Collaboration in the Semantic Grid: a Basis for e-Learning

The CoAKTinG project aims to advance the state of the art in collaborative mediated spaces for the Semantic Grid. This paper presents an overview of the hypertext and knowledge based tools which have been deployed to augment existing collaborative environments, and the ontology which is used to exchange structure, promote enhanced process tracking, and aid navigation of resources before, after, and while a collaboration occurs. While the primary focus of the project has been supporting e-Science, this paper also explores the similarities and application of CoAKTinG technologies as part of a human-centred design approach to e-Learning

Integrating Decision-Making Support in Geocollaboration Tools

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Collective IT artifacts: Toward Inclusive Crisis Infrastructures

This paper investigates a previously overlooked phenomenon in crisis response information systems, namely inclusive crisis infrastructure. By expanding the well-acknowledged infrastructure concept with alternatives to understand the nature and scope of inclusive crisis infrastructures, this paper contributes to closing the gap between theory and practice by raising some research questions critical to the study of inclusive crisis infrastructures. The emerging literature on crisis response information systems suggests that external sourcing of information increasingly influences crisis response operations. To contribute to this discourse, the paper draws on Pipek and Wulf’s (2009) definition of work infrastructures and Palen and Liu’s (2007) conceptualization of peer-to-peer communications to develop a better understanding of the crisis response arena as a whole. In doing so, this paper goes beyond the emphasis on event-based technologies that currently dominate the crisis response information systems literature and instead argues why crisis infrastructures need to be both inward-looking and accommodating to technological and social outcomes parallel to formal response contexts. The novel conceptualization captures the fact that the crisis context contains collections of collective IT artifacts that are not aligned or related but that are, for autonomy reasons, interlinked to crisis organizations’ current IT infrastructure and may be of great value to such organizations if infrastructure capability options are considered

Sense making of antenatal information by pregnant women in non-western cultures: using Wieck’s sense making theory as a lens

This paper explored how pregnant women in Non-Western settings make sense of Antenatal Information. To achieve the objective of the study, Wieck’s Sense making theory was used as a lens. A qualitative case study research design was adopted for the study. A purposive sample of15 pregnant women who registered for antenatal care in the General Hospital were interviewed for the study. The study found that five constructs of the theory; Retrospective, Extraction of Cues, Social, Ongoing and Plausibility explained how pregnant women in the study setting make senseof Antenatal information given to them at the Clinic. The study recommended that further multicase study researches should be encouraged since Nigeria is multi-cultural in order to develop a formal theory or extend theory to Antenatal Information Use. The study also recommended thatspouses should be encouraged to accompany their pregnant wives to the clinic as a social outing; and that mothers-in-law and local midwives be incorporated into antenatal programs so as to change the narratives for future generations