Research

/ Digital Crimes

/ ICT for Reconstruction and Development

/ Information or Knowledge Society and Commons

/ Media Users

/ New Media Infrastructures and Innovation

/ Research Methods

/ Urban Development

Selected projects

European Platform for Intelligent Cities (EPIC) (European Commission ICT PSP CIP, 11/2010 – 05/2013)

The European Platform for Intelligent Cities – EPIC – is a European Commission-funded project (CICT PSP) that aims to wed state-of-the-art cloud computing technologies with fully researched and tested e-Government service applications to create the first truly scalable and flexible pan-European platform for innovative, user-driven public service delivery.

The EPIC platform will combine the industrial strength of IBM’s ‘Smart City’ vision and cloud computing infrastructure with the knowledge and expertise of the Living Lab approach (which expressly engages citizens in service design) to ensure the development of a European ‘innovation ecosystem’ to deliver sustainable, user-driven web-based services for citizens and businesses.

The EPIC project will help to significantly accelerate the uptake of new citizen-generated services across Europe by combining the world-leading business expertise of Deloitte Consulting with the practical, first-hand knowledge of the European Network of Living Labs (ENoLL) to guide cities through the routes, decisions and steps they need to undertake to improve service delivery and achieve the benefits of ‘smart’ working.

Partners:

1. -IBBT iLab.o
   

2. -IS-Practice
   

3. -21c Consultancy
   

4. -ENoLL
   

5. -Deloitte Consulting
   

6. -National Technical University of Athens
   

7. -Athens Technology Centre
   

8. -IBM Germany
   

9. -Fraunhofer Institute
   

10. -Issy Media
    

11. -Manchester City Council
    

12. -City of Tirgu-Mures
    

13. -Navidis
    

14. -Brussels Regional IT Centre
    

15. -Birmingham City University
    

16. -Hildebrand
    

17. -Immoweb
    

w http://www.epic-cities.eu/

Selected output:

- van der Graaf, S., and Vanobberghen, W. (in progress). At Home in Brussels: Professional mobility as a service.

- Ballon, P., Glidden, J., Kranas, P., Menychtas, A., Ruston, S., and van der Graaf, S. (2011). Is there a Need for a Cloud Platform for European Smart Cities? eChallenges 2011. [conference paper].

Socio-Economic Impact Assessment for Research Projects (SEQUOIA) (European Commission FP7-ICT-2009-5: Internet of Services, Software and Virtualisation, 05/2010 – 04/2012)

SEQUOIA will perform an assessment of the socio-economic impact of research projects in the area of Software as a Service and Internet of Services. At the same time, it will capture and document this process in order to develop a self-assessment methodology that on-going and future research projects will be able to adopt and apply on their own after the end of this support action. Finally, SEQUOIA will also develop recommendations for how self-monitoring mechanisms can be built into the FP7 project instruments in order to facilitate the self-assessment process and enable the impact of SaaS/IoS to be optimised in future FP7 calls and in FP8.

Partners:

1. -London School of Economics and Political Science
   

2. -Engineering - Ingegneria Informatica SPA
   

3. -T6 Ecosystems S.R.L.
   

4. -Eurokleis S.R.L.
   

w http://www.sequoiaproject.eu/

Designing for Mod Development: User Creativity as Product Development Strategy on the Firm-Hosted 3D Software Platform (LSE, 10/2004 – 06/2009)

The thesis is designed to improve our understanding of user participation in Web-based development practices in the commercial setting of the 3D software industry. It aims to investigate whether the creative capacities of users and their contributions to the online firm-hosted 3D platform are indicative of a novel configuration of production that influences the processes of product development across firm boundaries.

The thesis mobilizes the user participation literature developing in media research as its main theoretical framework. It builds on insights derived from work on user participation in media sites as seen through a cultural lens, in particular, as developed in Henry Jenkins’ notions of ‘participatory’ and ‘convergence culture’. The user participation literature is supported by a combination of insights drawn from work on communities of practice and user-centered innovation so as to offer a more robust approach to examine and appreciate the firm-hosted 3D platform as a site of user participation. More specifically, the conceptual framework for the study provides a basis for an examination of the ways a software developer firm encourages user participation in a market and of how this enables and facilitates particular modes of user creativity. These are shown to shape and maintain a firm-hosted platform that aids product development efforts that are expected to benefit the developer firm. An empirical study of the platform, Second Life, provides the basis for the analysis of firm-user interactions which are shown to underpin a distinctive firm learning process in the context of product development that occurs across permeable firm boundaries.

The thesis yields insight into the way a developer firm invites its user base to partner with it in product development, indicating how aspects of user participation associated with non-market dynamics are embedded in commercial activity and professionalism. The pivotal role of users is revealed in the design, development and sustainability of a firm-hosted 3D product. The findings point to interesting relationships between the distinctive creative capacities of users and the range of capabilities afforded by the firm-provided design space. Variations in user participation and contributions to product development suggest that particular patterns of learning opportunities occur. The analysis yields several new concepts including a ‘modification effect market’ which are used to extend existing conceptualizations of user participation in digital development practices in the commercial setting of the 3D software industry

Selected output:

1. -PhD thesis (2009), London School of Economics and Political Science
   

(see here) under supervision of professor dr. Robin Mansell

- van der Graaf, S. (2007). Participatory Web: Creativity, Confidence and Convergence. Technology Foresight Forum, OECD and Industry of Canada, Ottawa, Canada.

- van der Graaf, S. (2007). Spill Over Practices of Virtual Markets: The ComMODification of Inventory Toolkits in a Global Context. Hakuhodo Foresight. Tokyo. In Japanese.

Digital Natives: Born Digital (Berkman Center for Internet & Society, Harvard, 09/2007 - 08/2008)

Along with the Research Center for Information Law at the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland, the Berkman Center for Internet & Society has worked on an eighteen-month project studying the role of digital media in the lives of young people in both the United States and Europe. The purpose of the project is to understand better the generation gap that currently exists between “Digital Natives” (those “born digital”) and “digital immigrants” (those who came to these technologies later in life), with the overarching goal of identifying and addressing the policy implications that arise out of this gap. Our approach is to begin with first-hand discussions with youth, staying close to what we perceive to be a growing global youth culture; to assess problems emerging in the space (including safety, intellectual property, information quality, and innovation); and to apply strong legal and policy analysis of both the issues and benefits of this digital media landscape. This information can help us make recommendations to educators and legislators in a way that supports young people and harnesses the exciting possibilities their digital fluency presents. This research also helps to elevate the level of discussion about how digital platforms are controlled and how the public interest (and youth, in particular) can be protected in the process—which is especially crucial during a time of policy uncertainty.

The results of this work build on existing knowledge of youth digital technology practices, and reach beyond, to understand how youth frame and conceive their own digital media use. The project focuses on three key areas: privacy, intellectual property, and innovation, with three overarching goals:

1)to identify both the benefits and risks associated with online and mobile technologies as young people are using them around the world;

2)to enable conversation across generations and professional fields to achieve greater mutual understanding and to promote a more nuanced, comprehensive view of the issues; and

3)to develop a framework for addressing problems that emerge in the digital space, with special emphasis on Digital Natives.

Selected output:

- Palfrey, J., & Gasser, U. (2008). Born Digital: Understanding the first generation of digital natives. New York: Basic Books. (see here)

- Web portal at http://www.digitalnative.org and http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/digitalnatives/

1. -Creative Rights Curricula Series
   

On Developers, Publishers and Gamers: Managing Interactive Innovation in the Game Industry (UH, British Academy, 07/2006 - 08/2007)

    This study investigates how management constructs strategies to shape the roles of employees and consumers in order to capitalize on the integration of internal and external labour process within the organizational dynamics of the computer games industry. Using a case study approach, it considers how the interactive and social nature of game developer Valve and its digital distribution platform Steam present challenges to the organizational structures of the games industry. The project yields insight into how trajectories of participation and commercialization are implemented and are emergent in the games industry by highlighting the conjunction of Valve’s management strategies to control the labour process of game development across its boundaries, and the implications for the business models and structures of the game industry, i.e. the ability to innovate and compete.

    This research suggests that the models of innovation adopted by Valve break with the traditional vertical integration model of in-firm R&D activities. Innovation is ‘open’, which means that Valve has porous boundaries and uses both internal and external sources to generate ideas and paths to the games marketplace. In other words, valuable ideas and skills can stem from both inside and outside the boundaries of the firm, and inflows and outflows of knowledge can find their way to the marketplace from either side of these. Consequently, internal and external ideas and paths are equally important and valuable to the firm’s resources and are explicitly employed as business model whereby external sources are identified, linked to, and leveraged as a core process in product innovation. Furthermore, a rapidly evolving yet subtle relationship of collaboration and cooperation cutting across the boundaries of production, distribution, and consumption, can be witnessed in which the firm prides itself on actively articulating the creative and interpretative endeavors of consumers. Here we linked three streams of thoughts concerning the organization of consumption and production, innovation, and communities of practice to yield insight into modding practices such that migrations between the game developer firm and modders occur on a frequent basis. Modifications or mods – not unlike many other First Person Shooter (FPS) games - are argued to conform to the corporate logic of the developer firm.

    By way of innovative game technology, the game engine and provided toolkits for user innovation, we examined total conversion mods (TC) as a particular high risk, advanced technological, capital intensive, non-market proprietary practice. It is suggested that communities of practice of TC modders hold innovation-related information and inventions organized by toolkits for user-innovation and co-design. In particularly, TC mods are understood as a subset of the economic system through sharing and/or commercialization differentiating between proprietary experiences and proprietary extensions. As such TC mods serve as a specific manifestation within mod culture that thus far has not been systematically approached.

Selected output:

- van der Graaf, S. (u.r.). Get Organized At Work! A look inside the game design process of Valve and Linden Lab. Bulletin of Science, Technology & Society.

- van der Graaf, S. (u.r.). Modonomics: Participation and Competition in Contention. Journal of Gaming and Virtual Worlds.

- Nieborg, D. B., and van der Graaf, S. (2008). The Mod Industries? The Industrial Logic of Non-market Game Production In: European Journal of Cultural Studies, London: Sage. Vol. 11, number 2. 177-195.(download)

- van der Graaf, S., and Randle, K. R. (2007). Cabalizing the Labour Processes in Game Software Development. International Labour Process Conference, Amsterdam.

ICT and Lifestyle Project: ICTs and Emerging Business Strategies (Hakuhodo Inc., Ericsson Consumer & Enterprise Lab, Utrecht University, 04/2003 - 12/2006)

    This project is indirectly the result of a collaboration of Hakuhodo Inc., Ericsson Consumer & Enterprise Lab, and the Utrecht University that came up with an international comparative survey program, named Media Landscape Survey 2003-2004 to examine and compare communication technology environments in the US, Netherlands, Sweden, South Korea, Japan, and China. This very broad initiative brought us in contact with other researchers and practitioners interested in similar issues that center on the relationships among emerging and existing firms, markets, and consumers. Specifically, this project provides a collection of theoretical and empirical strands that, with the growing usage of communication technologies such as the Internet and mobile phones, what used to be understood as the domain of consumption seems to have become a player in, on the one hand, production, distribution, and integration processes and, on the other hand, seems to potentially impact on a firm’s competitive (dis)advantage.

    The research focuses on the wide and rapid diffusion of the use of various new media, such as e-mail, mobile phones, Internet, interactive TV, games, and Web logs, and the way they have impacted the paradigm of human and business communications. These new communication means that are major products of ICTs, are gradually complementing or even replacing some more conventional communication means, such as physical mailing or using fixed phones rather than wireless ones. As some of the results have shown, new technologies have contributed to changes in the way we communicate and seem to have given way to new or alternative social norms, emerging markets, and organizational cultures within and across nations, for example, striking differences between Japan, Europe, and the U.S. regarding the way various media are used, seemingly based in each region’s political, economical, cultural, and social contexts.

    The most important viewpoint in the examination of communication means and new technologies are, we believe, innovation processes that occur while these technologies diffuse among users. In particular, we have begun to examine a new hypothesis of technological diffusion process in the social network structure among consumers, based on an empirical survey and a complex network simulation. In our hypothesis, the social value of a new technology can be changed by a particular consumer community of the early adopters during the diffusion process, and the competition to win a technological standard in a product category can be highly affected by the early adopter communities, instead of the innovators themselves. This phenomenon has been observed in a variety of high-tech products, such as latest mobile phone handsets or automobiles in the Japanese consumer market. This phenomenon implies that the innovation can emerge in the demand side as well as in the supply side, in certain types of product markets, even though the consumers themselves cannot produce or improve products.

Output:

- van der Graaf, S., and Washida, Y. (Eds.) (2006). Information Communication Technologies and Emerging Business Strategies. Pennsylvania: Idea Publishing Group. (see here)