Prosuming, or when customers turn collaborators: coordination and motivation of customer contribution

This article investigates the phenomenon of increasing integration of customers and users into the organizational creation of value, focusing primarily on the dissolving boundaries between production and consumption. Concepts such as "prosuming", the "working customer", "produsing" and "interactive value creation" have been used to describe this phenomenon. Within the framework of a research project at the Goethe-University Frankfurt/Main, this debate was investigated theoretically as well as empirically in three case studies. The research question is as follows: Why do customers participate in "new types of prosuming" or "interactive value creation" and how are these processes coordinated by the firms? The results show a considerable range of motives and forms of coordination: The customers’ primary motives to voluntarily assume tasks and activities were both intrinsic and extrinsic in nature. The organizational models identified range from strategies of rationalization to prosuming as a basic business model to the collaborative and interactive value creation between the company and the web-community

Abschlussbericht zum Informationssystem berufliche Weiterbildung in Hessen : Projektnummer: 80095213, altes Aktenzeichen: TH0101/2008, Technische Hilfe

Der vorliegende Abschlussbericht besteht aus zwei Teilen: während Teil A die ausführlichen Ergebnisse der begleitend durchgeführten Evaluation der Qualifizierungsschecks in Hessen für das Jahr 2014 darstellt, fasst Teil B die Ergebnisse des Projekts „Informationssystem berufliche Weiterbildung in Hessen“ zusammen. Das Informationssystem berufliche Weiterbildung in Hessen wurde gefördert vom Hessischen Ministerium für Wirtschaft, Verkehr und Landesentwicklung und durch Mittel aus den Europäischen Sozialfonds Hessen. Die Projektdauer umfasste den Zeitraum vom 1.8.2008 bis zum 31.12.2014

Peter Waterman and his scientific legacy

Peter C. Waterman, a giant figure in the theory of electromagnetic, acoustic, and elastic wave scattering, passed away on 3 June, 2012. In view of his fundamental contributions, which to a large degree have guided the progress of these disciplines over the past five decades and affected profoundly the multifaceted research published in the Journal of Quantitative Spectroscopy and Radiative Transfer (JQSRT), we felt that it would be appropriate to solicit papers for a special issue of JQSRT commemorating Peter Waterman's scientific legacy. This initiative was endorsed by the JQSRT management and has resulted in a representative collection of high-quality papers which have undergone the same peer scrutiny as any paper submitted to JQSRT

Digital microfluidics for microchip-based cell sorting

Within the framework of the scientific project MINAPSO (Mikrochip Navigierte Parallel Sortieranlage), a device has been developed that is intended to separate specific biological cells out of heterogeneous cell suspensions on chip level. The process relies on parallel splitting of cell containing droplets, accomplished by the effect of electrowetting and recognition of fluorescently labelled cells. We present an automatic cell sorting platform consisting of a silicon based electrowetting chip and a fluorescence microscope. Based on the device, all relevant fluid operations like drop extraction, drop transport and drop splitting were verified by parameter variations. Measurements of particle distributions support the technical feasibility of the sorting concept and the proof of principle is conducted by a complete sorting experiment