Sisyphus and the social construction of computer user problems

Abstract. This article argues that one way of understanding the role of technical developments in computers is to consider them as solutions looking for problems, rather than as solutions to pre-existing problems. This reversal of popular opinion is premised on an analysis of the way that boundaries are drawn around the domain of the 'technical' such that computer users can be kept at a distance and their interpretation of computer user problems 'managed' more or less successfully by those purporting to resolve such problems. The result is that users are faced with a labour of Sisyphus: just when they thought they had resolved their problems another technical 'advance' suddenly appears and generates another problem. An awareness of the social framework for such developments may facilitate a clearer appreciation of the role of the problem solver in the construction of the problem itself.     

A rule-based system for automatic assignment of technicians to service faults

We present a model and a prototype system for the assignment of technicians to handle computer system faults (including hardware, software and communications) that are reported by users connected to the organization's computer network. The model attempts to simulate the assignment process of technicians, as carried out by the manager of a help desk. The model has been developed on the basis of a detailed study of the process of handling faults and the assignment of technicians in a number of organizations.In order to validate the model, simulation tests have been carried out, designed to compare the results of the model's assignment process, in hundreds of cases, against assignments carried out by experts who participated in the experiments. The results show that in 48% of the cases, the system's assignment of technicians was better than that of the experts, and that in 92% of the cases, the system achieved results as good or better than did the experts.     

Going to work on an Apple: factors affecting microcomputer use in business organizations

Abstract. The use of computers in organizations may be influenced by both technical and social factors. In addition, the way in which these factors operate in any specific organization may be affected by the particular type of computer being used. This paper reports the results of semistructured interviews with users of Apple Macintosh computers in three different organizations. The relevance of factors identified in earlier interviews with academic Macintosh users to the use of microcomputers in the business context is considered. It was found that, while there was considerable individual variation in attitudes to microcomputer use, many of the factors identified in the earlier study were also present in the business organizations. Some reasons for the attitudes found are discussed.     

A practical approach to workstation cost-justification

Over the last couple of years several tools have emerged which help intending users of technical computing systems to estimate cost-effectiveness. Most of these are variants or derivatives of the popular BANG approach, but recent research on workstation performance has thrown useful light on the problem. Workstations are too new a phenomenon for the theory to be rigorously defensible, but the indications are strong enough for useful implications to be drawn. They cover not only the raw processing power of the workstation, but also the effects of display interfacing, operating system performance, and networking method. Some preliminary conclusions are drawn. Some of the background theory is only implied, as this paper is aimed at the likely user of such systems rather than computer or social scientists.     

Computer consultants' views of user participation in the system development process

The form of user participation adopted in any system development process is commonly argued to be an important determinant of its outcome. This study investigated computer consultants' experiences and views of different forms of user participation in the system development process. Thirty-four consultants from 14 Swedish companies of three different sizes filled out a questionnaire (response rate 47%). The results indicated that the consultants viewed both external factors and their own roles as guiding the degree of user participation. The consultants reported that reference groups, seminars/meetings and user testing were common forms of user participation in projects introducing existing programs into organizations and that seminars/meetings, users in project groups and reference groups, were the most common user participation forms in projects developing new programs for an organization. In both contexts, user testing was reported to be most common in the operation/administration phase of the project. The majority of consultants considered union participation to be fairly unimportant. Further, it was found that questionnaires were seldom used for data collection in projects. Finally, the consultants did not appear to categorize development projects by the type of user participation employed in the projects.     

Creativity and evolution: a metadesign perspective

Abstract

In a world that is not predictable, improvisation and evolution are more than a luxury: they are a necessity. The challenge of design is not a matter of getting rid of the emergent, but rather of making it an opportunity for more creative and more sustainable solutions. User-centered and participatory design approaches have focused primarily on activities taking place at design time. These approaches have not given enough emphasis and they have provided few mechanisms to support systems as living entities that can evolve over time. Metadesign is a unique design approach concerned with opening up solution spaces rather than complete solutions (hence the prefix meta-), and aimed at creating social and technical infrastructures in which new forms of collaborative design can take place. This approach extends the traditional notion of design beyond the original development of a system to include co-adaptive processes between users and systems that enable the users to act as designers in personally meaningful activities and be creative.     

How political processes shaped the IT adopted by a small make-to-order company: a case study in the insulated wire and cable industry

This paper explores how political processes shape the information technology (IT) systems implemented by small-medium sized firms. Systems designers, consultants and users often interpret technology in different ways. This may result in the implementation of inappropriate systems. Small business managers work on short time scales and may be more concerned with operational matters rather than strategic considerations. A case study of CableCo, a small make-to-order company, is used to explore the political processes that shaped the selection and implementation of the Company’s IT system. The incongruence between the ‘technological frames’ of the stakeholders is examined. Researchers, consultants and managers will learn that the implementation of IT is determined by the dominant ‘frame’.     

融合社交网络和兴趣的正则化矩阵分解推荐模型

针对目前用户偏好数据和社交关系数据十分稀疏的问题,以及用户可能更加喜欢朋友推荐的商品而不喜欢非朋友推荐的商品这样一个事实,提出了一种结合社交网络和用户间的兴趣偏好相似度的正则化矩阵分解推荐算法,首先针对社交关系数据稀疏问题,利用网络的全局和局部拓扑特性挖掘出用户间的信任和不信任关系矩阵,然后定义了一种改进的用户间的兴趣偏好相似度计算方法,最后在矩阵分解的过程中将信任矩阵、不信任矩阵以及兴趣相关性综合起来为用户作出推荐。实验表明该方法优于主要的正则化推荐方法,与基本的矩阵分解模型（SocialMF）、SoRec、TrustMF、CTRPMF、RecSSN算法相比,算法在均方根误差（RMSE）和平均绝对误差（MAE）上分别减小了1.1%~9.5%和2%~10.1%,取得了较好的推荐效果。     

学校公用机房数据安全策略的探讨与实践

针对学校公用机房的开放环境,使用频率、使用者水平等因素.基于管理者、使用者普遍关注的数据安全问题.从机房环境、数据还原、病毒预防、机房制度等方面进行了机房数据安全策略的探讨与实践,收到了很好的效果.     

Working environment: Organizational,technological and social problems of computerization

This paper deals with the relations between technological, social, and human development. These relations can formally be described as the working environment. The total man-environment-system is analyzed and subdivided into its different constituents. The different factors influencing the working man are classified according to their significance for physical, psycho-physical and psycho-mental stresses on the human being.The author's main argument is that the working environment needs to be humanized. As this environment is a result of the design of social production systems, the systems designers have to not only feel the responsibility for designing more humanized systems, but need a more social education too. Hence, informatics should not be regarded only as a technical discipline but rather as an aspect of social sciences.The point is that we need computerization because we need the development of the productive forces - but that we want it on human conditions. Therefore the crucial question is which attitudes should the edp-specialist have rather than what knowledge they should have.     

计算机病毒及其发展趋势

通过对计算机病毒的基本属性以及结构的介绍,提高网络用户对计算机病毒的理解。分析和总结计算机病毒的发展趋势,介绍计算机病毒所采用的隐藏、多形性、社会工程、动态更新、混合攻击、数据关联、新型媒介、速度为王、恶意攻击、跨越平台等十大技术及发展方向,为科研技术人员和反病毒厂商防治计算机病毒提供有价值的参考。     

The information center approach for developing computer-based information systems

Organizations which have used computers for a number of years are well acquainted with the software maintenance problem and the new-application development backlog. The first exists because computer programs require various types of changes throughout their life. The second has been created because so many systems development staff have to be assigned to software maintenance, and because many computer users have recognized the value of additional computer applications in their organization.It is believed that the concept of end-user computing has been used to relieve the new application development backlog in many organizations. In some, information centers have been implemented partly to support the development of computer applications by end-users. A survey was conducted to determine to what extent the information center approach is being used. Over one-half of the responding organizations reported their use. The survey included an identification of the functions provided by information centers to end-users and the responsibilities of both information center consultants and end-users. Recommendations are presented.     

A tale of two coalitions – marginalising the users while successfully implementing an enterprise resource planning system

Classic analyses of system implementations view user participation as a key element for successful implementation. However, under some conditions, avoiding user participation offers an alternative route to a successful implementation; this is advisable especially when the user network is weak and aligning user needs with the technological capabilities will take too much resource. To illustrate such situation, we analyse how a successful implementation outcome of an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system emerged in a recently established conglomeration of two previously independent universities. The ERP was used to replace several legacy student administration systems for both political and functional reasons. It was deemed successful by both project consultants and the new university's management while the users were marginalised (‘black boxed’) and left to ‘pick up the pieces’ of an incomplete system using traditional methods such as shadow systems and work‐a‐rounds. Using a process approach and an actor–network theory ‘reading’ of related socio‐technical events, we demonstrate how three networks of actors – management, the project team and the administrative users – collided and influenced the implementation outcome and how the management and project network established the ERP as a reliable ally while at the same time the users – while being enrolled in the network – were betrayed through marginalisation. Our analysis also suggests a useful way to conduct a ‘follow the network’ analysis explaining and accounting for the observed implementation outcome. We illustrate the benefits of using a socio‐technical processual analysis and show how stable actor networks must be constructed during large‐scale information technology change and how different actor groups perceive and influence differently the implementation outcome.     

Integrating ontology technology with folksonomies for personalized social tag recommendation

Social tagging systems leverage social interoperability by facilitating the searching, sharing, and exchanging of tagging resources. A major drawback of existing social tagging systems is that social tags are used as keywords in keyword-based search. They focus on keywords and human interpretability rather than on computer interpretable semantic knowledge. Therefore, social tags are useful for information sharing and organizing, but they lack the computer-interpretability needed to facilitate a personalized social tag recommendation. An interesting issue is how to automatically generate a personalized social tag recommendation list to users when a resource is accessed by users. The novel solution proposed in this study is a hybrid approach based on semantic tag-based resource profile and user preference to provide personalized social tag recommendation. Experiments show that the Precision and Recall of the proposed hybrid approach effectively improves the accuracy of social tag recommendation.     

哲学家就餐问题的算法实现

针对哲学家就餐问题这一操作系统中进程间通信的经典范例,设计了该范例的一个具有代表性的算法的技术实现方案。方案以Linux操作系统作为运行平台,通过进程而不是线程来体现哲学家的并发行为特征,以自动和随机相结合的灵活自然的人机交互模式模拟哲学家的状态,控制其状态切换;提出了两种形式的哲学家状态监控程序,它们能够生动、直观、准确地表达出哲学家状态的变化过程。字符形式的监控程序在字符终端和图形终端中均可使用,主要面向以超级终端登录到多用户Linux系统的用户;利用QT5开发的动画形式的监控程序适合在桌面Linux的图形终端中使用。     

Aggression,competition and computer games: computer and human opponents

Violence and aggression in computer games has been a concern of social commentators and an interest of media researchers for more than 10 years. Violent content has been at the top of the agenda even though aggression and hostility have been identified as a part of competitive gaming situations. The role of the opponent in this process has been largely overlooked. We examined the difference in frustration and aggression in game play after users encountered the computer as opponent and a proximate person as opponent using the same CD-ROM version of Monopoly. We found that users experienced higher levels of aggressive feelings after playing the computer than after playing a stranger face-to-face. It appears that aggression related to computer gaming may be reduced through the humanization of computer opponents.     

Socially assistive robotics [Grand Challenges of Robotics]

Socially intelligent robotics is the pursuit of creating robots capable of exhibiting natural-appearing social qualities. Beyond the basic capabilities of moving and acting autonomously, the field has focused on the use of the robot's physical embodiment to communicate and interact with users in a social and engaging manner. One of its components, socially assistive robotics, focuses on helping human users through social rather than physical interaction. Early results already demonstrate the promises of socially assistive robotics, a new interdisciplinary research area with large horizons of fascinating and much needed research. Even as socially assistive robotic technology is still in its early stages of development, the next decade promises systems that will be used in hospitals, schools, and homes in therapeutic programs that monitor, encourage, and assist their users. This is an important time in the development of the field, when the board technical community and the beneficiary populations must work together to shape the field toward its intended impact on improved human quality of life     

Who but not where: The effect of social play on immersion in digital games

The majority of digital games available today offer a variety of multi-player settings including co-located and mediated play between opponents. Immersion, the sense of being “in the game,” is one of the key components of the gaming experience but existing literature suggests that social play provides more fun but less immersion. There is however little empirical support for this. This paper therefore addresses the question: how does playing digital games in a social situation alter the sense of immersion felt by the individuals playing? This paper presents three experiments that test the relationship between social setting and immersion. The three experiments aim to manipulate the social setting in which players play, be it against a computer, against a person online or against a co-located person. Overall the three experiments show that players are more immersed when playing against another person rather than playing against a computer but there is no significant difference in immersion whether the other person is online or in the same room. This refutes previous claims about social play reducing immersion and indeed that social play enhances the sense of being in the game where interaction is through the game.     

基于位置的社交网络中基于时空关系的超网络链接预测方法

针对基于位置的社交网络（LBSN）中因现有方法未能有效融合社会因素、位置因素以及时间因素的综合影响而导致链接预测准确度低的问题,提出了一种LBSN中基于时空关系的超网络链接预测方法。首先,针对LBSN中网络的异构性以及用户间的时空关系特性,将网络划分成"时空-用户-位置-类别"四层超网络,降低影响因素间的耦合性;其次,考虑到边权值对网络的影响,通过挖掘用户影响力、隐关联关系、用户偏好以及节点度信息,对子网的边权值进行定义和量化,构建四层加权超网络模型;最后,在加权超网络模型的基础上,定义超边及加权超边结构,挖掘用户之间的多元关联关系进行预测。实验结果表明,所提方法较基于同构和异构的链接预测方法在准确率、召回率、F1值以及AUC上具有一定的提升,其中AUC指标较基于异构的链接预测方法提升了4.69%。