93,526 research outputs found
How Do Mobile Knowledge Workers Communicate?
In recent years, the relevance of mobile working has been steadily increasing. New mobile devices (e.g. smartphones) and their innovative functionalities (e.g. mobile applications) enable ubiquitous access to a large amount of data. As a result, the increasing diffusion of smartphones and mobile applications offers new potentials for enterprises. Current mobile devices and related mobile networks have reached a high level of maturity. Therefore, organizational aspects of mobile work become a focal point of interest for enterprises as well as for academics. This research focuses on the communication and information needs of knowledge workers while being âon the roadâ. In order to evaluate the communication behavior of mobile knowledge workers, the authors collected data of communication and information processes, which were initiated by IT-consultants. The results indicate that communication contexts play a major role for the selection of appropriate media channels
Theorization and translation in information technology institutionalization: evidence from Danish home care
Although institutional theory has become a more dominant perspective in information systems research, studies have only paid scant attention to how field dynamics and organizational processes coevolve during information technology institutionalization. Against this backdrop, we present a new conceptualization based on the âtraveling of ideasâ metaphor that distinguishes between theorization of ideas about IT usage across an organizational field and translation of such ideas into practical use of IT within particular organizations. Drawing on these distinct analytical views, we posit that IT institutionalization is constituted through recursive intertwining of theorization and translation involving both linguistic and material objects. To illustrate the detailed workings of this conceptualization, we apply it to a longitudinal study of mobile IT institutionalization within Danish home care. We demonstrate how heterogeneous actors within the Danish home care field theorized ideas about mobile IT usage and how these ideas translated into different local arrangements. Further, our account reveals a complex institutionalization process in which mobile IT was first seen as a fashionable recipe for improvement but subsequently became the subject of controversy. The paper adds to the emerging process and discourse literature on IT institutionalization by shedding new light on how IT ideas travel across a field and within individual organizations, how they transform and become legitimized over time, and how they take on different linguistic and material forms across organizational settings
Diffusion of e-health innovations in 'post-conflict' settings: a qualitative study on the personal experiences of health workers.
BACKGROUND: Technological innovations have the potential to strengthen human resources for health and improve access and quality of care in challenging 'post-conflict' contexts. However, analyses on the adoption of technology for health (that is, 'e-health') and whether and how e-health can strengthen a health workforce in these settings have been limited so far. This study explores the personal experiences of health workers using e-health innovations in selected post-conflict situations. METHODS: This study had a cross-sectional qualitative design. Telephone interviews were conducted with 12 health workers, from a variety of cadres and stages in their careers, from four post-conflict settings (Liberia, West Bank and Gaza, Sierra Leone and Somaliland) in 2012. Everett Roger's diffusion of innovation-decision model (that is, knowledge, persuasion, decision, implementation, contemplation) guided the thematic analysis. RESULTS: All health workers interviewed held positive perceptions of e-health, related to their beliefs that e-health can help them to access information and communicate with other health workers. However, understanding of the scope of e-health was generally limited, and often based on innovations that health workers have been introduced through by their international partners. Health workers reported a range of engagement with e-health innovations, mostly for communication (for example, email) and educational purposes (for example, online learning platforms). Poor, unreliable and unaffordable Internet was a commonly mentioned barrier to e-health use. Scaling-up existing e-health partnerships and innovations were suggested starting points to increase e-health innovation dissemination. CONCLUSIONS: Results from this study showed ICT based e-health innovations can relieve information and communication needs of health workers in post-conflict settings. However, more efforts and investments, preferably driven by healthcare workers within the post-conflict context, are needed to make e-health more widespread and sustainable. Increased awareness is necessary among health professionals, even among current e-health users, and physical and financial access barriers need to be addressed. Future e-health initiatives are likely to increase their impact if based on perceived health information needs of intended users
Location Privacy in Spatial Crowdsourcing
Spatial crowdsourcing (SC) is a new platform that engages individuals in
collecting and analyzing environmental, social and other spatiotemporal
information. With SC, requesters outsource their spatiotemporal tasks to a set
of workers, who will perform the tasks by physically traveling to the tasks'
locations. This chapter identifies privacy threats toward both workers and
requesters during the two main phases of spatial crowdsourcing, tasking and
reporting. Tasking is the process of identifying which tasks should be assigned
to which workers. This process is handled by a spatial crowdsourcing server
(SC-server). The latter phase is reporting, in which workers travel to the
tasks' locations, complete the tasks and upload their reports to the SC-server.
The challenge is to enable effective and efficient tasking as well as reporting
in SC without disclosing the actual locations of workers (at least until they
agree to perform a task) and the tasks themselves (at least to workers who are
not assigned to those tasks). This chapter aims to provide an overview of the
state-of-the-art in protecting users' location privacy in spatial
crowdsourcing. We provide a comparative study of a diverse set of solutions in
terms of task publishing modes (push vs. pull), problem focuses (tasking and
reporting), threats (server, requester and worker), and underlying technical
approaches (from pseudonymity, cloaking, and perturbation to exchange-based and
encryption-based techniques). The strengths and drawbacks of the techniques are
highlighted, leading to a discussion of open problems and future work
Technology to support young people 16 to 18 years of age who are not in employment, education or training (NEET): a local authority landscape review - final report
Becta landscape review: Technologies used by local authorities to support young people who are not in education, employment or trainin
Knowledge Spillover Agents and Regional Development
It is widely recognised that knowledge and highly skilled individuals as "carriers" of knowledge (i.e. knowledge spillover agents) play a key role in impelling the development and growth of cities and regions. In this paper we discuss the relation between the mobility of talent and knowledge flows. In this context, several issues are examined, including the role of highly skilled labour for regional development, the features that characterise knowledge spillovers through labour mobility, the key factors for attracting and retaining talent as well as the rise of "brain gain" policies. Although the paper deals with highly skilled mobility and migration in general, a particular attention will be paid to flows of (star) scientists.Series: SRE - Discussion Paper
A Phone Learning Model for Enhancing Productivity of Visually Impaired Civil Servants
Phone-based learning in civil service is the use of voice technologies to deliver learning and capacity building training services to
government employees. The Internet revolution and advancement in Information and Communications Technology (ICT) have given rise
to online and remote staff training for the purpose of enhancing workers productivity. The need for civil servants in Nigeria to develop
capacity that will enhance knowledge is a key requirement to having competitive advantage in the work place. Existing online learning
platforms (such as web-based learning, mobile learning, etc) did not consider the plight of the visually impaired. These platforms provide
graphical interfaces that require sight to access. The visually impaired civil servants require auditory access to functionalities that exist in
learning management system on the Internet. Thus a gap exist between the able-bodied and visually impaired civil servants on
accessibility to e-learning platform. The objective of this paper is to provide a personalized telephone learning model and a prototype
application that will enhance the productivity of the visually impaired workers in Government establishments in Nigeria. The model was
designed using Unified Modeling Language (UML) diagram. The prototype application was implemented and evaluated. With the
proposed model and application, the visually and mobility impaired worker are able to participate in routine staff training and
consequently enhances their productivity just like their able-bodied counterparts. The prototype application also serves as an alternative
training platform for the able-bodied workers. Future research direction for this study will include biometric authentication of learners
accessing the applicatio
A Phone Learning Model for Enhancing Productivity of Visually Impaired Civil Servants
Phone-based learning in civil service is the use of voice technologies to deliver learning and capacity building training services to
government employees. The Internet revolution and advancement in Information and Communications Technology (ICT) have given rise
to online and remote staff training for the purpose of enhancing workers productivity. The need for civil servants in Nigeria to develop
capacity that will enhance knowledge is a key requirement to having competitive advantage in the work place. Existing online learning
platforms (such as web-based learning, mobile learning, etc) did not consider the plight of the visually impaired. These platforms provide
graphical interfaces that require sight to access. The visually impaired civil servants require auditory access to functionalities that exist in
learning management system on the Internet. Thus a gap exist between the able-bodied and visually impaired civil servants on
accessibility to e-learning platform. The objective of this paper is to provide a personalized telephone learning model and a prototype
application that will enhance the productivity of the visually impaired workers in Government establishments in Nigeria. The model was
designed using Unified Modeling Language (UML) diagram. The prototype application was implemented and evaluated. With the
proposed model and application, the visually and mobility impaired worker are able to participate in routine staff training and
consequently enhances their productivity just like their able-bodied counterparts. The prototype application also serves as an alternative
training platform for the able-bodied workers. Future research direction for this study will include biometric authentication of learners
accessing the applicatio
Mobile phone-based healthcare delivery in a Sami area: Reflections on technology and culture\ud
This paper analyses the redesign of psychiatric services for children and\ud
adolescents in a Sami area in the county of Finnmark in Norway. The project\ud
included the introduction of a new technology in support of a decentralized model\ud
for healthcare service delivery. We focus specifically on the role of culture in the\ud
development and implementation of a mobile phone application during the pilot\ud
phase of the project. In our analysis we draw on information infrastructure theory.\ud
We are in particular interested in the concept of generativity and critically assess\ud
its role of in the analysis of technology in a culturally diverse context
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The communicative needs of Bangladeshi economic migrants: The functional values of host country languages versus English as a lingua franca
This article investigates the language skills and the nature of language provision required by economic migrants from Bangladesh working in the Middle East. It focuses in particular on the perceived values of the host country language (Arabic) versus English as a language franca (ELF). While there have been a number of explorations of the value of learning the host country language for migrants in terms of both labour market outcomes and wellbeing, there is a paucity of, and pressing need for, studies investigating the value of ELF for economic migrants, particularly those from developing country contexts. This article presents the findings from an ethnographic study which explores the experiences, perceptions and specific language-related issues of a diverse cohort of returnee migrants from rural Bangladesh where, despite significant migration from the area, little is known about this populationâs language use and communicative needs. Our findings suggest that both the host country language (Arabic) and ELF have important functional values, but that these vary depending on interlocutors, domains of work and contexts of situation, as well as on the relative statuses (within an ecology of global linguistic value) of the two languages in different contexts. The analysis thus provides fresh and significant evidence regarding the role of language in economic migration and development for low-skilled migrants, both to and from contexts in which English has no official status. The article concludes by considering the implications for the types of language education which might be most suitable for these and other economic migrants in comparable contexts
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