The design and implementation of an infrastructure for multimedia digital libraries

We develop an infrastructure for managing, indexing and serving multimedia content in digital libraries. This infrastructure follows the model of the Web, and thereby is distributed in nature. We discuss the design of the Librarian, the component that manages meta data about the content. The management of meta data has been separated from the media servers that manage the content itself. Also, the extraction of the meta data is largely independent of the Librarian. We introduce our extensible data model and the daemon paradigm that are the core pieces of this architecture. We evaluate our initial implementation using a relational database. We conclude with a discussion of the lessons we learned in building this system, and proposals for improving the flexibility, reliability, and performance of the syste

Database technology and the management of multimedia data in Mirror

Multimedia digital libraries require an open distributed architecture instead of a monolithic database system. In the Mirror project, we use the Monet extensible database kernel to manage different representations of multimedia objects. To maintain independence between content, meta-data, and the creation of meta-data, we allow distribution of data and operations using CORBA. This open architecture introduces new problems for data access. From an end user’s perspective, the problem is how to search the available representations to fulfill an actual information need; the conceptual gap between human perceptual processes and the meta-data is too large. From a system’s perspective, several representations of the data may semantically overlap or be irrelevant. We address these problems with an iterative query process and active user participation through relevance feedback. A retrieval model based on inference networks assists the user with query formulation. The integration of this model into the database design has two advantages. First, the user can query both the logical and the content structure of multimedia objects. Second, the use of different data models in the logical and the physical database design provides data independence and allows algebraic query optimization. We illustrate query processing with a music retrieval application

Content And Multimedia Database Management Systems

A database management system is a general-purpose software system that facilitates the processes of defining, constructing, and manipulating databases for various applications. The main characteristic of the ‘database approach’ is that it increases the value of data by its emphasis on data independence. DBMSs, and in particular those based on the relational data model, have been very successful at the management of administrative data in the business domain. This thesis has investigated data management in multimedia digital libraries, and its implications on the design of database management systems. The main problem of multimedia data management is providing access to the stored objects. The content structure of administrative data is easily represented in alphanumeric values. Thus, database technology has primarily focused on handling the objects’ logical structure. In the case of multimedia data, representation of content is far from trivial though, and not supported by current database management systems

Analysis and design of individual information systems to support health behavior change

As a wide-ranging socio-technical transformation, the digitalization has significantly influenced the world, bringing opportunities and challenges to our lives. Despite numerous benefits like the possibility to stay connected with people around the world, the increasing dispersion and use of digital technologies and media (DTM) pose risks to individuals’ well-being and health. Rising demands emerging from the digital world have been linked to digital stress, that is, stress directly or indirectly resulting from DTM (Ayyagari et al. 2011; Ragu-Nathan et al. 2008; Tarafdar et al. 2019; Weil and Rosen 1997), potentially intensifying individuals’ overall exposure to stress. Individuals experiencing this adverse consequence of digitalization are at elevated risk of developing severe mental health impairments (Alhassan et al. 2018; Haidt and Allen 2020; Scott et al. 2017), which is why various scholars emphasize that research should place a stronger focus on analyzing and shaping the role of the individual in a digital world, pursuing instrumental as well as humanistic objectives (Ameen et al. 2021; Baskerville 2011b). Information Systems (IS) research has long placed emphasis on the use of information and communication technology (ICT) in organizations, viewing an information system as the socio-technical system that emerges from individuals’ interaction with DTM in organizations. However, socio-technical information systems, as the essence of the IS discipline (Lee 2004; Sarker et al. 2019), are also present in different social contexts from private life. Acknowledging the increasing private use of DTM, such as smartphones and social networks, IS scholars have recently intensified their efforts to understand the human factor of IS (Avison and Fitzgerald 1991; Turel et al. 2021). A framework recently proposed by Matt et al. (2019) suggests three research angles: analyzing individuals’ behavior associated with their DTM use, analyzing what consequences arise from their DTM use behavior, and designing new technologies that promote positive or mitigate negative effects of individuals’ DTM use. Various recent studies suggest that individuals’ behavior seems to be an important lever influencing the outcomes of their DTM use (Salo et al. 2017; Salo et al. 2020; Weinstein et al. 2016). Therefore, this dissertation aims to contribute to IS research targeting the facilitation of a healthy DTM use behavior. It explores the use behavior, consequences, and design of DTM for individuals' use with the objective to deliver humanistic value by increasing individuals' health through supporting a behavior change related to their DTM use. The dissertation combines behavioral science and design science perspectives and applies pluralistic methodological approaches from qualitative (e.g., interviews, prototyping) and quantitative research (e.g., survey research, field studies), including mixed-methods approaches mixing both. Following the framework from Matt et al. (2019), the dissertation takes three perspectives therein: analyzing individuals’ behavior, analyzing individuals’ responses to consequences of DTM use, and designing information systems assisting DTM users. First, the dissertation presents new descriptive knowledge on individuals’ behavior related to their use of DTM. Specifically, it investigates how individuals behave when interacting with DTM, why they behave the way they do, and how their behavior can be influenced. Today, a variety of digital workplace technologies offer employees different ways of pursuing their goals or performing their tasks (Köffer 2015). As a result, individuals exhibit different behaviors when interacting with these technologies. The dissertation analyzes what interactional roles DTM users can take at the digital workplace and what may influence their behavior. It uses a mixed-methods approach and combines a quantitative study building on trace data from a popular digital workplace suite and qualitative interviews with users of this digital workplace suite. The empirical analysis yields eight user roles that advance the understanding of users’ behavior at the digital workplace and first insights into what factors may influence this behavior. A second study adds another perspective and investigates how habitual behavior can be changed by means of DTM design elements. Real-time feedback has been discussed as a promising way to do so (Schibuola et al. 2016; Weinmann et al. 2016). In a field experiment, employees working at the digital workplace are provided with an external display that presents real-time feedback on their office’s indoor environmental quality. The experiment examines if and to what extent the feedback influences their ventilation behavior to understand the effect of feedback as a means of influencing individuals’ behavior. The results suggest that real-time feedback can effectively alter individuals’ behavior, yet the feedback’s effectiveness reduces over time, possibly as a result of habituation to the feedback. Second, the dissertation presents new descriptive and prescriptive knowledge on individuals’ ways to mitigate adverse consequences arising from the digitalization of individuals. A frequently discussed consequence that digitalization has on individuals is digital stress. Although research efforts strive to determine what measures individuals can take to effectively cope with digital stress (Salo et al. 2017; Salo et al. 2020; Weinert 2018), further understanding of individuals’ coping behavior is needed (Weinert 2018). A group at high risk of suffering from the adverse effects of digital stress is adolescents because they grow up using DTM daily and are still developing their identity, acquiring mental strength, and adopting essential social skills. To facilitate a healthy DTM use, the dissertation explores what strategies adolescents use to cope with the demands of their DTM use. Combining a qualitative and a quantitative study, it presents 30 coping responses used by adolescents, develops five factors underlying adolescents’ activation of coping responses, and identifies gender- and age-related differences in their coping behavior. Third, the dissertation presents new prescriptive knowledge on the design of individual information systems supporting individuals in understanding and mitigating their perceived stress. Facilitated by the sensing capabilities of modern mobile devices, it explores the design and development of mobile systems that assess stress and support individuals in coping with stress by initiating a change of stress-related behavior. Since there is currently limited understanding of how to develop such systems, this dissertation explores various facets of their design and development. As a first step, it presents the development of a prototype aiming for life-integrated stress assessment, that is, the mobile sensor-based assessment of an individual’s stress without interfering with their daily routines. Data collected with the prototype yields a stress model relating sensor data to individuals’ perception of stress. To deliver a more generalized perspective on mobile stress assessment, the dissertation further presents a literature- and experience-based design theory comprising a design blueprint, design requirements, design principles, design features, and a discussion of potentially required trade-offs. Mobile stress assessment may be used for the development of mobile coping assistants. Aiming to assist individuals in effectively coping with stress and preventing future stress, a mobile coping assistant should recommend adequate coping strategies to the stressed individual in real-time or execute targeted actions within a defined scope of action automatically. While the implementation of a mobile coping assistant is yet up to future research, the dissertation presents an abstract design and algorithm for selecting appropriate coping strategies. To sum up, this dissertation contributes new knowledge on the digitalization of individuals to the IS knowledge bases, expanding both descriptive and prescriptive knowledge. Through the combination of diverse methodological approaches, it delivers knowledge on individuals’ behavior when using DTM, on the mitigation of consequences that may arise from individuals’ use of DTM, and on the design of individual information systems with the goal of facilitating a behavior change, specifically, regarding individuals’ coping with stress. Overall, the research contained in this dissertation may promote the development of digital assistants that support individuals’ in adopting a healthy DTM use behavior and thereby contribute to shaping a socio-technical environment that creates more benefit than harm for all individuals

Mjerenje uspješnosti interaktivnih mobilnih informacijskih sustava na osobnoj razini upotrebe

Information technology is not only crucial for the success of commercial business, but also an important part of individuals daily activities. There are many technological solutions used to make our life easier. However, not every technological solution is successful. The research into the meaning of success regarding the interactive mobile information systems, benefits both science and industry. This dissertation deals with the improvements to the DeLone and McLean information systems success model and proposes new success dimensions, as well as relationships between these dimensions, in order to explain the success of todays interactive mobile information systems that are used at the individual level (e.g. for entertainment, informationseeking, communication, etc.). The main contributions of this thesis are a valid and reliable measuringinstrument questionnaire, and a valid and reliable multi-dimensional interactive mobile information systems success model. Both developed artefacts are results of the application of the design science methodology and represent valuable toolsthat serve both science and practice. Scientists can use these artefacts as a theoretical basis for similar studies, while providers of interactive mobile information systems can use these artefacts to measure the success of their products, in order to find out which features contribute to the perception of benefits as a result of system use in a greater or lesser degree, to detect whether users have the intention of system reuse, and use this information as a strategy for future system improvements.Informacijska tehnologija nije samo ključna za uspjeh komercijalnih poduzeća, već je također važan dio svakodnevnih aktivnosti pojedinaca. Postoji mnogo tehnoloških rješenja koje koristimo kako bismo si olakšali život. Međutim, nije svako tehnološko rješenje uspješno. Istraživanje što znači uspjeh u slučaju interaktivnih mobilnih informacijskih sustava, predstavlja korist ne samo za znanost već i za industriju. Disertacija se bavi unapređenjem DeLone i McLean modela uspješnosti informacijskih sustava i predlaže nove dimenzije uspješnosti kao i odnose između tih dimenzija kako bi se objasnila uspješnost današnjih interaktivnih mobilnih informacijskih sustava koji se koriste na individualnoj razini (npr. za zabavu, informiranje, komuniciranje itd.). Glavni doprinosi ove disertacije su valjan i pouzdan mjerni instrument upitnik te valjan i pouzdan višedimenzionalni model uspješnosti interaktivnih mobilnih informacijskih sustava. Oba razvijena artefakta nastala su kao rezultat primjene metodologije znanosti o dizajnu (engl. design science) te predstavljaju vrijedan alat koji služi znanosti i praksi. Znanstvenici mogu koristiti ove artefakte kao teorijske osnove za slična istraživanja, a pružatelji interaktivnih mobilnih informacijskih sustava primjenom ovih artefakata mogu izmjeriti uspješnost svojih proizvoda, otkriti koje značajke sustava više ili manje utječu na percepciju dobiti kao posljedicu upotrebe sustava, otkriti da li korisnici imaju namjeru nastaviti koristiti sustav, te koristiti ove informacije kao strategije za buduća poboljšanja sustava

Mjerenje uspješnosti interaktivnih mobilnih informacijskih sustava na osobnoj razini upotrebe

Information technology is not only crucial for the success of commercial business, but also an important part of individuals daily activities. There are many technological solutions used to make our life easier. However, not every technological solution is successful. The research into the meaning of success regarding the interactive mobile information systems, benefits both science and industry. This dissertation deals with the improvements to the DeLone and McLean information systems success model and proposes new success dimensions, as well as relationships between these dimensions, in order to explain the success of todays interactive mobile information systems that are used at the individual level (e.g. for entertainment, informationseeking, communication, etc.). The main contributions of this thesis are a valid and reliable measuringinstrument questionnaire, and a valid and reliable multi-dimensional interactive mobile information systems success model. Both developed artefacts are results of the application of the design science methodology and represent valuable toolsthat serve both science and practice. Scientists can use these artefacts as a theoretical basis for similar studies, while providers of interactive mobile information systems can use these artefacts to measure the success of their products, in order to find out which features contribute to the perception of benefits as a result of system use in a greater or lesser degree, to detect whether users have the intention of system reuse, and use this information as a strategy for future system improvements.Informacijska tehnologija nije samo ključna za uspjeh komercijalnih poduzeća, već je također važan dio svakodnevnih aktivnosti pojedinaca. Postoji mnogo tehnoloških rješenja koje koristimo kako bismo si olakšali život. Međutim, nije svako tehnološko rješenje uspješno. Istraživanje što znači uspjeh u slučaju interaktivnih mobilnih informacijskih sustava, predstavlja korist ne samo za znanost već i za industriju. Disertacija se bavi unapređenjem DeLone i McLean modela uspješnosti informacijskih sustava i predlaže nove dimenzije uspješnosti kao i odnose između tih dimenzija kako bi se objasnila uspješnost današnjih interaktivnih mobilnih informacijskih sustava koji se koriste na individualnoj razini (npr. za zabavu, informiranje, komuniciranje itd.). Glavni doprinosi ove disertacije su valjan i pouzdan mjerni instrument upitnik te valjan i pouzdan višedimenzionalni model uspješnosti interaktivnih mobilnih informacijskih sustava. Oba razvijena artefakta nastala su kao rezultat primjene metodologije znanosti o dizajnu (engl. design science) te predstavljaju vrijedan alat koji služi znanosti i praksi. Znanstvenici mogu koristiti ove artefakte kao teorijske osnove za slična istraživanja, a pružatelji interaktivnih mobilnih informacijskih sustava primjenom ovih artefakata mogu izmjeriti uspješnost svojih proizvoda, otkriti koje značajke sustava više ili manje utječu na percepciju dobiti kao posljedicu upotrebe sustava, otkriti da li korisnici imaju namjeru nastaviti koristiti sustav, te koristiti ove informacije kao strategije za buduća poboljšanja sustava