Collective Action in Digital Age: A Multilevel Approach

This theory paper proposes a multilevel model for analyzing collective actions for social change in the networked information age. The model includes four levels of agency (individual, group, organizational, and bot) and three levels of affordance (application, network infrastructure, and socio-political system) to help analyze social change dynamics which have become more decentralized. Mechanisms and outcomes of interactions between factors in the model should be considered to offer a more complete picture of social change facilitated by digital communication technologies. Empirical studies based on this model will help illuminate the evolution of communication structures as well as the affordances that evolution provides for social change. Moreover, speedy disintermediation in networked spaces and interactions between the levels in this process provides an opportunity for better understanding information generation and mediation in this rapidly changing media environment

Smart Product Design Methodology

The noticeable emergence of new technological advances, such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Internet of Things (IoT), and their continuous developments in today’s market, have paved the way for an apparent transformation from conventional products to smart connected products. Smart products are Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) that provide services to users through Internet and Communication capabilities. The use of smart products offers exceptional potential for the users to meet their expectations and needs intelligently and effectively. Hence, designers and manufacturers are encouraged to cope with constantly changing consumers’ requirements and help in satisfying their needs. It is necessary to achieve a high level of awareness when interacting with smart products, where in some cases, ambiguity and uncertainty may lead to an undesired outcome. Thus, the objective of this research thesis is to introduce a novel smart product design methodology that reveals a new design dimension that was found by conducting an extensive literature review. Smart product design methodology uses integration between existing Design Theory and Methodologies (DTM), both Systematic Design Approach (SDA) and Axiomatic Design Theory (ADT) which are integrated through the features and functions of smart products. The proposed design methodology concentrates on reducing the complexity of the product and raising its affordances for the users to perceive. This research includes a case study on smart speakers and voice-initiated virtual assistants specifically on Amazon’s Alexa, where the methodology proposed was applied. As a result, the complexity was reduced by achieving an uncoupled design, and affordances’ measures were discussed using the guidelines and recommendations concerning both visual and voice design perspectives for designers and developers of virtual assistants in order to maximize the affordances for the user to perceive with the least amount of ambiguity and doubtfulness

Online child sexual exploitation: a new MIS challenge

© 2021, Association for Information Systems. All rights reserved. This paper deals with the difficult yet increasingly important MIS phenomenon of online child sexual exploitation (online CSE). Through the use of secondary and publicly available data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, as well as primary data from a cybercrime police unit in the United Kingdom, this study takes a grounded theory approach and organizes the role that technologies and social actors play in shaping online CSE. The paper contributes to IS theory by providing a consolidated model for online CSE, which we call the technology and imagery dimensions model. This model combines the staging of the phenomenon and the key dimensions that depict how the use of technology and imagery both fuels and defuses the phenomenon. In informing the construction of the model, the paper extracts, organizes, and generalizes the affordances of technology and discusses the role of information systems in detecting online CSE

From Total Islam to the Islamic State: Radicalization Leading to Violence Dynamics as a Subject of Reciprocal Affordance Opportunities

This article aims to clarify the role of the Islamic State’s (a.k.a. ISIS) online activities on radicalization. To that effect, all empirical endeavors on the underpinning phenomenon in Vox-Pol’s library were systematically reviewed and assessed. This exhaustive review suggests that Radicalization Leading to Violence (RLV) offers a nuanced conceptualization of the complex, emergent, and non-linear and dynamic phenomenon. Findings of the included studies were recorded, visualized, and clustered, allowing the discussion of possible scenarios, and thus, the inference of a utilitarian model of RLV dynamics based on the conceptual map of the literature. On the basis of connectivity and affordance opportunities (online and offline [beyond the digital realm]), Total Islam (i.e., a totalizing identity marker rather than an indicator of religiosity) is posited to be a critical element of the inferred model. ISIS is argued to use both affordance opportunities in a way that capitalizes on the manifestations of Total Islam to mobilize those embracing this form identity across different RLV trajectories. To that end, the paper is concluded by discussing its implications, limitations, and recommendations for future research

Industry 4.0 Implementation: Novel Issues and Directions

Industry 4.0 (I4.0) is an emerging industrial paradigm yet to achieve its full potential. One research gap is understanding its unique implementation challenges. We highlight unattended issues in implementing I4.0 technologies by drawing on information systems implementation research. I4.0 is a weakly structured system, which requires users to discover then share affordances and later negotiate shared rules through joint regulation. This calls for different ways of implementing I4.0 when compared with earlier highly structured technologies such as MRP, which demanded user compliance. We develop a 2x2 framework of I4.0 implementation issues defined by (1) vertical or horizontal integration and (2) the capacity for the components of I4.0 systems to learn autonomously. We posit that these issues form a new frontier of implementation research in the next decade

The AI Family: The Information Security Managers Best Frenemy?

In this exploratory study, we deliberately pull apart the Artificial from the Intelligence, the material from the human. We first assessed the existing technological controls available to Information Security Managers (ISMs) to ensure their in-depth defense strategies. Based on the AI watch taxonomy, we then discuss each of the 15 technologies and their potential impact on the transformation of jobs in the field of security (i.e., AI trainers, AI explainers and AI sustainers). Additionally, in a pilot study we collect the evaluation and the narratives of the employees (n=6) of a small financial institution in a focus group session. We particularly focus on their perception of the role of AI systems in the future of cyber security

A Computational Framework for Analyzing Social Behavior in Online Connective Action: A COVID-19 Lockdown Protest Case Study

Online social networks (OSN’s) have shaped collective action into a new form of organizing and engagement known as connective action. Protests, demonstrations, and social movements have largely relied on social media as their primary organizational process for resource mobilization. These platforms also provide a method to coordinate and influence behavior. Most social science research on connective action has taken a qualitative approach. There are some quantitative studies, but most focus on statistical validation of the qualitative approach (e.g., survey’s) or focus on only one aspect of connective action. Computational analysis as a complement to existing survey methods offer in-depth insights about the role of identity and provide insights into the underlying behaviors we see as catalysts for these online movements. This paper presents an interdisciplinary computational approach to analyze connective action by exploring the key features of collective identity, network organization, and mobilization in connective action movements

Middleware for Work Support in Industrial Contexts (MiWSICx)

It is generally acknowledged that technological innovation is leading to an increase in the complexity of industrial work. Hence, work assistance has emerged as an important theme in the context of cyber-physical production systems and Industry 4.0 to assist workers in assembly, logistics, maintenance and supervision. Recent research in this domain has focused on demonstrating assistance applications using mobile computing devices such as tablets, smartphones, AR/VR glasses and wearables, but the aspects of technology induced complexity in industrial work distribution, concurrency, information complexity, and variability of information interaction, and their subsequent effect on human workers is yet to be tackled. This paper has two core contributions: first, it reframes the problem of complex industrial work through activity theory, which leads to a conceptual model that couples human information needs to interactive artefacts within an activity context. Second, the problem of assistance is viewed as managing information flow between multiple devices grouped into fluid and adaptive activity contexts, managed by MiWSICx, (Middleware for Work Support in Industrial Contexts) a novel, distributed middleware designed using the actor model of concurrent computation