TAGUS — A user and learner modeling workbench

In this paper we will describe, outline and exemplify the functionalities and architecture of a User and Learner Modeling System called TAGUS (within the project Theory and Applications for General User/Learner-modeling Systems).TAGUS was developed with two main goals: (1) to develop a framework to represent models of users and learners where the meta-cognitive activities of learners were taken into account; and (2) to try to capture in a system some general mechanisms and techniques for user and learner modeling in the form of services.The basic idea of TAGUS is to achieve a kind of workbench where some techniques and approaches for user and learner modeling are implemented and applied. TAGUS provides a set of services, to be used by people testing methods or by applications using user models. These services, provided to external agents, embed some mechanisms for maintaining models of the users and learners. Thus, TAGUS plays a role of a user and learner modeling server.To achieve this goal, we first identified some basic mechanisms in user and learner modeling, and based on them we established a general modeling cycle. This cycle involves two main stages: the acquisition and the maintenance of the model. The different strategies and techniques are specified in separate modules or knowledge sources in TAGUS, which uses them to execute parts of that cycle. The architecture of TAGUS is composed of: a User or Learner Model (ULM); a set of maintenance functions; an acquisition engine; a reason maintenance system; a meta-reasoner and two interfaces.At the same time, TAGUS provides a language for defining the models of the users and learners, which can be used with different techniques, in order to test the models and simulate them in the system. This language is used not only to represent the models, but also as a way of establishing the communication between TAGUS and its environment.TAGUS was built incrementally around a set of core functions for the manipulation of the User or Learner Model (ULM). Other layers of this set were built where the last layer corresponds to the services TAGUS supplies.     

Universal access to information services—the need for user information and its relationship to device profiles

Users access information services with a variety of devices and with different interaction modes that depend on personal characteristics (including disabilities) and on the context of usage. With the appearance of mobile devices, the industry has focused its efforts on the standardization of device characteristics, thus giving to information providers some content adaptation facilities. However, little attention has been paid to the standardization of user profiles that will allow further customization and adaptation capabilities in mainstream services. This paper will present the authors experiences in outlining and implementing user profiles, as well as possible integration paths with device characteristics.

Valuation of online social networks taking into account users’ interconnectedness

Online social networks have been gaining increasing economic importance in light of the rising number of their users. Numerous recent acquisitions priced at enormous amounts have illustrated this development and revealed the need for adequate business valuation models. The value of an online social network is largely determined by the value of its users, the relationships between these users, and the resulting network effects. Therefore, the interconnectedness of a user within the network has to be considered explicitly to get a reasonable estimate for its economic value. Established standard business valuation models, however, do not account for these aspects sufficiently. Thus, we propose an economic model for the valuation of online social networks, which takes into account the users’ interconnectedness within the network. Furthermore, we analyze different centrality measures, which can be used to quantify users’ interconnectedness in online social networks and propose a measure which is based on the PageRank-algorithm. Finally, the practical application of the model is illustrated by an example of the European online social network XING.com.     

Managing user acceptance towards enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems – understanding the dissonance between user expectations and managerial policies

Discourse on enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems acceptance is rife among MIS scholars as they seek to comprehend the underlying psychological and environmental factors influencing user adoption behavior. Researchers are especially keen to understand why the utilization of ERP among organizational members often remains at a perfunctory level. As such, the objective of this case study on GlobalMNC's SAP implementation experience hopes to address this concern by exploring ERP users' motivational dynamics from an Expectancy perspective. Specifically, this article investigates the components of Effort-Performance Expectancy, Performance-Outcome Instrumentality and Outcome Valence as experienced by ERP users and the potential managerial actions affecting each corresponding motivational factor that may result in counter-productive dissonances.     

Who avoids location-based advertising and why? Investigating the relationship between user perceptions and advertising avoidance

This study investigates how perceptual factors are associated with mobile consumers’ avoidance of location-based mobile advertising (LBA), and whether the relationships between the perceptual factors and LBA avoidance are influenced by consumers’ mobile device usage levels. The results of a national web survey with 605 Singaporean mobile consumers show that those who find LBA impedes goals, requires sacrifice, and lacks utility are more likely to avoid it. When examining the differences of heavy, medium, and light mobile device users, the analyses reveal that the effects of perceived utility and entertainment on LBA avoidance are greater for medium and heavy users than for light users. Theoretical and practical implications of our findings are discussed, as are the limitations and suggestions for future research.     

Mind Reading — Neuroimaging as a gaze into the innermost of the psyche

Neuroscience, broadly speaking the endeavor of understanding nerve system functioning and its relation to perception, feeling, thinking, and behavior, is one of the leading fields in contemporary research. However, in order to determine the legal implications of neuroscience it is necessary in the first place to reflect on what it means to carry out an experiment with human subjects, particularly to transfer a finding from a laboratory setting to the real life world of people. This reflection will be done in the first part of this article. In its second part, this article explains basic methodological and experimental issues of fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) research, particularly the nature of the data that are generated with this technique which is considered the most important to investigate human brain function nowadays. The concluding section relates these issues to legally salient questions of neuroscience research.     

End user—IS design professional interaction — information exchange for firm profit or end user satisfaction?

In the present paper we argue that the interaction between the end user and IS design professional directly impacts the firm's profitability. A goal-driven (profit maximization) IS design strategy is set out and its implications for the end user-IS design professional interaction are detailed. It is shown that a structured information exchange between the two is necessary if the required searches are to be completed and profit maximization achieved.     

Internet Gaming Disorder: the interplay between physical activity and user–avatar relationship

Understanding both the risk and protective factors associated with Internet Gaming Disorder (IGD) has been viewed by many in the gaming studies field as an area of research priority. The present study focused on the potential risk and protective effects of user–avatar (game figure) relationship and physical activity (PA), respectively. To address these aims, a cross-sectional and a longitudinal mixed-methods design were combined (comprising both psychological and physiological assessments). A sample of 121 emerging adult gamers (18–29 years) residing in Australia, who played massively multiplayer online games, were assessed in relation to their IGD behaviours using the nine-item Internet Gaming Disorder Scale – Short Form. Additionally, the Proto-Self-Presence (PSP) scale was used to evaluate the extent to which gamers identified with the body of their avatar. Finally, a PA monitor (Fitbit Flex) measured levels of energy consumed during real-world daily activities (active minutes). A number of linear regressions and moderation analyses were conducted. Findings confirmed that PSP functioned as an IGD risk factor and that PA acted protectively, weakening the association between PSP and IGD behaviours. Implications of these findings are discussed in relation to IGD treatment and gaming development aspects.     

The faster the better? Innovation speed and user interest in open source software

It is often believed that for open source software (OSS) projects the faster the release, the better for attracting user interest in the software. Whether this is true, however, is still open to question. There is considerable information asymmetry between OSS projects and potential users as project quality is unobservable to users. We suggest that innovation speed of OSS project can signal the unobservable project quality and attract users’ interest in downloading and using the software. We contextualize innovation speed of OSS projects as initial release speed and update speed and examine their impacts on user interest. Drawing on the signaling theory, we propose a signaling effect through which a higher initial release speed or update speed increases user interest, while the effect diminishes as initial release or update speed increases. Using a large-scale panel data set from 7442 OSS projects on SourceForge between 2007 and 2010, our results corroborate the inverted U-shaped relationships between initial release speed and user downloads and between update speed and user downloads.     

Task orientation and user‐oriented dialog design

Work psychologists have introduced a concept, in which dialog design is a part of task design. A set of criteria of user‐oriented dialog design is presented here. These criteria are consistently integrated into a control concept. Empirical investigations on some of these criteria are then described. In an experiment to prove the criterion transparency, a desktop interface (high transparency) and a conventional menu selection interface (low transparency) were compared. The main result is the clear superiority of the user interface with direct manipulation over the conventional user interface with menu selection. Support is another of the criteria of user‐oriented dialog design that was empirically investigated. The advantages of goal‐ and task‐oriented help messages are also described here. To make the criterion flexibility and the criterion user‐definability practicable, the implementation of a dialog handler for user‐tailorable systems is introduced. The criterion participation was investigated in field studies. It will be shown that in projects with active participation the costs were exceeded to a lesser degree than in projects with passive participation and to a much lesser degree than in projects without participation.     

Outliers, inliers and the generalized least trimmed squares estimator in system identification

The least trimmed squares estimator (LTS) is a well known robust estinaator in terms of protecting the estimatefrom the outliers. Its high computational complexity is however a problem in practice. We show that the LTS estimate can be obtained by a simple algorithm with the complexity O( N In N) for large N, where N is the number of measurements. We also showthat though the LTS is robust in terms of the outliers, it is sensitive to the inliers. The concept of the inliers is introduced. Moreover, the Generalized Least Trimmed Squares estimator (GLTS) together with its solution are presented that reduces the effect of both the outliers and the inliers.     

What price usability audits? The introduction of electronic mail into a user organization

Abstract

This case study charts the course of the attempts to introduce electronic mail into a large public sector organization. It outlines the main facets and findings of a usability audit. It discusses and interprets the main messages from the evaluation, and offers a number of personal and organizaton factors other than the strict findings of an ergonomic audit that will influence the take-up of a major software application in a real-life setting.     

An emotion-aware music recommender system: bridging the user’s interaction and music recommendation

Multimedia Tools and Applications - In emotion-aware music recommender systems, the user’s current emotion is identified and considered in recommending music to him. We have two motivations...     

Outliers, inliers and the generalized least trinuned squares estimator in system identification

The least trimmed squares estimator (LTS) is a well known robust estimator in terms of protecting the estimate from the outliers. Its high computational complexity is however a problem in practice. We show that the LTS estimate can be obtained by a simple algorithm with the complexity O( N In N) for large N, where N is the number of measurements. We also show that though the LTS is robust in terms of the outliers, it is sensitive to the inliers. The concept of the inliers is introduced. Moreover, the Generalized Least Trimmed Squares estimator (GLTS) together with its solution are presented that reduces the effect of both the outliers and the inliers.     

The pleasure of being (there?): an explorative study into the effects of presence and identification on the enjoyment of an interactive theatrical performance using omnidirectional video

This study explores how participants in an immersive theatrical performance perceive their role in the virtual environment (VE) and the effects of this perception on how they experience the performance as a whole. Using a quasi-experimental 2 × 2 design, narrative and task-based search was manipulated to explore the effects on spatial presence, social presence, identification and enjoyment. Results show that the effect of spatial presence on enjoyment of the performance is entirely mediated by identification with the role of the self in the VE. This could have interesting consequences for the experience of more narrative VE’s and suggests that the role of identification is something to explore further in future presence research.