First Monday is one of the first openly accessible, peer–reviewed journals solely devoted to resarch about the Internet. First Monday has published 1,894 papers in 282 issues, written by 2,663 different authors, over the past 23 years. No subscription fees, no submission fees, no advertisements, no fundraisers, no walls.
 | This month: November 2019 How knowledge contributors are legitimizing their posts on controversial scientific topics: A case of the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine Traditionally, journalists, government agencies, and medical professionals have acted as mediators, facilitating the transfer of scientific knowledge from scientists to the general public. More recently, however, ordinary citizens are circumventing top-down mediation and contributing directly to discussions about scientific topics online. In this study, we examined how these emerging mediators of online scientific information are shaping the discussion of scientific topics, such as the alleged link between autism and the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine. Using content analysis, we have identified resources that lay pro- and anti-vaccination knowledge contributors most often cite when making knowledge claims. Additionally, we examined how these contributors 1) use citations to legitimize their arguments; and, 2) take on particular roles in these arguments. Our results shed light on an emerging form of online science communication and the process by which knowledge contributed by ordinary citizens is shaping online discussions. |
 | Also this month Efficient out-of-home activity recognition by complementing GPS data with semantic information Smartphones have become an indispensable human device due to their increasing functionalities and decreasing prices. Their embedded sensors, including global positioning system (GPS), have opened opportunities to support human activity recognition. This paper proposes a minimalist activity recognition model for out-of-home environments based on smartphones. The only sensor used is GPS, whose data is enriched with semantic knowledge extracted online from the Internet, and with brief user’s profile data collected off-line. An experiment was conducted for 20 days with 22 subjects, with results demonstrating that the approach had a high level of recognition. |