Die Verflüssigung von Arbeit: Crowdsourcing als unternehmerische Reorganisationsstrategie - das Beispiel IBM

Das Unternehmen IBM entwarf kürzlich die Zukunftsvision einer radikalen Crowdsourcing-Strategie, die den Verzicht auf die Mehrheit der festen Beschäftigungsverhältnisse im eigenen Unternehmen beinhaltet. An ihre Stelle soll die lose Integration einer weltweit verteilten "Crowd" von Freelancern treten, die um die nachträgliche Anerkennung und Vergütung bereits erbrachter Arbeitsleistungen konkurrieren. Auf Basis einer explorativen Studie skizzieren wir in Form einer "prospektiven Folgenabschätzung" drei mögliche Entwicklungsszenarien. Während die ersten beiden Szenarien die Beharrungskräfte und Widerstände in den Mittelpunkt rücken, interpretiert das dritte Szenario einer "radialen Liquidisierung" den Reorganisationsprozess als eine qualitativ neue Form der Steuerung von Arbeitsleistungen mit potenziell gravierenden Folgen für die Arbeitsinhalte, die räumliche Organisation von Arbeit und die globale Arbeitsteilung sowie für die Beschäftigungsverhältnisse und Interessenorientierungen.IBM recently developed a radical strategy called Crowdsourcing that is promoted by the company itself as the organization model of the future. According to this strategy, most of the work within IBM will not be done by permanent employees anymore but by freelancers in a global crowd. These tasks are put out to tender for an anonymous workforce on special internet platforms. The members of the global crowd submit their complete results, of which, afterwards only, the best one is paid. In this way, the company links workforce loosely to its organization by putting them in a global state of competition. Based on an explorative study we are giving an outline of three possible development scenarios in form of a "prospective impact evaluation." While the first two scenarios are focusing on persistence and resistance, the third one, called "radical liquefaction", is interpreting this process of reorganization as a qualitatively new form of control of work performance with enormous consequences for work contents, the spatial organization of labour, the global division of labour, as well as for employment relationships and the orientation of interests

Webunterstütztes Lernen : Pädagogische Analyse und technische Gestaltung des Einsatzes der Lernumgebung WebCT

Im Zuge der wachsenden Bedeutung von ELearning an Hochschulen beschäftigt sich diese Arbeit mit dem Einsatz von WebCT an der Johann Wolfgang Goethe Universität in Frankfurt am Main. In der vorliegenden Arbeit soll untersucht werden, inwieweit es nötig und möglich ist, WebCT hinsichtlich Benutzerfreundlichkeit, der Realisierung technischer Ideen und der pädagogischen Einsatzmöglichkeiten einzelner Tools zu optimieren. Aufgrund von Erfahrungen unsererseits, aus der Sicht als Kursteilnehmer mehrerer Lehrveranstaltungen mit Unterstützung von WebCT, im Sinne von Blended Learning und zu einem späteren Zeitpunkt als Tutoren in einem auf WebCT basierendem Seminars stellten wir fest, dass sich die Einbindung von WebCT als ELearning Plattform als aufwendig erwies. Dies könnte an mangelnden technischen Kenntnissen und Möglichkeiten liegen als auch an der nachlassenden Nutzung von Seiten der Studenten im Laufe des Semesters. Für uns stellte sich nun die Frage, wie WebCT optimiert werden kann, damit sich der didaktisch sinnvolle Einsatz in Lehrveranstaltungen erhöht. Die Diplomarbeit unterteilt sich in zwei Abschnitte; zum Ersten in die Analyse von WebCT, anhand der Kriterien und der Interviews und zum Zweiten in die Interviewauswertung und – interpretation einschließlich der technischen Optimierung

The effects of prolonged wear of textured shoe insoles on gait, foot sensation and proprioception in people with Multiple Sclerosis: protocol for a randomised controlled trial

Background: Many people with multiple sclerosis experience problems with walking, which can make daily activities difficult and often leads to falls. Foot sensation plays an important role in keeping the body balanced whilst walking; however, people with multiple sclerosis often have poor sensation on the soles of their feet. Wearing a specially designed shoe insole, which enhances plantar sensory information, could help people with multiple sclerosis to walk better. This study will explore whether long-term wear of a textured insole can improve walking in people with multiple sclerosis

An optimised patient information sheet did not significantly increase recruitment or retention in a falls prevention study: an embedded randomised recruitment trial.

BACKGROUND: Randomised controlled trials are generally regarded as the 'gold standard' experimental design to determine the effectiveness of an intervention. Unfortunately, many trials either fail to recruit sufficient numbers of participants, or recruitment takes longer than anticipated. The current embedded trial evaluates the effectiveness of optimised patient information sheets on recruitment of participants in a falls prevention trial. METHODS: A three-arm, embedded randomised methodology trial was conducted within the National Institute for Health Research-funded REducing Falls with ORthoses and a Multifaceted podiatry intervention (REFORM) cohort randomised controlled trial. Routine National Health Service podiatry patients over the age of 65 were randomised to receive either the control patient information sheet (PIS) for the host trial or one of two optimised versions, a bespoke user-tested PIS or a template-developed PIS. The primary outcome was the proportion of patients in each group who went on to be randomised to the host trial. RESULTS: Six thousand and nine hundred patients were randomised 1:1:1 into the embedded trial. A total of 193 (2.8%) went on to be randomised into the main REFORM trial (control n = 62, template-developed n = 68; bespoke user-tested n = 63). Information sheet allocation did not improve recruitment to the trial (odds ratios for the three pairwise comparisons: template vs control 1.10 (95% CI 0.77-1.56, p = 0.60); user-tested vs control 1.01 (95% CI 0.71-1.45, p = 0.94); and user-tested vs template 0.92 (95% CI 0.65-1.31, p = 0.65)). CONCLUSIONS: This embedded methodology trial has demonstrated limited evidence as to the benefit of using optimised information materials on recruitment and retention rates in the REFORM study. TRIAL REGISTRATION: International Standard Randomised Controlled Trials Number registry, ISRCTN68240461 . Registered on 01 July 2011

Differential effects of non-REM and REM sleep on memory consolidation?

Sleep benefits memory consolidation. Previous theoretical accounts have proposed a differential role of slow-wave sleep (SWS), rapid-eye-movement (REM) sleep, and stage N2 sleep for different types of memories. For example the dual process hypothesis proposes that SWS is beneficial for declarative memories, whereas REM sleep is important for consolidation of non-declarative, procedural and emotional memories. In fact, numerous recent studies do provide further support for the crucial role of SWS (or non-REM sleep) in declarative memory consolidation. However, recent evidence for the benefit of REM sleep for non-declarative memories is rather scarce. In contrast, several recent studies have related consolidation of procedural memories (and some also emotional memories) to SWS (or non-REM sleep)-dependent consolidation processes. We will review this recent evidence, and propose future research questions to advance our understanding of the role of different sleep stages for memory consolidation

Rush hours in flower visitors over a day–night cycle

Most research on pollination has focussed on a subset of insect taxa within a narrow time window during daylight hours. As a consequence, we have a limited understanding of the diversity and activity of flower visitors during the night or belonging to taxa other than bees or syrphid flies. Here, we quantified the abundance and species richness of flower visitors in ruderal meadows over repeated 24-h cycles (i.e. day and night), and identified abiotic factors influencing these patterns. From the plant perspective, we investigated the likelihood of being visited by an insect across a 24-h cycle. Activity of flower-visiting insects never dropped to zero over 24-h. During the day, non-syrphid Diptera and Hymenoptera were the most abundant, and species-rich groups of flower visitors, Lepidoptera and Coleoptera during night. While two of the seven most frequently visited plant species were most likely to be visited during the day, five also had a high likelihood to be visited during the night. The abundance and species richness of flower visitors was positively related to temperature during both the day and the night, whereas there was only a positive relationship with brightness during the day. We conclude that non-syrphid Diptera and nocturnal flower visitors are currently underappreciated. As the latter seem to respond differently to abiotic factors compared to diurnal species, they may potentially increase response diversity and resilience of plant-pollinator communities. There is an urgent need to improve our understanding of their ecological role and potential decline due to global change