The Trough Of Despair And The Slope Of Enlightenment: Gartner’s Hype Cycle And Science Fiction In The Analysis Of Technological Longings.

Futurology and computing technologies have a history of over-inflated claims and fast-changing meanings. That there is a time-lag between computing research and development, and the greater public awareness of those technologies that are actually used, is well understood in the scientific research community, but less so by those who come upon new technological delights as if they were a-historic productions. There are a variety of means to map these changes in order to explain how one might gauge the real possibilities of a particular new technology, rather than the visionary potentials. For example, science fiction in film and television give us a useful snapshot of contemporary ideas of technology research, but the lag between technological change and the production of science fiction artefacts is not fast enough to aid business in the here and now. In addition, SF as well as informing design in computing, also informs the more general utopian/dystopian aspects of technological longing, adding to general beliefs (or visions) of disruptive technologies and artificial intelligence. Timelines of technological development help us to understand the historical basis of a particular technology, such as Virtual Reality, and go some way to helping us make better predictions about the usefulness of new technologies. Gartner’s hype cycle is a diagram which maps emergent technologies, labels and trends against actual take-up and development via a number of lyrically named stages such as the peak of inflated expectations, the trough of despond and the plateau of productivity. Using the examples of virtual reality and cloud computing this paper explores a number of ways of making better predictions about the implications of technological change, and to what extent the new toy we are being offered is rather similar to the old

From service-oriented architecture to service-oriented enterprise

Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) was originally motivated by enterprise demands for better business-technology alignment and higher flexibility and reuse. SOA evolved from an initial set of ideas and principles to Web services (WS) standards now widely accepted by industry. The next phase of SOA development is concerned with a scalable, reliable and secure infrastructure based on these standards, and guidelines, methods and techniques for developing and maintaining service delivery in dynamic enterprise settings. In this paper we discuss the principles and main elements of SOA. We then present an overview of WS standards. And finally we come back to the original motivation for SOA, and how these can be realized

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS): application case for TrustedX

Cada año el precio del hardware disminuye haciendo posible a las empresas comprar servidores cada vez más potentes. Sin embargo, los gastos operacionales como el mantenimiento de estos servidores crece cada año, por lo que se hace necesario administrar mejor nuestros recursos hardware o incluso se puede pensar en externalizar este servicio. Las redes de Infraestructura como un Servicio (IaaS) nos ofrecen la posibilidad de administrar de una manera más optima los recursos hardware. Gracias a la virtualización de los recursos hardware, estas redes ofrecen únicamente el hardware que el usuario necesita, creando y destruyendo máquinas virtuales en tiempo real para adaptarse a la potencia que el usuario necesita en cada momento. De esta forma, una red IaaS necesitará menos recursos hardware que una red de servidores convencionales para realizar la misma carga de trabajo. La reducción en el número de servidores aporta una reducción de costes para las empresas, tanto a nivel de adquisición de nuevos servidores, como el mantenimiento de los mismos al reducirse las tareas de administración. Además la reducción del número de servidores nos aporta una disminución del consumo eléctrico (tanto del consumo de los servidores como del consumo en refrigeración). Por tanto, las soluciones de IaaS ofrecen a las empresas la posibilidad de un crecimiento más sostenible, tanto económicamente como desde una vista medioambiental. En este proyecto se describirán las características de una red de IaaS y se ofrecerá un caso práctico de uso. En la solución que ofreceremos, usaremos Eucalyptus como software de IaaS y crearemos un portal web para administrar los recursos de la red. Los recursos software ofrecidos por nuestra red se basarán en servidores de TrustedX. TrustedX es una plataforma de servicios web que aporta mecanismos de seguridad y confianza en Arquitecturas Orientadas a Servicios (SOA). TrustedX ha sido desarrollado por Safelayer Secure Communications

A viability plan of a unit of research in applications of new telecommunications technologies

This project is about to develop a plan to create a dedicated unit in order to monitoring of emerging technologies in the field of telecommunications

Models of early adoption of ICT innovations in higher education

One of the common dilemmas faced by developers of information communication technology (ICT) initiatives is how to go about identifying potential early adopters of their service. This article outlines background research into this area and details the approaches taken within the JISC-funded Rights and Rewards in Blended Institutional Repositories Project to locate these key individuals within a Higher Education (HE) environment. The concept of an innovation is discussed and the differences between the terms innovation and invention are outlined. Models and frameworks for describing the process of introducing an innovation to an organisation are described. These suggest influential institutional factors, key characteristics of individuals, the innovation, and the organisation that affect the diffusion of an innovation. Together these features create the environment in which new innovations are explored

Adoption of electronic books in a higher education setting: an exploratory case study based on Diffusion of Innovation and Garner’s Hype Cycle paradigms

The purpose of this research was to examine the status of library users' adoption of e-books in line with Rogers's Diffusion of Innovation (DOI) theory and Gartner’s Hype Cycle (GHC) Model in the context of Fiji National University (FNU). The FNU Library introduced e-books to its user community in 2014. Purposively chosen 40 undergraduate students from the College of Business, Hospitality and Tourism Studies were selected as the sample to conduct in-depth interviews. The study revealed that the participants' e-book adoption habits were primarily divided among early adopters, early majority, and late majority. The results disclosed many factors that influence the adoption of e-books, such as familiarity with the technology, personal taste, exposure to trial access, use of preferred access devices and enthusiasm for reading. Findings indicate that e-books adoption of university undergraduates in line with the DOI and GHC paradigms has substantiated how the underpinning theories could help interpret the adoption of e-books in teaching and learning environment. Thus, this research will help librarians and educators develop a robust mechanism for better understanding the inherent status-quo of e-book usage in higher education institutions. These research findings will also help develop strategies that can significantly enhance universities' traditional teaching and learning performance with emerging technologies

Adoption of electronic books in a higher education setting: an exploratory case study based on Diffusion of Innovation and Garner’s Hype Cycle paradigms

258-267The purpose of this research was to examine the status of library users' adoption of e-books in line with Rogers's Diffusion of Innovation (DOI) theory and Gartner’s Hype Cycle (GHC) Model in the context of Fiji National University (FNU). The FNU Library introduced e-books to its user community in 2014. Purposively chosen 40 undergraduate students from the College of Business, Hospitality and Tourism Studies were selected as the sample to conduct in-depth interviews. The study revealed that the participants' e-book adoption habits were primarily divided among early adopters, early majority, and late majority. The results disclosed many factors that influence the adoption of e-books, such as familiarity with the technology, personal taste, exposure to trial access, use of preferred access devices and enthusiasm for reading. Findings indicate that e-books adoption of university undergraduates in line with the DOI and GHC paradigms has substantiated how the underpinning theories could help interpret the adoption of e-books in teaching and learning environment. Thus, this research will help librarians and educators develop a robust mechanism for better understanding the inherent status-quo of e-book usage in higher education institutions. These research findings will also help develop strategies that can significantly enhance universities' traditional teaching and learning performance with emerging technologies

11R. An Assessment of eProcurement Adoption Experiences in Canadian Purchasing Organizations

Electronic procurement technologies and practices have matured significantly in the past decade. However, the existing literature might suggest the adoption of eProcurement is still very limited. However, our recent survey of 334 purchasing management professionals in Canada found that over 75% of the organizations have used eProcurement technologies for at least one year and over half have used eProcurement for at least three years. While only 24% of respondents were satisfied with their organizations’ current eProcurement implementation, 72% of respondents felt that their organization would benefit from more usage of eProcurement. This paper contrasts the results of a survey on eProcurement adoption, success factors, and challenges conducted in 2009, with findings from prior studies. The preliminary findings suggest that many of the barriers to success identified in earlier studies (such as lack of management support) have largely been overcome, yet the technical challenges of integrating information systems and processes remain. This paper concludes with a call for more intensive field studies to further explore these findings

Connected systems in smart cities: use-cases of integration of buildings information with smart systems

Realisation of smart cities is highly dependent on innovative connections between the deployed systems in the cities. This implies that successfully deployment of individual smart systems which meet citizens’ needs, is not sufficient to make a city smart. Indeed, the smart cities require to innovate and connect establish infrastructures for the citizens and organisations. To enable connected systems in smart cities, the possibilities to exchange and integration information between different systems is essential. Construction industry is one of the domains which owns huge amount of valuable information asset. Buildings information can be utilised to create initiatives associated with various domains like, urban and infrastructure planning, maintenance/facility management, and energy monitoring. However, there are some barriers to realise these initiatives. This paper introduces and elaborates the details about three use-cases which need to utilise buildings information to present innovative smart services. The three use cases are: 1) Energy Usage Monitoring for positive energy usage district areas in Smart Cities (a use case from River City-anonymous name of the city); 2) Services for Facility Management Industry (a use-case from Estates office in Quay University); 3) Safety & risk management for buildings in 3D Hack event in Dublin. Each use-case considers various stakeholders’ perspectives. Also they include elaborated details related to the barriers and challenges associated with utilisation and integration of buildings information. This paper concludes by the detailed barriers to benefit from valuable buildings information to create innovative smart services. Further, recommendations are provided to overcome the presented challenges

Enhancing Smart Cities: 3D Printing for Higher Education Research and Innovation

Smart cities and 3D printing technologies are attracting unprecedented attention with signs that they will be key drivers of societal and economic change. Yet, the connection in how 3D printing can enhance smart cities remains understudied. To this end, this paper argues that 3D printing has widespread applications across higher education and smart city settings through the opening and democratizing of innovation. Accordingly, several examples of recent 3D printing developments and smart city advancements are presented. However, higher education institutions (HEIs) must also be mindful of the social, ethical, and legal challenges involved with 3D printing research, integration, and democratization. Reflecting on the Triple Helix Model of university-industry-government relationships, this paper concludes that HEIs should take the lead for 3D printing and smart city collaborations. It is only through this leadership that 3D printing's positive uses will prevail over the potential pitfalls that this disruptive technology is capable of