Bringing troubled water: quality of experience in a mobile media context

The ICT environment went through notable changes, which have had an irreversible and strong influence on both ICT innovation processes and the role of end-users. In this context, technology developers are increasingly expected to take users’ experiences with technology into account during the process of developing applications or frameworks. As technology is more and more embedded in users’ daily lives, they seek out those personalized values to satisfy their own, situational needs. As a result, a thorough insight in users’ expectations and experiences at various levels (both explicit and more latent) and in different contexts (eg. mobile) has become a crucial determinant for the successful development, introduction and adoption of new ICTs. To this end, our paper focuses on the increased importance of Quality of Experience (QoE). It provides a conceptual model for QoE and furthermore discusses the prevalent gap that still exists between QoE and Quality of Service (QoS). Our main objective is to present a new methodology for correlating user experience to QoS parameters. This methodology was tested in the context of an exploratory interdisciplinary study on QoE-measurement. This new approach goes beyond QoS-parameters and aims to also grasp the social and contextual dimensions of users’ experiences

The impact of local ICT initiatives on social capital and quality of life

This paper reviews the evidence for the effects of local ICT initiatives (‘community networks’) on neighbourhood social capital and quality of life and has been developed from the public SOCQUIT D11 report (Anderson et al, 2006)

Development of the Information Society in Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia

The article is presenting facts about the politics carried on the EU concerning development of the information society in Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia - countries that in 2004 became members of the EU. Enlargement of the EU structures allowed for more dynamic development of these countries in the information society context. The situation of each country was presented by indicators describing the household and the community situation in information society. Indicators was gained from Eurostat system. The universality of these indicators lets to the assessment of the level and dynamics of development in relation to the EU average. Comparison of Poland and its southern neighbors allows also to observe changes that occur and may allow better progress in this field.Artykul prezentuje dane na temat prowadzonej w UE polityki w zakresie rozwoju spoleczeństwa informacyjnego w Czechach, Polsce i Slowacji, które staly się czlonkami UE w 2004 roku. Rozszerzenie struktur unijnych pozwolilo na zdynamizowanie rozwoju tych krajów w zakresie spoleczeństwa informacyjnego. Sytuację poszczególnych krajów zaprezentowano przy pomocy wskażników opisujących gospodarstwa domowe oraz spoleczność pochodzące z Eurostatu. Powszechność tych wskażników pozwala na ocenę dynamiki rozwoju oraz poziomu tego rozwoju w odniesieniu do wartości średniej w UE. Porównanie Polski oraz jej poludniowych sąsiadów pozwolić ma również na dostrzeżenie przemian, które zachodzą i mogą pozwolić na lepszy postęp w tej dziedzinie

The challenge of the e-Agora metrics: the social construction of meaningful measurements

'How are we progressing towards achieving sustainable development in the EU's desired knowledge society?' Current lists of indicators, indices and assessment tools, which have been developed for measuring and displaying performance at different spatial levels, show that progress has been made. However, there are still a very large number of indicators, perhaps the majority, most specifically those which relate to social and political issues, that are difficult to capture. Issues such as intergenerational equity, aesthetics and governance come into this category. 'How is it possible to measure these and capture their full meaning and represent this back meaningfully to disparate groups of stakeholders in a society?' This paper will discuss these issues, highlighting the need for new methods and an alternative view of how to go about the capture and representation of the types of data with which we need to wor

Evaluation of ICT Investments toward an Increased Competitiveness

This paper focus on the analysis of the impact of investments in IT industry in the general frame of globalization and the drafting of a model for evaluation so that to address the subject of the theoretization of possible measures and efforts in strategic resource consumption for growing of IT competitiveness. To reap the gains from globalization it is necessary to undergo a process of adjustment as factors of production – such as investment capital – towards the ITC applications. The extent by which e-Government will make a difference and add value is seen as dependent on three factors: strong leadership, management of the ‘digital divide’, and well managed innovation.ITC; e-government; investments; digital divide; Internet.

Digital Europe – Chance for Job in Hungary

The 35 percents of EU total population use the advanced Internet services. This rate is very low and has to increase in the next years, because the employed person needs ICT user's skills. At the first level the digital literacy and at the second level the higher knowledge of ICT acquiring is very important, because nowadays, without these abilities it is not so easy to get qualified jobs in Hungary. In the information society it is very important to measure the digital literacy. For this measuring we have to ask the users to evaluate their own knowledge. In the World Internet Project evaluation we did not find a significant disparity between the evaluation of average Internet knowledge usage and that of the computer usage. In both cases, most people thought that their knowledge was good. Approximately every tenth person surveyed characterized his or her knowledge as outstanding and in a similar proportion the users thought their knowledge is weak. Taking part in organized courses and training can help to increase the digital literacy and ICT users’ skills. This taking part is decreasing parallel with increasing of age. That is why we need to take into account how we can connect these “older†people to the lifelong learning programmes, where we use the e-Learning tools. Nowadays, the importance of e-Learning is growing rapidly, partly due to the information and communication technologies in the information/knowledge-based society is developing. The goal is to enable the knowledge and skills to help the individual to become an active member of society, teamwork, motivation, and to possess the skills necessary for finding a place in the labour market.Digital Europe, digital literacy, e-Learning, Lifelong learning, Knowledge patent, education, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies, Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession, GA, IN,

Time for action! ICT integration in formal education : key findings from a region-wide follow-up monitor

This paper is a report on the key findings of a region-wide monitoring study conducted in Dutch-speaking schools in Belgium. First, we elaborate on the building blocks of the instrument, which has been updated and improved since its first deployment in 2007. In particular we focus on the core indicators, along with the multi-actor approach, the sample design and the ways in which new phenomena such as media literacy and gaming have been operationalized. Secondly, we highlight the main trends and patterns within pre-school, primary and secondary education. The first descriptive analyses show quite disappointing results with regard to ICT use at the micro level and the available infrastructure, while headmasters, teachers and pupils reported positive perceptions of different aspects of ICT integration. These results indicate an urgent need to take appropriate action. Therefore, the final part of the paper examines how ICT integration could be improved via structural changes and appropriate policymaking with regard to budgeting, teacher training and the particular role of ICT coordinators in schools

Broadband ranking of regions and its methodological basis

Access networks plays an essential role in some sectors of the economy. Its speed basically defines the utility of the system. In Hungary, in 2009 the average guaranteed download speed was just 1 Mbit/s, and a little more than the tenth part of subscribers had 4 Mbit/s or more data rate. For satisfaction the claims of today and immediate future needs broadband – capacity of at least 50 Mbit/s – infrastructure. To build of such infrastructure in those regions, which less attractive commercially for service providers, state intervention is necessary. The country and EU provide financial sources but is not enough to the necessary developments. Many ICT infrastructure developments has happened on many settlements in Hungary, but not always on the most suitable places. My aim is to rank regions based on the ICT development of them, because it is worthy to focus time and resources, where these will be return as quickly as possible. In my opinion the target of the developments would be worthy to select on the basis of usefulness. Complex regional indicator is necessary to this objective which can be applied on settlements level and on the basis of it these can be ranked. It is important to have regard to such social-economic factors which really correlate with existence of broadband networks. In this article I present the Hungarian regions situation in broadband network respect, and the methodological basis of to construction of a regional network indicator. I sketch scope of possible earmarkable elements – which are accessible statistical indicators in connection with broadband networks – and applicable model for it.broadband network, regions, rank, investment decision support, efficiency

Towards evaluation design for smart city development

Smart city developments integrate digital, human, and physical systems in the built environment. With growing urbanization and widespread developments, identifying suitable evaluation methodologies is important. Case-study research across five UK cities - Birmingham, Bristol, Manchester, Milton Keynes and Peterborough - revealed that city evaluation approaches were principally project-focused with city-level evaluation plans at early stages. Key challenges centred on selecting suitable evaluation methodologies to evidence urban value and outcomes, addressing city authority requirements. Recommendations for evaluation design draw on urban studies and measurement frameworks, capitalizing on big data opportunities and developing appropriate, valid, credible integrative approaches across projects, programmes and city-level developments