Communication is an important function within organizations and the ways of communicating have developed rapidly due to technological development, which can make it difficult to know which communication channel that is best to use in different situations. This report is based on a case study were the perceived communication efficiency tended to vary depending on which communication channel that was used. Previous research shows how the choice of communication channels can affect the communication efficiency, however, it does not show this from the perspective of news as an information type. Therefore, it was considered interesting to study how different communication channels affect the communication efficiency in terms of news distribution.

The aim of this study was to illustrate and describe how communication channels affect the perceived communication efficiency when the information that is transferred consists of news. To achieve this, the following research question would be answered:

• What advantages and disadvantages do employees experience with communication channels regarding the communication efficiency for news distribution in a large national company?

Theories that have been applied in the study are Media Richness Theory and Osgood and Schramms circular communication model. Theories have been used to explain how news distribution takes place in the case company and to illustrate and possibly explain the problems that the company experience with news distribution.

Data was collected by applying a qualitative method in which semi-structured interviews have been used. The result shows that respondents experience both advantages and disadvantages with all the communication channels and that the perceived communication efficiency tended to vary depending on which kind of news. When the result was set against the research question and the theoretical framework, advantages and disadvantages that were experienced, turned out to be depending on if the news were routine or non-routine and how it was matched with a rich or poor communication channel, which Media Richness Theory also declare. 

The conclusion of this study shows that news distribution through face to face and telephone enables direct interaction and transmission of emotions, however, emotions are not transmitted as well through telephone as face to face. The many signals can also be experienced as overwhelmingly. E-mail, intranet and signboard are effective in terms of time and are not as depending on time and space. In addition, the possibility of direct interaction and transmission of feelings is limited. The result indicates that advantages and disadvantages with the communication channels seems to be linked to whether the channel is perceived as suitable to transfer different kinds of news. Rich communication channels are perceived to be effective for transmitting non-routine news and poor channels are perceived to be effective for transmitting routine news.

The purpose of this article is to investigate high school students' information practices, their views on source criticism and source trust, and whether it is possible to implement altmetric indicators as tools during the source criticism-analysis of new information related to school assignments and theses. The empirical data is collected through surveys and semi-structured interviews with students and teachers in high school. Since all students in this study spend several hours each day on social media, it seemed natural that altmetrics would be the choice of metric, as this data is gathered from social media, scientific blogs, and reference tools. These are services and platforms where students spend their leisure time, and are therefore more relevant than informetrics based on, for example, scientific journals and databases, which are sources not widely used in high school.

Purpose Initiatives using information and communication technologies (ICTs) as support for carers of dependent older people are reported since the early 1990s, mainly in form of phone services, computer networks, and video respite. Although the role of ICTs in home care gained increasing relevance in the last decades – for instance in the areas of social integration, care coordination and ambient assisted living (AAL) – few attempts have been made to systematically understand the potentialities of such technologies, overcoming single technology or intervention domains. In this respect, the issues of terminology ambiguity and lack of comparability represented major barriers, so that most of evaluation studies in this area led to mixed and/or inconclusive results. Drawing on the findings of the CARICT-project, this paper discusses the development of a theoretical and conceptual framework to assess the impact ofI CT-based interventions for carers. Method Literature review and a mapping exercise of 52 ICT-based initiatives for carers in 8 countries. Results & Discussion We will provide the results of a mapping exercise of 52 case studies, showing the diversity of existing good practices across Europe and carrying out a review of available impact assessment of these initiatives from a social ecological perspective (at micro-, meso- and macro-level). Subsewquently, we will discuss a theoretical and conceptual framework that is built on the basis of available evidence, leading toa proper classification of ICT-based interventions in relation to types of interactions between actors they support: an attempt is made to group the solutions in coherent and comprehensive classes, with related implications for impact assessments and comparative analysis. Main classes include: alarms, home automation, auto-communication, meta-services, information and training, cognitive stimulations and mental exercises, support group sessions, individual care and support services, and social participation tools. Finally, recommendations for future research in the field are formulated with regard to the assessment and comparability of these services, as well as to the testing and development of new solutions.

The purpose of this study was to develop a process for how modern technology can be used for organizations to succeed in strategic competence provision. The concept of data-driven decisions is used when so-called classification algorithms can help us discover a 'desired competence that is missing' or 'suggest an area that we need to develop'. 

The method is based on service design and this study used an empathy map, which was created from a survey on the professional social network LinkedIn using the virtual snowball method (cf. respondent-driven sampling). It is based on qualitative data that describes insights based on the users' experiences and driving forces. Then it was important to define which stakeholders that are affected by the challenge in order to be able to describe the steps in a journey map and produce a design sketch. The design process also included interviews with the main stakeholders in order to investigate root causes and sorting ideas using cluster analysis. Finally, a digital prototype was tested and to evaluate what worked and look for improvements, a feedback matrix was created. The basis for investigating the problem comes from the need within the user group and perspectives from stakeholders, which are then validated by using several different tools taken from service design.

The conclusion was that data-driven decision-making involves define measurable indicators and data to make decisions that are in line with strategic goals in competence provision. This is reported as a user journey consisting of the steps "Initiate & map out", "Implement & follow up" and "Evaluate & reflect".

Deployment and use of technological services for informal carers is still limited, mainly due to users' low digital skills, the lack of demonstrated business cases, and the poor evidence of the impact and sustainability of these services. The CARICT project aimed to collect evidence-based results on the impact of ICT-enabled domiciliary care services, and to make policy recommendations to develop, scale and replicate them in the European Union. The methodology was based on a mapping of 52 ICT-based services for informal carers developed in Europe, and a cross–analysis of 12 of these initiatives to get data on their impacts, drivers, business models, success factors, and challenges. The main results show that there is a wide range of successful, not very costly and beneficial examples of ICT-based support for carers across Europe. The cross-analysis indicated that these services had positive impacts on the quality of life of elderly people and informal carers, the quality of care and the financial sustainability of the health and social systems. The data also confirm that policy at European, national, regional and local levels can promote the successful development, implementation and transferability of these services through funding, policy leadership and by promoting stronger cooperation among stakeholders including end-users, mainly from the third sector and informal carers, to create a new value chain in the provision of long-term care. These findings help to achieve the objectives of European policy defined by the 2020 Strategy, and more specifically the Digital Agenda for Europe (DAE) and the European Innovation Partnership on Healthy and Active Ageing (EIP AHA)

Deployment and use of technological services for informal carers is still limited, mainly due to users' low digital skills, the lack of demonstrated business cases, and the poor evidence of the impact and sustainability of these services. The CARICT project aimed to collect evidence-based results on the impact of ICT-enabled domiciliary care services, and to make policy recommendations to develop, scale and replicate them in the European Union. The methodology was based on a mapping of 52 ICT-based services for informal carers developed in Europe, and a cross–analysis of 12 of these initiatives to get data on their impacts, drivers, business models, success factors, and challenges. The main results show that there is a wide range of successful, not very costly and beneficial examples of ICT-based support for carers across Europe. The cross-analysis indicated that these services had positive impacts on the quality of life of elderly people and informal carers, the quality of care and the financial sustainability of the health and social systems. The data also confirm that policy at European, national, regional and local levels can promote the successful development, implementation and transferability of these services through funding, policy leadership and by promoting stronger cooperation among stakeholders including end-users, mainly from the third sector and informal carers, to create a new value chain in the provision of long-term care. These findings help to achieve the objectives of European policy defined by the 2020 Strategy, and more specifically the Digital Agenda for Europe (DAE) and the European Innovation Partnership on Healthy and Active Ageing (EIP AHA)

TouchStory is a software game that aims at improving the understanding of narrative by children withautism. In fact, the underlying conceptual framework intends to investigate to what extent we can improve the children's understanding of narrative through the introduction of simple game-like tasks that address primitive components of narrative. The game has strong analogies with the concrete, physical world. Our design approach, following our knowledge regarding this particular group of learners, was to'keep things simple', introducing features only if necessary to provide each individual child with a focussed and enjoyable game, from which that particular child may learn about, or absorb, (or become more familiar with) primitive components of narrative. In this paper we concentrate on issues of reward, feedback, and opportunities for reasoning (about the task and/or their own performance) provided bysoftware. We present results from the first 7 visits of an ongoing longitudinal study involving 6 childreneach with a diagnosis of autism. We consider the children's apparent engagement with TouchStory, and in particular, we focus on the strategy each child adopts and consequent feedback from the software. This analysis prompted us to further reflect on the specificities of this group of children and the challenges to create supportive learning environments.

For a couple of years now, the Columbia Business School and in particular Bernd Schmitt have been advocating for more work to be done regarding 'experiential marketing'. Taking the case of e-atmospherics in Turkish e-banking practices, we revisit the theory of strategic experiential modules which are sense, feel, think, act and relate. Two major ebanking experience providers' types of communication, product design, retail presence and epresence have been unpacked. These are Garanti Bank, who's known with its many award winning web site, and Akbank who has a standard web site. The Turkish banking at the border of the EU and under global influences has expended and liberalized dramatically over the last decade making the most of new technologies, hence offering an interesting perspective in a non-homogenous society where the technological divide remains important. First a qualitative content analysis of both bank's homepages is conducted. This is followed by 43 online surveys, where 18 is Garanti Bank consumer, 19 is Akbank consumer and 6 is both Garanti and Akbank consumer, to explore how e-atmospherics experiential features currently recognized by users. Our findings indicate that experiential marketing in e-banking can be expected to be the key to greater online migration of consumers and differentiation among the players. Yet, while the first two steps sense and feel are explicitly developed by both players, act and relate still remain poor. Moreover, 'think' is discovered to be a key moderator where both banks seem to lack clear strategy.

E-government has often been heralded as the new way forwards for emerging countries. While many such countries are already offering e-government services and are gearing up for further growth, little is actually known of the forming stages that are necessary to ensure a greater rate of success and avoid the traditional failure traps linked to new technology and information system adoption and diffusion. We situate our research in the case of mobile phone as a reflection of the current market situation in emerging countries. We contend, in this paper, that more research is needed to understand future intention to use e-government services through mobile phone technology. Front loading activities both from a government and technology perspectives are required to facilitate the decision making process by users.

This paper presents an ongoing multi-disciplinary research-and development project in which we are exploring emerging methods and practices for participatory design of tools and content of accessibility information in India and Sweden, based on user created content. The initial development of the AUGMENT-Project also includes the production of a prototype for sharing information. The joint set up and unfolding of public digital spaces and cooperative creation of processes and infrastructure for user-driven accessibility information is making use of existing handheld mobile phones which offer the possibility to upload pictures and comments via an application with a map-based interface. The research initiative is exploring and comparing cross-cultural participatory methods for cultivation of shared transformational spaces. The paper discusses both the notion of user-driven content and co-creation of tools and methods, drawing upon the tradition of Scandinavian Systems Design, explicitly arguing for direct user-representation in systems development.

This paper draws upon experiences and involvement in several joint research- and development (R&D) projects, organised as a kind of “micro innovation system”, involving multi-organisational and multi-disciplinary cooperators, mainly within the area of e-government or IT-support for homecare. Each project was organised around development or costumization of a computer application, supporting for instance on-line public services, citizen participation or IT-support for home care within the public sector. However, after realisation of the projects, only a few of the applications are maintained. These projects could be regarded as concrete examples of the ongoing reconfiguration of a cluster in a regional innovation system (Miettinen, 2002, p.17, OECD, 1999), and not just as single, stand-alone projects in an expanding region, but also as vital parts in ongoing enactment and refiguration of an extensive national innovation system. The issue then becomes : what implications does this joint innovative growth-stimulation have for the question of completion of research in a growth-intense region, which is concentrating not solely on quick fixes but also on stabilizing innovation? What are the practical and ethical consequences of “making an exit” in the middle of an ongoing mustering of strength – for instance for the citizens, the researchers and the society? These issues are discussed in relation to empirical material gathered during involvement in the start-up of an e-government arena, within the framework of TANGO (Thematic arenas Nourish Growth Opportunities), a program partly funded through Innovative Actions within the European Regional Development Funding (ERDF). Findings, reflections and insights show tensions and ongoing negotiations concerning different perspectives expressed as process- as well as product-orientation in the development. The large amount of ICT-projects, are seen from another perspective, also contributing to the increasing growth in the region. One of the municipalities was appointed “National Leader in Growth municipality” in the year of 2001. The TANGO project itself may actually also be seen as a result of increased regional growth. But the question still remains: is it ever possible to stabilize innovation?

The TANGO e-government arena is a project in Southern Sweden, funded by the Innovative Actions of the European Regional Development Fund. The project is now nearing its end, and we are thus at the stage of reflectively reviewing what has actually been accomplished and how this relates to the original goals of the project. In July 2002, when the project began, the aim was to establish cooperation between the public sector, private enterprise and university-based research in designing public e-services. In cooperating around development of new, integrated services, catering to various categories of users as well as to a growing diversity of mobile technologies, we have aimed towards establishing feedback channels between practice and theory, between use and design, and between different academic disciplines where we see a need to synchronize the models and methods we work with. Our research questions have focused on exploring and managing multi-perspectivity as a resource for design. In this paper we look at how we organized our cooperation around these goals, and attempt to address those basic summing-up-the-project questions; How well have we succeeded? What have we learned in the process?

Social media is considered one of the primary sources of information. Besides all benefits that social media bring to human life, the popularity of social media simultaneously caused a rapid spread of fake news. Fake news poses a serious threat to societies since it enhances the polarity among different ideas, such as political parties. The fake news issue was further exacerbated during the COVID-19 Pandemic, and fake news studies attracted the attention of plenty of researchers (e.g., Apuke & Omar, 2021; Elías & Catalan-Matamoros, 2020). For example, Fake news claiming that 5G cell towers affect the human immune system has led to the burning of some cell towers in Europe (Mourad et al., 2020). Researchers claimed that fake stories spread more rapidly than true ones on social media (Vosoughi et al., 2018). The rapid spread of fake news makes companies and organizations vulnerable. Fake news about a company can directly affect the company's stock price and cause financial losses. A literature review reveals that scholars from multidisciplinary areas are interested in this topic; for instance, psychology scholars aim to answer research questions such as why people believe and share fake news (Talwar et al., 2019) and what are the characteristics of people who share or are involved in the spread of fake news (Ben-Gal et al., 2019; Brashier & Schacter, 2020). Computer science scholars aim to find ways to detect fake news, using machine learning techniques to create detection models (Faustini & Covões, 2020; Ozbay & Alatas, 2020). Emotion and sentiment analysis of fake news have not been studied in the literature; thus, this research will contribute to the field significantly.

The open access landscape is highly disruptive to established publishing practices and large changes are taking place globally in this arena. Some dismiss and resist the evolution of open access publishing practices as disreputable progress and wish to turn back the clock while others laud it as the future rise of scholarship.

This presentation will provide a broad overview of the open access discussion and focus on several research projects currently underway to ascertain faculty, student, and alumni reactions to their own open access author- and reader-ship from both developed and transition countries.

Chatbots are software applications that are built to interact with users in text. Even if the first chatbot was developed more than 50 years ago the interest for chatbots is today constantly growing as customer service and support demand is increasing. Chatbots can support companies within business to consumer market to lower cost, increase customer service and provide personalized experiences. It is a growing trend in business to consumer market to either offer the possibility or force users to use chatbots to get answers to questions. Today there is no research conducted on usability of chatbots in the Swedish business to consumer market. This thesis work aims to fill this gap with research covering the current usability of chatbots in the Swedish business to consumer market and if gender, education level or age impact the usability rating off chatbots. The research is conducted via a survey that uses the USE-questionnaire and free text questions. The analysis is done with chi-square conducted on the quantitative data and thematic analysis on the qualitative data. The conclusion from this research is that users, in general, have a more positive than negative view towards usability of chatbots in the Swedish business to consumer market. There is also evidence in this study that age and education level affect the way chatbots usability is rated. The result from this research is of interest to companies who already have implemented chatbots to be able to measure against a usability baseline. It is also of interest for the academic world to further research the gender and education level dimensions on chatbots usability.

Assessment of educational needs for offering a master’s degree program in Information Security both to campus and distance students is of extreme importance in order to improve curriculum design as well as e-learning platform. The case of an Internet Security course and e-learning platform were analyzed. The theoretical framework based on constructive alignment theory (Biggs, 1996) and conversational frame-work (Laurillard, 2002) has been used as an analytical lens to analyze the case and guide the ongoing research process for improvement in the courses as well as for the development and improvement of e-learning platform. It is proposed that in order to improve the quality of teaching and enhance the e-learning platform all the courses included in MSc program in Information Security should be developed systematically based on specific pedagogical principles. The systematic development approach will help the instructors to enhance understanding and provide guidelines to incorporate the mindset of construc-tive alignment. Information Security education benefits greatly from hands-on laboratory oriented exer-cises. Therefore, e-learning platform including InfoSec lab must be designed and developed based on pedagogical principles. In this way we can argue for the true benefits of the learning technology being developed for a specific purpose. Hence, learning technology is not considered as merely a knowledge-transmitting tool but viewed as an ensemble artifact. This article attempts to put forward a theoretical framework to provide pedagogical guidelines for alignment of courses and for the selection of suitable e-learning platform.

Policing in The United Kingdom is an intricate business, balancing the enforcement of statute and other laws while dealing with public safety and security. Policing engages a diverse and complicated set of organisational structures and processes relying heavily on the skill and expertise of officers on the ground. Their role in preventing and or intercepting crime before, during and after it occurs is integral to sustaining peace, security, law and order in communities. The police operational and logistics staff work day to day with information and communication technologies, ranging from conventional databases and information systems to ubiquitous and specialised tools.  Understanding the use of technology and its management in policing has formed the backbone of this research conducted through a qualitative approach.

This study adopted an interpretive paradigmic analytical lens using ethnography situated in the workplace as a methodology. The qualitative study took the form of field immersion for nine months using interviewing, and shadowing/observation to suit the complexity of the socio-technical context. Analysis was conducted using thematic analytical methods. Understanding how the police force interact with and shape the way that information and communication technologies enable them to fight crime is, then, the subject of this thesis.

The findings highlighted the complexities and  intricacies involved in the use of technology, identifying unique differentiations in the way technology is engaged and integrated into policing including comparative understanding relative to other sectors and industries.  On the whole the central features of this work highlight understanding of the role information and communication technologies; usefulness, usage in practice and operational activity, strategic business goals, knowledge management, business intelligence and intelligence led architecture, governance and performance models in policing the county of Bedfordshire, England. 

Two recent approaches to interaction design have good potential to address creative practice in everyday settings: interaction aesthetics and ubiquitous music. We discuss the theoretical and methodological issues raised by both perspectives and highlight the similarities and differences among the two approaches. Through the analysis of a series of experiments, a common theme emerges: relational properties may provide a useful target for creativity-oriented experimental work.

The purpose of this study is to discuss the use of social media by the Swedish Police for democratic purposes. The idea of citizen empowerment is closely related to the development of new communication technologies such as social media. Yet many studies indicate that governmental institutions rarely make use of the assumed potentials of social media.

In this study, the democratic potential of social media is derived from Habermas normative concept of deliberative participation. Operational definitions emphasize discursive equality, interactive reciprocity and external impact. The analytical framework is combined with qualitative text analysis to highlight the conditions of interaction between representatives of the Police and citizens.

In conclusion: the democratic potential of social media, from a Habermasian point of view, is to a significant extent neglected at the expense of its strategic advantages. In fact, the promise of interactive reciprocity obscures the passivisation and disempowerment of citizens. However, the study is limited to a specific sphere of influence and does not account for other forms of citizen participation made possible with social media or modern ICT.

The question that this essay posed was how the user’s engagement is affected by the fact that the other party is a computer controlled Agent, both compared to if the other party was a human-controlled Avatar, but also depending on whether the Agent displays a more human-like behavior, as opposed to a more machine-like one.

To answer this question an extensive litterature study was performed, both to develop the concept of Engagement, but also to explore other concepts, such as Social presence, Ethopoeia and Simulation of human behaviour.

These theories were then used to design a web based experiment, with the purpose of collecting empirical data. The experiment consisted of solving simple math tasks, some against the computer, but others involving a human administrator, who participated from a remote location. The measured metric was Dwell time, i.e. the actual time the user was engaged enough to focus on the activity.

The result showed that there is a definite indication that the level of engagement in activities is lower if the other party is controlled by a computer, as opposed to it being controlled by a human. The second part of the question was not as clearly answered by the result, but the author believes the result can be interpreted as showing an increase of engagement.

Drawing on data derived from a nationwide postal survey (n = 1264) with a simple random sample of Swedes between ages 65 and 85 (response rate: 63%), the article analyses the general patterns of: (a) degrees of information and communication (ICT) access and (b) ICT-literacy among Swedish senior citizens. The overall patterns of access and literacy are analysed in light of senior citizens’ assets – conceptualized as material, discursive and social resources – and their age and gender. The analysis reveals a positive correlation between levels of material (e.g., income), discursive (e.g., English skills) and social (e.g., social networks) resources and access to ICT. With greater resources, the average number of devices increases. The analysis also reveals a positive correlation between discursive and social resources and ICT-literacy. Gender has no bearing on access to devices, but might have some effect on ICT-literacy. The correlation between age, access and literacy is negative. With increasing age, both access and literacy decreases. In this respect, the study reveals a generational effect. However, since all three resources tend to decrease over the life cycle, the results are also discussed in terms of an age effect. These data and our analyses are contextualized by a critical discussion that reflects on the implications of these general patterns: What do they mean for senior citizens’ abilities to be included and participate in a continuously digitalizing society?

Within both research and public debates, internet based media are mainly perceived as young people’s media. This becomes particularly obvious in popular conceptualizations such as “the Digital generation”, “the Internet generation”, or “the Facebook generation”. When referring to statistical studies of internet use and internet usage, this perception is also to some extent verified; younger users present both more and more varied patterns of usage. Young people in Sweden, between 16 and 25, spend an average of nearly 40 hours a week on the Internet. However, 50 percent of the elderly (75+) are still non-users. Hence, there is some substance in the generational view of users of online media.

There are, however, at least two different but interrelated problems affiliated with such a view. Firstly, the generational view very easily overlooks differences in-between young users. For instance, the notion “Facebook generation” implicitly treats all contemporary individuals in their early twenties as habitual users of social media. Nevertheless, within this category there are in fact also very modest users of social media, and even absolute non-users. Secondly – and most importantly within the frames of this paper – a generational view of internet based media implicitly, by default, treats older people in general and senior citizens in particular as non-users.

Rather than understanding senior citizens as a coherent generation of (non-)users, this paper departs from an ambition to illustrate variations in use of online media among senior citizens. It draws on a large scale Swedish survey (n=1264, response rate 63%). The paper deploys multiple regression analysis in order to map overarching user profiles among Swedish senior citizens. More specifically, it identifies and elaborates on five profiles: administration, consumption, welfare service, media usage and production. The analysis further relates these varying profiles to senior users’ assets in terms of material, discursive and social resources. The latter analysis reveals, for instance, how discursive resources (such as “skills in English”) have a positive impact on all five user profiles, while social (for instance “having children”) and material resources (such as “income”) have a positive impact on three and two profiles respectively.

The paper concludes by reflecting on the potential implications of these varying user profiles among senior citizens. What do the variations between different segments of senior citizens mean in terms of their inclusion in or exclusion from a society in which both commercial and public services are reshaped from analogue to digital formats?

Current trends in technology-enhanced learning highlight the increasing importance of mobile digital tools in learning scenarios; seamless learning, or learning that spans contexts and activities within and without the classroom, is becoming mainstream. Despite the growing body of the literature in this area, this chapter highlights a general focus on technological issues and perspectives and a lack of theoretically driven discussion. We argue that theoretically/conceptually inspired literature reviews covering pedagogy and cognitive aspects of learning are currently needed to establish a grounded framework for future research in this area. This paper contributes one such analysis—it proposes and reflects on the issues raised when considering seamless learning from the perspective of the established literature on external representations (ERs), a core concept in distributed or embodied accounts of cognition. Core issues we discuss are: (a) what are the challenges facing seamless learning from an ERs perspective? (b) how can knowledge about ERs be applied to seamless learning systems?, and (c) what methodological challenges will emerge if seamless learning systems are studied from the perspective of ERs? This discussion is intended as a bridge between practical and applied work in seamless learning and theoretical or laboratory-based work in ERs—it seeks to drive the field of seamless learning forward by highlighting best practices from an established theoretical perspective. By elaborating on a theoretically grounded lens, we seek to empower researchers to identify promising approaches for the design and evaluation of next-generation high impact seamless learning solutions. © 2019, Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

Game prosumption refers to the process of both production and consumption of computer games rather than focusing on either one (production) or the other (consumption).

IKEA, a worldwide known “Assemble & Install-It-Yourself” furniture company with Swedish origin, launched an augmented reality app, namely, IKEA Place, that aimed to solve practical problems surrounding furniture shopping in September 2017. The IKEA Place, which used augmented reality to allow its users to visualize how furniture will look in their own home, is examined in this article. Discussion is centered around how the app allowed IKEA to create a service-centered value as it signaled that it understood the hurdles involved in the furniture shopping process for investing to extend technology-based support to its customers.

Virtual reality retailing (VRR) refers to the interactive virtual experiences that a retailer provides for its customers by the aid of virtual reality applications.

Enhanced data services through mobile phones are expected to be soon fully transactional and embedded within future mobile consumption practices. While private services will surely continue to take the lead, others such as government and NGOs will become more prominent m-players. It is not yet sure which form of technological standards will take the lead including enhance SMS based operations or Internet based specifically developed mobile phone applications. With the introduction of interactive transactions via mobile phones, currently untapped segment of the populations (without computers) have the potential to be accessed. Our research, as a reflection of the current market situation in an emerging country context, in the case of mobile phones analyzes the current needs or emergence of dependencies regarding the use of m/e-government services from the perspective of municipality officers. We contend that more research is needed to understand current preparatory bottlenecks and front loading activities to be able to encourage future intention to use e-government services through mobile phone technologies. This study highlights and interprets the current emerging practices and praxis for consuming m-government services within government.

This chapter applies the concepts of regulatory focus and regulatory fit into gaming structures and articulates their effects especially inside massively multiplayer games to understand the behavior of players inside gaming structures, as well as emotional transitions associated with them.

We report a simulation study of a smart living IoT solution for elderly people living in their own houses. Our study was conducted in the context of BoIT project in Sweden that investigates the use of various IoT devices for remote housing and care-giving services. We focus on a carephone device that enables to establish a voice connection via IP with care givers or relatives. We have developed a simulation model to study the IoT solution for elderly care in the Vaxjo municipality in Sweden. The simulation model can be used to address various issues, such as determining the lack or excess of resources or long waiting times, and study the system behavior when the number of alarms is increased. Simulation results indicate that a 15% increase in the arrivals rate would cause unacceptable long waiting times for patients to receive the care.

The Master thesis focuses on the interaction of humans with technology with a special focus on User Experience (UX). Drawing on the theory of Human Computer Interaction, this interpretive research study explores the User Experience of handheld devices acting as IT-artefacts with a Human-Centred Design approach. Specifically, the Master thesis through a series of semi-structured interviews explores the users’ perceptions of the current use of Handheld Laser Barcode Scanners which are utilized in a large Swedish food retail chain store. Furthermore, it explores users’ desired characteristics of the Handheld Laser Barcode Scanners regarding User Experience, in order to derive suggestions that direct the design of more human-centred handheld IT-artefacts. Through its findings, the research study confirms that users’ expectations play an important role in designing technological artefacts, while technology also shapes users’ expectations

The interactive potential of computer-mediated communication has proved more difficult to realize than expected. This study tries to break away from the normative status of speech underlining computer-mediated communication by asking how social talk is manifested in web-based learning environments. The asynchronous communication of 55 students during a study period of 18 weeks was studied using mediated discourse analysis. Students were training for pre-school teachers in 4-years program. Students’ ability to create a group culture seemed significant for how they developed group autonomy and were able to handle unexpected incidents or a loose framing. Communication was narrative and lengthy in character and trusts and confidences were dropped off as part of a constant construction of group culture. These students did not adopt or develop known means of compensating for the loss of non-verbal clues. There were indications of sharing private concerns and information from other practices in life as a conditional aspect of participation. When having trouble to cope, it was the youngest students who failed.

Vad som är en god relation till eleverna och hur det skapas via kommunikation är en kunskap

som lärare hanterar dagligen i sin yrkesroll. Vi ser ett problem i relationen kring lärare elev

relationen om vi lärare inte möter upp våra elever via IKT. Dagens ungdomar har växt upp i en

värld där mobiltelefoner, datorer och internet ger ständiga möjligheter till att kommunicera.

Samspel och relation är den viktigaste faktorn för att föra kunskap vidare till nästa generation,

nu finns det även en ny arena för denna kunskapsöverföring och det är IKT. Vårt syfte är att se

vilka erfarenheter eleverna har av olika kommunikationsformer via IKT med sina lärare. Samt

elevens erfarenhet av relationen när kommunikationen via IKT sker mellan lärare elev ur ett

elevperspektiv. Vi lärare har en viktig roll i förändringarna som sker genom att kommunicera

via IKT, möter vi eleverna så kan vi på så vis skapa ett samspel över IKT.

Ethnography, with its emphasis on understanding activities where they occur, and its use of qualitative data gathering techniques rich in description, has a long tradition in Participatory Design (PD). Yet there are limited methodological insights in its application in developing countries. This paper proposes an ethno- graphically informed PD approach, which can be applied when designing Primary Healthcare Information Technology (PHIT). We use findings from a larger multi- disciplinary project, Health Information Systems Project (HISP) to elaborate how ethnography can be used to facilitate participation of health practitioners in developing countries settings as well as indicating the importance of ethnographic approach to participatory Health Information Technology (HIT) designers. Further- more, the paper discusses the pros and cons of using an ethnographic approach in designing HIT.

During the last decades there have been extensive investments in order to stimulate ICT-supported flexible learning. The increased interest in flexible learning has heightened the need for a critical analysis of the consequences of on-line teaching. However, critics argue that the new teacher role has not yet been thoroughly scrutinized. The aim of this paper is to trigger a debate about the changes and challenges related to the modified teacher role at universities. The methodology follows empirical data from interviews and literature surveys as well as our own experience in different flexible courses and continuous training of colleagues. Results of this study problematize both positive and negative implications on the teacher role in ICT-supported flexible learning, e.g. tendencies of teacher de-professionalization, increased ICT-dependency and uncertainty of quality in learning outcome. In conclusion our findings emphasize the need for increased teacher training in using ICT in educational settings.

The food system is burdened by many and severe negative environmental and social impacts. Two of the reasons for the impacts are the increasing scale and globalisation of the food system. ICT has been put forward as a means to enhance sustainability in society, yet the potential for food systems is underexplored. In this paper we review ICT solutions for improved sustainability of food systems, which are used in practice or are discussed as potential solutions. The aim is to identify ICT solutions that can potentially enhance sustainability in the food system. We review mostly scientific literature. The ICT solutions are categorized according to four main purposes of the approach, to 1) efficiency through monitoring and assessment of environmental impact, 2) enhance transparency and traceability in the food system, 3) creating network between actors in the food chains, 4)influence and change food practices. We conclude that there is no coherent research field covering ICT in food systems. The papers reviewed are scattered over several disciplines and scientific journals. We also conclude that there is a predominance of research on monitoring of food production and ransparency and traceability in the food chain. More research is needed that take on holistic approaches and include several parts of the food system.Furthermore, we would also like to see more research onwhat sustainable food systems could be like and how ICT couldsupport and perhaps sometimes hinder such developments.

This multi-municipal intervention study explored whether informal carers of frail older people and disabled children living at home made use of information and communication technology (ICT) to gain knowledge about caring and to form informal support networks, thereby improving their health. Seventy-nine informal carers accessed web-based information about caring and an e-based discussion forum via their personal computers. They were able to maintain contact with each other using a web camera and via normal group meetings. After the first 12 months, 17 informal carers participated in focus group interviews and completed a short questionnaire. Four staff members were also interviewed. Participant carers who had prior experiences with a similar ICT-based support network reported greater satisfaction and more extensive use of the network than did participants with no such prior experience. It seems that infrequent usage of the service may be explained by too few other carers to identify with and inappropriate recruitment procedures. Nevertheless, carers of disabled children reported that the intervention had resulted in improved services across the participant municipalities. To achieve optimal effects of an ICT-based support network due attention must be given to recruitment processes and social environment building for which care practitioners require training and support.

Researchers have recently started to investigate how artificial intelligence (AI) and learning algorithms are impacting on work, organization and professional knowledge. Many analyses are focused on the deployment phase and practitioners’ reactions and challenges of integrating the new technologies into their existing practices. However, fewer studies have investigated the development and pre-implementation phase and how data analysts and computer engineers work to construct reliable systems and communicate their products to users and domain experts. This paper reports findings from an ongoing study on the development and implementation of AI in shipping. We illustrate the work done by technology providers in framing the system to intended user and how the relationship- and trust building of developers reduced users’ propensity of asking critical questions regarding the opacity of the system and its implications for organizational change and work. 

In this paper we reflect on teaching PD, in an experience report of a student project taking place in an industrial context. The paper contributes to discussions in the PD community about how PD is, and could be, taught. It looks at what happened in the project, and issues that arose, from the point of view of the students and the company. It looks at the way in which uncertainty and power relations have played a role in the project, and how the students have been affected by them. It discusses the importance of the co-design that took place, mainly around prototyping, and the difficulties students experienced when working with PD methods. It looks at the importance of the roles involved in the project. We end with important points for discussion concerning teaching PD.

This thesis examines the roles played by digital information and communication technologies in a Swedish public library’s three-year long renovation project. As a case study of technology-influenced collaboration in a cultural heritage institution, this study addresses a gap in digital humanities research on the practical details of sociotechnical collaboration, as well as a lack of documentation of an ongoing trend of renovations and rebuildings of Swedish public libraries. 

A large number of internal materials produced at the library during the course of its renovations was studied, and semi-structured qualitative interviews with three of the cultural heritage workers involved were conducted. Reading these materials with an actor-network theory approach, an account was constructed of the renovation project and the usages therein of digital technologies, in order to examine these technologies as actors and their effects on the project.

It was found that, throughout the project, information and communication technologies were used to think, plan, organize, discuss, and make decisions about the work, that limitations and affordances of these technologies shaped how they could be used, and that this thus had effects on the project. Digital technologies are shown to have been active and agential, and avenues for future research are suggested.

This paper presents the results of EcoPanel, an eco-feedback visualization created in collaboration with a Swedish food retailer. The visualization uses automatic data gathering to provide consumers with detailed information and long-term trends about their organic food consumption. The results from a five months test with 65 users show an increase in organic purchases compared to the control group, especially for the users who overestimated their percentage of organic food before the test. From the results we point out the possibilities of using visualization as a way of creating insight on behaviors such as food consumption, that are difficult to grasp from individual actions. This insight can be a way of closing the gap between attitudes and actual behavior, helping users that are already aware and willing to change, to perform more sustainable.

This article discusses anxiety as an analytical and methodological concept in the investigation of post-authoritarian societies, drawing on three well-being-focused anxieties that marked Greece in the 1980s: first, the degradation of the urban environment, especially in Athens; second, the technologisation of everyday life, most notably the popularisation of information technology; and third, the impact of novel, consumption-focused media, particularly lifestyle magazines. The analysis distinguishes anxiety from fear and argues that fear is commoner in authoritarian regimes than in new democracies, which often experience optimism and cultural pluralism. These conditions foster anxieties related to well-being. By exploring a juncture at which moderate economic progress coincided with democratisation and closer contact with Western Europe, the article argues that anxiety is a productive tool for examining the emotional impact of mild perceived threats to well-being in societies characterised by relatively calm life conditions.