This thesis contributes to the discussion around the practice of co-design with children by providing support for reflections to practitioners. The framework that derived from this research aims to increase the awareness on the implications the different aspects involved on co-design session have on its outcome. Researchers with little experience in managing co-design sessions can benefit from it when deciding on their co-design strategies.

In this thesis we investigate the applicability of proof planning to automate the verification of hardware systems. Proof planning is a meta-level reasoning technique which captures patterns of proof common to a family of theorems. It contributes to the automation of proof by incorporating and extending heuristics found in the Nqthm theorem prover and using them to guide a tactic-based theorem prover in the search for a proof. We have addressed the automation of proof for hardware verification from a proof planning perspective, and have applied the strategies and search control mechanisms of proof planning to generate automatically customised tactics which prove conjectures about the correctness of many types of circuits. The contributions of this research can be summarised as follows: (1) we show by experimentation the applicability of the proof planning ideas to verify automatically hardware designs;(2)we develop and use a methodology based on the concept of proof engineering using proof planning to verify various combinational and sequential circuits which include: arithmetic circuits (adders, subtracters, multipliers, dividers, factorials), data-path components arithmetic logic units shifters, processing units) and a simple microprocessor system; and (3) we contribute to the profiling of the Clam proof planning system by improving its robustness and efficiency in handling large terms and proofs. In verifying hardware, the user formalises a problem by writing the specification, the implementation and the conjecture, using a logic language, and asks Clam to compose a tactic to prove the conjecture. This tactic is then executed by the Oyster prover. To compose a tactic, Clam uses a set of methods which implement the heuristics that specify general-purpose tactics, and AI planning mechanisms. Search is controlled by a type of annotated rewriting called rippling, which controls the selective application of rewrite scaled wave rules. We have extended some of the Clam's methods to verify circuits. The size of the proofs were orders of magnitude larger than the proofs that had been attempted before with proof planning, and are comparable with similar verification proofs obtained by other systems but using fewer lemmas and less interaction. Proof engineering refers to the application of formal proof for system design and verification. We propose a proof engineering methodology which consists of partitioning the automation of formal proof into three different kind of tasks: user, proof and systems tasks. User tasks have to do with formalising a particular verification problem and using a formal tool to obtain a proof. Proof tasks refer to the tuning of proof techniques (e.g. methods and tactics)to help obtain a proof. Systems tasks have to do with the modification of a formal tool system. By making this distinction explicit, proof development is more manageable. We conjecture that our approach is widely applicable and can be integrated into formal verification environments to improve automation facilities, and be utilised to verify commercial and safety-critical hardware systems in industrial settings.

Collaborative learning is known as an effective learning method and various different kinds of technologies have been developed to support and facilitate collaborative learning. Many of these technologies are used to support the functional activities of a group of learners by enabling students to communicate, share documents and materials, track the work of the group, or distribute and allocate tasks. One factor that influences the success of collaborative groups is the awareness that members have of each others' activities i.e. activity awareness (Gutwin et al., 2004). Limited attention has been paid to promoting activity awareness in the collaborative learning literature. The work that does exist has focused on enhancing activity awareness by capturing and sharing details of the activity (e.g. Ganoe et al., 2003; Carroll et al., 2003). In contrast, there are no technologies that focus on the learners’ attitudes and behaviours with regard to activity awareness without considering the functional aspects of the group's work. This PhD hypothesises that persuasive technologies can offer a novel way of promoting activity awareness by changing learners’ attitudes and behaviours and persuading them to be more aware of fellow group members’ activities. This approach to enhancing activity awareness was investigated by using a persuasive social actor to change the attitudes and behaviours of learners who were working on collaborative learning projects over extended periods of time. Four studies were conducted: a pilot study to explore collaborative learning groups, an exploratory study to understand collaboration and activity awareness, a follow-up study to study activity awareness in depth, and a main study where a persuasive social actor for activity awareness in collaborative learning groups was developed and tested. All of these studies focused on a specific collaborative learning setting, in which small numbers of students (3 to 5) worked together in collaborative groups to complete real learning projects over approximately 6 weeks. This thesis makes four contributions to the fields of HCI and collaborative learning. The main contribution is a novel approach to enhance activity awareness in collaborative learning groups by changing learners’ attitudes and behaviours using a persuasive technology i.e. a persuasive social actor. The second contribution is a new method to evaluate activity awareness in collaborative learning groups. The third contribution is insight into how the Persuasive Systems Design (PSD) model (Oinas-kukkonen & Harjumaa, 2009) can be used in the design and evaluation of a persuasive social actor. The fourth contribution is an analysis of how students collaborate in long-term collaborative learning projects in naturalistic settings.

Interactions driven by Information Communications Technologies (ICT) have gained significant acceptance and momentum in contemporary organisational settings, this is illustrated by their massive adoption and varied deployment across the various levels of an organisation’s hierarchy. ICTs such as mobile telephones, Personal Digital Assistants (PDA), videoconferencing, BlackBerries and other forms of portable and immovable computing technologies provide enduring bases for mediated interactions in human activities. This thesis looks into the dynamics of ICT-driven interactions and, distinctively, focuses on the manifestations and implications of mediated control in a collaborative environment. The study draws on the concept of administrative behaviour which leads to the observation that the nature of mediated control is not static, but evolutionarily dynamic that springs from highly unpredictable contexts of work. Thus, interactions driven by ICTs influence and change the dynamics of mediated control against the background of the rhythm, structure and direction of an organisation’s purposeful undertakings. Findings indicate, quite paradoxically, that networks set up through the instrumentality of technology mediated interaction discourage domination and inspire individual discretion in spite of their promise of electronic chains. The analysis reflects the notion that mediated control is not only about the predetermination of targets that are attained at the subordinate level. Indeed, the study advocates a fundamental conceptualisation of mediated control as double-sided concept, integrating the use of discretion that, occasionally, makes subordinates drive and initiate key control techniques that steer organisational life. Therefore, through the application of philosophical hermeneutics for a rigorous data interpretation, this study develops an innovative and holistic understanding of mediated control which not only adds to, but also extends, the current organisational perception of control by the incorporation of discretion and, in the process, makes a distinctive contribution to scholarship.

Coinduction is a proof rule which is the dual of induction. It allows reasoning about non-well-founded sets and is of particular use for reasoning about equivalences. In this thesis I present an automation of coinductive theorem proving. This automation is based on the ideas of proof planning [Bundy 88]. Proof planning as the name suggests, plans the higher level steps in a proof without performing the formal checking which is also required for a verification. The automation has focused on the use of coinduction to prove the equivalence of programs in a small lazy functional language which is similar to Haskell. One of the hardest parts in a coinductive proof is the choice of a relation, called a bisimulation. The automation here described makes an initial simplified guess at a bisimulation and then uses critics, revisions based on failure, and generalisation techniques to refine this guess. The proof plan for coinduction and the critic have been implemented in CLAM [Bundy et al 90b] with encouraging results. The planner has been successfully tested on a number of theorems. Comparison of the proof planner for coinduction with the proof plan for induction implemented in CLAM has gighlighted a number of equivalences and dualities in the process of these proofs and has also suggested improvements to both systems. This work has demonstrated not only the possibility of fully automated theorem provers for coinduction but has also demonstrated the uses of proof planning for comparison of proof techniques. This work has demonstrated not only the possibility of fully automated theorem provers for coinduction but has also demonstrated the uses of proof planning for comparison of proof techniques.

We study mobile systems, i.e. systems with a dynamically changing communication topology, from a process algebras point of view. Mobility can be introduced in process algebras by allowing names or terms to be transmitted. We distinguish these two approaches as first-order and higher-order. The major target of the thesis is the comparison between them. The prototypical calculus in the first-order paradigm is the π-calculus. By generalising its sort discipline we derive an w-order extension called Higher-Order π-calculus (HOπ). We show that such an extension does not add expressiveness to the π-calculus: Higher-order processes can be faithfully compiled down to first-order, and respecting the behavioural equivalence we adopted in the calculi. Such an equivalence is based on the notion of bisimulation, a fundamental concept of process algebras. Unfortunately, the standard definition of bisimulation is unsatisfactory in a higher-order calculus because it is over-discriminating. To overcome the problem, we propose barbed bisimulation. Its advantage is that it can be defined uniformly in different calculi because it only requires that the calculus possesses an interaction or reduction relation. As a test for barbed bisimulation, we show that in CCS and π-calculus, it allows us to recover the familiar bisimulation-based equivalences. We also give simpler characterisations of the equivalences utilised in HOπ. For this we exploit a special kind of agents called triggers, with which it is possible to reason fairly efficiently in a higher-order calculus notwithstanding the complexity of its transitions. Finally, we use the compilation from HOπ to π-calculus to investigate Milner's

Names and name-binding are useful concepts in the theory and practice of formal systems. In this thesis we study them in the context of dependent type theory. We propose a novel dependent type theory with primitives for the explicit handling of names. As the main application, we consider programming and reasoning with abstract syntax involving variable binders. Gabbay and Pitts have shown that Fraenkel Mostowski (FM) set theory models a notion of name using which informal work with names and binding can be made precise. They have given a number of useful constructions for working with names and binding, such as a syntax-independent notion of freshness that formalises when two objects do not share names, and a freshness quantifier that simplifies working with names and binding. Related to FM set theory, a number of systems for working with names have been given, among them are the first-order Nominal Logic, the higher-order logic FM-HOL, the Theory of Contexts as well as the programming language FreshML. In this thesis we study how dependent type theory can be extended with primitives for working with names and binding. Our choice of primitives is different from that in FM set theory. In FM set theory the fundamental primitive for working with names is swapping. All other concepts such as \alpha-equivalence classes and binding are constructed from it. For dependent type theory, however, this approach of constructing everything from swapping is not ideal, since it requires us to make strong assumptions on the type theory. For instance, the construction of \alpha-equivalence classes from swapping appears to require quotient types. Our approach is to treat constructions such as \alpha-equivalence classes and name-binding directly, turning them into primitives of the type theory. To do this, it is convenient to take freshness rather than swapping as the fundamental primitive. Based on the close correspondence between type theories and categories, we approach the design of the dependent type theory by studying the categorical structure underlying FM set theory. We start from a monoidal structure capturing freshness. By analogy with the definition of simple dependent sums \Sigma and products \Pi from the cartesian product, we define monoidal dependent sums \Sigma * and products \Pi * from the monoidal structure. For the type of names N, we have an isomorphism \Sigma *_N\iso\Pi *_N generalising the freshness quantifier. We show that this structure includes \alpha-equivalence classes, name binding, unique choice of fresh names as well as the freshness quantifier. In addition to the set theoretic model corresponding to FM set theory, we also give a realizability model of this structure. The semantic structure leads us to a bunched type theory having both a dependent additive context structure and a non-dependent multiplicative context structure. This type theory generalises the simply-typed \alpha\lambda-calculus of O'Hearn and Pym in the additive direction. It includes novel monoidal products \Pi * and sums \Sigma * as well as hidden-name types H for working with names and binding. We give examples for the use of the type theory for programming and reasoning with abstract syntax involving binders. We show that abstract syntax can be handled both in the style of FM set theory and in the style of Weak Higher Order Abstract Syntax. Moreover, these two styles of working with abstract syntax can be mixed, which has interesting applications such as the derivation of a term for the unique choice of new names.

The aim of this research is to highlight the factors and barriers that render mobile phone users averse to using their mobile handsets as an internet platform in Jordan. Three studies were conducted to achieve the aim of the conducted research of this PhD thesis. Both quantitative and qualitative approaches were used in all studies. Data was collected from the participants using questionnaires, open-ended questions and sketching techniques. Firstly, mobile internet usage in Jordan was explored in its wider sense. On the basis of these results, the second study compared PC and mobile internet use. This comparison resulted in the preference of PC internet rather than mobile internet. The study covered many aspects such as usability, familiarity, achievement and satisfaction in dealing with both mobile and stationary tools internet. The third study was divided into two sections. The first part required participants to design (using a sketching technique) a mobile application with regard to handling a critical issue (car violations), to establish the possibility for internet users in Jordan to perform tasks on a mobile platform that they currently perform on stationary internet tools. The second part of the study was an evaluation of this prototype application. The results revealed that the application was found to be very easy and useful by the participants of the study. They added that they would benefit from using such applications in their lives. There was an observed issue of security and trust related to the payment option provided as an option in the application. Participants were cautious and declined to use any ―untrusted‖ method of payment. In addition to lacking trust in e-commerce, participants lack trust and confidence in online payment methods, and stated that they would not recommend the payment option to anyone. Finally, the outcome of the study showed that the application is a novel idea in Jordan, and it is very easy to handle and use. Participants commented that it was easy to interact with the mobile application in order to complete different tasks. The key benefit of the application for participants lies in saving time, by avoiding long queues at the Traffic Department.

This thesis explores the use of the crowdsourced digital archive in contemporary museological and cultural projects and investigates ways co-creation can be used more critically and meaningfully by museums, galleries and wider cultural initiatives. A primary focus of the project is the inherent relationship between the archive, curator, power and politics, particularly in relation to the performative mechanisms through which hegemonic power produces, mediates and consolidates cultural norms and ideals. Specifically, this project seeks to explore the complex relationship between the crowdsourced cultural archive and contemporary capitalist power, defined variously as New Capitalism, Network Capitalism or Inclusive Neoliberalism. Referring to a range of contemporary crowdsourced projects, the thesis argues that many existing participatory digital archives performativelt replicate and consolidate hegemonic cultural norms, mirroring historical archival forms in this way. Further, I argue that particular structuration of contemporary capitalism requires that attempts at critically or political action tend to be reassimilated into hegemonic power. Nonetheless, responding to calls for critical digital networks by theorists such as Jodi Dean (2008) and Geert Lovink (2011), the thesis aims to identify new models for the design and structuration of future critical crowdsourced archives. The project looks to Tactical Media, Hacktivism and Critical Digital Art to explore effective online criticality within New Capitalism, while an investigation of alternative architecures for critical collaboraion is undertaken with reference to Free and Open Source Software (FLOSS) and Net Art. Through this research, tenets for future critical crowdsourced cultural projects are delineated, paying particular attention to the role of the curator within the co-created project and critical approaches to digital architecture and design. The thesis primarily employs interpretive research based in Cultural Studies, but also includes findings from nine interviews undertaken with prominent digital project leaders. It is hoped the research will contribute to knowledge within Digital Humanities, Art and Design History, Museum and Gallery Studies, Design Theory and Cultural Studies, as well as contemporary curatorial and archival practice in museums and galleries.

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