Post-industrial 2.0 – Social Web as the second coming of the post-industrial society

This study presents a review of theories of the so-called post-industrial society, and proposes that the concept of post-industrial society can be used to understand the recent developments of the World Wide Web, often described as Web 2.0 or social Web. The study combines theories ranging from post-war management science and cultural studies to software development, and tries to build a holistic view of the development of the post-industrial society, and especially the Internet. The discourse on the emergence of a post-industrial society after the World Wars has addressed the ways in which the growing importance of information, and innovations in digital communications technology, are changing our society. It is furthermore deeply connected with the discourse on the postmodern society, which emphasizes cultural fragmentation, intertextuality, and pluralism. The Internet age is characterized by increasing masses of information that are managed through various technologies. While 1990s Internet technologies often used the network as a traditional broadcasting channel with added interactivity, Web 2.0 technologies are specifically designed to utilize the network model by facilitating communication between various services and devices, and analyzing the relationships between users and objects in order to produce intelligent insight. The wide adoption of the Internet, and recently of Internet-enabled mobile devices, is furthermore continuously producing new ways of communicating, consuming, and producing. Applications of the social Web, such as social media or social networking services, are permanently changing our traditional social, cultural, and economic practices. The study first presents an overview of the post-industrial society, the Internet, and the concept of Web 2.0. Then the concept of social Web is described with an analysis of the term social media, the brief histories of the interactive Web and social networking services, and a description of the concept ―long tail‖, used to represent the masses of information available in the Web that do not receive mainstream attention. Finally, methods for retrieving and filtering information, modeling social and cultural relationships, and communicating with customers, are presented.

Advanced welding technologies used for arctic metal structures

Rapid depletion of easy-to-access fossil fuel, predominantly, oil and gas resources has now necessitated increase in need to develop new oil and gas sources in ever more remote and hostile environments. This is necessary in order to explore more oil and gas resources to meet rapidly rising long-term energy demand in the world, both at present and in the nearest future. Arctic is one of these harsh environments, where enormous oil and gas resources are available, containing about 20% of the world total oil and gas, but the environmental conditions are very harsh and hostile. However, virtually all the facilities required for the exploration and development of this new energy source are constructed with metals as well as their alloys and are predominantly joined together by welding processes and technologies. Meanwhile, due to entirely different environment from the usual moderate temperate region, conventional welding technologies, common metals and their alloys cannot be applied as this Arctic environment demand metals structures with very high toughness and strength properties under extremely low temperature. This is due to the fact that metals transit from ductility to brittleness as the temperature moves toward extreme negative values. Hence, this research work investigates and presents the advanced welding technologies applicable to Arctic metal structures which can give satisfactory weldments under active Arctic service conditions. .

The challenges and success factors of commercializing cleaner technologies

Cleaner technologies include products, services, technologies, processes and systems that in use create less environmental hazard than the existing alternatives. Rapidly growing cleantech sector possesses an essential competitive advantage in the future. However, no profound research has been conducted on the characteristics of cleaner technologies and their effect on the commercialization process. This thesis aims at synthesizing scattered information and creating a basis for accelerating cleaner technology commercialization in Finnish context. Two research questions are defined: 1. What are the key challenges and success factors in the commercialization of cleaner technologies based on the existing literature? 2. What kind of lessons can be learned from the Finnish success stories of cleantech commercialization? The research was conducted as a literature review and supported with three case interviews. The results suggest that literature-based challenges are mostly related to, for example, difficulty in gathering customer information, unrealistic customer expectations, lack of resources, networks and proper success indicators, legislation, and unstructured strategy planning stemming from company culture. Handling the barriers require, above all, open communication from all stakeholders, management commitment and accurate goal setting, government-driven funding and incentives, and cooperation with educational facilities. Finnish success cases emphasize especially customer attention: listening to customers and receiving feedback from them during the whole commercialization process to correct the errors early and save resources, visionary in fulfilling customer needs, ability to question company’s own business performance, not being afraid of making mistakes but learning from them, and continuously observing and evaluating the commercialization process.

Business on demand and its mobile solution - study with SAP ByDesign

Business On-Demand solutions are widely used by SMEs in the world today. When I started working in SAP, SAP had just launched its first version mobile solutions for Business On-Demand solutions. SAP ByDesign mobile solution is great, but I believe we could do something even better on mobile phones. My job is focusing on mobile application development. Therefore, I have lots of thoughts about how we could make the mobile solutions better serve desktop solutions and how to distinguish the mobile solutions. Finally I decide to have a further research into this area. The purpose of this thesis is trying to find out how to improve the mobile solutions for Business On-Demand, find out its benefit and limits, and distinguish SaaS mobile solutions from desktop ones. In order to conduct this research, I had some online literature search to find out the Business On-Demand market and major players in this area. I compare the materials from public internet with the ones that are used internally in SAP. I had some interviews with SAP solution manager and SAP‟s potential customers. I finally made some pro-posals for mobile SaaS solutions which I believe will make the solutions better present and much helpful to the customers.

Effective Social Intranet. Case: Mobile Routing Business Unit, Tellabs

The purpose of this thesis is to examine what the normative, effective social Intranet solution is for Tellabs Mobile Routing business unit in terms of sharing knowledge more openly and effectively, fostering innovation, and improving team spirit and positive employee experience. Additionally, these aspects are researched from the intra- and inter-organizational points of view. The research is based on previous literature and empirical interviews. Based on these two items, an eight-fold recommendation proposal was created to change the current Intranet to become an effective social Intranet.

Towards combining interactive mobile TV and smart spaces : architectures, tools and application development

Technological developments in microprocessors and ICT landscape have made a shift to a new era where computing power is embedded in numerous small distributed objects and devices in our everyday lives. These small computing devices are ne-tuned to perform a particular task and are increasingly reaching our society at every level. For example, home appliances such as programmable washing machines, microwave ovens etc., employ several sensors to improve performance and convenience. Similarly, cars have on-board computers that use information from many di erent sensors to control things such as fuel injectors, spark plug etc., to perform their tasks e ciently. These individual devices make life easy by helping in taking decisions and removing the burden from their users. All these objects and devices obtain some piece of information about the physical environment. Each of these devices is an island with no proper connectivity and information sharing between each other. Sharing of information between these heterogeneous devices could enable a whole new universe of innovative and intelligent applications. The information sharing between the devices is a diffcult task due to the heterogeneity and interoperability of devices. Smart Space vision is to overcome these issues of heterogeneity and interoperability so that the devices can understand each other and utilize services of each other by information sharing. This enables innovative local mashup applications based on shared data between heterogeneous devices. Smart homes are one such example of Smart Spaces which facilitate to bring the health care system to the patient, by intelligent interconnection of resources and their collective behavior, as opposed to bringing the patient into the health system. In addition, the use of mobile handheld devices has risen at a tremendous rate during the last few years and they have become an essential part of everyday life. Mobile phones o er a wide range of different services to their users including text and multimedia messages, Internet, audio, video, email applications and most recently TV services. The interactive TV provides a variety of applications for the viewers. The combination of interactive TV and the Smart Spaces could give innovative applications that are personalized, context-aware, ubiquitous and intelligent by enabling heterogeneous systems to collaborate each other by sharing information between them. There are many challenges in designing the frameworks and application development tools for rapid and easy development of these applications. The research work presented in this thesis addresses these issues. The original publications presented in the second part of this thesis propose architectures and methodologies for interactive and context-aware applications, and tools for the development of these applications. We demonstrated the suitability of our ontology-driven application development tools and rule basedapproach for the development of dynamic, context-aware ubiquitous iTV applications.

Co-created Mobile Narratives

FM Marjo Mäenpään Turun yliopiston Humanistisen tiedekunnan Kulttuurituotannon ja maisemantutkimuksen digitaalisen kulttuurin oppialalle valmistunut väitöskirja Co-created Mobile Narratives tarkastetaan Porin yliopistokeskuksessa 27. huhtikuuta 2013. Marjo Mäenpää tutkii, kuinka ihmiset tarinallistavat elämänsä, kuvittavat ja jakavat kokemuksiaan toisten ihmisten kanssa mobiilin median avulla. Elämänjulkaisemisesta on tullut ihmisten arkista toimintaa. Mäenpää lähestyy jaettuja kännykkävideotarinoita kolmesta eri näkökulmasta. Hän tutkii tarinoiden rakennetta, julkaisemista ja julkaisevia yhteisöjä narratologian, yhteisöjen toiminnan ja mediantutkimuksen valossa. Teoreetikot aina Aristoteleesta klassisen narratologian tutkijoihin ovat esittäneet erilaisia tarinallisuuden kaavoja ja rakenteita, joita on havaittavissa myös yhteisössä tuotetuista videotarinoista. Myöhemmän alan tutkimustradition, mm. kognitiivisen narratologian mukaan ihmiset hahmottavat tarinallisia kokonaisuuksia pienemmistäkin fragmenteista ja vihjeistä. Elämän tarinaa, käännekohtia ja elämyksiä kerrotaan usein – esimerkiksi Facebookissa – yksittäisillä, sattumanvaraisilla kuvilla. Yhteisöllinen tuotanto edellyttää luottamusta. Yhteisö jakaa tarinoita, jotka voivat olla hyvinkin fragmentaarisia, mutta saavat merkityksensä yhteisestä kokemusmaailmasta ja kulttuurista. Julkaiseminen on sattumanvaraista, luovaa toimintaa, jonka lopputulos voi olla ennalta arvaamaton. Kuitenkin julkaiseminen edellyttää jonkinlaista aktiivista toimijaa tai tuottajaa. Rakenteen julkaisemiselle voi antaa tuottaja, moderaattori tai hyvin rakennettu teknologinen julkaisualusta. Monitieteisen väitöstutkimuksen aineisto on peräisin Turun yliopiston, Tampereen teknillisen yliopiston ja Aalto- yliopiston Porin yksiköiden yhteisestä Mobile Social Media -tutkimushankkeesta. Vuosina 2008-2010 hankkeessa suunniteltiin MoViE (Mobile Video Experience) -sovellusta, jonka avulla ihmiset voivat julkaista omia lyhyitä videoitaan ja jakaa niitä toisten käyttäjien kanssa. MoViE-sovelluksen avulla käyttäjät voivat editoida omia ja toisten kuvaamia videoita sekä julkaista kuvallisia tarinoita yhteisöllisistä kokemuksista. MoViE-sovellusta kokeiltiin mm. Pori Jazz -konserteissa. Samasta konsertista taltioitui kännykkävideoille useita näkökulmia, ja testikäyttäjäryhmä koosti useita erilaisia videotarinoita yhteisestä konserttikokemuksestaan. Marjo Mäenpää (1959) työskentelee opetus- ja kulttuuriministeriössä kulttuuriasiainneuvoksena. Hän on toiminut mm. kustantajana, multimedian dramaturgian opettajana Teatterikorkeakoulussa, digitaalisen mediatuotannon professorina Aalto-yliopiston Taiteen ja suunnittelun korkeakoulussa vuosina 2006-2012 sekä Taiteen edistämiskeskuksen väliaikaisena johtajana vuonna 2013.

Agility in international fast fashion retailing

The birth of Internet technologies, the developments of fast fashion and multiple retailing channels have created a need for a new, more integrated way for doing retailing. Agility in fast fashion retailing could be seen as a significant way of responding to these changes and furthermore, as a way to respond to consumers’ altering demands. The purpose of this study was to explore the ways in which agile supply chains and integrated multichannel retailing influence the international fast fashion retailing. A framework for agility in retail was developed based on available theoretical considerations in distribution and communication channels. Qualitative research methods and qualitative content analysis were used. Four expert interviews were carried out to gain new perspectives to the objectives. The rest of the data was collected from an industry specific document, expert video and two expert lectures. Following the data collection, the research material was analyzed with qualitative content analysis. The empirical findings on agility in retail were presented based on a coding frame. It was found that agility in retail has multiple parts, which are overlapping and affecting one another. Furthermore, instead of viewing the agile supply chain and integrated multichannel retailing separately of each other as usual, it was found that they should be integrated, and the term “agility” was proposed to denote this approach. Also, it was found that the most common drivers and constrains of integrated multichannel retailing were the new Internet technologies and customer demand. Brick-and-mortar store, online store, mobile devices and social media were found to be the most common retailing channels. Furthermore, in-store technology, click-and-collect approach, NFC-buying, RFID-technology as well as 3D- digital simulations on fabrics and patterns will enhance agility even more in the future. In addition, environmental issues, customer experiences and communication will be important factors. This study has provided new practical insights for the future retailing. Furthermore, it has contributed to the academic research by discussing the traditional approaches of agility in fast fashion retail and bringing in new insights.

Automated Purchase to Pay Process Value Modeling and Comparative Process Speeds

The importance of efficient supply chain management has increased due to globalization and the blurring of organizational boundaries. Various supply chain management technologies have been identified to drive organizational profitability and financial performance. Organizations have historically been concentrating heavily on the flow of goods and services, while less attention has been dedicated to the flow of money. While supply chains are becoming more transparent and automated, new opportunities for financial supply chain management have emerged through information technology solutions and comprehensive financial supply chain management strategies. This research concentrates on the end part of the purchasing process which is the handling of invoices. Efficient invoice processing can have an impact on organizations working capital management and thus provide companies with better readiness to face the challenges related to cash management. Leveraging a process mining solution the aim of this research was to examine the automated invoice handling process of four different organizations. The invoice data was collected from each organizations invoice processing system. The sample included all the invoices organizations had processed during the year 2012. The main objective was to find out whether e-invoices are faster to process in an automated invoice processing solution than scanned invoices (post entry into invoice processing solution). Other objectives included looking into the longest lead times between process steps and the impact of manual process steps on cycle time. Processing of invoices from maverick purchases was also examined. Based on the results of the research and previous literature on the subject, suggestions for improving the process were proposed. The results of the research indicate that scanned invoices were processed faster than e-invoices. This is mostly due to the more complex processing of e-invoices. It should be noted however that the manual tasks related to turning a paper invoice into electronic format through scanning are ignored in this research. The transitions with the longest lead times in the invoice handling process included both pre-automated steps as well as manual steps performed by humans. When the most common manual steps were examined in more detail, it was clear that these steps had a prolonging impact on the process. Regarding invoices from maverick purchases the evidence shows that these invoices were slower to process than invoices from purchases conducted through e-procurement systems and from preferred suppliers. Suggestions on how to improve the process included: increasing invoice matching, reducing of manual steps and leveraging of different value added services such as invoice validation service, mobile solutions and supply chain financing services. For companies that have already reaped all the process efficiencies the next step is to engage in collaborative financial supply chain management strategies that can benefit the whole supply chain.

Virtual technology and haptic interface solutions for design and control of mobile working machines

Commercially available haptic interfaces are usable for many purposes. However, as generic devices they are not the most suitable for the control of heavy duty mobile working machines like mining machines, container handling equipment and excavators. Alternative mechanical constructions for a haptic controller are presented and analysed. A virtual reality environment (VRE) was built to test the proposed haptic controller mechanisms. Verification of an electric motor emulating a hydraulic pump in the electro-hydraulic system of a mobile working machine is carried out. A real-time simulator using multi-body-dynamics based software with hardware-in-loop (HIL) setup was used for the tests. Recommendations for further development of a haptic controller and emulator electric motor are given.

Drivers and barriers of mobile travel and tourism service adoption : a study of individual perceptions and business model development in a travel and tourism context

The Travel and Tourism field is undergoing changes due to the rapid development of information technology and digital services. Online travel has profoundly changed the way travel and tourism organizations interact with their customers. Mobile technology such as mobile services for pocket devices (e.g. mobile phones) has the potential to take this development even further. Nevertheless, many issues have been highlighted since the early days of mobile services development (e.g. the lack of relevance, ease of use of many services). However, the wide adoption of smartphones and the mobile Internet in many countries as well as the formation of so-called ecosystems between vendors of mobile technology indicate that many of these issues have been overcome. Also when looking at the numbers of downloaded applications related to travel in application stores like Google Play, it seems obvious that mobile travel and tourism services are adopted and used by many individuals. However, as business is expected to start booming in the mobile era, many issues have a tendency to be overlooked. Travelers are generally on the go and thus services that work effectively in mobile settings (e.g. during a trip) are essential. Hence, the individuals’ perceived drivers and barriers to use mobile travel and tourism services in on-site or during trip settings seem particularly valuable to understand; thus this is one primary aim of the thesis. We are, however, also interested in understanding different types of mobile travel service users. Individuals may indeed be very different in their propensity to adopt and use technology based innovations (services). Research is also switching more from investigating issues of mobile service development to understanding individuals’ usage patterns of mobile services. But designing new mobile services may be a complex matter from a service provider perspective. Hence, our secondary aim is to provide insights into drivers and barriers of mobile travel and tourism service development from a holistic business model perspective. To accomplish the research objectives seven different studies have been conducted over a time period from 2002 – 2013. The studies are founded on and contribute to theories within diffusion of innovations, technology acceptance, value creation, user experience and business model development. Several different research methods are utilized: surveys, field and laboratory experiments and action research. The findings suggest that a successful mobile travel and tourism service is a service which supports one or several mobile motives (needs) of individuals such as spontaneous needs, time-critical arrangements, efficiency ambitions, mobility related needs (location features) and entertainment needs. The service could be customized to support travelers’ style of traveling (e.g. organized travel or independent travel) and should be easy to use, especially easy to take into use (access, install and learn) during a trip, without causing security concerns and/or financial risks for the user. In fact, the findings suggest that the most prominent barrier to the use of mobile travel and tourism services during a trip is an individual’s perceived financial cost (entry costs and usage costs). It should, however, be noted that regulations are put in place in the EU regarding data roaming prices between European countries and national telecom operators are starting to see ‘international data subscriptions’ as a sales advantage (e.g. Finnish Sonera provides a data subscription in the Baltic and Nordic region at the same price as in Finland), which will enhance the adoption of mobile travel and tourism services also in international contexts. In order to speed up the adoption rate travel service providers could consider e.g. more local initiatives of free Wi-Fi networks, development of services that can be used, at least to some extent, in an offline mode (do not require costly network access during a trip) and cooperation with telecom operators (e.g. lower usage costs for travelers who use specific mobile services or travel with specific vendors). Furthermore, based on a developed framework for user experience of mobile trip arrangements, the results show that a well-designed mobile site and/or native application, which preferably supports integration with other mobile services, is a must for true mobile presence. In fact, travel service providers who want to build a relationship with their customers need to consider a downloadable native application, but in order to be found through the mobile channel and make contact with potential new customers, a mobile website should be available. Moreover, we have made a first attempt with cluster analysis to identify user categories of mobile services in a travel and tourism context. The following four categories were identified: info-seekers, checkers, bookers and all-rounders. For example “all-rounders”, represented primarily by individuals who use their pocket device for almost any of the investigated mobile travel services, constituted primarily of 23 to 50 year old males with high travel frequency and great online experience. The results also indicate that travel service providers will increasingly become multi-channel providers. To manage multiple online channels, closely integrated and hybrid online platforms for different devices, supporting all steps in a traveler process should be considered. It could be useful for travel service providers to focus more on developing browser-based mobile services (HTML5-solutions) than native applications that work only with specific operating systems and for specific devices. Based on an action research study and utilizing a holistic business model framework called STOF we found that HTML5 as an emerging platform, at least for now, has some limitations regarding the development of the user experience and monetizing the application. In fact, a native application store (e.g. Google Play) may be a key mediator in the adoption of mobile travel and tourism services both from a traveler and a service provider perspective. Moreover, it must be remembered that many device and mobile operating system developers want service providers to specifically create services for their platforms and see native applications as a strategic advantage to sell more devices of a certain kind. The mobile telecom industry has moved into a battle of ecosystems where device makers, developers of operating systems and service developers are to some extent forced to choose their development platforms.

Speed Control of an Autonomous Mobile Robot: Comparison between a PID Control and a Control Using Fuzzy Logic

An Autonomous Mobile Robot battery driven, with two traction wheels and a steering wheel is being developed. This Robot central control is regulated by an IPC, which controls every function of security, steering, positioning localization and driving. Each traction wheel is operated by a DC motor with independent control system. This system is made up of a chopper, an encoder and a microcomputer. The IPC transmits the velocity values and acceleration ramp references to the PIC microcontrollers. As each traction wheel control is independent, it's possible to obtain different speed values for each wheel. This process facilities the direction and drive changes. Two different strategies for speed velocity control were implemented; one works with PID, and the other with fuzzy logic. There were no changes in circuits and feedback control, except for the PIC microcontroller software. Comparing the two different speed control strategies the results were equivalent. However, in relation to the development and implementation of these strategies, the difficulties were bigger to implement the PID control.

A Test Bed Applied Mobile Robot Navigation

It is presented a test bed applied to studies on dynamics, control, and navigation of mobile robots. A cargo ship scale model was chosen, which can be radio-controlled or operated autonomously through an embedded control system. A control program, which manages on board mission execution, is implemented on a microcontroller. Navigation is based on an electronic compass, which includes automatic compensation for pitch and roll motions. Heading control loop is based on this sensor, and on a rudder positioning system. A propulsion control system is also implemented. Typical manoeuvres as the turning test and "zig-zag", were implemented and tested. They are included on a manoeuvre library, and can be accessed independently or in combined modes. The embedded system is also in charge of signal acquisition and storing during the missions. It is possible to analyse experiments on identification of ship dynamics, control, and navigation, through the data transferred to a PC by serial communication. Navigation is going to be improved by including inertial sensors on board, and a DGPS. Preliminary tests are aimed to ship identification, and manoeuvrability, using free model tests. Future steps include extending this system for developing other mobile robots as, ROVs, AUVs, and aerial vehicles.

Indoor Localization Solutions for a Marine Industry Augmented Reality Tool

In this report are described means for indoor localization in special, challenging circum-stances in marine industry. The work has been carried out in MARIN project, where a tool based on mobile augmented reality technologies for marine industry is developed. The tool can be used for various inspection and documentation tasks and it is aimed for improving the efficiency in design and construction work by offering the possibility to visualize the newest 3D-CAD model in real environment. Indoor localization is needed to support the system in initialization of the accurate camera pose calculation and auto-matically finding the right location in the 3D-CAD model. The suitability of each indoor localization method to the specific environment and circumstances is evaluated.