Information practices of teen content creators : the intersection of action and experiences a grounded theory study

What are the information practices of teen content creators? In the United States over two thirds of teens have participated in creating and sharing content in online communities that are developed for the purpose of allowing users to be producers of content. This study investigates how teens participating in digital participatory communities find and use information as well as how they experience the information. From this investigation emerged a model of their information practices while creating and sharing content such as film-making, visual art work, story telling, music, programming, and web site design in digital participatory communities. The research uses grounded theory methodology in a social constructionist framework to investigate the research problem: what are the information practices of teen content creators? Data was gathered through semi-structured interviews and observation of teen’s digital communities. Analysis occurred concurrently with data collection, and the principle of constant comparison was applied in analysis. As findings were constructed from the data, additional data was collected until a substantive theory was constructed and no new information emerged from data collection. The theory that was constructed from the data describes five information practices of teen content creators. The five information practices are learning community, negotiating aesthetic, negotiating control, negotiating capacity, and representing knowledge. In describing the five information practices there are three necessary descriptive components, the community of practice, the experiences of information and the information actions. The experiences of information include information as participation, inspiration, collaboration, process, and artifact. Information actions include activities that occur in the categories of gathering, thinking and creating. The experiences of information and information actions intersect in the information practices, which are situated within the specific community of practice, such as a digital participatory community. Finally, the information practices interact and build upon one another and this is represented in a graphic model and explanation.

Surviving an avalanche of data

Open the sports or business section of your daily newspaper, and you are immediately bombarded with an array of graphs, tables, diagrams, and statistical reports that require interpretation. Across all walks of life, the need to understand statistics is fundamental. Given that our youngsters’ future world will be increasingly data laden, scaffolding their statistical understanding and reasoning is imperative, from the early grades on. The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) continues to emphasize the importance of early statistical learning; data analysis and probability was the Council’s professional development “Focus of the Year” for 2007–2008. We need such a focus, especially given the results of the statistics items from the 2003 NAEP. As Shaughnessy (2007) noted, students’ performance was weak on more complex items involving interpretation or application of items of information in graphs and tables. Furthermore, little or no gains were made between the 2000 NAEP and the 2003 NAEP studies. One approach I have taken to promote young children’s statistical reasoning is through data modeling. Having implemented in grades 3 –9 a number of model-eliciting activities involving working with data (e.g., English 2010), I observed how competently children could create their own mathematical ideas and representations—before being instructed how to do so. I thus wished to introduce data-modeling activities to younger children, confi dent that they would likewise generate their own mathematics. I recently implemented data-modeling activities in a cohort of three first-grade classrooms of six year- olds. I report on some of the children’s responses and discuss the components of data modeling the children engaged in.

Phenomenography : opening a new territory for library and information science research

Phenomenography is a research approach devised to allow the investigation of varying ways in which people experience aspects of their world. Whilst growing attention is being paid to interpretative research in LIS, it is not always clear how the outcomes of such research can be used in practice. This article explores the potential contribution of phenomenography in advancing the application of phenomenological and hermeneutic frameworks to LIS theory, research and practice. In phenomenography we find a research toll which in revealing variation, uncovers everyday understandings of phenomena and provides outcomes which are readily applicable to professional practice. THe outcomes may be used in human computer interface design, enhancement, implementation and training, in the design and evaluation of services, and in education and training for both end users and information professionals. A proposed research territory for phenomenography in LIS includes investigating qualitative variation in the experienced meaning of: 1) information and its role in society 2) LIS concepts and principles 3) LIS processes and; 4) LIS elements.

The state-of-the-art in personalized recommender systems for social networking

With the explosion of Web 2.0 application such as blogs, social and professional networks, and various other types of social media, the rich online information and various new sources of knowledge flood users and hence pose a great challenge in terms of information overload. It is critical to use intelligent agent software systems to assist users in finding the right information from an abundance of Web data. Recommender systems can help users deal with information overload problem efficiently by suggesting items (e.g., information and products) that match users’ personal interests. The recommender technology has been successfully employed in many applications such as recommending films, music, books, etc. The purpose of this report is to give an overview of existing technologies for building personalized recommender systems in social networking environment, to propose a research direction for addressing user profiling and cold start problems by exploiting user-generated content newly available in Web 2.0.

Fundamentals of business process management

Encompasses the whole BPM lifecycle, including process identification, modelling, analysis, redesign, automation and monitoring Class-tested textbook complemented with additional teaching material on the accompanying website Covers both relevant conceptual background, industrial standards and actionable skills Business Process Management (BPM) is the art and science of how work should be performed in an organization in order to ensure consistent outputs and to take advantage of improvement opportunities, e.g. reducing costs, execution times or error rates. Importantly, BPM is not about improving the way individual activities are performed, but rather about managing entire chains of events, activities and decisions that ultimately produce added value for an organization and its customers. This textbook encompasses the entire BPM lifecycle, from process identification to process monitoring, covering along the way process modelling, analysis, redesign and automation. Concepts, methods and tools from business management, computer science and industrial engineering are blended into one comprehensive and inter-disciplinary approach. The presentation is illustrated using the BPMN industry standard defined by the Object Management Group and widely endorsed by practitioners and vendors worldwide. In addition to explaining the relevant conceptual background, the book provides dozens of examples, more than 100 hands-on exercises – many with solutions – as well as numerous suggestions for further reading. The textbook is the result of many years of combined teaching experience of the authors, both at the undergraduate and graduate levels as well as in the context of professional training. Students and professionals from both business management and computer science will benefit from the step-by-step style of the textbook and its focus on fundamental concepts and proven methods. Lecturers will appreciate the class-tested format and the additional teaching material available on the accompanying website fundamentals-of-bpm.org.

Creating and expressing : information as-it-is-experienced

Music and dance are art forms that involve a full mind-body experience, integrating the cognitive, affective and kinesthetic domains. To engage in creating music and dance is to use information to express oneself and communicate. In this chapter I explore the information experience of two distinct groups: those who compose music for an audience, and those who dance socially with a partner. For the composer, information sources can be a stimulus for creation. Sounds, feelings, moods, images, ideas and life experiences can trigger a creative idea. These ideas are shaped by existing musical styles and structures, and by the composer’s personal aesthetic. The intention of the composer is to communicate their expressive ideas to an audience. For the social dancer, information sources are those used to communicate with a partner. There is no intention to perform for an audience. A social dancer aims to express the music and style of the dance while creating a strong connection with their partner. Information sources include the music, the partner’s body, the emotions generated by the dance, the position of other couples on the floor and the feeling of the floor. Use of information in the arts is an under-researched experience. Most information studies are based on the assumption that information is documentary and codified. Subjective and affective information is rarely recognised and legitimised. Information-as-it-is-experienced through creative practice such as music and dance is holistic in acknowledging mind, body and spirit as well as traditional documentary forms of information. This chapter draws on empirical research to illustrate experiencing information as creating and expressing.

An evaluation of corpus-driven measures of medical concept similarity for information retrieval

Measures of semantic similarity between medical concepts are central to a number of techniques in medical informatics, including query expansion in medical information retrieval. Previous work has mainly considered thesaurus-based path measures of semantic similarity and has not compared different corpus-driven approaches in depth. We evaluate the effectiveness of eight common corpus-driven measures in capturing semantic relatedness and compare these against human judged concept pairs assessed by medical professionals. Our results show that certain corpus-driven measures correlate strongly (approx 0.8) with human judgements. An important finding is that performance was significantly affected by the choice of corpus used in priming the measure, i.e., used as evidence from which corpus-driven similarities are drawn. This paper provides guidelines for the implementation of semantic similarity measures for medical informatics and concludes with implications for medical information retrieval.

State of multilevel research perspective in the information systems discipline

Existing distinctions among macro and micro approaches have been jeopardising the advances of Information Systems (IS) research. Both approaches have been criticized for explaining one level while neglecting the other; thereby, the current situation necessitates the application of multilevel research for revealing the deficiencies. Instead of studying single level (macro or micro), multilevel research entails more than one level of conceptualization and analysis, simultaneously. As the notion of multilevel is borrowed from reference disciplines, there tends to be confusions and inconsistencies within the IS discipline, which hinders the adoption of multilevel research. This paper speaks for the potential value of multilevel research, by investigating the current application status of multilevel research within the IS domain. A content analysis of multilevel research articles from major IS conferences and journals is presented. Analysis results suggest that IS scholars have applied multilevel research to produce high quality work ranging from a variety of topics. However, researchers have not yet been consistently defining “multilevel”, leading to idiosyncratic meanings of multilevel research, most often, in authors’ own interpretations. We argue that a rigorous definition of “multilevel research” needs to be explicated for consistencies in research community.

On the impact of the "linguistic turn" on research in information systems

The linguistic turn within philosophy has recently gained increased attention within social sciences. It can be seen as an attempt to investigate traditional philosophical problems by analysing the linguistic expressions used for these investigations. More generally, the phenomenon of language itself must be considered because of its (constitutional) impact on the investigation of phenomena in social sciences. In order to understand the consequences of the linguistic turn, its origins in philosophy are important and will be discussed. Within social sciences the linguistic turn already had significant impact. As an example, we will therefore discuss what directions the linguistic turn enabled for organizational analysis. Information Systems as a discipline must face the consequences of the linguistic turn as well. We will discuss how the linguistic framework introduced impacts the development of knowledge management and that of managerial and organizational support systems. This example shows what different perspectives the linguistic turn can provide for investigations within Information Systems. In addition, we will briefly outline the impact of the linguistic turn with respect to methodologies in Information Systems research.

The influence of human rights on land rights and spatial information

This paper reviews the growing influence of human rights issues on land rights, administration, management and tenure. In the last few decades, attention focussed on integrating economic and environmental considerations to achieve sustainable land use. The World Trade Organisation began in 1995. As a condition of membership, nations undertook legislative programmes aimed at reducing price distortions and barriers to international trade. Reducing trade barriers has direct effects on agricultural production as a major land use. Similarly, as signatories to the 1992 Rio Declaration, nations undertook caring for and reporting on the state of the environment. However, quality of life is also an issue in deciding what is sustainable development. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, proclaimed in 1948, provided a framework for a series of international human rights conventions. These conventions now influence national legislative programmes. The purpose of this paper is to review some of the implications of human rights on rights in land and the production and use of spatial information.

The effect of project information on the accuracy of building price forecasts

A fundamental proposition is that the accuracy of the designer's tender price forecasts is positively correlated with the amount of information available for that project. The paper describes an empirical study of the effects of the quantity of information available on practicing Quantity Surveyors' forecasting accuracy. The methodology involved the surveyors repeatedly revising tender price forecasts on receipt of chunks of project information. Each of twelve surveyors undertook two projects and selected information chunks from a total of sixteen information types. The analysis indicated marked differences in accuracy between different project types and experts/non-experts. The expert surveyors' forecasts were not found to be significantly improved by information other than that of basic building type and size, even after eliminating project type effects. The expert surveyors' forecasts based on the knowledge of building type and size alone were, however, found to be of similar accuracy to that of average practitioners pricing full bills of quantities.

A tensor encoding model of word meaning : theory and application to information retrieval

This project was a step forward in developing and evaluating a novel, mathematical model that can deduce the meaning of words based on their use in language. This model can be applied to a wide range of natural language applications, including the information seeking process most of us undertake on a daily basis.

Learning to use information : informed learning in the undergraduate classroom

“Informed learning” is a pedagogy that focuses on learning subject content through engaging with academic or professional information practices. Adopting the position that more powerful learning is achieved where students are taught how to use information and subject content simultaneously, the research reported here investigated an informed learning lesson. Using phenomenographic methods, student’s experiences of the lesson were compared to what the teacher enacted in the classroom. Based on an analysis of student interviews using variation theory, three ways of experiencing the informed learning lesson emerged. Some students understood the lesson to be about learning to use information, i.e., researching and writing an academic paper, while others understood it as focusing on understanding both subject content and information use simultaneously. Although the results of this study are highly contextualized, the findings suggest criteria to consider when designing informed learning lessons.

Barriers to the adoption of health information technology

Information Technology (IT) is successfully applied in a diverse range of fields. Though, the field of Medical Informatics is more than three decades old, it shows a very slow progress compared to many other fields in which the application of IT is growing rapidly. The spending on IT in health care is shooting up but the road to successful use of IT in health care has not been easy. This paper discusses about the barriers to the successful adoption of information technology in clinical environments and outlines the different approaches used by various countries and organisations to tackle the issues successfully. Investing financial and other resources to overcome the barriers for successful adoption of HIT is highly important to realise the dream of a future healthcare system with each customer having secure, private Electronic Health Record (EHR) that is available whenever and wherever needed, enabling the highest degree of coordinated medical care based on the latest medical knowledge and evidence. Arguably, the paper reviews barriers to HIT from organisations’ alignment in respect to the leadership; with their stated values when accepting or willingness to consider the HIT as a determinant factor on their decision-making processes. However, the review concludes that there are many aspects of the organisational accountability and readiness to agree to the technology implementation.

'Information in context' : co-designing workplace structures and systems for organizational learning

With the aim of advancing professional practice through better understanding how to create workplace contexts that cultivate individual and collective learning through situated 'information in context' experiences, this paper presents insights gained from three North American collaborative design (co-design) implementations. In the current project at the Auraria Library in Denver, Colorado, USA, participants use collaborative information practices to redesign face-to-face and technology-enabled communication, decision making, and planning systems. Design processes are described and results-to-date described, within an appreciative framework which values information sharing and enables knowledge creation through shared leadership.