Networks, Noise and Navigation: Sustaining Metcalfe’s Law through Technological Innovation

The paper examines the relationship between network externalities and the value ofthe World-Wide Web. It is shown that value depends on two offsetting effects. First,as the Web grows in size, so existing users gain from the additional content providedby new users. This is the standard concept of a network externality. However, at thesame time, a large and expanding network can suffer from congestion. Congestioncan manifest itself in the time taken to download information from the Web. But anarguably more important problem is navigating the very large number of webpages onoffer and to identify the particular page containing information that is of interest.These navigation issues have serious implications for the continued growth of theWeb, as described by Metcalfe’s Law.economics of technology ;

The Craft of Incentive Prize Design: Lessons from the Public Sector

In the last five years, incentive prizes have transformed from an exotic open innovation tool to a proven innovation strategy for the public, private and philanthropic sectors. This report offers practical lessons for public sector leaders and their counterparts in the philanthropic and private sectors to help understand what types of outcomes incentive prizes help to achieve, what design elements prize designers use to create these challenges and how to make smart design choices to achieve a particular outcome. It synthesizes insights from expert interviews and analysis of more than 400 prize

Crowdsourcing as a way to access external knowledge for innovation

This paper focuses on “crowdsourcing” as a significant trend in the new paradigm of open innovation (Chesbrough 2006; Chesbrough & Appleyard 2007). Crowdsourcing conveys the idea of opening the R&D processes to “the crowd” through a web 2.0 infrastructure. Based on two cases studies of crowdsourcing webstartups (Wilogo and CrowdSpirit), the paper aims to build a framework to characterize and interpret the tension between value creation by a community and value capture by a private economic actor. Contributing to the discussions on “hybrid organizational forms” in organizational studies (Bruce & Jordan 2007), the analysis examines how theses new models combine various forms of relationships and exchanges (market or non market). It describes how crowdsourcing conveys new patterns of control, incentives and co-ordination mechanisms.communauté ; crowdsourcing ; innovation ; formes organisationnelles hybrides ; plateforme ; web 2.0

Decoding ClassDojo: psycho-policy, social-emotional learning and persuasive educational technologies

ClassDojo is one of the world’s most successful educational technologies, currently used by over 3 million teachers and 35 million children globally. It reinforces and enacts emerging governmental ‘psycho-policies’ around the measurement and modification of children’s social and emotional learning in schools. This article focuses specifically on the ways ClassDojo facilitates psychological surveillance through gamification techniques, its links to new psychological concepts of ‘character development,’ ‘growth mindsets’ and ‘personal qualities,’ and its connections to the psychological techniques of Silicon Valley designers. Methodologically, the research mobilizes network analysis to trace the organizational, technical, governmental and scientific relations that are translated together and encoded in the ClassDojo app. Through its alignment with emerging education psycho-policy agendas around the measurement of non-cognitive learning, ClassDojo is a key technology of ‘fast policy’ that functions as a ‘persuasive technology’ of ‘psycho-compulsion’ to reinforce and reward student behaviours that are aligned with governmental strategies around social-emotional learning

A business model perspective for ICTs in public engagement

This is the post-print version of the Article. The official published article can be accessed from the link below - Copyright @ 2012 ElsevierPublic institutions, in their efforts to promote meaningful citizen engagement, are increasingly looking at the democratic potential of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). Previous studies suggest that such initiatives seem to be impeded by socio-technical integration barriers such as low sustainability, poor citizen acceptance, coordination difficulties, lack of understanding and failure to assess their impact. Motivated by these shortcomings, the paper develops and applies a business model perspective as an interceding framework for analysis and evaluation. The underlying principle behind this approach is that it is not technology per se which determines success, but rather the way in which the businessmodel of the technological artifact is configured and employed to achieve the strategic goals. The business model perspective is empirically demonstrated with the case of an online petitioning system implemented by a UK local authority. The case illustrates the importance of considering ICTs in public engagement from a holistic view to make them more manageable and assessable

Information Technology Applications in Hospitality and Tourism: A Review of Publications from 2005 to 2007

The tourism and hospitality industries have widely adopted information technology (IT) to reduce costs, enhance operational efficiency, and most importantly to improve service quality and customer experience. This article offers a comprehensive review of articles that were published in 57 tourism and hospitality research journals from 2005 to 2007. Grouping the findings into the categories of consumers, technologies, and suppliers, the article sheds light on the evolution of IT applications in the tourism and hospitality industries. The article demonstrates that IT is increasingly becoming critical for the competitive operations of the tourism and hospitality organizations as well as for managing the distribution and marketing of organizations on a global scale

Measuring Infringement of Intellectual Property Rights

© Crown Copyright 2014. You may re-use this information (excluding logos) free of charge in any format or medium, under the terms of the Open Government Licence. To view this licence, visit http://www.nationalarchives.gov. uk/doc/open-government-licence/ Where we have identified any third party copyright information you will need to obtain permission from the copyright holders concernedThe review is wide-ranging in scope and overall our findings evidence a lack of appreciation among those producing research for the high-level principles of measurement and assessment of scale. To date, the approaches adopted by industry seem more designed for internal consumption and are usually contingent on particular technologies and/or sector perspectives. Typically, there is a lack of transparency in the methodologies and data used to form the basis of claims, making much of this an unreliable basis for policy formulation. The research approaches we found are characterised by a number of features that can be summarised as a preference for reactive approaches that look to establish snapshots of an important issue at the time of investigation. Most studies are ad hoc in nature and on the whole we found a lack of sustained longitudinal approaches that would develop the appreciation of change. Typically the studies are designed to address specific hypotheses that might serve to support the position of the particular commissioning body. To help bring some structure to this area, we propose a framework for the assessment of the volume of infringement in each different area. The underlying aim is to draw out a common approach wherever possible in each area, rather than being drawn initially to the differences in each field. We advocate on-going survey tracking of the attitudes, perceptions and, where practical, behaviours of both perpetrators and claimants in IP infringement. Clearly, the nature of perpetrators, claimants and enforcement differs within each IPR but in our view the assessment for each IPR should include all of these elements. It is important to clarify that the key element of the survey structure is the adoption of a survey sampling methodology and smaller volumes of representative participation. Once selection is given the appropriate priority, a traditional offline survey will have a part to play, but as the opportunity arises, new technological methodologies, particularly for the voluntary monitoring of online behaviour, can add additional detail to the overall assessment of the scale of activity. This framework can be applied within each of the IP right sectors: copyright, trademarks,patents, and design rights. It may well be that the costs involved with this common approach could be mitigated by a syndicated approach to the survey elements. Indeed, a syndicated approach has a number of advantages in addition to cost. It could be designed to reduce any tendency either to hide inappropriate/illegal activity or alternatively exaggerate its volume to fit with the theme of the survey. It also has the scope to allow for monthly assessments of attitudes rather than being vulnerable to unmeasured seasonal impacts

Innovation Tournaments: Improving Ideas through Process Models

Innovation tournaments have a long history of driving progress, especially in the fields of engineering and design, and are once again gaining popularity thanks to advances in technology. Stripped to its essence, an innovation tournament is a process that uncovers exceptionally good opportunities by considering many raw opportunities at the outset and selecting the best to survive. Both the host of the tournament (the administrator) and the participants (the agents) face many decisions throughout this process. In the following papers, we answer a series of questions about innovation tournaments, addressing the specific managerial challenges of how to provide in-process feedback, how to moderate entry visibility, and how to understand and affect leaps in innovation. We report on two sets of field experiments using web-based platforms for graphic design contests and a unique data set from an online platform dedicated to data prediction tournaments. The answers to these questions contribute new understanding to the literature on innovation tournaments and offer managers guidance on improving outcomes

To complete or not complete : Student persistence in post-secondary education online courses

Many factors influence learners\u27 decisions to complete or drop out of online learning courses in higher education where learners\u27 persistence is considered critical to the success of the higher education institutions. This review examines recent literature on the relationship between learners\u27 perceived Sense of Community (SOC), Social Presence, Satisfaction, and Participation and Interactions in distance education courses and learner persistence. Over 30 peer-reviewed studies published in academic journals within the past ten years were selected for critical analysis. Results are mixed and while many studies imply relationships between various learner and institution characteristics and student persistence, significant correlations are often lacking. Given the increasing popularity of on line education in higher education, identifying the characteristics of both successful students and of successful online learning environments warrants further investigation

Fighting the dark side:a scoping review of dark pattern mitigation

Abstract. As technology plays an ever-greater role in the everyday life of people, during the last decade there has been a rising concern about designers using their knowledge of human behaviour to design interfaces that trick users into doing things against their best interest. These design patterns are known as dark patterns, and the human-computer interaction and design communities have condemned their use. Informed by research, lawmakers have also started to form regulations against them. This thesis aimed to first introduce what the current state of dark pattern research is, and then answer the research question of how the usage of dark patterns could be mitigated. To answer the research question, a literature review in the form of scoping review was conducted. In scoping review, 28 articles that considered dark pattern mitigation were found to be relevant to the research question. Thematic analysis was used as a qualitative analysis method to identify common themes in articles. As a result, dark pattern mitigation tactics could be divided into seven different themes: company actions and economic value, regulating dark patterns, raising public awareness, tools for users, designing for the well-being of users, educating designers and developers, and enhancing dark pattern research. Mitigation tactics or propositions were then introduced in more detail under these themes. The results of the scoping review demonstrate that there is no one specific weapon to be used in the fight against dark patterns. On the contrary, different techniques from different fields need to be used together to effectively identify and mitigate dark patterns