Overcoming the Fixed-Pie Bias in Multi-Issue Negotiation

Multi-issue negotiation may produce mutual beneficial results to both negotiators while single-issue negotiation can not. However, there are difficulties in automating a multi-issue negotiation, since the search space grows dramatically as the number of issues increases. Although many concession strategy learning mechanisms have been proposed to deal with the problem, recent research uncovered that the fixed strategy of concession and the fixed-pie bias are the two major interferences in the automation of multi-issue negotiation. It is suggested that the lack of communication between agents may have impeded information sharing and joint-problem solving possibilities. In this paper, we show that the fixed-pie bias can interfere with the negotiation outcome if there are non-conflicting issues. We propose a new negotiation model and an innovative algorithm that not only allows information to be shared in a controlled way, but also allows the information shared to be effectively used for conducting a systematic search over the negotiation problem space. The combined mechanism is capable of using strategies learned from counter-offers and is immune to the fixed-strategy limitation and the fixed-pie bias. It contributes to the automation of multi-issue negotiation in the context of open and dynamic environments

Using Service Design Tool and Qualitative Research Method to Assist the E-Government Service Process Redesign: A Case Study of the Taxation Service Process in Taiwan

Previous studies have determined that information technology dominates numerous e-government projects; information and communications technology has been used mainly as a tool for enhancing the efficiency and service delivery of governments. Electronic government(e-government) should achieve public innovation goals, such as redesigning information relationships among stakeholders, enhancing citizen participation in the policymaking process, and reinforcing policy enforcement to create public value. These goals are more valuable, but also more complex, than the digitization of existing governmental processes. Therefore, this study focused on a crucial e-government service, the Taiwan taxation service, to determine whether, in the current era in which people depend highly on network tools to send and receive information, online services are suitable for taxpayers and how to improve the service process. In this study, service design tools were combined with a qualitative research method, and observation and individual interviews of participants were conducted to record their perceptions of the tax service process. The results of the study facilitate identifying gaps in the seemingly convenient and progressive tax service process of Taiwan, including insufficient information provision, complex website operation, inconsistent information classification with users’ logic, the lack of complete and consistent service for one-stop windows, and difficult document content. The taxation authority should integrate all online taxation services to achieve the expected public service (one-stop e-government window). This research facilitates relevant government agencies to provide effective e-government services, identify problems, and modify service delivery processes

Idea Diamond: a Systematic Innovation Model for Social Network Services

Social network service (SNS) – the web-based interaction tool introduced in late 20th century – has become increasingly popular in modern life. The SNS providers’ capability of launching a ‘killer application’, i.e., an attractive interface that motivates user engagement and stickiness, plays a crucial role in surviving the keen competition in the SNS market, and the development of such a service requires rapid and continuous innovation practice. This study proposes an IDEA Diamond model that aims to help SNS providers effectively develop (through a well-defined process and systemized methods/tools) new services that can meet user needs and deliver exceptional user experience

What we need: Project managers` evaluation of top management actions required for software development projects

Web 2.0 is now an important internet application because of the integration of social interaction and web technologies. Previous information system studies usually specified their research context as a utilitarian system or hedonic system and the results were concluded within one specific system type. Web 2.0 application provides a flexible environment for different kinds of user motivations that can be used for utilitarian or hedonic purpose. This study extended the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) by introducing a moderating factor into the model, in order to study users’ behavioral intentions in a Web 2.0 environment. We designed two task types of user motivation and conducted our experiment on two Web 2.0 websites. According to the PLS (Partial Least Squares) analysis, this study demonstrated that utilitarian and hedonic purposes had a moderating effect on the relationship between perceived belief and user attitude as well as the relationship between perceived information quality and perceived belief in the Web 2.0 application. The relationship between perceived usefulness and attitude was stronger in the utilitarian user motivation; whereas the relationship between perceived ease of use and attitude was stronger when the user had hedonic motivation to use the Web 2.0 application. We also found that perceived information quality had significant impact on the perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use

User Acceptance of E-Government Services

In order to provide more accessible, accurate, real-time information for citizens, government E-services, such as information kiosks, have been set up in many public places. Although the public sector has promoted this E-Government service for many years, its uses and achievements are few. Therefore, this paper explores the key factors of user acceptance through a research survey and by gathering empirical evidence based on the Unified Theory of Acceptance and the Use of Technology (UTAUT). Data collected from 244 respondents was tested against the research model. The results lead us to make several recommendations for the public sector and policy-makers to use as guidelines for the future development of this service

Using Peer-to-Peer Technology for Knowledge Sharing in Communities of Practices

Communities of Practices (CoPs) are informal structures within organizations that bind people together through informal relationships and the sharing of expertise and experience. As such, they are effective tools for the creation and sharing of organizational knowledge, and, increasingly, organizations are adopting them as part of their knowledge management strategies. In this paper, we examine the knowledge sharing characteristics and roles of CoPs and develop a peer-to-peer knowledge sharing architecture that matches the behavioral characteristics of the members of the CoPs. We also propose a peer-to-peer knowledge sharing tool called KTella that enables members of CoPs to voluntarily share and retrieve knowledge more effectively

Exploring An Individual’s Intention to Use Blogs: The Roles of Social, Motivational and Individual Factors

Blogs are a new type of media for social interaction; they have become very popular, and have shown their influence throughout our society. However, little is known about what motivates an individual to participate in blogging activities. This study aims to explore how an individual\u27s intention is influenced by social, motivational and individual factors. A survey, involving 283 subjects, was conducted to examine the proposed model. The results revealed that personal innovativeness in the domain of information technology (PIIT), perceived usefulness and perceived enjoyment have direct impacts on a persons\u27 intent to use blogs. On the other hand, factors such as subjective norms and blog self-efficacy influence an individual\u27s motivational factors; these factors, in turn, influence an individual\u27s behavioral intention in regard to blog usage. The findings of this study not only contribute to a theoretical building of those factors that effect blog usage, but also provide implications to practitioners for understanding and promoting blog usage

Ontology-Based Privacy Protection in Location Commerce

Location commerce extends e-commerce through the provision of location-related activities, but this gives rise to greater concerns about privacy invasion. To encourage the smooth growth of location commerce, it is suggested that control over the sharing of intimate information be given back to the consumer. This study proposes an ontology-based privacy protection (OPP) framework that allows consumers to specify their own privacy preferences and then uses these preferences to determine whether or not a message from a merchant can be delivered to a consumer. We use ontology to structure the knowledge to simplify the framework and allow for the possibility of automation. The system is believed to be context-aware, as the location, time, service type, information type, and other contextual data are taken into consideration. We develop a prototype system for demonstration and experiment, and show that the framework design is feasible and has a reasonable performance

Pan-cancer analysis of whole genomes

Cancer is driven by genetic change, and the advent of massively parallel sequencing has enabled systematic documentation of this variation at the whole-genome scale(1-3). Here we report the integrative analysis of 2,658 whole-cancer genomes and their matching normal tissues across 38 tumour types from the Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes (PCAWG) Consortium of the International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC) and The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). We describe the generation of the PCAWG resource, facilitated by international data sharing using compute clouds. On average, cancer genomes contained 4-5 driver mutations when combining coding and non-coding genomic elements; however, in around 5% of cases no drivers were identified, suggesting that cancer driver discovery is not yet complete. Chromothripsis, in which many clustered structural variants arise in a single catastrophic event, is frequently an early event in tumour evolution; in acral melanoma, for example, these events precede most somatic point mutations and affect several cancer-associated genes simultaneously. Cancers with abnormal telomere maintenance often originate from tissues with low replicative activity and show several mechanisms of preventing telomere attrition to critical levels. Common and rare germline variants affect patterns of somatic mutation, including point mutations, structural variants and somatic retrotransposition. A collection of papers from the PCAWG Consortium describes non-coding mutations that drive cancer beyond those in the TERT promoter(4); identifies new signatures of mutational processes that cause base substitutions, small insertions and deletions and structural variation(5,6); analyses timings and patterns of tumour evolution(7); describes the diverse transcriptional consequences of somatic mutation on splicing, expression levels, fusion genes and promoter activity(8,9); and evaluates a range of more-specialized features of cancer genomes(8,10-18).Peer reviewe