Experiencing the Future Car: Anticipatory UX as a Social and Digital Phenomenon

In order to be innovative and competitive, the automotive industry seeks to understand how to attract new customers, even before they have experienced the product. User Experience (UX) research often provides insights into situated uses of products, and reflections after their use, however tells us little about how products and services are experienced before use. We propose anticipation theory as a way to understand how shared experiences between people in an online discussion forum relate to UX of cars before they are actually experienced in real-life. We took an ethnographic approach to analyse the activities of members of a self-organised web-based discussion forum for Tesla car enthusiasts, to understand how product anticipation emerges in a digital-material setting. Our study identifies how anticipatory experiences create UX of car ownership which evolves through members’ engagement in a self-organised online community enabled through the digitalisation and connectivity of the car, and how such car experiences generate new forms of digital anticipation of the car. We conclude that the shift towards digitalisation of cars and subscription services creates a need for more interdisciplinary research into spatial and temporal aspects, where socially shared anticipatory experiences are increasingly important for the overall UX

Using ODL and ICT to develop the skills of the unreached: a contribution to the ADEA triennial of the Working Group on Distance Education and Open Learning

Innovation in technology is occurring at rapid pace thus shrinking the distances and making information and knowledge more than ever accessible to everyone irrespective of where the person resides. This paper consists of four main articles. The first one deals with technological trends. The second one focuses on the deployment and use of open and distance education mode in rural areas by documenting initiatives that embrace information and communication technologies (ICTs). Due to challenges faced in rural areas only a few success stories/cases currently exist and some of these are cited in this article. The challenges faced in the deployment of ICT enhanced ODL have been highlighted as well as the potential of developing and delivering effective and relevant ODL programmes in rural areas in order to ensure that issues of educational equity and social exclusion rural communities are adequately addressed. ICTs in ODL are perhaps the greatest tool to date for self-education and value addition to any community’s development efforts, yet poor rural communities particularly in Africa do not have the necessary awareness, skills or facilities to enable themselves to develop using ICTs. Inadequate ICT infrastructures in rural areas remain a major source for the digital divide in Africa and for under-performance of distance learners. The third one analyses the support provided to ODL learners who often encounter difficulties in completing their studies through the distance education mode due to loneliness, uncertainties and de-motivation. ICT has not been able to sufficiently support distance learners in overcoming those obstacles efficiently. An investigation regarding those learning supports has been conducted in ten distance learning institutions, along with an intensive literature review with the aim of understanding the high percentage of dropout rates of distant learners. The learners’ interactions have been scrutinized through content analysis of their synchronous exchanges, during a completely online course. After taking into account the limited technical and human resources in Africa, a technological virtual environment along with a pedagogical framework has been proposed with the aim of giving adequate educational support to them. The fourth article has explored The Open University (UK) and its efforts to use new technologies to deliver online courses to difficult-to- reach learners in prison environments. The case study analysed here is an international course (called, B201- Business Organisations and their environments) which also touches an African cohort of learners. The implications for designing and delivering online ODL to the complex unreachable environments of prisons anywhere, and particularly in Africa, have been discussed

Semantic discovery and reuse of business process patterns

Patterns currently play an important role in modern information systems (IS) development and their use has mainly been restricted to the design and implementation phases of the development lifecycle. Given the increasing significance of business modelling in IS development, patterns have the potential of providing a viable solution for promoting reusability of recurrent generalized models in the very early stages of development. As a statement of research-in-progress this paper focuses on business process patterns and proposes an initial methodological framework for the discovery and reuse of business process patterns within the IS development lifecycle. The framework borrows ideas from the domain engineering literature and proposes the use of semantics to drive both the discovery of patterns as well as their reuse

E-government in Europe

This book traces the development of e-government and its applications across Europe, exploring the effects of information and communication technology (ICTs) upon political action and processes. Explores a range of concepts and topics underpinning e-government in Europe: the degree to which e-government translates into genuine reform of government and public administration the dual role of the EU as both a provider of e-government through its own internal activities and also as a facilitator or aggregator in the way it seeks to engender change and promote its ethos in member states across the EU cyberterrorism and its use both by terrorists and governments to pursue political agendas. Featuring in-depth case studies on the progress of e-government in the UK, France, Germany, Denmark, The Netherlands, Portugal, Greece, Slovenia, Hungary, and Estonia. These case studies address the above issues, whilst at the same time highlighting commonality and diversity in practice and the paradox between top-down strategies and the effort to engage wider civil participation via e-government. e-Government in Europe will be of interest to students and scholars of public policy, politics, media and communication studies, computing and information and communications technologies and European studies

Complexity and duplicity in the digital age : new implications for business and labor management strategy

Les sociologues différencient souvent les époques en fonction de la manière dont le commerce est pratiqué (Ashton, 2013 ; Rose, 1991). Souvent, les progrès technologiques modifient la façon dont les parties échangent des biens, un phénomène qui a des conséquences sur le changement d'époque (Wright, 2004). À cet égard, les historiens économiques distinguent généralement l'ère féodale de l'ère industrielle en raison de l'invention de la technologie de la vapeur à la fin du 17e siècle et de son application généralisée au milieu du 18e siècle (Ashton, 2013). La disponibilité du World Wide Web a créé l'ère numérique. Alors que l'ancienne époque de l'ère industrielle limite principalement l'échange de travail dans une période définie, Internet permet l'expansion des paramètres commerciaux. Alors que les universitaires considèrent que l'ère numérique a entraîné des changements substantiels dans le domaine du commerce et des échanges, la plupart des théories sur la gestion (en particulier celles concernant la planification et la stratégie) trouvent leur origine dans l'ère industrielle, c'est-à-dire l'ère précédant l'existence de l'Internet. Malgré les efforts de chercheurs tels qu'Allen et al, (2007), l'éventail complet des options de stratégie compétitive disponibles pour les entreprises modernes n'a peut-être pas été suffisamment délimité. Le présent ouvrage soutient que les technologies basées sur Internet ont influencé l'émergence d'industries distinctement numérique et que, par conséquent, la théorie concernant l'avantage concurrentiel comme celle de Michael Porter doit être réexaminée. Le but de ce travail est de fournir un aperçu conceptuel de l’émergence de la complexité à l’ère numérique et de montrer en quoi ce phénomène émergeant a des implications pour la stratégie en général, mais aussi pour les relations de travail. Le projet a produit des articles scientifiques revus par des pairs dans des revues universitaires classiques. Ces articles traitent des conséquences de la duplicité pour trois types d’acteurs : ceux qui élaborent et mettent en œuvre la stratégie commerciale; les consommateurs; et ceux qui opère dans le marché du travail.Sociologists frequently differentiate eras based on the way commerce is undertaken (Ashton, 2013; Rose, 1991). Often, technological advance changes the way parties exchange goods, a phenomenon that has consequences for epochal change (Wright, 2004). In this regard, economic historians typically differentiate the feudal era from the industrial age because of the invention of the steam technology in the late 17th century and its widespread application in the mid 18th century (Ashton, 2013). The availability of the World Wide Web created the digital era. Whereas the old industrial-age epoch mostly limits work exchange within a defined era, the Internet permits expansion of trading parameters. While scholars mostly consider that in the era of the Internet substantial changes have occurred in relation to commerce and trading, most theories about management (particular those concerning planning and strategy) have their origins in the industrial age, the era before the Internet existed. Despite the efforts of scholars such as Allen et al, (2007) the full range of competitive strategy options available to modern firms may not have been adequately delineated. The present body of work argues that Internet-based technologies have influenced the emergence of distinctively post-modern or digital age industries and that, therefore, theory regarding competitive advantage such as those of Michael Porter must be revisited. The aim of this work is to provide a conceptual overview of the emergence of complexity in the digital era and indicate how this emergent phenomenon has implications for strategy generally and the employment relationship in particular, insofar as technological complexity concerns labor control. The project has produced peer-reviewed scholarly articles in mainstream academic journals. These articles address the consequences of duplicity for three kinds of actors : those who craft and implement business strategy; consumers; and, those in (what is conventional though of as) the labor market

CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY IN ROMANIA

The purpose of this paper is to identify the main opportunities and limitations of corporate social responsibility (CSR). The survey was defined with the aim to involve the highest possible number of relevant CSR topics and give the issue a more wholesome perspective. It provides a basis for further comprehension and deeper analyses of specific CSR areas. The conditions determining the success of CSR in Romania have been defined in the paper on the basis of the previously cumulative knowledge as well as the results of various researches. This paper provides knowledge which may be useful in the programs promoting CSR.Corporate social responsibility, Supportive policies, Romania