Managing the Inner Workings of Collective Intelligence Approaches for Wicked Problems – An Assessment Model and Evaluation

Ill-defined and complex problems that affect multiple stakeholders with potentially conflicting perspectives are often referred to as wicked problems. The utilization of collective intelligence (CI) via web-based platforms is a promising approach for addressing such wicked problems. The management of these information systems would benefit from evidence-based decision support regarding facilitation and improvement efforts. However, to date, there is no suitable model to guide such efforts. Existing approaches address specific applications or cover certain assessment areas but do not provide a holistic perspective. Meanwhile, research offers substantial insights into best practices for addressing wicked problems and running CI applications. This paper develops an assessment model comprising five central success dimensions for information systems that address wicked problems. Their subdimensions and associated measurement metrics allow for evidence-driven facilitation and improvement of CI applications for wicked problems. Apart from the model’s capability to improve future runs and processes, it also offers the potential to provide immediate insights for facilitation efforts during runtime. The model was validated with a platform dealing with the assessment of risks presented by global climate change. This evaluation generated strong evidence for the model’s applicability and usefulness

The survey on Near Field Communication

PubMed ID: 26057043Near Field Communication (NFC) is an emerging short-range wireless communication technology that offers great and varied promise in services such as payment, ticketing, gaming, crowd sourcing, voting, navigation, and many others. NFC technology enables the integration of services from a wide range of applications into one single smartphone. NFC technology has emerged recently, and consequently not much academic data are available yet, although the number of academic research studies carried out in the past two years has already surpassed the total number of the prior works combined. This paper presents the concept of NFC technology in a holistic approach from different perspectives, including hardware improvement and optimization, communication essentials and standards, applications, secure elements, privacy and security, usability analysis, and ecosystem and business issues. Further research opportunities in terms of the academic and business points of view are also explored and discussed at the end of each section. This comprehensive survey will be a valuable guide for researchers and academicians, as well as for business in the NFC technology and ecosystem.Publisher's Versio

ПРОТИДІЯ АТАКАМ НА ВІДМОВУ В МЕРЕЖІ ІНТЕРНЕТ: КОНЦЕПЦІЯ ПІДХОДУ

Робота присвячена дослідженню одного з типів вторгнень через мережу Інтернет – атакам на відмову. Описана історія виникнення проблеми та причини, що зумовили її появу. Проведено огляд існуючих видів атак. Розглянута загальна архітектура системи захисту від атак на відмову. Запропонована модель протидії атакам на основі технології інтелектуальних агентів та теорії ігор. \ud This work deals with denial of service attacks. The papers propose historic overview of the existing attacks and methods of attack detection. Intrusion detection system (IDS) architecture is investigated. We propose a novel agent-based distributed system, which integrates the desirable features provided by the distributed agent-based design methodology with the game theory. \u

An evaluation of vibration and other effects on the accuracy of grip and push force recall

Operators of vibratory hand tools can be at risk of developing health problems associated with repeated forceful actions and exposure to intense hand-transmitted vibration. To better assess health risks, comprehensive risk evaluations of these tasks must include quantitative assessments of hand-tool coupling forces. Researchers have used instrumentation for such measurements; but those techniques may be ill-suited for certain field environments. Psychophysical force-recall techniques have been proposed as alternatives to handle instrumentation. This study comprised two experiments that examined the effects of vibration and other factors upon force-recall accuracy and reliability. In each experiment, participants applied specific grip and push forces to an instrumented handle mounted on a shaker system. Participants were exposed to sinusoidal vibration at frequencies that ranged from 0 Hz to 250 Hz. Three levels of applied force and two levels of vibration magnitude were examined. During the vibration exposure period, participants were provided with visual feedback while they attempted to memorize their applied grip and push forces. Following vibration exposure and a rest period, participants tried to duplicate the hand forces without visual feedback. Vibration frequencies, magnitudes, and hand force levels were randomized from trial to trial. To evaluate test-retest reliability, the test was repeated on a later day with each participant. Participants overestimated grip and push forces. Depending on exposure conditions, error means ranged from 2 N to 10 N. The ANOVA revealed that force-recall errors for exposures between 31.5 Hz and 63 Hz were significantly higher than those at other vibration frequencies. Errors were greater when participants were exposed to the higher vibration magnitude when compared with the lower vibration magnitude. The average error for females was significantly less than that for males. The effects of force level were mixed. This method demonstrated strong test-retest reliability as correlations for all but one participant were found to be significant. Overall, recalled force errors were relatively small over the range of operationally-relevant hand-handle coupling forces and vibration exposure conditions. This force-recall technique shows promise as an alternative to expensive and fragile force-sensing instrumentation

A mapping study on documentation in Continuous Software Development

Context: With an increase in Agile, Lean, and DevOps software methodologies over the last years (collectively referred to as Continuous Software Development (CSD)), we have observed that documentation is often poor. Objective: This work aims at collecting studies on documentation challenges, documentation practices, and tools that can support documentation in CSD. Method: A systematic mapping study was conducted to identify and analyze research on documentation in CSD, covering publications between 2001 and 2019. Results: A total of 63 studies were selected. We found 40 studies related to documentation practices and challenges, and 23 studies related to tools used in CSD. The challenges include: informal documentation is hard to understand, documentation is considered as waste, productivity is measured by working software only, documentation is out-of-sync with the software and there is a short-term focus. The practices include: non-written and informal communication, the usage of development artifacts for documentation, and the use of architecture frameworks. We also made an inventory of numerous tools that can be used for documentation purposes in CSD. Overall, we recommend the usage of executable documentation, modern tools and technologies to retrieve information and transform it into documentation, and the practice of minimal documentation upfront combined with detailed design for knowledge transfer afterwards. Conclusion: It is of paramount importance to increase the quantity and quality of documentation in CSD. While this remains challenging, practitioners will benefit from applying the identified practices and tools in order to mitigate the stated challenges