Smart Communities: From Sensors to Internet of Things and to a Marketplace of Services

Our paper was inspired by the recent Society 5.0 initiative of the Japanese Government that seeks to create a sustainable human-centric society by putting to work recent advances in technology: sensor networks, edge computing, IoT ecosystems, AI, Big Data, robotics, to name just a few. The main contribution of this work is a vision of how these technological advances can contribute, directly or indirectly, to making Society 5.0 reality. For this purpose we build on a recently-proposed concept of Marketplace of Services that, in our view, will turn out to be one of the cornerstones of Society 5.0. Instead of referring to Society 5.0 directly, throughout the paper we shall define a generic Smart Community that implements a subset of the goals of Society 5.0. We show how digital technology in conjunction with the Marketplace of services can contribute to enabling and promoting sustainable Smart Communities. Very much like Society 5.0, our Smart Community can provide a large number of di verse and evolving human-centric services offered as utilities and sold on a metered basis. The services offered by the Smart Community can be synthesized, using the latest technology (e.g. 3D printing, robotics, Big Data analytics, AI, etc.), from a hierarchy of raw resources or other services. The residents of the Smart Community can purchase as much or as little of these services as they find suitable to their needs and are billed according to a pay-as-you-go business model

A Survey of Enabling Technologies for Smart Communities

In 2016, the Japanese Government publicized an initiative and a call to action for the implementation of a Super Smart Society announced as Society 5.0. The stated goal of Society 5.0 is to meet the various needs of the members of society through the provisioning of goods and services to those who require them, when they are required and in the amount required, thus enabling the citizens to live an active and comfortable life. In spite of its genuine appeal, details of a feasible path to Society 5.0 are conspicuously missing. The first main goal of this survey is to suggest such an implementation path. Specifically, we define a Smart Community as a human-centric entity where technology is used to equip the citizenry with information and services that they can use to inform their decisions. The arbiter of this ecosystem of services is a Marketplace of Services that will reward services aligned with the wants and needs of the citizens, while discouraging the proliferation of those that are not. In the limit, the Smart Community we defined will morph into Society 5.0. At that point, the Marketplace of Services will become a platform for the co-creation of services by a close cooperation between the citizens and their government. The second objective and contribution of this survey paper is to review known technologies that, in our opinion, will play a significant role in the transition to Society 5.0. These technologies will be surveyed in chronological order, as newer technologies often extend old technologies while avoiding their limitations

Acceptance of smart devices in library from the library professionals’ point of view

Cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data, cloud computing and Internet of Things have injected new energy into the development of libraries. The smart device is the carrier of new technology, which makes abstract technology vivid to ordinary customers. The purchase of smart devices should help libraries to improve their service quality and work efficiency. Libraries have invested vast amounts of resources into the development and adoption of new technologies, but have not received prospective earnings. Many scholars in the library field have begun to pay attention to this issue, but the related research is still in a very early stage. According to the adaptive structuration theory, the factors that contribute to the success of information technology (IT) adoption fall into two broad categories: one is the degree to which the IT structure matches the current organiza-tional structure, and the other is how well organizations and individuals adapt learning behaviors to IT. This study is focused on the latter category. Some researchers have recognized the importance of customers in the adoption of library smart devices (LSD), whereas some ignore library professionals as another group using LSD. The upgrading of library services and optimization of management depend on collaborative work between library professionals and LSD. However, few studies have focused on the adoption of smart devices by library professionals. This study interviewed five library professionals and one library smart device supplier to determine the development status of LSD in China. Then, a model of factors influencing LSD adoption was proposed on the basis of unified theory of acceptance and use of technology, adaptive structuration theory, and interview results. The results of this empirical study are partially consistent with previous work. These results support eight of the ten hypotheses. The two main factors that influence the adoption behavior of LSD include use intention and facilitating condition. The critical factors influencing use intention are performance expectation, social influence, and IT literacy. Surprisingly, the hypothesis of effort expectation to use intention is not supported. Moreover, IT literacy has been proved to have a significantly positive impact on effort and performance expectations

Antecedente E Consequentes da Eco-Inovação para a Sustentabilidade: Percepções das Gerações no Brasil e Em Portugal

Purpose – This study aims to analyze the perception of generations (Baby boomers, X and Y) about the influence of Holistic Helixes of Innovation on Eco-innovation, as well as Eco-innovation on Environmental Practices, Cleaner Production, Social Actions, Regional Development, Smart Cities and Sustainable Development. Theoretical framework – Holistic Helixes of Innovation, Eco-innovation, Environmental Practices, Cleaner Production, Social Actions, Regional Development, Smart Cities and Sustainable Development. Design/methodology/approach – The method used was a descriptive, quantitative research, applied to 1032 individuals residing in Brazil and Portugal, analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling. Findings – Holistic Helixes of Innovation strongly influence Eco-innovation. This finding can contribute to the promotion of public policies to encourage integration among stakeholders of holistic innovation helices, such as universities, government, industries, technology parks, spin-offs, incubators, startup, consulting teams, non-governmental organizations, shareholders, suppliers, and customers. The study also shows the positive influence of eco-innovation on environmental practices, cleaner production, social actions, smart cities, sustainable development, with emphasis on regional development. Research, Practical & Social implications – The Eco-innovation precepts are key to trigger positive influences on socio-environmental aspects, smart cities and regional and sustainable development. In this sense, organizations and governments can contribute to society, with greater efficiency, allocating resources in projects that develop socio-environmental innovations. Originality/value – It is relevant for science to know the variables that can help governments and other organizations to develop policies and actions to promote the improvement of people's quality of life from a long-term triple bottom line perspective

South African specific complexities in aligning graduate attributes to employability

South African higher education (HE) cannot be compared to any other country’s HE systems due to the unique political landscape and structural narrative that it has undergone. Subsequent to the reorganisation of HEIs in 2004, a number of complexities arose. These included accessibility to education across race and the alignment of the South African HEIs to global pedagogic benchmarks. With the changing political landscape, transformations within higher education, socio economic inequities and changes in the workplace, researchers failed to cognize the impact of these factors on graduate employability. Changing graduate attributes to align with a decolonised curriculum and Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) workspaces were transiently underway when COVID-19 set a new narrative for the future of employability. This paper seeks to identify the impact of workplace changes and its direct influence on successful graduate employment and integration into the HE curriculum. The work environment has cursorily moved from 4IR to an advanced stage of the 4IR, where there is a full emphasis on digitisation, non-localised workspaces and is an ostensible playground for digital natives (Generation Z). This paper provides a systematic review of literature in the South African HE contexts that pertains to graduate attributes for employability within the workplace.  The adoption of malleable secondary data will allow for an understanding of the relationship between changing workplace environments and expectations from graduates. This correlation is directly linked to graduate attributes which students need to comply with from year one. The paper will provide context to changes which are required for the future success of graduates, and whether graduate attributes are adequate preparation for employability. A clinical model is recommended with an intervention to manage the risk factors of decolonisation of curriculum, the 4IR and multi-generational workplace and responses to COVID-19

Adopting DevOps practices: an enhanced unified theory of acceptance and use of technology framework

DevOps software development approach is widely used in the software engineering discipline. DevOps eliminates the development and operations department barriers. The paper aims to develop a conceptual model for adopting DevOps practices in software development organizations by extending the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT). The research also aims to determine the influencing factors of DevOps practices’ acceptance and adoption in software organizations, determine gaps in the software development literature, and introduce a clear picture of current technology acceptance and adoption research in the software industry. A comprehensive literature review clarifies how users accept and adopt new technologies and what leads to adopting DevOps practices in the software industry as the starting point for developing a conceptual framework for adopting DevOps in software organizations. The literature results have formulated the conceptual framework for adopting DevOps practices. The resulting model is expected to improve understanding of software organizations’ acceptance and adoption of DevOps practices. The research hypotheses must be tested to validate the model. Future work will include surveys and expert interviews for model enhancement and validation. This research fulfills the necessity to study how software organizations accept and adopt DevOps practices by enhancing UTAUT

Redes 5G: una revisión desde las perspectivas de arquitectura, modelos de negocio, ciberseguridad y desarrollos de investigación

5G technology is transforming our critical networks, with long-term implications. Since 5G is transitioning to a purely software-based network, potential improvements will be software updates, like how smartphones are upgraded. For the global enterprise, the 5G arrival would be disruptive. Long-awaited solutions to various flaws in critical networking systems will arise due to 5G network adoption. Furthermore, the shortcomings of technology in contributing to business growth and success would be turned on their heads. The more complicated part of the actual 5G race is retooling how we protect the most critical network of the twenty-first century and the ecosystem of devices and applications that sprout from that network due to cyber software vulnerabilities. The new technologies enabled by new applications running on 5G networks have much potential. However, as we move toward a connected future, equal or more attention should be paid to protecting those links, computers, and applications. We address critical aspects of 5G standardization and architecture in this article. We also provide a detailed summary of 5G network business models, use cases, and cybersecurity. Furthermore, we perform a study of computer simulation methods and testbeds for the research and development of potential 5G network proposals, which are elements that are rarely addressed in current surveys and review articles.La tecnología 5G está transformando nuestras redes críticas, con implicaciones a largo plazo. Dado que 5G está en transición a una red puramente basada en software, las mejoras potenciales serán las actualizaciones de software, como la forma en que se actualizan los teléfonos inteligentes en la actualidad. Para la empresa global, la llegada de 5G sería disruptiva. Las soluciones largamente esperadas para una variedad de fallas en los sistemas clave de networking surgirán debido a la adopción de la red 5G. Además, las deficiencias de la tecnología en términos de contribuir al crecimiento empresarial y al éxito se pondrán de cabeza. La parte más complicada de la carrera 5G real es reestructurar la forma en que protegemos la red más crítica del siglo XXI y el ecosistema de dispositivos y aplicaciones que surgen de esa red debido a las vulnerabilidades cibernéticas del software. Las nuevas tecnologías habilitadas por las nuevas aplicaciones que se ejecutan en redes 5G tienen mucho potencial. Sin embargo, a medida que avanzamos hacia un futuro conectado, se debe prestar igual o mayor atención a la protección de esos enlaces, computadoras y aplicaciones. En este artículo se abordan los aspectos clave de la estandarización y la arquitectura 5G. También se proporciona un resumen detallado de los modelos comerciales de redes 5G, casos de uso y ciberseguridad. Además, se realiza un estudio de métodos de simulación por computadora y bancos de pruebas para la investigación y el desarrollo de posibles propuestas de redes 5G, que son elementos que rara vez se abordan en estudios y artículos de revisión actuales.Facultad de Informátic

Seven HCI Grand Challenges

This article aims to investigate the Grand Challenges which arise in the current and emerging landscape of rapid technological evolution towards more intelligent interactive technologies, coupled with increased and widened societal needs, as well as individual and collective expectations that HCI, as a discipline, is called upon to address. A perspective oriented to humane and social values is adopted, formulating the challenges in terms of the impact of emerging intelligent interactive technologies on human life both at the individual and societal levels. Seven Grand Challenges are identified and presented in this article: Human-Technology Symbiosis; Human-Environment Interactions; Ethics, Privacy and Security; Well-being, Health and Eudaimonia; Accessibility and Universal Access; Learning and Creativity; and Social Organization and Democracy. Although not exhaustive, they summarize the views and research priorities of an international interdisciplinary group of experts, reflecting different scientific perspectives, methodological approaches and application domains. Each identified Grand Challenge is analyzed in terms of: concept and problem definition; main research issues involved and state of the art; and associated emerging requirements

Evaluating employee perception of corporate agility in a VUCA environment (an FMCG Case Study).

Master’s Degree. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban.Abstract The business landscape in the 21st century presents itself with many challenges that threaten the long term sustainability of an organisation. The literature describes this environment as a VUCA environment. A VUCA environment is Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous. The key to surviving in a VUCA environment lies in agility. The largest BU at a leading multinational FMCG company (Organisation X) in South Africa has experienced many challenges that adversely affected performance in the last 5 years. The challenges include legislative restrictions, increased competition and changing consumer preferences, which resulted in a high staff turnover, declining Market share, declining profitability and pruning of many failing BU’s. The aim of this study was to evaluate employee perception of Corporate Agility in a VUCA environment. The four key constructs that contribute to agility, namely; Organisational Culture, Leadership, Employee Empowerment and Information Technology were evaluated. The study population comprises of 103 employees in the infant nutrition BU at Organisation X. Due to the small population size, the entire population was included in this study. Participants include management and all employees from various departments within the BU. A quantitative study was conducted using a survey. The survey was created and emailed to participants using Survey Monkey software. At the end of the study period, 61 participants completed the survey (n=61). It was found that employee perception of organisational agility was highly favourable across all four constructs. Leadership and Organisational Culture were the two most significant contributors to Corporate Agility at Organisation X, however there were a few development areas identified. Recommendations to the organisation include adapting the Organisational structure to reflect a flatter and more agile organisation. Rewards and recognition for teamwork and collaboration was a common concern across all constructs and participants. It is also recommended that Organisation X, takes the necessary steps to leverage the strengths identified by this study in order to gain a competitive advantage in the market place