Sharon Strover

• Professor at University of Texas at Austin

To explore the expanding role of libraries in providing internet access and promoting digital literacy, this article examines ten libraries in one state that developed Digital Navigator programs. Representing a mix of small and rural as well as metropolitan and large libraries, the libraries’ efforts offer a different philosophy in dealing with dig...

This research examines cases of several ‘smart cities’ deploying camera technologies, particularly those augmented by AI and video data capture. Constituent groups including technology companies, city government employees, and a variety of citizen groups both directly and indirectly shape the policies for using these systems and the data they produ...

This research investigates the practical, theoretical and policy implications of city-deployed cameras in seven US cities. Social values associated with privacy (of those captured in cameras), public goods (e.g., camera improvements, AI, and machine language processing that may mean better capabilities to model and achieve citizen benefits), and op...

In the aftermath of the 2016 US presidential election, the public slowly began to grapple with the extent of Russian disinformation campaigns by the Internet Research Agency (IRA), elements of which were carried out on Facebook. Campaigns targeted people in the United States in many ways, including by publishing event pages on Facebook that were at...

This study examines the temporal dynamics of emotional appeals in Russian campaign messages used in the 2016 election. Communications on two giant social media platforms, Facebook and Twitter, are analyzed to assess emotion in message content and targeting that may have contributed to influencing people. The current study conducts both computationa...

Over several years, locally-initiated and operated Internet infrastructure projects have attempted to provide online connectivity and simultaneously achieve various social goals. Many generations of do-it-yourself network efforts that are either wireless, such as community mesh networks, or wired, such as fiber cooperatives, exist, but in the Unite...

Not only did COVID-19 give rise to a global pandemic, but also it resulted in an infodemic. The consequences of this infodemic can erode public trust and outlive the pandemic. The evolving and fragmented media landscape, particularly the extensive use of social media, is a crucial driver of the spread of misinformation. We collected four million We...

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The homework gap is a term that has come to describe the 15 percent or more of American children who cannot complete their homework after the school day ends because they lack access to broadband and computers (Anderson and Perrin, 2018). This statistic encompasses different economic, socio-cultural, and geographic factors. As a result, historicall...

The increasing presence of advanced information and communication technologies (ICTs) across various fields of our lives has elevated the significance of individuals’ capability to utilize these ICTs substantially. Although scholars have underscored the importance of understanding such capabilities in terms of skills that are multidimensional, few...

COVID-19 resulted in an infodemic, which could erode public trust, impede virus containment, and outlive the pandemic itself. The evolving and fragmented media landscape is a key driver of the spread of misinformation. Using misinformation identified by the fact-checking platform by Tencent and posts on Weibo, our results showed that the evolution...

As community anchors and public spaces, libraries are in unique positions to serve emerging 21st century information needs for the unconnected. Some libraries have extended their technology offerings beyond basic computers and Internet to include mobile hotspot lending, which allows patrons to "take home" the Internet from the library. The research...

In the wake of the 2016 U.S. presidential election, the notion of “fake news” and Russian election interference became somewhat interchangeable. We argue that “fake news” insufficiently describes the Russian disinformation campaign. Our analysis of Facebook ad texts shows that they incorporate emotional appeals differently at unique moments in the...

This research conceptualizes the continuous structuring of our lives by technology as a technological embeddedness construct between a sense of competence and dependance, whereby individuals mobilize information to meet life goals. Accordingly, a framework using digital capability and technological experience factors was investigated concerning inf...

A great deal of scholarship on broadband deployment and federal policies has positioned rural America through a deficit framework: rural parts of the country have older populations (and therefore not tech savvy), are poor (and therefore justifiably ignored by the market), too remote (therefore outside of legitimate profit-making enterprise), and lo...

Public libraries have historically positioned themselves as pillars of information and inclusion in society. Free, available to all, with materials in multiple languages and formats, libraries are possibly the most inclusive public institution. However, as more materials migrate to the internet, and as preferences for how people access information...

Libraries straddle the information needs of the 21st century. The wifi, computers and now mobile hotspots that some libraries provide their patrons are gateways to a broad, important, and sometimes essential information resources. The research summarized here examines how rural libraries negotiate telecommunications environments, and how mobile hot...

Recently several libraries in the U.S. have sought to extend their services and ameliorate local digital divides by instituting hotspot lending programs. These programs essentially move Internet connectivity into people’s homes by loaning out devices that connect to 3G or 4G cellular networks, and then allow patrons subsidized access to the Interne...

This ACM International Workshop on Immersive Media Experiences is in its 3rd edition. Since 2013 in Barcelona, it has been a meeting point of researchers, students, media producers, service providers and industry players in the area of immersive media environments, applications and experiences. After the successful first edition at ACM Multimedia 2...

This paper investigates the role this U.S.-based city plays in Latin American business and particularly its role in the extension and penetration of cultural industriesí activities in that continent. Our thesis is that locational advantage interacts with political, economic and cultural factors to foster the growth of transnational cultural industr...

The 2nd ACM International Workshop on Immersive Media Experiences (ImmersiveMe'14) at ACM Multimedia aims at bringing together researchers, students, media producers, service providers and industry players in the emergent area of immersive media experiences, through the exploration of different scenarios, applications, and neighboring fields. This...

In order to better understand the association between broadband and jobs/income in non-metropolitan counties, this study conducts spatial and first-differenced regressions using recent data from the Federal Communications Commission and the National Broadband Map. The relationships between broadband adoption/availability and jobs/income in rural ar...

Animating a character's face is a strenuous task due to a lack of a consensus among 3D artists on how to build and provide the controls in an animation-ready facial rig. To help provide a uniform integrative of control interaction to facial animation, a multimodal rig interface system approach was developed and tested in an initial user experiment...

The digital divide has become embroiled in discussions about technologies that range well beyond those earliest circumstances related to computer access and use, where the term first cropped up. Caught between a public discourse that espouses equality in opportunity as well as the tremendous bounty at the end of the technological rainbow and anothe...

As the first major federal intervention in improving high speed access to a resource increasingly identified as necessary to contemporary life, the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA) funds devoted to broadband represented a new chapter in building infrastructure in the country and in moving toward a next generation of network connectivit...

Although overall residential broadband adoption rates have increased dramatically over the past decade, the metropolitan – non-metropolitan gap has been consistent at around 13 percentage points. Policy prescriptions to address this problem have focused on either increasing broadband supply (typically via funding for infrastructure) or demand (such...

We examine factors that mediate the access and use of public computing centers (PCCs) that are part of a United States government policy initiative to bridge the digital divide. Drawing on in-depth interviews and field observations conducted in the state of Texas, we interrogate how the social settings in which the sites are embedded, influence the...

The use of public sector data, in an open and machine readable format, is said to contribute not only to public accountability but also to economic growth. In particular, the potential for open government data to generate data-driven entrepreneurship and scientific discovery has been the focus of much attention by both scholars and policy makers. I...

Immersive media has the potential for strong impact on users' emotions and their sense of presence and engagement. The main objective of this workshop is to bring together researchers, students, media producers, service providers and industry players in the area of emergent immersive media. The workshop will provide a platform for a deep discussion...

As more economic, educational, and social interactions occur online, broadband capabilities have become increasingly important. In the U.S., as in many countries, policy initiatives have targeted the digital divide, and one of the most prominent responses has been the creation or maintenance of public computing centers (PCCs). Building on models of...

Overall broadband adoption has leveled off at just under 70% in the United States, and many studies have suggested that large access and use gaps separate urban/suburban and rural/metro areas. It also seems clear that certain population groups have less ability – and interest – in using broadband, contributing to another type of gap. These differen...

The diffusion of broadband Internet access across America during the 2000s brought with it a significant amount of concern that rural areas might be left behind in terms of the availability, adoption, and benefits of this technology. i. The presence of a rural-urban broadband “digital divide” is well documented in the economic literature. ii. Sever...

Significant public investments in rural broadband internet service authorized by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act raise new questions regarding the impacts of broadband on rural residents and communities. The results of a natural field experiment involving broadband internet projects funded by the Community Connect program of the Rural Ut...

An examination of the evolving information economy reveals several major shifts in employment and types of work that affect city development and activities. Telecommunications systems are the backbone of these changes. Cities are ill-equipped to measure and predict these impacts and are even less equipped to control them. The developer community an...

Even as geographic disparities in high speed Internet access narrow, an urban–rural broadband gap persists, pointing to the importance of individual differences in motivations to adopt broadband as the key to closing the gap. Diffusion of innovation is reconceptualized through contemporary perspectives of the digital divide and social cognitive the...

Providing computers and Internet access to members of the community has taken several forms in many countries over the past several years. Called community networks, telecenters, community technology centers, or Free-Nets, such endeavors represent a range of institutional bases, of ideological premises, of State commitments, and of local empowermen...

A phrase with great urgency a few years ago, “the digital divide” now is on the sidelines. As the federal government renewed its commitment to marketplace solutions in telecommunications and information technology issues under the Bush administration, the idea of a digital divide faced criticism from FCC Chairman Powell for being an ill-advised ver...

A great deal of policy attention over the past two years has been directed at insuring that more communities within the country have access to high speed or “broadband” connections. The 1996 Telecommunications Act promises through its universal service provisions that telecommunications services will be roughly comparable across urban and rural are...

Discussion of the policy aspects of new communications technologies and their associated institutions. New technologies, although developed with optimism, often fall short of their predicted potential and create new problems. Communications technologies are no different. Their utopian proponents claim that universal access to advanced communication...

Digital broadcasting policy in the US has been ineffective in creating incentives, a market structure, or consumer interest sufficient to enable the broadcast industry to transition to digital signals. In spite of the early promises of interactivity that digital broadcasting appeared to offer, digital television now appears to be condensed into ser...

This research investigates the relationship between telecommunications infrastructure, economic conditions, and federal and state policies and initiatives. It presents a detailed look at the telecommunications environment of the Appalachian region, particularly focusing on broadband technologies. A strong, positive association exists between teleco...

This research investigates Internet connectivity in rural regions, looking specifically at four states in the US. Access to the Internet has assumed new significance for commercial and political reasons, and remote and sparsely populated areas typically lack the telecommunications infrastructure for reliable and fast Internet connections. Even as g...

This article argues that the current universal service policies fail to appreciate first-mile issues, that is, how connectivity looks, feels, and behaves from the subscriber's perspective. For individuals and households, connectivity is not just merely a stretch of wire but an important connection that takes them out to a broader world, encapsulati...

A qualitative study examined how teenagers react to and interpret certain popular media messages. In addition it explored the relationship between content containing various sexual messages and teenagers' responses to those messages, with particular attention to the critical abilities this audience exhibits. Fifty male and female teenagers aged 11-...

The post-divestiture era and clear internationalization of the US economy have brought with them startling new developments in telecommunications industries. However, the battle cry of 'privatization' in Europe and 'competition' in the USA accompanying them carry an array of justifications whose terms and assumptions too often go unchallenged. In f...

This article presents the results of a survey conducted in the state of Texas to the assess issues and concerns citizens have in having government provide services over the Internet. The survey presents one vision of what people believe about network-mediated government services and how they interact with them, and it contributes ideas about the so...

Claims of "comprehensive" in this day and age where information proliferates are always suspect. Indeed, as we put together this "comprehensive" bibliography of the Information Society literature, we were acutely aware of the size of the project we had taken on and the impossibility of citing every article, book, and presented paper that had addres...