Mobile communications : a study of factors influencing consumer use of m-services

New mobile digital communication technologies present opportunities for advertisers to capitalize on the evolving relationships of consumers with their mobile devices and their desire to access enhanced information services while mobile (m-services). Consumers already use mobile devices (cell phones, personal mobile digital assistants) for traditional phone calls and message handling (e.g., Kalakota and Robinson, 2002; Sullivan Mort and Drennan, 2002). The combination of rapidly developing mobile digital technology and high uptake rates of mobile devices presents enormous potential for delivery of m-services through these devices (Bitner, Brown, and Meuter, 2000). M-services encompass a wide variety of types including the ability to trade stock, to book theater and movie tickets while accessing seating plans online, to send and receive text and pictures, and receive personalized direct advertising such as alerts for shopping bargains. Marketing communications, and specifically advertising, may be delivered as an m-service and termed m-services advertising, forming part of the broader category of m-services. However, advertising research has not yet addressed the area of m-services and needs to do so to be able to take advantage of the advanced interactivity (Yadav and Varadarajan, 2005) of mobile communication devices. Such advertising research is likely to help develop open attitudes and responses to new business models as has been advocated for other new technology such as advanced television (Tauder, 2005). In this article, we model the factors influencing the use of m-services, in the context of consumers' existing relationships with mobile devices. First, we address the value propositions underpinning consumer involvement with mobile devices. Next, we canvass the types of involvement relevant to this consumption domain and argue that involvement, together with personal attributes innovativeness and self-efficacy, will influence use of m-services. Finally, implications for advertising delivered as an m-service are discussed, the potential for m-services advertising as part of m-commerce are canvassed, and directions for future research identified.

Privacy invasive geo-mashups : privacy 2.0 and the limits of first generation information privacy laws

Online technological advances are pioneering the wider distribution of geospatial information for general mapping purposes. The use of popular web-based applications, such as Google Maps, is ensuring that mapping based applications are becoming commonplace amongst Internet users which has facilitated the rapid growth of geo-mashups. These user generated creations enable Internet users to aggregate and publish information over specific geographical points. This article identifies privacy invasive geo-mashups that involve the unauthorized use of personal information, the inadvertent disclosure of personal information and invasion of privacy issues. Building on Zittrain’s Privacy 2.0, the author contends that first generation information privacy laws, founded on the notions of fair information practices or information privacy principles, may have a limited impact regarding the resolution of privacy problems arising from privacy invasive geo-mashups. Principally because geo-mashups have different patterns of personal information provision, collection, storage and use that reflect fundamental changes in the Web 2.0 environment. The author concludes by recommending embedded technical and social solutions to minimize the risks arising from privacy invasive geo-mashups that could lead to the establishment of guidelines for the general protection of privacy in geo-mashups.

The use of online counselling within an Australian secondary school setting: a practitioner’s viewpoint

This paper proposes that the provision of online counselling services for young people accessed through their local school website has the potential to assist students with mental health issues as well as increasing their help seeking behaviours. It stems from the work of the authors who trialled an online counselling service within one Australian secondary school. In Australia, online counselling with the adult population is now an accepted part of the provision of mental health services. Online provision of mental health information for young people is also well accepted. However, online counselling for young people is provided by only a few community organisations such as Kids Help Line within Australia. School based counselling services which are integral to most secondary schools in Australia, seem slow to provide this service in spite of initial interest and enthusiasm by individual school counsellors. This discussion is the product of reflection on the potential benefits of this trial with a consideration of relevant research of the issues raised. It highlights the need for further research into the use of computer mediated communication in the provision of counselling within a school setting.

An innovative learning model for teaching architectural technology using building information modelling : a Queensland University of Technology perspective

In architecture courses, instilling a wider understanding of the industry specific representations practiced in the Building Industry is normally done under the auspices of Technology and Science subjects. Traditionally, building industry professionals communicated their design intentions using industry specific representations. Originally these mainly two dimensional representations such as plans, sections, elevations, schedules, etc. were produced manually, using a drawing board. Currently, this manual process has been digitised in the form of Computer Aided Design and Drafting (CADD) or ubiquitously simply CAD. While CAD has significant productivity and accuracy advantages over the earlier manual method, it still only produces industry specific representations of the design intent. Essentially, CAD is a digital version of the drawing board. The tool used for the production of these representations in industry is still mainly CAD. This is also the approach taken in most traditional university courses and mirrors the reality of the situation in the building industry. A successor to CAD, in the form of Building Information Modelling (BIM), is presently evolving in the Construction Industry. CAD is mostly a technical tool that conforms to existing industry practices. BIM on the other hand is revolutionary both as a technical tool and as an industry practice. Rather than producing representations of design intent, BIM produces an exact Virtual Prototype of any building that in an ideal situation is centrally stored and freely exchanged between the project team. Essentially, BIM builds any building twice: once in the virtual world, where any faults are resolved, and finally, in the real world. There is, however, no established model for learning through the use of this technology in Architecture courses. Queensland University of Technology (QUT), a tertiary institution that maintains close links with industry, recognises the importance of equipping their graduates with skills that are relevant to industry. BIM skills are currently in increasing demand throughout the construction industry through the evolution of construction industry practices. As such, during the second half of 2008, QUT 4th year architectural students were formally introduced for the first time to BIM, as both a technology and as an industry practice. This paper will outline the teaching team’s experiences and methodologies in offering a BIM unit (Architectural Technology and Science IV) at QUT for the first time and provide a description of the learning model. The paper will present the results of a survey on the learners’ perspectives of both BIM and their learning experiences as they learn about and through this technology.

Topological SLAM using neighbourhood information of places

Perceptual aliasing makes topological navigation a difficult task. In this paper we present a general approach for topological SLAM~(simultaneous localisation and mapping) which does not require motion or odometry information but only a sequence of noisy measurements from visited places. We propose a particle filtering technique for topological SLAM which relies on a method for disambiguating places which appear indistinguishable using neighbourhood information extracted from the sequence of observations. The algorithm aims to induce a small topological map which is consistent with the observations and simultaneously estimate the location of the robot. The proposed approach is evaluated using a data set of sonar measurements from an indoor environment which contains several similar places. It is demonstrated that our approach is capable of dealing with severe ambiguities and, and that it infers a small map in terms of vertices which is consistent with the sequence of observations.

Examination of the influence of personal attributes on consumer use on m-services

The rapid uptake of mobile devices has created the capacity to provide services to consumers while they are on the move, and new mobile services (m-services) are constantly emerging. In past research, personal attributes have been found to be import ant in the adoption and use of information and communication technology. However, little research has been conducted in the area of m-services. To explore factors influencing the use of these services, this paper examines personal attributes in terms of motivational, attitudinal and demographic characteristics. Specifically, it investigates the influence of innovativeness, self- efficacy, involvement and impulsiveness, as well as age and gender on m-services use . Data were collected from a convenience sample of 250 respondents using an online survey and a modified snowball procedure. Age and gender were quite well balanced in the sample. The multiple regression model was significant and the hypotheses relating to the positive relationship between impulsiveness, involvement and gender and m-services were supported. Findings are discussed, further implications for managers are suggested and directions for future research are proposed.

Building information modelling for FM using IFC

Facility managers have to acquire, integrate, edit and update diverse facility information ranging from building elements & fabric data, operational costs, contract types, room allocation, logistics, maintenance, etc. With the advent of standardized Building Information Models (BIM) such as the Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) new opportunities are available for Facility Managers to manage their FM data. The usage of IFC supports data interoperability between different software systems including the use of operational data for facility management systems. Besides the re-use of building data, the Building Information Model can be used as an information framework for storing and retrieving FM related data. Currently several BIM driven FM systems are available including IFC compliant ones. These systems have the potential to not only manage primary data more effectively but also to offer practical systems for detailed monitoring, and analysis of facility performance that can underpin innovative and more cost effective management of complex facilities.

Developing within-company information and communication technologies (ICT) innovation diffusion networks : a study of three Australian major contractors

The innovation diffusion and knowledge management literature strongly supports the importance of communities of practice (COP) for enabling knowledge about how to use and adopt innovation initiatives. One of the most powerful tools for innovation diffusion is word-of-mouth wisdom from committed individuals who mentor and support each other. Close proximity for face-to-face interaction is highly effective, however, many organisations are geographically dispersed with projects being virtual linked sub-organisations using ICT to communicate. ICT has also introduced a useful facilitating technology for developing knowledge networks. This paper presents findings from a research program concentrating on ICT innovation diffusion in the Australian construction industry. One way in which ICT diffusion is taking place was found to be through within-company communities of practice. We undertook in-depth unstructured interviews with three of the major 10 to 15 contractors in Australia to discuss their ICT diffusion strategies. We discovered that in all three cases,within company networked communities of practice was a central strategy. Further, effective diffusion of ICT groupware tools can be critical in developing COP where they are geographically dispersed.

Integrating hardware and software information flow analyses

Security-critical communications devices must be evaluated to the highest possible standards before they can be deployed. This process includes tracing potential information flow through the device's electronic circuitry, for each of the device's operating modes. Increasingly, however, security functionality is being entrusted to embedded software running on microprocessors within such devices, so new strategies are needed for integrating information flow analyses of embedded program code with hardware analyses. Here we show how standard compiler principles can augment high-integrity security evaluations to allow seamless tracing of information flow through both the hardware and software of embedded systems. This is done by unifying input/output statements in embedded program execution paths with the hardware pins they access, and by associating significant software states with corresponding operating modes of the surrounding electronic circuitry.

Innovative Practices in the Australian Built Environment Sector : An Information Resource for Industry

PROJECT BRIEF Information provided by the Built Environment Industry Innovation Council as background to this project includes the following information on construction and innovation within the industry. • The construction industry contributes around $67 billion to GDP and employs around 970,000 and generates exports of nearly $150 million. • The industry has one of the lowest innovation rates of any industry in Australia, ranking third last across all Australian industries in terms of its proportion of business expenditure on innovation, and second last in terms of the proportion of income generated from innovation (ABS, 2006). • Key innovation challenges include addressing energy and water use efficiency, and housing costs in preparing for the implementation of the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme. The sector will need to build its capability and capacity to deliver the technical and operational expertise required.The broader Built Environment Innovation Project aims to address the following two objectives: 1. Identify current innovative practice across the Built Environment industry. 2. Develop a knowledge exchange strategy for this information to be disseminated to all industry stakeholders. Industry practice issues are critical to the built environment industry’s ability to innovate, and the BRITE project from the CRC for Construction Innovation has previously undertaken work to identify the key factors that drive innovation. Part 1 of the current project aims to extend this work by conducting a stocktake of current and emerging innovative practices within the built environment industry. Part 2 of the project addresses the second of these objectives, that is, to recommend a knowledge exchange strategy for promoting the wider uptake of innovative practices that makes the information identified in Part 1 of the study (on emerging innovative practices) accessible to Australian built environment industry stakeholders. The project brief was for the strategy to include a mechanism to enable this information resource to be updated as new initiatives/practices are developed. A better understanding of the built environment industry’s own knowledge infrastructure also has the potential to enhance innovation outcomes for the industry. This project will develop a coordinated knowledge exchange strategy, informed by the best available information on current innovation practices within the industry and suggest directions for gaining a better understanding of: the industry contexts that lead to innovative practices; the industry (including enterprise and individual) drivers for innovation; and appropriate knowledge exchange pathways for delivering future industry innovation. A deliverable of Part 2 will be a recommendation for a knowledge exchange strategy to accelerate adoption of innovative practices in the built environment industry, including resource implications and how such a recommendation could be taken forward as an ongoing resource.

A visualisation framework for collaborative virtual environment usage information

Due to the popularity of modern Collaborative Virtual Environments, there has been a related increase in their size and complexity. Developers therefore need visualisations that expose usage patterns from logged data, to understand the structures and dynamics of these complex environments. This chapter presents a new framework for the process of visualising virtual environment usage data. Major components, such as an event model, designer task model and data acquisition infrastructure are described. Interface and implementation factors are also developed, along with example visualisation techniques that make use of the new task and event model. A case study is performed to illustrate a typical scenario for the framework, and its benefits to the environment development team.

Open and trusted information systems/health informatics access control (OTHIS/HIAC)

Information and Communications Technologies globally are moving towards Service Oriented Architectures and Web Services. The healthcare environment is rapidly moving to the use of Service Oriented Architecture/Web Services systems interconnected via this global open Internet. Such moves present major challenges where these structures are not based on highly trusted operating systems. This paper argues the need of a radical re-think of access control in the contemporary healthcare environment in light of modern information system structures, legislative and regulatory requirements, and security operation demands in Health Information Systems. This paper proposes the Open and Trusted Health Information Systems (OTHIS), a viable solution including override capability to the provision of appropriate levels of secure access control for the protection of sensitive health data.

Building information modelling : an issue of adoption and change management

Building Information Modelling (BIM) is an IT enabled technology that allows storage, management, sharing, access, update and use of all the data relevant to a project through out the project life-cycle in the form of a data repository. BIM enables improved inter-disciplinary collaboration across distributed teams, intelligent documentation and information retrieval, greater consistency in building data, better conflict detection and enhanced facilities management. While the technology itself may not be new, and similar approaches have been in use in some other sectors like Aircraft and Automobile industry for well over a decade now, the AEC/FM (Architecture, Engineering and Construction/ Facilities Management) industry is still to catch up with them in its ability to exploit the benefits of the IT revolution. Though the potential benefits of the technology in terms of knowledge sharing, project management, project co-ordination and collaboration are near to obvious, the adoption rate has been rather lethargic, inspite of some well directed efforts and availability of supporting commercial tools. Since the technology itself has been well tested over the years in some other domains the plausible causes must be rooted well beyond the explanation of the ‘Bell Curve of innovation adoption’. This paper discusses the preliminary findings of an ongoing research project funded by the Cooperative Research Centre for Construction Innovation (CRC-CI) which aims to identify these gaps and come up with specifications and guidelines to enable greater adoption of the BIM approach in practice. A detailed literature review is conducted that looks at some of the similar research reported in the recent years. A desktop audit of some of the existing commercial tools that support BIM application has been conducted to identify the technological issues and concerns, and a workshop was organized with industry partners and various players in the AEC industry for needs analysis, expectations and feedback on the possible deterrents and inhibitions surrounding the BIM adoption.