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ItemState-Level Variations in Open Source Policies(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2009-03) Baker, Paul M. A. ; Noonan, Douglas S. ; Seavey, Art ; Moon, Nathan C.The open source software (OSS) model represents an alternative to traditional proprietary software usage. Yet relatively little is known about the conditions impacting policy related to OSS development, diffusion, and adoption. This paper explores the concept of a state-level open source index (SLOSI) to measure open source policy related initiatives at the state-level in the United States. One rationale for developing a SLOSI is to gauge how well a state’s (political, economic, social, technological) environment relates to its OSS policies. This metric readily lends itself to evaluating the political, social, and economic aspects of adoption of the OSS approach. The SLOSI provides a heuristic and common set of "tools" to help assess how OSS-related conditions vary from state to state. Such a metric can be especially useful in this context where indicators can be elusive. By its nature, open source technology defies easy measurement. Nonetheless, a diverse and creative set of proxy measures are identified and tested for validity. The formulation of the index addresses the conceptual complexities surrounding OSS as a product, as a production process, and even as an ideology. The index construction follows from (1) a thorough literature review on OSS in society; (2) interviews with expert informants and policymakers; (3) extensive data search and then collection; and (4) various robustness checks and efforts to estimate missing data. Our construction, by relying heavily on the published literature and on input from a community of OSS experts, fosters an inclusive development process akin to the open source development process itself. The empirical analysis of SLOSI values compares readily to variation in statelevel OSS policy environments. The paper concludes with a discussion of the ways in which this new SLOSI can be used by those in the OSS industry, those researching OSS, and, potentially, by policymakers.
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ItemOn Being Stuck: Looking for the Limits of Ethics in the Built Environment(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2008-02) Kirkman, Robert ; Noonan, Douglas S.We seek here to lay the groundwork for a multi-disciplinary inquiry into one aspect of the phenomenology of moral experience, which is a general project of elucidating what it is like for people to make ethical decisions in particular contexts. Taking urban and suburban environments as the context for decision making, we focus in particular on the common human experience of being stuck. Just as a person can get physically stuck while trying to crawl through a hole that is too small, people can get ethically stuck when some feature of their relationship with their context blocks or deflects their efforts to make good decisions and to do the right thing. We develop a preliminary typology of stuckness for ordinary residents of urban and suburban environments, and suggest ways in which various disciplinary perspectives might be brought to bear on each type. We close by looking ahead to two possible extensions of inquiry into stuckness: a consideration of how people and groups who have some power in shaping the built environment (e.g., developers, planners) may be stuck, and a consideration of when and under what circumstances people might get unstuck.
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ItemSuperfund, Hedonics, and the Scales of Environmental Justice(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2006) Noonan, Douglas S.The environmental justice (EJ) movement now occupies a prominent position in environmental policy. EJ is a core principle for thousands of grassroots environmental organizations, is the subject of a Presidential executive order and an office in the EPA, and recently served to frame how the nation viewed the tragic aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. This paper contributes to the research on environmental equity by (a) improving on traditional environmental justice research by incorporating results from economic analyses, and (b) presenting new evidence on the distributional equity of Superfund site locations at multiple scales. Choosing the correct spatial scale for analysis continues to vex empirical EJ researchers. The modifiable areal unit problem (MAUP), often simplified as a matter of aggregation bias, has resisted solutions to date. The approach taken here turns to the well-established hedonic price literature to identify appropriate scales of analysis. Linking these two literatures holds the promise of practically addressing one of the larger obstacles to advancing empirical EJ claims. The utility of hedonic analyses for EJ research is demonstrated on a comprehensive, nationwide dataset of Superfund sites at four (nested) geographic scales. The results add to the EJ literature by performing multi-scale analyses nationally as well as focused on a specific site.
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ItemUrban Environments and Neighborhood Change: Exploring Urban Sorting Beyond the Featureless Plain(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2006) Noonan, Douglas S.This paper introduces environmental features explicitly into the analysis of urban residential sorting where geographic barriers can mitigate neighbor externalities. Borders between groups in equilibrium will be more stable when supported by barriers. The hypothesis that racial disparity between neighboring tracts is greater when a barrier separates them is tested for Atlanta in 1990 and 2000 and compared to previous results for Chicago. The econometric estimation accounts for spatial dependence in the data. Significant barrier effects are found for certain types of geographical features (e.g., railroads, landmarks). The effect on local racial dissimilarity of the major extension of the mass transit rail lines in Atlanta in the mid-1990s is also estimated. There is little evidence suggesting that the new MARTA construction significantly affected racial dissimilarity in the areas it bissected. Limitations in the analysis and implications for policy and future are also discussed.
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ItemArt of the State: Explaining State-Level Appropriations to Arts Agencies(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2005-09-09) Noonan, Douglas S.This report focuses on appropriations to state arts agencies (SAAs), a primary figure in arts and cultural policy in the United States. It examines a specific category of state government expenditures using variation over time and across states to identify the different influences on SAA appropriations. The statistical model sheds light on the fiscal, institutional, and demographic determinants of appropriations.