Erkki Patokorpi

Simon's paradox: Bounded rationality and the computer metaphor of the mind

Milan Zelený has pointed out that Herbert Simon has a paradoxical distrust of human reason which he labelled as bounded whereas at the same time he had an unbounded, unlimited trust in the capacity of computers. As a result, Simon does not present an alternative concept of rationality but stays trapped in the concept of complete rationality, positing a machine (computer) in the ghost (the mind). This computational model of the mind seems to dominate even more recent thought about the human mind and behaviour, for instance the various research programmes related to heuristics. The purpose of this paper is to examine the metaphor of the mind as a computer or computation, discussing some of its roots, development and underlying assumptions as well as the ensuing blind spots, and, finally, briefly present some alternative conceptions of rationality. In a manmade world dominated by information and communication technology, metaphors, conceptions and models of the mind as well as those of computation shape – through system design and the user’s use patterns – the very life we lead. System designers and users alike should be sensitive to these models, conceptions and metaphors.

Dynamics of the key elements of consumer trust building online

We lead increasingly electronic lives, in which a significant part of our existence takes place online. The concepts of eGovernment, eCommerce, eHealth and eLiving are an indication of this development. Against this background, there is an ever growing urgency of thinking through the problem of building trust in an online context. This paper examines the contextual conditions which affect building trust online. It will be argued that different combinations of the contextual conditions of trust building will result in different views of the trust by the customer. Some of these combinations are better than others, and while a holistic approach would likely result in the best solution, it is not necessarily always within reach. Online trust building could be defined as a successful combination of four basic elements: reputation, technology, expertise and relationship. Unlike previous research, this study attempts to take all of these four key elements and the dynamics of their interconnections into account.

User-Centred Design of Mobile Services for Tourists

In recent years, mobile technology has developed fast in Europe. We have the basic hardware but the content, in the form of services, is often missing or unattractive to the consumer. Tourism is an industry in which mobile services should be especially valuable to the user but so far few mobile applications have been successful in the market. Mobile services are said to suffer, among other things, from poor usability. The user-centred design (UCD) approach, which is widely applied in the design of mobile services and applications, is supposed to remedy this defect. We assigned 5 groups of international, advanced level Information Systems students the design of a mobile service for tourists while applying the UCD approach. We analysed and evaluated their design process as well as the prototype. Our objective is to find out how the UCD design process guided their work: What difficulties there were in the application of the UCD? Does the UCD set some undesirable constraints to design work?

Abductive Reasoning and ICT Enhanced Learning: Towards the Epistemology of Digital Nomads

The core features of mobile technology are said to be mobility, interactivity, contextuality, ubiquity, pervasiveness, personalization and collaboration. These features seem to tally surprisingly well with the ideals of constructivist pedagogy. Information and communication technology -enhanced learning in general and mobile learning in particular seem to favour the abductive form of reasoning. I suggest that abduction is the mobile (or “pedestrian”) form of reasoning par excellence because it meets the demands of a mobile learner envisioned by constructivist pedagogues. However, knowledge by abduction has its limitations. In addition to abduction, tacit knowledge and aura are concepts that help exploring the limits of ICT-enhanced knowledge and learning. It is suggested further that there are certain features connected to advanced mobile technologies by which one may overcome some limitations of ICT-enhanced education and edutainment. These features are multisensoriality, context-awareness and vireality (i.e. mixtures of the real and the virtual).

Outsourcing public sector services to electronic commerce players

In December 2000, the municipal social service department of the city of Turku, Finland, outsourced its open care grocery shopping to an online grocery retailer. Prior to the implementation of the online service, the open care employees had taken care of grocery shopping for all those customers who were not able to do it themselves. The city officials expected that an outside e-commerce player would among other things bring time savings so that the open care service would be able to focus on the hard core of open care - caring for the elderly and the disabled at home. This paper examines the expected and realised value from outsourcing from the viewpoint of the three main stakeholders: the customers, the employees and the management. The findings are based on employee and customer surveys as well as interviews with the open care management.