Morphology and the information age

New products, new services and new approaches to doing business may be essential in order to return to a period of long term economic propsperity. A particularly powerful approach to innovation is the technique called “morphology”. Kondratieff’s use of the morphology technique to analyze business cycles, and also an original use of morphology to analyze the categories of existence, are here applied to deduce office worker archetypes and significant business management issues, as a function of economic phase. The economic phases of prosperity, recession, depression and recovery are realted to the following business management issues: Productivity, time management, innovation and management by objectives. These issues correspond, respectively, to the following office worker archetypes: Information worker, skill worker, knowledge worker and decision maker.     

Press articles and influence processes: the different effects of incriminating information and crime story information on judgments of guilt

The present study examines how potential jury members' judgments are affected by two types of information provided by the media: (1) information that is directly incriminating for the accused and (2) crime story information, that is, information about the events of the crime but not directly pertaining to the defendant's innocence or guilt. Although the influence of directly incriminating information has been widely researched, the effect of crime story information has never been studied. Our objective was to test the hypothesis that incriminating information affects judgments directly, whereas crime story information affects judgments indirectly via the arousal of negative emotions. We did this by coding the two types of information in 78 press articles about a criminal trial heard in France. Participants (N = 312) were asked to read the articles and then indicate their anger arousal and give their judgment about the accused. The results support our hypothesis. We conclude by discussing the contribution of our findings to research into the media's influence on legal cases.     

Blood rights: the body and information privacy

Genetic and other medical technology makes blood, human tissue and other bodily samples an immediate and accessible source of comprehensive personal and health information about individuals. Yet, unlike medical records, bodily samples are not subject to effective privacy protection or other regulation to ensure that individuals have rights to control the collection, use and transfer of such samples. This article examines the existing coverage of privacy legislation, arguments in favour of baseline protection for bodily samples as sources of information and possible approaches to new regulation protecting individual privacy rights in bodily samples.     

Trust in the information society

Trust is an important feature for all users of the Internet who rely on the safety and security of network technologies and systems for their daily lives. Trust, or the lack of it, has also been identified by the European Commission’s Digital Agenda as a major barrier to further development of the information society in Europe. One of the areas in which concerns have been raised is in relation to children’s safety online. As a result, substantial efforts have been made by policymakers and by the industry to build greater trust and confidence in online digital safety. This paper examines what trust means in the context of children’s use of the Internet. Should policy on trust enhancement, for instance, include children’s own trust in the technologies or services they use or is it sufficient to seek to reinforce parental and adult confidence that children can be adequately protected? What is required to build that trust from either perspective? Does it need, or should it include a relationship of trust between parents and children? To tease out these questions further, the paper examines current European Union policy frameworks on digital safety, particularly industry responses to the call for a more trusted Internet environment for children, and argues that technical solutions to be effective need to carefully balance a number of competing objectives and to be sufficiently grounded in evidence of parental and child experience of the Internet.     

论人类基因及基因信息的法律地位

明确人类基因及基因信息的法律地位是对其进行法律规制的前提。基因属于物质的范畴,而基因信息是一种信息,二者是构成世界的两种不同的元素,因此,在法律上需要对二者区别对待。基因在没有与特定的人体分离的时候,是身体权的客体;而当其与人体分离之后,则可以成为财产权的客体。基因信息可以分为整个人类共同所有的不具有差异性的基因信息、某一人类族群所共同拥有的基因信息和标志着个人特征的基因信息三类;前二者分别属于人类共同继承的财产和国家财产;第三类则既可以成为财产权的客体,又可以成为人格权中的隐私权的客体。     

Confidentiality of genetic information in the workplace

This Article analyzes existing legal protections for the confidentiality of information collected through genetic screening or genetic monitoring in the workplace. It notes that there are a variety of protections, such as ethical codes for occupational physicians, statutes protecting health care information in the hands of the employers, and tort, contract and constitutional principles. It describes defenses to suits based on improper disclosure of medical information. The Article then analyzes legal bases for employee and third party access to the employee's genetic information. In response to gaps in existing legal protections, it suggests parameters for a model law protecting the confidentiality of genetic information collected in the workplace.     

行政处罚告知内容若干问题探讨

行政处罚告知的内容,在实践中存在着告知事项不全、权利告知模糊、义务告知没有法定化、说理性不足等问题。本文结合行政法学理论分析以上问题存在的危害,并建设性地提出了解决的方案及完善告知内容的设想,力求使告知内容法定化、合理化。     

全国信息公开研讨会综述

全国信息公开研讨会集中探讨了信息公开的基本理论,包括信息公开的概念和性质、信息公开的主体和内涵、信息公开的价值、信息公开与知情权的关系、信息公开与行政法的关系等;分析了我国信息公开的实践,包括人大信息公开、政务公开、警务公开、审判公开、检务公开、村务公开、厂务公开等;介绍了国外主要是美、德、英、日等国的信息公开制度,提出了完善我国信息公开制度的对策性建议。     

Smart meters and the information panopticon: beyond the rhetoric of compliance

The Smart Meter Implementation Programme is the Government's flagship energy policy. In its search for solutions to address privacy dilemmas raised by smart meters, the Government has been content with using data protection principles as a policy framework to regulate the processing of consumers' personal information. This is worrying since the question of who has access to what type of information and how it is used cannot simply be regarded as raising information security, authenticity and integrity issues. If we are to go beyond the rhetoric of protecting the privacy rights of energy consumers we must scrutinise the context in which legitimate interests and reasonable expectations of privacy subsist. To remedy this apparent policy oversight, the paper undertakes two tasks: first, to clarify the content and application of data protection and privacy rights to smart meters; and second, it outlines a policy framework that will address the lack of specificity on how best innovation and privacy issues can be better calibrated. More importantly, it calls for targeted substantive reforms, development of accessible privacy policies and information management practices that promote transparency and accountability and deployment of technological solutions that will help reduce emerging fault lines between innovation and privacy in this sphere of energy policymaking.     

政府信息公开的行政赔偿和行政补偿

政府信息公开在深入推进依法行政和加快建设法治政府方面,发挥着重要的作用。近年来,我国因政府信息公开而引发的争议较多,相应的救济制度却并不完善。厘清政府信息公开引发的行政赔偿和行政补偿的责任划分和赔偿范围,完善相应救济制度,可以推进民主法治的发展,真正落实权利保障与权力监督。     

Classify and control: genetic information in the schools

Recent advances in molecular and behavioral genetics are providing theoretical models to explain complex behavior--learning disabilities and behavioral problems--in simple biological terms. There are intrinsic difficulties in interpreting genetic information. Yet genetic explanations are particularly appealing in school systems pressed by demands for efficiency and accountability. Thus, genetic explanations are affecting the way children are categorized in the schools. This Article reviews genetic advances bearing on educational issues and their implementation through biological tests. It suggests the social consequences and legal implications of the growing prevalence of genetic assumptions.     

Donor conception, secrecy and the search for information

Donor conception has historically been shrouded in secrecy. Such secrecy has been underpinned by social views and legal issues concemrning the adults involved in the process--the donor, the recipient parent(s), and, at times, the doctor. However, there is increasing recognition of the need to focus upon donor-conceived people's interests and rights to have identifying and non-identifying information about their donors. This editorial examines issues raised in relation to information release, while also introducing some of the arguments presented by other authors in this Special Issue of the JLM. It also considers recent Australian federal and State government inquiries that have favoured information release and the former Victorian Infertility Treatment Authority's service model to support people in the process of information access and release. While there has been a clear shift to favouring openness and honesty, legislative action is still required to ensure the balancing and realisation of people's interests.     

心理测试技术的信息量分析与计算

目的试图将信息科学计算原理与心理测试技术的实践相结合,推算出心理测试技术的应用信息量,从而为心理测试技术的具体实践提供更加充实的理论基础。方法结合心理测试技术的具体实践,从信息原理出发,对心理测试技术的信息量进行分析和计算。结果为犯罪调查中的技术应用提供一个量化的评判方法。     

Availability of information and records to the public; fees for providing information and records; procedures and appeals--SSA. Notice of proposed rulemaking

The Social Security Administration (SSA) announces proposed changes in the fees it charges for providing records from its files and record related services. These proposed changes will conform SSA's fee schedule to that recently published by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The proposed rules also implement the discretion given the Secretary of Health and Human Services by section 2207 of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1981 to charge the full cost of providing certain information and records. The proposed rules do not change SSA's longstanding policy of generally not charging an individual for information needed to assure that our records concerning her or him are correct. In preparing these amendments, we deleted from SSA's rules several provisions concerning Medicare information. The Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) has published separate regulations governing the availability of Medicare information and records. We have also clarified the rules for handling requests for information about individuals under the Privacy Act and the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and incorporated HHS' recent rules on who has authority to release or deny records in this revised material.