Tiziana Guzzo

New forms of social and professional digital relationships: the case of Facebook

In recent years social media are becoming ubiquitous and important for social networking and for sharing content and knowledge; they are increasingly used for professional purposes beyond personal and home use. Social networks are spreading so much that they now represent one of the most relevant and interesting social phenomena. The study presented in this paper aims to analyse how Facebook is used by researchers, by means of a quantitative method, and the experiences and perceptions of changes and trends of professionals and researchers towards professional use, by means of a qualitative method. In particular, the study analysed: (i) how and why researchers of the National Research Council (CNR) in Italy in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and Cultural Identity (IC) Departments use social networks, and more specifically Facebook (ii) their attitude towards risks and privacy concerns (iii) professional use and perceptions by CNR researchers and professionals of changes over time in using Facebook for professional purposes.

Multidimensional Visualization System for Travel Social Networks

In this paper we provide a multidimensional visualization system for travel social network. This system allows to analyse the structure and the social aggregation of travel networks providing different perspectives according to three dimensions: the space that defines locations connected to the members; the time that defines temporal evolution about tourist interests of the members; and coordinates involving classes of interests that define typologies of tourism chosen by members. Furthermore the system offers location-based tourist services providing a spatial visualization of the services connected to the specific place and sharing information about specific place. Finally in order to evaluate the proposed method, interviews to tourists and stakeholders were carried out after testing of the system.

SoN-KInG: a digital eco-system for innovation in professional and business domains

Purpose – An open question in the advanced economies, and in the current crisis even more, is to widely improve knowledge sharing as a driver of innovation and creativity processes. The need of addressing knowledge, creativity and innovation is co-generating new knowledge sharing tools, attempting to create new network linkages among professionals (such as engineers, researchers, professors, architects, creative designers, etc.), among financial/business companies and, between professionals and financial/business companies. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach – To achieve this goal, during the Knowledge Intelligence and Innovation for a sustainable Growth (KnowInG) project (2010-2013), the Social Network KnowInG (SoN-KInG) model and framework consisting in a digital eco-system were created. The benefits and the potentialities of the SoN-KInG as knowledge sharing tool both for professionals and businesses are discussed in the paper. Findings – SoN-KInG unifies the innovative...

A model of e-commerce adoption MOCA: consumer's perceptions and behaviours

ABSTRACT The paper analyses factors that usually influence the adoption of online commerce, focusing in particular on how social influence acts in this process considering in particular an Italian sample. It investigates about the actual transaction behaviour, and not just the intention to shop online. Starting from analysing technology acceptance models of literature, the paper proposes and empirically validates a new model for e-commerce adoption. A self-administered survey approach was used to collect data from a sample of different ages, genders and educational levels by using a structured questionnaire. Empirical data were analysed using correlation and regression analysis. Results showed that social influence, usability and perceived usefulness are predictors of the frequency of use and then, of e-commerce adoption. The paper gives both a theoretical and an empirical contribution to the e-commerce literature by designing and testing a model for predicting online consumers’ behaviour and enhancing the e-commerce adoption understanding.

Evolution of Marketing Strategies: From Internet Marketing to M-Marketing

The paper describes the evolution of marketing strategies from the advent of the Web (Internet Marketing) through the advent of Social Networks (Marketing 2.0) to the evolution of Mobile Social Networks (M-marketing). Moreover the paper analyses the use that Italian people make of mobile devices and the user perception and acceptance of M-marketing on considering the characteristics that influence them. Finally a short discussion on viral marketing trend is given.

ME: Multimodal Environment Based on Web Services Architecture

Information, documents and knowledge for each person and for public and private organizations are fundamental in each activity, and they may be the products or services they provide or supply. The daily activities and decision-making processes are usually based on many different pieces of information, which could be handled on PDAs and mobile devices in general, or stored on laptop computers using a lot of different forms, such as spreadsheets, e-mail messages, Web information obtained as the result of a Google search or a query, and so on. Simulating and managing services and information in catastrophic events and emergencies does not represent an exception. This paper describes the Web Services architecture of the Multimodal collaborative knowledge oriented Environment (ME), a platform designed to manage data, information and services for catastrophic events such as earthquakes, floods and dangerous natural phenomena.

Digital eco-systems: the next generation of business services

The paper provides a framework consisting of three different steps: digital business eco-system creation, monitoring and evaluation. In the creation phase, the analysis of available financial resources has to carried out, the value creation and sharing among the actors of the digital business ecosystem have to be stimulated and strategic decisions have to be chosen. After the creation it essentially embodies an active management where the digital business ecosystem is continuously monitored as well as its healthiness is actively improved. In order to carry out the management of the digital business ecosystem some parameters are important to considered such as: quantifiable parameters, competitive assets and current roles and strategies. Finally the impact of DBE have to be measured in term of productivity, robustness and niche creation.

Multimodal Social Networking for Healthcare Professionals

In this paper a study on Social Networking for healthcare professionals has been carried out. Starting from the results obtained by the study, the paper proposes an innovative Social Networking platform for healthcare professionals for facilitating access and sharing of health care services. The platform allows to use multimodal interaction and multimodal information by involving technologies such as Skype, developed for communication, and in particular for tele-communication. To implement the platform some interviews have been carried out in order to understand the characteristics and services that it has to offer to be efficient. The interviews have been contributed to understand the use that physicians make of Social Networks and the advantages and disadvantages they offer to them. The platform that we are proposing provides physicians a greater opportunity of communication and collaboration. In a virtual space physicians can aggregate observations from their daily practice and then exchange each others’ opinions, accelerating the emergence of trends and new insights on medications and treatments.

A Framework to Promote and Develop a Sustainable Tourism by Using Social Media

The paper provides a framework which involves different Social Media (such as Social networks, Wiki, Podcasting, Blogs and Really Simple Syndication) able to promote and develop a sustainable tourism in a shared and participatory approach. More in detail, the paper starts from an analysis of the tools used in the old and the new economy, by highlighting the technological tourism trend . Then the paper illustrates how Social Media can develop a sustainable tourism involving both tourists and local communities. Finally, future scenarios of virtual tourism are given.

Toward new communication paradigms to enhance cognitive and learning processes

The evolution of technologies is making available new devices that allow designing enriched interaction environments between humans and computers. New technological tools, such as multimodal platforms, can be used to enhance cognitive and learning processes. This paper introduces a new paradigm that includes different characteristics of the human-human communication, such as emotions, aesthetics, presence perception, and semantic communication that, usually, are not considered in the human computer communication. Moreover, it provides a gaming application scenario and the description of an Advanced Multimodal Platform for game-based Learning.