ENHANCING USERS’ EXPERIENCE WITH SMART MOBILE TECHNOLOGY

The aim of this thesis is to investigate mobile guides for use with smartphones. Mobile guides have been successfully used to provide information, personalisation and navigation for the user. The researcher also wanted to ascertain how and in what ways mobile guides can enhance users' experience. This research involved designing and developing web based applications to run on smartphones. Four studies were conducted, two of which involved testing of the particular application. The applications tested were a museum mobile guide application and a university mobile guide mapping application. Initial testing examined the prototype work for the ‘Chronology of His Majesty Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah’ application. The results were used to assess the potential of using similar mobile guides in Brunei Darussalam’s museums. The second study involved testing of the ‘Kent LiveMap’ application for use at the University of Kent. Students at the university tested this mapping application, which uses crowdsourcing of information to provide live data. The results were promising and indicate that users' experience was enhanced when using the application. Overall results from testing and using the two applications that were developed as part of this thesis show that mobile guides have the potential to be implemented in Brunei Darussalam’s museums and on campus at the University of Kent. However, modifications to both applications are required to fulfil their potential and take them beyond the prototype stage in order to be fully functioning and commercially viable

Who Gets the Job? Synthesis of Literature Findings on Provider Success in Crowdsourcing Marketplaces

Background: Over the past decade, crowdsourcing marketplaces — online exchange platforms which facilitate commercial outsourcing of services — have witnessed a dramatic growth in the number of participants (service providers and customers) and the value of outsourced services. Deciding about the most appropriate provider is a key challenge for customers in crowdsourcing marketplaces because available information about providers may be incomplete and sometimes irrelevant for customer decisions. Ineffective information impedes many service providers to develop long-term relationships with customers, obtain projects on a regular basis and survive on crowdsourcing marketplaces. Previous studies have investigated the impact of a range of factors on customers’ choice decisions and providers’ success, given the important role of customer–provider relationship development for long-term success on crowdsourcing marketplaces. Method: This paper reviews the literature of crowdsourcing marketplaces with the aim of developing a comprehensive list of factors that influence customers’ choice decisions and providers’ success. Results: We found 31 conceptually distinct profile information components/factors that determine customers’ choices and providers’ business outcomes on crowdsourcing marketplaces. Conclusion: We classified these 31 factors into five major categories: 1) prior relationship between a customer and a provider or a customer’s invitation, 2) providers’ bidding behavior, 3) crowdsourcing marketplace or auction characteristics, 4) providers’ profile information, and 5) customer characteristics. The main factors in each category, associated considerations, related literature gaps and avenues for future research are discussed in detail

Utilising sharing economy to address impact-centred approach in design education

To confront the growing uncertainties and challenges on a global scale through design, this paper recommends using the sharing culture as a starting point. It establishes a connection between the sharing economy and impact-centred design by examining the components and scope of the sharing economy in existing literature. Exploring how this framework can be integrated into design education, the paper offers a comprehensive account of a course on impact-centred design, grounded on sharing economy. Throughout four years, this framework was applied to explore design solutions for addressing themes related to crisis response, disaster management, and collaborative consumption. We provide methods and deliverables to illustrate how the sharing economy and design thinking collaborate to uncover systemslevel exchanges and interactions among stakeholders. Our discussions focus on the transformative influence of such design contexts on the role of the designer, the scale of the design's impact and the designer responsibility

Quality in Crowdsourcing - How software quality is ensured in software crowdsourcing

Crowdsourcing is a relatively new technique which aims to make a specific group of people contribute solutions to simple tasks or problems that are published online by some organization. For this they get some reward, which is usually economic in nature. This technique can be embraced by any kind of company, and since it is done online, it can turn out to be a bit problematic, especially when it comes to software development, because the whole process is out of the developing company’s hands. Some quality problems may arise during the process, such as a great amount of non-serious submissions and people presenting vague solutions because they are just trying to get the monetary reward. In order to make crowdsourcing successful these problems need to be solved, and companies which use this method for software development need to have some quality assurance for their products. This study tries to find out how companies using crowdsourcing deal with these problems and how they try to ensure some levels of quality in the final product. What we found is that companies embracing crowdsourcing use several methods in order to ensure a certain level of quality, such as rating, spam filters and reviews. There are many similarities in the underlying functions behind the methods each company uses such as motivating participants or finding the best solutions. These methods are applied at different stages throughout the crowdsourcing process. The exact relationships between the current use of these methods and the effect on software quality are not entirely apparent

Why collaborate? Factors Influencing in Crowdsourcing Ecosystems

Many organisations embrace crowdsourcing to enhance innovation, problem-solving and value creation. While crowdsourcing in the past has been limited to just one organisation, crowdsourcing can be enhanced through collaborative practices that include sharing resources and value exchange in a 'crowdsourcing ecosystem'. However, the factors that influence the emergence of a crowdsourcing ecosystem are not yet well understood. To better understand these factors, our paper focuses on the emergence phase of crowdsourcing ecosystems. We conducted a case study of not-for-profit sector collaborative crowdsourcing projects to identify the internal and external influencing factors. We identify four major categories – preparedness, challenges, scope, and risks, along with 23 sub-categories. We believe our findings might be helpful for scholars and practitioners regarding the effective design of collaborative initiatives for crowdsourcing

Дані краудсорсингу для інновацій: Чи це має значення?

Purpose – to explore a crowdsourcing data-driven approach to construct crowdknowledge databases for innovation through supporting creative idea generation. In the approach, social media will be used as platforms to crowdsource knowledge for producing the databases. Findings. Creativity is an essential element of innovation, but producing creative ideas is often challenging in design. Many computational tools have become available recently to support designers in producing creative ideas that are new to individuals. As a standard feature, most of the tools rely on the databases employed, such as ConceptNet and the US Patent Database. This study highlighted that the limitations of these databases have constrained the capabilities of the tools and, thereby, new computational databases supporting the generation of new ideas to a crowd or even history are needed. Crowdsourcing outsources tasks conventionally performed in-house to a crowd and uses external knowledge to solve problems and democratize innovation. Social media is often employed in crowdsourcing for a crowd to create and share knowledge. Originality/value/scientific novelty of the research. This paper proposes a novel approach employing social media to crowdsource knowledge from a crowd for constructing crowd knowledge databases. Practical importance of the research. The crowd knowledge database is expected to be used by the current computational tools to support designers producing highly creative ideas that are new to the crowd, in new product design, and ultimately to innovation. Research limitations/Future research. In this study to provide insights and potential directions for future research are discussed that challenges of employing described approach.   Paper type – theoretical.Цель работы – изучить краудсорсинговый подход, основанный на данных для создания крауд-баз данных для инноваций посредством поддержки генерации творческих идей. В этом подходе социальные медиа будут использоваться как платформы для краудсорсинга знаний для создания баз данных. Результаты исследования. Креативность - важный элемент новаторства, но создание креативных идей часто является сложной задачей в проектировании. Отмечено, что в последнее время стало доступно множество вычислительных инструментов для поддержки проектантов в разработке новых творческих идей для отдельных заказчиков. В качестве стандартной функции большинства инструментов проектанты используют базы данных, такие как ConceptNet и Патентная база данных США. В исследовании показано, что ограничения этих баз данных урезают возможности инструментов и, следовательно, необходимы новые вычислительные базы данных, поддерживающие генерацию новых идей для краудсорсинга или даже для истории процессов. При краудсорсинге на аутсорсинг передаются задачи, обычно выполняемые собственными силами, с целью использовать крауд-знания в решении проблем и демократизации инноваций. Отмечено, что социальные сети часто используют в краудсорсинге для накопления и внешнего обмена знаниями. Оригинальность/Ценность/Научная новизна исследования. Предложен новый подход использования социальных сетей при краудсорсинге для создания крауд-баз данных. Практическое значение исследования. Ожидается, что база данных коллективных знаний будет использоваться текущими вычислительными инструментами для поддержки проектантов, создающих очень креативные идеи, которые являются новыми в краудсорсинге, в проектировании новых продуктов и, в конечном итоге, в инновациях. Ограничения исследований /Перспективы будущих исследований. В этом исследовании обсуждаются проблемы использования описанного подхода для предоставления понимания и потенциальных направлений для будущих исследований. Тип статьи – теоретический.Мета роботи – вивчити краудсорсинговий підхід, заснований на даних для створення баз даних краудсорсингу для інновацій за допомогою підтримки генерації творчих ідей. У цьому підході соціальні медіа будуть використовуватися як платформи для краудсорсингу знань для створення баз даних. Результати дослідження. Творчість – важливий елемент інновацій, проте створення креативних ідей часто складне завдання у проектуванні. Наголошено, що нещодавно багато обчислювальних інструментів стали доступними для підтримки дизайнерів у виробленні нових творчих ідей для окремих замовників. Зазвичай більшість дизайнерських інструментів покладаються на використовувані бази даних, такі як ConceptNet та База даних патентів США. У цьому дослідженні підкреслено, що обмеження цих баз даних зменшують можливості інструментів, а отже, необхідні нові обчислювальні бази даних, що підтримують генерування нових ідей для краудсорсингу або навіть історії процесів. Під час краудсорсингу передають на аутсорсинг завдання, які зазвичай виконують власноруч, з метою використати зовнішні знання для вирішення проблем та демократизації інновацій. Наголошено, що соціальні медіа застосовують у краудсорсингу для накопичення та зовнішнього обміну знаннями. Оригінальність/Цінність/Наукова новизна дослідження. Запропоновано новий підхід із використання соціальних медіа задля накопичення крауд-баз даних для інновацій. Практичне значення дослідження. Очікується, що крауд-база даних знань може застосовуватися сучасними обчислювальними інструментами для підтримки дизайнерів, що виробляють висококреативні ідеї, які є новими для краудсорсингу, під час розробці нових продуктів і, зрештою, для інновацій. Обмеження досліджень/Перспективи подальших досліджень. У цьому дослідженні обговорено проблеми застосування описаного підходу задля надання розуміння та потенційних напрямків для подальших досліджень. Тип статті – теоретичний

THINGS FROM THE FUTURE How can we crowdsource innovation foresight with games?

In the current world uncertainty is more dominant than it used to be. One of the key forces for constant change is innovation. Innovations can be radical and create surprising effects. Can there be ways of anticipating these unforeseen effects of innovation? Or can the course of future innovations be managed somehow? Innovation foresight processes are required to communicate between different stakeholders on an extensive scale to be able to build comprehensive and understandable future options. Knowledge on future and innovation is no more the exclusive right of experts. This study tries to find new ways of engaging people with the innovation foresight work as well as get new audiences to participate in it. Games and crowdsourcing are two possible solutions to this. Theories covering innovation, foreisght and crowdsourcing are plentiful but scattered, and do not form a coherent framework for innovation foresight. Study is approaching the research topic from two perspectives: what kind of innovation foresight knowledge can we create with games, and what innovation foresight activities can we crowdsource with games? For these targets study has used two different methods, an innovation game case study experiment and a questionnaire targeted to Finnish innovation experts. Game case study consisted of a foresight analysis of 310 ”future thing” ideas generated with an innovation card game. The results revealed that games can enhance the creativity of the players and generate many unexpected uses of future technologies and services. Ideas were also rich with future hopes and fears and they had multidimensional content including different PESTE-variables. Questionnaire was targeted to map views related to the usability of games in different phases of the innovation foresight process. According to responses gaming can be used to observe weak signals, to form wild cards, perceive hopes and fears, and to develop new visions for the future. But games are not seen as suitable for decision-making nor forecasting future trends. Crowdsourcing can enhance the ”crowd wisdom” of the foresight process. Crowd wisdom means that groups are often smarter than the smartest people in them. This phenomenon is based on the thought that “no one knows everything, but everyone knows something”. The challenge in crowdsourcing is to motivate people to participate and engage. Games can be a powerful solution to innovation foresight motivation challenge, and they may also generate different solutions than other methods. But games cannot replace the foresight process. To subject foresight to games and gamification would take too many resources, be expensive, difficult to manage, and results would be risky. Crowdsourcing innovation foresight can often be carried out more effectively when using existing social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter etc. instead of games. In any case, crowd wisdom is too valuable resource not to be exploited in foresight.siirretty Doriast

Digital health – a new medical cosmology? The case of 23andMe online genetic testing platform

This article argues that commercial digital health platforms and devices commodify participatory features of the digital creating a new medical cosmology. Drawing on sociology on medical cosmologies, research on digital media and marketing and an analysis of the 23andMe online genetic testing platform, I identify three features of this cosmology. First, digital health seeks to foment ‘flow’ or enjoyable, continuous immersion in health. Second, digital health configures its consumers as ‘co-creators’ of health data and knowledge together with companies and other consumers. Third, digital health frames medical knowledge as tentative, up for revision and scepticism by expert and lay science. The way in which digital health configures consumers as immersed, creative and sceptical gives it an open-ended and participatory air. However, the conceptual discussion and the analysis of the 23andMe platform highlight that these features represent commercial capture of the lifeworld, even if they appear radical against classical medical cosmologies