A dialectic view on Open Innovation

The paradigm of Open-Innovation allows software companies new forms of interactive innovation and its diffusion across socio-cultural boundaries. This process constitutes and is constituted by a heterogeneous network of interacting actors. In this interaction, seeds for innovation will be created and have to be adopted by the participants of the respective network. This paper studies the concept of Open Innovation from a dialectic perspective on innovation seeds, which regards diffusion and adoption as intertwined. Traditionally, innovation research mainly focuses on transferring processes, but in order to reflect on the interactive character of Open Innovation across socio-cultural boundaries, one has to enlarge this perspective. In this paper we have developed a theoretic model which integrates also the aspect of translation and transformation. Based on this theoretical understanding we have figured out competences to adopt innovation seeds that have been developed in a crosscultural setting. At the end of the paper we show how this model can be used to study empirically the behavior of a software company adopting externally created seeds

Specification of GUI Interactions as Videos

Graphische Benutzeroberflächen bilden die Schnittstelle zwischen Benutzern und Softwaresystemen. Zu Beginn des Entwicklungsprozesses werden Skizzen der Benutzeroberfläche, sogenannte Mockups, erstellt. Sie dienen dem Zweck, die Wünsche und Bedürfnisse der Benutzer durch eine konkrete Veranschaulichung abzubilden und zu validieren. Auf diese Weise sollen die Nutzer bzw. Kunden bereits frühzeitig eine gute Vorstellung der geplanten Software erhalten, ohne dass die Entwickler dafür Quellcode schreiben müssen. In diesem Zusammenhang ist es sinnvoll, nicht nur das Aussehen der Benutzeroberfläche, sondern auch die Benutzung im Sinne eines Usage-Centered Designs zu spezifizieren. Eine herkömmliche Methode für die Dokumentation von Interaktionsabläufen (Szenarien) ist die Beschreibung des Ablaufs in Textform mit der Veranschaulichung der Benutzeroberfläche durch Mockups. Für die Dokumentation der Szenarien bietet sich zudem das Medium Video an, welches komplexe und interaktive Abläufe auf eine verständliche und nachvollziehbare Weise präsentieren kann. In dieser Arbeit wird ein Softwareprototyp entwickelt, der es Requirements Engineers ermöglicht, gemeinsam mit den Endnutzern Mockups zu erstellen und mit diesen Interaktionsabläufe aufzunehmen, abzuspielen und im Verlauf des Entwicklungsprozesses mit geringem Aufwand zu bearbeiten. Die erstellten Szenarien sollen als Video dokumentiert und somit für die Anforderungsspezifikation der Software genutzt werden können. Das Ziel ist, die Erhebung, Dokumentation und Validierung von Anforderungen zu unterstützen und die Kommunikation zwischen Kunden, Requirements Engineers und Entwicklern zu verbessern. Die Dokumentation als Video soll es den Entwicklern ermöglichen, auch ohne direkten Kundenkontakt deren Ziele und Vorstellungen genau zu verstehen, damit sie in der Lage sind, eine Software zu implementieren, die den Wünschen und Bedürfnissen der Kunden entspricht. Zusätzlich soll in dieser Arbeit mit einer Evaluation die Frage geklärt werden, ob Videos besser als Mockups zur Unterstützung der Beschreibung von Interaktionsabläufen in Textform geeignet sind.Graphical user interfaces provide the basis for interactions between users and software systems. At the beginning of the development process sketches of user interfaces (mockups) are created to describe and validate the goals and perceptions of end-users. In this way it is possible to present a vision of the planned software at an early stage of development without writing a single line of sourcecode. Not only the look of graphical user interfaces but also what the user experiences while using the software should be captured and validated following the usage-centered design approach. In particular the flow of user interactions (scenarios) can provide a better understanding of the software requirements for developers. A common form to document scenarios utilizes text and mockups to describe the flow of interactions. Videos can be a more appropriate way to document complex and interactive scenarios in an understandable manner. The goal of this work is to develop a software prototype, that supports requirements engineers in creating mockups and capturing scenarios in close cooperation with end-users. Captured scenarios can be exported as videos to enhance the software requirements specification. The software prototype aims to support the elicitation, documentation and validation phases of the requirements engineering process and to improve the communication between stakeholders, requirements engineers and developers by using videos to document scenarios. Easily understandable video scenarios enable developers to implement software exactly like the user wants it even without direct exchange. An evaluation tries to clarify the question if videos support the description of scenarios even better than mockups in addition to text

Designing Hybrid Interactions through an Understanding of the Affordances of Physical and Digital Technologies

Two recent technological advances have extended the diversity of domains and social contexts of Human-Computer Interaction: the embedding of computing capabilities into physical hand-held objects, and the emergence of large interactive surfaces, such as tabletops and wall boards. Both interactive surfaces and small computational devices usually allow for direct and space-multiplex input, i.e., for the spatial coincidence of physical action and digital output, in multiple points simultaneously. Such a powerful combination opens novel opportunities for the design of what are considered as hybrid interactions in this work. This thesis explores the affordances of physical interaction as resources for interface design of such hybrid interactions. The hybrid systems that are elaborated in this work are envisioned to support specific social and physical contexts, such as collaborative cooking in a domestic kitchen, or collaborative creativity in a design process. In particular, different aspects of physicality characteristic of those specific domains are explored, with the aim of promoting skill transfer across domains. irst, different approaches to the design of space-multiplex, function-specific interfaces are considered and investigated. Such design approaches build on related work on Graspable User Interfaces and extend the design space to direct touch interfaces such as touch-sensitive surfaces, in different sizes and orientations (i.e., tablets, interactive tabletops, and walls). These approaches are instantiated in the design of several experience prototypes: These are evaluated in different settings to assess the contextual implications of integrating aspects of physicality in the design of the interface. Such implications are observed both at the pragmatic level of interaction (i.e., patterns of users' behaviors on first contact with the interface), as well as on user' subjective response. The results indicate that the context of interaction affects the perception of the affordances of the system, and that some qualities of physicality such as the 3D space of manipulation and relative haptic feedback can affect the feeling of engagement and control. Building on these findings, two controlled studies are conducted to observe more systematically the implications of integrating some of the qualities of physical interaction into the design of hybrid ones. The results indicate that, despite the fact that several aspects of physical interaction are mimicked in the interface, the interaction with digital media is quite different and seems to reveal existing mental models and expectations resulting from previous experience with the WIMP paradigm on the desktop PC

The Impact of Domain Knowledge on the Effectiveness of Requirements Engineering Activities

One of the factors that seems to influence an individual’s effectiveness in requirements engineering activities is his or her knowledge of the problem being solved, i.e., domain knowledge. While in-depth domain knowledge enables a requirements engineer to understand the problem easier, he or she can fall for tacit assumptions of the domain and might overlook issues that are obvious to domain experts and thus remain unmentioned. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the impact of domain knowledge on different requirements engineering activities. The main research question this thesis attempts to answer is “How does one form the most effective team, consisting of some mix of domain ignorants and domain awares, for a requirements engineering activity involving knowledge about the domain of the computer-based system whose requirements are being determined by the team?” This thesis presents two controlled experiments and an industrial case study to test a number of hypotheses. The main hypothesis states that a requirements engineering team for a computer-based system in a particular domain, consisting of a mix of requirements analysts that are ignorant of the domain and requirements analysts that are aware of the domain, is more effective at requirement idea generation than a team consisting of only requirements analysts that are aware of the domain. The results of the controlled experiments, although not conclusive, provided some support for the positive effect of the mix on effectiveness of a requirements engineering team. The results also showed a significant effect of other independent variables, especially educational background. The data of the case study corroborated the results of the controlled experiments. The main conclusion that can be drawn from the findings of this thesis is that the presence in a requirements engineering team of a domain ignorant with a computer science or software engineering background improves the effectiveness of the team

Student Use of a Learning Management System for Group Projects: A Case Study Investigating Interaction, Collaboration, and Knowledge Construction.

Web-based Learning Management Systems (LMS) allow instructors and students to share instructional materials, make class announcements, submit and return course assignments, and communicate with each other online. Previous LMS-related research has focused on how these systems deliver and manage instructional content with little concern for how students' constructivist learning can be encouraged and facilitated. This study investigated how students use LMS to interact, collaborate, and construct knowledge within the context of a group project but without mediation by the instructor. The setting for this case study was students' use in one upper-level biology course of the local LMS within the context of a course-related group project, a mock National Institutes of Health grant proposal. Twenty-one groups (82 students) voluntarily elected to use the LMS, representing two-thirds of all students in the course. Students' peer-to-peer messages within the LMS, event logs, online surveys, focus group interviews, and instructor interviews were used in order to answer the study's overarching research question. The results indicate that students successfully used the LMS to interact and, to a significant extent, collaborate, but there was very little evidence of knowledge construction using the LMS technology. It is possible that the ease and availability of face-to-face meetings as well as problems and limitations with the technology were factors that influenced whether students' online basic interaction could be further distinguished as collaboration or knowledge construction. Despite these limitations, students found several tools and functions of the LMS useful for their online peer interaction and completion of their course project. Additionally, LMS designers and implementers are urged to consider previous literature on computer-supported collaborative learning environments in order to better facilitate independent group projects within these systems. Further research is needed to identify the best types of scaffolds and overall technological improvements in order to provide support for online collaboration and knowledge construction.Ph.D.EducationUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/64743/1/slonn_1.pd

Broadening the Scope of Security Usability from the Individual to the Organizational : Participation and Interaction for Effective, Efficient, and Agile Authorization

Restrictions and permissions in information systems -- Authorization -- can cause problems for those interacting with the systems. Often, the problems materialize as an interference with the primary tasks, for example, when restrictions prevent the efficient completing of work and cause frustration. Conversely, the effectiveness can also be impacted when staff is forced to circumvent the measure to complete work -- typically sharing passwords among each other. This is the perspective of functional staff and the organization. There are further perspectives involved in the administration and development of the authorization measure. For instance, functional staff need to interact with policy makers who decide on the granting of additional permissions, and policy makers, in turn, interact with policy authors who actually implement changes. This thesis analyzes the diverse contexts in which authorization occurs, and systematically examines the problems that surround the different perspectives on authorization in organizational settings. Based on prior research and original research in secure agile development, eight principles to address the authorization problems are identified and explored through practical artifacts

HIVE-MIND SPACE: A META-DESIGN APPROACH FOR CULTIVATING AND SUPPORTING COLLABORATIVE DESIGN.

The ever-growing complexity of design projects requires more knowledge than any individual can have and, therefore, needs the active engagement of all stakeholders in the design process. Collaborative design exploits synergies from multidisciplinary communities, encourages divergent thinking, and enhances social creativity. The research documented in this thesis supports and deepens the understanding of collaborative design in two dimensions: (1) It developed and evaluated socio-technical systems to support collaborative design projects; and (2) It defined and explored a meta- design framework focused on how these systems enable users, as active contributors, to modify and further develop them. The research is grounded in and simultaneously extends the following major dimensions of meta-design: (1) It exploits the contributions of social media and web 2.0 as innovative information technologies; (2) It facilitates the shift from consumer cultures to cultures of participation; (3) It fosters social creativity by harnessing contributions that occur in cultures of participation; (4) It empowers end-users to be active designers involved in creating situated solutions. In a world where change is the norm, meta-design is a necessity rather than a luxury because it is impossible to design software systems at design time for problems that occur only at use time. The co-evolution of systems and users\u2bc social practices pursued in this thesis requires a software environment that can evolve and be tailored continuously. End-user development explores tools and methods to support end users who tailor software artifacts. However, it addresses this objective primarily from a technical perspective and focuses mainly on tailorability. This thesis, centered on meta-design, extends end-user development by creating social conditions and design processes for broad participation in design activities both at design time and at use time. It builds on previous research into meta- design that has provided a strategic overview of design opportunities and principles. And it addresses some shortcomings of meta-design, such as the lack of guidelines for building concrete meta-design environments that can be assessed by empirical evaluation. Given the goal of this research, to explore meta-design approaches for cultivating and supporting collaborative design, the overarching research question guiding this work is: How do we provide a socio-technical environment to bring multidisciplinary design communities together to foster creativity, collaboration, and design evolution? 8 To answer this question, my research was carried out through four different phases: (1) synthesizing concepts, models, and theories; (2) framing conceptual models; (3) developing several systems in specific application areas; and (4) conducting empirical evaluation studies. The main contributions of this research are: \uf0a7 The Hive-Mind Space model, a meta-design framework derived from the \u201csoftware shaping workshop\u201d methodology and that integrates the \u201cseeding, evolutionary growth, reseeding\u201d model. The bottom-up approach inherent in this framework breaks down static social structures so as to support richer ecologies of participation. It provides the means for structuring communication and appropriation. The model\u2bcs open mediation mechanism tackles unanticipated communication gaps among different design communities. \uf0a7 MikiWiki, a structured programmable wiki I developed to demonstrate how the hive-mind space model can be implemented as a practical platform that benefits users and how its features and values can be specified so as to be empirically observable and assessable; \uf0a7 Empirical insights, such as those based on applying MikiWiki to different collaborative design studies, provide evidence that different phases of meta-design represent different modes rather than discrete levels

Collaborative Help for Individualized Problems: Learning from the MythTV User Community and Diabetes Patient Support Groups.

As information technology increasingly becomes part of everyday life, new opportunities arise for aggregating people’s experiences and knowledge. Collaborative help can utilize collective experience and knowledge to benefit everyday problem solving activities. However, current help systems often limit their focus to common and active problems (e.g., Frequently Asked Questions), making it difficult for users to find answers to the problems that are uncommon and individualized. In my dissertation, I address how individualized problems can be better supported through collaborative help. My dissertation contributes to existing conversations around collaborative help, especially challenges in information reuse and contextualization. I further expand discussions around the role of temporal information during expertise sharing for finding solutions to individualized problems. In order to study this, I examined two research sites using an interpretivist approach (Strauss & Corbin, 1990): the MythTV user community and diabetes patient support groups. Because problems are often individualized for members of both communities, these sites serve as excellent places to examine the research problem. I discuss three key findings that are critical for understanding how individualized problems are solved in community-based collaborative help systems. First, operationalizing experiences is critical for sharing executable solutions and context. Operationalized experiences are not only about the objectification and easy transfer of tacit knowledge (Ambrosini & Bowman, 2002), but generate knowledge that can be directly re-used. Second, operationalization process inevitably fails to capture practices “simultaneously embedded in various processes” (Ackerman & Halverson, 2000) during maintenance activities, be it maintaining MythTV or diabetes. However, the breakdown of operationalization process helps each community member learn how to manage individualized situations as they occur. Lastly, operationalization process needs to take place within the larger context of sharing trajectories. By comparing, aligning, and collaging pieces of individual trajectories, community members collectively expand their knowledge about managing MythTV or diabetes over time. Through continual sharing of maintenance trajectories, members reduce uncertainty about the future, take preventative actions, and reflect on the past to revise their practices.Ph.D.InformationUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/89774/1/jinah_1.pd