1.
Bonazzi, Riccardo, et al.
(författare)
Discussing blockchain applications in TED Talks: A fashion wave approach to understanding the blockchain phenomenon
2023
Ingår i: PLOS ONE. - : PUBLIC LIBRARY SCIENCE. - 1932-6203. ; 18:7
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat) abstract
Since its first appearance as the infrastructure supporting Bitcoin, blockchain has received different waves of attention from practitioners and academics. Besides the degree of interest, the attention to blockchain has often focused not merely on its own potential and characteristics but on its applications field. However, looking at its application and deployment in domains other than cryptocurrency or the nascent non-fungible tokens (NFTs), blockchain technology does not seem to be widely adopted or is still in its early stages. Given this, we are interested in how managers and the general public are informed about new technology other than through academic papers or the specialized press. In this paper, we analyze how blockchain has been presented by speakers invited to give TED and TEDx Talks to identify the most common terms used to present blockchain in these talks using a multi-methods approach (qualitative analysis and big data analysis) and see if the discourse surrounding blockchain has shifted over time. The results of this study show how the different perspectives brought by broadcasters like TED often overshadow a technological innovation like the blockchain in its evolution and application by the fact that the focus is instead shifted to products and services built on it. Also, this study shows how different degrees of attention and expertise are associated with each fashion wave of new or emergent technology innovations.
2.
Ramsell, Elina, 1981-, et al.
(författare)
Using Volunteers for Emergency Response in Rural Areas : Network Collaboration Factors and IT support in the Case of Enhanced Neighbors
2017
Ingår i: Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management. - Albi : ISCRAM Association. ; , s. 985-995
Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat) abstract
In public services, there is a trend to increasingly utilize collaborations with non-professional volunteers for certain tasks, one example being emergency response. In many of these collaborations, information technology (IT) is an essential tool, and inadequate IT support can have far-reaching consequences—including even the loss of lives. Since a volunteer is a different type of actor, and may have different technical requirements, compared to professionals, there is a need to explore how collaborations between professionals and volunteers can be successfully developed. This paper is based on a case study of the Enhanced Neighbor project, which uses volunteers as first responders in emergency response. The study highlights important factors to consider when involving volunteers, including how IT can foster the collaboration, and the volunteers’ needs for IT support.
3.
Researching Intimacies and New Media : Methodological Opportunities and Challenges
2019
Ingår i: Qualitative Inquiry. - : Sage Publications. - 1077-8004 .- 1552-7565. ; 25:3, s. 231-236
Samlingsverk (redaktörskap) (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
Researching intimacies and new media encompasses a wide variety of intersecting practices and relationships. This special issue presents contributions from researchers who are investigating practices of intimacy mediated either wholly or in part through new media in which a variety of different methodological opportunities and challenges are highlighted and discussed. Existing research has addressed different combinations of new media, intimacy, and methodology, but there remains space for a dedicated focus on the ways in which these areas are interrelated and entangled. The articles in this special issue build up a conversation around this particular intersection from a range of directions, from reflections on specific technological devices/apps and their promotion of particular forms of intimacies that may lead to (dis)comfort and (dis)connection, to the intimate—and sometimes risky—investments in research processes and fieldwork, as well as the ethical frameworks and decision-making processes guiding the research.
4.
Cameron, Lachlan, et al.
(författare)
NAMAs and INDCs : Interactions and opportunities
2015
Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
Countries representing more than 90 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions and population have submitted intendednationally determined contributions (INDCs) in anticipation of the 21st COP in Paris. In parallel, developing countries are designing at least 152 nationally appropriate mitigation actions (NAMAs) and 13 have secured implementation funding. Connecting these two concepts, more than a third of developing countries communicate a role for NAMAs in their INDCs. It is therefore vital to understand the potential role of NAMAs (here understood as specific actions) with respect to INDCs (which are often broader targets) and vice versa. This paper explores the links between NAMAs and INDCs with regard to various elements central to their implementation, including: access to finance; stakeholder engagement; sustainable development impacts; measurement, reporting and verification (MRV); and institutional frameworks.To avoid delaying mitigation action any further, it is important to keep momentum behind NAMAs. They represent one of the few tools at our disposal for countries to undertake mitigation actions, be recognised for these efforts, and mobilise climate finance and investment. The skills and learning on NAMA development can be seen more fundamentally as capacity for the design of bottom-up actions. Attention should be paid now to ensure that this capacity is maintained in the future. To do this, continued attention must be paid to NAMAs in Paris, as a key implementation tool for INDCs and, therefore, a key element of the success of a new global climate agreement.
5.
Radits, Markus, 1981-
(författare)
A Business Ecology Perspective on Community-Driven Open Source : The Case of the Free and Open Source Content Management System Joomla
2019
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
This thesis approaches the phenomenon of open source software (OSS) from a managerial and organisational point of view. In a slightly narrower sense, this thesis studies commercialisation aspects around community-driven open source. The term ‘community-driven’ signifies open source projects that are managed, steered, and controlled by communities of volunteers, as opposed to those that are managed, steered, and controlled by single corporate sponsors.By adopting a business ecology perspective, this thesis places emphasis on the larger context within which the commercialisation of OSS is embedded (e.g., global and collaborative production regimes, ideological foundations, market characteristics, and diffuse boundary conditions). Because many business benefits arise as a consequence of the activities taking place in the communities and ecosystems around open source projects, a business ecology perspective may be a useful analytical guide for understanding the opportunities, challenges, and risks that firms face in commercializing OSS.There are two overarching themes guiding this thesis. The first theme concerns the challenges that firms face in commercialising community-driven open source. There is a tendency in the literature on business ecosystems and open source to emphasise the benefits, opportunities, and positive aspects of behaviour, at the expense of the challenges that firms face. However, business ecosystems are not only spaces of opportunity, they may also pose a variety of challenges that firms need to overcome in order to be successful. To help rectify this imbalance in the literature, the first theme particularly focuses on the challenges that firms face in commercialising community-driven open source. The underlying ambition is to facilitate a more balanced and holistic understanding of the collaborative and competitive dynamics in ecosystems around open source projects.The other theme concerns the complex intertwining of community engagement and profit-oriented venturing. As is acknowledged in the literature, the subject of firm-community interaction has become increasingly important because the survival, success, and sustainability of peer production communities has become of strategic relevance to many organisations. However, while many strategic benefits may arise as a consequence of firm-community interaction, there is a lack of research studying how the value-creating logics of firm–community interaction are embedded within the bigger picture in which they occur. Bearing this bigger picture in mind, this thesis explores the intertwining of volunteer community engagement and profit-oriented venturing by focusing on four aspects that are theorised in the literature: reinforcement, complementarity, synergy, and reciprocity.This thesis is designed as a qualitative exploratory single-case study. The empirical case is Joomla, a popular open source content management system. In a nutshell, the Joomla case in this thesis comprises the interactions in the Joomla community and the commercial activities around the Joomla platform (e.g., web development, consulting, marketing, customisation, extensions). In order to achieve greater analytical depth, the business ecology perspective is complemented with ideas and propositions from other theoretical areas, such as stakeholder theory, community governance, organizational identity, motivation theory, pricing, and bundling.The findings show that the common challenges in commercialising community-driven open source revolve around nine distinct factors that roughly cluster into three domains: the ecosystem, the community, and the firm. In short, the domain of the ecosystem comprises the global operating environment, the pace of change, and the cannibalisation of ideas. The domain of the community comprises the platform policy, platform image, and the voluntary nature of the open source project. And finally, the domain of the firm comprises the blurring boundaries between private and professional lives, the difficulty of estimating costs, and firm dependencies. Based on these insights, a framework for analysing community-based value creation in business ecosystems is proposed. This framework integrates collective innovation, community engagement, and value capture into a unified model of value creation in contexts of firm–community interaction.Furthermore, the findings reveal demonstrable effects of reinforcement, complementarity, synergy, and reciprocity in the intertwining of volunteer community engagement and profit-oriented venturing. By showing that this intertwining can be strong in empirical cases where commercial activities are often implicitly assumed to be absent, this thesis provides a more nuanced understanding of firm involvement in the realm of open source.Based on the empirical and analytical insights, a number of further theoretical implications are discussed, such as the role of intersubjective trust in relation to the uncertainties that commercial actors face, an alternative way of classifying community types, the metaphor of superorganisms in the context of open source, issues pertaining to the well-being of community participants, and issues in relation to the transitioning of open source developers from a community-based to an entrepreneurial self-identity when commercialising an open source solution. Furthermore, this thesis builds on six sub-studies that make individual contributions of their own.In a broad sense, this thesis contributes to the literature streams on the commercialisation of OSS, the business value and strategic aspects of open source, the interrelationships between community forms of organising and entrepreneurial activities, and the nascent research on ecology perspectives on peer-production communities. A variety of opportunities for future research are highlighted.
6.
Pilemalm, Sofie, 1973-
(författare)
Participatory Design in Emerging Civic Engagement Initiatives in the New Public Sector : Applying PD Concepts in Resource-Scarce Organizations
2018
Ingår i: ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction. - : ACM Digital Library. - 1073-0516 .- 1557-7325. ; 25:1, s. 5:1-5:26
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat) abstract
In this study, we address the role of Participatory Design (PD) in emerging public sector governance forms and, more specifically, civic engagement and we-government initiatives. We achieve this by first providing a research overview of the development of PD approaches since they originated in the 1970s, identifying different PD generations and associated concepts, contexts, and challenges, and then relating them to current public sector trends. Next, we link the overview to a practical example by presenting a case of applying PD to a civic engagement project that takes place in the Swedish emergency response system. Our example findings sustain previously identified needs to return to broad change processes and balance this with ICT re-configuration and structuration of the collaborative processes, the related stakeholders, and their needs, this time in a context where work tasks and responsibilities are not yet defined, known or experienced among stakeholders. We then suggest methodological ways to handle this by (1) applying an interdisciplinary PD approach, (2) replacing the traditional design group with a combination of various qualitative methods and PD techniques, e.g., focus groups, modified scenario-based future workshops, exercises, and after-action-reviews, and (3) support PD activities with context-specific frameworks. We argue that applying PD concepts to the governance forms that are emerging in resource-constrained public sector organizations poses a number of challenges, many of them relating directly to the unknown character of the work setting and the practical difficulties of involving civil citizens as end-users. However, if they are addressed and handled adequately, making civic engagement initiatives work processes and ICT support to work smoothly, this can contribute to a re-politicization of PD in terms of space, action, and the empowerment of citizens both by enhancing their skills and by having them represented in design activities.
7.
Söderström, Sara, 1980-, et al.
(författare)
‘Environmental governance’ and ‘ecosystem management’ : avenues for synergies between two approaches
2016
Ingår i: Interdisciplinary Environmental Review. - Bucks : InderScience Publishers. - 1521-0227 .- 2042-6992. ; 17:1, s. 1-19
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat) abstract
Based on a literature review of over 160 journal articles and books, this article examines the ecosystem management and environmental governance approaches, and looks for common topics and integrated research agendas. While scientific articles on environmental governance stem primarily from social science research, the ecosystem management approach is more natural science-oriented. A review of journal articles from the ISI Web of Knowledge (Web of Science) reveals that the two research communities hardly interact. The paper discusses two thematic linkages between the two approaches: the debates dealing with the scale and level of environmental policy; and the discussions surrounding multi-stakeholder participation. Moreover, the article identifies areas with a high potential for the establishment of common ground, such as the current discussion on science-policy interfaces. We argue for more interaction, claim that the two research approaches can learn from each other, and discuss the potential for the development of interdisciplinary research agendas.
8.
Elg, Mattias, 1968-, et al.
(författare)
Service action research: review and guidelines
2020
Ingår i: Journal of Services Marketing. - : Emerald Group Publishing Limited. - 0887-6045. ; 34:1, s. 87-99
Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat) abstract
Purpose Conducting research that is both practice- and theory-relevant is important for the service research community. Action research can be a fruitful approach for service researchers studying the transformative role of service research and wanting to make contributions to both the research community and to practical development. By exploring the current use of action research in service research, this study aims to make suggestions for enhancing the contribution to theory and practice development and to propose criteria for research quality for action research in service research. Design/methodology/approach This study builds on a systematic literature review of the use of action research approaches in service research. Findings The study makes three main contributions. First, it posits that any action research project needs to consider the four elements of problem identification, theorization, creating guiding concepts and intervention. Second, based on these elements mirrored in service action research, it outlines and analyzes three approaches to action research (i.e. theory-enhancing, concept developing and practice-enhancing). Third, it suggests a move from instrumental to a more conceptual relevance of the research and elaborates on the criteria for research quality. Originality/value This study contributes to the understanding of how action research may be applied for conducting high-quality collaborative research in services and proposes measures to enhance research quality in action research projects focusing services.
9.
Batini, Carlo, et al.
(författare)
Opening the Closed World : A Survey of Information Quality Research in the Wild
2014
Ingår i: The Philosophy of Information Quality. - Cham : Springer International Publishing. ; , s. 43-73
Bokkapitel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
In this paper we identify and discuss key topics characterizing recent information quality research and their impact on future research perspectives in a context where information is increasingly diverse. The investigation considers basic issues related to information quality definitions, dimensions, and factors referring to information systems, information representation, influence of the observer and of the task. We conclude the paper by discussing how philosophical studies can contribute to a better understanding of some key foundational problems that emerged in our analysis.
10.
Johansson, Veronica, 1974-, et al.
(författare)
Making time/breaking time : critical literacy and politics of time in data visualisation
2021
Ingår i: Journal of Documentation. - : Emerald Group Holdings Ltd.. - 0022-0418 .- 1758-7379.
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat) abstract
Purpose: Representations of time are commonly used to construct narratives in visualisations of data. However, since time is a value-laden concept, and no representation can provide a full, objective account of “temporal reality”, they are also biased and political: reproducing and reinforcing certain views and values at the expense of alternative ones. This conceptual paper aims to explore expressions of temporal bias and politics in data visualisation, along with possibly mitigating user approaches and design strategies. Design/methodology/approach: This study presents a theoretical framework rooted in a sociotechnical view of representations as biased and political, combined with perspectives from critical literacy, radical literacy and critical design. The framework provides a basis for discussion of various types and effects of temporal bias in visualisation. Empirical examples from previous research and public resources illustrate the arguments. Findings: Four types of political effects of temporal bias in visualisations are presented, expressed as limitation of view, disregard of variation, oppression of social groups and misrepresentation of topic and suggest that appropriate critical and radical literacy approaches require users and designers to critique, contextualise, counter and cross beyond expressions of the same. Supporting critical design strategies involve the inclusion of multiple datasets and representations; broad access to flexible tools; and inclusive participation of marginalised groups. Originality/value: The paper draws attention to a vital, yet little researched problem of temporal representation in visualisations of data. It offers a pioneering bridging of critical literacy, radical literacy and critical design and emphasises mutual rather than contradictory interests of the empirical sciences and humanities. © 2021, Veronica Johansson and Jörgen Stenlund.
