Oana Mitrea

SUSTAINABILITY ICT VISIONS AND THEIR EMBEDDING IN TECHNOLOGY CONSTRUCTION

How do engineers and software developers perceive the link between the sustainability theme and their development activity? Chances and limits of using the sustainability concept in the sphere of ICT construction are commented based on the results of an empirical study conducted between 2006 and 2007, with design, system, and software engineers in Austrian companies.

Towards an Acceptance Model for AAL

As one of the major goals in the ambient assisted living project Casa Vecchia (performed in 20 real world household installations) we want to thoroughly evaluate the life circumstances of elderly people in order to be able to establish a basic ontology including all relevant factors that are actually or potentially influencing the acceptance of AAL technology. A prototype system enabling the participants to observe automated features of an AAL system as well as to perform basic interaction and communication tasks was installed. Periodic evaluation cycles that were accompanying the project which were based on a customized mix of methods and concepts frequently discussed and applied in the context of AAL research. The main concepts used are the technology acceptance model (TAM), contextual design and the analysis of social networks. The project is still up and running, but first results could already be achieved which show a different access to technology between men and women.

“The journey is the purpose”: A concept for public transportation as social transient space

The current paper presents a concept for turning the journey itself by public transportation into the travel destination or purpose. Its main assumption is that the more meanings and purposes are enabled on the way between starting location A and target location B in public transportation, the more people will travel together by this means and the more opportunities for interesting face-to-face interactions and business on the move will rise. The implementation of “the journey as purpose”-concept should rely on the development or combination of value-added service concepts carried by mobile intelligent agents in the background, which should turn the perceived “weaknesses” of the public transportation (i.e. many people traveling together, long waiting times, possibly long travel times, transfers and waiting for the next connection) into benefits and opportunities.

System Dynamics Modeling of Intelligent Transportation Systems Human and Social Requirements for the Construction of Dynamic Hypotheses

The current article structures the knowledge and requirements for the (system dynamics) modeling of distributed actions in the intelligent transportation systems from the perspective of the sociology of technology.

Travelers in the Second Modernity: Where Technological and Social Dynamic Complexity Meet Each Other

Can we speak of a totally normal chaos (Lash, Individualization in a Non-Linear Mode, 2002, [21]) of mobility in the second age of modernity? The current essay draws its inspiration mainly from the findings of systems theory and sociology about nonlinearity and individualization with particular application to mobility systems. Its first part analyzes the societal system of the second modernity as an open system with high nonlinearity. The second part applies reflections from the construction of hypotheses about the usage dynamics of an intelligent concept of social interaction on the move.

Re-thinking Urban Mobility Services and Operations

Recent data on urban traffic mobility emphasizes the difficulty of the current planning strategies in reaching the goals of either reducing, shifting or avoiding heavy traffic that is caused primarily by individual private vehicles. An interdisciplinary approach to designing a highly efficient, intelligent traffic and transportation concept is required, in which the development of innovative services and operation solutions is combined with a closer examination of the various user and stakeholders needs, their strategies as well as their dynamic grade-of-service requirements to cope with daily movements and accessibility. Considerations from the field of science and technology social studies will be combined with the critical analysis of the current urban mobility solutions. This knowledge is then used in a design process to create a sustainable example of an urban mobility service concept with the focus on both inter-modal and inter-service convergence, which we consider to be particularly attuned to the preferences and handling modes of the target users: a ”Mobility stock market”.

Information und technologische Handlungsfähigkeit

Mochte man etwas Gehaltvolles zum Thema „Information und Gesellschaft“ oder gar „Informationsgesellschaft“ sagen, lasst man sich zwangslaufig auf zwei semantisch und normativ hochgradig aufgeladene Begriffe und die moglichen Unklarheiten ihrer Beziehung zueinander ein. Selbst wenn man die Gesellschaft erst einmal in guter Hoffnung in ihrer semantischen Black Box belasst und sich auf den Begriff der Information beschrankt, bleibt die Zahl der Definitionsangebote unubersichtlich und ihr Beitrag zur Klarung oft fraglich, zumal Alltagssprache und die Fachterminologien der unterschiedlichen Disziplinen jeweils unterschiedliche Vorstellungen von der Bedeutung von „Information“ haben (vgl. Kuhlen 2004). Wir mochten in unserem programmatischen Essay1 eine in unterschiedliche Richtungen anschlussfahige Annaherung an das Verhaltnis zwischen Information und Gesellschaft herausarbeiten und dessen Implikationen fur das Handeln von Akteuren in einer Informationsgesellschaft prufen.