Rapid institutional appraisal

A week-long intensive process of staff development and induction called Rapid Institutional Appraisal (RIA) was conducted in November 2000 in the Systems Discipline, Centre for Complexity and Change (CCC), at the Open University. We report the systemic roots and characteristics of the RIA as designed from traditions of soft systems methodology and rapid rural appraisal. Our experiences arising from our own use of RIA are described and the wider implications for organizational learning in a complex organization discussed. While acknowledging limitations with this RIA event, we argue that RIA offers a potential model for staff development for adaptive use in different contexts and on varying scales. The process builds on principles of "conversation" and "multiple perspectives" as the touchstone for establishing a purposeful community of practice

Digital Activism and the Political Cultures of Trade Unionism

The place of digital activism in relation to trade unionism is a crucial area of concern at a time when conditions of work, and the ability to protect workers’ rights, have been transformed by a congruence of technological developments, neoliberal ideology and rising corporate power. In this brief essay, we situate digital activism in the context of the political cultures of trade unionism, highlighting in particular three fundamental divisions that have marked their development: 1) reform vs. revolution; 2) internationalism vs. nationalism; and 3) the relationship with political parties and business. Whilst this has meant that there have been elements of conflict and factional alliances within the labour movement, the dominant form of trade unionism, certainly in Europe and North America, advanced a position based on a corporatist model rooted in hierarchical structures, centralized control and formal routes of negotiation, most notably through collective bargaining agreements, and often centred on a strong sense of national identity. Digital activism and the uprisings of recent years have pointed to the possibilities for wider, societal and more militant forms of resistance to emerge that have also been reflected in changes in the labour movement. Only by integrating digital activism as part of more horizontal worker-driven forms of organization and articulating an alternative vision of society (including the organization of technology) in alliance with other communities and social movements, can the labour movement start to rise to the challenges of the current crises facing the world system

Digital activism and the political culture of trade unionism

The place of digital activism in relation to trade unionism is a crucial area of concern at a time when conditions of work, and the ability to protect workers’ rights, have been transformed by a congruence of technological developments, neoliberal ideology and rising corporate power. In this brief essay, we situate digital activism in the context of the political cultures of trade unionism, highlighting in particular three fundamental divisions that have marked their development: 1) reform vs. revolution; 2) internationalism vs. nationalism; and 3) the relationship with political parties and business. Whilst this has meant that there have been elements of conflict and factional alliances within the labour movement, the dominant form of trade unionism, certainly in Europe and North America, advanced a position based on a corporatist model rooted in hierarchical structures, centralized control and formal routes of negotiation, most notably through collective bargaining agreements, and often centred on a strong sense of national identity. Digital activism and the uprisings of recent years have pointed to the possibilities for wider, societal and more militant forms of resistance to emerge that have also been reflected in changes in the labour movement. Only by integrating digital activism as part of more horizontal worker-driven forms of organization and articulating an alternative vision of society (including the organization of technology) in alliance with other communities and social movements, can the labour movement start to rise to the challenges of the current crises facing the world system

C-mulator. Design and development of an educational web application for teaching C language

In the Bachelor's Final Project named C-mulator: Design and development of an educational web application for teaching C language the analysis, design, development and evaluation process of an educational web application is described. C-mulator is a tool created with the aim of helping students understand concepts related to Systems Architecture subject. It is conceived as a Java application that simulates C les generating machine states which change with the code statements. Its main characteristic is the capability of showing the memory condition for each machine state. C-mulator also shows the C code and the output of the program. In order to facilitate the use, this Java application was embedded in a web application. This web application was designed in order to facilitate the use of the C-mulator tool. A Client-Server model with a three tiers architecture has been implemented for this project. After doing a thorough research about the possible technologies that could have been used in the application development, the selected ones were: Apache-Tomcat as the web server, JSON as the client-server communication language, AJAX as the client web technique and MySQL as database management system. As it has been said before, one of the major functionalities of C-mulator are the possibility of simulate C programs in a web based architecture. But C-mulator has other characteristics such as having several C les stored in a database that sorted them by chapter and the administrator capability of releasing chapters for speci c students' groups. C-mulator helps the understanding of medium-level abstract concepts that are related with C programming and the Systems Architecture subject.Ingeniería en Tecnologías de Telecomunicació