Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, System Design & Management Program, February 2000. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 88). / by Mark E. Cummins. / S.M.

by Leong Hong Va. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1989. / Bibliography: leaves 142-146.

Photocopy of typescript. / Digitized by Kansas Correctional Industries

Typescript (photocopy). / Digitized by Kansas Correctional Industries

ix, 94 p. A print copy of this thesis is available through the UO Libraries. Search the library catalog for the location and call number. / This project analyzes the cun-ent NBC television situation comedy 30 Rock for its potential as a popular form of critical cultural criticism of the NBC network and, in general, the cultural industries. The series is about the behind the scenes work of a fictionalized comedy show, which like 30 Rock is also appearing on NBC. The show draws on parody and satire to engage in an ongoing effort to generate humor as well as commentary on the sitcom genre and industry practices such as corporate control over creative content and product placement. Using a textual analysis, the show is examined to explore issues related to the television industry, the production of culture, and the culture of production. Of concern is the contradictory relationship between the critical potential of 30 Rock's self-reflexive content and the commercial, commodity structure of the television industry within which the series is located. / Committee in Charge: Carl Bybee, Chair; Patricia A. Curtin ; Janet Wasko

Typescript (photocopy). / Digitized by Kansas Correctional Industries

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, System Design & Management Program, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 113-116). / The research provides a case study of performance metrics within the framework of the product development process and team effectiveness. A comparative analysis of eight product development teams was done to evaluate the teams' effectiveness in achieving three outcomes - customer satisfaction, shareholder value and time to market. A survey was conducted to evaluate areas where no formal documentation existed and to supplement the existing historical data that were collected from databases and documents. The analysis was done on two levels - by program team and individual respondent - and looked at the level of performance and effort that influenced the specific outcomes. It was concluded that performance metrics are used within an organization to drive actions, to assess progress and to make decisions. Conclusions were consistent with the premise that people perform to how they are measured and that the team effectiveness can be driven by a set of performance metrics that are aligned with the strategic goal of the organization. Transformational metrics were developed within the framework of understanding the interdependence of the social and technical systems. Choosing the right metrics is critical to an organization's success because the metrics directly influence behavior and establish the culture within the firm. It was determined that if the right combinations of metrics are selected, teams will act in such a way as to maximize their effectiveness and behave in a manner that achieves the corporate goals. / by Dawn M. Robison. / S.M.

Thesis (S.M.M.O.T.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, Management of Technology Program, 2000. / Also available online at the MIT Theses Online homepage <http://thesis.mit.edu>. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 85-87). / Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NTT), the largest telecommunication carrier in the world, was broken up, and reconstituted NTT mad a new start on July 1, 1999. On that day, free competition in the telecommunication industry began in Japan. And, NTT Communication, new subsidiary, launched international telecommunication services as a no-regulated company. In many other countries, the telecommunication market has already been deregulated. Since there is no longer a distinction between long-distance and local telecommunication carriers, competition has become more severe. Globally, telecommunication has turned into a commodity. It is difficult to differentiate the service from rivals. Furthermore, due to recent data communication and Internet growth, the demand for the integrated network has increased. As business is becoming borderless, to overcome the time and distance, a global network is necessary for multinational companies. In this severe situation, Japanese telecommunication carriers, including NTT and new common carriers (NCCs), have to play the game with these strong experienced players. The mission of NTT, the leading company in the Japanese telecommunication market, is not only to win among Japanese competitors, but also to help strengthen the Japanese telecommunication industry as well. Therefore, at this point, NTT's global strategy is critically important. This thesis begins with an analysis of the Japanese telecommunication industry. It comparatively analyzes NTT's global strategy with those of global rivals, taking NTT's capabilities into consideration, and concludes by offering recommendations concerning NTT's global strategy. / by Atsuko Oka Sumi. / S.M.M.O.T.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Program in Science, Technology and Society, June 2002. / "May 2002." Vita. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 193-205). / This thesis examines the historical conditions that have contributed to high rates of vaccine innovation in the U.S. during the twentieth century. Empirical analysis of vaccine license data demonstrates that the highest rates of innovation were achieved during the 1940's. Historical analysis of this data indicates that a large percentage of these innovations were the product of World War II vaccine development programs. Participation in these programs fostered a uniquely productive culture of collaboration between military and industrial vaccine developers that persisted through the postwar era, maintaining innovation rates through the 1960's and early 1970's. By the mid-1970's, however, the historical circumstances and cultural factors that engendered and sustained military-industrial collaboration began to change, causing rates of vaccine innovation to fall and vaccine stocks to dwindle. Poor economic incentives for vaccine development are often cited as the reason for falling rates of innovation. This explanation is correct but incomplete, because, for example, economic incentives for vaccine development were poor during the 1940's and 1950's, when innovation rates were high. I demonstrate that vaccine innovation is tied to levels of military-industrial collaboration and that declining rates of innovation in recent decades are associated with the disruption of this military-industrial culture of collaboration. Finally, drawing on lessons from this history of military-industrial relations, I examine the opportunities and challenges that the new "war on terrorism" presents for efforts to improve vaccine innovation and supplies. / Kendall L. Hoyt. / Ph.D.

Thesis: Ph. D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Architecture and Planning, Program in Media Arts and Sciences, 2016. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 143-150). / Rapid prototyping has been in the limelight for the past decade. 3D printers have an evocative name that promises production of complex parts on demand. Yet current practice doesn't quite deliver on these promises of advanced manufacturing. Existing digital fabrication tools enable repeatability and precision by using codes to describe machine actions. But the infrastructure used for digital fabrication machines is difficult to extend, modify, and customize. It is very difficult for the end-user to incorporate more forms of control into the workflow. Machine design today is largely the same as it was 50 years ago, despite decades of progress in other fields such as computer science and network engineering. I argue that we need to transition from rapid prototyping to rapid prototyping of rapid prototyping. To make diverse goods, we need diverse tools. To develop diversity in digital fabrication tools, we need reconfigurable and extensible infrastructure for machine building. Using insights from object-oriented programming, end-to-end principles in network design, and the open system interconnection model, I propose a new paradigm for machine building called object-oriented hardware. In this paradigm, software objects and hardware objects are peers that have procedures, methods, ports, and presentations. Machine building modules are available as software libraries are to programmers. A machine instantiation is an assembly of objects situated in a particular context. Using this approach, a thing together with the machine that makes it becomes an application. This method transcends the additive versus subtractive manufacturing comparisons by considering both types of rapid automation. Development work is divided into infrastructural engineering, which develop modules for use in any machine, and application development, which develop specific machine instantiations. Here I present technical implementations of machine building infrastructure first. These include distributed networked controls, reconfigurable software interfaces, and modular mechanical machine components. Then I present machine instantiations that use this infrastructure to demonstrate its capability. Finally to evaluate the object-oriented hardware paradigm in the wild, I observe machine building novices using these tools in both a workshop format and in the Fab Lab network for machine building. To make the modular components for machine building accessible in this context, I developed an extensible toolkit for machine building-the Cardboard Machine Kit. Using this toolkit, novices were able to make a wide range of machines, demonstrating the power of this method. / by Nadya Peek. / Ph. D.