DL.org Digital Library Manifesto

This booklet is abstracted and abridged from “The Digital Library Reference Model”, D3.2b DL.org Project Deliverable, April 2011. This work has been partially supported by DL.org (December 2008-February 2011), a Coordination and support action, received funding from the Commission of the European Union (EC) under the 7th Framework Programme ICT Thematic Area “Digital libraries and technology-enhanced learning” through the EC’s Cultural Heritage and Technology Enhanced Learning Unit

Internet of Things Adoption for Saudi Healthcare Services

Background: Recent studies in information systems have predicted that applications of the Internet of Things (IoT) innovations will revolutionise various sectors including healthcare. Besides the issues and opportunities of IoT based innovations, existing studies have shown limitations to advance the adoption of IoT-understanding and relevant interventions to benefit researchers and healthcare practitioners. Method: In this context, a systematic literature review study was conducted to re-position a qualitative, phenomenological investigation that could offer useful insights into the factors affecting IoT-adoption in a developing country’s healthcare service. In addition to it, five participants who worked in hospitals and clinics in Jazan, Saudi Arabia, took part in the semi-structured interviews developed based on the diffusion of innovation theory. Results: The study explored the relevant literature and evaluated how the outcome is used to identify the key delivers of IoT in healthcare. Conclusions: According to the findings, the capacity of the Saudi healthcare sector to accept and implement a new IT with IoT technologies is increasing and its integrations remains a debated issue

Women in Science 2016

Women in Science 2016 summarizes research done by Smith College’s Summer Research Fellowship (SURF) Program participants. Ever since its 1967 start, SURF has been a cornerstone of Smith’s science education. In 2016, 150 students participated in SURF (144 hosted on campus and nearby eld sites), supervised by 56 faculty mentor-advisors drawn from the Clark Science Center and connected to its eighteen science, mathematics, and engineering departments and programs and associated centers and units. At summer’s end, SURF participants were asked to summarize their research experiences for this publication.https://scholarworks.smith.edu/clark_womeninscience/1005/thumbnail.jp

Self-Organization and Resilience for Networked Systems:Design Principles and Open Research Issues

Networked systems form the backbone of modern society, underpinning critical infrastructures such as electricity, water, transport and commerce, and other essential services (e.g., information, entertainment, and social networks). It is almost inconceivable to contemplate a future without even more dependence on them. Indeed, any unavailability of such critical systems is--even for short periods--a rather bleak prospect. However, due to their increasing size and complexity, they also require some means of autonomic formation and self-organization. This paper identifies the design principles and open research issues in the twin fields of self-organization and resilience for networked systems. In combination, they offer the prospect of combating threats and allowing essential services that run on networked systems to continue operating satisfactorily. This will be achieved, on the one hand, through the (self-)adaptation of networked systems and, on the other hand, through structural and operational resilience techniques to ensure that they can detect, defend against, and ultimately withstand challenges

Multi-Agent Systems

A multi-agent system (MAS) is a system composed of multiple interacting intelligent agents. Multi-agent systems can be used to solve problems which are difficult or impossible for an individual agent or monolithic system to solve. Agent systems are open and extensible systems that allow for the deployment of autonomous and proactive software components. Multi-agent systems have been brought up and used in several application domains

New Metaphors for Networked Learning

As networked learning leaves designed spaces and becomes diffused and re-infused through open, online information sharing and knowledge construction, what metaphors will frame our next steps, our next inquiries? In keeping with the conference theme of ‘Looking Back – Moving Forward’, this presentation will engage with where we are in the sea of change, and how our current understanding of networks, learning and knowledge will take us forward into new areas of inquiry. Elsewhere I have been advocating for a reclamation of the term ‘e-learning’ that takes us beyond the design and use of the closed LMS and VLE systems to grapple with the open conditions of learning on and through the Internet, and the transformative effect this has on roles and relations associated with learning and knowledge practices (Haythornthwaite & Andrews, 2011; Haythornthwaite, 2015). I believe this is a necessary way forward. But, this is a wicked problem, with each change in technology, each advance in teaching practice, and each maturation of networked practice, changing the conditions of inquiry. To maintain our way forward requires keeping an eye on the horizon, and several recent papers make this point with calls for theory driven research on learning in the face of such new conditions (e.g., Rogers, Dawson & Gasevic, 2016; Eynon, Schroeder & Fry, 2016; Wise & Shaffer, 2015). Moving forward requires grappling with perpetual beta, chaordic (chaos+order) processes, emergence and social construction; assemblages, hybrids, cyborgs, post- and transhumanism; the role of the material, geographical, regional; and more. As researchers, teachers and learners, we are learning not just how to learn or effect learning in this fluid space, but rather how to navigate, to sail on the seas of information and knowledge that are beyond our control. We have indeed left the classroom, leaving the safe spaces of ‘specify, build, and use’, and the space of pre-determined questions, into the open, recursive conditions of rapidly accumulating resources, distributed and mobile knowledge, and emergent dynamics. We are leaving the world of uncertainty (in Perrow’s sense of a lack of information) to one of equivocality, where even the questions to be asked must be negotiated. In this talk I aim to stimulate the conversation I know is already ongoing about where networked learning research and practice is going next, and to introduce some play and experimentation with possible metaphors to guide us on the way forward. References •Rogers, T., Dawson, S. & Gašević, D. (2016). Learning analytics and the imperative for theory driven research. In C. Haythornthwaite, R. Andrews, J. Fransman & E. Meyers (Eds.), The SAGE Handbook of E-learning Research (pp. 232-250). London: SAGE. •Eynon, R., Schroeder, R. & Fry, J. (2016). The ethics of learning and technology research. In C. Haythornthwaite, R. Andrews, J. Fransman & E. Meyers (Eds.), The SAGE Handbook of E-learning Research (pp. 211-231). London: SAGE. •Haythornthwaite, C. (2015). Rethinking learning spaces: Networks, structures and possibilities for learning in the 21st century. Communication, Research and Practice, 1(4), 292-306. DOI: 10.1080/22041451.2015.1105773 •Haythornthwaite, C. & Andrews, R. (2011). E-learning Theory and Practice. London: Sage. •Wise, A.F. & Shaffer, D.W. (2015). Why theory matters more than ever in the age of big data. Journal of Learning Analytics, 2(2), 5-13. http://dx.doi.org/10.18608/jla.2015.22.