Economics in Information Technology. Хрестоматия для студентов бакалавров направлений «Бизнес-информатика», «Прикладная информатика»

Computing Workshop as part of the Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining (SIGKDD) conference, and in September 2020 they sought the input of traffic engineers at a virtual meeting on TranSEC.

"TranSEC has the potential to initiate a paradigm shift in how traffic professionals monitor and predict system mobility performance," said Mark Franz, a meeting attendee and a research engineer at the Center for Advanced Transportation Technology, University of Maryland, College Park. "TranSEC overcomes the inherent data gaps in legacy data collection methods and has tremendous potential."

Machine learning improves accuracy over time

The machine learning feature of TranSEC means that as more data is acquired and processed it becomes more refined and useful over time. This kind of analysis is used to understand how disturbances spread across networks. Given enough data, the machine learning element will be able to predict impacts so that traffic engineers can create corrective strategies.

"We use a graph-based model together with novel sampling methods and optimization engines, to learn both the travel times and the routes," said Arun Sathanur, a PNNL computer scientist and a lead researcher on the team. "The method has significant potential to be expanded to other modes of transportation, such as transit and freight traffic. As an analytic tool, it is capable of investigating how a traffic condition spreads."

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With PNNL's data-driven approach, users can upload real-time data and update TranSEC on a regular basis in a transportation control center. Engineers can use short-term forecasts for decision support to manage traffic issues. PNNL's approach is also extensible to include weather or other data that affect conditions on the road.

Computing power for transportation planners nationwide

Just as situational awareness of conditions informs an individual driver's decisions, TranSEC's approach provides situational awareness on a system-wide basis to help reduce urban traffic congestion.

"Traffic engineers nationwide have not had a tool to give them anywhere near real-time estimation of transportation network states," said Robert Rallo, PNNL computer scientist and principal investigator on the TranSEC project. "Being able to predict conditions an hour or more ahead would be very valuable, to know where the blockages are going to be."

While running a full-scale city model still requires highperformance computing resources, TranSEC is scalable. For example, a road network with only the major highways and arterials could be modeled on a powerful desktop computer.

"We are working toward making TranSEC available to municipalities nationwide," said Katherine Wolf, project manager for TranSEC.

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Eventually, after further development, TranSEC could be used to help program autonomous vehicle routes, according to the research team.

Small businesses get a shot at the big time with .London

https://theconversation.com (May 1, 2014)

The launch of the .London domain name has been accompanied by a great deal of hype but the change is more than just cosmetic. This is a real opportunity for smaller organisations to make their mark in the cut-throat world of online business.

As of this week, businesses based in London have a threemonth head start over others to get a .London address. After that, the URL will be available to businesses anywhere. So far 100,000 have registered, and they are wise to do so.

The .London domain name is one of a range of new options being brought in by ICANN and IANA, the organisations that take care of the system. Names such as .company .club .marketing .technology .coffee .holiday and locations like .London .Berlin are set to change the face of the internet but they are also a powerful tool for building brands.

It’s all part of a wider shift towards the digital economy, branding online and address space commercialisation. There has been a significant push in Europe recently to get businesses to digitise in order to generate growth and jobs and changes like the new domain names can really help. Regional identity is a powerful force at times, particularly as businesses of one type

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or another cluster in one area. Berlin, Silicon Valley and London are all emerging as technology hubs and could benefit from a domain name identity.

Connected cities are a new phenomenon of our time, it’s not restricted to social networks and free public wifi but a major shift in thinking about how digitisation in housing, planning and development, health, traffic and emergency services, commercial industry and citizens play a part in economic growth.

Digital infrastructure, data and technologies are a vital part of this because a step change can happen when information technology improves productivity, helps you to sell products or enables you to provide a better service.

What’s in a digital name?

Businesses need better broadband and connectivity to offer digital services such as apps or online purchasing but they also need an awareness of the goods and services that are already on offer in their area so that they remain competitive.

The challenge is for digital businesses to get themselves discovered and to work effectively through websites, mobiles and tablets while connecting to the physical world in which their customers actually live.

The digital world still has to reach buyers and sellers and to legitimise original sources of these products and services. Having a URL that sets them apart but also places them in a

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physical location can be a better way to enhance their brand presence when you’re trying to bridge the digital and physical divide.

Large companies such Google and Amazon entered the market early and dominate our online lives as a result. When we want to buy something, we think Amazon and when we want an online service, Google is often the first place we look. But now is the time for smaller businesses to take them on and win a place in the hearts of consumers. With a recognisable URL for their business, they have more chance of sticking in a customer’s head, which increases their chances of being the first port of call when that user searches online for a product.

Integrity tech: Three ways governments can use technology to disrupt corruption

https://apolitical.co (by Carlos Santiso)

In January 2019, for example, Argentina became a paperless government, with the digitalisation of administrative procedures, the introduction of digital identity and the expansion of digital services. This is no small achievement considering the deep roots of paper culture in the Argentine bureaucracy. In Chile, the new government of Sebastián Piñera pledged to become paperless by the end of this year.

By going paperless, progressive governments can also tackle corruption and eliminate red tape. New technologies and big data now allow government reformers and corruption busters to

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reveal, prevent and even predict corrupt practices that in the past could be hidden behind a veil of paper-enabled opacity. But it's politically difficult because it involves getting the governance of data right and figuring out who owns, controls, shares and secures public-sector data.

The digital revolution is gradually changing the rules of the corruption game in three main ways.

Making data work for accountability

First, reformers in government can use new technologies to open up government and foster accountability with actionable data. Governments are opening up their data, which is of increasingly better quality and more timely, and feeding it back into policy. In turn, civic activists and oversight institutions are using it to hold them accountable. Cities such as Mexico, Sao Paulo and Buenos Aires often lead the way.

More challenging, however, has been to open those databases most critical to curb corruption, such as property registries, procurement data and company registries, according to the Open Data Charter.

Mexico City has become the first city to disclose its contracts in open format

Mexico has expanded the breadth and depth of open budget data through its state-of-the-art fiscal transparency portal, which includes public contracts, infrastructure investments and transfers to subnational governments. Mexico City has become

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the first city to disclose its contracts in open format. Savvy civic tech practitioners are using this information to scrutinise government and raise red flags to uncover once-hidden practices and patterns.

Several countries are also resorting to geo-referencing and data visualisation technologies, such as to monitor corruption-prone infrastructure investments in Mexico, Colombia and Paraguay. The Brazilian development bank is using them to track progress with the projects financed by the Amazon fund. Audit agencies are resorting to them to oversee public works in Chile and Peru. Cities, such as Buenos Aires through its public works portal, open critical data on local finances.

By going digital, governments generate a huge amount of new data about the machinery of bureaucracies that can be mined to generate new insights, sometimes simply by cross-referencing databases. For example, the observatory of public spending of the Brazilian transparency ministry has detected irregular practices in credit card usage by public officials and social benefits programs by cross-referencing government databases, generating important savings and policy changes.

Artificial intelligence and predictive analytics are also potent tools for tax authorities

Artificial intelligence and predictive analytics are also potent tools for tax authorities and customs agencies to detect and deter tax evasion. In the UK, through its Connect system, the tax administration uses social network analysis and data mining that cross-references businesses’ and people’s tax records to

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uncover fraudulent or undisclosed activity. Its predictive algorithm identifies people most at risk of committing tax fraud and helps devise pre-emptive actions through nudges.

Cutting red tape and reducing discretionality

Second, reformers in government can leverage new technologies to reduce the discretion that unscrupulous bureaucrats abuse to extract bribes, for instance in the processing of permits and licenses. The automation of bureaucratic processes reduces vulnerabilities to human fiddling.

Indeed, beyond the grand corruption scandals, bureaucratic petty corruption remains prevalent in many countries, with bloated bureaucracies and byzantine regulations. According to

Transparency International, in 2016, one in every three Latin Americans paid a bribe to access a service.

Mexico, Peru, Brazil and Argentina are expanding their digital services through integrated whole-of-government portals. Much remains to be done, however, to digitise public services end-to- end, as noted by a recent report. The introduction of digital services is often resisted by vested interests fearing losing jobs and perks.

Digitalising byzantine bureaucratic procedures is not enough

But digitalising byzantine bureaucratic procedures is not enough; governments must simplify and rethink them to serve

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citizens better. Civil servants are often the first victims of the bureaucratic maze. Several countries are trying to streamline their bureaucracies to make government leaner and smarter. This is no small challenge, as it requires a shift in mindsets for bureaucracies to serve citizens, rather than the other way around.

In Portugal, the Simplex program is redesigning bureaucratic procedures in collaboration with civil society and public servants, with encouraging results. Interestingly, these innovations draw on behavioural insights to nudge gradual changes in the mindset of public servants to place citizens at the centre of government.

It is no wonder that regulatory reform and administrative simplification are back on the political agenda of many newly elected governments seeking to reduce the regulatory burden and improve competitiveness. These efforts include, in 2018 alone, Brazil’s Simplifique!, Colombia’s Estado Simple, and Argentina’s Productive Simplification initiative.

Cutting red tape is an arduous task in a region addicted to new rules and regulations as the solution to their problems. Colombia, by its own account, issued an average of 15 regulations a day between 2010 and 2016! South America remains the most difficult region in which to pay taxes, according to PwC. In the pact, the main driver of administrative simplification and digital services was to reduce operating costs and fiscal deficits. Now, it is to improve public services and restore trust in government.

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In this context, blockchain is generating much hype and hope as an anticorruption antidote. It possesses important features that can help anchor integrity in bureaucracies, by securing identity, tracking funds, registering assets and procuring contracts. Proof of concepts are mushrooming in a wide range of areas, as documented by NYU’s GovLab, from the restitution of land in Colombia, smart contracts in Chile, and subsidy transfers in Argentina.

While the scalability of those solutions remains challenging, blockchain has emerged as the most promising disruptive technology in the fight against corruption.

Transforming government and accelerating innovation

Third, tech-based and data-driven govtech start-ups are also helping to transform government and, in some case, challenging the state’s monopoly over the delivery of services.

Technology has become transparency’s greatest ally

The emergence of govtech start-ups is allowing new forms of co-creation of public services, especially at the city level. These smaller, more agile companies are starting to make an impact, advancing new solutions to old ways of doing things. For example, they provide a cost-effective solution to data- analytics-as-a-service to governments that are struggling to recruit data science teams.

Last November, Paris hosted the first-ever global govtech summit, which reflected the dynamism of public entrepreneurs

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