It has become more popular to work abroad and companies have become more global than they used to. A big reason for this is due to globalization and the progress done within the field of technology. Because of this aloofness that occurs, a gap between the expatriates’ personal life and his or her working life develops. The cases focused on in this paper includes people who are distanced from their private lives at least a few consecutive months but are all aiming to get back when they are done with their individual errands. Computer-Mediated Communication can help these people to keep in touch and can also help them to stay in both places without physically being there. By taking advantage of the technological development that exists today it can help relatives and other people to stay close during these periods of time. When the expatriates’ come back to their private lives it can be as they never went away if Computer-Mediated Communication have been used frequently. This paper addresses the issue of emotional and geographical aloofness with research within the area of organizational use of Social Media and other types of Computer-Mediated Communication.

Several researchers have pointed out that the field of eGovernment suffers from a too short-termed, project oriented, retrospective focus and a naïve technological optimism. Reflexive, critical analysis, cumulative research and altered use of theoretical frames are asked for to increase the practical value. However, in front of fulfilling such expectations the reality is that we get the research we are asking for, and we are asking for the research we know exist, and in this logic lies a lot of communicative challenges (as well as funding mechanisms). This article tries to address this relation and does so by putting forward an initiative to establish a national network of eGovernment researchers and practitioners (from private and public sector).

In this paper we are applying inter-organizational concepts from the industrial/business network approach on empirical findings from an e-government case, in order to describe and better understand challenges in one-stop government e-service development. We analyze our case by using concepts that characterize an inter-organizational relationship in terms of its level of continuity, complexity, symmetry, informality, and its dimensions (links, bonds, and ties). The purpose of the paper is to explore how these theoretical concepts can help us focus on certain aspects of e-service development challenges. The empirical findings are collected within an on-going action research project for e-service development in the public sector in Sweden. The aim of the project is to develop one-stop government e-services for driver’s license matters as well as a web-based portal where these e-services and information about the driver’s license process will be easily accessible. Our conclusions are that the theoretical concepts helped us reach further understanding of the empirical case. In the spirit of the network approach, we focused on the present situation and been able to give a rather detailed and fine-grained picture of the problems and challenges in this context.

There are a lot of reasons reported for why organisations start a sourcing decision. This chapter discusses this theme based on two questions: Does the need and/or wish to increase e-Government services influence the start of a sourcing decision process aiming at reorganising hosting of software applications and if it does, how does it influence the start of such a decision-making process? The point of departure, besides a literature review, is a sourcing decision-making process in a Swedish municipality. When analysing the sourcing decision, five suggested propositions developed from the factors, control, core competence, capability, cost, and strategy, are used. It is concluded that municipalities in Sweden has to prepare for being more of an e-Government organisation, which means that more of the services the municipalities' employees has done before citizens will do by themselves. This demands that to be able to offer future e-Government services municipalities need to have control over software applications. From this study it is suggested that centralisation of hosting can be seen as decentralisation of work tasks from an e-Government perspective.

Earlier research has shown that combining education with entertainment can improve students motivation in school. With this study we aim to learn more about interactive digital learning resources and how they should be designed to entertain and thereby contribute to motivation. We have identified aspects of educational games that also could be considered when developing interactive digital learning resources, to make them more entertaining and motivating. We have chosen to study and evaluate an interactive digital learning resource called “Grasp the Disaster”, a fictional online adventure created for students in the ages between 13-15. By studying the guidelines for educational games and then customize them for interactive digital learning resources, we found that “Grasp the Disaster” is a well produced interactive digital learning resource, though in need of a few changes. In addition to evaluating the production itself, we could also confirm that the guidelines we have customized can actually be applied to an interactive digital learning resource when it comes to design and evaluation.

Currently there exists an advanced and natural form of interaction, named gesture-based interaction. It has been applied in some fields successfully, especially in the form of game applications. Although people are filled with wonder at the new interaction, it has not replaced the traditional interaction, like keyboard and mouse. From the user experience point of view, gesture-based interaction has advantages which traditional interactive form cannot offer, but also shortcomings which people seem dissatisfied with. This thesis focuses on expressing user experience of gesture-based interaction by conducting interview method. Finally, this paper presents a new design and tries to find implications for its practical usage in the future.

Today’s transnational IT development requires complex collaborations which are often hindered by differences in the culture, geography (time zones), and the work habits of the people involved.  This study was conducted in the real-world environment of a global telecom company. The data demonstrates some of the problems which can arise when attempting transnational IT development, particularly in the field of engineering. Using case study research method, collaboration barriers can be found and research insights are generated from collaborative interruptions and communication behaviors. Although technologies and working principles do enhance performance, I argued that social considerations in transnational collaboration are needed to study as top priority. Particularly in the engineering working context, most people are often either unaware of potential collaboration conflicts or unprepared to solve them. In some technology solutions gaps are existed between human’s intentions and practical supporting functions. In this paper, the finding shows that social considerations in transnational IT development result significant influence to collaboration which clears the picture and brings more understanding between individuals, mechanisms and IT products. In addition, this study also confirms that social approach does increase certain level of improvement in transnational collaboration.

In order to face the challenges derived from an increasingly disruptive technologicalenvironment, firms often engage in collaborative arrangements with other firms. While it isargued that inter-firm networks can serve as a way to catalyze innovation, to manage risksinvolved in R&D and to enable the creation of new value through co-creation, the causes andreasons for inter-firm collaboration are well-known. However, little effort has been focused atcritically examining the challenges that co-creation brings on a network and firm-level. Thisresearch addresses this issue by taking a process perspective on the formation and developmentof an inter-firm network in relation to its technologically disruptive environment. Building on acase study involving firms from that network, this research shows that such arrangements mayalso involve challenges for participating firms. These challenges relates to a paradoxicaltension between exploitation of relation-specific assets and success in the long- and short-term,but also a challenge in terms of positioning the firm within the network.

The manufacturing industry is turning their attention from a solely product orientation view, to the creation of new value-adding services in order to increase their after-sales business. In this thesis, a case study was conducted in order to examine a manufacturing industry in their process of developing value-adding services. By exploring their processes in service delivery and studying their introduction of remote monitoring systems in their service distribution, the aim was to visualise the dimensions of a service system and how it changes with the introduction of an specific new technology. This study has shown that the introduction of remote monitoring systems, changes the relationship between the provider and the receiver, through the decrease of physical visits at the clients’ site, with the consequence that the close relationships between the provider and its receivers can vanish. Furthermore this study shows that remote monitoring systems affects the service system, through intertwining the technology and shared information. As the characteristics of the new technology remote monitoring systems enables new ways of information sharing and thereby becoming how the information between the provider and receiver is shared. Additionally, this study shows that in order to co-create value in a service system, the provider has to bear full responsibility in coming up with an acceptable value proposition and for the clearness in presenting the value proposal to the receiver.

<p>A traditional medical school curriculum consists of a large amount of information presented by a large number of faculty. Faced with a growing and evolving flood of information, medical educators require and seek assistance to manage this knowledge base. Between the fall of 2001 and summer of 2002, researchers and educators at the Vanderbilt University Department of Biomedical Informatics have constructed KnowledgeMap (KM), a web-based knowledge management tool to support medical instruction at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. The KM knowledge store contains all curricular documents in a searchable database. The KM interface makes available online this information to students, faculty members, and administrators. This thesis analyzes the use of KM during its pilot implementation in the first year medical school anatomy course during the fall of 2002.</p><p>Data was collected from first year medical students and the anatomy course faculty through server log files, a survey, and interviews. The data revealed that students have utilized the system near unanimously and that the majority of them have expressed satisfaction with the system. Computer proficiency and test anxiety were identified as factors affecting the adoption of the system. The study addressed issues relating to both students and faculty that arise from the use KM. They include student time constraints and learning styles, class attendance, intellectual property concerns, communication among faculty, and the properties of hypermedia as a medium for instruction at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine.</p>