Posts Tagged ‘Lorraine Warren’
Safer Internet Day and beyond means serious fun with identity and privacy
February 9th, 2010
Safer Internet Day 2010 has again raised awareness of safer and more responsible use of online technology and mobile phones, especially among children and young people globally.
Insafe launched a pan-European quiz on 1st February, for 5-11 and 12-15 year-olds, open to individuals or school classes who compete with the objective of becoming increasingly aware of their role in protecting themselves and others online. An online SID Fair will also showcase participating organizations across the world, and schools are invited to register the events they will be running to mark the day.
SID’s “Think before you post” campaign asks not only young people but also challenges every digital citizen to examine how we deal with identity and privacy in digital environments. It’s a subject that academic colleagues Lorraine Warren and Kieron O’Hara have looked at in some detail.
There’s still a long road before we have constructed a theory and research methodology so Lorraine and Kieron’s early work is extremely valuable in mapping out the terrain.
Lorraine sets up the challenge and the goal really nicely in her recent posts; she argues for more detailed understanding of identity and its consequent effects on our view of online privacy. How, when and where we construct selves online has meaning for how we responsibly manage privacy.
As she says: “The challenge for today’s researchers is to take that thinking forward, and also create new ways of thinking about identity, how it is constructed and performed, not only in Web 2 world, but looking forward into a web 3 world too. In doing so, we can make a useful contribution to the debate on privacy – because identity is the nexus between the individual and society, and where so many of the debates are played out.”
Her views are amplified in a post on privacy and identity in the digital age that deals with separation of multiple online identities
Dr Warren’s University of Southampton colleague Kieron O’Hara, also draws out a few pathfinder ideas in recent papers on the limits of the person, privacy and empowerment which are worth reading in detail(http://eprints.ecs.soton.ac.uk/17123/ and http://eprints.ecs.soton.ac.uk/18242/).
Out of all these early discussions, we can build a coherent picture that helps us focus on how we understand and engage online; what’s really valuable and worth protecting.
And, as Venessa Miemis argues in her EmergentbyDesign blogpost, as social networks expand they force us to reassess the nature and value of privacy and identity. At the same time, they also engineer an effect that changes relationships and responsibilities. This drives people to position their personal reputation in terms of the value it has to the networks to which they are connected. This echoes Dr O’Hara’s ideas around privacy as a public good and that is an area where open discussion and detailed research would make a positive contribution to our understanding of what we are online.
The debate continues and the Privacy and Identity panel, postponed postponed in January because of ‘snow on the mind’, has now been rearranged for Tuesday 23rd March at The Royal Society in London.
Details of the event are here http://webscience.org/events.html.
10 professional things you can’t do with an Apple iPad
January 28th, 2010
- Edit film
- Edit images
- Create 3D models
- Create vector illustrations
- Create/edit mocap
- Compose/notate/edit music
- Create animated cartoons
- Design/edit publications
- Create and file corporate accounts
- Create/execute strategic PR plan for new “magical” device.
There’s plenty you can’t do professionally with an iPad – as detractors have been pointing out since its launch. But that’s maybe missing the point of its creation.
Steve Jobs made no apologies for declaring Apple as the company at the “intersection between technology and the liberal arts”. He’s right – no other company has done as much and with the best intentions in the generalised intellectual field.
That’s why the list emphasises “professional”. Of course, Apple does provide elegant solutions for all those expert tasks and it’s exactly why the iPad does not. It is not competing in the professional desktop or laptop markets. It’s competing in a newer space. It did not invent the pad/slate/tablet market. But it sure as hell has taken that market out of Death Niche Valley.
Other companies, like Hewlett Packard, will be launching their versions this year – I’d bet that none will be as desirable as the iPad. Why? Because Apple not only understands the power of good design, it also understands “market” for liberal arts/education better than anyone else.
The debate on whether the launch of the iPad was handled successfully goes on and Clark Turner, editor of UTalkMarketing has been helping to focus that (disclosure – there’s a contribution from me!) What is beyond serious debate is that Steve Jobs and his team have created a product that will sell in multiples of millions into a new group of customers, as well as Apple die-hards and iPhone/iPod converts.
The iPad is about three things: connectivity, distribution, exchange. It wi-fi is lightning fast (3G is a wait-and-see) so users are up, online and networking without so much as a single slow handclap.
This easy connectivity is a boon for publishers of newspapers, magazines, books, film and music. The digital distribution network just got very large indeed.
Online, iPad users can exchange, share and learn. Education, in its generalised, liberal sense, has also expanded its horizons and my colleague Lorraine Warren nails the reasons elegantly on her blog.
The iPad will appeal to a wide demographic - I can’t wait for the ads (toddlers, grannies, teens, mums and dads, mums and mums, dads and dads, singles, in-betweenies, grumpy old men…)
I know it’s an old Apple term but the iPad is “insanely great”, as much for what it does not do, as for what it does.
Universities funding cuts a key moment in management of UK decline
December 24th, 2009
Guest blogger Lorraine Warren, who is Director of Postgraduate Education and senior lecturer in Entrepreneurship and Innovation in the School of Management at the University of Southampton, argues that the Government’s announcement of big cuts in university funding could damage the economy irreversibly
Yesterday’s announcement of spending cuts to universities has aroused widespread concern with talk of two-year degrees and increased financial strictures on prospective students.
Like Nigel Thrift, the Vice Chancellor of the University of Warwick, I too find a £553M cut to universities a “considerable blow to a sector that is central to economic recovery.”
More than that, I would argue that Mandelson’s attack on universities is a seminal moment for the UK. Right now, there has never been a greater need for universities to play a vital part in taking hold of the Knowledge Economy and driving it forward on the international stage.
Instead, our political leaders seem hell bent on policies of attrition that seem to be driven only by a vision of managing decline. If we don’t reverse these policies, this attack on our skills base will in time be seen as one of the key milestones in the irreversible decline in the status of UK universities worldwide.
As an example, let’s take the kite-flying over two-year degrees. Yes of course it is possible to develop rich two-year learning experiences that cram a lot of contact hours and self-directed learning into two years and for some individuals in the short-term that might seem like a useful way forward. But what is lost?
For students, there is the lost opportunity to reflect on, connect and develop ideas over time, rather than hurtling through superficial assessment of concepts at breakneck speed. There is the lost opportunity to explore other interests and possibilities in life.
So what? Well, from a work point of view, it is here that the foundations of social networks are created that will be essential in developing so-called ‘portfolio careers’ throughout life.
Further, is all our learning to be entirely functional, geared to a credits audit machine? What an impoverished view of the future we are presenting for upcoming generations. For academic staff, there will be the lost space to develop new thinking, new ideas, new connections and new knowledge, as evenings, weekends and (current) student vacation periods fill up with the management and assessment of learning.
Finally, in the globalised world of the 21st century, we cannot afford just to look inwardly. We have to think about how two-year degrees will be seen in the wider world. How will they be perceived by universities and employers overseas – are we in effect confining students to a restricted future with our ‘bargain basement’ approach? That would be a betrayal indeed.
Mandelson vision for active partnerships positive but universities’ role is still to challenge ideas
November 16th, 2009
Guest blogger Lorraine Warren, who is Director of Postgraduate Education and senior lecturer in Entrepreneurship and Innovation in the School of Management at the University of Southampton, on the latest Government initiative for higher education and industry
Peter Mandelson’s recent ‘Higher Ambitions’ report calls for businesses to be active partners with universities and not passive customers (point 7, page 16, http://www.bis.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/publications/Higher-Ambitions.pdf). This is something that I would endorse strongly, having been a proponent of action research in industry contexts for many years.
My research has benefitted enormously from a range of industry connections, including interventions to set new organisational strategies, Teaching Company Schemes (now redesigned as Knowledge Transfer Partnerships) and latterly, looser internet connections that keep tabs on what leading-edge companies are doing, or planning to do, in the Digital Economy, my current area of interest.
The benefits have been mutual: organisations have benefitted from unfamiliar ways of thinking, or new knowledge; similarly my knowledge has advanced through contact with industry and reflections thereon have led to publications that were richer than they might otherwise have been.
To me, management is an applied discipline. In all of the partnerships in which I’ve been involved, formal and informal, there has been mutual respect, as all the parties concerned had opted in around a set of mutually agreed objectives. My teaching has benefitted too, with student placements and projects enriching the learning experience and further ongoing connections.
But it isn’t all plain sailing. Back in the 1990s, I was involved with introducing a variety of holistic, consultative methods into the workplace as part of the process of new strategy design.
One organisation I worked with had a culture and tradition that was based on hierarchy and they found the approaches quite challenging at times and eventually they only accepted about three quarters of our recommendations.
As I recall, there was a fair bit of pressure at the time to come up with the ‘right’ answer from a managerial point of view, which presented a values clash that took some time to resolve.
Again with student projects, it isn’t always straightforward, as I can’t always match a student to any project - academic projects tend to start at a given time of the year and must last for a specific amount of time to support the student’s progress through their course, which may not meet the needs of the organisation concerned.
So, while I remain a strong supporter of greater industry involvement, we shouldn’t lose sight of the idea that the role of the university in society is not only to reflect industry needs, but also at times to challenge them and to stimulate new ways of thinking that may be geared more to the needs of society as a whole than to business per se. This may not always be popular, particularly in the short term. Universities also enrich society through developing new areas of research where the horizons are long term and the business benefits are uncertain may not be realisable in industry timescales, if at all. Of course, some subjects, such as Classics, may be valuable in developing a particular kind of trained mind that certainly enriches the mix, but may not be seen as having direct business impact.
Another concern is, of course, resourcing. Industry projects, teaching or research, tend to be seen solely at the ‘output’ side, at the project coal-face where the work is carried out. A great deal of ‘invisible’ work goes in to get a student, or a research area up to speed enough to be ready for an industry connection — the background knowledge work, estate overheads, networking, marketing, teaching, course administration, writing and reflection.
It will be interesting to see how industry responds to costing models that reflect that fully!
Social media drives Philippines charity awareness
October 27th, 2009
Guest blogger Lorraine Warren, who is Director of Postgraduate Education and senior lecturer in Entrepreneurship and Innovation in the School of Management at the University of Southampton, on Twitter power for good causes.
It’s fantastic to see that Jane Walker from Southampton, who founded the Philippine Community Fund in 1996 has recently been honoured at the 54th annual Women of the Year Lunch in London. In short, the PCF helps families scraping a living on dump sites in the poorest slums of Manila, including the notorious Smokey Mountain.
They take an holistic approach, providing education, food, healthcare and skills training to whole families, not just children. They are also innovators, for example building a school from 72 recycled shipping containers, due to open next June.
I became aware of the PCF almost by accident when I arrived in Southampton five years ago, through a chance reading of a newspaper article. It was the right time for me to sponsor a child. I was doing so well and I wanted some of that affluence to benefit someone with much less – and it cost so little, only £18 a month today. So began my relationship with Leonelyn.
For me, PCF’s achievements are writ large across the noticeboard in my office. The little girl I began sponsoring five years ago has changed so much. The first pictures I had of Leonelyn show a pretty little girl in a smart little blue school dress – but she looked so sad and shy.
Nowadays, I see pictures of her smiling and laughing, sometimes with her mother (and new baby brother), sometimes in school, dressed up at special events. Her letters brighten my wall too, multicoloured and getting better with every passing year.
Watch Jane Walker on news video:
Most people in Southampton will learn of Jane’s award, and indeed all the hard work she and her team have put into building PCF, through the local Daily Echo. As a sponsor I had already heard the story, but I was pleased to see it go out on Twitter as @dailyecho has 1358 followers including me. And what a great chance for social media to amplify the message!
The immediate RTs from me (as @doclorraine) and @timsgreenhalgh immediately got the message out to about another 1000 people. PCF could certainly do with any help that’s out there – the recent heavy rains have made conditions on the dumps even worse than usual. Now, I’m hoping that this blog post will send round another wave of interest.