Outcomes of effective explanations: Empowering citizens through online advice

Online advisory services are increasingly being adopted by modern service organisations as an effective way of interacting with their customers. However, despite their importance, our understanding of the value of online advisory services is limited, particularly in the e-government context. Systematic studies addressing design guidelines and best practices for online advisory tools are sparse. This study experimentally investigates the key role that effective online advisory tools play in generating a sense of empowerment among consumers in a government-citizen context. Our findings indicate that tools that have ‘enhanced’ explanatory facilities lead to both improved decision-process satisfaction and decision-advice transparency, in line with prior theory. Further, the study extends the theory on explanations and service design by showing that the higher levels of satisfaction and transparency flow on to empowerment effects, namely a higher sense of control and a lower perceived power distance. A further positive outcome is the improved perceptions of the service provider, in this case the government agency.     

Online information search and decision making: Effects of web search stance

A naturalistic online information search exposes individuals to multiple sites and conflicting perspectives. In this study, we evaluated how the holistic stance of a web search toward a product influences purchasing decisions. We recruited 109 participants who completed an initial product choice task regarding bottled water, a brief Internet search, and then a second post-search product choice task. Internet searches were analyzed to identify query terms, site visits, and stance. Results show that query terms influenced the types of sites obtained in a search, which in turn shaped the overall search stance. Participants were more likely to buy bottled water when they visited websites that emphasized environmental, economic, or health benefits for bottled water (i.e., positive stance). Participants who were asked to focus on environmental issues were less likely to buy bottled water unless packaged in recycled plastic.     

铁路货车轴承在线故障诊断智能系统研究

为满足铁路重载货运车辆对运行设备故障预测的需求,本文设计了一种基于轴承状态监控的智能在线监测系统。为有利于检测轴承的早期故障,选用抗干扰和灵敏度都较强的声发射(AE)信号,用ARM微处理器对信号进行处理,利用基于无线传感器网络的无线信息传输网络体系进行数据传输,用小波包分解与支持向量机算法实现故障诊断与预测。文章针对铁路货车滚动轴承故障的实际情况,将支持向量机(SVM)方法引入货车轴承的智能故障诊断中,实现了轴承的在线智能诊断。     

An effective architecture for Decision Support Systems

Decision Support Systems (DSS) are, by nature, general- purpose systems, because they must support a variety of managers who have different decision styles and different problems. However, it seems that no effective general-purpose DSS have yet come into existence, although the components of DSS such as data base technology, modeling techniques, inexpensive graphic display etc., have progressed to the point where we should now be able to build effective DSS.This shortcoming seems to result from the following fact: Research on decision support has focused on data enlargement and model refinement, however, little attention has been paid to DSS architecture which integrates these components of DSS. It has not been well appreciated that DSS architecture itself facilitates learning about unstructured-problem solving and enables system evolution.In this paper, we propose a DSS architecture based on the study of unstructured-problem solving and considerations of the needs of managers as non-computer specialists. We illustrate this with a system realized using this architecture.     

在线考试系统智能组卷策略研究

表明智能组卷在考试系统中的核心地位,介绍组卷策略的基本要求,对智能组卷的策略进行了分析和研究,提出两种实现组卷策略的算法变换方式:相对评价组卷和绝对评价组卷。     

Do men and women use feedback provided by their Decision Support Systems (DSS) differently

This study investigates the effect gender has on the use of computer-based feedback and the impact that this feedback has on mood. The decision making process of men and women are investigated via a laboratory experiment using a previously validated Decision Support System (DSS) and a commonly used and negatively framed feedback. Grounded in human-computer interaction theories highlighting the strong social component of computers and social feedback theories showing that men and women react to negative feedback differently, we argue that the commonly used outcome feedback in DSS studies will influence both the decision accuracy of male and female users and their moods differently. The results, which support our basic theoretical argument, indicate that outcome feedback (in particular the more negative outcome feedback) improved the decision accuracy of the female users compared to their male counterparts. The results also indicate that the outcome feedback affect the overall mood of men and women differently as well. The overall moods of the female subjects were significantly less positive before and after completing the task (receiving this commonly used negative form of feedback), the moods of the male subjects before and after completing the task (receiving the same negative feedback) did not change. These results not only extend prior DSS feedback studies but also highlight the need and provide support for examining gender differences in such investigations.     

Exploring the tension between transparency and datification effects of open government IS through the lens of Complex Adaptive Systems

Government agencies worldwide continue their commitment to providing open data in order to increase transparency of education, healthcare and other public services. Focusing on open government information systems (IS) that provide performance-related data, this paper explores the ongoing tension between government’s goal of transparency and the resulting largely opaque datification effects. Our research insights are derived from an empirical longitudinal study of a controversial open government IS called My School, currently providing performance data on almost 10,000 schools in Australia. We investigate the tension between transparency intended with schools’ open performance data and datification effects they create within the education system and a broader society, through the theoretical lens of Complex Adaptive Systems (CAS). Our study reveals how the tension emerges due to unpredictable use, propagation and reinterpretation of open data by more and more users. Consequently, the original meaning of data gets distorted, as these users continue to reconstruct and reinterpret ‘data’ in their own contexts and adapt their behavior in pursuit of their strategic goals. We also identify and theorize seven datification patterns underlying the tension and the ways they produce various social consequences. Based on these research contributions we discuss important strategic implications for government decision makers and identify new opportunities for future research on open government IS.