Aug 122016
 

Semiotics is important because it can help us not to take ‘reality’ for granted as something having a purely objective existence which is independent of human interpretation. It teaches us that reality is a system of signs. Studying semiotics can assist us to become more aware of reality as a construction and of the roles played by ourselves and others in constructing it. It can help us to realize that
information or meaning is not ‘contained’ in the world or in books, computers or audio-visual media.
Meaning is not ‘transmitted’ to us – we actively create it according to a complex interplay of codes or conventions of which we are normally unaware. Becoming aware of such codes is both inherently fascinating and intellectually empowering. We learn from semiotics that we live in a world of signs and we have no way of understanding anything except through signs and the codes into which they are organized.
Through the study of semiotics we become aware that these signs and codes are normally transparent and disguise our task in ‘reading’ them. Living in a world of increasingly visual signs, we need to learn that even the most ‘realistic’ signs are not what they appear to be.
By making more explicit the codes by which signs are interpreted we may perform the valuable semiotic function of ‘denaturalizing’ signs. In defining realities signs serve ideological functions. Deconstructing and contesting the realities of signs can reveal whose realities are privileged and whose are suppressed.
The study of signs is the study of the construction and maintenance of reality. To decline such a study is to leave to others the control of the world of meanings which we inhabit.

Extracted from ‘Semiotics for Beginners by Daniel Chandler’

 Posted by on August 12, 2016 at 2:39 pm
Aug 052016
 

Caught between three world views as described in this passage:

Scientific knowledge is constructed socially by subjective minds interacting with nature. It, therefore, seems obvious that we have to admit that our inner “subjective” world is as foundational a part of reality as “objective” external nature and “intersubjective” social worlds.

But western scientific culture lacks a transdisciplinary framework that can encompass all three worlds without reducing any of them to byproducts of the development of one of the others. We need such a non-reductionistic framework more than ever as our basic problems often arise in the gaps between the recognized disciplines.

Interdisciplinary work needs a transdisciplinary framework for mutual orientation and context determination.

A sort of common map, so to speak, on which to point out, recognize and understand each other’s territories..

Extracted from: ‘The necessity of Trans-Scientific Frameworks for doing Interdisciplinary Research’ by Professor Søren Brier

Now, how do I apply the theory and the transdiscipinary framework for my research on data breach incident response?

It seems that on initial exploration, Peirce’s work on Semiotics provided the necessary framework in the form of Firstness, Secondness, Thirdness – Peirce’s ternary.

 Posted by on August 5, 2016 at 6:18 pm
Jun 122016
 

It’s now June 2016…was supposed to complete my MPhil/PhD transfers by end of July 2016.
Schedule sifted again!

I’m hoping to finish all my interviews by end of June and hoping to do the transfers by end of September 2016.

A bit of my Sunday ranting..

Couple of weeks ago I called TalkTalk 3-times with a BIG hope to get an interview with them for my research interviews.
1st call: the HR Office was closed.
2nd call: asked for their IT Manager. After I spelled out the reasons for my calls, he slammed the phone down. How rude is that?! Just goes to show TalkTalk has no protocol or customer handling procedures. No wonder they’re hacked!
The 3rd call – no answers from the switch board. I think the company should change their name to NOTALK.

Also, some folks want to get my research findings but not interested or willing to participate in the interviews. Poor excuses with ‘non-disclosure or confidentiality’ agreements. It seems that declaration of the research ethics procedures/approval, and also with the consent form for participants are poor substitutes for getting folks to participate. Perhaps industry practitioners don’t know why researchers are doing interviews and also why their input are needed.

 Posted by on June 12, 2016 at 2:03 pm
Mar 032016
 

an epic collection of articles on ‘information security & ethics’ upto 2008

Having scanned the titles in all 6 volumes, it’s reassuring to know that my research theme is still researchable.

Really goes to show that in this so-called age of ‘digitalisation’, folks still print large volumes of books. One can only guess that this is to avoid articles to be freely released ‘digitally’.
Makes economic sense for publishers but not for researchers.

Have to come up with an imaginative title for my Thesis – in due course.

 Posted by on March 3, 2016 at 5:46 pm
Jan 262016
 

My 2016 started off with issues dealing with my personal electronics gadgets – iPhone 4s and my MacBook Pro. iPhone 4s issues still unresolved as Three Mobile is unable and unwilling to sort my ‘blocked’ iPhone 4s.

Two good news…

Just sorted out my MacBook Pro yesterday, and luckily my research ‘data’ was recovered intact from my external hard disk and also from Dropbox.

Data Privacy Day event at City! Together with a City colleague, Dr David Haynes, we got our planned event into the City news page;

http://www.city.ac.uk/news/2016/jan/data-privacy-day-discussion

Headlines and content extracted and posted here;

City experts to discuss data privacy

The European Union (EU) General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the recent European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) judgement are among several issues to be addressed by data privacy researchers.
The latest European Union (EU) General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the recent European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) judgement are among several issues which will be discussed by City University London researchers on Data Privacy Day, 28th January 2016. The event will take place in Room AG07a from Noon to 1pm.

The wording of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) was agreed in December 2015.

The new Regulation began life as a draft document in 2012 and after being debated in the European Parliament and a trilogue between the three EU institutions (the European Council, the European Commission and the European Parliament) the final wording has been agreed. The GDPR will take effect from 2018 and strengthens the protection offered to individuals within the EU.

Among its new provisions are:

1. Better control of personal data by individuals.

2. Better access by individuals to their own data.

3. Data portability.

4. The right to be forgotten.

5. The right to know about serious data breaches.

Following active lobbying the new Regulation also aims to be more business-friendly by cutting out the red tape. SMEs that handle personal data (such as employee records) will no longer be required to register with the data protection authorities, so long as processing personal data is not their main business. Unlike the current Data Protection Directive, the new Regulation will automatically apply across all EU states – it does not have to be passed into national law, such as the UK’s Data Protection Act 1998. Businesses working across Europe will only have to deal with one authority, rather than the regulatory body in each state that it operates in.

A recent judgement by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has highlighted some of these issues by ruling that employers are entitled to monitor employee communications when they are using the Internet during work hours. A Romanian worker sacked in 2007 for use of personal e-mail during work hours had appealed against a ruling by the Romanian courts that upheld his dismissal.

However the ECHR upheld a ruling by the Romanian Court, stating that it was not ‘unreasonable that an employer would want to verify that employees were completing their professional tasks during working hours’. This raises important issues for employees throughout the EU.

Definition Data Privacy Day
Data Privacy Day began in the United States and Canada in January 2008 as an extension of the Data Protection Day celebration in Europe. Data Protection Day commemorates the 28th January 1981, signing of Convention 108, the first legally binding international treaty dealing with privacy and data protection. Data Privacy Day is now a celebration for everyone, observed annually on 28th January.