Designing Incentives Enabled Decentralized User Data Sharing Framework

Data sharing practices are much needed to strike a balance between user privacy, user experience, and profit. Different parties collect user data, for example, companies offering apps, social networking sites, and others, whose primary motive is an enhanced business model while giving optimal services to the end-users. However, the collection of user data is associated with serious privacy and security issues. The sharing platform also needs an effective incentive mechanism to realize transparent access to the user data while distributing fair incentives. The emerging literature on the topic includes decentralized data sharing approaches. However, there has been no universal method to track who shared what, to whom, when, for what purpose and under what condition in a verifiable manner until recently, when the distributed ledger technologies emerged to become the most effective means for designing a decentralized peer-to-peer network. This Ph.D. research includes an engineering approach for specifying the operations for designing incentives and user-controlled data-sharing platforms. The thesis presents a series of empirical studies and proposes novel blockchains- and smart contracts-based DUDS (Decentralized User Data Sharing) framework conceptualizing user-controlled data sharing practices. The DUDS framework supports immutability, authenticity, enhanced security, trusted records and is a promising means to share user data in various domains, including among researchers, customer data in e-commerce, tourism applications, etc. The DUDS framework is evaluated via performance analyses and user studies. The extended Technology Acceptance Model and a Trust-Privacy-Security Model are used to evaluate the usability of the DUDS framework. The evaluation allows uncovering the role of different factors affecting user intention to adopt data-sharing platforms. The results of the evaluation point to guidelines and methods for embedding privacy, user transparency, control, and incentives from the start in the design of a data-sharing framework to provide a platform that users can trust to protect their data while allowing them to control it and share it in the ways they want

The Use of Online Social Networking for Higher Education from An Activity Theory Perspective

Social technologies including blogs, wikis, social bookmarking sites, photo sharing, video sharing and social networking sites (SNS) have been widely used to facilitate online social networking (OSN). We define OSN as a range of activities enabled by online social technologies and operationalised by a group of people. OSN is widely popular for non-educational purposes among students. However, OSN also has the potential to be appropriated and repurposed to support teaching and learning delivery in a formal learning environment. Despite the availability of implementation cases and trials, detailed studies on why and how lecturers and students appropriate and repurpose social technologies for OSN in education are still lacking. In addition, these understandings are seldom guided by any theoretical frameworks. This paper suggests the use of Activity Theory as the theoretical lens in investigating the use of OSN in higher education. A conceptual model of how social technologies can be appropriated and repurposed guided by the theoretical understandings is proposed and discussed

Poszukiwanie informacji w procesie post-edycji i tłumaczenia

Wydział AnglistykiRozprawa miała na celu zbadanie, jak osoby studiujące tłumaczenie i filologię angielską korzystają z tłumaczenia maszynowego i źródeł internetowych podczas tłumaczenia oraz post-edycji dwóch typów tekstu. Rozdział 1 wprowadza pojęcia tłumaczenia maszynowego, post-edycji i stosunku tłumaczy do nich. Rozdział 2 dotyczy poszukiwania informacji oraz modeli kompetencji tłumaczy. Rozdział 3 przedstawia wysiłek w procesie tłumaczenia i post-edycji, skupiając się na metodologii w okulografii i badaniach wykorzystujących keylogging. Rozdział 4 opisuje eksperymentalne badanie efektów oraz korelacji między aspektami nauczania tłumaczenia oraz poszukiwania informacji w tłumaczeniu i post-edycji. Zbadano siedem hipotez dotyczących efektu typu tekstu oraz grupy na wskaźniki wysiłku, zakres wykorzystanych źródeł oraz poprawność tłumaczenia. Analizy korelacyjne dotyczyły poprawności i procentu sprawdzonych wybranych słów/fraz, jak również procentowo oszacowanego czasu w źródłach i stosunku do tłumaczenia maszynowego oraz postrzeganego wysiłku, który to również skorelowano z zakresem źródeł. Niektóre z hipotez częściowo potwierdzono, ale relacje między wysiłkiem, poprawnością i stosunkiem do tłumaczenia maszynowego w poszukiwaniu informacji w tłumaczeniu i post-edycji są bardzo złożone. Opisane zależności mogą być szczególnie przydatne w nauczaniu tłumaczenia i badaniach nad procesem przekładu.This dissertation investigated translation trainees and EFL students interacting with machine translation and online resources (OR) in translation and post-editing tasks for two text types. Chapter 1 introduces the concepts of machine translation, post-editing, and translators’ attitudes towards them. Chapter 2 details information behaviour and translator competence models. Chapter 3 presents effort in both translation and post-editing process, with the focus on methodology in eye-tracking and keylogging studies. Chapter 4 is a detailed report on the experimental study on the effects and correlations between aspects of translation training and information behaviour in translation and post-editing. The experimental study tested seven hypotheses about effects of task type and group membership on effort indicators, range of consulted OR, and translation accuracy. Correlational analyses were also made between accuracy and percentage of researched rich points, as well as percentage of time spent in OR with attitude and perceived effort which was also correlated with the range of consulted OR. Some of the hypotheses were partially confirmed, but the relationship between effort, accuracy, and attitude in information searching during translation and post-editing is intensely nuanced. The findings may be particularly valuable for translation trainers and translation process researchers

A multi-method inquiry on online communities

This dissertation studies the behavioral characteristics of participants engaged in information exchange in the context of online communities. Online communities are defined as collectives of individuals that use computer mediated communication to facilitate interaction over a shared purpose and/or objective. It is argued that this interaction creates externalities, for example, in the form of codified information that others can use through web search tools. These externalities assemble a virtual form of social capital, a commonly shared resource. The research objective of this thesis is to examine how the behavioral tendencies of the participants in online communities are affected by the way this common resource is formatted, administered and shared. The dissertation consists of two parts: a theoretical part where the empirical background and the object of research inquiry is highlighted, and an empirical part which consists of four empirical studies carried out in the context of three online communities, namely, Google Answers, Yahoo!Answers and Amazon Online Reviews. The empirical part of this dissertation starts with a controlled experiment emulating a well known social dilemma: the public goods game. It provides substance as to whether and when participants in online communities behave (un) cooperatively. The next two studies focus on a special case of online communities where participants ask questions and other participants post answers conditionally on social and monetary incentives. The results of these two studies confirm that community participants do care about the contributions of others and engage in incentive compatible behavior. Yahoo!Answers participants exercise effort in the community by posting answers to questions conditionally on benefits provided by other participants. The empirical findings show that contributing participants in an online community receive answers faster, while those that do not contribute much effort are sanctioned in the form of longer response-time to their questions. In Google Answers this thesis, interactions can be observed that are based on monetary rewards (rather than social rewards in the form of a reputation index as in Yahoo Answers). Participants make use of voluntarily awarded payoffs (tips) along with stated rewards, in order to motivate those that provide answers (answerers) to provide better quality in their responses. The findings of this study confirm the symmetric effect between monetary rewards and quality. However, this study also identifies cases where social norms have a significant effect on response behavior. When participants seek to get better service with less effort (in terms of total cost), a reputation index which is constructed by the history of their previous interactions supports such an attempt. In other words, reputation history influences information sharing behavior in online communities. The last chapter of the empirical part focuses on another crucial aspect of information as a shared resource: Clarity and understandability. The study examines online product reviews on Amazon.com. The results suggest that participants do care about the clarity of this codified form of experience which increases a helpfulness index accordingly. The thesis overall finds symmetric effects between participation in online communities and output of interaction, but also identifies the ability of the participants to interact strategically as they seek to minimize the effort they provide in order to find the information they seek. The results underline the importance of signaling and quality evaluation mechanisms as counter-balancing control that can enhance activity on online communities

Polycentric Information Commons: A Theory Development and Empirical Investigation

Decentralized systems online—such as open source software (OSS) development, online communities, wikis, and social media—often experience decline in participation which threatens their long-terms sustainability. Building on a rich body of research on the sustainability of physical resource systems, this dissertation presents a novel theoretical framing that addresses the sustainability issues arising in decentralized systems online and which are amplified because of their open nature. The first essay develops the theory of polycentric information commons (PIC) which conceptualizes decentralized systems online as “information commons”. The theory defines information commons, the stakeholders that participate in them, the sustainability indicators of information commons and the collective-action threats putting pressure on their long-term sustainability. Drawing on Ostrom’s factors associated with stable common pool resource systems, PIC theory specifies four polycentric governance practices that can help information commons reduce the magnitude and impact of collective-action threats while improving the information commons’ sustainability. The second essay further develops PIC theory by applying it in an empirical context of “digital activism”. Specifically, it examines the role of polycentric governance in reducing the threats to the legitimacy of digital activism—a type of information commons with an overarching objective of instigating societal change. As such, it illustrates the applicability of PIC theory in the study of digital activism. The third essay focuses on the threat of “information pollution” and its impact on open collaboration, a type of information commons dedicated to the creation of value through open participation online. It uncovers the way polycentric governance mechanism help reduce the duration of pollution events. This essay contributes to PIC theory by expanding it to the realm of operational governance in open collaboration

Designing ubiquitous computing for reflection and learning in diabetes management

This dissertation proposes principles for the design of ubiquitous health monitoring applications that support reflection and learning in context of diabetes management. Due to the high individual differences between diabetes cases, each affected individual must find the optimal combination of lifestyle alterations and medication through reflective analysis of personal diseases history. This dissertation advocates using technology to enable individuals' proactive engagement in monitoring of their health. In particular, it proposes promoting individuals' engagement in reflection by exploiting breakdowns in individuals' routines or understanding; supporting continuity in thinking that leads to a systematic refinement of ideas; and supporting articulation of thoughts and understanding that helps to transform insights into knowledge. The empirical evidence for these principles was gathered thought the deployment studies of three ubiquitous computing applications that help individuals with diabetes in management of their diseases. These deployment studies demonstrated that technology for reflection helps individuals achieve their personal disease management goals, such as diet goals. In addition, they showed that using technology helps individuals embrace a proactive attitude towards their health indicated by their adoption of the internal locus of control.Ph.D.Committee Chair: Elizabeth D. Mynatt; Committee Member: Abowd, Gregory; Committee Member: Bruckman, Amy; Committee Member: Dourish, Paul; Committee Member: Nersessian, Nanc