Introduction

This presentation is the product of reflections arising from qualitative research realized with five countercultural groups in Colombia that intensively use information and communication technologies. The findings are analysed in relationship with new ways of sharing and disseminating knowledge and new forms of social and political organization. These sociotechnical practices are considered as potential forms of resistance against dominant and homogenous political and cultural models. They also show alternative forms of community and the creation of knowledge. Nevertheless they are a novelty that is observed in relation to the ambiguous power and inequality that exist on different levels within these collectives (Rueda, 2012).

For this reason, the concept of multitude as introduced by Spinoza and elaborated by Negri and Hardt (2000) and Lazzarato (2006), can be useful in understanding that while this socius is an unstable and volatile social energy, it constitutes a collective voice that resists the cultural and political order with surprising political potential. The multitude articulates affects and experiences that are the basis for political action. It is something located in between, it is multiple and at the same time conforms a singular body made up of diverse interests, experiences, feelings and relations, without a homogenous unity. Relationality and cooperation establish what is common, which in turn faces the political challenge of difference. But “modern society is characterized by antagonism of co-operation and competition. …Characteristics of late-modern society such as the colonization of the life-world and the whole society by economic logic are again reproduced in cyberspace” (Fuchs & Zimmerman, 2009:119-125).

This multitude is then also unpredictable and unstable and we believe it faces the challenge of critically confronting the inequalities and exercises of power that exist within it. In fact, this new condition of the subjective experience – individual and collective – requires us to be alert to certain social and technological determinisms that inflate the reach of both the technology as well as the movements and collectives, and suggest that, for example, connectivity immediately means collectiveness and democratisation. We cannot underestimate the complexity of this socius, which is always faced by an array of possibilities ranging from social cooperation and creativity, to new forms of domination and the capturing of desire in the service of capital.

Methods

The methodology used was of a qualitative, ethnographic nature (participant observations, in-depth interviews, life stories). Firstly, a review was made of collectives who are connected to the Internet in Colombia, of which six were selected: one in the Valle del Cauca, in Santander de Quilichao: El tejido de Comunicaciones of the NASA-ACIN indigenous community; one in Medellín: Corporación Vamos Mujer, and four in Bogotá: Niuton, Mefisto, La Cápsula and Chicas Linux. These collectives were chosen for their social, political and cultural critiques of the established and dominant culture. Monitoring was then made for a period of one year of the different actions realized by these collectives in the cities where they are located, as well as on the Internet through their respective webpages.

Results and Discussion.

These cases of new forms of sociality, of multitude, that we found in the five countercultural groups are far from conforming a coherent whole, but they can be – and are – functional bodies of knowledge, valuable for inventing for us better and more just political forms of the everyday. These invite us to unlearn social, political, cultural forms that in the past were sole, colonial, homogenising.

At the same time, however, they remind us that, despite libertarian, rebellious and non-conformist outlooks regarding the establishment, these collectives contain within them questions related to relationships of power, of gender, of race, of social class and profession that appear in an ambiguous way, that become invisible and seem to coexist in a not always harmonious way in this social context, as is the case with markedly masculine and competitive practices in certain collectives of free software, or the hierarchical relations in countercultural collectives of women who oppose authoritarian political models. In effect, we see a complex condition, of hybridity, of non-contemporary contemporaneity of cultural times. Of the ways in which dimensions of subjectivity that were excluded from modern thought (such as affectivity, desire) are rescued while simultaneously exclusions of gender, race, social class and region are maintained intact, as is notorious, we might say, in those collectives that are principally urban and middle class.

Similarly, technologies are not sufficient or determinant per se regarding social or cultural agencements, because collective dimensions of use are what constitute settings of communication, spaces for the dissemination of the sensitive and places where diagrams of social creativity and desire are described. For this reason, we examinated the power possessed by the collectives we have selected, because we believe that friendship as politics, peer learning, sharing, donating, expression and the free circulation of commons, places us before new forms of understanding the formation of subjectivity and social practices that is still not easy to define. It is in these practices that technologies and their settings for participation and collaboration – such as the social network or Web 2.0 – are of interest for their political potency.

Conclusions

While discursive categories exist that give an identity (women, young people, indigenous people) to the five counterculture collectives we’ve considered in this study, internal differences also exist within these collectives, different subject positions and partial forms of articulation to the collectives and to the social practices of resistance to power, in which individual aspirations and dreams are also in tension.

We need to find metaphors to make evident the complexity of this sociotechnical vitality and the coexistence of traditional and novel forms of social and political organisation, as well as new and traditional cultural forms and practices. Another challenge we face is to try and better understand how that tactical combination is produced between connectivity and the conformation of common(ity), network, (multitude) and how the forms of control and diverse dynamics of power (co)exist even in alternative forms of networks and multitudes.

References and Notes

Fuchs, C.; Zimmerman, R. Practical civil virtues in cyberspace. Towards the utopian identitiy of civitas and Multitudo. Schaker Verlagt, München; 2009.

Lazzarato, M. Políticas del Acontecimiento. 1ª. ed.; Tinta Limón, Buenos Aires; 2006.

Negri, T.; Hardt, M. Imperio. Harvard University Press, Cambridge; 2000.

Rueda, R. “Sociedades de la información y el conocimiento: tecnicidad, pharmakon e invención social”. Nómadas, 2012, 36, 43-55.

In this presentation some technological and social trends of contemporary society are assessed and evaluated with respect to their effects on human behaviour and their humane potential. It seems useful to take a long-term perspective on these issues and compare the presence with the past phases of capitalism.

In his famous book “The Great Transformation” Karl Polanyi has shown how in the first half of the 19^th century market economy in Great Britain grew into full stature. His explanation of long-term changes includes economic aspects of class interest but also points beyond them. He argues that class interest is heavily related to its standing and rank, to status and security, which is primary social. Nevertheless, the term “class” is always based on economic characteristics. Its definition depends on the different ways surplus is produced and appropriated in society. Similarly Polanyi did not give technology an essential role for shaping society. “Social not technical invention was the intellectual mainspring of the Industrial Revolution” (p. 119). This assessment seems true for the type of technological change for a certain period of time, for the age of mechanization, which was the technical backbone of Industrial Revolution. In the second half of the 19th century Marx characterized the mechanical machinery in the following way: “All fully developed machinery consists of three essentially different parts, the motor mechanism, the transmitting mechanism, and finally the tool or working machine.“ (Capital, Volume I, Chapter 15). Over the centuries some parts of the mechanical machinery were fundamentally changed. New principles of energy transformation were applied. The motor mechanism, first a steam engine, was replaced by electro-mechanical drivers, by the combustion engine and by the gas turbine. Nevertheless the basic structure of mechanical machinery survived (see fig. 1).

One of the most important effects of technology on human beings is the relocation of specific human activities to artefacts. The machine-tool deprived (and also relieved) the worker of the individual handling of the object of work and of the controlling of the tool. At the same moment the worker was replaced by the motor mechanism as the source of mechanical energy. To quote Marx: “No longer does the worker insert a modified natural thing [Naturgegenstand] as middle link between the object [Objekt] and himself; rather, he inserts the process of nature, transformed into an industrial process, as a means between himself and inorganic nature, mastering it. He steps to the side of the production process instead of being its chief actor.” (https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1857/grundrisse/ch14.htm). It seems evident that with this side step human beings are less burdened by mechanical activities, but technical innovation per se did not change the relationships of production. Exploitation and alienation were not the direct result of technology but an effect of the restructuring of the social fabric.

When it was clear that the replacement of human labour by mechanical devices was more or less completed, the focus of technical innovation became mental work. Actually, in the middle of the 20^th century, a new type of machinery emerged, replacing further elements of human labour. The “Information Processing Machine” (IPM) was born (see fig. 1). From this innovation information society took its point of departure. It allowed already transforming human perception, human decision-making (even under changing conditions) and human intervention into functions of the new technology. Human senses can now be replaced by microphones, video-cameras, thermometers, keyboards and touch-pads etc., decision making can be done by electronic devices (first electro-mechanical relays, followed by radio valves, transistors and microprocessors), which are shrinking day by day, and actors like (mechanic and electronic) switches, relays, printers, video-screens etc. allow to communicate the decisions of the machinery to the outside world (see fig. 1). The still ongoing process of automation consists of the combination of mechanical machinery with information processing systems. The latter monitors and controls the former according to computer programs. By elimination of live labour the productivity of the remaining one is boosted towards new highs. Human beings are no longer needed for those activities of the production process, which were their monopoly before.

Automation is only one of the applications of IPM. It can easily stand on its own (as mainframe computer, as personal or laptop computer or as microprocessor in smart phones), and it can be used within an electronic network. Examples are the Internet and mobile phones.

Figure 1. Automated machinery = mechanical machinery + information processing machinery

(see PDF version for the Figure) .

To analyse the effects of the large-scale diffusion of the IPM in its various kinds of application we have to separate the space of society into different fields. Here we focus only on the economic, social, political, and psychological spheres.

To start with economic effects we observe a tremendous reduction of all kinds of communications and transaction costs (Fleissner 1995), as well as an increase in the productivity of office work and many kinds of creative activities. The direct output of the IPM is the information good. It reaches from texts, music, pictures, videos to various kinds of software. Although information goods are non-rival ones, the capitalist system could not resist to limit artificially their use and their global availability. Commodification of the information good is performed in a dual way: The first is done by technical means, by copy protection mechanisms, the second is performed by Law. Intellectual property rights together with the increased difficulty to copy information goods allow the emergence of markets for information goods: The appropriation of profits became possible. In combination with all the electronic devices to retrieve and store information in digital form a fully-fledged industry was born from scratch. In addition to that digital communication offered a new world-wide market for services by providing more or less smart mobile phones and other supporting electronic devices with high profit rates.

Parallel to the general shrinking of the family size in the developed world down to the limit of the single household the need for social infrastructure increased considerably. Social and private security and health care systems, electronic taxation systems, accounting systems for the consumption of water, electricity or natural gas are linked electronically to the individual. They would no longer be possible without the application of computers and networks. On the other hand thousands of jobs were lost.

On the social level we can see that the behaviour of the younger people is heavily influenced by the IPM in its networked form. The exchange of information with the help of high-tech multi-functional devices which are able to record voices, take pictures, to store them and to pass them over to their friends has become one of the most important activities of children and even grown-ups. As we know now all these data is transferred to large-scale institutions of surveillance. It seems to be real fun, but the author cannot be helped to think that all the digital gimmicks are a kind of a distraction from more serious issues. The culture of exchanging selfies is booming. This corresponds very well with the methodological individualism we can find in mainstream micro-economics where the individual entrepreneur is in the centre of the game. The mass media are echoing and supporting this tendency: Casting shows are strengthening self-control of the individual to be adapted according to the demands of the media and the needs of enterprises. Advertising and marketing campaigns once more focus on the individual, not on the community. Slogans like “Geiz ist geil” (“tight is right”), “Ich habe nichts zu verschenken” (“I don't give anything away for nothing”) or “einer hat es, einer wills” (“one owns it, the other wants it” … and takes it in the advertisment) underline selfish behaviour. Hedonism flourishes. Also the behaviour during leisure time has been changed. Personal contacts are permanently interrupted by emails or other messages on the smart phone. Permanently being online and available for others ruins any contemplation and thoughtful concentration. Virtual realities offer seductive places for entertainment. There is a shift away from longer term planning of meetings towards more spontaneous forms. But also mobbing has increased by using Facebook and other social media.

Although there were high expectations in the early stages of the new media with respect to increased democracy, awaiting a power shift in favour of the lower strata of hierarchies, we learned that only a very small minority is really using the digital machinery for political purposes. On the contrary: The majority uses smart phones and the Internet for personal exchange of information. Electronic shopping and financial transactions are another popular activity, with an impact of the distribution of shops in the real world towards large-scale suppliers like Amazon.

The author has some reason to argue that principles, structures and processes, where many individuals are involved practically, continuously or frequently will shape individual values and individual behaviour of the people. We observe a spread of egotism and egocentricity. Community-based forms of production, distribution and living are disrupted. Solidarity and mutual help have come under pressure. What is the reason of this trend? One of the main roots of spreading selfishness seems to lie in the basic structure of our economy, the legal protection of private property in any form combined with the exploitation of alien labour. This does not mean that rationality – frequently seen as the central feature of homo informaticus – has to be given up. It still depends on the content and the goals of rational thinking.

Today it becomes necessary to look for fresh ways of cooperation, solidarity and mutual help to assure a decent life for everybody and to gain back the control of the economy for the common good.

References

1. Fleissner, P. Max Webers Bürokratietheorie im Lichte elektronischer Kommunikationsmedien (Max Weber's Theory on Bureaucracy in the Light of the Media of Electronic Communication). In GISI 95 Herausforderungen eines globalen Informationsverbundes für die Informatik F. Huber-Wäschle, H. Schauer und P. Widmayer (Eds.). Springer: Berlin, Germany, 1995; pp. 127-135.
2. Marx, K. Capital, Volume I, Chapter 15, 1867. https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1867-c1/ch15.htm#S1
3. Marx, K. Grundrisse der Kritik der politischen Ökonomie, 1857/1858. https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1857/grundrisse/ch14.htm

Introduction

The emergence of new communication technologies inevitably raises questions about the extent to which existing media work will change as a result, and this is particularly true in the case of journalism, both for the news production and the news consumption (Deuze & Marjoribanks, 2009; Alqudsi-ghabra, Al-Bannai, T., & Al-Bahrani, 2011; Mitchelstein & Boczkowski, 2010). Different studies have been documented in discussing about whether online news will substitute or displace print newspapers (Ahlers, 2006; Althaus & Tewksbury, 2000; Gentzkow, 2007; Newell, Pilotta, & Thomas, 2008), whether the internet provides a platform through which networked individuals can form a “Fifth Estate” (Dutton, 2009; Baum & Groeling, 2008), and whether the media digitization has affected journalistic norms and practices (Deuze, 2003, 2005; Lewis, Kaufhold, & Lasorsa, 2010). However, most of these studies focused on the analysis either about the online version of existed media (print newspapers or TV) or the role played by social-media platform (i.e. Twitter or Weibo) into the journalistic practices.

Huffington Post, the American online news aggregator, which was the first commercially run digital media enterprise won a Pulitzer Prize in 2012, expanded its business largely since 2011 and opened new branches in main European countries (i.e. U.K., France, Germany, Italy, Spain), Asia (Japan, South Korea), and Latin America (Brazil). Established as a commentary blog in 2005, Huffington Post has grew to become one of the most influential original-produced online news source in a global context nowadays. The Paper (Pengpai Xinwen in Chinese), is a new Chinese online news platform established in July, 2014. Different from the origin of Huffington Post, The Paper is a “new media” project directed by the Shanghai United Media Group (state-owned media), however, it shares the same function as Huffington Post as an original-produced online news source targeted on different levels of digital media market (i.e. Web, APP, Wap, and other social media platform like Weibo and Wechat). Not so many researches have been made yet to investigate case studies of this kind of original-produced “online newspaper”, and even less comparative analyses were conducted to observe the same challenges but different solutions those platforms encounter and manage today across nations—especially under the West-East comparative context. And this paper is thus designed to fill in this gap.      

Methods

Under the theoretic framework of comparative media system studies (Hallin & Macini, 2004; Zhao, 2011) and comparative journalism studies (Rantanen, 2010; Hanitzsch et al, 2011), this paper takes the approach of media political economy to discuss the role played by the state, the market and the audience in Huffington Post and The Paper. Some critical analyses on media content are also equipped for detailed understanding on the news frames (generic news frames and issue-specific frames) used in Huffington Post and The Paper.

Results and Discussion

• The partisan characteristic (Huffington case in Europe) V.S. the role of the state (The Paper in China). The development of Huffington Post in the European case was especially embedded with partisan characteristic from the beginning. Such as the French version of Huffington was in partnership with Le Monde, the German version of Huffington was in partnership with Focus, thus the “Left-wing” orientation of Huffington Post-France and the “Liberal-conservative” orientation of Huffington Post-Germany did impact the news coverage (especially in the French case). The Paper, as a successful experiment of “new media” platform from state-owned media group, has been testing the bottom line of the Communist Party by utilizing its flexibility of providing online-content and its openness from the support of local Shanghai government, however, it still meets limits by receiving pressures from the central government on certain politic news topics.
• The market/users-driven content production (crowdfunding case in Huffington) V.S. the politics/users-driven content production (the liberal orientation on The Paper). In this part the author discussed the crowd-funding case in Huffington to follow the coverage about Michael Brown, to see whether this example could provide original online newspaper an alternative way to follow public-interest with a focus on the “market”; and also discussed the anti-corruption case in Peng Pai to understand its dilemma between Chinese public interests and the Chinese authorities with a focus on the “politics”.  
• Next “New-York times” V.S. next “Nan Fang Zhou Mo”: The construction of news credibility and media accountability are crucial questions for original-produced online newspapers. Huffington Post provided a positive case for this constructive process as it received Pulitzer Prize in the year of 2012 for one of its senior military correspondent, while Peng Pai is still struggling of identifying itself as a successor or an opponent of “South Genre”, which was recognized widely for its liberal orientation that contributes to public democratic debate and the formation of civil society in China.

References and Notes

1. Ahlers, D. (2006) News consumption and the new electronic media. Harvard International Journal of Press-Politics, 11(1), pp.29–52.
2. Alqudsi-ghabra, T. M., Al-Bannai, T., & Al-Bahrani, M. (2011) The Internet in the Arab Gulf Cooperation Council (AGCC): Vehicle of Change. International Journal of Internet Science, 6(1), pp.44–67.
3. Althaus, S., & Tewksbury, D. (2000) Patterns of Internet and traditional news media use in a networked community. Political Communication, 17(1), pp.21–45.
4. Baum, M., & Groeling, T. (2008). New media and the polarization of American political discourse. Political Communication, 25(4), 345–365.
5. Deuze, M. (2003) The web and its journalisms: Considering the consequences of different types of newsmedia online, New Media & Society, 5(2), pp.203-230.
6. Deuze, M. (2005), What Is Journalism? Professional identity and ideology of journalists Reconsidered, Journalism, 6(4), 442-464.
7. Deuze, M., & Marjoribanks, T. (2009) Newswork, Journalism, 10(5), pp.555-561.
8. Dutton, W.H. (2009). The Fifth Estate emerging through the network of networks. Prometheus, 27(1), pp.1–15.
9. Gentzkow, M. (2007). Valuing new goods in a model with complementarity: Online newspapers. American Economic Review, 97(3), pp.713–744.
10. Hallin, D.C. & Mancini, R.M. (2004) Comparing Media Systems: Three Models of Media and Politics. Cambridge University Press
11. Hanitzsch et al (2011) Mapping Journalism Cultures Across Nations: A comparative study of 18 countries. Journalism Studies, Volume 12, Issue 3, pp. 273-293
12. Lewis, S.C., Kaufhold, K. & Lasorsa, D.L. (2010) Thinking about citizen journalism: The philosophical and practical challenges of user-generated content for community newspapers, Journalism Practice, 4(2), pp.163-179.
13. Mitchelstein, E., & Boczkowski, P. J. (2010) Tradition and transformation in online news production and consumption, In Dutton, W. H. (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of Internet studies. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
14. Newell, J., Pilotta, J. & Thomas, J. (2008). Mass media displacement and saturation. International Journal on Media Management, 10(4), pp.131–138.
15. Rantanen, Terhi (2010) Methodological inter-nationalism in comparative media research: flow studies in international communication In: Roosvall, Anna and Salovaara-Moring, Inka, (eds.) Communicating the Nation: National Topografies of Global Media Landscapes. Nordicom Publications, Gothenburg, pp.25-39.
16. Zhao, Y.Z. (2011) The Challenge of China: Contribution to a transcultural political economy of communication for the twenty-first century. In Wasko, J. et al. (Eds.) The handbook of Political Economy of Communications, Wiley-Blackwell publication, pp.558-582.

Introduction

Ten years after tragically tsunami attack in Indian Ocean the situation in early warnings of stakeholder of natural disasters is dramatically improved, but still is not ideal. Following paper brings several critical views on current situation in a special aspect of Early Warning Systems – namely „last-mile“ of communication channels in emergencies and special situation. It introduces possibilities and advantages of addressable forced broadcasting (Radio-Help) and describes a major component of its receiver – personal communication terminal. There are also mentioned the managerial aspects of distribution of emergency information and possibilities of using the suggested system in daily life.

After the catastrophic tsunami attack in December 2004 with 230 thousand victims the significant research agencies focused their activities on the research and implementation technologies and resources, enabling the early identification of tsunami threats. In this area, significant progress has been achieved. They were created functional mathematical models, reflecting specific situation and allowing simulate the flow of natural disasters and effectively identify the degree of danger and threats. Level of risk by such events has been greatly reduced [3].

Current early warning systems are aimed at encouraging residents and institutions in situations that can be expected to advance tens of hours. Such emergencies are mostly connected with natural disasters like hurricanes and storms. Distribution of information in unexpected situations (tsunami, unexpected earthquake, terrorist attack,…) is the subject of various solutions, based not only on technologies opportunities and capabilities, but mainly on policy decisions on governmental level. An increasing number of terrorist attacks at the beginning of 2015 reveal some weaknesses of current early warning systems – e.g. distribute needed information during forced shutdown of mobile networks and Internet.

An Emergency Population Warning

The origins of building early warning systems for large groups of population could be found between two world wars last century. One of the base requirements of warning systems was to build an extensive network of warning sirens. An integral part of warning technologies has been training people how to behave in cases of threat and danger. The performance of alerting infrastructure decreased dramatically after the collapse of communist regime at European countries at the beginning of nineties. It becomes increasingly difficult to bridge the “„last-mile“” between local emergency management authorities and the population in times of crises [5].

The introduction of new technologies brings intense challenges to their application for the „last-mile“ communication in the frame of early warning systems. However, there is no unified concept for newly conceived schemes of communication channels. The approaches of individual countries and regions to the „last-mile“ communication differ from each other even dramatically [3], [4].

Recently published a number of papers deal with the issue of accessibility and usability of communication channels. Klaft [5] on the example of subscription-based “Katwarn” system (multi-channel alerting system, which offers the possibility to distribute alerts via SMS, e-mail, and pagers) tested reception of warning information (majority participants were people with some affiliation to emergency management). The alert message was randomly generated and sent on August 24th, 2009 at 14:09 CET. Approx. 25% of participations noticed and read the alert within ten minutes. This ratio increased to 32.4% within twenty minutes, to 47.9% within one hour. After five hours more than 35 % of participants didn’t make any action (!).

Another Katwarn case study observed actual user behavior on the same subscription-based system. After sending the test alert message at 9:58 a.m. to approx. 14 thousands subscribed users, the log files of the information website were analyzed to see how often the site had been accessed. Within ten minutes were identified only 6.1% of alert recipients. This number increased to 8.5% within 30 minutes and to 11.6% within two hours. After 24 hours, the ratio reached 17.4% (!).

Research in Indonesia costal municipality [10] provides information about quantification of access to media by the type of media and time of the day. In the morning the main availability to get access is represented by mobile phones (63 %), TV (60 %), radio (55 %). Access to TV and radio raises during the day to 88 % (TV at the evening) and 64 % (radio). Sirens cover less than 48% of people.

The role of early warning systems does not finish with the end of emergency. It is necessary to maintain communication connection even in times of crisis and in subsequent stages, i.e. recovery and resilience. Major problem remains to scientists and policies - how to effectively deliver the authorized recipient in case of emergency necessary adequate information in a timely manner, i.e. at the right time to the right place.

It is evident that in the case of dramatic situations of X-events type (long-term failure of electric power grid, electromagnetic pulse,…) our civilization will lose all possibilities associated with modern communication technologies [1]. A similar situation is becoming a reality, however, immediately after any larger accidents and disasters. Tsunamis, earthquakes, floods and hurricanes are accompanied by blackouts of electricity, dropouts of mobile networks and the Internet. In the period of global increase of terrorism grow needs for immediate transmission of information and guidance to people in vulnerable zones. In many situations is appropriate to provide different information to people located in different places [7].

For efficient transfer of information is optimal to use the widest range of communication channels and options. It is, however, evident, that the applicability of some advanced technologies, especially based on mobile communications, is in many types of disasters very limited.

On the other hand - no system is ever perfect. The answer for a question - “High” or “low” technology is better for crises communication - seemed to be very simple: as “low” as possible by the principles – with a respect to potential loss of technological and energy infrastructure. Next paragraphs describe original solution of information channel that fulfill main demands for efficient communication channel in disasters and crises.

Main Principles of Radio-Help

The default requirements for RADIO HELP system were an effort to eliminate the shortcomings of the current distribution of warning messages. Radio-Help in its concept uses existing technological components and solutions, but integrates them into new functional units. The basic requirements, which should the designed system meet, are:

• the availability of adequate information to every people,
• independence on functionality of mobile networks and the Internet,
• mediation of trusted information from an authorized source,
• geographical addressability for distribution of information,
• security of the system - resistance to abuse,
• financial and time feasibility,
• possibility of continuous testing and auditing functionality,
• usability for other applications.

In terms of overall design is a key issue the choice of communication media. As an optimal, affordable and widely tested for the purpose Radio-Help seems to use the concept of HD Radio. In principle, HD Radio technology is based on superposition of digital channels to analog signal carrier frequency of radio transmitter.

The crucial point of the system is the receiver - „Personal Communication Terminal“ – PCT. In principle it could be an HD-RADIO receiver that is integrated into wide-spread personal equipment, e.g. a smart phone. The PCT could also be recharged by internal or external mechanical boost of the battery.

Figure 1. Personal Communication Terminal – block scheme [7]

(see PDF version for the Figure).

Solution of addressable receiving of the Radio-Help is that superposed digital signal of the transmitter carries in encrypted form an "address" of geographic area for which the transmitted information is intended. The PCT is equipped with a satellite position system (GPS, Galileo etc.) that generates position codes (Fig. 2). The transmitter of Radio-Help digitally sends an identification code for the targeted area (i.e. the position code) and/or a special code of an individual PCT (Special codes could be used for responsible persons that have to be notified regardless of their position). The PCT continually checks the internal and/or position code of the Radio-Help sender and activates itself for receiving the broadcast only with matching of the internal and received identified code. If position and/or internal codes of PCT and broadcasting sequence do not match, no sound is activated on the receiver. If internal and receiving codes match, the system automatically switches the receiver on for reception of needful information. Switch-of code broadcasted at the end of each session switches the receiver back into standby mode.

The only thing required to upgrade a current mobile phone (with GPS) is the addition of one Radio-Help chip with a code comparator. The receiver of Radio-Help can be integrated into any audio and audio/video devices. Immediately it could be used in all voice sirens and public information systems (e.g. in supermarkets, shopping centers, schools, factories etc.). Such systems just need once setup (e.g. by the initial switching on) the position code.

The exclusive transmitter

The transmitter of Radio-Help is a crucial point of the entire system. It is an authorized radio transmitter (controlled by the state or the army), which must be able to long-term broadcast from a protected area also in the case of a forced radio silence. It provides nationwide coverage of crisis broadcast throughout the country via analogue, preferably LW or MW transmitter, in whose modulation is superposed digital signal. For a dissemination of verbal information is sufficient channel with a frequency range of 200 to 4000 Hz. On one analog carrier signal is thus possible to simultaneously superposed multiple digital information channels for parallel addressed broadcasting to multiple locations or e.g. in multiple languages.

Figure 2. Radio-Help broadcasting for the affected area of floods [9]

(see PDF version for the Figure). 

Results and Discussion – Example of Practical Application of Radio-Help System in Traffic

Any early-warning emergency system has to be positively accepted by potential and real users and regularly tested in terms of functionality and possibilities of improvement and development. The best form is the sustainable use of the system for the transmission of information of "very practical content" which learns users to use the system effectively.

Wide areas of applications bring the integration of Radio-Help receiver into sound systems in cars and navigation systems. A “Radio traffic terminal” is a device receiving information through one unique communication channel in any region. It provides a forced voice (and/or data) session, activated only in a particular geographical area thus delivering warning messages only to the relevant recipients. In practice, we may be able to provide a road user, depending on his current position and travel direction, with automated information on a danger ahead (traffic accident) almost immediately.

The radio traffic terminal system uses Radio-Help technology enhanced by a GPS system. If warning data could be broadcast from an extensive eCall system, it would be very efficient in helping decrease the number of car’s accidents.

Figure 3. Principles of Radio-Help in traffic application [7]

(see PDF version for the Figure).

Conclusion

The aim of this paper was to indicate the current status system, possibilities system, weaknesses and opportunities of current early warning systems. Greater attention has been paid to the Radio-Help system, which is capable - in the case of governmental support - to ensure information distribution to needy people in appropriate areas.

Acknowledgments

This paper was supported by the SGS research project of the Technical University of Liberec “New possibilities of advanced information and communication technologies in solving of uncommon situation”.

References and Notes

1. CASTI, John, L. X-events: The collapse of everything. 1st ed. New York: HarperCollins Publisher, 2012, ix, 326 p. ISBN 00-620-8828-9.
2. COOMBS, Timothy, W. Ongoing crisis communication: planning, managing, and responding. 3rd ed. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: SAGE, 2012, xv, 231 p. ISBN 14-129-8310-X.
3. GOLNARAGHI, Maryam (Ed.). Institutional Partnership in Multi-Hazard Early Warning Systems: Synthesis of Seven Good Practices in Multi-hazard Early Warning Systems. Heidelberg: Springer, 2012, p. 217-238. ISBN 978-3-642-25373-7.
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1. The Informational Turn of Contemporary Science and Philosophy

As the science and philosophy of information develop, the specific character of information becomes more and more clear. From the point of view of science, information as well as matter and energy are now regarded as the three essential elements constituting the world, bringing about a fundamental transformation of our worldview and way of thinking.

Generally speaking, the Philosophy of Being, as well as the theory of the compartmentalization of the extant domain is the major paradigm of philosophy and makes up the core of philosophical metatheory. Following tradition, we can reasonably summarize ''the existential = the material + the mental" as in the traditional Western ontological paradigm, except for few doctrines out of the ordinary.

Based on the latest progress in the science of information, the contemporary philosophy of information compartmentalizes the existential domain again. It puts forwards a new ontological paradigm: ''the existential = the material + the informational". In the light of it, information is constituted by two domains: the objective informational and the subjective informational (mental). Compared with the traditional ontological paradigm, this new one not only reveals a whole fresh existential domain - the objective informational world - but also stipu1ates the essence of mind as a form of an advanced state of informational activity .1

The Western philosophical world has proposed various kinds of philosophical turns. However the result of those alleged turns did not transform the highest level of the philosophical paradigm as they were not fundamental ones. Comparatively speaking, because it achieves the transformation in the highest level of philosophical paradigm, the Philosophy of Information brings about a fundamental turn in philosophy for the first time.

2. The Intrinsically Convergent Unified Relationship of Science and Philosophy

In the most general sense, we can view philosophy as a human activity of seeking universal reason, while scientific observation and experiment have the character of concrete sensory data. On the basis of this, people have been used to recognize philosophy and science as separate disciplines. In fact, reasoning and operating with sensory data must not be separated completely at all levels of human cognitive activities. Human beings inevitably evaluate all kinds of sensory data in their rational constructions. It is this that constitutes the difference between human consciousness and the animal mind, as well as the ultimate ground of Philosophy and Science being intrinsically a unity.

Humans do not cognize the objective world directly. There are multiple kinds of complex intermediate relationships of between people and their cognitive objects. In my research on the contemporary philosophy of information, I have proposed a doctrine regarding the complex emergent occurrence of cognition, which explains aspects of five such intermediates: the objective field of information, its subjective physical structure, its subjective cognitive structure, its subjective instruments of materialization, and its subjective generative historical dimension. Since intermediate states with those five aspects exist between perception and cognition, the phenomena that scientists see directly are not the "objective facts" themselves of observation and experiment, but rather macroscopical signs that are designated as information, the "objective facts" remaining after passage through intermediate measuring instruments. Valid scientific judgments are accordingly possible only by explaining those signs. And the corresponding explanations depend not only on the analysis of the instruments and equipment of observation employed by those scientists, but also the scientific theoretical paradigms they use in recognizing structure. So there is no scientific fact that could be decided only by so-called concrete evidence; science, rather, is the product of the combination of concrete evidence and general reasoning. If defined in this way, philosophy is no longer something transcendental, irrelevant to and outside of science. It is actually the content covered in science which contains as an organic part, inevitably, the central role of mental activity.

2.1 General Rationality and Logic

A key concept in my theory is that of general rationality. I consider this an ontological feature of a scientific doctrine that measures how 'rational' it is, that is how far developed from the automatic, purely reactive forms of animal cognition. A higher rationality is one which reflects the best – therefore MOST ETHICAL - capacities of human beings to interact with themselves and the world. The term general rationality in Chinese accordingly corresponds to what is called informal logic in Western philosophy. „Informal‟ means that it is not based on simple linguistic reasoning using systems of axioms, but is rather like abductive logic as proposed by Magnani or the dynamic Logic in Reality of Brenner that refers to real processes.

From this perspective, general rationality describes the evolution of informational processes in both the disciplines of science but also in cognition and philosophy as the behavioral „activity‟ of human beings of which there are clearly higher and lower levels. There are only differences in the degree of general rationality involved in the various scientific disciplines, rather than the presence or absence of that rationality. From this, we can establish a relative boundary between philosophy and science from an onto-epistemological standpoint. The degree of generality (the extent of application) defines the inner differences of levels of generality of reasoning and consequently a hierarchy in philosophy and science themselves.

In fact, there exists a kind of dual-sense relationship between the levels of general rationality: in one respect, lower general rationality is the foundation on which higher general rationality is established on; in the other respect, lower general rationality is the presentation of higher general rationality in a concrete domain. The double sided characters of the definition of the lower and higher general rationalities will inevitably induce the interactions between different levels of rationality to define and converge. In this process, the higher general rationality will illuminate universally, restrict and control holographically the lower general rationality, while the lower general rationality not only embodies certain normative principles belonging to the higher general rationality at its own level but also provides certain valid basic support for higher general rationality due to its own plentiful contents and materials of activities. Those interactions between levels of general rationalities will necessarily result in the holographic unified relationship of inner convergence that ground and embody mutually, as well as reflect, constrain, control and define reciprocally different of levels of general rationality.

A true philosophy of science, which should be founded by science, cannot be separated from and override science. Rather, the foundational role of science determines its effects on philosophy from the bottom up. The dependence of philosophical development on scientific development indicates that science is the strongest and most basic driving force for the transformation of philosophy.

The rationality of science is much more universal and can surpass the limits of those narrow disciplines from which it was originally generated and evolve into a higher general rationality. This hierarchical transition is a process of self-sublimation of general rationality, the review and reproduction of the nature of general rationality. That self-sublimation of regeneration, review and reproduction permits the examination of previous higher general rationality in the transiting process of the lower general rationality to the higher level. The higher general rationality defines, amends and processes those original lower general rationalities (delete: by examination). In other words, the higher general rationality imposes its methodological effects on lower general rationalities while generalizing, summarizing and defineing the rational elements of those lower general rationalities as well. It is a kind of philosophical critique which is implemented in this process.

Whether a more concrete general rationality could enter the level of a more universal higher general rationality is decided by two aspects: one is whether those general rationalities have more universal character by themselves or not; the other is whether philosophy critiques those original lower general rationalities according to their own levels.

Indeed, philosophy must enrich and develop itself through science; however, that doesn't mean that philosophy is just a vassal of science. Philosophy has the critical role, at its own level in the development of the chains of human knowledge about the limits of science and philosophy. It is thus inevitable to consider aspects of the transformations enacted on philosophy by science and critiques made on science by philosophy.

We have observed that several new research approaches have been opened up in the studies of information problems: the computational, the information-ethical, the communication-informational, the information-cognitional, the semiotic-informational, the information-phenomenological, and so on. However, because these approaches employ theories dependent on a certain given concrete philosophy or science, they are constrained by the narrow and limiting character of the original theories and disciplines consciously or unconsciously, and these theories cannot reveal the true unique and revolutionary significance of information problems. An information theory founded on those theories can not be described as a higher science of information, not to mention as having the character of a general philosophy of information or a unified science of information.

Judging from this, the transformation of philosophy by science is not achieved automatically by using scientific success by itself as a criterion, but depends corresponding critical works that science acts on philosophy. That is a double sided interactive process to which both science and philosophy have to contribute. The transition from lower general rationality to higher one, and the critiques that philosophy makes of science have the following dual effects: on the one hand, outer information is criticized by philosophy; on the other hand, because that kind of critique changes the original construction of philosophy in itself, the philosophy is criticized recursively as well. If it is a comprehensive and complete change of construction, if that critique in itself is made of the most basic concepts and principles, or the highest paradigm of philosophy, a fundamental transformation has been made. The establishment of the contemporary philosophy of information reveals the significance for the development of philosophy itself through this kind of dual critique.

The general character of information transcends the basic beliefs and theoretical structures of traditional philosophy. The philosophy of information that truly shows the general character of information establishes the critiques that philosophy makes of science as well as the critiques that philosophy makes of itself.

3. Toward a Unified Science of Information

As a result of the role of information I established in the fundamental existential domain, the philosophy of information now provides a kind of dual-existential and dual-evolutionary theory of matter and information, which shows that information is a general phenomenon existing throughout the cosmos. Therefore, all research on matter and information should take this dual dimensionality into account. Because of the absence of the informational dimension in traditional philosophical and scientific research, it is now necessary to transform the research methods of traditional philosophy and science completely to bring them into line with the new scientific paradigm that is provided by the developing science and philosophy of information. By means of that transformation, all scientific and philosophical domains are facing an integrative developing trend I have named the ''Informational Scientification of Science'' . The emergence of this completely new and developing trend in philosophy and science, in my view, calls for the further establishment of a general unified science of information which includes all the domains of traditional philosophy, science and technology. It is transdisciplinary in the sense of Hofkirchner, Nicolescu, Brenner and others.

The tentative idea of establishing a unified science of information was initiated by a group of European scholars in the 1990s. Since then, from different levels and viewpoints of disciplines, many scientists and philosophers from all over the world have made numerous, fruitful work in that direction including A. D. Ursul and Konstantin Kolin from Russia: Pedro Marijuan, Wolfgang Hofkirchner, Luciano Floridi, Sören Brier, Rafael Capurro and Joseph Brenner from Europe: Yi Xin Zhong. Ming Li, Changlin Liu, Litian Shen, Xianhan Luo, Dongsheng Miao, Kang Ouyang, Xueshan Yan and myself from China; and, John Collier and Albert Borgmann from other countries. The independence and universality of the informational world revealed by these related researches is a precondition for the establishment and development of a new modem paradigm of science and philosophy, a new world view as well as a unified science of information.

4. Structure of the Proposed Unified Science of Information

Based on my research in this area, I have divided the unified science of information into six major levels: philosophy of information, general theory of information and informatics of which several sublevels and categories or branches exist and engineering/technological informatics.

As a result of its continuity across all levels of human knowledge from philosophy to science to engineering and communications technology, a unified science of information would be a disciplinary system that can be described in Chinese by the metaphor of „standing upright between heaven and earth‟. This metaphor captures the role of information in providing a link between phenomena at the lowest physical level and the highest human cognitive level. 4

Because this unified science of information is „upright between heaven and earth‟ and includes all levels of human knowledge, different scholars and disciplines could construct their concrete disciplines accordingly, including theories and viewpoints from their levels and points of view which today are separated. The result is that the trend toward so many diverse individual disciplines, schools and ideas of informational science is still increasing.

The development of a science of information will bring about a whole new integration of human science and philosophy as they converge with one another. In that process of integration, the philosophical sense of the science of information and the scientific character of the philosophy of information would be present in their entirety. From this standpoint, the philosophy of information could be viewed as apart of a general science of information, and the science of information could achieve its real foundational unity in the general provisions of philosophy. In other words, the unified science of information is the scientific basis of the general philosophy of information, and the philosophy of information is the general theoretical precondition of the unified science of information that is actually to be unified. In my opinion, the establishment of a unified science of information and the mature development of a philosophy of information should be the same process of mutual convergence, the two sides of the whole new integral developing pattern about contemporary human knowledge.

References and Notes

1. Kun Wu, the divide of existential domains, science•dialectics•modernization, 1986(2):32-33.
2. Kun Wu, the divide of existential domains and the “whole revolutionary”sense of the philosophy of information, the journal of humanity, 2013(5):1-6; Kun Wu,the crisis of philosophy and informational turn of philosophy, the journal of Xi‟an Jiaotong University, 2014(1):2-4; Kun Wu,On the development of philosophy and its fundamental turn from the view of informational world, the Journal of Chinese renmin university, 2014(3):72-78.
3. Kun Wu, the informational scientificiation of science, qinghai social science, 1997(2).
4. Kun Wu, the philosophy of information:theory, systerm and method, The Commercial Press, 2005,27-29.