Peer-to-Peer

The simple response would include that an ‘authentic education’ is designed to guide students to unfold their authentic selves, which would at least include: (a) investigating the curriculum that was designed for them, (b) learning how to perform a number of feats (skillsets) equal to the average requirement to survive planetary conditions (social, fiscal, and environmental) on one’s own, and (c) receiving a clear understanding of the actual state of the planet being inherited upon reaching adulthood. And that ‘hope’ is not activism.

Purpose – This article examines peer-to-peer sharing platform business models, their sources of competitive advantage, and the roles, motivations, and behaviors of key actors in their ecosystems.
Design/methodology/approach – This paper uses a conceptual approach that is rooted in the service, tourism and hospitality, and strategy literature.
Findings – First, this paper defines key types of platform business models in the sharing economy and describes their characteristics. In particular, we propose the differentiation between sharing platforms of capacity-constrained versus capacity-unconstrained assets and advance five core properties of the former. Second, we contrast platform business models with their pipeline business model counterparts to understand the fundamental differences between them. One important conclusion is that platforms cater to vastly more heterogeneous assets and consumer needs, and therefore, require liquidity and analytics for high quality matching. Third, we examine the competitive position of platforms and conclude that their widely taken “winner takes it all” assumption is not valid. Primary network effects are less important once a critical level of liquidity has been reached and may even turn negative if increased listings raise friction in the form of search costs. Once a critical level of liquidity has been reached, a platform’s competitive position depends on stakeholder trust and service provider and user loyalty. Fourth, we integrate and synthesize the literature on key platform stakeholders of platform businesses (i.e. users, service providers, and regulators) and their roles and motivations. Finally, directions for further research are advanced.
Practical implications – This article helps platform owners, service providers, and users understand better the implications of sharing platform business models and how to position themselves in such ecosystems.
Originality/value – This article integrates the extant literature on sharing platforms, takes a novel approach in delineating their key properties and dimensions, and provides insights into the evolving and dynamic forms of sharing platforms including converging business models.

With the increasing functionality and complexity of distributed systems, resource failures are inevitable. While numerous models and algorithms for dealing with failures exist, the lack of public trace data sets and tools has prevented meaningful comparisons. To facilitate the design, validation, and comparison of fault-tolerant models and algorithms, we have created the Failure Trace Archive (FTA) as an online public repository of availability traces taken from diverse parallel and distributed systems. Our main contributions in this study are the following. First, we describe the design of the archive, in particular the rationale of the standard FTA format, and the design of a toolbox that facilitates automated analysis of trace data sets. Second, applying the toolbox, we present a uniform comparative analysis with statistics and models of failures in nine distributed systems. Third, we show how different interpretations of these data sets can result in different conclusions. This emphasizes the critical need for the public availability of trace data and methods for their analysis.

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) have many potential applications [1, 5] and unique challenges. They usually consist of hundreds or thousands small sensor nodes such as MICA2, which operate autonomously; conditions such as cost, invisible deployment and many application domains, lead to small size and limited resources sensors [2]. WSNs are susceptible to many types of physical attacks [1] and most of traditional networks security techniques are unusable on WSNs[2]; due to wireless and shared nature of communication channel, untrusted transmissions, deployment in open environments, unattended nature and limited resources [1]. So, security is a vital requirement for these networks; but we have to design a proper security mechanism that attends to WSN's constraints and requirements. In this paper, we focus on security of WSNs, divide it (the WSNs security) into four categories and will consider them, include: an overview of WSNs, security in WSNs, the threat model on WSNs, a wide v...

La data de 3 decembrie 2020, CJUE a pronunțat o hotărâre preliminară1 cu privire la interpretarea dreptului Uniunii în ceea ce privește aplicația Star Taxi App. Deși într-o cauză anterioară din 2017, Asociación Profesional Elite Taxi2, CJUE a considerat că Uber nu este un serviciu al societății informaționale, ci este "indisociabil legat de un serviciu de transport"3, în cauza Star Taxi, CJUE a considerat că aplicația Star Taxi, având în vedere funcțiile sale tehnice și operaționale, are un regim diferit și este un serviciu al societății informaționale, cu toate consecințele ce decurg din această calificare. În acest articol vom rezuma hotărârea CJUE în Cauza Star Taxi App și vom compara anumite elemente cu speța Uber. La finalul articolului, vom aduce în discuție câteva implicații practice ale acestor două hotărâri.

In this study, the relations between parents, older siblings, peers, adolescents' individual characteristics, and adolescents' deviant attitudes and behaviors were examined simultaneously, using a social learning perspective and data of 121 families from inner-city Philadelphia. Results of structural equation models show that older deviant siblings had the strongest effect on adolescent deviance. Deviant peers also played a significant role. The effects for parents varied for deviant attitudes and behaviors. Positive family relationships, parental support, and discipline consistency were associated negatively with adolescents' approval of deviance, but only parental discipline consistency and adult supervision of adolescents were related negatively to adolescents' deviant behaviors. Coefficient estimates did not differ by ethnicity/race, family structure, or the quality of the sibling relationship. However, adolescents who identified with their older sibling, were of the same gender, or had a deviant older brother tended to be affected most negatively by the deviant sibling.

Communication centers provide assistance in the effort to enhance
students’ speaking skills and they have been shown to be very
effective as a resource and support across numerous campuses.
The central purpose for any communication center continues to
include “tutoring for students preparing oral presentations or
for participation in group activities, interviews, discussions, or
debates” (Hobgood, Sandin, Von Till, Preston, Burk, Neher, WancaThibault, 2001, p. 3). Research has shown that centers successfully help students gain competence as well as reduce public speaking anxiety (Dwyer & Davidson, 2012; Hunt & Simonds, 2002). In
order for communication centers to be successful, peer educators
need to be able to effectively communicate with students regarding
strength as well as areas that need improvement. Students’
perceptions of their peer educator can have a profound influence
on student learning as well as how the students communicate with
the peer educator.

‘Sharing economy’ platforms such as Airbnb have recently given rise to new
travel trends in which electronic word of mouth and interpersonal contact
are central. This study examines 90 positive reviews, with a threefold objective: first, analyse what makes Airbnb a social platform; second, understand online/offline rapport enhancement prior to and during the Airbnb experience; and third, examine the main rapport enhancement strategies in users’ evaluations. The results show that while reviewers place great importance on transactional wants before the experience, during face-to-face contact sociality rights become more important. After the Airbnb experience, however, the main rapport strategies point to enhancing the addressee’s face, while identity is constantly co-constructed. The present study intends to bring to the fore the function of positive rapport in the Airbnb experience, in an online system in which the management of communicative skills may be the main tool for success – or failure.

La Commissione EU (con comunicazione del 02/06/2016, «Un'agenda europea per l'economia collaborativa») individua nella promozione e sviluppo della c.d. sharing economy un'importante opportunità ai fini del rilancio del contesto economico-sociale europeo. L'economia collaborativa offre nuove opportunità occupazionali e reddituali, l'ampliamento (e la riduzione del prezzo) dell'offerta di servizi a disposizione del consumatore, un uso più efficiente e sostenibile delle risorse attraverso una migliore allocazione delle stesse.

Oftewel de fabelachtige, fantastische, ongelooflijke, onwaarschijnlijke, verbazingwekkende menselijke geest. Het is een term die de respectievelijk Japanse en Finse curatoren Noriko Kawakami en Ikko Yokoyama bedacht hebben voor een tentoonstelling (2014) in Tokio en hebben afgekort tot The Fab Mind. Een verwijzing naar het begin van een nieuwe beweging in design: de fablabs en de fabuleuze ontwerpmogelijkheden die deze met zich hebben meegebracht. 1 Een fablab is, in de meest poëtische betekenis van het woord, een afkorting voor fabulous laboratory. Daarnaast is het ook de afkorting van de meer voor de hand liggende betekenis: fabrication laboratory, met als belangrijkste doelstelling het digitaal fabriceren van dingen in een open proces. Dit gebeurt met behulp van een aantal technisch hoogstaande machines, waaronder een 3D-printer, een computergestuurde lasercutter, een freesmachine en open software, waarmee de gebruikers van het lab binnen een netwerk alledaagse objecten, maar ook veel complexere producten en/of onderdelen kunnen maken. Daarbij ziet bedenker en oprichter Neil Gershenfeld een revolutie van personal computer naar personal fabrication, want bij het bedenken en maken van bijvoorbeeld geavanceerde vliegtuigen zijn het niet de materialen die intelligent moeten zijn, maar de werktuigen waarmee ze gemaakt worden. Als docent aan het prestigieuze MIT zag Gershenfeld hoe westerse studenten op een bepaalde manier verwend zijn door de technische mogelijkheden die ze hebben en daardoor een frisse, creatieve intelligentie hebben verloren. Iets wat hij wel zag in de straatwijsheid in landen als India, waar constant op een creatieve manier gedacht wordt vanuit noodzaak. En waar men anderzijds geen toegang heeft tot slimme machines, die in samenspraak met dat creatieve en wilde denken misschien wel tot baanbrekende nieuwe bedenksels en producten zouden kunnen leiden. Bovendien is er een altruïstische onderstroom in zijn concept: Our mission is to provide access to the tools, the knowledge and the financial means to educate, innovate and invent using technology and digital fabrication to allow anyone to make (almost) anything, and thereby creating opportunities to improve lives and livelihoods around the world. 2 Het idee van het fablab groeide in 2001 uit de populaire lessenreeks How To Make (Almost) Anything die Gershenfeld aan het MIT doceerde. Het vond een eerste toepassing in een sociaal project voor jongeren in de Verenigde Staten. Snel volgden fablabs in onder andere Kenia en India, landen waar het niet voor de hand ligt om te studeren. Gershenfeld en zijn team hoopten met hun labs jongeren aan te trekken die veel verder en vooral vrijer zouden denken dan de studenten aan het MIT. Het belangrijkste kenmerk van de fablabs is daarom dat ze vrijwel gratis toegankelijk en vooral laagdrempelig zijn. In ruil voor de mogelijkheid om gratis gebruik te maken van dit fabuleuze laboratorium wordt gevraagd om kennis te delen – als een soort 3D-Wikipedia, het bekendste

In this paper, we discuss how Peer-to-Peer data distribution techniques can be adapted to Desktop Grid computing environments, particularly to the BOINC platform. To date, Desktop Grid systems have focused primarily on utilizing spare CPU cycles, yet have neglected to take advantage of client network capabilities. Leveraging client bandwidth will not only benefit current projects by lowering their overheads but will also facilitate Destkop Grid adoption by data-heavy applications. In this paper, weoutline two approaches to Peer-to-Peer data sharing that could be adapted for volunteer computing platforms: the highly successful BitTorrent protocol; and, a more complex, yet secure and customizable, hierarchal Peer-to-Peer data center approach.

Near peer role models (NPRMs) are people who might be "near" to us in several ways: age, ethnicity, gender, interests, past or present experiences, and also in proximity and in frequency of social contact. In two previous quasi-experiemental studies, learners in a Japanese university English department were shown an 8 minute video of four exemplary, slightly older, Japanese in the same department who were expressing beliefs and attitudes thought to facilitate SLA. A pre- and post-questionnaire revealed positive changes in viewers' reported-beliefs. In the present study, we wished to see the impact of the same video-speakers on non-English majors in obligatory English courses in a different university. The results show that many of these students' reported-beliefs and behaviours also change positively after seeing the video and they seem to remain more motivated through post observations. Interestingly, the experiment also changed the teacher's beliefs that made her class more interactive and possibly intensified NPRMing.

Download: https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv5cg94w
The automotive sector represents more than a simple industry. Since the late nineteenth century, it has embodied the economic and technological power of nations, the lifestyle, the dynamics of urban and territorial development, and it has acted as a national barometer of economic success and failure. This book explains how the car industry works and analyses the challenges both for the sector and for the economies that rely on the industry for jobs, growth, and innovation. It explores an industry that has been under severe pressure in industrialized countries for many years—factories have shut down, jobs have gone, and brands have disappeared—yet world production has never been so high, reaching new peaks annually. Fabio Cassia and Matteo Ferrazzi investigate as well the new trends of urban mobility and the characteristic of " car of the future " : the traditional landscape of car production and usage will be driven by technological advances, connectivity, car sharing, and by one the most fascinating advances, the self-driving car. How different will be the automotive sector in a decade? Will the traditional players be challenged by new entrants such as Google, Apple, Uber?

First chapter download: https://agendapub.com/images/pdfs/chapters/9781911116721_chp.pdf

Peer-to-peer file sharing and other forms of free online music distribution have played a complex and contentious role in the ongoing transformation of musical culture and economics. While the recording industry decries these services as “rogue technologies” and has painted their hundreds of millions of users as “pirates,” research shows that it is  difficult if not impossible to ascertain whether P2P has a positive, negative or neutral effect on music sales. The evidence also suggests that, in many ways, free sharing grows the overall music economy, empowers and enriches recording artists, and contributes to a more vibrant musical culture. These benefits, which contrast with the historical powerlessness and poverty faced by most musicians in the traditional music economy, help to explain why so many artists today publicly support and actively employ P2P and free online sharing as crucial elements in their business and marketing strategies, and indeed why so many labels are taking advantage of the benefits of free online distribution even as they pursue legal challenges and publicity campaigns against them.

In this work, my LLM thesis submitted at the University of Lisbon - Law Faculty, I tried to summarize the mains issues and to offer some alternatives concerning to the relation between the peer-to-peer file-sharing and the authors' rights, within the national, European and Internacional scope.

ABSTRACT
This research work sought to improve on the performance of students with peer teaching approach in integrated science. An Action Research was used in this study to improve student’s performance in integrated science. Form Three General Art Students of Winneba Secondary School numbering 50 was the sample used for the study. The research instruments used were questionnaires and tests. It was observed that these students believed that, integrated science is difficult and boring hence does not attempt to excel in the subject. The students were engaged in activities of peer teaching g. At the pre-intervention stage, diagnostic pretest was used to assess the magnitude of student’s performance and a pre-intervention questionnaire was administered to examine the cause of student’s poor performance in integrated science. It was deduced that lack of activities involving learners affected their interest and performance in integrated science. Duration of six weeks intervention plan was designed and implemented to assist students to improve their performance in integrated science. A number of recommendations have been made based on the findings of the research which include the need for teachers to always use varying teaching methods such as demonstration, practical activities, peer tutoring and discussions to make integrated science lessons interesting. In addition, the performance of Form Three General Art students of Winneba Secondary School improved exceedingly when varying teaching methods, timely marking of students exercises and effective remedial lessons were Conducted. It is hoped that learners will be more engaged in the teaching and learning process to develop and sustain their interest in the subject.

This chapter first considers free and open source software from a historical
perspective, by examining how these terms came about and are still sometimes opposed to each other. It then describes how free and open source software “works,” that is, the collaborative and legal practices on which some of the most successful free and open source software projects rely. Then, it presents the mainstream adoption of free and open source software, and end by addressing some of the challenges this peer production model faces, in particular when related to tensions arising from its marketization as well as from participants’ lack of diversity.

In questo articolo, partendo dal caso di Civita di Bagnoregio, si discute in che modo la diffusione di piattaforme quali Airbnb e Tripadvisor influisce sulle modalità di mercificazione e turistificazione dei luoghi. L’idea è che l’ecosistema digitale, che sempre più media il nostro rapporto con lo spazio, non si limiti a sostituire gli intermediari che tradizionalmente hanno svolto questo ruolo. Esso impone piuttosto logiche proprie che possono essere pienamente comprese solo a partire dalle peculiari forme di estrazione e accumulazione del valore su cui si basa il capitalismo delle piattaforme. L’obiettivo dell’articolo è offrire una mappa concettuale preliminare e parziale che aiuti a comprendere tali logiche, i loro effetti spaziali, e in che modo esse rischiano di tradursi in insidiose forme di cattura tecnologica, economica e simbolica.

The sharing economy is a global phenomenon with rapid growth potential. While research has begun to explore segmentation between users and non-users, only limited research has looked at consumer segmentation within sharing economy services. In this paper, we build on this research gap by investigating consumer segmentation within a single sharing economy platform: Airbnb. Utilizing a mixed methods approach, with both a quantitative survey and a qualitative content analysis of Airbnb listings, we compare two different types of accommodation offered on Airbnb: shared room and entire home. Our findings indicate that within a single platform, the variety between offerings can create distinct consumer segments based on both demographics and behavioral criteria. We also find that Airbnb hosts use marketing logic to target their listings towards specific consumer segments. However, there is not, in all cases, strong alignment between consumer segmentation and host targeting, leading to potentially reduced matching efficiency.

Computer network has become the most significant issue in our day-to-day life. Networking companies depend on the proper functioning and analysis of their networks for Front Office Department Housekeeping Department, Food and Beverage Service Department. Food Production or Kitchen Department, Reception area etc. Mainly interfacing with the network is induced by one of the other user/users to share some data with them. Therefore, this paper is about communication among users present at remote sites, sharing this same network HNS. HNS stands for the Hotel Network Scenario. Therefore, in this work the network is designed using Cisco Packet Tracer. The paper describes how the tool can be used to develop a simulation model of the AAHA Hotel of Bahawalnagar. The study provides into various concepts such as topology design, IP address configuration and how to send information in the form of packets in a single network and the use of virtual Local Area Network (VLANs) to separate the traffic generated by a different department.

Dunia finansial semakin berkembang dari tahun ke tahun, termasuk dengan teknologi yang diaplikasikan di dalamnya. Teknologi tersebut membantu mempermudah segala transaksi finansial yang dilakukan nasabah atau konsumen. Teknologi itu juga membuat proses inklusi dan literasi finansial menjadi lebih mudah, terutama untuk suatu negara yang belum tinggi pemahaman masyarakatnya terhadap finansial. Teknologi yang digunakan dalam bidang finansial secara khusus disebut financial technology (fintech). Kemajuan fintech akan menentukan seberapa sophisticated-nya dunia finansial di masa depan. Bahkan bisa saja ke depannya uang elektronik atau digital yang akan digunakan secara penuh untuk bertransaksi. Indonesia telah masuk ke dalam jajaran negara-negara mobile-first, dengan konsumsi data melalui ponsel pintar (smart phone) dan perangkat selular lainnya melampaui data melalui broadband (wired network). Hal ini mendorong gelombang start-up financial technology (fintech) yang mengembangkan situs-situs pembanding, pengelolaan keuangan pribadi (personal financial management), aplikasi pinjaman dan investasi, pembayaran peer-topeer (P2P) dan solusi korporat. Lembaga-lembaga keuangan pun membuka diri terhadap teknologi digital dan mulai menawarkan produk dan layanan keuangan berbasis teknologi (Fintech) Kata kunci — Finance Technology (Fintech), Elektronik, peer-topeer (P2P)

Mercato, concorrenza regole, vol. 2/2015 (pp. 245-278)

Abstract: The case for regulating the sharing economy (J.e.l.: K)
Despite the great deal of attention and fierce regulatory battles worldwide, the sharing economy is still an overlooked topic in legal studies. This paper aims first at defin- ing «sharing economy» and providing an economic explanation of the wide variety of economic activities mediated by digital platforms that enable «peers» to share private underused assets and to provide services. Further, it investigates the impact of sharing economy on consumer protection, competition, market failures and innovation. In- deed, the disruptive potential of sharing activities goes well beyond ongoing struggles between incumbents and sharing firms, challenging existing laws and regulations in many ways. To conclude, it examines how these practices fit existing legal rules and analyze potential regulatory responses.

Sommario: Nonostante la crescente attenzione dei media e le tante dispute a livello globale sulle regole applicabili, la sharing economy è un fenomeno ancora trascurato dall’analisi giuridica. Questo saggio intende offrire un primo inquadramento delle pra- tiche economiche di condivisione, in cui piattaforme digitali facilitano lo sfruttamento in comune di beni e l’erogazione di servizi tra «pari», per poi valutare le sfide che i cambiamenti descritti presentano per il regolatore. Le ricadute giuridiche dei nuovi modelli di produzione e scambio vanno ben oltre il conflitto in atto tra esponenti dei comparti tradizionali e nuovi attori economici, sollecitando una ridefinizione dei falli- menti del mercato e una nuova divisione delle responsabilità regolative.

Si sta attualmente assistendo ad un'evoluzione delle preferenze dei consumatori e ad una progressiva sostituzione dei supporti, dal "digitale classico" del CD, al "digitale informatico" dei file musicali (MP3 ed altri). Appare necessario per i produttori e gli artisti tenere conto di tale tendenza, alla luce dei numerosi vantaggi in termini di riduzione dei costi e accesso a nuovi e più vasti mercati. Allo stesso modo dovrebbero adeguarsi la disciplina giuridica sulla tutela della proprietà intellettuale e la scienza economica di riferimento. In particolare dovrebbe essere attenuata la netta separazione che nei modelli economici "tradizionali" veniva fatta fra supporto "classico", legale, e file musicale o file sharing, illegali. Considerando l'enorme successo dei siti legali di vendita di musica on line, si dovrebbe rivedere l'importanza relativa attribuita ai costi opportunità associati all'acquisto di un album su CD o su MP3.
La strategia ottimale non è dunque quella di "reprimere" la diffusione della musica in rete, ma di assecondarne lo sviluppo e di gestirne le possibilità di profitto, con la consapevolezza che in un'ipotetica situazione "a regime" il file musicale diverrà il principale supporto di ascolto e fruizione della musica.
This article investigates recent developments in legal and technological protection of digital music and describes the on-going process of format substitution (from CD to MP3 mainly), as well as consumers' attitude toward music downloads. Record companies, artists and producers should consider this changing in the environment; economic theory and intellectual property law should do the same. The 'traditional' separation between 'concrete' format (legal) and 'digital' format (illegal) in the economic literature, as well as the associated opportunity costs, has to be rethought. Knowing that the MP3 is going to become the most common musical format in the near future, producers' optimal strategy will be not to constrain the pro- liferation of music on the net. Taking into account of cost reduction opportunities in terms of promotion, distribution and network effect, the recording industry has to be ready to internalize the benefits of this technological innovation instead.

Purpose. Accommodation sharing is a major trend shaping the hospitality industry, and Airbnb is the most prominent sharing platform driving this growth. While price convenience is reported as one of the main strengths of Airbnb accommodations, only a few studies have examined price determinants. In particular, it is unclear whether hosts dynamically adjust prices for shared accommodation based on their experience with price management and on the level of market demand. This paper intends to fill this gap by suggesting and testing a comprehensive hedonic pricing model.
Methodology. Data from all 1,056 Airbnb listings for accommodations available in the city of Verona (Italy) on four booking dates in 2016 are collected and analysed through regression analysis.
Findings. The results highlight that price is significantly related to the level of the host’s accumulated experience and to the level of market demand on a specific booking date. The findings provide support for the ability of hosts to dynamically adjust prices for their accommodations.
Practical implications. Drawing on the innovator’s dilemma theory, this study suggests some strategies that traditional hotels may adopt to react to the disruptive nature of Airbnb.
Originality/value. This is one of the few studies to address hosts’ pricing strategies and to specifically consider price adjustments owing to variations in host experience and market demand.

This chapter assesses the future trends and trajectory of the optical media piracy. It traces briefly the development of media piracy from the VCR technology using the cassette format to the current digital and nanotechnology using the Internet and file sharing protocols. Optical disc piracy will be a transitory phenomenon in developing countries with underdeveloped IP and Internet culture. As the country increases in Internet penetration, the locus of media piracy shifts from the temporal space of the sidewalk stalls selling pirated DVDs or illegal CD-DVD shops to the cyber space of the Internet. The use of discs becomes less popular as media piracy becomes more convenient, easier and cheaper with direct illegal downloading, peer-to-peer sharing, and other evasive techniques using the latest sophisticated hardware and software technologies. This chapter then examines some popular and current online digital piracy such as Peer-to-Peer (P2P) file sharing, cyberlocker, media box, anti-circumvention technology, digital spying and hacking, and other Internet piracy supported by digital, cloud and nanotechnology. This chapter also makes projections on media piracy would look like with the advent of quantum computing and technology. Media piracy follows technological advancement and innovation, thus difficult for authorities to curb as it uses the same technology used by copyright holders which provides infringers with a variety of options to respond regulation. Finally, this chapter examines the difficulty of regulating the Internet and the role and future involvement of China in counterfeiting and media piracy. With the rise of online media piracy, regulating the Internet would then be the main challenge of law enforcement and copyright owners as regulating the Internet to curb piracy would not be easy with legality and illegality becoming more intimately connected with the growing sophistication of technology and conflicting business interests between service providers and content providers, and between copyright industries and top IT and ICT.

Emerging technologies in recent years are sharping the insurance industry, its ecosystem and future labor force require new skills sets and tremendous adjustability. Historically, insurance has been around for more than centuries. This risk mitigation strategy has been utilized in maritime commerce as early thousand years ago, where Asian merchant seafarers were pooling together their wares in collective funds to pay for damages of individual’s capsized ship. In 2018, insurance industry made up 6% of global gross domestic product (GDP) while financial and insurance industry amounted to about 7-9% of the US GDP. According to S&P Global Market Intelligence, in 2020, insurance industry plays a vital role in the U.S. economy, not only by, the industry net premiums written totaled $1.28 trillion, number of jobs created 2.9 million, but also the scale of investments $2.0 trillion. Despite of growing reform in this sector, insurance market is still dominated by intermediaries assisting people to understand and match the insurance needs with specific tailored line of product. While many predictions focused on artificial intelligence, social media, cloud computing as the technology of the future decades of business, blockchain stands out as the most disruptive technology that can change the driving forces underlying of the global economy including the financial, health, insurance, supply chain, manufacturing, and food sectors. Implementing a blockchain solution in insurance industry will greatly improve the current way of doing business by faster processing claims and applications, keeping documents digitally secure, and minimize cost. Additionally, it could potentially save insurance industry a significant portion of $200 billion a year in operating cost. This paper is an attempt of presenting blockchain use cases in insurance, demonstrating how the insurance industry can turn blockchain technology threat into innovative opportunities. It also examines this technology potential role in addressing insurance biggest challenges such as fraud detection, false claims identification, and forgeries prevention. The key findings of this study indicate: (1) advances in distributed ledger technology (DLT) offer opportunities for both conventional insurers and new start-up agencies for creating new business models and/or revamping existing ones, (2) blockchain-based solutions can increase efficiency and improve outcomes hugely in some use cases by lowering operational cost and automating redundant process.

Κουρκούτας, Η. (2011). Η «διαμεσολάβηση» ως θεωρητικό και πρακτικό εργαλείο στο χώρο της Ειδικής Αγωγής και της Σχολικής Ψυχολογίας: Προτάσεις για ένα Ψυχοδυναμικό Ψυχοπαιδαγωγικό και Ενταξιακό Μοντέλο. Στο Θ. Θάνος (Επιστ. Επιμ.). Επανορθωτική Δικαιοσύνη, Σχολική Διαμεσολάβηση, Ποινική Συνδιαλλαγή (σ. 113-139). Αθήνα: Πεδίο

Priručnik za rad u projektu "Uključi kreativnost - isključi drogu" Elitne studentske unije PMFa u Novom Sadu, čiji je cilj bio da se podnigne svest mladima iz oblasti  štetnosti zloupotrebe psihoaktivnih supstanci  i  koristi zdravih stilova života

Πανταζίδης, Σ. (2021). Παιδικές συνελεύσεις στην εκπαίδευση για μια βασισμένη στα κοινά διακυβέρνηση. Στο Θάνος Θ. & Ζάγκος Γ., Κοινωνία-Πολιτική και Εκπαίδευση. Κοινωνιολογία της Εκπαίδευσης και Εκπαιδευτική πολιτική, Ερευνητικές τομές. Αθήνα: Πεδίο

H παρούσα έρευνα επικεντρώθηκε σε τρεις διαφορετικές δομές που αξιοποιούν το εργαλείο των παιδικών συνελεύσεων και απώτερος σκοπός ήταν να γεφυρωθούν με τη διακυβέρνηση βασισμένη στα κοινά. Δηλαδή, οι παιδικές συνελεύσεις γίνονται η ιδανική αφορμή για τη συμμετοχή των παιδιών στην ομότιμη διακυβέρνηση (peer
governance) της σχολικής κοινότητας. Σκοπός ήταν να εξερευνηθούν οι προοπτικές, οι δυνατότητες και οι οπτικές των επιλεγμένων δομών στα ζητήματα που σχετίζονται με τις συνελεύσεις. Για τον λόγο αυτόν, πραγματοποιήθηκε θεματική ανάλυση σε δύο εγχειρίδια συνελεύσεων, το πρώτο αφορούσε την Πρωτοβουλία για το Άρθρο 12 και το δεύτερο το Ελληνικό Κέντρο Σοσιοκρατίας, αλλά και στο υλικό που είχε συλλεχθεί από μία εθνογραφική μελέτη σε ένα αυτο-οργανωμένο παιδαγωγικό εγχείρημα, το Μικρό Δέντρο. Η ανάλυση επικεντρώθηκε σε καθεμία δομή ξεχωριστά, καθώς και στις επιδιώξεις που αφορούν τα παιδιά και την παιδική ηλικία, τον/την εκπαιδευτικό και την εκπαίδευση. Στα αποτελέσματα φανερώθηκε ότι, παρόλο που εντοπίζονται διαφοροποιήσεις στις τρεις δομές όσον αφορά τη διεξαγωγή τους και τον απώτερο σκοπό της χρήσης τους, αποκαλύφθηκαν πολλές ομοιότητες. Πιο συγκεκριμένα, γίνεται
επανανοηματοδότηση της εκπαίδευσης μέσα από τις έννοιες της βιωσιμότητας, της δικαιοσύνης, της συνεργασίας και της φροντίδας. Επιπλέον, τα παιδιά αντιμετωπίζονται ως άτομα με ευθύνες και ο ρόλος του εκπαιδευτικού παρουσιάζεται πιο ισότιμος με αυτόν των παιδιών.

"I’m interested in the blockchain (or blockchain-based technologies) as one tool that, in a very pragmatic way, could assist with cooperative activities—helping us to share resources, to arbitrate, adjudicate, disambiguate, and make collective decisions. Some fledgling examples are La’Zooz, an alternative ride- sharing app; Swarm, a fundraising app; and proposals for the use of dis- tributed ledgers to manage land ownership or critical infrastructures like water and energy. Many of these activities are difficult outside of local communities or in the absence of some trusted intermediary. However, I also think that much of the current rhetoric around the blockchain hints at problems with the techno-utopian ideologies that surround digital activism, and points to the assumptions these projects fall into time and again. It’s worth addressing these here."

A focus group with three girls and another with three boys confirmed conclusions reached in larger studies that adolescents were image managers and that learning was secondary to establishing positions within the peer system. Among boys, behaviour detrimental to learning often attracted the highest social status. Appearance, attractiveness, sporting ability and humour were all deemed to be important factors in determining popularity. Seating plans had a significant impact upon learning experience, and the boys were annoyed at anyone answering questions in the classroom. The girls' felt that students without friends would have poor academic performance due to feelings of loneliness and depression.

This research, conducted by the author when a Senior Researcher at Newcastle University, UK, was funded by a UK governance organisation to help them assess, integrate and improve their understanding of the governed population.

ABSTRACT: Governance organisations have been urged to develop more holistic evidence-based approaches with partners to better deal with issues affecting the governed population. This presupposes an understanding of the population, yet there has been little research work addressing how governance organisations come to understand their governed population, nor how this understanding can be improved upon within such organisations.

This case study examined in-depth how understanding of a governed population was developed within one UK local governance organisation and it explored how such understanding might be developed and improved through more holistic and evidence-based organisational learning within the organisation and its governance partnerships.

The research methodology involved placement within the governance organisation, participant observations on several projects and innovative initiatives, observations within, across, and outside the organisation, and also interviews with varied key stakeholders.

The study examined:

- stakeholder engagement and networks
- current and varied understandings of the population
- mechanisms actually used for developing understandings
- the influence of context on organisational learning

and analysed these to arrive at a recommendations to improve organisational understanding of the governed population.

In the case studied, significant strengths were found: including innovative past learning trials for development, extensive ongoing networking activities, and many varied and accumulating quantitative datasets available across partnerships.

However, entrenched organisational approaches and practices constrained the development of holistic evidence-based understanding, for instance: the absence of systematic maintained collective learning processes; weak recording and forgetting of understandings; methodological exclusion of stakeholders from the development of understanding; the relative neglect of qualitative data, explanations, investigations, interpretations, and reflexivity; and also implicit organisational acceptance of such limitations and low aspirations.

Nonetheless, untapped opportunities existed to enable change including: latent practitioner knowledge and innovative management champions, the desire for improvement and raised aspirations within learning networks, and the development potential of alterative learning approaches.

It was concluded that more holistic evidence-based understanding was possible, but required new learning approaches beyond those then in use in both local government or academia.   

Recommendations are made to utilise and develop improved organisational learning approaches trialed and reported in the case study.

It is argued that the case study findings, conclusions, and recommendations may be applicable to other similar local governance organisations and partnerships that seek to better understand local populations, services and interventions.

The work was also submitted for, and awarded, an MPhil (at Newcastle University, supervised by Prof. Patsy Healy)