Public Wi‐Fi provision by Australian local government authorities

Investment by Australian local government authorities (LGAs) in public Wi‐Fi (PWF) provision has grown substantially in recent years. PWF represents the first significant venture of LGAs into telecommunications, a field of national jurisdiction, and thus is a precursor of wider local investment in digital communication technologies, particularly the Internet of Things and other ‘smart city’ infrastructure. However, there has been little published analysis of PWF provision and use in Australia. This knowledge gap limits understanding of the rationales, business models, and uses and impact of investment in these networks and offers little guidance for local authorities and communities contemplating wider ventures in the field of digital networks. This article draws on a national survey of PWF provision by LGAs, together with interview data and critical analysis of policy and institutional settings, to present an overview of local PWF provision in Australia. The analysis highlights some familiar problems associated with LGA infrastructure investment and service delivery, as well as some novel challenges posed for local managers by digital communication networks. Following an empirical mapping of PWF provision in Australia, we explore three significant themes that our research in this field highlights: accountability and transparency, competence in the field of information and communication technologies (ICT) and evaluation.     

Regulating Autonomy: An Assessment of Policy Language for Highly Automated Vehicles

Self‐driving cars (also known as driverless cars, autonomous vehicles, and highly automated vehicles [HAVs]) will change the regulatory, political, and ethical frameworks surrounding motor vehicles. At the highest levels of automation, HAVs are operated by independent machine agents, making decisions without the direct intervention of humans. The current transportation system assumes human intervention though, including legal and moral responsibilities of human operators. Has the development of these artificial intelligence (AI) and autonomous system (AS) technologies outpaced the ethical and political conversations? This paper examines discussions of HAVs, driver responsibility, and technology failure to highlight the differences between how the policy‐making institutions in the United States (Congress and the Public Administration) and technology and transportation experts are or are not speaking about responsibility in the context of autonomous systems technologies. We report findings from a big data analysis of corpus‐level documents to find that enthusiasm for HAVs has outpaced other discussions of the technology.     

Managing governance complexity and knowledge networks in transparency initiatives: the case of police open data

Public organisations are often described as being subject to types of complexity that result from the interorganisational structure of governance networks. Transparency programmes add another level of complexity due to increased information openness. However, neither the nature of this complexity nor the network management approaches needed for transparency programmes has been conceptually developed. To address this gap, this article brings together governance complexity theory and knowledge management theory. An empirical model is tested using the case of police open data with regression analysis and 22 expert interviews. The results show that institutional and environmental complexity such as budget pressures, legal-normative constraints, and task complexity exert a negative influence on police information openness. However, network knowledge management practices including developing mission focus on people and communication and overcoming organisational boundaries through interorganisational collaboration can counteract these problems of complexity.     

新形势下培训理念的创新

随着社会的发展,培训越来越成为一个朝阳产业。但人们普遍对培训的认识还很不到位,集中体现在对培训内涵的理解、培训与普通教育的区别、教师与培训者的区别、积极参与与被动接受等等。     

析数据电文的证据效力

本文阐述了数据电文的证据效力问题 ,分析了大陆法系、英美法系对上述问题的观点和实践 ,说明数据电文作为证据是可采纳的 ,提出应建立和完善我国的相关立法 ,使法律为电子商务的发展提供服务。     

移动支付法律问题探析

因特网、移动通信和计算机等技术的结合使支付方式发生了新的革命,即移动支付的出现。移动支付因其随时、随地、方便和快捷等诸多特点给人们生活带来极大方便,也给人们提出了新的法律课题,诸如移动支付当事人的法律地位、法律责任等问题。     

Emancipative values in Georgia: An individual level analysis

The main interest of the study is to determine whether and how an individual's perceived economic situation is related to emancipative values in Georgia. The analysis employs individual-level survey data from nationwide public opinion surveys conducted by the Caucasus Research Resource Centers (CRRC) in 2010 and 2011 in Georgia. Several dimensions of emancipative values are examined: gender equality, tolerance, participation, autonomy, interpersonal trust, satisfaction with life and religion. Level of education and age are brought in as alternative factors accounting for value change. The results are ambiguous and only partially confirm validity of the emancipative theory of democracy on an individual level in Georgia.     

数字图书馆初探

数字图书馆是21世纪全球文化科技竞争的焦点之一,发展数字图书馆对于一个国家的经济和社会发展具有重要意义.数字图书馆具有众多说法,无一定论.数字图书馆与传统图书馆具有非常大的差别,它具有独特的特征、体系结构、工作模式.目前,数字图书馆还存在许多急需解决的难题,如技术、版权等.     

互联网对法学教育的影响——从形式到内容

信息通讯技术必须与其他教学方法相结合才能提升法学教育的价值,而教育学在这种资源整合中具有不可或缺的作用。评估信息通讯技术的成功与否只能在将其置于教育资源全球化的大环境中时才能实现。互联网对现有法律的影响只能说是一种革新,还称不上是一场横扫法律领域的革命;而且,“网络法”和电子商务法也不是一个独立的法律部门或学科。     

关于网上价格听证的几点思考

本文在简要回顾国外迅速发展的电子参与实践的基础上,针对我国价格听证的实际,系统地探讨了一种新的公众参与形式——网上价格听证,分析了其功能定位,阐述了其实施要点,研究了网上价格听证在价格听证过程中的作用。