Please read the abstract in the 00front part of this document / Thesis (DPhil (Information Science))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Information Science / unrestricted

Les plateformes de co-innovation sont des dispositifs en ligne que les entreprises ont commencé à développer au milieu de la décennie 2000, dans le sillage du Web 2.0, afin d’intégrer les consommateurs au processus d’innovation. Présentées comme de nouveaux espaces ouverts et collaboratifs, entièrement dédiés à la coopération avec les internautes, ces démarches participatives suscitent l’engouement des gestionnaires et des cabinets de conseil spécialisés dans l’innovation. Pourtant, rares sont les études portant sur la co-innovation qui aient consacré une enquête de terrain aux dispositifs mis en place et aux formes de collaborations qu’ils accueillent. La sociologie, en particulier, s’est notablement désintéressée — au profit des sciences de gestion — des initiatives de co-innovation impliquant de grandes entreprises et a fait porter l’essentiel de ses analyses sur des cas d’innovation ascendante, sur le mouvement du logiciel libre ou sur de petites structures de nature entrepreneuriale. Cette thèse, en prenant pour objet six plateformes mises en place par des très grandes entreprises françaises et étasunienne dans les secteurs des télécommunications, du transport de voyageurs et du matériel informatique, vise à combler ce manque.Au-delà de cette ambition qui tente de restituer la légitimité d’un objet de recherche au sein d’un champ disciplinaire, cette thèse tisse une réflexion autour de trois problèmes fondamentaux : pourquoi et comment les entreprises associent-elles les usagers à leur processus d’innovation ? Pourquoi et comment les usagers collaborent-ils, le plus souvent de façon bénévole ? De quelles nouvelles formes de collaboration, voire de relation, entre l’individu et l’entreprise ces dispositifs sociotechniques sont-ils porteurs ?Nous apportons des réponses à ces questions en mobilisant les outils combinés de la théorie du cadre de référence de Flichy, de la théorie des régimes d’engagement développée par Thévenot et poursuivie par Auray, et enfin des concepts standards de l’analyse de réseaux. Sur le plan empirique, cette thèse s’appuie sur une enquête de terrain menée depuis 2010 auprès des acteurs de ces plateformes, au cours de laquelle nous avons adopté une méthode quali-quantitative articulant 44 entretiens semi-directifs auprès des acteurs des plateformes (usagers mais aussi responsables de plateformes, chefs de produits, community managers), observations en ligne et analyse de réseaux des collaborations qui se nouent autour des dispositifs. / Innovation platforms are online disposistifs that companies have started to develop in the middle of the 2000s, in the wake of the Web 2.0, in order to incorporate customers to the innovation process. Presented as new open and collaborative spaces, entirely dedicated to the cooperation with Internet users, these participative processes arouse the enthusiasm of managers and consulting firms specialized in innovation. Yet, there are only few studies dealing with co-innovation that have dedicated a field survey to the dispositifs that have been set up and to the collaborations they host. Sociology, in particular, has had little interest — in favour of management sciences — in co-innovation processes involving big companies, and has focussed the most of its analyzes on cases of bottom-up innovation, free software movement and start-up economy.This thesis, by choosing as field survey six platforms built by very large companies from several business sectors (telecommunications, passenger transport and computer equipment), aims to fill this gap.Beyond this ambition that tries to restore the legitimacy of a research topic within a research area, this thesis weaves a reflection on three fundamental problems : why and how do companies associate users to their innovation process ? Why and how do users collaborate with them, most of the time on a volunteer basis ? What new forms of collaboration, nay of relationships, between the individual and the company this sociotechnical dispositifs do carry ?We provide answers to these questions by mobilizing the combined tools of Flichy’s theory of reference frame, Thevenot’s theory —continued by Auray — of engagement regimes, and finally the standard concepts of social network analysis (SNA). Empirically, this thesis is based on a field survey conducted since 2010 among the actors of these platforms, in which we have adopted a quali-quantitative method hinging 44 semi-structured interviews with platforms actors (users but also platforms managers, product managers, community managers, etc), online observations and online collaborations network analysis.

There exist two assumptions that may well be connected. The first is that in an increasingly global and technological world, language barriers have fallen. Online machine translation services are monetarily free for everyone to use. So why is working with multilingual material so difficult in the library context? The second assumption is that the library catalogue is a technical fossil that has long been surpassed by the search and retrieval performance of the World Wide Web. Isn't the library catalogue simply a technical necessity of little interest? This study addresses the challenges and opportunities of the multilingual Online Public Access Catalogue (OPAC) as a key interface between librarians and end-users. The multilingual OPAC as interface definesaccess (for whom, to what, where). The competences, technology, and standards that come into play in an OPAC to access library references irrespective of the query language are investigated. The study combines a case study looking at the Swedish library context, its multilingual acquisition, and cataloguing workflows, with an evaluation of three selected OPACs to assess if and to which extent an OPAC can perform across languages.

In recent years, accidents between trucks and other vehicles have decreased while accidents be-tween trucks and vulnerable road-users have increased. The reason for this is unknown, which is why this Master’s Thesis project was initiated. The project is a co-operation between two students from two different universities, LTU and KTH, done for Volvo GTT in Gothenburg. A user study containing interviews and co-rides has been executed with truck drivers in the Gothenburg area during the autumn of 2017. A survey was also sent to different organizations for cyclists, motorcyclists, car drivers and to Facebook groups for the two universities. Critical situations mentioned by the truck drivers were chosen with the help of the survey answers from other road-users. Right hand turns with a truck that crosses a bike lane and intersections with a zebra crossing were the situations the project focused on, based on the Volvo Trucks Safety Report 2017 which stated those situations as the most dangerous. Serious accidents occurring when a truck turns right is when vulnerable road-users end up under the truck’s back wheels, which cuts corners. This made the project focus on trying to find a solution that could reduce this type of accident. The project also concentrated on increasing the commu-nication at intersections, based on the survey comments where it became clear that eye contact is insufficient, which led to focus on communication between trucks and fellow road-user instead. Through benchmarking, literature reviews and idea generation the final concept solution was cre-ated and developed after a workshop. The final concept solution is a turning projection that visualizes the dangerous area when a truck is turning and a light matrix in the front grille for increasing the understanding, visually, of the truck driver’s intentions of slowing down or speeding up. The final concept solution contains a zebra crossing projection in the front of the truck to facilitate the communication today, and in the future to even replace eye contact and gestures done between truck driver and fellow road-users at crossings. Further development of the concept solution includes choices and adaption of available technology and research concerning legislation for color usage on lights and projections to the front and sides of the trucks.

Bien que le phénomène de co-Création prenne de l'ampleur dans les pratiques actuelles des entreprises, ces dernières se déclarent souvent déçues par la faible créativité effective des utilisateurs « ordinaires » à générer des idées de nouveaux produits. Ce travail doctoral cherche à répondre au questionnement général suivant : peut-On améliorer l'efficacité des démarches de co-Création avec des utilisateurs ? Si l'identification des utilisateurs créatifs est un enjeu crucial pour les entreprises, il est également essentiel pour ces dernières de faire en sorte de stimuler les capacités créatives des utilisateurs enrôlés dans les processus d'innovation. Cette thèse s'intéresse donc au phénomène d'imagerie mentale qui a souvent été souligné en psychologie pour son implication dans les processus créatifs. Trois études quantitatives explorent la relation entre la capacité individuelle d'imagerie mentale et la capacité créative de sujets. Les résultats obtenus identifient la capacité d'imagerie mentale comme une variable révélatrice de la capacité créative des individus et constituant ainsi un élément possible d'identification des individus créatifs. Une quatrième étude montre qu'il est possible d'agir, par le biais d'instructions d'imaginer mentalement, sur les processus d'imagerie suspectés d'être en œuvre dans les processus créatifs, de manière à améliorer la créativité résultante. Ces résultats mettent en évidence l'imagerie mentale comme un mécanisme sous-Jacent explicatif des processus créatifs. Enfin, une cinquième expérimentation, plus conséquente en matière de variables examinées, étudie l'effet de deux types de stimulations de l'activité d'imagerie, à savoir : la présence d'une stimulation d'imagerie liée à soi (versus non liée à soi) et la présence (versus l'absence) d'un entraînement préalable à l'imagerie mentale. L'étude confirme le rôle médiateur de l'imagerie mentale et met en évidence les effets favorables de ces stimulations sur la quantité, l'originalité, l'utilité perçue et l'attrait des idées produites. Le rôle modérateur de variables individuelles – le caractère lead user et l'implication envers la catégorie de produit – a également été examiné. / Although co-Creation is a phenomenon increasingly present in various business practices, companies are often disappointed by the low effective creativity of "ordinary" users to generate ideas for new products. This doctoral research aims to answer the following general question: Can we improve the effectiveness of co-Creation processes with users? If the identification of creative users is a critical issue for businesses, then it is also essential to ensure stimulation of the creative abilities of the users enrolled in the innovation process. This thesis is interested in mental imagery, a phenomenon that has often been cited in psychology for its implication in the creative process. In this work three quantitative studies explore the relationship between the individual's imagery ability and their creative ability. The obtained results identify the mental imagery ability as a variable indicating the creative ability of individuals and thus constituting a potential element for identifying creative individuals. A fourth study shows that it is possible to impact, via instructions to form mental images, the mental imagery process that is implemented in the creative process, thus improving the resulting creativity. These results highlight mental imagery as an underlying mechanism of the creative process. Finally, a fifth experiment, more consistent in terms of the variables examined, studies the effect of two types of stimulation of imagery activity: self-Related vs. non self-Related imaging stimulation, and the presence vs. absence of mental imagery training. The study confirms the mediator role of mental imagery and highlights the favorable effects of these stimulations on the quantity, originality, perceived usefulness and the customer appeal of the generated ideas. The moderator role of individual variables - leadership and involvement with the product category - was also examined.

Os Jogos de Negócio são uma estratégia de ensino crescente e alternativa para o meio acadêmico frente ao novo processo de Ensino-Aprendizagem. Por meio de pesquisa bibliográfica e entrevistas semiestruturadas, este trabalho aborda o docente considerando sua subjetividade na decisão sobre JN conforme os três perfis sugeridos por Faria e Wellington (2004): os que usam, os que cessaram o uso e os que não usam. O corpus de pesquisa está limitado às contribuições de 22 entrevistados entre professores mestres e doutores de cursos da área de Ciências Sociais Aplicadas em IESs nas cidades de Brasília (DF), Goiânia (GO), Ribeirão Preto (SP) e Uberlândia (MG). A análise do conteúdo das entrevistas permitiu inferir que: (1) aderir à estratégia de ensino é assumir um compromisso com um planejamento complexo, com a capacitação constante e com a proatividade relacionada ao feedback dos alunos; (2) abandoná-la é prática cada vez menos comum, visto que os gestores tendem a recomendá-la e que há cada vez mais softwares disponíveis para disciplinas específicas. São discutidas, ainda, outras contribuições (motivações) dadas pelos entrevistados dos três grupos que não foram encontradas na literatura especializada. Espera-se que este trabalho sirva (1) de incentivo aos docentes quanto à utilização dos Jogos de Negócio como estratégia de ensino (2) de consulta pelos gestores quando da sua decisão de aquisição de softwares de simulação. Por fim, destaca-se que o sucesso pedagógico dos JN depende não só das diversas motivações dos docentes, como também do interesse e empenho do discente. / The Business Games are a growing teaching strategy and alternative to the academic front through the new process of Teaching and Learning. Through literature review and semi-structured interviews, this work addresses the teachers considering their subjectivity in deciding JN as the three profiles suggested by Faria and Wellington (2004): those who use it, those who stopped using and those who do not. The research corpus is limited to contributions of 22 respondents between master and doctors teachers of Applied Social Sciences area courses in colleges of Brasília (DF), Goiânia (GO), Ribeirão Preto (SP) and Uberlandia (MG). The content analysis of the interviews allowed to infer that: (1) join the teaching strategy is a commitment to a complex planning, with constant training and proactivity related to student feedback; (2) abandons the practice is becoming less common, because managers tend to recommend it and there are more and more software available for specific disciplines. Its discussed also other contributions (motivations) given by respondents of the three groups that were not found in the literature. It is hoped that this work will serve (1) incentive to teachers on the use of Business Games as a teaching strategy (2) consultation by managers when they decide about purchasing simulation software. Finally, stands out that the educational success of JN depends not only on the various motivations of teachers, as well as the interest and commitment of the student. / Dissertação (Mestrado)

Information privacy concerns are one of the major causes behind a dramatic decline in the readiness of individuals to share their personal information on the Internet. The aim of this research is to explore the information privacy concerns from the users’ perspective. In the focal point of this qualitative study stands the kryast.se website. The healthcare promotion activities that this website carries out involve the sharing by its users of their personal information on the Internet. For this reason, this study takes recourse to the construct of Internet Users’ Information Privacy Concerns (IUIPC) developed by Malhotra, Kim and Agarwal (2004) as its interpretive framework. It was expected that by using both semi-structured interviews and non-participant observation among the users of the above mentioned website, the concerns of its users can be identified through the interpretative lens of the analytical framework that Malhotra et al. (2004) proposed for privacy concerns of Internet Users. The results of this study indicate that the selected conceptual lens has sufficiently accounted for the concerns that website users may have when sharing their personal information on the Internet, while indicating that internet users tend to be reluctant in sharing their sensitive information.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 22-25, 2001 / Riviera Hotel and Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada / The technicalities of sharing telemetry bandwidth have been addressed in design and specification for the builders of the International Space Station. But success in sharing bandwidth comes from building relationships, documenting guidelines, negotiating, understanding human nature, peer review and willingness to participate in an evolving process. The station, 240 miles above Earth, moves through space at 17,000 mph, has its mass added to by humans and machines, regularly docks with visiting spacecraft, has year-round residents, and communicates with space agencies around the globe. Each new module -- with associated computers, multiplexers, and communications buses -- creates additional telemetry demands.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 22-25, 2001 / Riviera Hotel and Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada / Multiple same-frequency signals including direct/multipath signals are distinguished and individually tracked by measuring phase differences between sum and error channels of thinned array systems.

In Ghana, over 70% of urban dwellers do not have private sanitation facilities in their home and rely instead on an informal network of shared toilets. The predominance of shared toilets in Ghana is the result of unplanned urbanization, specific features of housing, socio-economic characteristics of the population and political orientations. Shared sanitation includes a whole range of models from large toilets blocks owned by the municipality to toilet cubicles shared by tenants of the same house. Shared toilets are not considered as improved sanitation facilities as access for vulnerable groups, maintenance, hygiene, privacy and safety of the users are not always guaranteed. However, for millions of urban dwellers, shared toilets are the only alternative to open defecation and are used daily. Some of these facilities, through better management models and through better standards, provide services appreciated by the users. The aim of this research is to determine which models of shared facilities are acceptable sanitation solutions for urban dwellers, depending on the local circumstances. To do so, the research framework compares the perspectives of dwellers and sanitation providers, acknowledges the characteristics of the specific urban context and considers the relationships between the key stakeholders. In a fast growing city in Ghana, Ashaiman, 432 house units representing over 8000 residents were surveyed, over 40 participatory exercises and 38 interviews with a range of stakeholders were conducted. This research concludes on four main points. Firstly, many apparently similar areas are actually not uniform; the heterogeneity of urban planning and housing influences any past and future sanitation developments. Urban planners need to integrate sanitation in their future decisions but base these on appropriate solutions. The second finding is that some models of shared sanitation can be considered as adequate given the particular context and its likely evolution. The different models have legitimacy at different stages of urban development and their successful selection depends on the quality of the contextual understanding. Thirdly, cleanliness and affordability are key determinants when the dwellers select shared toilets. Given the toilet options available, these determinants are often mutually exclusive and are a dilemma for the users. This dilemmas result in variations in use of shared toilets within a neighbourhood, and at intra household and individual levels. The final point is that choice and then acceptability of a facility depends on the options available. Therefore deciding which facilities are best adapted to the local context should be in the hands of both local providers and dwellers, supported by other local stakeholders who enable relationships through adapted policies and facilitated dialogues.