Collaborative Research: People and Place: Geographic Information Technologies and Patterns of Individual Identification

这个合作研究项目将研究新兴地理信息技术与个人识别模式变化的关系。跨学科研究小组将解决长期的社会后果，特别是对个人隐私和身份的后果，过渡到数字地理信息系统。该项目将对一套包含地理和个人识别数据的信息系统个案研究进行全面的比较分析。 这种分析将确定识别实践中的趋势和倾向，理论化对社会公平和权力的可能影响，从概念上将地方力量与更全球的力量分开，并提出修改这些技术的方法，使其使用更符合隐私保护和相关的人类价值观。这些案例包括在以下三个应用领域开发系统：（1）地理人口制图;（2）应急系统;（3）智能车辆和移动的远程通信。案例的选择是为了便于沿着三个维度进行比较。 前两个维度涉及系统的功能：地理信息系统是否旨在为地点、人口或移动的个人建模;以及该系统是否主要旨在促进商业或监管社会风险。 第三个方面涉及司法系统运作的管辖范围。所选择的情况允许一组复杂的比较，可以保持每个维度的方面不变，同时改变其余维度的方面。 每个案例研究将采用文献和访谈数据的汇编和分析，以揭示系统的信息收集和操作的机制，人员和地点的建模，以及系统开发和使用的制度，经济，法律的和文化背景。 研究结果将引起各种学科和跨学科团体的兴趣，包括通信和信息技术，公共政策和地理学者，以及公共政策从业人员，技术开发人员和隐私活动家。 此外，该研究还考察了个人在日常生活中经常在没有有意义的知识和同意的情况下与之互动的系统。 鉴于基于地理信息的系统的扩散以及公众对隐私和身份问题日益敏感，研究结果可能会引起公众的普遍兴趣，并对政策讨论有价值。

This collaborative research project will examine the relation of emergent geographic information technologies to changing patterns of individual identification. The interdisciplinary research team will address the long-term social consequences, and in particular the consequences for personal privacy and identity, of the transition to digital geographic information systems. The project will provide a comprehensive comparative analysis of a set of case studies of information systems which incorporate both geographic and personally identifying data. This analysis will identify trends and tendencies in identification practice, theorize possible effects on social equity and power, conceptually separate local forces from more global ones, and suggest ways in which these technologies may be modified so that their use is more consistent with the protection of privacy and associated human values. The cases include developing systems in each of three areas of application: (1) Geodemographic Mapping; (2) Emergency Response Systems; and (3) Intelligent Vehicles and Mobile Telematics. The choice of cases is designed to facilitate comparisons along three dimensions. The first two dimensions concern the functions of the system: whether the geographic information system is intended to model places, populations, or mobile individuals; and whether the system is intended primarily to facilitate commerce or to regulate social risk. The third dimension concerns the jurisdiction within which the system operates. The chosen cases permit a complex set of comparisons that can hold aspects of each dimension constant, while varying aspects of the remaining dimensions. Each case study will employ the compilation and analysis of documentary and interview data to reveal the mechanics of the system's information collection and manipulation, the modeling of persons and places, and the institutional, economic, legal, and cultural context of the system's development and use. The research results will interest a variety of disciplinary and interdisciplinary groups, including scholars of communication and information technology, public policy, and geography, as well as public policy practitioners, technology developers, and privacy activists. Moreover, the research examines systems with which individuals will interact throughout their daily lives, often without meaningful knowledge and consent. Given the proliferation of systems based on geographic information and the growing public sensitivity to privacy and identity issues, the research results are likely to be of general public interest and valuable to policy discussions.