Journal articles on the topic 'Reporting office building'

PurposeThe paper aims to reach a better understanding of accountability and social reporting in the Italian justice system, by examining the state of the art of both literature and practice. The case study highlights the critical elements in drawing up the social report of one of the most important Prosecutor Offices in Italy.Design/methodology/approachThe case study analyzes the activities of the actors involved in the report building process by detailing all the steps involved in a research diary, in order to examine such process from the inside, thus reversing its perspective.FindingsThe study shows that both the lack of guidelines for judicial administrations and a consolidated trend of transforming administrative facts into documents useful to stakeholders slow down the evolution of practices, which are stuck in a perpetual trial stage.Research limitations/implicationsThe limitations are mainly related to the adoption of a single case study, which does not include any comparison with other reporting experiences in the justice sector.Originality/valueThis paper adds evidence to the theoretical debate on social reporting in the justice sector which has so far received the attention of a limited number of scholars. Furthermore, unlike other studies focusing exclusively on the final report while overlooking the process that turns input into output, this research deals with the core of the social reporting process and practices in their development, capturing their most intimate and controversial aspects from the inside.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the changes in commercial office occupiers’ preferences in their building choice as a result of a recent natural disaster which triggered policy changes in building safety. Design/methodology/approach – This study follows a qualitative research design comprising semi-structured one-on-one interviews with 24 property professionals (commercial leasing agents and property managers) in Auckland, New Zealand. A thematic analysis was employed for identifying, analysing and reporting themes emerged within data. Findings – Tenants across New Zealand now incorporate earthquake issues in their leasing decisions. Most tenants are familiar with the impending policy changes related to earthquake-prone buildings. The degree to which building standards are incorporated into office occupiers’ choice varies with the size of the organisation and their willingness to invest in their corporate social responsibility. A certain level of overreaction was observed in tenants’ behaviour in the face of risk and uncertainty following the earthquakes. However, risk appears to be subsiding and emphasis is placed on availability of space in desirable locations. Research limitations/implications – The findings are limited due to a non-random sample selection and a small sample size. Further quantitative research is required to determine if office tenants place a premium on occupying seismically safe buildings since forthcoming regulatory changes have been announced. Practical/implications – This study provides evidence that imminent building policy changes are efficient in raising public awareness and informing perceptions of potential losses following a recent natural disaster event. Building owners can potentially capitalise on tenants’ desire to occupy high quality space. Originality/value – This is the first study that develops the knowledge base identifying the perceptions of tenants about seismic safety of buildings since the Canterbury earthquakes. The study also contributes to the literature on the market effect of policy changes triggered by a focusing event.

Implementation of cost-effective energy conservation measures (ECMs) is expected to generate up to 18% of carbon emissions reductions in office buildings. In order to determine adequate ECMs for a specific building, operational data is required. However, buildings generally lack operational data in the form of time series that can limit a breath of analysis required for determining adequate ECMs. Energy time-series data is commonly lacking in the UK due to uneven availability of smart meters (heat, gas, water), security restrictions in Energy Information Systems (EIS) and building management systems (BMS), restrictions and costs associated for automated reporting from utility companies, etc. This work presents a non-intrusive computer vision-based reader to generate energy readings at 10-minute resolution using a Raspberry-Pi, a traditional webcam and an LED light. OpenCV, an open source computer vision library, is used to detect and interpret numeric values from a heat meter, which are in turn uploaded to a cloud-based energy platform to create a complete operational data set enabling detailed analytics, fault detection and diagnostics (FDD) and model calibration. A case study of an office building in Scotland is presented. The building has a heat meter with no remote access capabilities. The accuracy of the method, i.e. the ability of the script to accurately derive the rate of change between readings, resulted on a 92% percent during a test done for 100 samples. Recommendations for accuracy improvements are included in the conclusions.

This paper presents the concept of International Performance Measurement and Verification Protocol (IPMVP) for determining energy saving at whole facility level for an office building in Malaysia. Regression analysis is used to develop baseline model from a set of baseline data which correlates baseline energy with appropriate independents variables, i.e. Cooling Degree Days (CDD) and Number of Working Days (NWD) in this paper. In determining energy savings, the baseline energy is adjusted to the same set condition of reporting period using energy cost avoidance approach. Two types of energy saving analyses have been presented in the case study; 1) Single linear regression for each independent variable, 2) Multiple linear regression for each independent variable. Results show that NWD has coefficient of determination, R2 higher than CDD which indicates that NWD has stronger correlation with the energy use than CDD in the building. Finding also shows that the R2 for multiple linear regression model are higher than single linear regression model. This shows the fact that more than one component are affecting the energy use in the building.

Purpose – This research aims to continue previous work by the author in the field of commercial service charge management in the UK, offering a unique cross-sectoral comparison in this paper. While prior studies have approached only one sector, this study analyzes both retail and office sectors in the UK. It examines the financial reporting and administrative practices of managing agents and the overall quality of commercial service charge documents, through which it offers commentary on the standard of professional service in service charge provision. It achieves this by benchmarking performance achieved against the accounting requirements of the UK RICS Code of Practice, Service Charges in Commercial Property. Design/methodology/approach – Data were hand collected from analysis of actual service charge documents supplied to commercial retail occupiers at 100 UK office buildings and 100 UK shopping centres during the period of 2010-2013. This process ensures authenticity by removing reliance upon third-party reporting of the said data and offers a uniquely detailed longitudinal sample. Findings – Overall levels of compliance with the financial reporting requirements of the RICS Code of Practice for Commercial Service Charges were poor in both sectors over the period of 2010-2013. Of specific concern was the widespread failure to disclose the accounting policies used during the preparation of the service charge accounts; knowing whether the accounts are prepared using an accruals or cash basis is essential for occupier decision-making purposes. Overall, the results from this study contrast with claims by the professional body that levels of “best practice” are increasing across the service charge industry. Research limitations/implications – The work analyzes service charge documents prepared during 2010-2013 for 100 office buildings and 100 retail shopping centres located in the UK. While the sample sizes utilized are relatively small, the paper provides a unique in-depth longitudinal analysis of commercial service charge documents that produces findings with high levels of generalizability. Content analysis was utilized to interpret the data and required some subjective judgement by the researcher. Originality/value – The study provides a comprehensive longitudinal study of accounting and financial reporting practices for commercial service charges in the UK retail and office sectors. Sector data are original, and the paper provides a unique benchmarking approach for assessing Code compliance at each building. This structured longitudinal approach to benchmarking differs markedly from the largely anecdotal evidence offered by the profession when defending current levels of Code compliance. In addition, the paper also provides individual compliance scorecards for 695 service charge documents in order to assess compliance with nine “core” financial reporting requirements of the RICS Code. Its chief value lies in establishing actual practice standards that can be taken up as a driver for improvement – by tenants, agents, landlords and the wider profession.

Help progress science and biomedical research discoveries along the development pathway to patient benefit. Offer academics assistance with: defining development and regulatory strategy; building and managing links to available resources; funder liaising and reporting requirements; managing risks and issues, follow-on funding and on-going project management and support. Bridge the gap between academia and the commercial healthcare sector by de-risking UCL's novel science a team of 24 highly experienced industrial translational scientists tasked with establishing the organisational culture, capability and processes necessary to deliver the UCL and BRC's mission of "Accelerating translation for health and wealth". The TRO supports the development of early stage research from across UCL and its partner hospitals, into projects attractive for translational funding or further development with partners and nurture access to complementary capacity, expertise and skills in translational science. The TRO achieves this through the integrated activities of three specialist groups a Drug Discovery Group (DDG) provides expert advice and practical support for small molecule drug discovery projects across UCL; a Translational Research Group who provide experienced project leaders to guide projects (gene, cell and regenerative medicine therapies, devices, diagnostics, small molecules) through their development; and an Industrial Partnerships Group who initiate and manage relationships with industry. The team have a proven track record of therapeutic delivery and work in partnership with academics and industry partners, enhancing projects to optimise the chances of long-term success and benefit to patients.

Plants are widely used in building environments; however, studies reporting the health and discomfort symptoms of people in response to indoor foliage plants are few. The objective of the presented studies was to assess the effect of foliage plants or a combination of foliage plants and full-spectrum fluorescent lamps on self-reported health and discomfort complaints in three different work environments: an office building, an X-ray department in a Norwegian hospital, and a junior high school. Health and discomfort symptoms were found to be 21% to 25% lower during the period when subjects had plants or plants and full-spectrum lighting present compared to a period without plants. Neuropsychological symptoms, such as fatigue and headache, and mucous membrane symptoms, such as dry and hoarse throat, seemed to be more affected by the treatments than skin symptoms, such as itching skin.

Purpose It might seem plausible to argue that effective monitoring of disaster data loss can help achieve progress in reporting to the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (SFDRR) and the global targets of sustainable development goals and associated indicators. Nevertheless, with the lack of climate change and disaster data losses in the Arab region, the integration of risks associated with socio-economic dimensions at the wider scale of displacement is important to shape a regional understanding of resilience terminology and provides the means of translating it. The purpose of this paper is to identify the means of redefining “Resilience” in the Arab region context of climate change, conflict and displacement in association with the theoretical principles of the “fragile city”. Design/methodology/approach In an attempt to achieve the SFDRR target (E) “substantially increase the number of countries with national and local DRR strategies by 2020,” this study investigates the use of the (United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction) disaster resilience scorecard as a guiding principle for city-to-city (C2C) resilience-building knowledge exchange between Amman (Jordan) and Khartoum (Sudan). Findings Facing similar urban challenges against disaster and violent conflict-protracted displacement, the study findings indicate that the C2C exchange program was useful in understanding the cities’ urban risk profiles, promoting dialogue among local governments and creating a culture of learning organizations for knowledge sharing on DRR governance and beyond. However, the applied resilience assessments overlooked the qualitative and socio-ecological understanding of climate change risk and human security principles among the most vulnerable groups of refugees and internally displaced persons in fragile settings. This is recommended to be integrated into building coherence for resilience across the 2015-2030 Global Agendas reporting and monitoring mechanisms, leaving “no one behind”. Originality/value The C2C exchange program for Amman and Khartoum was an opportunity for understanding the cities’ urban risk profiles, addressing challenges and building “decentralized cooperation” beyond the cities’ institutional boundaries (UN Habitat, 2001), with recommendations for “selecting resilience indicators specific to fragile cities” to quantitatively measure disaster displaced persons’ (DDPs) vulnerabilities and current status of “income and social equality, microeconomic security, provision of basic services and social protection” while providing qualitative evidence on “social cohesion, social networks/social support and local government–community cooperation” (Patel and Nosal, 2016).

Background: Critical access hospitals (CAHs) serving rural communities have numerous limitations regarding resources, infrastructure, and staffing to support antibiotic stewardship programs (ASPs) and related quality improvement activities. The Federal Office of Rural Health Policy (FORHP) established the Medicare Beneficiary Quality Improvement Project (MBQIP) to provide CAHs with specialized technical assistance in quality improvement data collection and reporting to drive improvements in the quality of care and to reduce barriers to establishing ASPs. In 2016, FORHP developed an antibiotic stewardship process measure in partnership with the CDC to assess progress on implementing ASPs and to optimize hospital quality improvement practices related to antibiotic use. This is the first measure to be successfully implemented and reported at a national level to improve the judicious use of antibiotics in hospitals. Methods: A process measure was developed to assess adherence to the 7 core elements of a successful hospital ASP (ie, leadership, accountability, drug expertise, action, tracking, reporting, and education), as defined by CDC guidelines. Implementation was accomplished through CAH participation in the NHSN Annual Facility Survey (AFS). Responses were analyzed to assess fidelity to each core element, to identify trends, and to benchmark measure reporting among 1,350 CAHs across the United States. Responses were mapped to 7 core element categories, and the total number of positive responses were matched to each core element for a specific survey year to track progress. Overall, the measure assessed progress in meeting all 7 core elements, as well as program robustness in the number of actions implemented and the amount of data tracked and reported at each hospital. NHSN reports were generated to tailor technical assistance activities and to assist hospitals with measure uptake and reporting. Results: CAH participation in the NHSN significantly increased from 2014 to 2018 (83% response rate). From 2014 through 2018, reporting of the new antibiotic stewardship measure consistently increased. CAHs that met all core elements increased from 18% (2014) to 73% (2018). Performance-based benchmarks enabled hospital comparisons and the establishment of reporting goals. Conclusions: This study highlights viable approaches to measuring antibiotic stewardship at a national level to drive improvements in care at hospitals of any size. The implementation of the antibiotic stewardship measure across CAHs demonstrates the impact of federal programs like MBQIP for hospitals that are building capacity for quality improvement. For the first time, CAHs were able to measure and compare their implementation of ASPs to other hospitals at the state and national level.Funding: NoneDisclosures: None

This study aims to examine and analyze in depth the adaptive behavior of employees of microfinance institutions, especially rural banks and cooperatives during the Covid-19 pandemic. This adaptive behavior is divided into 4, namely building communication with customers, getting used to new conditions, socializing and getting along with the community, continuing to move to meet targets. The phenomenological study is used because this data comes from the experience of participants who are currently active leaders in microfinance institutions. This study used 2 participants, namely the head of the BPR branch and the manager of a savings and loan cooperative, both of whom have decades of experience in microfinance institutions. The research findings show that the way to adapt in the midst of a pandemic to collect is by changing your appearance by not wearing uniforms and shoes when visiting customers. Then employees must also familiarize themselves with implementing the Covid protocol at work. The office provides hand washing facilities and handsanitazers for customers and employees, and this will have to be used later. Reporting on the results of performance limitations is carried out once a month but the policy for employees is focused on billing activities because it is to reduce risk.

Education is two of the four national aims specifically in order to advance general prosperity and to develop the nation’s intellectual life. In the present time, the accessibility of education in remote areas, the building of characters, as well as the advances of technology has become challenges of education system due to lack of capabilities of skilled resources. In coping with those matters, the government allocates the Affirmation and Performance School Operational Assistance Funds in conjunction with the school's digitalization program to deal with 4.0 industrial revolution. This research is aimed at finding out the process of distribution of the Affirmation and Performance School Operational Assistance Funds in State Treasury Services Office I of Medan and the management implementation of the Performance School Operational Assistance Funds in St. Ignasius Medan High School. This research uses qualitative methods by using the ATLAS.ti application tools to create network knowledge. The research findings show that the distribution and management of the Affirmation and Performance School Operational Assistance Funds has been progressing well despite having some issues. Some of the issues are the invalid school account data and the changing of School Operational Assistance Funds regulations. Those issues resulted in the high return of accounts and the difficulty in formulating financial reporting of the Performance School Operational Assistance Funds.

This study aims to determine: 1) the role of paseng ri ade’ local wisdom in forest conservation efforts, 2) the form of preservation of indigenous peoples’ forest, 3) the form of empowerment of the Karampuang indigenous people in forest conservation efforts. This research is a qualitative descriptive study. Data collection techniques include observation, in-depth interviews with the selection of informants using purposive sampling, and documentation. Data analysis is done by examining all available data from various sources, namely the results of observations, interviews, field notes, documents. After that reduce data, expose data and conclusions. The results showed that 1) paseng ri ade’ was a source of informal rules applied to the Karampuang indigenous people so that they managed and utilized the forest using traditional practices. This form of preservation is the existence of a broad range of community rights in the utilization of forest products, has a certain way of taking forest products and behaving in accordance with applicable norms. 2)The form of forest preservation carried out by the indigenous Karampuang are, namely planting trees, reporting on violations, mainting karama’s forest and building permanent house. 3) Community empowerment carried out by the government, namely KBD (Village Seed Farming), community skills training, PRONA, ecotourism development, as well as involvement of traditional leaders in decision making at the village office.

Annual suicide figures are critical in identifying trends and guiding research, yet challenges arising from significant lags in reporting can delay and complicate real-time interventions. In this paper, we utilized Google Trends search volumes for behavioral forecasting of national suicide rates in Ireland between 2004 and 2015. Official suicide rates are recorded by the Central Statistics Office in Ireland. While similar investigations using Google trends data have been carried out in other jurisdictions (e.g., United Kingdom, United Stated of America), such research had not yet been completed in Ireland. We compiled a collection of suicide- and depression-related search terms suggested by Google Trends and manually sourced from the literature. Monthly search rate terms at different lags were compared with suicide occurrences to determine the degree of correlation. Following two approaches based on vector autoregression and neural network autoregression, we achieved mean absolute error values between 4.14 and 9.61 when incorporating search query data, with the highest performance for the neural network approach. The application of this process to United Kingdom suicide and search query data showed similar results, supporting the benefit of Google Trends, neural network approach, and the applied search terms to forecast suicide risk increase. Overall, the combination of societal data and online behavior provide a good indication of societal risks; building on past research, our improvements led to robust models integrating search query and unemployment data for suicide risk forecasting in Ireland.

The increased development of residential areas and community facilities in the South Kalimantan region, especially in Banjarmasin and its surroundings, increased demand for wood, The research objectives were to identify the problems of small industry entrepreneurs with waste wood/sibitan raw material. The research period was 5 (five) months, from the end of January 2020 to the end of April 2020, which included the preparation of research proposals, research, data processing, and reporting. The results of the research were: a) the high level of community demand for sawn wood as a basic material for building houses and the dependence of the Banjarmasin Utara Subdistrict community on the presence of the wood industry was important factors for the existence of the wood industry with raw material from industrial waste wood; b) Laws and Ministerial Regulations stipulated that the licensing authority for a logging industry is carried out by the forestry service, while for every other industry it is regulated by the Industry and Trade office; c) the solution to fulfilling the requirements for obtaining a small industry license is a guarantee that the supply of raw materials can be obtained from three alternatives, namely; source of raw materials from the waste of business permit for the Primary Industries of Timber Forest Products (IUIPHHK), People’s Plantations (HTR), and rejected wood, and d) draft policy on the legality of the wood industry with raw material from waste wood. An industrial company can obtain a permit by meeting the requirements,

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to understand both the facts and the values associated with the breadth of issues, and the principles related to sustainable real estate for institutional investors. Sustainable real estate is a growing sector within the commercial real estate industry, and yet, the decision-making practices of institutional investors related to sustainability are still not well understood. In an effort to fill that gap, this research investigates the post-global financial crisis (GFC) motivations driving the implementation of sustainability initiatives, the implementation strategies used, and the predominant eco-indicators and measures used by institutional investors. Design/methodology/approach This paper presents the results of a three-round modified Delphi study conducted in the USA in 2011-2012 investigating the nature of performance measurements and reporting requirements in sustainable commercial real estate and their impact on the real estate decision-making process used by institutional investors. Two rounds of in-depth interviews were conducted with 14 expert panelists. An e-questionnaire was used in the third round to verify qualitative findings. Findings The key industry drivers and performance indicators influencing institutional investor decision making were associated with risk management of assets and whether initiatives can improve competitive market advantage. Industry leaders advocate for simple key performance indicators, which is in contrast to the literature which argues for the need to adopt common criteria and metrics. Key barriers to the adoption of sustainability initiatives are discussed and a decision framework is presented. Practical implications This research aims to help industry partners understand the drivers motivating institutional investors to uptake sustainability initiatives with the aim of improving decision making, assessment, and management of sustainable commercial office buildings. Originality/value Building on the four generations of the sustainability framework presented by Simons et al. (2001), this research argues that the US real estate market has yet again adjusted its relationship with sustainability and revises their framework to include a new, post-GFC generation for decision making, assessment, and management of sustainable real estate.

The article presents the results of a study of the theoretical foundations of the Blockchain technology. The analysis of the organization structure of its units and the principles of the system. Algorithms of smart contracts are considered and their advantages and disadvantages are analyzed. The purpose of the study is that based on the analysis of the theoretical foundations of building systems using blockchain technology and introducing them into various areas, to propose a system model using smart contracts on the Etherium platform for use in the workflow system in institutions of higher education. Convenient web interfaces for managing the creation of a contract and a module for the interaction of smart contracts with a Web application have been developed. The management of an institution of higher education, namely, a department, faculty or institute, involves the correct and timely preparation of various documentation, in which the documentation on student learning outcomes holds a special place. On its basis various financial and reporting documents are being prepared. To this end, institutions of higher education are introducing workflow system and office automation systems to manage the processing of documents, as well as to organize control over the implementation of these processes. The paper proposes the introduction of a blockchain system on the Ethereum platform using smart contracts written in the Solidity language. Solidity is a tool that is used to create machine-level code that can be run on an Ethereum Virtual Machine. Solidity allows you to create and execute a smart contract without requiring centralized or trusted parties. The use of such technologies makes it possible to significantly reduce the number of paper-based information carriers and, to a significant extent, further automate the existing the workflow system in institutions of higher education. The proposed system is a part of the workflow system of institutions of higher education, which is designed to automate the process of passing documents related to taking into account and submitting to the dean's office of the faculty or the institute the results of the final controls on academic disciplines or the results of retake of tests and exams. This process requires a large number of documents on paper. The proposed system is deployed in the local computer network of the Educational and Scientific Institute of Information Technologies and Mechatronics of Poltava National Technical Yuri Kondratyuk University and is being tested. The results allow us to draw conclusions about the reduction in the number of paper documents; time to obtain permits. In addition, the level of reliability and protection of information transmitted to the administration of the faculty or institute for further processing has increased. In the future, it is planned to introduce the proposed system for document flow automation for all institutes and faculties of the Poltava National Technical Yuri Kondratyuk University.

AbstractThis paper describes the conception, development, launch, marketing, and maintenance of the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission Reporter (FWC Reporter), a mobile application (app) that the public can use to report fish and wildlife and environmental concerns to appropriate state agency offices. The FWC Reporter, launched in February 2018, is the first comprehensive reporting app developed by a fish and wildlife agency in the United States that we are aware of. On the basis of a consumer concept test and library research, the app's design incorporates elements of fast and frugal heuristics and inductive decision theory. The FWC developed this version of the app in-house with an open-source development package, and involves primarily email and telephone to send reports and facilitate communication with agency staff. From February 2018 through December 31, 2018, the FWC recorded over 1,000 downloads on Android and 4,308 on Apple devices, and 258 emailed reports. Since fish and wildlife reporting apps do not provide clear benefit to the user (low value proposition), it is crucial that offices receiving reports are proactive in building and maintaining their own reporting constituency. Engagement with the public is not only through active recruitment of app users, but also following up after a report is made so that the users know their efforts are appreciated. Two FWC programs demonstrated successful engagement, horseshoe crabs Limulus polyphemus and fish kills, as they received the most email reports. Other topics for any conservation or fish and wildlife agency to consider when developing their own reporting mobile app include download intention, adoption, continuance, habit formation, public and organizational acceptance, and marketing.

Indoor air quality (IAQ) is a critical consideration in airtight buildings that depend on mechanical ventilation, such as those constructed to the Passivhaus standard. While previous reviews of IAQ on Passivhaus-certified buildings foccused on offices, this study examines residential buildings. A summary of data collection methods and pollutant concentrations is presented, followed by a critical discussion of the impact of Passivhaus design strategies on IAQ. This review indicates that IAQ in Passivhaus-certified dwellings is generally better than in conventional homes, but both occupant behaviour and pollution from outdoor sources play a significant role in indoor concentrations. Moreover, there are differences in data collection and reporting methods. Many of the available studies depend on short-term IAQ monitoring of less than two weeks, making it difficult to determine the longer impact of housing design on IAQ and occupants’ well-being. There is also a lack of studies from non-European countries. Future research should focus on investigating associations between IAQ and Passivhaus design strategies in hot and humid climates, where evidence is particularly lacking. Further effort is also required to investigate potential links between occupant’s perception of IAQ and physical exposure to indoor pollution. Finally, the lack of homogeneous monitoring and reporting methods for IAQ studies needs to be addressed.

Despite the challenges involved in re-cycling older library buildings, it is important not to underestimate the value of extant Carnegie libraries, which in many places are among the most celebrated and cherished structures in the community. Any tendency to underestimate the possibilities for extant Carnegie library buildings can be reduced by revisiting their original designs and challenging popular impressions that are based on unwarranted retrospective history. Case studies of three Illinois Carnegie libraries are presented: Decatur (opened 1903), Paxton (opened 1904), and Park Ridge (opened 1913). These case studies are followed by a positive interpretation of the built form of the three libraries studied, by drawing on recent accounts of the material culture of Carnegie public libraries in the decades immediately prior to the First World War, as well as by referring to contemporary policy on architectural control by Carnegie's office and critical reporting in the later stage of the Carnegie programme on its successes and failures.

AbstractBackground: information systems as a technology in managing hospital data are growing rapidly as demands for quality health services. This is in accordance with regulations that require every hospital to do recording and reporting all hospital activities in the form of SIMRS. The implications of the system development not only have the effect of supporting the improvement of organizational performance, but also a variety of problems that are not as expected of the benefit of SIMRS. One of the problems is that the user needs are not accommodated on the system created. However, in developing an information system, one of the most important elements related to user needs is the design of the interface as a channel for information between the system and its users. RSU 'Aisyiyah Ponorogo has applied SIMRS for several years, but its implementation has not been comprehensive yet. In the daily inpatient census section and hospital reporting activities are still using a manual system that tends to have a high risk of data errors. This becomes a reason to design the interface of the system and its requires in the form of user requirements for the system that is designed. The main stage of building a system is analyzing user needs, specifically identifying the wishes of users who will always interact with the system at all times in supporting their works.Objective: to identify the needs of SIMRS RSU ’Aisyiyah Ponorogo users to design interface, specifically to identify problems in inpatient daily census and hospital reporting activities, users' expectations of the system being built and the data needs of users.Methods: descriptive research with a case study approach. The object of the study was inpatient daily census and hospital reporting activities. The research subjects were 11 people consisting of 1 reporting officer, 8 ward nurses, 1 patient registration officer and 1 hospital technical officer. Techniques of data collection were interview, observation and documented study.Results: the problem of inpatient census section and hospital reporting section is only social patient data obtained during registration can be accessed by census officers or reporting officers. There is still a data filing error on the census sheet in the ward, therefore there is inconsistent data in patient record. System users, especially census officers and reporting officers, need an interactive and familiar interface such as a display on the daily census manual form. While the information that must be displayed is info on patient identity, inpatient info, discharged patient info, ward and index recapitulation. In reporting presentation activities, system must also accommodate the output data in the form of Barber Johnson Graph as healthcare efficient informations.Conclusion: in order to build a useful information system, it is very important to emphasize the participation of users in the developing process. In this stage, the main problems experienced by users in carrying out their work must be identified; as well as solutions that can be given systemically to improve staff performance and improve organizational services. Keywords : analysis of system requirements, user needs, daily census interface design.

Trigeminal (ocular and nasal) irritation comprises the dominant symptom complex in so-called ‘problem buildings’. Imputed etiologic agents in indoor air include extremes of temperature and humidity, the presence of volatile organic compounds, combustion products (including tobacco smoke), ozone (from office machines), and products of indoor air chemistry. In addition to producing primary irritation, mucosal irritants trigger a variety of secondary reflex symptoms, such as nasal congestion, rhinorrhea, and sinus pressure, and may predispose to infection in the form of sinusitis and otitis media. Marked variability in self-reported sensitivity to indoor air pollutants has been observed, with females, younger individuals, and people with allergies reporting more symptoms. We report on a series of experiments designed to uncover demographic patterns of ‘nasal irritant sensitivity’, as well as potential mechanism(s) involved in observed chemesthetic variability.

Background: Media reporting of suicide has attracted public health attention because of its potential to trigger “copycat” acts. Aims: To determine the factors associated with an individual suicide featuring in the media. Method: We identified from the National Coroners Information System (NCIS) all suicides that occurred in Australia over a 1-year period and established those that were reported in the Australian media using data from our earlier Media Monitoring Project. Available variables were used to examine factors associated with a suicide being reported in the media. Results: Of the 2,161 suicides, 29 were reported in the media. Suicides by younger individuals were particularly likely to be reported, as were suicides by gunshot and other violent methods, suicides in commercial areas (e.g., office buildings and hotels) and medical/residential facilities and other institutions (e.g., detention centers), and suicides that occurred in the context of multiple fatality events (e.g., homicide-suicides and suicide pacts). Conclusions: Striking the right balance in terms of media reporting of suicide is crucial. The current study suggests that the reported suicides tend to be those that may either heighten the risk of lethal imitative behaviors or serve to distort public perceptions about suicide.

The purpose of this study are: 1) to describe how customer satisfaction of clinic lab of Technical Implementing Units Labkesda of Bogor City, 2) to know what obstacles that influence satisfaction factors of UPTD clinic lab. 3) to know any effort to give satisfaction of lab clinic customers in UPTD Labkesda of Bogor City.The method used in this research is descriptive qualitative that is to get the description of services in UPTD Labkesda by direct interview with respondents: Head of UPTD of labkesda, Sub division of Administration. Meanwhile for customer is given questionnaire about general data, experience and expectation after they become patients of UPTD Labkesda. In this study is the patient population as many as 238 people who visit each month. The samples taken based on Taro Yamane formula are 70 respondents as samples.The results of the analysis can be seen from the interviews from the head of UPTD Labkesda, administrative head office, employees and respondents obtained the majority of customer satisfaction UPTD Labkesda are good although there are many gaps between the expectation and reality in terms of customer satisfaction so that UPTD Labkesda tobe better and satisfy the consumers. Based on interviews and questionnaires were constrained things that become obstacles in satisfying the patient, among others, in terms of registration is still doing manually, reporting results or certificates of the test is still manual so that there are many mistakes, the collection of blood specimens that narrow, security and comfort of the space that is perceived as inadequate seen from the condition of many buildings collapsed, the examination parameters are less in number so as to reduce patient satisfaction, equipment conditions are relatively old when the completion of work that does not match, toilets that are less clean, the presence of an officer who sometimes is not in place, the parking lot that does not available, and the price issue to be paid because can not use the BPJS card.In order to increase patient satisfaction are suggested to UPTD Labkesda of Bogor City to use laboratory information system so that from registration to out of test result can minimize error using adequate software, existence of action to undisciplined employees, adaptation to city government of bogor to spend fund for maintenance and repair facilities and infrastructure that exist so as to increase customer satisfaction.Keywords: Customer, Customer Satisfaction, Satisfaction

The article raises the issue of current interest of automation the process of calculation and evaluation of physical buildings deterioration. This is the most important indicator that characterizes the physical condition of the building in quantitative terms and is of interest to realtors and management companies. Calculation and assessment of physical wear and tear of buildings is a difficult and time-consuming task and is currently carried out manually or by means of Microsoft Office Excel. In this regard, the software module is proposed and developed that allows to calculate and evaluate the physical wear of buildings according to VSN 53-86 (p), which reduces the complexity and time of assessing physical wear. The software module is developed using MongoDB Server, IDE Studio 3T, Microsoft Visual Studio programming system 2017.NET Framework 4.6.1, WPF technologies, in C#, Net, using the MVVM architectural pattern. The user is provided with the following functionality when working with the software module: selection of the studied system elements, reference information of signs of their wear, automatic calculation of physical wear and reporting on the received assessment. The program module is tested at the Department of housing and communal services of the Voronezh state technical University.

In this paper, we present a post-occupancy study of 326 participants in 10 daylit office buildings in Singapore and correlate the results with climate-based daylighting metrics and electric lighting simulations using calibrated simulation models of the 10 buildings. For the first time, this study tests the climate-based daylighting metrics which are used in building design against their impact on occupant perception within buildings. We find significant correlations between climate-based daylighting metrics and reported occupant satisfaction with access to daylight, view interest, perception of ‘too low’ lighting levels and visual comfort. Overall, climate-based daylighting metrics which account for lower illuminance thresholds such as continuous daylight autonomy and useful daylight illuminance combined (100–3000 lx) correlate more strongly with subjective results than do electric lighting sufficiency metrics such as daylight autonomy at 300 and 500 lx thresholds. Simple descriptive statistical representations of annual daylight distributions, mean and median annual daylight illuminance values, outperform climate-based daylighting metrics in correlation strength and p-value. Based upon these results, new metrics are proposed for occupant satisfaction with daylight access and views. In addition, increased daylight levels are shown to decrease reporting of lighting levels being ‘often too low’ even when adequate electric lighting is provided, and contrast is likely to be beneficial to space perception at non-glaring thresholds.

Abstract The Office of the Commissioner for Mental Health in Malta was established in 2011 to promote and protect rights of persons with mental disorders and their carers. This advocacy role includes monitoring of involuntary care, regular reporting on quality of care and care environments, in-depth analysis and recommendations on emerging issues such as mental health literacy, multidisciplinary care plans, drug addiction services and stigma and regular networking across ministries, agencies, departments, and NGOs, breaking silos and building bridges. Data for 2018 shows that acutely ill young people (10-29 year olds) were 30% of acute involuntary admissions. Males and foreign nationals from medium and least developed countries were more frequently represented. Substance abuse, mood disorders and psychotic disorders were the more common diagnostic groups. Building resilience and providing opportunities for early intervention are key elements of better mental health and well-being in the younger generation. Six examples of good practice in adolescent and youth mental health from Malta will be presented: Youth.inc by Aġenzija Żgħażagħ; Kellimni.com by SOS Malta; Youth Mental Health First Aid by Richmond Foundation; Research and Professional Education by ACAMH (Malta); Student Support Services at MCAST MALTA; Project Enlight! by Enlight Foundation. Two of these initiatives were recognised as best practices at European level in a peer learning exercise conducted by the Dutch Youth Institute. The recommendations are: more focused approaches towards young people with acute mental disorders with special attention to their specific needs; the identification of young people in trouble; work programmes that build resilience, life-skills and employment prospects; the intensified use of refined electronic and social media tools for promotion, prevention and early intervention; and active support and encouragement of peer group development and self-help initiatives. Key messages Networking stakeholders to break silos and build bridges. Resilience and early intervention for better mental health and well-being.

Background: The CDC advocates improved physician cultural competence to reduce disparities in cardiovascular (CV) health. Cultural competence may be particularly important to establish an effective therapeutic alliance to mitigate CV risk. This study sought to better understand physician elements of cultural competence that can be targeted to improve cardiovascular health in minority populations. Methods: Family physicians, internists, cardiologists and neurologists practicing in the southern US were queried in this survey. Participants assessed their cross-cultural knowledge, skills, attitudes, and training using 5-point scales. Office managers of respondents were then invited to complete a separate survey assessing compliance with 3 Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services (CLAS) standards relevant to the office setting. Results: Among 697 respondents, 57% considered sociocultural issues important in patient interactions. Prior training was reported by 76%, but 18% considered multicultural health training of little importance. On average, self-assessed knowledge (10 items) and skill (15 items) were moderate. More than 3 of 4 physicians reported little or no knowledge of CLAS standards; more than half reported limited knowledge of traditional healing. Striking differences were noted among physicians of different racial groups with blacks consistently reporting greater self-awareness, knowledge and skill compared to whites (p< .01). Significant differences did not emerge between primary care and specialist physicians. A subset of 124 office practices participated in the CLAS assessment. Though physicians were largely unaware of CLAS standards, compliance was 98% for Standard 1 (culturally appropriate care), 67% for Standard 2 (workforce diversity) and 25% for Standard 3 (staff CLAS training). Conclusions: Physicians and their office staff have modest levels of cultural sensitivity as well as moderate cross-cultural knowledge and skills, but deficits, especially among physicians and particularly as a function of physician race, are present in important areas. Building upon this foundation to achieve greater proficiency in cross cultural care may improve the quality of care and reduce disparities in CV health.

ObjectiveTo protect syndromic surveillance data reporting from emergency departments in Washington State beyond the cessation of Meaningful Use incentive funding in 2021.IntroductionAs syndromic surveillance reporting became an optional activity under Meaningful Use Stage 3 and incentive funds are slated to end completely in 2021, Washington State sought to protect syndromic reporting from emergency departments. As of December 2016, Washington State emergency departments had received $765,335,529.40 in incentive funding, with facilities receiving an average of three payments of $479,974.04 each.1Considering the public health importance of syndromic surveillance reporting and the fiscal impact of mandatory reporting, the Washington State Department of Health (WA DOH) sought a new statute to require reporting from all emergency departments within the state.MethodsStakeholder negotiations occurred in four distinct phases: initial outreach to gauge support for the proposed legislation and solicit comments on items for inclusion in the bill language (April to October 2016), negotiations on the proposed text (October 2016 to January 2017), sustained contact with key groups during the legislative session (January to May 2017), and targeted messaging and comment solicitation to inform the development of the administrative codes to accompany the statute (May 2017 to March 2018) (Figure 1). WA DOH secured funding from the Washington Traffic Safety Commission (WTSC) to hire a designated staff member to coordinate and lead the syndromic surveillance program’s legislative agenda.ResultsDuring the first phase, WA DOH contacted a diverse group of stakeholders, including 7 state agencies, 5 data provider groups, 3 professional associations, 3 public health non-profits, 35 local health jurisdictions, and 29 Tribal Organizations to provide information on syndromic surveillance and gauge interest in the proposed legislation. Key partners included the WTSC, the Washington State Hospital Administration (WSHA), the Washington Poison Center (WAPC), and several large to medium-sized local health jurisdictions (LHJs).Early stakeholder negotiations indicated broad support among local health jurisdictions, state agencies, programs handling violence and injury topics, communicable disease specialists, the Department of Labor and Industries, and the Office of Financial Management; however, support from data providers was more cautious. Early relationship-building and maintaining frequent contact was key to securing support from data providers and allowed WA DOH to draft a mid-session amendment to the bill granting greater data access for providers and clarifying the foundational fee structure for data distribution.During the second phase of outreach and communication, areas of more intense negotiation included data access levels for providers, timeliness of data availability, and the proposed inclusion of a “sundown clause” which would end the effective period of the statute when federal incentive spending expired.WA DOH secured bipartisan co-sponsorship for the bill in the Washington State Senate and stakeholder negotiations continued throughout the legislative session (January-May 2017). Common concerns from stakeholders and legislators included the maintenance of patient privacy, the costs associated with participation for emergency departments, and data sharing agreements with facilities providing syndromic data.The bill passed unanimously out of the Washington State Senate and with broad bipartisan support out of the Washington State House. Governor Jay Inslee signed the bill into law on May 5, 2017 and WA DOH has continued negotiations as they develop the administrative codes to accompany the statute.ConclusionsBroad and sustained interactions with a diverse group of stakeholders, as well as willingness to compromise on data sharing and cost issues with providers, was key to Washington State’s successful effort to mandate syndromic surveillance reporting from emergency departments.References1. Medicare and Medicaid Incentive Provider Payments By State, Program Type and Provider Type January 2011 to December 2016. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid. https://www.cms.gov/Regulations-and-Guidance/Legislation/EHRIncentivePrograms/Downloads/December2016_PaymentsbyStateProgramandProvider.pdf Last accessed: 11 September 2017.

Background: In 2014, the Preston Medical Library underwent a radical change, moving from an academic office building to the main floor of a regional medical center. While the library had previously served the public, health information requests have substantially increased in volume due to the new location. Researchers analyzed request data to see if the service’s reach has expanded to counties that previously had not used the service, to see which counties have requested the most health information, and to ascertain whether more requests are from counties with higher poverty rates.Case Presentation: Each health information request is logged with the subject nature and patron contact information. Consumer health request data were downloaded from the library database. Names and other identifying data were removed. Request forms were sorted and reviewed by zip code and county, comparing number of requests as well as poverty levels. Tableau was utilized to create maps, visually showing patron concentrations and poverty levels.Conclusions: There were 3,141 health information requests from September 21, 2014, to May 31, 2019. The majority of requests were from local counties. Requests were also received from counties that had not been previously reached and counties with elevated poverty levels. Collecting data on patron interactions is not only critical for institutional reporting, but also for community outreach. Understanding that data require taking additional steps to filter the information, assess local demographics, and customize library services. Researchers anticipate being able to better tailor services to the community based on the results.

Abstract Issue The drive to deliver better results for the economy and for society is challenged by the daily pressures faced by policy makers to contain the public expenditure while delivering improved outcomes. This is evident also in the health sector where costs are perceived to be spiralling. As a result, the sector faces huge pressure to cut budget and services. On the other hand, the health sector is a minor contributor towards health equity, as social, economic and environmental determinants of health are mostly responsibility of other sectors. Health equity and well-being are outcomes of societal values, culture and policy choices, that create the conditions for prosperous lives for all, leaving no one behind. Description There are different approaches and tools that can be used for advocating, planning and monitoring investments for health equity. To name a few that the health system can introduce: mainstreaming equity into health services, employment, procurement and purchasing practices for better social and economic benefits; Health Equity Impact Assessment that supports implementation of Health Equity in All Policies and Agenda 2030; voluntary national review reporting on SDGs - all stressing the need for disaggregation of data, new evidence and methods, and monitoring. Results/Lessons Health equity is a complex issue that needs comprehensive response combining various approaches and tools in advocating, planning, implementing and monitoring. Besides situation analysis, more and more WHO Member States are requesting evidence about what works and how to do it. Therefore, tailor made assessment, solution development and monitoring is becoming a standard. This needs to be supported with continuous training and capacity building. WHO European Office for Investment for Health and Development developed a Health Equity Status Report and a flagship course on Equity in Health in All Policies, built on the latest evidence and tailored to country / community needs. Panelists: Marleen Bekker EUPHA (PHPP) Wageningen University & Research, Netherlands Contact: marleen.bekker@wur.nl Diana Sonntag EUPHA (ECO) University of Heidelberg, Germany Contact: diana.sonntag@medma.uni-heidelberg.de Aileen Clarke Warwick Evidence, The University of Warwick, Coventry, UK Contact: aileen.clarke@warwick.ac.uk Ana M Carriazo Regional Ministry of Health and Families, Andalusia, Seville, Spain Contact: anam.carriazo@juntadeandalucia.es

Vietnam embarked on fundamentally building a public debt management system since 2009 as the Law of Public Debt Management was designed and promulgated. From then Vietnam has been following the typical model of public debt management used by developing countries, the market – based model which encompasses gradual building and completion of domestic market for government bond. However, because of several limitations in the national system of public debt management, the current model needs to be improved in alignment with the development level of Vietnam’s economy. Especially, economic shocks such as the 2009 financial crisis or Covid 19 which has increased dramatically the scope of public debt also urge a more technical and effective model. The paper focuses on analyzing the practical models of public debt management in the world and subsequently the current situation of Vietnam’s model. On that basis, the author figures out the limitations of the model and proposes a number of solutions to upgrade the model in accordance with the international practice regarding model of public debt management suitable with development level of economy. Keywords Public debt, sustainable public debt, public debt management, risk management, model of public debt management. References [1] D.Q. Bao, The science of Management and Organization Statistical Publishing House, Hanoi, 1999 (in Vietnamese),[2] IMF, Defining the Government’s debt and deficit, Working paper, WP/15/238, 2015.[3] IMF, Revised guidelines for public debt management, IMF Policy paper, 2014.[4] WB, Government debt management: Designing debt management strategies, Debt management learning & training note, 2017. [5] E. Currie, J. Dethier and E. Togo, Institutional arrangements for Public Debt Management, World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 3021, 2003.[6] E.C. Pascal, The debt office and the effective debt management functions: an institutional and operational framework, Public debt and Public Finance Working Paper, 2006.[7] H. Bohn, Tax Smoothing with Financial Instruments, American Economic Review, 80/5 (1990) pp 1217–1230.[8] J. Tobin, An Essay on the Principles of Debt Management, Fiscal and Debt Management Policies, 2 (1963), Reprinted in J. Tobin Essays in Economics, vol.1, Amsterdam: North Holland, 1971.[9] E. Togo, Coordinating Public Debt Management with Fiscal and Monetary Policies: An Analytical Framework, World Bank Policy Research Working Paper, No. 4369, 2007.[10] L. Hoogduin, B. Ozturk & P.Wierts, Public debt managers’ behavior: interactions with macro policies, DNB Working paper No.273, 2010.[11] WB, Debt management performance assessment (DeMPA) methodology, 2015.[12] R. Cabral, How strategically is public debt being managed around the globe? A survey on public debt management strategies, WB Financial advisory and Banking department report, 2015.[13] C. Aslan, A. Ajazaj & S.A. Wahidh, Study on Public debt management system and results of a survey on solutions used by debt management office, WB Financial advisory and Banking department report, 2018.[14] IMF, G-20 note: Improving public debt recording, monitoring, and reporting capacity in low and lower middle-income countries: proposed reforms, 2018.[15] A.A. Badurina, S. Svaljek, Public debt management before, during and after the crisis, Finance theory and practice, 36(1) (2012) 73 – 100.[16] I. Storkey, Sound practice, in: M. Williams and P. Brione (Eds.), Government Debt Management: New Trends and Challenge, Central Banking Publications Ltd, London, 2006, pp 300 – 325.[17] G. Wheeler, Sound Practice in Government Debt Management, The World Bank Publication, Washington D.C, 2004. doi. 10.1596/0-8213-5073-0.[18] National Treasury Management Agency, Ireland Information Memorandum 2010, National Treasury Management Agency, Dublin, 2010.[19] M. Williams, The growing responsibilities of debt management offices, in: M. Williams, P. Brione (Eds.), Government Debt Management: New Trends and Challenge, Central Banking Publications Ltd, London, 2006, pp 258 – 273.[20] H.N. Au, Public debt management in Vietnam in the international integration period (in Vietnamese), https://hcma.vn/Uploads/2018/8/8/Hoang%20Ngoc%20Au%20-%20Luan%20an%20-%20CN%20Quan%20ly%20kinh%20te.pdf, 2018 (accessed 20 August 2020).[21] T. Phung, Firmly maintaining the country’s credit rate (in Vietnamese), http://tapchitaichinh.vn/su-kien-noi-bat/tiep-tuc-giu-vung-muc-xep-hang-tin-nhiem-quoc-gia-325601.html, 2020 (accessed 21 August 2020).[22] N.T. Binh, The factors affecting the efficiency of public debt management in Vietnam (in Vietnamese), http://www.tapchicongthuong.vn/bai-viet/cac-yeu-to-anh-huong-toi-hieu-qua-quan-ly-no-cong-o-viet-nam-73005.htm, 2020 (accessed 22 August 2020).[23] T. Anh, Six solutions for public management in the new context (in Vietnamese), http://tapchitaichinh.vn/su-kien-noi-bat/6-giai-phap-quan-ly-no-cong-trong-boi-canh-moi-308263.html, 2019 (accessed 23 August 2020).

State-Owned Country (BMN/D) is an important element in the government’s performance especially in providing servant to the public, central or local government, which must manage the BMN/D in order to be useful for the government and society. BMN/D’s Management is a process in manage pre-existing wealth or obtained from APBN/D expenses or other legal result that can be used in government and society’s activities. The classification BMN consists of, inventory, land, equipment and machine, buildings and construction, roads, irrigation and networks, construction in progress, and other fixed assets. The government has implemented procurement of good’s which is financed from (APBN). This study is aims to determine the accounting treatment and reporting for state-owned country (BMN) at the Regional representative Office of the Ministry of Religious Affairs in North Sulawesi Province. The research used descriptive method which aims that each data collected is analyzed, then drawn a conclusion and this type of research is qualitative descriptive. The results of this study is accounting treatment of state-owned country at the Regional representative Office of the Ministry of Religious Affairs in North Sulawesi Province has been based on accrual and the office’s reporting already in accordance with SAP (Government Accounting Standard) technical bulletin number 15.Keywords: Treatment, Accounting Reporting, BMN

AbstractThe idea that nanotechnologies have the potential to transform different industry sectors and impact on various market segments is receiving large support and contributions from international economic organisations’ reports, research institutions’ newsletters, academics’ and management scholars’ papers and consulting firms’ articles. The patent landscape, with its burgeoning number of patent filings, and the patent offices worldwide reporting on the increasing number of patent applications in the nanotechnology field, appear as complementary indicators of this trend. As nanosciences research and engineering efforts made feasible the attractive promise of closing the gap between research and industrialization, research outcomes and applications were protected for exclusive exploitation via patent filing and patent portfolio building.

Purpose From poor indoor environmental quality conditions to musculoskeletal discomfort, the interior design of workspaces has the potential to negatively affect human health. One of the key responses from industry has been the rise of health-related guidelines, certification and rating tools. Despite the rapid adoption of such tools by the Australian high-end corporate real estate, there is a scarcity of empirical evidence arising from such premises. This study aims to compare results from certified premises against other open-plan offices to understand differences arising from occupants’ satisfaction, perceived productivity and health. Design/methodology/approach A total of 1,121 post-occupancy evaluation (POE) surveys conducted in 9 offices were analyzed. All these premises hold a certification from the Green Building Council of Australia and two achieved a WELL rating. The analysis is performed in three parts: comparing WELL-certified (2 cases) and non-WELL certified (7 cases) offices along with comparison with a benchmark of 9,794 POE surveys from the BOSSA database, comparing activity-based working (ABW) (5 cases) and traditional (4 cases) offices along with comparison with BOSSA database and qualitative study of the similar design features in all 9 offices accompanied with an in-depth analysis of the health-related issues that might have occurred because of poor ergonomic design. For the first two parts, several t-tests are performed. Findings Highest scores for overall satisfaction, workability, perceived productivity and health were reported on WELL-rated premises. Offices incorporating active design principles outperformed others on workability, satisfaction with work area, collaboration, unwanted interruptions, perceived productivity and health. ABW environments outperformed the traditional offices on spatial comfort, thermal comfort, noise and privacy, personal control, comfort of furnishing, adjustability of the work area and space to collaborate. People using sit–stand workstations reported spending significantly less time seated and female workers were more prone to reporting pain over the past 12 months. The best-performing offices implemented active and biophilic design, prioritized overall ergonomics and different spaces designed to support a variety of work-related activities. Originality/value This research conducts a comparison between certified premises against other offices in terms of occupants’ satisfaction, perceived productivity and health. A qualitative analysis is also conducted to investigate personal and physical environmental aspects. The way of working (ABW or traditional), implementation of active design features, self-reported musculoskeletal discomfort and physical activity were also investigated. The study has taken a holistic approach to investigate many health-related physical, environmental and emotional aspects in certified workspaces.

Abstract Background To strengthen medicines management capacity, including supply chain management, at public sector health facilities in Uganda, the Ministry of Health introduced a multipronged supervision, performance assessment, and recognition strategy (SPARS). The aim of this study was to assess the impact of SPARS on improving supply chain management. A series of four papers on SPARS described the SPARS concept, its impact on overall and domain practices and appropriate medicines use, and now in the fourth paper describing the effect on supply chain management. Methods District-based health workers trained as supervisors build facility-level capacity in medicines management using an indicator-based performance assessment followed by targeted supervisory visits. From 2010 to 2013, 1222 SPARS visits were implemented, and the SPARS performance indicator scores determined. This article assesses impact on 13 indicators in three of the five SPARS domains—stock management, storage management, and ordering and reporting quality—using a pre–post design. We also explored factors that may have influenced these outcomes. Results Between the first and last visit within one year of SPARS implementation, we found an average improvement of 16 percentage points (p < 0.001) in supply chain management measures across all levels of care. The improvement in scores for stock management, storage management, and ordering and reporting was 22 (ns), 16 (p < 0.001), and 11 (p = 0.032) percentage points, respectively. The study identified the key predictors of positive change as a low initial indicator score, frequent supervisory visits, and engagement of the district health officer. Conclusions The multipronged SPARS approach was effective in building supply chain management capacity in lower-level health care facilities with statistically significant improvements in supply chain management overall and in almost all stock and storage- management and ordering and reporting measures after one year of implementation. We recommend broad dissemination of the SPARS approach as an effective strategy to strengthen supply chain management in low-income countries. Trial registration: The study did not involve or use human participants or identifiable personal data, human tissue, or animals and thus did not require ethical approval or a waiver. It is a study implemented in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and does not require trial registration.

Objective: We demonstrate an architecture for driving regional public health decisions with automated and semi-automated data collected from open source point of care systems in resource constrained environments.Introduction: Ministries of Health in Low and Middle Income Countries (LMIC) are making or trying to make public health decisions for infectious disease conditions like HIV using data garnered from sentinel events and disease tracking in the community. The process of gathering and aggregating data for these case-based reports for is, in all too often a cumbersome or paper-based process. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) was interested in prototyping and piloting approaches that could improve the efficiency and reliability of case reports in resource-constrained environments. One of their primary goals was to demonstrate how electronic data gathered in the front lines of care could be leveraged to automate and improve the reliability of data within case reports driving public health decisions at regional and country levels. OpenMRS is an open source medical record system platform often used in resource constrained environments.1 Since OpenMRS is used as an electronic medical record system in several African countries and has been connected to regional or country-level health exchanges, the CDC was interested in building a working solution for electronic case based reporting using OpenMRS and a health information exchange.Methods: Working closely with the CDC, we developed a Case-Based Reporting (CBR) module for OpenMRS, using HIV as an initial use case. Trigger events were defined based on sentinel events and key clinical monitoring conditions and these were mapped or added to standard terminologies. We use Health Level 7 (HL7) messaging standards to deliver case reports from OpenMRS to the health information exchange.2 We used existing manual workflows and EPI officers to define the needs for a surveillance officer role and the requirements for the CBR module. The module was developed as open source using agile methodologies. OpenHIE (ohie.org) was selected to demonstrate the ability of OpenMRS module to submit an electronic case report to a health information exchange.Results: We have a working, open source case-based surveillance module for OpenMRS that comes with nine pre-defined HIV-specific triggers:● New Case● New Disease● New Treatment● Evidence of Lack of Monitoring● Evidence of Treatment Failure● Switched to Second Line Regimen● Treatment Stopped● Lost to Follow Up● Patient DiedWe have been able to demonstrate the automatic creation of HIV-based case reports based on data within an electronic medical record system, placement of these proposed case reports into a work queue for a surveillance officer, and successful electronic submission of these case reports into a health information exchange.Conclusions: This work demonstrates the ability to develop open source point of care software solutions for LMIC that can be used for sentinel awareness as well as longitudinal monitoring of individual patient care. The current scenarios, trigger identification standards, and messaging specifications are easily accessible and published on the OpenMRS Wiki.3Our incorporation of user centered design through EPI officer engagement helped ensure that our solution is responsive to the end user. The CDC is able to use this solution to demonstrate the feasibility of incorporating electronic case reporting in LMICs and to demonstrate the benefits and promote the adoption of electronic medical record systems and health information exchanges in resource constrained environments. In the next phase of this work, we will be working with the CDC to identify sites within Africa for deployment and refinement of the CBR module.

ObjectiveThe objective is to share the progress and challenges in the implementation of the District Health Information Software Version 2 (DHIS 2) as an electronic disease surveillance system platform in Guinea, West Africa, to inform Global Health Security Agenda efforts to strengthen real-time surveillance in low-resource settings.IntroductionThe West Africa Ebola outbreak of 2014-2016 demonstrated the importance of strong disease surveillance systems and the severe consequences of weak capacity to detect and respond to cases quickly. Challenges in the transmission and management of surveillance data were one factor that contributed to the delay in detecting and confirming the Ebola outbreak1. To help address this challenge, we have collaborated with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Ministry of Health (MOH) in Guinea, the World Health Organization and various partners to strengthen the disease surveillance system through the implementation of an electronic reporting system using an open source software tool, the District Health Information Software Version 2 (DHIS 2). These efforts are part of the Global Health Security Agenda objective to strengthen real-time surveillance2. This online system enables prefecture health offices to enter aggregate weekly disease reports from health facilities and for that information to be immediately accessible to designated staff at prefecture, regional and national levels.Incorporating DHIS 2 includes several advantages for the surveillance system. For one, the data is available in real time and can be analyzed quickly using built-in data analysis tools within DHIS 2 or exported to other analysis tools. In contrast, the existing system of reporting using Excel spreadsheets requires the MOH to manually compile spreadsheets from all the 38 prefectures to have case counts for the national level.For the individual case notification system, DHIS 2 enables a similar accessibility of information that does not exist with the current paper-based reporting system. Once a case notification form is completed in DHIS 2, the case-patient information is immediately accessible to the laboratories receiving specimens and conducting testing for case confirmation. The system is designed so that laboratories enter the date and time that a specimen is received, and any test results. The results are then immediately accessible to the reporting district and to the stakeholders involved including the National Health Security Agency and the Expanded Program on Vaccination. In addition, DHIS 2 can generate email and short message service (SMS) messages to notify concerned parties at critical junctures in the process, for example, when a laboratory result is available for a given case.MethodsThis presentation is based on review of project experience and documentation for a Global Health Security project in Guinea from 2015-2018. In addition, this includes a 2017 evaluation of the DHIS 2 pilot phase in two regions each having five prefectures.ResultsThe use of DHIS 2 for aggregate and individual case reports for disease surveillance was piloted in two regions in Guinea in 2017 for a period of six months. An evaluation of the pilot phase indicated strong capacity at the Prefecture Level to use the system for weekly aggregate disease reporting as evidenced by the high weekly reporting rates as well as an assessment of users’ capacities. Challenges observed during the pilot phase included weak follow-up and ownership by the national level MOH, weak adherence by the laboratories to enter data on the receipt and test results of laboratory samples, and individual case reports not filed in all cases. In addition, the lack of uniformity of common data elements on the forms across different diseases made analysis and data quality more challenging.Following the evaluation of the pilot phase the MOH directed that the system should be used for aggregate weekly reporting, however that the individual case reporting in DHIS 2 should wait until improvements could be made in the case report forms. Prefectures have used DHIS 2 for weekly aggregate disease reporting starting in January 2018. In addition, the MOH plans to implement electronic individual case reporting in DHIS 2 starting in October 2018.ConclusionsProgress to date includes nationwide use of DHIS 2 by all prefectures for the submission of weekly aggregate case reports. In addition, the new case report forms have been configured in DHIS 2 and a training of trainers has been conducted at the national level to begin the process of implementing the electronic case reporting nationwide.Challenges include the continuation of parallel weekly disease reporting in Excel for an extended period after adoption of DHIS 2 resulting in lower timeliness of weekly reports in DHIS 2 in some prefectures, weak use of the system for data analysis, building capacity within the Ministry of Health to maintain the system without outside assistance, sufficient resources to pay for internet access and power back-up (such as solar power) to enable the health offices to effectively use the system, weak data privacy and security procedures, and the need to strengthen management of the national DHIS 2 server.References1. Ministère de la Santé-République de Guinée, Direction Nationale de la Prevention et Santé Communautaire, Division Prevention et Lutte Contre la Maladie. Plan de Renforcement de la Surveillance des Maladies à Potentiel Epidémique en Guinée (2015-2017), August 2015.2. Global Health Security Agenda. Real-Time Surveillance Action Package: GHSA Action Package Detect 2 & 3. [cited 2018 Oct 3]. Available from: https://www.ghsagenda.org/packages/d2-3-real-time-surveillance

Timeliness of financial reporting is a qualitative characteristics that enhance the usefulness of information and significant to users of financial statements. This study examines that board diversity (GENDERCHAIR), CEO age (CEOAGE) have impact on audit report timeliness. The sample of this study comprises of 100 companies listed on Vietnamese Stock Exchange in the period 2012 - 2014. Ordinary Least Square (OLS) regression analysis are performed to test the audit report timeliness determinants . Using quantitative research methods, findings found that there is a significant positive relationship between board diversity on timeliness of financial reporting while proxy variables of the CEO age have a significant negative relationship with timeliness of financial reporting. . This paper extends prior research by addressing the potential effects of female executives on timeliness of financial reporting. 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IntroductionAccounts of criminals, their victims, and their pursuers have become entrenched within the sphere of popular culture; most obviously in the genres of true crime and crime fiction. The centrality of the pursuer in the form of the detective, within these stories, dates back to the nineteenth century. This, often highly-stylised and regularly humanised protagonist, is now a firm feature of both factual and fictional accounts of crime narratives that, today, regularly focus on the energies of the detective in solving a variety of cases. So familiar is the figure of the detective, it seems that these men and women—amateurs and professionals—have always had an important role to play in the pursuit and punishment of the wrongdoer. Yet, the first detectives were forced to overcome significant resistance from a suspicious public. Some early efforts to reimagine punishment and to laud the detective include articles written by Charles Dickens; pieces on public hangings and policing that reflect the great Victorian novelist’s commitment to shed light on, through written commentaries, a range of important social issues. This article explores some of Dickens’s lesser-known pieces, that—appearing in daily newspapers and in one of his own publications Household Words—helped to change some common perceptions of punishment and policing. Image 1: Harper's Magazine 7 December 1867 (Charles Dickens Reading, by Charles A. Barry). Image credit: United States Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. A Reliance on the Scaffold: Early Law Enforcement in EnglandCrime control in 1720s England was dependent upon an inconsistent, and by extension ineffective, network of constables and night watchmen. It would be almost another three decades before Henry Fielding established the Bow Street Foot Patrol, or Bow Street Runners, in 1749, “six men in blue coats, patrolling the area within six miles of Charing Cross” (Worsley 35). A large-scale, formalised police force was attempted by Pitt the Younger in 1785 with his “Bill for the Further prevention of Crime and for the more Speedy Detection and Punishment of Offenders against the Peace” (Lyman 144). The proposed legislation was withdrawn due to fierce opposition that was underpinned by fears, held by officials, of a divestment of power to a new body of law enforcers (Lyman 144).The type of force offered in 1785 would not be realised until the next century, when the work of Robert Peel saw the passing of the Metropolitan Police Act 1829. The Police Act, which “constituted a revolution in traditional methods of law enforcement” (Lyman 141), was focused on the prevention of crime, “to reassure the lawful and discourage the wrongdoer” (Hitchens 51). Until these changes were implemented violent punishment, through the Waltham Black Act 1723, remained firmly in place (Cruickshanks and Erskine-Hill 359) as part of the state’s arsenal against crime (Pepper 473).The Black Act, legislation often referred to as the ‘Bloody Code’ as it took the number of capital felonies to over 350 (Pepper 473), served in lieu of consistency and cooperation, across the country, in relation to the safekeeping of the citizenry. This situation inevitably led to anxieties about crime and crime control. In 1797 Patrick Colquhoun, a magistrate, published A Treatise on the Police of the Metropolis in which he estimated that, out of a city population of just under 1 million, 115,000 men and women supported themselves “in and near the Metropolis by pursuits either criminal-illegal-or immoral” (Lyman 144). Andrew Pepper highlights tensions between “crime, governance and economics” as well as “rampant petty criminality [… and] widespread political corruption” (474). He also notes a range of critical responses to crime and how, “a particular kind of writing about crime in the 1720s demonstrated, perhaps for the first time, an awareness of, or self-consciousness about, this tension between competing visions of the state and state power” (Pepper 474), a tension that remains visible today in modern works of true crime and crime fiction. In Dickens’s day, crime and its consequences were serious legal, moral, and social issues (as, indeed, they are today). An increase in the crime rate, an aggressive state, the lack of formal policing, the growth of the printing industry, and writers offering diverse opinions—from the sympathetic to the retributive—on crime changed crime writing. The public wanted to know about the criminal who had disturbed society and wanted to engage with opinions on how the criminal should be stopped and punished. The public also wanted to be updated on changes to the judicial system such as the passing of the Judgement of Death Act 1823 which drastically reduced the number of capital crimes (Worsley 122) and how the Gaols Act, also of 1823, “moved tentatively towards national prison reform” (Gattrell 579). Crimes continued to be committed and alongside the wrongdoers were readers that wanted to be diverted from everyday events by, but also had a genuine need to be informed about, crime. A demand for true crime tales demonstrating a broader social need for crimes, even the most minor infractions, to be publicly punished: first on the scaffold and then in print. Some cases were presented as sensationalised true crime tales; others would be fictionalised in short stories and novels. Standing Witness: Dickens at the ScaffoldIt is interesting to note that Dickens witnessed at least four executions in his lifetime (Simpson 126). The first was the hanging of a counterfeiter, more specifically a coiner, which in the 1800s was still a form of high treason. The last person executed for coining in England was in early 1829; as Dickens arrived in London at the end of 1822, aged just 10-years-old (Simpson 126-27) he would have been a boy when he joined the crowds around the scaffold. Many journalists and writers who have documented executions have been “criticised for using this spectacle as a source for generating sensational copy” (Simpson 127). Dickens also wrote about public hangings. His most significant commentaries on the issue being two sets of letters: one set published in The Daily News (1846) and a second set published in The Times (1849) (Brandwood 3). Yet, he was immune from the criticism directed at so many other writers, in large part, due to his reputation as a liberal, “social reformer moved by compassion, but also by an antipathy toward waste, bureaucratic incompetence, and above all toward exploitation and injustice” (Simpson 127). As Anthony Simpson points out, Dickens did not sympathise with the condemned: “He wrote as a realist and not a moralist and his lack of sympathy for the criminal was clear, explicit and stated often” (128). Simpson also notes that Dickens’s letters on execution written in 1846 were “strongly supportive of total abolition” while later letters, written in 1849, presented arguments against public executions rather than the practice of execution. In 1859 Dickens argued against pardoning a poisoner. While in 1864 he supported the execution of the railway carriage murderer Franz Müller, explaining he would be glad to abolish both public executions and capital punishment, “if I knew what to do with the Savages of civilisation. As I do not, I would rid Society of them, when they shed blood, in a very solemn manner” (in Simpson 138-39) that is, executions should proceed but should take place in private.Importantly, Dickens was consistently concerned about society’s fascination with the scaffold. In his second letter to The Daily News, Dickens asks: round what other punishment does the like interest gather? We read of the trials of persons who have rendered themselves liable to transportation for life, and we read of their sentences, and, in some few notorious instances, of their departure from this country, and arrival beyond the sea; but they are never followed into their cells, and tracked from day to day, and night to night; they are never reproduced in their false letters, flippant conversations, theological disquisitions with visitors, lay and clerical […]. They are tried, found guilty, punished; and there an end. (“To the Editors of The Daily News” 6)In this passage, Dickens describes an overt curiosity with those criminals destined for the most awful of punishments. A curiosity that was put on vile display when a mob gathered on the concourse to watch a hanging; a sight which Dickens readily admitted “made [his] blood run cold” (“Letter to the Editor” 4).Dickens’s novels are grand stories, many of which feature criminals and criminal sub-plots. There are, for example, numerous criminals, including the infamous Fagin in Oliver Twist; or, The Parish Boy’s Progress (1838); several rioters are condemned to hang in Barnaby Rudge: A Tale of the Riots of Eighty (1841); there is murder in The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit (1844); and murder, too, in Bleak House (1853). Yet, Dickens never wavered in his revulsion for the public display of the execution as revealed in his “refusal to portray the scene at the scaffold [which] was principled and heartfelt. He came, reluctantly to support capital punishment, but he would never use its application for dramatic effect” (Simpson 141).The Police Detective: A Public Relations ExerciseBy the mid-1700s the crime story was one of “sin to crime and then the gallows” (Rawlings online): “Crimes of every defcription (sic) have their origin in the vicious and immoral habits of the people” (Colquhoun 32). As Philip Rawlings notes, “once sin had been embarked upon, capture and punishment followed” (online). The origins of this can be found in the formula relied upon by Samuel Smith in the seventeenth century. Smith was the Ordinary of Newgate, or prison chaplain (1676–1698), who published Accounts of criminals and their gruesome ends. The outputs swelled the ranks of the already burgeoning market of broadsides, handbills and pamphlets. Accounts included: 1) the sermon delivered as the prisoner awaited execution; 2) a brief overview of the crimes for which the prisoner was being punished; and 3) a reporting of the events that surrounded the execution (Gladfelder 52–53), including the prisoner’s behaviour upon the scaffold and any last words spoken. For modern readers, the detective and the investigation is conspicuously absent. These popular Accounts (1676–1772)—over 400 editions offering over 2,500 criminal biographies—were only a few pence a copy. With print runs in the thousands, the Ordinary earnt up to £200 per year for his efforts (Emsley, Hitchcock, and Shoemaker online). For:penitence and profit made comfortable bedfellows, ensuring true crime writing became a firm feature of the business of publishing. That victims and villains suffered was regrettable but no horror was so terrible anyone forgot there was money to be made. (Franks, “Stealing Stories” 7)As the changes brought about by the Industrial Revolution were having their full impact, many were looking for answers, and certainty, in a period of radical social transformation. Sin as a central motif in crime stories was insufficient: the detective was becoming essential (Franks, “True Crime” 239). “In the nineteenth century, the role of the newly-fashioned detective as an agent of consolation or security is both commercially and ideologically central to the subsequent project of popular crime writing” (Bell 8). This was supported by an “increasing professionalism and proficiency of policemen, detectives, and prosecutors, new understandings about psychology, and advances in forensic science and detection techniques” (Murley 10). Elements now included in most crime narratives. Dickens insisted that the detective was a crucial component of the justice system—a figure to be celebrated, one to take centre stage in the crime story—reflecting his staunch support “of the London Metropolitan Police” (Simpson 140). Indeed, while Dickens is known principally for exposing wretched poverty, he was also interested in a range of legal issues as can be evinced from his writings for Household Words. Image 2: Household Words 27 July 1850 (Front Page). Image credit: Dickens Journals Online. W.H. Wills argued for the acceptance of the superiority of the detective when, in 1850, he outlined the “difference between a regular and a detective policeman” (368). The detective must, he wrote: “counteract every sort of rascal whose only means of existence it avowed rascality, but to clear up mysteries, the investigation of which demands the utmost delicacy and tact” (368). The detective is also extraordinarily efficient; cases are solved quickly, in one example a matter is settled in just “ten minutes” (369).Dickens’s pro-police pieces, included a blatantly promotional, two-part work “A Detective Police Party” (1850). The narrative begins with open criticism of the Bow Street Runners contrasting these “men of very indifferent character” to the Detective Force which is “so well chosen and trained, proceeds so systematically and quietly, does its business in such a workman-like manner, and is always so calmly and steadily engaged in the service of the public” (“Police Party, Part I” 409). The “party” is just that: a gathering of detectives and editorial staff. Men in a “magnificent chamber”, seated at “a round table […] with some glasses and cigars arranged upon it; and the editorial sofa elegantly hemmed in between that stately piece of furniture and the wall” (“Police Party, Part I” 409). Two inspectors and five sergeants are present. Each man prepared to share some of their experiences in the service of Londoners:they are, [Dickens tells us] one and all, respectable-looking men; of perfectly good deportment and unusual intelligence; with nothing lounging or slinking in their manners; with an air of keen observation, and quick perception when addressed; and generally presenting in their faces, traces more or less marked of habitually leading lives of strong mental excitement. (“Police Party, Part I” 410) Dickens goes to great lengths to reinforce the superiority of the police detective. These men, “in a glance, immediately takes an inventory of the furniture and an accurate sketch of the editorial presence” and speak “very concisely, and in well-chosen language” and who present as an “amicable brotherhood” (“Police Party, Part I” 410). They are also adaptable and constantly working to refine their craft, through apeculiar ability, always sharpening and being improved by practice, and always adapting itself to every variety of circumstances, and opposing itself to every new device that perverted ingenuity can invent, for which this important social branch of the public service is remarkable! (“Police Party, Part II” 459)These detectives are also, in some ways, familiar. Dickens’s offerings include: a “shrewd, hard-headed Scotchman – in appearance not at all unlike a very acute, thoroughly-trained schoolmaster”; a man “with a ruddy face and a high sun-burnt forehead, [who] has the air of one who has been a Sergeant in the army” (“Police Party, Part I” 409-10); and another man who slips easily into the role of the “greasy, sleepy, shy, good-natured, chuckle-headed, un-suspicious, and confiding young butcher” (“Police Party, Part II” 457). These descriptions are more than just attempts to flesh out a story; words on a page reminding us that the author is not just another journalist but one of the great voices of the Victorian era. These profiles are, it is argued here, a deliberate strategy to reassure readers.In summary, police detectives are only to be feared by those residing on the wrong side of the law. For those without criminal intent; detectives are, in some ways, like us. They are people we already know and trust. The stern but well-meaning, intelligent school teacher; the brave and loyal soldier defending the Empire; and the local merchant, a person we see every day. Dickens provides, too, concrete examples for how everyone can contribute to a safer society by assisting these detectives. This, is perfect public relations. Thus, almost singlehandedly, he builds a professional profile for a new type of police officer. The problem (crime) and its solution (the detective) neatly packaged, with step-by-step instructions for citizens to openly support this new-style of constabulary and so achieve a better, less crime-ridden community. This is a theme pursued in “Three Detective Anecdotes” (1850) where Dickens continued to successfully merge “solid lower-middle-class respectability with an intimate knowledge of the criminal world” (Priestman 177); so, proffering the ideal police detective. A threat to the criminal but not to the hard-working and honest men, women, and children of the city.The Detective: As Fact and as FictionThese writings are also a precursor to one of the greatest fictional detectives of the English-speaking world. Dickens observes that, for these new-style police detectives: “Nothing is so common or deceptive as such appearances at first” (“Police Party, Part I” 410). In 1891, Arthur Conan Doyle would write that: “There is nothing so deceptive as an obvious fact” (78). Dickens had prepared readers for the consulting detective Sherlock Holmes: who was smarter, more observant and who had more determination to take on criminals than the average person. The readers of Dickens were, in many respects, positioned as prototypes of Dr John Watson: a hardworking, loyal Englishman. Smart. But not as smart as those who would seek to do harm. Watson needed Holmes to make the world a better place; the subscriber to Household Words needed the police detective.Another article, “On Duty with Inspector Field” (1851), profiled the “well-known hand” responsible for bringing numerous offenders to justice and sending them, “inexorably, to New South Wales” (Dickens 266). Critically this true crime narrative would be converted into a crime fiction story as Inspector Field is transformed (it is widely believed) into the imagined Inspector Bucket. The 1860s have been identified as “a period of awakening for the detective novel” (Ashley x), a predictor of which is the significant sub-plot of murder in Dickens’s Bleak House. In this novel, a murder is committed with the case taken on, and competently solved by, Bucket who is a man of “skill and integrity” a man presented as an “ideal servant” though one working for a “flawed legal system” (Walton 458). Mr Snagsby, of Bleak House, observes Bucket as a man whoseems in some indefinable manner to lurk and lounge; also, that whenever he is going to turn to the right or left, he pretends to have a fixed purpose in his mind of going straight ahead, and wheels off, sharply at the very last moment [… He] notices things in general, with a face as unchanging as the great mourning ring on his little finger, or the brooch, composed of not much diamond and a good deal of setting, which he wears in his shirt. (278) This passage, it is argued here, places Bucket alongside the men at the detective police party in Household Words. He is simultaneously superhuman in mind and manner, though rather ordinary in dress. Like the real-life detectives of Dickens’s articles; he is a man committed to keeping the city safe while posing no threat to law-abiding citizens. ConclusionThis article has explored, briefly, the contributions of the highly-regarded Victorian author, Charles Dickens, to factual and fictional crime writing. The story of Dickens as a social commentator is one that is familiar to many; what is less well-known is the connection of Dickens to important conversations around capital punishment and the rise of the detective in crime-focused narratives; particularly how he assisted in building the professional profile of the police detective. In this way, through fact and fiction, Dickens performed great (if under-acknowledged) public services around punishment and law enforcement: he contributed to debates on the death penalty and he helped to build trust in the radical social project that established modern-day policing.AcknowledgementsThe author offers her sincere thanks to the New South Wales Dickens Society, Simon Dwyer, and Peter Kirkpatrick. 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The National Cultural Policy Discussion Paper—drafted to assist the Australian Government in developing the first national Cultural Policy since Creative Nation nearly two decades ago—envisages a future in which arts, cultural and creative activities directly support the development of an inclusive, innovative and productive Australia. "The policy," it says, "will be based on an understanding that a creative nation produces a more inclusive society and a more expressive and confident citizenry by encouraging our ability to express, describe and share our diverse experiences—with each other and with the world" (Australian Government 3). Even a cursory reading of this Discussion Paper makes it clear that the question of impact—in aesthetic, cultural and economic terms—is central to the Government's agenda in developing a new Cultural Policy. Hand-in-hand with the notion of impact comes the process of measurement of progress. The Discussion Paper notes that progress "must be measurable, and the Government will invest in ways to assess the impact that the National Cultural Policy has on society and the economy" (11). If progress must be measurable, this raises questions about what arts, cultural and creative workers do, whether it is worth it, and whether they could be doing it better. In effect, the Discussion Paper pushes artsworkers ever closer to a climate in which they have to be skilled not just at making work, but at making the impact of this work clear to stakeholders. The Government in its plans for Australia's cultural future, is clearly most supportive of artsworkers who can do this, and the scholars, educators and employers who can best train the artsworkers of the future to do this. Teaching Artsworkers to Measure the Impact of Their Work: The Challenges How do we train artsworkers to assess, measure and articulate the impact of what they do? How do we prepare them to be ready to work in a climate that will—as the National Cultural Policy Discussion Paper makes clear—emphasise measuring impact, communicating impact, and communicating impact across aesthetic, cultural and economic categories? As educators delivering training in this area, the Discussion Paper has made this already compelling question even more pressing as we work to develop the career-ready graduates the Government seeks. Our program, the Master of Creative Industries (Creative Production & Arts Management) offered in the Creative Industries Faculty at Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia, is, like most programs in arts and cultural management in the US, UK, Europe and Australia, offering a three-Semester postgraduate program that allows students to develop the career-ready skills required to work as managers of arts, cultural or creative organisations. That we need to train our graduates to work not just as producers of plays, paintings or recordings, but as entrepreneurial arts advocates who can measure and articulate the value of their programs to others, is not news (Hadley "Creating" 647-48; cf. Brkic; Ebewo and Sirayi; Beckerman; Sikes). Our program—which offers training in arts policy, management, marketing and budgeting followed by training in entrepreneurship and a practical project—is already structured around this necessity. The question of how to teach students this diverse skill set is, however, still a subject of debate; and the question of how to teach students to measure the impact of this work is even more difficult. There is, of course, a body of literature on the impact of arts, cultural and creative activities, value and evaluation that has been developed over the past decade, particularly through landmark reports like Matarasso's Use or Ornament? The Social Impact of Participation in the Arts (1997) and the RAND Corporation's Gifts of the Muse: Reframing the Debate about the Benefits of the Arts (2004). There are also emergent studies in an Australian context: Madden's "Cautionary Note" on using economic impact studies in the arts (2001); case studies on arts and wellbeing by consultancy firm Effective Change (2003); case studies by DCITA (2003); the Asia Pacific Journal of Arts and Cultural Management (2009) issue on "value"; and Australia Council publications on arts, culture and economy. As Richards has explained, "evaluation is basically a straightforward concept. E-value-ation = a process of enquiry that allows a judgment of amount, value or worth to be made" (99). What makes arts evaluation difficult is not the concept, but the measurement of intangible values—aesthetic quality, expression, engagement or experience. In the literature, discussion has been plagued by debate about what is measured, what method is used, and whether subjective values can in fact be measured. Commentators note that in current practice, questions of value are still deferred because they are too difficult to measure (Bilton and Leary 52), discussed only in terms of economic measures such as market share or satisfaction which are statistically quantifiable (Belfiore and Bennett "Rethinking" 137), or done through un-rigorous surveys that draw only ambiguous, subjective, or selective responses (Merli 110). According to Belfiore and Bennett, Public debate about the value of the arts thus comes to be dominated by what might best be termed the cult of the measurable; and, of course, it is those disciplines primarily concerned with measurement, namely, economics and statistics, which are looked upon to find the evidence that will finally prove why the arts are so important to individuals and societies. A corollary of this is that the humanities are of little use in this investigation. ("Rethinking" 137) Accordingly, Ragsdale states, Arts organizations [still] need to find a way to assess their progress in …making great art that matters to people—as evidenced, perhaps, by increased enthusiasm, frequency of attendance, the capacity and desire to talk or write about one's experience, or in some other way respond to the experience, the curiosity to learn about the art form and the ideas encountered, the depth of emotional response, the quality of the social connections made, and the expansion of one's aesthetics over time. Commentators are still looking for a balanced approach (cf. Geursen and Rentschler; Falk and Dierkling), which evaluates aesthetic practices, business practices, audience response, and results for all parties, in tandem. An approach which evaluates intrinsic impacts, instrumental impacts, and the way each enables the other, in tandem—with an emphasis not on the numbers but on whether we are getting better at what we are doing. And, of course, allows evaluators of arts, cultural and creative activities to use creative arts methods—sketches, stories, bodily movements and relationships and so forth—to provide data to inform the assessment, so they can draw not just on statistical research methods but on arts, culture and humanities research methods. Teaching Artsworkers to Measure the Impact of Their Work: Our Approach As a result of this contested terrain, our method for training artsworkers to measure the impact of their programs has emerged not just from these debates—which tend to conclude by declaring the needs for better methods without providing them—but from a research-teaching nexus in which our own trial-and-error work as consultants to arts, cultural and educational organisations looking to measure the impact of or improve their programs has taught us what is effective. Each of us has worked as managers of professional associations such as Drama Australia and Australasian Association for Theatre, Drama and Performance Studies (ADSA), members of boards or committees for arts organisations such as Youth Arts Queensland and Young People and the Arts Australia (YPAA), as well as consultants to major cultural organisations like the Queensland Performing Arts Centre and the Brisbane Festival. The methods for measuring impact we have developed via this work are based not just on surveys and statistics, but on our own practice as scholars and producers of culture—and are therefore based in arts, culture and humanities approaches. As scholars, we investigate the way marginalised groups tell stories—particularly groups marked by age, gender, race or ability, using community, contemporary and public space performance practices (cf. Hadley, "Bree"; Gattenhof). What we have learned by bringing this sort of scholarly analysis into dialogue with a more systematised approach to articulating impact to government, stakeholders and sponsors is that there is no one-size-fits-all approach. What is needed, instead, is a toolkit, which incorporates central principles and stages, together with qualitative, quantitative and performative tools to track aesthetics, accessibility, inclusivity, capacity-building, creativity etc., as appropriate on a case-by-case basis. Whatever the approach, it is critical that the data track the relationship between the experience the artists, audience or stakeholders anticipated the activity should have, the aspects of the activity that enabled that experience to emerge (or not), and the effect of that (or not) for the arts organisation, their artists, their partners, or their audiences. The combination of methods needs to be selected in consultation with the arts organisation, and the negotiations typically need to include detailed discussion of what should be evaluated (aesthetics, access, inclusivity, or capacity), when it should be evaluated (before, during or after), and how the results should be communicated (including the difference between evaluation for reporting purposes and evaluation for program improvement purposes, and the difference between evaluation and related processes like reflection, documentary-making, or market research). Translating what we have learned through our cultural research and consultancy into a study package for students relies on an understanding of what they want from their study. This, typically, is practical career-ready skills. Students want to produce their own arts, or produce other people's arts, and most have not imagined themselves participating in meta-level processes in which they argue the value of arts, cultural and creative activities (Hadley, "Creating" 652). Accordingly, most have not thought of themselves as researchers, using cultural research methods to create reports that inform how the Australian government values, supports, and services the arts. The first step in teaching students to operate effectively as evaluators of arts, cultural and creative activities is, then, to re-orient their expectations to include this in their understanding of what artsworkers do, what skills artsworkers need, and where they deploy these skills. Simply handing over our own methods, as "the" methods, would not enable graduates to work effectively in a climate were one size will not fit all, and methods for evaluating impact need to be negotiated again for each new context. 1. Understanding the Need for Evaluation: Cause and Effect The first step in encouraging students to become effective evaluators is asking them to map their sector, the major stakeholders, the agendas, alignments and misalignments in what the various players are trying to achieve, and the programs, projects and products through which the players are trying to achieve it. This starting point is drawn from Program Theory—which, as Joon-Yee Kwok argues in her evaluation of the SPARK National Mentoring Program for Young and Emerging Artists (2010) is useful in evaluating cultural activities. The Program Theory approach starts with a flow chart that represents relationships between activities in a program, allowing evaluators to unpack some of the assumptions the program's producers have about what activities have what sort of effect, then test whether they are in fact having that sort of effect (cf. Hall and Hall). It could, for example, start with a flow chart representing the relationship between a community arts policy, a community arts organisation, a community-devised show it is producing, and a blog it has created because it assumes it will allow the public to become more interested in the show the participants are creating, to unpack the assumptions about the sort of effect this is supposed to have, and test whether this is in fact having this sort of effect. Masterclasses, conversations and debate with peers and industry professionals about the agendas, activities and assumptions underpinning programs in their sector allows students to look for elements that may be critical in their programs' ability to achieve (or not) an anticipated impact. In effect to start asking about, "the way things are done now, […] what things are done well, and […] what could be done better" (Australian Government 12).2. Understanding the Nature of Evaluation: PurposeOnce students have been alerted to the need to look for cause-effect assumptions that can determine whether or not their program, project or product is effective, they are asked to consider what data they should be developing about this, why, and for whom. Are they evaluating a program to account to government, stakeholders and sponsors for the money they have spent? To improve the way it works? To use that information to develop innovative new programs in future? In other words, who is the audience? Being aware of the many possible purposes and audiences for evaluation information can allow students to be clear not just about what needs to be evaluated, but the nature of the evaluation they will do—a largely statistical report, versus a narrative summary of experiences, emotions and effects—which may differ depending on the audience.3. Making Decisions about What to Evaluate: Priorities When setting out to measure the impact of arts, cultural or creative activities, many people try to measure everything, measure for the purposes of reporting, improvement and development using the same methods, or gather a range of different sorts of data in the hope that something in it will answer questions about whether an activity is having the anticipated effect, and, if so, how. We ask students to be more selective, making strategic decisions about which anticipated effects of a program, project or product need to be evaluated, whether the evaluation is for reporting, improvement or innovation purposes, and what information stakeholders most require. In addition to the concept of collecting data about critical points where programs succeed or fail in achieving a desired effect, and different approaches for reporting, improvement or development, we ask students to think about the different categories of effect that may be more or less interesting to different stakeholders. This is not an exhaustive list, or a list of things every evaluation should measure. It is a tool to demonstrate to would-be evaluators points of focus that could be developed, depending on the stakeholders' priorities, the purpose of the evaluation, and the critical points at which desired effects need to occur to ensure success. Without such framing, evaluators are likely to end up with unusable data, which become a difficulty to deal with rather than a benefit for the artsworkers, arts organisations or stakeholders. 4. Methods for Evaluation: Process To be effective, methods for collecting data about how arts, cultural or creative activities have (or fail to have) anticipated impact need to include conventional survey, interview and focus group style tools, and creative or performative tools such as discussion, documentation or observation. We encourage students to use creative practice to draw out people's experience of arts events—for example, observation, documentation still images, video or audio documentation, or facilitated development of sketches, stories or scenes about an experience, can be used to register and record people's feelings. These sorts of methods can capture what Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi calls "flow" of experience (cf. Belfiore and Bennett, "Determinants" 232)—for example, photos of a festival space at hourly intervals or the colours a child uses to convey memory of a performance can capture to flow of movement, engagement, and experience for spectators more clearly than statistics. These, together with conventional surveys or interviews that comment on the feelings expressed, allow for a combination of quantitative, qualitative and performative data to demonstrate impact. The approach becomes arts- and humanities- based, using arts methods to encourage people to talk, write or otherwise respond to their experience in terms of emotion, connection, community, or expansion of aesthetics. The evaluator still needs to draw out the meaning of the responses through content, text or discourse analysis, and teaching students how to do a content analysis of quantitative, qualitative and performative data is critical at this stage. When teaching students how to evaluate their data, our method encourages students not just to focus on the experience, or the effect of the experience, but the relationship between the two—the things that act as "enablers" "determinants" (White and Hede; Belfiore and Bennett, "Determinants" passim) of effect. This approach allows the evaluator to use a combination of conventional and creative methods to describe not just what effect an activity had, but, more critically, what enabled it to have that effect, providing a firmer platform for discussing the impact, and how it could be replicated, developed or deepened next time, than a list of effects and numbers of people who felt those effects alone. 5. Communicating Results: Politics Often arts, cultural or creative organisations can be concerned about the image of their work an evaluation will create. The final step in our approach is to alert students to the professional, political and ethical implications of evaluation. Students learn to share their knowledge with organisations, encouraging them to see the value of reporting both correct and incorrect assumptions about the impact of their activities, as part of a continuous improvement process. Then we assist them in drawing the results of this sort of cultural research into planning, development and training documents which may assist the organisation in improving in the future. In effect, it is about encouraging organisations to take the Australian government at its word when, in the National Cultural Policy Discussion Paper, it says it that measuring impact is about measuring progress—what we do well, what we could do better, and how, not just success statistics about who is most successful—as it is this that will ultimately be most useful in creating an inclusive, innovative, productive Australia. Teaching Artsworkers to Measure the Impact of Their Work: The Impact of Our Approach What, then, is the impact of our training on graduates' ability to measure the impact of work? Have we made measurable progress in our efforts to teach artsworkers to assess and articulate the impact of their work? The MCI (CP&AM) has been offered for three years. Our approach is still emergent and experimental. We have, though, identified a number of impacts of our work. First, our students are less fearful of becoming involved in measuring the value or impact of arts, cultural and creative programs. This is evidenced by the number who chooses to do some sort of evaluation for their Major Project, a 15,000 word individual project or internship which concludes their degree. Of the 50 or so students who have reached the Major Project in three years—35 completed and 15 in planning for 2012—about a third have incorporated evaluation into their Major Project. This includes evaluation of sector, business or producing models (5), youth arts and youth arts mentorship programs (4), audience development programs (2), touring programs (4), and even other arts management training programs (1). Indeed, after internships in programming or producing roles, this work—aligned with the Government's interest in improving training of young artists, touring, audience development, and economic development—has become a most popular Major Project option. This has enabled students to work with a range of arts, cultural and creative organisations, share their training—their methods, their understanding of what their methods can measure, when, and how—with Industry. Second, this Industry-engaged training has helped graduates in securing employment. This is evidenced by the fact that graduates have gone on to be employed with organisations they have interned with as part of their Major Project, or other organisations, including some of Brisbane's biggest cultural organisations—local and state government departments, Queensland Performing Arts Centre, Brisbane Festival, Metro Arts, Backbone Youth Arts, and Youth Arts Queensland, amongst others. Thirdly, graduates' contribution to local organisations and industry has increased the profile of a relatively new program. This is evidenced by the fact that it enrols 40 to 50 new students a year across Graduate Certificate / MCI (CP&AM) programs, typically two thirds domestic students and one third international students from Canada, Germany, France, Denmark, Norway and, of course, China. Indeed, some students are now disseminating this work globally, undertaking their Major Project as an internship or industry project with an organisation overseas. In effect, our training's impact emerges not just from our research, or our training, but from the fact that our graduates disseminate our approach to a range of arts, cultural and creative organisations in a practical way. We have, as a result, expanded the audience for this approach, and the number of people and contexts via which it is being adapted and made useful. Whilst few of students come into our program with a desire to do this sort of work, or even a working knowledge of the policy that informs it, on completion many consider it a viable part of their practice and career pathway. When they realise what they can achieve, and what it can mean to the organisations they work with, they do incorporate research, research consultant and government roles as part of their career portfolio, and thus make a contribution to the strong cultural sector the Government envisages in the National Cultural Policy Discussion Paper. Our work as scholars, practitioners and educators has thus enabled us to take a long-term, processual and grassroots approach to reshaping agendas for approaches to this form of cultural research, as our practices are adopted and adapted by students and industry stakeholders. Given the challenges commentators have identified in creating and disseminating effective evaluation methods in arts over the past decade, this, for us—though by no means work that is complete—does count as measurable progress. References Beckerman, Gary. "Adventuring Arts Entrepreneurship Curricula in Higher Education: An Examination of Present Efforts, Obstacles, and Best pPractices." The Journal of Arts Management, Law, and Society 37.2 (2007): 87-112. Belfiore, Eleaonora, and Oliver Bennett. "Determinants of Impact: Towards a Better Understanding of Encounters with the Arts." Cultural Trends 16.3 (2007): 225-75. ———. "Rethinking the Social Impacts of the Arts." International Journal of Cultural Policy 13.2 (2007): 135-51. Bilton, Chris, and Ruth Leary. "What Can Managers Do for Creativity? Brokering Creativity in the Creative Industries." International Journal of Cultural Policy 8.1 (2002): 49-64. Brkic, Aleksandar. "Teaching Arts Management: Where Did We Lose the Core Ideas?" Journal of Arts Management, Law and Society 38.4 (2009): 270-80. Czikszentmihalyi, Mihaly. "A Systems Perspective on Creativity." Creative Management. Ed. Jane Henry. Sage: London, 2001. 11-26. Australian Government. "National Cultural Policy Discussion Paper." Department of Prime Minster and Cabinet – Office for the Arts 2011. 1 Oct. 2011 ‹http://culture.arts.gov.au/discussion-paper›. Ebewo, Patrick, and Mzo Sirayi. "The Concept of Arts/Cultural Management: A Critical Reflection." Journal of Arts Management, Law and Society 38.4 (2009): 281-95. Effective Change and VicHealth. Creative Connections: Promoting Mental Health and Wellbeing through Community Arts Participation 2003. 1 Oct. 2011 ‹http://www.vichealth.vic.gov.au/en/Publications/Social-connection/Creative-Connections.aspx›. Effective Change. Evaluating Community Arts and Community Well Being 2003. 1 Oct. 2011 ‹http://www.arts.vic.gov.au/Research_and_Resources/Resources/Evaluating_Community_Arts_and_Wellbeing›. Falk, John H., and Lynn. D Dierking. "Re-Envisioning Success in the Cultural Sector." Cultural Trends 17.4 (2008): 233-46. Gattenhof, Sandra. "Sandra Gattenhof." QUT ePrints Article Repository. Queensland University of Technology, 2011. 1 Oct. 2011 ‹http://eprints.qut.edu.au/view/person/Gattenhof,_Sandra.html›. Geursen, Gus and Ruth Rentschler. "Unravelling Cultural Value." The Journal of Arts Management, Law and Society 33.3 (2003): 196-210. Hall, Irene and David Hall. Evaluation and Social Research: Introducing Small Scale Practice. London: Palgrave McMillan, 2004. Hadley, Bree. "Bree Hadley." QUT ePrints Article Repository. Queensland University of Technology, 2011. 1 Oct. 2011 ‹http://eprints.qut.edu.au/view/person/Hadley,_Bree.html›. ———. "Creating Successful Cultural Brokers: The Pros and Cons of a Community of Practice Approach in Arts Management Education." Asia Pacific Journal of Arts and Cultural Management 8.1 (2011): 645-59. Kwok, Joon. When Sparks Fly: Developing Formal Mentoring Programs for the Career Development of Young and Emerging Artists. Masters Thesis. Brisbane: Queensland University of Technology, 2010. Madden, Christopher. "Using 'Economic' Impact Studies in Arts and Cultural Advocacy: A Cautionary Note." Media International Australia, Incorporating Culture & Policy 98 (2001): 161-78. Matarasso, Francis. Use or Ornament? The Social Impact of Participation in the Arts. Bournes Greens, Stroud: Comedia, 1997. McCarthy, Kevin. F., Elizabeth H. Ondaatje, Laura Zakaras, and Arthur Brooks. Gifts of the Muse: Reframing the Debate about the Benefits of the Arts. Santa Monica: RAND Corporation, 2004. Merli, Paola. "Evaluating the Social Impact of Participation in Arts Activities." International Journal of Cultural Policy 8.1 (2002): 107-18. Muir, Jan. The Regional Impact of Cultural Programs: Some Case Study Findings. Communications Research Unit - DCITA, 2003. Ragsdale, Diana. "Keynote - Surviving the Culture Change." Australia Council Arts Marketing Summit. Australia Council for the Arts: 2008. Richards, Alison. "Evaluation Approaches." Creative Collaboration: Artists and Communities. Melbourne: Victorian College of the Arts, University of Melbourne, 2006. Sikes, Michael. "Higher Education Training in Arts Administration: A Millennial and Metaphoric Reappraisal. Journal of Arts Management, Law and Society 30.2 (2000): 91-101.White, Tabitha, and Anne-Marie Hede. "Using Narrative Inquiry to Explore the Impact of Art on Individuals." Journal of Arts Management, Law, and Society 38.1 (2008): 19-35.

It is now almost 15 years since the world witnessed one of modern history’s most devastating terrorist attacks on the United States on 11 September 2001. Despite all its promises, the so called ‘War on Terror’ failed to combat a growing tide of violent extremism. 11 years after the US led offensive on Iraq in 2003, the rise of terrorism by non-state actors in the Arab world presents a significant concern to international security and world peace. Since 2001 Australian Muslims have consistently been called upon to openly reject terrorism committed by a minority of Muslims who adhere to an extreme interpretation of Islamic doctrine that justifies attacks on civilians both in the Arab world and abroad.The responsibility placed on Australian Muslims to actively reject terrorism comes from both official channels through government funded programs under the banner of counter terrorism and countering violent extremism and the public through the popular media. Yet, Muslims in Australia who do speak out against religiously motivated non-state terrorism find themselves in an impossible bind. They are expected to speak out as representatives of a fragmented, heterogeneous and diverse mix of communities and ideologies. Often, when they do speak out, they are viewed with suspicion and presumed to be ‘apologists for Islam’ whose claim to tolerance and the peaceful nature of Islamic doctrine purposefully ignores its true nature. Such responses render these spokespersons illegitimate- both as representatives of Muslim communities and as Australian citizens. The question “Why don’t moderate Muslims speak out against terrorism?” is often raised in the popular media in response to attacks against Western interests by jihadi groups. On 15 August 2014 an article in the Daily Telegraph by well-known conservative journalist Piers Akerman raised the question in relation to the Australian government’s announcement of increased powers for law enforcement agencies to deal with the issue of returned foreign fighters who had joined the Islamic State’s conflict in Iraq and Syria. The article, titled “It’s Time for Muslim Leaders to Speak Up” reiterated much of the construction of the silent Muslim majority that has pervaded the Australian popular media since 2001. Akerman states: “They [the Australian government] should be making it clear to Australian Muslims that they expect their leaders to speak out more vehemently against those who groom terrorists from the among the young and stupidly impressionable in their communities”. While he continues by acknowledging that Muslims in Australia are diverse in ethnicity and religious views and that the vast majority of Muslims do not support terrorism, he concludes by stating that “the few are costing the majority of Australians millions in security and those who enjoy leadership titles must accept that some responsibility attaches to their position or they should abdicate in favour of individuals who are prepared to consent to the obligations inherent in their station” (Piers Akerman). The same sentiments were expressed by Pia Ackerman in the Australian who wrote that “AUSTRALIA’S Muslim leaders need to speak out against Islamic State terrorists or risk losing their credibility and ability to reach young men attracted to the extremists’ cause” (Pia Akerman).Other responses in the popular media present a different argument. In an article titled “The Moderate Muslims Are Talking If Only You Will Listen”, David Penberthy of the Herald Sun cites examples of Muslim Australians who are speaking out including the case of prominent Sydney GP Jamal Rifi whose condemnation of terrorist activities in the Arab world has earned him death threats from members of the Islamic State (Penberthy). Yet, as Penberthy rightly acknowledges the questions “where are the moderates? Where are the decent Muslims? Are there any? Why aren’t they speaking out?” are still the most salient questions being asked of Muslims in the public sphere. For Australian Muslims at least, they are questions that pervade their everyday lives. It is these questions for example that leads Muslim women who wear the tradition head covering or hijab to challenge media representations of themselves as complicit actors in terrorism by acting as alternative sources of truth for curious co-workers and members of the broader community (see Aly, A Study).Muslim women who do not wear the hijab can face even more barriers to speaking out because they do not pass the test of ‘legitimate’ Muslims: those who fit the stereotype of the angry bearded male and the oppressed female shrouded in black. This author, who has in the past written about extremist interpretations of Islam, has faced condemnation from anti- Islamic groups who questioned her authenticity as a Muslim. By speaking out as a Muslim against the violent actions of some Muslims in other parts of the world, I was being accused of misinformed. Ironically, those who are vehemently anti- Islamic espouse the very same ideological world view and interpretations of Islamic doctrine as those Muslims they claim to oppose. Both groups rely on an extreme and minority version of Islam that de-legitimises more mainstream, nuanced interpretations and both groups claim legitimacy to the truth that Islam can only ever be violent, aggressive and oppositional.It is not just in the public and media discourses that Muslims who speak out against terrorism face being branded illegitimate. The policy response to home-grown terrorism — acts of violence carried out by Australian citizens within Australia — has, albeit inadvertently, created the conditions through which Muslims must verify their legitimate claims to being Australian by participating in the governments’ program of counter terrorism.In the wake of the 2005 London bombings, the Prime Minister met with selected representatives from Muslim communities to discuss the development of a Muslim Community Reference Group. The Group was charged with assisting the Australian Government by acting as an advisory group and by working with Muslim communities “promote harmony, mutual understanding and Australian values and to challenge violence, ignorance and rigid thinking”. This was iterated through a Statement of Principles that committed members of Muslim communities to pursue “moderate’ Islam (Prime Minister, “Meeting”). The very need for a Muslim summit and for the development of a Statement of Principles (later endorsed by the Council of Australian Governments, COAG), sends a lucid message to the Australian public that not only are Australian Muslims responsible for terrorism but that they also have the capacity to prevent or minimise the threat of an attack in Australia.In 2005, the policy response to terrorism took its first step towards linking the social harmony agenda to the securitisation of the state in the form of the National Action Plan to Build Social Cohesion, Harmony and Security. The stated purpose of the National Action Plan (NAP) notably conflated national security with social cohesion and harmony and clearly indicated an understanding that violent extremism could be addressed through programs designed to reinforce Australian values, social harmony, interfaith understanding and tolerance: “The purpose of this National Action Plan (NAP) is to reinforce social cohesion, harmony and support the national security imperative in Australia by addressing extremism, the promotion of violence and intolerance…”(Commonwealth of Australia, National Action Plan).Between 2005 and 2010, the National Action Plan provided funding for 83 community based projects deemed to meet the Plan’s criteria of addressing extremism and the promotion of violence. Of the 83 projects funded, 33 were undertaken by associations that identified as Muslim or Islamic (some applicants received funding for more than one project or in more than one round). The remaining 50 organisations funded included universities and vocational training organisations (4), multicultural social services or migrant resource centres (14), interfaith groups (3), local councils (4), ethnic organisations (specifically African, East African, Afghan, Hazara, Arabic and Pakistani), sporting clubs (4) and miscellaneous social clubs and service providers. The kinds of projects that were funded were predominantly aimed at Muslim communities, most notably youth and women, and the provision of services, programs, education, information and dialogue. Sixty five of the projects funded were explicitly aimed at Muslim communities and identified their target groups variously as: ‘African Muslim’; ‘Muslim youth’; ‘Muslim women’; ‘at risk Muslims’; ‘young Muslims’; ‘Iraqi Muslims’; ‘Lebanese Muslims’ and ‘young Muslim men from Arabic speaking backgrounds’. Seven projects were described as involving ‘interfaith’ elements, though a further 13 projects described some form of interaction between Muslim and non-Muslim communities and groups through activities such as sport, dialogue, fashion parades, workshops, art and craft programs, music workshops. 29 projects involved some form of leadership training for Muslims: youth, women and young men. Overall, the range of projects funded under the National Action Plan in the five years of its operation reflect a policy approach that specifically identifies Muslim communities (including ethno specific and new and emerging Muslim communities) as the primary target of Australia’s broader security strategy.The National Action Plan was succeeded by the Building Community Resilience (BCR) Program. Despite the positive steps taken in attempting to move the BCR program away from the social harmony policy agenda, it continued to reflect an underlying preoccupation with the assumptions of its predecessor. Between 2011- 2013 it funded 51 community based projects. Of these, 7 projects were undertaken by Islamic or Muslim associations. Ten of the projects specifically target Muslims or Muslim communities, with 6 of these being Muslim youth leadership and/or mentoring programs. The remaining 4 Muslim focussed projects include a project designed to encourage Muslim youth to build positive connections with the broader community, the development of a Common Curriculum Framework for teaching Islamic Studies in Australian Islamic primary and secondary schools, a project to address misconceptions about Islam and promote cultural understanding and the production of a DVD for schools to address misperceptions about Muslims. Notably, only one project specifically targets white supremacist violent extremism. The Australian governments’ progressive policy approach to countering violent extremism at home has disproportionately focussed on the Australian Muslim communities. In an environment where Muslims are viewed with suspicion and as having the primary responsibility as both perpetrators and gatekeepers of terroristic ideologies, Muslims in diaspora communities have been forced to make legitimate claims to their innocence. In order to do this they are required to reaffirm their commitment to Australian values, not just by speaking out against terrorism but also by participating in programs that are based on false assumptions about the nature of Muslim citizenship in Australia and the premise that Muslim Australians are, both individually and collectively, opposed to such values by virtue of their religious affiliation. In 2014 and in response to growing concerns about the number of Australians travelling to Iraq and Syria to fight alongside the Islamic State, the government made a bold move by declaring its intention to overhaul existing terror laws. The new laws would reverse the onus of proof on those who travelled to certain countries deemed to be terrorist hotspots to prove that they were not partaking in armed conflict or terrorist training. They would also give more powers to law enforcement and surveillance agencies by lowering the threshold of arrest without a warrant. The announcement of the new laws by the Prime Minister coincided with the news that the Government would abandon its controversial plans to drop section 18c from the Racial Discrimination Act which makes it unlawful to "offend, insult, humiliate or intimidate another person or a group of people" because of their race or ethnicity" (Aston). The announcement was made under the guise of a press conference on terror laws and inferred that the back down on the Racial Discrimination Act reforms were a measure to win over the Muslim communities cooperation on the new terror laws. Referring to a somewhat curious notion of “team Australia”, the Prime Minister stated “I want to work with the communities of our country as team Australia here” (Aston). “Team Australia” has since become the Government’s narrative frame for garnering public support for its proposed new terrorism laws. Echoing his predecessor John Howard, whose narrative of Australian values pervaded much of the political discourse during his term in office, Prime Minister Abbott stated in a radio interview that "everyone has got to put this country, its interests, its values and its people first, and you don't migrate to this country unless you want to join our team". He followed this statement by emphasising that "What we need to do is to encourage the moderate mainstream to speak out" (Cox).Shortly after the release of a horrific image on social media showing Australian jihadists proudly flaunting the severed heads of their victims, the Australian government reacted with an even bolder move to introduce legislation that would see the government cancelling the welfare payments of persons “identified by national security agencies as being involved in extremist conduct.” According to the Government the reforms would “enable the Department of Human Services to cancel a person’s welfare payment if it receives advice that a person has been assessed as a serious threat to Australia’s national security.”(Prime Minister of Australia) The move was criticised by several groups including academics who argued that it would not only alienate the already disenfranchised Muslim communities, but could also result in greater radicalisation (Ireland). In response to the raft of new measures perceived to be targeting Muslim communities, Australian Muslims took measured steps to voice their opposition through written statements and media releases stating that, among other things: These proposals come in the same style as those which have preceded [sic] since the Howard era. An alleged threat is blown out of all proportion as the pretext, further "tightening" of the laws is claimed necessary and rushed through, without proper national debate or community consultation. The reality of the alleged threat is also exposed by the lack of correspondence between the official 'terror threat' level, which has remained the same since 2001, and the hysterical rhetoric from government ministers. (ABC News, "Australian Muslims")Australian Muslim leaders also boycotted government meetings including a planned meeting with the Prime Minister to discuss the new laws. The Prime Minister promptly branded the boycott “foolish” (ABC News, "Tony Abbott") yet refused to acknowledge the legitimacy of the claims made in the media statements and messages by Muslim organisations that prompted the boycotts. As Australian Muslims continue to grapple with ways to legitimize their claims to citizenship, the developing discourse on national security and terrorism continues to define them as the objects of terror. Notably, the media discourse is showing some signs of accommodating the views of Muslim Australians who have found some space in the public sphere. Recent media reporting on terror activities in the Middle East has given some consideration to the voices of Muslim leaders who openly oppose violent extremism. Yet Muslims in Australia are still battling for legitimacy. Those who speak out against the hijacking of their religion by a minority who espouse a rigid and uncompromising ideology in order to justify violence often find themselves the subjects of intense scrutiny. From within their communities they are seen to be mouth pieces for an unfair and unjust government agenda that targets Muslims as objects of fear. From outside their communities they are seen to be apologists for Islam whose authenticity should be questioned if not denied. Attempts by Muslim Australians to have their voices heard through political practices that define the very nature of democracy including peaceful demonstrations, boycotts and written statements have not been taken seriously. As a result, Muslim voices in Australia are deemed illegitimate regardless of the forms or platforms through which they seek to be heard. ReferencesABC News. “Australian Muslims Denounce Proposed 'Anti-Terror' Laws”. ABC Religion and Ethics, 21 Aug. 2014. 23 Aug. 2014 .ABC News. “Tony Abbott Says Muslim Leaders 'Foolishly Boycotted' Counterterrorism Law Meeting.” 22 Aug. 2014. 24 Aug. 2014 .Akerman, Pia. “Muslim Leaders Must Speak Out against Extremists, Academic Warns.” The Australian 13 Aug. 13 2014. 20 Aug. 2014 . Akerman, Piers. “It's Time for Muslim Leaders to Speak Up.” Daily Telegraph 15 Aug. 2014. 20 Aug. 2014 .Alynne, A. A Study of Audience Responses to the Media Discourse about the ‘Other’: The Fear of Terrorism between Australian Muslims and the Broader Community. Lampeter: Edwin Mellen, 2010.Aly, Anne. “Media Hegemony, Activism and Identity: Muslim Women Re-Presenting Muslim Women.” Beyond the Hijab Debates: New Conversations on Gender, Race and Religion, eds. T. Dreher and C. Ho. Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars, 2009.Aly, Anne, and Mark Balnaves. “The Atmosfear of Terror: Affective Modulation and the War on Terror.” M/C Journal 8.6 (2005).Aly, Anne, and Lelia Green. “‘Moderate Islam’: Defining the Good Citizen.” M/C Journal 10.6/11.1 (2008). 13 April 2008 ‹http://journal.media-culture.org.au/0804/08aly-green.php›.Aston, H. “Tony Abbott Dumps Controversial Changes to 18C Racial Discrimination Laws.” Sydney Morning Herald 5 Aug. 2014. 24 Aug. 2014 .Australian Government, Attorney General's Department. Building Community Resilience Grants Program. n.d. 24 July 2014 . Commonwealth of Australia. Transnational Terrorism White Paper: The Threat to Australia. Canberra: Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, 2004. . Commonwealth of Australia. National Action Plan to Build Social Cohesion, Harmony and Security. Canberra: Department of Immigration and Citizenship, 2006. .Commonwealth of Australia. Counter Terrorism White Paper: Securing Australia, Protecting our Community. Canberra: Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, 2010. 19 Nov. 2011 .Cox, L. “'You Don't Migrate to This Country unless You Want to Join Our Team': Tony Abbott Renews Push on National Security Laws.” Sydney Morning Herald 18 Aug. 2014. 24 Aug. 2014 . Ireland, J. “Extremism Warning on Coalition's Move to Cut Welfare Payments.” Sydney Morning Herald 19 Aug. 2014. 24 Aug. 2014 .Penberthy, D. “The Moderate Muslims Are Talking If Only You Will Listen. Herald Sun 17 Aug. 2014 .Prime Minister of Australia. “New Counter-Terrorism Measures for a Safer Australia - Cancelling Welfare Payments to Extremists”. 16 Aug. 2014. 23 Aug. 2014 .Prime Minister of Australia. “Meeting with Islamic Community Leaders, Statement of Principles.” 23 Aug. 2005. July 2008 .

Connecting I’ve moved house on the weekend, closer to the centre of an Australian capital city. I had recently signed up for broadband, with a major Australian Internet company (my first contact, cf. Turner). Now I am the proud owner of a larger modem than I have ever owned: a white cable modem. I gaze out into our new street: two thick black cables cosseted in silver wire. I am relieved. My new home is located in one of those streets, double-cabled by Telstra and Optus in the data-rush of the mid-1990s. Otherwise, I’d be moth-balling the cable modem, and the thrill of my data percolating down coaxial cable. And it would be off to the computer supermarket to buy an ASDL modem, then to pick a provider, to squeeze some twenty-first century connectivity out of old copper (the phone network our grandparents and great-grandparents built). If I still lived in the country, or the outskirts of the city, or anywhere else more than four kilometres from the phone exchange, and somewhere that cable pay TV will never reach, it would be a dish for me — satellite. Our digital lives are premised upon infrastructure, the networks through which we shape what we do, fashion the meanings of our customs and practices, and exchange signs with others. Infrastructure is not simply the material or the technical (Lamberton), but it is the dense, fibrous knotting together of social visions, cultural resources, individual desires, and connections. No more can one easily discern between ‘society’ and ‘technology’, ‘carriage’ and ‘content’, ‘base’ and ‘superstructure’, or ‘infrastructure’ and ‘applications’ (or ‘services’ or ‘content’). To understand telecommunications in action, or the vectors of fibre, we need to consider the long and heterogeneous list of links among different human and non-human actors — the long networks, to take Bruno Latour’s evocative concept, that confect our broadband networks (Latour). The co-ordinates of our infrastructure still build on a century-long history of telecommunications networks, on the nineteenth-century centrality of telegraphy preceding this, and on the histories of the public and private so inscribed. Yet we are in the midst of a long, slow dismantling of the posts-telegraph-telephone (PTT) model of the monopoly carrier for each nation that dominated the twentieth century, with its deep colonial foundations. Instead our New World Information and Communication Order is not the decolonising UNESCO vision of the late 1970s and early 1980s (MacBride, Maitland). Rather it is the neoliberal, free trade, market access model, its symbol the 1984 US judicial decision to require the break-up of AT&T and the UK legislation in the same year that underpinned the Thatcherite twin move to privatize British Telecom and introduce telecommunications competition. Between 1984 and 1999, 110 telecommunications companies were privatized, and the ‘acquisition of privatized PTOs [public telecommunications operators] by European and American operators does follow colonial lines’ (Winseck 396; see also Mody, Bauer & Straubhaar). The competitive market has now been uneasily installed as the paradigm for convergent communications networks, not least with the World Trade Organisation’s 1994 General Agreement on Trade in Services and Annex on Telecommunications. As the citizen is recast as consumer and customer (Goggin, ‘Citizens and Beyond’), we rethink our cultural and political axioms as well as the axes that orient our understandings in this area. Information might travel close to the speed of light, and we might fantasise about optical fibre to the home (or pillow), but our terrain, our band where the struggle lies today, is narrower than we wish. Begging for broadband, it seems, is a long way from warchalking for WiFi. Policy Circuits The dreary everyday business of getting connected plugs the individual netizen into a tangled mess of policy circuits, as much as tricky network negotiations. Broadband in mid-2003 in Australia is a curious chimera, welded together from a patchwork of technologies, old and newer communications industries, emerging economies and patterns of use. Broadband conjures up grander visions, however, of communication and cultural cornucopia. Broadband is high-speed, high-bandwidth, ‘always-on’, networked communications. People can send and receive video, engage in multimedia exchanges of all sorts, make the most of online education, realise the vision of home-based work and trading, have access to telemedicine, and entertainment. Broadband really entered the lexicon with the mass takeup of the Internet in the early to mid-1990s, and with the debates about something called the ‘information superhighway’. The rise of the Internet, the deregulation of telecommunications, and the involuted convergence of communications and media technologies saw broadband positioned at the centre of policy debates nearly a decade ago. In 1993-1994, Australia had its Broadband Services Expert Group (BSEG), established by the then Labor government. The BSEG was charged with inquiring into ‘issues relating to the delivery of broadband services to homes, schools and businesses’. Stung by criticisms of elite composition (a narrow membership, with only one woman among its twelve members, and no consumer or citizen group representation), the BSEG was prompted into wider public discussion and consultation (Goggin & Newell). The then Bureau of Transport and Communications Economics (BTCE), since transmogrified into the Communications Research Unit of the Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts (DCITA), conducted its large-scale Communications Futures Project (BTCE and Luck). The BSEG Final report posed the question starkly: As a society we have choices to make. If we ignore the opportunities we run the risk of being left behind as other countries introduce new services and make themselves more competitive: we will become consumers of other countries’ content, culture and technologies rather than our own. Or we could adopt new technologies at any cost…This report puts forward a different approach, one based on developing a new, user-oriented strategy for communications. The emphasis will be on communication among people... (BSEG v) The BSEG proposed a ‘National Strategy for New Communications Networks’ based on three aspects: education and community access, industry development, and the role of government (BSEG x). Ironically, while the nation, or at least its policy elites, pondered the weighty question of broadband, Australia’s two largest telcos were doing it. The commercial decision of Telstra/Foxtel and Optus Vision, and their various television partners, was to nail their colours (black) to the mast, or rather telegraph pole, and to lay cable in the major capital cities. In fact, they duplicated the infrastructure in cities such as Sydney and Melbourne, then deciding it would not be profitable to cable up even regional centres, let alone small country towns or settlements. As Terry Flew and Christina Spurgeon observe: This wasteful duplication contrasted with many other parts of the country that would never have access to this infrastructure, or to the social and economic benefits that it was perceived to deliver. (Flew & Spurgeon 72) The implications of this decision for Australia’s telecommunications and television were profound, but there was little, if any, public input into this. Then Minister Michael Lee was very proud of his anti-siphoning list of programs, such as national sporting events, that would remain on free-to-air television rather than screen on pay, but was unwilling, or unable, to develop policy on broadband and pay TV cable infrastructure (on the ironies of Australia’s television history, see Given’s masterly account). During this period also, it may be remembered, Australia’s Internet was being passed into private hands, with the tendering out of AARNET (see Spurgeon for discussion). No such national strategy on broadband really emerged in the intervening years, nor has the market provided integrated, accessible broadband services. In 1997, landmark telecommunications legislation was enacted that provided a comprehensive framework for competition in telecommunications, as well as consolidating and extending consumer protection, universal service, customer service standards, and other reforms (CLC). Carrier and reseller competition had commenced in 1991, and the 1997 legislation gave it further impetus. Effective competition is now well established in long distance telephone markets, and in mobiles. Rivalrous competition exists in the market for local-call services, though viable alternatives to Telstra’s dominance are still few (Fels). Broadband too is an area where there is symbolic rivalry rather than effective competition. This is most visible in advertised ADSL offerings in large cities, yet most of the infrastructure for these services is comprised by Telstra’s copper, fixed-line network. Facilities-based duopoly competition exists principally where Telstra/Foxtel and Optus cable networks have been laid, though there are quite a number of ventures underway by regional telcos, power companies, and, most substantial perhaps, the ACT government’s TransACT broadband network. Policymakers and industry have been greatly concerned about what they see as slow takeup of broadband, compared to other countries, and by barriers to broadband competition and access to ‘bottleneck’ facilities (such as Telstra or Optus’s networks) by potential competitors. The government has alternated between trying to talk up broadband benefits and rates of take up and recognising the real difficulties Australia faces as a large country with a relative small and dispersed population. In March 2003, Minister Alston directed the ACCC to implement new monitoring and reporting arrangements on competition in the broadband industry. A key site for discussion of these matters has been the competition policy institution, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, and its various inquiries, reports, and considerations (consult ACCC’s telecommunications homepage at http://www.accc.gov.au/telco/fs-telecom.htm). Another key site has been the Productivity Commission (http://www.pc.gov.au), while a third is the National Office on the Information Economy (NOIE - http://www.noie.gov.au/projects/access/access/broadband1.htm). Others have questioned whether even the most perfectly competitive market in broadband will actually provide access to citizens and consumers. A great deal of work on this issue has been undertaken by DCITA, NOIE, the regulators, and industry bodies, not to mention consumer and public interest groups. Since 1997, there have been a number of governmental inquiries undertaken or in progress concerning the takeup of broadband and networked new media (for example, a House of Representatives Wireless Broadband Inquiry), as well as important inquiries into the still most strategically important of Australia’s companies in this area, Telstra. Much of this effort on an ersatz broadband policy has been piecemeal and fragmented. There are fundamental difficulties with the large size of the Australian continent and its harsh terrain, the small size of the Australian market, the number of providers, and the dominant position effectively still held by Telstra, as well as Singtel Optus (Optus’s previous overseas investors included Cable & Wireless and Bell South), and the larger telecommunications and Internet companies (such as Ozemail). Many consumers living in metropolitan Australia still face real difficulties in realising the slogan ‘bandwidth for all’, but the situation in parts of rural Australia is far worse. Satellite ‘broadband’ solutions are available, through Telstra Countrywide or other providers, but these offer limited two-way interactivity. Data can be received at reasonable speeds (though at far lower data rates than how ‘broadband’ used to be defined), but can only be sent at far slower rates (Goggin, Rural Communities Online). The cultural implications of these digital constraints may well be considerable. Computer gamers, for instance, are frustrated by slow return paths. In this light, the final report of the January 2003 Broadband Advisory Group (BAG) is very timely. The BAG report opens with a broadband rhapsody: Broadband communications technologies can deliver substantial economic and social benefits to Australia…As well as producing productivity gains in traditional and new industries, advanced connectivity can enrich community life, particularly in rural and regional areas. It provides the basis for integration of remote communities into national economic, cultural and social life. (BAG 1, 7) Its prescriptions include: Australia will be a world leader in the availability and effective use of broadband...and to capture the economic and social benefits of broadband connectivity...Broadband should be available to all Australians at fair and reasonable prices…Market arrangements should be pro-competitive and encourage investment...The Government should adopt a National Broadband Strategy (BAG 1) And, like its predecessor nine years earlier, the BAG report does make reference to a national broadband strategy aiming to maximise “choice in work and recreation activities available to all Australians independent of location, background, age or interests” (17). However, the idea of a national broadband strategy is not something the BAG really comes to grips with. The final report is keen on encouraging broadband adoption, but not explicit on how barriers to broadband can be addressed. Perhaps this is not surprising given that the membership of the BAG, dominated by representatives of large corporations and senior bureaucrats was even less representative than its BSEG predecessor. Some months after the BAG report, the Federal government did declare a broadband strategy. It did so, intriguingly enough, under the rubric of its response to the Regional Telecommunications Inquiry report (Estens), the second inquiry responsible for reassuring citizens nervous about the full-privatisation of Telstra (the first inquiry being Besley). The government’s grand $142.8 million National Broadband Strategy focusses on the ‘broadband needs of regional Australians, in partnership with all levels of government’ (Alston, ‘National Broadband Strategy’). Among other things, the government claims that the Strategy will result in “improved outcomes in terms of services and prices for regional broadband access; [and] the development of national broadband infrastructure assets.” (Alston, ‘National Broadband Strategy’) At the same time, the government announced an overall response to the Estens Inquiry, with specific safeguards for Telstra’s role in regional communications — a preliminary to the full Telstra sale (Alston, ‘Future Proofing’). Less publicised was the government’s further initiative in indigenous telecommunications, complementing its Telecommunications Action Plan for Remote Indigenous Communities (DCITA). Indigenous people, it can be argued, were never really contemplated as citizens with the ken of the universal service policy taken to underpin the twentieth-century government monopoly PTT project. In Australia during the deregulatory and re-regulatory 1990s, there was a great reluctance on the part of Labor and Coalition Federal governments, Telstra and other industry participants, even to research issues of access to and use of telecommunications by indigenous communicators. Telstra, and to a lesser extent Optus (who had purchased AUSSAT as part of their licence arrangements), shrouded the issue of indigenous communications in mystery that policymakers were very reluctant to uncover, let alone systematically address. Then regulator, the Australian Telecommunications Authority (AUSTEL), had raised grave concerns about indigenous telecommunications access in its 1991 Rural Communications inquiry. However, there was no government consideration of, nor research upon, these issues until Alston commissioned a study in 2001 — the basis for the TAPRIC strategy (DCITA). The elision of indigenous telecommunications from mainstream industry and government policy is all the more puzzling, if one considers the extraordinarily varied and significant experiments by indigenous Australians in telecommunications and Internet (not least in the early work of the Tanami community, made famous in media and cultural studies by the writings of anthropologist Eric Michaels). While the government’s mid-2003 moves on a ‘National Broadband Strategy’ attend to some details of the broadband predicament, they fall well short of an integrated framework that grasps the shortcomings of the neoliberal communications model. The funding offered is a token amount. The view from the seat of government is a glance from the rear-view mirror: taking a snapshot of rural communications in the years 2000-2002 and projecting this tableau into a safety-net ‘future proofing’ for the inevitable turning away of a fully-privately-owned Telstra from its previously universal, ‘carrier of last resort’ responsibilities. In this aetiolated, residualist policy gaze, citizens remain constructed as consumers in a very narrow sense in this incremental, quietist version of state securing of market arrangements. What is missing is any more expansive notion of citizens, their varied needs, expectations, uses, and cultural imaginings of ‘always on’ broadband networks. Hybrid Networks “Most people on earth will eventually have access to networks that are all switched, interactive, and broadband”, wrote Frances Cairncross in 1998. ‘Eventually’ is a very appropriate word to describe the parlous state of broadband technology implementation. Broadband is in a slow state of evolution and invention. The story of broadband so far underscores the predicament for Australian access to bandwidth, when we lack any comprehensive, integrated, effective, and fair policy in communications and information technology. We have only begun to experiment with broadband technologies and understand their evolving uses, cultural forms, and the sense in which they rework us as subjects. Our communications networks are not superhighways, to invoke an enduring artefact from an older technology. Nor any longer are they a single ‘public’ switched telecommunications network, like those presided over by the post-telegraph-telephone monopolies of old. Like roads themselves, or the nascent postal system of the sixteenth century, broadband is a patchwork quilt. The ‘fibre’ of our communications networks is hybrid. To be sure, powerful corporations dominate, like the Tassis or Taxis who served as postmasters to the Habsburg emperors (Briggs & Burke 25). Activating broadband today provides a perspective on the path dependency of technology history, and how we can open up new threads of a communications fabric. Our options for transforming our multitudinous networked lives emerge as much from everyday tactics and strategies as they do from grander schemes and unifying policies. We may care to reflect on the waning potential for nation-building technology, in the wake of globalisation. We no longer gather our imagined community around a Community Telephone Plan as it was called in 1960 (Barr, Moyal, and PMG). Yet we do require national and international strategies to get and stay connected (Barr), ideas and funding that concretely address the wider dimensions of access and use. We do need to debate the respective roles of Telstra, the state, community initiatives, and industry competition in fair telecommunications futures. Networks have global reach and require global and national integration. Here vision, co-ordination, and resources are urgently required for our commonweal and moral fibre. To feel the width of the band we desire, we need to plug into and activate the policy circuits. Thanks to Grayson Cooke, Patrick Lichty, Ned Rossiter, John Pace, and an anonymous reviewer for helpful comments. Works Cited Alston, Richard. ‘ “Future Proofing” Regional Communications.’ Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts, Canberra, 2003. 17 July 2003 <http://www.dcita.gov.au/Article/0,,0_1-2_3-4_115485,00.php> —. ‘A National Broadband Strategy.’ Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts, Canberra, 2003. 17 July 2003 <http://www.dcita.gov.au/Article/0,,0_1-2_3-4_115486,00.php>. Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC). Broadband Services Report March 2003. Canberra: ACCC, 2003. 17 July 2003 <http://www.accc.gov.au/telco/fs-telecom.htm>. —. Emerging Market Structures in the Communications Sector. 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Melbourne: Productivity Commission, 2001. <http://www.pc.gov.au/inquiry/telecommunications/finalreport/>, accessed 17 July 2003. Spurgeon, Christina. ‘National Culture, Communications and the Information Economy.’ Media International Australia 87 (1998): 23-34. Turner, Graeme. ‘First Contact: coming to terms with the cable guy.’ UTS Review 3 (1997): 109-21. Winseck, Dwayne. ‘Wired Cities and Transnational Communications: New Forms of Governance for Telecommunications and the New Media’. In The Handbook of New Media: Social Shaping and Consequences of ICTs, ed. Leah A. Lievrouw and Sonia Livingstone. London: Sage, 2002. 393-409. World Trade Organisation. General Agreement on Trade in Services: Annex on Telecommunications. Geneva: World Trade Organisation, 1994. 17 July 2003 <http://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/serv_e/12-tel_e.htm>. —. Fourth protocol to the General Agreement on Trade in Services. Geneva: World Trade Organisation. 17 July 2003 <http://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/serv_e/4prote_e.htm>. Links http://www.accc.gov.au/pubs/publications/utilities/telecommunications/Emerg_mar_struc.doc http://www.accc.gov.au/speeches/2003/Fels_ATUG_6March03.doc http://www.accc.gov.au/telco/fs-telecom.htm http://www.aph.gov.au/house/committee/cita/Wbt/report.htm http://www.dcita.gov.au/Article/0,,0_1-2_3-4_115485,00.html http://www.dcita.gov.au/Article/0,,0_1-2_3-4_115486,00.html http://www.noie.gov.au/projects/access/access/broadband1.htm http://www.noie.gov.au/publications/NOIE/BAG/report/index.htm http://www.pc.gov.au http://www.pc.gov.au/inquiry/telecommunications/finalreport/ http://www.telinquiry.gov.au/final_report.html http://www.telinquiry.gov.au/rti-report.html http://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/serv_e/12-tel_e.htm http://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/serv_e/4prote_e.htm Citation reference for this article Substitute your date of access for Dn Month Year etc... MLA Style Goggin, Gerard. "Broadband" M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture< http://www.media-culture.org.au/0308/02-featurebroadband.php>. APA Style Goggin, G. (2003, Aug 26). Broadband. M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture, 6,< http://www.media-culture.org.au/0308/02-featurebroadband.php>

On the morning of Thursday, 4 May 2006, the United States House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence held an open hearing entitled “Terrorist Use of the Internet.” The Intelligence committee meeting was scheduled to take place in Room 1302 of the Longworth Office Building, a Depression-era structure with a neoclassical façade. Because of a dysfunctional elevator, some of the congressional representatives were late to the meeting. During the testimony about the newest political applications for cutting-edge digital technology, the microphones periodically malfunctioned, and witnesses complained of “technical problems” several times. By the end of the day it seemed that what was to be remembered about the hearing was the shocking revelation that terrorists were using videogames to recruit young jihadists. The Associated Press wrote a short, restrained article about the hearing that only mentioned “computer games and recruitment videos” in passing. Eager to have their version of the news item picked up, Reuters made videogames the focus of their coverage with a headline that announced, “Islamists Using US Videogames in Youth Appeal.” Like a game of telephone, as the Reuters videogame story was quickly re-run by several Internet news services, each iteration of the title seemed less true to the exact language of the original. One Internet news service changed the headline to “Islamic militants recruit using U.S. video games.” Fox News re-titled the story again to emphasise that this alert about technological manipulation was coming from recognised specialists in the anti-terrorism surveillance field: “Experts: Islamic Militants Customizing Violent Video Games.” As the story circulated, the body of the article remained largely unchanged, in which the Reuters reporter described the digital materials from Islamic extremists that were shown at the congressional hearing. During the segment that apparently most captured the attention of the wire service reporters, eerie music played as an English-speaking narrator condemned the “infidel” and declared that he had “put a jihad” on them, as aerial shots moved over 3D computer-generated images of flaming oil facilities and mosques covered with geometric designs. Suddenly, this menacing voice-over was interrupted by an explosion, as a virtual rocket was launched into a simulated military helicopter. The Reuters reporter shared this dystopian vision from cyberspace with Western audiences by quoting directly from the chilling commentary and describing a dissonant montage of images and remixed sound. “I was just a boy when the infidels came to my village in Blackhawk helicopters,” a narrator’s voice said as the screen flashed between images of street-level gunfights, explosions and helicopter assaults. Then came a recording of President George W. Bush’s September 16, 2001, statement: “This crusade, this war on terrorism, is going to take a while.” It was edited to repeat the word “crusade,” which Muslims often define as an attack on Islam by Christianity. According to the news reports, the key piece of evidence before Congress seemed to be a film by “SonicJihad” of recorded videogame play, which – according to the experts – was widely distributed online. Much of the clip takes place from the point of view of a first-person shooter, seen as if through the eyes of an armed insurgent, but the viewer also periodically sees third-person action in which the player appears as a running figure wearing a red-and-white checked keffiyeh, who dashes toward the screen with a rocket launcher balanced on his shoulder. Significantly, another of the player’s hand-held weapons is a detonator that triggers remote blasts. As jaunty music plays, helicopters, tanks, and armoured vehicles burst into smoke and flame. Finally, at the triumphant ending of the video, a green and white flag bearing a crescent is hoisted aloft into the sky to signify victory by Islamic forces. To explain the existence of this digital alternative history in which jihadists could be conquerors, the Reuters story described the deviousness of the country’s terrorist opponents, who were now apparently modifying popular videogames through their wizardry and inserting anti-American, pro-insurgency content into U.S.-made consumer technology. One of the latest video games modified by militants is the popular “Battlefield 2” from leading video game publisher, Electronic Arts Inc of Redwood City, California. Jeff Brown, a spokesman for Electronic Arts, said enthusiasts often write software modifications, known as “mods,” to video games. “Millions of people create mods on games around the world,” he said. “We have absolutely no control over them. It’s like drawing a mustache on a picture.” Although the Electronic Arts executive dismissed the activities of modders as a “mustache on a picture” that could only be considered little more than childish vandalism of their off-the-shelf corporate product, others saw a more serious form of criminality at work. Testifying experts and the legislators listening on the committee used the video to call for greater Internet surveillance efforts and electronic counter-measures. Within twenty-four hours of the sensationalistic news breaking, however, a group of Battlefield 2 fans was crowing about the idiocy of reporters. The game play footage wasn’t from a high-tech modification of the software by Islamic extremists; it had been posted on a Planet Battlefield forum the previous December of 2005 by a game fan who had cut together regular game play with a Bush remix and a parody snippet of the soundtrack from the 2004 hit comedy film Team America. The voice describing the Black Hawk helicopters was the voice of Trey Parker of South Park cartoon fame, and – much to Parker’s amusement – even the mention of “goats screaming” did not clue spectators in to the fact of a comic source. Ironically, the moment in the movie from which the sound clip is excerpted is one about intelligence gathering. As an agent of Team America, a fictional elite U.S. commando squad, the hero of the film’s all-puppet cast, Gary Johnston, is impersonating a jihadist radical inside a hostile Egyptian tavern that is modelled on the cantina scene from Star Wars. Additional laughs come from the fact that agent Johnston is accepted by the menacing terrorist cell as “Hakmed,” despite the fact that he utters a series of improbable clichés made up of incoherent stereotypes about life in the Middle East while dressed up in a disguise made up of shoe polish and a turban from a bathroom towel. The man behind the “SonicJihad” pseudonym turned out to be a twenty-five-year-old hospital administrator named Samir, and what reporters and representatives saw was nothing more exotic than game play from an add-on expansion pack of Battlefield 2, which – like other versions of the game – allows first-person shooter play from the position of the opponent as a standard feature. While SonicJihad initially joined his fellow gamers in ridiculing the mainstream media, he also expressed astonishment and outrage about a larger politics of reception. In one interview he argued that the media illiteracy of Reuters potentially enabled a whole series of category errors, in which harmless gamers could be demonised as terrorists. It wasn’t intended for the purpose what it was portrayed to be by the media. So no I don’t regret making a funny video . . . why should I? The only thing I regret is thinking that news from Reuters was objective and always right. The least they could do is some online research before publishing this. If they label me al-Qaeda just for making this silly video, that makes you think, what is this al-Qaeda? And is everything al-Qaeda? Although Sonic Jihad dismissed his own work as “silly” or “funny,” he expected considerably more from a credible news agency like Reuters: “objective” reporting, “online research,” and fact-checking before “publishing.” Within the week, almost all of the salient details in the Reuters story were revealed to be incorrect. SonicJihad’s film was not made by terrorists or for terrorists: it was not created by “Islamic militants” for “Muslim youths.” The videogame it depicted had not been modified by a “tech-savvy militant” with advanced programming skills. Of course, what is most extraordinary about this story isn’t just that Reuters merely got its facts wrong; it is that a self-identified “parody” video was shown to the august House Intelligence Committee by a team of well-paid “experts” from the Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), a major contractor with the federal government, as key evidence of terrorist recruitment techniques and abuse of digital networks. Moreover, this story of media illiteracy unfolded in the context of a fundamental Constitutional debate about domestic surveillance via communications technology and the further regulation of digital content by lawmakers. Furthermore, the transcripts of the actual hearing showed that much more than simple gullibility or technological ignorance was in play. Based on their exchanges in the public record, elected representatives and government experts appear to be keenly aware that the digital discourses of an emerging information culture might be challenging their authority and that of the longstanding institutions of knowledge and power with which they are affiliated. These hearings can be seen as representative of a larger historical moment in which emphatic declarations about prohibiting specific practices in digital culture have come to occupy a prominent place at the podium, news desk, or official Web portal. This environment of cultural reaction can be used to explain why policy makers’ reaction to terrorists’ use of networked communication and digital media actually tells us more about our own American ideologies about technology and rhetoric in a contemporary information environment. When the experts come forward at the Sonic Jihad hearing to “walk us through the media and some of the products,” they present digital artefacts of an information economy that mirrors many of the features of our own consumption of objects of electronic discourse, which seem dangerously easy to copy and distribute and thus also create confusion about their intended meanings, audiences, and purposes. From this one hearing we can see how the reception of many new digital genres plays out in the public sphere of legislative discourse. Web pages, videogames, and Weblogs are mentioned specifically in the transcript. The main architecture of the witnesses’ presentation to the committee is organised according to the rhetorical conventions of a PowerPoint presentation. Moreover, the arguments made by expert witnesses about the relationship of orality to literacy or of public to private communications in new media are highly relevant to how we might understand other important digital genres, such as electronic mail or text messaging. The hearing also invites consideration of privacy, intellectual property, and digital “rights,” because moral values about freedom and ownership are alluded to by many of the elected representatives present, albeit often through the looking glass of user behaviours imagined as radically Other. For example, terrorists are described as “modders” and “hackers” who subvert those who properly create, own, legitimate, and regulate intellectual property. To explain embarrassing leaks of infinitely replicable digital files, witness Ron Roughead says, “We’re not even sure that they don’t even hack into the kinds of spaces that hold photographs in order to get pictures that our forces have taken.” Another witness, Undersecretary of Defense for Policy and International Affairs, Peter Rodman claims that “any video game that comes out, as soon as the code is released, they will modify it and change the game for their needs.” Thus, the implication of these witnesses’ testimony is that the release of code into the public domain can contribute to political subversion, much as covert intrusion into computer networks by stealthy hackers can. However, the witnesses from the Pentagon and from the government contractor SAIC often present a contradictory image of the supposed terrorists in the hearing transcripts. Sometimes the enemy is depicted as an organisation of technological masterminds, capable of manipulating the computer code of unwitting Americans and snatching their rightful intellectual property away; sometimes those from the opposing forces are depicted as pre-modern and even sub-literate political innocents. In contrast, the congressional representatives seem to focus on similarities when comparing the work of “terrorists” to the everyday digital practices of their constituents and even of themselves. According to the transcripts of this open hearing, legislators on both sides of the aisle express anxiety about domestic patterns of Internet reception. Even the legislators’ own Web pages are potentially disruptive electronic artefacts, particularly when the demands of digital labour interfere with their duties as lawmakers. Although the subject of the hearing is ostensibly terrorist Websites, Representative Anna Eshoo (D-California) bemoans the difficulty of maintaining her own official congressional site. As she observes, “So we are – as members, I think we’re very sensitive about what’s on our Website, and if I retained what I had on my Website three years ago, I’d be out of business. So we know that they have to be renewed. They go up, they go down, they’re rebuilt, they’re – you know, the message is targeted to the future.” In their questions, lawmakers identify Weblogs (blogs) as a particular area of concern as a destabilising alternative to authoritative print sources of information from established institutions. Representative Alcee Hastings (D-Florida) compares the polluting power of insurgent bloggers to that of influential online muckrakers from the American political Right. Hastings complains of “garbage on our regular mainstream news that comes from blog sites.” Representative Heather Wilson (R-New Mexico) attempts to project a media-savvy persona by bringing up the “phenomenon of blogging” in conjunction with her questions about jihadist Websites in which she notes how Internet traffic can be magnified by cooperative ventures among groups of ideologically like-minded content-providers: “These Websites, and particularly the most active ones, are they cross-linked? And do they have kind of hot links to your other favorite sites on them?” At one point Representative Wilson asks witness Rodman if he knows “of your 100 hottest sites where the Webmasters are educated? What nationality they are? Where they’re getting their money from?” In her questions, Wilson implicitly acknowledges that Web work reflects influences from pedagogical communities, economic networks of the exchange of capital, and even potentially the specific ideologies of nation-states. It is perhaps indicative of the government contractors’ anachronistic worldview that the witness is unable to answer Wilson’s question. He explains that his agency focuses on the physical location of the server or ISP rather than the social backgrounds of the individuals who might be manufacturing objectionable digital texts. The premise behind the contractors’ working method – surveilling the technical apparatus not the social network – may be related to other beliefs expressed by government witnesses, such as the supposition that jihadist Websites are collectively produced and spontaneously emerge from the indigenous, traditional, tribal culture, instead of assuming that Iraqi insurgents have analogous beliefs, practices, and technological awareness to those in first-world countries. The residual subtexts in the witnesses’ conjectures about competing cultures of orality and literacy may tell us something about a reactionary rhetoric around videogames and digital culture more generally. According to the experts before Congress, the Middle Eastern audience for these videogames and Websites is limited by its membership in a pre-literate society that is only capable of abortive cultural production without access to knowledge that is archived in printed codices. Sometimes the witnesses before Congress seem to be unintentionally channelling the ideas of the late literacy theorist Walter Ong about the “secondary orality” associated with talky electronic media such as television, radio, audio recording, or telephone communication. Later followers of Ong extend this concept of secondary orality to hypertext, hypermedia, e-mail, and blogs, because they similarly share features of both speech and written discourse. Although Ong’s disciples celebrate this vibrant reconnection to a mythic, communal past of what Kathleen Welch calls “electric rhetoric,” the defence industry consultants express their profound state of alarm at the potentially dangerous and subversive character of this hybrid form of communication. The concept of an “oral tradition” is first introduced by the expert witnesses in the context of modern marketing and product distribution: “The Internet is used for a variety of things – command and control,” one witness states. “One of the things that’s missed frequently is how and – how effective the adversary is at using the Internet to distribute product. They’re using that distribution network as a modern form of oral tradition, if you will.” Thus, although the Internet can be deployed for hierarchical “command and control” activities, it also functions as a highly efficient peer-to-peer distributed network for disseminating the commodity of information. Throughout the hearings, the witnesses imply that unregulated lateral communication among social actors who are not authorised to speak for nation-states or to produce legitimated expert discourses is potentially destabilising to political order. Witness Eric Michael describes the “oral tradition” and the conventions of communal life in the Middle East to emphasise the primacy of speech in the collective discursive practices of this alien population: “I’d like to point your attention to the media types and the fact that the oral tradition is listed as most important. The other media listed support that. And the significance of the oral tradition is more than just – it’s the medium by which, once it comes off the Internet, it is transferred.” The experts go on to claim that this “oral tradition” can contaminate other media because it functions as “rumor,” the traditional bane of the stately discourse of military leaders since the classical era. The oral tradition now also has an aspect of rumor. A[n] event takes place. There is an explosion in a city. Rumor is that the United States Air Force dropped a bomb and is doing indiscriminate killing. This ends up being discussed on the street. It ends up showing up in a Friday sermon in a mosque or in another religious institution. It then gets recycled into written materials. Media picks up the story and broadcasts it, at which point it’s now a fact. In this particular case that we were telling you about, it showed up on a network television, and their propaganda continues to go back to this false initial report on network television and continue to reiterate that it’s a fact, even though the United States government has proven that it was not a fact, even though the network has since recanted the broadcast. In this example, many-to-many discussion on the “street” is formalised into a one-to many “sermon” and then further stylised using technology in a one-to-many broadcast on “network television” in which “propaganda” that is “false” can no longer be disputed. This “oral tradition” is like digital media, because elements of discourse can be infinitely copied or “recycled,” and it is designed to “reiterate” content. In this hearing, the word “rhetoric” is associated with destructive counter-cultural forces by the witnesses who reiterate cultural truisms dating back to Plato and the Gorgias. For example, witness Eric Michael initially presents “rhetoric” as the use of culturally specific and hence untranslatable figures of speech, but he quickly moves to an outright castigation of the entire communicative mode. “Rhetoric,” he tells us, is designed to “distort the truth,” because it is a “selective” assembly or a “distortion.” Rhetoric is also at odds with reason, because it appeals to “emotion” and a romanticised Weltanschauung oriented around discourses of “struggle.” The film by SonicJihad is chosen as the final clip by the witnesses before Congress, because it allegedly combines many different types of emotional appeal, and thus it conveniently ties together all of the themes that the witnesses present to the legislators about unreliable oral or rhetorical sources in the Middle East: And there you see how all these products are linked together. And you can see where the games are set to psychologically condition you to go kill coalition forces. You can see how they use humor. You can see how the entire campaign is carefully crafted to first evoke an emotion and then to evoke a response and to direct that response in the direction that they want. Jihadist digital products, especially videogames, are effective means of manipulation, the witnesses argue, because they employ multiple channels of persuasion and carefully sequenced and integrated subliminal messages. To understand the larger cultural conversation of the hearing, it is important to keep in mind that the related argument that “games” can “psychologically condition” players to be predisposed to violence is one that was important in other congressional hearings of the period, as well one that played a role in bills and resolutions that were passed by the full body of the legislative branch. In the witness’s testimony an appeal to anti-game sympathies at home is combined with a critique of a closed anti-democratic system abroad in which the circuits of rhetorical production and their composite metonymic chains are described as those that command specific, unvarying, robotic responses. This sharp criticism of the artful use of a presentation style that is “crafted” is ironic, given that the witnesses’ “compilation” of jihadist digital material is staged in the form of a carefully structured PowerPoint presentation, one that is paced to a well-rehearsed rhythm of “slide, please” or “next slide” in the transcript. The transcript also reveals that the members of the House Intelligence Committee were not the original audience for the witnesses’ PowerPoint presentation. Rather, when it was first created by SAIC, this “expert” presentation was designed for training purposes for the troops on the ground, who would be facing the challenges of deployment in hostile terrain. According to the witnesses, having the slide show showcased before Congress was something of an afterthought. Nonetheless, Congressman Tiahrt (R-KN) is so impressed with the rhetorical mastery of the consultants that he tries to appropriate it. As Tiarht puts it, “I’d like to get a copy of that slide sometime.” From the hearing we also learn that the terrorists’ Websites are threatening precisely because they manifest a polymorphously perverse geometry of expansion. For example, one SAIC witness before the House Committee compares the replication and elaboration of digital material online to a “spiderweb.” Like Representative Eshoo’s site, he also notes that the terrorists’ sites go “up” and “down,” but the consultant is left to speculate about whether or not there is any “central coordination” to serve as an organising principle and to explain the persistence and consistency of messages despite the apparent lack of a single authorial ethos to offer a stable, humanised, point of reference. In the hearing, the oft-cited solution to the problem created by the hybridity and iterability of digital rhetoric appears to be “public diplomacy.” Both consultants and lawmakers seem to agree that the damaging messages of the insurgents must be countered with U.S. sanctioned information, and thus the phrase “public diplomacy” appears in the hearing seven times. However, witness Roughhead complains that the protean “oral tradition” and what Henry Jenkins has called the “transmedia” character of digital culture, which often crosses several platforms of traditional print, projection, or broadcast media, stymies their best rhetorical efforts: “I think the point that we’ve tried to make in the briefing is that wherever there’s Internet availability at all, they can then download these – these programs and put them onto compact discs, DVDs, or post them into posters, and provide them to a greater range of people in the oral tradition that they’ve grown up in. And so they only need a few Internet sites in order to distribute and disseminate the message.” Of course, to maintain their share of the government market, the Science Applications International Corporation also employs practices of publicity and promotion through the Internet and digital media. They use HTML Web pages for these purposes, as well as PowerPoint presentations and online video. The rhetoric of the Website of SAIC emphasises their motto “From Science to Solutions.” After a short Flash film about how SAIC scientists and engineers solve “complex technical problems,” the visitor is taken to the home page of the firm that re-emphasises their central message about expertise. The maps, uniforms, and specialised tools and equipment that are depicted in these opening Web pages reinforce an ethos of professional specialisation that is able to respond to multiple threats posed by the “global war on terror.” By 26 June 2006, the incident finally was being described as a “Pentagon Snafu” by ABC News. From the opening of reporter Jake Tapper’s investigative Webcast, established government institutions were put on the spot: “So, how much does the Pentagon know about videogames? Well, when it came to a recent appearance before Congress, apparently not enough.” Indeed, the very language about “experts” that was highlighted in the earlier coverage is repeated by Tapper in mockery, with the significant exception of “independent expert” Ian Bogost of the Georgia Institute of Technology. If the Pentagon and SAIC deride the legitimacy of rhetoric as a cultural practice, Bogost occupies himself with its defence. In his recent book Persuasive Games: The Expressive Power of Videogames, Bogost draws upon the authority of the “2,500 year history of rhetoric” to argue that videogames represent a significant development in that cultural narrative. Given that Bogost and his Watercooler Games Weblog co-editor Gonzalo Frasca were actively involved in the detective work that exposed the depth of professional incompetence involved in the government’s line-up of witnesses, it is appropriate that Bogost is given the final words in the ABC exposé. As Bogost says, “We should be deeply bothered by this. We should really be questioning the kind of advice that Congress is getting.” Bogost may be right that Congress received terrible counsel on that day, but a close reading of the transcript reveals that elected officials were much more than passive listeners: in fact they were lively participants in a cultural conversation about regulating digital media. After looking at the actual language of these exchanges, it seems that the persuasiveness of the misinformation from the Pentagon and SAIC had as much to do with lawmakers’ preconceived anxieties about practices of computer-mediated communication close to home as it did with the contradictory stereotypes that were presented to them about Internet practices abroad. In other words, lawmakers found themselves looking into a fun house mirror that distorted what should have been familiar artefacts of American popular culture because it was precisely what they wanted to see. References ABC News. “Terrorist Videogame?” Nightline Online. 21 June 2006. 22 June 2006 http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=2105341>. Bogost, Ian. Persuasive Games: Videogames and Procedural Rhetoric. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2007. Game Politics. “Was Congress Misled by ‘Terrorist’ Game Video? We Talk to Gamer Who Created the Footage.” 11 May 2006. http://gamepolitics.livejournal.com/285129.html#cutid1>. Jenkins, Henry. Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide. New York: New York UP, 2006. julieb. “David Morgan Is a Horrible Writer and Should Be Fired.” Online posting. 5 May 2006. Dvorak Uncensored Cage Match Forums. http://cagematch.dvorak.org/index.php/topic,130.0.html>. Mahmood. “Terrorists Don’t Recruit with Battlefield 2.” GGL Global Gaming. 16 May 2006 http://www.ggl.com/news.php?NewsId=3090>. Morgan, David. “Islamists Using U.S. Video Games in Youth Appeal.” Reuters online news service. 4 May 2006 http://today.reuters.com/news/ArticleNews.aspx?type=topNews &storyID=2006-05-04T215543Z_01_N04305973_RTRUKOC_0_US-SECURITY- VIDEOGAMES.xml&pageNumber=0&imageid=&cap=&sz=13&WTModLoc= NewsArt-C1-ArticlePage2>. Ong, Walter J. Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word. London/New York: Methuen, 1982. Parker, Trey. Online posting. 7 May 2006. 9 May 2006 http://www.treyparker.com>. Plato. “Gorgias.” Plato: Collected Dialogues. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1961. Shrader, Katherine. “Pentagon Surfing Thousands of Jihad Sites.” Associated Press 4 May 2006. SonicJihad. “SonicJihad: A Day in the Life of a Resistance Fighter.” Online posting. 26 Dec. 2005. Planet Battlefield Forums. 9 May 2006 http://www.forumplanet.com/planetbattlefield/topic.asp?fid=13670&tid=1806909&p=1>. Tapper, Jake, and Audery Taylor. “Terrorist Video Game or Pentagon Snafu?” ABC News Nightline 21 June 2006. 30 June 2006 http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/Technology/story?id=2105128&page=1>. U.S. Congressional Record. Panel I of the Hearing of the House Select Intelligence Committee, Subject: “Terrorist Use of the Internet for Communications.” Federal News Service. 4 May 2006. Welch, Kathleen E. Electric Rhetoric: Classical Rhetoric, Oralism, and the New Literacy. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1999. Citation reference for this article MLA Style Losh, Elizabeth. "Artificial Intelligence: Media Illiteracy and the SonicJihad Debacle in Congress." M/C Journal 10.5 (2007). echo date('d M. Y'); ?> <http://journal.media-culture.org.au/0710/08-losh.php>. APA Style Losh, E. (Oct. 2007) "Artificial Intelligence: Media Illiteracy and the SonicJihad Debacle in Congress," M/C Journal, 10(5). Retrieved echo date('d M. Y'); ?> from <http://journal.media-culture.org.au/0710/08-losh.php>.