This book deeply explores production-capable social media channels, based on thousands of hours of observation and extensive collection of statistical data, extracting hypotheses that may generalize to the real-world distributed manufacturing of the near future. Distributed manufacturing offers the promise of bringing jobs back to local communities, producing goods that are personalized or harmonize with distinctive cultures, and thereby reversing significant aspects of the globalization that has dominated in recent years. Large corporations may still have important roles to play, but in collaboration with local workshops, providing machinery, software, databases of designs, and communication media suitable for a diverse and dynamic workforce. For years, a set of computer simulation laboratories has flourished, in which millions of people have used virtual machines to produce a great variety of products: massively multiplayer online role-playing games. Their systems are highly diverse, complex, and provide information capable of serious social science analysis. This book deeply explores 30 of these production-capable social media, based on thousands of hours of observation and extensive collection of statistical data, extracting hypotheses that may generalize to the real-world distributed manufacturing of the near future. This book begins with an overview of this universe of online virtual worlds then demonstrates the principles of virtual manufacturing, modes of work-related communication, socio-economic structures and dynamics, and the function of artificial intelligence in these human-technology systems. It concludes with consideration of the large-scale technical and cultural variation illustrated both by individual examples and by the rather large industry in which they have long been successful.

This innovative book explores the new relationships connecting computer science, social science, and the humanities. In our time of great and uncertain change, business, government, and education must partner in many forms of technical and cultural convergence–for the benefit of both human welfare and economic recovery. This innovative book explores the new relationships connecting computer science, social science, and the humanities. One popular form of artificial social intelligence, recommender systems, can become a far more valuable tool for research on the arts, beginning with movies and computer games, then extending to all the other art forms. While artificial intelligence can be a powerful tool for description of physical reality, it must become both social and cultural if it is to be a valued tool of human expression. Many new developments offer opportunities and challenges for both industry and government policy. This book shows how artificial intelligence and related information technologies can converge successfully with the social sciences and humanities, so together they can achieve maximum benefits for people.

This book combines academic theory with real world, practitioner success stories to provide executives a summary of current best practices. This book examines five virtual business strategies that are showing unprecedented opportunity. The Any Place, Any Time strategy focuses on providing high quality service 24/7 by ignoring traditional geographic challenges.

This book offers an in-depth analysis of how local community radio practitioners have embraced the digital revolution. Digital Innovations and the Production of Local Content in Community Radio contextualizes the UK model of community radio, before focussing on specific case studies to examine how the use of digital technologies has affected local radio production practices. The book offers an overview of the new technologies, media forms, and platforms in radio production, shedding light on how digitalization is impacting the routines and experiences of a predominantly volunteer-based workforce. The author presents the argument that despite the benefits of digital media, traditional aspects of programme production continue to be of vital importance to the interpersonal relationships and values of community radio. This book will appeal to academics and researchers in the areas of communication, culture, journalism studies, media, and creative industries.

In HOW ORGANIZATIONS CAN MAKE THE MOST OF ONLINE LEARNING, Dr. David Guralnick describes what organizations need to know about learning and technology in order to create a successful culture of growth and performance – today, tomorrow, and in the future. Online learning has the potential to change an organization’s culture and performance – if the organization employs technology in the right ways. In HOW ORGANIZATIONS CAN MAKE THE MOST OF ONLINE LEARNING, Dr. David Guralnick describes what organizations need to know about learning and technology in order to create a successful culture of growth and performance – today, tomorrow, and in the future. In this book, Dr. Guralnick describes the current world of online learning, lays out his vision of the future, and discusses how organizations can make the best use of technology to improve job performance, including how to best combine the work and skills of an organization’s internal team and outside consultants and vendors. Too much online learning today focuses on memorizing information. HOW ORGANIZATIONS CAN MAKE THE MOST OF ONLINE LEARNING shifts this paradigm to focus on learning key skills that are meaningful to an employee and relevant to their work. Organizations will learn how to create and deliver online learning and performance experiences that can take their employees’ performance to the next level.

This volume will assist readers in fitting big data analysis into their service-based organizations. Volume I of this two-volume series focuses on the role of big data in service delivery systems. It discusses the definition and orientation to big data, applications of it in service delivery systems, how to obtain results that can affect/enhance service delivery, and how to build an effective big data organization. This volume will assist readers in fitting big data analysis into their service-based organizations. It will also help readers understand how to improve the use of big data to enhance their service-oriented organizations.

This book explores the basic tenets of service excellence, opening to distinguish customer service from service excellence, and explore the driving aspects of strategy and philosophy. The brand promise to customers creates expectations; hooks targeted and segmented customers into a relationship. Service operations deliver expectations, delight, or on occasion, disappointment, and marketing responds to create loyalty, further delight, or recover the relationship. Freshness of product or service offering, the injection of a characterful sense of fun, and sensitive personalization of service combine to deliver an authentic, pleasurable and memorable service experience prompting much sought loyalty and advocacy. In turn, staff are happy, profits rise and the organization has long-term sustainability. The first volume offers some theoretical background, while the second suggests mechanisms, tools, and techniques to help embed to excellence as the foundation of value that the organization delivers. Both contain practical examples and a self-assessment diagnostic tool to identify organizational areas of strength, and aspects to improve.