DNA microarray experimental design and software based data normalization and analysis

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The core and the periphery in distributed and self-organizing innovation systems

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, 2006.Includes bibliographical references.The Internet has enabled the large-scale mobilization of individuals to self-organize and innovate outside of formal organizations. My dissertation consists of three studies examining the functioning of such self-organizing and distributed innovation systems. I focus on the differing roles of core and peripheral participants in the distributed innovation process and explore the potential generality of this new form of innovating. The first study explores a systematic method of broadcast search used by corporations to search for solutions to internal R & D problems by involving peripheral problem solvers - those who are outside of their organizations. I find that innovative solutions to difficult scientific problems can be effectively identified by broadcasting problems to a large group of diverse solvers in different fields. Broadcast search yields innovative solutions by peripheral solvers who are crossing scientific disciplines. The central characteristic of problems that were successfully solved is the ability to attract specialized peripheral solvers with heterogeneous scientific interests. The second study examines how participants jointly innovate in a Free and Open Source Software community. I find that members at the periphery - those outside of the core project team - are responsible for developing a majority of functionally novel software features.(cont.) In contrast, core members develop performance-related features. Peripheral members also initiate the majority of the development activity and provide critical input into the technical problem solving processes. Ongoing interactions between core and peripheral members are the primary enablers of collective problem solving. I discuss how core and peripheral members enact six work practices in jointly producing software in a distributed and virtual setting. The third study examines the motivation of core participants in 287 Free and Open Source Software communities. Theorizing on individual motivations for participating in communities has posited that external motivational factors in the form of extrinsic benefits as the main drivers of effort. I find that enjoyment-based intrinsic motivation, namely how creative a person feels when working on the project was the strongest and most pervasive driver of effort. I also find that user need, intellectual stimulation derived from writing code, and improving programming skills as top motivators for project participation.by Karim R. Lakhani.Ph.D

Urban Informatics

This open access book is the first to systematically introduce the principles of urban informatics and its application to every aspect of the city that involves its functioning, control, management, and future planning. It introduces new models and tools being developed to understand and implement these technologies that enable cities to function more efficiently – to become ‘smart’ and ‘sustainable’. The smart city has quickly emerged as computers have become ever smaller to the point where they can be embedded into the very fabric of the city, as well as being central to new ways in which the population can communicate and act. When cities are wired in this way, they have the potential to become sentient and responsive, generating massive streams of ‘big’ data in real time as well as providing immense opportunities for extracting new forms of urban data through crowdsourcing. This book offers a comprehensive review of the methods that form the core of urban informatics from various kinds of urban remote sensing to new approaches to machine learning and statistical modelling. It provides a detailed technical introduction to the wide array of tools information scientists need to develop the key urban analytics that are fundamental to learning about the smart city, and it outlines ways in which these tools can be used to inform design and policy so that cities can become more efficient with a greater concern for environment and equity

Urban Informatics

This open access book is the first to systematically introduce the principles of urban informatics and its application to every aspect of the city that involves its functioning, control, management, and future planning. It introduces new models and tools being developed to understand and implement these technologies that enable cities to function more efficiently – to become ‘smart’ and ‘sustainable’. The smart city has quickly emerged as computers have become ever smaller to the point where they can be embedded into the very fabric of the city, as well as being central to new ways in which the population can communicate and act. When cities are wired in this way, they have the potential to become sentient and responsive, generating massive streams of ‘big’ data in real time as well as providing immense opportunities for extracting new forms of urban data through crowdsourcing. This book offers a comprehensive review of the methods that form the core of urban informatics from various kinds of urban remote sensing to new approaches to machine learning and statistical modelling. It provides a detailed technical introduction to the wide array of tools information scientists need to develop the key urban analytics that are fundamental to learning about the smart city, and it outlines ways in which these tools can be used to inform design and policy so that cities can become more efficient with a greater concern for environment and equity

Management development and succession in the electricity industry 1948-1998: Executive men and non-executive women.

This thesis investigates the development and succession of British Electricity Industry executives (top managers) during the half-century from 1948, and examines the reasons why few female employees became senior managers, and none became board members. In response to the continuing need for professional engineers, the industry operated a policy of internal promotion in parallel with systematic procedures for recruiting, training, developing and promoting employees and managers. The shortage of technical trainees resulted in the recruitment of apprentices with qualifications below the required standard; together with talented manual workers who were also perceived as potential engineers. Training facilities and career development opportunities were biased in favour of technical employees whose occupations were horizontally and vertically segregated. The term 'manager' was strictly limited to an elite of 1 in 100 employees, distinguished from the 1000s of supervisors (1 in 14 employees). The career trajectory to management was multifaceted until a standard was introduced in 1968. The federal nature of the industry resulted in inequalities with particular biases in training and selection to attend business schools. Managers who attended the Administrative Staff College at Henley were more successful in achieving promotion, especially to the level of chairmen, when compared with managers who attended an internal course. Using questionnaire results the thesis highlights differences between managers and top managers in relation to their personal characteristics, career development (including motivation and managing), and techniques for management selection and succession. The impact of privatisation on career development is also considered. An analysis of management succession over five decades shows that early entry to the industry was correlated with success; the long tenure of the first entrants hindered subsequent succession except for the most mobile. Like the industry's leaders, membership of decision-making committees which influenced female development was also male dominated. This belied the fact that females formed one in ten of non-executive board members. There is a substantial literature on the historical problems of women in work, their concentration in low-paid, low-status posts, employability and exclusion from higher graded posts. The electricity industry is a case in point. In electricity the focus was on boys and young men to fill the horizontally segregated technical training posts at a time when females were actively encouraged to follow a 'feminine' curriculum in schools. In addition, workshop and practical training facilities for females were non-existent in an industry which, unsurprisingly, perceived they would find its workplaces 'unattractive'. Females were concentrated in lower grade clerical work and in the bottom grades of the higher graded administrative structure. Due to the federal nature of the industry the finding that females were discriminated against remained unresolved. Privatisation did nothing to improve the gender imbalance in managerial opportunity. Some females now perform manual jobs previously confined to men, and two women became executive board members. However, by 1998, despite the more widespread use of the term 'manager' a number of electricity companies had still not appointed any senior female managers

An investigation of ICT project management techniques for sustainable ICT projects in rural development

Poverty alleviation by means of rural development has become a priority among developing countries. In turn, rural development may be significantly enhanced and supported by Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), the use of which is highlighted by the emerging importance of information and knowledge as key strategic resources for social and economic development. An analysis of rural case studies where ICTs have been introduced, suggests that there are a number of barriers and constraints that are faced when taking advantage of these technologies. These include access to infrastructure, limited formal education, insufficient training and capacity building, financial and political constraints, and social and cultural challenges. These challenges threaten the success and sustainability of rural ICT projects. Sustainability is key to the effectiveness of a rural ICT project; therefore it is important to understand the concept and categories associated with ICT project sustainability in rural areas. The categories of sustainability which include social and cultural, institutional, economic, political, and technological, reveal critical success factors that need to be considered in the implementation and management of rural ICT projects. The project management discipline acknowledges the importance of understanding the project’s environment, particularly environmental factors associated with rural communities. The complexity of the environment therefore implies the need for a project to be undertaken in phases comprising the project life cycle. Project management practice for rural ICT project sustainability can therefore be examined, adapting the traditional project life cycle to a rural ICT project. A Rural ICT Project Life Cycle (RICT-PLC) that is sensitive to the critical success factors of sustainability is therefore proposed. In order to further investigate the phases of the life cycle of a rural ICT project, two case study investigations are explored: the Dwesa ICT community project, and the Rhodes University Mathematics Education Project (RUMEP) (MathsNet). A multiple case study analysis confirms the practices associated with the RICT-PLC model, and identifies additional characteristics, phases and practices associated with rural ICT projects. Finally, an enhanced RICT-PLC model is developed, that sets sustainability guidelines for ICT project management in rural areas and identifies the people, environments, technologies, systems, and requirements for ICTs to support rural development activities

Urban Informatics

This open access book is the first to systematically introduce the principles of urban informatics and its application to every aspect of the city that involves its functioning, control, management, and future planning. It introduces new models and tools being developed to understand and implement these technologies that enable cities to function more efficiently – to become ‘smart’ and ‘sustainable’. The smart city has quickly emerged as computers have become ever smaller to the point where they can be embedded into the very fabric of the city, as well as being central to new ways in which the population can communicate and act. When cities are wired in this way, they have the potential to become sentient and responsive, generating massive streams of ‘big’ data in real time as well as providing immense opportunities for extracting new forms of urban data through crowdsourcing. This book offers a comprehensive review of the methods that form the core of urban informatics from various kinds of urban remote sensing to new approaches to machine learning and statistical modelling. It provides a detailed technical introduction to the wide array of tools information scientists need to develop the key urban analytics that are fundamental to learning about the smart city, and it outlines ways in which these tools can be used to inform design and policy so that cities can become more efficient with a greater concern for environment and equity

Tematski zbornik radova međunarodnog značaja. Tom 1 / Međunarodni naučni skup "Dani Arčibalda Rajsa", Beograd, 1-2. mart 2013

The Thematic Conference Proceedings contains 138 papers written by eminent scholars in the field of law, security, criminalistics, police studies, forensics, medicine, as well as members of national security system participating in education of the police, army and other security services from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, China, Poland, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Republic of Srpska and Serbia. Each paper has been reviewed by two competent international reviewers, and the Thematic Conference Proceedings in whole has been reviewed by five international reviewers. The papers published in the Thematic Conference Proceedings contain the overview of con-temporary trends in the development of police educational system, development of the police and contemporary security, criminalistics and forensics, as well as with the analysis of the rule of law activities in crime suppression, situation and trends in the above-mentioned fields, and suggestions on how to systematically deal with these issues. The Thematic Conference Proceedings represents a significant contribution to the existing fund of scientific and expert knowledge in the field of criminalistic, security, penal and legal theory and practice. Publication of this Conference Proceedings contributes to improving of mutual cooperation between educational, scientific and expert institutions at national, regional and international level