The present thesis aims to deduce tasks and characteristics of end users during the open innovation process on the social web. The social web with its communities, forums and blogs affords new prospects as well as unknown challenges for companies, and at the same has increasingly influenced academic research during the last few years. Especially research regarding communication behaviour on the social web as well as social web technologies has currently progressed well. However, in innovation research, social web technologies are currently primarily used to integrate users into the company’s innovation process, for example through company user toolkits or company innovation communities. In those cases users were excluded from their normal social web environment and integrated into a company’s environment, a sort of laboratory environment. Despite this, the present research project will use the natural behaviour, comments and discussions of users within their social web environment to develop and apply a new mixed-method approach with the aim to deduce tasks and characteristics of innovative end users on the social web. To apply the mixed-method approach within a longitudinal case study and to deduce statements and regularities regarding the innovation process on the social web, it was possible to analyse the end user developer online forum of one of the leading open source CRM software technologies. Based on this analysis, the assumptions from an extensive literature analysis could be verified and extended: it could be shown that the expected single innovative user does not exist. In fact, the process from the initial idea to an innovation requires different users with different characteristics and different points of view. They will be deduced, explained and presented within the present thesis.

Digital animators will save vast amounts of project time by starting with a completed skeleton and some base animations. This result can be accomplished with Web 2.0 technologies by creating a repository of skeletons and animations that any animator may use for free. While free Maya™ skeletons currently exist on the Internet, the websites housing them have only brief features and functions for browsing and interacting with these files. None of these websites contain downloadable animations for the provided skeletons. The Chimaera Project improves the field of Web 2.0 sites offering free rigs by offering many new features and freedoms to the animation community. Users may upload and download Maya™ skeletons, share comments and tips with each other, upload animations associated with the skeletons, and search or browse the skeletons in a variety of ways. The skeletons include descriptions and information provided by the creator and are categorized by class, order, and species. Users may access a freely provided script called “zooXferAnim” to import and export animations into text files to be uploaded and downloaded on the website. Many animations per skeleton may be uploaded. The Chimaera Project extends the Web 2.0 community by creating an interactive resource for animators to contribute and share content in a better, more organized format than previously seen on the Internet.

Digital animators will save vast amounts of project time by starting with a completed skeleton and some base animations. This result can be accomplished with Web 2.0 technologies by creating a repository of skeletons and animations that any animator may use for free. While free May™ a skeletons currently exist on the Internet, the websites housing them have only brief features and functions for browsing and interacting with these files. None of these websites contain downloadable animations for the provided skeletons. The Chimaera Project improves the field of Web 2.0 sites offering free rigs by offering many new features and freedoms to the animation community. Users may upload and download Maya™ skeletons, share comments and tips with each other, upload animations associated with the skeletons, and search or browse the skeletons in a variety of ways. The skeletons include descriptions and information provided by the creator and are categorized by class, order, and species. Users may access a freely provided script called "zooXferAnim" to import and export animations into text files to be uploaded and downloaded on the website. Many animations per skeleton may be uploaded. The Chimaera Project extends the Web 2.0 community by creating an interactive resource for animators to contribute and share content in a better, more organized format than previously seen on the Internet.

La thèse présentée ici propose une analyse économique d’un mode alternatif d’innovation semencière : la sélection participative. Définis par l’implication des agriculteurs dans le processus de sélection, les projets de sélection participative consistent généralement en une collaboration entre agriculteurs et scientifiques qui deviennent des co-chercheurs. Ces programmes visent à développer des variétés locales et adaptées à une agriculture durable.Dans le secteur des semences, la règlementation joue un rôle central : pour obtenir une autorisation de mise sur le marché, les variétés doivent être conformes à un standard. De plus, les règles de commercialisation orientent la recherche semencière et limitent les échanges de variétés paysannes. Dans un premier essai, les impacts économiques de cette règlementation sont analysés. Les arguments expliquant la rationalité économique de ces instruments règlementaires ainsi que leurs limites et les alternatives envisageables sont étudiés. Le second essai consiste en une étude de cas des motivations des agriculteurs. Cette question multifactorielle, permet d’éclairer l’essentiel des enjeux économiques, environnementaux et sociétaux associés à la sélection participative. Les motivations des agriculteurs sont en effet directement liées à l’histoire de la recherche semencière, aux limites du système agricole moderne, aux impacts environnementaux de ce modèle, à la structure de l’industrie semencière ainsi qu’au cadre règlementaire. Pour finir, un modèle théorique représente les interactions stratégiques entre des semences commerciales et des semences paysannes. Les impacts en termes de prix, profits, couverture du marché, pollution et bien-être social sont analysés. / This thesis provides an economic analysis of an alternative mode of innovation in the seed sector : Participatory Plant Breeding (PPB). PPB is defined as the involvement of users in the plant breeding process and typically consists in the collaboration of farmers and scientists who become co-researchers. These programs aim at developing local varieties adapted to sustainable agriculture.In the seed sector, regulation plays a key role: a stringent market approval process limits the seeds on the market to pre-defined types of varieties. Marketing rules also influence the orientation of plant breeding and limit the exchanges of farmers’ seeds. In chapter 1, the economic rationale of the seed regulation, its limits and possible alternatives are analyzed. Chapter 2 consists of a case study on the farmers’ motivations for participating in PPB projects. This multifaceted question enables to study the economic, environmental and societal issues at stake. Farmers’ motives are indeed directly related to the history of seed research, the limits of the intensive agricultural model and its environmental impacts, the seed industry’s structure and the regulatory framework. Finally, a theoretical model represents the strategic interactions between commercial and farmers’ seeds. The impacts in terms of price, profit, market coverage, pollutions and social welfare are explored.

Service composition integrates existing services to fulfill specific tasks using a set of standards and tools. Existing service composition techniques and tools are mainly designed for SOA professionals. The business processes used in the service composition systems are primarily designed by experienced business analysts who have extensive process knowledge. Process knowledge is the information about a process, including the tasks in a process, the control flow and data flow among tasks. It is challenging for end-users without sufficient service composition skills and process knowledge to find desired services then compose services to perform their daily activities, such as planning a trip. Context-aware techniques provide a promising way to help end-users find services using the context of end-users. However, existing context-aware techniques have limited support for dynamic adapting to new context types (e.g., location, time and activity) and context values (e.g., “New York City”). To shelter end-users from the complexity of service composition, we present our techniques that assist non-IT professional end-users in service composition by dynamically composing and recommending services to meet their requirements. To acquire the desired process knowledge for service composition, we propose an approach to automatically extract process knowledge from existing commercial applications on the Web. By analyzing the context of end-users, our techniques can dynamically adapt to new context types or values and provide personalized service recommendation for end-users. Instead of requiring end-users to specify detailed steps for service composition, the end-users only need to describe their goals using a few keywords. Our approach expands the meaning of an end-user's goal using process knowledge then derives a group of tasks to help the end-user fulfill the goal. The effectiveness of our proposed techniques is demonstrated through a set of case studies. / Thesis (Ph.D, Computing) -- Queen's University, 2011-09-30 11:43:39.151

The secondary use of Dementia Care Mapping (DCM) data, if that data were held in a data warehouse, could contribute to global efforts in monitoring and improving dementia care quality. This qualitative study identifies requirements for the secondary use of DCM data within a data warehouse using a user-driven approach. The thesis critically analyses various technical methodologies and then argues the use and further demonstrates the applicability of a modified grounded theory as a user-driven methodology for a data warehouse. Interviews were conducted with 29 DCM researchers, trainers and practitioners in three phases. 19 interviews were face to face with the others on Skype and telephone with an average length of individual interview 45-60 minutes. The interview data was systematically analysed using open, axial and selective coding techniques and constant comparison methods. The study data highlighted benchmarking, mappers’ support and research as three perceived potential secondary uses of DCM data within a data warehouse. DCM researchers identified concerns regarding the quality and security of DCM data for secondary uses, which led to identifying the requirements for additional provenance, ethical and contextual data to be included in a warehouse alongside DCM data to meet requirements for secondary uses of this data for research. The study data was also used to extrapolate three main factors such as an individual mapper, the organization and an electronic data management that can influence the quality and availability of DCM data for secondary uses. The study makes further recommendations for designing a future DCM data warehouse.

ABSTRACT Keywords: Users, Innovation, User driven innovation, Design, Mobile, Products/services, benefits. User driven innovation helps companies to compete in a global market by developing what the customers or end users want. So users are considered as a resource for companies developing mobile products/services because user driven innovation process is mainly carried out by the end users or user firms/partner companies. The companies perceive the needs and wishes of the users through their involvement in idea creation, design, development and feedback. Mobile companies involve users in their innovation process in different phases but they have no standard guidelines regarding which type of users to be involved in which phases of the innovation process. This thesis work is aimed at filling this research gap. Qualitative research methodology was used to carry on this research work. The literature review provided the current status of research in the problem domain. Then industrial and academic interviews were conducted on the basis of the findings of the literature review. Finally, a short survey was conducted in mobile companies to validate our findings from literature review and interviews. There are major four phases of the innovation process: Exploration, Idea creation, Idea selection and Commercialization. We identified four types of users to be involved in the innovation process i.e. Ordinary end users, corporate users/partner companies, and professional/expert users and lead users. Mobile companies should involve users in different innovation phases of the innovation process by using different methods like diary search, explorative interviews, workshops, market test and field tests. So it is beneficial to involve different types of users in phases of the innovation process by using different methods.

The paper considers how the agile concept can be included in the User Driven Design framework. This design method combines requirements and constraints of users and stakeholders. The agile concept can be treated as one of the requirements, which should be considered differently by various users and stakeholders. The design process depends on the application fields and has to be implemented accordingly to their characteristics. The case study of this research is a monitoring and management system that enables an adaptation of the conventional dairy supply chain to the agile supply chain strategy. Due to the personalised needs of every milk supplier and daily variation of the milk production, the efficient dairy supply chain requires a real-time data regarding adaptations to the changes. The system should accommodate not only changes dependent on external environmental conditions, but also unpredictable internal circumstances. The agile-based supply chain could help to maintain the high responsiveness and flexibility among the dairy plant, transportation provider and milk suppliers. An engineering solution evaluates the agile strategy. It includes hardware and software, which monitor and manage transportation as a part of the dairy supply chain. The solution is implemented and tested at a medium-sized dairy company.

Title - Designing Future Sustainable Cities through a Living Labs Approach – A Case study of “Väsby Labs” Purpose - The purpose of this study is to analyze the contributions of the Living Labs research and innovation methodology to the planning process of designing future sustainable cities as well as its main shortcomings. Additionally, this study intends to provide possible solutions to improve the model in the future. The Living Labs model focuses on creating platforms for communication, innovation and long term development by inviting different stakeholders to an open planning process before public places are defined, houses built and schools developed. Interaction between developers, inhabitants, social services, and political and financial systems is the key element of this model. Research questions - What are the main contributions of the Living Labs Model to the process of designing future sustainable cities and which are its main limitations? How can these limitations be addressed to improve the process in the future? Methodology - Qualitative research consisting of a literature review and an empirical case study based on semi-structured interviews with key individuals as well as secondary data gathered from the web and from participating in workshops and exhibitions in the project’s site. Research limitations/implications – Due to time limitations this study is a mere analysis of a project being developed on a Swedish municipality and does not contemplate its final results, only the ones reached on the date of the current study. The language is also a limitation, due to some of the literature related to the case study, and the conferences and workshops being in Swedish. Originality/Value - This study is the first attempt to analyze the contribution of a methodology such as the Living Labs to the planning process of designing future sustainable cities.

The secondary use of Dementia Care Mapping (DCM) data, if that data were held in a data warehouse, could contribute to global efforts in monitoring and improving dementia care quality. This qualitative study identifies requirements for the secondary use of DCM data within a data warehouse using a user-driven approach. The thesis critically analyses various technical methodologies and then argues the use and further demonstrates the applicability of a modified grounded theory as a user-driven methodology for a data warehouse. Interviews were conducted with 29 DCM researchers, trainers and practitioners in three phases. 19 interviews were face to face with the others on Skype and telephone with an average length of individual interview 45-60 minutes. The interview data was systematically analysed using open, axial and selective coding techniques and constant comparison methods. The study data highlighted benchmarking, mappers’ support and research as three perceived potential secondary uses of DCM data within a data warehouse. DCM researchers identified concerns regarding the quality and security of DCM data for secondary uses, which led to identifying the requirements for additional provenance, ethical and contextual data to be included in a warehouse alongside DCM data to meet requirements for secondary uses of this data for research. The study data was also used to extrapolate three main factors such as an individual mapper, the organization and an electronic data management that can influence the quality and availability of DCM data for secondary uses. The study makes further recommendations for designing a future DCM data warehouse.