bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
An Investigation of the Maastricht Fiscal Criteria and the European Union's Harmonization
Authors: Buhur Sami
Published: April 2019

The Maastricht Treaty brought many innovations in the process of harmonization of the EU. This treaty, which was realized in 1993, aims to harmonize the economic, financial, legal, and political aspects of the EU members. Two basic financial criteria were identified in the financial stability and harmonization process. The first is the ratio of member countries' budget deficits to GDP. The second is the ratio of the member country's public debt to the GDP. In this chapter, it will be revealed how EU member countries are adapting to financial criteria. For this purpose, reports and statistics published by international organizations such as OECD and EU will be examined. It will be seen in many of the EU member countries can not adapt to these criteria. Especially after the 2008 Global Financial Crisis, there were difficulties in adapting to these criteria. The EU Council put into effect several legal regulations in the harmonization process. Although many legal sanctions were put into effect for this purpose, success in complying with the financial criteria were not achieved.
Green Spaces of the Metropolitan Area of Guadalajara
Authors: Jiménez Roberto , Rodríguez Paula Lourdes Guerrero , Fernández Rogelio Rivera
Published: April 2019

The analysis of some systems of green areas and public parks of the metropolitan area of Guadalajara, other cities of our country Mexico and Latin America, shows common problems such as the deficit of urban green spaces, insecurity, unemployment, and uncertainty with a social exclusion in these areas of stress. Likewise, the lack of economic value of the services provided by such natural systems as recreation is added. Together they are important factors in the allocation of territories destined to this use with respect to others that generate Urban speculation. Therefore, it is proposed to develop a typology of green areas appropriate to the needs of the metropolitan region. It will facilitate the production of inventories that estimate indicators of territorial cohesion, governance, economic profitability, social, environmental quality and innovation, as well as incorporating new technologies that improve geographic information systems and internet media that support management.
Technological and Gamified Solutions for Pollution Control in Cognitive Cities
Authors: Bhatia Pavneet , Singh Parulpreet
Published: April 2019

This chapter presents an idea in the contribution to the concept of smart cities is to build a place which provides clean air to breathe. Advancements in the technology is acting as a bane to environmental balance leading to global warming, irregular rain cycles, increasing pollution, disturbed rainfalls. The need of the hour is to find a solution to the issue of increasing pollution that may lead to disastrous consequences. This chapter builds a framework of a cognitive city with attention to the impact and burden over environmental resources. This chapter is a perfect integration of traditional approaches, technological methods, and gamified solution as a remedy to growing pollution that can be and should be deployed in the project of smart city.
Reinventing Critical Digital Literacy to Empower Student-Teachers in Cross-Cultural, Web-Based Learning Environments
Authors: Rossatto César Augusto , Dickerson Maria Elena Rosario (Sharo) G.
Published: April 2019

In the U.S. and Mexico borderland, the cross-cultural relationship is a daily experience. The ever-growing online learning and the digital literacy diminishes the distances and differences. The goals of advanced technology use are to empower each community member to meet the challenges of our current digital divide era. The authors seek to examine this further by posing the following questions: How can technology assist borderland communities and transnational population to think critically about their reality in an ongoing globalizing world? How can technology facilitate critical dialogue for collective empowerment? How can technology create a contextualized learning environment that fosters meaningful connections of real-life experiences as an integral component of culturally responsive pedagogy? To address these questions, they present and discuss qualitative and quantitative methodological findings, illustrating learning experiences, that exemplify and demonstrate how culturally inclusive and relevant educational programs work with adult students.
Metacognitive Knowledge and Language Learning in a Web-Based Distance Learning Context
Authors: Fincham Naiyi Xie , Li Guofang
Published: April 2019

This chapter reported on the construction and development of the metacognitive knowledge (MCK) about web-based distance language learning of two adult English as a foreign language (EFL) learners in China. Drawing upon theories and research in metacognition, self-regulated second/foreign language learning, and distance language learning, the authors investigated adult Chinese EFL learners' knowledge about themselves as online distance language learners, the nature and demands of online distance English learning, and how to best approach their learning in this program. They identified changes in these learners' MCK over the 16 week semester and discussed how a number of contextual factors, including the pre-determined learning structure, teacher-led instructional sessions, and peer interaction opportunities, were significant in shaping and influencing learners' adjustments and revisions of their MCK about online distance language learning. Findings from this study have important implications for the design and implementation of web-based distance language programs for adult learners.
Narcissism as a Predictor of Facebook Users' Privacy Concern, Vigilance, and Exposure to Risk
Authors: Smith Karen H. , Mendez Francis A. , White Garry L.
Published: April 2019

A model is developed and tested to explain the relationships among narcissism, privacy concern, vigilance, and exposure to risk on Facebook, with age and gender as controlling variables. Two important constructs are conceptualized and measured in this research. Facebook exposure is defined as the opportunity for privacy and security breaches on Facebook. Facebook vigilance is the extent to which consumers stay focused, attentive, and alert to potential security and privacy risks on Facebook by restricting who can access and post to their Facebook accounts. Data from a survey of 286 adult Facebook users in the U.S. support the hypothesized relationships in the model. Results suggest that narcissism is related to increased Facebook exposure and lower Facebook vigilance, despite greater stated concern for privacy and security. Furthermore, females and younger users have greater risk exposure compared to males and older users. Implications of the findings and future research directions are discussed.
Accounting for Individual and Situation Characteristics to Understand the User Behaviour When Interacting With Systems During Critical Situations
Authors: Aguiar Yuska P. C. , Vieira Maria de Fátima Q. , Galy Edith , Santoni Charles
Published: April 2019

Human error studies tend to focus on identifying the relationship between human activity, errors and their consequences. Accidents and incidents report analysis has been the path followed by several authors in the human error studies field, as it will be discussed in this paper. However, error reports tend to detail technical aspects of the error occurrence but fail to explore the human-behaviour component that might have influenced it. In order to investigate the human behaviour and its relation with accidents and human errors the authors propose to observe individuals working during critical situations, while adopting a methodological approach supported by an experimental protocol, to ensure a rigorous systematization of the data gathering and analysis. This paper presents a cognitive model which accounts for the knowledge of the individual and situation characteristics when analysing the user behaviour during critical situations. It also presents the supporting experimental protocol, and discusses its application in the context of a decision making aid system, employed during maritime pollution crisis management.
Evaluation of IT Projects in the Context of Human Performance Technology
Authors: Yakin Ilker
Published: April 2019

Accelerated competition, increased economic issues, and rapid technological improvements force organizations to implement IT projects to survive. Although organizations' enormous dependence on IT has increased, failure risks have also been synonymous with IT projects over the years. A better understanding of its usages and approaches, tools and models of HPT as a growing field may offer different angles and help improve the success of implementation of IT projects. The purpose of this chapter is to explore the role of evaluation methods in IT projects from the HPT perspective. In that sense, formative, summative, confirmative, and meta evaluation models are presented, and then the connection between these models in IT involving specific strategies that can be used when IT projects are established. The chapter is finalized with practical and methodological implications pointing out recommended actions to overcome the reliability and the validity issues encountered through evaluation processes, and future research directions.
WPKT
Authors: Bajaj Akhilesh , Bates-Thornton Meredith
Published: April 2019

The knowledge embedded in organizational processes has been difficult to codify and make available to other members who need access to this knowledge either because they perform complementary processes or may need to take over the processes in question. Previous approaches to the codification of such knowledge have recognized the difficulties of capturing the context within which the knowledge is utilized. In this design-science based work, the authors propose a work process knowledge template (WPKT) which follows a systems' approach to capturing work processes that balances complexity of the template with capturing relevant context. The template was pilot tested during development, and empirically evaluated for usability, ease of use and learnability in multiple real world settings.
Performance Appraisal System Effectiveness
Authors: Patro Chandra Sekhar
Published: April 2019

Performance appraisal system (PAS) has been noticed to be one of the most challenging activities of human resource management and is even a destructive effect on the relationship of employees and employers. It not only motivates the employee but also improves the productivity level of an organization. Performance appraisal is considered to be a key instrument and is practiced in almost all types of organizations, but with a few differences. In an effort to change the behaviors and attitudes of employees in the organizations, performance appraisal systems have incorporated the new values and desired behaviors. In this contemporary state the organizations have become more enthusiastic to augment the performance of their employees. The chapter aims at identifying the performance appraisal system undertaken in the organizations and its influence on employees' competency and efficiency. It emphasizes on the problems and consequences faced by the organizations, and also the best practices undertaken for successful execution.
The Productive Leadership Game
Authors: Kesti Marko Olavi , Leinonen Jaana , Kesti Terhi
Published: April 2019

The aim of the article is to illustrate how new digital leadership simulation game, Productive Leadership Game, can foster the leadership competencies and actions to improve team based and organizational productivity. Game's theoretical roots are based on the human capital production function for public organizations, which is also described in this article. Human capital production function illustrates the significance of the human resource management actions for the organizational performance and the quality of working life connection to team performance. A case study in municipal business is performed using a Finnish mid-sized case organisation. In terms of evidence-based theory of productivity, this article describes methodology of how complex and multitude cause-relationship can be gamified to serious game for learning purposes. The article makes a significant contribution to public sector research and management, as it explains the ontology of the performance and productivity of public organisation and illustrate method to multiply essential learning to practice.
Human Capital and Business Performance
Authors: Mamaqi Xhevrie , Miguel Jesus
Published: April 2019

The firm´s human capital is a process referring to the sum total of individual and collective learning through training programs, experience and experimentation, among others. In-business ongoing training is one of the most important strategies for human capital development and it is crucial to sustain and improve workers' knowledge and skills. Many businesses use continuous learning strategy, encouraging employees to learn new skills continually to be innovative and to try new processes and work in order to achieve a competitive advantage and superior business results. This paper uses the Resource Based View and Capacities (RBV) approach to construct a hypothetical relationships model between Human Capital construct and business results. The test of the model is applied on transversal data. A sample of 266 business of Spanish sector service has been selected. A Structural Equation Model (SEM) is used to estimate the relationship between training, represented by two latent dimension, Human and Social Capital and economic business results. The coefficients estimated have shown the efficient of some training aspects explaining the variation in business results.
Local Phase Features in Chromatic Domain for Human Detection
Authors: Ragb Hussin K. , Asari Vijayan K.
Published: April 2019

In this paper, a new descriptor based on phase congruency concept and LUV color space features is presented. Since the phase of the signal conveys more information regarding signal structure than the magnitude and the indispensable quality of the color in describing the world around us, the proposed descriptor can precisely identify and localize image features over the gradient based techniques, especially in the regions affected by illumination changes. The proposed features can be formed by extracting the phase congruency information for each pixel in the three-color image channels. The maximum phase congruency values are selected from the corresponding color channels. Histograms of the phase congruency values of the local regions in the image are computed with respect to its orientation. These histograms are concatenated to construct the proposed descriptor. Results of the experiments performed on the proposed descriptor show that it has better detection performance and lower error rates than a set of the state of the art feature extraction methodologies.
Wayside Train Monitoring Systems
Authors: Moudgil Swastikaa , Bhasin Ashim , Gupta Ankit
Published: April 2019

The present competitive world of transport particularly the rail industry is driven by automation and centralization. New ways are being devised each day by the operators and managers to improve efficiency, operational safety, and risk control. Big Data and its multiple applications play a significant role in developing ways of analyzing and evaluating the rail data gathered and using it to enhance the transport industry. Wayside train Monitoring System is a field that is slowly gaining popularity through the different methods it provides to handle the big Data of the transport industry. It can measure the operational performance of rolling stock and infrastructure assets as well as the direct surroundings. The chapter addresses the problem of overall safety and optimum cost of railways transportation. Consequently, the chapter aims to resolve the following issues: How can the rail industry leverage the enormous amount of data available? How can industry players benefit from the data and use it to understand the real needs of travelers?
Utility Based Tool to Assess Overall Effectiveness of HRD Instruments
Authors: Khurana Dinesh Kumar , Kapur P.K. , Sachdeva Nitin
Published: April 2019

Humans practically measure everything in life. For any business, they measure revenue, sales, profits, earning per share, stake holders value and so forth. In HR management they measure staff attrition, cost of training per candidate, rating awarded in performance management system etc. Measurement of Effectiveness of HRD instruments namely training and development, compensation, feedback and coaching, job design, career planning etc. are required for any organization, regardless of size, industry, location or success. In this paper an attempt has been made to analyze prominent HR instruments to determine their individual measure of effectiveness and the Total Expected Utility Measure based on Multiple-Attribute Utility analysis, from both the employees' and employers' view point. To assign relative importance to each HRD instrument, Analytical Hierarchical Process has been used. The methodology adopted was questionnaire, to a random sample of teaching faculty in a large private university in north India. The findings indicate that the total expected utility measure is an important measure and facilitates comparing firms in the same industry, region, size, etc.
A Multidisciplinary Critical Approach to Measure and Analyze Human Capital Productivity
Authors: Kesti Marko , Leinonen Jaana , Syväjärvi Antti
Published: April 2019

The objectives of the article are, to illustrate the complex dimensions of the relationship between human capital management and organizational performance and to provide insight into new methods for organization development. Methods are a combination of several research areas, including system intelligence, tacit signals, quality of the working life index and the theory of human capital production function. This article presents a holistic approach of multi-disciplinary research that emphasizes the complexity of HRM-Performance and explains why, in some cases, human resource development increases business performance, and in other cases not. Development complexity is more difficult when organizational performance is measured by monetary value. The article presents human capital intangible assets' connection to monetary scorecards using human capital production function, which explains and also makes it possible to predict human resource development payback. This article's methods form a skeleton for future research and give fundamentals for effective organization human capital performance development.
Investigation of Human Monitoring Capabilities for Multiple Watch Windows
Authors: Eziolisa Osita , Evans Dakota C. , Fendley Mary E.
Published: April 2019

Due to an abundance of data and dynamic nature of tasks, challenges with information retrieval in surveillance and target identification tasks have risen in today's Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) community. In this study, two variables, Area of Coverage and Amount of Activity (AOC/ACT), are manipulated to study their effects on the number of Watch Windows an observer can monitor. This research describes the analyst's task model, and explains how the level of AOC/ACT and number of Watch Windows affects the analyst's cognitive load. Results showed a significant difference in performance and physiological indicators of workload between high AOC/ACT conditions and low AOC/ACT conditions. A linear correlation was exhibited between the number of Watch Windows and the number of fixations. The results show that these variables can be manipulated in tasking to maintain appropriate levels of cognitive workload.
Learning-Performance Relationship
Authors: Martins Ana , Martins Isabel , Pereira Orlando Petiz
Published: April 2019

Organizational learning, knowledge creation, retention, and diffusion are strategies that open many a window of opportunities for organizations to differentiate themselves in the global economy. However, performance based on knowledge has not yet become exposed. Intangible assets must be continuously analyzed to reach organizational performance and sustainability. New management and economic literature reveals that communities of practice focus on humanized leadership and self-efficacy that promote added value to the organization. Furthermore, the humanisation of the organization perspective becomes the nucleus and the framework for all levels of productivity and competitiveness. This chapter posits different organizational learning pathways according to a holistic perspective with humanisation as a unique element. The chapter is centered on an analysis of the human capital construct as the point of departure. Furthermore, the chapter reflects on humanized and humanising emotional, spiritual, and relational capital in order to reach the level of organizational knowledge.
The Influence of Human Resources Management Processes (HRMPs) to Achieving Sustainable Competitive Advantage
Authors: Jarrah Mufleh Amin AL , Karadsheh Louay , Naser Muawya , Alhawari Samer
Published: April 2019

This article is used to examine the impact of HRMP to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage (SCA) in organizations. The hypotheses that HRMPs influences SCA imply that control of distinctive processes of human resources management (HRM) in industrial companies implies distinct factors of SCA. As a result, new questionnaires were developed and disseminated to 50 companies (200 top and middle managers) in Jordan in a survey format. The collected data was subjected to several simple regression tests using an SPSS program. The research findings presented that different processes of HRM, depending on acquisition, recruitment, training, evaluation performance, and promotion. There has been a strong interest in competing to achieve the highest SCA. The implications of the findings were discussed and suggestions were made.
Innovation Culture as a Mediator Between Specific Human Capital and Innovation Performance Among Bumiputera SMEs in Malaysia
Authors: Hanifah Haniruzila , Halim Hasliza Abdul , Ahmad Noor Hazlina , Vafaei-Zadeh Ali
Published: April 2019

SMEs in Malaysia are dominated by Bumiputera that represent more than 50% of the Malaysian SME's population. However, there are many challenges faced by Bumiputera SMEs such as limited skilled workers, lack of creativity and knowledge. In this point of view, considering the specific human capital approach, the value, uniqueness, creativity, innovativeness and proactiveness are the most relevant features for innovation performance. To have an excellent innovation performance is to have an innovative culture where entrepreneurs needs to have creative employees which simultaneously improve the innovation performance in Bumiputera SMEs. This study focuses mainly on owner-manager of Bumiputera SMEs. It provides useful pointers to entrepreneurs and policy makers on the importance of specific human capital, innovative culture and enhancing innovation performance in Bumiputera SMEs.
Human Resource Development as a Knowledge Management System
Authors: Hughes Claretha , Gosney Matthew W.
Published: April 2019

The crux of the challenge in bridging the scholar-practitioner gap in Human Resource Development is in creating effective mechanisms for the transfer of knowledge between scholars and practitioners. Emerging literature on the topic of knowledge management, and of knowledge management systems, provide a compelling point of view in which to consider the scholar-practitioner gap in HRD. In the chapter, knowledge management systems, as a functional outcropping of systems theory, are considered along with the use of logic models to develop and evaluate organization and program effectiveness. Preliminary research results conducted by Hughes and Wang (2015) gives further support to the notion that considering HRD as a knowledge management system may provide a framework for bridging the scholar-practitioner gap.
Exploring the Impact of Organizational Citizenship Behavior on Perceptions of E-Filing Success
Authors: Carter Lemuria , McFadden-Wade Gwendolyn , Wells Jean T.
Published: April 2019

Organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) and perceived organizational support (POS) have been explored extensively in the literature. highlights the need for more Information Systems (IS) research in this area. In this study the authors explore how technological advancements have improved the online tax filing process in the United States. In particular, we administered a survey to 102 Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program (VITA) Site Coordinators to explore the role of OCB and POS on user perceptions of e-filing system success. The results and implications for research and practice are discussed.
Emergent Technologies Shaping Instructional Design
Authors: Roubides Pascal
Published: April 2019

This chapter discusses emergent technologies that are currently shaping or expected to shape the field of instructional design in the near future. The discussion begins with a brief overview of instructional design as a professional field over the past century, then focuses on current and promising trends for the field based on advances in technologies supporting instructional development. This chapter intends to provide a centralized literature review of multiple pathways currently being carved in the field, encompassing several parallel trending areas, such as adaptive learning, digital storytelling, gamification, simulation technologies, augmented and virtual reality, cybernetics, the xAPI standard, mobile and ubiquitous learning, and offer a glimpse of how they are shaping or expected to shape the future of all those involved in designing and delivering learning or effecting human behavior and performance change.
Role of Citizen Journalism through Internet in Reporting War and Conflicts
Authors: H. Sree Krishna Bharadwaj
Published: April 2019

It is no doubt that internet has brought a revolution in the world. Every individual is nowadays active in terms of information of not just his country but happenings throughout the world. Therefore, with devices having connectivity in everyone's hand with the whole world, it is impossible to suppress or any occurrence. Every individual is becoming a journalist. This paper explores the issues in citizen reporting especially in wars and conflicts both legal and sociological.
Understanding Media During Times of Terrorism
Authors: Hackett Robert
Published: April 2019

Political violence, including terrorism, can be regarded as a form of (distorted) communication, in which media spectacles play an integral role. Conversely, mass-mediated communication can be regarded as a form of violence, and even terror, in several respects. Media are often propagandistic facilitators to state terror. More broadly, they may help to cultivate a political climate of fear and authoritarianism, contributing to conflict-escalating feedback loops. Even more broadly, beyond media representations, dominant media institutions are arguably embedded in relations of global economic, social, and cultural inequality—constituting a form of structural violence. Notwithstanding its democratic potential, the Internet does not comprise a clear alternative in practice, and neither censorship of terrorist spectacles nor the intensified pursuit of dominant forms of journalistic “objectivity” offer viable ways to reduce the media's imbrication with violence. Three potentially more productive strategies explored in this chapter include reforming the media field from within through the paradigm of Peace Journalism, supporting the development of alternative and community media, and building movements for media reform and democratization.
Role of Traditional and New Media in Ethnic Conflict in Nigeria's Middle Belt Region
Authors: Musa Bala A.
Published: April 2019

A chief obstacle to community development and progress in sub-Saharan Africa is persistent, widespread, low-scale, yet catastrophic, ethnic and communal conflicts. Nigeria is no exception! Nigeria's Middle-Belt region has experienced long-standing ethno-religious and political conflict/crises. Frequent and intermittent ethnic conflicts have persisted among the various ethnic groups. This research looks at the seemingly contrasting, yet complimentary, roles of traditional and new media in ethnic conflict transformation in the area. Using a peace journalism media-ecological model that incorporates spiral of silence, priming, agenda-setting, and framing theoretical frameworks, the research analyzes the (dis)functional roles legacy and new media play in conflict exacerbation, resolution, and mediation. It employs a qualitative interpretive critical approach to examine how traditional and new media respond to ethnic conflicts in the region. It proposes a new ethic for ethnic conflict reporting, suitable for professional and citizen journalists.
Real-Life and Virtual News Sources Can Be Flat-Out Wrong
Authors: Blom Robin
Published: April 2019

Eyewitnesses play a very important role in news coverage. Yet, scholarly research on eyewitness misidentification and memory distortion is virtually absent in scholarly work in journalism and related academic fields. This chapter emphasizes the need for such a research agenda by analyzing the amount of mistakes student journalists made in a news report they wrote during a 20-minute classroom exercise. Each of the stories about a staged bar fight, except for one, contained pieces of misinformation because the students often blindly trusted eyewitnesses and messages on social media accounts. The results indicated that there is a need for more advanced information and media literacy modules in journalism curricula to avoid inaccurate information from eyewitnesses to be disseminated to the public.
New Communication Technologies
Authors: Gonçalves Tamara Amoroso , Rosendo Daniela
Published: April 2019

New technologies are changing the way men and women live their lives. As a new communication technology, the Internet can be used to both harm and promote human rights. When it comes to gender relationships, social inequalities might be reflected online, regarding access and the ways technologies are used. Hate speech, porn revenge and other ways to offend women's rights online are discussed, leading to questions related to possible limitations on freedom of expression. This chapter examines legal solutions that have been proposed in Brazil regarding electronic devices and Internet regulation and considers how restrictions on freedom of expression can be addressed in a human rights perspective.
A Culture of Survivors
Authors: Seifert Jennifer L.
Published: April 2019

Drawing from the literature in Intercultural and New Media Studies (INMS), this study explores the SlutWalk social movement, a transnational movement of protest marches. The author conducted interviews with seven SlutWalk organizers from various cities in the United States to understand what culture SlutWalk organizers are fostering through their work and the role of new media communication in their organizational efforts. Results of the interpretative analysis suggest that although SlutWalk organizers foster a survivor culture through activities consistent with intercultural dialogue and third culture building, their use of various social media outlets might be motivated by various definitions of localized need. In addition, organizers highlight a tension between prioritizing more global survivor experiences over individual experiences with sexual assault and reveal the possibility for new media communication to enable anti-social cultural interactions. These findings contribute to the continued development of theorizing in INMS related to virtual third culture and continued scholarship exploring the intersections between new media and intercultural communication.
New Media Technology and Development Journalism in Nigeria
Authors: Okoroafor Oluchi Emma
Published: April 2019

News consumption today is not the same as pre-satellite era when people waited for their newspapers or wait for an appointed time for the evening news on television but now people tune in to events happening around the world through 24-hours television news channels. More recently, readers, viewers and listeners are going online for their news. Television, newspapers and radio are still in Nigeria but there is a growing competition from interactive online media. The high technological revolution has significantly altered the way the public obtain its news and information, and has deprived the mass media of its traditional monopoly. Today various computerized sources are regularly being used in media organizations. This chapter seeks to explore how the new media technologies are helping journalists in gathering, packaging and dissemination of news on economic development and the challenges being encountered by the journalists in the use of the new media technologies.
Training for Mobile Journalism
Authors: Krochmal Maurice M. “Mo”
Published: April 2019

In just over five years, the growth of mobile communication has changed the practice and teaching of journalism in higher education as well as practice in the media industry. New devices and tools are released and adopted in rapid cycles. Social-media platforms thrive in the mobile environment. Journalists and journalism organizations are forced to explore new practices, while higher education works to integrate new methods into its curriculum. The author, an early adopter of mobile tools in practice, training and in higher education, examines the changes that have led to the mobile era, the new jobs now available, and how industry and academia are adapting.
Mobile Journalism and Innovation
Authors: Palacios Marcos , Barbosa Suzana , Firmino da Silva Fernando , da Cunha Rodrigo
Published: April 2019

Using a qualitative methodological approach, this chapter brings to bear a theoretical and conceptual framework with particular consideration to the notions of innovation, journalistic convergence, design and the theory of affordances, as well as mobile communication and mobile journalism. This analysis covers the period 2010-2014 and seeks to examine the specific affordances, the structure, organization and types of narratives produced; the design and use of multimedia features as well as the level of integration with other products in the same news organization. The empirical corpus consists of products selected for their representativeness within a broader sample: O Globo a Mais, Estadão Noite, and Diário do Nordeste Plus (Brazil), La Repubblica Sera (Italy), La Presse+ (Canada) and El Mundo de la Tarde (Spain). The study concludes that - although timid - experimentation continues to prevail regarding formats, content, language and narratives based on the features of mobile devices, the continuous evolution of operating systems and changes in hardware platforms.
Potential Mediations of Hashtags Within Transmedia Journalism
Authors: Bicalho Luciana Andrade Gomes
Published: April 2019

In the last few years, sociopolitical events have been marked by the presence of hashtags on social networks, creating a direct dialogue with street protests. This chapter aims to investigate how media activism movements appropriate hashtags to expand the narrative through social engagement. In this sense, hashtags appear as signic processes that perform a mediating function. They articulate common positioning that creates hybrid and transmedia storytelling using online and offline dynamics. From the theoretical-methodological support of semiotics by Charles Sanders Peirce and the principles of transmedia, this study analyzes the news production by the Brazilian media activism group Mídia Ninja [Ninja Media]. The results point to a transmedia journalism anchored to the social use of hashtags by the association of new signs to semiosis, generating provisional action habits from collateral experience.
Stakeholder Interaction for Sustainability
Authors: Nwagbara Uzoechi
Published: April 2019

The wave of new media technology is sweeping across the globe. Given its speed of information dissemination and retrieval, it is relevant to explore how it can be used to manage corporate-stakeholder relations, engagement, and communication. This is because communication is an effective medium for managing relations (and crisis). In the post-conflict era in Niger delta region of Nigeria that has been described as slipping into the abyss of renewed conflict and violence following perceived failure of the amnesty deal to drive change, it is crucial to rethink the instrumentality of the new media in bringing better corporate-community relations in the region. It is expected that this process will democratise stakeholder engagement and widen discursive space following the speed, method, and multiplicity of the platforms that new media affords. The author also hopes that arguments shared here will cause a rethink on the possibility of a sustainable future in post-conflict Niger delta through new media technology.
On the Configuration of Crowdsourcing Projects
Authors: Hosseini Mahmood , Phalp Keith , Taylor Jacqui , Ali Raian
Published: April 2019

Crowdsourcing is an emerging paradigm, facilitated by the ease and scale of online connectivity, which harnesses the power of the crowds to solve problems and contribute knowledge. Crowdsourcing has been tried in practice and there are several commercial general-purpose crowdsourcing platforms on the web. Although the paradigm feasibility and impact have become evident, we still lack engineering methods and principles which aid the construction of quality crowdsourcing-based solutions. One of these aspects is the compatibility between the various configuration choices of the elements of a crowdsourcing project. In a previous work, the authors surveyed the literature and extracted a taxonomy of the various features which describes each of the four pillars of crowdsourcing: the crowd, the crowdsourcer, the crowdsourced task and the crowdsourcing platform. In this paper, the authors study the inter-relations between these features when configuring a crowdsourcing project. They start with an initial template and then confirm and enhance it by an expert study which involves 37 experts who applied crowdsourcing in practice and published research results. Their study helps crowdsourcers and crowdsourcing platform developers to better understand the several peculiarities that may arise by combining these features and thus assist them in the configuration of crowdsourcing projects with more awareness.
Massive Open Program Evaluation
Authors: Amankwatia Tonya B.
Published: April 2019

Given the complexity of developing programs, services, policies, and support for e-learning, leaders may find it challenging to regularly evaluate programs to improve quality. Are there new opportunities to expand user and stakeholder input, or involve others in e-learning program evaluation? This chapter asks researchers and practitioners to rethink existing paradigms and methods for program evaluation. Crowdsourced input may help leaders and stakeholders address persistent evaluation challenges and improve e-learning quality, especially in Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). After reviewing selected evaluation paradigms, models, and methods, this chapter offers a possible role for crowdsourced input. This chapter examines the topics of crowd definition, affordances, and problems, to begin a taxonomical framework with possible applications for e-learning. The goal is to provide a reference for advancing the discussion and examination of crowdsourced input.
Concepts for the Design of a Manager-Centric Global Decision Support System for Organizations
Authors: Garrido Paulo
Published: April 2019

The goal of this chapter is to describe a set of concepts for the design of information systems supporting the global decision process in an organization from a management point of view. Managers are responsible for decisions that are crucial for the success of the organization. Supporting decision taking by management in an integrated way means to support the global decision process of the organization and increase its efficiency and resilience. The system is envisaged so that i) each manager has available a decision dashboard to support the flux of decision-making for which he or she is responsible; ii) the dashboards also allow managers to crowdsource from non-managers different aspects of decision iii) the dashboards are connected in a conversational network; iv) this conversational network is so structured to support the global decision process of the organization.
Crowdsourcing as a Tool for Improving Learning in Tertiary Institutions in Developing Countries
Authors: Benna Indo Isa
Published: April 2019

Higher education in many developing countries faces the triple challenges of inadequate funding, need to improve quality of learning outcomes, and the pressure to increase quality of graduates. Crowdsourcing offers opportunity for institutions to face these problems with little resource expenditure. The chapter describes/analyzes how crowdsourcing can be applied in curriculum and teaching material development activities through collaborative efforts of higher education institutions from different parts of the world to develop suitable curriculum for teaching English for specific purpose. The chapter analyzes the process and the evaluates the outcome of the crowdsourcing tool and suggests that its application can keep higher education institutions in developing countries in forefront of education and research innovation, and prepares members in these institutions for innovative problem solving and for the challenges of the online world.
Conducting Survey Research Using MTurk
Authors: Chambers Silvana , Nimon Kim
Published: April 2019

This chapter presents an introduction to crowdsourcing for survey participant recruitment. It also discusses best practices and ethical considerations for conducting survey research using Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk). Readers will learn the benefits, limitations, and trade-offs of using MTurk as compared to other recruitment services, including SurveyMonkey and Qualtrics. A synthesis of survey design guidelines along with a sample survey are presented to help researchers collect the best quality data. Techniques, including SPSS and R syntax, are provided that demonstrate how users can clean resulting data and identify valid responses for which workers could be paid. An overview and syntax for conducting longitudinal studies is provided as well.
More Than Just Networking for Citizen Science
Authors: Göbel Claudia , Cappadonna Jessica L. , Newman Gregory J. , Zhang Jian , Vohland Katrin
Published: April 2019

Citizen science activity is growing rapidly around the world and diversifies into new disciplines with recent advances in technology. This expansion is accompanied by the formation of associations and networks dedicated to citizen science practitioners, which aim at supporting citizen science as a research approach. This chapter examines how four such organizations in the United States, Europe, Australia, and China have begun to take shape, and are working with citizen science communities and stakeholders in respective regions and globally. Challenges and future plans of these groups are also discussed. This chapter identifies three core roles of citizen science practitioner organization: 1) establishing communities of practitioners, 2) building expertise through sharing of existing and developing new knowledge, and 3) representing community interests. By focusing on this hitherto neglected phenomenon, the authors aim to stimulate further research, discussion and critical reflection on these central agents in the emerging citizen science landscape.
Digital Participatory Platforms for Co-Production in Urban Development
Authors: Falco Enzo , Kleinhans Reinout
Published: April 2019

A renewed interest has appeared in citizen co-production of public services due to financial pressure on governments. While social media are considered an important facilitator, many digital participatory platforms (DPPs) have been developed to facilitate co-production between citizens and governments in the context of urban development. Previous studies have delivered a fragmented overview of DPPs in a few socio-spatial contexts and failed to take stock of the rise of DPPs. This article aims to provide a more comprehensive picture of the availability and functionalities of DPPs. Through a systematic review, 113 active DPPs have been identified, analysed, and classified within a citizen-government relationship typology. Almost a quarter of these DPPs demonstrate a realistic potential for online and offline co-production between governments and citizens. The article critically analyses the characteristics of these DPPs and explores their real-world applications in urban development. The article concludes with directions for further research.
Collaborative Consumption as a Tool for Agricultural Expansion in Developing Countries
Authors: Benna Abubakar U.
Published: April 2019

Collaborative consumption is a broader term encompassing emerging areas, such as crowdfunding and the sharing economy, which enhance consumer enablement through direct interaction. This chapter addresses opportunities and challenges of how to support small- and medium-scale farmers in developing countries. Traditional agriculture, as well as urban agriculture, is rising with the significant urbanization that is occurring in developing economies. There is currently limited research on the value of collaborative consumption as a catalyst for agricultural development. Consequently, the aim of this chapter is to provide an overview of how collaborative consumption in agriculture can be supported. The study is conducted based on the review of literature and case studies related to both agriculture and collaborative consumption. A few key observations are provided in order to assist with the formulation of strategies that increase producer and customer satisfaction, value addition, and engagement.
Social Media Utilization for the Service Innovation
Authors: Sørensen Lene Tolstrup , Falch Morten
Published: April 2019

This article describes how more and more enterprises are represented on online social networks. A significant number of these enterprises are uncertain to why they are present on the social technologies, while others have a clear strategy. These strategies include getting closer to the customers for new innovation and service creation. This article looks into how innovation takes place for enterprises using Facebook as their channel for starting service innovation in the meetings between the enterprise and the customer as part of their strategy to getting closer to the customers. The article takes a theoretical look on service innovation in the ICT service encounter, where the ICT relation is based on social media. Two Danish cases are presented (a bank and a mobile service provider) focusing on their use of Facebook in their ideation and innovation processes. Interviews and monitoring of Facebook activities are used as data sources to understand the ideation and innovation processes of the cases.
A Primer for Conducting Survey Research Using MTurk
Authors: Chambers Silvana , Nimon Kim , Anthony-McMann Paula
Published: April 2019

This paper presents best practices for conducting survey research using Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk). Readers will learn the benefits, limitations, and trade-offs of using MTurk as compared to other recruitment services, including SurveyMonkey and Qualtrics. A synthesis of survey design guidelines along with a sample survey are presented to help researchers collect the best quality data. Techniques, including SPSS and R syntax, are provided that demonstrate how users can clean resulting data and identify valid responses for which workers could be paid.