From Sensor to Observation Web with Environmental Enablers in the Future Internet

This paper outlines the grand challenges in global sustainability research and the objectives of the FP7 Future Internet PPP program within the Digital Agenda for Europe. Large user communities are generating significant amounts of valuable environmental observations at local and regional scales using the devices and services of the Future Internet. These communities’ environmental observations represent a wealth of information which is currently hardly used or used only in isolation and therefore in need of integration with other information sources. Indeed, this very integration will lead to a paradigm shift from a mere Sensor Web to an Observation Web with semantically enriched content emanating from sensors, environmental simulations and citizens. The paper also describes the research challenges to realize the Observation Web and the associated environmental enablers for the Future Internet. Such an environmental enabler could for instance be an electronic sensing device, a web-service application, or even a social networking group affording or facilitating the capability of the Future Internet applications to consume, produce, and use environmental observations in cross-domain applications. The term ?envirofied? Future Internet is coined to describe this overall target that forms a cornerstone of work in the Environmental Usage Area within the Future Internet PPP program. Relevant trends described in the paper are the usage of ubiquitous sensors (anywhere), the provision and generation of information by citizens, and the convergence of real and virtual realities to convey understanding of environmental observations. The paper addresses the technical challenges in the Environmental Usage Area and the need for designing multi-style service oriented architecture. Key topics are the mapping of requirements to capabilities, providing scalability and robustness with implementing context aware information retrieval. Another essential research topic is handling data fusion and model based computation, and the related propagation of information uncertainty. Approaches to security, standardization and harmonization, all essential for sustainable solutions, are summarized from the perspective of the Environmental Usage Area. The paper concludes with an overview of emerging, high impact applications in the environmental areas concerning land ecosystems (biodiversity), air quality (atmospheric conditions) and water ecosystems (marine asset management)

Design Thinking in Managing (and designing) for Organizational Change

Increasing interest in ‘design thinking’ in the fields of management and organization has resulted in a concern with using design-oriented approaches as means to support organizational change and innovation. To this end, conceptual ideas such as Boland and Collopy’s ‘managing as designing’ have aimed at exploring how ‘design thinking’ can inform managers and the work done in organizational contexts. However, these concepts tend to be discussed theoretically with little grounding in empirical studies of practice that might inform managing according to a ‘design thinking’ approach. In this paper we look at one attempt at facilitating organizational change through ‘design thinking’. The context is the design of a new building for the UTS Business School, Sydney by architect Frank Gehry. User participation was applied to engage stakeholders in ways that would produce valuable input for managers as well as architects. We consider how architectural design and organizational change are constructed and accomplished and to what extent the manager’s approach can be considered ‘design thinking’. Our findings suggest that while ‘design thinking’ may be one approach to managing complex change processes, a deeper engagement between designers, managers and users is needed

Business Meets the Humanities

Within the last decades, universities are increasingly expected and measured by their direct engagement in collaborations beyond academia. Exploring the potential that lies in university-business collaborations, the present anthology attends to the dilemmas, dualities, and challenges that follow such collaborations, especially in the academic traditions of the social sciences and humanities. Each contribution investigates how the human perspective – a perspective that highlights how complex knowledge and a deep understanding of human everyday life – enriches companies’ processes, products, services, and ideas. Some chapters focus on collaborations between researchers and business practitioners, others focus on teaching examples involving students in the collaborative work with businesses and organisations, and again others contribute with more theoretical considerations. By gathering hands-on experiences, the book provides readers with inspirations, reflections on, and insights into university-business collaborations. This book, therefore, is intended for researchers within the humanities and social sciences, who want to get a deeper understanding of the practice of such collaborations

Business Meets the Humanities

Within the last decades, universities are increasingly expected and measured by their direct engagement in collaborations beyond academia. Exploring the potential that lies in university-business collaborations, the present anthology attends to the dilemmas, dualities, and challenges that follow such collaborations, especially in the academic traditions of the social sciences and humanities.</P> <P>Each contribution investigates how the human perspective – a perspective that highlights how complex knowledge and a deep understanding of human everyday life – enriches companies’ processes, products, services, and ideas. Some chapters focus on collaborations between researchers and business practitioners, others focus on teaching examples involving students in the collaborative work with businesses and organisations, and again others contribute with more theoretical considerations.</P> <P>By gathering hands-on experiences, the book provides readers with inspirations, reflections on, and insights into university-business collaborations. This book, therefore, is intended for researchers within the humanities and social sciences, who want to get a deeper understanding of the practice of such collaborations

An approach to resource modelling in support of the life cycle engineering of enterprise systems

Enterprise modelling can facilitate the design, analysis, control and construction of contemporary enterprises which can compete in world-wide Product markets. This research involves a systematic study of enterprise modelling with a particular focus on resource modelling in support of the life cycle engineering of enterprise systems. This led to the specification and design of a framework for resource modelling. This framework was conceived to: classify resource types; identify the different functions that resource modelling can support, with respect to different life phases of enterprise systems; clarify the relationship between resource models and other modelling perspectives provide mechanisms which link resource models and other types of models; identify guidelines for the capture of information - on resources, leading to the establishment of a set of resource reference models. The author also designed and implemented a resource modelling tool which conforms to the principles laid down by the framework. This tool realises important aspects of the resource modeffing concepts so defined. Furthermore, two case studies have been carried out. One models a metal cutting environment, and the other is based on an electronics industry problem area. In this way, the feasibility of concepts embodied in the framework and the design of the resource modelling tool has been tested and evaluated. Following a literature survey and preliminary investigation, the CIMOSA enterprise modelling and integration methodology was adopted and extended within this research. Here the resource modelling tool was built by extending SEWOSA (System Engineering Workbench for Open System Architecture) and utilising the CIMBIOSYS (CINI-Building Integrated Open SYStems) integrating infrastructure. The main contributions of the research are that: a framework for resource modelling has been established; means and mechanisms have been proposed, implemented and tested which link and coordinate different modelling perspectives into an unified enterprise model; the mechanisms and resource models generated by this research support each Pfe phase of systems engineering projects and demonstrate benefits by increasing the degree to which the derivation process among models is automated

ECMs and Institutional Repositories. The Case for a Unified Enterprise Approach to Content Management

Universities are currently developing responses to manage the explosion of research content. There is an expectation by these institutions as well as governments, funding agencies and other stakeholders that research data will be well managed, available and accessible to users as appropriate. The large enterprise content management (ECM) platform vendors are evolving into “information management frameworks”. The ECM solutions being marketed by these vendors are underpinned by content repositories, promising to manage all of the enterprise’s digital assets. One might logically question whether a university actually needs separate institutional repositories (IR) systems and infrastructure such as DSpace, for example, to manage research data. If these new enterprise solutions overcome the historical shortcomings traditionally associated with research content, then what is the future of the IR? The implementation of SharePoint along with new research data services at Griffith University has been a catalyst for beginning to question some of the fundamental paradigms which have underpinned the current thinking about an enterprise approach to research infrastructure and the role of research repositories. Having conducted a literature review, the authors outline the roles of enterprise content management systems and institutional repositories in the context of strategies, processes, and technologies rather than as single products. The focus is on architecture and a management approach rather than technological solutions. This paper explores the synergies between institutional repositories and enterprise content management systems and how research content would fit within the traditional enterprise content management system model. It concludes that there are major benefits in taking a unified enterprise approach to managing research content within a university

Business Meets the Humanities

Within the last decades, universities are increasingly expected and measured by their direct engagement in collaborations beyond academia. Exploring the potential that lies in university-business collaborations, the present anthology attends to the dilemmas, dualities, and challenges that follow such collaborations, especially in the academic traditions of the social sciences and humanities. Each contribution investigates how the human perspective – a perspective that highlights how complex knowledge and a deep understanding of human everyday life – enriches companies’ processes, products, services, and ideas. Some chapters focus on collaborations between researchers and business practitioners, others focus on teaching examples involving students in the collaborative work with businesses and organisations, and again others contribute with more theoretical considerations. By gathering hands-on experiences, the book provides readers with inspirations, reflections on, and insights into university-business collaborations. This book, therefore, is intended for researchers within the humanities and social sciences, who want to get a deeper understanding of the practice of such collaborations

Business Meets the Humanities

Within the last decades, universities are increasingly expected and measured by their direct engagement in collaborations beyond academia. Exploring the potential that lies in university-business collaborations, the present anthology attends to the dilemmas, dualities, and challenges that follow such collaborations, especially in the academic traditions of the social sciences and humanities.</P> <P>Each contribution investigates how the human perspective – a perspective that highlights how complex knowledge and a deep understanding of human everyday life – enriches companies’ processes, products, services, and ideas. Some chapters focus on collaborations between researchers and business practitioners, others focus on teaching examples involving students in the collaborative work with businesses and organisations, and again others contribute with more theoretical considerations.</P> <P>By gathering hands-on experiences, the book provides readers with inspirations, reflections on, and insights into university-business collaborations. This book, therefore, is intended for researchers within the humanities and social sciences, who want to get a deeper understanding of the practice of such collaborations

A next generation manufacturing control system for a lean production environment

This thesis focuses on addressing the need for a new approach to the design and implementation of manufacturing control systems for the automotive industry and in particular for high volume engine manufacture. Whilst the operational domain in the automotive industry has moved to lean production techniques, the design of presentday manufacturing control systems is still based on systems intended for use in a mass production environment. The design and implementation of current manufacturing control systems is therefore inappropriate when viewed from a business context. The author proposes that it is possible to create a more appropriate manufacturing control systems based on an optimised use of advanced manufacturing technology within the complete business context. Literature is reviewed to provide a detailed understanding of the relationship between modem operating practices and the application of contemporary control systems. The primary tasks of manufacturing control systems, within the context of a structured systems approach to manufacturing technology, production management and industrial economics are identified. A study of modem manufacturing control system technology is carried out, highlighting the fundamental principles that influence application engineering in this area. The thesis develops a conceptual design framework that aids the identification of attributes required of a next generation manufacturing control system (NGCS), in order to enhance the business performance of lean automotive manufacturing. The architecture for a next generation control system is specified and a Proof of concept system implemented. Potential advances over contemporary practice are identified with the aid of a practical implementation at a major automotive manufacturer