| 1. |
- Bergvall-Kåreborn, Birgitta, et al.
(författare)
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Amazon Mechanical Turk and the Commodification of labour
- 2014
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Ingår i: New technology, work and employment. - : Wiley. - 0268-1072 .- 1468-005X. ; 29:3, s. 213-223
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Crowd employment platforms enable firms to source labour and expertise by leveraging Internet technology. Rather than offshoring jobs to low-cost geographies, functions once performed by internal employees can be outsourced to an undefined pool of digital labour using a virtual network. This enables firms to shift costs and offload risk as they access a flexible, scalable workforce that sits outside the traditional boundaries of labour laws and regulations. The micro-tasks of 'clickwork' are tedious, repetitive and poorly paid, with remuneration often well below minimum wage. This article will present an analysis of one of the most popular crowdsourcing sites-Mechanical Turk-to illuminate how Amazon's platform enables an array of companies to access digital labour at low cost and without any of the associated social protection or moral obligation.
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| 2. |
- Bergvall-Kåreborn, Birgitta, et al.
(författare)
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Disregarding history : Contemporary IS contexts and participatory design
- 2014
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Ingår i: Communications of the Association for Information Systems. - 1529-3181. ; 34:1, s. 1319-1332
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- User participation has long been seen as a core topic of study within the IS field, yet its relevance to contemporary development environments and contexts has recently been brought into question. The aim of this article is to investigate the extent to which this rich history and experience is used to inform contemporary practices. We provide a survey that evaluates the degree to which PD (participatory design) is currently represented in the IS literature, the results of which reveal a low representation. Based on these findings, a number of propositions are offered. © 2014 by the Association for Information Systems.
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| 3. |
- Bergvall-Kåreborn, Birgitta, et al.
(författare)
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Mobile applications development on Apple and Google platforms
- 2011
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Ingår i: Communications of the Association for Information Systems. - 1529-3181. ; 29:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The uptake of Internet-enabled multifunctional mobile devices is an emerging area within software development. This article examines the under-researched area of mobile application developers and considers some of the current challenges facing this sector within the IT workforce. We frame our study within the wider context of the evolution of the industry in order to illustrate how the emerging business model of mobile application development shapes the everyday practices of systems developers, specifically those working on iPhone and Android platforms. Drawing on qualitative research carried out in Sweden, the UK, and the U.S., we analyze developers’ experiences in order to illustrate how they respond and adapt to the turbulent environment of the IT sector.
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| 4. |
- Bergvall-Kåreborn, Birgitta, et al.
(författare)
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Motivational profiles of toolkit users – iPhone and Android developers
- 2011
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Ingår i: International Journal of Technology Marketing. - 1741-878X .- 1741-8798. ; 6:1, s. 36-56
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Toolkits for development and distribution of mobile applications can potentially influence the ecosystem for mobile services. While these toolkits began to surface in the late 1990s, it was not until 2008, when Apple launched its App Store, that their potential became more visible. For these toolkits to create value to all the different stakeholders, we need to understand these innovation milieus and their inhabitants, areas that are becoming increasingly important yet under-researched in the literature. In this paper, we address the questions of who the pioneering users of the Apple and Android owned toolkits are, what attracted them to the mobile application market, and what affected their choice of platform for mobile application development. Emerging from the analysis are four different developer profiles of early adopters of the Android and iPhone platforms.
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| 5. |
- Bergvall-Kåreborn, Birgitta, et al.
(författare)
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Persistent problems and practices in information systems development : a study of mobile applications development and distribution
- 2014
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Ingår i: Information Systems Journal. - : Wiley. - 1350-1917 .- 1365-2575. ; 24:5, s. 425-444
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The widespread uptake of mobile technologies has witnessed a re-structuring of the mobile market with major shifts in the predominance of particular firms and the emergence of new business models. These sociotechnical trends are significant in the ways that they are influencing and shaping the working lives of software professionals. Building on prior research investigating the persistent problems and practices of systems development, this paper examines mobile applications development and distribution. A qualitative study of 60 developers based in Sweden, the UK and the USA was analysed around the interrelated problems of diversity, knowledge and structure. The analysis revealed how platform-based development in an evolving mobile market represents significant changes at the business environment level. These changes ripple through and accentuate ongoing trends and developments, intensifying the persistent problems and challenges facing software developers.
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| 6. |
- Bergvall-Kåreborn, Birgitta, et al.
(författare)
-
The Apple business model : Crowdsourcing mobile applications
- 2013
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Ingår i: Accounting Forum. - : Informa UK Limited. - 0155-9982 .- 1467-6303. ; 37:4, s. 280-289
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Much to Apple's chagrin, the ‘suicide express’ at the Foxconn manufacturing complex in China has been widely reported. While outsourcing the manufacture of technology components is neither new nor unique, the external sourcing of digital content is integral to the success of Apple's business model. In 2008, Apple opened up their platform to third-party IT developers, leveraging their expertise for the supply of applications. Apple's rapid dominance of the mobile market led to the emergence of a business model that weaves together Internet-enabled mobile devices with digital content, brought together within a closed proprietary platform or ecosystem. Applying a Global Production Network analysis, this paper reports on fieldwork among Apple mobile application developers in Sweden, the UK, and the US. The analysis shows that although some developers experience success, financial returns remain elusive and many encounter intense pressure to generate and market new products in a competitive and saturated market. Crowdsourcing allows Apple to effectively source development to a global base of software developers, capitalizing on the mass production of digital products while simultaneously managing to sidestep the incurred costs and responsibilities associated with directly employing a high-tech workforce.
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| 7. |
- Bergvall-Kåreborn, Birgitta, et al.
(författare)
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‘The future’s bright, the future’s mobile’ : a study of Apple and Google mobile application developers
- 2013
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Ingår i: Work, Employment and Society. - : SAGE Publications. - 0950-0170 .- 1469-8722. ; 27:6, s. 964-981
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Software work is often depicted as a ‘sunrise occupation’, consisting of knowledge workers that are able to craft stable careers. The aim of this article is to question this account by analysing the experiences of mobile applications developers, with a focus on Apple and Google platforms. The analysis is situated in the context of wider socioeconomic trends and developments in product and technology markets, since these structures frame the working practices of software developers. Drawing on qualitative fieldwork in Sweden, the UK, and the US, the study reveals how changing market structures have given rise to increasingly precarious working conditions and unstable labour markets.
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| 8. |
- Bergvall-Kåreborn, Birgitta, et al.
(författare)
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User expressions translated into requirements
- 2010
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Ingår i: Human Technology. - : Centre of Sociological Research, NGO. - 1795-6889. ; 6:2, s. 212-229
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Grounding the development of mobile and ubiquitous services on actual needs and behaviors of users, rather than on designers intuition, is a well established tradition today. However, gathering data about users in different contexts usually result in large amounts of data that have to be analyzed and translated into requirements. This is a crucial process in the development cycle and its outcome is usually very dependent on the preconceptions of the developers or researchers. Despite this strong element of subjective influence the translation process is seldom made transparent. Nor are the user needs related to psychological discussions and existing taxonomies. The aim of this paper is, therefore, to contribute to the field by presenting a process for translating user expressions to needs and later to requirements using Reiss taxonomy of human needs as a theoretical base. Using this translation process we were able to identify two hierarchical levels of needs: needs of a service and needs in the service. The process also made it possible for us to see needs hidden in general expressions and to reformulate them accordingly. Further, it generated a clear traceability from user expressions to requirements, and finally, confirmed the importance of focusing on, and understanding, the situated needs of users.
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| 9. |
- Johansson, Jeaneth, et al.
(författare)
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Business models at work in the mobile service sector
- 2012
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Ingår i: iBusiness. - : Scientific Research Publishing, Inc.. - 2150-4075 .- 2150-4083. ; 4:1, s. 84-92
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This paper aims to enhance the knowledge of business models in the mobile service sector by exploring their key mechanisms and underlying components. By combining the business model literature with empirical interview-based case studies of 69 business models in the mobile service sector, it illustrates the findings of a longitudinal case study of a business model design attached to an iPhone application. A model for managing business model design in an open innovation context of mobile services is proposed. The model extends earlier frameworks by adding contingency aspects and the view of core resources for addressing logics in the dynamic sector. Findings highlight the importance of ventures in the mobile service sector continually managing the business model design in order to support the sustainability of their business models.
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| 10. |
- Lassinantti, Josefin, et al.
(författare)
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Shaping Local Open Data Initiatives: Politics and Implications
- 2014
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Ingår i: Journal of Theoretical and Applied Electronic Commerce Research. - 0718-1876. ; 9:2, s. 17-33
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This article explores different perspectives attributed to the open data initiatives and how these perspectives shape the opening-up process. A socio-technical lens, the social construction of technology, was used to analyse a qualitative cross-case study of two Swedish municipalities. Findings revealed two ways of interpreting open data initiatives: 1) as a platform for techno-economic growth and 2) as a platform for co-created societal growth. These two approaches addressed the municipalities respective contextual challenges and interests alongside national recommendations in their aims to realize the open data initiative. In doing so, they diverged into the evolvement toward two different ends: the realization of open data and the realization of open government. To excel the understanding of actions taken to meet these ends, an additional set of differences between these municipalities is provided within a sociotechnical framework that allows us to discuss diverging evolvements of open data initiatives based on agreed and non-agreed interpretations of what is believed to be constructed.
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