Data Stewardship: Environmental Data Curation and a Web-of-Repositories

Scientific researchers today frequently package measurements and associated metadata as digital datasets in anticipation of storage in data repositories. Through the lens of environmental data stewardship, we consider the data repository as an organizational element central to data curation. One aspect of non-commercial repositories, their distance-from-origin of the data, is explored in terms of near and remote categories. Three idealized repository types are distinguished – local, center, and archive - paralleling research, resource, and reference collection categories respectively. Repository type characteristics such as scope, structure, and goals are discussed. Repository similarities in terms of roles, activities and responsibilities are also examined. Data stewardship is related to care of research data and responsible scientific communication supported by an infrastructure that coordinates curation activities; data curation is defined as a set of repeated and repeatable activities focusing on tending data and creating data products within a particular arena. The concept of “sphere-of-context” is introduced as an aid to distinguishing repository types. Conceptualizing a “web-of-repositories” accommodates a variety of repository types and represents an ecologically inclusive approach to data curation

Human behaviour modelling in complex socio-technical systems : an agent based approach

For many years we have been striving to understand human behaviour and our interactions with our socio-technological environment. By advancing our knowledge in this area, we have helped the design of new or improved work processes and technologies. Historically, much of the work in analysing social interactions has been conducted within the social sciences. However, computer simulation has brought an extra tool in trying to understand and model human behaviours. Using an agent based approach this presentation describes my work in constructing computational models of human behaviour for informing design through simulation. With examples from projects in two main application areas of crisis and emergency management, and energy management I describe how my work addresses some main issues in agent based social simulation. The first concerns the process by which we develop these models. The second lies in the nature of socio-technical systems. Human societies are a perfect example of a complex system exhibiting characteristics of self-organisation, adaptability and showing emergent phenomena such as cooperation and robustness. I describe how complex systems theory may be applied to improve our understanding of socio-technical systems, and how our micro level interactions lead to emergent mutual awareness for problem-solving. From agent based simulation systems I show how context awareness may be modelled. Looking forward to the future, I discuss how the increasing prevalence of artificial agents in our society will cause us to re-examine the new types of interactions and cooperative behaviours that will emerge.Depuis de nombreuses années, nous nous sommes efforcés de comprendre le comportement humain et nos interactions avec l'environnement sociotechnique. Grâce à l'avancée de nos connaissances dans ce domaine, nous avons contribué à la conception de technologies et de processus de travail nouveaux ou améliorés. Historiquement, une part importante du travail d'analyse des interactions sociales fut entreprise au sein des sciences sociales. Cependant, la simulation informatique a apporté un nouvel outil pour tenter de comprendre et de modéliser les comportements humains. En utilisant une approche à base d'agents, cette présentation décrit mon travail sur la construction de modèles informatiques du comportement humain pour guider la conception par la simulation. A l'aide d'exemples issus de projets des deux domaines d'application que sont la gestion des crises et de l'urgence et la gestion de l'énergie, je décris comment mon travail aborde certains problèmes centraux à la simulation sociale à base d'agents. Le premier concerne le processus par lequel nous développons ces modèles. Le second problème provient de la nature des systèmes sociotechniques. Les sociétés humaines constituent un exemple parfait de système complexe possédant des caractéristiques d'auto-organisation et d'adaptabilité, et affichant des phénomènes émergents tels que la coopération et la robustesse. Je décris comment la théorie des systèmes complexes peut être appliquée pour améliorer notre compréhension des systèmes sociotechniques, et comment nos interactions au niveau microscopique mènent à l'émergence d'une conscience mutuelle pour la résolution de problèmes. A partir de systèmes de simulation à base d'agents, je montre comment la conscience du contexte peut être modélisée. En terme de perspectives, j'expliquerai comment la hausse de la prévalence des agents artificiels dans notre société nous forcera à considérer de nouveaux types d'interactions et de comportements coopératifs

Enjeux de la médiatisation du travail coopératif distribué dans les équipes de projets de conception

Les mutations organisationnelles que connaissent de nombreuses entreprises globalisées encouragent le développement de nouvelles pratiques collectives de travail pour s’affranchir de l’espace et du temps et mettre en synergie des compétences dispersées géographiquement. L’objet de cet article est d’examiner les spécificités du travail coopératif distribué au sein d’équipes qui réalisent des projets de conception d’envergure. Une forte coopération entre les coéquipiers et la gestion de multiples activités coopératives distribuées nécessitent une utilisation massive des technologies de l’information et de la communication pour interagir régulièrement et travailler ensemble dans des espaces virtuels partagés. Avec de telles conditions de travail, les enjeux sont nombreux et les risques pour la santé des coéquipiers ne doivent pas être négligés. Dans cette perspective, nous examinons les risques liés à la fragmentation du travail, à sa dispersion et les différentes tensions et surcharges qui pèsent sur le travailleur intellectuel et peuvent présenter des effets délétères sur la santé.The organizational changes that many global companies are undergoing are fostering the development of new collective work practices freeing workers from the constraints of space and time and marshalling geographically dispersed skills. The object of this article is to examine the specificities of distributed cooperative work within teams that carry out large-scale design projects. Close cooperation between the team members and the management of multiple distributed cooperative activities require a massive use of information and communication technologies so that they can interact regularly and work together in shared virtual spaces. With such working conditions, there are many issues, and the health risks must not be overlooked. From this perspective, we examine the risks of fragmented work, its dispersion, and various tensions and work overload that weigh on the intellectual worker and can present deleterious health effects.Las mutaciones organizacionales que conocen numerosas empresas globalizadas fomentan el desarrollo de nuevas prácticas colectivas de trabajo que permiten a sus empleados liberarse del espacio y del tiempo, y poner en sinergia competencias geográficamente dispersas. El objeto de este artículo es examinar las especificidades del trabajo cooperativo distribuido en el seno de equipos que realizan proyectos de diseño de gran envergadura. Una fuerte cooperación entre los compañeros de equipo y la gestión de múltiples actividades cooperativas distribuidas necesita una utilización masiva de tecnologías de información y de comunicación para interactuar regularmente y trabajar juntos en espacios virtuales compartidos. Con tales condiciones de trabajo, los desafíos son muchos y los riesgos para la salud de los compañeros de trabajo no deben ser descuidados. En esta perspectiva, examinaremos los riesgos relacionados con la fragmentación del trabajo, su dispersión y las diferentes tensiones y sobrecargas que pesan sobre el trabajador intelectual y que pueden provocar efectos deletéreos sobre la salud

Managing Future Challenges for Safety

This open access book addresses the future of work and industry by 2040—a core interest for many disciplines inspiring a strong momentum for employment and training within the industrial world. The future of industrial safety in terms of technological risk-management, although of obvious concern to international actors in various industries, has been quite sparsely addressed. This brief reflects the viewpoints of experts who come from different academic disciplines and various sectors such as oil and gas, energy, transportation, and the digital and even the military worlds, as expressed in debates and discussions during a two-day international seminar. The contributors address such questions as: What influence will ageing and lack of digital skills in the workforce of the occidental world have on safety culture? What are the likely impacts of big data, artificial intelligence and autonomous technologies on decision-making, and on the roles and responsibilities of individual actors and whole organizations? What role have human beings in a world of accelerating changes? What effects will societal concerns and the entrance of new players have on technological risk management and governance? Managing Future Challenges for Safety will interest and influence researchers considering the future effects of a number of currently developing technologies and their practitioner counterparts working in industry and regulation

Managing Future Challenges for Safety

This open access book addresses the future of work and industry by 2040—a core interest for many disciplines inspiring a strong momentum for employment and training within the industrial world. The future of industrial safety in terms of technological risk-management, although of obvious concern to international actors in various industries, has been quite sparsely addressed. This brief reflects the viewpoints of experts who come from different academic disciplines and various sectors such as oil and gas, energy, transportation, and the digital and even the military worlds, as expressed in debates and discussions during a two-day international seminar. The contributors address such questions as: What influence will ageing and lack of digital skills in the workforce of the occidental world have on safety culture? What are the likely impacts of big data, artificial intelligence and autonomous technologies on decision-making, and on the roles and responsibilities of individual actors and whole organizations? What role have human beings in a world of accelerating changes? What effects will societal concerns and the entrance of new players have on technological risk management and governance? Managing Future Challenges for Safety will interest and influence researchers considering the future effects of a number of currently developing technologies and their practitioner counterparts working in industry and regulation

Évolutions de l’Intelligence Artificielle : quels enjeux pour l’activité humaine et la relation Humain‑Machine au travail ?

Depuis quelques années, l’Intelligence Artificielle (IA) connaît un regain d’intérêt sans précédent grâce à d’importantes avancées technologiques, notamment dans le domaine de l’apprentissage machine (machine learning), qui étendent les capacités des ordinateurs et accroissent leurs performances dans un grand nombre de domaines (traitement du langage, compréhension de la parole, reconnaissance d’images, robotique, etc.). Ces avancées ouvrent de vastes perspectives en termes d’innovation technologique et d’automatisation dans les situations de travail. Cet article s’intéresse aux questions et enjeux soulevés par ces évolutions concernant l’activité humaine au travail. Il montre que la majorité des questions soulevées ne sont pas nouvelles. Il s’agit en particulier des questions concernant les incidences de l’automatisation sur le travail, et la manière d’envisager la répartition du travail et la relation entre Humain et IA. Certaines questions qui ne sont pas nouvelles se posent avec plus d’acuité, c’est le cas d’une part de « l’explicabilité » des systèmes d’IA basés sur l’apprentissage et, d’autre part, des conséquences à plus long terme de cet apprentissage sur l’activité humaine. Enfin, de nouvelles questions émergent, comme celles qui concernent plus particulièrement le travail avec des machines intelligentes qui exhibent des caractères anthropomorphes.Over recent years we have seen an unprecedented revival of interest in Artificial Intelligence (AI) due to major technological advances, particularly in the field of machine learning, which extend the capabilities of computers and increase their performance in a large number of domains (language processing, speech understanding, image recognition, robotics, etc.). These advances have opened up vast opportunities in terms of technological innovation and automation in work situations. This article focuses on the questions and issues raised by these developments concerning human activity at work. The main conclusions of this article are, first of all, that the majority of the issues raised are not new. These include issues concerning the consequences of automation on work, and how to approach the division of tasks and the relationship between AI and Human. Secondly, some of the questions that are not new are becoming more challenging, such as the explainability of AI systems. Finally, new questions are emerging, such as those relating more particularly to work with “intelligent” machines that exhibit anthropomorphic features

Collaborative decision making in complex work settings: a process of managing inter dependencies

There exists disparity between the conceptualization and occurrence of Collaborative Decision Making (CDM) in everyday work activities of complex work settings. Current notions in the field of Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) based on studies of decision making in groups typically portray CDM as an isolated event in which multiple personnel jointly undertake decision making. In the real world, however, decisions are made during work performance and interlaced with other processes and activities. Moreover, the complex work setting is a cooperative arrangement in which decision making is distributed. This research aims to alleviate the disparity by investigating how people in a complex working environment make decisions collaboratively. The original contribution to knowledge made by this thesis is the theory of CDM as a process of managing interdependencies. Field-studies conducted in an airport to examine the way CDM is undertaken during Air Traffic Control operations inform theory development. The study takes a qualitative approach and is guided by Grounded Theory Methodology (GTM). The findings of this research indicate that undertaking decision making in the cooperative arrangement of complex work settings requires managing the distributions and interconnections inherent in this setup. In addition, participation and contribution of personnel in decision making is found to be structured by the dependencies between their activities. These findings form the central focus of the theory leading to the depiction of CDM as a process of managing interdependencies. The theory presented in this thesis clarifies and extends existing views by explicating the differentiated process of CDM in the cooperative arrangement of a complex work setting. Based on this a new definition of CDM is formulated. In addition, a conceptual framework of ten parameters is derived to serve as a tool for analysing CDM taking place in a particular work setting. Application of this framework is demonstrated by analysing an aircraft accident report to draw insights about the occurrence of CDM in this setting

Research Data Management Practices And Impacts on Long-term Data Sustainability: An Institutional Exploration

With the \u27data deluge\u27 leading to an institutionalized research environment for data management, U.S. academic faculty have increasingly faced pressure to deposit research data into open online data repositories, which, in turn, is engendering a new set of practices to adapt formal mandates to local circumstances. When these practices involve reorganizing workflows to align the goals of local and institutional stakeholders, we might call them \u27data articulations.\u27 This dissertation uses interviews to establish a grounded understanding of the data articulations behind deposit in 3 studies: (1) a phenomenological study of genomics faculty data management practices; (2) a grounded theory study developing a theory of data deposit as articulation work in genomics; and (3) a comparative case study of genomics and social science researchers to identify factors associated with the institutionalization of research data management (RDM). The findings of this research offer an in-depth understanding of the data management and deposit practices of academic research faculty, and surfaced institutional factors associated with data deposit. Additionally, the studies led to a theoretical framework of data deposit to open research data repositories. The empirical insights into the impacts of institutionalization of RDM and data deposit on long-term data sustainability update our knowledge of the impacts of increasing guidelines for RDM. The work also contributes to the body of data management literature through the development of the data articulation framework which can be applied and further validated by future work. In terms of practice, the studies offer recommendations for data policymakers, data repositories, and researchers on defining strategies and initiatives to leverage data reuse and employ computational approaches to support data management and deposit

Interaction design for situated media production teams

PhD ThesisMedia production teams are the backbone of many media industries including television, sport gatherings and live music events. These domains are characterised by a key set of situational factors which significantly impact on the collaborative production workflow, such as temporality, professional concerns and mission criticality. The availability of new interaction technologies presents an opportunity to design systems to support these teams in these complex environments, leveraging the affordances of interaction technologies in response to the situated factors that impact specifically on these types of domains. StoryCrate and ProductionCrate, two large-scale real-world prototype systems for supporting situated media production teams were designed and deployed to explore the interaction design considerations that could support these teams in specific scenarios. Through an extensive analysis of these deployments, key design considerations, interaction techniques and modalities are presented that can be developed in response to the situational factors found in collaborative media production environments