HIVE-MIND SPACE: A META-DESIGN APPROACH FOR CULTIVATING AND SUPPORTING COLLABORATIVE DESIGN.

The ever-growing complexity of design projects requires more knowledge than any individual can have and, therefore, needs the active engagement of all stakeholders in the design process. Collaborative design exploits synergies from multidisciplinary communities, encourages divergent thinking, and enhances social creativity. The research documented in this thesis supports and deepens the understanding of collaborative design in two dimensions: (1) It developed and evaluated socio-technical systems to support collaborative design projects; and (2) It defined and explored a meta- design framework focused on how these systems enable users, as active contributors, to modify and further develop them. The research is grounded in and simultaneously extends the following major dimensions of meta-design: (1) It exploits the contributions of social media and web 2.0 as innovative information technologies; (2) It facilitates the shift from consumer cultures to cultures of participation; (3) It fosters social creativity by harnessing contributions that occur in cultures of participation; (4) It empowers end-users to be active designers involved in creating situated solutions. In a world where change is the norm, meta-design is a necessity rather than a luxury because it is impossible to design software systems at design time for problems that occur only at use time. The co-evolution of systems and users\u2bc social practices pursued in this thesis requires a software environment that can evolve and be tailored continuously. End-user development explores tools and methods to support end users who tailor software artifacts. However, it addresses this objective primarily from a technical perspective and focuses mainly on tailorability. This thesis, centered on meta-design, extends end-user development by creating social conditions and design processes for broad participation in design activities both at design time and at use time. It builds on previous research into meta- design that has provided a strategic overview of design opportunities and principles. And it addresses some shortcomings of meta-design, such as the lack of guidelines for building concrete meta-design environments that can be assessed by empirical evaluation. Given the goal of this research, to explore meta-design approaches for cultivating and supporting collaborative design, the overarching research question guiding this work is: How do we provide a socio-technical environment to bring multidisciplinary design communities together to foster creativity, collaboration, and design evolution? 8 To answer this question, my research was carried out through four different phases: (1) synthesizing concepts, models, and theories; (2) framing conceptual models; (3) developing several systems in specific application areas; and (4) conducting empirical evaluation studies. The main contributions of this research are: \uf0a7 The Hive-Mind Space model, a meta-design framework derived from the \u201csoftware shaping workshop\u201d methodology and that integrates the \u201cseeding, evolutionary growth, reseeding\u201d model. The bottom-up approach inherent in this framework breaks down static social structures so as to support richer ecologies of participation. It provides the means for structuring communication and appropriation. The model\u2bcs open mediation mechanism tackles unanticipated communication gaps among different design communities. \uf0a7 MikiWiki, a structured programmable wiki I developed to demonstrate how the hive-mind space model can be implemented as a practical platform that benefits users and how its features and values can be specified so as to be empirically observable and assessable; \uf0a7 Empirical insights, such as those based on applying MikiWiki to different collaborative design studies, provide evidence that different phases of meta-design represent different modes rather than discrete levels

Infrastructure of learning analytics dashboard

Having dashboards for presenting the data of how learners are using an online course can be very useful for the teacher. Teachers can use this data to improve their courses and attract more learners. Current dashboards are usually set up to work with only one source of data. This can be a drawback if teachers have courses on multiple platforms. This project describes a new architecture and implementation, set for a more general dashboard that can be easily extended. The new system is platform independent which means new platforms (sources of data) can be added easily. A new part is introduced for data analysis which creates new derived data from the one provided by these platforms. There is also clear separation of functionality, that makes it easy to change or replace parts of the system and extend the current functionalities. This system can be useful to researchers as it contains data integrated from multiple sources. This integrated data can be useful for data analysis

Co-creating Digital Public Services for an Ageing Society

This open access book attends to the co-creation of digital public services for ageing societies. Increasingly public services are provided in digital form; their uptake however remains well below expectations. In particular, amongst older adults the need for public services is high, while at the same time the uptake of digital services is lower than the population average. One of the reasons is that many digital public services (or e-services) do not respond well to the life worlds, use contexts and use practices of its target audiences. This book argues that when older adults are involved in the process of identifying, conceptualising, and designing digital public services, these services become more relevant and meaningful. The book describes and compares three co-creation projects that were conducted in two European cities, Bremen and Zaragoza, as part of a larger EU-funded innovation project. The first part of the book traces the origins of co-creation to three distinct domains, in which co-creation has become an equally important approach with different understandings of what it is and entails: (1) the co-production of public services, (2) the co-design of information systems and (3) the civic use of open data. The second part of the book analyses how decisions about a co-creation project’s governance structure, its scope of action, its choice of methods, its alignment with strategic policies and its embedding in existing public information infrastructures impact on the process and its results. The final part of the book identifies key challenges to co-creation and provides a more general assessment of what co-creation may achieve, where the most promising areas of application may be and where it probably does not match with the contingent requirements of digital public services. Contributing to current discourses on digital citizenship in ageing societies and user-centric design, this book is useful for researchers and practitioners interested in co-creation, public sector innovation, open government, ageing and digital technologies, citizen engagement and civic participation in socio-technical innovation

Adopting sustainable business models in small island developing states (SIDS): buildings and construction sector

Sustainable business models can be used as tools to facilitate the understanding and implementation of sustainable solutions; however, the sustainable business model research field is not yet mature and studies specific to the buildings and construction sector are limited. There is also a clear lack of research in developing and emerging countries. This doctoral research identifies sustainable business models in the buildings and construction sector and develops a conceptual framework for analysing business models in the buildings and construction sector. The developed conceptual framework is applied to case studies in vulnerable small island developing states (SIDS) to identify ‘sustainability gaps’ and provide high-level recommendations for reducing those gaps. Overall, the aim of this research is to contribute to theory and practice on adopting sustainable business models in SIDS. The research process starts with a high-level literature review of business models and sustainability that quickly narrows to the emerging field of sustainable business models. Sustainable business models are then investigated more thoroughly to build an understanding of the literature, define the theoretical framework for this research and identify research gaps. The following sustainable business model research gaps are addressed: systems-based, boundary-spanning approach underpinned by natural and social science; emphasis on the social element of sustainability; clearer guidance on benefits for both companies and customers; sector specific empirical data (contextual implications); and, analysis from developing and emerging economies (contextual implications). The framework for strategic sustainable development (FSSD) is embedded in this research to place emphasis on systems thinking and scientific principles for understanding sustainability challenges and how they may be turned into business opportunities. The approach is through systematically exploring how the FSSD has been used to enhance sustainability in business and management research. Results are then conceptually integrated by identifying potential sustainable business model characteristics. A systematic literature review of business models for sustainable buildings is then conducted to find and analyse peer-reviewed empirical case study data. Results are used to develop the initial conceptual sustainable business model framework for buildings and construction and explore a single case study, which is an organisation based in in Sweden. This is followed by a multiple case study on organisations based in SIDS in the Caribbean region for comparative analysis. The geographical context for the single case study is mainly based on Sweden’s vision for and progress with sustainability in the buildings and construction sector. The selected organisation is based on alignment with the existing sustainable business model archetypes to fit with the emerging theoretical profile. The multiple case study comprises 12 organisations in the Caribbean region that are either market leaders in their subsectors or have sustainable value propositions. There is specific focus on the small island of Barbados, which is the common country of operation for all cases. Case study data collection includes interviews with senior management, company documents, and publicly available data. The overall process is constantly comparative where emerging information is used to guide to the following steps. Codes and themes are used to structure data extraction and analysis. Initial codes are derived from literature and then themes and new codes emerge from the data. The comparative analysis of results identifies various ‘sustainability gaps’ in business models in the Caribbean region that could be further explored to create/enhance sustainable business models such as: shared sustainable visions; sustainability champions both top-down and bottom-up; sustainability training and education, especially around embodied carbon and circularity; comprehensive environmental management approaches; the incorporation of sustainable certifications and standards; formalised construction and demolition waste management; longer-term revenue approaches, facilitated by triple bottom line and whole lifecycle thinking; and, wider distribution of economic costs and benefits. Development is needed on circular economy business models and the incorporation of modern methods of construction. Overall, this doctoral research comprehensively consolidates empirical data on sustainable business models in the buildings and construction sector, adds empirical knowledge to the sustainable business model research field, and provides useful insights and recommendations for sustainable buildings and construction research and practice

Agile Processes in Software Engineering and Extreme Programming

This open access book constitutes the proceedings of the 21st International Conference on Agile Software Development, XP 2020, which was planned to be held during June 8-12, 2020, at the IT University of Copenhagen, Denmark. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic the conference was postponed until an undetermined date. XP is the premier agile software development conference combining research and practice. It is a hybrid forum where agile researchers, academics, practitioners, thought leaders, coaches, and trainers get together to present and discuss their most recent innovations, research results, experiences, concerns, challenges, and trends. Following this history, for both researchers and seasoned practitioners XP 2020 provided an informal environment to network, share, and discover trends in Agile for the next 20 years. The 14 full and 2 short papers presented in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 37 submissions. They were organized in topical sections named: agile adoption; agile practices; large-scale agile; the business of agile; and agile and testing

Oppimisanalytiikan käynnistäminen, Tapaus: Aalto Online Learning

The digital transformation of learning brings forth data having unprecedented granularity and coverage of learning activity. The research area of Learning Analytics (LA) uses this data to understand and improve learning. The practice of LA is a cyclic process where learning data is collected from different sources and analytics is developed according to stakeholder objectives. Finally, current results are delivered that lead into action which improves learning and produces new data. The goal of this thesis is to bootstrap LA in multiple courses that implement different weekly online learning activities. The term bootstrap underlines the aim to support continuity, further development, and expansion of LA. The research questions were: what learning data the courses currently instrument, and what LA objectives the course staff find most important. This thesis conducts software engineering to construct an LA solution for the research case. Requirements are defined via examination of the case and interviews of the course staff. The developed solution enables real time access to learning data and possibility to integrate data from both Moodle and A-plus learning environments for joined analysis. Novel interactive visualizations are developed according to the user requirements. The work in bootstrapping LA at course level lead to two general findings. First, the integration of learning data from multitude of sources is a common challenge that requires design. Second, teachers' initial LA objectives include aims to monitor expected progress, improve allocation of learning material, identify problematic areas in learning material, and improve interaction with learners.Opetuksen digitaalinen murros synnyttaää ennennäkemättömän tarkkaa ja kattavaa tietoa oppimisaktiviteeteista. Oppimisanalytiikan (OA) tutkimusalue käyttää tätä aineistoa oppimisen ymmärtämiseen ja parantamiseen. OA:n soveltaminen käytäntöön on toistuva prosessi, jossa oppimisaineistoa kerätään erilaisista lähteistä ja analytiikkaa kehitetään omistajiensa tavoitteiden mukaisesti. Lopuksi tuotetaan ajantasaisia tuloksia, jotka johtavat toimintaan, joka parantaa oppimista ja tuottaa uutta aineistoa. Tämän diplomityön tavoitteena on käynnistää OA usealla kurssilla, jotka toteuttavat erilaisia viikoittaisia verkko-oppimisen ratkaisuja. Käynnistäminen pyrkii elinvoimaiseen, kehittyvään ja laajenevaan analytiikkaan. Tutkimuskysymykset olivat, mitä dataa kurssit tällä hetkellä keräävät ja mitkä OA–tavoitteet ovat kurssihenkilökunnalle tärkeimpiä. Työssä rakennetaan ohjelmistotuotannon keinoin OA–ratkaisu tutkittavalle tapaukselle. Ratkaisun vaatimukset määritellään tarkastelemalla tapausta ja haastattelemalla kurssien henkilökuntaa. Kehitetyn ratkaisun avulla aineisto on saatavilla reaaliaikaisesti. Lisäksi ratkaisu mahdollistaa aineiston yhdistämisen Moodle ja A-plus oppimisympäristöistä yhteistä analyysiä varten. Työssä suunnitellaan uusia interaktiivisia tiedon visualisointeja käyttäjävaatimusten mukaisesti. Tutkimus OA:n käynnistämiseksi kurssitasolla tuotti kaksi yleistä tulosta. Ensiksi aineiston yhdistäminen eri lähteistä on tyypillinen haaste, joka vaatii suunnittelua. Toiseksi opettajien tavoitteita OA:ta aloittaessa ovat valvoa odotettua edistymistä, parantaa oppimateriaalin mitoitusta, tunnistaa ongelmakohtia oppimateriaalissa ja parantaa vuorovaikutusta opiskelijoiden kanssa

Towards Sustainable Innovation

With sustainability having gained a lot of momentum over the last years and companies implementing strategies to create corporate sustainability, there are lots of opportunities for innovation. Thus, the two concepts of sustainability and innovation should not be considered separately – they are closely interlinked with one another. The main goal of sustainable innovation is to develop new products and technologies that have a positive impact on the company’s triple-bottom-line. To meet this aim, they have to be ecologically and economically beneficial as well as socially balanced. In order to help companies to improve their sustainable innovation process practically, this book is structured into five possible phases of a sustainable innovation process: Awareness of a sustainability problem Identification & Definition of the problem Ideation & Evaluation of the solutions Testing & Enrichment of the solutions Implementation of the solutions & Green Marketin

Business management and administration. Supporting lecture notes

The study guide covers the main provisions of business operation, management and administration, in particular the operation and management of the financial and marketing structure of the business, business administration, formation and selection of a business model, determination of operational efficiency of the business, building relations with stakeholders and improvement of commercial activity. The manual will contribute to students' assimilation of knowledge and practical skills in business management and administration, mastery of methods and tools for their improvement, and assessment of business efficiency. Intended for master's degree holders in the "Management and Business Administration" educational program, specialty 073 "Management"