Article
Technological development and protest waves: Arab spring as a trigger of the global phase transition?
There are grounds to conclude that in 2011–2012 the World System experienced to some extent a phase transition
to a qualitatively new state of global protest activity. This phase transition is shown to bear some resemblance
to the one which the World System experienced in the early 1960s. The first (after 1919) phase
transition of this sort occurred in the early 1960s and was related to the growth of global informational connectivity
after World War II, as well as the improvement of the means of protest self-organization due to the spread
of television, portable radio receivers, portable electric loud-speakers and other technologies of the Fourth
Kondratieff Cycle. The phase transition of the early 2010s was prepared by a newwave of growth of global informational
connectivity, as well as the improvement of the means of protest self-organization due to the spread of
various technologies of the Fifth Kondratieff cycle (the Internet, satellite television, Twitter and other social networks,
mobile telephony etc.). Similarly to what was observed during the Fourth Kondratieff Wave, during the
Fifth Cycle while the spread of these technologies was going on for many years before 2011, their internal colossal
potential for generating and spreading protest activity was realized in one leap, as a phase transition.
After the beginning of the Arab Spring in 2011, explosive global growth was observed for the majority of indicators of sociopolitical destabilization in all parts of the World System. In order to identify the structure of this destabilization wave, we apply a series of statistical techniques such as trend analysis and t-tests to study the degrees of intensification of various instability indicators (as recorded by the Cross-National Time Series database). We reveal explosive global growth in anti-government demonstrations, riots, general strikes, terrorist attacks/guerrilla warfare and purges, as well as in the global integral index of sociopolitical destabilization. On the other hand, no statistically significant growth has been detected for assassinations and major government crises, whereas for such an important indicator of global sociopolitical destabilization, as the global number of coups and coup attempts, we find a statistically significant decrease.
This paper first looks at computer-mediated communication (CMC) technologies: at their advantages and disadvantages for learning and teaching. Secondly outline of the background for the research is given: the nature of the online forums in question, the material chosen for the discussion and the task. Thirdly, the author analyses the content of the forums by year (the 2010 forum and the 2011 forum) and by the participants’ nationality (Russians and Americans). In the end some trends are voiced.
This is a compilation of all presentations given at the 14th Central Asia Media Confirence, organized by the Representativ’s office, which brought together international and local experts from five Central Asia participating States of the OBSE. This publication is designed to serve as a record of the events of that conference and is intended for journalists, government and regulatory officials and students.
Market growth of personal medical device comes from a number of factors: • Aging population requiring more attention; • Patients with chronic diseases may measure blood pressure and blood glucose at home; • Reducing the cost of these devices; • Ease of use and availability of medical devices; • Risen cost of a series of medical tests. This article discusses the new challenges that arise in the relationship doctor - patient in the remote Monitoring human healthcare. With the advent of a greater variety of low-cost medical devices, as well as low-cost high-quality mobile communication system will allow the system to tell the Remote Healthcare Monitoring System has also become possible. This system should be as ready to doctors and patients themselves. there is a new quality in the interaction between doctor and patient. Considers a new model of doctor-patient relationship in the light of the transfer of active interaction to the virtual world.
This volume collects the research articles, tool demonstrations, posters, tutorials, and keynote speeches presented at the 13th International Conference on Web Engineering (ICWE 2013). The discipline of Web engineering is a special branch of the broader area of software engineering that specifically focuses on the World Wide Web and the Internet.
Informational noise is one of the main ecological problems of the communicative environment. The virtualization of the consumer society through Internet highly increases the amount of noise. We undertook a pilot study of the effect of noise on information consumption on the web by methods of participant observation and indepth interviews with active users. We suggested the typology of informational noise, the parameters to assess the strength of its influence and the possible transformation of consumer practices under its influence.
The article deals with the processes of building the information society and security in the CIS in accordance with modern conditions. The main objective is to review existing mechanisms for the formation of a common information space in the Eurasian region, regarded as one of the essential aspects of international integration. The theoretical significance of the work is to determine the main controls of the regional information infrastructure, improved by the development of communication features in a rapid process.The practical component consists in determining the future policies of the region under consideration in building the information society. The study authors used historical-descriptive approach and factual analysis of events having to do with drawing the contours of today's global information society in the regional refraction.
The main result is the fact that the development of information and communication technologies, and network resources leads to increased threats of destabilization of the socio-political situation in view of the emergence of multiple centers that generate the ideological and psychological background. Keeping focused information policy can not be conceived without the collective participation of States in the first place, members of the group leaders of integration - Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan. Currently, only produced a comprehensive approach to security in the information field in the Eurasian region, but the events in the world, largely thanks to modern technology, make the search for an exit strategy with a much higher speed. The article contributes to the science of international relations, engaging in interdisciplinary thinking that is associated with a transition period in the development of society. A study of current conditions in their relation to the current socio-political patterns of the authors leads to conclusions about the need for cooperation with the network centers of power in the modern information environment, the formation of alternative models of networking, especially in innovation and scientific and technical areas of information policy, and expanding the integration of the field in this region on the information content.