2,438 research outputs found
Leveraging the power of creative crowds for innovative brands: the eYeka crowdsourcing initiatives
The thesis tried to move beyond the Crowdsourcing phenomenon intended as a mere micro-task production outlining key features of the main typologies of contest which a firm could select in pursuing this Business Model. The dissertation thus advice companies on what kind of contests format is more suitable to be implemented in order to reach the desired objective, by tailoring not only challenges but also incentive mechanisms to engage the right crowd even in terms of motivational aspectsope
TalkFutures: Supporting Qualitative Practices in Distributed Community Engagements
Community engagements are qualitative processes that make use of participants local knowledge for democratic decision-making, but often exclude participants from data analysis and dissemination. This can mean that they are left feeling that their voice is not properly represented in the final output. This paper presents a digital community engagement process, TalkFutures, that actively involves participants in the production, distributed analysis and summarization of qualitative data. The design of TalkFutures was explored through a five-week deployment with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) as part of a consultation designed to inform future strategy. Our analysis of deployment metrics and post-deployment interviews outline how TalkFutures: (i) increased modes of participation across the qualitative workflow; (ii) reduced barriers to participation; and (iii) improved representation in the engagement processes
Mobile services for green living
A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor in Information Management, specialization in Geographic Information SystemsUrban cycling is a sustainable transport mode that many cities are promoting.
However, few cities are taking advantage of geospatial technologies to represent
and analyse behavioural patterns and barriers faced during cycling. This thesis
is within the fields of geoinformatics and serious games, and the motivation
came from our desire to help both citizens and cities to better understand cyclist
behaviour and mobility patterns. We attempted to learn more about the impact
of gamified strategies on engagement with cycling, the reasons for choosing
between mobile cycling applications and the way such applications would provide
commuting information. Furthermore, we explored the potential benefits of offering
tools to build decision-making for mobility more transparent, to increase cycling
data availability, and to analyse commuting patterns. In general, we found our
research useful to enhance green living actions by increasing citizens’ willingness
to commute by bicycle or communicating cycling conditions in cities.
For urban cycling, data coming from mobile phones can provide a better assessment
and enrich the analysis presented in traditional mobility plans. However,
the diversity of current mobile applications targeting cyclists does not provide
useful data for analysing commuter (inner-city, non-sporting) cycling. Just a few
cyclists are adopting these applications as part of their commuting routine, while
on the other hand cities are lacking a valuable source of constantly updated cycling
information helpful to understand cycling patterns and the role of bicycles in urban
transport.
This thesis analyses how the incentives of location-based games or geo-games
might increase urban cycling engagement and, through this engagement, crowdsource
cycling data collection to allow cities to better comprehend cycling patterns.
Consequently, the experiment followed a between-groups design to measure the
impact of virtual rewards provided by the Cyclist Geo-c application on the levels of intention, satisfaction, and engagement with cycling. Then, to identify the frictions
which potentially inhibit bicycle commuting, we analysed the bicycle trips crowdsourced
with the geo-game. Our analysis relied on a hexagonal grid of 30-metre
cell side to aggregate trip trajectories, calculate the friction intensity and locate the
frictions.
The thesis reports on the results of an experiment which involved a total of
57 participants in three European cities: M¨unster (Germany), Castell ´o (Spain),
and Valletta (Malta). We found participants reported higher satisfaction and
engagement with cycling during the experiment in the collaboration condition.
However, we did not find a significant impact on the participants’ worldview when
it comes to the intentions to start or increase cycling. The results support the
use of collaboration-based rewards in the design of game-based applications to
promote urban cycling. Furthermore, we validated a procedure to identify not only
the cyclists’ preferred streets but also the frictions faced during cycling analysing
the crowdsourced trips. We successfully identified 284 places potentially having
frictions: 71 in M¨unster, Germany; 70 in Castell ´ o, Spain; and 143 in Valletta,
Malta. At such places, participants recorded trip segments at speeds below 5
Km/h indicating a deviation from a hypothetical scenario with a constant cycling
speed.
This thesis encompasses the cyclist and city perspectives of offering virtual
incentives in geo-games and crowdsourcing cycling data collection to better comprehend
cycling conditions in cities. We also compiled a set of tools and recommendations
for researchers, practitioners, mobile developers, urban planners and
cyclist associations interested in fostering sustainable transport and the use of
bicycles
Can the Power of Platforms be Harnessed for Governance?
The platform concept examines how strategic leadership and institutional and technological resources enable multiple distributed activities to innovate, adapt, and change. The central question addressed in this paper is: Can this potentially powerful organizing logic be harnessed for public purposes? Since governance platforms are still largely experimental, we cannot fully settle this question at present. However, we can begin to address the issue to help scholars and practitioners explore the potential of platforms. We start with a general statement about what governance platforms might offer to the public sector, before probing the concept more deeply. We then investigate the institutional mechanisms that purportedly make platforms powerful and propose a typology of governance platforms. Finally, we investigate the challenges and successes they have encountered
Internal Crowdsourcing in Companies
This open access book examines the implications of internal crowdsourcing (IC) in companies. Presenting an employee-oriented, cross-sector reference model for good IC practice, it discusses the core theoretical foundations, and offers guidelines for process-management and blueprints for the implementation of IC. Furthermore, it examines solutions for employee training and competence development based on crowdsourcing. As such, the book will appeal to scholars of management science, work studies, organizational and participation research and to readers interested in inclusive approaches for cooperative change management and the IT implications for IC platforms
- …