Det saknades teori kring vilka aspekter som var viktiga för potentiella kunder att väga in i ett beslut om övergång till molnbaserade affärssystem. I undersökningen har vi samlat tidigare forskning kring molntjänster generellt och sedan jämfört den med empiri från respondenter med erfarenhet av molnbaserade affärssystem. På så sätt har vi försökt koppla tidigare forskning och undersökt huruvida den är applicerbar på vår studie. Vi kom fram till att det framförallt är aspekter rörande säkerhet, ekonomi och affärsstrategi som kunder bör vara medvetna om när de planerar en övergång till molnbaserade affärssystem. Rörande säkerhet fann vi att det är viktigt att tänka på hur den fysiska lagringen sker och säkerhetsrutiner kring vem som handhar data och hur den säkerhetskopieras samt vem som äger datan. Ekonomiskt kan beslutet om en övergång påverkas av molntjänsters olika prismodeller, hur kostnader skiljer sig mot lokalt installerade system samt potentiellt dolda kostnader. Slutligen kan det affärsstrategiskt finnas avgörande aspekter i hur system interagerar med varandra, hur anpassad en tjänst är till mobila enheter samt att molntjänster enkelt kan skalas upp i storlek vid behov.

Nowadays, the growth of mobile apps is so fast and viral; they have the potential of transforming our everyday lives by creating huge opportunities to individuals and businesses. This translates into a growing demand for developing such apps, which need to be easy to learn and use. In this paper, we conduct an evaluation of an android mobile app, which we designed and developed to find and register power outlets in public spaces. Our evaluation of the prototype consisted of two stages. First, we provided the users with two tasks, with an additional option to indicate their perception of how easy it was to complete these tasks. Second, upon completing both tasks and offering their comments, participants were asked to take the SUS (System Usability Scores) questionnaire. The results of the evaluation indicate that the app usability and learnability is acceptable despite being a prototype. The findings and participants’ comments give us a direction on how this app can be improved in the future.

Development of support systems in the area of e-health have different set of conditions that makes it more difficult than in other context of IS/IT use. In this research we explore a development case and look at the development process and the outcomes in terms of solutions. The research concerns the area of heart failure and how patients could be more successful with self-care. The outcome from the project was the creation of a portfolio of solutions, which was a combination of technical and process solutions. The outcome draws the attention to the need of flexible solutions and cater to the diversity of the patients and their personal situations. In the concluding discussion a set of design dimensions are presenting, representing difficult trade-offs that needs to be handled during the design process. (C) 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.

This paper investigates a learning model for its capabilities to improve the understanding of user learning during information systems design (ISD). We wish to explore the role of the ISD process as a learning process. Today, organizational design and development increasingly circulate around notions like ?organizational learning” and ?organizational knowledge creation” or is, in the general direction of organization, in a constant process of change. An information system could be the driver for new organizational routines or new produces, or the necessary component for realizing a new business strategy. The possible role of the information system might then be as a force for change or an obstacle, by the way it is used during its life time. Here we look at the development of the systems and how this process must reflect a high level of adaptation, learning and change in the user community. To add to the knowledge of ISD as a learning system we read a co-design-driven ISD case through the theory lens of Illeris (2007). We discuss the possibilities of designing an ISD process based on this learning theory and of creating users as well as an information system.

Enterprises need to understand the impact of different types of knowledge management (KM) approaches on business strategy, and how they interact with other types of initiatives to produce synergistic effects. The hypothesis of this paper is that a model based on the balanced scorecard approach (BSC) can be used to balance the diverse set of KM approaches that are described in the KM literature. A literature study has been carried out connecting general examples of BSC objectives to KM approaches and applications. The resulting framework indicates that each of the major aspects of KM has its place in the BSC model, and thus has a role in the success of the company from a strategic viewpoint. A KM strategy according to this perspective should articulate how a company intends to strike a balance between different KM approaches. Contributions of the framework to related theory are discussed and illustrated by using a rich case from literature.

Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) holds the potential to improve contemporary business operations, which are redefined frequently based on the demands of global competition. There are numerous EDI systems, which an enterprise can choose to adopt in order to meet its needs and goals. International literature demonstrates a variation of views regarding the adoption of new technologies, which differ according the size of each organization along with internal and external impediments and determinants. The use of EDI worldwide has gained a positive acceptance by commercial companies, industries and service providers, followed by rapid adoption mainly in the processes of large organizations. Conversely, the predictions of previous years’ studies have not been materialized to the expected extent. In Greece in particular, there is low penetration and a reluctance to adopt EDI technologies by Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). This study is based on the theoretical framework of Technology, Organization and Environment (TOE). A qualitative multiple case study research design has been used, in order to provide further insights on the factors that affect the decision of Greek SMEs in adopting EDI technologies. The significance of the perceived direct and indirect benefits, the effects of the perceived financial cost and technical competence and the importance of industry and government pressure on corporate level, are analyzed and discussed. An empirical support of the low penetration of EDI in the Greek SMEs' community is also provided. This research contributes in the existing knowledge about EDI adoption decisions regarding Greek SMEs by providing a variation of views, further insights on how Greek SMEs behave and react during the current economic recession and a new cost factor that emerged within the analysis of multiple cases. Avenues for future research are recommended in order to expand this study's findings in the field of corporate IT innovation.

The master thesis focuses on citizen participation and how to support it with the application of ICT. Due to its recent publicity, blockchain and its features have been investigated and were related to the citizen participation domain. A qualitative research study has been conducted to explore the perceptions of citizens relating to blockchain. Based on those findings suggestions for improvement of citizen participation were provided.

More specifically, a focus group interview has been conducted in the Swedish municipality of Växjö. Probes have been used to encourage the participants to follow unexpected thoughts to provide creative answers and to start a dialogue between the group and the researcher. The gathered data from the focus group interview was then analyzed with an iterative coding process. This process yielded a list of seven concepts which bundle the following aspects mentioned by the participants in the group interview: Accessibility, Flexibility and Responsiveness, Trust, Accountability vs Privacy, Adaption, Representation, and Collaboration. The concepts are referring to the use of blockchain in the context of citizen participation. They have been discussed later on, based on the contextual framework built on the topics ICT, blockchain, citizen participation, and soft systems methodology. A literature review was conducted to build this framework.

The discussion summarizes how the citizens perceive blockchain and how it can support their participation within a municipality context. The perceptions include concerns relating to privacy, hopes of improved information infrastructures with open data formats, as well as that blockchain could modernize democracy. The forms of blockchain systems which could support citizen participation comprise aspects such as that it could lead to transparent and traceable investment flows for participative planning and controlling, as well as that it could help to identify bad players when collaborating with each other. In the last parts, issues of citizen empowerment are discussed as a result of the previous parts of the discussion about citizens' perceptions and the forms blockchain could have for them.

This research aims to contribute to current research on citizen participation supported by ICT. It means to promote developments towards higher degrees of citizen power, by providing citizens' views on blockchain and the forms of participation it could support.

Utvecklingen av webben har sedan den skapades 1989 gått från att bestå av statiska webbsidor till att bli mer interagerande med dess användare. Denna utveckling, som kallas Web 2.0, har på ett naturligt sätt letat sig in i företagssammanhang.

Denna studie började ursprungligen som ett uppdrag åt myndigheten Trafikverket. Studiens syfte har varit att på ett praktiskt sätt undersöka möjligheterna att utveckla organisationers inom- och interorganisatoriska kommunikation, nätverkande och samarbete med hjälp av Web 2.0- tekniker. Vi beslutade oss för att skapa en tentativ modell för hur organisationer kan gå till väga för att utveckla dessa områden och testa denna mot fallmyndigheten.

Cook (2008) har skapat en kategoriseringsmodell för Web 2.0-verktyg som han kallar för 4C-modellen. Modellen utgår ifrån de användningsområden verktygen har.

För att genomföra denna studie har vi använt oss av en deduktiv ansats med en kvalitativ metod. Vi utgick från Cooks (2008) 4C-modell och genom en iterativ process där vi blandade teori med intervjuer utökades modellens praktiska tillämpbarhet.

Modellen består av en övergripande beskrivning av organisationen, djupdykning i områdena kommunikation, nätverkande och samarbete. Därefter består modellen av en kartläggning av Web 2.0-verktyg samt en SWOT-analys för att sedan rundas av med en slutsats.

Modellen tillämpades på verksamhetsområdena Investering och Stora projekt på Trafikverket. Resultatet från tillämpningen visade att användandet av Web 2.0-verktyg skulle kunna underlätta introduktion av nyanställda, öka möjligheterna för formellt och informellt samarbete samt förbättrad kunskapshantering. Möjligheterna för organisationer att använda Web 2.0-verktyg underlättas av det faktum att det finns produkter på marknaden som innehåller flera Web 2.0 funktioner, exempelvis Microsoft Sharepoint. 

The use of service robots in various contexts has steadily increased in recent years and has become an increasingly common feature of different companies and organizations' websites. Service robots have been proven to have a great potential to provide important benefits in contact with users, where service robots can provide tireless and fast service to users in a cost-effective manner. This technology enables companies and organizations to a certain extent automate the very important customer contact, which can lead to more efficient business processes and cost minimization without restricting perceived quality. The previous research carried out in the field of service robots has focused primarily on investigating which aspects of a service robot that are essential for achieving good usability and user acceptance from a user perspective. Previous research has also identified that there is no established and standardized approach for how to handle the design and application of interactive service robots from an organizational perspective. This study has intended to investigate how the design and application of a service robot should be managed from an organizational perspective, which was achieved through a case study in the Växjö based company Visma Spcs and their service robot Vera. In the case study, a qualitative survey method has been applied through semi-structured interviews with people involved in the Vera project. The result of the case study showed that there are important aspects in the work with service robots that should be considered from an organizational perspective, in order to be able to create a useful and accepted service robot. The conclusion of the study showed three principles: Understand the user, Understand the context, and Creation, control and maintenance, which are important parts to consider when designing and applying interactive service robots from an organizational perspective. Understanding the user will be important for creating a user experience that meets the users' needs. Understanding the context will be critical when choosing a robot type, and what type of software solution is to be used. Creation, control and maintenance will be important to ensure that the service robot maintains high system, information and service quality.

Background: There is an imbalance in the Swedish welfare sector due to demogra­phic changes. Elderly care is an area of welfare where digitization can create great opportunities by thinking and working in new ways in combination with using digital technology and e-health. However, to take advantage of the opportunities, adaptations need to be made within the elderly care. 

Aim: The purpose of the study is to describe managers' and employees' experiences of how adaptation to conditions such as vision, competence, incentives, resources, and action plan can promote change in a digital transformation of a municipality's elderly care. 

Method: A qualitative case study was conducted, including three fo­cus group interviews with managers and employees in elderly care in a small muni­cipality. The selection of informants was based on a generic purpose-driven selection and the focus group interviews were based on a semi-structured interview guide. The data were analyzed through qualitative directed content analysis with a deductive ap­proach based on the building blocks in Thylefors' change model.

Results: Managers' and employees' experiences of how adaptations to conditions can promote digital transformation in elderly care in a municipality are described, as well as managers' and employees' needs for support in the change. A total of ten subcate­gories were identified related to Thylefors' building blocks: vision, competence, in­centives, resources, and action plan. 

Conclusion: Managers' and employees' experiences of how adaptations can promote change in elderly care during digital transformation, in the municipality where the case study was conducted, show that vision, change management and digital compe­tence play a central role. Managers' and employees' experiences of support in the change process show the need for time regarding training, innovation and an action plan which should be included in systematic quality management. Managers’ and em­ployees’ experience similar needs for adaptations and support, which could indicate that the findings can be considered in a similar context of digital transformation in elderly care. Suggestions for future research include for example investigating how digital transformation in elderly care can promote sustainable leadership and emplo­yee empowerment skills.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to reflect on carers’ experiences of being involved in the development of a web-based support programme for carers of people with heart failure (CPwHF), and discuss the challenges related to their involvement in the development process. The focus was on the different phases in the project as well as the methodological challenges and opportunities that occurred in the user group sessions conducted.

Design/methodology/approach – This research adopt an explorative design studying a co-design process to develop an information and communication technology based support programme for and with CPwHF. Habermas’ concepts of lifeworld and system are used as a theoretical framework to analyse the co-design process employed in the study.

Findings – Reflecting on the co-design approach adopted, the findings highlight the methodological challenges that arise with carer involvement and the possible tensions that occur between researchers’ ambitions to include users in the design process, and the goal of developing a product or service, in the different phases of the design process.

Originality/value – Findings highlight that there is a tension between the system and lifeworld in the co-design process which are not totally compatible. The paper highlights that there is a need to develop flexible and reflexive human-centred design methodologies, able to meet carers’ needs and ideas, and at the same time balance this with proposed research outcomes.

Background: Different support services for family carers are available in Sweden through information and communication technologies (ICTs) since late 1990s, like ACTION, My Joice, IPPI, ‘The Gap’, and Carer Sweden’s online ‘Carer’s Book’. The INNOVAGE-Eurocarers platform aimed to complement the offer of web services to carers through the provision of a new tailored package.

Methods: The Swedish pilot test enrolled around 50 carers through contacts with professionals working with carers in different municipalities. They could access the following web-based services: information resources; individual support via e-mail and private messages; group support via social network and forum. Periodical writing activities were asked to active users in the forum, alternating expressive writing (EW) and time management (TM) writing tasks. Periodical reminders were sent in order to increase user involvement.

Results: Users were predominantly older, female carers, of which two thirds were over 65 years old. The web platform was perceived as a flexible tool, potentially accessible at any time, which gave users the possibility to exploit their experience as carers with others in similar situations. This peer exchange seemed to improve self empowerment, sense of solidarity and mutual learning. However, usage of the web platform was limited due to the low level of digital skills of some carers.

Conclusions: Although results confirmed usefulness and appropriateness of implemented web services, it is fundamental to address the issue of usability and accessibility in order to ensure a wider accessibility. An option might be to offer initial digital skill training and continuous technical support for computer novices.

COVID-19 pandemic was one of the most devastating events that happened in the 21st century. It created a lot of changes both socially and economically. For example, a lot of employees had to be laid off due to financial reasons. Also, a considerable amount of organisations had to employ working from home culture or hybrid work culture that are still in effect. All these changes have affected the device threat landscape as well. There were new vulnerabilities that surfaced due to working from home. For example, employees had to work in unmonitored networks. On top of that there were changes in attack trends as well. The ransom attacks became more destructive after COVID-19 pandemic. 

This study analyzed the effects of the change in threat landscape on the organization’s device security culture. A literature review was conducted to define the changes in the threat landscape through changes in vulnerabilities and changes in attack trends after the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result of the literature review, it was observed that working from home culture created a lot of vulnerabilities for the organisations that adopted it. Also, it was noticed  that there were changes in ransomware and phishing trends. To observe the possible effects of those changes to the organisation’s device security culture, a case study was conducted on a Swedish organisation that underwent numerous transformations after the COVID-19 pandemic. The data for the case study was collected through interviews with various participants with different roles in the organisation. The results from the literature review regarding the changes in the device threat landscape helped formulate the interview questions. The case study showed that even though the changes in the threat landscape had affected the organisation’s security culture, other factors, such as the organization's goals and experiences, played a big part in the change of the organization’s device security culture.    

A recent trend in health care is patient-centred health, but are health care organizations ready to cope with that change? Changes at the patient level are one aspect but there is a need for reshaping the organization of health care. There is a need to focus much more on prevention care, helping patients to cope and become better self-managers, focusing on the patient process, working together and empowering patients. The aim of this paper is to gain a better understanding of the lack of sustainability over time in two patient-centred care (PCC) projects by using actor network theory (ANT) as an analytical framework. We use case studies from heart fibrillation and heart failure care organizations in a Swedish county council. The cases concern initiatives to achieve better interactions for these patients and organize care to become more patient-centred. Both initiatives have now been partly abandoned in the organization, although research and guidelines recommend such care organizations. The analysis of the different actors dominating the translation process towards a PCC network and of the way they get together in networks reveals that this is a time-consuming process, taking place long after the initial training and PCC implementation activities. We discuss the temporality of stability, the reversible process with chimerical enrolments, and how a complex and changing environment demands constant re-problematization of PCC.  We also include how the understanding of the translation and negotiation process can influence decisions on allocating sufficient time and resources to the process. We shed light on the importance of understanding and managing the organizational change in a PCC project and thus also of when to implement patient-centred e-health solutions.

This paper presents a novel way of thinking about how information systems are used in organisations.Traditionally, computerised information systems are viewed as objects. In contrast, by viewing the informationsystem as an actor, the understanding of the structuration process increases. The user, beinginfluenced by the ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system and giving it an actor role, thereby alsoconfers agency on the ERP system; through its very use it influences actions and thus also the structure.Based on a case study of ERP use in an ABB company over a decade, five different roles played by theERP systems were identified. The ERP systems acted as Bureaucrat, Manipulator, Administrative assistant,Consultant or were dismissed (Dismissed) in the sense that intended users chose to avoid usingthem. These terms are defined in the full text.The purpose of this approach here is not to “animate” the information systems, to give them life or amind of their own, but rather to make explicit the socially constructed roles conferred on them by usersand others who are affected by them. On this basis, it is possible to suggest how the roles can help usopen up new areas of exploration concerning the fruitful use of IT.

Den problemformulering som denna uppsats har besvarat har varit hur kommunikations-strategin i ett specifikt förändringsarbete kan beskrivas, samt vilka jämförelser som kan gö-ras mellan kommunikationsstrategin och det teoretiska ramverket. Undersökningen i upp-satsen har baserats på en abduktiv ansats med i huvudsak deduktiv inriktning där kvalitativ och kvantitativ data samlats in från de som varit drivande av förändringen, samt de som varit föremål för förändringen. Datan har analyserats utifrån det teoretiska ramverk som varit unikt för undersökningen. De slutsatser som har dragits visar att kommunikationsstra-tegin varit något reaktiv och anpassats efter de individer som varit föremål för förändringen. Jämförelser med det teoretiska ramverket har visat att kommunikation till största del skett genom direkta samtal, i mötesform, att kommunikation använts som ett sätt att förbereda för förändring, samt att möten använts för att kommunicera de rutiner förändringen inneburit.

Social networks have integrated into people’s daily lives and they became a powerful medium for effective marketing and communication worldwide. Problem raise when governments and special agencies violate users’ information privacy under the pretext of protecting national security or something as, furthermore, when information became the source of income for social networks it became necessary to investigate users concerns about informational privacy on social platforms, if there are. The main purpose of the thesis is to understand what level of privacy awareness users on social networks have and how much relevant knowledge about surveillance on social networks they recognize. Moreover, the thesis aims to present users’ opinion about surveillance on Facebook and if they accept to be surveyed in certain scenarios. As results, the study has identified ambiguity in Facebook terms and data policy, while there has been clarity that Facebook applies massive surveillance in terms of data collection on all users on the network. 71% of the participants had concerns about their privacy on social networks, two-thirds of the participants didn’t read Facebook terms and 76% did believe that social networks sell users information for own benefits. The majority of the interview participants showed lack of knowledge about data collection on social networks, and didn’t know if governments do surveillance on social platforms or not. However, 37% of the survey participants claimed that they have nothing to hide and governments can look into their activities online, and almost similar percentage supported such an action. Further, most of the interview participants protect their informational privacy on social networks by having good privacy settings, controlling who have access to certain posts or managing friends list. However, 1/3 of the participants who had good privacy settings didn’t know all their friends on FB. Through personal observations on data analysis and literature review, I concluded the thesis with some suggestions of possible approaches to enhance information privacy, these recommendations present my own thoughts and weren’t derived in academic way rather personal notes during the thesis study.

The retail industry has faced many developments over recent decades as a result of digitalisation including the E-commerce and multichannel retailing phases. Consumers have seen the progression of new and digitised channels as well as solutions such as marketplaces, social media touchpoint and augmented reality tools. During the Covid-19 pandemic more consumers engaged on digital channels as the physical bricks and mortar stores were forced into lockdowns. However, the customer experience has not been seamless even in the era of digital retailing. Retailers have also experienced emerging dilemmas as a result of digitalisation. Despite the decades of retail digitalisation, the customer experience and industry remain somewhat tumultuous.

Digitalisation has produced positive developments in retail. In parallel it has been challenged to adapt to the changes. The multichannel era has created a disjointed value chain and infrastructure that is impacting the customer experience. Furthermore, consumer behaviour has also changed. The current objective in the industry is to meet the new customer demands. To make it seamless for them, but also for the industry. This concept is omnichannel retailing - the current transformation objective in the industry. It remains novel and emerging. Many have started the transformation and evident in literature. However, this research domain remains minute in comparison to the knowledge in the E-commerce and multichannel domains. Those who have entered the journey are larger organisations and are experiencing the complexity of this digital transformation. This poses the question if  omnichannel transformation of small retail businesses is plausible, which also happens to represent the majority of the industry. 

This qualitative case study’s objective is to gather and contribute to the limited knowledge in omnichannel retailing, and specifically for small business retailers. The business model concept and Complex Adaptive Systems theory, both associated to digitalisation of complex change has been combined as an omnichannel theoretical framework to assess the participants of this study. This study gathered empirical findings on business model changes and adaptive capabilities through in-depth interviews. The findings demonstrated small business retailers having the capacity to execute complex changes in their business models through adaptive behaviours. The study also highlighted areas in their business models and adaptive capabilities needing more consideration and development to support the ongoing omnichannel transformation. 

Informal care is a hot topic in research and policy agendas at European and national level, since it greatly contributes to the sustainability and efficiency of national health care systems. A specific intervention – part of the wider INNOVAGE project funded by FP7 – was planned for developing and testing a new multilingual web platform for informal carers of dependent older people in the EU-27. Preliminary results of the pilot study, conducted in Italy, Germany and Sweden will be discussed. The final platform will be accessible in all official languages of the EU-27 and publicly available in spring 2015.

Background: Family carers can be negatively influenced by their situation, in terms of stress, social isolation, economic constraints and other difficulties. Web-based services addressing carers’ needs represent an efficient support. The goal of the INNOVAGE work package 3(WP3) study was to develop and test a new multilingual web platform for supporting family carers of older people, to be implemented in 27 European countries.

Methods: A review of good practices and a consultation with stakeholders were conducted for identifying most appropriate types of services to be developed and tested. The prototype of web platform included information resources and interactive services for both peer and professional support. A convenient, overall sample of around 130 family carers was enrolled in three countries (Italy, Germany and Sweden) and could access services for 12-17 weeks. Data were collected through questionnaires and focus groups concerning impact onquality of life, social support, self-perception of carer’s role, as well as usability, usefulness and appropriateness of services.

Results: Active users were generally satisfied with support (information, advice, counselling) provided by moderators (social workers or psychologists) and peers. Usability and appropriateness were confirmed, although some refinements were suggested and users with low digital skills often needed technical support. A portion of the sample remained inactive even if stimulation strategies were adopted.

Conclusions: The pilot study confirmed the INNOVAGE Eurocarers web platform is a useful tool for family carers. Some challenges still exist for implementation in relation to digital skills required and users’ preferences on services at country level.

Issue

The exploitation of eHealth tools in integrated care practices addressing multimorbidity might be a strong driver for facilitating access to the services provided to people with multiple chronic diseases. This is particularly true in the case of older people living in the community, since eHealth could enhance and reinforce care services at home, improving independent living and security of patients.

Description of the problem

One of the ICARE4EU project aims, was to explore whether and which kind of eHealth tools are implemented in integrated care practices for older people with multimorbidity across Europe. In fact, eHealth tools could differ widely across practices, requiring specific know-how by users and health professionals for using and maintaining technology-based solutions, adequate financial resources, compatible organisational and cultural environment with innovations.

Results

The ICARE4EU project selected 101 integrated care practices in 24 European countries, of which 85 included the provision of at least one eHealth tool. Out of 50 practices addressing needs of older people, 42 included some eHealth solution aimed at: enhancing digital communication (64%); monitoring care processes (58%); providing decision support systems (60%); supporting patients' self-management (32%). Two promising approaches exploiting eHealth are presented in detail: the ‘TeleRehabilitation project: Post ICU patient telerehabilitation services' at the Nicosia General Hospital and the ‘Strategy for chronic care' by the Regional Department of Health in Valencia.

Lessons

The use of eHealth seems to have many benefits in terms of improvement of integration and management of care, as well as quality of care. However, to realize this benefits, it is important to arrange adequate technical support, legislative frameworks and training of users and health professionals.

Background: An estimated 50 million people in the European Union live with multiple chronic diseases. In Italy, around 26.6% of the population aged 16 to 64 years, reported to have at least one long-standing illness or health problem in 2011. Moreover, around 46% of the population over 50 is suffering from multimorbidity. Some programmes addressing adult or older people with multimorbidity have been introduced.

Methods: Data for the ICARE4EU study were collected in the first half of 2014. Eligible programmes focussed on providing care for adult people with two or more medically diagnosed chronic or long lasting diseases (at least onesomatic), involved formalised cooperation between two or more services (at least one medical) and evaluation was available. For each programme an on-line questionnaire was completed and included four main subjects: Patientcentredness, Management, Use of E-health technologies, and Financing systems.

Results: In Italy, four programmes met the inclusion criteria. They address both daily patient care and policy/managerial levels. Integration of care services, improved collaboration between care providers, changes in resource utilisation and involvement of informal carers have been observed. In two programmes, older patients are addressed as specific subgroup and in two cases animprovement in the use of E-health tools has emerged.

Conclusions: In Italy, new policies and integrated care programmes addressing multimorbidity have been recently introduced in some areas, with good preliminary results.

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.

Introduction: Information and communication technologies (ICTs) have gained an increasing relevance for delivering innovative care and support services for dependent older people and their family caregivers. Although ICT-based interventions can vary remarkably in terms of functions, target users, operational aspects and technologies used, little knowledge is available concerning their implementationand impact in Europe, a gap that the CARICT project (http://is.jrc.es/pages/EAP/eInclusion/carers.html) has tried to fill.

Method: 54 ICT-based interventions addressing needs of older peopleor their family caregivers have been identified in 12 European countries through internet search, literature review and expert interviews. Reports have been delivered for each case studied, and cross-analysed to better understand their potential impact at micro, meso and macro level.

Results: Little evidence was found for positive outcomes at micro-level, including improvements in users’ health relatedquality of life and social inclusion. At meso-level, implementation of 1st/2nd generation telecare contributes to reduce hospitalization and institutionalization rates of older users, as well asto cost savings for local care providers. At macro-level, only one intervention shows concrete effects on a larger scale through a targeted program evaluation, while most ICT-based interventions do not useany tool to assess their impact, and can thus demonstrate only technology acceptance or users’ satisfaction.

Conclusion: The lack of relevant evidence at all levels, as well as difficulties in comparing and generalising results, strongly urge practitioners to improve impact assessment methodologies and researchers to develop a better general framework of ICT potentials at a conceptual, theoretical and methodological level in this area.

Some evidence suggests that information and communication technologies (ICT) can be an efficient mean to improve not only the quality of care provided to dependent older people but also the support for informal carers and privately employed care workers. However, there is a lack of research on ICT-based initiatives and their impact on carers in the European context. Moving from the preliminary findings of the CARICTproject, the paper discusses the first attempt that has been made in Europe to assess the impact of ICTbased initiatives for carers. First, an overview of the developed methodological framework is presented: it includes both a conceptual framework and an impact assessment methodology (IAM) for evaluating multidimensional outcome. Furthermore, an overview of ICT-based solutions in Europe is provided through the analysis of 52 operational initiatives and selected as good practices. Finally, some recommendations and guidelines for further research in the field are discussed.

It has been more than a year since the coronavirus (COVID-19) engulfed the whole world, disturbing the daily routine, bringing down the economies, and killing two million people across the globe at the time of writing. The pandemic brought the world together to a joint effort to find a cure and work toward developing a vaccine. Much to the anticipation, the first batch of vaccines started rolling out by the end of 2020, and many countries began the vaccination drive early on while others still waiting in anticipation for a successful trial. Social media, meanwhile, was bombarded with all sorts of both positive and negative stories of the development and the evolving coronavirus situation. Many people were looking forward to the vaccines, while others were cautious about the side-effects and the conspiracy theories resulting in mixed emotions. This study explores users's tweets concerning the COVID-19 vaccine and the sentiments expressed on Twitter. It tries to evaluate the polarity trend and a shift since the start of the coronavirus to the vaccination drive across six countries. The findings suggest that people of neighboring countries have shown quite a similar attitude regarding the vaccination in contrast to their different reactions to the coronavirus outbreak.

The purpose of the National medication list is to provide healthcare, pharmacies, and the patient with the same picture of the prescribed and dispensed medications of a patient. Förskrivningskollen is a back-up system that healthcare professionals can use until their own electronic health record systems are adapted to the National prescription register. No previous study covers Förskrivningskollen and this phase in the implementation of the National medication list. 

The aim this master’s thesis is to examine healthcare professionals experience and perception of Förskrivningskollen, which can identify benefits, barriers, and possible risks with the system. The study applied a mixed methods approach, with user statistics from Förskrivningskollen and a survey with open and closed questions. The respondents of the survey (n=288) were healthcare professionals who were users or potential users of the system. The analysis of the qualitative data was conducted using inductive content analysis.

The result showed that there are high expectations on the National medication list but also many concerns. The knowledge about Förskrivningskollen was low and there was an uncertainty regarding the regulations and work routines linked to the system. There have been seven different healthcare professions among the users of the system up until January 2022. There is a small number of users of Förskrivningskollen in relation to the potential set of users. The result shows that a lack of interoperability with the electronic health record made Förskrivningskollen time consuming to use and could lead to a risk of insufficient documentation. Respondents described that the list was not sufficiently updated and that Förskrivningskollen could lead to a sense of false security. Most of the clinical pharmacist states that Förskrivningskollen has helped to facilitate their work with medication reconciliation. The physicians were more divided in their perceived benefit, some described benefit when prescribing drugs with risk of addiction, some others preferred using other systems such as NPÖ or Pascal.  

This study showed that there is a need for information on and clarification regarding ways of working and regulations linked to Förskrivningskollen and the National medication list. The perceived problems of the healthcare staff concerning the National medication list is important to consider in the future implementation. 

This study analyzes a complex case in society, namely, how to distinguish ride-sharing applications, such as Uber, from ordinary taxi enterprises. We conduct a structural analysis of normative practices with distinctions at the following levels: (1) aspects; (2) radical types, genotypes, and phenotypes; (3) part-whole, enkaptic relationships, and interlinkages; and (4) the distinction between qualifying and foundational functions as it is captured in the theory of normative practices. We conclude that the genotype of taxi matchmaking enterprises, of which Uber is an example, represents a novel normativity that could positively serve society and also produce normative challenges, depending on its governance. Therefore, regulators should not dismiss the entire genotype of taxi matchmaking enterprises, but should address the phenotypes that are illegal or that cannot thrive without the illegal behaviors of its users. This conclusion is clear from the structural and directional sides of the practice.

The word risk originates from the Italian word risicare which means to dare and from this point of view, risk is more of a choice than a fate. Risk is about the actions that we dare to take and these in turn depend on the freedom we have to make choices (Bernstein, 1998). It can also be defined as the possibility of harm or loss to any resource within an information system, which accentuate the importance of identifying the organisation's assets (Ramachandran, 2002).

The obvious fact that information is one of the most important asset within a company, results in that it is necessary to try to predict the risks that exists against these and consequently also against the organisation's goals and visions. It is impossible to identify all potential risks but a very good tool for identifying as many as possible and then assigning them appropriate protective measures, is the risk analysis.

Since many significant security processes are built upon risk analysis and also security planning, it is necessary that the analysis is accomplished in an accurate way. This meaning that factors in the inner and outer surrounding environment that could affect the final result also must be taken into consideration, e.g. different communication channels. Thus, a holistic perspective is necessary when performing a risk analysis but also when working with security issues in general.

Today, security solutions are often focused on technology and not on the system as a whole (Schneier, 2000) and considering that development and use of technology has lead us to think in terms of systems, we mean that this should hold for the information security area as well. Also the fact that the concept of wholeness is very important in information security and that general system theory is a general science of wholeness (v. Bertalanffy, 1969), makes us wonder: what could be more suitable to apply on security issues?

For that reason, we present some ideas for a modified risk analysis method in this paper, based upon an existing risk analysis used by the case study object The Corporation of Swedish Pharmacies, Apoteket AB. They has recently added two customer care centres to its organisation and as a result of this, also a number of communication channels that are integrated with different information sources that contains classified information, e.g. personal particulars. The ideas of a modified risk analysis could be used by customer care centre organisations using several communication channels. These ideas are influenced by general systems theory that has been combined with a method used to analyse information flows in organisations. We have studied the company's existing risk analysis method and in combination with qualitative data, e.g. interviews, we have some suggestions of a risk analysis that emphasises the holistic perspective and the relations between the different entities in the overall information system.

The suggested ideas will be reviewed together with the department of IT-security at Apoteket AB and after that tested within the organisation. It is noticeable that like all work with information security, the suggested method is a cyclic process that constantly develops and undergoes changes in relation to its dynamic context. Results and feedback from this implementation will be presented in forthcoming papers during 2004.

Sustainable regional development faces the complicated task of integrating socio-demographic, environmental and economic goals into a functioning policy proposal. The challenges of the 21st century are further complicated by the new nature of rural-urban relations that render traditional dichotomous approaches counterproductive. The latest EU rural development initiative proclaims itself as a fundamental break from older efforts that primarily focused upon agribusiness. This new humanistic vision includes improved quality of life, environmental sustainability and economic diversification alongside traditional agricultural tenets. New research takes this realization further, expressing a need for new conceptual tools to handle this ‘new rural’ reality seen as a composite of material and social aspects. Since older conceptualizations of the rural as agriculturally dominated might still linger on, the achievement of new humanistic planning goals is a complicated task. Policy planning – a complex actor-network of different interests – heterogeneously engineers different interests into a unified framework. In this case, the major refocus within policy planning, including re-conceptualizations of the ‘new rural’ and the new rural-urban relations, should, accordingly, be accommodated within the actual policy documents. If not, the proclaimed focus of the regional development goals could strike as empty political rhetoric. Due to their size, policies are often summarized. A policy summary should consequently be an unambiguous representation of the policy as a whole. Qualitative summarizations, however, may be problematic due to human biases. To circumvent this problem, this study borrows a technique from the digital humanities called topic modeling. This technique was applied to the framework of EU’s rural development policy for 2007–2013 and compared with the proclaimed development goals. First indications of the analysis show that there are indeed attempts to accommodate these new conceptualizations. However, the primary focus is still on agribusiness. Thereby, the humanistic focus of seeing the rural as more than agriculture-dominated areas does not appear to be strengthened. By adhering to a rationale different than the assumed one, such tendencies may possibly complicate the fulfillment of sustainable socio-economic development goals.

Any social research at some point always touches upon issues dealing with the situatedness of the researcher. Policy analysis is no exception, and there have been many quantitative attempts to mitigate problems that arise from human biases. The general concern is that, for the most part, these methodological approaches remain fairly basic (e.g. word frequencies) in comparison to the semantic nuances a human reader would normally experience. In that light, the here presented approach explores the possibility of using topic modelling as a way to quantitatively assess policy without forgoing those finer nuances of human analysis. In this presentation, the material subject to topic modelling is EU’s Rural Development policy for 2007–2013 (RDP). It proclaims itself as the first European rural policy to in its conceptual framework cover aspects labelled as quality of life (QOL). In this paper, we treat this particular statement as a hypothesis, to which topic modelling is used to investigate if this really is the case. For any concept (not just QOL) to be incorporated into a policy and to retain its influence, it must be both mentioned and linked to other parts of that same policy, elsewise it could strike as merely a rhetorical strategy. Thereby, the hypothesis is that the more themes (topics) relate to a particular concept the more relative importance the policy allocates to that particular concept. In order to gauge this relative importance of QOL within RDP, we created a categorisation based upon: (1) the RDP’s own conceptual understanding of QOL, and (2) definitions provided by contemporary cutting-edge research dedicated to QOL. The analysis shows that only about 4 % of the topics found within the RDP relate to the issues of QOL. These particular topics only mention aspects of QOL without any explicit signs of implementation. This marginal position of QOL within RDP has been corroborated by other audits of the RDP using traditional qualitative techniques. Therefore, with further methodological development, this experimental application of topic modelling in policy analysis might represent one potential alternative to traditional qualitative methods.

The epistemological affordances of technologies such as the Internet and computers are – yet again – offering promising and threatening opportunities to reshape humanistic research. The large digitization efforts within humanities has created new kinds of ‘big data’ textual source materials only a ’mouse click away’ (e.g. Google books, JSTOR or the Bodleian Digital Library). This socio-technical development presents new epistemological challenges for research within various humanities disciplines. To aid this effort, some researchers are turning to new kinds of (digital) data-mining methods to tackle this complexity. The subject of this study, topic modeling (TM) is such a digital humanities method. The presentation systematically surveys academic applications of topic modelling – an algorithm that parameterizes word concurrences – within historical research. The aim is to answer questions such as; what are the stated benefits of TM, whether there is qualitative differences between TM and traditional methods, and what new epistemological challenges TM creates for historical research? Our starting point is 2004 with the first peer-reviewed historical article and end point in 2013 with the publication of a special journal issue on applications of TM. Our preliminary results show that TM indeed affords new possibilities of innovative qualitative approaches in historical research. However, for all practical purposes TM is, as of yet, not a ‘black-boxed technology’ as many of its key variables still lack general agreed upon standards. This incorporation of TM within historical studies appears to be analogues to earlier developments in disciplines such as; human geography or psychology. These earlier introductions of quantitative tools and methodologies into previously qualitatively dominated disciplines ultimately changed the character of these disciplines. If this will occur within historical studies or humanities remains to be seen.

För att förbättra hanteringen av vårdinformation införde Landstinget i Kalmar län under åren 2004 till 2008 vårdIT-systemet Cosmic i de flesta av sina vårdverksamheter. Under hösten 2007 och våren 2008 genomförde eHälsoinstitutet en utvärdering av IT-systemets måluppfyllelse, problemlösning, handlingsstöd och verksamhetsstöd på en sjukhusklinik i länet.

Det gjordes en studie av IT-systemet och verksamheten, en förändringsanalys, värdering av IT-systemet i verksamheten samt förslag på förändringar av ITsystemet och verksamheten.

Utvärderingen resulterade i bedömning att införandet av IT-systemet har lett till att de flesta mål har uppnåtts och flera problem har blivit lösta. Dock finns vissa mål som ännu inte uppnåtts helt och vissa problem som kvarstår. Dessutom har införandet av IT-systemet orsakat vissa nya problem, men det har också lett till andra mindre förväntade förbättringar.

Slutsatsen är att IT-systemet har sina styrkor, men också sina svagheter. Det finns därmed potential att genomföra förändringar för att förbättra IT-systemet för verksamheten. Personalen på kliniken är inte helt nöjd, men skulle heller aldrig vilja gå tillbaka till hur det var tidigare. Resultatet av utvärderingen pekar också på vikten av att utvärdera IT-systemet i verksamheten efter införandet.

Sweden's digital healthcare situation is described in reports from both authorities and popular science journals as outdated and problematic. In modern healthcare, digital medical record systems are crucial to providing effective and patient-safe healthcare. In order for the following IT systems to avoid creating problems for end users, it is important to take into account the opinions and views they have that can improve the system and thereby increase acceptance. Furthermore, previous research presents that time and design of healthcare technology play a major role in increasing acceptance. To identify whether the healthcare situation is as problematic as it is presented, acceptance for digital medical record systems is important to investigate.

The purpose of the following thesis was to investigate whether the Swedish healthcare’s digital medical record systems is perceived as accepted or perhaps even likable by healthcare professionals. To answer the purpose, the authors chose to investigate what factors there are that affect the acceptance of healthcare professionals for digital medical records systems in the Kronoberg Region.

By using the theoretical framework Technology Acceptance Model 2 (TAM2), a basis was provided to analyse empirical data from a user acceptance perspective. The choice of using TAM2 in contrast to the original model (TAM) was based on the extension that the latter framework presents that acceptance depends on.

From conducting a qualitative interview study at a healthcare facility in the Kronoberg Region, eight key topics were identified by using coding and transcription. These topics related to areas that were raised very often by the informants who participated in the survey.

Analysis of the results was performed by comparing the variables presented by TAM2 in relation to the results of the study. The analysis showed that the participants in the interview study had a high acceptance for their digital medical record system as a large majority responded positively to all of the variables presented by TAM2.

Furthermore, the authors identified five factors that affect acceptance for digital medical record systems for healthcare professionals through analysis. These factors relate to time and culture, design and ease of use, accessibility, usability and consistency between caregivers. According to the survey, the following factors lead to more popular and better implemented information systems in healthcare.

Thus, by identifying the factors that affect acceptance for healthcare professionals in digital medical records, decision makers and developers of healthcare technology can take this into account for upcoming changes.

The use of mobile devices enables maintenance staff to gain access to information and services relevant to the task in hand in near real time and wherever some form of network access is provided. Essentially, mobile device users become mobile actors who dynamically interact with the physical environment, i.e. workplace, and supporting information systems, leading to faster response to events and an increased performance. This paper provides insight into the acceptance prospects and best practices of the mobile technologies in the area of maintenance. Furthermore, the potential financial impact is discussed as a key driver for the adoption of mobile technologies in the maintenance practice.

Gravel road maintenance is a complex endeavour comprising physical, technical and social aspects that have to be considered, and resources to be coordinated. The maintenance requirements are affected by weather conditions, geography, and traffic frequency, but also by the physical properties of the road and the previous maintenance performance. The physical properties and maintenance requirements are area dependent; in Northern Europe, ground frost, for instance, is a problem, while flooding is a problem in East Asia. Understanding the specific context-dependent variables is therefore important when designing a maintenance information system. In this paper, the maintenance information system requirements are identified focusing on the Swedish gravel road ecosystem. The system elicitation process is crucial to be able to specify the requirements of the future system and its users, and in this paper, a stakeholders’ approach is utilized. Different stakeholders are described, including their maintenance related needs, information needs, and roles in the maintenance system. The interdependencies between different stakeholders are also illustrated in an ecosystem diagram. From these descriptions, requirements for computerized maintenance management systems are elicited, and main users are identified. User scenarios are thereafter illustrated using the User Case technique.

The efficient project management of information systems (IS) and information technology (IT) projects is a crucial factor since, in many cases, they fail to meet the expected demands and requirements of the different stakeholders’. It is well known that poor project management, like inadequate risk management and insufficient project planning, is one of the main reasons for ICT project failure. An understanding of the digitalisation and the ICTs digital capabilities, i.e. adoption of disruptive technologies are crucial as well for its successful implementation. Thus, with the emergence of the new ICTs such as the Internet of Things, cloud computing, and big data, the digitalisation of the maintenance domain has become even more complicated. It is, therefore, essential to revisit standard processes when carrying out software development projects for the area of interest. A broad selection of software development methodologies exists today. However, these are general-purpose development approaches, and it is, therefore, crucial to have an understanding of the best options and best practices of the existent methodologies for context-specific development projects. Thus, the authors present a literature review of ICT project methodologies and later discuss these findings taking into consideration the characteristics of the domain of interest. Based on this, an ICT project management methodology suitable for the Industrial maintenance domain is suggested.

The “software crisis” is still a prevailing problem to many organizations despite existence of advanced systems engineering methods, techniques for project planning and method engineering; systems engineering project still struggle to deliver on time and budget, and with sufficient quality. Existing research stresses that time leakage has a lever effect on economic outcome, which is not addressed in the abovementioned approaches. As part of an on-going research project we therefore extend existing method engineering concept to include time distortion analysis. This allows for analysis of resource use (productivity) in execution of method components. It has the potential to act as a) a tool for improving the execution of systems engineering processes, or b) criteria for selecting method parts to improve the systems engineering processes.

The dissertation presents understandings of the complex, contextual, cooperative everyday work practices of academic library managers supported by computational artefacts, as well as challenges disrupting their practices and thereby computational artefacts usage. The doctoral research approaches and conceptualises managers’ work as ‘everyday cooperative practice’, in this way adopting the computer-supported cooperative work (CSCW) approach. A focused-ethnographic study explores middle managers’ everyday cooperative work practices in two academic libraries, in Sweden and Australia, when using computational artefacts, including challenges experienced. The empirical data was collected through participant observations and formal and informal face-to-face interviews, as well as organizational documents review. The thematically analysed empirical material was presented as vignettes to enable complementary contextual visualisation of managers’ practices. A conceptual framework incorporated CSCW main concepts, such as cooperative work, practice, computational artefacts, situated action, articulation work, awareness, and appropriation. Placed within a managerial environment and inspired by management theories such as sensemaking and soft systems thinking, this conceptualisation serves as a reference point to explicate the research findings and achieve the research aim, to advance the understanding of managers’ everyday cooperative work practices using computational artefacts. 

The outcome of this dissertation illustrates the complex, contextualised, multidimensional and often diverse reality of academic library managers’ everyday cooperative work practices using computational artefacts, as well as emergent challenges that have implications for the use of computational artefacts and workplace practices. The interconnectedness of articulation work, awareness and appropriation, which emerged as a research outcome, vividly illustrates the interdependent and interrelated nature of managers’ everyday work. It extends the understanding of everyday cooperative work practices of academic library managers and provides rich analysis of their practical doing of managing and using of computational artefacts. Thus, this doctoral research generates contributions for the informatics field and, particularly, the computer-supported cooperative work (CSCW) research and, modestly, for the management and library domains.

The research study focuses on the application of Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) to develop a collaborative user-centered approach within the context of organizational learning, and concludes with suggestions of further research. More specifically, it explores library users’ and academic librarians’ ideal characteristics for the library discovery and access services mediated through the Online Public Access Catalogue (OPAC) of the Academic Library of the School of Philosophy at Athens University in Greece. SSM’s applied theories and design processes guide the collaborative re-design of a more user-centered library information system. Recommendations discuss the efficacy of this approach, which expresses systems thinking and guides inclusive social learning, which reflect the characteristics of New Economy informatics.

Purpose – This paper aims to focus on academic library managers’ learning practices in the context of cooperative work supported by computational artefacts. Academic library managers’ everyday work is mainly cooperative. Their cooperation is supported predominantly by computational artefacts. Learning how to use the computational artefacts efficiently and effectively involves understanding the changes in everyday work that affect managers and, therefore, it requires deep understanding of their cooperative work practices.

Design/methodology/approach – Focused ethnography was conducted through participant observations, interviews and document analysis. Ten managers from a university library in Sweden participated in the research. A thematic method was used to analyse the empirical material. Computer supported cooperative work (CSCW) and work-integrated learning was used as the conceptual lens.

Findings – Five learning practices were identified: collaboration, communication, coordination, decision-making processes and computational artefacts’ use. The findings show that learning is embedded in managers’cooperative work practices, which do not necessarily include sufficient training time. Furthermore, learning was intertwined with cooperating and was situational. Managers learned by reflecting together on their own experiences and through joint cooperation and information sharing while using the computational artefacts.

Originality/value – The main contribution lies in providing insights into how academic library managers learn and cooperate in their everyday work, emphasizing the role of computational artefacts, the importance of the work context and the collective nature of learning. It also highlights the need for continual workplace learning in contemporary knowledge work environments. Thus, the research generates contributions to the informatics field by extending the understanding of managers’ work-integrated learning in their everyday cooperative work practices supported by computational artefacts’ use. It also contributes to the intersection of CSCW and work-integrated learning.

The use of ITs in education has created new opportunities for learning and has introduced new ways for knowledge acquisition. Web 2.0 technology presents a variety of tools that can support learning procedure in all levels of Education. Wikis constitute one of the most widespread tools that support cooperation and Project-based learning. This study examines the possibility of a wider use of Wikis for the “Project”, a course that has been taught in Greek High Schools for the last four years. Recently the Greek Ministry of Education attempted to make a shift from traditional learning methods to modern teaching ways that use ITs in all level of education. “Project” course constitutes a pilot course for this attempt and follows new innovating ways of learning. The course has an interdisciplinary character and aims to exploit the benefits of the Project-based learning and to enhance students to cooperation and interaction. The research explores the way that Wikis could support the basic aims of the course and the circumstances under which learners and teachers could be motivated for this use. This qualitative study was conducted in the 1^st Lyceum of Eleusis, “Aristoteleio”, and followed the Action-oriented Research approach. The research included interviews with five teachers and a focus group of students. The main outcomes showed that important changes in the Greek Educational system should be done in order for this use to be enhanced.

With the advent of digitalization, e-services are now enabled by embedded digital technologies in physical products such as vehicles, elevators, construction equipment. In spite of numerous instances of e-services enabled by the digitalization of physical products, little research has been carried out to investigate the characteristics of co-creation of such e-services. This paper attempts to fill the gap by reporting from a three-year long research project with a vehicle manufacturing company. Using the translation phases from the Actor-Network theory (ANT) as a theoretical lens, this paper presents three propositions that characterize the co-creation of e-services enabled by the digitalization of physical products. The propositions highlight the role of physical products, establishment of trust and setting priorities about digitalization.