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Data from social media (SM) has grown exponentially and created new opportunities for businesses to supplement their business intelligence (BI). However, there are many different platforms all of which are in a constant state of evolution. The purpose of this paper is to describe a generic methodology for the gathering of data from SM and transforming it into valuable BI.

The approach taken is termed virtual excavation and builds on the similarities between the manipulation of technological artefacts virtual communities using various forms of SM and the excavation and analysis of physical artefacts found in archaeological settlements.

The paper reports on a case study using this technique that looks at the Facebook fan pages of three mobile telecommunications service providers in Greece. The paper identifies many of the standard BI indicators as well as demonstrating that additional information relating to cross-page use can be collected by looking at how users manipulate artefact such as the “like” button in Facebook.

Although the methodology is widely applicable, the paper only reports on the analysis of one platform, Facebook, and is heavily reliant on visualization tools. Future work will examine different platforms and different tools for analysis.

The paper discusses some of the ways in which this approach could be used and suggests some areas in which it might be applied.

The approach of using virtual excavations to extract BI from virtual communities in online SM offers a systematic approach for dealing with a variety of information from a variety of different media that is not found in techniques based on information systems or management science.

In the construction sector, site excavation is one of the most dangerous and challenging activities. Proper training can be an effective way to mitigate excavation hazards. Virtual reality (VR) has been used as an effective training tool to enhance safety performance in various industries. However, little attention has been paid to the potential of this technology for construction excavation safety training.

This study proposes an immersive VR training system for excavation safety and hazard identification. The proposed VR training system was compared with a health and safety manual via a controlled experiment.

Results based on scores obtained immediately after training indicate that VR training significantly enhanced practical performance, knowledge acquisition and self-efficacy. Results also show that knowledge was retained four weeks after training. In addition, VR training outperformed health and safety manuals regarding knowledge retention.

This study measures the practical performance to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed VR training system. Also, this study compares the VR training system with a traditional training method by measuring knowledge acquisition and retention. The results demonstrate the potential of VR as a training tool for excavation safety and hazards.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate boundary spanning tactics in a cross-organizational virtual alliance and discuss the analytical value of “digging” into technology for excavating boundaries and understanding their dynamic and emergent features.

Although boundaries, their role and implications have been extensively investigated across a variety of online settings, the results are inconclusive as to the features of technology that create, dissolve or re-locate boundaries. This is attributed to the fact that in most cases technology is addressed as a black box – a discrete artefact of practice – without seeking justification for the inscribed functions that enable or constrain use. The paper overcomes these shortcomings by analysing digital trace data compiled through a virtual ethnographic assessment of a cross-organizational tourism alliance. Data comprise electronic traces of online collaboration whose interpretive capacity is augmented using knowledge visualization techniques capable of revealing dynamic and emergent features of boundary spanning.

Boundary spanning in virtual settings entails micro-negotiations around several types of boundaries. Some of them are either enforced by or inscribed into technology, while others are enacted in practice. Knowledge visualization of digital trace data allows “excavation” of these boundaries, assessment of their implications on distributed organizing of online ensembles and discovery of “hidden” knowledge that drives boundary spanning tactics of collaborators.

In cross-organizational collaborative settings, boundary spanning represents an enacted capability stemming from the intertwining between material and social/collective agencies. Consequently, boundaries surface as first class design constructs, directing design attention not only to features inscribed in technology (i.e. user profiles, registration mechanisms, moderation policies) but also the way such features are appropriated to re-shape, re-locate or dissolve boundaries.

An empirical data pool compiled through virtual ethnographic assessment of online collaboration is revisited and augmented with knowledge visualization techniques that enhance the interpretive capacity of the data and reveal “hidden” aspects of the collaborators’ boundary spanning behaviour and tactics.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of priming on people’s risk perceptions and safety decisions in a virtual construction simulator.

Civil engineering students were recruited to interact with a virtual reality (VR) safety simulator. They were divided into four groups covering with and without sound and with and without priming factors. Data were collected on the risks that they perceived and the safety levels of their actions.

It was found that obvious stimuli in a virtual environment with sound help people to recognise more hazards near the location of the stimuli. Sound is helpful in training simulations to create high levels of presence. However, priming factors are not suitable to be added to VR simulators for training purposes. Priming of safe choice results in people taking fewer risks in the VR simulator, but this does not carry over into other situations. Compared to priming effects, being “injured” in a training simulator with sound improves trainees’ ability to make safe decisions.

VR simulation is helpful in construction training because of its unique ability to give trainees exposure to dangerous situations without physical risk. However, the overloading the working memory of users is detrimental to the outcomes. Therefore, the optimum level of complexity in VR simulators should be further studied.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse of structures made in rock mass with multiple intersecting discrete discontinuities such as joint, fault, shear plane.

In this study, a numerical method is proposed for analyzing multiple intersecting joints with varying dip angles, spacing and roughness in eXtended Finite Element Method platform. A procedure is also outlined to treat excavated enhanced (jointed) elements for analysing the effect of excavation sequences.

The proposed method is compared with the existing interface element methods (Phase-2 model) by considering the stress and displacement distributions of a multiple intersecting jointed rock sample under uniaxial loading conditions. A circular tunnel in rock mass having intersecting joints is also analyzed for the distribution of mobilised friction angle of joints and results are compared with a derived analytical solution.

Nucleation and propagation of cracks should be incorporated into the proposed framework in future studies.

The proposed method is a useful tool for rock mechanics and geotechnical engineering problems to analyse strength and deformability of jointed rock masses.

The paper enumerates concepts and detail implementation procedures of the proposed method in three-noded triangular elements. The intersection of joints is formulated in such a way that no additional (junction) enrichment is required in model. The method has been improved for inclusion of Dirichlet and Neumann boundary conditions to be applied in the enhanced part of a problem domain.

This study aims to assess the usability of augmented reality (AR) based mobile app for excavation and earthmoving processes using a novel tool entitled Excavator Augmented Reality (EAR).

A mixed-methods research approach was used through conducting experimentation to collect qualitative and quantitative data collected from the Sri Lankan construction sector. EAR app was used for experimentation in outdoor areas examining how a 360° tracked hydraulic excavator can be navigated in different physical environments similar to the real prospected job.

The findings reveal that EAR could make a considerable impact on enhancing productivity, safety and training processes. However, the developed EAR App subjected to assessment demonstrated the highest satisfaction gap for the auditory aspects. Among the remaining criterion, the satisfaction met user expectations for comfortability and no-risk practice. An analysis of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT analysis) conducted revealed that visualising the excavator activities and the requirements of improved features were the highest agreed strengths and weaknesses of the EAR. Among the opportunities for improvement, the necessity of improving emergency and safety reached the highest agreement. Moreover, the study presented the challenges in introducing mobile augmented reality (MAR) to the construction sector under the political, economic, sociocultural, technological, environmental and legal (PESTEL) model along with solutions to be taken.

This study provides a novel approach to addressing the safety, productivity and training concerns in heavy mobile plants and machinery on construction sites which remains to be unexplored to this end.

The aim of this paper is to review the concept of the virtual research environment (VRE) in the light of its development over the past five years, and assess its applicability to the arts and humanities disciplines.

Evidence from a number of case studies exemplifying the VRE approach is reviewed, and the case of a VRE in archaeology, the Silchester Roman Town project, is discussed in detail. The interpretive implications of using computers as a means of dealing with artistic and humanistic data, are highlighted.

There is a critical comparison to be drawn between VREs in the sciences and the humanities/arts. This is caused by the “fuzzy” nature of data and workflows in the latter, as compared with the more formal and definable research practice in the former. It is proposed that, to deal with this, the plan of any project which seeks to set up a VRE in the humanities should consider the research process under three headings: processes which the VRE seeks to introduce, existing processes which it seeks to undertake digitally, and processes which will be unaffected by the VRE.

In order to progress “the VRE” from being an artificial construct, driven by dedicated project funding, towards being an embedded part of research practice, those concerned with developing VREs need to consider the nuances of those research practices. This paper seeks to review those nuances by synthesizing data and experience from existing projects, thereby facilitating that embedding process.

The purpose of this paper is to test critical conservation approaches through conceptual architectural interventions that integrate the evolution of a significant urban building, the Temple of Dagan in Ugarit, the capital of an important Bronze Age civilisation in Syria, with the pre-existing phases of the site and offer a paradigm for the presentation of the city’s evolution. This reflection aims to investigate how far the remaining fabric can frame the original architectural experience of the place allowing the visitors of the ruins to contextualise the architectural development of the temple.

A detailed reading of archaeological reports and the French mission’s architectural interpretation as well as in situ surveys and architectural and urban analyses were carried out to inform this conservation reflection, which primarily explores the potential of critical conservation approaches for key architectural interventions. The main vehicle is a virtual reconstruction approach to probe the proposed critical conservation principles and their success in highlighting the stratigraphy of a site.

The work shows that critical conservation approaches can make a distinct contribution to the understanding of the ruins; in particular, the virtual approach can handle effectively the presentation of the intangible experience of the temple (original processional routes) and its archaeological stratigraphy.

The poor condition of the temple, being exposed for more than 80 years after excavation, have limited further architectural analysis as some evidence is confusing to read in situ. The pre-conservation analysis, therefore, was based more on the archaeological mission’s work, which is comprehensive.

The reconstitution of the temple’s architectural layers in a coherent narrative will have educational value as it will highlight the development of architectural perception and techniques during the Bronze Age. Debate on the application of such tools by managers of the site may enhance the visitors’ appreciation of the ruins. The digital output itself constitutes an engaging material that enhances the public understanding of the site and its rich stratigraphy.

The study is the first attempt to constitute an architectural experience out of the confusing ruins integrating the archaeological evidence in the frame of contemporary conservation and architectural design. As one of the predominant urban artefacts in Ugarit, the Temple of Dagan witnessed at least a millennium of the city’s history and thus the conservation strategy of its intense development and stratification reflects the whole city.

The development of communication and artificial intelligence technologies has raised interest in connectivity and increased autonomy of automated earthmoving equipment for earthwork. These changes are motivating work to reduce uncertainties, in terms of improving equipment object detection capability and reducing strikes and accidents on site. The purpose of this study is to illustrate industrial drivers for automated earthwork systems; identify the specific capabilities which make the transformation happen; and finally determine use cases that create value for the system. These three objectives act as components of a technology roadmap for automated and connected earthwork and can guide development of new products and services.

This paper used a text mining approach in which the required data was captured through a structured literature review, and then expert knowledge was used for verification of the results.

Automated and connected earthwork can enhance construction site and its embraced infrastructure, resilience by avoiding human faults during operations. Automating the monitoring process can lead to reliable anticipation of problems and facilitate real-time responses to unexpected situation via connectedness capabilities. Research findings are presented in three sections: industrial perspectives, trends and drivers for automated and connected earthwork; capabilities which are met by technologies; and use cases to demonstrate different capabilities.

This study combines the results of disintegrated and fragmented research in the area of automated and connected earthwork and categorises them under new capability levels. The identified capabilities are classified in three main categories including reliable environmental perception, single equipment decision-making toward safe outcomes and fleet-level safety enhancement. Finally, four different levels of automation are proposed for earthwork technology roadmap.

The purpose of this paper is to study service innovation applied to archaeological sites' management, in terms of enrichment of primary cultural product with auxiliary products (cultural activities).

The research design is based on the application of the main issues in strategic management, with particular reference to resource‐based theory and service‐dominant logic, to cultural archaeological sites' management. The empirical part concerns a case study analysis conducted on some cases in the Mediterranean area: Hercolaneum (Italy), Masada (Israel) and Petra (Giordania).

By the cases' study, it comes out a clear awareness of the need to bring innovative forms to archaeological sites' management, both through the use of information and communication technology techniques and to the enrichment of “integrated and complex” offers that go far beyond the archaeological core product.

The analysis provides a foundation for further development in the field of service innovation applied to archaeological sites' management. The paper proposes an analytical model and a positioning matrix, according to some variables, that could be applied to other cases for a more relevant analysis.

The paper provides policy makers, private and public actors a possible approach for developing and applying strategic management concepts to cultural offer in an innovative way.

The paper gives some first important hints to innovate cultural service in archaeological sites. It is not just an attempt to apply a managerial optic in this business: an interdisciplinary approach is adopted, even consulting scholars in culture and archeology, trying to enrich the contents of managerial approach.