On the integration of trust with negotiation, argumentation and semantics

Agreement Technologies are needed for autonomous agents to come to mutually acceptable agreements, typically on behalf of humans. These technologies include trust computing, negotiation, argumentation and semantic alignment. In this paper, we identify a number of open questions regarding the integration of computational models and tools for trust computing with negotiation, argumentation and semantic alignment. We consider these questions in general and in the context of applications in open, distributed settings such as the grid and cloud computing. © 2013 Cambridge University Press.This work was partially supported by the Agreement Technology COST action (IC0801). The authors would like to thank for helpful discussions and comments all participants in the panel on >Trust, Argumentation and Semantics> on 16 December 2009, Agia Napa, CyprusPeer Reviewe

Communication as a resource for Latin American immigrant settlement in the United States: An ethnography of communication

In this dissertation, I investigate the uses and meanings (Hymes, 1972/1986) of various metacommunicative terms, or talk about talk (Philipsen, 1992, p. 72) of a speech community. This speech community is comprised of Latin American immigrants residing in the United States and the staff members who serve them at an immigrant support center (ISC hereafter). I apply Hymes\u27s (1962, 1972/1986, 1974) ethnography of communication to investigate the uses and meanings of the metacommunicative practices of the ISC speech community, which I treat as demonstrating communication practices available for speakers at ISC. In addition to investigating their metacommunicative practices, I also explore the relational alignments , or understandings of the self, other(s), and self and others (Covarrubias, 2002, p. 33) that manifest in ISC community members\u27 talk and mediate their use of various metacommunicative terms. To begin my investigation, I conducted a pilot study at ISC that included 2 months of participant observation of everyday talk at ISC, 7 in-depth interviews with ISC participants and staff, and the collection of public documents produced by ISC participants and staff (Lindlof & Taylor, 2011). Building on the findings from the pilot study, I conducted the main study for the current research, which included five months of participant observation at ISC, in-depth interviews with 30 ISC participants and staff members, and collection of the public documents they produced. I apply Strauss and Corbin (1990) and Charmaz\u27s (2006) coding procedures to analyze the data and generate themes. To provide context for these themes, I draw from the literature concerning speech codes theory (Philipsen, 1992, 1997; Philipsen, Coutu, & Covarrubias, 2005), metacommunication (Carbaugh, 1989; Carbaugh, Berry, & Nurmikari-Berry, 2006; Carbaugh, Boromisza-Habashi, & Ge, 2006; Leighter & Black, 2010; Leighter & Castor, 2009; Katriel, 1986), communication and immigration (Amaya, 2007; Cheng, 2012; de Fina & King, 2011; Henry, 1999; Kim, 1977, 2005; Santa, Ana, Morán, & Sanchez, 1998; Sowards & Pineda, 2013), and Latin American immigration (Hagan, 1998; Hondagneu-Sotelo, 1994, 2003; Menjívar, 2000, 2003, Parrado & Flippen, 2005; Pessar, 2003). I identified 24 available communication practices for speakers at ISC, marked by the use of different metacommunicative terms. I apply Carbaugh\u27s (1989) theory of metacommunication to categorize each practice based on its level (act, event, style), describe the content transmitted via the practice, and identify its functions. Then, I identified six relational alignments (Covarrubias, 2002) that I treat as mediating, or making these communication practices meaningful for the ISC speech community. Given these findings, I propose that ISC staff members may leverage the uses and meanings (Hymes, 1972/1986) of these available communication practices for ISC community members, by creating programming that utilizes these communication practices. Furthermore, the relational alignments (Covarrubias, 2002) that ISC community members implicate through their talk can be fostered to assist in the utilization of the culturally relevant programming created at ISC. Therefore, increased knowledge related to the available communication practices and relationships through which these practices are meaningful can increase accessibility and thus the utilization of resources offered at ISC. Access and utilization of ISC\u27s resources assists Latin American immigrants in making lives in the United States. Furthermore, I propose that communication itself serves as a resource (Leighter & Castor, 2009) that provides more than an information giving and receiving function (Carbaugh, 1989) for its users and is therefore worthy of specific investigation

Exploring Triple Helix Collaboration in a Smart City Mobility Project: An Institutional Logics Perspective

Masteroppgave i Global ledelse (tidl. energiledelse) - Nord universitet 202

The Role of ICTs in Social Movements: The Case of the Honduran National Front Against the 2009 Coup

There is an important academic conversation happening about how social movements adopt, use, and configure Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) for political participation. This dissertation contributes to that conversation by taking a holistic look at ICTs, throughout a social movement\u27s emergence and development, while considering its context, its organizational structures and sense-making processes. I explore the case of the Honduran National Front Against the Coup (NFAC), a relevant case due to its similarities with other movements, like the use of social media, the support from the international community and its geographically dispersed networks; but also, particular in its political and ICT context. Guided by the Contentious Politics Model (CPM) asked an overarching research question: What is the role of Information and Communication Technologies in the emergence and development of the National Front Against the Coup? I also asked three second-level questions: (1) How does the Honduran Resistance Movement relate ICTs to political Opportunity Structures? (2) What role do ICTs play in creating and supporting the movement\u27s organizational structures, and in preparing and carrying out visible movement episodes? (3) How does the NFAC use ICTs to shape its attitudes, identities and competences? I conducted a single embedded exploratory case study guided by the extended case method where I studied the NFAC in a sequence of interconnected time periods called Collective Action Framing Episodes (CAFEs). Data were reconstructive narratives from primary and secondary sources. The movement\u27s use of ICTs for mobilizing social support for their cause can be considered an improvised subversive response to the institutionalized political environment. The movement\u27s regional affiliates formed a loosely coupled extended organization, which allowed the affiliates a degree of autonomy to do their oppositional work while remaining fully aligned with the movement\u27s priorities. ICTs allowed the movement to broadcast its messages across the network to socialize the affiliates and ensure they were all on the same page. This lose confederation, coordinated through ICTs allowed the NFAC to dynamically reconfigure and rearrange its regional affiliates as needed. I found instances of resourcefulness and improvisation, both in the way individual media platforms were used, and in the way these platforms were combined and recombined to move ahead. Thus, the intellectual contribution of this study is twofold: The first one is an expansion of the CPM (Contentious Politics Model). I propose that ICTs don\u27t drive revolutions, but neither are they simply tools. There is a dynamic relation as environmental conditions (OS) like policies, institutions, ICT ownership, media centralization, shape the way social movements configure ICTs, and ICTs configurations by social movements can influence environmental conditions. The same way ICT configurations can be determined by he availability, collaboration and connectedness of civil society organizations within the movement (MS), and their relations can be influenced by ICT configurations. Therefore, by playing a reflexive role in the process of frame creation, ICTs are embedded in every level of the social movement emergence and development. The second contribution is an operative framework and analytical tool to study the interactions between social movements, institutions, and ICTs. The model uses CAFEs (Collective Action Framing Episodes), a composed construct that allows integrating several levels of analysis into one unit of analysis

Making Mobility-as-a-Service: Towards Governance Principles and Pathways

Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) is a service concept that integrates public transport with other mobility services, such as car sharing, ride sourcing, and bicycle sharing. The core idea is that intermediary digital services make it easier for users to plan, book, and pay for complementary mobility services, thereby facilitating less car-centric lifestyles. However, although MaaS has gained much interest in recent years, the concept has proven difficult to realize. Accordingly, there is a prevalent demand for knowledge on how to enable and push MaaS developments.Conceptualizing MaaS developments as an innovation process that might contribute to a sustainability transition, this thesis sets out to improve the understanding of how public sector actors can facilitate action in the early phases and steer the innovation trajectory towards addressing long-term sustainability goals. The public transport authority in V\ue4stra G\uf6taland (Sweden), and its attempts to facilitate MaaS developments, is used as a starting point. Three of its MaaS-related activities between 2016 and 2019 are analyzed based on participatory observation and stakeholder interviews. Additionally, the thesis draws on two qualitative studies of MaaS developments situated in Finland and Australia.The thesis’ contribution to the research field of MaaS is threefold. Firstly, it explores expectations of MaaS. A majority of the actors involved in the studied MaaS developments reckoned that MaaS will support a modal shift away from private car use. Still, while some actors were confident that this will lower the negative externalities of personal mobility systems, others feared that it will reinforce social and environmental problems. Of note is that none of these views are yet backed by any extensive empirical evidence, the shortage of which is an ongoing challenge for MaaS developments. Secondly, the thesis identifies institutional factors that shape MaaS developments. The studied developments were enabled by novel information technologies and motivated by the need to lessen the negative impacts of private cars. Yet, the developments brought together actors that had not previously collaborated and challenged models of collaboration, business, and customer relations, which made them contingent on complex modifications within and beyond personal mobility systems. Thirdly, the thesis examines how the public sector governs MaaS developments. The governance approaches varied across Sweden, Finland, and Australia in terms of leading actors, methods of intervention, and underlying motivations, but were yet to deliver much tangible results for citizens in all three countries.Based on these findings, the thesis proposes principles and pathways for MaaS governance. The principles advocate a broad set of activities to address all the institutional factors that impede MaaS developments. In contrast to the observed governance approaches, this includes activities aimed at strengthening mobility services and active mobility, and at weakening the private car regime. The pathways describe four roles public sector actors can take in MaaS developments – MaaS Promoter, MaaS Partner, MaaS Enabler, and Laissez-Faire – and illustrate how the method(s) of intervention can be adjusted between innovation phases. The principles and pathways thereby provide a comprehensive tool for understanding and enhancing public-private dynamics in MaaS developments

“Following the SWP Uniform”: A Play with ‘Bleeding’ Humans

“Following the SWP Uniform” is a PhD thesis in the form of a Live-Action Role-Play (LARP). It manifests a multimedia digital Sensory Ethnography with the South Wales Police (SWP) in an engaging, playful invitation to ‘Explorers’ to join the research process: In pursuit of the Researcher’s research trajectory of patrolling along with SWP in the streets and following SWP uniforms on social media, Explorers co-experience ethnographic ‘places’ that emerge. Conceptualising place as experiential, contingent and interactive expresses the thesis’ more-than-representational methodological embeddedness and aligns with how LARPs function through (rule-based) improvisation. The thesis also materialises an aesthetic, experimental appeal to being ‘effective’ by being ‘affective’: What Explorers know through their experience of “Following the SWP Uniform” is equivalent but uniquely embodied and unpredictable. The same is true for what the Researcher learns from SWP, and what SWP know. Orientation is provided by focusing the LARP on ‘making Swansea a safe place’. Thus, this play empirically highlights notions of safe-place-making through online and offline police interactions, in the urban, devolved setting of Swansea whose policy-agenda changes the police’s ‘professional responsibilities’ and lived realities. By highlighting the emotional labour involved in policing as a ‘friendly Welsh community service’, this play elucidates contesting interpretations and feelings of ‘safety’, ‘belonging’, ‘responsibility’ and ‘community’. Most importantly, “Following the SWP Uniform” shares the SWP’s take on what it means to be (and act as a) Human, and why such is a valuable resource that needs protection

A community of practice or a working psychological group? Group dynamics in core and peripheral community participation

The concept of communities of practice (CoP) has become increasingly influential in management literature. Yet, many scholars regard the term as too homogenous and lacking in empirical support. Our study explores the Silver Academy, a project involving over 100 unemployed and self-employed managers over the age of 50, who came together with the purpose of sharing knowledge and experience in starting up their own businesses. The study shows how the Academy matches the notion of CoP including mutual relationships, shared engagement and a common consensus of membership. However, applying Bion’s (1961) theory of groups, we challenge the homogenous and consensual notion of a community of practice, illustrating how, through unconscious group processes, some group members exhibit workgroup mentality and the capacity for realistic hard work (and leadership), while others are caught in a basic-assumption mentality, prone to feelings of anxiety, guilt and depression. This is particularly so for a group that has gone through the recent trauma of unemployment

Integrating Art Therapy and Emotionally Focused Therapy with Couples: A Conceptual Framework

This qualitative study examines how art interventions are aligned and integrated with emotionally focused therapy (EFT; Johnson, 2020) in the treatment of relational distress with couples. EFT is a brief humanistic evidence-based treatment, grounded in attachment theory, with experiential and systemic approaches to intervention that engage underlying emotion to create more secure bonds. Notably scant literature exists blending art-based and verbal approaches in EFT, despite the importance of verbal imagery in EFT intervention and the experiential nature of expressive therapies. In this study, NVivo qualitative data analysis software facilitated thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews with five clinicians who integrate the two approaches. Theory-driven analysis with skills of the Emotion-Focused Therapy-Therapist Fidelity Scale (EFT-TFS; Denton et al., 2009) examined alignment and divergence from the EFT model. Patterns in the data revealed a conceptual framework for integrating art interventions with EFT that prioritized fidelity to the EFT model. This framework provides structure and language to describe art interventions in a granular way at the session level, with considerations for the progression of treatment through the steps and stages of EFT in the context of considerations for the therapeutic alliance. This framework has wide applications in clinical practice, teaching, and empirical inquiry integrating art interventions with EFT

Supporting the Discoverability of Open Educational Resources: on the Scent of a Hidden Treasury

Open Educational Resources (OERs), now available in large numbers, have a considerable potential to improve many aspects of society, yet one of the factors limiting this positive impact is the difficulty to discover them. This thesis investigates and proposes strategies to better support educators in discovering OERs. The literature suggests that the effectiveness of existing search systems, including for OER discovery, could be improved by supporting users, such as teachers, in carrying out more exploratory search activities closer to their existing methods of working. Hence, a preliminary taxonomy of OER-related search tasks was produced, based on an analysis of the literature, interpreted through Information Foraging Theory. This taxonomy was empirically evaluated to preliminarily identify a set of search tasks that involve finding other OERs similar to one that has already been identified, a process that is generally referred to as Query By Example (QBE). Following the Design Science Research methodology, three prototypes to support as well as to refine those tasks were iteratively designed, implemented, and evaluated involving an increasing number of educators in usability oriented studies. The resulting high-level and domain-oriented blended search/recommendation strategy transparently replicates Google searches in specialized networks, and identifies similar resources with a QBE strategy. It makes use of a domain-oriented similarity metric based on shared alignments to educational standards, and clusters results in expandable classes of comparable degrees of similarity. The summative evaluation shows that educators do appreciate this strategy because it is exploratory and – balancing similarity and diversity – it supports their high-level tasks, such as lesson planning and personalization of education. Finally, potential barriers and opportunities for the uptake of OER discovery tools were investigated in a structured interview study with experts from the OER field. Identified issues included how to work across multiple OER portals, variability in the use of metadata and how to align with the working practices of teachers. The findings of the thesis can be used to inform the research and development of methods and tools for OER discovery as well as their deployment to serve the needs of educators