83,950 research outputs found
Outlaw Community Innovations
Recent studies of outlaw communities provide qualitative evidence of their existence and the organisation of the underlying innovation processes. We provide descriptive results from a large scale survey of two online outlaw communities focussing on Microsoft's XBox. In line with previous findings, we identify two types of participants in outlaw communities - user innovators and adopters. Based on 2,256 responses, we find that users modify their XBox mainly to be able to increase the set of available functions of their XBox. Users are also motivated to modify their XBox for the sake of having fun and to conduct pirate behaviour. Finally, the results from our survey suggest that user innovators are largely intrinsically motivated by fun and the intellectual stimulation of writing code for homebrew software
Expressing advanced user preferences in component installation
State of the art component-based software collections - such as FOSS
distributions - are made of up to dozens of thousands components, with complex
inter-dependencies and conflicts. Given a particular installation of such a
system, each request to alter the set of installed components has potentially
(too) many satisfying answers. We present an architecture that allows to
express advanced user preferences about package selection in FOSS
distributions. The architecture is composed by a distribution-independent
format for describing available and installed packages called CUDF (Common
Upgradeability Description Format), and a foundational language called MooML to
specify optimization criteria. We present the syntax and semantics of CUDF and
MooML, and discuss the partial evaluation mechanism of MooML which allows to
gain efficiency in package dependency solvers
Essential Feature - Cooperative Gameplay
Although single player and multiplayer is very important in today game, cooperative mode is an essential part of a great game. There are a lot of benefits of playing co-op mode in a game such as education and joy. Communicating, solving problems, handling stress, managing time, making decision, following instructions, acting fast as well as working in a team are skills that students can learn and practice while they are playing cooperative games. These skills are valuable for students to use in education and even in careers
CoRide: Joint Order Dispatching and Fleet Management for Multi-Scale Ride-Hailing Platforms
How to optimally dispatch orders to vehicles and how to tradeoff between
immediate and future returns are fundamental questions for a typical
ride-hailing platform. We model ride-hailing as a large-scale parallel ranking
problem and study the joint decision-making task of order dispatching and fleet
management in online ride-hailing platforms. This task brings unique challenges
in the following four aspects. First, to facilitate a huge number of vehicles
to act and learn efficiently and robustly, we treat each region cell as an
agent and build a multi-agent reinforcement learning framework. Second, to
coordinate the agents from different regions to achieve long-term benefits, we
leverage the geographical hierarchy of the region grids to perform hierarchical
reinforcement learning. Third, to deal with the heterogeneous and variant
action space for joint order dispatching and fleet management, we design the
action as the ranking weight vector to rank and select the specific order or
the fleet management destination in a unified formulation. Fourth, to achieve
the multi-scale ride-hailing platform, we conduct the decision-making process
in a hierarchical way where a multi-head attention mechanism is utilized to
incorporate the impacts of neighbor agents and capture the key agent in each
scale. The whole novel framework is named as CoRide. Extensive experiments
based on multiple cities real-world data as well as analytic synthetic data
demonstrate that CoRide provides superior performance in terms of platform
revenue and user experience in the task of city-wide hybrid order dispatching
and fleet management over strong baselines.Comment: CIKM 201
A Typed Language for Truthful One-Dimensional Mechanism Design
We first introduce a very simple typed language for expressing allocation algorithms that allows automatic verification that an algorithm is monotonic and therefore truthful. The analysis of truthfulness is accomplished using a syntax-directed transformation which constructs a proof of monotonicity based on an exhaustive critical-value analysis of the algorithm. We then define a more high-level, general-purpose programming language with typical constructs, such as those for defining recursive functions, along with primitives that match allocation algorithm combinators found in the work of Mu'alem and Nisan [10]. We demonstrate how this language can be used to combine both primitive and user-defined combinators, allowing it to capture a collection of basic truthful allocation algorithms. In addition to demonstrating the value of programming language design techniques in application to a specific domain, this work suggests a blueprint for interactive tools that can be used to teach the simple principles of truthful mechanism desig
Intrinsic fantasy: motivation and affect in educational games made by children
The concept of intrinsic fantasy has been considered central to the aim of usefully applying the positive affect of computer games to learning. Games with intrinsic fantasy are defined as having âan integral and continuing relationship with the instructional content being presentedâ, and are claimed as âmore interesting and more educationalâ than extrinsic fantasy games [1]. Studies of children making educational games have shown they usually create extrinsic games for curriculum learning content. In this study, children were encouraged to create non-curriculum games, more easily distanced from the extrinsic preconceptions of formal schooling. Forty, 7-11 year olds took part in this study (17 boys and 23 girls), designing and making their own games at an after-school club. Despite non-curriculum learning content, no more intrinsic games were created than in previous studies. The children failed to create their own pedagogical models for non-curriculum content and did not see the educational value of intrinsic fantasy games. The implications for transfer and learning in intrinsic games are discussed whilst the definition of intrinsic fantasy itself is questioned. It is argued that the integral relationship of fantasy is unlikely to be the most critical means of improving the educational effectiveness of digital games
An evaluation of a contract management simulation game for architecture students
Architects are currently grappling to exploit new forms of communication made possible with developments in internet communication. At the same time, the construction industry is in a state of flux as novel project management systems are being introduced. Students need to understand the first principles of project management within the context of our changing environment. One of the best ways for students to learn about the legalities of the construction process is through role play and simulation but there is a Catch 22. Unless students have a basic understanding of project management, the contractual process can be confusing and intimidating. Even fifth and sixth year architecture students are reluctant to ask practitioners questions for fear of appearing ignorant. This paper presents an evaluation of the cost and benefits of a web-based simulation game to deliver the Architecture studies curriculum. The webbased game allows students to critically observe the transformation of designs into buildings through the exploration of the contract management process. A questionnaire survey was used to assess how the computer simulation operates as a group exercise, how it compares with more traditional approaches and the best and worst features of the web-based system. The students found the game to be practical, enjoyable, motivating and effective in stimulating the learning process. The benefits of the web-based game were also found to outweigh the costs, thus providing support for its use as an active learning tool in Architectural Education
Fostering improved learning about sustainability
University business graduates must not only understand but also be equipped to apply a sustainable thought process to today's business challenges. However, evidence suggests that standard approaches to teaching business courses have not advanced to reflect changing student needs, especially for NetGen students who have differing expectations than earlier cohorts. The current challenge for instructors concerns the preservation of rigor and integrity in course design, while responding to the needs of a new generation of learners. This article presents a conceptual framework incorporating experiential learning, reflective practice, and the use of metaphor, with application to the teaching of sustainability within a number of business courses
- âŠ