Impacts of e-collaboration tools for development of rural areas

Information and communication technologies (ICT) are a powerful driver for economy-wide productivity, growth and jobs – and are arguably Europe’s best-bet investment for the future. The ICT in innovation processes and acts play more and more important role in rural areas. The regional innovation performance is different in regions and lower in rural areas.The regional innovation performance is different in regions and lower in rural areas. The ICT acts play more and more important role in innovation processes in rural areas. The new requirements for developing new application and services is to increase the wireless and broadband services. Some EU supported RTD project served to develop the agri-food sector and rural areas. The National Development Strategies and Rural Development Strategies may help to grow the broadband penetration in rural areas. Collaborative Working Environment can be perceived as the tools, technologies, services and environments supporting individual persons in their working tasks to become more creative, innovative and productive involving the direct or indirect interaction (collaboration) with other individuals, groups or organizations. Collaborative platforms providing sophisticated upper middleware services required for environment and person-aware distributed collaboration. There were more EU projects focusing to collaborative tools and systems. The objective of the AMI@netfood project was to support the implementation of the IST Research Priority and Framework Programme, providing a long-term vision on future trends on Scientific and Technology Research oriented to the development and application of Ambient Intelligence technologies to the agri-food domain. The e-Learning and e-Training are more and more important domain where we can use collaborative tools, collaborative working environment. The European NODES project had a target group who are liniving in rural areas. For agriculture and rural areas the C@R project may contribute to design the European standard. C@R will design software tools to help people in rural areas to collaborate despite of the separation in space and in time. The Digital Business Ecosystem platform and tools may help for co-operation of SMS in rural areas

Tackling health inequalities through developing evidence-based policy and practice with childbearing women in prison: a consultation

A collaborative partnership between the Hallam Centre for Community Justice and the Mother and Infant Research Unit (MIRU) at the University of York was successful in securing funding to conduct this consultation project. This collaboration brought together the knowledge and expertise of researchers working in maternal and infant health and those with knowledge of the prison sector. This consultation scopes and maps the health needs and health care of childbearing women in prison, using the Yorkshire and Humberside region as a case study

Discovery-led refinement in e-discovery investigations: sensemaking, cognitive ergonomics and system design.

Given the very large numbers of documents involved in e-discovery investigations, lawyers face a considerable challenge of collaborative sensemaking. We report findings from three workplace studies which looked at different aspects of how this challenge was met. From a sociotechnical perspective, the studies aimed to understand how investigators collectively and individually worked with information to support sensemaking and decision making. Here, we focus on discovery-led refinement; specifically, how engaging with the materials of the investigations led to discoveries that supported refinement of the problems and new strategies for addressing them. These refinements were essential for tractability. We begin with observations which show how new lines of enquiry were recursively embedded. We then analyse the conceptual structure of a line of enquiry and consider how reflecting this in e-discovery support systems might support scalability and group collaboration. We then focus on the individual activity of manual document review where refinement corresponded with the inductive identification of classes of irrelevant and relevant documents within a collection. Our observations point to the effects of priming on dealing with these efficiently and to issues of cognitive ergonomics at the human–computer interface. We use these observations to introduce visualisations that might enable reviewers to deal with such refinements more efficiently

Platforms, Markets and Innovation: An Introduction

The emergence of platforms, whether used inside firms, across supply chains, or as building blocks that act as engines of innovation and redefine industrial architectures, is a novel phenomenon affecting most industries today, from products to services. This book, the first of its kind dedicated to the emerging field of platform research, presents leading-edge contributions from top international scholars from strategy, economics, innovation, organizations and knowledge management. This book represents a milestone for the vibrant field of platform research. It is the outcome of an ambitious international collaboration, regrouping and making connections between the research work of 24 scholars, affiliated with 19 universities, in seven countries over four continents. The novel insights assembled in the 14 chapters of this volume constitute a fundamental step towards an empirically based, nuanced understanding of the nature of platforms and the implications they hold for the evolution of industrial innovation. But what exactly are platforms? Why should we care about them? And, why do we need a book about them

Transition UGent: a bottom-up initiative towards a more sustainable university

The vibrant think-tank ‘Transition UGent’ engaged over 250 academics, students and people from the university management in suggesting objectives and actions for the Sustainability Policy of Ghent University (Belgium). Founded in 2012, this bottom-up initiative succeeded to place sustainability high on the policy agenda of our university. Through discussions within 9 working groups and using the transition management method, Transition UGent developed system analyses, sustainability visions and transition paths on 9 fields of Ghent University: mobility, energy, food, waste, nature and green, water, art, education and research. At the moment, many visions and ideas find their way into concrete actions and policies. In our presentation we focused on the broad participative process, on the most remarkable structural results (e.g. a formal and ambitious Sustainability Vision and a student-led Sustainability Office) and on recent actions and experiments (e.g. a sustainability assessment on food supply in student restaurants, artistic COP21 activities, ambitious mobility plans, food leftovers projects, an education network on sustainability controversies, a transdisciplinary platform on Sustainable Cities). We concluded with some recommendations and reflections on this transition approach, on the important role of ‘policy entrepreneurs’ and student involvement, on lock-ins and bottlenecks, and on convincing skeptical leaders

WoodCircus, Underpinning the vital role of the forest-based sector in the Circular Bioeconomy. D2.2 Resource Efficiency, Side Streams and Value Chain Analysis – WP2 Final Report

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The good practice guide to Child Aware Approaches: keeping children safe and well

Abstract: Child Aware Approaches is a grassroots initiative that engages civil society to develop local approaches, actions and initiatives to keep children safe and well, recognising that protecting children is a shared responsibility. This paper defines Child Aware Approaches, outlines the philosophies and principles underpinning this strategy, and offers case study examples of how the principles can be applied in practice. This paper is intended for service managers and practitioners working with vulnerable children and families, particularly those working in adult-focused service sectors. Key messages: There has been growing awareness that parental problems such as substance misuse, mental illness and family or domestic violence, are often related to negative outcomes for children. This paper is intended as a practical resource for organisations, practitioners and individuals working in social services (particularly services for children, families and adults) to put the needs, views and aspirations of children and young people at the heart of actions to improve child and family wellbeing and safety. The paper explains the five core philosophies and 10 key principles underpinning Child Aware Approaches, to provide practical guidance for those working with vulnerable children and families and to inform policies, procedures and practices within organisations. Each principle can be considered from multiple perspectives (e.g., at the organisational, managerial and practitioner levels). Practice considerations are provided as examples to inspire thought and discussion of the different levels at which action may be required in applying the principles of Child Aware Approaches. Case study examples highlight the diversity of innovative and creative ways in which the principles of Child Aware Approaches have been applied in a variety of settings and situations

Remodelling the third sector: advancing collaboration or competition in community-based initiatives?

In the last decade, UK public agencies have increasingly been required to collaborate with non-state providers to deliver welfare services. Third sector organisations are now providers of services from early years to old age, taking a growing role in children and young people's services in socially deprived neighbourhoods. National policy has recognised third sector expertise in working with marginal groups of people. However, changing relationships with the state have drawn community organisations into new, often uncomfortable, organisational arrangements, affecting their work and their roles in relation to service users and community stakeholders. This article examines recent changes from a third sector perspective, drawing on data from a study of community-based organisations providing children and young people's services in deprived localities. It considers the changing environment of ‘new localism’ affecting these organisations, focusing on recent plans for local area commissioning of services. The article identifies some progress in supporting community services in deprived areas but illustrates how the continuing emphasis on competitive contracts and centrally driven frameworks undermines collaborative work and community trust. It argues that such mechanisms may serve short-term state interests but devalue the very community-level work, which is increasingly being promoted to address challenging social problems

Improving WASH Service Delivery in Protracted Crises: The Case of the Democratic Republic of Congo

Delivering Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) services during humanitarian emergencies and immediate recovery phases is essential for saving lives and responding to basic needs, yet choices about how WASH services are delivered can undermine future development and peace. Longer-term interventions can also overlook how they equip communities, households and government to prepare and respond to future emergencies. This is increasingly evident in protracted or recurrent crises, in which overlapping and cyclical phases of emergency, relief, recovery and development interventions coexist. In these contexts, practitioners and academics alike have acknowledged the problem of reconciling the fundamentally different institutional cultures, assumptions, values, structures and ways of working that characterise the humanitarian and the development communities.In this report, we analyse humanitarian and development approaches in a specific sector, in a particular country: WASH interventions in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). We consider how and why siloes have arisen. We argue that the problem is not so much about filling a 'gap' between humanitarian and development siloes, but about aligning the principles and practices of both communities in specific contexts so that the overall response can meet changing needs and constraints. We identify a number of ways through which improved complementarity might be achieved, differentiating between national and sub-national levels

Mutual benefit, added value? Doing research in the National Health Service

The National Health Service (NHS) has recently been the focus of government efforts to retain pharmaceutical research in the UK. Efforts to foster new partnerships between health care providers and industry have been framed with suggestions that clinical trials can offer patient benefit within the NHS, cutting across ethical and sociological concerns with the possible tension between doing research and offering care. This paper draws on ethnographic research to explore the sometimes awkward juxtapositions between trial protocols and everyday care, individual health and commercial profit, and thus the distribution of value produced through trials. While researchers appear to find the distinction between research and care useful, at least some of the time, both formal and informal strategies for living with this distinction may have the unintended consequence of making research appear supplementary to rather than simply different from clinical care