Catálogo de publicaciones - libros

This paper presents a framework, design and study of an ambient persuasive interface. We introduce a novel framework of persua sive Cues in Ambient Intelligence (perCues). Based on this framework we designed an application for mobile devices. The application aims to persuade people to abstain from using their cars and to use public mass transportation instead in order to reduce emissions. It contains a bus schedule and information about the pollution status. We evaluated the application in two successive studies regarding user acceptance, oppor tune moments of use and persuasive effects. The perCues received a high acceptance due to its benefit for the users. The results confirm the im portance of opportune moment and user acceptance for persuasion. The findings also indicate the persuasive potential of perCues.

New persuasive technologies often make the mistake of touting how new and different they are from anything that came before. What they should really be trying to do is mask any behavior change by making their interface and interactions as familiar and mundane as possible. This lesson is illustrated in a case study of the Nike + iPod, a revolutionary device that pretends to be just a better way to go for a run while listening to music.

Electronic monitoring of offenders is being increasingly used as an alternative to incarceration. Although surveillance and the threat of punishment can temporarily suppress criminal behavior, this strategy has not reduced long-term re-offending. An alternative use of monitoring technology would reward prosocial behavior on a variable schedule. Miniature and inexpensive Bluetooth or WiFi-enabled transceivers can electronically enrich designated environments in order to encourage offenders to attend classes, arrive promptly at work, or make appropriate decisions at critical choice-points in a crime-prone neighborhood. Within the criminal justice system, only small, incremental changes can be expected.

It is often easier to persuade someone that something is impossible to do than that it is possible, since the absence of one necessary resource suffices. This makes lying a tempting tactic for negative persuasion. We consider the problem of finding convincing lies for it as one of maintaining consistency of a set of logical assertions; we can track that consistency with a computer program. We use an example of negative persuasion against electronic voting in elections, where automated analysis then suggests ways to prevent it.

The surveillance in public and private places, both physically and digitally, is increasing for different reasons. In this paper we intend to discuss surveillance and persuasive technology in an ethical perspective with an eye to its historical and cultural context. In section 1, we present some different tendencies of surveillance in society. In section 2, we elaborate on some important historical ideas on surveillance. In section 3, we consider the use of persuasive technology for surveillance purposes. In section 4, we discuss the development towards increasing surveillance in society, at work, in public places etc. In section 5, we draw up some ethical concerns on surveillance, and finally. In section 6, we discuss the question of a possible need for a public and democratic control of the use of surveillance technology.

Getting workers to share knowledge in situations where “knowledge” is the primary asset making them valuable is a pressing problem in many organizations – leading to what we call “the knowledge worker’s prisoner’s dilemma.” Interesting variants of this dilemma arise in the contexts of customer support and server system administration. We begin by describing some of the reasons why the uncooperative resolution of the dilemma is so detrimental from an organizational perspective. We then discuss a successful example of a cooperative resolution to the dilemma – the Open Source initiative. We articulate an ambitious long-term thesis regarding the electronic support ecosystem and then describe a multi-pronged approach for facilitating knowledge capture and sharing in the context of IBM’s service industry, thereby facilitating a “win-win” or collaborative solution to the knowledge worker’s prisoner’s dilemma.

The paper discusses an original research project in the area of education and cross-cultural rhetoric on the use of persuasive digital technologies to enable intercultural competencies among students and teachers across globally-distributed teams. The paper outlines the methodology for the research, including the use of video conferences, collaborative blogs, a project wiki, webforums, and Google documents, and presents the findings on how such information and communication technologies can influence people to approach cross-cultural communication with greater political understanding, ethical awareness, and intercultural competencies in order to bring about improved international and social relations. The paper presents statistical data pertaining to qualitative and quantitative assessment of project outcomes; it situates the project within current debates in intercultural communication and digital pedagogy; and it concludes with a projection on the scalability and sustainability of using computers to change human attitudes and behaviors in positive ways in an international context.

This paper presents findings on how individuals respond to receiving feedback on their participation levels during meetings. Comparing in-lab and natural group settings, repeated use, and differing information displays, we found that individuals vary on how useful and informative they found the feedback. Their ratings were most influenced by how the tool was first introduced to them and whether or not there was redundancy in the feedback.

Having engaged one billion users by early 2006, the Internet is the world’s fastest-growing mass communications medium. As it permeates into countless lives across the planet, it offers social campaigners an opportunity to deploy interactive interventions that encourage populations to adopt healthy living, environmental protection and community development behaviours. Using a classic set of social campaigning criteria, this paper explores relationships between social campaign websites and behavioural change.

It is increasingly common for online communities to rely on members rather than editors to contribute and moderate content. To motivate members to perform these tasks, some sites display social comparisons, information designed to show members how they compare to others in the system. For example, Amazon, an online book store, shows a list of top reviewers. In this study, we investigate the effect of email newsletters that tell members of an online community that their contributions are above, below, or about average. We find that these comparisons focus members’ energy on the system features we highlight, but do not increase overall interest in the site. We also find that men and women perceive the comparisons very differently.