The Hadia story: digital storytelling in election campaigns

Digital storytelling in election campaigns is a relatively recent phenomenon, which needs to be investigated in order to enhance our understanding of changes and developments in modern political communication. This article is an analysis of how the Norwegian-Pakistani Labour politician, Hadia Tajik, has used digital storytelling to construct her political identity, and a discussion of the consequences of her experiments with this genre. The focus is on the five video stories she released during the 2009 parliamentary election campaign and the reactions they evoked on the net and in the traditional media during the same (time) period. During the 2009 electoral campaign Tajik moved from being a relatively unknown politician to becoming a political household name and the only member of the new Parliament with a migrant background. The digital stories were instrumental in this development for numerous reasons, the most important probably being that they gave her prime time television coverage. Norwegian news media have in general been very concerned with Web 2.0 and Tajik’s videos were regarded as an innovative kind of political communication. The videos also functioned as an effective marketing tool on the net. As an integral part of her extensive viral network, they attracted numerous views and they were with a few exceptions met with positive reactions. This was probably due to their relatively high production values and their catch-all communication strategy that downplayed her ethnic, educational and political background and emphasized her universal human qualities

Understanding eParticipation services in indonesian local government

Published version of a chapter in the book: Information and Communication Technology. Also available from the publisher at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-55032-4_32This study aims at understanding how local government from a developing country, in this case Indonesia, implement and manage eParticipation services. In doing so, we combine institutional theory and stakeholder theory to build a sharper analytical lens. From an interpretive case study in the city of Yogyakarta, we reveal the institutionalization process of the services since their inception and identify major stakeholders and their salience. Based on our findings, we propose implications for practice and suggest implications for further research. Future work, based on a multiple case strategy including several eParticipation cases from other parts of Indonesia, will further explore the findings reported here

Recent developments in the production of liquid fuels via catalytic conversion of microalgae: experiments and simulations

Due to continuing high demand, depletion of non-renewable resources and increasing concerns about climate change, the use of fossil fuel-derived transportation fuels faces relentless challenges both from a world markets and an environmental perspective. The production of renewable transportation fuel from microalgae continues to attract much attention because of its potential for fast growth rates, high oil content, ability to grow in unconventional scenarios, and inherent carbon neutrality. Moreover, the use of microalgae would minimize ‘‘food versus fuel’’ concerns associated with several biomass strategies, as microalgae do not compete with food crops in the food chain. This paper reviews the progress of recent research on the production of transportation fuels via homogeneous and heterogeneous catalytic conversions of microalgae. This review also describes the development of tools that may allow for a more fundamental understanding of catalyst selection and conversion processes using computational modelling. The catalytic conversion reaction pathways that have been investigated are fully discussed based on both experimental and theoretical approaches. Finally, this work makes several projections for the potential of various thermocatalytic pathways to produce alternative transportation fuels from algae, and identifies key areas where the authors feel that computational modelling should be directed to elucidate key information to optimize the process

Kunnskapsdeling i permanente og midlertidige team

Sammendrag Tema og problemstilling Dette er en komparativ casestudie med fokus på hvordan organisasjonskultur kan påvirke kunnskapsdeling i team. Dette er videre avgrenset til å omhandle hvordan maktforskjeller og psykologisk trygghet kan påvirke kunnskapsdeling, med fokus på de ansattes opplevelse av dette. Studien er gjennomført i økonomi- og revisjonsavdelingene i Grant Thornton, som henholdsvis arbeider i midlertidige og permanente teamstrukturer. Teamstrukturene, samt ulike bransjespesifikke faktorer har dermed vært et naturlig skille mellom casene og utgangspunktet for denne komparative casestudien. Kunnskapsdeling er en avgjørende konkurransefordel for organisasjoner, da det bidrar til effektivitet, utvikling og ny, felles kunnskap (Srivastava et al., 2006; Wang & Noe, 2010). Samtidig er teamarbeid en voksende trend, som viser seg å være hensiktsmessig i dagens dynamiske, uforutsigbare og komplekse samfunn. Dette ved at teamarbeid kan medføre større tilpasningsevne, produktivitet og kreativitet enn en person kan oppnå alene (Afflerbach, 2020; Deloitte, 2019; Edmondson, 2003, 2019). Teamarbeid kan struktureres svært ulikt, blant annet som følge av tidsmessige begrensninger. Midlertidige team er gjerne samlet for å utføre en bestemt oppgave innen en begrenset tidsramme, denne formen for team er blitt mer utbredt i dagens arbeid- og organisasjonssettinger (Dalal et al., 2017; Hyllengren et al., 2011; Lv & Feng, 2020). Permanente team derimot, kjennetegnes ved at de er fortsettende, langvarige og permanente. Dette blir gjerne sett på som den tradisjonelle måten å strukturere teamarbeid på (Cohen & Bailey, 1997). Psykologisk trygghet blir av Edmondson (2019) blant annet definert som en opplevelse av rom for å gjøre feil og ta risikofylte handlinger, samt trygghet til å spørre om hjelp og gjensidig avhengighet mellom teammedlemmer. Det blir gjerne omtalt som en kritisk betydning på teamets resultater, som følge av at teamarbeid stiller krav om å integreres i hverandres perspektiver samt dele informasjon og ideer med hverandre for å oppnå ønsket resultat (Bunderson & Boumgarden, 2010; Edmondson & Lei, 2014) og dermed påvirke kunnskapsdelingsaktiviteter mellom teammedlemmene (Bai et al., 2016; Carmeli et al., 2009; Mittal & Dhar, 2015). Videre er det diskutert i litteraturen hvordan personer med makt kan påvirke kunnskapsdelingsaktiviteter. Dette fremkommer som svært relevant da personer med makt kan tilrettelegge for kunnskapsdelingsaktiviteter ved å påvirke personers tro, holdninger og handlemåter (Hill, 2016; Hislop et al., 2018; Wang & Noe, 2010). Teamprosesser kan dermed være ineffektive som følge av mangel på opplevd psykologisk trygghet i teamet, som eksempelvis kan oppstå som følge av utfordringer knyttet til maktforskjeller mellom teammedlemmene (Edmondson, 2019; He et al., 2014; Srivastava et al., 2006; Wang & Noe, 2010). Dermed gir litteraturen grunnlag for å anta at maktforskjeller og psykologisk trygghet kan påvirke kunnskapsdelingsaktiviteter i team. Vi har dermed i denne studien undersøkt dette ytterligere relatert til teammedlemmenes oppleves av disse påvirkningene. Dette med utgangspunkt i følgende problemstilling: På hvilke måter opplever ansatte at psykologisk trygghet og maktforskjeller påvirker kunnskapsdeling i midlertidige og permanente team? Samt forskningsspørsmålet: Finnes det sammenheng mellom maktforskjeller og psykologisk trygghet innad i de ulike teamene? Metode Med problemstillingen og tilhørende forskningsspørsmål som forutsetning, har vi benyttet kvalitative dybdeintervjuer av 22 informanter som innsamlingsmetode. Informantene arbeider i permanente og midlertidige teamstrukturer og informantene er valgt ut delvis strategisk. Dette da vi ønsket informanter fra begge avdelingene (teamstrukturene), samt oversikt over informantenes ansiennitet (0-5 år og 6-50 år), med utgangspunkt i variabelen som omhandler maktforskjeller. Videre har vi benyttet en tematisk analyse som utgangspunkt for å analysere og sammenligne datamaterialet fra de ulike casene. Resultater og konklusjon Funnene indikerer i samsvar med litteraturen at psykologisk trygghet og maktforskjeller kan ha innvirkning på kunnskapsdelingsaktiviteter innad i begge teamstrukturene. Studien tyder ikke på hvorvidt en av formene for strukturering av team er mer fordelaktig enn den andre i tilrettelegging for opplevelse av psykologisk trygghet. Analysen illustrerer at teammedlemmer innenfor begge teamstrukturene opplever at det er rom for å gjøre feil og spørre om hjelp. Vi ser gjennom analysen at teammedlemmene i de midlertidige teamene, i større grad enn teammedlemmene i de permanente teamene, opplever en sterk form gjensidig avhengighet og at kunnskapen deres blir verdsatt. Samtidig fremkommer det funn som indikerer at det er større variasjon innad i de ulike midlertidige teamene i opplevelse av psykologisk trygghet og hvorvidt dette påvirker kunnskapsdeling. Dette grunnet stadig rullering, tidsmessige begrensinger og er personavhengige faktorer, som følge av at teammedlemmene i de midlertidige teamene må forholde seg til flere ulike team og teamsammensetninger i det dagligdagse arbeidet. Videre indikerer funnene at maktforskjellene er noe mer fremtredende i midlertidige team. Dette oppleves i utgangspunktet som følge av at ulike maktnivåer er spesifikt tilknyttet til ulike arbeidsoppgaver. Kunnskapsdeling via «tjenestevei» illustreres innad i begge teamene, spesielt fremtredende i de midlertidige teamene. Dette ved at det teammedlemmer oppfordres til å søke kunnskap hos teammedlemmer på samme maktnivå, før de eventuelt spør teammedlemmer med mer makt. Dataanalysen illustrerer at dette kan hemme kunnskapsdeling ved at enkelte opplever at dette hindrer de fra å søke kunnskap hos teammedlemmer med mer erfaring. Samtidig illustrerer analysen at dette medfører effektiv og hyppig kunnskapsdeling mellom teammedlemmer med lavere makt, noe som kan medføre økt kunnskap. Funnene indikerer at maktforskjellene har en betryggende og kontrollerende effekt, som videre oppleves som positiv for enkelte kunnskapsdelingsaktiviteter. Samtidig ser vi at teammedlemmer med mye makt innad i midlertidige team har en tendens til å gjøre seg noe utilgjengelige, noe som virker hemmende på arbeidet og kunnskapsdelingen. Oppsummert antyder resultatene at maktforskjeller påvirker kunnskapsdelingen i teamene, dette i noe større grad i de midlertidige teamene. Avslutningsvis for å belyse forskningsspørsmålet, fremkommer det i begge teamstrukturene at maktforskjeller kan påvirke opplevelsen av psykologisk trygghet innad i de ulike teamene. Dette ved at teammedlemmer fra høyere maktnivå har innvirkning på opplevelsen av at det er rom for å spørre om hjelp, gjøre feil og selve tilretteleggingen for kunnskapsdelingsaktiviteter. Vi ser også at til tross for at organisasjonskulturen inneholder kunnskapsdeling som et sentralt verdiord, så er det ulikheter i hvordan dette kommer frem i de ulike teamstrukturene

The Hadia story: digital storytelling in election campaigns

Digital storytelling in election campaigns is a relatively recent phenomenon, which needs to be investigated in order to enhance our understanding of changes and developments in modern political communication. This article is an analysis of how the Norwegian-Pakistani Labour politician, Hadia Tajik, has used digital storytelling to construct her political identity, and a discussion of the consequences of her experiments with this genre. The focus is on the five video stories she released during the 2009 parliamentary election campaign and the reactions they evoked on the net and in the traditional media during the same (time) period. During the 2009 electoral campaign Tajik moved from being a relatively unknown politician to becoming a political household name and the only member of the new Parliament with a migrant background. The digital stories were instrumental in this development for numerous reasons, the most important probably being that they gave her prime time television coverage. Norwegian news media have in general been very concerned with Web 2.0 and Tajik’s videos were regarded as an innovative kind of political communication. The videos also functioned as an effective marketing tool on the net. As an integral part of her extensive viral network, they attracted numerous views and they were with a few exceptions met with positive reactions. This was probably due to their relatively high production values and their catch-all communication strategy that downplayed her ethnic, educational and political background and emphasized her universal human qualities

The Hadia Story: Digital Storytelling in Election Campaigns

Digital storytelling in election campaigns is a relatively recent phenomenon, which needs to be investigated in order to enhance our understanding of changes and developments in modern political communication. This article is an analysis of how the Norwegian-Pakistani Labour politician, Hadia Tajik, has used digital storytelling to construct her political identity, and a discussion of the consequences of her experiments with this genre. The focus is on the five video stories she released during the 2009 parliamentary election campaign and the reactions they evoked on the net and in the traditional media during the same (time) period. During the 2009 electoral campaign Tajik moved from being a relatively unknown politician to becoming a political household name and the only member of the new Parliament with a migrant background. The digital stories were instrumental in this development for numerous reasons, the most important probably being that they gave her prime time television coverage. Norwegian news media have in general been very concerned with Web 2.0 and Tajik’s videos were regarded as an innovative kind of political communication. The videos also functioned as an effective marketing tool on the net. As an integral part of her extensive viral network, they attracted numerous views and they were with a few exceptions met with positive reactions. This was probably due to their relatively high production values and their catch-all communication strategy that downplayed her ethnic, educational and political background and emphasized her universal human qualities

Prediction of Culvert Failure - A desktop study of water-driven culvert failure in Soknedal using a developed method

The risk connected to water-related hazards on roads and railways is becoming more acute in Norway. A significant maintenance backlog combined with climate change and land modification and -intervention has increased the probability for such events to occur, and the importance of the road- and railway infrastructure is increasing with a growing Norwegian economy. This work focuses on the hazard connected to water-driven culvert failure, and is a part of the research center Klima 2050 s endeavor to achieve better risk estimation for stormwater management in small catchments. The main objective of this work is to develop a method to predict culvert failure. Failure is defined in the work as exceedance of the capacity given by the headwater that is considered safe. The method is based on using a constructed fault tree and estimates the failure occurrence from flood return periods. It is aimed to be practically applicable for risk assessments and feasible as a desktop study, primarily using available information from public Norwegian databanks and services. It is found that methods chosen to estimate capacity and flood has to be of low complexity to achieve the aim of practicality. Three simple methods are used to estimate capacity, the NIFS-formula is used to estimate flood return periods and the effects of climate- and land cover change is considered through using constant percentages of change in flood size. Three scientific questions are established in order to provide a reference point in the development of the method and to explore its capabilities as a desktop study for risk assessments. They deal with how often culvert failure occurs under possible failure modes, the effects of climate- and land cover change on the occurrence, and how it can be reduced to an acceptable level. In answering the questions and testing the method which is developed, the work provides a case study of eight culverts in Soknedal which have previously failed and led to damages on a railway line. The findings show that the culverts will not fail unless they are severely blocked. This can occur due to slides, which are relatively common in Soknedal, or if the maintenance is inadequate. The uncertainties in the risk estimation provided by the method are potentially large and need to be further investigated. Independently of whether the method is deemed useful and the uncertainties acceptable, this work provides a comprehensive overview of the risk connected to culverts and how it can possibly be modelled