The impact of virtual technologies on knowledge-based processes: An empirical study

This study examines the organizational knowledge creation processes in two highly virtual teams involved in new product development projects in the automotive industry. Using Nonaka's model of knowledge creation, we explore how the virtualization of knowledge-based processes, i.e. the intensive exploitation of information and communication technologies (ICTs), has led to new forms of knowledge creation at both the individual and organizational levels. In contrast to previous studies that identify knowledge codification as the main contribution of ICTs, this study provides detailed micro-level evidence about the ability of virtual technologies to support the transfer and the creation of new knowledge – both explicit and tacit – and offers some implications for scholars and practitioners.     

Universal Service in a Ubiquitous Digital Network

Before there was the digital divide there was the analog divide– and universal service was the attempt to close that analogdivide. Universal service is becoming ever more complex in terms ofregulatory design as it becomes the digital divide. In order to evaluatethe promise of the next generation Internet with respect to the digitaldivide this work looks backwards as well as forwards in time. Byevaluating why previous universal service mechanisms failed andsucceeded this work identifies specific characteristics ofcommunications systems – in particular in billing and managinguncertainty – and argues that these characteristics underliesuccess or failure in terms of technological ubiquity. Developing a setof characteristics of services rather than a set of services is afundamental break with the tradition of universal service. In fact, theimplications of our proposal is that basic characteristics in theoffering of the service rather than the absolute price are critical toclose the digital divide: certainty of total charge, ability to avoiddeposits or disconnection via best effort service, and payer-basedcontrol of all charges. While all of these principles sound obvious infact none of these hold in the telephony network. Universal service hasevolved from common carriage (serve all with no discrimination) to aright to basic services (100% penetration). Universal service isnow discussed as the digital divide, as the access to information asopposed to services becomes increasingly critical. However, we arediscussing in this paper access to the bits and the network rather thanaccess to the information (or intellectual property) once connected. Theprovision of universal service is seen as a technical problem only in thatthe technology costs money – universal service debates have longbeen the domain of economists. Yet the design of protocols has been thedomain of engineers, the building of systems the corporate domain, andthe discussion of equity the interest of ethicists. The design ofprotocols can define the parameters of the corporate decision-makers,the variables of the economist, and the questions for the ethicist. Thedesign decisions made at the fundamental levels can make communicationsequity more or less likely. In this work I focus on the design ofprotocols for the next generation Internet, protocols which willfundamentally change the best-effort nature of Internet services.Building on the economic and ethnographic work of others I argue thatthe effects of protocols adoption on universal service can be predictedto some degree. By examination of past and current technologies Iexamine a set of technical mechanisms to determine how such mechanismsmight harm or enhance universal service. I define each mechanism (e.g.denial of entry) and offer observations about each particularmechanism's implicit pricing assumptions. I close with a discussion ofinterest to ethicists and regulators on evaluating communicationsprotocols with respect to universal access. Protocols for developingmultiple qualities of service for packet-switched networks have focusedon economic efficiency (e.g. Mackie-Mason, 1995; Choi, Stahl &Winston, 1997; Shapiro & Varian, 1998), billing to encouragewidespread adoption of network innovations (e.g. Xie & Sirbu, 1985)and billing in a manner consistent with the underlying network (e.g.Clark, 1996). Here we examine a set of protocols which include varyingquality of service mechanisms with respect to the compatibility of theprotocols with universal access.     

The illegal body: `Eurodac' and the politics of biometric identification

Biometrics is often described as `the next big thingin information technology'. Rather than IT renderingthe body irrelevant to identity – a mistaken idea tobegin with – the coupling of biometrics with ITunequivocally puts the body center stage. The questions to be raised about biometrics is howbodies will become related to identity, and what thenormative and political ramifications of this couplingwill be. Unlike the body rendered knowable in thebiomedical sciences, biometrics generates a readable body: it transforms the body's surfaces andcharacteristics into digital codes and ciphers to be`read' by a machine. ``Your iris is read, in the sameway that your voice can be printed, and yourfingerprint can be read', by computers that, in turn,have become ``touch-sensitive', and endowed with seeingand hearing capacities. Thus transformed into readable``text', the meaning and significance of the biometricbody will be contingent upon ``context', and therelations established with other ``texts'. Thesemetaphors open up ways to investigate the differentmeanings that will become attached to the biometricbody and the ways in which it will be tied toidentity. This paper reports on an analysis of plans andpractices surrounding the `Eurodac' project, aEuropean Union initiative to use biometrics (specif.fingerprinting) in controlling illegal immigration andborder crossings by asylum seekers.     

Systemic process management environment for building distributed locational systems

This article describes the architecture of a generic platform for building distributed locational systems over stand-alone applications. The proposed platform integrates ideas and technology from areas such as distributed and parallel databases, transaction processing systems, and workflow management. The main contribution of this research effort is to propose a “kernel” locational system providing the essentials for distributed processing and to show the important role database technology may play in supporting such functionality of workflow management. These include a powerful process management environment using the principles of the Problem Structuring Methodology (PSM), which it created as a generalization of workflow ideas and incorporated transactional notions such as spheres of isolation, atomicity, and persistence and a transactional engine enforcing these “quality guarantees” based on the nested and multi-level models. It also includes a tool kit providing externalized database functionality enabling physical database design over heterogeneous data repositories.     

数字图书馆中的网格层次结构分析

欧洲网格项目提出了一种三层框架——计算（数据）网格、信息网格和知识网格。网格技术的发展,为数字图书馆的建设和发展提供了新的机遇。本文从网格三层框架的角度分析了新型数字图书馆网格层次结构和关键技术,并且总结了网格技术用于数字图书馆建设要进一步解决的问题。     

数字经济的发展与未来

数字经济已经成为重组全球要素资源、重塑全球经济结构、改变全球竞争格局的关键力量。文章首先从数字经济基本问题出发,描绘了大数据、智能算法、算力平台3个基本要素;进而,回顾了国际数字经济的发展历程与我国数字经济的发展现状,总结了我国发展数字经济的优势和挑战;最后,立足于《中华人民共和国国民经济和社会发展第十四个五年规划和2035年远景目标纲要》,结合我国数字经济发展过程中的挑战与短板,从数据开放保护、关键技术工程、大数据人才培养、民生服务、社会征信体系和国际合作6个方面提出了做大、做优、做强我国数字经济的建议。     

Digital business model innovation in metaverse: How to approach virtual economy opportunities

In recent times, continuous evolutions in digital technologies are triggering new business models (BMs) within virtual environments. This phenomenon is defining a new economy staging in so-called metaverses. Here, physical-world BMs are modified, virtual-world BMs are implemented, and combinations of physical-world and virtual-world BMs are performed. As a result, new mechanisms of value creation and value capture at the crossroads of physical and virtual economies arise in the metaverse. This paper aims at understanding which are these value mechanisms and how organizations can develop them. To this aim, the paper analyzes the cases of four cross-industry incumbents (namely, Gucci, Samsung, Hyundai, and Nike), which are pivoting their BMs in the metaverse. A framework indicating how to innovate BMs in the metaverse is provided, by looking at both “phygital” transformations (i.e., transformations aimed at joining physical and digital worlds’ realities) and completely virtual immersions shaping firms’ internal processes and relationships with customers. In this way, the paper supports companies in turning the metaverse into value, while also extends the scant academic knowledge on the metaverse’ impact on innovation of BMs.     

Technology and Academic Virtue: Student Plagiarism Through the Looking Glass

Plagiarism is the misuse of and failure to acknowledge source materials. This paper questions common responses to the apparent increase in plagiarism by students. Internet plagiarism occurs in a context – using the Internet as an information tool – where the relevant norms are far from obvious and models of virtue are difficult to identify and perhaps impossible to find. Ethical responses to the pervasiveness of Internet-enhanced plagiarism require a reorientation of perspective on both plagiarism and the Internet as a knowledge tool. Technological strategies to “catch the cheats” send a “don’t get caught” message to students and direct the limited resources of academic institutions to a battle that cannot be won. More importantly, it is not the right battleground. Rather than characterising Internet-enabled plagiarism as a problem generated and solvable by emerging technologies, we argue that there is a more urgent need to build the background conditions that enable and sustain ethical relationships and academic virtues: to nurture an intellectual community.     

高能物理实验的数据密集型计算

高能物理一直是信息技术发展的主要推动者之一。现代高能物理产生的海量数据对计算机技术提出巨大的挑战。为了应对这些挑战,国内外高能物理领域的科学家根据数据处理的特点建立新的计算平台用于传输、储存及分析处理PB量级的数据。文章介绍了现代高能物理实验及数据处理的发展,并描述了高能物理的计算模型以及以网格技术为代表的数据密集型计算平台;详细介绍了数据密集型网格平台在LHC实验、BESIII实验中的应用以及中国的数据密集型网格平台。并对云计算等新技术在高能物理领域的应用进行了展望。     

Senior citizens and the ethics of e-inclusion

The ageing society poses significant challenges to Europe’s economy and society. In coming to grips with these issues, we must be aware of their ethical dimensions. Values are the heart of the European Union, as Article 1a of the Lisbon Treaty makes clear: “The Union is founded on the values of respect for human dignity…”. The notion of Europe as a community of values has various important implications, including the development of inclusion policies. A special case of exclusion concerns the gap between those people with effective access to digital and information technology and those without access to it, the “digital divide”, which in Europe is chiefly age-related. Policies to overcome the digital divide and, more generally speaking, e-inclusion policies addressing the ageing population raise some ethical problems. Among younger senior citizens, say those between 65 and 80 years old, the main issues are likely to be universal access to ICT and e-participation. Among the older senior citizens, say those more than 80 years old, the main issues are mental and physical deterioration and assistive technology. An approach geared towards the protection of human rights could match the different needs of senior citizens and provide concrete guidance to evaluate information technologies for them.     

Does physical attractiveness facilitate customer citizenship behaviors? Cross-cultural evidence from the peer-to-peer economy

As customer co-creation behaviors in the peer-to-peer (P2P) economy become an increasingly important part of the global economy, the study of its drivers is of great necessity. One of the important yet overlooked drivers is digital physical attractiveness. This research draws on impression formation theory to examine how physical attractiveness drives customer citizenship behaviors in the P2P economy. More importantly, the current study investigates the non-linear effect of digital physical attractiveness and how the physical attractiveness effect differs across cultures. Two studies are used to test the framework. Study 1 uses secondary data crawled from China’s largest P2P accommodation-sharing platform. Study 2 analyzes the survey data from 533 accommodation-sharing customers in China (n = 213), Hungary (n = 159), and the U.S. (n = 161). Results found an n-shaped (inverted U) physical attractiveness effect in Study 1 in China, but a U-shaped effect in the cross-cultural context. The U-shaped effect is only effective when customers score high on collectivism, low on power distance, or low on masculinity.     

Robust prediction of hourly PM2.5 from meteorological data using LightGBM

Retrieving historical fine particulate matter (PM_2.5) data is key for evaluating the long-term impacts of PM_2.5 on the environment, human health and climate change. Satellite-based aerosol optical depth has been used to estimate PM_2.5, but estimations have largely been undermined by massive missing values, low sampling frequency and weak predictive capability. Here, using a novel feature engineering approach to incorporate spatial effects from meteorological data, we developed a robust LightGBM model that predicts PM_2.5 at an unprecedented predictive capacity on hourly (R² = 0.75), daily (R² = 0.84), monthly (R² = 0.88) and annual (R² = 0.87) timescales. By taking advantage of spatial features, our model can also construct hourly gridded networks of PM_2.5. This capability would be further enhanced if meteorological observations from regional stations were incorporated. Our results show that this model has great potential in reconstructing historical PM_2.5 datasets and real-time gridded networks at high spatial-temporal resolutions. The resulting datasets can be assimilated into models to produce long-term re-analysis that incorporates interactions between aerosols and physical processes.     

泛在知识环境下后数字图书馆发展的思考

泛在知识环境是未来知识型社会的数字化信息基础设施,是数字图书馆发展的终极目标.国外在对数字图书馆反思的基础上,开始了后数字图书馆的探索.后数字图书馆作为泛在的图书馆--超越时空、无所不在,作为智能的图书馆--新技术、新理念广泛应用,作为协同的图书馆--创建高度协同的图书馆联盟和信息服务合作机制,作为场所的图书馆--重新认识和发挥其物理图书馆的作用,作为资源的图书馆--馆藏关注的焦点将从购买资源转向知识管理,作为服务的图书馆--泛在化、人文化、开放化、透明化.     

When digitalized customers meet digitalized services: A digitalized social cognitive perspective of omnichannel service usage

With the prevalence of digital technologies, various services have grown digitalized. Specific to the marketing section, multichannel has been gradually replaced by omnichannel, which aims to integrate all the physical and digital channels tightly. Although omnichannel has received considerable attention, there is still a dearth of research that theorizes the multi-faceted impacts of digitalization on omnichannel. This study thus extends social cognitive theory (SCT) to the digitalized context and contextualizes the digitalized customer and digitalized environment as mobile identity and channel integration quality, respectively. Moreover, based on the self-regulation process of human agency, we incorporate omnichannel self-efficacy, satisfaction, and habit as the agentic factors to interpret a customer’s conscious (ability and expectancy beliefs) and unconscious (automatic behavioral tendency) decision-making under the omnichannel setting. Through an online survey of 401 omnichannel customers, we find support for all the proposed hypotheses. Implications and limitations of this study are further discussed.     

Success breeds success: The linkage between relationship intensity and tangible outcomes in industry–university collaborative ventures

While advancing new technologies has not traditionally been a major focus of industry–university collaboration, this article stresses that industry–university alliances can be instrumental in facilitating the industrial firm's advancement of both knowledge and new technologies. To investigate this phenomenon, this study focuses on industry–university relationships within the context of university research centers. The results from this multi-method, cross-sectional study indicate that a positive, two-way linkage exists between the intensity of industry–university relationships and the level of tangible outcomes generated. Results also show that while organization size and length of relationship do not significantly affect these dynamics, the industrial firm's geographic proximity to the university research center does. The implications of these findings for both industrial firms and universities are discussed.     

中国高通量计算机的自主研发之路

随着互联网技术的迅猛发展,高性能计算的主要应用从传统的科学与工程计算为主逐步演变为以数据处理为核心,这给传统高性能计算机体系结构带来巨大挑战的同时,也使高通量计算应运而生。文章从应用特征出发阐述了高通量计算与传统高性能计算的差别,并探讨了高通量计算的基础理论、关键技术,以及中国科学院在高通量计算核心芯片及系统领域的研究成果;以期通过高通量计算机关键技术的研究与突破,为缓解我国核心芯片"卡脖子"的问题,以及为构建智能万物互联时代的新型高性能计算平台作出贡献。     

Microwells support high-resolution time-lapse imaging and development of preimplanted mouse embryos

A vital aspect affecting the success rate of in vitro fertilization is the culture environment of the embryo. However, what is not yet comprehensively understood is the affect the biochemical, physical, and genetic requirements have over the dynamic development of human or mouse preimplantation embryos. The conventional microdrop technique often cultures embryos in groups, which limits the investigation of the microenvironment of embryos. We report an open microwell platform, which enables micropipette manipulation and culture of embryos in defined sub-microliter volumes without valves. The fluidic environment of each microwell is secluded from others by layering oil on top, allowing for non-invasive, high-resolution time-lapse microscopy, and data collection from each individual embryo without confounding factors. We have successfully cultured mouse embryos from the two-cell stage to completely hatched blastocysts inside microwells with an 89% success rate (n = 64), which is comparable to the success rate of the contemporary practice. Development timings of mouse embryos that developed into blastocysts are statistically different to those of embryos that failed to form blastocysts (p–value < 10⁻¹⁰, two-tailed Student''s t-test) and are robust indicators of the competence of the embryo to form a blastocyst in vitro with 94% sensitivity and 100% specificity. Embryos at the cleavage- or blastocyst-stage following the normal development timings were selected and transferred to the uteri of surrogate female mice. Fifteen of twenty-two (68%) blastocysts and four of ten (40%) embryos successfully developed into normal baby mice following embryo transfer. This microwell platform, which supports the development of preimplanted embryos and is low-cost, easy to fabricate and operate, we believe, opens opportunities for a wide range of applications in reproductive medicine and cell biology.     

Going beyond technology: Knowledge sharing as a tool for enhancing customer-oriented attitudes

Numerous articles, books and essays have shown that ongoing efforts to meet customers’ needs characterize market leaders. For a firm to successfully develop customer-oriented attitudes throughout the entire organization, employees at all levels and sections need to be committed to providing a high level of service. It is therefore essential to understand what drives employees – especially those who do not interact daily with customers – to adopt a customer-oriented attitude. The aim of this study is to shed some light on one facet of this relationship, namely the mechanism of knowledge sharing that may impact employee customer orientation. The underlying notion is that technology, in its various advanced forms of CRM software, enhances and enables client “knowing.” In other words, it leads to a greater ability on the part of employees to share knowledge, which brings about real customer orientation.This paper provides empirical evidence, based on a sample of 345 Hi-Tech workers from a telecommunication company, of a link between sharing explicit knowledge and tacit knowledge to enhance customer orientation. The findings indicate that sharing tacit knowledge has a positive effect on increasing employee customer orientation and increases sharing of explicit knowledge, while also strengthening communication about customers in the organization. It is concluded that firms should encourage tacit knowledge sharing and its transformation by technology into explicit knowledge to augment employees’ customer-oriented attitudes.     

公共数字文化服务体系的要素协同研究

当前针对公共数字文化服务体系及其关键要素的研究并不多见。文章着眼于公共数字文化服务体系的构建,为公共数字文化服务实践提供理论上的借鉴。文章引入协同学理论,分析其对公共数字文化服务的适用性,提出公共数字文化服务体系的概念模型,并利用调研数据验证了公共数字文化服务体系的模型。文章认为作为要素的信息主体、信息环境、信息内容相互作用可形成公共数字文化服务体系。作为信息主体的社会主体不仅直接作用于服务内容,其还通过影响保障环境影响服务内容。研究表明在公共数字文化服务中,社会主体、保障环境、服务内容三者相互作用能更好实现公共数字文化服务体系的有效布局。