Creating a distributed mobile networking testbed environment - through the Living Labs approach

Today, new ways of constructing and delivering complex wireless and mobile services require more elaborate and distributed prototyping, testing, and validation facilities. Testbeds are becoming an important tool for integrating technology components into the complex environment of the wireless world and end-users in their daily life. However technology in itself is no longer valid – benefits and usefulness for people in their daily life must be proven before the technology or service can be said to be a success

A fourfold typology of living labs: an empirical investigation amongst the ENoLL community

Living Labs can be seen as a means to structure user involvement in innovation processes. However, in this rather young research domain, there is no consensus yet regarding supporting theories and frameworks. This has resulted in a wide variety of projects and approaches being called ‘Living Labs’, which leaves a clear conceptualization and definition a task in progress. Within this research paper we propose a fourfold categorization of Living Labs based on a literature review and validated by an empirical investigation of the characteristics of 64 ICT Living Labs from the European Network of Living Labs (ENoLL). The four types are Living Labs for collaboration and knowledge support activities, original ‘American’ Living Labs, Living Labs as extension to testbeds and Living Labs that support context research and co-creation with users

Quantifying subjective quality evaluations for mobile video watching in a semi-living lab context

This paper discusses results from an exploratory study in which Quality of Experience aspects related to mobile video watching were investigated in a semi-living lab setting. More specifically, we zoom in on usage patterns in a natural research context and on the subjective evaluation of high and low-resolution movie trailers that are transferred to a mobile device using two transmission protocols for video (i.e., real-time transport protocol and progressive download using HTTP). User feedback was collected by means of short questionnaires on the mobile device, combined with traditional pen and paper diaries. The subjective evaluations regarding the general technical quality, perceived distortion, fluentness of the video, and loading speed are studied and the influence of the transmission protocol and video resolution on these evaluations is analyzed. Multinomial logistic regression results in a model to estimate the subjective evaluations regarding the perceived distortion and loading speed based on objectively-measured parameters of the video session

A living laboratory approach in the design of the user requirements of a spatial information platform

The purpose of this article is to introduce the development of the Regional Spatial Profiler – a spatial information and modelling platform – for the Department of Science and Technology. Based on the steps set out in action research, this platform is aimed at strengthening spatial planning at a regional scale by providing accessible and comparable spatial information (of current and past trends) to planning practitioners in government. To ensure that the Profiler met the requirements and expectations of users, and would be used by practitioners, its user-interface and future content requirements were developed using four living laboratories (living labs): the Cape Winelands, Ugu and Amatole District Municipalities, and Mangaung Local (now Metro) Municipality. Municipal participants and project team members believed that a living-lab process was the appropriate way to develop the Profiler and experienced the living-lab Profiler as a positive initiative; however, due to time, budget and technical constraints, it was a temporally – specific and fragmented project initiative. What would be required in future project phases would be a longer time frame and continued user involvement in multiple project phases

Linking users' subjective QoE evaluation to signal strength in an IEEE 802.11b/g wireless LAN environment

Although the literature on Quality of Experience (QoE) has boomed over the last few years, only a limited number of studies have focused on the relation between objective technical parameters and subjective user-centric indicators of QoE. Building on an overview of the related literature, this paper introduces the use of a software monitoring tool as part of an interdisciplinary approach to QoE measurement. In the presented study, a panel of test users evaluated a mobile web-browsing application (i.e., Wapedia) on a PDA in an IEEE 802.11b/g Wireless LAN environment by rating a number of key QoE dimensions on the device immediately after usage. This subjective evaluation was linked to the signal strength, monitored during PDA usage at four different locations in the test environment. The aim of this study is to assess and model the relation between the subjective evaluation of QoE and the (objective) signal strength in order to achieve future QoE optimization

Interdisciplinarity in Living Labs, for a better Innovative Co- creation

The advent of the new innovation generation of 4.0 has been accompanied by a shift in the workplace. A new form of work has emerged which is based on collaboration between the different members of the ecosystem. It also emphasizes openness to the outside world. This form is applied in local collaboration platforms recognized by the Co-working spaces. I In this paper we will study the Living Labs and their role in the collaborative creation of innovations. A unique embedded case study is conducted in an innovation Living Lab hosted in Tunisia with nine international collaborators. The results of this qualitative study show that Living Labs need to be configured in a way that facilitates open interaction, sharing and collaborative creation of innovations. Similarly, through the analysis of the interviews with the collaborators we deduce the emergence of the concept of interdisciplinarity as a determining variable of innovative co- creation in the Living Labs