23 research outputs found

    Mass Collaboration and Learning: Structure and Methods

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    The rapid emergence of social networks and collaborative communities supported by the Internet and associated innovative technologies, and the increasing demand for continuous improvement and fostering lifelong learning have led to unprecedented waves of novelty in the ways people create and share knowledge in different spheres. In this regard, mass collaboration (MC) through Internet-based solutions has opened new windows of opportunity to collaborate massively and learn collectively in ways that seemed impossible even a few decades ago. Learning ecosystems can benefit from mass collaboration where large numbers of minds collectively drive intellectual efforts to learn in the form of knowledge building and sharing. Mass collaborative learning (MCL) is a new paradigm that represents a significant shift away from the traditional teacher-centered approach towards a self-directed model in virtual communities in which contributing members take on creative roles to maximize their learning and that of their peers. Furthermore, MCL provides greater opportunities for distributed contributors to engage in virtual global learning and take the advantage of powerful social communities of experts and counterparts. Even though MCL opens up an apparently limitless field for promoting social inclusion in effective learning, not all aspects, features, and characteristics of this phenomenon are quite clear and discovered at present. In order to design, implement, and exploit such a learning approach, influencing constituents should be identified, and appropriate conditions need to be provided. However, existing literature offers limited information, guidance, and support for the creation, operation, coordination, and development of MCL initiatives. In this context, there are a number of identified critical issues, specific problems, gaps, and inconsistencies, and this thesis is correspondingly conducted to propose a Meta-Governance framework for MCL initiatives (MGF-MCL). This framework, by benefiting from various other related ideas, models, and methods, tries to give further insights into an integrated perspective of the most complex concerning issues and also some internal and external aspects of governance for the MCL initiatives. Furthermore, the MGF-MCL intends to provide some directions, guidance, and support for the implementation, operation, and development of MCL initiatives. In this thesis work, in order to (a) guide our research endeavor, (b) concretize our research design, (c) design, develop, validate, and apply the MGF-MCL, and (d) understand the practical value of our findings, we have followed the design science research process (DSRP) approach. We have evaluated the validity and applicability of the MGF-MCL through a mix of methods namely, case studies in EU projects, peer-review publications, and an MCL illustration case. A number of scenarios made within the case studies have brought together several industry and academic experts to evaluate the validity and applicability of MGF-MCL. The peer reviews of contributed publications also assessed the quality of the work and helped to establish the validity of MGF-MCL based upon the expert knowledge of other researchers. The MCL illustration case provided empirical evidence, relying on observation and experimentation. In terms of research, the findings of our work offer direction and support for the creation, operation, and implementation of MLC initiatives.A rápida emergência de redes sociais e comunidades colaborativas apoiadas pela Internet e tecnologias inovadoras associadas, e a crescente procura de melhorias contínuas e a promoção da aprendizagem ao longo da vida levaram a ondas de inovação sem precedentes na forma como as pessoas criam e partilham conhecimentos em diferentes esferas. A este respeito, a colaboração em massa (MC) através de soluções baseadas na Internet abriu novas janelas de oportunidade para colaborar massivamente e aprender colectivamente de formas que pareciam impossíveis mesmo há algumas décadas atrás. Os ecossistemas de aprendizagem podem beneficiar da colaboração em massa, onde grandes números de mentes impulsionam colectivamente os esforços intelectuais para aprender sob a forma de construção e partilha de conhecimento. A aprendizagem colaborativa em massa (MCL) é um novo paradigma que representa uma mudança significativa da abordagem tradicional centrada no professor para um modelo auto-dirigido em comunidades virtuais em que os membros contribuintes assumem papéis criativos para maximizar a sua aprendizagem e a dos seus pares. Além disso, a MCL oferece maiores oportunidades a contribuintes geograficamente distribuídos para se envolverem na aprendizagem global virtual e tirarem partido das ricas comunidades sociais de especialistas e homólogos. Embora a MCL abra um campo aparentemente ilimitado para promover a inclusão social na aprendizagem efectiva, nem todos os aspetos, facetas e características deste fenómeno são totalmente claros e conhecidos actualmente. A fim de conceber, implementar, e explorar uma tal abordagem de aprendizagem, devem ser identificados os constituintes relevantes, e devem ser criadas condições de suporte apropriadas. Contudo, a literatura existente apenas oferece de forma limitada informação, orientação e apoio para a criação, operação, coordenação e desenvolvimento de iniciativas MCL. Neste contexto, há uma série de questões críticas, problemas específicos, lacunas e inconsistências identificados, e esta tese é correspondentemente desenvolvida para propor um quadro de Meta-Governança para iniciativas MCL (MGF-MCL). Este quadro, ao beneficiar de várias outras ideias, modelos e métodos relacionados, tenta fornecer uma perspectiva integrada das questões mais complexas e também de alguns aspectos internos e externos de governação para as iniciativas MCL. Além disso, o MGF-MCL pretende fornecer alguma orientação e apoio para a implementação, operação e desenvolvimento das iniciativas MCL. Neste trabalho de tese, a fim de (a) orientar o nosso esforço de investigação, (b) concretizar o nosso projecto de investigação, (c) conceber, desenvolver, validar, e aplicar o MGF-MCL, e (d) compreender o valor prático dos resultados, seguimos a abordagem do "DESIGN SCIENCE RESEARCH PROCESS" (DSRP). Avaliámos a adequação e aplicabilidade do MGF-MCL através de uma combinação de métodos, nomeadamente, estudos de caso em projetos da UE, publicações com revisão por pares e, um caso de ilustração MCL. Vários cenários feitos no âmbito dos estudos de caso envolveram vários peritos da indústria e da academia para avaliar a validade e a aplicabilidade do MGF-MCL. As revisões por pares das publicações produzidas neste trabalho também permitiram aferir a qualidade do trabalho e ajudaram a estabelecer a validade do MGF-MCL com base no conhecimento especializado de outros investigadores. O caso da ilustração de MCL forneceu uma evidência empírica, apoiando-se na observação e experimentação. Em termos de investigação, os resultados do nosso trabalho oferecem orientação e apoio para a criação, operação e implementação de iniciativas MLC

    The e-Government Development Discourse

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    research agenda for e-Government. When e-Government was first conceived, it was designed upon basic technologies where the emphasis was only on the simple display of government information for citizens to read. Nowadays, e-Government design comprises many complicated modules such as upload and download consoles, two-way interaction consoles between citizens and government agents, integrated government business processes presenting the whole of government, and it does not depend solely on technology. The complexity of e-Government has now evolved to include political, cultural, economic, social and technical dimensions. Bringing all these difficult aspects together is so complicated that it needs carefully planned strategies informed by local contextual characteristics. Rather than giving formulaic definitions and conceptual standpoints on many aspects of e-Government, as is the case in many e-Government publications, this book will explore the frontiers of global knowledge value chains by discussing current and future dimensions of e-Government. For example, the book discusses the concept of data governance by exploring how actual opening up of government data can be achieved, especially in a developing world context. Further, the book posits that opening government data should be followed by the opening up of government business processes in order to peddle the concept of accountability and responsiveness. Much text on data governance has concentrated on articulating the basic definitions surrounding this concept. Another very important topic explored in this book is regarding how the concept of decolonisation can be extended to e-Government by providing practical examples as to how researchers in the developing world can contribute to the advancement of e-Government as a scientific field of enquiry and guide its implementation, thereof. Decolonisation is advocated for in e-Government research so that there is a balance in the inclusion of the Afrocentric knowledge into e-Government advancement other than over-reliance on the Euro-, Asia- and America-centric knowledge value chains (Mbembe 2015). As e-Government is a very expensive undertaking, the issue of funding has excluded African countries and a majority of the developing world from implementing e-Government. Despite funding being a critical cornerstone of e-Government development, there is a dearth of information on this topic. Therefore, this book provides a chapter which discusses traditional and innovative ways of funding e-Government design and implementation which can go a long way in improving e-Government penetration into the developing world. Further, the book explores how intelligent e-Government applications can be designed, especially in resource-constrained countries. A couple of emerging technology innovations such as fog computing and intelligent information technology are explored within the realm of e-Government design

    Model-Driven Automatic Question Generation for a Gamified Clinical Guideline Training System

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    Clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) are a cornerstone of modern medical practice since they summarize the vast medical literature and provide care recommendations based on the current best evidence. However, there are barriers to CPG utilization such as lack of awareness and lack of familiarity of the CPGs by clinicians due to ineffective CPG dissemination and implementation. This calls for research into effective and scalable CPG dissemination strategies that will improve CPG awareness and familiarity. We describe a model-driven approach to design and develop a gamified e-learning system for clinical guidelines where the training questions are generated automatically. We also present the prototype developed using this approach. We use models for different aspects of the system, an entity model for the clinical domain, a workflow model for the clinical processes and a game engine to generate and manage the training sessions. We employ gamification to increase user motivation and engagement in the training of guideline content. We conducted a limited formative evaluation of the prototype system and the users agreed that the system would be a useful addition to their training. Our proposed approach is flexible and adaptive as it allows for easy updates of the guidelines, integration with different device interfaces and representation of any guideline.acceptedVersio

    Hot Topic Discovery in Online Community using Topic Labels and Hot Features

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    With huge volumes of information on Internet, how to extract user-concerned hot topics quickly and effectively has become a fundamental task for information processing on Internet. Generally, hot topic detection includes two tasks, the first one is topic discovery and the other is its hotness evaluation. In this paper, we propose a hot topic detection method. For topic discovery, topics are identified by clustering based on extracted topic labels. For hotness evaluation, the proposed model has fully considered the internal and external dual features and combined them together. The experimental results over TianYa BBS demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed method: compared with topic discovery based on latent semantic indexing, the improved vector space model based on topic labels gets better results and the identified topics are more accurate. Moreover, the proposed hotness features could reflect the popularity of a topic, and hence have obtained better hot topic results finally

    A Hessenberg-type algorithm for computing PageRank Problems

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    PageRank is a widespread model for analysing the relative relevance of nodes within large graphs arising in several applications. In the current paper, we present a cost-effective Hessenberg-type method built upon the Hessenberg process for the solution of difficult PageRank problems. The new method is very competitive with other popular algorithms in this field, such as Arnoldi-type methods, especially when the damping factor is close to 1 and the dimension of the search subspace is large. The convergence and the complexity of the proposed algorithm are investigated. Numerical experiments are reported to show the efficiency of the new solver for practical PageRank computations

    Social, Private, and Trusted Wearable Technology under Cloud-Aided Intermittent Wireless Connectivity

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    There has been an unprecedented increase in the use of smart devices globally, together with novel forms of communication, computing, and control technologies that have paved the way for a new category of devices, known as high-end wearables. While massive deployments of these objects may improve the lives of people, unauthorized access to the said private equipment and its connectivity is potentially dangerous. Hence, communication enablers together with highly-secure human authentication mechanisms have to be designed.In addition, it is important to understand how human beings, as the primary users, interact with wearable devices on a day-to-day basis; usage should be comfortable, seamless, user-friendly, and mindful of urban dynamics. Usually the connectivity between wearables and the cloud is executed through the user’s more power independent gateway: this will usually be a smartphone, which may have potentially unreliable infrastructure connectivity. In response to these unique challenges, this thesis advocates for the adoption of direct, secure, proximity-based communication enablers enhanced with multi-factor authentication (hereafter refereed to MFA) that can integrate/interact with wearable technology. Their intelligent combination together with the connection establishment automation relying on the device/user social relations would allow to reliably grant or deny access in cases of both stable and intermittent connectivity to the trusted authority running in the cloud.The introduction will list the main communication paradigms, applications, conventional network architectures, and any relevant wearable-specific challenges. Next, the work examines the improved architecture and security enablers for clusterization between wearable gateways with a proximity-based communication as a baseline. Relying on this architecture, the author then elaborates on the social ties potentially overlaying the direct connectivity management in cases of both reliable and unreliable connection to the trusted cloud. The author discusses that social-aware cooperation and trust relations between users and/or the devices themselves are beneficial for the architecture under proposal. Next, the author introduces a protocol suite that enables temporary delegation of personal device use dependent on different connectivity conditions to the cloud.After these discussions, the wearable technology is analyzed as a biometric and behavior data provider for enabling MFA. The conventional approaches of the authentication factor combination strategies are compared with the ‘intelligent’ method proposed further. The assessment finds significant advantages to the developed solution over existing ones.On the practical side, the performance evaluation of existing cryptographic primitives, as part of the experimental work, shows the possibility of developing the experimental methods further on modern wearable devices.In summary, the set of enablers developed here for wearable technology connectivity is aimed at enriching people’s everyday lives in a secure and usable way, in cases when communication to the cloud is not consistently available

    Extensibility of Enterprise Modelling Languages

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    Die Arbeit adressiert insgesamt drei Forschungsschwerpunkte. Der erste Schwerpunkt setzt sich mit zu entwickelnden BPMN-Erweiterungen auseinander und stellt deren methodische Implikationen im Rahmen der bestehenden Sprachstandards dar. Dies umfasst zum einen ganz konkrete Spracherweiterungen wie z. B. BPMN4CP, eine BPMN-Erweiterung zur multi-perspektivischen Modellierung von klinischen Behandlungspfaden. Zum anderen betrifft dieser Teil auch modellierungsmethodische Konsequenzen, um parallel sowohl die zugrunde liegende Sprache (d. h. das BPMN-Metamodell) als auch die Methode zur Erweiterungsentwicklung zu verbessern und somit den festgestellten Unzulänglichkeiten zu begegnen. Der zweite Schwerpunkt adressiert die Untersuchung von sprachunabhängigen Fragen der Erweiterbarkeit, welche sich entweder während der Bearbeitung des ersten Teils ergeben haben oder aus dessen Ergebnissen induktiv geschlossen wurden. Der Forschungsschwerpunkt fokussiert dabei insbesondere eine Konsolidierung bestehender Terminologien, die Beschreibung generisch anwendbarer Erweiterungsmechanismen sowie die nutzerorientierte Analyse eines potentiellen Erweiterungsbedarfs. Dieser Teil bereitet somit die Entwicklung einer generischen Erweiterungsmethode grundlegend vor. Hierzu zählt auch die fundamentale Auseinandersetzung mit Unternehmensmodellierungssprachen generell, da nur eine ganzheitliche, widerspruchsfreie und integrierte Sprachdefinition Erweiterungen überhaupt ermöglichen und gelingen lassen kann. Dies betrifft beispielsweise die Spezifikation der intendierten Semantik einer Sprache

    Semantic metadata for supporting exploratory OLAP

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    Cotutela Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya i Aalborg UniversitetOn-Line Analytical Processing (OLAP) is an approach widely used for data analysis. OLAP is based on the multidimensional (MD) data model where factual data are related to their analytical perspectives called dimensions and together they form an n-dimensional data space referred to as data cube. MD data are typically stored in a data warehouse, which integrates data from in-house data sources, and then analyzed by means of OLAP operations, e.g., sales data can be (dis)aggregated along the location dimension. As OLAP proved to be quite intuitive, it became broadly accepted by non-technical and business users. However, as users still encountered difficulties in their analysis, different approaches focused on providing user assistance. These approaches collect situational metadata about users and their actions and provide suggestions and recommendations that can help users' analysis. However, although extensively exploited and evidently needed, little attention is paid to metadata in this context. Furthermore, new emerging tendencies call for expanding the use of OLAP to consider external data sources and heterogeneous settings. This leads to the Exploratory OLAP approach that especially argues for the use of Semantic Web (SW) technologies to facilitate the description and integration of external sources. With data becoming publicly available on the (Semantic) Web, the number and diversity of non-technical users are also significantly increasing. Thus, the metadata to support their analysis become even more relevant. This PhD thesis focuses on metadata for supporting Exploratory OLAP. The study explores the kinds of metadata artifacts used for the user assistance purposes and how they are exploited to provide assistance. Based on these findings, the study then aims at providing theoretical and practical means such as models, algorithms, and tools to address the gaps and challenges identified. First, based on a survey of existing user assistance approaches related to OLAP, the thesis proposes the analytical metadata (AM) framework. The framework includes the definition of the assistance process, the AM artifacts that are classified in a taxonomy, and the artifacts organization and related types of processing to support the user assistance. Second, the thesis proposes a semantic metamodel for AM. Hence, Resource Description Framework (RDF) is used to represent the AM artifacts in a flexible and re-usable manner, while the metamodeling abstraction level is used to overcome the heterogeneity of (meta)data models in the Exploratory OLAP context. Third, focusing on the schema as a fundamental metadata artifact for enabling OLAP, the thesis addresses some important challenges on constructing an MD schema on the SW using RDF. It provides the algorithms, method, and tool to construct an MD schema over statistical linked open data sets. Especially, the focus is on enabling that even non-technical users can perform this task. Lastly, the thesis deals with queries as the second most relevant artifact for user assistance. In the spirit of Exploratory OLAP, the thesis proposes an RDF-based model for OLAP queries created by instantiating the previously proposed metamodel. This model supports the sharing and reuse of queries across the SW and facilitates the metadata preparation for the assistance exploitation purposes. Finally, the results of this thesis provide metadata foundations for supporting Exploratory OLAP and advocate for greater attention to the modeling and use of semantics related to metadata.El processament analític en línia (OLAP) és una tècnica àmpliament utilitzada per a l'anàlisi de dades. OLAP es basa en el model multi-dimensional (MD) de dades, on dades factuals es relacionen amb les seves perspectives analítiques, anomenades dimensions, i conjuntament formen un espai de dades n-dimensional anomenat cub de dades. Les dades MD s'emmagatzemen típicament en un data warehouse (magatzem de dades), el qual integra dades de fonts internes, les quals posteriorment s'analitzen mitjançant operacions OLAP, per exemple, dades de vendes poden ser (des)agregades a partir de la dimensió ubicació. Un cop OLAP va ser provat com a intuïtiu, va ser ampliament acceptat tant per usuaris no tècnics com de negoci. Tanmateix, donat que els usuaris encara trobaven dificultats per a realitzar el seu anàlisi, diferents tècniques s'han enfocat en la seva assistència. Aquestes tècniques recullen metadades situacionals sobre els usuaris i les seves accions, i proporcionen suggerències i recomanacions per tal d'ajudar en aquest anàlisi. Tot i ésser extensivament emprades i necessàries, poca atenció s'ha prestat a les metadades en aquest context. A més a més, les noves tendències demanden l'expansió d'ús d'OLAP per tal de considerar fonts de dades externes en escenaris heterogenis. Això ens porta a la tècnica d'OLAP exploratori, la qual es basa en l'ús de tecnologies en la web semàntica (SW) per tal de facilitar la descripció i integració d'aquestes fonts externes. Amb les dades essent públicament disponibles a la web (semàntica), el nombre i diversitat d'usuaris no tècnics també incrementa signifícativament. Així doncs, les metadades per suportar el seu anàlisi esdevenen més rellevants. Aquesta tesi doctoral s'enfoca en l'ús de metadades per suportar OLAP exploratori. L'estudi explora els tipus d'artefactes de metadades utilitzats per l'assistència a l'usuari, i com aquests són explotats per proporcionar assistència. Basat en aquestes troballes, l'estudi preté proporcionar mitjans teòrics i pràctics, com models, algorismes i eines, per abordar els reptes identificats. Primerament, basant-se en un estudi de tècniques per assistència a l'usuari en OLAP, la tesi proposa el marc de treball de metadades analítiques (AM). Aquest marc inclou la definició del procés d'assistència, on els artefactes d'AM són classificats en una taxonomia, i l'organització dels artefactes i tipus relacionats de processament pel suport d'assistència a l'usuari. En segon lloc, la tesi proposa un meta-model semàntic per AM. Així doncs, s'utilitza el Resource Description Framework (RDF) per representar els artefactes d'AM d'una forma flexible i reusable, mentre que el nivell d'abstracció de metamodel s'utilitza per superar l'heterogeneïtat dels models de (meta)dades en un context d'OLAP exploratori. En tercer lloc, centrant-se en l'esquema com a artefacte fonamental de metadades per a OLAP, la tesi adreça reptes importants en la construcció d'un esquema MD en la SW usant RDF. Proporciona els algorismes, mètodes i eines per construir un esquema MD sobre conjunts de dades estadístics oberts i relacionats. Especialment, el focus rau en permetre que usuaris no tècnics puguin realitzar aquesta tasca. Finalment, la tesi tracta amb consultes com el segon artefacte més rellevant per l'assistència a usuari. En l'esperit d'OLAP exploratori, la tesi proposa un model basat en RDF per consultes OLAP instanciant el meta-model prèviament proposat. Aquest model suporta el compartiment i reutilització de consultes sobre la SW i facilita la preparació de metadades per l'explotació de l'assistència. Finalment, els resultats d'aquesta tesi proporcionen els fonaments en metadades per suportar l'OLAP exploratori i propugnen la major atenció al model i ús de semàntica relacionada a metadades.On-Line Analytical Processing (OLAP) er en bredt anvendt tilgang til dataanalyse. OLAP er baseret på den multidimensionelle (MD) datamodel, hvor faktuelle data relateres til analytiske synsvinkler, såkaldte dimensioner. Tilsammen danner de et n-dimensionelt rum af data kaldet en data cube. Multidimensionelle data er typisk lagret i et data warehouse, der integrerer data fra forskellige interne datakilder, og kan analyseres ved hjælp af OLAPoperationer. For eksempel kan salgsdata disaggregeres langs sted-dimensionen. OLAP har vist sig at være intuitiv at forstå og er blevet taget i brug af ikketekniske og orretningsorienterede brugere. Nye tilgange er siden blevet udviklet i forsøget på at afhjælpe de problemer, som denne slags brugere dog stadig står over for. Disse tilgange indsamler metadata om brugerne og deres handlinger og kommer efterfølgende med forslag og anbefalinger, der kan bidrage til brugernes analyse. På trods af at der er en klar nytteværdi i metadata (givet deres udbredelse), har stadig ikke været meget opmærksomhed på metadata i denne kotekst. Desuden lægger nye fremspirende teknikker nu op til en udvidelse af brugen af OLAP til også at bruge eksterne og uensartede datakilder. Dette har ført til Exploratory OLAP, en tilgang til OLAP, der benytter teknologier fra Semantic Web til at understøtte beskrivelse og integration af eksterne kilder. Efterhånden som mere data gøres offentligt tilgængeligt via Semantic Web, kommer flere og mere forskelligartede ikketekniske brugere også til. Derfor er metadata til understøttelsen af deres dataanalyser endnu mere relevant. Denne ph.d.-afhandling omhandler metadata, der understøtter Exploratory OLAP. Der foretages en undersøgelse af de former for metadata, der benyttes til at hjælpe brugere, og af, hvordan sådanne metadata kan udnyttes. Med grundlag i disse fund søges der løsninger til de identificerede problemer igennem teoretiske såvel som praktiske midler. Det vil sige modeller, algoritmer og værktøjer. På baggrund af en afdækning af eksisterende tilgange til brugerassistance i forbindelse med OLAP præsenteres først rammeværket Analytical Metadata (AM). Det inkluderer definition af assistanceprocessen, en taksonomi over tilhørende artefakter og endelig relaterede processeringsformer til brugerunderstøttelsen. Dernæst præsenteres en semantisk metamodel for AM. Der benyttes Resource Description Framework (RDF) til at repræsentere AM-artefakterne på en genbrugelig og fleksibel facon, mens metamodellens abstraktionsniveau har til formål at nedbringe uensartetheden af (meta)data i Exploratory OLAPs kontekst. Så fokuseres der på skemaet som en fundamental metadata-artefakt i OLAP, og afhandlingen tager fat i vigtige udfordringer i forbindelse med konstruktionen af multidimensionelle skemaer i Semantic Web ved brug af RDF. Der præsenteres algoritmer, metoder og redskaber til at konstruere disse skemaer sammenkoblede åbne statistiske datasæt. Der lægges særlig vægt på, at denne proces skal kunne udføres af ikke-tekniske brugere. Til slut tager afhandlingen fat i forespørgsler som anden vigtig artefakt inden for bruger-assistance. I samme ånd som Exploratory OLAP foreslås en RDF-baseret model for OLAP-forespørgsler, hvor førnævnte metamodel benyttes. Modellen understøtter deling og genbrug af forespørgsler over Semantic Web og fordrer klargørelsen af metadata med øje for assistance-relaterede formål. Endelig leder resultaterne af afhandlingen til fundamenterne for metadata i støttet Exploratory OLAP og opfordrer til en øget opmærksomhed på modelleringen og brugen af semantik i forhold til metadataPostprint (published version
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