Catálogo de publicaciones - libros

Scenarios are widely used, explored and discussed in HCI. This paper addresses creating and performing scenarios in exposed physical environments, i.e. at construction sites. In this environment, little or no mobile ICT supports construction workers work. In an iterative design process with a user-centered approach, the project has created and explored ideas concerning actual use of mobile ICT supporting knowledge processes in exposed environment. The design process was based on three steps: workshops, shadowboxing (i.e. using dictaphones and mobile phones in real setting), and prototyping. By focusing and working with work incidents and related scenarios, we obtained the participation and involvement of the construction workers throughout the entire study. During shadowboxing, i.e. exploring by doing, the workers gained first-hand expericnces and understanding (reflection-in-actions) of existing and future scenarios. This gave them a basis for mapping out when it was appropriate to use handhelds, and when it was not, and why.

One of the major challenges of the flexible workplace is sustaining workflows while enabling mobile work. Hotdesking is intended to facilitate work in temporary workspaces in a mobile work environment. This study explored trends in information behaviour supporting work tasks through hotdesking in Canada and Ireland. Hotdeskers participated in semi-structured interviews about their information behaviour. Hotdeskers in both countries similarly identified access to electronic resources, reorganization of information, storage, permanent workspace, and mobile technologies as key items for successful hotdesking. The findings point to a particular information seeking behaviour among hotdeskets and suggest areas for future development of hotdesking arrangements.

This paper presents the Nidaros framework for developing location-aware applications that provide location dependent functionality based on the current location of the user. The framework can be used to develop location-dependent advertisement, city guides, guides for tourist attractions, etc. The framework consists of three main components: that manages user locations and the interaction with the user clients; that is used to map information and multimedia content to locations; and that is used to log the movement of users to monitor the interest for certain locations. The paper also describes an implementation of a location-aware tour guide for the Nidaros Cathedral in Trondheim that can run on different mobile devices. Further, the paper describes experiences from installing, configuring, and running a location-aware tour guide in a real environment. A demonstration of the tour guide was tested on PDAs and mobile phones.

In this paper we present an original approach to design and implement applications that provide location-aware services. Our approach emphasizes a clear separation of the relevant concerns in the application (base behavior, context-sensitive properties, services, etc.) to improve modularity and thus simplify evo-lurion. We first motivate the problem with a simple scenario of a virtual campus; we next discuss which are the most important concerns in the application, we explain why we must separate them and show a simple approach to achieve this separation. We analyze the most important (sub) models in which we decompose a location-aware application and explain the use of dependency mechanisms to trigger behaviors related with the provision of services according to the user position. We briefly describe a proof of concept by means of an archetypical implementation we developed following our ideas. We next compare our work with others and discuss some further work we are pursuing.

The paper presents the results of the investigation of the implementation of mobile technologies in an under researched area: the police. Five key themes of investigation with relation to mobile information and communications technologies were identified in the research: changes in work procedures, changes in the organisational capability, changes in relationships, effectiveness of equipment and effectiveness of infrastructure. These themes provide a framework for analysis of the police context, and one which could perhaps be extended to other contexts in the public safety / service arena.

This paper reflects on the socio technical implications of two different technology-based Black Cab booking systems. Potentially there is a bidirectional impact on the drivers and passengers with respect to the level of awareness needed to use the systems and how situational acts vs. planned acts impact on the context changes experienced by all users.

Mobile computing is changing the behavior of individuals and organizations. Instant, multimodal access to information is beneficial in many business situations. Consequently, core information systems like Enterprise Resource Planning systems that today’s organizations rely on have to support the mobile behavior of their users. In this paper we discuss some architectural considerations for multi-channel applications and introduce a four-tier architecture for a mobile ERP system. Two key questions to answer are how to access content of an ERP database from heterogeneous mobile devices, and how to make that content available in different formats to a mobile user. A prototypical implementation based on a real ERP system is described. Open questions and issues for further research are discussed in the concluding section.

The contention of the present paper is that information systems proper form a significant application area of mobile technology. For that purpose the paper analyses the concept of mobility in the context of information systems using a sound metamodel for information systems. The anlysis makes it possible to make sense of different examples of mobile information systems and possibly to innovate new ones.

The fast ever-growing number of newly introduced mobile technologies makes the development of mobile information systems a somewhat complex activity. Decision makers - providers, merchants, and consumers alike - have to face great uncertainty and complexity regarding the acceptance of mobile technologies. Therefore, we stress that the selection process of an enabling technology for mobile commerce should be preceded with the use of a structured assessment methodology. With different available alternatives and various criteria for technology evaluation, multi-criteria decision making methods seem to be appropriate to support this selection process. Moreover, the success of introducing a new technology in a mobile information system depends on the preferences of varied involved actors in the market. We also consider in our approach the existence of multiple actors for the search of a technological consensus. As an illustration, we apply our approach to the mobile payment industry.

This paper takes a systems development perspective on mobility, building on preliminary findings of an on-going multiple case study covering 7 companies. The questions driving this paper are: What are the challenges facing development practice in the mobile industry, how do they affect practice and how are they dealt with? Analysis of the empirical data is done following a structured and inductive approach. A framework showing the segmentation of the mobile industry into five layers is proposed and challenges are presented according to two dimensions, namely a business dimension and a development dimension. Finally, implications stemming from these challenges are discussed and issues inviting for future research are proposed.