This thesis focuses on interactive and computational semantics for manipulating the time-based medium of an evolving information space. The interactive semantics enable the user to engage in linear timeline traversal and non-linear history manipulation. Extended tape recorder metaphor controls, including jog-shuttle based navigation, provide the user with flexible means for operating the software's generative functionalities, and linearly traversing session history. The user can see previews of information space states while traversing the history using the jog-shuttle. We also introduce a door-latch metaphor that enables one of several considered forms of nonlinear history manipulation. Users can change history by retroactively latching an information sample in its position across time. For representing the information space history, we have developed MPEG-like computational keyframe semantics. This representation is in the form of XML, which is generated automatically and converted back to Java by a framework named ecologylab.xml, which was developed as a part of this thesis. These computational keyframe semantics serve as the basis for interaction semantics. A user study was conducted in the form of a design competition, to evaluate these new features. The results indicated that the users do find the time travel features useful and they feel more in-control of the information space with access to time travel features compared to the case when time travel features are not present.

The aim of this thesis is to develop an understanding of digital architecture as an extension to the physical spaces. The thesis claims that Virtual Reality Environments (VREs) coexist, supplement, support and extend the physical environments. VREs enable the users to deal with manipulable, multi-dimensional, interactive digital environment. Asymptote&rsquo / s New York Stock Exchange Three-Dimensional Trading Floor (NYSE 3DTF) VRE is a significant example to analyze digital architecture in this perspective. The 3DTF is a project where architecture and information bring each other into a new meaning through the spatialization of information in digital medium. The thesis analyzes how 3DTF VRE becomes extension to the existing actual NYSE in terms of four tools of analysis: visualization, navigation, interaction,and data integration. This thesis proposes to rethink architecture&rsquo / s relation with information through an understanding of extension.

Due to many adverse consequences of poor decision making in organisations there is a need to focus on the quality of information and knowledge. This research focuses on how to obtain and use, or “harness” knowledge from information in improving organisational decision-making in a civil protection/security organisation to become effective and enter an organisational wide learning spiral. This is necessary in order to gain a high degree of intuitiveness and intelligence and to be effective. The researcher explores how information-knowledge can be processed and converted into deeper level knowledge, while at the same time how to get decision makers to codify knowledge in order to help them to externalise it. In order to achieve this, the “information-space” model was used to show the information-to-knowledge dynamic journey. The research involved using quantitative and qualitative methods. The quantitative approach is used to obtain computable results from key decision-makers, such as senior workers, and test a model derived from the literature. Seventeen hypotheses were proposed based on theory to evaluate the proposed model. Primary data was collected during the empirical phase of the research from 135 respondents. A structural equation model was used and included exogenous and endogenous latent constructs. On the other hand, a use of qualitative research helped to obtain deeper insights into the use of information and knowledge in decision making. It was underpinned by several propositions and its aim was to expose the role of information-knowledge and the creation of a learning organisation. The results of the quantitative approach revealed that twelve hypotheses are positively significant. Two hypotheses have a significant negative impact on other constructs. Additionally, three hypotheses are non-statistically significant. The results reveal some very interesting insights, such as that demographic factors, such as age, level of education, gender, work experience and level of authority, have a significant impact on problem solving and decision making. In terms of type of information, the proprietary and common sense information types have more significance for solving problem and decision making. But, much to the researcher’s surprise, the public information and personal information played a very minor role. On the other hand, the results of the qualitative data collection show how key decision makers made decisions and gained a certain degree of intuition from it. Therefore, this research has met its objective in helping towards improvement in a civil protection/security organisation to become a learning organisation and help it to enter a learning spiral and make continual improvement. Hence, the researcher succeeds in making suitable recommendations to a number of different stakeholders, in particular the civil protection/security organisations to (i) to develop their management and specialist personnel, and, (ii) to have the necessary information management strategy in place that would harness information and help towards (iii) creating an effective and robust knowledge management strategy.

Bookmarking is one of the main methods by which users store the online information they find valuable. However, bookmarks in their current incarnation suffer from a number of drawbacks which do not support users in their daily routines. Bookmarks are very easy to make, but over time this causes bookmark collections to grow, requiring systems of organization to keep track of everything. Eventually though these systems of organization require organizing themselves. And as time passes the titles of both bookmarks and folders begin to loose their meaning and users find it harder and harder to determine a bookmark’s value or a folder’s contents based on title alone. This leads to the bookmarks themselves becoming stale and unused, making collections that much harder to search through when trying to re-find one’s found, online information.This thesis proposes to re-imagine bookmarks as visualized information that is easily recognizable, and can help users to predict the information a bookmark links to. In this way it is hoped that bookmarks can become a more meaningful link between users and their found, online information. Furthermore, automated tagging is proposed to assist users when searching for their content, as well as chronological sorting to help users visually scan through their collections and re-find their bookmarks. Finally, non- hierarchical, folder-less bookmarking was also proposed, though in the end this did not map to users’ habits. That being said, visualizing bookmarks would appear to be worth pursuing as it resonated with users, and could be one direction to follow in assisting users with their information collections.

<p>When a task becomes shared the need for coordination arises. One fundamental factor for coordination is awareness. This study aimed to answer the question of how awareness-based coordination support systems could increase the efficiency in the processing of tasks generated by the Customer Support Unit in Skellefteå municipality, ultimately creating a better work situation for the officers responsible for the handling of tasks and increasing the service level for the customers of their services. This question was answered by conducting interviews, observing system usage and through analysis of pre-existing interviews from earlier studies of the municipality’s CSU project. This study shows that there are aspects in the task management that are in need of coordination support and presents a task classification system based on the logistic nature of the task. Furthermore this paper identifies the main problems related to the current task management and from an awareness perspective discusses and outlines various mechanisms and techniques to address these problems. Alongside these problems the general lack of coordination support in the current Document and Workflow System (FlexiteBPMS) is approached. Furthermore all outlined proposals share the common aspiration of lessening the burden for the officers without simply shifting the workload onto other units in the workflow chain.</p>

When a task becomes shared the need for coordination arises. One fundamental factor for coordination is awareness. This study aimed to answer the question of how awareness-based coordination support systems could increase the efficiency in the processing of tasks generated by the Customer Support Unit in Skellefteå municipality, ultimately creating a better work situation for the officers responsible for the handling of tasks and increasing the service level for the customers of their services. This question was answered by conducting interviews, observing system usage and through analysis of pre-existing interviews from earlier studies of the municipality’s CSU project. This study shows that there are aspects in the task management that are in need of coordination support and presents a task classification system based on the logistic nature of the task. Furthermore this paper identifies the main problems related to the current task management and from an awareness perspective discusses and outlines various mechanisms and techniques to address these problems. Alongside these problems the general lack of coordination support in the current Document and Workflow System (FlexiteBPMS) is approached. Furthermore all outlined proposals share the common aspiration of lessening the burden for the officers without simply shifting the workload onto other units in the workflow chain.

Zunehmende Vernetzung und gesteigerte Flexibilität in Planungs- und Produktionsprozessen sind die notwendigen Antworten auf die gesteigerten Anforderungen an die Industrie in Bezug auf Agilität und Einführung von Mehrwertdiensten. Dafür ist eine stärkere Digitalisierung aller Prozesse und Vernetzung mit den Informationshaushalten von Partnern notwendig. Heutige Informationssysteme sind jedoch nicht in der Lage, die Anforderungen eines solchen integrierten, verteilten Informationsraums zu erfüllen. Ein vielversprechender Kandidat ist jedoch Linked Data, das aus dem Bereich des Semantic Web stammt. Aus diesem Ansatz wurde Linked Enterprise Data entwickelt, welches die Werkzeuge und Prozesse so erweitert, dass ein für die Industrie nutzbarer und flexibler Informationsraum entsteht. Kernkonzept dabei ist, dass die Informationen aus den Spezialwerkzeugen auf eine semantische Ebene gehoben, direkt auf Datenebene verknüpft und für Abfragen sicher bereitgestellt werden. Dazu kommt die Erfüllung industrieller Anforderungen durch die Bereitstellung des Revisionierungswerkzeugs R43ples, der Integration mit OPC UA über OPCUA2LD, der Anknüpfung an industrielle Systeme (z.B. an COMOS), einer Möglichkeit zur Modelltransformation mit SPARQL sowie feingranularen Informationsabsicherung eines SPARQL-Endpunkts. / Increasing collaboration in production networks and increased flexibility in planning and production processes are responses to the increased demands on industry regarding agility and the introduction of value-added services. A solution is the digitalisation of all processes and a deeper connectivity to the information resources of partners. However, today’s information systems are not able to meet the requirements of such an integrated, distributed information space. A promising candidate is Linked Data, which comes from the Semantic Web area. Based on this approach, Linked Enterprise Data was developed, which expands the existing tools and processes. Thus, an information space can be created that is usable and flexible for the industry. The core idea is to raise information from legacy tools to a semantic level, link them directly on the data level even across organizational boundaries, and make them securely available for queries. This includes the fulfillment of industrial requirements by the provision of the revision tool R43ples, the integration with OPC UA via OPCUA2LD, the connection to industrial systems (for example to COMOS), a possibility for model transformation with SPARQL as well as fine granular information protection of a SPARQL endpoint.

Thesis (MPhil (Information Science))--Stellenbosch University, 2008. / The knowledge economy is regarded by many authorities and policymakers as a significant and burgeoning aspect of the global economy. Yet there is no adequate theory of the production and exchange of knowledge; there is no adequate microeconomics of knowledge. In his 1995 work, titled Information Space, Max Boisot responds to this theoretical challenge by undertaking a bold and insightful project to lay the groundwork for just such an economics of knowledge. Boisot’s project entails two outcomes: an interwoven set of paradigmatic-ontological antecedents as a philosophical foundation; and a general theoretical framework, the Information-space (I-space), for understanding the economising principles that underlie the creation and distribution of information and knowledge. Boisot does not put forward an economics of knowledge per se. Rather, he sets out to lay the philosophical and general theoretical foundations for such an economic theory. Among Boisot’s paradigmatic-ontological antecedents is a commitment to evolutionary thinking. This is extended and adopted as a more specific commitment in the explication of the I-space. Thus, Boisot’s commitment to evolution is not trivial, and the I-space should be evolutionary in a strict sense. This thesis focuses on the I-space as an evolutionary framework and is a conceptual assessment of the I-space in relation to generalized Darwinism as the dominant contemporary conception of what it means to be evolutionary. The I-space is taken seriously as an explanatory framework, but it is assessed on its own terms as a general theory that is not amenable to a Popperian refutationist assessment. Thus, the I-space is construed as a putative evolutionary explanatory framework for an economics of knowledge. Contemporary evolutionary thinking has a long history, and is both pluralistic and polemical. However, a generalized Darwinian framework is discernable in the various applications of Darwinism in biology, evolutionary economics and evolutionary epistemology, and in the discourse of generalized Darwinism. The derivation – or extraction – of such a framework and its set of criteria is, nevertheless, a challenging task since it is not always clear what evolution and Darwinism entail conceptually, and there is no unanimity of opinion in the literature. This thesis is an attempt to identify the core logical criteria of generalized Darwinism that may be used to assess the I-space as a putative global evolutionary explanation. Though it does incorporate, or satisfy, many of the criteria identified, the I-space fails to satisfy two of them, and this thesis therefore concludes that the I-space is not a global generalized Darwinian framework. Firstly, and most importantly in terms of the conceptual hierarchy of generalized Darwinism, the I-space defines ex ante a finite set of attributes – degree of abstraction and degree of codification – as constitutive of global fitness. In other words, it regards the traits of abstraction and codification to be both necessary and sufficient to explain the differential diffusion of knowledge. Although evolutionary theory is of predictive value in local evolutionary situations, it is argued in this thesis that it is inadmissible in a global Darwinian evolutionary situation to specify ex ante the selection criteria in terms of a finite set of traits and to predict global evolutionary outcomes on that basis. In doing so, the I-space ignores the inherent contingency of the evolutionary process. More specifically, it ignores the contingency of knowledge creation and diffusion in a varied and changing environment, and makes exogenous to the I-space other factors that may also be of selective significance. Secondly, and closely related, is that the I-space does not define populations according to shared exposure to selection pressure; rather, knowledge is stratified according to shared attributes along the I-space dimensions of abstraction and codification. This presents a conceptual problem for the I-space, since it is conceivable that knowledge objects of the same degree of abstraction and codification may be directed at entirely different phenomenal domains and thus cannot be taken to be competing; conversely, knowledge objects of different degrees of abstraction and codification may be directed at the same phenomena and should thus be taken as competing. The primary implication of this outcome is that, from a Darwinian point of view, the I-space, as a local evolutionary explanation, cannot serve as a general theory for an evolutionary economics of knowledge. It may give rise to other local theories, but it will not support the development of an economics of knowledge that would operate at a higher level of generality than the I-space. A second implication, also from a strict Darwinian point of view, is that evolutionary general theory may be explanatory, but it may not be predictive; evolutionary theories may indeed predict at the local level, but not at the global level. The final implication is that the search for a microeconomics of knowledge continues, and will become more urgent as the knowledge economy unfolds, and as our ability to quantify it improves.

Zunehmende Vernetzung und gesteigerte Flexibilität in Planungs- und Produktionsprozessen sind die notwendigen Antworten auf die gesteigerten Anforderungen an die Industrie in Bezug auf Agilität und Einführung von Mehrwertdiensten. Dafür ist eine stärkere Digitalisierung aller Prozesse und Vernetzung mit den Informationshaushalten von Partnern notwendig. Heutige Informationssysteme sind jedoch nicht in der Lage, die Anforderungen eines solchen integrierten, verteilten Informationsraums zu erfüllen. Ein vielversprechender Kandidat ist jedoch Linked Data, das aus dem Bereich des Semantic Web stammt. Aus diesem Ansatz wurde Linked Enterprise Data entwickelt, welches die Werkzeuge und Prozesse so erweitert, dass ein für die Industrie nutzbarer und flexibler Informationsraum entsteht. Kernkonzept dabei ist, dass die Informationen aus den Spezialwerkzeugen auf eine semantische Ebene gehoben, direkt auf Datenebene verknüpft und für Abfragen sicher bereitgestellt werden. Dazu kommt die Erfüllung industrieller Anforderungen durch die Bereitstellung des Revisionierungswerkzeugs R43ples, der Integration mit OPC UA über OPCUA2LD, der Anknüpfung an industrielle Systeme (z.B. an COMOS), einer Möglichkeit zur Modelltransformation mit SPARQL sowie feingranularen Informationsabsicherung eines SPARQL-Endpunkts. / Increasing collaboration in production networks and increased flexibility in planning and production processes are responses to the increased demands on industry regarding agility and the introduction of value-added services. A solution is the digitalisation of all processes and a deeper connectivity to the information resources of partners. However, today’s information systems are not able to meet the requirements of such an integrated, distributed information space. A promising candidate is Linked Data, which comes from the Semantic Web area. Based on this approach, Linked Enterprise Data was developed, which expands the existing tools and processes. Thus, an information space can be created that is usable and flexible for the industry. The core idea is to raise information from legacy tools to a semantic level, link them directly on the data level even across organizational boundaries, and make them securely available for queries. This includes the fulfillment of industrial requirements by the provision of the revision tool R43ples, the integration with OPC UA via OPCUA2LD, the connection to industrial systems (for example to COMOS), a possibility for model transformation with SPARQL as well as fine granular information protection of a SPARQL endpoint.

Die Planung und Ausführung von Bauwerken basiert auf Informationsprozesse, in denen verknüpfte Fachmodelle verschiedener Baudomänen als fachübergreifende Informationsräume verwendet werden. Dabei führen erhöhte Anforderungen an spezialisierte Arbeitsschritte sowie die wachsende Komplexität der Bauprojekte zu einem Anwachsen der Menge, des Umfangs und der Komplexität der ausgetauschten Informationsräume. Bei der Betrachtung des Informationsbedarfs der Bauinformationsprozesse lässt sich eine Kontextabhängigkeit erkennen, in der verschiedene Aspekte des Bearbeitungskontextes sowohl die Menge und Qualität als auch die Ausschnitte und Verknüpfungstiefe der erforderlichen Informationsräume determinieren. Die vorliegende Arbeit befasst sich mit der kontextgerechten Informationsversorgung von Informationsprozessen im Bauwesen. Auf der Grundlage multimodellbasierter Informationsräume wird ein Ansatz vorgestellt, der die Kontextabhängigkeit des Informationsbedarfs durch kontextadaptive Multimodellvorlagen formalisiert und entsprechende kontextgerechte Informationsräume erzeugt. Dafür werden in einem ersten Schritt der Bearbeitungskontext von Bauinformationsprozessen betrachtet sowie informationslogistisch relevante Kontextaspekte identifiziert und durch ein Kontextmodell abgebildet. Für die Formalisierung der unterschiedlichen Einflüsse verschiedener Kontextaspekte auf die Ausgestaltung des Informationsbedarfs wird ein Regelsystem entwickelt, mit dem kontextadaptive Multimodellvorlagen definiert werden können. Durch Auswertung dieser Vorlagen zum Anwendungszeitpunkt lässt sich ein situativer Informationsbedarf antizipieren, auf dessen Basis ein kontextgerechtes Multimodell erzeugt werden kann. Dieser Ansatz ermöglicht die Realisierung einer kontextbewussten Informationslogistik, die den Projektpartnern im Bauwesen genau die Informationsräume bereitstellt, die in einer konkreten Bearbeitungssituation benötigt werden. Für die Bearbeitung regelbasierter Kontextwirkrelationen wird ein Editor vorgestellt, der die Erzeugung kontextadaptiver Multimodellvorlagen unterstützt. Außerdem wird anhand einer Architektur zur Erzeugung kontextgerechter Informationsräume die Vorgehensweise der informationslogistischen Kontextintegration beschrieben, mit der ein kontextbasierter Informationsbedarf antizipiert und ein entsprechendes kontextgerechtes Multimodell erzeugt werden kann. Der Einsatz des vorgestellten Ansatzes wird abschließend anhand eines Beispielszenarios aus der Planungsphase evaluiert, in der im Rahmen verschiedener asynchroner Bauinformationsprozesse Informationsräume gemeinsam bearbeitet werden. / The planning and creating of structures and buildings is based on building information processes, in which linked specialized models of different domains are used as multidisciplinary information spaces. Thereby increased requirements for specialized work processes, and the growing complexity of construction projects lead to an increase in the amount, scope and complexity of the exchanged information spaces. When considering the information requirements of building information processes, a contextdependence is revealed that determines the quantity and quality as well as the cutouts and linking depth of the required information spaces depending on various aspects of the processing context. This thesis addresses contextoriented information supply for collaborative information processes in the construction industry. Based on multimodel information spaces, an approach is presented that formalizes the context dependency of information requirements by contextadaptive multimodel templates and generates corresponding contextoriented information spaces. In a first step different aspects of the process context of building information processes are considered and logistically relevant information are identified and mapped by a context model. For the description of the different influences of various context aspects on the configuration of information needs a regulating system is developed, which can be used to define contextadaptive multi model templates. By evaluating these templates at time of use, situative information requirements can be anticipated and an adequate contextoriented multimodel can be generated. This approach enables the implementation of a contextaware information logistics, which accurately provides the information spaces for the project partners in the construction industry, which are needed in a concrete working situation. For the processing of rulebased context active relations an editor, which supports the generation of contextadaptive multi model templates, is presented. Based on architecture for generating contextappropriate information spaces, the approach of information logistics context integration is described, which allows to anticipate contextbased information needs and to generate a corresponding contextoriented multimodel. The use of the approach is finally evaluated using an example scenario from the planning phase, in which various asynchronous building information processes jointly process an information space.