When IT Evolves Beyond Community Needs: Coevolution of Bottom-Up IT Innovation and Communities

This paper examines how innovative uses of IT artifacts and their repurposing to fulfill emerging or unsatisfied user needs (bottom-up innovation, BUI) develop in community settings. Based on a longitudinal analysis of “HomeNets,” communities that developed residential internet access in Belarus over a 20-year period, we illustrate that the development of community BUI is driven not only by the needs of the innovating members but also by the interplay between the innovating members’ community context and technology and the interplay between the BUI technology and context. We demonstrate how these dynamics trigger community BUI development that goes beyond the needs and expectations of the innovating actors and impacts community evolution and long-term survival. Based on our findings, we develop a model of community BUI development. We discuss the theoretical implications of our findings, highlighting the role of technology and context in community BUI and its processual unfolding beyond the needs and intentions of the innovating members

A Model of ICDT Internet flows on mobile devices for the travel and tourism consumer

Despite the increasing use of mobile devices and their applications in the travel and tourism arena, there is a lack of literature that considers how mobile device tourism applications could be evaluated. Built around a discussion of information attributes (a series of dimensions by which the delivery of information can be assessed) that have been specifically developed for the tourism sector and an examination of the specific characteristics of mobile devices, this theoretical article classifies different online tourism applications that can be accessed by mobile devices according to Angehrn's four virtual spaces (information, communication, distribution, and transaction). This is for the purpose of demonstrating that the majority of applications in the mobile tourism arena eventually fall within the realm of information provision and can thus be assessed according to how they perform in relation to information attributes. A model of ICDT Internet flows on mobile devices for the travel and tourism consumer is presented

From participation roles to socio-emotional information roles: Insights from the closure of an online community

This study examines what happens when an online community (OC) platform is shut down. In particular, it builds on recent interest from information science on everyday life information seeking, providing insights into the socio-emotional roles enacted by users following community closure. A qualitative study is undertaken on 12 months of social media comments relating to the closure of an OC platform. We identify and discuss the socio-emotional information roles that manifest, and present a model of their relationship to different aspects of the closure. We make theoretical connections between the notion of socio-emotional information roles and both the information behavior and practice literature, as well as research on community and participant roles. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed

How should technology-mediated organizational change be explained? A comparison of the contributions of critical realism and activity theory

In this paper, critical realism and activity theory are compared within the context of theorizing technology-mediated organizational change. An activity theoretic analysis of the implementation of large-scale disruptive information systems in a public sector setting (in particular concerning paramedic treatment of heart attack patients and ambulance dispatch work activity) is used to illustrate how activity theory makes a significant contribution to critical realism, by (1) locating technology within “activity systems” and theorizing change through contradictions and congruencies within those systems; (2) developing recent critical realism-inspired theorization of the “inscription” of cultural and social relations within technology; and (3) developing recent insights of critical realist researchers regarding the way in which the performance management agenda is mediated through IS

Knowledge representation for product and processes development planning in collaborative environments

Efficiency in the management of integrated product and processes development is a basic requisite to guarantee competitiveness and success for manufacturing companies. This means that operational management of activities and human and material resources is extremely important, especially in virtual OKP (one-of-a-kind production) systems, and must cover related aspects of their capabilities and social character as well as assignment criteria. In this context, and to facilitate collaborative resources management, an ontology focused on resources and capabilities is proposed in this work. This ontology supports the necessary knowledge for generic and collaborative process planning, providing a shared common semantic for all the members of the virtual company. This work differs from other proposed ontologies in the area of process planning where the resources considered are all those elements that participate in the execution of the different activity types involved in this wide and complex process. The ontology directly covers the shared, social nature of the resources, the agentive behaviour of many of them and a characterisation of their capabilities, thus providing specific solutions to the needs of the collaborative integrated development of products, processes and resources (CIDP2R) process.This work has been possible thanks to funding received from the Ministry of Science and Education through the COAPP Research Project - reference DPI2007-66871-C02-01/02.Solano García, L.; Rosado Castellano, P.; Romero Subirón, F. (2014). Knowledge representation for product and processes development planning in collaborative environments. International Journal of Computer Integrated Manufacturing. 27(8):787-801. doi:10.1080/0951192X.2013.834480S78780127

From Interactive Open Learner Modelling to Intelligent Mentoring: STyLE-OLM and Beyond

STyLE-OLM (Dimitrova 2003 International Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Education, 13, 35–78) presented a framework for interactive open learner modelling which entails the development of the means by which learners can inspect, discuss and alter the learner model that has been jointly constructed by themselves and the system. This paper outlines the STyLE-OLM framework and reflects on the key challenges it addressed: (a) the design of an appropriate communication medium; this was addressed by proposing a structured language using diagrammatic presentations of conceptual graphs; (b) the management of the interaction with the learner; this was addressed by designing a framework for interactive open learner modelling dialogue utilising dialogue games; (c) the accommodation of different beliefs about the learner’s domain model; this was addressed with a mechanism for maintaining different views about the learner beliefs which adapted belief modal logic operators; and (d) the assessment of any resulting improvements in learner model accuracy and learner reflection; this was addressed in a user study with an instantiation of STyLE-OLM for diagnosing a learner’s knowledge of finance concept, as part of a larger project that developed an intelligent system to assist with learning domain terminology in a foreign language. Reviewing follow on work, we refer to projects by the authors’ students and colleagues leading to further extension and adoption of STyLE-OLM, as well as relevant approaches in open learner modelling which have cited the STyLE-OLM framework. The paper points at outstanding research challenges and outlines future a research direction to extend interactive open learner modelling towards mentor-like intelligent learning systems

Using DBpedia as a knowledge source for culture-related user modelling questionnaires

In the culture domain, questionnaires are often used to obtain profiles of users for adaptation. Creating questionnaires requires subject matter experts and diverse content, and often does not scale to a variety of cultures and situations. This paper presents a novel approach that is inspired by crowdwisdom and takes advantage of freely available structured linked data. It presents a mechanism for extracting culturally-related facts from DBpedia, utilised as a knowledge source in an interactive user modelling system. A user study, which examines the system usability and the accuracy of the resulting user model, demonstrates the potential of using DBpedia for generating culture-related user modelling questionnaires and points at issues for further investigation

Framing ICT4D research using activity theory: a match between the ICT4D field and theory?

While there is mounting evidence on the positive national level economic benefits of Information Communication Technologies (ICT) in developing countries, one area where knowledge could be improved is how ICT and information has led to a re-orientation and transformation of human activity. That is, changes in activities in terms of how they are conducted, the actors, actions and laws/norms and the labour that contributes to the activity and how ICT introduced in one activity impacts on other activities and the creation of new activities. This paper serves as an introduction to the use of activity theory in the context of Information Communication Technologies for Development (ICT4D) as a theory based framework to answer questions concerning how ICT have enabled changes at the “activity” level in developing countries. Four activity theoretic contributions are identified for framing the study of ICT4D. Despite the relatively unexplored use of activity theory in ICT4D research, it is argued that there are several appealing ways in which the field of ICT4D is compatible with its underlying critical and emancipatory commitments and that its use in ICT4D research may lead to richer insights