Examining User Technology Interaction: Toward a Sociotechnical Theory for Understanding User Adjustment to Mobile Technologies

Researchers from organization, management, and information systems areas have studied the impact of information technology (IT) on users in organizations for several decades. As a form of emerging technology, mobile computing has raised new research directions, as well as challenges for both computer scientists and social scientists. In this paper, we explore the issues of how well the emerging mobile computing technologies conform to past models and predictions that have been offered for explaining the impacts of IT. In particular, this paper identifies the general lack of attention to individual-level differences that may interact with contextual factors to shape organizational users’ reactions to this new computing paradigm. We thus propose that IS researchers consider a specific sociotechnical theory – Theory of Work Adjustment (TWA) – to investigate how individual users adjust to technology-initiated changes in work practices resulting from mobile technologies. By highlighting the insights offered by TWA, we believe that this model is useful for analyzing individual responses to the adoption of mobile computing technologies

Personalization in cultural heritage: the road travelled and the one ahead

Over the last 20 years, cultural heritage has been a favored domain for personalization research. For years, researchers have experimented with the cutting edge technology of the day; now, with the convergence of internet and wireless technology, and the increasing adoption of the Web as a platform for the publication of information, the visitor is able to exploit cultural heritage material before, during and after the visit, having different goals and requirements in each phase. However, cultural heritage sites have a huge amount of information to present, which must be filtered and personalized in order to enable the individual user to easily access it. Personalization of cultural heritage information requires a system that is able to model the user (e.g., interest, knowledge and other personal characteristics), as well as contextual aspects, select the most appropriate content, and deliver it in the most suitable way. It should be noted that achieving this result is extremely challenging in the case of first-time users, such as tourists who visit a cultural heritage site for the first time (and maybe the only time in their life). In addition, as tourism is a social activity, adapting to the individual is not enough because groups and communities have to be modeled and supported as well, taking into account their mutual interests, previous mutual experience, and requirements. How to model and represent the user(s) and the context of the visit and how to reason with regard to the information that is available are the challenges faced by researchers in personalization of cultural heritage. Notwithstanding the effort invested so far, a definite solution is far from being reached, mainly because new technology and new aspects of personalization are constantly being introduced. This article surveys the research in this area. Starting from the earlier systems, which presented cultural heritage information in kiosks, it summarizes the evolution of personalization techniques in museum web sites, virtual collections and mobile guides, until recent extension of cultural heritage toward the semantic and social web. The paper concludes with current challenges and points out areas where future research is needed

A software development framework for context-aware systems

The beginning of the new century has been characterised by the miniaturisation and accessibility of electronics, which has enabled its widespread usage around the world. This technological background is progressively materialising the future of the remainder of the century, where industry-based societies have been moving towards information-based societies. Information from users and their environment is now pervasively available, and many new research areas have born in order to shape the potential of such advancements. Particularly, context-aware computing is at the core of many areas such as Intelligent Environments, Ambient Intelligence, Ambient Assisted Living or Pervasive Computing. Embedding contextual awareness into computers promises a fundamental enhancement in the interaction between computers and humans. While traditional computers require explicit commands in order to operate, contextually aware computers could also use information from the background and the users to provide services according to the situation. But embedding this contextual awareness has many unresolved challenges. The area of context-aware computing has attracted the interest of many researchers that have presented different approaches to solve particular aspects on the implementation of this technology. The great corpus of research in this direction indicates that context-aware systems have different requirements than those of traditional computing. Approaches for developing context-aware systems are typically scattered or do not present compatibility with other approaches. Existing techniques for creating context-aware systems also do not focus on covering all the different stages of a typical software development life-cycle. The contribution of this thesis is towards the foundation layers of a more holistic approach, that tries to facilitate further research on the best techniques for developing these kinds of systems. The approach presents a framework to support the development not only with methodologies, but with open-source tools that facilitate the implementation of context-aware systems in mobile and stationary platforms

Adaptive User Interfaces for Intelligent E-Learning: Issues and Trends

Adaptive User Interfaces have a long history rooted in the emergence of such eminent technologies as Artificial Intelligence, Soft Computing, Graphical User Interface, JAVA, Internet, and Mobile Services. More specifically, the advent and advancement of the Web and Mobile Learning Services has brought forward adaptivity as an immensely important issue for both efficacy and acceptability of such services. The success of such a learning process depends on the intelligent context-oriented presentation of the domain knowledge and its adaptivity in terms of complexity and granularity consistent to the learner’s cognitive level/progress. Researchers have always deemed adaptive user interfaces as a promising solution in this regard. However, the richness in the human behavior, technological opportunities, and contextual nature of information offers daunting challenges. These require creativity, cross-domain synergy, cross-cultural and cross-demographic understanding, and an adequate representation of mission and conception of the task. This paper provides a review of state-of-the-art in adaptive user interface research in Intelligent Multimedia Educational Systems and related areas with an emphasis on core issues and future directions

Cyber-physical systems in the re-use, refurbishment and recycling of used electrical and electronic equipment

The aim of the research outlined in this paper is to demonstrate the implementation of a Cyber-Physical System (CPS) within the End of Life (EoL) processing of Electrical and Electronic Equipment (EEE). The described system was created by reviewing related areas of research, capturing stakeholder’s requirements, designing system components and then implementing within an actual EoL EEE processer. The research presented in this paper details user requirements, relevant to any EoL EEE processer, and provides information of the challenges and benefits of utilising CPSs systems within this domain. The system implemented allowed an EoL processer to attach passive Ultra High Frequency (UHF) Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags to cores (i.e. mobile phones and other IT assets) upon entry to the facility allowing monitoring and control of the core’s refurbishment. The CPS deployed supported the processing and monitoring requirements of PAS 141:2011, a standard for the correct refurbishment of both used and waste EEE for reuse. The implemented system controls how an operator can process a core, informing them which process or processes should be followed based upon the quality of the core, the recorded results of previous testing and any repair efforts. The system provides Human-Computer Interfaces (HCIs) to aid the user in recording core and process information which is then used to make decisions on the additional processes required. This research has contributed to the knowledge of the advantages and challenges of CPS development, specifically within the EoL domain, and documents future research goals to aid EoL processing through more advanced decision support on a core’s processes

Outdoor navigation of mobile robots

AGVs in the manufacturing industry currently constitute the largest application area for mobile robots. Other applications have been gradually emerging, including various transporting tasks in demanding environments, such as mines or harbours. Most of the new potential applications require a free-ranging navigation system, which means that the path of a robot is no longer bound to follow a buried inductive cable. Moreover, changing the route of a robot or taking a new working area into use must be as effective as possible. These requirements set new challenges for the navigation systems of mobile robots. One of the basic methods of building a free ranging navigation system is to combine dead reckoning navigation with the detection of beacons at known locations. This approach is the backbone of the navigation systems in this study. The study describes research and development work in the area of mobile robotics including the applications in forestry, agriculture, mining, and transportation in a factory yard. The focus is on describing navigation sensors and methods for position and heading estimation by fusing dead reckoning and beacon detection information. A Kalman filter is typically used here for sensor fusion. Both cases of using either artificial or natural beacons have been covered. Artificial beacons used in the research and development projects include specially designed flat objects to be detected using a camera as the detection sensor, GPS satellite positioning system, and passive transponders buried in the ground along the route of a robot. The walls in a mine tunnel have been used as natural beacons. In this case, special attention has been paid to map building and using the map for positioning. The main contribution of the study is in describing the structure of a working navigation system, including positioning and position control. The navigation system for mining application, in particular, contains some unique features that provide an easy-to-use procedure for taking new production areas into use and making it possible to drive a heavy mining machine autonomously at speed comparable to an experienced human driver.reviewe

A Developmental Research of a Taxonomy for Employees’ Mobile Device Cyberslacking and Commitment to the Organization in the Context of Productivity

While the introduction of the Internet facilitated the communication channels at the workplace to improve employees’ productivity, it also raised new challenges, such as Internet use for personal activities. Organizations face productivity losses due to employees’ involvement in counterproductive behaviors, such as cyberslacking. The frequency of mobile device cyberslacking is anticipated to increase due to continuous developments in online connectivity, applications, and the significant growth of mobile device usage worldwide. In addition, research has shown that employees’ commitment to their organization can encourage behaviors that positively influence productivity. Employee’s commitment is a crucial factor because it can benefit an organization in different ways, such as enhancing performance, decreasing absenteeism, and reducing turnover, thus, resulting in sustained productivity. Hence, limited studies have been conducted on the impact of employee cyberslacking using mobile devices and employee’s commitment to the organization on productivity. The research problem that this research study addressed is mobile device cyberslacking at the workplace as it relates to productivity. The main goal of this research study was to develop and validate, using Subject Matter Experts (SMEs), a Mobile Cyberslacking- Commitment Taxonomy using the measures of mobile device cyberslacking based on the self-reported frequency of cyberslacking (FCyS) and employee’s commitment to the organization (EC2O) to provide indirect indication for employee productivity. This research study implemented three phases. Phase One of this study, using the Delphi method, collected data via anonymous online surveys from 19 SMEs to evaluate and validate a set of items relevant to the measures of mobile device FCyS and EC2O, the survey scale, instructions to participants, and the Mobile Cyberslacking-Commitment Taxonomy. In Phase two, using a pilot study, a group of 35 participants were recruited to verify the validity of the survey instrument that was revised by SMEs. In Phase three, the validated survey was sent via email to assess six research questions. The final survey was sent to 1,063 employees who work at organizations in Saudi Arabia and use mobile device on a daily basis. The response rate was 24.93% with 265 usable records. The results of the study showed that employees were dispersed across the Mobile Cyberslacking-Commitment Taxonomy with 4.5% of the employees were positioned in the more problematic quadrant indicating that this portion of employees will not use their mobile devices at the workplace to improve their productivity. The overall results showed that the population had a low frequency of mobile cyberslacking and a high commitment to the organization, thus, have a better potential for productivity. Significant differences in the two constructs were also found across several demographics including age, gender, education level, industry type. Recommendations for practice and research are provided. Moreover, several areas for future research are also presented. The results of this research study contributed to information systems’ body of knowledge by providing researchers and practitioners a novel benchmarking tool of Mobile Cyberslacking-Commitment Taxonomy to enable the measure of employees’ FCyS and EC2O to classify employees’ potential for productivity in the context of the workplace

Transport poverty meets the digital divide : accessibility and connectivity in rural communities

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Assessing the Barriers to Equity in Smart Mobility Systems: A Case Study of Portland, Oregon

There is an active debate about the potential costs and benefits of emerging “smart mobility” systems, especially in how they will serve communities already facing transportation challenges. This paper describes the results of an assessment of these equity issues in the context of lower-income areas of Portland, Oregon, based on a mixture of quantitative and qualitative research. The study found that by lowering costs and improving service for public transit, ridesharing and active transportation, smart mobility systems could address many of the needs of transportation disadvantaged communities. Similar to those found in other case studies, significant barriers prevent smart mobility technologies from benefiting all communities. For example, lower income survey respondents and respondents of color had significantly lower access to the “smart mobility ecosystem” including bank accounts and credit cards, they rely more heavily on paying cash for transit tickets, had lower access to internet at home and work, and were more likely to reduce data use or cancel cell plans because of cost or data restrictions. Respondents were also concerned about information security, as the impacts of loss or theft, especially identity theft can be devastating for lower-income residents. Since integrating payment systems and relying on internet and cell data for mobile applications is a core feature of smart mobility ecosystem, these disparities are significant barriers to the equitable transition to smart mobility. Policy recommendations to address barriers include expanding free and public WiFi, better real-time transit information, improved training, and language translation for phone applications, among other things