Environment 2.0 : the 9th Biennial Conference on Environmental Psychology, 26-28 September 2011, Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, The Netherlands

On behalf of the Environmental Psychology Division of the German Association of Psychology, the 9th Biennial International Conference on Environmental Psychology is organized by the Human-Technology Interaction (HTI) group of the School of Innovation Sciences of the Eindhoven University of Technology. The HTI group is internationally acclaimed for perception research, and has become established as a major centre of excellence in human-technology interaction research. Bringing together psychological and engineering expertise, its central mission is investigating and optimizing interactions between people, systems, and environments, in the service of a socially and ecologically sustainable society

Environment 2.0 : the 9th Biennial Conference on Environmental Psychology, 26-28 September 2011, Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, The Netherlands

On behalf of the Environmental Psychology Division of the German Association of Psychology, the 9th Biennial International Conference on Environmental Psychology is organized by the Human-Technology Interaction (HTI) group of the School of Innovation Sciences of the Eindhoven University of Technology. The HTI group is internationally acclaimed for perception research, and has become established as a major centre of excellence in human-technology interaction research. Bringing together psychological and engineering expertise, its central mission is investigating and optimizing interactions between people, systems, and environments, in the service of a socially and ecologically sustainable society

Engineering context-aware systems and applications:A survey

Context-awareness is an essential component of systems developed in areas like Intelligent Environments, Pervasive & Ubiquitous Computing and Ambient Intelligence. In these emerging fields, there is a need for computerized systems to have a higher understanding of the situations in which to provide services or functionalities, to adapt accordingly. The literature shows that researchers modify existing engineering methods in order to better fit the needs of context-aware computing. These efforts are typically disconnected from each other and generally focus on solving specific development issues. We encourage the creation of a more holistic and unified engineering process that is tailored for the demands of these systems. For this purpose, we study the state-of-the-art in the development of context-aware systems, focusing on: (A) Methodologies for developing context-aware systems, analyzing the reasons behind their lack of adoption and features that the community wish they can use; (B) Context-aware system engineering challenges and techniques applied during the most common development stages; (C) Context-aware systems conceptualization

Engineering context-aware systems and applications: a survey

Context-awareness is an essential component of systems developed in areas like Intelligent Environments, Pervasive & Ubiquitous Computing and Ambient Intelligence. In these emerging fields, there is a need for computerized systems to have a higher understanding of the situations in which to provide services or functionalities, to adapt accordingly. The literature shows that researchers modify existing engineering methods in order to better fit the needs of context-aware computing. These efforts are typically disconnected from each other and generally focus on solving specific development issues. We encourage the creation of a more holistic and unified engineering process that is tailored for the demands of these systems. For this purpose, we study the state-of-the-art in the development of context-aware systems, focusing on: A) Methodologies for developing context-aware systems, analyzing the reasons behind their lack of adoption and features that the community wish they can use; B) Context aware system engineering challenges and techniques applied during the most common development stages; C) Context aware systems conceptualization

A framework for social media use in project management

There has been rapid adoption of social media (SM) in business functions such as marketing and advertising. This being primarily due to its capability to communicate information. There has been less widespread adoption of SM for other business functions and the potential of SM is not comprehensively understood. The purpose of this thesis is to explore the potential of SM for project management and to understand some of the difficulties that arise from SM use. The research specifically investigated how SM is being used for project activities and the maturity of the management processes that govern SM use. Implications for underlying theories such as virtual team, social capital and process maturity have also been analysed. An expert panel of project management practitioners from various geographic regions were invited to participate in this research. To facilitate the investigation, the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) from Project Management Institute (PMI) was used as the term of reference comprising forty seven project management activities. The research utilised two methods, firstly a Delphi Study of three rounds was used to identify the fundamentals of the phenomenon and attempt to align the expert views, and secondly, Structured Case Study interviews took place to explore the rationale and motivation of responses given by selected panellists. It further investigates the impact on project team performance and the robustness of processes that supports SM use by assessing the contribution to relationship building, trusts, coordination, cohesion and team virtuality. Key findings from the Delphi Study indicate that not all SM categories offer benefit for project activities. A list of SM categories that are most and least useful for all forty seven PMBOK process activities (across the project lifecycle) was identified. The two knowledge areas that are significantly benefitted are communication and stakeholder management while procurement management had limited use for SM. The findings also led to factors that could enable and inhibit the use of SM. Structured Case study confirmed that project team performance is enhanced through the use of SM as it improves social capital factors of relationship building, coordination and cohesion, however, trust development is not easily achieved. SM tools support mobility, facilitate effective and efficient information sharing, provide a single information repository and offer wider stakeholder reach surpassing geographic limitations constrained only by internet connectivity which in composite results in cost savings for project team communication. These factors increase team virtuality but the perception that SM use is free or of minimal costs, may encourage circumvention of control mechanisms such as senior management reviews and approvals. Findings indicate that lack of formulated business processes to manage SM use will lead to poor governance. Therefore, a Social Media Maturity Model (SM Cube hereafter) was propagated. SM Cube will help project professionals evaluate the robustness of SM enabling processes. This research proffers a mechanism to determine maturity of support processes for SM use thereby adding originality to the body of knowledge. Project professional can use this research as a guideline or framework to introduce SM for their project management. It extends the process maturity, virtual team and social capital theories

Harnessing Knowledge, Innovation and Competence in Engineering of Mission Critical Systems

This book explores the critical role of acquisition, application, enhancement, and management of knowledge and human competence in the context of the largely digital and data/information dominated modern world. Whilst humanity owes much of its achievements to the distinct capability to learn from observation, analyse data, gain insights, and perceive beyond original realities, the systematic treatment of knowledge as a core capability and driver of success has largely remained the forte of pedagogy. In an increasingly intertwined global community faced with existential challenges and risks, the significance of knowledge creation, innovation, and systematic understanding and treatment of human competence is likely to be humanity's greatest weapon against adversity. This book was conceived to inform the decision makers and practitioners about the best practice pertinent to many disciplines and sectors. The chapters fall into three broad categories to guide the readers to gain insight from generic fundamentals to discipline-specific case studies and of the latest practice in knowledge and competence management

Social media as facilitators of tacit knowledge sharing practices amongst public sector employees

This work is concerned with the exploration of social technologies relevant to the sharing of tacit knowledge within the public sector. The findings derive from analysis of empirical data collected via survey research and twenty qualitative interviews with the members of an online knowledge sharing platform dedicated to those working within public sector bodies, mainly in Scotland.The main contribution of the thesis is that it extends understanding of how social technologies render tacit knowledge visible by 1) providing access to online interactions for geographically dispersed individuals, 2) storing online social interactions, making them reusable, and 3) increasing network growth. The visibility of such tacit knowledge enhances knowledge awareness. This contributes to collective intelligence and learning processes and enables new collaborations.The concept of Ba, a Japanese concept from 1998 that emphasises the influence that contexts can have over the sharing of tacit knowledge is updated with respect to the use of social media tools.These two contributions are significant because previous research in Knowledge Management has not extensively investigated the ways in which social technologies contribute to the sharing of tacit knowledge within the public sector. They also emphasise the added value of social media tools with respect to the visibility of tacit knowledge and add a further valuable dimension to a well-known model that is frequently cited in the Knowledge Management literature

Presence 2005: the eighth annual international workshop on presence, 21-23 September, 2005 University College London (Conference proceedings)

OVERVIEW (taken from the CALL FOR PAPERS) Academics and practitioners with an interest in the concept of (tele)presence are invited to submit their work for presentation at PRESENCE 2005 at University College London in London, England, September 21-23, 2005. The eighth in a series of highly successful international workshops, PRESENCE 2005 will provide an open discussion forum to share ideas regarding concepts and theories, measurement techniques, technology, and applications related to presence, the psychological state or subjective perception in which a person fails to accurately and completely acknowledge the role of technology in an experience, including the sense of 'being there' experienced by users of advanced media such as virtual reality. The concept of presence in virtual environments has been around for at least 15 years, and the earlier idea of telepresence at least since Minsky's seminal paper in 1980. Recently there has been a burst of funded research activity in this area for the first time with the European FET Presence Research initiative. What do we really know about presence and its determinants? How can presence be successfully delivered with today's technology? This conference invites papers that are based on empirical results from studies of presence and related issues and/or which contribute to the technology for the delivery of presence. Papers that make substantial advances in theoretical understanding of presence are also welcome. The interest is not solely in virtual environments but in mixed reality environments. Submissions will be reviewed more rigorously than in previous conferences. High quality papers are therefore sought which make substantial contributions to the field. Approximately 20 papers will be selected for two successive special issues for the journal Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments. PRESENCE 2005 takes place in London and is hosted by University College London. The conference is organized by ISPR, the International Society for Presence Research and is supported by the European Commission's FET Presence Research Initiative through the Presencia and IST OMNIPRES projects and by University College London