Perception and Use of COVID Contact Tracing Mobile Applications in New York State (NYS).

The study explores the use of COVID-19 related apps for contact tracing deployed in New York State (NYS). The project seeks to understand potential differences in perception, adoption, or privacy concerns among racial and ethnic populations and across age groups. Using the Antecedent-Privacy Concerns-Outcomes (APCO) framework and the perceived usefulness construct, this study explores factors influencing the individual level adoption of these apps. Data collected from 120 Amazon Mechanical Turkers located in NYS was analyzed. The results indicate that race and gender are important factors to consider in expanding the Antecedent-Privacy Concerns-Outcomes (APCO) framework. Specifically, race impacted the perception of the seriousness of the pandemic, with Asians and Black being serious about the pandemic. Age played a role in privacy and security concerns. The youngest group of respondents, aged 18-24, did not have many privacy and security concerns about mobile apps. These results provided empirical results and evidence that can contribute to the expansion of the APCO model and help further the model's development.

Socially vulnerable populations adoption of technology to address lifestyle changes amid COVID-19 in the US.

The COVID-19 global pandemic has changed every facet of our lives overnight and has resulted in many challenges and opportunities. Utilizing the Lens of Vulnerability we investigate how disparities in technology adoption affect activities of daily living. In this paper, we analyze the existing literature and case studies regarding how the lifestyles of socially vulnerable populations have changed during the pandemic in terms of technology adoption. Socially vulnerable populations, such as racial and ethnic minorities, people with disabilities, older adults, children, and the socially isolated, are specifically addressed because they are groups of people who have been significantly and disproportionately affected by the pandemic. This paper emphasizes that despite seeing changes in and research on technology adoption across healthcare, employment, and education, the impact of COVID-19 in government and social services and activities of daily living is underdeveloped. The study concludes by offering practical and academic recommendations and future research directions. Lessons learned from the current pandemic and an understanding of the differential technology adoption for activities of daily living amid a disaster will help emergency managers, academics, and government officals prepare for and respond to future crises.

Reimagining information science and technology beyond traditional boundaries in the global coronavirus pandemic situation.

Information pervades today's human activities, essentially making every sector of society an information environment. Due to the ubiquity of technological innovations and their interconnectivity, there is no aspect of lives of individuals that has not been affected. Individuals & organizations use multiple devices and networking platforms to interact with each other, businesses, and governments, as well as to search, retrieve, and consume information. Adoption and use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) and the nature of information in general and its management and use have been topics of discussion at events such as the ASIS&T Annual Meeting. However, what is often lacking, if not missing, is a broader discussion about information and ICTs, in applied areas such as emergency management, homeland security, and cybersecurity.

Twelve Agendas on Interacting with Information: A Human-Engaged Computing Perspective.

During the coronavirus global pandemic crisis, we have received information from authentic and inauthentic sources. Fake news, continuous rumors, and prejudiced opinions from digital platforms and social media have the capacity to disrupt social harmony, to stall personal development, and to undermine trust on all levels of human interaction. Despite the wide plurality of perspectives, the diversity of contents, the variety of voices, and the many often-conflicting reasons for publishing, our interactions with information on digital devices are progressively shaping such situations and affecting decisions on all levels. We look at the limitations of existing designs and guidelines in the current paradigm, and we ask to what extent researchers and developers can focus and contribute, through their innovations, to the reduction of uncertainty and cases of misdirection, how they can mitigate tensions between information and humans, and how they can contribute to the maintenance and enhancement of worthy human values. Human-engaged computing (HEC) calls for innate user capacities to be enhanced rather than displaced by digital technologies so that the human factor in interactions is fully exploited and truly efficient symbiotic relationships between humans and devices can be achieved. Under the framework of HEC, we propose 12 research agendas from the theoretical, principled, and practical aspects, in order to develop future synergized interactions between humans and information. The present crisis presents us with a good opportunity to reflect on the need to empower humans in relation to the tools they use and to consider the next paradigm shift for designing information interaction.