The management of hybrid libraries

This review aims to clarify some terms and concepts surrounding the idea of the ‘digital library’. First a set of underlying assumptions, which are often implicit rather than explicit, are outlined, leading to an explication of terms and concepts which are often used nebulously, or with flatly different meanings. A typology of digital library research is described, based on Yates’ model of a library, and comprising three interlinked domains: informational, technological and social. A conceptual framework for digital libraries is developed on this basis.     

A fuzzy decision support system for digital camera selection based on user preferences

Mobile phones have been the most rapidly spreading development in the field of communication and information technologies over the past decades. Nowadays, digital cameras have taken their place. The wide product range in the market, each with numerous heterogeneous technical attributes, complicates the selection of the most convenient camera for end-users. The aim of this work is to provide end-users with a decision support framework for selecting the best digital camera according to their preferences. End-users and photography experts use subjective assessments when determining their requirements and making their evaluations. The proposed decision support tool is built on the basis of fuzzy set theory. The imprecision of the subjective assessments are transformed to fuzzy triangular numbers. The fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (FAHP) and fuzzy compromise programming methodologies are applied in order to determine the relative weights of sub-criteria and criteria and to rank the digital camera alternatives, respectively.     

Systems scenarios: a tool for facilitating the socio-technical design of work systems

Abstract

The socio-technical systems approach to design is well documented. Recognising the benefits of this approach, organisations are increasingly trying to work with systems, rather than their component parts. However, few tools attempt to analyse the complexity inherent in such systems, in ways that generate useful, practical outputs. In this paper, we outline the ‘System Scenarios Tool’ (SST), which is a novel, applied methodology that can be used by designers, end-users, consultants or researchers to help design or re-design work systems. The paper introduces the SST using examples of its application, and describes the potential benefits of its use, before reflecting on its limitations. Finally, we discuss potential opportunities for the tool, and describe sets of circumstances in which it might be used.

Practitioner Summary: The paper presents a novel, applied methodological tool, named the ‘Systems Scenarios Tool’. We believe this tool can be used as a point of reference by designers, end-users, consultants or researchers, to help design or re-design work systems. Included in the paper are two worked examples, demonstrating the tool’s application.     

Smart cities in the new service economy: building platforms for smart services

Recent changes in service environments have changed the preconditions of their production and consumption. These changes include unbundling services from production processes, growth of the information-rich economy and society, the search for creativity in service production and consumption and continuing growth of digital technologies. These contextual changes affect city governments because they provide a range of infrastructure and welfare services to citizens. Concepts such as ‘smart city’, ‘intelligent city’ and ‘knowledge city’ build new horizons for cities in undertaking their challenging service functions in an increasingly cost-conscious, competitive and environmentally oriented setting. What is essential in practically all of them is that they paint a picture of cities with smooth information processes, facilitation of creativity and innovativeness, and smart and sustainable solutions promoted through service platforms. This article discusses this topic, starting from the nature of services and the new service economy as the context of smart local public services. On this basis, we build an overall framework for understanding the basic forms and dimensions of smart public services. The focus is on conceptual systematisation of the key dimensions of smart services and the conceptual modelling of smart service platforms through which digital technology is increasingly embedded in social creativity. We provide examples of real-life smart service applications within the European context.     

公共艺术与观念课程改革、实践

当我们强调"公共艺术"(public art)这个词语时,可能会对它本身作形而上的理解,其实它的可扩展性与包容性是很大的。基于"观念艺术"为我们留下的宝贵遗产:置疑,挑战,不合作,共生:我更愿意将公共艺术定义为艺术介入公共空间(Art in publicspace)。尤其是在学院观念课程之教学中,学员尽可能地挑战自己对事物的表现手段,抛弃固有的应试思维与歌功颂德的束缚,探索艺术的纯粹性与自身的价值。在学院中,此平台是不可缺失的。     

Evaluating system utility and conceptual fit using CASSM

There is a wealth of user-centred evaluation methods (UEMs) to support the analyst in assessing interactive systems. Many of these support detailed aspects of use—for example: is the feedback helpful? Are labels appropriate? Is the task structure optimal? Few UEMs encourage the analyst to step back and consider how well a system supports users’ conceptual understandings and system utility. In this paper, we present CASSM, a method, which focuses on the quality of ‘fit’ between users and an interactive system. We describe the methodology of conducting a CASSM analysis and illustrate the approach with three contrasting worked examples (a robotic arm, a digital library system and a drawing tool) that demonstrate different depths of analysis. We show how CASSM can help identify re-design possibilities to improve system utility. CASSM complements established evaluation methods by focusing on conceptual structures rather than procedures. Prototype tool support for completing a CASSM analysis is provided by Cassata, an open source development.     

Truth and credibility as a double ambition: reconstruction of the built past,experiences and dilemmas

The reconstruction of our historical heritage involves a few fundamental problems. We mention only two. There can be many interpretations of scientific data which can result in different reconstructions: however, the appearance of an image or animation in a digital format out of context is nearly always misleading. Therefore, the verisimilitude of the computer‐based image should be questioned in the same manner as a picture in a journal, but the digital medium seldom facilitates this questioning. Furthermore, the diffusion of visualizations raises concerns; currently there is no established ontology to moderate the process. This article is based on our own experiences and attempts to contribute to this ontology. In this, scientific ‘truth’ will go hand in hand with artistic credibility, which to many may come as a surprise. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The social and cultural shaping of educational technology: Toward a social constructivist framework

The Social Construction of Technology (SCOT) theory offers a useful conceptual framework for examining the social and cultural factors that may contribute to or detract from the successful integration of computer technology into educational environments. This theory, which grew out of studies in the history of technology and the sociology of science, suggests methods for studying the phenomenon of technological development, such as identifying the relevant social groups involved in the development process and the factors that either leave the technology in a state of interpretive flexibility or bring the interpretation of the technology to closure. This paper uses a SCOT approach to explore how personal and institutional beliefs can shape the ways in which technologies are used by teachers and students, and to identify the social, epistemological, cognitive and motivational factors that need to be considered as computer technology becomes an integral part of the educational experience.     

Educational uses of a dynabook

The Dynabook personal computing concept, as introduced by the Xerox Learning Research Group (LRG) in the early 1970's, is a new communications tool based on the retrieval of dynamic information. Implementing the Dynabook concept is requiring several stages of computer hardware and software development. At each stage of developing an experimental (or ‘interim Dynabook’) system, we are studying its use for educational purposes by conducting computer programming classes for children ranging in age from 6 to 15 years and by implementing a number of laboratory situations for particular subject areas.Preliminary results of our studies have demonstrated the ease with which we can teach programming when it involves the combination of existing instructions in order to cause some computer-based effect. But more than the ability to combine existing instructions is needed in order to invent and construct a generally useful tool such as a graphical layout system or a text editor. These involve skills we typically associate with expert designers. Many of these skills are teachable, especially with the instructional assistance of a personal computer. Supported by several examples of laboratory situations that we have implemented, we propose a design curriculum based on three conceptual areas: process, symbolic representation, and methods of interpretation, especially with respect to the use of information retrieval as an aid in decision making.In the examples we have chosen to describe, the design skills exercised are: simple and conditional sequencing, rule or constraint specification, hypothesis testing and modelling. The particular situations cited are: programming in Smalltalk, computer-based animation, GameX (a game that involves programming by rule specification). ThingLab (a laboratory for describing physical or geometric objects) and a ‘kit’ for assembling event-driven simulations.     

An empirical approach for evaluating the usability of model-driven tools

MDD tools are very useful to draw conceptual models and to automate code generation. Even though this would bring many benefits, wide adoption of MDD tools is not yet a reality. Various research activities are being undertaken to find why and to provide the required solutions. However, insufficient research has been done on a key factor for the acceptance of MDD tools: usability. With the help of end-users, this paper presents a framework to evaluate the usability of MDD tools. The framework will be used as a basis for a family of experiments to get clear insights into the barriers to usability that prevent MDD tools from being widely adopted in industry. To illustrate the applicability of our framework, we instantiated it for performing a usability evaluation of a tool named INTEGRANOVA. Furthermore, we compared the outcome of the study with another usability evaluation technique based on ergonomic criteria.     

Relative Advantages of Digital Preservation Management in Developing Countries

The purpose of this article is to explore stakeholders’ perspectives on the relative advances of digital preservation management over traditional heritage management approaches in developing countries, particularly in Africa. Specific examples from the context of Ghana are used to help understand the particular factors that influence the relative advantage of the digital preservation management innovation. The article is based on the findings of a PhD study that explored contextual factors influencing the management and preservation of digital cultural heritage resources in Ghana and it is underpinned by Rogers’ Diffusion of Innovation model. An interpretive qualitative approach was employed to solicit the perspectives of 29 key stakeholders from 13 institutions in Ghana through semi-structure interviews. This was followed by an analysis of relevant literature to ascertain how the findings from the context of Ghana relate to other developing countries in Africa.

Stakeholders perceive that the digital preservation management innovation has relative advantages over other traditional ways of managing and preserving heritage information in many ways, including; as an effective means to manage cultural heritage resources; enhancing collaboration and resource sharing; contributes to the building strong cultural institutions; leading to the establishment of a national digital memory for developing countries; as an effective means to preserve value of cultural identity for the long term into the digital future; and enabling research and advancement of cultural knowledge.

Findings from the literature analysis also show that these relative advantages of the digital preservation management (DPM) innovation occur in similar forms in other developing countries in Africa. Further empirical studies in other developing countries are recommended to fully ascertain the main relative advantages of the DPM innovation over traditional approaches of heritage resources management and preservation.     

Using a grounded theory approach to study online collaboration behaviors

This paper discusses how an interpretive theory of action was explored and developed through iterative cycles of grounded theory generation. We establish our motivation for employing the grounded theory method in an area that is overflowing with theories of learning, then move on to the practicalities of generating an interpretive grounded theory by following the ‘vapor trails’ left by online learners. We describe how we incorporated the use of mixed methods into an interpretive grounded theory process, with a theoretical sampling strategy that used ‘complementary comparison’ to feed back into a new cycle of constant comparison. We discuss how constant comparison may be enhanced by researcher debate around emerging themes and categories, co-coding of data samples, coding of researcher theoretical memos, and reflection-in-action during explicit explanations of coding schemes to research assistants and the review of research process memos. Finally, we discuss how and why the substantive theory of action that was generated by this process provides an original contribution to theories of collaborative online learning by accounting for both visible and invisible learning strategies that explain the role of thought-leaders in a community of inquiry and account for vicarious learning.     

Machinima as a learning tool

This article proposes that machinima is a practice-based approach to learning digital creative practice. It features excerpts from key informant interviews with six prominent machinima artists: it is the first time they have been brought together to consider the role of machinima as a learning tool from their different perspectives. The article begins with a review of machinima as an example of digital creative practice, akin to mashup and remix genres. The nature of machinima is presented through interviews, providing an overview of its authenticity, roles of networks and communities of practice, transdisciplinary creative practice, transliteracy, transferability and accessibility as a learning tool in developing competency in digital creativity. It is suggested that machinima is ‘digital clay’ that has the potential to add value to practice-based learning in a connected world. The article concludes with a summary of the unique contributions that machinima gives the creative learning process.     

What is TRIZ? From Conceptual Basics to a Framework for Research

This paper introduces six aspects of the theory of inventive problem solving (TRIZ), from conceptual basics to a framework for interdisciplinary research, and explains some of the specific terminology, such as inventive principles, standard solutions, substance‐field‐systems or contradictions. The conceptual approach of TRIZ comprises the way from a concrete problem over an abstract problem to an abstract solution and from there to a concrete solution. This is supported by a toolkit, which helps the problem‐solver analysing and solving problems in different perspectives. The ‘power supply for notebook computers’ example demonstrates a problem‐solving process with TRIZ using contradiction thinking, the contradiction matrix and the inventive principles as tools. The TRIZ tools may be combined within a comprehensive process model such as ARIS or WOIS, which are briefly discussed. A framework for further research suggests five fields: the tools and their combination as the core, inspiration by new knowledge domains, adaptation to new fields of usage, psycho‐ and sociological contingency and integration with other creativity tools. The paper concludes with an overview of cornerstones in the history of TRIZ and suggests some introductory books and informative websites.     

Why Java™ was - not - standardized twice

This paper examines two attempts by Sun Microsystems to standardize its Java™ Technology (a proprietary de facto standard). Sun approached ISO/IEC JTC1 and later the ECMA consortium, but it withdrew both times. In this paper, I analyse Sun's actions. A conceptual framework is applied that distinguishes two levels of coordination in standardization: ‘technology-oriented compatibility control’ and ‘orchestration of market orientation’. Sun's actions addressed both levels. It initially used standardization to focus attention on Java™ and increase confidence in an open, stable Java specification process. But it turned to proprietary ‘compatibility control’ in reaction to standard politics and developments in the market.     

The ‘Wheel of Misfortune’: a taxonomic approach to human factors in accident investigation and analysis in aviation and other complex systems

The analysis and reporting of the human factors aspects of accidents in aviation and other complex systems continues to present difficulties for investigators and analysts alike. Reason's ‘latent conditions’ model has had a major impact on the way accidents are conceptualized but it has proven difficult to apply as a practical tool. Recent attempts to overcome these difficulties are discussed and an alternative conceptualization is proposed. This conceptualization is based on a blend of several well-supported theoretical models in cognitive engineering and can be used to formulate a parsimonious analysis system for the investigation and reporting of the human factors aspects of accidents. Two well-known examples of transportation disasters are briefly described and related to the proposed conceptual framework. The proposed framework serves three important functions in accident investigation and analysis: a heuristic function, an investigative function, and an integrative function.     

Process: Implementation as a Form of Institutional Innovation

This paper deals with two related studies of IT implementation. The action research component involved the setting up of ‘creativity club’ workshops to support implementation of IT projects in four organisations. The dynamics of these clubs are examined within an interpretive paradigm. The second component collected data on the wider implementation characteristics of the four projects and those of a ‘matched’ set of projects in four additional organisations. It is proposed that the studies support a reconceptualisation of implementation as a form of institutional innovation within which creativity can be regarded as a process of meaning creation and social learning.     

MetaCDN: Harnessing ‘Storage Clouds’ for high performance content delivery

Content delivery networks (CDNs) such as Akamai and Mirror Image place web server clusters in numerous geographical locations to improve the responsiveness and locality of the content it hosts for end-users. However, their services are priced out of reach for all but the largest enterprise customers. An alternative approach to content delivery could be achieved by leveraging existing infrastructure provided by ‘Storage Cloud’ providers, who offer internet accessible data storage and delivery at a fraction of the cost. In this paper, we introduce MetaCDN, a system that exploits ‘Storage Cloud’ resources, creating an integrated overlay network that provides a low cost, high performance CDN for content creators. MetaCDN removes the complexity of dealing with multiple storage providers, by intelligently matching and placing users’ content onto one or many storage providers based on their quality of service, coverage and budget preferences. MetaCDN makes it trivial for content creators and consumers to harness the performance and coverage of numerous ‘Storage Clouds’ by providing a single unified namespace that makes it easy to integrate into origin websites, and is transparent for end-users. We then demonstrate the utility of this new approach to content delivery by showing that the participating ‘Storage Clouds’ used by MetaCDN provide high performance (in terms of throughput and response time) and reliable content delivery for content consumers, whilst the MetaCDN system itself introduces minimal overhead compared to using these ‘Storage Clouds’ directly.     

Trailfinders—curating an interactive city promenade experience with mobile phones

Abstract

With a growing number of embedded digital experiences in arts and heritage settings, creating a broad global field, this article focuses on the use of mobile phones in the engagement of humans with the cultural heritage of public spaces, specifically those that require a promenade from one outdoor space to another. This article discusses findings from a recent promenade initiative, commissioned for a UK arts festival, along with a review of literature, to critically engage with growing evidence of the diverse ways in which technology is integrated at direct user level. Concepts of ‘hybrid spaces’ and ‘user agency’ are discussed, along with the ‘performativity’ of spaces. Central to the discussion is the function of narrative in engaging the participant to construct new perspectives, which are facilitated by the mediating role of personal media devices between subject, narrative, space and community.