Diss. Nr. 3635 Wirtschaftswiss. St. Gallen. / Literaturverz.

Techn. University, Diss., 2005--München.

Thesis (M. S.)--Psychology, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2007. / Dr. Arthur D. Fisk, Committee Chair ; Dr. Wendy A. Rogers, Committee Member ; Dr. Anderson D. Smith, Committee Member.

Techn. University, Diss., 2004--Darmstadt.

Thesis (MPhil)--Stellenbosch University, 2015. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study investigates the impact between sensemaking as proposed by Karl Weick and his associates’ school of thought, and ubiquitous electronically mediated informing (UEMI) which is the attention-efficient availability of data, information and electronic computing. At best, Weickian sensemaking theory ignores the potential role of UEMI in sensemaking and at worst, it regards it as more of a hindrance than a help. This dim view of electronic information technology (IT), typified as “spreadsheets on screens”, had merit when first expressed in 1985, but its unchanged position notwithstanding IT’s transformation towards UEMI is increasingly untenable. An interpretation based on the attention-efficiency aspect of Mark Weiser’s vision of ubiquitous computing is harnessed as the foundation to review the progress since 1985 towards true ubiquitous computing and to analyse its increasing impact on sensemaking. Ubiquitous computing (which includes UEMI) still has a long way to go with the accuracy of speech recognition a notable obstacle. Yet, progress has been remarkable, and this thesis employs five current UEMI technologies within a limited aspect of society, namely organisations to evaluate this impact: personal memories, virtual presence, augmented reality, speech recognition and organisational memories. Sensemaking is that which gives meaning to experience. It is a social and on-going process made in retrospect, which seeks congruence with one’s identity, is enactive of an environment which enables further sensemaking, and focuses on the noticing and embellishment of cues to the point where the sense which has been made, is plausible enough to act upon. In addition to these seven process properties sensemaking theory also comprises its substance which involves words, sentences, vocabularies and their mechanics. To make meaning (i.e. sense) a minimum of one cue needs to be linked to one frame. Frames tend to be vocabularies that summarise past experience, whilst cues tend to emerge from current experience. This study introduces four notions. Firstly, attention is viewed as a scarce resource in an economic sense. As an act of attending, sensemaking is viewed as an economic process in which ends (the sense or knowledge made) are achieved with limited means (time and attending capability). Therefore people will pay (i.e. invest) attention to make sense of something only up to a point of plausibility where the perceived cost of paying more attention exceeds the expected benefit of doing so. In line with other economic processes, the productivity of organisational sensemaking may be increased with appropriate organisational structures and procedures, human skills, mindsets and most importantly, any technology which lowers the requirements for scarce attention (i.e. UEMI technologies). Secondly, sensemaking theory’s silence on the consequences of sensemaking is addressed by introducing the notions of risky reality, i.e. those situations where gaps between sensemaking and reality may impact the sensemaker’s welfare or survival. Thirdly, the quality of sensemaking, which determines the size of those gaps, is also addressed. Fourthly, this thesis proposes augmenting words as the building blocks of sensemaking with imagery such as drawings, photos, video footage, animation and augmented reality, both for making sense out of life’s pure duration and for communication. Unlike electronic IT in 1985, current and future UEMI’s inherent attention-efficiency and audio-visual capability enables a higher quality of sensemaking, which is of the essence in situations of risky reality. In addition, UEMI positively impacts all seven process properties of sensemaking, with the highest impact on the properties of plausibility, retrospect, cues and on-going. The impact of sensemaking on UEMI means that the most attention-efficient UEMI technologies will be the most successful in the market. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie studie ondersoek die impak tussen singewing soos voorgestel deur Karl Weick en sy samewerkers en alomteenwoordige elektronies-gemedieerde informering (AEGI) met ander woorde, die aandag-effektiewe beskikbaarheid van data, informasie en elektroniese rekenaars. Wanneer die teorie oor singewing nie die potensiële rol van AEGI in singewing heeltemal ignoreer nie, word die rol van AEGI as ’n hindernis beskou. Hierdie negatiewe siening van elektroniese rekenaartegnologie, gekenmerk as “spreadsheets on screens”, was wel aanvaarbaar in 1985, maar hierdie onveranderde posisie rakende elektroniese rekenaartegnologie se transformasie na AEGI raak al hoe meer onverdedigbaar. ’n Interpretasie gebaseer op die aandag-effektiewe aspek van Mark Weiser se visie vir alomteenwoordige informasie tegnologie, word ingespan as die fondasie om die vooruitgang vanaf 1985 na alomteenwoordige informasie tegnologie te ondersoek, en die implikasies wat dit vir singewing inhou te hersien. Alomteenwoordige informasie tegnologie (insluitend AEGI) het nog ’n lang pad om te gaan, met akkuraatheid van spraak-herkenning as die grootste struikelblok. Tog is die vooruitgang merkwaardig. Die studie fokus op vyf AEGI tegnologieë binne ’n beperkte deel van die samelewing, naamlik organisasies om die impak op bogenoemde te evalueer: persoonlike herinneringe, virtuele teenwoordigheid, aangevulde werklikheid, spraak-herkenning en organisatoriese geheue. Singewing verskaf betekenis aan ervaring. Dis ’n sosiale en deurlopende proses wat in retrospek uitgevoer word, kongruensie met ’n persoon se identiteit vereis, ’n omgewing tot stand bring wat verder singewing in staat stel, en fokus op waarneming en uitbreiding van leidrade tot die stadium bereik word waar die singewing wat vermag is, geloofwaardig genoeg is om tot aksie oor te gaan. Bo en behalwe die sewe proses eienskappe bestaan die kern van singewingsteorie uit woorde, sinne, woordeskatgroepe en hul meganika. Om betekenis (d.w.s. sin) te maak, moet ten minste een leidraad aan een raamwerk gekoppel word. Raamwerke het die neiging om uit woordeskatgroepe te bestaan wat ervarings van die verlede opsom, terwyl leidrade die neiging het om na vore te kom vanuit huidige ervaring. Die studie steun op vier nuwe idees. Eerstens word aandag as ’n skaars bron beskou in ’n ekonomiese konteks. As ’n optrede van aandagskenking, word singewing gesien as ’n ekonomiese proses waar die einddoel (die sin of kennis wat gemaak word) bereik word met beperkte middele of hulpbronne (die tyd en die vermoë om aandag te skenk). Dus sal mense aandag skenk (d.w.s. belê) om sin te maak van iets slegs tot op ’n punt van geloofwaardigheid, waar die verwagte koste om meer aandag te skenk die verwagte voordeel om dit te doen, oorskry. Soos met ander ekonomiese prosesse, mag die produktiwiteit van organisatoriese singewing vermeerder met die toepaslike organisatoriese strukture en prosedures, menslike vaardighede, ingesteldheid en van kardinale belang, enige tegnologie wat die vereiste vir aandag wat skaars is, verminder (d.w.s. AEGI tegnologieë). Tweedens, word die stilswye van die singewingsteorie rakende die gevolge van singewing aangespreek deur die nuwe konsep van riskante werklikheid – daardie situasies waar die gaping tussen die sin wat gemaak is en die werklikheid die singewer se welvaart wesenlik kan beïnvloed. Derdens, word die kwaliteit van singewing, naamlik dit wat die grootte van sulke gapings bepaal dan ook in hierdie studie aangespreek. Vierdens word daar geargumenteer dat woorde met beelde aangevul kan word as boublokke vir singewing, beide om sin te maak van “life’s pure duration” en van kommunikasie deur middel van tekeninge, foto’s, video-materiaal, animasie en aangevulde werklikheid. Daar word geargumenteer dat anders as elektroniese informasie tegnologie in 1985, die huidige en toekomstige AEGI se inherente aandageffektiwiteit en audio-visuele vermoë, hoër kwaliteit van singewing moontlik maak, wat van groot belang is in riskante werklikheidsituasies. Bogenoemde het dan ook ’n positiewe impak op al sewe eienskappe van singewing, waarvan geloofwaardigheid, retrospek, leidrade en deurlopenheid die grootste is. Dit beteken dus dat die mees aandag-effektiewe alomteenwoordige elektronies-gemedieerde informasie tegnologieë die mees suksesvolle in die mark van die toekoms behoort te wees.

Smart Homes are not smart for everyone, at least not yet. The purpose of this paper is to examine four obstacles that prevents Smart Homes from being adopted as a standard in Sweden. This paper is based on the contributions of the study “Home Automation in the Wild: Challanges and Opportunities” (Brush et al. 2011), and further investigates the obstacles the authors present in that study. Thanks to a broad use of different methods, we state that all the obstacles listed in this particular study (Brush et al. 2011) still remain, but perhaps on different terms. In the discussion part of this paper, we present a few ways to work against these obstacles and, hopefully, eliminate them. / Smarta Hem är inte smarta för alla, åtminstone inte än. Syftet med denna uppsats är undersöka fyra hinder som förhindrar Smarta Hem från att anammas som standard i Sverige. Denna uppsats är baserad på bidragen från studien “Home Automation in the Wild: Challanges and Opportunities” (brush et al. 2011), och undersöker de hinder som presenteras i den studien. Tack vare användandet av ett flertal olika metoder, kan vi konstatera att de hinder som presenteras i den specifika studien (Brush et al. 2011) fortfarande finns kvar idag, men möjligtvis på andra villkor. I uppsatsens diskussionsdel presenterar vi ett antal sätt att arbeta mot dessa hinder och, förhoppningsvis, kunna eliminera dem.

Context: This protocol is as a supplementary document to our review paper that investigates security-related challenges and solutions that have occurred during the past decade (from January 2003 to December 2014). Objectives: The objective of this systematic review is to identify security-related challenges, security goals, and defenses in ubiquitous computing by answering to three main research questions. First, demographic data and trends will be given by analyzing where, when and by whom the research has been carried out. Second, we will identify security goals that occur in ubiquitous computing, along with attacks, vulnerabilities and threats that have motivated the research. Finally, we will examine the differences in addressing security in ubiquitous computing with those in traditional distributed systems. Method: In order to provide an overview of security-related challenges, goals and solutions proposed in the literature, we will use a systematic literature review (SLR). This protocol describes the steps which are to be taken in order to identify papers relevant to the objective of our review. The first phase of the method includes planning, in which we define the scope of our review by identifying the main research questions, search procedure, as well as inclusion and exclusion criteria. Data extracted from the relevant papers are to be used in the second phase of the method, data synthesis, to answer our research questions. The review will end by reporting on the results. Results and conclusions: The expected results of the review should provide an overview of attacks, vulnerabilities and threats that occur in ubiquitous computing and that have motivated the research in the last decade. Moreover, the review will indicate which security goals are gaining on their significance in the era of ubiquitous computing and provide a categorization of the security-related countermeasures, mechanisms and techniques found in the literature. (authors' abstract)

The evident progression of ubiquitous technologies has put forward the introduction of new features which software systems can sustain. Several of the ubiquitous technologies available today are regarded as fundamental elements of many software applications in various domains. The utilisation of ubiquitous technologies has an apparent impact on business processes that can grant organisations a competitive advantage and improve their productivity. The change in the business processes in such organisations typically leads to a change in the underlying software systems. In addressing the need for change in the underlying software systems, this research is focused on establishing a general framework and methodology to facilitate the reengineering of software systems in order to allow the incorporation of new features which are introduced by the employment of ubiquitous technologies. Although this thesis aims to be general and not limited to a specific programming language or software development approach, the focus is on Object-Oriented software. The reengineering framework follows a systematic step-based approach, with greater focus on the reverse engineering aspect. The four stages of the framework are: program understanding, additional-requirement engineering, integration, and finally the testing and operation stage. In its first stage, the proposed reengineering framework regards the source code as the starting point to understand the system using a static-analysis based method. The second stage is concerned with the elicitation of the user functional requirements resulting from the introduction of ubiquitous technologies. In the third stage, the goal is to integrate the system’s components and hardware handlers using a developed integration algorithm and available integration techniques. In the fourth and final stage, which is discussed in a general manner only in this thesis, the reengineered system is tested and put in the operation phase. The proposed approach is demonstrated using a case study in Java to show that the proposed approach is feasible and promising in its domain. Conclusions are drawn based on analysis and further research directions are discussed at the end of the study.

published_or_final_version / Computer Science / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

Context: This protocol is as a supplementary document to our review paper that investigates security-related challenges and solutions that have occurred during the past decade (from January 2003 to December 2013). Objectives: The objective of this systematic review is to identify security-related challenges, security goals and defenses in ubiquitous computing by answering to three main research questions. First, demographic data and trends will be given by analyzing where, when and by whom the research has been carried out. Second, we will identify security goals that occur in ubiquitous computing, along with attacks, vulnerabilities and threats that have motivated the research. Finally, we will examine the differences in addressing security in ubiquitous computing with those in traditional distributed systems. Method: In order to provide an overview of security-related challenges, goals and solutions proposed in the literature, we will use a systematic literature review (SLR). This protocol describes the steps which are to be taken in order to identify papers relevant to the objective of our review. The first phase of the method includes planning, in which we define the scope of our review by identifying the main research questions, search procedure, as well as inclusion and exclusion criteria. Data extracted from the relevant papers are to be used in the second phase of the method, data synthesis, to answer our research questions. The review will end by reporting on the results. Results and conclusions: The expected results of the review should provide an overview of attacks, vulnerabilities and threats that occur in ubiquitous computing and that have motivated the research in the last decade. Moreover, the review will indicate which security goals are gaining on their significance in the era of ubiquitous computing and provide a categorization of the security-related countermeasures, mechanisms and techniques found in the literature. (authors' abstract)