Search Results (5)

Food waste management remains a paramount issue in the field of social innovation. While government-led public recycling measures are important, the untapped role of residents in food waste management at the household level also demands attention. This study aims to propose the design of a smart system that leverages sensors, mobile terminals, and cloud data services to facilitate food waste reduction. Unlike conventional solutions that rely on mechanical and biological technologies, the proposed system adopts a user-centric approach. By integrating the analytical hierarchy process and the theory of inventive problem solving, this study delves into users’ actual needs and explores intelligent solutions that are alternatives to traditional approaches to address conflicts in the problem solving phase. The study identifies five main criteria for user demands and highlights user-preferred subcriteria. It determines two physical conflicts and two technical conflicts and explores corresponding information and communications technology (ICT)-related solutions. The tangible outcomes encompass a semi-automated recycling product, a mobile application, and a data centre, which are all designed to help residents navigate the challenges regarding food waste resource utilisation. This study provides an approach that considers users’ genuine demands, empowering them to actively engage in and become practitioners of household food waste reduction. The findings serve as valuable references for similar smart home management systems, providing insights to guide future developments. Full article

Information and Communications Technology (ICT) network readiness competency improves service quality and provides efficient service in implementing successful e-governments. By confirming ICT network readiness of e-governments, it must be redesigned using limited resources effectively to achieve realistic goals. When ICT investment and economic performance are featured, e-government’s network readiness competency improves potential demand, supply, and service maturity. It reflects information technology (IT) development competency on performance effectively. In this study, we propose the Data Envelope Analysis (DEA) method to present a method of improving ICT network readiness between countries. We derived the ICT network’s readiness competency level and strategic plan by comparing each country for efficient ICT operation of e-governments. If we make rankings in a non-traditional and efficient manner, it will become a successful strategy for ICT in the future. This effort provides guidance for each government and a solution for the growth delay problem, which is required for advancement in ICT investment and productivity. It also guides each government to overcome marginal products. Full article

The new communication paradigm supported by Information and Communication Technology (ICT) puts end-users at the center of innovation processes, thereby shifting the emphasis from technology to people. Citizen centric approaches such as New Public Governance and Open Government in the public management research suggest that government alone cannot be responsible for creating public value. Traditional approaches to public engagement and governmental reforms remain relevant, however our research is more interested in the ability of a networked society to resolve social problems for itself, i.e., without government intervention. In seeking to gain insights into bottom up co-creation processes, this paper aims to collect and generalize information on the international civic technology platforms by focusing on three dimensions: identification of the objectives (content), classification of main stakeholder groups (actors), and definition of co-creative methods (processes). In view of a paucity of research on Civic Technologies, the content analysis will extend the understanding of this growing field and allow us to identify the patterns in their development. Full article

In this paper, we present the concept of UtilitEE project, an innovative and realistic solution for delivering a customer-oriented Behavioural Change Framework based on an open ICT ecosystem integrated into the building with low cost, off-the-shelf sensors. The solution also incorporates human-centric intelligent control features that use occupant comfort profiles and supportively control HVAC and lighting systems to minimize energy waste, while always keeping occupants comfortable and preserving a healthy indoor environment. Key part of the technical development work is the end users' involvement in co-designing the user interfaces and its features. In the following sections, the objectives and the preliminary high-level system architecture are presented along with the pilot deployment activities for system validation and demonstration. Full article

The introduction of innovative digital tools for supporting manufacturing processes has far-reaching effects at an organizational and individual level due to the development of Industry 4.0. The FACTS4WORKERS project funded by H2020, i.e., Worker-Centric Workplaces in Smart Factories, aims to develop user-centered assistance systems in order to demonstrate their impact and applicability at the shop floor. To achieve this, understanding how to develop such tools is as important as assessing if advantages can be derived from the ICT system created. This study introduces the technology of a workplace solution linked to the industrial challenge of self-learning manufacturing workplaces. Subsequently, a two-step approach to evaluate the presented system is discussed, consisting of the one used in FACTS4WORKERS and the one used in the “Heuristics for Industry 4.0” project. Both approaches and the use case are introduced as a base for presenting the comparison of the results collected in this paper. The comparison of the results for the presented use case is extended with the results for the rest of the FACTS4WORKERS use cases and with future work in the framework. Full article