Stan Karanasios

Survey of Wireless Communication Technologies for Public Safety

Public Safety (PS) organizations bring value to society by creating a stable and secure environment. The services they provide include protection of people, environment and assets and they address a large number of threats both natural and man-made, acts of terrorism, technological, radiological or environmental accidents. The capability to exchange information (e.g., voice and data) is essential to improve the coordination of PS officers during an emergency crisis and improve response efforts. Wireless communications are particularly important in field operations to support the mobility of first responders. Recent disasters have emphasized the need to enhance interoperability, capacity and broadband connectivity of the wireless networks used by PS organizations. This paper surveys the outstanding challenges in this area, the status of wireless communication technologies in this particular domain and the current regulatory, standardization and research activities to address the identified challenges, with a particular focus on USA and Europe.

Information Sharing and Interoperability: The Case of Major Incident Management

Public sector inter-organisational information sharing and interoperability is an area of increasing concern and intense investment for practice and an area of increasing scholarship. This paper focuses on one particular set of public sector organisations (emergency services) and illuminates the key technological and organisational issues they face concerning information sharing and interoperability. The particular contexts in which these are studied are ones where decisions are non-trivial and made in high-velocity environments. In these conditions the problems and significance of inter-organisational information sharing and interoperability are accentuated. We analyse data gathered from two studies: the first focused on ‘first responders’ (police, fire and ambulance services) in the United Kingdom. The second, a follow on study, with emergency service managers and interoperability project managers in the United Kingdom and the European Union. Using activity theory as a conceptual framework we describe the informational problems critical emergency responders face in their initial response to, and management of, an incident. We argue that rather than focusing on interoperability as a primarily technological issue it should be managed as an organisational and informational issue. Second, we argue that rather than designing for anomalous situations we should design systems, which will function during both anomalous and routine situations. Third, we argue for focus on harmonisation of policies, procedures and working practices.

Mobile technology in mobile work: contradictions and congruencies in activity systems

Mobile technology and the information and communication services supported by it have become increasingly embedded in, and in some cases transformed, work and social activity and created new challenges for studying information systems. This paper focuses on the experience with mobile technology in an inherently mobile and information-intensive work activity – policing. Drawing upon data from this context this paper makes two key sets of contributions. Empirically, we illuminate the congruencies and contradictions between mobile technology and mobile working, and the relationship between the two, revealing a state of change based upon dialectic interaction. We highlight several ways in which mobile technology has changed the nature of mobile work activity. Theoretically we advance the use of activity theory to better understand the changes of mobile technology-mediated work. We extend traditional use of activity theory by adopting congruencies as an analytical lens, in addition to the approach of examining contradictions. The findings are applicable to other areas of mobile work and contribute to the body of knowledge concerning mobile technology-mediated work.

A priori ontology modularisation in ill-defined domains

Modularisation is crucial to create re-usable and manageable ontologies. The modularisation is usually performed a posteriori, i.e. after the ontology is developed, and has been applied mainly to well-structured domains. With the increasing popularity of social media, Semantic web technologies are moving towards ill-defined domains that involve cognitively-complex processes carried out by humans and require tacit knowledge (e.g. decision-making, sensemaking, interpersonal communication, negotiating, motivating). In such domains, a priori modularisation can enable ontology creation to handle the complexity and the dynamic nature of knowledge. This paper outlines an a priori modularisation methodology for multi-layered development of ontologies in ill-defined domains, including an upper ontology layer, high-level and reusable domain layers, and case-specific layers. The methodology is being applied in several use cases in two EU projects -- Dicode and ImREAL.

Information Systems Journal Special Issue on: Activity Theory in Information Systems Research

Activity Theory, based on the work of Vygotsky and colleagues, has developed into a contemporary social theory for studying work and social activity. In the last 20 years it has become internationalised and accepted in the Organisation, Management, Human Computer Interaction, Social‐Psychology and Education fields; yet traditionally its use in IS has remained limited. In recent years there has been growing interest in its use in Information Systems (IS) research. This Special Issue aims to act as a compendium of outstanding research, focusing on the use, development and contribution of Activity Theory in IS research. It also aims to stimulate discourse and advance the use of Activity Theory in IS research.

Cross-National Field Research in Developing Countries

Cross-national field research performed in developing countries presents researchers with a number of obstacles. Challenges include creating equivalent samples, countering biases, and managing linguistic and cultural issues. In this article the author reviews the conduct of a cross-national study focusing on small tourism operators and the adoption of information communication technologies. He presents the research process, the issues encountered and how they were addressed are discussed, and a number of lessons. This article adds to our understanding of cross-national field research in developing countries and presents a number of implications for social science researchers.

Toward a unified view of technology and activity: the contribution of activity theory to information systems research

Purpose This theory development paper argues that activity theory, as a theory of practice, can help overcome long-standing challenges in the field of information systems (IS) by better accounting for the material in work and social activity. It also suggests ways in which IS research can inform the development of activity theory. In this way, this paper seeks to be forward-looking as much as reflective to advance an enlarged understanding of activity theory, and argue for its development in IS studies. Design/methodology/approach The paper is conceptual and draws upon existing literature and research to propose and cultivate an updated understanding of activity theory as a theoretical lens capable of accounting for social and technical aspects in IS. Findings The paper has three aims. First, to cultivate the use of activity theory in IS. It elaborates on the use and contribution of activity theory in IS, charts it’s use over the last 20 years and discusses how it brings together a range of ideas that hav...

WiMAX for development

This paper discusses WiMAX (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access), an emergent broadband wireless technology, and examines its suitability to developing countries. Previous technologies have not fulfilled the promise of increasing connectivity in developing countries, largely due to the high-cost of the technologies and the unsuitability of the technologies to local conditions. WiMAX has emerged as a genuine contender to fill the connectivity gap in developing countries. In this paper we discuss the characteristics of the technology, outline how it can be used to enhance community connectivity and identify some of the issues surrounding WiMAX deployments. We also discuss the implications of WiMAX for ICT for development research.

Ontology for Cultural Variations in Interpersonal Communication: Building on Theoretical Models and Crowdsourced Knowledge

The domain of cultural variations in interpersonal communication is becoming increasingly important in various areas, including human–human interaction (e.g., business settings) and human–computer interaction (e.g., during simulations, or with social robots). User‐generated content (UGC) in social media can provide an invaluable source of culturally diverse viewpoints for supporting the understanding of cultural variations. However, discovering and organizing UGC is notoriously challenging and laborious for humans, especially in ill‐defined domains such as culture. This calls for computational approaches to automate the UGC sensemaking process by using tagging, linking, and exploring. Semantic technologies allow automated structuring and qualitative analysis of UGC, but are dependent on the availability of an ontology representing the main concepts in a specific domain. For the domain of cultural variations in interpersonal communication, no ontological model exists. This paper presents the first such ontological model, called AMOn+, which defines cultural variations and enables tagging culture‐related mentions in textual content. AMOn+ is designed based on a novel interdisciplinary approach that combines theoretical models of culture with crowdsourced knowledge (DBpedia). An evaluation of AMOn+ demonstrated its fitness‐for‐purpose regarding domain coverage for annotating culture‐related concepts mentioned in text corpora. This ontology can underpin computational models for making sense of UGC.

How do conflicting logics lead to decoupled activities? Evidence from rural Ghana

In this paper we explore the links between the notions of decoupling in Institutional Theory (IT) and of activity systems of Activity Theory (AT), by considering the case of delivery of agricultura...