Major Federal Grant Awarded to MSU and Merit Network
Announcing MSU and Merit Network as joint recipients of a $10.5 million National Telecommunications and Information Administration Broadband Infrastructure Program Grant to build out “middle mile” networking supporting high-speed internet/broadband to underserved areas of Michigan. From left: NTIA Special Representative for Broadband Andy Berke, Michigan Lieutenant Governor Garlin Gilchrist III, MSU Board of Trustees Member Renee Knake-Jefferson, MSU President Samuel L. Stanley, MSU Executive VP for Administration Melissa Woo, Quello Center Director Johannes M. Bauer, Merit President and CEO Joe Sawasky.
Full press release with more information.
Quello Center and Community Partners Recognized with 2022 MSU Distinguished Partnership Award
Featured Research Project:
The Role of Ethics in Information Policy
Research team: Johannes M. Bauer (Quello Center, MSU)
Recent working paper: Bauer, Johannes M., New Guardrails for the Information Society (September 12, 2021). Quello Center Working Paper No. 05-21, Available at SSRN and DOI.
Overcoming COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy: A United States-United Kingdom Comparison
Achieving a high overall vaccination rate is crucial for overcoming the COVID-19 pandemic. To prevent widening inequalities, it is also important to increase vaccination rates among the diverse populations that are most gravely affected by the pandemic. Governmental, healthcare, and policy groups need data to guide their strategic vaccination campaigns. This policy brief presents insights from data collected shortly before vaccines were formally approved. Our analysis helps to understand the factors that influence the willingness to be vaccinated and informs strategies to reach vaccine hesitant populations.
Download Quello Center Policy Brief
Broadband and Student Performance Gaps: A Checklist for K12 Schools Considering Online Teaching in Response to COVID-19
School districts face difficult choices. Large scale shifts in public education to an online curriculum must consider inequalities in broadband access, devices and skills, as well as parental and caretaker involvement. However, these inequalities cannot be overcome immediately. Unless schools decide against online teaching altogether because of these concerns (a strategy that has disadvantages for connected students), they need to find responses that minimize potential disadvantages for vulnerable populations. Key considerations are (1) offering of measures to improve the capacity of teachers, parents and learners to adapt to online learning, (2) appropriate design and use of distance learning, and (3) short-term measures to improve access to broadband. Quello Center Policy Brief 01-20 lays out options for short-term and long-term responses to the crisis.
Four Things A School District Needs to Know Before Moving Education Online
Download Quello Center Policy Brief 01-20 | Download Broadband and Performance Gap Report
Keith N. Hampton receives the William F. Ogburn Career Achievement Award from the Communication, Information Technologies, and Media Sociology
After years of efforts by public interest groups, the federal government made digital equity an explicit goal of infrastructure policy. Originally
More Information and Registration here. Event is In-Person AEI, Auditorium 1789 Massachusetts Avenue NW Washington, DC 20036 The ever-growing importance of internet platforms and Big Tech companies in civic life present difficult questions: How should we govern digital spaces? How does regulation affect innovation and vice versa? How do we do more to provide underserved communities access to digital tools? In almost every realm of our lives, technology is forcing us to confront problems that are both timeless and unique to our era. With the generous support of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, AEI’s Digital Platforms and American […]
Amy S. Bruckman, Regents’ Professor and Senior Associate Chair, School of Interactive Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology Via Zoom | RSVP Here | or email quello@msu.edu Social computing researchers increasingly need to question the nature of “truth” in our day-to-day work. In this talk, Dr. Bruckman will review ideas from philosophy, especially social epistemology, to give us practical, working definitions of “truth” and “knowledge.” Building on that, she examines the value of virtue epistemology (a combination of social epistemology and virtue ethics) to our research and teaching practice. Finally, exploring reasons why Wikipedia has been successful and broader lessons we can draw from it. […]
Organizer UCL STEaPP | steapp.communications@ucl.ac.uk Via Zoom | RSVP Here In this talk, Megan Knittel will begin with a discussion of her recent paper examining prevalence, risk factors, support-seeking, and personal outcomes of Internet of Things (IoT)-mediated intimate partner abuse. The researchers conducted a survey (N=384) using the MTurk platform of adult women living in the United States who self-reported having experienced intimate partner abuse. They found that approximately 20% of women reported experiencing adverse behavior from an intimate partner using an IoT device, with the most common perpetration occurring with personal assistant devices and GPS enabled devices. Additionally, they found that […]