Personal information retrieval: smartphones vs. computers,emails vs. files

Millions of people retrieve their emails and files using their smartphones, yet smartphone retrieval of such personal information has never been studied or compared to retrievals from PCs. In our within-subjects study, we compared the retrievals of our 57 participants in four conditions: files using PCs, emails using PCs, files using smartphones, and emails using smartphones. Our results indicate that when using smartphones, retrievals were significantly less successful and efficient than when using PCs, casting doubt on the implicit assumption that the use of these devices is equivalent. Our results also indicate that participants used the search facility for emails about seven times more than for files, which can encourage vendors to invest more efforts in improving email search engines and file navigation systems. Finally, we found that the tendency to search shows interpersonal differences but consistency across different situations for the same individual and therefore can be regarded as a personal trait. Future research can attempt to explain the search tendency trait in terms of cognitive abilities and personality traits, incorporating it to well-established theories. This may pave the way to a new trait-related theory in the field of information science.     

Personal computing vs. personal computers

Most discussion of personal computers in organizations focuses on a peripheral issue: the choice between distributed computer hardware and central computer hardware — between personal computers and mainframes. The real issue has nothing to do with personal computers or other hardware; it is the difference between organizational computing and personal computing in organizational information systems. This paper discusses the differences between organizational computing and personal computing, the connections between the organizational and the personal computing systems within organizations, and the role of MIS.     

Graphical input: Can computers understand people?

Computer graphics provides a primary means of interaction between architects and CAD systems. It is argued that existing graphical input procedures to CAD systems are universally bad. Conventional drawing operations are described in order to identify required properties of good input systems. Inadequacies of current systems are traced to choice of computing technology and the study discusses opportunities offered by new technology, as in the example of Prolog.     

Evolution of attitudes toward computers: a retrospective view

Abstract

This article reviews three previous factor analysis based studies of aggregate attitudes concerning the computer milieu and compares them with a recent one done by the authors; the four studies span almost twenty years. While providing a useful basis for making generalizations about current perceptions of the computer's role, the latest study also sought to determine whether there was a group of persons who were fearful or anxious about the computer, whose concerns were masked in studies of aggregate attitudes. By using an instrument that was evaluated by an expert in phobic behaviour, it was possible to identify a populationthat was significantly different from the general population in attitude toward computers. The value of the current study, then, is two-fold. It makes possible a retrospective view of aggregate perceptions of the general population about computers and also offers a glimpse of the attributes of those computer phobic or anxious persons who have not yet adapted to computer technology.     

Evolution of attitudes toward computers: a retrospective view

This article reviews three previous factor analysis based studies of aggregate attitudes concerning the computer milieu and compares them with a recent one done by the authors; the four studies span almost twenty years. While providing a useful basis for making generalizations about current perceptions of the computer's role, the latest study also sought to determine whether there was a group of persons who were fearful or anxious about the computer, whose concerns were masked in studies of aggregate attitudes. By using an instrument that was evaluated by an expert in phobic behaviour, it was possible to identify a populationthat was significantly different from the general population in attitude toward computers. The value of the current study, then, is two-fold. It makes possible a retrospective view of aggregate perceptions of the general population about computers and also offers a glimpse of the attributes of those computer phobic or anxious persons who have not yet adapted to computer technology.     

On the performance of COBOL programs in large vs. mini computers

The comparative performance characteristics of COBOL programs in a small versus large computer systems are investigated. The vehicle consists of a set of synthetic benchmark COBOL programs, each measuring a particular aspect of COBOL computations, data manipulation, and input/output is made on both a large scale computer (IBM 370/158) and a minicomputer (Texas Instruments TI980). Results of a number of such experiments are presented and comparisons made between results obtained from the two systems.     

The decade takes shape: computers in healthcare for the 90's

The healthcare industry in the 1990s will continue to be driven by the three primary issues that emerged in the '80s--the need to improve productivity, profitability and quality of care. The critical difference for the '90s, however, is that these issues will reach a crisis point that will demand resolution.     

Sexualities and technologies: How vibrators help to explain computers

In this article, I stress the importance of focusing on sexualities in critical analyses of computer technologies. Using the example of late nineteenth and early twentieth century vibrators, I demonstrate that by studying historically remote, predigital technologies, students can develop the language and analytical skills needed to interrogate the mutual construction of sexualities and computer technologies. Furthermore, I argue that examining the intersections of sexualities and computer technologies is especially important in networked computer classrooms where students’ sexual identities and concepts of sexuality not only shape interactions with peers and with technologies but can determine the quality of the educational experience for all.     

Social meaning of personal computers for managers and professionals: methodology and results

The social meaning of personal computers for 34 managers and professionals was measured using a situational approach. The results, in general, indicated a positive perception towards computers within the context of their work situations. The methodology was developed in an attempt to overcome some of the difficulties of traditional measures of attitudes. The advantages and the limitations of the method, as well as the process by which impressions are formed, are discussed.     

SME Network Characteristics vs. Product Innovativeness: How to Achieve High Innovation Performance

Small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) must on the one hand innovate for company survival with the appropriate degree of product innovativeness, and on the other they need to collaborate and focus on core competences for efficiency matters. This research examines the relation of network characteristics and product innovativeness on innovation performance in SMEs. We tested hypotheses on the relationship between these three variables via data gathered from 60 SMEs, active in the medical devices sector. In this context we aim to offer consensus on the theoretical and empirical question of whether or not network characteristics and product innovativeness have a direct effect on innovation performance of SMEs. Results show no significant direct effect of product innovativeness on innovation performance. A positive interaction effect of multiple network characteristics on innovation performance was found, which confirms the significant importance of network configuration on innovation performance for SMEs. It indicates that, for SMEs in a highly regulated sector like the medical devices sector, the interaction of network characteristics is of crucial importance for high innovation performance. It is the combination of network characteristics that counts.     

Seed Selection for Spread of Influence in Social Networks: Temporal vs. Static Approach

The problem of finding optimal set of users for influencing others in the social network has been widely studied. Because it is NP-hard, some heuristics were proposed to find sub-optimal solutions. Still, one of the commonly used assumption is the one that seeds are chosen on the static network, not the dynamic one. This static approach is in fact far from the real-world networks, where new nodes may appear and old ones dynamically disappear in course of time. The main purpose of this paper is to analyse how the results of one of the typical models for spread of influence - linear threshold - differ depending on the strategy of building the social network used later for choosing seeds. To show the impact of network creation strategy on the final number of influenced nodes - outcome of spread of influence, the results for three approaches were studied: one static and two temporal with different granularities, i.e. various number of time windows. Social networks for each time window encapsulated dynamic changes in the network structure. Calculation of various node structural measures like degree or betweenness respected these changes by means of forgetting mechanism - more recent data had greater influence on node measure values. These measures were, in turn, used for node ranking and their selection for seeding. All concepts were applied to experimental verification on five real datasets. The results revealed that temporal approach is always better than static and the higher granularity in the temporal social network while seeding, the more finally influenced nodes. Additionally, outdegree measure with exponential forgetting typically outperformed other time-dependent structural measures, if used for seed candidate ranking.     

Graph cuts with many-pixel interactions: Theory and applications to shape modelling

Many problems in computer vision can be posed in terms of energy minimization, where the relevant energy function models the interactions of many pixels. Finding the global or near-global minimum of such functions tends to be difficult, precisely due to these interactions of large (>3)$(>3)$ numbers of pixels. In this paper, we derive a set of sufficient conditions under which energies which are functions of discrete binary variables may be minimized using graph cut techniques. We apply these conditions to the problem of incorporating shape priors in segmentation. Experimental results demonstrate the validity of this approach.     

Phonetic Searching vs. LVCSR: How to Find What You Really Want in Audio Archives

A new technique is presented for searching digital audio at the word/phrase level. Unlike previous methods based upon Large Vocabulary Continuous Speech Recognition (LVCSR, with inherent problems of closed vocabulary and high word error rate), phonetic searching combines high speed and accuracy, supports open vocabulary, imposes low penalty for new words, permits phonetic and inexact spelling, enables user-determined depth of search, and is amenable to parallel execution for highly scalable deployment. A detailed comparison of accuracy between phonetic searching and one popular embodiment of LVCSR is presented along with other operating characteristics of the new technique. The current implementation for Digital Media Asset Management (DMAM) is described along with suggested applications in other domains.     

Real people and virtual bodies: How disembodied can embodiment be?

It is widely accepted that embodiment is crucial for any self-aware agent. What is less obvious is whether the body has to be real, or whether a virtual body will do. In that case the notion of embodiment would be so attenuated as to be almost indistinguishable from disembodiment. In this article I concentrate on the notion of embodiment in human agents. Could we be disembodied, having no real body, as brains-in-a-vat with only a virtual body? Thought experiments alone will not suffice to answer this Cartesian question. I will draw on both philosophical arguments and empirical data on phantom phenomena. My argument will proceed in three steps. Firstly I will show that phantom phenomena provide a prima facie argument that real embodiment is not necessary for a human being. Secondly I will give a philosophical argument that real movement must precede the intention to move and to act. Agents must at least have had real bodies once. Empirical data seems to bear this out. Finally, however, I will show that a small number of aplasic phantom phenomena undermines this last argument. Most people must have had a real body. But for some people a partly virtual, unreal, phantom body seems to suffice. Yet though there is thus no knockdown argument that we could not be brains-in-a-vat, we still have good reasons to suppose that embodiment must be real, and not virtual.     

Consumer reactions toward clicks and bricks: investigating buying behaviour on-line and at stores

The development of the world wide web created a new sales channel for retailers, and many thousands of companies have attempted to take advantage of this new method for reaching customers. Analysis of the 2000 stock market collapse suggests that business models relying on both internet ('clicks') and physical ('bricks') presences may be the most successful. Internet business problems include the need to structure internal and external business processes to serve customers appropriately, the need to provide adequate technological and physical infrastructures, and the need to understand customer consumption processes in 'virtual' and physical environments. The purpose of this research is to provide insight into these problems by investigating consumer beliefs and preferences about shopping on-line and in physical stores. We developed a research model and then performed an empirical investigation using two studies. Results and implications of the findings for business strategy are discussed.     

How membrane properties shape the discharge of motoneurons: a detailed analytical study

Electrophysiological experiments and modeling studies have shown that afterhyperpolarization regulates the discharge of lumbar motoneurons in anesthetized cats and is an important determinant of their firing properties. However, it is still unclear how firing properties depend on slow afterhyperpolarization, input conductance, and the fast currents responsible for spike generation. We study a single-compartment integrate-and-fire model with a slow potassium conductance that exponentially decays between spikes. We show that this model is analytically solvable, and we investigate how passive and active membrane properties control the discharge. We show that the model exhibits three distinct firing ranges (primary, secondary, and high frequency), and we explain the origin of these three ranges. Explicit expressions are established for the gain of the steady-state current-frequency (I-f) curve in the primary range and for the gain of the I-f curve for the first interspike interval. They show how the gain is controlled by the maximal conductance and the kinetic parameters of the afterhyperpolarization conductance. The gain also depends on the spike voltage threshold, and we compute how it is decreased by threshold accommodation (i.e., the increase of the threshold with the injected current). In contrast, the gain is not very sensitive to the input conductance. This implies that tonic synaptic activity shifts the current-frequency curve in its primary range, in agreement with experiments. Taking into account the absolute refractory period associated with spikes somewhat reduces the gain in the primary range. More importantly, it accounts for the approximately linear and steep secondary range observed in many motoneurons. In the nonphysiological high-frequency range, the behavior of the I-f curve is determined by the fast voltage-dependent currents, via the amplitude of the fast repolarization afterspike, the duration of the refractory period, and voltage threshold accommodation, if present.