User Behavior in Ubiquitous Online Environments

A book edited by Dr. Jean-Eric PELET (KMCMS, IDRAC, Lyon, University of Nantes, France) & Dr. Peggy PAPADOPOULOU (National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece) Department of Informatics and Telecommunications

To be published by IGI Global: http://www.igi-global.com/publish/call-for-papers/call-details/841

Authors

Vathiswa Booi
Latifa Chaari
Madhavi Chakrabarty
Kunihiro Chida
Primavera De Filippi
George Ditsa
Said Ettis
Valérie Fernandez
Shang Gao
Yuuki Kato
Shogo Kato
Anna Kasimati
Haikel-Elsabeh Marie Nour
Laurie Marrauld
Yuanxin Wang

Vathiswa Booi

Vathiswa Booi is currently a Lecturer at the Tshwane University Technology in Pretoria, South Africa. She holds a B.Tech. (Hons) degree in Information Technology and an M.Tech. degree in Information Networks. Her current research interests include Mobile & Pervasive Computing, Agent Based Models and Human Computer Interaction (HCI). Miss Booi has published a number of scholarly articles including a book chapter and many refereed conference papers.

Abstract

"Long Abstract There are growing concerns over the user friendliness and other usability issues of South African Universities Web Portal Interfaces (UWPIs), which obviously will negate the user acceptance of the UWPIs. The main goal of this study is to develop a framework which could be used to evaluate and provide additional guidelines to improve the Usability and User Acceptance of South African UWPIs. The study applied a triangulation of Ubiquitous computing Evaluation Areas (UEAs) and Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) as theoretical foundations to derive the research model for this study. Multiple regression and stepwise regression analysis were used. The results suggest that Interaction and Invisibility of UWPIs are the most important measures that have a huge impact on user acceptance and usability respectively. The results of the study will provide guidelines for the design and development of South Africa UWPIs to meet their usability and user acceptance. This study is about the usability and user acceptance of Web Portal Interfaces in South African universities. Usability and user acceptance problems of Computer System Websites and Interfaces attracted many researchers from different domains such as psychology, human factors, human computer interaction and management because of the occurrences of problems and the growing concerns associated with them. Human Computer Interaction (HCI) standards have three goals that must be met when designing interfaces (Battleson, 2000): (a) provide support to enable users to achieve their goals and to meet their needs; (b) provide the ease of use with minimal errors; and (c) provide a pleasant interface design. Even though Websites or Web Portal Interfaces may be highly usable and may be considered as such, there are no guarantees that they will be acceptable to the users (Davis, 1989). Battleson (2000) further argues that HCI research concentrate on usability as if it is a prerequisite of acceptance and overlooked some concepts of acceptability of new technologies. Two major methodologies for usability testing, which are laboratory studies (user participation) and field studies were identified in the work of Zhang and Adipat (2005). Interface design process involves user participation and it has been considered as the best practice in the HCI domain and it was used in this study. Introduction Computer System Websites and Interfaces can only add value to institutions or individuals if the systems are usable and acceptable. In his work Nielson (1993), defines usability as a quality characteristic that measures how easy the user interfaces are for the user to use. The Higher Education Sector in South Africa consists of 23 universities, which are categories as follows: 11 traditional universities; 6 comprehensive universities (merger between Traditional universities and Technikons); and 6 universities of technology (merger between Technikons). All these universities have one major goal, which is to provide quality information and knowledge to students, staff and the general public to sustain competitive advantage locally and globally. Web portals are provided as means of making sure that the universities achieve this goal. Research Problem Web portal interfaces suffer from a number of weaknesses such as technical difficulties, user unfriendliness and other usability issues. There are increasing alarms over the technical difficulties, user friendliness and other usability issues of South African UWPIs. Some of these issues raised the question whether these web portal interfaces are evaluated for their usability and user acceptance. These usability issues will obviously have a negative impact on the user acceptance of the UWPIs. University web portals and their interfaces being ubiquitous computing applications, the research problem that this study therefore sought to provide answers to is: what ubiquitous criteria should be used in evaluating South African Universities Web Portal Interfaces for their usability and user acceptance? Following from the purpose of the study and research problem, the main objective addressed in this study is to select and use appropriate usability and user acceptance criteria to evaluate South African UWPIs for their Usability and User Acceptance and to suggest an improvement on them. Research Model and Hypotheses The study applied a triangulation of the Ubiquitous computing Evaluation Areas (UEAs) framework and the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) as theoretical foundations to derive the research model for this study. Based on the research model hypotheses were formulated and tested. Data Collections and Results A total number of 200 questionnaires were distributed and 180 returned. Of the total 180 returned, 118 questionnaires were suitable for analysis. The data collected was analysed using SPSS. In order to identify the variables that were relatively important in determining Usability leading to User Acceptance of UWPIs, Multiple Regression analysis was performed. In this study’s analysis, a variable was not entered into regression model unless the p-value for that variable was less than or equal to 0.05. The same level was also set for removal of variables. A stepwise regression was used by allowing addition and removal of variables at various steps in progressively building the regression model. The results of the Pearson’s Product-moment correlations indicated that the majority of correlations were statistically significant. The highest correlation reported was between Invisibility of the UWPIs and usability of UWPIs (H4, r = 0.720). The research questions which were addressed using multiple regression analysis and the stepwise regression analysis showed that Appeal, Application Robustness and Invisibility constructs from the UEAs have no significant contribution towards User Acceptance. The results also suggest that invisibility and interaction of South African UWPIs have a great impact on user usability and acceptance respectively. The results of the study will provide guidelines for the development of South African UWPIs to meet usability and user acceptance. Based on the findings presented, the overall conclusion that can be drawn for this study is that: Interaction, Appeal, Application Robustness and Invisibility measures represent important variables that explain how the UWPIs are evaluated as well as the criteria which users use for evaluating UWPIs. Their importance from the most influential to the least influential is Invisibility, Interaction, Appeal and Application Robustness. The results of the study will provide guidelines for the development of South African UWPIs to meet their usability and user acceptance. Theoretically, the study is significant in providing a framework for research into UWPIs usability and user acceptance. Practically, the results of this study will provide guidelines for designers/developers, particularly in South Africa. References Battleson, B., Booth A., & Weintrop J. (2000). Usability testing for an Academic Library website: A Case Study. The Journal of Librarianship, 27(3), 188- 198. Davis, F. D. (1989). Perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and user acceptance. MIS Quarterly, 13 (3), 319-340. Dillon, A. & Morris, M.G.(1996). User acceptance of information technology. Theories and models. In M. Williams ed. Annual Review of Information Science and Technology, Vol. 31, Medford NJ: Information Today, 3-32. Scholtz, J. & Consolvo, S., 2004. Applications towards a framework for evaluating ubiquitous computing applications. Pervasive computing, April- June, 82-88CHI. Zhang, D., Adipat, B. (2005). Challenges, methodologies, and issue in usability testing of mobile applications: International journal of Human Computer Interaction 18(3)"

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Latifa Chaari

Latifa Chaari is a Contractual Assistant Professor at Manouba University, The Higher Institute of Accountancy and Entrepreneurial Administration, Department of Management in Tunisia. Ph D Student at the Higher Institute of Management of Tunis. His general interests include Information Systems, Management sciences, and Information and Communication Technologies. Dr Latifa Chaari is particularly interested in the Psychological aspects in Technology-mediated Communication.

Abstract

"This research aims at better understanding the behavior of the internet user. It suggests studying the role of communication on the trust of Internet users towards commercial websites. In order to realize this research, we have mobilized the Communicative Action Theory of Jürgen Habermas (1987). Therefore, we have brought a new perspective in understanding online trust following action theory. For Habermas, communication is an action which depends on contextual, cultural and human factors, which cannot be reduced to deterministic mechanisms. He deals with two types of action which an actor might pursue following his interests that can be instrumental, strategic or emancipatory. The instrumental and strategic are purposive-rational actions which aim at achieving success and at developing a calculated trust based on calculation of the advantages and the costs of the relation, whereas, the communicative action is coordinated by mutual understanding that allows the development of a relational trust based on social interactions. In communicative action, mutual understanding through language allows the social integration of actors and the coordination of their plans and their different interests. In this case, trust is based on common definition of the situation and the resolution of conflicts of interests between actors. Technology Internet is a medium of communication that can support the three kinds of action. The instrumental and strategic actions allow the development of calculated trust, whereas the communicative action allows the development of relational trust based on social interaction and mutual comprehension. According to Habermas, the economic system is guided by an instrumental (technical) rationality. On the other hand, life world is a cultural resource guided by communicative action which enables common construction of sense and providing a communicative rationality. The lack of communicative activity is explained by the colonization of the life world by instrumental and strategic rationality (Habermas, 1987; Salter, 2005). The colonization aspects of web site, as a technology that support the interests of economic sphere, are at the origin of lack of online trust and their resistance from buying online. The emancipatory interests of consumer can only be achieved through open an equal discourse that guarantees the participation of all actors."

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Madhavi Chakrabarty

"Madhavi Chakrabarty is a user experience specialist at Verizon Wireless and an Adjunct Professor with Rutgers University. Her areas of expertise include information representation, cognitive processes in decision making, visual problem solving, multi-modal communications and cognitive design in human computer interaction. She received her Ph.D. (Jan 2010) in Information Systems from New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark NJ and her Masters in Computer Applications from Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi, India. Before earning her Ph.D, Madhavi worked as a IT professional for several years in varied roles as a developer, project manager, and consultant for organizations like IBM, AstraZeneca, TMI, Nuance, Avaya and Morotola. As an independent researcher and writer, Madhavi’s areas of interests include information representation, user and customer experience. She collaborates with different research and learning organizations in her research initiatives. She has publications in refereed peer reviewed journals and books and numerous conference presentations. Madhavi works with school and college level students in helping them understand concepts of problem solving, improvisation and creative solutions. She currently serves as a Parent Coach for a group of elementary school students in “Odyssey of the Mind Experience”.

Abstract

"Knowledge management systems can be defined as systems that support creation, transfer and application of knowledge in organizations. A good knowledge management system helps to maintain the tacit and explicit knowledge of its users and the success of an organizational knowledge management system depends on how effectively it can be used by its user base at the time of need. To make a knowledge management system effective, it has to be easy to access, and provide accurate information in a timely manner. Organizations constantly strive to make their knowledge management systems more effective by improving the richness of the systems and increasing the reach of the knowledge resources to help employees in their job functions. Some of the techniques recommended by experts to improve access to knowledge resources include providing a search feature so that employees can access information from large knowledge resources. Inclusion of search is the most recommended and advocated technique in most organizations though there are not many studies to confirm it. Other ways to improve access and usability of organizational knowledge sources include improving the user interface of the systems and creating a directed navigation where the system is designed to mimic the transactions that users are expected to perform. Even as knowledge management systems are becoming more efficient and robust, the organizational landscapes are also evolving. One noticeable change that impacts the design and development of knowledge management systems is that more and more organizations now have a mobile employee base. The inclusion of mobile employees has created the need to provide access to organizational information anytime and anywhere. As a result, organizations are seeking a solution that serves the need of a mobility agnostic solution for a knowledge management system. Current techniques of usability and user feedback techniques to gather requirements have shown that overwhelmingly, the users perceive the inclusion of a “Google” search engine implemented at an organizational level to be the best solution. However, in technical terms, the limitation or drawback of just mobilizing the existing knowledge resources is not necessarily the result of an underperforming search engine. An internet search engine like Google works better in chaotic data because chaotic data accounts for ambiguity of search terms, different vocabularies, and user description of the problem used by the users. An organizational knowledge management system on the other hand is very structured and consistent when it comes to using terms and definitions. When employees look for information based on user queries, their language may not always reflect the language used by the subject matter experts of the organization. As a result the performance of the search engines like Google is not always the optimal solution. With the mobilization of organizations, the employees and the workplace, there is a need to mobilize the learning and reference content for the employees. This helps the employees to keep up with the organizations’ needs and helps them to complete their job responsibilities more effectively. The challenge for the knowledge managers is to enable mobile organizational knowledge resources to its employees at any time or at any place. Currently, many organizations were willing to invest in new technologies and infrastructure to support the growing needs of the business and its employees. The need to mobilize the systems have come as a boon to the knowledge managers who see this new requirement as a chance to revamp the existing knowledge management systems from scratch rather than go for a iterative update or facelift on an existing system. Understanding the specific needs of a new knowledge management system can be derived from investigations that go beyond user feedback. This chapter provides the insight into some of the challenges in organizational knowledge management systems and the implications of designing a mobile system. When user feedback techniques like focus groups and surveys do not yield any actionable items for the knowledge managers to formalize their requirements for a new system, it becomes necessary to find alternate mechanisms to understand user behavior in the existing systems and how the behavior would be impacted when the system is mobilized. In other words, the challenge is to understand what the users need and not what the users want. For mobile systems it also translates into understanding what resources need to be included in the system and how it can be accessed in the system. This chapter presents one approach to answer the “what” and the “how”. The “what” is answered using a combination of available log files and interactive sessions like card-sorting. The “how” is answered by understanding the system characteristics that can or cannot be used on the mobile device. System log files, page view information, and navigation information like start point and end point helps to understand the user’s choice of path in the existing systems. This is called content footprint. Understanding when the users choose one type of content over the other and how users navigate through the content helps to identify the different content types, the relative importance and usage frequency. Search logs from the knowledge management systems can help understand the specific pieces of information that users look for in the organization. It can also provide an insight into the vocabulary of the employees and the customers being served by the employees. Since the employees search the knowledge base in response to a customer’s query, most often they repeat the same words or phrase in the search engine. Analyzing and normalizing the search logs help to identify and remove language ambiguity and wording inconsistencies. The navigation elements of the system including the taxonomy and metadata can be designed based on the results of card-sorting exercise where system users can categorize and rank different chunks of information based on how they are used. Card sorting exercise can be repeated with different user groups with various job responsibilities to understand how content was perceived and used differently by different user groups. Once the navigation elements are decided, the next step is to answer how to place these navigational elements on the mobile interface. The navigation of the system can be designed as a function of the surface area of the mobile device to facilitate the use of muscle memory of the user. Specific areas on the surface can be assigned to different content types to facilitate the use of the users muscle memory. The choice of location and content type needs to be predefined and fixed. A layout configuration that supports the user’s cognitive load and helps them navigate the system with the same ease as a television remote control or a car’s dashboard needs to be decided. A few configurations are presented in the chapter to help users select the most suitable layout. Changing the location of the navigation elements without proper thought can lead to poor user experience."

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Kunihiro Chida

Kunihiro Chida is a professional Japanese animation artist in Toei Animation Institute. His main work is many background pictures for internationally-renowned animations, “One Piece”, “Dragon Ball”, “Dr. Slump” and so on. His general research interests are applications to computer-mediated communications of “Image BG”, a technique for expressing the emotional states of animated characters in background images.

Abstract

This study investigated the timing of replies to mobile phone text messages focusing especially on the timing of replies from the perspective of the “recipient” of the message. In a previous study, we evaluated the timing of replies and the emotional strategies associated with such timing from the perspective of the “sender,” and found they employed an emotional strategy whereby they ‘waited’ before responding to mobile text messages in order to continue positive communication”. In the present study, we examined if the same strategy is as effective from the perspective of recipients of the messages. Specifically, study participants were asked by questionnaire to rate what emotions they would feel and to what degree when the other party waited before replying to the mobile text messages the participants had sent, where the message sent had conveyed one of four emotions: happiness, sadness, anger, or guilt. These four emotional scenarios are the same as used in our previous study, to allow for comparative analysis of the two studies. Additionally, participants in the present study were asked to provide freeform responses for scenarios where they feel it is desirable to wait before replying themselves. The results showed differences between the emotional strategic intent of senders for waiting before replying, as determined in the previous study, and how this was actually perceived by the recipients. The results suggest that there are gaps in perception between senders and recipients regarding the intentional manipulation of reply timing (especially waiting before replying). One suggested gap is that senders that intentionally manipulate the timing of replies for negative or hostile emotions such as sadness, anger, or guilt, actually run the risk of making the recipient feel the opposite of the sender’s intended outcome.

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Primavera De Filippi

Primavera De Filippi is a researcher at the CERSA / CNRS / Université Paris II; representative of Creative Commons France and coordinator of the Public Domain working group at the Open Knowldege Foundation.

Abstract

This paper will analyse the evolution of the Internet, shifting from a decentralized architecture designed around the end-to-end principle with powerful mainframe/personal computers at each end, to a more centralized network designed according to the mainframe model, with increasingly weaker user’s devices that no longer have the ability to run a server nor to process any consistent amount of data or information. The advantages of ubiquitous computing (allowing data to become available from anywhere and at any time, regardless of the device) should thus be counterbalanced with the costs it entails (loss of users’ autonomy, concerns as regards privacy and freedom of expression, etc).

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George Ditsa

Dr. George Ditsa is currently an Associate Professor at the Tshwane University Technology in Pretoria, South Africa. He holds a B.Sc. (Hons) degree in Computer Science, an MBA (IS) and PhD (IS) degrees. Dr. Ditsa worked for many years as a programmer/analyst and project team leader in various organizations before joining the academia. Dr. Ditsa currently lectures and researches in Information Systems (IS) and related disciplines. Dr. Ditsa has won a number of research grants and awards. His current research interests include Strategic IS Management, IS Project Management, Cultural Issues in IS management, Knowledge management & Knowledge Management Systems, Mobile & Pervasive Computing, ICT for Development and Human Computer Interaction (HCI). Dr. Ditsa has supervised a number of postgraduate students in his research interest areas. Dr. is currently an Associated Editor of two journals and he is on the editorial review board of five journals. He also serves as an External Theses Examiner for some universities. Dr. Ditsa has published a number of scholarly articles including a book, book chapters, journal papers and many refereed conference papers.

Abstract

"Evaluation of South African Universities Web Portal Interfaces using a Triangulation of Ubiquitous Computing Evaluation Areas and Technology Acceptance Model Vathiswa M. Booi and George E.M.Ditsa Faculty of Information & Communication Technology Tshwane University of Technology Pretoria, South Africa BooiVM@tut.ac.za, DitsaGE@tut.ac.za Long Abstract There are growing concerns over the user friendliness and other usability issues of South African Universities Web Portal Interfaces (UWPIs), which obviously will negate the user acceptance of the UWPIs. The main goal of this study is to develop a framework which could be used to evaluate and provide additional guidelines to improve the Usability and User Acceptance of South African UWPIs. The study applied a triangulation of Ubiquitous computing Evaluation Areas (UEAs) and Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) as theoretical foundations to derive the research model for this study. Multiple regression and stepwise regression analysis were used. The results suggest that Interaction and Invisibility of UWPIs are the most important measures that have a huge impact on user acceptance and usability respectively. The results of the study will provide guidelines for the design and development of South Africa UWPIs to meet their usability and user acceptance. This study is about the usability and user acceptance of Web Portal Interfaces in South African universities. Usability and user acceptance problems of Computer System Websites and Interfaces attracted many researchers from different domains such as psychology, human factors, human computer interaction and management because of the occurrences of problems and the growing concerns associated with them. Human Computer Interaction (HCI) standards have three goals that must be met when designing interfaces (Battleson, 2000): (a) provide support to enable users to achieve their goals and to meet their needs; (b) provide the ease of use with minimal errors; and (c) provide a pleasant interface design. Even though Websites or Web Portal Interfaces may be highly usable and may be considered as such, there are no guarantees that they will be acceptable to the users (Davis, 1989). Battleson (2000) further argues that HCI research concentrate on usability as if it is a prerequisite of acceptance and overlooked some concepts of acceptability of new technologies. Two major methodologies for usability testing, which are laboratory studies (user participation) and field studies were identified in the work of Zhang and Adipat (2005). Interface design process involves user participation and it has been considered as the best practice in the HCI domain and it was used in this study. Introduction Computer System Websites and Interfaces can only add value to institutions or individuals if the systems are usable and acceptable. In his work Nielson (1993), defines usability as a quality characteristic that measures how easy the user interfaces are for the user to use. The Higher Education Sector in South Africa consists of 23 universities, which are categories as follows: 11 traditional universities; 6 comprehensive universities (merger between Traditional universities and Technikons); and 6 universities of technology (merger between Technikons). All these universities have one major goal, which is to provide quality information and knowledge to students, staff and the general public to sustain competitive advantage locally and globally. Web portals are provided as means of making sure that the universities achieve this goal. Research Problem Web portal interfaces suffer from a number of weaknesses such as technical difficulties, user unfriendliness and other usability issues. There are increasing alarms over the technical difficulties, user friendliness and other usability issues of South African UWPIs. Some of these issues raised the question whether these web portal interfaces are evaluated for their usability and user acceptance. These usability issues will obviously have a negative impact on the user acceptance of the UWPIs. University web portals and their interfaces being ubiquitous computing applications, the research problem that this study therefore sought to provide answers to is: what ubiquitous criteria should be used in evaluating South African Universities Web Portal Interfaces for their usability and user acceptance? Following from the purpose of the study and research problem, the main objective addressed in this study is to select and use appropriate usability and user acceptance criteria to evaluate South African UWPIs for their Usability and User Acceptance and to suggest an improvement on them. Research Model and Hypotheses The study applied a triangulation of the Ubiquitous computing Evaluation Areas (UEAs) framework and the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) as theoretical foundations to derive the research model for this study. Based on the research model hypotheses were formulated and tested. Data Collections and Results A total number of 200 questionnaires were distributed and 180 returned. Of the total 180 returned, 118 questionnaires were suitable for analysis. The data collected was analysed using SPSS. In order to identify the variables that were relatively important in determining Usability leading to User Acceptance of UWPIs, Multiple Regression analysis was performed. In this study’s analysis, a variable was not entered into regression model unless the p-value for that variable was less than or equal to 0.05. The same level was also set for removal of variables. A stepwise regression was used by allowing addition and removal of variables at various steps in progressively building the regression model. The results of the Pearson’s Product-moment correlations indicated that the majority of correlations were statistically significant. The highest correlation reported was between Invisibility of the UWPIs and usability of UWPIs (H4, r = 0.720). The research questions which were addressed using multiple regression analysis and the stepwise regression analysis showed that Appeal, Application Robustness and Invisibility constructs from the UEAs have no significant contribution towards User Acceptance. The results also suggest that invisibility and interaction of South African UWPIs have a great impact on user usability and acceptance respectively. The results of the study will provide guidelines for the development of South African UWPIs to meet usability and user acceptance. Based on the findings presented, the overall conclusion that can be drawn for this study is that: Interaction, Appeal, Application Robustness and Invisibility measures represent important variables that explain how the UWPIs are evaluated as well as the criteria which users use for evaluating UWPIs. Their importance from the most influential to the least influential is Invisibility, Interaction, Appeal and Application Robustness. The results of the study will provide guidelines for the development of South African UWPIs to meet their usability and user acceptance. Theoretically, the study is significant in providing a framework for research into UWPIs usability and user acceptance. Practically, the results of this study will provide guidelines for designers/developers, particularly in South Africa. References Battleson, B., Booth A., & Weintrop J. (2000). Usability testing for an Academic Library website: A Case Study. The Journal of Librarianship, 27(3), 188- 198. Davis, F. D. (1989). Perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and user acceptance. MIS Quarterly, 13 (3), 319-340. Dillon, A. & Morris, M.G.(1996). User acceptance of information technology. Theories and models. In M. Williams ed. Annual Review of Information Science and Technology, Vol. 31, Medford NJ: Information Today, 3-32. Scholtz, J. & Consolvo, S., 2004. Applications towards a framework for evaluating ubiquitous computing applications. Pervasive computing, April- June, 82-88CHI. Zhang, D., Adipat, B. (2005). Challenges, methodologies, and issue in usability testing of mobile applications: International journal of Human Computer Interaction 18(3)"

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Saïd Ettis

Saïd Ettis is an Assistant Professor at the University of Gabes, Higher Institute of Management (ISG), Gabes, Tunisia, and a member of the Research Unit: The Enterprise, Economy and Environment (3E), Tunisia. He holds the Ph.D from Higher Institute of Economics and Management – IAE (IEMN-IAE), University of Nantes, France. He teaches Marketing, E-marketing, Market Research, and Management. His research interests are related to consumer behavior and Human-Computer Interactions.

Mediated Communication Technology has undergone significant development over the past decades. They tend to utilise multiple media and richer graphical interfaces to excite and engage the user. Recently, new forms of communication and technology are emerging such as virtual reality display function, 3D graphics, video, interface avatars, online chat, and recommendation tools (Zhao & Dholakia, 2009). One key advantage of these web 2.0 interactive technologies is that they provide users with a higher level of telepresence (or presence) within their virtual environment (Siriaraya & Ang, 2012). This heightened level of telepresence could potentially result in a more satisfying and immersive experience. This experience allows users to perceive an augmented sense of flow; a state of total concentration and enjoyment (Jahn, Drengner, & Furchheim, 2013; Koufaris, 2002; Novak, Hoffman & Yung, 2000; Wang, Baker, Wagner, & Wakefield, 2007). Practitioners and academics alike have recognised telepresence and flow as a key attribute of the user interaction experience with new media (Mollen & Wilson, 2010; Tikkanen, Hietanen, Henttonen, & Rokka, 2009; Wang, Yang, & Hsu, 2013), making these environments valuable as tools for use in purposes such as educational, entertainment, and e-commerce activity. Despite the growing importance of these new media and their adoption, the special characteristics of virtual worlds and their impact on user behaviour needs to be further explored (Domina, Lee, & MaGillivray, 2012; Kober & Neuper, 2013; Rose, Clark, Samouel, & Hair, 2012; Tikkanen et al., 2009). The objective of this chapter is to review the flow theory, the telepresence concept and their interrelationship with the online behaviour. We apply this framework to web stores. Hence, this research empirically investigates the impact of telepresence and flow state experienced during online shopping, on e-commerce websites visitor’s behaviour. Understanding factors that influence use of a virtual world for shopping will help e-retailers create compelling virtual environments and develop better marketing strategies to enhance the consumer shopping experience in the virtual stores, while positively influencing purchase and return intentions. In this study, based on the flow theory, telepresence is considered to predict websites visitor’s experience of flow as measured by concentration and enjoyment. Flow is assumed to influences e-consumer behaviour in terms of number of visited pages, actual visit time, and perceived visit time. Among eight hypotheses, this research finds support for four. It has showed that telepresence is an important determinant of flow. The concentration dimension of flow is crucial to enhance consumer’s number of visited pages and visit time. Consequently, this research gives evidence that the flow theory and the telepresence concept are valuable in the context of online shopping. A self-administered online survey was conducted to test the hypothesised relationships. The data were collected from a fictitious consumer electronics online retailer. The website was created for the purpose of this research. The retailer website was carefully created by experts with a web content and design similar to others e-commerce website in the net. This was to prevent the e-store from being confounded by an unnatural or strange design that is not well suited to the consumer’s expectations. The homepage include the most common interactive functions and graphical interfaces. The website was uploaded to the Internet. In this method, the content was viewed in its actual form and in a realistic setting. Our findings show that telepresence could enhance the flow sate. The more the website visitors are immersed and feel present in the mediated virtual environment, the more they will tend to be concentrated and enjoyed, and then experience flow. In the same way, findings from this study seem to empirically validate the relationship between the constructs of telepresence and concentration. We can affirm that in a computer-mediated environment, telepresence is an essential factor for enabling the person to remain concentrated on the computer-based task. Our results also confirmed some prior research on the theoretically elaborated relationship between flow and consumer behaviour. Interestingly, we found that e-consumers in flow state might visit more pages and extent their website visit duration. This effect is mainly produced by concentration. Based on these collective findings, it appears that telepresence plays an important role in influencing flow. Flow in turn influences e-consumer behaviour in the context of the Internet shopping. These results have a number of theoretical, methodological, and managerial implications. For more rigorous and practical implications, further research is needed to empirically investigate the role of telepresence in enhancing the other components of flow mentioned by Csikszentmihalyi (1997). Moreover, we know relatively little about the vividness and interactivity characteristics of websites that encourage telepresence and flow. For instance, it would be appreciated to elucidate the role played by the collaborative web 2.0 interactive technologies such as wiki, podcast, geographic mapping, and social sharing. Further research is needed, thus designers will be given clearer guidance as to what aspects they can alter to increase the chances of the user having an optimal experience. In addition, it would be valuable to monitor individual antecedents of telepresence and flow experience. In e-marketing, there have been studies on a variety of individual characteristics such as motivation, knowledge, need for cognition, shopping familiarity, and innovativity. In addition, it is important to examine the role of socio-demographic characteristics (gender, age, education…), situational factors (product and Internet involvement, shopping goals...), and cultural settings. Such investigations will be valuable for our understanding of the universal phenomenon. Further recommendation for future research is that researchers extend the scope of the e-consumer behaviours to get a more profound understanding of telepresence and flow outcomes in e-shopping. It might be valuable to test the effects of cognitive and affective dependent variables such as satisfaction, impulse buying, recall, loyalty, and brand image change. Besides, it will be worthwhile to use clickstream data to assess the role played by telepresence and flow in user's decision to continue browsing the site or to exit and how long a user views each page during a site visit. Finally, future research could analyze several other interesting issues that remain unresolved. Future studies will be required to investigate telepresence and flow experience in other device such as smartphones, handheld computers, and PDA. It will be interesting to assess the extent to which a tiny screen may hinder telepresence and flow experiences. This chapter may stimulate more research in this field identified as still being under-explored. The research area is potentially fruitful. Many issues remain unresolved and many questions unanswered. The literature on telepresence and flow is extensive, but there are many challenges that need to be resolved. These challenges are mostly methodological. Studies involving flow measurement assessment demonstrate that some potentially serious difficulties exist, and researchers need to think carefully about the direction of causality between flow constructs and the measurement approaches (Hoffman & Novak, 2009; Koufaris, 2002; Siekpe, 2005)."

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Valérie Fernandez

"Valérie Fernandez is Professor in Management Sciences at Telecom Paristech, LTCI at the CNRS laboratory. She holds a PhD in Management Sciences and a qualification for PhD supervisor. She is project leader of international and national research programs (PCRD European programs, FUI Programs, CNRS, French-China collaboration programs , ...) and Head of Advanced Master's Program in Management of Technical Project with ESSEC Business School. Her research focuses on IT project management : design, adoption and diffusion of ICT in organizations and in public places."

Abstract

We present the¬ project “WITE 2.0”. This project is at the crossroads of various issues related to mobility (“mobility turn”, Urry, 2007) and use of ¬Information and Communication Technologies. Wite 2.0 is a part of the designing process of a collaborative communication tool: “a virtualized and unified platform”. We define scenarios of teleworking practices, “equipped” by ICTs, and use these scenarios to better specify the platform. The project started at the end of 2010 and continued for a period of 18 months. The analysis is based on several complementary methodologies: a qualitative study (47 semi-structured interviews) and an experimentation of the platform. We present the main results of the interview survey through the following themes: remote management, skills, articulation of private and professional spheres, and the maturity of technologies. We also describe how these elements help the understanding of the evolution of worker’s practices.

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Shang Gao

Shang Gao is Associate Professor at school of business administration at the Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, China. He obtained his PhD (2011) in information systems from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), and his MSc (2006) in Engineering and Management of Information Systems from the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Sweden. His research interests include mobile information systems, technology diffusion, and information systems modeling. He has published more than 20 refereed papers in journals, books and archival proceedings since 2006.

Abstract

Little research has been done to explore the adoption of mobile information services from a cultural perspective. This research is designed to study mobile information services adoption from a cultural perspective. Based on the two cultural dimensions (individualism/collectivism, uncertainty avoidance), two research hypotheses are presented. To examine these hypotheses, an exploratory study is carried out with a mobile information service called MTSR with both respondents from developed countries and China. One research hypothesis (H2) was supported in this exploratory study, the other research hypothesis (H1) was not supported in this exploratory study. The findings indicate that the cultural dimensions play important roles in how mobile information services are used and adopted in two different cultural settings: cultural in developed countries and the Chinese culture. The results also highlight the relevance of the cultural dimensions (individualism/collectivism, uncertainty avoidance) as the factors affecting the adoption of mobile information services.

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Yuuki Kato

Yuuki Kato is an Assistant Professor at Sagami Women's University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Department of Information and Media Studies in Japan. He earned a Ph.D. from Tokyo Institute of Technology in 2005. His general research interests include educational technology; the application of behavior science, psychology, and information and communication technology (ICT) to educational scenes. Dr. Kato is particularly interested in the emotional aspects in technology-mediated human communications.

This study investigated the timing of replies to mobile phone text messages focusing especially on the timing of replies from the perspective of the “recipient” of the message. In a previous study, we evaluated the timing of replies and the emotional strategies associated with such timing from the perspective of the “sender,” and found they employed an emotional strategy whereby they ‘waited’ before responding to mobile text messages in order to continue positive communication”. In the present study, we examined if the same strategy is as effective from the perspective of recipients of the messages. Specifically, study participants were asked by questionnaire to rate what emotions they would feel and to what degree when the other party waited before replying to the mobile text messages the participants had sent, where the message sent had conveyed one of four emotions: happiness, sadness, anger, or guilt. These four emotional scenarios are the same as used in our previous study, to allow for comparative analysis of the two studies. Additionally, participants in the present study were asked to provide freeform responses for scenarios where they feel it is desirable to wait before replying themselves. The results showed differences between the emotional strategic intent of senders for waiting before replying, as determined in the previous study, and how this was actually perceived by the recipients. The results suggest that there are gaps in perception between senders and recipients regarding the intentional manipulation of reply timing (especially waiting before replying). One suggested gap is that senders that intentionally manipulate the timing of replies for negative or hostile emotions such as sadness, anger, or guilt, actually run the risk of making the recipient feel the opposite of the sender’s intended outcome.

Abstract

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Shogo Kato

Shogo Kato is an Assistant Professor in the School of Arts and Sciences, Tokyo Woman's Christian University in Japan and a part-time instructor in the Faculty of Economics, Dokkyo University in Japan. He earned a Ph.D. from Tokyo Institute of Technology in 2005. His general research interests include educational technology; the application of behavior science, psychology, and information and communication technology (ICT) to educational scenes. Dr. Kato is particularly interested in the emotional aspects in virtual community, such as Internet bullying.

Abstract

This study investigated the timing of replies to mobile phone text messages focusing especially on the timing of replies from the perspective of the “recipient” of the message. In a previous study, we evaluated the timing of replies and the emotional strategies associated with such timing from the perspective of the “sender,” and found they employed an emotional strategy whereby they ‘waited’ before responding to mobile text messages in order to continue positive communication”. In the present study, we examined if the same strategy is as effective from the perspective of recipients of the messages. Specifically, study participants were asked by questionnaire to rate what emotions they would feel and to what degree when the other party waited before replying to the mobile text messages the participants had sent, where the message sent had conveyed one of four emotions: happiness, sadness, anger, or guilt. These four emotional scenarios are the same as used in our previous study, to allow for comparative analysis of the two studies. Additionally, participants in the present study were asked to provide freeform responses for scenarios where they feel it is desirable to wait before replying themselves. The results showed differences between the emotional strategic intent of senders for waiting before replying, as determined in the previous study, and how this was actually perceived by the recipients. The results suggest that there are gaps in perception between senders and recipients regarding the intentional manipulation of reply timing (especially waiting before replying). One suggested gap is that senders that intentionally manipulate the timing of replies for negative or hostile emotions such as sadness, anger, or guilt, actually run the risk of making the recipient feel the opposite of the sender’s intended outcome.

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Anna Kasimati

"Anna Kasimati: e-business and e-learning researcher. Anna is currently a Research Associate at the ISTLab Wireless Research Center of the Athens University of Economics and Business. She holds a BSc in Management Science and Technology from the Athens University of Economics and Business, and an MSc in ‘Technology Education & Digital Systems’ specializing in e-learning, at the University of Piraeus. Her research interests focus in the integration of advance/mobile technologies and digital games in business and learning processes. Anna has successfully implemented a number of projects in the fields Technology Enhanced Learning and has acted as a reviewer for international conferences as well as edited books in the fields of electronic/ubiquitous business and technology enhanced learning. More information can be found at www.annakasimati.gr."

Abstract

"The rise of mobile broadband devices and services has significantly changed the role of mobile devices in people's daily lives by enabling the provision of innovative applications and services anywhere,anytime. Despite the fact that new ideas and innovation mainly occur within HEIs, the adoption of mobile and ubiquitous technologies by Higher Education Institutions is still in early stages. This chapter attempts to provide a framework to support Higher Education Institutions towards implementing mobile and ubiquitous, game-based-learning activities. Aligned with the objective of this book, this chapter presents some examples and best practices of implementing this framework towards achieving the learning goals of future professionals in the fields of electronic and ubiquitous commerce. This chapter presents a methodological framework towards the effective implementation of Game Based Learning (GBL) in Higher Education Institutions using ubiquitous and mobile devices. The proliferation of digital games along with the effectiveness of game play on cognitive development has sparked a fascination with its integration in learning process and educational curriculums at an international level. A great number of research efforts and applications have been carried out, mainly focusing on the integration of GBL at early educational levels, specifically K-12 education. However, taking into consideration that the population of gamers is continuously increasing and was about 70 million people in 2011, 40% of which are aged between 20 and 34 years old, and the fact that all 21st century learners have grown up in a world where digital games have always been an important part of their lives (Johnson, Adams, & Cummins, 2012), it is a great opportunity and a need for Higher Education Institutions to focus on GBL towards achieving their goals with regards to their students’ collaboration, problem solving, critical thinking, creativity and digital literacy skills. Based on current literature, games, when carefully included in learning processes, have been proven to raise student’s motivation and engagement in a wide variety of activities that can support the development of many valuable skills (Kasimati & Zamani, 2012). Additionally, they are highly effective in interdisciplinary areas where students are required to combine knowledge from different fields and apply critical thinking and problem solving skills towards achieving their learning goals (Shabalina, Vorobkalov, Kataev, & Tarasenko, 2008). Game play, game design and production require research, collaboration, teamwork, creativity, problem solving and communication skills and critical thinking ability, all listed among the 21st century skills. Getting students through a well-supported game-based learning process (game play or game design and production) helps them improve their skills while simultaneously enhancing their knowledge; thus provides them with increased potential to succeed in the current innovation-driven economies at a global level. Equally important, the participation in such activities using innovative IT tools increases students digital literacy, their ability to effectively use and manage information technology, also considered as a skill for the 21st century citizens (Simões, Redondo & Vilas, 2012). As a result, the integration of GBL principles and digital games in tertiary education can significantly improve the quality of learning process and empower future professionals with improved high-order thinking skills. Despite the fact that a great number of Higher Education Institutions include in their curriculums courses for game design and development, only few of them apply basic gaming principles in order to enhance their educational services. GBL practices and methodologies can provide Higher Education Institutions with new forms of learning content, interaction and collaboration, while providing potential for constant evaluation and provision of direct feedback (Derryberry, 2012). Equally important, the proliferation of mobile devices (smartphones and tablets) can further support Higher Education Institutions towards adopting GBL practices. Specifically, student’s (always increasing) use of ubiquitous online applications, when investigated within a learning-centered context, provides Higher Education Institutions with a unique opportunity to easily engage students into game-based learning activities using their mobile devices as an educational tool. In conclusion, the adoption of game-based learning by Higher Education Institutions is just two to three years away (Johnson, Adams, & Cummins, 2012). However, in order for digital games to be effectively integrated in Higher Education, proper methodology and instructional design should be followed during the preparation, the delivery and the evaluation phase of GBL activities. To this end, this chapter aims to provide a robust literature review and combine GBL principles and methodologies into a framework for their proper integration in Higher Education Institutions and their alignment with technological specifications of mobile and ubiquitous technologies. The chapter is organized in two parts where Part A investigates the basic principles towards the effective implementation of GBL (focusing on digital games) in HEIs; it further delineates the way mobile and ubiquitous technologies can support the smoothest integration of GBL in those specific organisations and its fastest adoption by relevant stakeholders (teaching staff, administrative staff, middle-level management employees, students). Part B presents implementation scenarios od the proposed mobile GBLframework in Higher Education. The provision of such implementation scenarios on specific relevant activities using mobile devices can guide academics and instructors realize the impact of these innovative educational practices thus leading to their fastest and smoothest adoption in HEIs’ curricula. The proliferation of mobile technologies and GBL practices provides a unique opportunity for the Higher Educational Institutions. Usual problems encountered by academics and which concern student’s engagement and motivation can be effectively tackled with the proper integration of GBL in their curriculums. Additionally, 21st century learners and citizens are familiar with mobile devices and services, and are used to being always connected (any time, any place) even when they are on the move. This fact provides multiple opportunities for the provision of learning activities on mobile devices, thus providing a more learner-centered learning process. As a result, Higher Education Institutions are given the opportunity to combine two equally popular and effective learning practices (GBL and mobile) and properly integrate it into their curriculum in order to enhance student’s motivation and engagement, and also achieve demanding learning goals. Last but not least, the adoption of such practices by Higher Education Institutions can provide them with a competitive advantage against other globally or nationally recognized ones due to the provision of innovative and high-quality learning services to their students. The proposed chapter can enhance Higher Education Institutions ability to adopt and apply such practices, providing significant insight and guidance throughout all development phases (design, development, implementation, evaluation). Moreover, the provision of best practices and examples on the use of specific GBL activities using mobile devices will help academics and instructors into realizing the real impact of these innovative educational practices thus leading to their quickest and smoothest adoption in Higher Education Institution’s curriculum."

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Haikel-Elsabeh Marie Nour

Marie Haikel-Elsabeh is a researcher and PHD candidate. Her areas of interest include social networks, motivations for knowledge sharing, brand engagement and implication. Her experiences in both the public and private sector gave her the opportunity to develop her knowledge of communication and marketing. Her most recent experience as a researcher gave her the opportunity to work for big firms as a researcher and counsellor. Her professional experience as a Communication officer in the French ministry of agriculture and more recently on the FOODLE project enabled her to deepen her knowledge of the food consumption in France and agriculture. Her experience as a consultant enabled her to organize reunions and meetings with experts.

Abstract

"Increasingly marketers are interested by social network and virtual community analysis. Firms want to understand their Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest fans in order to create and develop new relations with them. Yet, researchers want to understand why individuals post online by studying the context of professional virtual communities for instance (Wasko and Faraj 2005). Also, why do they adopt certain types of behaviors online as in travel related websites for example (Kyung Hyan, Y., Gretzel, U. 2008). The authors are also interested by their relations to virtual communities (Utpal M. Dholakia et al. 2004). Indeed, researchers have employed various theories regarding social network analysis (Wellman & Gulia, 1999), motivational theory (Bagozzi & Dholakia, 2002), and brand engagement (Sprott, Czellar & Spangenberg, 2009). We chose the social network Facebook because brands are increasingly developing their strategy to target their fans on their brand pages. Yet brands want to understand why their consumers are increasingly interested by their pages on social networks like Facebook. Thus they want to comprehend their users’ behavior in order to develop their brand equity and marketing strategies. What are the drivers for Brand engagement and implication on Facebook? In order to explore the impact of motivations on content and information sharing on Facebook brand pages, this study proposes an analysis focused on a reduced number of motivations and a proposal of a statistical model attempting to link the frequency of posting and liking on Facebook in general, and Brand engagement to motivations. The aim of the study is to assess the impact of motivations on brand engagement and frequency of posting and liking on Facebook. We used the concept of brand engagement measure a deep interest toward brands on Facebook. The concept of frequency of posting and liking was focused on the tendency to post or like frequently each time the user connects to Facebook. The motivations we introduced were based on the literature for sharing on social networks. Overall our objective is to open the path to new studies using our scale on specific brand pages on Facebook and to the cross comparisons between those different brands. In order to understand the drivers behind brand implication it is important to go beyond the existing scales on Facebook. Facebook is a real opportunity for marketers. There are 18 million users in France and 10 million spend 55 minutes per day on the plateform . The aim of the study conducted by a communication web agency called DDB is to understand why brand fans in France like their favorite brands on Facebook . The majority of users that answered the survey were women (55%) the average age was 31 years old. The fans that are heavy likers are called “Hard core users” they connect to Facebook several times a day. They use the plateform to have fun (49%), talk to their families and friends (32%), and to search for new information (16%). Why Facebook users become brand fans? For 75% of users they liked a brand because they received an invitation or email. They also liked a brand because of the Word of Mouth of their friends on Facebook (59%). The other reason why they liked a brand is because they conducted an active search on Facebook to find a specific brand or product (49%). Fans have specific expectations toward their favorite brands: they want to gain the attention of their favorite brands when they become fans (53%). When they are attached to the brand, they become ambassadors (48%) and recommend the brand to their friends. Fans want the brands to have on their pages: promotions (41%), news regarding the brand (35%). Yet, not all fans are ready to comment or like: only 50% of the fans are ready to contribute on the brand page. Nonetheless, 76% have already liked a brand post on a brand page. Being a fan impacts the intentions of buying the brands’ products and services (36%). Brand fans are also 92% to recommend the brand to their friends. The hard users give a very high grade (between 8 and 10) to their favorite brands on Facebook. Nonetheless, brand fans can be quick to unlike a brand on Facebook, specifically when the brand posts too much information (82%). This phenomenon should be carefully studied and taken into account by both researchers and marketers alike. What are Brand pages users on Facebook interested by? According to the study, Facebook users tend to be interested by media (55%), important causes (51%), fashion and luxury brands (46%). The DDB study was focused on a reduced number of users. Yet when we go on Social bakers website we can clearly see the favorite brands worldwide on Facebook with regards to the total number of likes. If we look at the top ten, 7 out of 10 brands provide food and/or beverages to the masses: Coca cola, Red Bull, Starbucks, Oreo, McDonald’s, Wal Mart. Thus food related brand appear to dominated worldwide on Facebook. Thus it is essential to study the literature on Brand communities to comprehend more deeply why users engage in brand engagement behavior and why do users contribute to brand communities on Facebook. Brand communities are defined by Muniz and O’Guinn (2001) as a “specialized, non-geographically bound community, based on a structured set of social relations among admirers of a brand.” The members of brand community share in common their interest for a brand but also consume the brand’s products or services. These individuals share knowledge about the brand’s news, share information about their interest for the brand. According to McAlexander et al. (2002) brand communities enable the “creation and negotiation of meaning.” The social structure and the exchange of information foster brand engagement and loyalty Muniz and O’Guinn (2001). Individuals have several motivations to engage in communities according to Sarason (1974) they do it to feel socially connected, thus in joining social media they feel connected (Gangadharbhatla, 2008; Tardini & Cantoni, 2005). Indeed, according to U.M. Dholakia et al. (2004) there are individual as well as group motivations for participating in brand communities in social networks. The individual drivers are that social network users that engage in virtual communities seek to share and learn information and to engage in social relations in the community. The aim of this paper is to propose a new scale of motivations for online posting on brand Facebook pages. Our objective is to assess whether the motivations for posting and liking on a brand page on Facebook have an impact on brand interest behavior (brand engagement) with regards to the general frequency of posting on Facebook. Three axis were explored to comprehend the drivers for brand engagement on Facebook. First we studied the literature on the eWOM on Facebook to comprehend why users recommend and like to share information about brands with others. Second we studied the motivations for brand engagement behavior: what are users motivations to contribute to brand communities. Third, we analyzed the literature on brand implication in order to explain the phenomenon of brand interest on Facebook. "

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Laurie Marrauld

Laurie Marrauld is postdoctoral in Management Sciences at the CNRS Institute Mines-Telecom ParisTech, under the supervision of Valerie Fernandez. She is interested in topics related to "mobility equipped" and to emerging realities and interactions mediated by mobile ICT. His doctoral thesis was about a research project on the development of a virtual platform of teleworking. She works on developing features to use teleworking platforms, particularly through the study of social media in business companies.

Abstract

The project WITE 2.0 (Work IT Easy) is a research and innovation program supported by public funds. It is a multi-partner project (academic and industrial actors). The aim of this project is to create a virtualized platform. This platform represents a unified work environment, based on virtualization, instant communication and interoperability of systems, and it allows the individuals to work anywhere (and possibly anytime). The platform is a software solution that centralizes the access to a set of functionalities, originally offered by several applications: it’s the principle of unified communications. Unified communications (UC) is the integration of real-time communication services such as instant messaging (chat), presence information, telephony (including IP telephony), video conferencing, data sharing (including web connected electronic whiteboards aka IWB's or Interactive White Boards), call control and speech recognition with non-real-time communication services such as unified messaging (integrated voicemail, e-mail, SMS and fax). This platform is accessible from any connected terminal, either fixed or mobile (desktop, laptop, tablet, Smartphone, etc.). The WITE 2.0 platform will provide a wide range of communication tools that can be activated on demand in different situations, and depending on users’ needs (VoIP, discussion groups, instant messaging, email, etc.). The project has four main stages, divided into several subsections each. It is supported by a socio-technical analysis. Telecom ParisTech has assumed leadership in the scientific study of the needs and uses by administrating semi-structured interviews with individuals regularly working "remotely". We wanted to better characterize these work situations: at home, on the premises of the employer but in geographically dispersed locations; in telecentres / co-working spaces / business center, with geo-distributed teams working. Mobility at work is spreading in the context of the mobility paradigm’s evolution. The project WITE 2.0 intends to address the urgent need for solutions in the field of remote collaborative work. These needs include ways to collaborate, communicate and socialize, but also to access these features regardless of the location, and from any workstation. It will provide a unified interface integrating all the features, and having a wide range of communication tools selectable on demand. The project WITE2.0 is divided into four major phases. The first one concerns the study of employees’ needs and uses, for remote collaborative work. In order to capture the needs and uses, we conducted two surveys: first, a qualitative study based on 47 semi-structured interviews and second, an online quantitative survey with 553 individuals. The object of this phase is to highlight the kinds of remote collaboration in order to make recommendations related to the design of the platform. The results are published in the report "Work, socialize and collaborate remotely". The main preliminary results of this report focus on how to socialize in a context of teleworking, the question of remote management, and of the technical skills needed for the use of ICT. The recommendations focus on the access to digital resources, the business information systems, and on issues related to security. The second phase of the project focuses on the technology. It is divided into two parts. The first part consists of the writing of functional and technical specifications of the platform WITE2.0. This document contains descriptions of service needs, and a comparison of various existing virtualization solutions. We notice that, since the launching of the project WITE 2.0, some other virtualization solutions have appeared on the market (Citrix, etc.). Through the comparison of different solutions, we highlight the distinguishing features and the technological services of the platform WITE 2.0. The second part of the phase 2 includes the implementation of all the technical elements necessary for the platform WITE2.0. These technical elements include the virtualization, the development of a socialization software solution, the services integration, the development of a unified software, and a beta testing of the platform. In the third phase, the project partners have introduced new technological elements for the components and voice applications, the mobile profiles, and the SIP recorder. The major technical element of this platform is based on the virtualization of information systems (IS). The workstation virtualization solution that we are interested in is also called the "PC on demand." The virtual workstation displays a virtual image on the user workstation that is executed on a remote server (not virtualized). This technology has several advantages (centralizing logical components, checking the lifecycle of workstation, access to an individual virtual PC guaranteeing better mobility management of the employee).Virtual workstations will address a number of challenges compared to “ordinary” workstations (especially at the administrative, security and deployment of machines levels). Virtual machines, for example, can decrease functional costs (maintenance, etc.), and technical problems such as obsolescence of the workstation. With VDI architecture, the ISD has no longer constraints related to maintenance and administration of its fleet of workstations. The user is no longer dependent on a single physical computer and can connect to his "own PC" from different physical devices, even from terminals like thin clients. Hence, virtualization is an already existing technology. The value of the WITE 2.0 platform is to combine this exiting technology with a collaborative tool (unified communication). The aim is actually double: in one hand, to reduce (or eliminate) the problems due to data security, and on the other hand, to improve the level of collaboration between employees. In a context of managerial culture based on “face to face”, the new paradigm of mobile work does not seem to establish in French companies. Some forms of work organization are deeply rooted. Some managers and IT system directors still reluctant to introduce new developed technologies because of the security of the data circulation. Our bias is to say that the paradigm shift can take place now if we take into account the issues of teleworking in "sociological" and "technical" terms: hence, the importance of analyzing the practices of work organization and use of ICT, and also the experimentation of the virtual platform. In our analysis, we are interested in a key notion: the concept of "teleworking" that we have considered in its most classic form (the homework), but also in the most diverse realities that it could be today: either, all forms of "remote working", i.e., forms of organization and / or performing work outside the classical unity of time and place. Indeed, many studies emphasize that the unity of time and place that characterized the traditional organization of work, would tend to disappear. Thus, the definition of teleworking that we have selected is based on: 1)The fixed place of work or alternating between several workplaces, provided they are removed from the hierarchy and/or colleagues; 2) The relationship to the employer and colleagues, remotely and by electronic links, thus justifying the name of teleworking. The first results that we will present in this chapter are based on a qualitative analysis approach. We have particularly studied the practices of coordination and cooperation in various configurations of remote work, more specifically in management practices supported by different communication technologies (fixed or mobile). We believe this kind of qualitative study is the most relevant because we make a statement about teleworkers’ practices. As the virtualized and unified platform technology is designing, we realized that we actually had little knowledge about the current technologies’ practices’ realities. The classic typology of the four kinds of teleworkers – homeworkers, mobile workers, telecenter worker, virtual team worker - should really be evolved. We have decided to question the realities of the teleworkers’practices to understand the evolution of the work organization and to link the technology to specific uses (or link uses to specific technology). Hence, we have thought that the most equipped teleworker will be the most graduated (with the most responsabilities). We have discovered that the uses of mobile ICTs evolved in a very paradoxal way.

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Yuanxin Wang

Yuanxin Wang is a doctoral student in School of Media and Communication of Temple University, USA. She holds a Master of Philosophy degree in Communication from Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong, and a Master of Arts in International Journalism from University of Central Lancashire, UK. Her research interests include new media studies, environmental communication, intercultural communication, and media effects. Currently she is interested in investigating the internet users’ behavior using advanced online data analysis techniques.

Abstract

Mass media have been a central public arena for disseminating environmental issues and contesting claims, arguments, and opinions about our use and protection of the environment (Hansen, 2010). Media products, together with perceptions of the products by its audiences, make an impact upon political decision-makers regarding a wide scope of issues related to environmental protection issues. Over the past decade, there has been a clear transition in environment communication domain: The scope for the concept of the environment has been expanded from natural phenomenon to an anthropocentric abstraction form representing the totality of nature (Walker, 2005). Communication scholars therefore need to examine the environmental issues from racial, socio-economic, political (Hansen, 2010), and cultural perspectives (Deluca, 1999; Gibbs, 1993). In other words, mass media need to approach environmental movements and organizations as a “collection of agencies making social problems claims” (Yearley, 1991, p. 52). Communication is the central means for the general public to understand the environmental issues, and mass media has been the major platform to shape the public opinion. Mass media also influence the pattern of their users’ information-seeking behaviors. On the other hand, the drastically worsening natural environment in China has been routinely underrepresented or ignored in traditional media, due to its sensitive nature and potential threaten to “social stability”. The environmental protection awareness among Chinese people is relatively low, and civic engagement in environmental policy-making is not encouraged by the government. Therefore, there is a need for readers to understand the strength and weakness of new media in environmental decision-making process in a special social and political context such as China.This chapter aims to draw a dynamic map about how the environmental message was initiated and disseminated using web-based communicational channels, and how the message tailor-made based on the natures of the internet and cell phone mobilized the public participation in environmental protection events. To be specific, this study addresses mechanisms of mobile phone and the Internet as powerful communication channels to call for public attention on environmental issues and organize environmental protection events. The web-based technology makes it possible for people with different social and economic backgrounds (especially marginalized grassroots) in China to communicate effectively while dealing with environmental problems and engaging in policy-making process. Besides the analysis based on mass communication frameworks, the word of mouth (WOM) communication at interpersonal level is also investigated in this study. Drawing on the personal experience by witnesses and participants in Xiamen PX protest, this chapter addresses the roles of the internet and mobile phone in China’s environmental decision-making process by analyzing the delivery channels of the environmental decision, most circulated messages in the internet and mobile phone during the street protest period, as well as documents related to the case. Data used in this paper are retrieved from survey, in-depth interviews, and secondary data in December 2010. A triangulation of quantitative (regression analysis) and qualitative (content analysis) methods are employed to identify the key issues of China’s environmental movement using web-based technology and patterns of messages used in the new media sphere. The outcome of the regression analysis provides an opportunity for the author to have a primary look at the relationship among the variables included in the model, and identify the possible factors that have an impact upon people’s willingness to participate environmental protection events. The statistical outputs show that a positive and strong association between age and people’s willingness to join environmental protection movements, a negative and strong association between the reception of PX text message and the willingness of environmental participation, and a weak and positive relationship between the number of people whom respondents relayed text message to and the dependent variable. The examination of the most quoted environmental and protest messages from the internet and mobile phone indicates that messages are carefully designed and disseminated through various channels (opinion leaders, platforms on the internet, mobile phones, and WOM) to reach its target audience to the greatest extent. Given that all the literature made a distinguishable focus on persuasive effects of mobile phone text and online message, it is surprising to find that over than half of the respondents reported that they first learned about the PX project through friends, relatives, or other interpersonal channels. A graph mapping the dynamic flow of the environmental information in PX protest is also provided to illustrate how the information regarding the polluting PX project was initiated by the opinion leader(s), processed and delivered by the online media, and finally reached the general public. The information simultaneously reached the interest group and environmental group via online platforms from opinion leaders. But the two parties delivered messages through different communicational channels to its audience, the internet and WOM used by the environmental group and mobile text message by interest group. Future research could be conducted on whether and how the internet and mobile phone could facilitate cooperative activities in environmental campaigns across the globe, and how the pressure group’s message could be tailor-made to address the trend of globalization in dealing with environmental issues and compete for mainstream media attention to the greatest extent. The study on how opinion leaders utilize new technology in environmental protection events could be furthered to their capability of influencing or shaping grassroots’ opinion, and their perception of the effectiveness of the completed environmental campaign. The scarcity of scholarly work in media and environmental issues in oriental culture suggests a meta-analysis of literature over public opinion towards environmental issues across eastern countries, as well as the factors contributing to the fickleness of the public opinion over time in one country or region could be worthy inquiry for future research. Last but not the least, it would be important for researchers to examine the magnitude of impacts by different medium forms (television, newspaper, internet, mobile phone, etc.) in participatory events, and how to utilize multiple propagation tools to mobilize the population with different demographic backgrounds (children, seniors, etc.) to take part in the environmental protection campaign which benefits every single living being on this beautiful planet.

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For more information:

Dr. Jean-Eric PELET (KMCMS, University of Nantes, France) Department of Marketing and Information Systems FR-75020
16 Rue Laurence Savart
France
Tel.: +33630536976
E-mail: je.pelet [at] gmail.com.

Dr. Peggy PAPADOPOULOU (National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece) Department of Informatics and Telecommunications
15784 Athens
Greece
Tel.: +00302107275225
E-mail: peggy [at] di.uoa.gr

Vathiswa Booi
Latifa Chaari
Madhavi Chakrabarty
Kunihiro Chida
Primavera De Filippi
George Ditsa
Said Ettis
Valérie Fernandez
Shang Gao
Yuuki Kato
Shogo Kato
Anna Kasimati
Haikel-Elsabeh Marie Nour
Laurie Marrauld
Yuanxin Wang

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