Internet of Things Strategic Research Roadmap

Internet of Things (IoT) is an integrated part of Future Internet including existing and evolving Internet and network developments and could be conceptually defined as a dynamic global network infrastructure with self configuring capabilities based on standard and interoperable communication protocols where physical and virtual “things” have identities, physical attributes, and virtual personalities, use intelligent interfaces, and are seamlessly integrated into the information network

Change management? Organisational change strategies and managers' and workers' responses : a case study of a commercial vehicle manufacturing plant in southern India

This thesis examines the conception, implementation and outcomes of corporate management change strategies through an ethnographic study of a commercial vehicle manufacturing plant in Southern India with a history of labour-management conflict. Participant observation and interviews were carried out mainly within one manufacturing facility between July 2008 and June 2009, with a further visit in 2011. Towards the end of my fieldwork I also interviewed trade union conveners, activists and a cross-section of workers. The change management programme at the case study firm sought to implement the precepts of lean manufacturing by removing systemic inefficiencies in inventory management and production processes and installing a new organisational culture that promoted greater participation and self-initiative among workers and managers. Investigating the reasons for this programme’s very partial success made it possible to understand better the contradictory pressures faced by corporate management, the challenges encountered by senior plant managers and the factors shaping the reception of management policies by middle managers and workers. The thesis furthers our understanding of the limits of managerial agency by integrating two largely independent strands of enquiry: the rich ethnographic studies of the labour process, by Delbridge [1998], Milkman [1997], Durand and Hatzfeld [2003] and others, that consider the implementation and denouement of Japanese modes of work organisation such as lean manufacturing, and the granular focus on managerial subjectivities that shape managerial activity and condition managerial agency, represented by the work of Watson [1994], Jackall [1988] and Dalton [1950]. In addition, it documents the importance of broader political-economic contexts in determining the outcomes of management initiatives

Total Constraint Management for Improving Construction Work Flow in Liquefied Natural Gas Industry

Australia has benefited and will continue to benefit significantly from Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) investments underway. Managing these LNG projects is challenging as they become increasingly complex and technologically demanding. The primary goal of this thesis is to develop a Total Constraint Management (TCM) method to improve construction work flow during LNG construction. Five controlled experiments were conducted and results show that successful implementation of TCM can significantly improve construction productivity and reduce schedule overruns

Linked democracy : foundations, tools, and applications

Chapter 1Introduction to Linked DataAbstractThis chapter presents Linked Data, a new form of distributed data on theweb which is especially suitable to be manipulated by machines and to shareknowledge. By adopting the linked data publication paradigm, anybody can publishdata on the web, relate it to data resources published by others and run artificialintelligence algorithms in a smooth manner. Open linked data resources maydemocratize the future access to knowledge by the mass of internet users, eitherdirectly or mediated through algorithms. Governments have enthusiasticallyadopted these ideas, which is in harmony with the broader open data movement

Linked Democracy

This open access book shows the factors linking information flow, social intelligence, rights management and modelling with epistemic democracy, offering licensed linked data along with information about the rights involved. This model of democracy for the web of data brings new challenges for the social organisation of knowledge, collective innovation, and the coordination of actions. Licensed linked data, licensed linguistic linked data, right expression languages, semantic web regulatory models, electronic institutions, artificial socio-cognitive systems are examples of regulatory and institutional design (regulations by design). The web has been massively populated with both data and services, and semantically structured data, the linked data cloud, facilitates and fosters human-machine interaction. Linked data aims to create ecosystems to make it possible to browse, discover, exploit and reuse data sets for applications. Rights Expression Languages semi-automatically regulate the use and reuse of content. ; Links information flow, social intelligence, rights management, and modelling with epistemic democracy Presents examples of regulatory and institutional desig

Enterprise modelling framework for dynamic and complex business environment: socio-technical systems perspective

The modern business environment is characterised by dynamism and ambiguity. The causes include global economic change, rapid change requirements, shortened development life cycles and the increasing complexity of information technology and information systems (IT/IS). However, enterprises have been seen as socio-technical systems. The dynamic complex business environment cannot be understood without intensive modelling and simulation. Nevertheless, there is no single description of reality, which has been seen as relative to its context and point of view. Human perception is considered an important determinant for the subjectivist view of reality. Many scholars working in the socio-technical systems and enterprise modelling domains have conceived the holistic sociotechnical systems analysis and design possible using a limited number of procedural and modelling approaches. For instance, the ETHICS and Human-centred design approaches of socio-technical analysis and design, goal-oriented and process-oriented modelling of enterprise modelling perspectives, and the Zachman and DoDAF enterprise architecture frameworks all have limitations that can be improved upon, which have been significantly explained in this thesis. [Continues.