Reve\{a,i\}ling the risks: a phenomenology of information security

In information security research, perceived security usually has a negative meaning, when it is used in contrast to actual security. From a phenomenological perspective, however, perceived security is all we have. In this paper, we develop a phenomenological account of information security, where we distinguish between revealed and reveiled security instead. Linking these notions with the concepts of confidence and trust, we are able to give a phenomenological explanation of the electronic voting controversy in the Netherlands

Explanation and trust: what to tell the user in security and AI?

There is a common problem in artificial intelligence (AI) and information security. In AI, an expert system needs to be able to justify and explain a decision to the user. In information security, experts need to be able to explain to the public why a system is secure. In both cases, the goal of explanation is to acquire or maintain the users' trust. In this paper, we investigate the relation between explanation and trust in the context of computing science. This analysis draws on literature study and concept analysis, using elements from system theory as well as actor-network theory. We apply the conceptual framework to both AI and information security, and show the benefit of the framework for both fields by means of examples. The main focus is on expert systems (AI) and electronic voting systems (security). Finally, we discuss consequences of our analysis for ethics in terms of (un)informed consent and dissent, and the associated division of responsibilities

Higher Education

During the last five years higher education research in Germany seems to be in a significant upturn. This is a side effect partly of the obvious boom of empirical educational research in general and partly of the reform movement that has affected the German higher education system since middle of the 1990s. The demand for data in the field of higher education will increase considerably in future. The available data infrastructure for higher education research in Germany consists of two complementary main sources: on the one hand the official higher education statistics, on the other hand survey-based research. All in all, there are no serious or principle obstacles to access to the available data stock. Access in particular to some of the most important surveys could be improved by the establishment of a Forschungsdatenzentrum at HIS Hochschul-Informations-System. Furthermore, there are some deficiencies in the present data provision. New topics and demands of data provision have to be integrated into official statistics and survey based research – e.g. such issues as migration status, competencies, lifelong learning, quality of studies, institutional effects, international mobility, programs to promote younger scholars etc.. In particular there is a lack of panel designs. The very new National Education Panel Study (NEPS) will eliminate some but not all of these deficiencies.

Divide and Conquer? Decentralisation, Co-ordination and Cluster Survival

This paper develops a simulation model of the behaviour of clusters in the face of bifurcation events in their environment. Bifurcations are understood as the regional equivalent to Schumpeterian creative destruction. The model investigates the role of decentralisation and co-ordination for the likelihood of successful adaptation by comparing adaptive performance of clusters exhibiting different degrees of decentralisation and alternative modes of co-ordination. Using Kauffman’s (1993) N/K model, it is found that there is an optimum degree of decentralisation with respect to cluster adaptability while different co-ordination mechanisms face a trade-off between speed and cluster-level optimality of results. In doing so, the model sheds light on an empirical controversy regarding the role of both factors for adaptation that has emerged between the Silicon Valley – Boston 128 comparison on the one and the Italian Industrial District experience on the other hand. Moreover, the identification of the roles played by decentralisation and co-ordination for cluster adaptability in changing environments could serve as guidance for future empirical research as well as policy initiatives.Clusters, Bifurcations. N/K model