1,721,125 research outputs found
Data-imagined decision making in organizations: do visualization tools run in the family?
No full textThis paper reports of an experimental crossover between two different perspectives of organizational activities: decision making and data management. Although there are ever growing contact points between the two, it is also true that in enterprises data-driven decision making often shows many room for improvements. A converging direction of these two aspects of organizational routine could be that of comparing and coupling decision making steps, activities and characteristics with data visualization properties, capabilities and enablers of information sharing and assimilation. This study goes in this direction, by proposing an exploratory analysis of decision making models and data visualization characteristics in order to extract a set of common aspects of decision making and to configure a set of connections between them and data visualization tools features. These connections may serve to investigate the strength of synergies between decision making activities and data management visualization, their effectiveness for data-driven decision making and the margin of improvements with respect to the current decision routines in enterprises. This study contributes to set the terrain for making a clearer picture of the strengths and weaknesses of data-driven decision making, to find implications for design of data visualization tools for supporting decision making activities, and to provide indications of how proactively data visualization toolboxes should run in the family at all decision levels and for each role in organizations
3D printing objects as knowledge artifacts for a do-it-yourself approach in clinical practice: a questionnaire-based user study in the orthopaedics domain
No full textPurpose. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the phenomenon of the digital do-it-yourself (DiDIY) in the medical domain. In particular, the main contribution of the paper is the analysis and discussion of a questionnaire-based user study focused on 3D printing (3DP) technology, which was conducted among clinicians of one of the most important research hospital group in Lombardy, Italy.
Design/methodology/approach. A general reflection on the notion of knowledge artifacts (KAs) and on the use of 3DP in medicine is followed by the research questions and by a more detailed analysis of the specialist literature on the usage of 3DP technology for diagnostic, training and surgical planning activities for clinicians and patients. The questionnaire-based user study design is then emerging from the conceptual framework for DiDIY in healthcare. To help focus on the main actors and assets composing the 3DP innovation roles in healthcare, the authors model: the DiDIY-er as the main initiator of the practice innovation; the available technology allowing the envisioning of new practices; the specific activities gaining benefits from the innovative techniques introduced; and the knowledge community continuously supporting and evolving knowledge practices.
Findings. The authors discuss the results of the user study in the light of the four main components of our DiDIY framework and on the notion of KA. There are differences between high expertise, or senior, medical doctors (MDs) and relatively lower expertise MDs, or younger MDs, regarding the willing to acquire 3DP competences; those who have seen other colleagues using 3DP are significantly more in favor of 3DP adoption in medical practices, and those who wish to acquire 3DP competence and do-by-themselves are significantly more interested in the making of custom-made patient-specific tools, such as cutting guides and templates; there are many recurrent themes regarding how 3DP usage and application may improve medical practice. In each of the free-text questions, there were comments regarding the impact of 3DP on medical knowledge practices, such as surgical rehearsal, surgery, pathology comprehension, patient-physician communication and teaching.
Originality/value. The 3DP adoption in healthcare is seen favorably and advocated by most of the respondents. In this domain, 3DP objects can be considered KAs legitimately. They can support knowledgeable practices, promote knowledge sharing and circulation in the healthcare community, as well as contribute to their improvement by the introduction of a new DiDIY mindset in the everyday work of MDs
Reporting Some Marginal Discourses to Root a De-design Approach in IS Development
No full textIn this work, we challenge the concept of design in the development of information systems. Information systems are usually considered to be so complex systems that they simply cannot be developed outside of a specific activity of planning. However, in the specialized literature, some voices have also been raised saying that it is this situated and contingent complexity that always prevents information systems from having been really effectively designed. These voices have so far criticized the formal and methodical approaches in IS design, and not design itself, thus exonerating the role of the modernist designer from the current rate of failure and user dissatisfaction in IT projects. The current idea of designer has reinforced over time a divide between modeling and practicing, design and use, and the hegemony of the planning mind over that of the performer. The current convergence of networked application paradigms and the Web 2.0 infrastructure has led to agile methods, open design concepts and on the idea of a prosuming user. This paper outlines some discourses in IS research that could challenge the more traditional ones in current IT design, and argues about the importance to revamp some of the most important socio-technical principles for maintaining a critical gaze on positivistic and automation stances, mitigating the effects of the modernist over-design attitude, and make IS development more sustainable
More time for the doing, having made the thinking 3D printing for knowledge circulation in healthcare
No full textThis paper investigates the phenomenon of the Digital Do-It-Yourself (Di-DIY) in the medical domain. In particular, the main contribution of the paper is a conceptual framework based on the notion of DiDIY in healthcare. To help focus on the main actors and assets composing the 3D printing innovation roles in healthcare we model: the DiDIY-er as the main initiator of the practice innovation; the available technology allowing the envisioning of new practices; the specific activities gaining benefits from the innovative techniques introduced; and the knowledge community continuously supporting and evolving knowledge practices. A general introduction on the notion of Knowledge Artifacts (KAs) and on the use of 3D printing (3DP) in medicine will be followed by our research questions and by a more detailed analysis of diagnostic, training and surgical planning activities for clinicians and patients. Observations carried out in a hospital in Italy are reported to exemplify activities based on 3DP bone models in the radiological and orthopaedic fields. These observations can be considered a second contribution of the paper, although secondary with respect to the conceptual framework. They also help proof how knowledge sharing and circulation in the community of healthcare professionals may be improved by the introduction of tangible and intangible KAs around the practice of DiDIY. Our framework is then presented in the end.9-11 November 201
Trading off between control and autonomy: a narrative review around de-design
No full textIn this work, we provide an overview of contemporary perspectives of design that may challenge the traditional design of IT and socio-technical systems. Our starting metaphor is that of 'wicked problems', where the singularity, incompleteness and intrinsic uncertainty of real world settings foregrounds how the worldview that designers offer to practitioners may be optimal in theory but useless in practice. To go beyond traditional notions of design and designer, we intercepted insights coming from minoritarian voices in both theoretic and practice-based design fields. 'De-design' is a term we coined to encompass this wide spectrum of approaches that make more resilient and sustainable information artifact, de-emphasize design as a theoretical construct, and reconsider practice as the leading principle of digital innovation. This paper is a narrative review of voices in an extensive array of fields: from Information Systems to Human-Computer Interaction, from End-User Development to Critical Design, from Software Design to Design Studies. Our contribution retraces the motivational roots of de-design and tries to characterise de-design by filling relational gaps between disparate approaches and by bringing them back to IT and socio-technical design, to make digital artifacts sustainable in all of the new environmental, organisational and cultural spaces near to come
The CIO and CDO Socio-technical Roles in the Age of Digital Business Transformation: An Interpretive Study
No full textIn this paper, a socio-technical perspective on the roles of Chief Information Officer (CIO) and Chief Digital Officer (CDO) is introduced, and a model of interpretation of their respective roles, their potential interplay and idiosyncrasies is presented and discussed. We start our analysis by proposing a socio-technical model based on typologies of CIOs and IT roles, as well as CIOs and Business Visions, and CIOs and Interpersonal roles taken from the literature, and used as a lens for viewing whether and how CDOs may fit into this model, collaborate with CIOs in pursuing the IT-business alignment vision, or should necessarily clash on the same territory. This model is then used to interpret the results of two empirical analysis about the evolution of CIOs and CDOs roles in Digital Business Transformation scenarios. We carried out interviews directly to CIOs of Italian companies, and use transcripts of online interviews to CDOs of American companies. Both materials deal with the themes of Digital Business Transformation and Strategy, of CIO/CDO’s profiles, and of attitudes toward tech trends such as Big Data, Internet of Things and 3D Printing. Notwithstanding their differences, these voices helped us understand what are the possible futures and configurations of CIO and CDO roles in organizations, in a fast changing innovation scenario like the one emerging from our analysis
Digital Transformation Projects Maturity and Managerial Competences: A Model and Its Preliminary Assessment
No full textThis paper sheds light on an overlooked aspect of Digital Transformation processes and projects: the managerial competences necessary to make them happen, evolve and be achieved. Many technology maturity models are discussed in the literature, but little or no mention is done regarding how to model and assess the broader set of managerial competences (i.e., knowledge, skill and experience) besides the technical ones, which managerial roles should exhibit in each phase of the maturity models proposed. This paper discusses some of these maturity models and motivates a new one focused on Digital Transformation maturity in the direction of filling this gap. The model is then presented in its conceptual design as well as in its empirical assessment. A couple of pilot interviews to Italian companies are also discussed as a preliminary test of the main feelings about it and as a ground for our final refinements and future works upon it
The Italian Academic Research System and Its Evaluation: A Conceptual Framework Inception
No full textIn this paper, we introduce the main topics and the initial settings of an Italian PRIN project aimed at investigating how the systematic adoption of systems for the evaluation of research in the Italian academic context may influence research outcomes. We motivate the need to adopt and adapt a conceptual framework, which may identify, define and describe the relevant entities involved in the evaluation process, their measurable properties and relations. We then present the first draft of an ontology derived from an existing ontology about the academic world, namely the VIVO ontology, and the criteria for its design. We report the steps taken to modify the received ontology in order to fit it to our purposes, with an interdisciplinary contribution to the selection and adaptation of entities. Novel considerations about the use of formal conceptual systems and the contribution of our work to the socio-technical view are finally drawn, and some further directions of the project are proposed
IGV Short Scale to Assess Implicit Value of Visualizations through Explicit Interaction
Full text linkThis paper reports the assessment of the infographics-value (IGV) short scale, designed to measure the value in the use of infographics. The scale was made to assess the implicit quality dimensions of infographics. These dimensions were experienced during the execution of tasks in a contextualized scenario. Users were asked to retrieve a piece of information by explicitly interacting with the infographics. After usage, they were asked to rate quality dimensions of infographics, namely, usefulness, intuitiveness, clarity, informativity, and beauty; the overall value perceived from interacting with infographics was also included in the survey. Each quality dimension was coded as a six-point rating scale item, with overall value included. The proposed IGV short scale model was validated with 650 people. Our analysis confirmed that all considered dimensions in our scale were independently significant and contributed to assessing the implicit value of infographics. The IGV short scale is a lightweight but exhaustive tool to rapidly assess the implicit value of an explicit interaction with infographics in daily tasks, where value in use is crucial to measuring the situated effectiveness of visual tools. View Full-Tex
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