Improving Collaborative Convergence through Distributed and Parallel Sorting

This paper examines a convergence process of organizing ideas that are generated during collaborative idea generation activities. The method presented reduces the impact of organizing brainstorming ideas on individual participants by dividing the convergence activity into smaller, discrete tasks that can be completed individually, and in parallel, by the participants. The entire pool of brainstorming ideas is subdivided into smaller pools and each participant is then tasked with organizing one of the subsets of ideas. The results show that by dividing up the overall activity into subtasks, the subjects experienced a more favorable environment. Furthermore, the subjects were able to work through their subset of ideas and produce results that were similar to those performing the full sort of the entire pool

O desenvolvimento da democracia electrónica em Portugal

As tecnologias da informação e comunicação estão a tornar-se num instrumento importante, não só na melhoria da qualidade de vida dos cidadãos, mas também no reforço da democracia. O grande desafio está em garantir o acesso universal, aumentar a literacia e garantir a confiança para que todos beneficiem deste potencial tecnológico. A democracia electrónica vai muito para além da votação e disponibilização de informação sobre os candidatos através da Internet: trata-se de uma nova forma de fazer com que o cidadão comum participe em discussões e interacções com os poderes políticos, fazendo chegar a sua voz, não apenas durante as campanhas eleitorais, mas também nos períodos intercalares e a propósito dos problemas da sua vida quotidiana. Pretende-se, com este estudo, analisar as oportunidades e constrangimentos da utilização dos meios da sociedade da informação no exercício da cidadania activa.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Metodología de aprendizaje y generación de conocimiento mediante colaboración vía Internet : aplicación al Observatorio Astronómico Montegancedo

La Web 2.0 es un fenómeno de Internet caracterizado por webs más dinámicas y participativas. Actualmente, existen nuevas tendencias sociales que están provocando formas innovadoras de colaboración voluntaria y de aprendizaje en línea. La tesis doctoral se enmarca dentro del contexto de la Web 2.0 y del aprendizaje colaborativo a través de Internet, en concreto de los laboratorios remotos basados en experimentación real. Este trabajo se inicia con el objetivo de diseñar una metodología novedosa de creación de proyectos de colaboración y participación ciudadana orientados a la educación y basados en la experimentación real. Se trata de un nuevo enfoque para crear aplicaciones web abiertas a la sociedad que promuevan el aprendizaje informal, el constructivismo y la generación de conocimiento a través de sistemas colaborativos, auto-organizados y meritocráticos. El trabajo realizado en esta tesis se centra en el diseño y desarrollo de laboratorios remotos con experimentación real accesibles mediante webs 2.0. En el desarrollo de la tesis se ha llevado a cabo la implementación del observatorio astronómico Montegancedo. Se trata del primero abierto a la sociedad a través de Internet, de uso interactivo y totalmente gratuito. Principalmente se basa en un funcionamiento meritocrático de los usuarios para conseguir tiempo de observación para la realización de experimentos astronómicos. Este observatorio y la red social subyacente ha sido la bancada empírica sobre la que se demuestran las hipótesis planteadas. En esta tesis se ha formulado un algoritmo de ordenación de los elementos pertenecientes a un sistema colaborativo. Se detalla el procedimiento completo para extrapolar el algoritmo a cualquier otro sistema de colaboración. Se describe desde la etapa inicial sobre cómo establecer los criterios de ordenación hasta cómo interpretar los resultados. En el contexto del observatorio Montegancedo, el algoritmo se emplea para determinar cuáles son los usuarios más importantes en la red social midiendo su colaboración y participación. Análogamente, se puede calcular la importancia de las fotografías, vídeos, noticias, comentarios y otros elementos consecuencia de la participación social. En la misma línea de la meritocracia social, se formula un algoritmo de plani_cación de recursos en línea basado en los resultados del algoritmo de ordenación anterior. Se diseña una solución novedosa al problema que supone compartir recursos que requieren experimentación real a través de Internet. Aplicado al observatorio Montegancedo, se explica cómo asignar tiempo de observación a los usuarios según su importancia demostrada dentro de la comunidad. El trabajo también expone el proceso de análisis y caracterización de los individuos y comunidades en línea a partir de los datos registrados, que abarca tanto información personal de los usuarios como cada una de sus interacciones intercambiadas. Abstract Web 2.0 is an Internet social phenomenon characterized by more dynamic and partipatory websites. Nowadays, there are new social trends which are causing innovative ways of voluntary collaboration and online learning. This doctoral thesis is framed within the context of Web 2.0 and collaborative learning through the Internet, speci_cally remote laboratories based on real experimentation. The aim of this research is to design a new methodology for creating collaborative projects and citizen participation, focused on education and based on real experimentation. This is a new approach to create web applications open to society to promote learning, constructivism and the generation of knowledge through collaborative, self-organized and meritocratic systems. The work in this thesis focuses on the design and development of remote laboratories experimenting with real webs are accessible through 2.0. The implementation of the astronomical observatory Montegancedo has been carried out during the thesis. This is the _rst observatory open to the public through the Internet, interactive and completely free. Mainly, it relies on a meritocratic functioning where users have to get observing time for carrying out astronomical experiments. The observatory and the underlying social network has been on the bench empirically demonstrate that the initial hypothesis. In this thesis an algorithm has been formulated to classify and order the elements belonging to a collaborative system. Full details about the procedure for the algorithm to extrapolate to any other system of collaboration. Described at an early stage on how to establish criteria for management to how to interpret the results. In the context of the observatory Montegancedo, the algorithm is used to determine which are the most important users in the social network by measuring their collaboration and participation. Similarly, one can calculate the importance of photographs, videos, news, reviews and other elements of social participation. In the same line than social meritocracy, it makes a scheduling algorithm of online resources based on the results of previous management algorithm. Designing a novel solution to the problem of sharing resources that require real experiments via Internet. Montegancedo applied to the observatory, discusses how to allocate observing time to the users according to their demonstrated importance in the community. The thesis also describes the process of analysis and characterization of individuals and communities on-line from the recorded data, which includes personal information such as each of their interactions exchanged