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1 – 10 of 119Dan Wu, Daqing He and Xiaomei Xu
With the vast amount of multilingual information available online, it becomes increasingly critical for libraries to use various multilingual information access techniques in…
Abstract
Purpose
With the vast amount of multilingual information available online, it becomes increasingly critical for libraries to use various multilingual information access techniques in order to effectively support patrons' online information requests. However, this is still a relatively under‐explored area. This paper aims to study the effectiveness and the adoptability of query expansion and translation enhancement in the context of interactive multilingual information access.
Design/methodology/approach
Relying on an interactive multilingual information access system called ICE‐TEA, the authors conducted a controlled experiment (English‐to‐Chinese translation) involving human subjects to assess the retrieval effectiveness, analyzed the collected search logs to examine users' behavior, and employed pre‐ and post‐questionnaires to obtain users' opinions about the system.
Findings
The results confirm that significant improvement in retrieval effectiveness can be achieved by combining query expansion with translation enhancement (as compared to a case when there is no relevance feedback). However, users' ability to understand, interact with and even perceive the complex process of searches involving the combination of query expansion and translation enhancement may greatly impact the effectiveness of the techniques. The results also confirm that human‐generated queries were short queries, which calls for careful consideration of how longer queries perform in real search because many search engines rely on longer and more complex queries.
Originality/value
This study examines two important relevance feedback techniques in the context of human‐involved multilingual information access. This study is a valuable addition to the information seeking behaviour literature.
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Abstract
Purpose
With a mass of electronic multi-topic documents available, there is an increasing need for evaluating emerging analysis tools to help users and digital libraries analyze these documents better. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the effectiveness, efficiency and user satisfaction of THC-DAT, a within-document analysis tool, in reading a multi-topic document.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors reviewed related literature first, then performed a user-centered, comparative evaluation of two within-document analysis tools, THC-DAT and BOOKMARK. THC-DAT extracts a topic hierarchy tree using hierarchical latent Dirichlet allocation (hLDA) method and takes the context information into account. BOOKMARK provides similar functionality to the Table of Contents bookmarks in Adobe Reader. Three novel kinds of tasks were devised for participants to finish on two tools, with objective results to assess reading effectiveness and efficiency. And post-system questionnaires were employed to obtain participants’ subjective judgments about the tools.
Findings
The results confirm that THC-DAT is significantly more effective than BOOKMARK, while not inferior in efficiency. There is some evidence that suggests THC-DAT can slow down the process of approaching cognitive overload and improve users’ willingness to undertake difficult task. Based on qualitative data from questionnaires, the results indicate that users were more satisfied when using THC-DAT than BOOKMARK.
Practical implications
Adopting THC-DAT in digital libraries or electrical document reading systems contributes to promoting users’ reading performance, willingness to undertake difficult task and general satisfaction. Moreover, THC-DAT is of great value to addressing cognitive overload problem in the information retrieval field.
Originality/value
This paper evaluates a novel within-document analysis tool in analyzing a multi-topic document, and proved that this tool is superior to the benchmark in effectiveness and user satisfaction, and not inferior in efficiency.
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Chow Hou Wee, Seek Luan Lim and May Lwin
Word‐of‐mouth is a powerful communication tool which is often beyond the control of the marketer. This study used a 3 x 2 x 2 factorial experiment in a laboratory simulation to…
Abstract
Word‐of‐mouth is a powerful communication tool which is often beyond the control of the marketer. This study used a 3 x 2 x 2 factorial experiment in a laboratory simulation to examine the main and interaction effects of three independent variables — message, source and user‐type — on credibility and behavior intention. The experiment involved 1,440 respondents from two different demographic sample groupings — secondary school students and undergraduates. ANOVA results for the experiments showed that, generally, source and user‐type were found to be significant factors affecting the credibility of word‐of‐mouth. In terms of source, father was perceived to be more credible than close friend as a word‐of‐mouth source. Likewise, past users were found to be more credible than non‐past users. Message was, however, found to affect significantly the behavioral intention variable. Negative message was found to generate the strongest negative behavioral intention than positive message and two‐sided messages. Two‐sided message was also found to have a stronger effect than positive message in behavioral intention. In addition, t‐tests results also revealed significant differences in perceptions between the two samples.
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Khatereh Ghasemzadeh, Octavio Escobar, Zornitsa Yordanova and Manuel Villasalero
The study examines the amplifying role of users in the e-healthcare sector and holistically show its current state and potential. The paper aims at contributing to the scientific…
Abstract
Purpose
The study examines the amplifying role of users in the e-healthcare sector and holistically show its current state and potential. The paper aims at contributing to the scientific literature with a comprehensive review of the current state of the art on the application of user innovation (UI) in the e-healthcare sector, as a solid step for discussing the potential, trends, managerial gaps and future research avenues in this field. Despite the crucial importance of the topic and increasing attention toward it in the last few years, there is a lack of comprehensive scrutiny on different angles of involving users in health technology innovations so far.
Design/methodology/approach
This study combines two methods of bibliometric analysis and extensive content analysis of 169 journal articles on Scopus and Web of Science to unfold five research questions regarding the mechanisms of involving users, innovations characteristics and the role of users throughout the innovation process.
Findings
A clear result of the applied methodology is the profiling of users involved in e-health innovations in seven categories. The results of this study shed light on the current practice of not involving users in all the stages of the innovation process of m-health, telemedicine, self-managing technologies, which is contrary to the best practices of the UI application.
Research limitations/implications
Collection of relevant studies due to lack of comprehensibility of the keywords.
Practical implications
The offered propositions can act as a roadmap to potential research opportunities as well as to organize such innovations from a managerial perspective in particular healthcare organization managers and the middle managers operating at R&D sectors and policymakers.
Originality/value
This study is the first of its kind that digs out the application of UI strategies such as user-centered design in the context of e-healthcare and provides a bibliometric and extensive content analysis of the studies conducted in this theme over the years.
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Alon Sela, Orit Milo, Eugene Kagan and Irad Ben-Gal
The purpose of this paper is to propose a novel method to enhance the spread of messages in social networks by “Spreading Groups.” These sub-structures of highly connected…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to propose a novel method to enhance the spread of messages in social networks by “Spreading Groups.” These sub-structures of highly connected accounts intentionally echo messages between the members of the subgroup at the early stages of a spread. This echoing further boosts the spread to regions substantially larger than the initial region. These spreading accounts can be actual humans or social bots.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper reveals an interesting anomaly in information cascades in Twitter and proposes the spreading group model that explains this anomaly. The model was tested using an agent-based simulation, real Twitter data and questionnaires.
Findings
The messages of few anonymous Twitter accounts spread on average more than well-known global financial media groups, such as The Wall Street Journal or Bloomberg. The spreading groups (also sometimes called BotNets) model provides an effective mechanism that can explain these findings.
Research limitations/implications
Spreading groups are only one possible mechanism that can explain the effectiveness of spread of tweets from lesser known accounts. The implication of this work is in showing how spreading groups can be used as a mechanism to spread messages in social networks. The construction of spreading groups is rather technical and does not require using opinion leaders. Similar to the case of “Fake News,” we expect the topic of spreading groups and their aim to manipulate information to receive growing attention in public discussion.
Practical implications
While harnessing opinion leaders to spread messages is costly, constructing spreading groups is more technical and replicable. Spreading groups are an efficient method to amplify the spread of message in social networks.
Social implications
With the blossoming of fake news, one might tend to assess the reliability of news by the number of users involved in its spread. This heuristic might be easily fooled by spreading groups. Furthermore, spreading groups consisting of a blend of human and computerized bots might be hard to detect. They can be used to manipulate financial markets or political campaigns.
Originality/value
The paper demonstrates an anomaly in Twitter that was not studied before. It proposes a novel approach to spreading messages in social networks. The methods presented in the paper are valuable for anyone interested in spreading messages or an agenda such as political actors or other agenda enthusiasts. While social bots have been widely studied, their synchronization to increase the spread is novel.
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Discusses experiences on the development and use of horizontal andvertical prototypes. Explains the difference. Resolves that horizontalprototypes can be developed with ′little…
Abstract
Discusses experiences on the development and use of horizontal and vertical prototypes. Explains the difference. Resolves that horizontal prototypes can be developed with ′little effort′, but end users are reluctant to become involved in the development process. Contrastingly resolves that vertical prototypes appear to stimulate constructive response. Reasons that developers should be aware of the tacit knowledge which plays an important part in users′ work practices and should be involved early in the development process. Proposes three techniques to meet the requirements – participation, simulation and evaluation.
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Carina Sjödin and Per Kristensson
The purpose of this article is to present the outcome of a co‐creation service innovation project, both to understand the possible outcome when using a process model and to…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this article is to present the outcome of a co‐creation service innovation project, both to understand the possible outcome when using a process model and to achieve a better understanding of how customers experience participation in co‐creation in an open service innovation project. The article also discusses the outcome of co‐creation in terms of new knowledge concerning customers' needs, both expressed and latent needs compared to the knowledge gained through a regular guest survey.
Design/methodology/approach
The study is based on 29 in‐depth interviews that were conducted subsequent to participation as visitors in a service innovation project which involved testing a model for user involved service innovation. In the process model users were asked to be attentive and produce real time documentations. The co‐creation in this case thus occurred when obtaining input for service innovation ideation.
Findings
Participants (visitors to a Swedish zoo), had mixed opinions about their participation in the project. Favourable experiences, such as benevolence and deepened relationships, were balanced by unfavourable experiences such as incapability and intrusion. Also a user involved service innovation approach as the one studied provides valuable knowledge about customers suggested to be useful for service innovation. Users presented a wide range of real time documentations; from brief comments about certain aspects of their experience to more detailed suggestions for future services.
Originality/value
The study provides empirical evidence regarding the importance of adopting a user's perspective towards service innovation. This is unlike previous research, which has been limited to the study of how companies perceive and can manage co‐creation in a manner that is beneficial for them. The study also connects to this perspective by suggesting that co‐creation both enhances opportunities for successful service innovation and provides a deeper understanding of customers' needs.
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Mohammad Moradi and Mohammad Reza Keyvanpour
Image annotation plays an important role in image retrieval process, especially when it comes to content-based image retrieval. In order to compensate the intrinsic weakness of…
Abstract
Purpose
Image annotation plays an important role in image retrieval process, especially when it comes to content-based image retrieval. In order to compensate the intrinsic weakness of machines in performing cognitive task of (human-like) image annotation, leveraging humans’ knowledge and abilities in the form of crowdsourcing-based annotation have gained momentum. Among various approaches for this purpose, an innovative one is integrating the annotation process into the CAPTCHA workflow. In this paper, the current state of the research works in the field and experimental efficiency analysis of this approach are investigated.
Design/methodology/approach
At first, and with the aim of presenting a current state report of research studies in the field, a comprehensive literature review is provided. Then, several experiments and statistical analyses are conducted to investigate how CAPTCHA-based image annotation is reliable, accurate and efficient.
Findings
In addition to study of current trends and best practices for CAPTCHA-based image annotation, the experimental results demonstrated that despite some intrinsic limitations on leveraging the CAPTCHA as a crowdsourcing platform, when the challenge, i.e. annotation task, is selected and designed appropriately, the efficiency of CAPTCHA-based image annotation can outperform traditional approaches. Nonetheless, there are several design considerations that should be taken into account when the CAPTCHA is used as an image annotation platform.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to analyze different aspects of the titular topic through exploration of the literature and experimental investigation. Therefore, it is anticipated that the outcomes of this study can draw a roadmap for not only CAPTCHA-based image annotation but also CAPTCHA-mediated crowdsourcing and even image annotation.
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B.V. Ghita, S.M. Furnell, B.M. Lines and E.C. Ifeachor
This paper presents the findings of a pilot study to provide information about the characteristics of current networks and data transfers. The main aim of the study was to infer…
Abstract
This paper presents the findings of a pilot study to provide information about the characteristics of current networks and data transfers. The main aim of the study was to infer the properties of a large number of network paths. In addition, the study produced statistics relating to the average size of a typical Web page and both under the restriction of a single‐point connection. The study was performed in two steps: trace collection followed by TCP per‐flow analysis. The trace collection used the functionality of a random link generator, combined with an automatic HTTP retrieval tool. The TCP analysis was applied to the collected traces and it involved an offline TCP per‐flow method developed in previous research.
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Kenia Sousa, Hildeberto Mendonça, Amandine Lievyns and Jean Vanderdonckt
This paper aims to present a case study of the application of a methodology that represents an innovative strategy that integrates researches on interaction design and business…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to present a case study of the application of a methodology that represents an innovative strategy that integrates researches on interaction design and business process management with practical implications. This methodology is devoted to aligning the needs of enterprise system users with business processes (BPs).
Design/methodology/approach
This approach establishes an unbroken network of links between BPs, task models and abstract representations of user interfaces. Once the models are linked, it is possible to identify the impact that any change on these models may produce in other models. The main challenge is to organize the linked models according to the organizational context and manage those links with consistency in order to support improving process efficiency and user productivity. This approach has been applied in a large telecommunications organization during four months with its application in two different projects and validated with a cost‐benefit analysis.
Findings
Applying this approach in large organizations has demonstrated that: every involved stakeholder is capable of understanding the whole approach in one working day; creating the models and linking them with the corresponding business process models takes around three men/day per core business process; and applying this approach brings up to 60 per cent of return on investment related to process improvement and user experience.
Originality/value
The main differentials of this methodology include using simple models; considering light actions; preserving the independence of technology; and adopting a human‐oriented approach assuring that every managed information impacts people and not only systems, thus enabling fast adaptation to the business dynamism.
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