provides links to information management, information sources and other "useful stuff" with a strong bias towards the management of information in a careers guidance context.
As of 17 July 2017 I include mental health information and comment.
I tweet as @careersinfo and am on LinkedIn and Facebook as Hazel Edmunds
an article by Alan Dignam (Queen Mary University of London, UK) published in Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society Volume 13 Issue 1 (March 2020)
Abstract
This article attempts to get to the heart of some of the general misunderstanding of artificial intelligence (AI), its existent dangers and its problematic autocratic governance centred on US and Chinese tech dominance of the area.
Having considered the extent of each in turn it proposes a regulatory model to place public rather than private interest at the heart of both technical and governance centred AI regulation.
an article by Daron Acemoglu (MIT, Cambridge, MA, USA) and Pascual Restrepo (Boston University, MA, USA) published in Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society Volume 13 Issue 1 (March 2020)
Abstract
Artificial intelligence (AI) is set to influence every aspect of our lives, not least the way production is organised.
AI, as a technology platform, can automate tasks previously performed by labour or create new tasks and activities in which humans can be productively employed. Recent technological change has been biased towards automation, with insufficient focus on creating new tasks where labour can be productively employed.
The consequences of this choice have been stagnating labour demand, declining labour share in national income, rising inequality and lowering productivity growth. The current tendency is to develop AI in the direction of further automation, but this might mean missing out on the promise of the ‘right’ kind of AI, with better economic and social outcomes.
an article by Antonio Aloisi (IE University, Madrid, Spain) and Valerio De Stefano (KU Leuven, Belgium) published in International Labour Review Volume 159 Issue 1 (March 2020)
Abstract
Digital transformation and the reorganisation of the firm have given rise to new forms of work that diverge significantly from the standard employment relationship.
Advocates of digital disruption suggest that the existing legal framework cannot accommodate “innovative” working templates and business models. This article, however, argues that labour regulation can continue to facilitate innovation, presenting the employment relationship as a flexible instrument, and standard forms of employment as the means of achieving efficiencies and cost advantages.
First, they allow for the full exercise of managerial prerogative and attendant internal flexibility in workforce deployment, and, second, they constitute an effective device to deliver training and develop skills.
an article by Trisha Fettes (University of Warwick, Coventry, UK), Karen Evans (UCL Institute of Education, London, UK; Academy of Social Sciences (FAcSS), London, UK) and
Elnaz Kashefpakdel (Research, Education and Employers, London, UK) published in Journal of Education and Work Volume 33 Issue 2 (2020)
Abstract
This paper focuses on how generic skills can be developed to enable young adults to best utilise them in making transitions into the labour market.
Drawing on the literature and a Commercial Education Trust study of practices which encourage employer engagement in skills development, it is argued that ‘putting skills to work’ is not automatic or unproblematic.
It is not simply a matter of ‘skills transfer’, but a ‘continuous, contextually-embedded and transformative process’ during which individuals, supported by partners, learn how to recontextualise skills to suit different activities and environments. It may be tempting to distil employability into a list of so-called ‘soft skills’, but context matters.
It requires more than that which can be taught in Education. Support is needed in the workplace through mentoring, for example, to help recruits acquire knowledge of workplace culture, norms and practices, situational understanding, and apply metacognitive strategies for bringing together this knowledge and a range of different skills and personal attributes in productive application.
Further research is needed to explore the inter-relationships between skills supply, demand and utilisation, including ways in which employers can better recognise young recruits’ skills and provide ‘expansive’ working environments that maximise their capabilities and potential for development.
Editorial by Judith Clifton (Universidad de Cantabria, Cantabria, Spain; University of Cambridge, UK), Amy Glasmeier (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, USA) and Mia Gray (University of Cambridge, UK) for the Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society Volume 13 Issue 1 (March 2020)
Abstract
The relationship between technology and work, and concerns about the displacement effects of technology and the organisation of work, have a long history. The last decade has seen the proliferation of academic papers, consultancy reports and news articles about the possible effects of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on work – creating visions of both Utopian and dystopian workplace futures.
AI has the potential to transform the demand for labour, the nature of work and operational infrastructure by solving complex problems with high efficiency and speed. However, despite hundreds of reports and studies, AI remains an enigma, a newly emerging technology, and its rate of adoption and implications for the structure of work are still only beginning to be understood.
The current anxiety about labour displacement anticipates the growth and direct use of AI. Yet, in many ways, at present AI is likely being overestimated in terms of impact. Still, an increasing body of research argues the consequences for work will be highly uneven and depend on a range of factors, including place, economic activity, business culture, education levels and gender, among others.
We appraise the history and the blurry boundaries around the definitions of AI.
We explore the debates around the extent of job augmentation, substitution, destruction and displacement by examining the empirical basis of claims, rather than mere projections. Explorations of corporate reactions to the prospects of AI penetration, and the role of consultancies in prodding firms to embrace the technology, represent another perspective onto our inquiry.
We conclude by exploring the impacts of AI changes in the quantity and quality of labour on a range of social, geographic and governmental outcomes.
Zheng An and Luana Mendiola-Smith (University of Hawaii at Hilo, USA) and Jingbo Meng (Michigan State University, USA) published in Computers in Human Behavior Volume 104 (March 2020)
Highlights
Support seeking narratives are conceptualised as persuasive acts.
Support seeking narratives are contextualised in interpersonal conflict.
Identification with the support seeker increased provision of social support.
Identification with the perspectivising character increased external attribution.
Abstract
Narrative sharing is a common strategy for soliciting social support in online communities. Identification is a form of audience involvement and describes how individuals respond to mediated texts.
In two online surveys, this study tested the effects of identification in the context of support-seeking.
In Study 1 (N = 268), participants read a first-person support soliciting narrative that described emotional distress caused by an interpersonal conflict. Results showed that identification with the support seeker increased social support intention and behaviour
In Study 2 (N = 131), identification was manipulated by randomly assigning participants to read a narrative from the perspective of either the support seeker or the opposing character. When the narrative was told from the perspective of the opposing character, identification with the support seeker decreased significantly, and the opposing character was blamed less for causing the conflict
Implications for narrative persuasion in the context of support solicitation are discussed.
an article by Miriam A. Cherry (Saint Louis University Law School) published in International Labour Review Volume 159 Issue 1 (March 2020)
Abstract
Concerns about technological unemployment are not new. Specifically, policy debates surrounding automation processes in the 1960s reflected both optimism and concerns about the job‐destroying potential of technology.
Studying the archives, and in particular the information collected by the Bureau of Automation, shows that many of today's policy proposals were originally raised at the ILO during that period, even though they were never translated into regulatory policy. This article thus suggests that reopening this past dialogue may reveal useful insights for addressing current challenges, and enable us to achieve the world of work we wish to see in the future.
an article by Cate Watson and Gary Andrew Husband (University of Stirling. Scotland) and Helen Louise Young (a social and educational historian) published in Journal of Education and Work Volume 33 Issue 2 (2020)
Abstract
Further education policy across the UK has diverged significantly over the last decade.
While in both countries colleges have been subject to a programme of restructuring and rationalisation, Scotland now has a largely ‘nationalised’ sector while England has adopted a more market-led approach which has been characterised in some quarters as a ‘free for all’.
However, there are some signs that England is starting to turn away from this stance and it is, therefore, instructive to examine the influence of policy on the Scottish sector, particularly as England embarks on a programme of devolution to the regions.
This paper draws on policy documents and interviews with key policy actors to examine the ‘Scottish Approach’ to policy and the effects of this on the performance of the sector. While this has undoubtedly resulted in a more coherent system it is argued that colleges have paid a price for this, foregoing much of their previous autonomy. Moreover, it is not clear that the approach has addressed the ‘skills gap’ as currently perceived.
It is concluded that much can be learned by greater engagement across the border, informed by a clearer understanding of how policy contexts impact on the leadership and governance of colleges.
an article by Sarah Frisby-Osman and Jane L. Wood (University of Kent, UK) published in Youth Justice Volume 20 Issue 1-2 (April 2020)
Abstract
Mental health difficulties, conduct problems, and emotional maladjustment predict a range of negative outcomes, and this may include gang involvement. However, few studies have examined how behavioral, mental health, socio-cognitive, and emotional factors all relate to adolescent gang involvement.
This study examined 91 adolescents to compare non-gang with gang-involved youth on their conduct problems, emotional distress, guilt-proneness, anxiety and depression, and use of moral disengagement and rumination.
Analyses revealed that gang-involved youth had higher levels of anxiety, depression, moral disengagement, and rumination.
Gang-involved youth also had higher levels of conduct disorder and exposure to violence, but they did not differ from non-gang youth on levels of emotional distress and guilt-proneness.
Discriminant function analysis further showed that conduct problems, moral disengagement, and rumination were the most important predictors of gang involvement. Discussion focuses on how intervention and prevention efforts to tackle gang involvement need to consider the mental health and behavioural needs of gang-involved youth.
Further research is also needed to build an evidence base that identifies the cause/effect relationship between mental health and gang involvement to inform the best practice when tackling gang membership.
an article by Sarah M. Coyne, Adam A. Rogers, Jessica D. Zurcher, Laura Stockdale and McCall Booth (Brigham Young University, USA) published in Computers in Human Behavior Volume 104 (March 2020)
Highlights
Time spent using social media was not related to individual changes in depression or anxiety over 8 years.
This lack of a relationship was found even in the transition between adolescence and emerging adulthood.
Results were not stronger for girls or boys.
Abstract
Many studies have found a link between time spent using social media and mental health issues, such as depression and anxiety. However, the existing research is plagued by cross-sectional research and lacks analytic techniques examining individual change over time.
The current research involves an 8-year longitudinal study examining the association between time spent using social media and depression and anxiety at the intra-individual level.
Participants included 500 adolescents who completed once-yearly questionnaires between the ages of 13 and 20. Results revealed that increased time spent on social media was not associated with increased mental health issues across development when examined at the individual level.
Hopefully these results can move the field of research beyond its past focus on screen time.
ISO 9000 refers to a family of three standards related to quality management. It defines the concept of quality as the features and characteristics of a product, a process, or a service that bears on its ability to satisfy needs explicitly or implicitly expressed.
Standards provide guidance and tools to ensure that products or services will meet users’ requirements.
It means that quality must be consistently improved and that risks must be evaluated to be anticipated.
The seven principles of the ISO 9000 are here examined through the lenses of a case study conducted within a Belgian newsroom, where an automated news system was developed to support the daily routines of financial journalists.
As end-users, they have been actively involved within the design process, which can be considered as the first form of use.
It feels weird to me nearly 20 years after leaving a civil service job where ISO 9000 was much used to measure the quality of various projects to realise that it is still in use.
Labels:
news_automation, diffusion_of_innovation, ISO 9000,
an article by Jack Andersen and Sille Obelitz Søe (University of Copenhagen, Denmark) published in European Journal of Communication Volume 35 Issue 2 (April 2020)
Abstract
In this article, we question the efforts undertaken by Facebook in regard to fact-checking, tagging, and flagging instances or appearances of fake news.
We argue that in a global world of communication, fake news is a form of communicative action, which we must learn to deal with rather than try to remove. The very existence of fake news is a political question inscribing itself in the history of political communication and thus in the long run a question about the democratic conversation.
This conversation must and will always be a conversation where arguments (emotional or not) are discussed in a common place. In other words, there is no technical fix, such as automated flagging or tagging, to the ‘solution’ for democratic conversation.
We must insist on the democratic value of listening to the other.
The outcome can never be one of getting it right by algorithmic means.
an article by ELyazid Akachar and Brahim Ouhbi (Moulay Ismail University (UMI), Meknes, Morocco) and Bouchra Frikh (Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University, Fez, Morocco) published in International Journal of Web Information Systems Volume 16 Issue 1 (2020)
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to present an algorithm for detecting communities in social networks.
Design/methodology/approach
The majority of existing methods of community detection in social networks are based on structural information, and they neglect the content information. In this paper, the authors propose a novel approach that combines the content and structure information to discover more meaningful communities in social networks. To integrate the content information in the process of community detection, the authors propose to exploit the texts involved in social networks to identify the users’ topics of interest. These topics are detected based on the statistical and semantic measures, which allow us to divide the users into different groups so that each group represents a distinct topic. Then, the authors perform links analysis in each group to discover the users who are highly interconnected (communities).
Findings
To validate the performance of the approach, the authors carried out a set of experiments on four real life data sets, and they compared their method with classical methods that ignore the content information.
Originality/value
The experimental results demonstrate that the quality of community structure is improved when we take into account the content and structure information during the procedure of community detection.
Several recent studies have identified emerging and near‐commercial process and technological options to transition heavy industry to global net‐zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by mid‐century, as required by the Paris Agreement.
To reduce industrial emissions with sufficient speed to meet the Paris goals, this review article argues for the rapid formation of regional and sectoral transition plans, implemented through comprehensive policy packages.
These policy packages, which will differ by country, sector, and level of development, must reflect regional capacities, politics, resources, and other key circumstances, and be informed and accepted by the stakeholders who must implement the transition.
These packages will likely include a mix of the following mutually reinforcing strategies:
reducing and substituting the demand for GHG intense materials (i.e., material efficiency) while raising the quantity and quality of recycling through intentional design and regulation;
removal of energy subsidies combined with carbon pricing with competitiveness protection;
research and development support for decarbonised production technologies followed by lead markets and subsidised prices during early stage commercialisation;
sunset policies for older high carbon facilities;
electricity, hydrogen and carbon capture, and storage infrastructure planning and support; and finally,
supporting institutions, including for a “just workforce and community transition” and monitoring and adjustment of policy effectiveness.
Given the paucity of industrial decarbonisation perspectives available for in‐transition and less‐developed countries, the review finishes with a discussion of priorities and responsibilities for developed, in‐transition and less developed countries.
Visual abstract
A framework for creating physical and policy pathways to decarbonize heavy industry demand and production using an adaptive portfolio of material efficiency, circularity, and production decarbonization approaches in the developed, in‐transition and less‐developed contexts.
How Life Blossomed After The Dinosaurs Died
via 3 Quarks Daily by Azra Raza: Elizabeth Pennisi in Science:
Raccoon-size Loxolophus and other mammals evolved surprisingly quickly after the end-Cretaceous extinction.
HHMI TANGLED BANK STUDIOS
In 2014, when Ian Miller and Tyler Lyson first visited Corral Bluffs, a fossil site 100 kilometers south of the Denver Museum of Nature & Science where they work, Lyson was not impressed by the few vertebrate fossils he saw. But on a return trip later that year, he split open small boulders called concretions—and found dozens of skulls. Now, he, Miller, and their colleagues have combined the site’s trove of plant and animal fossils with a detailed chronology of the rock layers to tell a momentous story: how life recovered from the asteroid impact that killed off the dinosaurs 66 million years ago. Continue reading
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Surprise Discovery That Ancient Tin Ingots Found in Israel Came From England
via Ancient Origins by Ed Whelan Tin ingots from Hishuley Carmel. Source: PLOS ONE
Researchers have made an astonishing discovery that is transforming our understanding of the Bronze Age . They have established that ancient tin ingots found in Israel actually came from what is now modern-day Britain. Experts believe that they have found proof that tin was traded over long distances some 3,000 years ago. Moreover, the researchers may have solved the mystery of the origin of the tin that was so vital for Bronze Age cultures. Continue reading
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This 3 minute video will make you love mealworms
via Boing Boing by Mark Frauenfelder
Dr. Adrian Smith of the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences at North Carolina State University has been raising mealworms as ant food for many years. He had little interest in the creatures, but then starting taking time-lapse photos of them and discovered how truly amazing they are. Continue reading
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10 of the Best Poems about the Colour Blue
via Interesting Literature
Previously, it was the turn of green and red; now, it’s time to ponder some of the greatest blue poems. Blue is the colour of the bluebell, of the oceans, and of a particular strain of melancholy (we talk of suffering from a bout of ‘the blues’), so it’s of little surprise that poets have written beautifully about the colour blue. Here are ten of the very finest poems about blue things. Continue reading
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How James Glaisher discovered the jet stream
via the OUP blog by Tim Woollings ‘Falling stars as observed from the balloon’. Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.
Among many other, more stereotypical features, Scotland is famous as a place where palm trees can grow. And grow they do, with several proud, albeit slightly weather-beaten examples dotted around the mountainous islands and coasts of the western Highlands, blissfully unaware that they share latitudes with the southernmost Canadian tundra. This feat is often attributed to the gentle, warming influence of the Gulf Stream, bringing tropical seawater right up to the mouths of the lochs. But perhaps there is more to this story. Continue reading Oh My, I learned a lot from this!
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Ancient Chinese Earthquake Detector Invented 2,000 Years Ago Really Worked!
via Ancient Origins by Joanna Gillan A modern replica of Zhang Heng’s famous seismoscope. Photo: Houfeng Didong
Although we still cannot accurately predict earthquakes, we have come a long way in detecting, recording, and measuring seismic shocks. Many don’t realise that this process began nearly 2000 years ago, with the invention of the first seismoscope in 132 AD by a Chinese inventor called Zhang (‘Chang’) Heng. The device was remarkably accurate in detecting earthquakes from afar, and did not rely on shaking or movement in the location where the device was situated. Continue reading
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Computer historians crack passwords of Unix's early pioneers
via Boing Boing by Cory Doctorow (Image: Peter Hamer, CC BY-SA, modified)
Early versions of the free/open Unix variant BSD came with password files that included hashed passwords for such Unix luminaries as Dennis Ritchie, Stephen R. Bourne, Eric Schmidt, Brian W. Kernighan and Stuart Feldman. Continue reading
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The Best Anglo-Saxon Riddles
via Interesting Literature
In this week’s Dispatches from The Secret Library, Dr Oliver Tearle ponders some of the best of the Anglo-Saxon riddles from the Exeter Book
As I’ve remarked before, it’s a sobering thought that all of the Anglo-Saxon poetry that has survived is found in just four manuscripts which escaped the ravages of time, the pillaging of the Vikings, and the censorship of the Church: the Cotton manuscript (which is our sole source for the long heroic narrative poem Beowulf), the Vercelli book, a collection of manuscripts of the Bodleian Library at Oxford, and the Exeter Book. Of these, the Anglo-Saxon poetry found in half of these, the Vercelli and Bodleian manuscripts, is exclusively religious: indeed, it’s little more than dramatic paraphrases of Old Testament stories or of Saints’ lives, as Michael Alexander notes in his informative introduction to his translation of Anglo-Saxon verse, The Earliest English Poems (Penguin Classics). That leaves the Cotton manuscript (whose Anglo-Saxon poetry comprises Beowulf and nothing more) and the Exeter Book. And it’s the Exeter Book that yields a whole host of smaller masterpieces of Old English verse, from ‘The Dream of the Rood’ to ‘The Battle of Maldon’ to ‘The Ruin’ to ‘The Wanderer’ and ‘The Seafarer’ and the celebrated riddles. Continue reading
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How Science Has Shifted Our Sense Of Identity
via 3 Quarks Daily by Azra Raza: Nathaniel Comfort in Nature: Illustration by Señor Salme
In the iconic frontispiece to Thomas Henry Huxley’s Evidence as to Man’s Place in Nature (1863), primate skeletons march across the page and, presumably, into the future: “Gibbon, Orang, Chimpanzee, Gorilla, Man.” Fresh evidence from anatomy and palaeontology had made humans’ place on the scala naturae scientifically irrefutable. We were unequivocally with the animals — albeit at the head of the line. Nicolaus Copernicus had displaced us from the centre of the Universe; now Charles Darwin had displaced us from the centre of the living world. Regardless of how one took this demotion (Huxley wasn’t troubled; Darwin was), there was no doubting Huxley’s larger message: science alone can answer what he called the ‘question of questions’: “Man’s place in nature and his relations to the Universe of things.” Continue reading
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2,800-Year-Old Altar Inscription Talks Of Biblical War
via Ancient Origins by Ashley Cowie Representation of the biblical war mentioned on the altar inscription. Source: fluenta / Adobe Stock.
Two inscriptions found on an ancient carved altar are revealing new information about a rebellion against the Kingdom of Israel that is described in the Bible.
The 2,800 year-old cylindrical stone altar was discovered in a sanctuary within the ancient city of Ataroth in Jordan and it bears two inscriptions referring to a biblical war. Located within a Moabite sanctuary in the ancient city of Ataroth in Jordan during excavations in 2010, the language and script is in ancient Moabite while the numerals are executed in an Egyptian writing system known as Hieratic. Continue reading
My career in information management started back in 1987 working on the Training Access Points project. Nearly thirty years later I am still concerned to ensure that end users, and their mediators, have access to appropriate, relevant information in a form that they can understand, at a time and in a place that is right for them. The Internet seems to be for everyone and everywhere but the digital divide gets bigger. By pointing advisers in the direction of resources I hope to increase what can be done to help clients/customers.
I ran my own company for 16 years but am now a semi-retired freelancer.
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