mStories: exploring semiotics and praxis of user-generated mobile stories

Innovations in information and communication technologies have allowed people to actively author multimodal content and engage in new meaning-making practices. New Literacies research has gone some way to understanding new meaning-making behaviours. However, this research often derives its understandings from studies undertaken with students enrolled in formal educational settings. Mobile technologies are increasingly situated outside such domains; the informal use of these devices by adults remains on the periphery of scholarly focus. mStories is a creative participatory digital mobile storytelling project. Taking a multidimensional perspective, this article presents the in-depth case analysis of one participant and their mStory. A semiotic analysis found that the user-generated content demonstrated complex and sophisticated multimodal sense relations. However, control over the textual or compositional meta-function of the text was determined largely by the computer interface, with users habituated to relinquishing authorial control over this element. Within this study, mobile literacy praxis was characteristically ad hoc and contextually embedded, and though mobile technology invites such practices, users were neither determined nor limited by this, and happily turned to other devices where necessary.     

Comment on John T. Metzger's “planned abandonment: The neighborhood life‐cycle theory and national urban policy”

Abstract

I take strong exception to the idea that theories of neighborhood change, in and of themselves, caused the decline of inner cities. Rather, the demographic, social, and economic forces that existed in the postwar years caused some inner‐city neighborhoods to decline. The replacement of working‐class and middle‐income households by households with much lower incomes, on average, was the single biggest cause of neighborhood decline. Metzger ignores this fact as an alternative explanation for why some neighborhoods declined. It is highly implausible that my theories and those of other urban experts had such a strong impact on the public policy, building, and finance communities. Because people were responding to real conditions, it is likely that the same events would have occurred even if my model of neighborhood change had never been developed.     

Resettlement and development in Indonesia

This article deals with resettlement management in Indonesia, which involves a number of policy and implementation issues concerning land acquisition, compensation, and resettlement practices in development projects.¹ The principal objective of this article is to identify a set of policy measures gleaned from past experiences in Indonesia and to present a comparative review of how other countries have addressed land acquisition and resettlement issues, including the latest donor policies concerning resettlement of people affected by the development processes. Several resettlement case studies in Indonesia are briefly presented to identify past mistakes and successes. The Indonesian experience is then assessed in the light of international “best practices” for retooling policy, including adoption of an appropriate resettlement policy in Indonesia. The role of local government bodies, non-government and community-based organizations in resettlement management and their beneficial involvements in resettlement planning and implementation is briefly discussed.     

How does initial public financing influence private incentives for follow-on investment in early-stage technologies?

One common rationale supporting public financing programs for small firms is that initial public investment creates incentives for follow-on private investment. However, there does not appear to be a unified statement in the literature describing how initial public investment creates incentives for follow-on private investment. Focusing on external private investors, we use a two-stage net present value model to identify four effects from initial public investment on the private decision for follow-on investment. Our empirical analysis uses a sample of non-venture backed firms entering the SBIR program to examine how reduced risk, the number of SBIR awards, and size of initial public investment influence the likelihood of follow-on venture capital investment. We find the probability of follow-on venture capital investment is more likely when firms reach Phase II of the program, is less likely as firms win multiple Phase I and Phase II awards, and is more likely as the size of initial public investment in Phase I increases.

论公共政策目标的确定：事遂人愿——以我国房地产政策为例

公共政策目标体现的是整个公共行为的根本价值,是决定政策效果的根本所在。政策目标的确定主要取决于决策者在规划政策时对事实前提和价值前提,即事与愿的关系的拿捏。文章以1998年以来我国政府制定的有关政策对房地产业的影响为例,运用引证法、比较法、归纳法等,阐述公共政策目标确定过程中事实前提与价值前提的关系,并论证在政策的制定过程中,坚持以社会总体利益优先考虑的价值前提应先位于事实前提,即事遂人愿原则。     

《物权法》行政法取向的实证分析

在现代社会公法私法相互交融趋势不断加剧的形势下,<物权法>确立的规范并不完全限于私法领域,也涉及了诸多行政法领域的重大问题.要完善<物权法>,就必须采取以下措施:要求配套法律、法规的制定和补充;行政管理体制改革应当适应<物权法>的规定;借助行政法确定公共利益;救济制度要提升到物权法保护的标准;建立公物(公产)制度.     

浅议公安系统网络安全与建设

公安信息网的安全管理是一个全方位、多层次的问题,是一个不断完善和不断提升的过程。没有一种技术可以绝对保证网络安全,人的因素也很重要。因此,要做好内部的网络安全,不仅仅需要高新的安全技术手段、周密的安全策略,更需要不断提高系统管理人员和系统使用人员的安全意识,让网络中的每一个用户都对网络安全问题重视起来,做好信息安全防范工作,这才是最关键、最好的、最有效的解决方案。     

论物权请求权的制度价值--兼评《中国物权法草案建议稿》的有关规定

物权请求权是否为脱离干债权的一类独立的请求权,取决于对有关利弊的实证分析而非逻辑推理.物权请求权应独立于债权体系,相应地,物权法草案建议稿有关规定应予以完善.     

《物权法》所有权概念的分析

所有权不仅是物权法,而且是整个民法中最为重要的概念之一。《物权法》第39条对所有权进行了描述性地定义,既继承了民法通则对所有权定义的传统,又揭示了所有权概念的部分内涵,具有一定的积极意义。但是,它没有囊括所有权的消极权能,更没有揭示出所有权作为“排他性支配权”的本质内涵。     

马克思共同体的形态嬗变及内在整合

本源的共同体、虚假的共同体和真正的共同体是马克思揭示共同体演进的三种形态,人与物质资料的关系以及人的社会交往关系是蕴含在其演进过程中的双重整合线索.其中,本源的共同体作为人类存在的起点,是以自然经济条件下生产资料的原始公有为根本特征,以土地、血缘为交往纽带,建立在共同劳动和相互依赖关系基础上的自然整合;虚假的共同体伴生...