Service platform strategy : social networking and mobile service platform perspectives

Thesis (S.M. in Engineering and Management)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, System Design and Management Program, 2011.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 99-101).The significance of the service platform is increasing, while studies on this phenomenon remain scarce and insufficient. Most of the researches focus on products, market segmentation and how platform triggers innovation and there's a lack of researches that focus on services, the fast growing industry nowadays. In analyzing the service platform, it is important to understand the interactions between different players, such as application developers, content providers, network operators, and users. For that purpose, a value network analysis which analyzes the interactions for creating value between the key players is more suitable than the common value chain analysis which is one-directional and sequential. This thesis adopts the value network approach in an attempt to analyze the two different types of service platform, that is, social networking platform and mobile service platform. The Social Networking Service (SNS) is evolving beyond the bounds of a simple personal network and is gradually transforming into a social networking platform where SNS information is used to develop various new services. This thesis examines the positioning and interaction of the key players for the social networking platform and the values that the key players can gain and capture. The mobile service platform is becoming more important, as 3G mobile technologies are mature and widespread and the smartphone market is growing rapidly. For the mobile service platform, the market players are engaged in a severe competition to control the market through various strategies. The biggest current issue in the mobile market is the movement to open platform strategy to build an ecosystem in which third-party developers can participate. This thesis also examines the positioning and interaction of the key players surrounding the mobile service platform and the values that the key players can gain and capture. Ultimately, this thesis aims to suggest service platform strategies for service platform providers and third party developers from the perspectives of social networking platform and mobile service platform. For that purpose, case studies are conducted in depth. In this thesis, the term "service platform" is defined as a set of interfaces provided for the development of applications or contents as service and software grow into one.by Jang Hoon Yoo.S.M.in Engineering and Managemen

Newman v. Google

3rd amended complain

A goal-oriented user interface for personalized semantic search

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Architecture and Planning, Program in Media Arts and Sciences, February 2006.Includes bibliographical references (v. 2, leaves 280-288).Users have high-level goals when they browse the Web or perform searches. However, the two primary user interfaces positioned between users and the Web, Web browsers and search engines, have very little interest in users' goals. Present-day Web browsers provide only a thin interface between users and the Web, and present-day search engines rely solely on keyword matching. This thesis leverages large knowledge bases of semantic information to provide users with a goal-oriented Web browsing experience. By understanding the meaning of Web pages and search queries, this thesis demonstrates how Web browsers and search engines can proactively suggest content and services to users that are both contextually relevant and personalized. This thesis presents (1) Creo, a Programming by Example system that allows users to teach their computers how to automate interactions with their favorite Web sites by providing a single demonstration, (2) Miro, a Data Detector that matches the content of a Web page to high-level user goals, and allows users to perform semantic searches, and (3) Adeo, an application that streamlines browsing the Web on mobile devices, allowing users to complete actions with a minimal amount of input and output.(cont.) An evaluation with 34 subjects found that they were more effective at completing tasks when using these applications, and that the subjects would use these applications if they had access to them. Beyond these three user interfaces, this thesis also explores a number of underlying issues, including (1) automatically providing semantics to unstructured text, (2) building robust applications on top of messy knowledge bases, (3) leveraging surrounding context to disambiguate concepts that have multiple meanings, and (4) learning new knowledge by reading the Web.by Alexander James Faaborg.S.M

Veebi otsingumootorid ja vajadus keeruka informatsiooni järele

Väitekirja elektrooniline versioon ei sisalda publikatsioone.Veebi otsingumootorid on muutunud põhiliseks teabe hankimise vahenditeks internetist. Koos otsingumootorite kasvava populaarsusega on nende kasutusala kasvanud lihtsailt päringuilt vajaduseni küllaltki keeruka informatsiooni otsingu järele. Samas on ka akadeemiline huvi otsingu vastu hakanud liikuma lihtpäringute analüüsilt märksa keerukamate tegevuste suunas, mis hõlmavad ka pikemaid ajaraame. Praegused otsinguvahendid ei toeta selliseid tegevusi niivõrd hästi nagu lihtpäringute juhtu. Eriti kehtib see toe osas koondada mitme päringu tulemusi kokku sünteesides erinevate lihtotsingute tulemusi ühte uude dokumenti. Selline lähenemine on alles algfaasis ja ning motiveerib uurijaid arendama vastavaid vahendeid toetamaks taolisi informatsiooniotsingu ülesandeid. Käesolevas dissertatsioonis esitatakse rida uurimistulemusi eesmärgiga muuta keeruliste otsingute tuge paremaks kasutades tänapäevaseid otsingumootoreid. Alameesmärkideks olid: (a) arendada välja keeruliste otsingute mudel, (b) mõõdikute loomine kompleksotsingute mudelile, (c) eristada kompleksotsingu ülesandeid lihtotsingutest ning teha kindlaks, kas neid on võimalik mõõta leides ühtlasi lihtsaid mõõdikuid kirjeldamaks nende keerukust, (d) analüüsida, kui erinevalt kasutajad käituvad sooritades keerukaid otsinguülesandeid kasutades veebi otsingumootoreid, (e) uurida korrelatsiooni inimeste tava-veebikasutustavade ja nende otsingutulemuslikkuse vahel, (f) kuidas inimestel läheb eelhinnates otsinguülesande raskusastet ja vajaminevat jõupingutust ning (g) milline on soo ja vanuse mõju otsingu tulemuslikkusele. Keeruka veebiotsingu ülesanded jaotatakse edukalt kolmeastmeliseks protsessiks. Esitatakse sellise protsessi mudel; seda protsessi on ühtlasi võimalik ka mõõta. Edasi näidatakse kompleksotsingu loomupäraseid omadusi, mis teevad selle eristatavaks lihtsamatest juhtudest ning näidatakse ära katsemeetod sooritamaks kompleksotsingu kasutaja-uuringuid. Demonstreeritakse põhilisi samme raamistiku “Search-Logger” (eelmainitud metodoloogia tehnilise teostuse) rakendamisel kasutaja-uuringutes. Esitatakse sellisel viisil teostatud uuringute tulemused. Lõpuks esitatakse ATMS meetodi realisatsioon ja rakendamine parandamaks kompleksotsingu vajaduste tuge kaasaegsetes otsingumootorites.Search engines have become the means for searching information on the Internet. Along with the increasing popularity of these search tools, the areas of their application have grown from simple look-up to rather complex information needs. Also the academic interest in search has started to shift from analyzing simple query and response patterns to examining more sophisticated activities covering longer time spans. Current search tools do not support those activities as well as they do in the case of simple look-up tasks. Especially the support for aggregating search results from multiple search-queries, taking into account discoveries made and synthesizing them into a newly compiled document is only at the beginning and motivates researchers to develop new tools for supporting those information seeking tasks. In this dissertation I present the results of empirical research with the focus on evaluating search engines and developing a theoretical model of the complex search process that can be used to better support this special kind of search with existing search tools. It is not the goal of the thesis to implement a new search technology. Therefore performance benchmarks against established systems such as question answering systems are not part of this thesis. I present a model that decomposes complex Web search tasks into a measurable, three-step process. I show the innate characteristics of complex search tasks that make them distinguishable from their less complex counterparts and showcase an experimentation method to carry out complex search related user studies. I demonstrate the main steps taken during the development and implementation of the Search-Logger study framework (the technical manifestation of the aforementioned method) to carry our search user studies. I present the results of user studies carried out with this approach. Finally I present development and application of the ATMS (awareness-task-monitor-share) model to improve the support for complex search needs in current Web search engines