User Participation in Consulting Projects: Client and Provider Role Variations

This study presents a variation scheme of participation roles in consulting projects. Typical consulting assignments in the area known as IS planning involve strategic planning and information systems management, enterprise architecture, information management or information technology governance. Participation is a crucial issue in consulting on these issues. In the literature on participation, different roles and tasks have been found, but it is not always specified, on what types of projects or systems the results are based. The literature on consulting suggests some models for work division. In a two-phase qualitative study, we first collect possible tasks in ICT consulting projects, and then, based on further explorations, create a model for role variations in consulting. We compare roles suggested in the literature on participation and on consulting to our findings. The suggested variation model gives a common framework of reference for negotiations between the provider and the client, and helps to anticipate the needed competences and resources from both parties, and discern between their responsibilities

EVALITA Evaluation of NLP and Speech Tools for Italian - December 17th, 2020

Welcome to EVALITA 2020! EVALITA is the evaluation campaign of Natural Language Processing and Speech Tools for Italian. EVALITA is an initiative of the Italian Association for Computational Linguistics (AILC, http://www.ai-lc.it) and it is endorsed by the Italian Association for Artificial Intelligence (AIxIA, http://www.aixia.it) and the Italian Association for Speech Sciences (AISV, http://www.aisv.it)

Designing to support impression management

This work investigates impression management and in particular impression management using ubiquitous technology. Generally impression management is the process through which people try to influence the impressions that others have about them. In particular, impression management focuses on the flow of information between a performer and his/her audience, with control over what is presented to whom being of the utmost importance when trying to create the appropriate impression. Ubiquitous technology has provided opportunities for individuals to present themselves to others. However, the disconnection between presenter and audience over both time and space can result in individuals being misrepresented. This thesis outlines two important areas when trying to control the impression one gives namely, hiding and revealing, and accountability. By exploring these two themes the continuous evolution and dynamic nature of controlling the impression one gives is explored. While this ongoing adaptation is recognised by designers they do not always create technology that is sufficiently dynamic to support this process. As a result, this work attempts to answer three research questions: RQ1: How do users of ubicomp systems appropriate recorded data from their everyday activity and make it into a resource for expressing themselves to others in ways that are dynamically tailored to their ongoing social context and audience? RQ2: What technology can be built to support ubicomp system developers to design and develop systems to support appropriation as a central part of a useful or enjoyable user experience? RQ3: What software architectures best suit this type of appropriated interaction and developers’ designing to support such interaction? Through a thorough review of existing literature, and the extensive study of several large ubicomp systems, the issues when presenting oneself through technology are identified. The main issues identified are hiding and revealing, and accountability. These are built into a framework that acts as a reference for designers wishing to support impression management. An architecture for supporting impression management has also been developed that conforms to this framework and its evolution is documented later in the thesis. A demonstration of this architecture in a multi-player mobile experience is subsequently presented

Facilitating computer supported cooperative work with socio-technical self-descriptions

How can the concept of self-description from newer systems theory be used for improving the co-evolvement of software engineering and organizational change in CSCW-projects? This thesis suggests transferring the concept of self-description into a concept of socio-technical self-description allowing an organization to describe its own computer supported work processes. The presentation of results is organized in four steps: First, a theoretical foundation is elaborated; second, an initial methodological is presented; third, empirical evidence from two explorative case studies is analyzed; fourth, a finalized methodological concept is derived

EVALITA Evaluation of NLP and Speech Tools for Italian - December 17th, 2020

Welcome to EVALITA 2020! EVALITA is the evaluation campaign of Natural Language Processing and Speech Tools for Italian. EVALITA is an initiative of the Italian Association for Computational Linguistics (AILC, http://www.ai-lc.it) and it is endorsed by the Italian Association for Artificial Intelligence (AIxIA, http://www.aixia.it) and the Italian Association for Speech Sciences (AISV, http://www.aisv.it)