CrowdPickUp:task pick-up in the wild

Abstract. This thesis investigates the feasibility and performance of different types of crowdsourcing tasks picked-up in the wild i.e., situated, location-based and general through the implementation and evaluation of the CrowdPickUp crowdsourcing platform. We describe in detail the implementation process of CrowdPickUp, which we then used in a study where workers could earn coins on the basis of task completion and use their earned coins to buy different available items of their own choice using CrowdPickUp’s web shop integrated within our system. During the study, we recorded the average completion time and accuracy of different crowdsourcing tasks. The key findings show that our platform was able to generate high quality contributions in a composite environment. Finally, we conclude the thesis by discussing the importance and usefulness of different crowdsourcing tasks designed for our crowdsourcing system and our possible future work within the area of crowdsourcing task-pickup system.Tiivistelmä. Tämä diplomityö tutkii joukkouttamisen suorituskykyä ja mahdollisuuksia erityyppisten tehtävien avulla. Tehtävät jaetaan työntekijöille luonnollisissa olosuhteissa paikkasidonnaisesti työssä kehitetyn CrowdPickUp-alustan avulla. Työ kuvailee yksityiskohtaisesti kehitetyn alustan sovelluskehitysprosessin. Tämän jälkeen valmista alustaa käytettiin käyttäjäkokeissa, joissa työntekijät pystyivät ansaitsemaan virtuaalivaluuttaa, jolla pystyi ostamaan erilaisia palkintoja. Kokeen aikana tutkimme ja tallensimme monenlaista tietoa, kuten esimerkiksi suoritetun työn tarkkuutta ja keskimääräistä tehokkuutta. Työn päälöydökset osoittavat, että alustamme kykeni tuottamaan korkealaatuista työtä luonnollisissa olosuhteissa ja ilman tutkijoiden jatkuvaa läsnäoloa. Lopuksi diplomityö keskustelee löydösten ja kehitystyön tärkeyttä sekä soveltuvuutta erilaisten tehtävien suorittamisalustaksi. Lisäksi esittelemme ideoita, joilla työtä voi kehittää eteenpäin entistä hyödyllisemmäksi tutkimusinstrumentiksi

A hermeneutic inquiry into user-created personas in different Namibian locales

Persona is a tool broadly used in technology design to support communicational interactions between designers and users. Different Persona types and methods have evolved mostly in the Global North, and been partially deployed in the Global South every so often in its original User-Centred Design methodology. We postulate persona conceptualizations are expected to differ across cultures. We demonstrate this with an exploratory-case study on user-created persona co-designed with four Namibian ethnic groups: ovaHerero, Ovambo, ovaHimba and Khoisan. We follow a hermeneutic inquiry approach to discern cultural nuances from diverse human conducts. Findings reveal diverse self-representations whereby for each ethnic group results emerge in unalike fashions, viewpoints, recounts and storylines. This paper ultimately argues User-Created Persona as a potentially valid approach for pursuing cross-cultural depictions of personas that communicate cultural features and user experiences paramount to designing acceptable and gratifying technologies in dissimilar locales

Build an app and they will come? Lessons learnt from trialling the GetThereBus app in rural communities

Acknowledgements The research described here was supported by the award made by the RCUK Digital Economy programme to the dot.rural Digital Economy Hub; award reference: EP/G066051/1.Peer reviewedPostprin

Developing a dominant logic of strategic innovation

Purpose: This paper aims to lay the foundations to develop a dominant logic and a common thematic framework of strategic innovation (SI) and to encourage consensus over the field’s core foundation of main themes. Design/methodology/approach: The paper explores the intersection between the constituent fields of strategic management and innovation management through a concept mapping process. The paper categorizes the main themes and search for common ground in order to develop the core thematic framework of SI. The paper looks at the sub-themes of SI in published research and develops a more detailed framework. The conceptual categories derived from the process are then placed in a logical sequence according to how they occur in practice or in the order of how the concepts develop from one other. Findings: The results yield seven main themes that form the main taxonomy of SI: types of SI, environmental analysis of SI, SI planning, enabling SI, collaborative networks, managing knowledge, and strategic outcomes. Research limitations/implications: The new thematic framework the paper is proposing for SI remains preliminary in nature and would need to be tried and tested by researchers and practitioners in order to gain acceptability. Academic rigor and methodological structure are not sufficient to determine whether our conceptual framework will become widely diffused in academia and industry. It would have to pass through an emergent, evolutionary process of selection, adoption and an inevitable degree of change and adaptation, just like any other innovation. Practical implications: The practical implications concern the production of instructive material and the application of strategic management initiatives in industry. The proposed themes and sub-themes can serve as a logical framework to develop and update publications, which have been instrumental in their own right to shape the field. The paper also provides a checklist of potential research projects in SI, which will improve and strengthen the field. The new framework provides a comprehensive checklist of strategic management initiatives that will help industry to initiate, plan and execute effective innovation strategies. Originality/value: The concept mapping of the themes of SI yields a new dominant logic, which will influence the evolution of the field and its relevance to both academia and industry

Learning to Speak and Act in a Fantasy Text Adventure Game

We introduce a large scale crowdsourced text adventure game as a research platform for studying grounded dialogue. In it, agents can perceive, emote, and act whilst conducting dialogue with other agents. Models and humans can both act as characters within the game. We describe the results of training state-of-the-art generative and retrieval models in this setting. We show that in addition to using past dialogue, these models are able to effectively use the state of the underlying world to condition their predictions. In particular, we show that grounding on the details of the local environment, including location descriptions, and the objects (and their affordances) and characters (and their previous actions) present within it allows better predictions of agent behavior and dialogue. We analyze the ingredients necessary for successful grounding in this setting, and how each of these factors relate to agents that can talk and act successfully