not discuss the use of the Internet as a collection device, e.g., in online surveys. Issues of legal harm arising from claims in negligence, privacy, and defamation for subsequent disseimination of such postings are evaluated. Although it is concluded that the likelihood for a success of such claims is small, analysis will include steps that researchers can take to ensure that such risk remains negligible. (shrink)

While a growing number of researchers are embracing Internet-based data collection methods, the adoption of Internet-based recruitment methods has been relatively slow. This may be because little is known regarding the relative strengths and weaknesses of different methods of Internet-based participant recruitment, nor how these different recruitment strategies impact on the data collected. These issues are addressed in this article with reference to a study comparing the effectiveness of three Internet-based strategies in (...) recruiting cannabis users for an online study. Consideration of the recruitment data leads us to recommend that researchers use multipronged Internet-based recruitment campaigns with appropriately detailed recruitment messages tailored to the population of interest and located carefully to ensure they reach the intended audience. Further, we suggest that building rapport directly with potential participants, or utilising derived rapport and implicit endorsements, is an important aspect of successful Internet-based participant recruitment strategies. (shrink)

The recent success of Foldit in determining the structure of the Mason-Pfizer monkey virus (M-PMV) retroviral protease is suggestive of the power-solving potential of internet-facilitated game-like crowdsourcing. This research model is highly novel, however, and thus, deserves careful consideration of potential ethical issues. In this paper, we will demonstrate that the crowdsourcing model of research has the potential to cause harm to participants, manipulates the participant into continued participation, and uses participants as experimental subjects. We conclude that (...) protocols relying on this model require institutional review board (IRB) scrutiny. (shrink)

Background People who are at elevated risk of suicide stand to benefit from internet-based interventions; however, research in this area is likely impacted by a range of ethical and practical challenges. The aim of this study was to examine the ethical issues and practical barriers associated with clinical studies of internet-based interventions for suicide prevention. Method This was a mixed-methods study involving two phases. First, a systematic search was conducted to identify studies evaluating internet- (...) class='Hi'>based interventions for people at risk of suicide, and information pertaining to safety protocols and exclusion criteria was extracted. Second, investigators on the included studies were invited to complete an online survey comprising open-ended and forced-choice responses. Quantitative and qualitative methods were used to analyse the data. Results The literature search identified 18 eligible studies, of which three excluded participants based on severity of suicide risk. Half of the 15 suicide researchers who participated in the survey had experienced problems obtaining ethics approval, and none had encountered adverse events attributed to their intervention. Survey respondents noted the difficulty of managing risk in online environments and the limitations associated with implementing safety protocols, although some also reported increased confidence resulting from the ethical review process. Respondents recommended researchers pursue a collaborative relationship with their research ethics committees. Conclusion There is a balance to be achieved between the need to minimise the risk of adverse events whilst also ensuring interventions are being validated on populations who may be most likely to use and benefit from them. Further research is required to obtain the views of research ethics committees and research participants on these issues. Dialogue between researchers and ethics committees is necessary to address the need to ensure safety while also advancing the timely development of effective interventions in this critical area. (shrink)

Internet based process control usage has grown in the past years. Industry field demands were behind this, and it ranges from factory, office and home automation to tasks simplifications and cost reduction. In this book a hardware interface circuit and a software system used to control the temperature and level of a liquid tank is described. The advantage of the designed interface circuit is its simplicity and low cost. The same can be true for the software system in (...) which we used C and Java programs to accomplish the communication. Both C and Java can be obtained freely and the development cost could be small. C language has been used to communicate with the designed interface circuit due to its strength in low level operations and communication with ports and hardware. In Java we have used mainly the Servlet for communication between the Client and the Server, which is a new approach and more reliable approach than the CGI based method that has common problems of speed and data persistence. This book is useful for people and researchers working in the field of control, remote access and computer based control. (shrink)

The use of Internet to aid research practice has become more popular in the recent years. In fact, some believe that Internet surveying and electronic data collection may revolutionize many disciplines by allowing for easier data collection, larger samples, and therefore more representative data. However, others are skeptical of its usability as well as its practical value. The paper highlights both positive and negative outcomes experienced in a number of e-research projects, focusing on several common mistakes (...) and difficulties experienced by the authors. The discussion focuses on ethics and review board issues, recruitment and sampling techniques, technological issues and errors, and data collection, cleaning, and analysis. (shrink)

As the frequency of internet-based research has increased, it is important for researchers to consider how the conditions in which data are collected may influence the risks to participants. In particular, because internet-based data collection often occurs outside a clinical or research setting, there may be unintentional disclosures of a participant's involvement in a research study of which the researcher is unaware. The current analysis examined the responses of men who have sex with (...) men participating in an internet-based HIV behavioural risk study when queried about the possible disclosure of their participation in the study. Fewer than 2% of participants indicated that their participation in the research study was disclosed, and all but one indicated no negative outcomes associated with the disclosure. As the field of online research continues to expand, it is important to consider risks that are unique to internet-based research, and to monitor these risks to ensure that the confidentiality of research subjects is maintained. (shrink)

This study appeared in full in the previous issue of Research Ethics Review (2008; 4 (3): 120). RB works in the field of substance abuse where his main expertise focuses on illicit drugs. He plans to investigate, in as many countries as possible, the extent to which dealers dilute or ‘cut’ drugs, in order to increase profit margins. His methodology is entirely internet based. An advertisement, placed on a number of internet forums, will include a link (...) to a separate web page containing an anonymous questionnaire that can be filled in on-line. On completion responses will be transferred, automatically, to a programme on a secure server which will then analyse the data and send it on to RB. (shrink)

A key challenge in conducting paid internet-based studies is that individuals may feign eligibility to participate. This case series describes three examples where people attempted to fake being locals with health vulnerabilities to participate in paid internet-mediated studies. In two cases, individuals pretended to have serious cancer diagnoses to participate in a randomized controlled trial. In the third case, an individual pretended to be nine restaurant workers at high risk of occupational COVID-19 exposure to participate in an (...) online survey. Key red flags among individuals feigning eligibility are noted. Ethical and practical methodologic implications are discussed. (shrink)

National and international guidelines outlining ethical conduct in research involving humans and animals have evolved into large and complex documents making the process of gaining ethics approval a complicated task for researchers in the area. Researchers, in particular those who are relatively new to the ethics approval process, can struggle to understand the parts of an ethics guideline that apply to their research and the nature of their ethical obligations to trial participants. With the scope of medical (...) class='Hi'>research likely to continue to expand in the future, it is clear that ethics guidelines will only increase in complexity and number. This paper describes one possible solution to the problem: the use of an internet-based expert system to intelligently and interactively distribute the information stored in ethics guidelines to individual researchers. This paper also details how one such system was designed and tested with respect to Australian medical research ethics guidelines. (shrink)

A recent advent has been seen in the usage of Internet of things (IoT) for autonomous devices for exchange of data. A large number of transformers are required to distribute the power over a wide area. To ensure the normal operation of transformer, live detection and fault diagnosis methods of power transformers are studied. This article presents an IoT-based approach for condition monitoring and controlling a large number of distribution transformers utilized in a power distribution network. In this (...) article, the vibration analysis method is used to carry out the research. The results show that the accuracy of the improved diagnosis algorithm is 99.01, 100, and 100% for normal, aging, and fault transformers. The system designed in this article can effectively monitor the healthy operation of power transformers in remote and real-time. The safety, stability, and reliability of transformer operation are improved. (shrink)

The purpose of this article is to illuminate the conceptualisations and applications of the Belmont Report’s key ethical principles of respect for persons, beneficence, and justice based on a document analysis of five of the most relevant disciplinary guidelines on internet research in the social sciences. These seminal documents are meant to provide discipline-specific guidance for research design and implementation and are regarded as key references when conducting research online. Our analysis revealed that the principles (...) of respect and beneficence were explicitly conveyed in the documents analysed, offering nuanced interpretations on issues of informed consent, privacy, and benefits and risks as well as providing recommendations for modifying traditional practices to fit the online setting. However, the invocations of the principle of justice were rather implicit and reflect an important shift from the Belmont Report’s protectionist ethical position towards more situational and dialogic approaches. With the rapidly evolving nature of internet technologies, this analysis is projected to contribute to the ongoing developments in research ethics in the social sciences by outlining the tensions and implications of the use of the internet as a methodological tool. We also seek to provide recommendations on how disciplinary associations can proceed to facilitate ethically sensitive internet research. (shrink)

For manufacturing enterprises to successfully enter the “Industry 4.0” era and establish advantages in the new wave of the Industrial Revolution, they must use Internet thinking to transform manufacturing enterprises and promote the in-depth integration of informatization and industrialization under the premise of managing and controlling risks, to achieve transformation and upgrading. Research on and management of the risks of manufacturing enterprises’ Internet strategic transformation directly affects the success or failure of enterprises’ transformation. This study constructed a (...) risk evaluation model for a manufacturing enterprise’s Internet strategic transformation based on the back propagation artificial neural network and conducted a case study on one enterprise. (shrink)

The main research purpose of this article is to sort out consumer information without specific personal data and use the target company’s neural network risk control decision model which is based on the risk scoring trajectory. We find the main interpretation variables, and then verify the direction and extent of the target’s influence to verify empirical results and help the target company make a correct decision analysis on the credit applicants’ loans. The final empirical results show that the (...) analysis results of the minimum square method and the analysis results of the truncated regression model can be found: the gender, population identity characteristics, consumer performance capabilities, consumer risk of trust, consumer preferences, consumer behavior characteristics, behavioral characteristics, number of financial institutions the consumer have applied for loans, credit litigation, and loan period were the nine main explanatory variables affecting the composite score. Regarding the influence of each variable on the comprehensive score: the impact of four index variables such as identity characteristics, contract performance ability, consumption preference, and behavioral characteristics on the comprehensive score is positive; it means that with higher identity feature score, contract performance ability, consumer preference score, and behavioral characteristic score, the comprehensive score increases. (shrink)

This article considers the government, opinion leaders, and Internet users to be a system for correcting false information, and it considers the problem of correcting false information that arises in the aftermath of major emergencies. We use optimal control theory and differential game theory to construct differential game models of decentralized decision-making, centralized decision-making, and subsidized decision-making. The solutions to these models and their numerical simulations show that the government, opinion leaders, and Internet users exercise cost-subsidized decision-making instead (...) of decentralized decision-making. The equilibrium strategies, local optimal benefits, and overall optimal benefits of the system achieve Pareto improvement. Given the goal of maximizing the benefits to the system under centralized decision-making, the equilibrium results are Pareto-optimal. The research here provides a theoretical basis for dealing with the mechanism of correcting false information arising from major emergencies, and our conclusions provide methodological support for the government to effectively deal with such scenarios. (shrink)

The internet is widely used for health information and support, often by vulnerable people. Internet-based research raises both familiar and new ethical problems for researchers and ethics committees. While guidelines for internet-based research are available, it is unclear to what extent ethics committees use these. Experience of gaining research ethics approval for a UK study (SharpTalk), involving internet-based discussion groups with young people who self-harm and health professionals is described. During (...) ethical review, unsurprisingly, concerns were raised about the vulnerability of potential participants. These were dominated by the issue of anonymity, which also affected participant safety and consent. These ethical problems are discussed, and our solutions, which included: participant usernames specific to the study, a closed website, private messaging facilities, a direct contact email to researchers, information about forum rules displayed on the website, a ‘report’ button for participants, links to online support, and a discussion room for forum moderators. This experience with SharpTalk suggests that an approach to ethics, which recognises the relational aspects of research with vulnerable people, is particularly useful for internet-based health research. The solutions presented here can act as guidance for researchers developing proposals and for ethics committees reviewing them. (shrink)

The Internet has been used as a place for and site of an array of research activities. From online ethnographies to public data sets and online surveys, researchers and research regulators have struggled with an array of ethical issues around the conduct of online research. This paper presents a discussion and findings from Buchanan and Ess's study on US-based institutional review boards and the state of internet research ethics.

Internet-based health research is increasing, and often offers financial incentives but fraudulent behavior by participants can result. Specifically, eligible or ineligible individuals may enter the study multiple times and receive undeserved financial compensation. We review past experiences and approaches to this problem and propose several new strategies. Researchers can detect and prevent Internet research fraud in four broad ways: through the questionnaire/instrument ; through participants' non-questionnaire data and seeking external validation through computer information,, and 4) (...) through study design. These approaches each have pros and cons, and raise ethical, legal, and logistical questions, given that ethical tensions can emerge between preserving the integrity of research vs. protecting the privacy and confidentiality of study respondents. While past discussions concerning the ethics of online research have tended to focus on the participants' ability to trust the researchers, needs now arise to examine researchers' abilities to trust the participants. This analysis has several critical implications for future practice, policy, and research. (shrink)

Floods are one of the most common natural disasters in the world that affect all aspects of life, including human beings, agriculture, industry, and education. Research for developing models of flood predictions has been ongoing for the past few years. These models are proposed and built-in proportion for risk reduction, policy proposition, loss of human lives, and property damages associated with floods. However, flood status prediction is a complex process and demands extensive analyses on the factors leading to the (...) occurrence of flooding. Consequently, this research proposes an Internet of Things-based flood status prediction (IoT-FSP) model that is used to facilitate the prediction of the rivers flood situation. The IoT-FSP model applies the Internet of Things architecture to facilitate the flood data acquisition process and three machine learning (ML) algorithms, which are Decision Tree (DT), Decision Jungle, and Random Forest, for the flood prediction process. The IoT-FSP model is implemented in MATLAB and Simulink as development platforms. The results show that the IoT-FSP model successfully performs the data acquisition and prediction tasks and achieves an average accuracy of 85.72% for the three-fold cross-validation results. The research finding shows that the DT scores the highest accuracy of 93.22%, precision of 92.85, and recall of 92.81 among the three ML algorithms. The ability of the ML algorithm to handle multivariate outputs of 13 different flood textual statuses provides the means of manifesting explainable artificial intelligence and enables the IoT-FSP model to act as an early warning and flood monitoring system. (shrink)

With the rapid development of the Internet and smart phone technology, a large number of short videos are shared through social platforms. Therefore, video content analysis is a very important and popular work in machine learning and artificial intelligence currently. However, it is very difficult to analyze all aspects of video content originally produced by large-scale users. How to screen out bad and illegal content from short videos published by a large number of users, select high-quality videos to share (...) with other users, and improve the quality of video on the distribution platform of the entire user is a top priority. Based on this background, this paper focuses on optimizing video auditing to provide basic features for algorithm judgment, supporting original content and increasing the distribution of new content, and strengthening manual intervention combining algorithm recommendation with manual recommendation. Four major aspects of the artificial training algorithm model discuss the optimization effect of artificial intelligence on the algorithm in order to provide some guidance for the sustainable and healthy development of mobile short video. (shrink)

This article is based on a roundtable held at the Association of Internet Researchers annual conference in 2017, in Tartu, Estonia. The roundtable was organized by the Oxford Internet Institute’s Digital Ethics Lab. It was entitled “Artificial Intelligence and the Good Society”. It brought together four scholars—Michael Zimmer, Stine Lomborg, Ben Zevenbergen, and Corinne Cath—to discuss the promises and perils of artificial intelligence, in particular what ethical frameworks are needed to guide AI’s rapid development and increased use (...) in societies. The paper covers three case studies. They give a distinct overview of the ethical issues raised by the use of AI at different levels of analysis: top-down application of AI, bottom-up use of AI, and how academics and governments have reacted to these new challenges. From the case studies, four areas emerged. They represent some of the most topical ethical questions related to AI: its uses, its users, its designers, and the data that fuel it. Each of them provided a specific subset of ethical concerns that need further investigation. In conclusion, three recommendations are formulated for researchers and regulators to ensure the AI has a net-positive impact on society. (shrink)

This paper deals with certain ethical problems inherent in psychological research based on internet communication as stored information. Section 1 contains an analysis of research on Internet debates. In particular, it takes into account a famous example of deception for psychology research purposes. In section 2, the focus is on research on personal data in texts published on the Internet. Section 3 includes an attempt to formulate some ethical principles and guidelines, which (...) should be regarded as fundamental in research on stored information. (shrink)

The protection of cultural relics has always been an important issue in the field of museums and archaeology. With the development of Internet of Things technology, the security system of the museum is more intelligent and integrated. In order for the museum display system to keep up with the intelligent age, this article mainly studies the research and realization of the museum showcase system based on the Internet of Things technology in a smart environment. Before the (...) start of the experiment, we developed the overall design of the system, including three functional modules: temperature module, illumination module, and monitoring module. The experiment is done mainly for system testing. The performance test of the sensor module needs to sample the temperature and humidity sensor to verify the accuracy of the temperature and humidity signal collected in the instrument circuit. The light information collection test uses the ADC sampling inside the CC2530 to obtain the required data and judges whether these temperature, humidity, and light intensity values exceed the preset values. The serial port needs to be initialized to carry out data communication and transmission normally. After the receiving end finishes receiving, the sending end will clear the data buffer to prepare for the next data transmission. The experimental data show that the error between the predicted value and measured value of the temperature system is about 3°C, which is within the allowable error range of the experiment. The results show that the system has perfect functions, is safe and reliable, meets the expected requirements, and has good practicability. (shrink)

AimThe aim was to explore the various associations between subjective well-being and internet use among older adults in two regions in Finland and Sweden.MethodsThe data was collected through a population-based survey as part of the GERDA project conducted in 2016. The connection between subjective well-being and internet use was studied by conducting binary regression analyses, calculating odds ratios with 95% confidence intervals. The analyses also controlled for key subjective well-being covariates.ResultsStatistically significant associations were found between perceived life (...) meaningfulness and internet use. When looking into the specific internet-based activities under study, activities related to leisure and entertainment showed statistically significant associations to perceived meaningfulness as well as perceived happiness, also after controlling for potential covariates. However, internet use and the different internet activities failed to show statistical significant associations to life satisfaction in the adjusted regression model.ConclusionThe things we do on the internet as well as how we conceptualize and measure subjective well-being in this type of research studies seem to matter when it comes to the relationship between subjective well-being and internet use in later life. Internet use and internet activities displayed various connections to the subjective well-being proxies used in this study. Therefore, the complexity and multidimensionality of both subjective well-being and internet use and related links need to be carefully explored in order to deepen our understanding of experienced well-being among older adults in a digitized world. (shrink)

The idea for an Internet of Things has matured since its inception as a concept in 1999. People today speak openly of a Web of Things and People, and even more broadly of an Internet of Everything. As our relationships become more and more complex and enmeshed, through the use of advanced technologies, we have pondered on ways to simplify flows of communications, to collect meaningful data, and use them to make timely decisions with respect to optimisation and (...) efficiency. At their core, these flows of communications are pathways to registers of interaction, and tell the intricate story of outputs at various units of analysis- things, vehicles, animals, people, organisations, industries, even governments. In this trend toward evidence-based enquiry, data is the enabling force driving the growth of IoT infrastructure. This paper uses the case of location-based services, which are integral to IoT approaches, to demonstrate that new technologies are complex in their effects on society. Fundamental to IoT is the spatial element, and through this capability, the tracking and monitoring of everything, from the smallest nut and bolt, to the largest shipping liner to the mapping of planet earth, and from the whereabouts of the minor to that of the prime minister. How this information is stored, who has access, and what they will do with it, is arguable depending on the stated answers. In this case study of location-based services we concentrate on control and trust, two overarching themes that have been very much neglected, and use the outcomes of this research to inform the development of a socio-ethical conceptual framework that can be applied to minimise the unintended negative consequences of advanced technologies. We posit it is not enough to claim objectivity through information ethics approaches alone, and present instead a socio-ethical impact framework. Sociality therefore binds together that higher ideal of praxis where the living thing is the central and most valued actor of a system. (shrink)

ABSTRACT: So far in this book, we have examined algorithmic decision systems from three autonomy-based perspectives: in terms of what we owe autonomous agents (chapters 3 and 4), in terms of the conditions required for people to act autonomously (chapters 5 and 6), and in terms of the responsibilities of agents (chapter 7). -/- In this chapter we turn to the ways in which autonomy underwrites democratic governance. Political authority, which is to say the ability of a government to (...) exercise power, may be justifiable or not. Whether it is justified and how it can come to be justified is a question of political legitimacy. Political legitimacy is another way in which autonomy and responsibility are linked. This relationship is the basis of the current chapter, and it is important in understanding the moral salience of algorithmic systems. We will draw the connection as follows. We begin, in section 8.1, by describing two uses of technology: crime predicting technology used to drive policing practices and social media technology used to influence elections (including by Cambridge Analytica and by the Internet Research Agency). In section 8.2 we consider several views of legitimacy and argue for a hybrid version of normative legitimacy based on one recently offered by Fabienne Peter. In section 8.3 we will explain that the connection between political legitimacy and autonomy is that legitimacy is grounded in legitimating processes, which are in turn based on autonomy. Algorithmic systems—among them PredPol and the Cambridge Analytica-Facebook-Internet Research Agency amalgam—can hinder that legitimation process and conflict with democratic legitimacy, as we argue in section 8.4. We will conclude by returning to several cases that serve as through-lines to the book: Loomis, Wagner, and Houston Schools. -/- The link below is to an open-access copy of the chapter. (shrink)

With the rapid development of the Internet and the normalization of COVID-19 epidemic prevention and control, Online health communities have gradually become one of the important ways for people to obtain health information, and users have to go through a series of information processing when facing the massive amount of data. Understanding the factors influencing user information processing is necessary to promote users’ health literacy, health knowledge popularization and health behavior shaping. Based on the Heuristic-Systematic Model, Information Ecology (...) Theory, Privacy Trade-Off and Self-Efficacy Theory, we constructed a model of factors influencing user information processing in online health communities. We found that information quality and emotional support had indirect effects on heuristic and systematic information processing, and these effects were mediated by privacy concerns and self-efficacy. In our research model, systematic information processing was most positively influenced directly by self-efficacy. Privacy concerns had a direct negative correlation with both dual information processing pathways. Therefore, OHCs managers should develop relevant regulations to ensure the information quality in OHCs and improve privacy protection services to promote user information processing by improving users’ self-efficacy and reducing their privacy concerns. Providing a user-friendly and interactive environment for users is also recommended to create more emotional support, thus facilitating more systematic information processing. (shrink)

At present, a series of economic structural changes created by the network economy have brought challenges to the entire economy and society. Traditional social commerce has also suffered severe tests under the background of network economy and global integration, and the rise and development of network commercial activities lack legal constraints. Based on the Big Data technology, in view of the characteristics of data mining services, this paper expands and changes the traditional model and proposes the Big Data alliance (...) data mining service process model. Moreover, this paper uses intelligent decision-making theory and knowledge reasoning methods to construct a fast-responding, service-reusable, and intelligent service model to realize the scalability of data mining services. In addition, this paper constructs system function modules according to the requirements of Internet commercial judicial data mining and verifies the performance of the system constructed in this paper through experimental analysis. The research results show that the system constructed in this paper has certain practical effects. (shrink)

Many feel the Common Rule treats an unwieldy range of activities identically under the monolithic label "human subjects research." Past objections centering on the conflation of biomedical and behavioral research have gained new currency with the increase in biobanking and Internet-based research. A more nuanced approach to research is overdue. Regulation will no doubt remain a major component of any new approach. But in some research contexts, investigators and subjects should be permitted to (...) reach voluntary, informed agreements about certain aspects of their relationship.Consider the National Institutes of Health's new "Guidelines for Human Stem Cell Research."1 The guidelines owe their existence to the NIH's .. (shrink)

Purpose This paper aims to explore how older people in developed and developing countries are affected by the grey digital divide. It argues country type and culture influence older people’s willingness to access and learn internet skills. Using the knowledge from researchers informs policy, funding and delivery of appropriate skilling to minimize this divide. Design/methodology/approach A systematic literature search using specific keywords to locate digital divide research, specifically pertaining to older people across country types. Findings Despite increased (...) class='Hi'>internet access and affordability, older people still face challenges in learning internet skills. Country type, economic challenges and cultural beliefs need to be considered in minimizing the grey divide. Governments recognize the importance of funding such teaching but evidence-based research must continue to inform policy to maximize funding and solve the many physical age and cultural issues affecting older people’s access to internet skills learning. Originality/value This paper argues that research in developing countries into minimizing the grey digital divide is a crucial undertaking. As the internet continues growing in developing countries, finding solutions that consider cultural and age differences issues is crucial to the success of having internet literate societies that have growing populations of older people seeking to use it. (shrink)

In its ethics guidelines, the Association of Internet Researchers advocates a bottom-up, case-based approach to research ethics, one that emphasizes that ethical judgement must be based on a sensible examination of the unique object and circumstances of a study, its research questions, the data involved, and the expected analysis and reporting of results, along with the possible ethical dilemmas arising from the case. This article clarifies and illustrates the mind-set and process of such a bottom-up (...) approach to internet research ethics. Two ethics concepts to think with, namely ‘the distance principle’, and the notion of ‘perceived privacy’, are introduced and applied in a concrete empirical internet study, in which web archives based on personal communications on social media formed the main body of data. The empirical case example serves to highlight the unique challenges of internet research ethics, in light of the blurring boundaries between text and person, and between private and public on the internet, with profound implications and challenges for the definition of human subjects, privacy, and so on. (shrink)

Modern media of communication, such as the Internet, offer new social research mechanisms that permit the collection of information using traditional social research techniques (analysis of Internet data bases, the collection of bibliographic material and research findings) as well as the collectio..

Purpose Academic scholars have leveraged crowd work platforms such as Amazon Mechanical Turk for human subjects research for almost two decades. However, few scholars have reflected or questioned this mode of academic research. This paper aims to examine three fundamental problems of crowd work and elaborates on their lasting effects on impacting the validity and quality of human subjects research on crowd work. Design/methodology/approach` A critical analysis is conducted on the characteristics of crowd work, and three fundamental (...) problems of crowd work since its origin were identified, namely, the position of “Human-as-a-service,” the confusion of terminology and crowd work platforms’ abdication of responsibilities. Findings This paper explains that the three identified fundamental problems of crowd work render at least two lasting problems in crowd work-based research: first, the negligence of the teleological difference between crowd work and academic research; second, the ontological schism between scholars and institutional review boards (IRBs) in their ethical concerns and practices. Originality/value This paper critiques the foundation of crowd work-based research that has become growingly popular, extolled and taken for granted. Such a critique is deficient in literature and may seem a bit peculiar. However, we hold that it is time to take research ethics seriously in crowd work because we need to introspect and question ourselves as scholars: What is our motive or ethical stance in using crowd work for human subjects research? Is it for advancing scientific knowledge, promoting crowd workers’ welfare, or predominantly for benefiting ourselves from the fast, cheap and “good” data via crowd work? (shrink)

Since entering the new century, People’s living standards are constantly improving, with the continuous improvement of living conditions, people are becoming more and more important in education, which is the embodiment of the enhancement of national strength. The education level is getting higher and higher, and a good education level needs a good teacher–student relationship. To solve these problems, we use the emotional cognition of God’s network to study the teacher–student relationship, and collect and analyze the data of the teacher–student (...) relationship. In this chapter, we use GABP neural network algorithm DHNN algorithm and discrete Hopfield neural network to make the collected data more convenient to be analyzed. The research shows that there is a close relationship between the educational level and the relationship between teachers and students in China, and a good relationship between teachers and students will promote the improvement of educational level. According to the research data, “face-to-face” is the most important way of interaction between tutors and postgraduates in various types of teacher–student relationship. QQ WeChat is also one of the main ways of interaction between students and teachers, which shows that the interaction between students and teachers is talking about the interaction between online and Internet. The education industry is becoming more and more important, and the teacher–student relationship is the most important part of the education industry. Good teacher–student relationship is helpful to cultivate students’ healthy personality. In view of the cold relationship between teachers and students at present, we need to make some measures the relationship between teachers and students and effectively use the relationship between teachers and students to promote the better development of the education industry. (shrink)

In the Internet era, consumers prefer products with the attributes of social responsibility. Supply chain enterprises strengthen corporate social responsibility management for their own development. To improve CSR throughout the supply chain, it requires coordination and cooperation among the members of the supply chain. In this paper, we consider a three-tier supply chain system consisting of a supplier, a manufacturer, and a retailer and use stochastic differential game to study the CSR coordination of the supply chain. The following indicators (...) are investigated under four decision situations, such as the optimal level of CSR effort for the supply chain members, the optimal value of profit for the supply chain members and the supply chain system, and the expectation and variance of CSR goodwill. Some important results are obtained. Compared with decentralized decision-making, the optimal level of CSR effort increases for the supplier and the manufacturer under local alliance decision-making without cost sharing, whereas the optimal level of CSR effort remains unchanged for the retailer. Compared with local alliance decision-making without cost sharing, the optimal level of CSR effort remains unchanged for the supplier and the manufacturer under local alliance decision-making with cost sharing. When the sum of the marginal profit for the supplier and the manufacturer is greater than half of the marginal profit for the retailer, the optimal level of CSR effort increases for the retailer. Compared with local alliance decision-making with cost sharing, the optimal level of CSR effort increases for the supply chain members under overall alliance decision-making. From decentralized decision-making to local alliance decision-making without cost sharing, to local alliance decision-making with cost sharing, and then to overall alliance decision-making, the optimal value of profit increases for the supply chain members and the supply chain system. Also, the expectation and variance of CSR goodwill increase. (shrink)

The proliferation of digital data and internet-based research technologies is transforming the research landscape, and researchers and research ethics communities are struggling to respond to the ethical issues being raised. This paper discusses the findings from a collaborative project that explored emerging ethical issues associated with the expanding use of digital data for research. The project involved consulting with researchers from a broad range of disciplinary fields. These discussions identified five key sets of issues (...) and informed the development of guidelines orientated to meet the needs of researchers and ethics committee members. We argue that establishing common approaches to assessing ethical risks of research involving digital data will promote consistency in the ethical standards for research, enable the smooth functioning of ethics committees, and sustain public confidence in research. We conclude with recommendations for the development of educational resources for ethics committees, data management guidelines and further public education. (shrink)

In this paper, through the intelligent research of the whole process of logistics and distribution with the Internet of Things supply chain, we study how to improve the development of the cold chain, reduce the loss in circulation, improve the social and economic benefits, and carry out intelligent information collection, monitoring, management, and information tracing of the whole cold chain. This paper analyzes and empirically studies the impact of key technologies of the Internet of Things in cold (...) chain coordination from the perspective of building an intelligent cold chain coordination system with the Internet of Things technology. This paper analyzes the current situation of cold chain logistics and the impact that the application of IoT technology will have, explains that IoT technology can improve the intelligence level of the cold chain, and then introduces the application of intelligent cold chain logistics under IoT orientation, combining the process of cold chain logistics with the three-layer architecture of IoT technology. By extracting the key technologies of IoT perception layer, network layer, and intelligence layer, the intelligent cold chain coordination system based on IoT technology is constructed, and then, the correctness of the system is verified, to have some reference and evaluation for the cold chain construction. The system was then verified to have some reference and guidance significance for the construction and evaluation of the cold chain. The results of this paper are more accurate and more efficient. (shrink)

It is of practical significance to introduce the Internet of Things technology into the financial service industry and find the driving factors and mechanisms of financial innovation to accelerate the promotion of financial innovation. This article starts from the perspective of banks and other supply chain financial institutions, takes mainstream trading products in the commodity trading market as the research object, uses the LA-VAR model, and fully considers the market price fluctuations and liquidity factors of supply chain financial (...) inventory products. It analyzes the theoretical basis of the continuous innovation of rural financial products. On the basis of analyzing the basic characteristics and types of rural financial product innovation, we explore the connotation of sustainable innovation of rural financial products, clarify the evaluation criteria, and lay a theoretical foundation for continuous dynamic evaluation. Based on technical innovation evaluation theoretical models such as Schumpeter’s innovation model, technical specifications-technological track model, and NR relationship model market, we analyze the innovation elements of rural financial products from the external and internal aspects of innovation and discuss the relationship between the factors. The interaction mechanism of rural financial products has established a dynamic mechanism model for the continuous innovation of rural financial products. A fuzzy comprehensive evaluation was made on the continuous innovation power of financial service industry products in a certain area. Using a combination of remote surveys and on-site visits, a questionnaire survey was conducted on financial service industry institutions in a certain region’s financial system. Each survey object was required to conduct 120 × 1067 index comparisons and use the data after processing the arithmetic average Matlab carries out the objective processing of programming. The results show that the LA-VAR model with liquidity indicators can measure the liquidity risk well and more comprehensively evaluate the risk of the inventory pledge financing model. According to the index weights determined by AHP, the development of the financial service industry will be promoted in a targeted manner from the internal construction of financial institutions and the optimization of the external innovation environment. (shrink)

Research Ethics, Volume 18, Issue 1, Page 24-38, January 2022. Are social science, cross-border research projects, where recruitment and data collection are carried out remotely, required to follow similar ethical and data-sharing procedures as ‘on-the-ground’ studies that use traditional means of recruitment and participant engagement? This article reflects on our experience of dealing with this question when we had to switch to online data collection due to the restrictions posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, such as the inability to (...) travel or work in person with local communities and collaborators. Using social media platforms and online data collection when conducting research brings many advantages, such as being able to communicate remotely but directly with gatekeepers and collaborators, and in reaching potential participants on a global scale. However, neither the guidelines and advice for conducting ethically sound internet-based research, nor the academic literature focussed on building equitable research partnerships between the Global North and the Global South, offer much information regarding the ethical concerns, or address the grey areas, posed by this type of digital and distanced transnational research. In our experience, conducting research remotely made negotiations of access very challenging due to the politics of positionality between Global North and South researchers, lack of clarity on ethical processes and perceptions of gatekeepers who we could not meet in person. We hope the reflections on, and discussion of, our experience encourage deliberation on the present ethical challenges posed by online and social-media-disseminated data collection, particularly in cross-border circumstances. (shrink)

Because of the difficulty of music feature recognition due to the complex and varied music theory knowledge influenced by music specialization, we designed a music feature recognition system based on Internet of Things technology. The physical sensing layer of the system places sound sensors at different locations to collect the original music signals and uses a digital signal processor to carry out music signal analysis and processing. The network transmission layer transmits the completed music signals to the music (...) signal database in the application layer of the system. The music feature analysis module of the application layer uses a dynamic time regularization algorithm to obtain the maximum similarity between the test template and the reference. The music feature analysis module of the application layer uses the dynamic time regularization algorithm to obtain the maximum similarity between the test template and the reference template to realize the feature recognition of the music signal and determine the music pattern and music emotion corresponding to the music feature content according to the recognition result. The experimental results show that the system operates stably, can capture high-quality music signals, and can correctly identify music style features and emotion features. The results of this study can meet the needs of composers’ assisted creation and music researchers’ analysis of a large amount of music data, and the results can be further transferred to deep music learning research, human-computer interaction music creation, application-based music creation, and other fields for expansion. (shrink)

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to introduce a new collaboration between the Association of Internet Researchers and the Journal of Information, Communication and Ethics in Society. Design/methodology/approach The paper uses historical, comparative and ethics-based approaches. Findings The collaboration is catalyzed by central interests shared between AoIR and JICES, namely, in the ethical and social impacts of the internet. The collaboration accordingly aims to bring research and reflection developed for the AoIR conferences to the JICES’ (...) readership. Originality/value The value of this collaboration is considerable, as it promises extensive new cross-fertilization between the two communities. The viewpoint begins with a brief overview of the collaboration’s initiation by Prof Simon Rogerson and its logistics over the next two years. Following a general review of Information and Computing Ethics and Intercultural Information Ethics, an overview of ethical considerations fostered by AoIR is offered, focusing on the development of internet research ethics, especially its most recent expression in an IRE 3.0. (shrink)

As the application of the Internet of Things technology continues to deepen in various fields, it also continues to develop in the agricultural field and the agricultural landscape. This article uses the agricultural Internet of Things to conduct an in-depth analysis and research on the planning and design of smart gardens and combines field research and project practice on the basis of theoretical analysis. Through the combination of agricultural Internet of Things technology and agricultural landscape, (...) the planning and design of smart gardens are studied. The theories used include Internet of Things technology, agricultural industrialization theory, sustainable agricultural development theory, new rural construction theory in agricultural disciplines, ecotourism theory, tourism psychology theory in tourism disciplines, landscape ecology theory, landscape aesthetics theory, and garden planning and design theory. From related theories to planning and design practice, a more systematic study of the smart park has been carried out to provide scientific guidance for the agriculture of the smart park. To provide scientific guidance for the planning and design of agricultural IoT of smart gardens, the theoretical system of planning and design of smart gardens based on the integration of agricultural IoT is proposed and systematically elaborated, including its concept, characteristics, related theories, and guidance methods. (shrink)

The present research examines how children’s time spent online is associated with their perceived life satisfaction accounting for their age, gender, socio-economic status (SES), emotional problems, country, and family environmental factors. This article is based on the data of the large scale cross-sectionalEU Kids Onlinesurvey from 16 European countries with nationally representative samples of children aged 9–17 (N= 11,200,Mage= 13.3, SD = 2.36; 50.6% boys, 49.4% girls). The results indicated that the time children spent online appeared to have (...) no considerable negative effect on their self-reported life satisfaction (SRLS). Comparatively, the positive effects of children’s SES and family environment accounted for 43% of the overall 50% of the variance in children’s SRLS scores. Considering that children’s SES alone accounted for 42% of the variance, children’s emotional problems, country of residence, and enabling parental mediation accounted for the remaining 3, 4, and 1% of the variance, respectively. In line with previous studies that urge caution when discussing the negative influence of time spent online on children’s mental health and overall wellbeing, the current findings suggest that social-ecological characteristics and how children use the Internet, need to be examined further. (shrink)

Increasing the ethicality of a project and the usefulness of the data enhances the probability that social good will result from the research; a combination of ethical and methodological soundness is therefore crucial. From 1999‐2002 I conducted a qualitative study of women’s, men’s, and mixed Internet chat room conversations. In this article, I discuss the particular ethical issues that arose, outlining my ethical decision‐making process within the context of current debates. I also describe the methodological concerns, demonstrating why (...) a synthesized method responsive to the advantages and disadvantages of cyberspace was necessary, and how the data were enhanced by this choice of method and by certain characteristics of cyberspace. In discussing the details of my study, my overall goal is to provide an assessment of the social good of the project with a view to increasing the probability of more ethical and useful Internet‐based research outcomes more generally. (shrink)

More and more tourists are sharing their travel feelings and posting their real experiences on the Internet, generating tourism big data. Online travel reviews can fully reflect tourists’ emotions, and mining and analyzing them can provide insight into the value of them. In order to analyze the potential value of online travel reviews by using big data technology and machine learning technology, this paper proposes an improved support vector machine algorithm based on travel consumer sentiment analysis and builds (...) an Hadoop Distributed File System system based on Map-Reduce model. Firstly, Internet travel reviews are pre-processed for sentiment analysis of the review text. Secondly, an improved SVM algorithm is proposed based on the main features of linear classification and kernel functions, so as to improve the accuracy of sentiment word classification. Then, HDFS data nodes are deployed on the basis of Hadoop platform with the actual tourism application context. And based on the Map-Reduce programming model, the map function and reduce function are designed and implemented, which greatly improves the possibility of parallel processing and reduces the time consumption at the same time. Finally, an improved SVM algorithm is implemented under the built Hadoop platform. The test results show that online travel reviews can be an important data source for travel big data recommendation, and the proposed method can quickly and accurately achieve travel sentiment classification. (shrink)

As one of the basic manufacturing industries in China, injection molding industry is faced with the problems of low degree of informatization and intelligence, resulting in low production efficiency and high costs. It is urgent to integrate deeply with new generation of information technology to achieve transformation and upgrade. In this paper, an integrative industrial Internet architecture of “integration of intelligent equipment, intelligent production lines, intelligent workshops, intelligent factories, and intelligent formats” was described. The injection molding intelligent control system, (...) the production management, control platform based on the MES system, and other key technologies were researched. Also, the smart factory architecture based on digital twin was established, and the implementation method of the smart factory digital twin system was elaborated. The feasibility and effectiveness of the method had been verified through the industrial application, which provided the technical supports for the injection molding industrial Internet system. Finally, the intelligent manufacturing industrial Internet cloud platform for injection molding industry was prospected. (shrink)