| 1. |
- Aasi, Parisa, 1986-
(författare)
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Information Technology Governance: The Role of Organizational Culture and Structure
- 2018
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Information Technology Governance (ITG) is among the most important challenges for the managers today. IT is not anymore just a supportive tool but also a strategic driver for the businesses. In the dynamic and competitive world of today, it is crucial for organizations to know how to govern IT rather than just to use it. IT governance deals with specifying responsibilities and decision rights to encourage the desirable behaviour from IT and generate value from IT investments. IT governance can impact the overall performance of organizations, however there are still difficulties in understanding IT governance and the factors that may influence it.Organizational culture and structure are among the factors that have significant influence on many issues in an organization. According to previous research, organizational culture and structure need to be considered when implementing IT governance. However, there is a lack of research focusing on how organizational culture and structure can influence IT governance performance and implementation. Thus, the main research question addressed in this thesis is: How are organizational culture and structure related to IT governance? To address this question, this research has performed literature reviews and conducted case studies to investigate the role of organizational culture and structure on IT governance. As the first step, the previous literature was reviewed to find the gaps in the research on culture and IT governance. As the next step, four case studies were conducted to explore the influence of organizational culture and structure on IT governance. Two case studies have investigated the relation between organizational structure and IT governance implementation and performance in large organizations; and two other case studies investigated on how different types of organizational culture influence IT governance performance outcomes.The results of this research respond to the research question by specifying the role of culture in IT governance through a categorization of prior research both from research and practice perspectives; specifying the influence of different organizational culture types on IT governance performance outcomes in different organizations; and by specifying IT organizational structure relationship with IT governance performance outcomes and IT governance implementation.The research presented in this thesis provides both theoretical and empirical contributions to the IT governance research and practice.
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| 2. |
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| 3. |
- Aghaee, Naghmeh, 1986-
(författare)
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The Usefulness of ICT Support Systems for Thesis Courses : Learners' Perspectives at Bachelor and Master Level
- 2015
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Doing a bachelor’s or master’s degree is a journey that leads to success or attrition (dropout). Previous research show to the significance of considering learners’ perspectives and their need for information and different types of interaction. This can be done through online ICTSS (information and communication technology support systems). The overall aim of this dissertation was to create knowledge about how the use of ICTSS can facilitate different types of interaction and support learners in order to reduce thesis problems and attrition and to enhance the quality of the thesis outcomes. The aim was operationalized by two research questions scrutinizing the interaction problems in the thesis process and investigating how the use of ICTSS can facilitate different types of interaction to reduce such problems and attrition, and to enhance the learning opportunities and quality of the thesis outcomes. To answer the research questions, five main studies were performed by applying different research methods on a case study. The empirical studies were performed at the Department of Computer and Systems Sciences (DSV) at Stockholm University, Sweden. The respondents were different learners (students) with active thesis projects at the bachelor or master level in different programs at DSV between 2012 and 2015. For the first two studies, conceptual and content analysis of the data collected from the case study was performed. For the three other studies, open-ended online questionnaires (survey) and interviews were conducted. On the basis of the findings, three main types of interaction issues were developed which related to the need for more learner-content, peer-to-peer, and learner-supervisor interaction in the thesis process. The hypothesis was that the interaction issues could be reduced by implementing a set of strategic suggestions through the use of an ICTSS including a set of functionalities and resources. The usefulness of these functionalities and resources was evaluated with regard to the learners’ perception and experiences. The findings were categorized to facilitate learner-content, peer-to-peer, and learner-supervisor interaction, as well as management of the contents, supervision, and communication of the supervisory team. From these categories, a conceptual framework was developed in this dissertation to illustrate how the use of the ICTSS supports the thesis process. In conclusion, providing access to a set of structured e-resources and supporting educational communication through different types of interaction with peers and the supervisory team, enables learners’ self-managed learning and facilitates similar learning opportunities for learners in thesis courses.
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| 4. |
- Al Sabbagh, Bilal, 1978-
(författare)
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Cybersecurity Incident Response : A Socio-Technical Approach
- 2019
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis examines the cybersecurity incident response problem using a socio-technical approach. The motivation of this work is the need to bridge the knowledge and practise gap that exists because of the increasing complexity of cybersecurity threats and our limited capability of applying cybersecurity controls necessary to adequately respond to these threats. Throughout this thesis, knowledge from Systems Theory, Soft Systems Methodology and Socio-Technical Systems is applied to examine and document the socio-technical properties of cybersecurity incident response process. The holistic modelling of cybersecurity incident response process developed concepts and methods tested to improve the socio-technical security controls and minimise the existing gap in security controls.The scientific enquiry of this thesis is based on pragmatism as the underpinning research philosophy. The thesis uses a design science research approach and embeds multiple research methods to develop five artefacts (concept, model, method, framework and instantiation) outlined in nine peer-reviewed publications. The instantiated artefact embraces the knowledge developed during this research to provide a prototype for a socio-technical security information and event management system (ST-SIEM) integrated with an open source SIEM tool. The artefact relevance was validated through a panel of cybersecurity experts using a Delphi method. The Delphi method indicated the artefact can improve the efficacy of handling cybersecurity incidents.
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| 5. |
- Alwazae, Meshari, 1981-
(författare)
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Template-driven Documentation of Best Practices
- 2015
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Knowledge Management has become a key instrument for identifying, creating and sharing organizational knowledge assets. An attractive means for sharing knowledge is Best Practices (BPs), which are proven as well as efficient and effective solutions to recurring problems. BPs can offer significant benefits, including improved performance, reduced re-work and cost savings. However, it is challenging to share and use BP Documents (BPDs) in organizations, which is the overall problem addressed in this thesis. More precisely, the thesis focuses on two sub-problems: 1) The difficulty of finding and selecting appropriate BPs in large collections of BPs impedes the use of BPs, and 2) The low quality of BPDs impedes the use of BPs. Related to these problems, the thesis addresses two sub-goals. The first one is to design a BP Annotation Template for supporting the identification and selection of BPs in BP repositories. The template can be used for organizing and indexing the contents of BPDs independent of domain. The second sub-goal is to design a BP Document Template for supporting the creation, use and evaluation of BP documentation. The BP Document Template offers a structure for describing BPs in a detailed and systematic way. The research methodology applied is design science, which is the scientific study and creation of artifacts as they are developed and used by people with the goal of solving practical problems. The first artifact, the BP Annotation Template, has been designed and developed based on a literature study and evaluated using expert interviews. The second artifact, the BP Document Template, has been designed and developed based on a literature study using grounded theory as well as on interviews with KM experts. The BP Document Template has been evaluated using expert interviews and demonstrated by being applied in three real-life cases. By basing the two artifacts on literature studies, the two artifacts consolidate, integrate and extend previous work on BP documentation. The evaluations indicate that the BP Annotation Template provides a strong foundation for identifying and selecting BPs, independent of domain, and that the BP Document Template can support the structuring of BP documents so that they become complete, uniform and easy-to-use. An identified drawback of the two artifacts is the need for extensive resources for implementing and applying them since they may be complex and time-consuming to use. The artifacts are expected to support BP designers as well as BP managers and BP users.
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| 6. |
- Andrenucci, Andrea, 1971-
(författare)
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Using Language Technology to Mediate Medical Information on Health Portals : User Studies and Experiments
- 2018
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The World Wide Web has revolutionized our lifestyle, our economies and services within health care. Health care services are no longer provided only at specialist centers and at scheduled hours, but also through online tools that give health care consumers access to medical information, health records, medical counselling and peer support. Such tools and applications are generally available on larger web sites or gateways called health portals. A large majority of online medical information consumers are laypeople (i.e. non experts) who appreciate the possibility to submit their information needs in their own native language. The information retrieval process where information requests from users and retrieved documents/answers are in different languages is called cross-language information retrieval (CLIR). Mental health is one of the medical areas where some online applications have been successfully deployed in order to help people by providing in-depth medical information, counseling and advice. Despite the fact that online health portals are considered priority e-health tools for improving mental health, there are no formal knowledge instruments such as knowledge patterns that explicitly support the development of online health portals in the field of psychology/psychotherapy. The goal of this research is to produce and evaluate a set of knowledge patterns, for the development and implementation of cross-lingual online health portals aimed at information seekers without medical expertise in the domain of psychology and psychotherapy. The knowledge patterns synthetize results of three research foundations: 1) User studies of portal interaction, based on interviews and observations about how users experience health information online and personalized search 2) Knowledge integration of existing language technology approaches, and 3) Experiments with language technology applications, in the field of cross-lingual information retrieval/question-answering. The target groups of this research are developers, researchers and health care providers, i.e. people who are responsible for mediating medical information on online health portals for users without medical expertise. The chosen research framework is design science, i.e. the science that focuses on the study, development and evaluation of artefacts (objects that help people solve a practical problem). Typical examples of artefacts in IT are algorithms, software solutions and databases, but also objects such as processes or knowledge patterns. The developed and evaluated artefact in this research is a set of knowledge patterns for online health portal development. The developed artefact contains fourteen knowledge patterns covering the three research foundations. Formative (structured workshops) and summative (online survey) evaluation of the artefact indicate that the knowledge patterns are useful, relevant and adoptable to a large extent, they also provide further directions for development of online mental health portals. Developing portals with multilingual support and tailored interfaces has the potential of helping larger groups of citizens to access relevant medical information.
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| 7. |
- Bahati, Bernard, 1973-
(författare)
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Technology-enhanced formative assessment in higher education : An intervention design of scaffolding student self-regulated learning
- 2019
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- As online learning is increasingly adopted in higher education institutions, many instructors are faced with the challenges of devising and implementing effective pedagogical practices that advance student learning. One of the challenges points to the design and development of assessment activities that truly inform the teaching and learning process. Despite the fact that both formative and summative assessment are important in teaching and learning, summative assessment has been dominating instructional processes in higher education at the expense of formative assessment. In higher education, in many countries including Rwanda, efforts that are made to practice formative assessment are hampered by a variety of factors that lead to ill-practices. Using technology-enhanced instructional interventions, this study attempted to address these factors. The study aimed at developing technology-enhanced instructional interventions to support student-based formative assessment that promote self-regulated learning. Additionally, this study proposes the design guidelines for the development of such instructional interventions. The study was guided by the following general research question: What are the characteristics of technology-enhanced formative assessment activities that promote student self-regulated learning? This research question was addressed using three specific research questions: (1) How do lecturers and students understand and practice formative assessment and feedback? (2) How can technology-enhanced formative assessment activities help student develop self-regulated learning skills? (3) What design guidelines should be followed in order to develop technology-enhanced formative assessment activities that promote student self-regulated learning? This study used Educational Design Research approach. Technology-enhanced instructional interventions were formatively developed, iteratively tested and evaluated in order to help students develop their self-regulated learning skills. Based on the findings of this study, three improved formative e-assessment packages are proposed as a practical research contribution: online knowledge survey, online peer-scaffolding through student-generated questions and peer-responses, and electronic reflective journals. In addition, based on the findings, this dissertation suggests a set of design guidelines and lessons learned in order to inform other educational practitioners who would like to develop technology-enhanced formative assessment activities that promote student-regulated learning.
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| 8. |
- Dalianis, Hercules
(författare)
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Slutrapport KVALPA : Vilka KVaLitetsindikatorer i PAtientjournalens fria text behövs för att kunna mäta kvalitén på vården? Skapandet av en automatisk metod genom maskininlärning
- 2019
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Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Detta är en förstudie för att automatiskt hitta kvalitetsindikatorer i den fria texten i elektroniska patientjournaler från Karolinska universitetssjukhuset. Kvalitetsindikatorerna som studerats indikerar urinvägsinfektioner, sepsis, fallskada, trycksår, nutrition och biverkan av läkemedel. En intervjustudie genomfördes för att förstå problematiken, ett regelbaserat system implementerades i programmerings- språket Python. Systemet kallas för KVALPA och använder sig av triggerord och applicerades på 100 patientjournaler från fem olika kliniska enheter. 102 kvalitetsindikatorer hittades varav 26 var negerade och ytterligare hittades genom manuell analys. De negerade indikatorerna visar att det saknas indikatorer på dålig kvalitet, utom i fallet nutrition. Framtida utvecklingar är att utöka triggerlistan med synonymer framtagna automatiskt men också att annotera upp en guldstandard som kan användas för att evaluera precision och täckning av systemet.
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| 9. |
- Faraon, Montathar, 1983-
(författare)
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Co-creating democracy : Conceptualizing co-creative media to facilitate democratic engagement in society
- 2018
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Internet-based information and communication technology (ICT) have increasingly been used to facilitate and support democratic engagement in society. A growing body of research has demonstrated that the Internet and, in particular, social media have given citizens the opportunity to participate, interact, network, collaborate, and mobilize themselves within communities. While these media have broadened the means of exercising citizenship in many forms of participatory democracy, the technological prerequisites exist to go beyond the standard uses of social media (e.g., social networking, entertainment) and towards proactive and co-creative democratic engagement. Such engagement includes, but is not limited to, participatory activities for democratic purposes. Further, some researchers have argued that representative democracy is in decline and has several limitations related to citizens' trust in politicians and engagement with representative institutions. There is a recognition among scholars to infuse representative democracy with participatory bottom-up processes by employing ICT in an attempt to bridge these limitations. In order to further facilitate and support participatory as well as co-creative processes, this thesis elaborates a concept of co-creative media.The process of this work was guided by the following question: How can co-creative media be theoretically anchored and conceptualized in order to facilitate and support citizen engagement within democratic processes? A concept-driven design research approach was adopted to address this research question, and this resulted in five interconnected articles. Firstly, based on the results from each article, four design guidelines were formulated to further guide the design of co-creative media for democratic engagement. These design guidelines may support future participatory design processes in which stakeholders collectively contribute to the development and evaluation of co-creative media. The guidelines constitute a resource that stakeholders may use to develop adaptations of co-creative media for the purposes of facilitating democratic engagement. Secondly, the results from each article were fed forward into the concept-driven research process as theoretical and empirical insights, which were used to inform and elaborate the main contribution of this thesis, namely the concept of co-creative media.The concept of co-creative media in its form outlined by this thesis seeks to broaden citizens’ democratic engagement by means of creating virtual spaces in which new ideas, initiatives, knowledge, solutions, and digital tools could emerge. The implications of co-creative media could be to create, develop, and strengthen partnerships between communities and local services, extend digital skills in society through community-engaged practitioners, and propagate as well as coordinate large-scale co-creative practices.
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| 10. |
- Fasth, Tobias, 1980-
(författare)
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Decision Analysis in Situations with Conflicting Interests
- 2019
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Decision problems in participatory decision making involve multiple stakeholders, who often have conflicting preferences concerning the actions under consideration. Decision problems such as these can be structured as multi-criteria problems, which enables the actions to be evaluated in terms of more than one single criterion. In these situations, the complexity of the problem increases when the objective is to select a portfolio of actions. Another aspect to take into consideration is that the choice of actions often has a long-term impact on the lives of the stakeholders. It is therefore not surprising that these problems often are sources of costly and time-consuming conflicts.This thesis presents artifacts in the form of methods and applications aiding the decision maker in participatory decision making problems in highlighting stakeholder conflict. The artifacts are DANCE, XPLOR, POLA, and SENS. DANCE is a framework of methods that are used to elicit preferences, and to measure and analyze conflicts between and within stakeholder groups regarding the performance of an action. The framework uses three novel artifacts: i) CAR-CE a method for preference elicitation, ii) two indices, one for measuring the conflict within one stakeholder group, one for measuring the conflict between two stakeholder groups, and iii) an approach to portfolio optimisation and robustness analysis. XPLOR is a web-application that is used to explore and visualise stakeholder conflicts. POLA is a web-application for evaluating commercial development policy in cooperation with key stakeholders. The last artifact, SENSE, is a method for sensitivity analysis of portfolios.The artifact development followed the design science methodology, where the aim of the artifact is to solve a practical problem and where, in this case, the artifacts were evaluated against a set of requirements. The preference elicitation method, CAR-CE, was implemented in a web-questionnaire and was used in a real-world survey in cooperation with Upplands Väsby municipality. The elicited preferences were used in illustrative scenarios to demonstrate both the DANCE framework and XPLOR. POLA was demonstrated in three examples based on results from workshops that were conducted together with the municipalities of Norrköping, Katrineholm and Filipstad. Altogether, these artifacts support decision makers in modeling and analyzing decision problems, with the purpose of avoiding future costly and time-consuming conflicts in land use planning.
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| 11. |
- Gamukama, Elly Amani, 1962-
(författare)
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Analytical modelling of Internet provision and usage in context of development through a utility based framework
- 2015
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Information and communication technology and development (ICTD) is a research area that has broadly captured the attention of the public and the academics in the last two decades. It deals with the interaction and the relations between the humans and the society in general on one side and the technology on the other side. The focus in this thesis is on the computing and communication technology, herein referred to as the “Internet – the IP based technology”, which is seen as one of the enablers for economic and social growth.The benefit of the Internet connectivity and usage in inducing and enhancing positive social changes in basic dimensions of human life is generally accepted as one of the most important drivers for development. The success and the inevitability of the Internet in the developed world underline its proliferation and diffusion essential in less developed countries. However, sometimes these processes are being impaired by unintended and intended consequences created by the social dynamics that drives the current information technological innovations and evolutions, stakeholders’ desire of fulfilling one’s utility egos, all coupled with market environments.This thesis takes an insight in both unintended and intended implications and their effects on enabling development in the environments where the Internet Protocol (IP) based infrastructures are limited like in Least Developing regions/countries. The results of this insight study have led in;a) Establishing the basic Internet services that would trigger the exploitation of one’s potential for development.This has been achieved through the use of analytical scientific methods to classify Internet traffic characteristics and derive the relevance levels of their corresponding Internet services groups in fostering development.b) Developing a framework that lays down structure guidelines to facilitate Decision Makers especially in least developed countries to make scientifically informed subjective judgements for Internet services in the context of development.c) Designing and developing of the Internet Services in the Context of Developing (ISCD) model that enables the alignment of the apparent divergent/misalignment objectives of Internet stakeholders in the present Internet structure to have their respective maximised intended benefits.Empirical testing of the model led in setting strategic options for aligning stakeholders goals in view of the ISCD along two main domains (i) network management policies – that focuses on provisions of services, and (ii) Internet consumption/usage – that focus on services relevance, commensurability to specific requirements as pertains LDCs, and services delivery mechanism convergence to all-IP.
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| 12. |
- Guerrero Razuri, Javier Francisco, 1977-
(författare)
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Decisional-Emotional Support System for a Synthetic Agent : Influence of Emotions in Decision-Making Toward the Participation of Automata in Society
- 2015
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Emotion influences our actions, and this means that emotion has subjective decision value. Emotions, properly interpreted and understood, of those affected by decisions provide feedback to actions and, as such, serve as a basis for decisions. Accordingly, "affective computing" represents a wide range of technological opportunities toward the implementation of emotions to improve human-computer interaction, which also includes insights across a range of contexts of computational sciences into how we can design computer systems to communicate and recognize the emotional states provided by humans. Today, emotional systems such as software-only agents and embodied robots seem to improve every day at managing large volumes of information, and they remain emotionally incapable to read our feelings and react according to them. From a computational viewpoint, technology has made significant steps in determining how an emotional behavior model could be built; such a model is intended to be used for the purpose of intelligent assistance and support to humans. Human emotions are engines that allow people to generate useful responses to the current situation, taking into account the emotional states of others. Recovering the emotional cues emanating from the natural behavior of humans such as facial expressions and bodily kinetics could help to develop systems that allow recognition, interpretation, processing, simulation, and basing decisions on human emotions. Currently, there is a need to create emotional systems able to develop an emotional bond with users, reacting emotionally to encountered situations with the ability to help, assisting users to make their daily life easier. Handling emotions and their influence on decisions can improve the human-machine communication with a wider vision. The present thesis strives to provide an emotional architecture applicable for an agent, based on a group of decision-making models influenced by external emotional information provided by humans, acquired through a group of classification techniques from machine learning algorithms. The system can form positive bonds with the people it encounters when proceeding according to their emotional behavior. The agent embodied in the emotional architecture will interact with a user, facilitating their adoption in application areas such as caregiving to provide emotional support to the elderly. The agent's architecture uses an adversarial structure based on an Adversarial Risk Analysis framework with a decision analytic flavor that includes models forecasting a human's behavior and their impact on the surrounding environment. The agent perceives its environment and the actions performed by an individual, which constitute the resources needed to execute the agent's decision during the interaction. The agent's decision that is carried out from the adversarial structure is also affected by the information of emotional states provided by a classifiers-ensemble system, giving rise to a "decision with emotional connotation" included in the group of affective decisions. The performance of different well-known classifiers was compared in order to select the best result and build the ensemble system, based on feature selection methods that were introduced to predict the emotion. These methods are based on facial expression, bodily gestures, and speech, with satisfactory accuracy long before the final system.
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| 13. |
- Gurung, Ram Bahadur, 1983-
(författare)
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Learning Decision Trees and Random Forests from Histogram Data : An application to component failure prediction for heavy duty trucks
- 2017
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- A large volume of data has become commonplace in many domains these days. Machine learning algorithms can be trained to look for any useful hidden patterns in such data. Sometimes, these big data might need to be summarized to make them into a manageable size, for example by using histograms, for various reasons. Traditionally, machine learning algorithms can be trained on data expressed as real numbers and/or categories but not on a complex structure such as histogram. Since machine learning algorithms that can learn from data with histograms have not been explored to a major extent, this thesis intends to further explore this domain.This thesis has been limited to classification algorithms, tree-based classifiers such as decision trees, and random forest in particular. Decision trees are one of the simplest and most intuitive algorithms to train. A single decision tree might not be the best algorithm in term of its predictive performance, but it can be largely enhanced by considering an ensemble of many diverse trees as a random forest. This is the reason why both algorithms were considered. So, the objective of this thesis is to investigate how one can adapt these algorithms to make them learn better on histogram data. Our proposed approach considers the use of multiple bins of a histogram simultaneously to split a node during the tree induction process. Treating bins simultaneously is expected to capture dependencies among them, which could be useful. Experimental evaluation of the proposed approaches was carried out by comparing them with the standard approach of growing a tree where a single bin is used to split a node. Accuracy and the area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve (AUC) metrics along with the average time taken to train a model were used for comparison. For experimental purposes, real-world data from a large fleet of heavy duty trucks were used to build a component-failure prediction model. These data contain information about the operation of trucks over the years, where most operational features are summarized as histograms. Experiments were performed further on the synthetically generated dataset. From the results of the experiments, it was observed that the proposed approach outperforms the standard approach in performance and compactness of the model but lags behind in terms of training time. This thesis was motivated by a real-life problem encountered in the operation of heavy duty trucks in the automotive industry while building a data driven failure-prediction model. So, all the details about collecting and cleansing the data and the challenges encountered while making the data ready for training the algorithm have been presented in detail.
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| 14. |
- Hjelmblom, Magnus, 1973-
(författare)
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Norm-Regulation of Agent Systems : Instrumentalizing an algebraic approach to agent system norms
- 2015
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- An architecture for norm-regulated multi-agent systems based on an algebraic approach to normative systems is instrumentalized and further developed. The core of the instrumentalization is a Prolog module, which together with a Java library can be used for creating client/server-based runtime systems. Norms are represented as conditional sentences, whose normative consequences are formulated by applying normative operators to descriptive conditions. From such general normative conditions follow normative sentences regarding specific states of affairs. These in turn result in permission or prohibition of individual actions in specific situations. Furthermore, an approach to turning runtime systems into instruments for problem-solving by using evolutionary mechanisms for evolving normative systems, is presented. The construction of norm-creating operators on conditions, which forms the basis for the representation of normative systems, is approached from two angles. (i) A logical analysis based on the Kanger-Lindahl theory of normative positions is conducted. This results in two extended sets of types of normative positions, and based on an algebraic version of one of these extended systems, a set of operators for creating agent-specific norms is constructed. (ii) An alternative analysis, which takes as its starting point a systematic exploration of types of state transitions, yields a set of norm-creating operators based on prohibition of transition types. It is furthermore argued that in the context of a class of transition systems, in which transitions are deterministic and associated with a single agent performing an act, operators based on (ii) specify a meaningful semantics of operators based on (i). Theoretical results together with shared code and example applications contribute to make possible theoretically sound, transparently described, and efficiently implemented norm-regulated autonomous agent systems.
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| 15. |
- Hodosi, Georg, 1948-
(författare)
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Information Technology Outsourcing in Large Companies in Sweden : A Perspective on Risks, Relationships and Success Factors
- 2017
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis investigates large private companies in Sweden that have outsourced their information technology (IT). A considerable proportion of IT outsourcing (ITO) is unsuccessful. For IT service buyers, this could cause IT that does not fully work, entailing problems with the network, application, infrastructure and security, with serious consequences such as a loss of customers’ confidence and significantly increased costs. Therefore, the main research goal was to analyse and define ways to improve ITO for buyer organizations. This main research goal was accomplished through three research goals that are the followings: 1) To develop a method for risk assessment in IT outsourcing; 2) To identify the important factors in IT outsourcing relationship; and 3) To identify the success factors in IT outsourcing. The research strategies applied in conducting this research were design science research and survey research. To achieve the first research goal, a method was developed for assessing the ITO risks, including support for mitigating these risks. This method could help both researchers and practitioners in estimating the ITO risks and in this way improve ITO. An application based on the developed method was used to facilitate the testing of this method by several ITO decision makers in large companies concerning its usability, correctness and functionality. Moreover, a study was performed to explore ITO decision makers’ acceptance of the developed method and their use of it for assessing the ITO risks. The second research goal investigated how to improve service buyers’ ITO relationship with their providers. A well-working ITO relationship is a critical determinant of successful ITO and is relevant to the whole ITO life cycle. This research goal was achieved by identifying and analysing the most important factors in ITO relationships, including a prioritized list of those factors that are highly recommended for use in creating and maintaining a good ITO relationship. The third research goal examined how to improve ITO by identifying and prioritizing the success factors (SFs) in ITO. This research identified the ITO SFs in large companies and provided a prioritized list of them to be applied in these companies with a description of the value that they could create from implementation during the ITO life cycle. Moreover, the SFs identified in large companies were compared with those identified in medium-sized companies, which could give an indication to the researchers in this field that company size matters in regard to the implementation order of the identified SFs. In summary, the research presented in this thesis contributes with: 1) a method for assessing the risks of outsourcing IT and, in the case that IT has been outsourced, suggested ways to mitigate them; 2) the important factors that could improve ITO relationships and 3) a prioritized list of success factors that could improve IT outsourcing.
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| 16. |
- Holmberg, Jörgen, 1972-
(författare)
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Designing for added pedagogical value : A design-based research study of teachers’ educational design with ICT
- 2019
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In an increasingly digitized world teachers are expected to take on the role of educational designers and use ICT to design in ways that add pedagogical value to teaching and learning. This thesis adopts a design-based research (DBR) approach to: (a) explore and contribute to the educational design processes of teachers of English as a foreign language in their efforts to use ICT for added pedagogical value, (b) examine how ICT is used in educational designs to create/contribute to what the teachers and students describe as added value and (c) explore, problematize and refine DBR as a research approach.Literature studies and a collaborative self-study preceded the DBR to guide its focus and implementation. The DBR was carried out over a period of two years in four upper secondary schools in Sweden in which every student had access to their own computer. The research data consists of: (a) audio recorded design conversations, (b) enacted educational designs and design elements as parts of these, (c) reflective log entries written by the participating teachers, (d) focus group interviews with students and (e) the researcher’s field notes.Six different theoretical frameworks and models are used in combination in the accompanying articles to analyze the data and achieve the three research aims. The findings show how teachers’ pedagogical reasoning and TPACK development are interconnected and reciprocal aspects of the educational design process and how the externalization of, and reflection on, these aspects is necessary to develop the specific and practical TPACK needed to realize design intentions in situated contexts. A number of challenges and opportunities in the educational process have been identified.Moreover, the findings show how ICT was used to contribute added value in educational designs by facilitating: (a) more authentic and seamless learning experiences in external online contexts with both in-class and out-of-class actors irrespective of time and place, (b) an exchange of digital knowledge representations of understanding and practice between different actors, e.g. for the purposes of modelling, supporting cognitive apprenticeship, meta-cognitive self-regulation and formative assessment and (c) new and extended forms of, and opportunities for, collaborative creation and meaning-making.The current common focus in DBR on the development of prescriptive design principles is problematized in relation to the findings of the thesis, which illustrate the complex and situated nature of the educational design process. A theoretically and empirically informed design framework (DF) is developed and used as a conceptual tool to guide and analyze educational design processes and enactments. The findings illustrate how the use of the DF and the process of collaborative design reflection contributed to the analysis of the teachers’ design intentions and de facto design practices and to a DBR format that allowed the participants to use their respective competencies in the development of educational designs for added value. The thesis thereby serves as an example of how DBR can be methodically implemented to study and generate increased knowledge about teachers’ design intentions and design practices, develop research-based educational designs in line with teachers’ pedagogical intentions and support their development as educational designers.
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| 17. |
- Homem, Irvin, 1985-
(författare)
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Advancing Automation in Digital Forensic Investigations
- 2018
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Digital Forensics is used to aid traditional preventive security mechanisms when they fail to curtail sophisticated and stealthy cybercrime events. The Digital Forensic Investigation process is largely manual in nature, or at best quasi-automated, requiring a highly skilled labour force and involving a sizeable time investment. Industry standard tools are evidence-centric, automate only a few precursory tasks (E.g. Parsing and Indexing) and have limited capabilities of integration from multiple evidence sources. Furthermore, these tools are always human-driven.These challenges are exacerbated in the increasingly computerized and highly networked environment of today. Volumes of digital evidence to be collected and analyzed have increased, and so has the diversity of digital evidence sources involved in a typical case. This further handicaps digital forensics practitioners, labs and law enforcement agencies, causing delays in investigations and legal systems due to backlogs of cases. Improved efficiency of the digital investigation process is needed, in terms of increasing the speed and reducing the human effort expended. This study aims at achieving this time and effort reduction, by advancing automation within the digital forensic investigation process.Using a Design Science research approach, artifacts are designed and developed to address these practical problems. Summarily, the requirements, and architecture of a system for automating digital investigations in highly networked environments are designed. The architecture initially focuses on automation of the identification and acquisition of digital evidence, while later versions focus on full automation and self-organization of devices for all phases of the digital investigation process. Part of the remote evidence acquisition capability of this system architecture is implemented as a proof of concept. The speed and reliability of capturing digital evidence from remote mobile devices over a client-server paradigm is evaluated. A method for the uniform representation and integration of multiple diverse evidence sources for enabling automated correlation, simple reasoning and querying is developed and tested. This method is aimed at automating the analysis phase of digital investigations. Machine Learning (ML)-based triage methods are developed and tested to evaluate the feasibility and performance of using such techniques to automate the identification of priority digital evidence fragments. Models from these ML methods are evaluated in identifying network protocols within DNS tunneled network traffic. A large dataset is also created for future research in ML-based triage for identifying suspicious processes for memory forensics.From an ex ante evaluation, the designed system architecture enables individual devices to participate in the entire digital investigation process, contributing their processing power towards alleviating the burden on the human analyst. Experiments show that remote evidence acquisition of mobile devices over networks is feasible, however a single-TCP-connection paradigm scales poorly. A proof of concept experiment demonstrates the viability of the automated integration, correlation and reasoning over multiple diverse evidence sources using semantic web technologies. Experimentation also shows that ML-based triage methods can enable prioritization of certain digital evidence sources, for acquisition or analysis, with up to 95% accuracy.The artifacts developed in this study provide concrete ways to enhance automation in the digital forensic investigation process to increase the investigation speed and reduce the amount of costly human intervention needed.
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| 18. |
- Homem, Irvin, 1985-
(författare)
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Towards Automation in Digital Investigations : Seeking Efficiency in Digital Forensics in Mobile and Cloud Environments
- 2016
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Cybercrime and related malicious activity in our increasingly digital world has become more prevalent and sophisticated, evading traditional security mechanisms. Digital forensics has been proposed to help investigate, understand and eventually mitigate such attacks. The practice of digital forensics, however, is still fraught with various challenges. Some of the most prominent of these challenges include the increasing amounts of data and the diversity of digital evidence sources appearing in digital investigations.Mobile devices and cloud infrastructures are an interesting specimen, as they inherently exhibit these challenging circumstances and are becoming more prevalent in digital investigations today. Additionally they embody further characteristics such as large volumes of data from multiple sources, dynamic sharing of resources, limited individual device capabilities and the presence of sensitive data. These combined set of circumstances make digital investigations in mobile and cloud environments particularly challenging.This is not aided by the fact that digital forensics today still involves manual, time consuming tasks within the processes of identifying evidence, performing evidence acquisition and correlating multiple diverse sources of evidence in the analysis phase. Furthermore, industry standard tools developed are largely evidence-oriented, have limited support for evidence integration and only automate certain precursory tasks, such as indexing and text searching.In this study, efficiency, in the form of reducing the time and human labour effort expended, is sought after in digital investigations in highly networked environments through the automation of certain activities in the digital forensic process. To this end requirements are outlined and an architecture designed for an automated system that performs digital forensics in highly networked mobile and cloud environments. Part of the remote evidence acquisition activity of this architecture is built and tested on several mobile devices in terms of speed and reliability. A method for integrating multiple diverse evidence sources in an automated manner, supporting correlation and automated reasoning is developed and tested. Finally the proposed architecture is reviewed and enhancements proposed in order to further automate the architecture by introducing decentralization particularly within the storage and processing functionality. This decentralization also improves machine to machine communication supporting several digital investigation processes enabled by the architecture through harnessing the properties of various peer-to-peer overlays.Remote evidence acquisition helps to improve the efficiency (time and effort involved) in digital investigations by removing the need for proximity to the evidence. Experiments show that a single TCP connection client-server paradigm does not offer the required scalability and reliability for remote evidence acquisition and that a multi-TCP connection paradigm is required. The automated integration, correlation and reasoning on multiple diverse evidence sources demonstrated in the experiments improves speed and reduces the human effort needed in the analysis phase by removing the need for time-consuming manual correlation. Finally, informed by published scientific literature, the proposed enhancements for further decentralizing the Live Evidence Information Aggregator (LEIA) architecture offer a platform for increased machine-to-machine communication thereby enabling automation and reducing the need for manual human intervention.
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| 19. |
- Ibrahim, Osama, 1979-
(författare)
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Design and Investigation of a Decision Support System for Public Policy Formulation
- 2018
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The ultimate aim of support for public policy decision making is to develop ways of facilitating policymaking that can create policies that are consistent with the preferences of policymakers and stakeholders (such as an increase in economic growth, the reduction of social inequalities, and improvements to the environment), and that are at the same time based on the available knowledge and evidential information.Using the design science research methodology, an iterative design process was followed to build and evaluate a research artefact in the form of an analytical method that is also operationalised as a decision support system (DSS) – in order to facilitate the problem analysis, the impact assessment and the decision evaluation activities carried out at the policy formulation stage of the policymaking process. The DSS provides a web-based, user-friendly interface for two main software modules: (i) a tool for modelling and simulation of policy scenarios; and (ii) a tool for multi-criteria evaluation of policy decisions. The target end-users of the DSS tools are policymakers, the support staff of politicians, policy analysts and researchers within governmental departments and parliaments at the various institutional levels of the European Union.The proposed model-based decision support approach integrates systems thinking, problem structuring methods and multi-criteria decision analysis, in what can be described as a ‘sense-making’ approach. A new policy-oriented quantitative problem structuring method is introduced in this research, the ‘labelled causal mapping’ method, which aims to reduce the cognitive overload involved in representing complex mental models using system dynamics simulation modelling in order to facilitate knowledge representation and system analysis. One contribution of this work is an object-oriented implementation of a prototype tool for systems modelling and simulation of policy decision situations based on the labelled causal mapping method. The method provides a basis for further computational decision analysis. We proposed criteria models and data formats for common (generic) policy appraisal, and a preference elicitation method for in-depth decision evaluation based on the results of scenario simulation and the preferences of decision makers and stakeholder groups.The artefact evaluation clarifies how well the proposed approach and the DSS tool prototype support a solution to the problem and the extent to which the outcomes in two policy analysis use cases are useful in terms of output analysis and knowledge synthesis.The contributions of this research to theory and practice were articulated based on the design knowledge obtained through an iterative design process, notably the emergence of the concepts of transparency and intelligibility in policymodelling, (i.e., the need for explicit and interpretable models that can provide justification of a specific decision).
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| 20. |
- Jalali, Amin, 1980-
(författare)
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Aspect-Oriented Business Process Management
- 2016
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Separation of concerns has long been considered an effective and efficient strategy to deal with complexity in information systems.One sort of concern, like security and privacy, crosses over other concerns in a system. Such concerns are called cross-cutting concerns.As a result, the realization of these concerns is scattered through the whole system, which makes their management difficult.Aspect Orientation is a paradigm in information systems which aims to modularize cross-cutting concerns.This paradigm is well researched in the programming area, where many aspect-oriented programming languages have been developed, e.g., AspectJ.It has also been investigated in other areas, such as requirement engineering and service composition.In the Business Process Management (BPM) area, Aspect Oriented Business Process Modeling aims to specify how this modularization technique can support encapsulating cross-cutting concerns in process models.However, it is not clear how these models should be supported in the whole BPM lifecycle.In addition, the support for designing these models has only been limited to imperative process models that support rigid business processes.Neither has it been investigated how this modularization technique can be supported through declarative or hybrid models to support the separation of cross-cutting concerns for flexible business processes.Therefore, this thesis investigates how aspect orientation can be supported over the whole BPM lifecycle using imperative aspect-oriented business process models. It also investigates how declarative and hybrid aspect-oriented business process models can support the separation of cross-cutting concerns in the BPM area.This thesis has been carried out following the design science framework, and the result is presented as a set of artifacts (in the form of constructs, models, methods, and instantiations) and empirical findings.The artifacts support modeling, analysis, implementation/configuration, enactment, monitoring, adjustment, and mining cross-cutting concerns while supporting business processes using Business Process Management Systems. Thus, it covers the support for the management of these concerns over the whole BPM lifecycle. The use of these artifacts and their application shows that they can reduce the complexity of process models by separating different concerns.
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| 21. |
- Kivunike, Florence Nameere, 1975-
(författare)
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A Structured Approach for Evaluating ICT Contributions to Development
- 2015
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- There is considerable on-going research aimed at devising means of evaluating the contribution information and communication technology (ICT) makes towards development, of which this thesis forms a part. It specifically seeks to investigate how a structured approach can support the evaluation of the ICT contribution to development. The need to demonstrate that ICT actually contributes to development is a concern for all those involved in policy and implementation of ICT for development (ICT4D). This research therefore adopted a broad perspective in developing the evaluation approach, particularly applying it to initiatives in Uganda as a test bed. The research further embraced an interdisciplinary approach to accommodate the complex ICT interactions. It merged concepts from information systems, development studies and applied decision theories to devise an evaluation approach. The design science research paradigm facilitated the understanding of what constitutes ICT-related development as basis for developing and testing the approach. Both case study and survey research strategies were applied to facilitate data collection at the different stages of the research.This thesis proposes a model and criteria for the evaluation of ICT-related development. Qualitative indicators are proposed, validated and tested for various dimensions including research and education, healthcare, economic opportunities, political freedoms and psychological wellbeing.Findings confirm the multidimensional and complex nature of the interactions of ICT in development. For instance, ICT benefits may not be restricted to specific goals, severally characterised by unintended benefits. This corroborates the essence of multidimensional evaluations to ensure a more meaningful understanding and establishing of ICT4D benefits. The majority of the proposed indicators could appropriately evaluate the ICT contribution to development. Notably, the quest by decision-makers for quantitative measures in evaluating development benefits is still apparent. Therefore, it is imperative that qualitative and quantitative approaches complement each other in the evaluation of the ICT contribution to development, a subject that can be addressed in subsequent studies. Furthermore, ICT4D benefits can be categorised in terms of significance to an initiative, for example primary and/or secondary contributors to development. For instance, while cost reductions and savings represent an important benefit, this research established that they were secondary to several others, such as providing a timely service in as far as improved access to healthcare is concerned. This is another aspect that would benefit from further investigation.
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| 22. |
- Käck, Annika, 1965-
(författare)
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Digital Competence and Ways of Thinking and Practising in Swedish Teacher Education : Experiences by teachers with a foreign teaching degree
- 2019
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The Swedish government recognises foreign academic education and the professional qualifications of its immigrants by allocating resources to programmes that bridge the gap between immigrants’ education and the specific requirements for work in Sweden. The context of inquiry for this thesis is teachers with a foreign teaching degree, who come from 57 countries or regions and are studying at four Swedish universities. They attend a bridging programme called “Further Education for Foreign Teachers” (in Swedish, Utländska Lärares Vidareutbildning). The purpose of this thesis is to study the unfamiliar ways of thinking and practising teachers with a foreign teaching degree encounter in Swedish teacher education, emphasising digital competence. Five different theoretical frameworks and models are used in this thesis: ways of thinking and practising, redefined transformative learning, the framework of Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK), the European Digital Competence Frameworks for Citizens (DigComp 2.1), and the Digital Competence of Educators framework (DigCompEdu). A convergent mixed methods research design was applied; the combined datasets consisted of: (a) a web survey to which 228 teachers responded; (b) five focus groups each consisting of 25 teachers; (c) nine individual interviews; (d) 30 reflective texts written by 15 teachers. Findings show that the participants are not a homogenous group and cannot be treated as such. The common ground is that they are foreign-born teachers who have all immigrated to Sweden. The diversity covers a range, from being quite familiar to being unfamiliar with the Swedish educational context. This thesis reveals the diversity of their digital competence, as they score from foundational proficiency levels to highly specialised ones in TPACK as well as in the European framework DigComp 2.1. Furthermore, their expressed digital competence is found within all role descriptors in the European framework for the digital competence of educators DigCompEdu, from newcomer to pioneer. Diversity was found in teaching philosophy, the role of a teacher, view of the students, how learning occurs, and finally, comprehension of the relationship between education and society. Moreover, the findings highlight that some ways of thinking and practising were unfamiliar to the participants, such as teaching and learning methods, new learning environments, examination practices, further, the communication between teachers and students. Unfamiliarity was also found regarding the extent to which society demands digital competence in the curricula. The participants expressed that their roles as teachers in a new country were unfamiliar and took time to get used to. Therefore, placement supervisors were found to be of great importance for the development of teachers’ digital competence, as they function as mediators and model what it is to be a teacher in Sweden. The analysis shows that all teachers, not only teachers with a migrant background, need digital competence at an advanced level to develop digital competence among students. Thus, educators must identify unfamiliar ways of thinking and practising, plan for authentic competence development, and address the diversity in digital competence. This thesis contributes to empirical findings, developing tools and models to assist teacher educators to change monocultural teaching to an inclusive practice in which diversity is integrated.
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| 23. |
- Lönn, Carl-Mikael, 1980-
(författare)
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E-Government Collaboration in the Swedish Public Sector : Multiple Studies on Collaboration Facilitators and Collaboration Modes
- 2016
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Collaboration in the public sector is imperative to achieve e-government objectives such as improved efficiency and effectiveness of public administration and improved quality of public services. Collaboration across organizational and institutional boundaries requires public organizations to share e-government systems and services through for instance, interoperable information technology and processes. Demands on public organizations to become more open also require that public organizations adopt new collaborative approaches for inviting and engaging citizens in governmental activities.E-government related collaboration in the public sector is challenging, however, and collaboration initiatives often fail. Public organizations need to learn how to collaborate since forms of e-government collaboration and expected outcomes are mostly unknown. How public organizations can collaborate and the expected outcomes are thus investigated in this thesis by studying multiple collaboration cases on the acquisition and implementation of a particular e-government investment (digital archive). This thesis also investigates how e-government collaboration can be facilitated through artifacts. It is done through a case study, where objects that cross boundaries between collaborating communities in the public sector are studied, and by designing a configurable process model integrating several processes for social services. By using design science, this thesis also investigates how an m-government solution that facilitates collaboration between citizens and public organizations can be designed.The thesis contributes to literature through describing five different modes of interorganizational collaboration in the public sector and the expected benefits from each mode. It also contributes with an instantiation of a configurable process model supporting three open social e-services and with evidence of how it can facilitate collaboration. This thesis further describes how boundary objects facilitate collaboration between different communities in an open government design initiative. It contributes with a designed mobile government solution, thereby providing proof of concept and initial design implications for enabling collaboration with citizens through citizen sourcing (outsourcing a governmental activity to citizens through an open call). This thesis also identifies research streams within e-government collaboration research through a literature review and the thesis contributions are related to the identified research streams. This thesis gives directions for future research by suggesting that future research should focus further on understanding e-government collaboration and how information and communication technology can facilitate collaboration in the public sector. It is suggested that further research should investigate m-government solutions to form design theories. Future research should also examine how value can be co-created in e-government collaboration.
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| 24. |
- Mondlhane, Avelino Isaias, 1964-
(författare)
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Scenarios for Flood Risk Management Strategies Integration in Mozambique : A backcasting approach for the case of the Limpopo River Basin
- 2018
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Flood risk management strategic planning with long-term perspectives is a complex problem, for which the solution requires a multidisciplinary and multi-paradigm approach. A significant dimension of this complexity arises from the need to include or add a participatory mode to the solution process, which amounts to a requirement that all stakeholders, ranging from decision makers to experts and beneficiaries, be involved in the decision making. However, these stakeholders may have different objectives, and this may lead to different or even conflicting courses of action, particularly when a selection must be made of the most appropriate coping strategy that may lead to sustainability. Multiple-criteria decision analysis is one paradigm that has the capability to handle these conflicting courses of action. There is a volume of research that has presented various strategies for flood risk management over the last couple of decades. Recent approaches have included computer-based modelling and infrastructure measurement. One finding providing a strong basis for the relevance of the problem we are trying to solve is that most of these strategies fail in the long run; this is particularly true in developing countries, considering their economic, infrastructure and social limitations. Hence, a novel approach is very much warranted, and this is the central object of our study. An important aspect of its novelty lies in realising that instead of applying numerous strategies in isolation, one needs to combine and integrate them. Our research focuses on developing scenarios for integrating flood risk management strategies, based on multiple-criteria decision analysis to combine conflicting arguments in order to generate a viable strategy. Additional aspects of this holistic approach were imported from the area of business management, such as strategic planning and balanced scorecards for decision making within scenario planning. Finally, a long-term vision for a sustainable environment that minimises the impact of floods was designed using backcasting scenario planning. The decision-making alternatives were risk, hazard, exposure and vulnerability, and these were used against a set of 24 criteria for control. These criteria were extracted from various coping and adaptive capabilities, and from environmental, economic, and social domains. The scenarios for the integration of flood risk management strategies are based on a real-life case study of the Limpopo River Basin, and specifically of the Chókwe district in Gaza province, Mozambique. The result of this research was a framework called SPIFRiMS, based on a sliding weight elicitation method. The framework and the data from the case study were implemented in Excel. The research outputs were five different scenarios illustrating different options from the perspectives of the stakeholders and beneficiaries in the light of their long-term views when compared to the actual state of the art.
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| 25. |
- Mughal, Mudassar Ahmad, 1984-
(författare)
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Live Mobile Video Interaction : Inventing and investigating technology, formats and applications
- 2015
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The convergence of inexpensive video-enabled mobile phones, high-speed mobile data networks and ubiquitous sensing devices opens up a new design space called “live mobile video interaction”. It gives rise to a new genre of applications concerning live mobile video production, which can be seen as an instance of the said space. In this work we are particularly interested to explore potential technical challenges and opportunities presented by “live mobile video interaction”. We started our investigation by studying two existing prototypes from the said genre i.e. the Instant Broadcasting System (IBS) and the Mobile Vision Mixer (MVM). We studied their applicability for amateur users of collaborative mobile video production tools and the problems caused by inherent communication delays in the Internet. We acquired initial user feedback and conducted technical tests on Instant Broadcasting System (IBS) and Mobile Vision Mixer (MVM). Our results indicate that lack of synchronisation among video streams causes problems for directors in such systems that were not present in professional systems. We also identified two distinct video production modes depending on visual access of the director to the event that is being filmed. Based on our study we proposed technical design suggestions and indications on how to solve the synchronisation problems in respective mixing modes. We also proposed an algorithm for frame-rate exclusive synchronisation management of live streams in a collaborative mobile production environment. We further probed the design space using the research through design method, which resulted in a fully functional prototype system called “Livenature” that would incite an emotional connection that exists between people and the places they cherish. Further investigation of Livenature allowed us to produce detailed studies about experiential and technical aspects of the system, thus revealing phenomenological and technical dimensions of the design space.
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