Articles I've read lately (Feb)

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I'm waay behind on summing up the articles I read during the spring. Despite February in no way being "lately", I cling on to the hope that I will be able to catch up. Despite being half a year late, I still find it useful to sum up and publish blog posts about the articles I've read "lately". Here is the previous blog post (about the articles I read back in January).


Batch/week 1 - Texts I read in preparation for the (then) upcoming ICT for Sustainability (ICT4S) conference
Comment: I have to admit that the general quality of these short (4-6 pages) papers were pretty low. I have a hard time imagining that I will ever refer to these papers (with few exceptions).

- Hankel, A. (2013). National Collaboration on Green ICT in the Dutch Higher Education: Lessons Learned. ICT4S 2013: Proceedings of the First International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies for Sustainability, ETH Zurich, February 14-16, 2013 (p. 203). */ Written by an acquaintance of mine, the paper describes how Dutch higher education institutions work to lower the CO2 footprint of ICT activities (data centers, PC power management, sustainable procurement, e-waste, sustainable ICT-curricula etc. /*

- Kern, E., Dick, M., Naumann, S., Guldner, A., & Johann, T. (2013). Green Software and Green Software Engineering–Definitions, Measurements, and Quality Aspects. ICT4S 2013: Proceedings of the First International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies for Sustainability, ETH Zurich, February 14-16, 2013 (p. 87). */ Paper about green software and green software engineering and the development of a "reference model" for green and sustainable software. /*

- Koçak, S. A., Miranskyy, A., Alptekin, G. I., Bener, A. B., & Cialini, E. (2013). The Impact of Improving Software Functionality on Environmental Sustainability. ICT4S 2013: Proceedings of the First International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies for Sustainability, ETH Zurich, February 14-16, 2013 (p. 95). */ An analysis of "legacy system modernization" and the effects on CO2 emissions /*

- Lukács, G. (2013). Small community media for sustainable consumption. ICT4S 2013: Proceedings of the First International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies for Sustainability, ETH Zurich, February 14-16, 2013 (p. 237). */ Strange, unfocused paper with random use of references by someone dabbling in an area that is obviously brand new to him /*

- Sissa, G. (2013). An Awareness Based Approach to Avoid Rebound Effects in ICTs. ICT4S 2013: Proceedings of the First International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies for Sustainability, ETH Zurich, February 14-16, 2013 (p. 248). */ Very forgettable, I don't even know if I understood the article in the first place. "An Agent Based Model approach is proposed to study individual and collective behavioral changes toward sustainability" /*

- Van Bokhoven, F., & Bloem, J. (2013). Pilot result Monitoring Energy usage by Software. ICT4S 2013: Proceedings of the First International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies for Sustainability, ETH Zurich, February 14-16, 2013 (p. 108). */ Very strange paper (only two pages long). It's an experiment, sure, but is it research, science? Hardly. /*

- Viktorsson, C. C. (2013). From Fixed, Mobile to Complex: The Social Shaping of ICT for Sustainable Travel. ICT4S 2013: Proceedings of the First International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies for Sustainability, ETH Zurich, February 14-16, 2013 (p. 197). */ Written by an acquaintance of mine, "The paper looks at two historical examples of ICT based traffic and travel information services in Stockholm" /*

- Wangel, J., Løbner, K., & Sølgaard Bang, M. (2013). ICT as motor for transition: Towards a low energy, low carbon society. ICT4S 2013: Proceedings of the First International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies for Sustainability, ETH Zurich, February 14-16, 2013. */ Written by an acquaintance of mine, the paper reports the results of a scenario study about ICT in residential buildings /*

- Williams, D. R., Thomond, P., & Mackenzie, I. (2013). The Greenhouse Gas Abatement Potential of Enterprise Cloud Computing. ICT4S 2013: Proceedings of the First International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies for Sustainability, ETH Zurich, February 14-16, 2013 (Vol. 2, p. 21). */ Written by an acquaintance of mine, the paper is an attempt to understand the CO2 abatement potential of data centers - and it's based on data from Microsoft. This was pretty interesting and Dan knows what he is talking about. /*

- Wäger, P., & Widmer, R. (2013). Scarce metals as raw materials for ICTs: Do we care enough?. ICT4S 2013: Proceedings of the First International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies for Sustainability, ETH Zurich, February 14-16, 2013. */ Actually a quite interesting text, but it's not really research. The authors haven't done anything - it's rather a resource for learning about scarce metals and the connection to ICT. Conclusion: "A more sustainable use of scarce metals requires interventions both on the supply and on the demand side". Not really rocket science. /*

Batch/week 2 - A grab bag of texts, including several written by colleagues of mine

- Bradley, K. (2012). Urban sharing: The rise of collaborative consumption and co-use of spaces. Research grant application to Formas. */ This application is based on the two "Cities of sharing" applications that Karin and I wrote together last year. Our applications were unsuccessful but hers (qualifying in the "young researchers" category) was successful. Since the money is strictly earmarked for her and her alone, that unfortunately means she will do the research by herself rather than together with me :-( /*

- Gunnarsson-Östling, U., Svenfelt, Å., & Höjer, M. (2012). Participatory methods for creating feminist futures. Futures. */ Written by acquaintances of mine, I read the article hoping to learn more about future studies. The articles did not however help me reach a better general understanding, but rather only concentrated on describing the results of a study and of "methods for articulating feminist futures" /*

- Hedin, B. (2012). Teaching Procrastination-A Way of Helping Students to Improve their Study Habits. */ Written by a colleague of mine, this short paper is crammed with information about the results from teaching a module about procrastination (and studying habits) to our students during the academic year 2011/2012. "The course module has helped many students to reduce their procrastination. However, many more want to change their habits but find it hard." */

- Ilstedt, S., Wangel, J., Höjer, M., & Bendt, O. (2013). Prototyping futures. Position paper at the CHI 2013 "Post-Sustainability" workshop. */ Written by acquaintances of mine, this position paper presents the project Prototyping the Future - "a way of normalizing the sustainable life styles of the future". /*

- Rossitto, C., & Cerratto-Pargman, T. (2013). Sustainability in education: Challenges and open issues. Position paper at the CHI 2013 "Post-Sustainability" workshop. */ Written by my wife, this position paper discusses "intergenerational learning of sustainable everyday practices"./*

- Tomlinson, B., & Silberman, M. S. (2012). The cognitive surplus is made of fossil fuels. First Monday, 17(11) . */ A riposte to Clay Shirky's term (and book) "Cognitive surplus". "the cognitive surplus came to exist largely as a result of labor-saving devices that run on fossil fuels [...] We suggest that an excellent use of the present cognitive surplus is to help society prepare for an energy-scarce future - that is, a future that may not be able to support the existence o cognitive surplus at the current level." /*

- Walldius, Å. (2013). Influencing the usability of workplace IT systems: The interplay between HCI and policymaking in a Swedish R&D program. Position paper at the CHI 2013 "workshop on engaging the human-computer interaction community with public policymaking internationally". */ Written by a colleague of mine, this position paper describes the labor union TCO's work on environmental certification of computer screens that began back in the 1980's /*

Batch/week 3 - Texts about competitive computer gaming

Comment: The articles below were part of reading up and gearing up to write about sports, sportification and competitions together with Daniel Svensson.

- Crawford, G. (2005). Sensible soccer: Sport fandom and the rise of digital gaming. The bountiful game, 249–266. */ The paper focuses on "the consumption of sport-related digital games". "Digital games allow gamers at least the fantasy that they too can play sport at its highest level, and for some who have been excluded from sport participation [...] digital gaming provides a chance to participate in this culture". /*

- Hutchins, B. (2008). Signs of meta-change in second modernity: the growth of e-sport and the World Cyber Games. New Media & Society, 10(6), 851–869. */ The article focuses on "the intricate relationship between digital gaming, sport and media" and more specifically looks at the World Cyber Games which in many ways are modeled on/liberally borrows from the Olympic games. /*

- Su, N., & Shih, P. (2011). Virtual spectating: Hearing beyond the video arcade. Proceedings of the 25th BCS Conference on Human-Computer Interaction, pp.269-278. British Computer Society. */ I don't remember how I got hold of this obscure paper about computer games as "hybrid spectator sports in which the boundaries between actor and audience are blurred". The authors have more specifically looked at the game Super Street Fighter IV. /*.

- Szablewicz, M. (2012). From Addicts to Athletes: participation in the discursive construction of digital games in urban China. Selected Papers of Internet Research, (12.0). */ On the Chinese discourse around computer games; "addiction" is bad, but e-sports and being a cyber-athlete (a professional computer games) is admirable. On how "social and cultural forces [are] at work in shaping our relationship to and our understanding of technology". "The distinction between addict and athlete masks an age-old issue concerning the relation between leisure culture and responsible citizenship"/*

Batch/week 4 - Texts about sustainability

Comment: These articles below are all "respectable" - published in various academic journals.

- Berkhout, F., & Hertin, J. (2004). De-materialising and re-materialising: digital technologies and the environment. Futures, 36(8), 903–920. */ "The current debate about digital technologies and the environment is characterised by a stark contrast between optimistic and pessimistic assessments. [...] This paper seeks to move beyond this dichotomy, arguing that there is a complex and uncertain relationship between information technologies and environmental sustainability. [...] This paper identifies three main types of effects: direct impacts, [...] indirect impacts [...] and structural/behavioral impacts." /*

- Heinonen, S., Jokinen, P., & Kaivo-oja, J. (2001). The ecological transparency of the information society. Futures, 33(3), 319–337. */ "This paper focuses on the relationship between the information society and environmental issues. [It] aims at developing scenarios, and a set of criteria, plus indicators as tools for identifying the various environmental impacts inherent in an information society." /*

- Robinson, J. (2004). Squaring the circle? Some thoughts on the idea of sustainable development. Ecological economics, 48(4), 369–384. */ Excellent article on the different origins of, and the difference between the terms "sustainability" and "sustainable development". The article asks and answers many important questions and also constitutes a pretty scathing critique of the 1987 Brundtland report and its assumption. /*

- Tainter, J. A. (2011). Energy, complexity, and sustainability: A historical perspective. Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions, 1(1), 89–95. */ Short but (as usual) thought-provoking article by Joseph Tainter. Our societies solve problems that are thrown at them. This leads to increased complexity and requires increased resources. Sustainability is a problem that is being thrown at our society. How can we solve that problem while at the same time decreasing our use of resources? /*

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