Mobiilimenetelmä monipaikkaisen työn tutkimiseen (MobiMe) - Loppuraportti

Monesta paikasta käsin työskentely on yleistynyt mobiiliteknologian ja -sovellusten lisääntymisen myötä. Tämä on merkinnyt monelle työskentelyä päivän ja viikon mittaan vaihtelevissa toimintaympäristöissä, jotka olennaisella tavalla vaikuttavat työn sujumiseen ja seurausvaikutuksiin, kuten koettuun hyvinvointiin ja työtyytyväisyyteen. Vaihtelevissa työympäristöissä toimintaan vaikuttavien tekijöiden tunnistamiseen on tuskin lainkaan käytettävissä tutkimus- ja analysointimenetelmiä. Mobiilityö on luonteeltaan sellaista, etteivät perinteiset etnografiset menetelmät tai osanottajien varjostaminen ole toimivia. Koska liikkuvan työn käytännöt ovat yleistyneet vasta viime vuosina erityisesti mobiiliteknologian mahdollistamina, kyseisiä ilmiöitä tunnetaan toistaiseksi vielä huonosti. Tässä hankkeessa tutkittiin mobiililaitteiden hyödyntämismahdollisuuksia vaihtelevien toimintaympäristötekijöiden, liikkumisen ja niihin liittyvien tapahtumien automaattisessa tallennuksessa sekä tilanne- ja paikkakohtaisen kokemustiedon raportoinnissa ja analysoinnissa. Kerätyn tiedon avulla on mahdollista eritellä ja tehdä näkyväksi, mitä erityisesti liikkuvan tietotyön harjoittajat ja muut monipaikkaisen työn ammattilaiset tekevät arkipäivän toiminnassaan. Tätä menetelmää voi hyödyntää monipaikkaisen työn tutkimusmenetelmän lisäksi myös yksittäisten työntekijöiden, työyhteisöjen tai työterveyshuollon apuvälineenä työn suunnittelussa. Keskeisenä osana menetelmää on kaksisuuntaisuus, joka motivoi osallistujia antamalla palautetta toiminnastaan.  Käytimme hankkeessa seuraavia menetelmiä tavoitteiden saavuttamiseksi: kirjallisuustutkimus, tapaustutkimukset, ohjelmistojen kehitys ja yhtenäistäminen, pilotointi, ja ohjelmistojen benchmark-kokeilut. Näiden perusteella keräsimme tutkimustietoa vastaamaan tutkimuskysymyksiin. Loimme hankkeessa mobiilin tietotyön konteksteja kuvaavan kehikon Soikkelin ym. (2012) artikkelin pohjalta. Kehikossa luokittelemme mobiilin työn konteksteja sekä niiden piirteiden että kontekstien tunnistamiseen käytettyjen älypuhelimia hyödyntävän tiedonkeruun tapojen perusteella. Käytimme älypuhelimia keräämään kontekstualisoitua dataa työntekijöiden päivittäisistä työtoiminnoista. Tutkimme näin heidän kokemaansa työn imua ja sosio-emotionaalisia toimintoja/aktiviteettejä. Mittasimme laitteilla monipaikkaista työtä tekevien positiivisia ja negatiivisia itsearvioituja tuntemuksia sekä haastavuuden ja pystyvyyden kokemuksia työkontekstissa ja heidän toimintojaan siinä. Tulokset osoittavat, että osallistujien itseraportoimat sijainnit osuvat hyvin yhteen todellisten sijaintien kanssa, jotka tallennettiin laitteella automaattisesti. Tämä tulos tarkoittaa sitä, että on mahdollista kehittää algoritmi tunnistamaan tietyt toimintakontekstit automaattisesti paikkatiedosta

Qudi: a modular python suite for experiment control and data processing

Qudi is a general, modular, multi-operating system suite written in Python 3 for controlling laboratory experiments. It provides a structured environment by separating functionality into hardware abstraction, experiment logic and user interface layers. The core feature set comprises a graphical user interface, live data visualization, distributed execution over networks, rapid prototyping via Jupyter notebooks, configuration management, and data recording. Currently, the included modules are focused on confocal microscopy, quantum optics and quantum information experiments, but an expansion into other fields is possible and encouraged. Qudi is available from https://github.com/Ulm-IQO/qudi and is freely useable under the GNU General Public Licence.Comment: Software paper, 9 pages, 2 figure

Applications of Context-Aware Systems in Enterprise Environments

In bring-your-own-device (BYOD) and corporate-owned, personally enabled (COPE) scenarios, employees’ devices store both enterprise and personal data, and have the ability to remotely access a secure enterprise network. While mobile devices enable users to access such resources in a pervasive manner, it also increases the risk of breaches for sensitive enterprise data as users may access the resources under insecure circumstances. That is, access authorizations may depend on the context in which the resources are accessed. In both scenarios, it is vital that the security of accessible enterprise content is preserved. In this work, we explore the use of contextual information to influence access control decisions within context-aware systems to ensure the security of sensitive enterprise data. We propose several context-aware systems that rely on a system of sensors in order to automatically adapt access to resources based on the security of users’ contexts. We investigate various types of mobile devices with varying embedded sensors, and leverage these technologies to extract contextual information from the environment. As a direct consequence, the technologies utilized determine the types of contextual access control policies that the context-aware systems are able to support and enforce. Specifically, the work proposes the use of devices pervaded in enterprise environments such as smartphones or WiFi access points to authenticate user positional information within indoor environments as well as user identities

The AutoSPADA Platform: User-Friendly Edge Computing for Distributed Learning and Data Analytics in Connected Vehicles

Contemporary connected vehicles host numerous applications, such as diagnostics and navigation, and new software is continuously being developed. However, the development process typically requires offline batch processing of large data volumes. In an edge computing approach, data analysts and developers can instead process sensor data directly on computational resources inside vehicles. This enables rapid prototyping to shorten development cycles and reduce the time to create new business values or insights. This paper presents the design, implementation, and operation of the AutoSPADA edge computing platform for distributed data analytics. The platform's design follows scalability, reliability, resource efficiency, privacy, and security principles promoted through mature and industrially proven technologies. In AutoSPADA, computational tasks are general Python scripts, and we provide a library to, for example, read signals from the vehicle and publish results to the cloud. Hence, users only need Python knowledge to use the platform. Moreover, the platform is designed to be extended to support additional programming languages.Comment: 14 pages, 4 figures, 3 tables, 1 algorithm, 1 code listin

Taking Myths Seriously: An Essay for Lawyers

The specific idea I want to explore has to do with the motivational power of myths and illusions on a personal level. To take a mundane example, people are often told to believe in themselves. The underlying idea seems to be that high self confidence is an important motivator, especially in competitive settings like school, sports, business and the professions. This is not the idle talk of family and friends; millions of dollars are spent each year by people and their employers on motivational books and programs that offer endless variations on this simple theme in an effort to bolster the self-confidence of the audience. Yet the idea is intellectually vacant, except to the very limited extent that it is meant to correct a given person\u27s erroneous belief that he or she lacks the skill to compete when in fact that skill is present. There are plenty of reasons why one may not meet high expectations, no matter how hard one believes or tries, and, rationally, there is never reason to ignore or downplay the realistic risk of failure. Is it possible, however, that there is something more to motivation, so that the myopic act of believing in oneself actually can pay off on average even if it is induced largely through some form of psychological cheerleading? Are there unrealistic beliefs in things besides oneself for which there are similar motivational payoffs? And importantly, is there a price - personal or social - paid as a result? What follows offers some tentative answers that relate to law and lawyering

Seamless multimedia delivery within a heterogeneous wireless networks environment: are we there yet?

The increasing popularity of live video streaming from mobile devices such as Facebook Live, Instagram Stories, Snapchat, etc. pressurises the network operators to increase the capacity of their networks. However, a simple increase in system capacity will not be enough without considering the provisioning of Quality of Experience (QoE) as the basis for network control, customer loyalty and retention rate and thus increase in network operators revenue. As QoE is gaining strong momentum especially with increasing users’ quality expectations, the focus is now on proposing innovative solutions to enable QoE when delivering video content over heterogeneous wireless networks. In this context, this paper presents an overview of multimedia delivery solutions, identifies the problems and provides a comprehensive classification of related state-of-the-art approaches following three key directions: adaptation, energy efficiency and multipath content delivery. Discussions, challenges and open issues on the seamless multimedia provisioning faced by the current and next generation of wireless networks are also provided

Seamless Multimedia Delivery Within a Heterogeneous Wireless Networks Environment: Are We There Yet?

The increasing popularity of live video streaming from mobile devices, such as Facebook Live, Instagram Stories, Snapchat, etc. pressurizes the network operators to increase the capacity of their networks. However, a simple increase in system capacity will not be enough without considering the provisioning of quality of experience (QoE) as the basis for network control, customer loyalty, and retention rate and thus increase in network operators revenue. As QoE is gaining strong momentum especially with increasing users' quality expectations, the focus is now on proposing innovative solutions to enable QoE when delivering video content over heterogeneous wireless networks. In this context, this paper presents an overview of multimedia delivery solutions, identifies the problems and provides a comprehensive classification of related state-of-the-art approaches following three key directions: 1) adaptation; 2) energy efficiency; and 3) multipath content delivery. Discussions, challenges, and open issues on the seamless multimedia provisioning faced by the current and next generation of wireless networks are also provided

Using Message Queuing to Drive Polyglot Identity and Access Management Development

This paper describes a method of using an Advanced Message Queuing Protocol (AMQP) broker, RabbitMQ in particular, to facilitate the management of accounts across a variety of systems. Higher education poses a unique challenge in the management of accounts due to the wide variety of systems involved. The Central IT department of an organization, those that usually run management systems, does not always have control over what systems are chosen, but needs to be able to manage them nonetheless. Unique requirements of each of the systems requires custom integration. That integration can be limited in what platform or languages are used. Use of an AMQP broker along with JSON allows an identity management system to distribute changes in a platform independent and distributed manner. Administrators of systems are then free to choose their best platform and language for management

A Prospect Theory of Privacy

Privacy law has languished for decades while the other information law doctrines have flourished. This paradox can be explained by the relative weight assigned respectively to moral argument versus economic argument. Privacy law is unique in that it continues to be steered foremost by moral intuition. What qualifies as a “violation” of privacy is predicated largely on the moral reprehensibility of the act in question. By stark contrast, the intellectual property regimes have long since converted to being led primarily by economic considerations, and only secondarily by noneconomic factors. That distinction is counterproductive and nonsensical. Personal data is an informational good like any other. The same economic justifications for intellectual “property” can be extended to intellectual “privacy”— nonexclusivity harms the incentives to generate new information that can further the progress of social knowledge. Where moral rhetoric has failed to advance robust recognition of privacy interests, economic reasoning may prove more effective. In particular, this Essay offers Edmund Kitch’s prospect theory as an important counterweight to prior economic critiques of privacy, which have frowned on restraints on alienation of information. Prospect theory shows that the social value of recognizing exclusive claims is not just to shield information that already exists, but also to shield deeper investigations of that information to unearth further information that would not be otherwise discoverable