SmartMic: a smartphone-based meeting support system

Meetings play an important role in our daily lives. Verbal communication and social relationship development are the primary activities of meeting attendees. In this paper, we propose a meeting support system, namely SmartMic, to enhance user experiences and facilitate social interactions during meetings. SmartMic uses smartphone and readily available facilities in common meeting venues to support easy speaking and establishing new social connections. Meeting attendees in the system speak through smartphone instead of microphone and contact with each other conveniently. Preliminary experiment results show that SmartMic can facilitate the social interaction among attendees and promote the meeting productivity efficiently.     

Using a bilingual group support system

Differences in language and culture among participants in a meeting can present tremendous barriers to efficient and effective communication. Cultural and lingual barriers are becoming increasingly important issues to international managers as businesses continue to expand globally. This paper describes a group support system (GSS) which reduces many of these lingual and cultural barriers in groups composed of Spanish and English speakers.     

Effects of group support system and task type on social influencesin small groups

This paper reports the findings of an empirical research on the effect of group support system (GSS) and task type on social influences in small groups. It examines the task type with an intellective task and a preference task, and analyzes social influences in terms of informational and normative influence. The main findings are: (1) informational influence dominated in intellective task groups whereas normative influence dominated in preference task groups; and (2) a GSS amplified informational influence in intellective task groups and attenuated normative influence in preference task groups. The paper suggests further research using varying levels of GSS support and different task types to gain a deeper understanding of the impact of GSS and task type on social influences in small groups     

Developing a group decision support system based on fuzzy information axiom

Information axiom, one of two axioms of axiomatic design methodology which is proposed to improve a design, is used to select the best design among proposed designs. In the literature, there are a lot of studies related to using of information axiom for the solution of decision making problems. Moreover, applications of information axiom have been increasing day by day. However, calculation procedure of information axiom is not only incommodious but also difficult for decision makers. In this paper, a decision support system (DSS) based on fuzzy information axiom (FIA) is developed in order to make this decision procedure easy. The developed system consists of a knowledge base module including facts and rules, inference engine module including FIA and aggregation method, and a user interface module including entrance windows. The main aim of this study is to present a DSS tool to help the decision makers to solve their decision problems by modifying data-base of the program. In this paper, an application procedure will be presented based on the optimal selection of location for emergency service to illustrate the implementation procedure of the proposed model.     

The effects of a group decision support system on culturally diverse and culturally homogeneous group decision making

Considerable research has been conducted over the last decade on the effects of using Group Decision Support Systems (GDSS) in group decision making. Studies have examined the influence of GDSS on such variables as group task, size, quality of decision, and satisfaction with the process. However, only a few studies have focused on the use of GDSS and its interaction with group composition. This study compared the effects of group decision making, both with and without GDSS technology, on culturally diverse and homogeneous groups. Group performance was measured by the number of non-redundant, realistic ideas and the quality of solution produced in response to posed problems. The GDSS used in the study was Vision Quest. Groups using it, regardless of cultural make up, developed a significantly higher number of non-redundant, realistic ideas than groups that did not. Furthermore, among groups using the GDSS, culturally diverse groups produced a significantly higher number of non-redundant, realistic ideas than homogeneous groups that used the GDSS. Implications for diversity management and group support research are suggested.     

Integrating new information and communication technologies in a group decision support system

We view group decision making as a collaborative process, where decision makers can establish a common belief on the dimensions of the problem by following a series of well-defined communicative actions. Having first defined these actions, this paper reports on the exploitation of recent advances in information and communication technology, which can be used to: (i) remove the communication impediments among spatially dispersed decision makers; (ii) efficiently elicit and represent the domain of knowledge; (iii) develop efficient mechanisms to structure and consistently maintain the decision analysis; and (iv) automate the decision making process itself. Automation concerns coherence and consistency checking, detection of contradictions, truth maintenance, and information retrieval techniques.     

Learning leadership skills in a simulated business environment

In today’s unstable market economy, individuals have to be skilled to work efficiently in constantly changing and complex situations. Thus, graduate students have to be trained to cope with unpredictable situations before they enter the workforce. They need to exercise occupational skills, such as leadership skills, during higher education. Simulation gaming opens up possibilities for active learning of the leadership and other occupational skills needed in complex work environments. The aim of this study is to explore if participation in business simulation gaming sessions can make different leadership types visible and if the simulation gaming sessions provide students with experiences beneficial for the development of leadership skills. In the experiment, a group of multicultural graduate business students (N = 41) participated in gaming sessions with a computerised business simulation game. The participants played the game in virtual teams; some teams had a “satellite member” geographically distant from the rest of the team members. Data consist of the teams’ observations during the simulation game and students’ reflective essays written after the gaming sessions. The results indicate that in the business simulation gaming environment, certain leadership characteristics emerged spontaneously. Experiences about leadership varied between the teams and were dependent on the role individual students had in their team. However, it can be concluded that simulation gaming environment has the potential to be used in higher education to exercise the leadership skills relevant in real-world work contexts.     

Implementation of a group decision support system utilizing collective memory

Collective memory has been characterized as a socially articulated and maintained reality of the past—one form being organizational memory. The collective memory concept can also be specialized to a group level and used to support work groups engaged in repetitive decision-making activities. The advantages of capturing collective memory are many, including simplification of the process, codification of decision strategies, carryover of knowledge when group composition changes, etc. While there has been substantial research in group decision-making, the explicit use of collective memory to support repetitive decision-making has received less attention. This paper describes the development and implementation of a collective memory based environment for support of a multi-attribute, iterative decision process. The environment utilized hypermedia, groupware, and Intranet technologies. Results of its use are encouraging.     

A decision support system for personnel scheduling in a manufacturing environment

A Decision Support System (DSS) is developed to support managers in the task of scheduling labor in the area of manufacturing. The DSS is designed to generate labor requirements by worker category and work center based on master production schedules. It is a PC-based, menu-driven program that generates a capacity plan based on data supplied by the user of the system.     

基于UML的环境空间决策支持系统的分析与设计

统一建模语言(UML)是一种面向对象,定义明确的可视化系统建模语言,在地理信息系统工程的分析和设计中已逐渐被采用。以福建省海岸带环境调控空间决策支持系统为例,简述了系统建设背景和基本功能需求,研究了统一建模语言(UML)在空间决策支持系统分析和设计中的应用。重点提出了以系统需求用例图、活动图,类图和序列图为核心的UML辅助空间数据建模的基本原理和方法,并结合具体示例给出了基本操作流程过程和软件文档制品,最后给出了系统实现结果的典型用户界面。     

Online and off-line visualization of meeting information and meeting support

In current meeting research we see modest attempts to visualize the information that has been obtained by either capturing and, probably more importantly, by interpreting the activities that take place during a meeting. The meetings being considered take place in smart meeting rooms. Cameras, microphones and other sensors capture meeting activities. Captured information can be stored and retrieved. Captured information can also be manipulated and in turn displayed on different media. We survey our research in this area, look at issues that deal with turn-taking and gaze behavior of meeting participants, influence and talkativeness, and virtual embodied representations of meeting participants. We stress that this information is interesting not only for real-time meeting support, but also for remote participants and off-line consultation of meeting information.     

Developing an effective support system for inquiry learning in a Web-based environment

Abstract Sixty-five teams of basic and secondary school students solved problem-solving tasks during a virtual hike in a Web-based inquiry-learning simulation 'Hiking Across Estonia'. This environment provided learners with all necessary background information for problem-solving and tools for carrying out experiments. There were 25 tasks in certain order about ecological and environmental issues. The teams were clustered according to the data about participants, the results of the pre- and post-test, and their achievement in problem-solving tasks of the virtual hike. Only two out of five clusters were regarded as effective in solving problems and analysing tables, graphs, figures, and photos. The others had difficulties in forming contextual or task and process awareness. A support system for increasing the effectiveness of inquiry learning and enhancing their development of analytical skills was developed on the basis of the strategies that the members of five clusters had used in solving the problems, their achievement in solving the tasks during the virtual hike and in the pre- and post-test, and the personal data about the teams. The support system contained different notes before solving the problems and changed sequence of the tasks on the virtual hike for some clusters. The usage of this system was evaluated in a second study with 60 teams. The comparison of two studies demonstrated significant effectiveness of the support system to both general problem-solving ability and analytical skills. The characteristics of each cluster and the influence of the support system are discussed in this paper.     

A decision support system for real-time order management in a heterogeneous production environment

In today's competitive market, many companies are morphing from the traditional new build, single brand, and silo environments to facilities accommodating diverse business missions. The later are called heterogeneous production environments in which the different business channels share their final production stage (shipping) to enable competitive advantages. In these production environments, at the operational level, the critical success factors are customer satisfaction, on-time delivery, product complexities, supply allocation, and resource utilization. At the strategic level, the success factors are revenue, customer urgency, and sales impact. This study proposes an End-to-End Customer Order Management System (E2E COMS) focusing on effective utilization of individual and shared resources to support real-time order management and mitigate risk of managing diverse missions. The proposed system consists of three integrated tools: Order Prioritization Tool (OPT) to assess and prioritize customer orders for each business channel, Order Fulfillment Progress Projection Tool (OFPPT) to predict the expected remaining order completion time considering inventory and resource capacity constraints, and risk mitigation tool to assess the risk of missing an order shipment due to shipping constraints. A real-time dashboard is developed to visualize the prioritized customer orders, expected time to arrive at the shipping area, shipping instructions, and two-dimensional risk assessment charts. The proposed system can effectively be used for shipping capacity management as well as prompt decision making.     

基于云计算和WebGIS的河口水环境决策支持系统

为了进一步强化水环境模型的模拟和预报能力,结合云计算、WebGIS等先进计算机技术,基于B/S三层架构开发模式,构建一个河口水环境决策支持系统。云计算性能分析结果表明,云计算对模型串行计算速度提升效果不大,对并行计算速度提升效果显著。系统简化繁杂的专业操作,强化模型的模拟和预报能力,为闽江水务管理部门提供决策支持,可进一步推广应用于其他河口的水环境管理。     

复杂大群体决策支持系统结构及实现技术研究

复杂大群体的出现给群决策支持系统的开发带来了新的问题,针对复杂大群体决策支持系统开发的复杂性,提出了一种面向复杂大群体的群决策支持系统结构,系统结构以决策问题求解为导向。首先设计了复杂决策问题求解流程和方法,然后提出了系统处理流程,在此基础上构建了系统的层次结构和功能结构,并对其中的实现技术进行了深入的研究,以期辅助面向复杂大群体的群决策支持系统的开发。     

Effects of time pressure and communication environment on team processes and outcomes in dyadic planning

An experiment compared dyadic performance in a radio communication and a more sophisticated communication environment to face-to-face (FtF) meetings. Thirty-six dyads, working under low or high time-pressure conditions, needed to combine information and to produce a written plan. Teams working in the sophisticated communication environment collaborated from separate locations over a networked computer system allowing them to share a note-taking program, work in parallel, and exchange in real-time audio as well as video. Results revealed detrimental effects of time pressure on both team processes and outcomes, and supported our hypothesis that distributed teams can perform as well as FtF teams. No differences were found between FtF teams and teams working in the sophisticated communication environment on process and outcome measures, except for the quantity of performance: The sophisticated communication environment enabled distributed teams to work on the task more rapidly than their FtF counterparts. Radio teams produced plans of lower quality and were less satisfied with the quality of their planning process than FtF teams.     

Locating group members in a mobile environment

The Internet Engineering Task Force lists multicasting as a desired service for our future mobile computing environment. To provide this service, location management of a group of users involved in a multicasting application needs to be addressed. In this paper, we propose two protocols that can be used by a group of mobile hosts to share their current location with other group members efficiently.     

基于群体研讨支持系统的项目管理系统研究

项目管理在各行各业被广泛应用,目前市场上的项目管理软件虽然功能强大,但在实际的项目管理中常常不能得到很好的应用,甚至在某些项目中根本难以使用。首先考查当前项目管理软件的应用问题,提出了项目管理系统的需求。在此基础上,从项目管理过程、项目管理知识领域及项目利益相关人员三个角度抽象出项目管理框架,用来组织群体活动,并设计了基于群体研讨支持系统的项目管理信息系统,实现以项目利益相关人员为中心,对项目信息进行全方位的集成。并根据项目管理的信息需求,描述了该系统如何实现项目信息管理的需求。     

企业集团分布式数据仓库及决策支持系统研究

为了构建支持企业集团决策分析的信息系统,分析了企业集团决策支持系统信息模型,给出了面向整个集团的基于分布式数据仓库的企业集团决策支持系统的体系结构;通过定义决策方案模型及决策任务模型,提出了模型驱动的企业集团决策支持系统解决方案,并给出了决策任务模型并行执行算法。应用表明,该体系结构是可行且有效的。