At the core of our work is networking. LINI is the product of the networking of four research centres and the knowledge that comes from the sharing of common objectives. The basis for our research work is the ability to network.
During the last decade, more than 200 universities, research institutions and researchers, focusing Internet and networks, worldwide, have collaborated with the team now working at LINI.
The researchers, currently affiliated to LINI, have participated, or are currently working on the development of several research networks. The following research networks, connecting multi-centre research projects, are examples of that work.
The World Internet Project (WIP)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION:
The World Internet Project (WIP) is a major, international, collaborative project looking at the social, political and economic impact of the Internet and other new technologies. Conceived as the study of the Internet that should have been conducted of television in its early days, the WIP believes that the Internet's influence will ultimately be far greater than television. Whereas television has mostly been about entertainment, the Internet has the potential to transform how the world plays, works and learns. Founded by the USC Annenberg School Centre for the Digital Future (formerly the UCLA Centre for Communication Policy) in the United States in 1999, the WIP now has more than 20 partners in countries and regions all over the world, including Singapore, Italy, China, Japan, Hong Kong, Macao, South Korea, Sweden, Germany, Great Britain, Spain, Hungary, Canada, Chile, Argentina, Portugal, Australia, Bolivia, India, Iran, Estonia and the Czech Republic.
NETWORKING COORDINATORS: Gustavo Cardoso and Rita Espanha.
The UN-Alliance of Civilizations Media Literacy Education clearinghouse
BRIEF DESCRIPTION:
Conceived as a participatory global repository of information, resources, and good practices relevant to Media Literacy Education, Media Education Policy and Youth Media, this clearinghouse encourages the user’s active participation. Media Literacy Education is a recently-developed pedagogical approach that take into consideration the new cultures emerging from the Information Society. Some prefer the terms Media Education, News Literacy, Digital Literacy, Information Literacy, or 21st Century Literacies.The approach to media literacy education taken here is inclusive and open. The Alliance of Civilizations welcomes contributions from organizations, university departments, associations, groups and individuals who are developing new pedagogical tools, strategies, and theories that take into consideration the challenges of the information society.
NETWORKING COORDINATORS: Gustavo Cardoso
EDOS-Environment for the development and distribution of Open Source software
EDOS is a research project funded by the European Commission as a STREP project under the IST activities of the 6th Framework Programme. The project involves the following universities - Paris 7, Tel Aviv, Zurich and Geneva Universities -, research institutes - INRIA - and private companies - Caixa Magica, Nexedi, Nuxeo, Edge-IT and CSP Torino. The project aims to study and solve problems associated with the production, management and distribution of open source software packages. The Open Source and Free Software movement now touches a very large and growing community of users. The GNU/Linux operating system for instance has an estimated 18 million users worldwide. The number of contributing developers can vary between several hundred and several thousand. Open Source and Free Software has a critical mass of developers to choose from. This has helped to ensure high quality for open source software, and has given end-users a real alternative to using proprietary software. The Open Source community will continue to grow over the coming years. However, despite this success, there are important problems in the production of Open Source operating systems on a large scale that will become even more significant as the number of users grows.
NETWORKING COORDINATORS: Paulo Trezentos.
The Business and Information Technologies (BIT)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION:
The project studies the impacts of new online information and communication technologies on business practices worldwide. The project is being lead by researchers at UCLA Anderson School of Management. The BIT study will follow the changes that occur in firms and industry sectors over an extended time horizon. This study will eventually be executed in 20-25 different countries, by research teams from those countries. The project consists of three major components: A questionnaire-based survey conducted annually starting in 2003, targeted at senior information systems managers of organizational units (from private and public sectors) that make independent decisions on information and communications technologies systems. The survey will address business practices, the evolving workplace, changing organizational forms and technology adoption; A GNP study to understand trade and labor issues. ; Sector Studies conducted in selected organizations using interviews with senior executives involved in making technology decisions.
NETWORKING COORDINATORS: Gustavo Cardoso and Vitor Roldão
Participation in the Broadband Society (COST 298)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION:
The main objective of this Action is to create new knowledge about users’ creativity and to facilitate their empowerment in a broadband information society. This knowledge is crucial in order to strengthen the European Research Area. Moreover, this requires an examination of the factors that can both constrain and enhance users abilities to shape and use ICTs, nowadays also referred to as information society technologies and services (ISTs). The Action’s specific objectives are as follows: 1. To examine the modalities in which users actually use ICTs and to discover their current forms of creativity. This involves assessing existing studies and, on the basis of this, informing industries and developing recommendations about ways to integrate these insights into future products and services. To suggest new approaches and methodologies for constructing a more user driven model of innovation in order to overcome the limitations of current models of ‘user-centred’ development. This entails providing an analysis of the various conceptualisations of the role of users held by those developing new applications within different parts of the ICT industry.
NETWORKING COORDINATORS: Rita Espanha and Gustavo Cardoso.
ARNIC - Annenberg Research Network on International Communication
BRIEF DESCRIPTION:
The Annenberg Research Network on International Communication studies the emergence of communication innovation, examines the attendant transformation of government policies and communication patterns, and analyzes the social and economic consequences. The project is multi-disciplinary, including communication, sociology, economics, and political science approaches, and international in its scope - spanning North America and Latin America, Asia, Africa, the Middle East, the Pacific, Western and Eastern Europe.
NETWORKING COORDINATORS: Gustavo Cardoso.
Health and Web 2.0 in the Information Age
BRIEF DESCRIPTION:
Health and Web 2.0 in the Information Age network brings together a number of European researchers to discuss the changes in health brought by the use of ICT. Its aim is to develop international comparison between health systems and the social appropriation of ICT for health search and how those social appropriations lead or not to changes in practices, representations and the organizational and economic dimensions of national health systems.
NETWORKING COORDINATORS: Rita Espanha.
STRIKE – Science and Technology Research in a Knowledge based Economy
BRIEF DESCRIPTION:
Based on the understanding that investment in research, development and innovation is a major driver of long-term economic performance, policy-makers in Europe have an urgent need for evidence-based policy recommendations that promote appropriate strategies for the governance, incentives and conduct of scientific research and of the knowledge transfer between public and private entities. The main objective of the Action is to improve our understanding of the process of scientific and technological development and of the transfer of scientific and technological developments to markets and into economic development. A critical mass of established and young researchers will be brought together to shed light on these issues and to develop policy recommendations. Furthermore, the Action will improve the collection, harmonization and provision of micro data and will thereby make a lasting contribution to science and technology research. The research is organized into four Working Groups: science, technology and knowledge creation; diffusion of science and technology; intellectual property rights; development of markets.
NETWORKING COORDINATORS: Vitor Roldão and Gustavo Cardoso
Econ@Tel Telecommunications Economics Cost Network (ISO605)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION:
The goal of ECONTEL is to develop a strategic research and training network linking key individuals and organizations in order to enhance Europe’s competence in the field of telecommunications economics, to support related R&D-initiatives, and to provide guidelines and recommendations to European players (end-users, enterprises, operators, regulators, policy makers, content providers) concerning the provision to citizens and enterprises of new converged broadband and wireless content delivery networks. ECONTEL coordinates the development of research methodologies and tools from engineering, media and business research. Regulatory issues helping or hindering the adoption of economically efficient services are identified. ECONTEL mobilizes the “critical mass” and diversity of economists, business research experts, engineers, and scientists working in communications and content economics.
NETWORKING COORDINATORS: Gustavo Cardoso and Rita Espanha
Government and democracy in the information age (GADIA-COSTA14)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION:
Government and Democracy in the Information Age (GaDIA) is a research network dedicated to the study of information- and communication technology (ICT) in the "political world". The aim of the network is to increase knowledge about how ICT enters into all or many of the political relationships in different European democracies, and how ICT is used by the different political players – the political parties, voluntary associations, interest groups, parliaments, governments and administrations. It is our hope that new insights and a better understanding of the working of democracy in the "information age" will result from this network. These insights are of wide societal importance, and are needed both at a European and a national level in the light of recent developments of different (national) strategies for the "information society". The research generated by this network should influence the development of such strategies, thereby releasing some of the positive societal potentials of the new ICT's for the benefit of all people within the countries participating in the network.
PROJECT COORDINATORS: Gustavo Cardoso
The Impact of the Internet on the Mass Media in Europe (COSTA20)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION:
The coming together of telecommunications, computing and the media, usually termed “convergence”, is one of the central issues of contemporary society. The range of questions raised by this process is enormous, covering as it does technical issues, business models, social changes, working practices, legal regulation, etc. The aim of this Action is to investigate the impact of the Internet on mass media industries. Its main objective is to develop knowledge in order to understand the various changes that mass media industries are currently undergoing, and will in the future undergo, as a result of the development of the Internet.
PROJECT COORDINATORS: Rita Espanha and Gustavo Cardoso
