Informatics, Volume 3, Issue 3 (September 2016) – 7 articles

Vehicles and platforms with multiple sensors connect people in multiple roles with different responsibilities to scenes of interest. For many of these human–sensor systems there are a variety of algorithms that transform, select, and filter the sensor data prior to human intervention. Emergency response, precision agriculture, and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) are examples of these human–computation–sensor systems. The authors examined a case of the latter to understand how people in various roles utilize the algorithms output to identify meaningful properties in data streams given uncertainty. The investigations revealed: (a) that increasingly complex interactions occur across agents in the human–computation–sensor system; and (b) analysts struggling to interpret the output of “black box” algorithms given uncertainty and change in the scenes of interest. The paper presents a new interactive visualization concept designed to “open up the black box” of sensor processing algorithms to support human analysts as they look for meaning in feeds from sensors. Full article

ICT, information- and communication technologies, and e-health services are essential for meeting future care demands. Greater knowledge regarding the implementation of e-health services in long-term care for older people is needed. The purpose of the study was to explore older people’s use of e-health services and associations between frequency of use and perceived benefits. In the longitudinal comparative intervention study (n = 65), intervention group participants (n = 42) used an e-health service for 1.5 years. A control group (n = 23) used similar services provided in a traditional manner. Data was collected through questionnaires and analyzed using linear and logistic regressions. Although general use of the Internet was similar in both groups, the e-health group perceived significantly higher benefits. The component information- and education programs, developed specifically for the e-health service, had the highest association with benefits. Conclusion: e-health services targeted at supporting older people who care for a spouse at home can provide benefits which most likely will not be obtained without participation in an organized e-service. Care professionals play an essential role in encouraging spouse caregivers to become e-service users. Full article

Although consultants have long placed the use of research information at the centre of their activity, the extent that physicians use this information tends to vary widely. Despite this study and its recommendations, there is still a gap between the functions of a manager and the use of the associated information, while the decision-making procedures vary according to the organization in which they work. The cost of IT remains the largest barrier, while some current IT solutions are not user friendly and out-of-date, particularly for public hospitals in Greece. The knowledge management is concerned not only with the facts and figures of production, but also with the know-how of staff. The information needs protocol should not be referred only to those who comply with formal computer-based information systems, but also to those who take into account other informal information and its flow within the organization. In a field such as medicine, where out-of-date information may be positively dangerous, doctors make heavy use of journals and several texts from the web. The decision-making process is a complex approach, particularly in human diagnostic and therapeutic applications. Therefore, it is very important to set priorities in the sector of health information management and promote education and training on information and communication technology (ICT). Full article

This paper builds on the results of a 3-year long European project, the main aim of which was to deeply and sustainably transform teaching and learning practice in primary and secondary schools and higher education, by introducing Do it Yourself (DIY) philosophy in order to expand digital competence and foster students’ agency and collaborative learning. Three universities and three primary and secondary schools have been involved in a Collaborative Action Research (CAR) process in order to analyse their current institutional context and perceive needs, strengths and weaknesses; to undertake professional development activities and the design of DIYLabs; implement DIYLabs in the selected courses; and reflect upon ways of improving the institution’s performance. This paper offers a global vision of the research and implementation processes and the results achieved, from the perspective of the socio-economic dimensions involved in a project aiming to make a difference in teaching and learning to meet the challenges of a society highly permeated by digital technology (DT). Full article

There seems to be an inherent tension between wiki affordances—open boundaries, unconstrained editing, and transparency—and traditional knowledge management (KM) routines used in firms. The objective of this study is to investigate how users respond to these tensions during adoption of wiki technology at the workplace. The theoretical lens of sociomateriality highlights the manner in which routines and materiality (namely, technology) relate to one another, providing a useful conceptualization for our investigation. In particular, we adopt Leonardi’s theory of human and material imbrication, which stresses the importance of a worker’s past experiences with technology in determining his future adoption decisions. Extending Leonardi’s conceptualization, we suggest that out-of-work experiences are also influential. Namely, we argue that attitudes towards Wikipedia influence one’s response to wiki deployment in the workplace. Using an online survey containing four open-ended questions, we assessed the perceptions of employees towards wiki deployment. Results from our qualitative analysis of 1032 responses reveal five approaches users take in responding to the tensions between wiki affordances and existing KM routines, highlighting the effect of users’ dispositions towards Wikipedia. Our findings inform the sociomateriality literature and shed light on the challenges faced by organizations trying to adopt social media tools. Full article

Adoption of social media systems (SMS), proprietary microblogging platforms in particular, for the purposes of information sharing has been increasingly on the rise among corporations. While Twitter is the preferred microblogging tool by the general public, there is scant research to address its viability as a conduit to facilitate knowledge creation among corporate users. As a result, this conceptual paper explores seven crucial Twitter features and derives to seven propositions that demonstrate how microblogging can enable knowledge creation among employees within shared knowledge domain. Full article

A social circle is a category of strong social relationships, such as families, classmates and good friends and so on. The information diffusion among members of online social circles is frequent and credible. The research of users’ online social circles has become popular in recent years. Many scholars propose methods for detecting users’ online social circles. On the other hand, the social meanings and the tags of a social circle are also important for the analysis of a social circle. However, little work involves the tags discovery of social circles. This paper proposes an algorithm for social circle tag detection by multiple linear regression. The model solves the data sparse problem of tags in social circles and successfully combines different categories of features in social circles. We also redmap the concept of the social circle into "reference circles" of an academic paper. We evaluate our method in datasets of both Facebook and Microsoft Academic Search, and prove that it is more effective than other relevant methods. Full article