Blog da tese

coffee, tea, you and me - new place

2009-06-11T11:44:00.005+01:00

This space was weaved around the work for my master thesis and very connected to the places I inhabit at that time. It was also the starting point for the doctoral research.I felt the need for another space that could be turned into my place. At first I retracted from out loud thoughts. There where to many things I needed to sort out for myself and I could not express them in public. Most of those writings acted like mind «dumping», scattered and confusing pieces that I felt the need to take of my mind. For almost 2 years, I've used mainly my notebooks (moleskines) and a restricted blog mainly intended for documenting my ongoing doctoral work.

Two years might not seem long, but it as been way to long for all the changes that have taken place with my life... and with myself. Slowly I've started to sort things out. Little by Little am crafting a new time/space. Some pieces fit for building what I hope it's growing to be my place. The most important of those bits are the memories of people from past times. The conversations that took place around coffee, tea, you and me.

So in case you want to stop by for a coffee, this is where I am now. You're very welcome to drop in, look around to what's been occupying my thinking and share your own thoughts. And sorry for not twitter, but I've discovered that I like it slow with time to appreciate all the silences in between what is said, felt, and shared. Playing around with ideas is an integral part of my way of learning. That requires time and can not be rushed. A lot like friendship, I guess.

Thanks! Hope to see you around :-)

on the use of «labels» for writing research

2008-07-04T11:44:00.001+01:00

McKechnie, L., Julien, H., Pecoskie, J.L. & Dixon, C.M. (2006). The presentation of the information user in reports of information behaviour research. Information Research, 12(1) paper 278 [Available at http://InformationR.net/ir/12-1/paper278.html]:

"(...) the terms partner and participant, may perhaps be regarded as the most inclusive of all as they construct the individual as a member of the research team and an active player in the research process."

When addressing participants in a research, McKechnie et al (2006) suggest to use the words «participants» or «partners» since it acknowledges their active paper in the research process and denotes a more centralized role in the research then the use of words such as «subjects», «objects» that distance the researched from the research. Also, there was a correlation with the data collection methods used where the participant label was used:

"The important role of the user or research participant was evident in the method section of some of the papers. Some data collection practices reported by authors were designed to bring, and were effective at bringing, researchers closer to users and capturing their perspectives. These included open-ended interviews, face-to-face interviews, close interaction over an extended period of time, audio-recording of interviews, full transcription of audio-recorded interviews and participant checking. Conversely, data collection practices such as transaction log analysis or the use of secondary survey data served to distance the researcher from the researched."

The core of the paper is concerned not only with the labels a researcher uses, but how this labels might reflect how the researcher sees the participants. To be avoided, specially if one is using the qualitative paradigm, reports that address participants by numbers, by letters, by pie charts, etc., not giving voice to the participants.

This is one of the differences that might be an issue when presenting my research in an engineers context. They might say that I used a lot of quotations and little aggregated information. Also, it may reflect how I see the world of engineers: my pre-conceptions of what it is expected of my research in the context of the Department I'm going to present my PhD.

research, living & life

2007-07-07T11:38:00.000+01:00

For the few people that still come to this space expecting to find news on my research, just some notes to let you know that what i had dream and fight to get a grant for being able to finance my PhD, turned out to be something far from what i would discovered. I am still waiting for my grant!

Because I'm a full time worker in a research government lab (where they do not invest in workers research education & only use it at workers costs), in order to receive the grant that i won, from last years national FCT's grants:

I need the written consent of my research lab, saying that they authorize me to do my PhD without receiving my salary (according to Portuguese National Science & Technology Foundation norms for the research grants). I have been waiting for the answer since last year, and still nothing!
When they eventually decide, I will loose my salary, and my income will be even worst then before i applied for the grant, making the grant feel like a poisoned gift

In the course of my life I married and proudly became the mother of two kids. It's becoming real difficult to tell them to proceed with their studies (they are now 17 & 15 years old), in a country were a house maid (that i would gladly pay for, if i could) earns more than someone that works full time in research. What lessons are they taking out of my discourse versus practicing?

Something must be wrong in my present life. It seems that the efforts I've been making in the last years are all wrong and do not make any sense. Since I went to work for my current organization:

I have been told that always exceeded the objectives they have given me
I have worked in team and helped create sharing practices
I've introduced new practices where old ones didn't work
I've shared my resources and documented my practices
I found solutions to solve problems, when resources where scarce or unavailable
I have had the best evaluations from my hierarchies since I came to work for them, but...
... the promotions only included more work, more responsibility, but no money!

So 5 years of my life telling my family that "working hard will help us have a better life", working full time, finishing a masters research (extra time), even incurring in costs in the name of a better future for my Organization and hence for myself and all the people i work with, translates in nothing that i can give back to the well being of my family:

I've been moved by the dream of being able to contribute to my family needs
I always believed in giving the most to the people i am with
I enjoy learning knew things and use them in everyday work and life
My best learned lessons have been those where something didn't work

I have been trying to make sense of all this situation... but i keep going in circles. I feel that i am wasting my time. There must be other ways of living life

I once thought that money was not important, but in the last years I've changed my mind: the grocery man thinks it is, so I «had» to agree with him ;-)

National Centre for e-Social Science (NCeSS)

2007-04-15T10:19:00.000+01:00

Many useful resources in the The National Centre for e-Social Science (NCeSS). Among many worth of exploration, i found one for the design of my research. It deals with the need of ethnographic studies to understand complex interactions among social and technical relations in ubiquitous and mobile contexts of way-of-life:

(2006) Supporting Ethnographic Studies of Ubiquitous Computing in the Wild A. Crabtree, S. Benford, Chris Greenhalgh, University of Nottingham P. Tennent, M. Chalmers, B. Brown, Dept of Computing Science, University of Glasgow. Published in the Proceedings of the 2006 ACM Symposium on Designing Interactive Systems

...!

2007-02-25T16:50:00.000Z

Grad Students Unite, Piled Higher & Deeper by Jorge Cham in PhD Comics

experimental phase

2007-02-10T11:45:00.000Z

From Piled Higher and Deeper, Get to know your Advisor's Negation Field... although I'm still to find out if it's going to happen with me ;-)

LEMe

2007-02-10T11:37:00.000Z

[Portuguese Excelence Lab in Mobility] LEMe - Laboratório de Excelência em Mobilidade:

"(...) desenvolvimento em consórcio em Computação Móvel e Ubíqua bem como nos serviços inovadores para cidadãos nas suas actividades do dia-a-dia, trabalho e lazer."

Adicional Information (in portuguese): localization, people, partnerss e projects, among others.

i3 Conference - Information: Interactions and Impact

2007-01-28T12:12:00.000Z

i3 Conference - Information: Interactions and Impact

"i3 is an attempt to bring together researchers and practitioners interested in exploring such interconnections between information behaviour, information literacy and impact of information. The conference will provide a forum for exchange of research findings and an opportunity to identify key questions and issues for future research. It should be relevant to those involved in researching, developing or delivering information and knowledge services in any sector as well as those concerned with the development of skills for a knowledge society."

things can never be the same

2007-01-28T10:34:00.000Z

No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man.

About Heraclitus

Aura project

2007-01-20T12:03:00.000Z

Papers talking or referencing Aura Project in UMinho:

Hélder Pinto & Rui José (2004) Supporting Localized Activities in Ubiquitous Computing Environments [presentation pdf]
Hélder Pinto (2004), Supporting Localized Activities in Ubiquitous Computing Environments, in Advances in Pervasive Computing, Vienna : Austrian Computer Society, pp. 119-124.
Hélder Pinto (2004), User-centered support to localized activities in ubiquitous computing environments (paper pdf)

information moves

2007-01-03T14:29:00.000Z

Maglio, P.P., & Matlock, T. (1999). The conceptual structure of information space. In Munro, A., Benyon, D., & Hook, K. (Eds.), Social navigation of information space (pp.155-173). Springer Verlag:

"(...) people see themselves as metaphorically moving toward information, rather than information as moving toward them.", p. 156

Corporate Values and Employee Cynicism

2006-12-12T12:50:00.000Z

Via HBS Working Knowledge - Cha, Sandra E. & Edmondson, A. C. (2006). When values backfire: Leadership, attribution, and disenchantment in a values-driven organization. The Leadership Quarterly, vol. 17, pp. 57-78:

"Theory on charismatic leaders suggests that shared values play an important role in promoting employee effort and organizational performance. This article proposes a theoretical model to identify conditions under which charismatic leadership and values inadvertently give rise to employee disenchantment, despite the good intentions of leaders and followers."

Information Space for Europe

2006-11-21T13:20:00.000Z

eEurope - A single European Information Space:

"This pillar combines regulatory and other instruments at the Commission’s disposal to create a modern, market-oriented regulatory framework for the digital economy."

Blogging as a research tool - ethnography

2006-11-15T12:47:00.003Z

[via Lorenz Khazaleh] Erkan Saka (2006). Blogging as a Research Tool for Ethnographic Fieldwork. Paper submitted to the annual conference of the Association of Internet Researchers, Internet Research 7.0: Internet Convergences, Brisbane, Qld, Australia, September 27 - 30, 2006:

"This presentation argues that blogging emerges as a new research tool for the ones conducting ethnographic fieldwork. Moreover, I argue throughout my paper that new media with a particular emphasis in blogging will have even larger consequences for the discipline of anthropology. In order to substantiate my main argument I focus on these issues: a) Blogging might be a remedy to the anxiety of being in ‘after the fact’ that is shared by many anthropologists. Blogging takes place in the present tense while actively engaging with ‘the fact’; b) blogging brings immediate feedback c) not only from the limited scholarly circles but from a wider public/audience d) which exposes the ethnographer to a much more effective issue of accountability. Moreover, e) blogging urges to see motives in a more regular sense, thus creates a strong sense of regularity f) that forces the ethnographer to produce on a regular basis g) with a constant appeal to narrate what would normally remain fragments of fieldnotes. In addition to depending on scholarly sources of interest, this paper exploits the presenter’s own experience of blogging during his fieldwork."

Tags: papers; blogging; ethnography

gatering info to Lyon

2006-11-04T12:44:00.000Z

Next week i'll be in Lyon (SINCT project). While preparing things to get my way around the city, i've started collecting pieces of information that can help me move around to an unknown place.

For getting a sense of the city i've started in Flickr and look for photos tagged with lyon (...i'm already seduced by it). After cheking prices for companies flying from Lisbon to Lyon, accepting the suggestion from a Lyon project partner for lodging, i'm now looking for other practicalities (weather, maps, what to do, transportation in the city,... and wi-fi internet access ;). Do have any suggestions / tips / must see / good places (not expensive) to eat?...

What do you do before going on a work trip to an unknown place?...

PS - And because of my passion for Paris (and good chocolate too ;-) ended up in paris breakfasts.

public internet spaces (in Portugal)

2006-10-28T09:23:00.000+01:00

Taking place in FIL Lisbon, on the 3 & 4 of November, organized by UMIC (Agência para a Sociedade do Conhecimento) to show and disseminate the network of internet spaces, financed with public fundings (more then 800).

weekend readings

2006-10-27T19:19:00.000+01:00

Bacon, C. J. and Fitzgerald, B. (2001). A systemic framework for the field of information systems. SIGMIS Database 32(2),pp. 46-67. [DOI= http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/506732.506738]

Carroll, J. M. and Swatman, P. A. (2000). Structured-case: a methodological framework for building theory in information systems research. European Journal of Information Systems, 9(4), pp. 235-242. [DOI= http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.ejis.3000374]

tags: information systems

crossing the divides

2006-10-23T16:42:00.000+01:00

Dervin, B. & Reinhard, C.D. (2006). "Researchers and practitioners talk about users and each other. Making user and audience studies matter—paper 1" Information Research, 12(1) paper 286:

"This paper reports on a qualitative study that compared what experts in three fields, library and information science, human computer interaction and communication and media studies, described as their big unanswered questions about users and audiences of information, library, electronic, communication and media systems and texts. It also compares what these experts thought about each other and the difficulties of crossing the divides between disciplines or fields and between research and practice."

(...)

"That users by any other name (...) increasingly have greater and greater control over their access and use of all manner of information and entertainment systems. In this sense they are no longer best conceptualized as users or as audiences but rather as persons with agency. While in the past access was highly constrained both in space and in time by institutional availability, now these independent agents may surf the planet and beyond at their own whims. This is so even when we acknowledge that all users are unwittingly or wittingly constrained by political economies that limit both arrays of offerings, modes of access and availabilities of specific contents."

(...)

"The study reported here is part of a larger multi-stage project, a dialogic surround of how researchers and practitioners in three fields look at: a) the big unanswered questions about users; b) the gaps that stand between them in finding value from each other's work; and c) the barriers to collaborating in the application of user research to system development, implementation and design."

(colective) individual blog SWOT

2006-09-29T12:04:00.000+01:00

Margarida Cardoso & Mónica André, Individual Blog SWOT (?) with participants contributions, SHiFT, Lisbon, 28 -29 September, 2006.

shift06; bswot

There could be...

2006-08-25T19:51:00.000+01:00

... no better way to start my holidays. Just received the mail saying:

"We are pleased to inform that your fellowship application submited to FCT was evaluated positively."

:-)

extending information spaces

2006-08-23T14:20:00.000+01:00

Today my information space took me to Umea, Sweden, where Lilia was making a presentation on her research (weblogs at Microsoft). Following short message (GoogleTalk), into her digital space for more details (weblog), and to the presentation venue: HumLab.

There i had a link for the video stream, and a contact for Skype. Guess because i'm inside my organizational firewall i could not use the streaming video so i went for the skype contact and met Stephanie that guided me during the rest of the connection. Although i had Lilia's slides (she «left them» at her blog) one get's the feeling of being blind (i.e. not knowing when to change to another slide, when she is prssing a link that takes the audience to another space).

More then the presentation by itself, today i made some more progress on my own work, because of this experience. Wanting very much to establish connections due to topic research, makes one go around try all the possible ways of «being there». Having people anticipating the interest of others, helps create «around ways» for enlarging attendees presence and engagement (even farway ones).

Studying information spaces requires an holistic view of:

individuals (their motivations, their skills, their networks, their interests... their own information spaces)
infrastructures (acess, barriers... infrastructures that support information spaces)
organization (culture, norms and rules «to get work done»... provided organizational information spaces)

So much more that i have to work out... just because i was here and went there. Yes! Research is fun :-)

from expats' info needs to IM in expat cycle

2006-07-23T10:58:00.000+01:00

Submission of complete paper just finished. ~~Expecting for the results~~. In the mean time, here's the extended abstract:

André, Mónica & Barrulas, Maria Joaquina (2006). From expatriates' information needs to information management in the expatriation cycle. [abstract / paper]. I International Conference on Multidisciplinary Information Sciences and Technologies, 25th-28th October, 2006, Mérida, Spain.

PS [06/Ago/2006] - The paper is online at the conference site or you can see it in here :-)

space and time in information seeking

2006-07-19T10:11:00.000+01:00

Savolainen, R. (2006). "Spatial factors as contextual qualifiers of information seeking". Information Research, 11(4), paper 261:

"Typically, an individual's local information field consists of an interpersonal communication network and information terminals (e.g., computers providing access to the Internet), both of which are embedded within a physical context. The physical context in organizations serves to stabilize an individual's information field, and largely determines the nature of the information to which individuals are regularly exposed."

"As individuals become more focused in their information seeking they change the nature of their information field to support seeking of information related to particular purposes. This interpretation significantly expands the applicability of the concept of information fields by showing that information seekers may rethink the role of spatial factors."

"The concept of information pathways differs from information fields in that the former is more dynamic and active, focusing on an individual's actions in selecting information sources over time. A pathway may be understood as the route someone follows in the pursuit of answers to questions within an information field."

"Local communities both enable and constrain information seeking. Spatial factors are related to social ones such as norms and values reproduced in the local community and the conceptions of useful or useless information sources."

Information Source Horizon: "This construct refers to a set of information sources and channels of which the actor is aware and of which he or she may have obtained use experiences over the years. (...) When construing an information source horizon, the actor judges the relevance of the information sources available in the perceived information environment and selects a set of sources and channels, for example, to resolve a problematic issue at hand."

activity theory

2006-07-19T09:12:00.000+01:00

Wilson, T.D. (2006). "A re-examination of information seeking behaviour in the context of activity theory". Information Research, 11(4), paper 260:

Activity theory is "(...) a conceptual framework within which different theoretical perspectives may be employed. Typically, it is suggested that several methods of data collection should be employed and that the time frame for investigation should be long enough for the full range of contextual issues to emerge. Activity theory offers not only a useful conceptual framework, but also a coherent terminology to be shared by researchers, and a rapidly developing body of literature in associated disciplines."

Organizing small digital Information Spaces

2006-07-02T18:16:00.000+01:00

Aplication using real life information behaviours for organizing digital information to re-arrange desktop files :-)

[event] Open Knowledge, Free Society

2006-06-10T12:03:00.002+01:00

«Open Knowledge, Free Society», 3rd ONLINE Conference - CyberSociety Observatory:

"The thematic direction of the congress was elaborated by the Scientific Committee throughout the last months. Under the title Open Knowledge, Free Society and with an editorial line of referent, the cyber-social will be situated again in the point of analysis. Undoubtedly this intends to continue the way initiated with the two previous congresses, wondering what is and how the society of knowledge is being built (or will be built). Thus, in November, we will advance another step in this progression and up date ourselves with the movements and most current unrests of cyber-society, wondering which is its nature and reflecting around the present and future of knowledge in this Era of Information. Is a free or open knowledge possible? Which are the bases of these approaches, which are their goals and which could be their consequences?"

The call for Working Groups in spanish, portuguese, and english, is open until the 30 of June. The Congress will take place online, during 2 weeks of November. Multidisciplinary teams are welcomed :-)

ANT: method

2006-06-07T17:06:00.000+01:00

Excerto de uma conversa sobre Actor Network Theory, entre um Professor e um Aluno, na página de Bruno Latour:

"S — So why is it called a ‘theory’, then, if it says nothing about the things we study?
P — It’s a theory, and a strong one I think, but about how to study things, or rather how not to study them. Or rather how to let the actors have some room to express themselves.
S — Do you mean that other social theories don’t allow that?
P — In a way, yes, and because of their very strengths: they are good at saying positive things about what the social world is made of. In most cases that’s fine; the ingredients are known; their numbers should be kept small. But that doesn’t work when things are changing fast, and, I would add, not, for instance, in organization studies, or information studies, or marketing, or science and technology studies, where boundaries are so terribly fuzzy. New topics, that’s when you need ANT for."

Wishlist: The Social Study of Information and Communication Study, edited by C. Avgerou, C. Ciborra, and F.F. Land, Oxford University Press, 2004, pp.62-76

ANT; method

On Actor Network Theory (ANT)

2006-06-03T20:33:00.000+01:00

John Law (1999), «Traduction/Trahison: Notes on ANT», published by the Centre for Science Studies, Lancaster University, Lancaster LA1 4YN:

"And this is why I would recommend actor-network theory. I would recommend it because it is weak. Because it is in dissolution. Because it has betrayed itself. Because it has turned itself from signal into noise. Because it no longer exists. Because it has dissolved itself into other ways of seeing, of writing, and of doing."

More in On-Line Publications by Author - Sociology at Lancaster University.

ANT; methods

[events] UMICS 2006

2006-05-30T11:35:00.000+01:00

Rationale and aims of UMICS 2006 (Ubiquitous Mobile Information and Collaboration Systems), CAiSE'06 Workshop, June 5-6 2006, Luxembourg:

"Over the last years most business processes changed on various dimensions (e.g. flexibility, interconnectivity, coordination style, autonomy) [...] Frequently, information is relocated within this geographically distributed system [...] This creates a need for a software infrastructure that enables ubiquitous mobile and collaboration systems (UMICS).

Technologies such as WiFi networks and 3rd generation mobile phones, are offering the infrastructure to conceive information systems as ubiquitous information systems, that is, systems that are accessible from anywhere, at any time, and with any device. Ubiquity mainly is a means to support new business models and encourage new ways of work.[...]

Moreover people need to move across organizational boundaries and collaborate with others within the organization as well as between organizations. [...] Therefore, some issues also arise about how to enable users to retain their ability to cooperate while displaced in a different point of the enterprise, the role of context and location in determining cooperation, the support for ad-hoc cooperation in situations where the fixed network infrastructure is absent or cannot be used.

The approaches and technologies for supporting these new ways of work are still the subject of research.[...]"

Tags: workshop; ubiquity; informationneeds; mobility

[disclosure] exploring fields of mobility and information needs

2006-05-30T11:20:00.000+01:00

When we start our travelling to discovery we tend to find a lot of things that used to be invisible. News flags are added and our filters enact new looking glasses to the world. My new flags are now concerned with mobility and information needs, the umbrella of my research.

As you may already sensed, links for resources dealling with aspects i consider relevant and/or resources that might provide leads for my ongoing research, are now more frequent.

My «lenses» are opened so i'll be posting a variety a cross field resources, not concentrating with only one field.

[resources] Actor Network Theory

2006-05-28T15:36:00.000+01:00

Finding about «actor network theory» (interdisciplinary approach to the social sciences and technology studies) and trying to see if it is usefull for framing my research [PS 12/Jul/2006 - Actor Network Theory is a method and not a framing theory in that sense, but i couldn't have guessed it before reading more about ANT ;-) That's the beauty of research and being able to document the steps in the blog]

What is Actor-Network Theory? Contributes from Bardini, Goguen, Hanseth, Risen, Lemke, Bowker & Star, Callon, Frohmann, Keele, Miettinen, Van House, Sidorova & Sarker, elaborated by Martin Ryder, on July 2003.
John Law and John Hassard (eds) (1999), Actor Network Theory and After
John Law (1992), Notes on the Theory of the Actor Network: Ordering, Strategy and Heterogeneity:
"In this note I start by exploring the metaphor of heterogeneous network. This lies at the heart of actor-network theory, and is a way of suggesting that society, organisations, agents and machines are all effects generated in patterned networks of diverse (not simply human) materials." (p.2)
Actor Network Theory - discussion group at Yahoo, moderated by Jose Pinheiro Neves, from Departamento de Sociologia, Instituto de Ciências Sociais, Universidade do Minho.
Actor-Network Theory Resources, Centre for Science Studies, County College South, Lancaster University, UK.
Bill Doolin & Alan Lowe (2002), To reveal is to critique: actor-network theory and critical information systems research. Journal of Information Technology, Vol. 17 (2):
"Despite its relativist ontology, actor-network theory places a strong emphasis on empirical inquiry and this paper argues that actor-network theory, with its careful tracing and recording of heterogeneous networks, is well suited to the generation of detailed and contextual empirical knowledge about IS. The intention in this paper is to explore the relevance of IS research informed by actor-network theory in the pursuit of a broader critical research project as defined in earlier work."

destination discovery

2006-04-23T15:07:00.000+01:00

ShadowsSand (1)
Originally uploaded by monicaA.

I didn´t talked before, affraid that my dream wouldn't come true. Now it's closer than ever :-) Following last year's defense of master thesis, the doctoral draft as been accepted at Universidade do Minho (385Km away), Departamento de Sistemas de Informação. I've also applied for a FCT grant in order to be able to pay for the study fees, that my salary can't cover. I'm crossing my fingers and hoping for the results.

I still have a long way to go, but the feeling inside is great it's like i'm on my way already.

"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. "
Lao-tzu, The Way of Lao-tzu
Chinese philosopher (604 BC - 531 BC)

tags: phd; UMinho; FCT

[paper] Information needs research in Russia and Lithuania, 1965-2003

2006-04-16T14:03:00.000+01:00

The new issue of Information Research is online since yesterday. One of the papers that caught my attention was Macevičiūtė, E. (2006), "Information needs research in Russia and Lithuania, 1965-2003", Information Research, 11(3) paper 256, in parte because of the conclusions on context and the differences found on everyday information needs along with professional informational needs:

"Despite the isolation of two bodies of research (Western and East European) in the area of information needs the common development and similarities in the understanding of the basic concept of information need, its origin and structure as well as typologies are revealed. Basic differences lie in understanding the contexts of the formation of information needs, their influence and, consequently, attention to the roles of contexts in research. It also seems that the everyday, non-work related information needs are totally excluded from the horizons of Russian researchers"

Blogs as personal learning environments

2006-03-31T10:24:00.000+01:00

Great online event giving the oportunity for worldwide participation. I'm specially interested on the following 2 sessions (but will check also Websites & Web Development, on April 24-28):

April 3-7, 2006: Teaching
Blogs as personal learning environments
Curriculum development using a wiki
Legal issues in podcasting
And more…
April 10-14, 2006: Library and Information Resources
Blogging and podcasting in libraries
Web 2.0/Library 2.0
Building an online research toolkit
And more…

information spaces transitions

2006-03-03T18:54:00.000Z

Ton's Interdependent Thoughts: Ubiquitous Wifi, or Connecting the Information Landscape and the Geographical Landscape:

"On the net, I don't meet people face to face but through digitally mediated channels. But there my mobility is global and instantaneous, and the speed of interaction and change matches much more closely the speed I need to be able to do all the stuff I find relevant. Through the net I arrange the face to face meetings, through the net I decide where to spend my limited time and resources for geographical mobility. Which in the end actually increases my geographical mobility(...)"

Ton's description of his practices helps my reflection on the study of infomobility around and across infospaces. Ton uses the word infoscape refering to the online information, and geoscape for the face to face information.

For me the infoscape is the total amount of information one is exposed to in all the information spaces one has access, regardly of the medium one uses. Thow i understand the use of the word to make the point about crossing geo and digital landscapes and the problems one faces having to live in all of them but feeling that the transition is still not smooth enought to allow an inclusive informationspace.

"Making traces visible" - vanished photo

2006-03-01T10:35:00.000Z

Flickr Photo vanished - Making traces visible - uploaded on September 16 2005
Originally uploaded by monicaA.

Can't understand why this picture vanished from Flickr?!...

I've noticed it happened before with other pictures i have loaded, but those ones i didn't stay with something to prove of their existence... and had to load them again :-(

What's going on? Anyone with the same problem?...

UPDATE [March, 2] - The problem is listed in the FAQ in www.flickr.com/help/limits/#66.

SUMMARY - photos will not show up if one exceeds 200 photos for a normal account. They will still be visible where one blogged them... but not the conversations and the links that give context to the image :-(

SUGGESTION - Perhaps Flicrk could allows us to choose wich photos we want to keep.

UPDATE 2 [March, 2] - After i've posted the previous message, i went on deleting a couple on photos from the ones that matter to me the least...... for my great surprise, after the deletions my "Making traces visible" photo is back :-)

So this is a partly solution if one wants to get back the list of the most enjoyed/liked photos/pictures just delete some of the less liked. Still i have to figure what is the use of using a social software like Flickr if the links wont be abble to keep persistante over time (cause social ties take time to establish)... maybe i need to find other solutions.

scripts

2006-02-24T09:54:00.000Z

... or, to me, boundary scripts.

Roger Schank, Information is Surprises, excerpted from The Third Culture: Beyond the Scientific Revolution by John Brockman (Simon & Schuster, 1995), chapter 9:

"We all expect the world to work out in certain ways, but when it does, we're bored. What makes something worth knowing is organized around the concept of expectation failure. Scripts are interesting not when they work but when they fail."

Tags: information; boundaries; Edge

Weekend food

2006-02-18T20:20:00.000Z

Getting Itchy About the Trendiness of Knowledge Sharing:

"We can talk all we want about tools and protocols, mandates and rewards. But what we are really asking ourselves to do is start to behave like a network brain, a hive mind. Not a bunch of individuals who are required to dump their knowledge into the pot."

Information behaviour, an interdisciplinary perspective by Tom Wilson and Christina Walsh, from the British Library Research and Innovation Report 10, 1996.

The (Digital) Library Environment: Ten Years After', Ariadne Issue 46:

"We are drawing on social networking sites, blogs, RSS aggregators, bookmarklets, toolbars, extensions, plug-ins. Some people may be developing elaborate digital identities, a personal 'bricolage' of network services. Others are less actively constructive (...)"

A Historical View of Context (2004) Chalmer , Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW), Vol 13 (3-4), pp. 223 - 247.

Bannon & Bødker (1997) "Constructing Common Information Spaces.“, in Proceedings of the European Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work, ECSCW'97, pp. 81-96.

Concept map of the discipline of information science, from www.ics.ltsn.ac.uk/ pub/italics/ issue1/stephens/009.htm

Agileviews: a human-centered framework for interfaces to information spaces (2002)

[requires subscription] Information spaces and collections: Implications for organization (2003) Lee

A Pattern Language for Doctoral Students

2006-02-10T10:19:00.000Z

Joseph Bergin, in A Pattern Language for Doctoral Students, among many other things, states that:

"Research is only useful if it is published."

This makes me blush considering that i've still haven't published a paper about my work... and it's been 10 months since i defended my master :-(

Women in Science

2006-01-30T10:31:00.000Z

The first International AMONET Meeting on Women in Science, will take place March 16-17, 2006, on Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon:

"The meeting will have as major objectives to discuss issues related to women scientists, to present top women scientists active in different fields, and to present similar associations from other countries."

Tags: events; AMONET; women; science

focus on the individual

2006-01-28T17:36:00.000Z

The need to study the information needs of individuals comes to a lot of other reflections concerning the shift of tools for the organization to tools for the individual, or, in the words of Stowe Boyd, from groupware to soloware. More about this idea in The Individual Is The New Group - Part 1:

"(...) focus on the individual. The groups will follow."

information needs; individual; tools; web2.0

I'm playing to learn... or learning by playing!

2006-01-25T19:31:00.000Z

I'm having fun on learning to play with information: mixing all the bits together, taking some parts of each and adding them in new ways. That's one of the reasons i've been keeping so silent. If you want some of the pieces i'm playing with, you might want to have a look in informationSpaces on my del.icio.us ;-)

information spaces; playing

stepping back to move forward

2006-01-17T00:19:00.000Z

I have been lacking posts but not reflections on work research. One my tend to think that if one does not make it visible must be because one is not working on her research. Found out that one can make a major leap forward just by stepping back to old chunks of information in order to explain how things work. That's how i'm founding out things that i didn't know I knew, just by being asked to explain things to newcomers in the house.

Thow i'm not in Academia but in a Research Lab i've enjoyed reading the arguments of Marcia Bates (1999) on The Role of the Ph.D. in a Professional Field. Found it cristal clear why i enjoy so much information studies (and why it takes so long to have a clear picture on what i'm working ;):

"Information studies meets those social needs by drawing on a wide range of intellectual and physical technologies. Achieving the objectives of our profession depends on the skillful melding of an understanding of social, political, economic, and psychological factors related to information needs and uses with a mastery of both theoretical and practical issues in information organization and system design."

Tags: phd; research; information studies; reminder

festive season

2005-12-27T16:55:00.000Z

Natal festive season
Originally uploaded by monicaA.

Know that i should have posted more entries but have a good excuse: time for enjoying the festive season with the family :-)

Guess that's a different type of procrastination and we should all enjoy it!

Happy holidays!

information spaces bringing people together

2005-12-21T11:01:00.000Z

Working in 3 different projects (INOCOP, LIMEX & RIAT), hasn´t allow me much time to blogging, although i miss it because it allows me time to reflect (by joting down litle pieces, connect missing links and finding missing clues) and engage in very stimulating conversations that help build up and make significant loops in my learning, thus contributing directly to my work performance. But above all the good things about blogging is the constant encouragement to move on, specially in those moments that are not worth it to share, there's always a friendly voice or a word of recognition that bring's us back :-)

The lake of stability and economic support for activities of R&D at a country level, is making research and researchers have a hard time for «making omolets without eggs» (direct translation of Portuguese expression :-). It may seem contraditory, but it also makes it more rewarding, cause everything that it is being done represents an even higher challenge.

But the main reason for this post is to make visible something that's worth it. From scattered iniciatives and tematic blogs in Portugal, something is taking shape. That something is great to observe and take part of: from their individual practices, people came to realize what's being said for so long, that is, we need to identify complementary fields, expertises and interests (the act of blogging) so we can discover the sense of community, realizing that the total is not the sum of the parts, but something new where people can advance the knowledge need it to make things happen.

One such new iniciative that's making visible people interested in information studies at a broad field, is the blog a informação (information) and the lauching of the Newsletter "A Informação", serving as catalysers for a emerging community. To subscribe to this news in portuguese (for now) just send an email to Paulo Sousa (listed on the blog) and you will be abble to find out what the community is reflecting on :-)

informationspaces; blogging; information studies; newsletter; community

Informação e Comunicação em Ambiente Escolar

2005-12-14T10:21:00.000Z

Mais uma tese de mestrado que foi entregue no Departamento de Ciências e Tecnologias da Informação (DCTI), do ISCTE, intitulada «Informação e Comunicação em Ambiente Escolar», da autoria de António Augusto Carvalho Nunes. Ainda não tem data marcada para defesa mas espero que em breve se saiba, pois gostaria muito de assistir. Fica o resumo (com a autorização do autor) para aguçar o apetite e divulgar mais uma investigação no âmbito do MEIBD (Mestrado em Estudos de Informação e Bibliotecas Digitais).

Resumo: Este trabalho analisa o processo de introdução/implementação de dispositivos e tecnologias como, o Cartão Magnético, o Computador e o Telemóvel na Escola dos 2º e 3º Ciclos do Ensino Básico de Marrazes; investiga como Professores, Alunos e Pais/Encarregados de Educação se relacionam com estes dispositivos e tecnologias e até que ponto estes podem servir como meio facilitador de comunicação e informação entre a escola e a família.

O estudo usa a abordagem metodológica de Estudo de Caso de uma escola pública dos 2º e 3º Ciclos. Durante um ano lectivo de estudo e observação foi possível obter uma visão abrangente e efectiva do resultado da implementação destes dispositivos e tecnologias em ambiente escolar. A partir dos resultados dos inquéritos por questionários a Professores, Alunos e Pais/Encarregados de Educação e também, com base na observação directa e como docente actuante desse estabelecimento de ensino, foi possível compreender as necessidades de organizar a informação entre toda a comunidade educativa para, assim, melhorar os processos de comunicação.

Foram considerados os desafios colocados à comunidade educativa na vertente administrativa e lúdica sem, no entanto, perder de vista a componente pedagógica e todas as potencialidades que advêm de uma efectiva utilização destes dispositivos e tecnologias.

Palavras-chave: Sistemas de Comunicação e Informação na Escola, Cartão Magnético, Computador Pessoal, Telemóvel, Recursos Educativos e Gestão Escolar.

TIC; Recursos Educativos; Estudos de Informação; Mestrado; MEIBD; ISCTE

Blogging automation and non-faces

2005-11-15T09:41:00.000Z

Today I had a comment made on my blog that read like this:

"Stop wasting your time posting here, use RSS to Blog [removed link] to automatically create your own blog network."

Can't they understand that blogging is not about instant gratification for economic reasons? Can you imagine a time when blogs won't have a personal voice? Do they even grasp that what made blogs a success was given the ability to people all over the world to share and engage in conversations?...

Mind me saying so, but I'll keep on building this space, cause it was never about automation, nor being on top lists, nor even about money. It's about relating to others work, getting the time I need to understand at my own rhythm, building bridges that will foster learning, dealing with my own doubts and sharing them, recognizing that I'm not alone in a quest for discovery for so much that there is to know and find out.

Sorry Mr./Mrs. Non-Face, I'm not your target and I choose not to publish your comments (links)!

moderated comments due to heavy blogspam

2005-11-13T10:41:00.000Z

moderated comments due to blogspam
Originally uploaded by monicaA.

Sorry i had to opt for moderated comments (wich i do not like), but in the last weeks splogs have consume a significant part of my scarce time for blogging.

Believe that in the meantime, sploggers will understand that one can not go on vandalizing conversations, and will get some time to learn what makes people link to each other in blogs.

Hope that in a short time i can unmoderate them again, like they should always be: an open invitation for anyone to jump in the conversation :)

Mobile Information Systems - MOBIS 2005

2005-11-12T17:52:00.000Z

Since i will not be abble to go to this conference, would like to know who is going so i could follow your comments by way of reading weblogs, side notes, wikis and/or papers presented in there. The Conference is MOBIS 2005, and going to take place in Leeds, UK, on December 5 and 6:

"The rapid developments in information technology, particularly communication and collaboration technologies, are substantially changing the landscape of organizational computing. Workers in any business area are becoming increasingly mobile. Workers in more and more areas will be required to act flexibly within the constraints of the business processes of the company (or companies) they are currently working for."

eLearnSpaces with a friendly voice

2005-11-09T09:05:00.000Z

For a long time i've been subscribed to elearnspace's weekly blog summary email. A great eLearning resource and fresh news delivered by George Siemens. I've never met him nor did i exchange any messages (that i recall). But he as been in my informationspace in such a blended and welcome way that i only remember him if i'm on holidays.

Today i felt i could not postponed anylonger this acknowledgement. He has provided me with the latest reflections on what elearning in current and future could/should be, pointing me to other peoples work, new tools that are being tested and old tools that were thought to be for personal communication use (like blogs). And all of this arrives once, sometimes twice a week in such a friendly voice that makes my learning delightfully enjoyable.

"As I've stated previously, elearning is an aggregate industry - it relies on developments in various technology and research fields. For example, tools like blogs, wikis, iPods were not developed for learning. They were developed for communication and content creation/sharing. We simply adopted them for learning purposes. As a result, we misread what's really going on if we don't take time to see what people are using for communication and personal learning." [keep on reading...]

Information behaviours and using information

2005-11-08T17:20:00.000Z

When reading the comments made by Jack Vinson, a lot of things came to my mind. While commenting on the reflections of Christina Pikas, Jack ends his notes with:

"One of the comments suggests that re-finding can be more frustrating because we know it exists and because it is already part of a larger context of our work. It's just that we don't know how to use our tools to articulate context when we save something and when we look for it later."

Then I recalled a paper by Bruce, H., Jones, W. e Dumais, S. (2004). Information behaviour that keeps found things found (Information Research, 10(1), paper 207) that I’ve used to explain as one of the reasons that made me start blogging, althought the authors didn’t considered it in the study.

I agree it’s not about keeping, it’s about using. But in order to use it we have to know that the resources exist so we develop strategies that will enable us to use that information. Keeping, is just a small part of it as is our use of tools that allow us to extend our capabilities.

When one uses a blog it tends to add meaning for the later use of information, allowing others to relate also with it. For me it’s not so much about keeping, it’s about living clues so when we need to use the information we are able to recall it, when need it.

[testing] ignore this post

2005-10-26T14:40:00.000+01:00

Teste para agregação de entradas no blog

Livros do Giddens existentes na nossa biblioteca ( 1:30 AM )

O impacto do Euro na Economia Portuguesa ( 2:35 PM )

Cadernos de Economia e O Economista ( 2:34 PM )

Moura, I. e Esperança, J (2003). Estratégias de Internacionalização do Sector Bancário: o caso Português. ISCTE. ( 2:34 PM )

A Inovação no Sector Bancário em Portugal ( 2:33 PM )

Internacionalização de Bancos Portugueses, missão dos 4 maiores grupos portugueses ( 2:31 PM )

Papel das fusões e aquisições na internacionalização da economia ( 2:30 PM)

Actividade do Sector Bancário em Portugal ( 2:29 PM )

Banca Portuguesa e internacionalização das economias ( 2:28 PM )

Para uma Genealogia do Discurso da Globalização da Experiência ( 2:25 PM)

Banca em Portugal séc. XX ( 2:23 PM )

Internacionalização da Banca ( 2:22 PM )

On contexts and tagging for social navigation

2005-10-26T12:06:00.000+01:00

Master Thesis from Kai Bielenberg & Marc Zacher (2005), Groups in Social Software: Utilizing Tagging to Integrate Individual Contexts for Social Navigation, p.7 [via António Granado]:

"The information we will concentrate on are tags for categorizing web resources. This metadata does not only provide semantic information about a resource, but even more important gives clues about people acting in similar ways. That is, adding similar metadata to the same resources. Or: talking about the same topics with similar words. Bringing together people that act and talk similarly corresponds to the idea of merging people's individual contexts to a shared group context. Such shared group contexts provide the basis for recommendation of resources - one aspect of social navigation."

Some quick notes on II Encontro de Weblogs

2005-10-16T17:07:00.000+01:00

The most fruitfull part of the encontro, where the conversations that took place in the working sessions (sessões de trabalho) and during off time:

Exchanging views with Hugo, about uses weblogs as tools to foster colaboration inside and outside organizations, and the resistences we face when trying to implement them
Many people in there (women too ;-) but the talking agenda was far from tools and what we can accomplish with blogs, and more centered on media, journalism and restrospective view of «most important blog list»
Talking with Manuel J. Matos and finding about this great work that Adelina Moura his doing with her studentes, using weblogs and wikis in her classes of 2º ciclo (10º, 11º e 12º).
Portuguese blogosphere seems to reflecte Portuguese (man in power) Society (see some further points for reflection, in portuguese, made in here)
In our session (weblogs in organizational context) our sense of community comes not from portuguese bloggers (guess because there are few portuguese people reflecting and sharing about it), but from a worldwide community
The physical layouts of our institutions do not foster «conversation feelings» (assimetrical top down layout) thus not helping people to engage the conversation (I'm glad we have blogs ;-)
The city as a vibrant university population compare to the total number os residents (guess it should make it a privileged place to enrole in phd :)
The results from the encounter will be published (time was given to submitte final conclusions from each session. Will work on that with Hugo and post in B2OB)
The next encounter will be hosted by Universidade do Porto
José Carlos Abrantes made some good suggestions for the next ecounter and he will be organizing more encounters about weblogs, like the one (that i wasn't abble to go) last thursday on Almedina Library

I am still surprised to have been invited... guess it was because i've suggested the topic when they were asking for ideas in the encounter blog (and/or being one of the few talking in Portugal about blogs as tools that help open windows and engage in other conversations :-)

Going to pick up my kids. Like the rest of the participants, i've received my basket with Queijo da Serra, red wine and honey (see Ricardo's picture of the basket). Time to enjoy it enjoy it over dinner.

Tags: 2encontro weblogs

[event] on my way

2005-10-14T07:55:00.000+01:00

Today i'll be heading to Covilhã, a beautifull city on the slopes of Portugal highest mountain (Serra da Estrela). The reason?...

The II National Weblogs Event it's starting, joining bloggers from around Portugal.

It's been a long awaited opportunity for growing awareness and working around the subject of weblogs in organizational context. The working sessions are going to take place today, in the afternoon, at UBI (everyone is welcome to join).

I'm thinking of all the people that encouraged me to mantain B2OB, all the conversations that took place, all the people that I met (online and offline) all the questions that keep growing... it's been more than three years since I started reading about weblogs, and more than two since i started experimenting in different contexts and situations.

But now it's time to get on the road... hoping that some friends show up and that finally we get to know the voices behind the windows.

See you :-)

Encadernar teses

2005-09-29T09:38:00.000+01:00

Já mais do que uma vez me fizeram este pedido e penso que seja útil para tantos outros. Enquanto estava na fase final da escrita da dissertação de mestrado, não me ocorreu (talvez por falta de tempo e disponibilidade mental) ir indagando onde mandar encadernar os exemplares da tese. Ou seja, à última hora (no próprio dia em que findava o prazo para entrega ;-), corri para uma dessas lojas que fazem encadernações rápidas... e, infelizmente, pouco resistentes ao manuseamento :-(

Recentemente, em conversa com uma colega, fiquei a conhecer um excelente local em que fazem encadernações com muita qualidade, para além de se estar a valorizar o trabalho de uma cooperativa que apoia o talento e trabalho de pessoas com necessidades especiais.

Ficam os contactos:

Cooperativa Labor Artesanato
Responsável: Sr. Manuel João
Rua Cidade de Moçâmedes (entrada pelo Centro Infantil Olivais Sul)
1800 Lisboa
Telefones: 218533539 / 218536865 / 218532837

[terms] concept

2005-09-25T14:53:00.000+01:00

A new elaboration on «concept», following previous thoughts, by Denham Grey:

"Concepts are basic knowledge building blocks, atoms if you like and they can be linked to complex propositions, helping us understand, appreciate and make sense of our world."

concept [en] = conceito [pt]

user needs on building presence

2005-09-21T12:38:00.000+01:00

I’ve been testing the use of Blogger for Word. The download of the plug-in was smooth (as we are use to with all of google’s goodies). After installing it, I’ve opened the Word application and there it was: a new set of functions on top of my screen (blogger setting, open [previous] post, save as draft, and publish).

So, at this moment, and for the first time as a user of Blogger, I can write a post without being connected (on-line)… of course I did it before but not with the ease that I can have now. With it, a lot of steps that users from other blogging applications did not felt, are cut short and add to the experience of sharing and building presence.

Hope the guys from Google can work also on the (absent) tags for blogger users, cause it’s difficult to find my own post, let alone people who came here visiting… ;-)

[reader] Information research

2005-09-02T16:35:00.000+01:00

Maceviciütè, E. & Wilson, T. D. (2005). Introducing Information Management: An Information Research Reader [August 2005 256pp hardback 1-85604-561-7]: peer-reviewed papers selected from Information Research journal, each of them updated to take into account recent developments [in brackets i've added the links to the original papers, available online, in case you do not have a nearby library who as it and/or you can not afford to buy the updated version of the papers, at least you'll be abble to read a great paper from the same author, about the same subject :-) ]:

Information in organizations: directions for IM (original in IRj, here)
The development of the IM research area (original in IRj, here)
Business information culture: a qualitative study (original in IRj, here)
Determining organizational information needs (original in IRj, here)
Critical Success Factors and information needs (original in IRj, here)
Experiencing information seeking and learning (original in IRj, here)
Environmental scanning and organizational learning (original in IRj, here)
Scanning the business environment for information (original in IRj, here)
Information as a tool for management decision-making (original in IRj, here)
Information processing and scorecard models (original in IRj, here)
Understanding KM and information management (original in IRj, here)
The nonsense of knowledge management (original in IRj, here)
Information systems strategy formation (original in IRj, here)
IM strategy in healthcare (original in IRj, here)
National Information Infrastructure (original in IRj, here)

Tags: information research; papers; organizations; information needs; infrastructures; systems; organizational scanning; KM; research; boundary roles;

Special days

2005-09-01T11:07:00.000+01:00

... should be celebrated everyday, after all blogging is no more distracting than having a corridor conversation, or picking up the phone to ask a friend for help, or going to the bar for coffee and talk.

The big difference between blogging and talking is that blogs make the talks persistent over time, they remind us things that our selective minds tend to forget, but above all, blogs craft open windows that could not have been built if we were not able to extend our beings beyond our immediate geographic contexts... and then it's the beauty of being able to evoke those days when we believe that we can accomplish our dreams and that there is nothing in the world who can stop us from being happy. Lilia, guess i can not thank you enough for such another day, like BlogDay:

"I'm thinking about the power of blogging to open a window in someone's life, to invite strangers, to share, to think, to celebrate and to be sad together..."

[tools] Pesquisar dentro de livros com o...

2005-08-30T20:14:00.000+01:00

...Google Print! Está-se a tornar difícil acompanhar os desenvolvimentos da Google. Depois do recente lançamento do GoogleTalk, agora mais uma ferramenta para pesquisar e procurar informação, dentro de livros.

unplugged

2005-08-27T21:03:00.000+01:00

Alqueva_Albufeira (8)
Originally uploaded by monicaA.

Holidays are over and it's been a first calm week back at work, good to catch up with all the work that lies ahead.

For the first time (in a long time) my summer readings were devoted to other readings apart from work: Hesse (ainda da felicidade) and Eliade (Bengal nights).

Sometimes i have to remind myself that in order to be productive i must be abble to breath, to switch off information gathering and reading, and be abble to rest my mind from it all and just look into the clouds in the sky, trying to remenber why i enjoyed so much doing that while i was a kid.

Dolce fare nienti

2005-07-28T20:14:00.000+01:00

HPIM0243
Originally uploaded by monicaA.

... is what i hope i'll be doing in the next 3 weeks. Having time to relax with the family sounds like a real luxury, this days ;)

Madge words couln't be more appropriate...

2005-07-19T17:00:00.000+01:00

td1
Originally uploaded by Madge Webb.

The ever growing scoop of research

2005-07-19T16:37:00.000+01:00

While reading Mike Thelwall couldn't stop thinking about the practice of research and what as meant to this practice our ability to cross cientific borders and geographical space to reach other's work through the use of technological interfaces and the ability to understand and grasp all we can.

Mike Thelwall (2004). Digital Libraries and Multi-Disciplinary Research Skills. LIBRES, vol. 14 (2).

"Digital libraries and the Web have brought enormously powerful search mechanisms to the desktops of many researchers. With the use of insights from cultural studies and the history and philosophy of science, it is argued that one likely outcome is a change in the acceptable standards for literature reviews, leading to changes in article contents to reflect a broader academic basis. As a result, researchers should be trained to read and evaluate material from a much wider range of subjects than previously necessary. The broadening base may impact science and non-science subjects differently."

Tags: overload; boundary roles; research skills; practice

Information needs preceds information systems

2005-07-14T09:14:00.000+01:00

The focus of my research as been information needs. But more then the information needs of organizations as an abstract entity to which the individuals belong, i've felt for a long time that the center for the study of information needs should be the individual a concrete entity with organizational information needs, personal information needs and context information needs.

"The process model depicts information management as a continuous cycle of six closely related activities: identification of information needs; information acquisition; information organization and storage; development of information products and services; information distribution; and information use.(...) In the identification of information needs, organization members recognize the volatility of the environment, and seek information about its salient features in order to be able to make sense of the situation, and to have the necessary information to take decisions and solve problems. Information needs are defined by subject-matter requirements as well as situation-determined contingencies - some classes of problems are best handled with the help of certain types of information. Information acquisition is driven by information needs, and must adequately address these needs." [Choo, 1998, Information Management for the Intelligent Organization: The Art of Scanning the Environment, Chapter 2.]

Tags: information needs; systems; organizations; context; individual_needs; user centrict

[tagname]

Flickr

2005-07-14T09:12:00.000+01:00

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

On choices... And language

2005-07-11T09:27:00.000+01:00

I've taken a great deal of consideration over this blocks language. If I keep my writings mainly in Portuguese I'll not be able to engage in a wider conversation, I'll be restricting thought provoking arguments, and making my notes and comments invisible to a wider research community.

Since I've found out during this two experimental years of blogging that the main benefits of maintaining a blog consists on engaging with others, specially for what concerns research, I'll let alone my poor capabilities of written English and move on to use what is for some time now the language of research.

It seems a good starting point to do it since I already started working on the PhD project. For sure it will help to contribute for my English skills, and since I need to get over my fears of publishing papers in international journals, I'm sure this will reveal worth it.

The starting of my project will build on the findings of my previous work (master thesis) in what concerns informational transitions.

Informational transitions happen every time an individual crosses environments were he looses the ability to interpret the context around him/her. In my previous work I've chosen to research a special group of people were those transitions took a deep effect on their skills of interpreting what's around them: expatriates. This highly skilled workers that have been chosen for their proven skills at their native countries, became temporarily information blind. This occurs because of lack of language skills in their new environment (hosting country) and lots of other things. Like different culture cues, ineffective network of contacts that do not function on the new environment... and in short, lake of access to the information they had at their home organization and to which they became used to having.

[tese] Bibliotecas Militares Portuguesas - da coexistência à cooperação

2005-07-11T01:00:00.000+01:00

Desde que senti que os trabalhos de investigação realizados em Portugal tinham muito pouca visibilidade, nomeadamente na área dos estudos de informação, tenho vindo a colocar aqui trabalhos que já foram defendidos com sucesso e cujos autores (desses mesmos trabalhos) têm prontamente acordado em ceder os respectivos resumos e palavras-chave.

Será pouco para dizer do investimento que estes resumos revelam sobre o empenho, tempo e dedicação que todos eles depositaram nos seus trabalhos (tanta vezes num esforço acumulado ao trabalho diário, no tempo retirado aos amigos, na tentativa de conciliar as tarefas e o carinho familiar...) mas é, talvez, das poucas formas de que disponho de criar mais um «nó» nesta rede que nos vai ligando a todos, cada vez mais.

Pela Ilda tenho um carinho especial, pois apesar de não termos sido colegas, fui seguindo o seu trajecto, contado pela sua orientadora e pelas imagens que guardo dela quando nos cruzavamos no corredor... mãe, trabalhadora a tempo inteiro e cheia de vontade de contribuir também para nos ajudar a saber mais sobre uma das áreas onde há tanto por fazer. Dos olhos cansados guardo o brilho da descoberta e um elo que espero não perder.

PINTO, Ilda (2005). As Bibliotecas Militares Portuguesas: da Coexistência à Cooperação. Defendida na Universidade de Évora a 6 de Julho de 2005.

RESUMO:

O cumprimento da missão das Forças Armadas exige a sua actuação articulada o que pressupõe a existência de cooperação ao nível das várias unidades que constituem cada ramo, nas quais se incluem as bibliotecas militares.

Investigar em que medida e de que forma a cooperação se desenvolve entre as bibliotecas do sistema de forças nacional, identificando os factores que a facilitam ou a dificultam e apresentar um modelo de cooperação para o Sistema de Bibliotecas Militares Portuguesas constitui o principal objectivo desta dissertação.

Perante o problema a investigar verificou-se que o estudo de caso seria a estratégia mais adequada. Os métodos de pesquisa utilizados foram a análise documental, o inquérito por questionário, o inquérito por entrevista e a observação.

A organização militar, enquanto sistema, tem características sui generis que influenciam o funcionamento das bibliotecas inseridas em cada um dos subsistemas representados por cada um dos ramos das Forças Armadas, bem como os comportamentos e atitudes dos responsáveis e funcionários das bibliotecas.

A análise detalhada do Sistema de Bibliotecas Militares Portuguesas revelou um sistema disfuncional, em que a relação entre as várias bibliotecas, dentro de cada ramo, e entre os diversos ramos se reduz à mera coexistência. Assim, apresenta-se um modelo de cooperação para as bibliotecas militares, que se entende deverem ser consideradas como parte integrante do subsistema de informação da organização militar.

Palavras-chave: Bibliotecas Militares; Cooperação; Estudo de caso

Desenvolvimento de competências numa organização de I&D

2005-07-08T14:48:00.000+01:00

Correia, Z. (2005). O Desenvolvimento de Competências numa Organização de I&D e a Formação de Investigadores na Área de Ciência, Engenharia e Gestão da Informação. Comunicação apresentada no Seminário Profissionais da informação, uma mais-valia. Universidade de Aveiro, 3 de Junho de 2005:

Estabelece-se a distinção entre qualificações e competências, analisando-se em seguida o processo de formação de investigadores numa organização de I&D (Investigação & Desenvolvimento), envolvendo estratégias de qualificação e de desenvolvimento de competências. Refere-se o papel desempenhado neste processo pelo Conselho Científico da organização de I&D, pelos orientadores, e pelas equipas de projecto em que se inserem os investigadores em formação. Sublinha-se a importância, para os investigadores, de factores como a mobilidade e a divulgação dos resultados da investigação, e assinalam-se as diferenças entre processos consoante o contexto organizacional em que ocorrem.

[relacionado com a carta europeia do investigador e com o trabalho desenvolvido na DEP / CITI]

[report] Tecnologias de Cooperação

2005-07-08T12:14:00.000+01:00

Para uma ideia mais alargada sobre as diferentes tecnologias que permitem cooperação/colaboração, George Siemens dava conta dos 8 clusters mencionados no relatório produzido por Andrea Saveri, Howard Rheingold e Kathi Vian (2005) Technologies of Cooperation.pdf:

self organizing mesh networks
community computing grids
peer production networks
social mobile computing
group-forming networks
social software
social accounting tools
knowledge collectives

Partindo de um trabalho anterior (Toward a New Literacy of Cooperation in Business.pdf, 2004) onde haviam sido identificadas 7 dimensões de estratégias cooperativas (structure, rules, resources, thresholds, feedback, memory e identity), apresentam agora essa sistematização num mapa estratégico the tecnologias cooperativas (p. 7) onde se torna fácil visualizar e encontrar exemplos de diversas ferramentas existentes.

Tech_of_cooperation_map,
originally uploaded by sebpaquet.

Blogs também são esculturas do tempo

2005-07-07T13:35:00.000+01:00

Acabei por optar por manter o blog da tese para esta nova aventura. O tempo (que não tenho) disponível foi um dos factores apesar de não ter sido o mais importante, dada a facilidade existente para criar um novo espaço.

Só que hoje, este blog já não é «um blog» é «o blog da tese», é o caminho percorrido até agora, o tal passado que me ajuda a recordar os caminhos e as opções feitas ao longo do tempo, as formas que lhe fui dando, as pessoas que por aqui foram passando e que, em diversas situações, me ofereceram as suas histórias, sugestões, pistas... e até a sua amizade.

Hoje sinto que este espaço ganhou corpo e forma... foi esculpido ao longo do tempo com pedaços soltos mas que fazem parte de um todo. Parte de um património que irei mobilizar para a nova tese:

[relato] 1o. Workshop sobre Estudos de Informação e Bibliotecas Digitais

2005-07-06T12:49:00.000+01:00

Rescaldo do 1o. Workshop sobre Estudos de Informação e Bibliotecas Digitais, que se realizou ontem na BN.

Quando recebi o convite, juntamente com mais 8 colegas que também já finalizaram o mestrado em EIBD (Estudos de Informação e Bibliotecas Digitais), não esperavam encontrar mais do que 20 pessoas. Afinal era um Workshop.

Estava (redondamente) enganada, avaliando pela lotação do auditório da BN. Segundo a lista que se encontrava disponível estavam inscritas 231 pessoas, de norte a sul de Portugal!

Tinha pensado que a minha apresentação (ou modo slideshow, flickr) iria ser uma «conversa» entre colegas sobre estratégias de investigação e uma forma de estabelecer pontes com os trabalhos de colegas que ainda não conhecia. Possibilidade também de identificar outras pessoas que estivessem a preparar o passo seguinte e, qui ça, aumentar o grupo de apoio TET.

No painel da manhã foram apresentados 4 trabalhos de investigação: a Lurdes Saramago, que falou sobre a preservação de recursos digitais, o Pedro Pereira abordou os aspectos de segurança da informação em bibliotecas e arquivos digitais com uma análise ao caso português, o Leonel Alegria incidiu na gestão do conhecimento com um estudo de caso no departamento de pesquisas e intervenção da administração central e o Paulo Leitão abordou a organização da informação em subject gateways.

A pausa para almoço foi um dos pontos altos e o que torna estes eventos, na minha opinião, enriquecedores. Éramos 12 à volta de uma mesa com conversas informais que se cruzavam. Mistura-se o passado em comum com o prazer da descoberta de novas histórias que cada um viveu, desde a última vez que estivémos juntos. Estabelecem-se pontes com novas pessoas e encontramos respostas a questões que (ainda) não tínhamos colocado... tudo debaixo debaixo do grande chapéu que nos une: os estudos de informação.

No painel da tarde, a Emília Pacheco apresentou a sua investigação sobre bibliotecas híbridas, mais concretamente o acesso ao conteúdo das publicações periódicas científicas portuguesas nas bibliotecas universitárias, a Sandra Pinto apresentou os resultados sobre o papel do bibliotecário na gestão e desenvolvimento de colecções digitais: novos procedimentos, novas competências no ambiente digital, a Helena Patrício que apresentou a análise comparativa da aplicação do modelo relacional e do formalismo RDF à modelação de dados legislativos e, a última sessão, com uma síntese do meu trabalho sobre o papel da informação no ciclo de expatriamento: da mobilidade de quadros à mobilidade da informação.

Depois de cada sessão foi perguntado o que é que a realização do mestrado tinha significado para nós, se tinha mudado alguma coisa. Em todas as respostas houve algo de único, de singular, um cunho próprio, mas em todas as respostas que foram dadas foi unânime: o que mudou foi a forma de olhar para as coisas!

[Nota: procurar mais entradas (indexadas pelo Technorati) com a palavra MEIBD]

[falta incluir o debate que se seguiu + fotos]

[biblio] The evolution of documents and its impacts

2005-06-23T21:04:00.000+01:00

Ziming Liu (2004). The evolution of documents and its impacts, Journal of Documentation, 60(2), pp. 279-288:

"This article examines the evolution of documents and its impacts from the following aspects: information density, longevity, uniqueness, duplicability, mobility, connectivity, and integration. It focuses on the consequences of the shift from printed media to digital media. By looking back on their evolution, we are able to see how the notions and functions of documents change over time, and the resulting impacts on individuals, organizations, and society."

Não está em livre acesso :(

[recursos] pontes para trabalhos...

2005-06-15T10:50:00.000+01:00

Mark Federman (2003), Cultural Paradox of the Global Village:

"the key cultural consideration of the Internet is not so much the digitization of information, but the digitization of us. Modern Western culture has evolved over several centuries, based on the freedom of psychological individuality, and its subsequent expression through a variety of artifacts."

Mais uma defesa em estudos de informação

2005-06-03T16:39:00.000+01:00

Já está marcada mais uma prova de mestrado de uma colega do MEIBD, na agenda do ISCTE:

Carvalho, Cátia Alexandra (2005), Hábitos e práticas multimédia nas bibliotecas da rede nacional de bibliotecas públicas. Lisboa, DCTI/ISCTE. Defesa a 14 de Junho, terça-feira, às 11:00, no Auditório Afonso de Barros, ISCTE.

Mais um motivo de encontro, em Junho, para esta comunidade. Em Julho já temos motivo e local marcado de encontro :)

[Nota: procurar mais entradas (indexadas pelo Technorati) com a palavra MEIBD].

2005-05-25T16:03:00.000+01:00

... encontraram?

Dentro da mala encontrava-se:

1 COMPAQ Presario Notebook, 1722es (com placa adicional de expansão de memória)
1 Camera fotografica Digital HP (5Mp, com 4 cartões adicionais de memória: 1 de 32M, 2 de 64M e 1 de 128M)
1 placa wireless (US Robotics)
1 mini mouse optico
1 adaptador 4 em 1
1 gravador (cassetes mini)
Diverso software em CDs
Diversos cabos de ligação (incluindo scart)
... e um livro de Manuel Alegre "Cão como nós"

Coloquei diversas folhas A4 com esta informação junto ao local em que o carro foi assaltado: parqueamento lateral, em espinha, junto ao parque de campismo do INATEL, na Costa da Caparica, paragens de autocarro e em alguns cafés e restaurantes dos arredores...

Depois de terem roubado a mala que se encontrava na bagageira do carro, pararam no parque principal de estacionamento do INATEL e deitaram fora alguns dos papeis que lá estavam dentro, juntamente com um bloco de post-it em forma de mão de cores garridas.

Quem tenha entrado no computador, terá encontrado o primeiro desenho digital da minha filhota, como pano de fundo no desktop: uma menina alegre, com mãos muito grandes, num dia de sol e céu azul. Foi assim esse final de dia até ter voltado para o carro...

[evento] MOBIS 2005

2005-05-24T11:35:00.000+01:00

Conference on Mobile Information Systems MOBIS 2005:

"Mobility is perhaps the most important market and technological trend within information and communication technology. With the advent of new mobile infrastructures providing higher bandwidth and constant connection to the network from virtually everywhere, the way people use information resources for work and leisure is being radically transformed."

[i.e.] Informação a qualquer altura em qualquer lugar

2005-05-24T11:17:00.000+01:00

Falar de mobilidade de informação é falar de acesso a informação a QA em QL (qualquer altura em qualquer lugar), tal como CAS Database Information Accessible via Handheld Devices [via Alice from OCLC]:

"Bringing chemical information including structure diagrams to the small-screen handheld devices resulted from a CAS team effort led by Brian Bergner, CAS vice president of information technology."

Associação de Mulheres investigadoras...

2005-05-21T19:29:00.000+01:00

A propósito da nova associação AMONET (Associação Portuguesa de Mulheres Cientistas), dizia o researchcafe.net:

"A razão por que isto acontece é a "grande dúvida", segundo Lígia Amâncio, para quem "há que perceber o que faz com que as raparigas não prossigam a carreira científica". Por outro lado, põe-se a questão da invisibilidade das cientistas que existem, que trabalham e fazem investigação no país. Há uma "participação global elevada das mulheres, a rondar os 40 por cento em todas as instituições, categorias e disciplinas, mas têm uma progressão na carreira demorada, não atingem o topo e não têm visibilidade ao nível da gestão de órgãos"."

Também podia fornecer diversas outras pistas, bem mais ligadas ao quotidiano do país que habito, mas acho que ninguém está interessado...

[evento] 1o. Workshop sobre Estudos de Informação e Bibliotecas Digitais

2005-05-21T12:32:00.000+01:00

No próximo dia 5 de Julho vai ter lugar o primeiro Workshop em Estudos de Informação e Bibliotecas Digitais (I WEIBD). Oportunidade para conhecer o que já existe, apresentado pelos próprios autores, e trocar experiências com investigadores interessados nos estudos de informação. Este evento está a ser preparado no âmbito do DCTI / ISCTE [Nota: procurar mais entradas (indexadas pelo Technorati) com MEIBD].

Também irei contribuir, apresentado parte das conclusões do trabalho, já defendido (ver Papel da Informação no Ciclo de Expatriamento), sob o tema: "Papel da Informação no Ciclo de Expatriamento: da mobilidade de quadros à (i)mobilidade de informação".

Também lá vão estar? Podíamos até combinar uma pré-sessão... Alguém interessado?...

PS [10/06/2005]: Já está disponível o programa do 1º Workshop EIBD.

PS [23/06/2005]: A Biblioteca Nacional também já tem disponível na sua página mais informações sobre o evento.

[terms] Mobilidade

2005-05-21T12:05:00.000+01:00

Multiplicidade de abordagens sobre mobilidade (mobility):
- Livros sobre Mobilidade
- referências a mobilidade em (alguns) estudos de informação
- (algumas) definições em diferentes campos (define: mobility)

[Nota: necessidade de definir mobilidade no contexto do trabalho, ou seja, contextualizar mobilidade]

PS [21/05/2005] - ver comentário da Adriana.

Tags: mobilidade; mobility;

[terms] Contexto

2005-05-21T11:39:00.000+01:00

Necessito de voltar ao Contexto [artigo de Johnson, 2003], com especial enfoque para os trabalhos que abordem o conceito no âmbito lato dos «estudos de informação».

Tags: contexto; context

[frames EU] Carta Europeia do Investigador

2005-05-17T20:30:00.000+01:00

Já está disponível a versão portuguesa da Carta Europeia do Investigador de que tinha falado aqui. Mais recursos para mobilidade de investigadores no The Researcher's Mobility Portal.

[resources] Cálculo Estatístico

2005-05-12T10:09:00.000+01:00

A Filipa encontrou mais um recurso de grande utilidade para quem pretende efectuar cálculos estatísticos. Para além de tuturiais que ajudam a escolher o método de análise mais adequado, disponibilizam também aplicações de software em ambiente web, livros e recursos relacionados, tudo em regime de acesso livre:

"The Interactive Statistical Pages project represents an ongoing effort to develop and disseminate statistical analysis software in the form of web pages. Utilizing HTML forms, CGI and Perl scripts, Java, JavaScript and other browser-based technologies, each web page contains within it (or invokes) all the programming needed to perform a particular computation or analysis.

[tese] (re)começos

2005-05-04T21:25:00.000+01:00

Ainda não sei como vou (re)organizar este espaço, criado enquanto decorria o meu trabalho para o mestrado em estudos de informação. Processo esse que foi já finalizado.

Para além de ter ido acompanhando os artigos [bibliografia e recursos de GII] que se iam escrevendo [potencial dos weblogs para a gestão individual de informação], fui praticando e descobrindo novas utilizações para esta ferramenta [i.e. utilização no contexto organizacional, nomeadamente em bibliotecas, extensões de espaços de aprendizagem, trabalho em equipas de projecto, recolha e partilha de informação, etc].

Depois da nossa reunião mensal de TETs, achei que estava na altura de (re)começar a trabalhar este espaço. Só que desta vez será para começar a reflectir e a trabalhar os recursos de que irei necessitar para a próxima etápa - doutoramento em estudos de informação.

Altura ideal para começar a pensar nas questões da língua: dado que o weblog, a longo prazo, se vai tornando uma das formas de estabelecer contacto com outras pessoas, que estejam a trabalhar esta área (estudos de informação) e, uma vez que em Portugal somos ainda muito poucos (ou não?!), será que só conseguirei retirar mais potencial do blog passando a escrever em inglês?...

Se tivesse que dividir este blog em fases, diria que numa 1ª fase foi aprender a trabalhar com a ferramenta, explorando potencial através da prática. A 2ª fase correspondeu à utilização do blog como suporte de trabalho para gerir informação. A última, 3ª fase, corresponde a uma nova prática de trabalho, embebida no quotidiano.

Tags: contexto de trabalho; context of work; blogging; research

Tudo o resto é relativo...

2005-05-03T16:05:00.000+01:00

Ás vezes penso que tudo é um desafio. A conclusão do mestrado foi um desses desafios. Algo que muitas vezes só o próprio, o que se envolve no processo, compreende e só o próprio retira todas as nuances que fizeram parte do processo. Nesse sentido, foi mais um passo que me permitiu questionar, relacionar e descobrir.

São pequeníssimos estes desafios quando comparados com outros, cujas questões, cujo relacionamento, cuja descoberta, ultrapassa em muito a nossa capacidade de os compreender. O verdadeiro desafio é a própria vida, é olhar e encher-me de ar quente, altura em que tudo o resto se torna relativo...

Mais uma Tese - Momento II

2005-05-03T11:03:00.000+01:00

Três gerações MEIBD num só momento (ISCTE, 2 de Maio de 2005):

Nota: ver Mais uma Tese - Segurança da Informação em Bibliotecas e Arquivos Digitais ou procurar mais entradas (indexadas pelo Technorati) com a palavra MEIBD].

Mais uma Tese - Segurança da Informação em Bibliotecas e Arquivos Digitais

2005-04-27T12:36:00.000+01:00

Mais um colega do MEIBD (my live is not isto ;-) que vai defender a sua tese (... e eu vou lá estar para dar «aquela força» e registar o momento!):

Pereira, Pedro Fernandes (2005), Aspectos da segurança da informação em Bibliotecas e Arquivos Digitais: uma análise ao caso português. Lisboa, DCTI/ISCTE - Defesa na próxima 2ª feira, 2 de Maio, a partir das 10:30, no Auditório Afonso de Barros, ISCTE [Nota: procurar mais entradas (indexadas pelo Technorati) com a palavra MEIBD].

Resumo: A segurança da informação digital é uma preocupação crescente, seja pelo aumento da sua quantidade e valor, seja pelo crescimento de ameaças e possíveis ataques.
Nas bibliotecas e arquivos digitais a situação não é diferente, levando a um aumento da quantidade e qualidade da informação disponível, mas também dos riscos, quer ao nível da segurança física, quer ao nível da segurança lógica.
Então é apresentado um estudo sobre a realidade das bibliotecas e arquivos digitais portugueses, a partir de um inquérito, cujos resultados vêm confirmar a necessidade de continuar a investir na segurança das bibliotecas e arquivos digitais, como forma de reduzir o risco.
A apresentação de um conjunto de "boas práticas" constitui um elemento fundamental de todo o trabalho. As "boas práticas" apresentadas podem ser adaptadas a outras realidades para além das bibliotecas e arquivos digitais.
A análise do caso concreto da Fundação Mário Soares, enquanto exemplo representativo da realidade portuguesa ao nível das bibliotecas e arquivos digitais, vem mostrar um exemplo real de como a segurança pode ser um elemento chave do sucesso para uma organização. Neste caso, o core business é a informação digital, seja para consulta remota, seja para consulta presencial.
Para esse sucesso contribui também a aplicação das "boas práticas", que permitem reforçar a segurança, corrigir falhas e apresentar propostas que promovam a interacção custo, benefício e risco.
O presente trabalho, dada a dinâmica e constante mutação da informação digital, não pode ser considerado como um trabalho final, mas antes um trabalho exploratório e de ponto de partida onde a Segurança, a Informação e o Utilizador e têm o papel principal.

Palavras-chave: Segurança da Informação, Biblioteca Digital, Arquivo Digital, Internet.

A propósito de expatriados...

2005-04-25T20:28:00.000+01:00

Estava a ler as recomendações do António Granado e achei uma entrada que vai ficar aqui "adormecida" até que eu tenha tempo disponível para a trabalhar ;-) - Wired News: Vive les Blogs!: "Expatriate bloguers will join the fray with a New York gathering in May."

Ciência, Tecnologia e Inovação - o seu Portal [FECHADO] na Internet

2005-04-19T17:04:00.000+01:00

Será que vamos continuar a perpétuar o acesso à ciência e à tecnologia em regime fechado? Não serão suficientes os estudos que mostram que a inovação necessita da partilha do conhecimento? Continuaremos a perpéctuar o modelo de pagamento para aceder àquilo que são os próprios investigadores a produzir? Eu explico: fui à procura de um artigo publicado por uma investigadora, da grande casa onde trabalho (outra área, diferente da minha), no Ciência.net, e acabei de saber que para ter acesso a esse artigo teria que subscrever, pagando... Helloooo?!

[frames EU] O que é um investigador? Código de conduta para recrutamento

2005-03-16T09:49:00.000Z

É bom pedir que as pessoas se dediquem ao que fazem com entusiasmo mas ao longo dos anos esse entusiasmo não vai pagando as dívidas. Altura para ler com atenção What is a researcher?:

"Europe must improve its attractiveness to researchers and increase the participation of women researchers. It must provide researchers with long term career prospects by improving their employment and working conditions, reinforcing R&D as a professions and creating more favourable conditions for mobility within a given research career path."

(as passagens a negro foram assinaladas por mim na vaga esperança de que em Portugal se façam ouvir)

Ler a "European Charter for researchers and the Code of Conduct for their recruitment" [.pdf - 186 KB]

Papel da Informação no Ciclo de Expatriamento

2005-03-02T15:19:00.001Z

Para quem acompanhou o desenrolar de todo o processo, cá fica o testemunho de mais uma tese em Estudos de Informação:

André, M. (2004). Papel da Informação no Ciclo de Expatriamento. Lisboa: ISCTE [defesa ocorreu em Lisboa, ISCTE, Auditório Afonso de Barros, no dia 1 de Março de 2005].

Resumo: A expansão dos negócios, a nível internacional, tem sido acompanhada de um aumento na deslocação internacional de quadros. Em Portugal, o recurso ao envio de quadros, para a expansão das actividades em novos países, em vários sectores de actividade, também é uma realidade. Aos desafios que esses quadros enfrentam, nomeadamente as diferenças culturais existentes nos países para onde se deslocam e, muitas vezes, a falta de domínio da língua local, que os impedem de compreender e interpretar o que os rodeia, acrescem necessidades de informação diferentes das que ocorrem no país de origem, tanto no que diz respeito ao contexto profissional como na vivência familiar.

Este estudo teve como objectivo identificar e compreender o papel da informação no destacamento internacional de quadros que acompanha a internacionalização das empresas e, por via disso, contribuir para encontrar linhas orientadoras que ajudem a definir políticas de Gestão de Informação, nas respectivas organizações.

O estudo desenvolveu-se seguindo uma abordagem metodológica de Estudo de Caso de um grupo económico do sector financeiro português, com diversas operações a nível internacional. Os dados foram recolhidos através de questionários, entrevistas e contactos in loco a expatriados da organização, em três países diferentes.

Este estudo permitiu compreender que as necessidades de informação dos expatriados têm dois momentos que podem ser considerados críticos e que correspondem à transição dos espaços informacionais (chegada ao país de destino e o regresso ao local de origem). Apresenta-se uma proposta de modelo que visa a incorporação da informação sobre expatriados no sistema organizacional ao longo das diversas fases do ciclo de expatriamento, com recurso à própria experiência dos expatriados.

Palavras-chave / tags: Expatriados, Ciclo de Expatriamento, Sector Financeiro, Internacionalização, Estudo de Caso, Necessidades de Informação, Gestão de Informação. expatriates; expatriate cycle; finance sector; internacionalization; case study; information needs; information management

[ilustração de «Três momentos da Tese [... mais 1]»: início, meses seguintes, o que se entrega... e o que se pensa]

Localização Geográfica na rede: GeoURL

2005-02-25T11:19:00.000Z

Seguindo as instruções de Daniel Schaller, que se encontram na página do GeoURL.info, registei as coordenadas deste blog aqui, para poder ficar a conhecer outros blogs perto mim ;-) [via YGM]

Três momentos da Tese [... mais 1]: início

2005-02-21T19:31:00.000Z

No início da tese...

Três momentos da Tese [... mais 1]: meses seguintes

2005-02-21T19:30:00.000Z

... a tese passado algum tempo...

Três momentos da Tese [... mais 1]: o que se entrega

2005-02-21T19:29:00.000Z

... a tese reflectida no manuscrito final!

Três momentos da Tese [... mais 1]: o que se pensa

2005-02-21T19:28:00.000Z

[... e o que nos vai na alma ;-) ]

Chegou a minha vez...

2005-02-19T19:29:00.000Z

Há cerca de um ano atrás, escrevi que a tese é o «tempo» que nos testa a resistência mas também a persistência. Diria mesmo, que alguma dose de casmurrice, também é benéfica ;-)

Tenho menos de 10 dias para ser finalmente confrontada com a etapa final: a defesa da tese. Olho agora para o manuscrito que entreguei o ano passado e que entretanto ganhou vida própria. Leio-me... Angústia de uma etapa que se encerrou em papel mas não na elaboração e no questionar. O próprio nome do acto me assusta: «defesa» sempre me soou a tribunal, para além disso, se há um arguente serei eu a arguida, o que me reforça a noção de ir a julgamento.

Ok, estou nervosa (muito)! Em frente... Tenho agora que preparar uma apresentação de 20 minutos. O que quer dizer que é necessário ser sintética, falar do essencial, cronometrar cada palavra, e depois antecipar questões, para além de todas as antecipadas nos últimos tempos... Alguma que queiram partilhar?

Encontros mensais

2005-02-18T14:28:00.000Z

Acabei de descobrir que o Meetup permite imprimir cartões de visita TET. Como se está a aproximar o próximo encontro do grupo de apoio, para quem está a desenvolver teses na área dos estudos de informação, já podemos trocar cartões ;-)

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