GeoCoin:supporting ideation and collaborative design with location-based smart contracts

Design and HCI researchers are increasingly working with complex digital infrastructures, such as cryptocurrencies, distributed ledgers and smart contracts. These technologies will have a profound impact on digital systems and their audiences. However, given their emergent nature and technical complexity, involving non-specialists in the design of applications that employ these technologies is challenging. In this paper, we discuss these challenges and present GeoCoin, a location-based platform for embodied learning and speculative ideating with smart contracts. In collaborative workshops with GeoCoin, participants engaged with location-based smart contracts, using the platform to explore digital `debit' and `credit' zones in the city. These exercises led to the design of diverse distributed-ledger applications, for time-limited financial unions, participatory budgeting, and humanitarian aid. These results contribute to the HCI community by demonstrating how an experiential prototype can support understanding of the complexities behind new digital infrastructures and facilitate participant engagement in ideation and design processes

Incentivizing sustainable mobility through an impact innovation methodology

The transport sector plays a crucial role in the social and economic development of our society. Nevertheless, it is responsible for one quarter of the global CO2 emission worldwide. Although sustainable mobility could drastically reduce transport-related emissions, its adoption is still underdeveloped. In this paper, an impact innovation methodology has been used to generate a solution that could boost sustainable mobility development by creating an efficient offline tracking method that combines transactions and GPS data. The results suggest that incentive-based solutions could increase the adoption of sustainable mobility. This study generates the basis for the development of a sophisticated algorithms, able to track mobility and to incentivize people’s sustainable habits

Evolving to Digital and Programmable Value Based Economy: General Prospect and Specific Applications over Sustainability

[eng] In the fields of economics, business and management, how could Digital Transformation (DT) advance value creation and reliably encourage value capture, exchange and distribution? This thesis aim to fill that gap with a novel framework to support policy-makers, countries, cities and businesses address the potential value that can be generated and captured by digitalization combining DT and Internet of Value theoretical perspectives and practical applications of them over concrete issues such as sustainability in cities, as an example. For this, it is proposed to make new contributions related to DT and Internet of Value in two main aspects: to explore DT countries’ mindsets when it relates to their value progress through Digital Ecosystems and to advance with the potential digital value applications through Programmable Economy advantages when it focus on concrete aspect such as sustainability in cities. Both perspectives, although it will be applied on different dimensions and on different purposes, have in common that they are focus on digital and programable value based economy and management and want to explore the best way to maximize and capture the DT potential in terms of value for organizations and society. Thus, first, it will be analysed the importance of knowing clearly the digital ecosystem in which the agents are operating in order to reinforce the value creation by promoting the inclusivity and connectivity of the endpoints involved in it. Secondly, it will be analysed how the digital value can be captured, exchanged and redistributed in a complex issues such as sustainability by deploying concrete digital applications that include human reinforcement aspects to, finally, closing the circle combining both perspectives in a single framework. To achieve these objectives in this thesis, own models are proposed, inspired by other theoretical models already contrasted, and some proven methodologies are used related to Conditional Probability, Forgotten Effects and Fuzzy Sets. As a main conclusion, Digital Transformation has the potential to generate immense value for economy and society. Although currently the capture of the vast majority of it is not guaranteed and its distribution between agents is no clear, new formulas are being explored supported by the Internet of Value. This thesis defends that if agents want to advance value creation and encourage value capture, they should consider to make their own Digital and Programmable Value Based Economy and Management framework through: - Allowing all functional agents work in a Digital Ecosystem embracing new relationships and ways of collaborating pursuing the same purpose. - Deploying Programmable Economy applications advantages, mixing digital's and analogue's world that can be interlinked and programmed by the blockchain allowing monetization and exploring new human and machine alliances. - Adopting strong and inclusive agents’ commitment in order to exploit the advantages that this smart economy system has from a human centric vision, discovering new forms of value, considering that, although tech can be everywhere, value not

Factors Shaping Thai Millennials' Low-Carbon Behavior: Insights from Extended Theory of Planned Behavior

Objective: This research serves a dual purpose: To construct a predictive model for low-carbon behavior among Thai millennials and to analyze the interplay between socio-demographic variables and eco-conscious actions. Methods/Analysis: By employing PLS-SEM and surveying 150 Thai millennials through purposive sampling, this study reaffirms the influence of persuasive technology and incentives on low-carbon behaviors. It highlights the significance of perceived behavioral control within the TPB framework and reveals intricate pathways by which persuasive technology and incentives shape attitudes, perceived control, and social norms, thereby driving eco-friendly actions. Findings: Among Thai millennials, positive attitudes and perceived control drive low-carbon behavior, while social norms and accessible low-carbon infrastructure also impact eco-conscious actions. Persuasive technology shows promise for attitude adjustment, but incentives' relationship with low-carbon behavior is complex. Interestingly, mature women exhibit more low-carbon behavior, whereas education and income show an inverse relationship. Novelty/Improvement: This study contributes novel and substantial insights into the drivers of low-carbon behavior among Thai millennials by integrating diverse theoretical frameworks. It enriches our understanding of the mediating role of TPB factors and socio-demographic dimensions, offering invaluable guidance for stakeholders in crafting effective interventions while aligning seamlessly with Sustainable Development Goals 7, 9, 12, and 13. Doi: 10.28991/HIJ-2023-04-03-02 Full Text: PD

Potential integration of blockchain technology into smart sustainable city (SSC) developments: a systematic review

Purpose: Prior literature lacks concrete and systematic review of the current blockchain application in smart sustainable city that covered to the full extent of various components. Thus, this study explores the integration of blockchain technology in making the city smarter, safer and sustainable. Design/methodology/approach: This study conducted a systematic literature review of 49 publications published globally. Data were analysed by coding of the publications whereby the codes were generated based on frequency of appearance Findings: The results showed that smart sustainable city could leverage blockchain technology in several areas such as governance, mobility, asset, utility, healthcare and logistics. Blockchain technology could also aid smart sustainable city in achieving social, environmental and economic sustainability. Originality/value: This study proposes a smart sustainable city with blockchain technology framework: guiding city planners and policymakers by deploying blockchain that supports technology within smart sustainable city framework. This facilitates the digital transformation of a city towards smart and sustainable through the use of blockchain

A Tertiary Review on Blockchain and Sustainability With Focus on Sustainable Development Goals

Sustainable development is crucial to securing the future of humanity. Blockchain as a disruptive technology and a driver for social change has exhibited great potential to promote sustainable practices and help organizations and governments achieve the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Existing literature reviews on blockchain and sustainability often focus only on topics related to a few SDGs. There is a need to consolidate existing results in terms of SDGs and provide a comprehensive overview of the impacts that blockchain technology may have on each SDG. This paper intends to bridge this gap, presenting a tertiary review based on 42 literature reviews, to investigate the relationship between blockchain and sustainability in light of SDGs. The method used is a consensus-based expert elicitation with thematic analysis. The findings include a novel and comprehensive mapping of impact-based interlinkage of blockchain and SDGs and a systematic overview of drivers and barriers to adopting blockchain for sustainability. The findings reveal that blockchain can have a positive impact on all 17 SDGs though some negative effects can occur and impede the achievement of certain objectives. 76 positive and 10 negative linkages between blockchain adoption and the 17 SDGs as well as 45 factors that drive or hinder blockchain adoption for the achievement of SDGs have been identified. Research gaps to overcome the barriers and enhance blockchain’s positive impacts have also been identified. The findings may help managers in evaluating the applicability and tradeoffs, and policymakers in making supportive measures to facilitate sustainability using blockchain.publishedVersio

Blockchain for Cities—A Systematic Literature Review

Blockchain is considered one of the most disruptive technologies of our time. Numerous cities around the world are launching blockchain initiatives as part of the overall efforts toward shaping the urban future. However, the infancy stage of the blockchain industry leads to a severe gap between the knowledge we have and the actions urban policy makers are taking. This paper is an effort to narrow this rift. We provide a systematic literature review on concrete blockchain use cases proposed by the research community. At the macro-level, we discuss and organize use cases from 159 selected papers into nine sectors recognized as crucial for sustainable and smart urban future. At the micro-level, we identify a component-based framework and analyze the design and prototypes of blockchain systems studied in a subset of 71 papers. The high-level use case review allows us to illustrate the relationship between them and the four pillars of urban sustainability: social, economic, environmental, and governmental. The system level analysis helps us highlight interesting inconsistencies between well-known blockchain applicability decision rules and the approaches taken by the literature. We also offer two classification methodologies for blockchain use cases and elaborate on how they can be applied to stimulate cross-sector insights in the blockchain knowledge domain