Manuel José Damásio

Moving towards a socially-driven internet architectural design

This paper provides an interdisciplinary perspective concerning the role of prosumers on future Internet design based on the current trend of Internet user empowerment. The paper debates the prosumer role, and addresses models to develop a symmetric Internet architecture and supply-chain based on the integration of social capital aspects. It has as goal to ignite the discussion concerning a socially-driven Internet architectural design.

Interactive television usage and applications: the Portuguese case-study ☆

Abstract This paper depicts the Portuguese interactive television (iTV) market focusing on the novel applications produced in that market between the years 2001 and 2003. Particular focus is given to two applications, “Noites Interactivas” and “VEMiTV-PANDA”, not only from a technological point of view, but also from the user interaction point of view. These two examples are used to illustrate the challenges facing iTV services technological deployment and commercial development. The paper ends by summarising the lessons taken from the service deployment in Portugal and showing who is ahead in the everlasting balance between technology and content.

Social activities and mobile Internet diffusion: A search for the Holy Grail?:

Any technology adoption is shaped by a myriad of factors that sometimes conflict in their ultimate goals and outcomes. So is the case with mobile Internet (m-Internet) adoption and diffusion. This paper discusses this process from the stakeholders’ and users’ perspectives and confronts their understanding and attitudes towards this technology with three complementary theoretical models: network theory, activity theory, and the technology acceptance model (TAM).The study presents results for the use of m-Internet in a southern European country and frames those in light of the activities, here understood as effects of the network, undertaken by the users. We seek to assess whether individuals perform a different set of activities when using m-Internet and how different forms of access result in different network effects, adoption processes, and distinct forms of interaction. The depicted study involved a qualitative stage, consisting of a set of interviews to stakeholders of the mobile communications industry and a quantitative study that involved the survey of a nationally representative sample of individual users. The findings of these studies provide several contributions to the understanding of m-Internet adoption and diffusion and the role network effects play in them.

Realism in gameplay: digital fiction and embodiment

In this article we argue that digital simulations promote and explore complex relations between the player and the machines cybernetic system with which it relates through gameplay, that is, the real application of tactics and strategies used by participants as they play the game. The magic space created by the board is considered to be more than a space of confusion between the real and artificial. It first presents itself as a curtain or interface between the participants body and the digital simulation inherent to the computational system.

Engaging Men in Prenatal Health Promotion: A Pilot Evaluation of Targeted e-Health Content:

Pregnancy outcomes in the United States continue to rank among the worst in the developed world. Traditional maternal–child health promotion tends to focus exclusively on women, leaving men out of programs that can affect family health. Scholars advocate including men in prenatal health to reduce maternal and infant mortality and morbidity. This study explored the perceived role of men in prenatal health, the use of an e-health application, and participant-suggested ways of improving the application moving forward. This study interviewed men in a large Southwestern U.S. city with an average age of 26.0 years (N = 23). The sample was 52% White, 26% Hispanic, 9% Asian, 9% multiracial or other, and 4% Black. Participants were asked about pregnancy health and used a pregnancy-related e-health application on a tablet computer. Participants provided opinions on content, ease of use of tablets, and recommendations for a stronger application. Despite perceived barriers such as time constraints, financial burdens, and an unclear role, men believe it is important to be involved in pregnancy health. Most found the application to contain useful and interesting information. Participants recommended the addition of videos and interactive modules to make the application stronger. This study explored the use of a targeted e-health application to introduce men to prenatal health education. Results indicate men feel favorable to this type of intervention. Additional refinement of the application could include interactive tools or “push content” to further engage men in this important topic.

Using digital interactive television to promote healthcare and wellness inclusive services

The potential of digital interactive television (iDTV) to promote original services, formats and contents that can be relevant to support personal health care and wellness of individuals, namely elderly people, has not been fully explored yet in the past. Therefore, in a context of rapid change of the technological resources, in which the distribution and presentation of content comes associated to new platforms (such as digital terrestrial TV and IPTV), it is important to identify the configurations that are being developed for interactive digital TV (iDTV) that may result in relevant outcomes within the field of healthcare and wellness, with the aim of offering complementarity to the existing services and contents made available today via the traditional means and media. This article describes and discusses the preliminary results of the first part of the research project iDTV-HEALTH: Inclusive services to promote health and wellness via digital interactive television. These first results suggest that iDTV solutions may represent a real contribution to bring healthcare and wellness to the target population, namely as a supplement to health services provision.

Using digital interactive television for the promotion of health and wellness

Digital interactive television (iDTV) is often seen as a platform with great potential to deliver health and wellness content and services directly to people. Despite the advantages of e-Health, public engagement with such services is still limited. Our research assumes that health literacy plays a key role on users’ engagement with these kinds of services and we postulate that it is one of the main predictors of users’ attitudes and behaviours towards iDTV health and wellness services. Our main goal was to identify and describe the factors that limit the efficiency of e-Health interventions and the potential depicted in this context by specific technologies – i.e. iDTV. The proposed research design adopts a mix of quantitative and qualitative methods and techniques. The studies were conducted in a southern European country – Portugal – between 2012 and 2013. We found that 51.7% of the respondents showed high probability (+50%) of having limited health literacy (low literacy) and they are more likely to be men/women with an average age of 49.81, fourth grade or less, belonging to status group D/E and showing less interest and less perception of the utility of e-Health interventions. The groups that depict limited e-Health literacy are also the ones least interested in digital TV services related to health and wellness. Following this, we propose that in order for people to realize the actual benefits of using these applications, it is essential to tailor both content and services in accordance with the depicted level of e-Health literacy.

Virtual communities and social activities: reframing the online experience

The way communities are being reconfigured via the uses people make of media technologies is a key aspect to understand how contemporary experience is evolving in a changing media environment. This article presents and discusses the findings of an ongoing project that deals with the study of media-based participatory culture and the linkages between face-to-face and virtual communities from the point of view of users specific activities. The document specifically deals with the metrics sense of community (SOC) and its reframing in the online context. Empirical evidence extracted from the study of several operational communities located in Portugal is exploited in order to discuss the relation between media use and community development, namely on what concerns the improvement of social capital amongst those groups. The main contributions discussed are: the concept of SOC and its validation for virtual communities; the role communities have in informing media consumption and the consequences online communities have for the behaviours and media use patterns depicted by existing face-to-face communities.

Between M-Internet Users and Stakeholders: Convergence or Divergence?

Mobile phones’ sales are decreasing worldwide but smartphones sales show an exponential growth. This device results from the convergence between internet and mobile phones which support new uses other than voice communication. All these transformations have social consequences.

Stakeholders and academia : different modes of interaction

Stakeholder theory moves organizational life and existence beyond the mere persecution of economic goals. The core idea of (the original formulation) of stakeholder theory is that business is (and should be) expected to serve society in ways that goes beyond economic objectives. If this is true for commercially oriented companies, the more it is for those organizations, such as universities, that pursue the common public good. Our main objective in this article is to evaluate the relevance stakeholders have for academia today, more specifically for the field of media and audience studies, and to describe how, and with what consequences, relations between academia and stakeholders are being reshaped. Moreover, the article aims to critically evaluate who is (and can be seen as) stakeholder of universities. The article is based on a general reflection on academia’s role and stakeholder theory, but also draws from 26 individual essays written by the members of Working Group 2 of the COST Action Transforming Audiences, Transforming Societies, discussing their self-assessment of the societal relevance and impact of the work of academics in the area of media and audience studies. These short contributions were collected from scholars working within the COST Action, and we will depart from some of the points brought forward in those essays to problematize and discuss the relations between academia and stakeholders and the different modes of interaction at stake. We are grateful to all original authors for their contributions. In 1998, UNESCO pointed out at the World Higher Education Conference held in Paris1 that higher education was facing great challenges and had to implement several changes, including involving its stakeholders ‒ namely teachers, students, parents, public institutions, businesses (including media) and society more in general ‒ in its governance. Fifteen years have passed and the stakeholders’ active participation in universities’ organizational and management structure has increased in most European countries. Teachers and researchers, and sometimes students, who had already obtained a foothold in the universities ‒ as higher education and research providers and active participants in