1609605810

Business Organizations
and Collaborative Web:

Practices, Strategies and
Patterns
Kamna Malik
U21Global Graduate School, Singapore
Praveen K. Choudhary
HCL Technologies, India
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Business organizations and collaborative web: practices, strategies and patterns / Kamna Malik and Praveen K. Choudhary,
editors.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Summary: This book delves into identifying specific business processes and their linkage with the collaborative Web,
while understanding the related implications for individuals, organizations and society--Provided by publisher.
ISBN 978-1-60960-581-0 (hbk.) -- ISBN 978-1-60960-582-7 (ebook) 1. Information technology--Management. 2. Web
2.0. 3. Internet. 4. Online social networks. I. Malik, Kamna, 1967- II. Choudhary, Praveen, 1974- III.
Title.
HD30.2.B8784 2011
658.403802854678--dc22
2011001301
British Cataloguing in Publication Data

A Cataloguing in Publication record for this book is available from the British Library.
All work contributed to this book is new, previously-unpublished material. The views expressed in this book are those of the
authors, but not necessarily of the publisher.
Editorial Advisory Board

Mark Esposito, Grenoble Graduate School of Business, France
D. P. Goyal, MDI Gurgaon, India
Jeffrey Henderson, Grenoble Graduate School of Business, France
Wing Lam, U21Global Graduate School, Singapore
Vijay V. Mandke, NIIT University, India
Lukas O. Ritzel, IMI University Centre / Prasena, Switzerland
K. S. Subramanian, IGNOU, India
Lloyd C. Williams, Institute of Transformative Thought and Learning, USA
List of Reviewers
James Braman, Towson University, USA
Rommert J.Casimir, Tilburg University, Netherlands
Vatcharaporn Esichaikul, Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand
Mark Espistos, Grenoble Graduate School of Business, France
Arhlene Flowers, Ithaca College, USA
D. P. Goyal, MDI Gurgaon, India
Jeffrey Henderson, Grenoble Graduate School of Business, France
Ronan Jouan de Kervenoael, Sabanci University, Turkey and Aston University, UK
Wing Lam, U21Global Graduate School, Singapore
Lukas O. Ritzel, IMI University Centre, Switzerland
Eva Soderstrom, University of Skvde, Sweden
Malathi Sriram, SDM Institute for Management Development, India
R. Todd Stephens, AT&T Corporation, USA
Jakub Stogr, Charles University, Prague
Lloyd C. Williams, Institute of Transformative Thought and Learning, USA
Table of Contents
Preface . ...............................................................................................................................................xiii
Section 1
Towards Collaborative Web
Chapter 1
Towards a Characterization of the Developmental Environment of Web Applications
and its Business Implications................................................................................................................... 1
Pankaj Kamthan, Concordia University, Canada
Chapter 2
Web 2.0: Integration Model with Electronic Commerce....................................................................... 18
R. Todd Stephens, AT&T, USA
Chapter 3
Entrepreneurship and Growth in Knowledge Economy........................................................................ 31
Julie Vardhan, Manipal University, Dubai
Section 2
Collaborative Applications in Business
Chapter 4
Collaborative Journalism: Networks, News Media and the Public Sphere........................................... 48
Saayan Chattopadhyay, University of Calcutta, India
Chapter 5
Using Virtual Communities to Involve Users in E-Service Development: A Case Study..................... 61
Eva Sderstrm, University of Skvde, Sweden
Jesper Holgersson, University of Skvde, Sweden
Chapter 6
Emerging Web Tools and Their Applications in Bioinformatics........................................................... 76
Shailendra Singh, PEC University of Technology, India
Amardeep Singh, Punjabi University, India
Chapter 7
Collaborative Web for Natural Resources Industries............................................................................. 90
Nikhil Chaturvedi, SAP Asia Pte. Ltd., Singapore
Chapter 8
Optimizing Collaborative E-Commerce Websites for Rural Production
Using Multi Criteria Analysis.............................................................................................................. 102
Z. Andreopoulou, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece
T. Koutroumanidis, Democritus University of Thrace, Greece
B. Manos, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece
Chapter 9
Online Grocery Provision Resistance: Understanding Urban (Non)Collaboration
and Ambiguous Supply Chain Environments ..................................................................................... 120
Ronan de Kervenoael, Sabanci University, Turkey & Aston University, UK
Burcin Bozkaya, Sabanci University, Turkey
Mark Palmer, University of Birmingham, UK
Chapter 10
Applying Game Mechanisms to Idea Competitions............................................................................ 144
Florian Birke, Technical University Braunschweig, Germany
Maximilian Witt, Technical University Braunschweig, Germany
Susanne Robra-Bissantz, Technical University Braunschweig, Germany
Section 3
Organizational Aspects of Collaborative Web
Chapter 11
Dynamic Co-Opetitive Network Organization Supported by Multi Agent Architecture.................... 165
Paolo Renna, University of Basilicata, Italy
Chapter 12
The Influence of Collaborative Web on Knowledge Management, Organizational
Structure and Culture in Knowledge Intensive Companies . .............................................................. 184
Kathrin Kirchner, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Germany
Mladen udanov, University of Belgrade, Serbia
Chapter 13
Virtual Reality and Identity Crisis: Implications for Individuals and Organizations.......................... 202
Archana Tyagi, University of Business and International Studies Geneva, Switzerland
Section 4
Blending Real and Virtual Worlds
Chapter 14
Virtual Worlds for Collaborative Meetings.......................................................................................... 221
Arhlene A. Flowers, Ithaca College, USA
Kimberly Gregson, Ithaca College, USA
Chapter 15
Collaborative Virtual Business Events: Potential and Challenges . .................................................... 245
Roma Chauhan, Institute for Integrated Learning in Management, India
Ritu Chauhan, Jamia Hamdard, India
Chapter 16
Augment Your Business Reality with New Age Web Tools................................................................ 261
Lukas Ritzel, IMI University Centre, Switzerland
Compilation of References ............................................................................................................... 282
About the Contributors .................................................................................................................... 313
Index.................................................................................................................................................... 319
Detailed Table of Contents
Preface . ...............................................................................................................................................xiii
Section 1
The Web is fast evolving as a strong collaborative medium, with more and more individuals adopting it
in their personal and social life. This trend is so pervasive that it is imperative for business organizations to integrate collaborative web Web tools into their businesses. This section, with the help of three
chapters takes the reader through different dimensions that need to be considered for weaving the collaborative web Web with business for better business and economic growth.
Chapter 1
and its Business Implications................................................................................................................... 1
Pankaj Kamthan, Concordia University, Canada
This chapter provides a conceptual characterization of multiple directions of web Web evolution, relationships between these directions, and their implications towards business organizations. The consequences of a commitment to these directions are considered with the support of examples and/or
empirical studies as appropriate.
Chapter 2
Web 2.0: Integration Model with Electronic Commerce....................................................................... 18
R. Todd Stephens, AT&T, USA
In a few years, having a standard Electronic Commerce site will be as pass as having an information only site today. Organizations must progress to the next level in order to have a viable business
model in the future. In this chapter, the author takes a look at how organizations can integrate Web 2.0
technology into their current electronic commerce environment. This chapter reviews several different
examples where organizations have added Web 2.0 to their environment and are succeeding in transforming themselves.
Chapter 3
Entrepreneurship and Growth in Knowledge Economy........................................................................ 31
Julie Vardhan, Manipal University, Dubai
The objective of this chapter is to highlight recent advances in our several understandings which underpin the creation of knowledge, the iterative knowledge loops, the knowledge economy itself, and the
range of technologies used by the entrepreneurs leading towards knowledge diversification, specialization, and optimization, resulting into growth of the overall economy.
Section 2
Collaborative Applications in Business
This section outlines the collaborative applications of the current form of webWeb, and also provides a
brief peek into the future growth and directions of development of the next generation of webWeb. The
set of seven chapters included in this section is a distillate of research and experience of the authors in
diverse set of industries and functional domains.
Chapter 4
Collaborative Journalism: Networks, News Media and the Public Sphere........................................... 48
Saayan Chattopadhyay, University of Calcutta, India
Referring to the mainstream and alternate news media industry, this chapter argues that the notion
of collaboration does not hinge only between a professional and an amateur, or trained reporters and
common citizens, or perhaps more commonly, different kinds of media rather it is a much greater
transformation since it is a collaboration between society and technology with its palpable economic
implications. The author points out the emergence of network entrepreneur and also the reconfiguring
media and journalistic practices.
Chapter 5
Using Virtual Communities to Involve Users in E-Service Development: A Case Study..................... 61
Eva Sderstrm, University of Skvde, Sweden
Jesper Holgersson, University of Skvde, Sweden
This chapter drives motivation from the issue of involving the end users for development of useful and
sustainable e-services. With the help of a case study in the travel industry, it explains how new technological advancements and phenomena, primarily virtual communities, can be used as a main source of
end user requirements.
Chapter 6
Emerging Web Tools and Their Applications in Bioinformatics........................................................... 76
Shailendra Singh, PEC University of Technology, India
Amardeep Singh, Punjabi University, India
This chapter gives a brief overview of the emerging field of bioinformatics bioinformatics and explains
the need for collaboration in its broad research based activities. While sharing the web Web tools commonly used by scientists and researchers, the authors establish the need of collaborative tools to support
their work.
Chapter 7
Collaborative Web for Natural Resources Industries............................................................................. 90
Nikhil Chaturvedi, SAP Asia Pte. Ltd., Singapore
This chapter focuses on the petroleum and mining industry a resource intensive industry where collaboration across the entities in the value chain is very high and can be positively affected by the
webWeb. Drawing from his first hand experiences in this industry, the author explains the extent of
collaborative web Web and also the unleashed potential that still needs to be realized.
Chapter 8
Optimizing Collaborative E-Commerce Websites for Rural Production
Using Multi Criteria Analysis.............................................................................................................. 102
Z. Andreopoulou, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece
T. Koutroumanidis, Democritus University of Thrace, Greece
B. Manos, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece
This chapter takes an account of the website features to be facilitated while designing a collaborative
website for e-commerce purposes in rural sector. With the help of qualitative and quantitative analysis
of content characteristics, this chapter proposes a methodology aiming to optimize their websites. The
retrieved websites are classified in groups aiming to identify the optimum group of websites, which can
be used as a benchmark by other companies in the sector.
Chapter 9
Online Grocery Provision Resistance: Understanding Urban (Non)Collaboration
and Ambiguous Supply Chain Environments ..................................................................................... 120
Ronan de Kervenoael, Sabanci University, Turkey & Aston University, UK
Burcin Bozkaya, Sabanci University, Turkey
Mark Palmer, University of Birmingham, UK
This chapter investigates the resistance by online retailers, logistic firms, and urban planners in the
development of supply chain infrastructures for online grocery provision. Drawing upon twenty nine
in-depth interviews with experts in online retail, logistics, and urban planning within an urban metropolis in an emerging market, the authors report different ways (ideological, functional, regulatory, and
spatial) in which collaboration is resisted in online retail provision.
Chapter 10
Applying Game Mechanisms to Idea Competitions............................................................................ 144
Florian Birke, Technical University Braunschweig, Germany
Maximilian Witt, Technical University Braunschweig, Germany
Susanne Robra-Bissantz, Technical University Braunschweig, Germany
With the help of a study carried out to analyze various idea competitions, this chapter proposes the use
of game mechanism for generating / accumulating ideas in organizations. Based on theoretical insights,
analysis of 18 cases and three interviews, this study demonstrates the actual occurrence of game mechanisms and their effect on the motivation of participants.
Section 3
Organizational Aspects of Collaborative Web
Mass adoption of collaborative web Web tools by individuals is resulting in increasing individual empowerment and more dynamism in business relations leading to severe implications for business organizations. This section, with the help of three chapters, brings forth some implications and recommendations to enable organizations relook their plans, policies and controls and move towards more
open structure and culture that accommodates the changing individual and social behavioral patterns.
Chapter 11
Dynamic Co-Opetitive Network Organization Supported by Multi Agent Architecture.................... 163
Paolo Renna, University of Basilicata, Italy
The focus of this chapter is on the development of a multi agent architecture to support a network of
enterprises that collaborate in a co-opetition relationships environment. The research concerns the investigation of a life cycle of the network in which the partners change dynamically. In particular, the
enterprises that participate in the network can exit or continue to participate, while the enterprises that
operate outside the network can evaluate to participate in the network. A simulation environment is proposed that allows business users to evaluate the proposed approach in a co-opetitive network to support
the plants participation decision.
Chapter 12
The Influence of Collaborative Web on Knowledge Management, Organizational
Structure and Culture in Knowledge Intensive Companies . .............................................................. 184
Kathrin Kirchner, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Germany
Mladen udanov, University of Belgrade, Serbia
In this chapter, the authors explore the influence that the collaborative Web tools have on knowledge
management, organizational structure, and culture of knowledge-intensive companies. As a result of
interviews and surveys done in Serbia, the authors report that with collaborative webWeb, organizational structure, culture, and knowledge management change is perceived among employees, and that
employees loyalty changes from company orientation toward virtual community orientation.
Chapter 13
Virtual Reality and Identity Crisis: Implications for Individuals and Organizations.......................... 202
Archana Tyagi, University of Business and International Studies Geneva, Switzerland
Identity has become one of the most important issues for human development and adjustment in todays
turbulent times. Virtual reality has recently emerged as an effective tool to extend a healing space for
an alternative identity. The focus of this chapter is on the challenges faced by the young generation,
which is struggling to understand its identity. Thereon, an attempt has also been made to link the organizational identity with the individual identity.
Section 4
Blending Real and Virtual Worlds
The ongoing trends towards miniaturized devices, touch based and more natural interfaces, and collaborative processes, are enabling many new forms of convergence. The convergence of real and virtual
worlds is one such pre-dominant form that forward looking business organizations need to earnestly
explore. This section helps the reader peep into the futurist trends and applications where the real and
virtual worlds of business converge and augment each other.
Chapter 14
Virtual Worlds for Collaborative Meetings.......................................................................................... 221
Arhlene A. Flowers, Ithaca College, USA
Kimberly Gregson, Ithaca College, USA
Whether businesses will make use of virtual worlds for meetings, training, and events is not just an
academic question. This chapter covers the evolution of technology for virtual meetings, a theoretical
analysis of tele-presence in virtual meetings, case studies of companies utilizing virtual worlds as meeting venues, and practical considerations for conducting virtual meetings and events.
Chapter 15
Collaborative Virtual Business Events: Potential and Challenges . .................................................... 245
Roma Chauhan, Institute for Integrated Learning in Management, India
Ritu Chauhan, Jamia Hamdard, India
In addition to saving time and cost, virtual business events enable knowledge on demand, so crucial
for the end users. This chapter delves into the opportunities and challenges of rich interactive virtual
business events, particularly virtual exhibitions and conferences. With the help of examples of available
services and usage patterns, the authors highlight the associated challenges for the end users, organizers, and developers. A blended form of real and virtual business event is suggested as a workable business proposition.
Chapter 16
Augment Your Business Reality with New Age Web Tools................................................................ 261
Lukas Ritzel, IMI University Centre, Switzerland
This chapter peeps into the emerging trend of Web 3.0. Particularly focusing on augmented reality
(AR), this chapter takes the readers to a futuristic tour with the help examples of a number of futuristic
applications where the boundaries between real and virtual worlds get blurred.
Compilation of References ............................................................................................................... 282

About the Contributors .................................................................................................................... 313
Index.................................................................................................................................................... 319
xiii
Preface
It is the long history of humankind (and animal kind, too) those who learned to collaborate and
improvise most effectively have prevailed. Charles Darwin
Collaboration is the key to survival. Just like individuals and mankind, business organizations also
depend on collaboration for survival and growth. The concept of departments, committees, teams,
meetings, feedbacks, conferences, et cetera, which are so fundamental to any organizational structure,
culture, behavior, and performance, all point to the importance of collaboration. With globalization
of economies and growth of information and communication technologies (ICT), the boundaries and
scale of collaboration have moved from the intra-organizational to inter-organizational level. Two way
people-people or business-business collaborations have given way to multidirectional collaborations
involving multi-agents; primarily, individuals, organizations, technologies, and communities. Employee
ownership, multi-partner global supply chains, collaborating competitors, and engaging customers are
all imperative for the sustained growth of an organization today.
The past two decades have witnessed a drastic shift in the way business is conducted. Levels of hierarchy have reduced. Business processes have gone leaner. Continuous learning and innovation have
become the norm rather than the competitive advantage. Though economic and legal reforms have been
a significant contributor to globalization, it is due to ICT that such scales have been manageable. ICT
has been instrumental in increasing the demand as well as supply of products and services by bringing together the buyers and suppliers from across the oceans and time zones. A key result of all such
changes is the rise in entrepreneurial growth of business and competition, thus raising the bar of service
and excellence and redefining the form and conduct of organizations. Business has gradually become
e-business, and World Wide Web has become the playfield for business organizations.
Over these years, Web has evolved from read-only environment to a strong collaborative medium
where users have access to a wide range of tools and resources. To mark the distinct stages of this
evolution, many researchers agree with the versioning of Web; with Web 1.0 broadly representing the
read-only Web; Web 2.0 representing the read-write Web or social Web; and Web 3.0 representing the
Semantic Web and related developments moving towards intelligent Web. Though intelligent Web is
still in fancy, wiki, blogs, tagging, social networking sites, and many such forms of collaborative Web
tools have already paved their way into our lives on personal and business front. Individuals today spend
a significant part of their day on the Web and social networks. Search engines, wikis, and blogs have
brought in a paradigm shift from the culture of knowledge management to knowledge co-creation.
While the earlier form of Web was first adopted by business organizations and entrepreneurs, and gradually accepted by individuals; the new age Web technologies have witnessed individuals as first adopters,
xiv
with business organizations following the suite. The evolution of open source and social networking
trends are forcing organizations to collaborate and rethink the way they innovate, create and execute
their strategies, products and services.
The making of Barack Obama (Nations, 2010) and Coke (Carlson, 2009) as the popular brands on
Facebook and IBM saving huge money by hosting its virtual meetings over Second Life (Virtual World
News, 2009) are the cases in point that highlight the fact that collaborative Web holds the potential for
competitive advantage for individuals as well as organizations. The McKinsey survey (2009) reported
the increasing use of blogs, podcasts, wiki, Web videos, really simple syndication and social networks
resulting in innovation, better marketing, reduced time and cost thus improving the efficiency and effectiveness of internal as well as external collaborations and leading to emergence of networked organization. Virtual team interaction, customers surveys and feedback, talent hunt, knowledge sharing, and
advertising are some of the areas where business organizations have started utilizing these tools. As a
result, new forms of agile and learning organizations are evolving. Enormous speed, flexibility, knowledge, and connectivity resulting from this evolution offer immense potential to change the competitive
landscape of individuals, business organizations as well as nations.
As embracing this change is becoming increasingly important as well as feasible for businesses, this
change is also enabling more and more individuals to become virtual entrepreneurs in their own ways.
An employee, rather than spending the whole life in the silos of an organization, can today reach out
globally as an individual seeker or provider of knowledge. Every individual is a potential writer and
publisher today. Imagine, an employee spending a part of its office time to exercise its freedom of voice
over blogging, or adding to the collective wisdom of a consortium, or strengthening his/her professional
network over, say, LinkedIn. Should businesses see this act as loss of productivity or an indirect gain in
collective wisdom and growth? Should business policies control employees access to such community
building or should they capitalize on the new technologies as well as the surplus abilities of the internet
generation? In what way can these technologies generate more value for business? These and many such
questions confront the organizations today as they experiment with the opportunities and challenges
offered by the changing form of the Web.
It demands a different set of culture, organizational structure, and policies to reap out such benefits
while controlling the side-effects. For example, while most forward looking organizations today create
blogs to get customer feedback and also to propagate ideas and product knowledge, they face the challenges of managing 24x7 spontaneity and quick redress expected by the bloggers. They also lack the
systems and processes required to manage such a large pool of gathered knowledge. The organizations
desire that their employees get accustomed to new age work styles but then balancing productivity and
organizational loyalty often become the conflicting issues. One can get a glimpse of such imbalances
by looking at the statistics of bloggers who have been fired from their jobs. This obviously indicates
a confusing situation for both individuals as well as organizations because both are today operating
on the no mans land where the etiquette, ethics and rules are not well defined. Business and IS policy
makers are yet to find ways to manage that thin line difference between individual versus business goals.
This book aims to explore the practices, strategies and emerging patterns with respect to use of
such new generation technologies in business organizations. To remain focused, we have restricted our
explorations around collaborative nature of business and the potential or actual use of emerging Web
technologies therein. However, we refrain from any attempt to bring out the distinction between various
versions or names given to such technologies. For the purpose and context of this book, we prefer to use
the term collaborative Web to encompass all technologies that have evolved after the initial read-only
xv
Web environment or Web 1.0. Simply said, collaborative Web allows its users to communicate, with
each other as well as with other technologies, and communicate intelligently towards creation of better
products, services and knowledge thus leading to business and economic growth.
Though, we believe that any research is less likely to generate a structured model for use of Web
due to the inherent unstructured nature of the business environment, the situation certainly warrants an
initiative to identify and bring together the evolutionary multiple threads characterizing the changing
business patterns. This edited book is an endeavor to bring forth such multiple threads, identify the current practices and future possibilities of making collaborative Web as a tool for business. It also presents
the opportunities and challenges confronting organizations in the light of such emerging trends.
The book presents a set of sixteen chapters grouped into four sections. A brief outline of the sections
is included here. A detailed sectional preview has been provided at the beginning of each section.
Section 1. Towards Collaborative Web sets the tone of this book. It is agreeable that the conventional
business wisdom cannot be applied to use new tools and techniques without first understanding the nature
of such technological changes. Thus, it is imperative to start with an understanding of the characteristics
of Web today and appreciate the need for embedding collaborative Web into the business model. Three
chapters grouped in this section together bring out the evolution of Web and e-business and suggest the
integration of the two to have sustainable organizations and economies. Real life examples have been
sprinkled appropriately to provide glimpses of changing business needs and formations.
Section 2. Collaborative Applications in Business portrays a diverse set of business applications of
collaborative Web. With the help of seven chapters, this section showcases the tools usage in information
intensive industries notably in journalism and Web-services as well as in resource intensive industries
such as oil and natural resources and agricultural sector. These chapters, with the help of examples collectively illustrate a generic pattern that collaborative Web tools and technologies have already started
penetrating into the core business processes of different industries, affecting their collaborative value
chains. Though, the adoption of these tools is still in small pockets, there is increasing clarity that they
hold the potential to make a significant contribution to improvise business collaborations.
Section 3. Organizational Aspects of Collaborative Web highlights the fact that there are far reaching effects of collaborative Web on the structure and culture of business organizations. Online ways to
collaborate have introduced speed and dynamism in business relations; as a result the external as well
as internal business partnerships are getting more dynamic and fluid. Employee loyalties are shifting
from organizations to virtual communities. With the help of three chapters grouped in this section, we
aim to sensitize the organizations, business managers and of course researchers to think through the risks
of this fast emerging trend. Some strategies to convert these risks into opportunities are also covered.
Section 4. Blending Real and Virtual Worlds brings home the essence of making judicious choice of
tools and technologies for next generation businesses. Each of the three chapters included in this section
illustrates the use of virtual reality for making business collaborations more human and sensory. Real life
examples have been included to illustrate the options and usage patterns in conducting virtual meetings
and business events. This section prompts the readers to go a bit creative and augment their business
reality with virtual one thus creating a business world that is seamlessly collaborative.
The flow of the sections, moving from section 1 to section 4 clearly establishes the increasing degree
of collaboration across the value chain and also increasing pervasiveness of collaborative Web technologies across the value chain. Students, practitioners and researchers can draw hints from this flow to
strategize their business models which are more collaborative and seamlessly connected. IWhen we first
set out with the theme of this book around a year ago, the most commonly heard and read stories about
xvi
the use of collaborative Web for business processes were around internal communication, marketing and
customer feedback. With the help of this project, our implicit target was to delve deeper into identifying
specific business processes and their linkage with the collaborative Web, while understanding the related
implications for individuals, organizations and society. Thanks to our chapter contributors who joined us
from different industries, professions, and geographies and helped us in compiling a piece of knowledge
to showcase diverse applications and effects of collaborative Web. Well balanced on academic rigor and
practical insights, this work also aims to set future directions for strategists, managers, academicians,
researchers and students in any area of business and management.
Dear reader, we hope that our carefully selected set of chapters adds more practical insights, improves
your understanding of the subject, and also gives you future directions for research and experimentation. We will be privileged to receive your feedback to take this subject knowledge forward in the best
interest of theory and practice of Web-enabled businesses.
Kamna Malik
U21Global Graduate School, Singapore
Praveen K. Choudhary
HCL Technologies, India
REFERENCES
Carlson, N. (2009). Coke has no idea how it got 3.3 million fans on Facebook. Silicon Alley Insider.
Retrieved August 11, 2010, from http://www.businessinsider.com/coke-has-no-idea-why-its-so-popularon-facebook-2009-3
McKinsey Quarterly. (2009). How companies are benefiting from Web 2.0: Global survey results. Retrieved August 11, 2010, from http://mckinseyquarterly.com/Business Technology/BT Strategy/How
companies are benefiting from Web 20 McKinsey Global Survey Results 2432
Nations, D. (2010). How Barack Obama is using Web 2.0 to run for President. Retrieved August 11,
2010, from http://webtrends.about.com/od/Web20/a/obama-Web.htm
Virtual World News. (February 27, 2009). IBM saves $320,000 with Second Life meeting. Retrieved
August 11, 2010, from http://www.virtualworldnews.com/2009/02/ibm-saves-320000-with-second-lifemeeting.html
Section 1
OVERVIEW
One may disagree on the stages, names, version numbers and definitions assigned to various forms of
web, but what is equivocally acceptable about todays web is its growing collaborative nature. While
Wikipedia is reshaping the publishing industry, youtube is a great example of new wave in media and
entertainment industry. Customers today have someone to listen to them and help them; and people with
innovative ideas can find some takers, thanks to company blogs and virtual communities. This trend is
pervasive and forceful to the extent that business organizations of this era cannot afford to ignore this.
There is a large pool of web technologies and related software services available; what organizations need
as the first step is to relook their business model and make web-enabled collaborations an intrinsic part
there in. This section, with the help of three chapters takes you through different dimensions that need to
be considered for weaving the collaborative web of business for better business and economic growth.
Chapter 1 by Pankaj Kamthan is based on the premise that unless the nature of the product is understood, its true potential cannot be exercised. The chapter identifies and elaborates eight unique
characteristics in the developmental environment of Web Applications viz. Computing EnvironmentNeutral, Domain-Specific, Human-Centered, Information Interaction-Intensive, Model-Driven, Open
Environment-Based, Pattern-Oriented, and Quality-Sensitive. It then moves on to discuss the implications of these characteristics on users and towards different aspects of business organizations including
transfer of knowledge and management.
In chapter 2, R. Todd Stephens takes a look at how organizations can integrate Web 2.0 technology
into their current electronic commerce environment. . The author highlights that the standard e-commerce
focusing on conduct of business transactions will be soon as pass as an information-only site. To sustain
themselves, organizations need to move to the next level of creating networks as an intrinsic part of their
business model. This chapter runs you through the prominent technological developments such as wiki,
blogging, social networks, social tagging, mash-ups and user oriented content; and shares real life examples and reminds that integration strategies for these technologies should follow bottom-up approach.
Chapter 3 by Julie Vardhan draws our attention towards the linkage between knowledge, entrepreneurship and growth of economy. It highlights recent advances in several understandings which underpin the
creation of knowledge, the iterative knowledge loops, the knowledge economy itself and the range of
technologies used by the entrepreneurs leading towards knowledge diversification, specialization and
optimization resulting into growth of the overall economy. Some of the recent knowledge based growth
models have also been shared, illustrating the effects of innovation in creation of new frontiers and firms
and more specifically on firms exploiting new age web technologies.
Chapter 1
Towards a Characterization of
the Developmental Environment
of Web Applications and
its Business Implications
Pankaj Kamthan
Concordia University, Canada
ABSTRACT
The Web has been changing since its inception. In particular, the evolution of the developmental environment of Web Applications has been multi-directional. This chapter provides a conceptual characterization of such technical directions, relationships between these directions, and their implications towards
business organizations. The consequences of a commitment to these directions are considered with the
support of examples and/or empirical studies as appropriate. The challenges faced by Semantic Web
Applications and Social Web Applications are briefly outlined.
INTRODUCTION
The Internet, particularly the Web, has opened
new vistas for many sectors of society and over
the last decade has played an increasingly integral
role in our daily activities of communication,
information, and entertainment. The use of the
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-60960-581-0.ch001
Web has changed peoples behaviors, in some

cases indispensably and even irreversibly.
It is evident that conventional business practices that apply to one product cannot be simply
mapped to another without first understanding
the nature of the product, and the same applies
to Web Applications. This chapter identifies and
elaborates unique characteristics in the developmental environment of Web Applications. It also
Copyright 2011, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.
considers the implications of these characteristics

on users and towards different aspects of business
organizations including transfer of knowledge
and management.
The rest of the chapter is organized as follows. First, the background and related work is
presented. This is followed by an exploration of
a list of characteristics that uniquely posit the
nature of Web Applications. Next, challenges and
directions for future research are outlined. Finally,
concluding remarks are given.
BACKGROUND
In this section, the basics of Web Applications
that are relevant for the rest of the chapter are
provided. The people who have a stake in a Web
Application are outlined, and previous work on
characterizing Web Applications is discussed.
Basic Terminology Related

to Web Applications
For the sake of this chapter, a Web Application is
defined as a Web Site that behaves like an interactive software system specific to a domain and
typically requires a non-trivial infrastructure for
development. This infrastructure may include a
disciplined and systematic development process,
a team with high-level of knowledge and skills,
deployment of additional software on the clientand/or server-side, and a schedule comprising
of several weeks or months from inception to
completion.
The use of a Web Application has evolved from
its origins in the mid 1990s. It has been shown
in empirical studies (Weinreich et al., 2008) that,
instead of merely seeking information, users now
also expect to be able to interact with a Web Application to carry out certain tasks. This in turn
has had an impact on how Web Applications are
perceived, developed, and managed.
For the sake of this chapter, Web Engineering

(Mendes & Mosley, 2006) is a discipline concerned
with the establishment and use of sound scientific,
engineering and management principles and disciplined and systematic approaches to the successful
development, deployment, and maintenance of
high-quality Web Applications.
Stakeholders of Web Applications

A stakeholder is a person who has interest in a
Web Application for some purpose. For the sake of
this chapter, the stakeholders of Web Applications
are broadly classified into producers and consumers. The producers are responsible for server-side
concerns of a Web Application; the consumers are
receivers on the client-side of a Web Application.
For example, business executives, project managers, and software engineers belong to the category
of producers; beginner and advanced users belong
to the category of consumers.
It is possible to devise more sophisticated
stakeholder classification schemes based on other
criteria. For example, stakeholders could be classified based on their degree of influence (Alexander,
2005) on a Web Application. However, doing so
is beyond the scope of this chapter.
It is evident that the stakeholders of Web Applications are diverse. For example, there can be
anthropological differences, cultural differences,
and differences of personal preferences among
stakeholders. These can be relevant to the development of Web Applications that aim to target a
diverse audience.
Related Work on Characterizing the

Development of Web Applications
In this section, a chronological account of previous work related to this chapter is presented. A
model for characterization of Web Applications
has been given (Lowe, 2002). However, details
of individual characteristics are not given and the
discussion is relatively dated.
It has been noted that Web Applications vary

in a number of ways from traditional software
including uncertainty of the domain, often shorter
time-to-market, and rapid changes in technologies
(Lowe, 2003; Ziemer & Stlhane, 2004). However,
the arguments are often based on perception rather
than social and technical reality.
It has been pointed out that different types of
Web Applications vary along the lines of their
nature, form, purpose, and development (Selmi,
Kraem, & Ghzala, 2005). However, the treatment is relatively dated.
The variations between conventional software
systems and Web Applications have been pointed
out (Mendes & Mosley, 2006). However, the
criteria focus on the development and underlying
technologies rather than the stakeholders.
Finally, a characterization from the viewpoint
of basic elements of Web Engineering, namely
project, people, process, and product has been
proposed (Kamthan, 2009a). The approach taken
in this chapter is an alternate, although not necessarily orthogonal, to this work.
AN ANTHOLOGY OF SALIENT
CHARACTERISTICS IN THE
DEVELOPMENT ENVIRONMENT
OF WEB APPLICATIONS
The following characteristics, based on the observations and experience of the author over a number
years, identify the pivotal directions of evolution
in the developmental environment of Web Applications: [C-1] Computing Environment-Neutral,
[C-2] Domain-Specific, [C-3] Human-Centered,
[C-4] Information Interaction-Intensive, [C-5]
Model-Driven, [C-6] Open Environment-Based,
[C-7] Pattern-Oriented, and [C-8] QualitySensitive.
Figure 1 depicts [C-1] [C-8], and their interrelationships of dependencies. The presence of
an arrow in the figure signifies that the source
relies-upon the destination. The interest in this
chapter is in a confluence of [C-1] [C-8]. It is

the contention of the author that [C-1] [C-8]
are relevant; however, there is no claim that they
are sufficient. These characteristics and their
implications are discussed in some detail in the
subsequent sections.
[C-1] Computing EnvironmentNeutral

In the last two decades, there has been a proliferation of computing devices and user agents
with diverse configurations. In particular, there
has been an influx of computing devices such as
notebook and tablet computers that vary considerably in their options for data input/output, screen
capabilities, memory, disk space, and processing
power. Indeed, if forecasts are any indicators, it is
likely that the non-stationary devices will outsell
stationary devices in the coming years.
It is not practical for a typical user to change
the underlying device or user agent to suit the
demands of different Web Applications. It is
expected by the users that the same services are
available on an array of devices (related to [C-3]).
Therefore, it has become ever more important for
Web Applications to be perceived as being neutral
to the volatility in the computing environment.
In the past decade, there has been notable
progress in this direction. The current initiatives
such as the W3Cs Ubiquitous Web Applications
Activity are a step forward. The producers of
Web Applications have been confronting the
challenge by providing dynamic delivery of
resources based on an assessment of the clientside computing environment. This assessment,
for example, can include recognizing the device
and personalizing according to user preferences.
In particular, it is effective to produce and archive
a single, normative representation of information
that, upon request, can be transformed to multiple
presentations of information, tailored according
to environmental needs including specificities of
device types, operating systems, and user agents.
Figure 1. The characteristics of evolution of Web Applications and their interrelationships of dependencies
The proliferation of information technologies such

as the Extensible Markup Language (XML), the
Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformations
(XSLT), and the Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)
has played an important role for bringing this to
a realization.
Challenges
In general, a commitment to computing environment-neutrality is not free of cost. In order to
achieve computing environment-neutrality to an
acceptable degree, any advantages specific to,
for example, hardware or software optimization,
must be sacrificed. To check device variability,
particularly that on mobile devices, the devices
themselves and/or device simulators need to
be acquired. The aim of minimizing (ideally,
eliminating) dependency of a Web Application
on user agents can require more time and effort
on part of producers, not least due to the fact that
the user agents are themselves prone to change.
This variability also places extra burden on acceptance testing.
[C-2] Domain-Specific
There are different types of Web Applications
addressing different domains (Arrue, Vigo, &
Abascal, 2008; Deshpande et al., 2002). The
nature and underlying goals of an organization
can be reflected in a Web Application that is
domain-specific. Indeed, domain-specificity has
been central to Web Applications for e-business:
the actual information (including the advertisements, if any), style of expressing information,
and presentation of information are all in the
direction of the domain.
The notion of a Web Portal has been instrumental in the proliferation of domain-specific
Web Applications. For example, a Web Portal of
skin care products is identifiably different from
a Web Application connected to a banks information system. The interaction design in general
and presentation design in particular, including
typographical decisions, should reflect the differences between Web Applications pertaining
to different domains.
There is increasing support for domain engineering in the development of Web Applications.
For example, the information of the underlying
domain is critical to the user models and the usage models (related to [C-3]). There are design
patterns (Van Duyne, Landay, & Hong, 2007) that
also suggest that the genre of a Web Application
be specified at the start of development (related
to [C-7]).
Challenges
There can be undesirable side-effects of domainspecificity. The language used in a domain-specific
Web Application, including terminology, may be
acceptable to regular users; however, it may alienate new users if appropriate steps are not taken.
These steps could include general introduction
and provision of context-sensitive help.
[C-3] Human-Centered
There are number of reasons due to which humancenteredness of Web Applications (Nielsen &
Loranger, 2006) needs to be reflected throughout
development and during operation. The consumers
of interactive systems such as Web Applications
are heterogeneous. Indeed, users can vary in a
number of ways including age, mental and physical ability, educational background and skills,
culture, gender, geographical location, goals,
personal preferences, and temperament. This
diversity must be acknowledged, embraced, and
subsequently acted upon. The variations in the
technological background and skills of consumers
are especially relevant. There are consumers of
Web Applications such as digital natives (Palfrey
& Gasser, 2008) that were born at the time digital
technologies were taking shape and/or have grown
up with digital technologies. These digital technologies include those that underlie the current
non-stationary computing devices as well as the
Internet in general and the Web in particular. In
contrast, there are also consumers of Web Ap-
plications such as digital immigrants or digital

laggards that, by law or economic necessity, are
required to use the Web.
It is increasingly been acknowledged that the
mere existence of a Web Application is neither
necessary, nor a sufficient condition for its utility
to a user. It has become important for the producers
to consider the value a Web Application provides
to a user throughout the development process
and highlight the services it provides to a user
upon delivery. Indeed, value and service can be
dominant factors on which the success and failure
of a Web Application is measured, and ignoring
any of them can adversely impact the bottom-line
of the business that owns that Web Application.
The shift of focus on technologies to focus on
people in the past decade has had an impact on
how Web Applications should be viewed, namely
a consideration of only technical aspects is insufficient in providing the quality of service expected
from Web Applications by their consumers. The
acknowledgement of the significance of the role
of humans has led to a variety of changes at all
levels of development of Web Applications. The
process models for development of Web Applications have become more human-centric (Kamthan,
2008a; Kamthan, 2008b). The formulation of
concrete user models such as personas (Pruitt &
Adlin, 2006) and elicitation of user requirements
has become an imperative. There has been an
influx of a number of approaches for developing
interactive systems in general and Web Applications in particular such as include activity-centered
design, contextual design, empathic design, and
so on. The acknowledgement of a users context,
inception of personalization (related to [C-2]),
and use of recommender systems are some of the
prime examples of human-centeredness of Web
Applications.
Challenges
There are possible side-effects of human-centeredness of Web Applications. An emphasis
on the users and their environment may lead to

over-attention and dependence on the data derived
from ethnographic studies and user feedback, both
during and after development. An initiative for
personalization usually comes at the cost of privacy, and providing a priori guarantees to users of
the appropriate use of the data submitted by them
can be a challenge. There is also the potential for
the use of the Web for persuasion (Weinschenk,
2009) that can adversely impact the credibility of
a Web Application (Fogg, 2003).
[C-4] Information
Interaction-Intensive
The invisibility of a computer was posited more
than two decades ago (Norman, 1998). By treating information as a first-class concern, the Web
has acted as a catalyst in this regard. The Web has
placed yet another layer between a human and the
computers operating system interface, namely
that of an information interface (Pirolli, 2007).
The structural, behavioral, and creational aspects of information directly affect the consumers
of Web Applications. It is likely that, among the
consumers of Web Applications, the digital natives are the most exposed to and accustomed to
the presence of information interfaces (related to
[C-3]). Therefore, attention and commitment to

information interfaces is imperative for understanding the nature of Web Applications.
The study of information interfaces belongs to
the discipline of human-information interaction
(HII). HII relies on a number of cognate disciplines
(Albers, 2008) such as cognitive psychology, social psychology, human factors, human-computer
interaction, information science, and technical
communication. The structural, behavioral, and
creational aspects of information interface design
usually make use of patterns (related to [C-7]).
Figure 2 illustrates multiple interfaces: the
information interface of an abstract Web Application, the user interface of the user agent, and the
user interface of the underlying operating system.
Figure 3 illustrates an information interface
created by viewing a Portable Document Format
(PDF) document in the Mozilla Firefox user agent:
the interface elements on the top belong to the
user agent and the interface elements on the bottom belong to the Adobe Reader plug-in. It makes
use of a number of information design, presentation design, and search design patterns (Van
Duyne, Landay, & Hong, 2007).
Figure 2. The information interface in the hierarchy of human-to-machine interaction
Challenges
The presence of information interfaces presents
new development challenges. For example, a
consumer may have to deal with multiple different interfaces within the same Web Application
or across different Web Applications. This could
be prohibitive in the absence of any contextsensitive help. The challenge increases if there are
features across interfaces that are same or similar
in presentation but different in functionality, or
same or similar in functionality but different in
presentation. For example, accessibility and usability issues of the search interface provided by
a Web Application are not necessarily identical
to that of a general-purpose search engine or to
that provided by a user agent being used to access
that Web Application.
[C-5] Model-Driven
The interest in the development of Web Applications has steadily moved from concrete to abstract
artifacts that can be achieved by conceptual model-
ing. There are a number of advantages of modeling

including creating an environment for discussion
across project team, early cost estimation, exploring and experimenting with design alternatives,
identifying stakeholders, minimizing attention
at the level of transient technologies, and so on.
The assortment of desirable models includes a
problem domain model, user model (such as user
role, user profile, and/or persona), usage model
(such as a use case model and/or a task model),
and macro- and micro-architectural design models.
The design models can be refined further to include
specific aspects of design such as structure and
behavior, usually using design patterns (related
to [C-7]). Table 1 lists some early conceptual
models in the development of Web Applications
and their potential uses.
The interest and initiatives towards modeling
Web Applications has gradually increased over
the past decade (Rossi et al., 2008). Initially, there
were modeling approaches specific to Web Applications such as the Object-Oriented Hypermedia Design Method (OOHDM), UML-based Web
Engineering (UWE), W2000, and the Web Mod-
Figure 3. An example of an information interface for a Web Application
Table 1. The potential uses of early conceptual models in the development of Web Applications
Conceptual Model Type
Potential Use(s)
Problem Domain Model
Requirements Elicitation and Specification, Glossary
Stakeholder Model
Project Management Plan
User Model
User Requirements Elicitation and Specification, Acceptance Testing
Use Case Model
Cost Estimation, Behavioral Requirements Elicitation, Test Case Specification
Task Model
Interaction Design Description
eling Language (WebML). Now there are a number of extensions of the Unified Modeling Language (UML) for Web Applications in form of
UML profiles (Rossi et al., 2008), each often
focused on one of the possible views of the application. The availability of open modeling environments (related to [C-6]) can help in that
endeavor.
Challenges
The adoption of conceptual modeling, in spite of
its usefulness, is not automatic. The organizations
process maturity and availability of resources can
affect the degree of commitment, if at all, to conceptual modeling. In general, the knowledge and
experience in conceptual modeling are rare, and
therefore expensive. The proposed UML profiles
for Web Applications tend to have different goals,
and a standard is yet to emerge.
[C-6] Open Environment-Based

It would not be an overstatement to assert that, in
the absence of an open environment, a widespread
acceptance of the Web would not have been possible. Indeed, the architecture of the Web (Jacobs
& Walsh, 2004), and the entire technological
infrastructure that supports it, is based on an open
environment.
The availability of open resources, for both
the producers and the consumers, has played a
critical role in the success of Web Applications.
The support software that is of primary concern
to the producers and the consumers of Web Applications has been open. The classical exemplars
on the client-side include the NCSA Mosaic and
Lynx and on the server-side include the NCSA
Web server. These were followed by the introduction of the Apache Web server and then the
formation of the Apache Software Foundation,
followed by the ascent of the Mozilla Project.
The Open Source Software (OSS) has made an
indispensable contribution to the development of
Web Applications. The family of OSS clients,

servers, and content management systems has
flourished, and there does not appear any sign of
decline in growth.
The relationship between the Web and OSS
is symbiotic (Kamthan, 2007). Indeed, Web has
become the de facto platform for the development
of OSS. There are a number of OSS foundries
such as SourceForge that have been set up as
Web Applications, and have been instrumental
in dissemination of OSS.
Challenges
In spite of the prevalence of OSS, their quality
is still an open issue. The stability of OSS is not
guaranteed: there are open source projects that
have become dormant or have been discontinued
after relatively short period of time. A commitment to such OSS can therefore impact the velocity of development of a Web Application. As
open source projects are voluntary efforts, timely
customer support can be an issue, especially for
new initiatives.
[C-7] Pattern-Oriented
The reliance on conceptually reusable experiential
knowledge is crucial for the development of Web
Applications. In the past couple of decades or so,
one form of such knowledge, namely patterns, has
been found useful. For the sake of this chapter, a
pattern is defined as an empirically proven solution
to a recurring problem that occurs in a particular
context (Buschmann, Henney, & Schmidt, 2007;
Kamthan, 2010).
There are benefits of patterns for both the producers and the consumers of Web Applications. If
used appropriately, patterns contribute to business
values such as reduce cost, reduce time to market,
increase quality to market, and increase product
lifetime (Elssamadisy, 2007). The use of patterns
for HII leads to information interfaces that are
familiar to the users of Web Applications, and it

is known that familiarity contributes to usability.
In recent years, a systematic approach based on
patterns, for orienting the development of (Mobile)
Web Applications aiming for high-quality, has
been realized (Kamthan, 2008a; Kamthan, 2008b;
Kamthan, 2008c). In particular, it is expected that
models during the analysis and design phases are
based on patterns. The deployment of tools can
become crucial in a large-scale use of patterns
(related to [C-6]).
Table 2 illustrates the role of patterns in the
development of Web Applications based on some
Web Engineering process.
The relationship between the Web and patterns
is symbiotic (Kamthan, 2008a). Indeed, Web has
become the de facto platform for dissemination
of patterns. There are a number of pattern collections available on repositories such as the Hypermedia Design Patterns Repository, the Portland
Pattern Repository, and the Amsterdam Collection
of Patterns that have been set up as Web Applications, and continue to serve the pattern community.
Challenges
In spite of the advantages emanating from a commitment to patterns, there are certain limitations.
There may be insufficient development experience in new domains. Therefore, even though
desirable, there may not be any patterns for such
domains. For example, even though the aware-
ness of accessibility in the development of Web

Applications has increased over the past decade,
there is currently a scarcity of stable and mature
accessibility patterns. The selection of patterns is
non-trivial due to a number of reasons including
the absence of a standard for pattern description. It is expected that the use of patterns can
aid quality; however, in general, the relationship
between quality and patterns (Kamthan, 2009c)
is equivocal (related to [C-8]). Finally, studies
pertaining to the return on investment (ROI) of
patterns are yet to be seen.
[C-8] Quality-Sensitive
There are different views of quality. For the sake
of this chapter, these views include, but are not
limited to, conformance to authoritative sources
(such as standards), economical benefits, and
consumer satisfaction.
There are a number of reasons for paying attention to quality during the development of Web
Applications. For example, a corporate trainer
may want to use a Web Application for classroom demonstration without being interrupted
by unsolicited pop-ups on unrelated topics; a
senior citizen with low visual acuity would like
to use the Web for banking from home but may be
concerned about readability of text and entrusting
others with personal information; a person with
epilepsy would like to use the Web to look for
travel destinations for her upcoming vacation
without being confronted with animations; and
Table 2. The relationships between patterns and models in a process for the development of Web Applications
Web Engineering Process
Web Application Quality Model
Conceptual Models
Is-Sensitive-To
Web Application Quality Model
Is-Visible-In
Conceptual Models
Is-Supported-By
Patterns
Depends-On
Web Application Stakeholder Model
May-Use
Patterns
Lead-To
Web Application
so on. Therefore, the needs pertaining to quality

of the consumers of Web Applications should be
a first-class concern for the producers (related
to [C-3]).
There are other reasons for a commitment to
quality. In general, a lack of quality has negative implications resulting in a loss to society
(Akingbehin, 2005). The success of a Web Application as perceived by its stakeholders is also
often intrinsically related to its quality (Pertet &
Narasimhan, 2005).
The purpose of a quality model is to lend an
understanding of quality. In general, a quality
model provides a decomposition of quality into
a number of attributes, relationships between
those attributes, and means of quantifying those
attributes. The recent quality models for Web
Applications (Kamthan, 2008a; Kamthan, 2008b)
have emphasized a number of quality attributes
that are relevant to stakeholders including accessibility, credibility, legality, maintainability,
privacy, reliability, security, and usability. These
models also underscore the interplay of quality
and patterns (related to [C-7]).
The movement in quality engineering of
Web Applications has been from technical to
social concerns. There was early awareness of
the significance of maintainability, reliability,
security, and usability, followed by attention on
accessibility, legality, and privacy, and in turn
followed by credibility. This could be explained
by the pervasiveness of Web Applications. The
users are spending increasingly more time on the
Web, and increasingly depending on the Web for
routine activities.
There have also been notable efforts in this
area by commercial vendors like Adobe Systems,
Microsoft, and Sun Microsystems to ensure that
their products are sensitive to quality concerns of
end-users. In particular, the support for accessibility in products such as Adobe Flash and Adobe
Reader has increased over the past decade.
10
Challenges
In spite of the evident significance of quality assurance and evaluation, it is not free of cost. The
infrastructure required for setting up a dedicated
quality engineering program, including laboratories, may not be within the budget of certain
academic institutions and small-to-medium-size
enterprises (SME). The number of engineers for
testing Web Applications has improved over the
years; however, experts in heuristics evaluation
of accessibility or usability are scarce and not
inexpensive. There are a few free-to-use tools
for evaluating, say accessibility, credibility, and
usability of Web Applications; however, guidance
for their appropriate use may not always be freely
available, if at all. Finally, a Web Application can
be a complex system, and a single quality model
may not be sufficient. Indeed, as shown in Table
3, there is a need for multiple quality models for
a Web Application, each emphasizing a specific
aspect of that Web Application.
Remarks
The characteristics [C-1] [C-8] apply only to
the Surface Web, not the Deep Web. It is important to note that, apart from those discussed
above, certain characteristics, such as EthicallyAware, Law-Abiding, Standards-Conforming, or
Value-Added, are among the desirable potential
candidates. However, currently these can not be
unequivocally seen as perceived directions for
the evolution of Web Applications.
For example, the pervasiveness of information
technology in general, and the Internet and the
Web in particular, has given rise to new ethical
dilemmas (Tavani, 2004). However, the current
commitment of organizations towards an ethicsaware Web Applications is unclear.
Table 3. A selected collection of different quality models in the development of Web Applications
Type of Quality Model
Examples
Conceptual Model Quality Model
Domain Model Quality Model, Use Case Model Quality Model
Specification Quality Model
Requirements Specification Quality Model
Information Quality Model
Text Quality Model, Two-Dimensional Graphics Quality Model, Animation Quality Model
Design Quality Model
Navigation Design Quality Model, Presentation Design Quality Model
Implementation Quality Model
Data Quality Model, Source Code Quality Model
Implications of Characterizing the

Development of Web Applications
for Business Organizations
The characteristics that reflect relatively stabilizing invariants in the evolution of the development
of Web Applications need to be identified and
explored for a number of reasons, including their
implications on business organizations.
Implications for Knowledge Transfer

In general, an awareness of the directions in the
evolution of the development of Web Applications could be useful for corporate trainers who
are involved in curriculum development related
to Web Engineering at their respective organizations. For example, instead of the conventional
focus on technology-oriented courses (Kruni et
al., 2006) under the label of Web Design, or the
like, it could open new vistas for curriculum design.
The potential topics for courses include Conceptual Modeling of Web Applications (related to
[C-5]), Open Source Web Applications (related
to [C-6]), Quality of Web Applications (related to
[C-7] and [C-8]), and User-Centered Web Applications (related to [C-3] and [C-8]), to name a few. In
these courses, basic concepts of Web Applications
and services to consumers become primary, and
technology, albeit important, becomes secondary.
Implications for Management

The Web has become a first-class medium for
a number of industries. This has had a notable
impact on business decision making and organizational practices, especially those industries that
are committed to Business-to-Business (B2B) and
Business-to-Consumer (B2C) electronic commerce (E-Commerce).
Project
A characterization of Web Applications is relevant to technical leaders who are involved in
planning their future information technology
policies at their respective organizations. There
is a constant drive in industry to gain a competitive edge through a number of means such as by
improving existing workflows, finding avenues of
reusable knowledge, eliciting new directions for
personnel training, and so on. An understanding
of the avenues being pursued in the engineering
of Web Applications could help charter new paths
for these directions.
Process
In the early days of the Web, the organizations followed an ad-hoc or essentially linear approaches
towards the development of large-scale Web
Applications. However, taking into consideration
the working habits of the people involved (related
to [C-3]) and following an evolutionary approach
towards development are being recognized as
increasingly relevant to the underlying process
11
environment. This trend is likely to continue for

the foreseeable future. The organizations have
come to embrace agile methodologies such as
Extreme Programming (XP), Lean Development,
and Scrum. Indeed, empirical studies (Clutterbuck,
Rowlands, & Seamons, 2009) have shown some
success in doing so. However, transition to agility is not automatic, depends intrinsically on an
organizations culture, and comes with a price.
For fruitful development, an organization must
seek a balance on the rigidity-agility spectrum.
FUTURE RESEARCH DIRECTIONS

In this section, two directions of evolution of the
Web (Murugesan, 2010), namely the Semantic
Web and Social Web are considered, and their
implications for producers and consumers of Web
Applications are briefly outlined.
Towards a Characterization of
the Development of Semantic
Web Applications
The Semantic Web has emerged as an extension
of the current Web that adds technological infrastructure for better knowledge representation,
interpretation, and reasoning (Hendler, Lassila,
& Berners-Lee, 2001). It has promised a new era
of Semantic Web Applications, especially those
that can make implicit knowledge explicit and
reason with it.
The attention on the Semantic Web has reinforced the significance of the separation of the
representation and presentation of information.
This, in turn, has positive implications towards
accessibility/usability and maintainability. For
example, multiple user-supplied style sheets can be
associated with a single source of representation,
and multiple target presentations can be generated
from a single source of representation.
Indeed, a better representation of knowledge
opens new possibilities for Semantic Web Ap-
12
plications with intelligent user interfaces (IUIs),

especially those of adaptation and personalization. The representation of knowledge in form
of ontologies holds the promise of more precise
and relevant searching as demonstrated by experimental search engines like CORESE, SWSE
and Swoogle.
Challenges
The apparent benefits of the Semantic Web come
with certain challenges. Even though there have
been many advances towards enabling the technical infrastructure of the Semantic Web in recent
years, there is much to be done in addressing the
human and social concerns (Kamthan & Pai, 2005).
In particular, the learning curve and requisite
skills expected by the underlying technologies,
especially by knowledge representation languages; the cost-benefit ratio in the production
of large, domain-specific ontologies; quality
assurance and evaluation of ontologies; performance of reasoning with these ontologies over
the network; and usability of query formulations
on devices with restricted capabilities, are some
of the unique challenges for a broad acceptance
of Semantic Web Applications. For example, the
Web Ontology Language (OWL) is one of the key
layers of the Semantic Web technology stack.
OWL recursively depends on a number of other
technologies for its definition, all of which need
to be learned for a thorough understanding and
subsequent optimal use.
Towards a Characterization
of the Development of
Social Web Applications
The Social Web, or as it is more commonly referred
to by the pseudonym Web 2.0 (OReilly, 2005), is
the perceived evolution of the Web in a direction
that is driven by collective intelligence, realized
by information technology, and characterized by
user participation, openness, and network effects.
It has spawned a new era of Social Web Applications (Bell, 2009), and opened new vistas for collaboration among globally distributed participants.
The Social Web celebrates the human involvement in the evolution of the Web. If the Web
leveled the playing field between large and small
businesses, the Social Web, to certain extent,
levels the playing field between producers and
consumers. Indeed, Social Web applications like
Del.icio.us, Facebook, Flickr, LinkedIn, Wikipedia, and YouTube, are but a few examples of
the phenomenon where a consumer becomes a
co-producer, or a prosumer, in a social network.
In this sense, the Social Web itself is an environment for the development of (Social and/or
Semantic) Web Applications. For example, there
are Social Web Applications that can be used by
members of a project team to communicate with
each other, collaboratively develop conceptual
models listed in Table 1, and disseminate process
artifacts (Kamthan, 2009b).
Challenges
The apparent benefits of the Social Web (Kamthan,
2009b) come with certain challenges. A systematic
process for developing Social Web Applications
has yet to emerge. The Social Web Applications,
particularly those labeled as Rich Internet Applications (RIA), can place demands on the client-side
that could be perceived as severe.
The conventional user interface metaphors for
desktop and Web Applications are not sufficient
for Social Web Applications, and innovation in that
direction is desirable. For example, conventional
applications have dialogues between human and
computer; in Social Web Applications, this model
has to be extended to dialogues between humans,
in some cases groups of size greater than two.
The Social Web has brought forth issues related to quality, specifically of legality, privacy,
and security, not encountered previously. The
Social Web applications will need to address new
technical and social requirements to be viable.
For example, the reuse of information in mashups

(Ogrinz, 2009) raises the issues of the rights of the
original author and appropriate attribution by its
users. The ease of involvement in social networks
has led to a proliferation of participants on services
such as Facebook and MySpace; however, at the
cost of privacy if not configured and controlled
adequately. If surveys are any indicators, the digital
natives are likely the most frequent users of and/
or participants in the Social Web Applications.
The ease of publishing information has led to a
new group of contributors, including digital natives; however, lack of adequate knowledge and/
or experience of protecting information have also
increased potential threats to security.
The Social Web has also blurred the lines between the roles and responsibilities of a producer
and a consumer with respect to the corrective and
perfective maintenance of a Web Application. For
example, the contributors of information in the
role of prosumers may not have adequate training
in discerning the quality of information that they
contribute to Social Web Applications such as
Wikipedia. This raises the issue of believability
of the information presented to a consumer in
general and of the credibility of Web Applications in particular (Fogg, 2003). For example,
the potential for the distribution of inaccurate
medical information from unqualified sources
has particularly had an acute impact on the user
perception of health-related Web Applications, and
is not likely to improve by inviting unmonitored
end-user development.
Remarks
The development of Semantic Web Applications
and Social Web Applications reflects machineoriented and human-oriented extension of conventional Web Applications, respectively. It is
relatively early to characterize this new generation
of applications. In doing so, the characteristics [C1] [C-8] are deemed necessary but not sufficient.
13
For the sake of argument, consider the case of

Social Web Applications. It is likely that Social
Web Applications need to move from genericity
to specificity (related to [C-2]). For example,
there are generic social networking applications like Facebook, but also means for creating
community-specific social networks using systems such as Ning. Furthermore, to be inclusive,
the Social Web Applications need to commit to
universal design (Chisholm & May, 2008), and
therefore to accessibility and usability (related to
[C-8]). However, given a group of participants in
a Social Web Application, there is also a need to
consider the sociological impact that entails from
the computer-mediated communication among
participants themselves. This is not completely
addressed by [C-1] [C-8].
CONCLUSION
The characteristics presented in this chapter aim to
provide an understanding of the state-of-the-art in
the development of Web Applications. They also
highlight technical and social challenges that are
likely for both the producers and consumers of
Web Applications. In the past decade, there have
been numerous advances towards enabling the
technological infrastructure of the Web in lieu of
addressing the technical challenges. However,
there is much to be done in addressing the social
challenges.
The Web continues to grow at an alarming
pace, and the dependence of the society on it
continues to increase. It can be anticipated that
there will be new generation of Web Applications,
possibly unique in some ways. It is likely that the
[C-1] [C-8] presented in this chapter will remain
relevant for the foreseeable future. However, in
order to characterize sustainable development
that provides value to both the producers and
consumers of these new Web Applications, they
may need to evolve accordingly, both in terms of
their emphasis and their granularity.
14
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The following publications advocate a systematic
and/or disciplined approach towards the development of high-quality Web Applications from a
users perspective:
KEY TERMS AND DEFINITIONS

Accessibility: The usability of a product,
service, environment, or facility by people with
the widest range of capabilities. The concept
of accessibility addresses the full range of user
capabilities and is not limited to users who are
formally recognized as having a disability. The
usability-oriented concept of accessibility aims
to achieve levels of effectiveness, efficiency, and
satisfaction that are as high as possible considering
the specified context of use, while paying particular attention to the full range of user capabilities
within the user population.
Information Scent: An information scent is a

cue to a person (namely, the information seeker)
in an information environment that indicates that
the information environment has the information
the person seeks.
Model: A simplified description with respect to
some goal of an entity from a particular viewpoint.
Pattern: An empirically proven solution to
a recurring problem that occurs in a particular
context.
Quality: The totality of features and characteristics of a product or a service that bear on its
ability to satisfy stated or implied needs.
Semantic Web: An extension of the current
Web that adds technological infrastructure for
better knowledge representation, interpretation,
and reasoning.
Social Web: A perceived evolution of the
Web in a direction that is characterized by user
participation, openness, and network effects;
driven by collective intelligence; and realized
by information technology.
Universal Design: The design of products
and environments to be usable by all people, to
the greatest extent possible, without the need for
adaptation or specialized design.
Usability: The extent to which a product can be
used by specified users to achieve specified goals
with effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction in
a specified context of use.
Web Engineering: A discipline concerned
with the establishment and use of sound scientific,
engineering and management principles and disciplined and systematic approaches to the successful
development, deployment, and maintenance of
high-quality Web Applications.
17
18
Chapter 2
Web 2.0:
Integration Model with

Electronic Commerce
R. Todd Stephens
AT&T, USA
ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author takes a look at how organizations can integrate Web 2.0 technology into their
current electronic commerce environment. The success of the Internet can be seen within any organization, but customers are asking for more interaction with the enterprises they do business with. In a few
years, having a standard electronic commerce site will be as pass as having an information only site
today. Organizations must progress to the next level in order to have a viable business model in the future.
Web 2.0 provides the basic technology for creating a network of customers who are passionate about the
companys product offering. This chapter reviews several different examples where organizations have
added Web 2.0 to their environment and are succeeding in transforming themselves.
INTRODUCTION
Small, medium and large organizations are being transformed from an old business model
built around the command and control aspects
of information management to a new one where
collaboration and social networking are the esDOI: 10.4018/978-1-60960-581-0.ch002
sential components in defining a long-term business value. When researchers speak of Web 2.0
applications, they tend to focus on the technology
aspects of the environment. However, the real
impact of integrating Web 2.0 technologies is in
the transformation of the organizational business
model. The following sections of this chapter
will focus on defining Web 1.0 with electronic
commerce followed by a basic definition of Web
Web 2.0
2.0. This will then be followed by examples and

discussions on the different business utilizations
of Web 2.0 technology.
Background
While the web itself is about twenty years old,
businesses are still implementing technology
into the fabric of the business model. The background section will focus on defining the building
blocks for the framework including defining the
basic components of Web 1.0 which focused on
the online marketing presence and the business
transaction. The Web 2.0 section will focus on
defining the basic building blocks of customer
interactions.
Electronic Commerce
Business Process Model
Generally speaking, an end user will go through
a defined process while engaging in an electronic
commerce environment. Teo and Yeong (2003)
described the consumer business model with
five steps: need recognition, information search,
alternative evaluation, purchase and after purchase
evaluation. Kotler (2003) proposed a framework
that included the following activities in the buyers
decision process: problem identification, search,
trust building, evaluation of alternatives, choice
and post-purchase behavior. From these and other
models, we can develop our own model with six
basic steps.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Recognize Needs
Search for Available Products
Evaluate Product Alternatives
Decide and Choose a Product
Execute Transaction
Post-Purchase Activities
The process begins when a customer recognizes

ones need. This need could be for a product or
service or simply the recognition of a companies
offerings. The recognition phase indicates the

need for brand development which focuses on
marketing and communications. This is especially
true with organizations that have consumer based
product lines. Companies spend millions of dollars
each year to get the message out to the user community of their value proposition and brand. Once
the customer recognizes the need then they need to
have the ability to search for the right product or
service. This may include customization options
and bundling several products or services together
in order to deliver a more focused solution. Generally speaking, the product offering is defined as
the product catalog where specific information is
provided to the customers such as color, size, use
and any other descriptive metadata. Once a user
has found the product, they will then move into an
evaluation phase where they try to determine if the
product is right for them. This may include color
selection, size, model or any other components
that fit with the individuals life style. Many sites
allow for a side by side comparison of products
in order to review the different features. After
evaluating products, customers then decide if a
purchase it necessary. The purchase will result
in a transaction which is then followed up with
several support functions. Support functions might
include help, online chat, documentation, quick
start guides, etc.
Web 1.0 and Electronic Commerce

The term Web 1.0 emerged from the research and
development of Web 2.0. Prior to this, researchers
commonly referred to Web 1.0 as Electronic Commerce or E-Business. Other researchers actually
separate Web 1.0, meaning online presence, from
electronic commerce. In this chapter, we will use
the combination definition for simplicity and clarity. Where as, web 1.0 focused on a read only web
interface (plus transactions), Web 2.0 focuses on
a read-write interface where value emerges from
the contribution of a large volume of users.
19
Web 2.0
The internet initially focused on the command

and control of the information itself. Information
was controlled by a relatively small number of
resources but distributed to a large number which
spawned the massive growth of the web itself. Like
television, the web allowed for the broadcasting
of information to a large number of users. Initial
web sites were built simply to communicate presence or provide information on the business itself.
This component included information like marketing materials, investor relations, employment
opportunities, and product information. While
many organizations have succeeded in making
progress towards an interactive web environment,
their applications to date have still focused on an
outdated Web 1.0 model, in which they take traditional offline activities and simply move them
online. Most companies have taken advantage of
the internet to find survey respondents, target a
certain demographic or characteristic, and boost
response rates but few have taken advantage of
the hallmark of Web 2.0: user-generated content
(Freedman, Konwiser, Nielsten, & Van Ostern,
2008). Some researchers describe the integration
of the business transaction as Web 1.5, indicating
a separate phase of development. This altered the
static information environment and transformed
the web into an integral part of the business environment.
The World Wide Web (WWW) was conceived
at the European Particle Physics Laboratory in
Switzerland. Berners-Lee, Cailliau, Luotonen,
Figure 1. Web 1.0 and business (Source: Author)
20
Nielsen, and Secret (1994) describe the web as

collaborative medium which would allow information providers in remote sites to share ideas
without boundaries. Most businesses have moved
towards the web in order to take advantage of the
capabilities of the electronic-commerce business
model. Moving business functions from a traditional brick and mortar model to an electronic
commerce model is not as simple as it might
seem. Simply, Web 1.0 revolves around the digital
enablement of transactions and processes within
the organization, involving information systems
under the guidance or control of the firm (Laudon
& Traver, 2003). Electronic Commerce describes
the process of buying or selling products, services,
and information via computer networks. Web
1.0 emerged as major channel for the worldwide
distribution of products, services and professional
jobs. The first Electronic Commerce applications
were in the form of electronic fund transfers or
also referred to as wire transfers (Schneider, 2002).
These applications evolved to transmit information
of all kinds including business transactions. The
basic definition of Electronic Commerce implies
some form of transmission of information in order
to conduct business (Barnard & Wesson, 2003).
For this research, we are going to use the Web 1.0
model depicted in Figure 1.
This model is composed of six basic areas
which include the brand information, product or
service elements, metadata, educational materials,
product discovery and Electronic Commerce
Web 2.0
business functions. The industry box represents

information that aids the end user to understand
who, what and why the company is in business.
A companys brand can be one of the most valuable assets they have to control and monitor. The
industry box includes the following components
of an online environment: interface design (including style, color, and professionalism, logo, tag
lines, and information content quality) and industry background information. The second and third
boxes work together to describe the product or
service that the company provides. The first defines
the basic product while the second provides the
metadata or structured information that describes
that product or service. Barnard and Wesson (2004)
include product descriptions, images, price, availability, options and relationships with other
products. These two boxes define the basic product catalog for the organization. The fourth box
defines the various methods of accessing the
product information including search, product
categories, and usage based classifications such
as most popular. The fifth box describes the basic
components of Electronic Commerce as described
in the prior section. The final box focuses on the
basic education of the user and may include online
help, customer service, FAQ or any other education related function related to the product, service,
industry or online environment. This model defines
the majority of the Electronic Commerce environments online today.
Web 2.0 and Social Web

Web 2.0 represents a shift in thinking in how
people and organizations communicate. Sometimes referred to as sharing, collaboration, aggregate knowledge or community driven content
and social software creates the foundation of
collective intelligence (Weiss, 2005). Much of
the Web 2.0 technology is difficult to nail down
to an exact definition. The basic truth is that Web
2.0 emphasizes employee interaction, community
and openness (Millard & Ross, 2006). OReilly
(2005) defined Web 2.0 as a platform spanning all

connected devices. Web 2.0 applications are those
that make the most of the intrinsic advantages of
that platform delivering software as a continuallyupdated service that gets better as more people
use it, consuming and remixing data from multiple sources, including individual users, while
providing their own data and services in a form
that allows remixing by others, creating network
effects through an architecture of participation
and going beyond the page metaphor of Web
1.0 to deliver rich user experiences. Along with
these characteristics, Smith and Valdes (2005)
added simple and lightweight technologies and
decentralized processing to the mix.
Web 2.0 technologies are changing the internet from a search and consume environment to a
dynamic and interactive experience emphasizing
contribution and collaboration (Murugesan, 2007).
Web 2.0 is not a uniform concept, but a generic
term or metaphor for new internet technologies
and applications. It can be seen as a revival, intensification, renewal or even as a second generation
of the internet in which user generated content
has a central place. Web 2.0 has also been called
the social web, because its content can be more
easily generated by users, as well as the collective
intelligence of users. Users are not the passive
consumers of content, but co-producers. Interaction plays an important role in Web 2.0 to create
shared information (Kool & Wamelen, 2008).
Osimo and Burgelman state that Web 2.0 is about
technology and attitude. Miller (2005) describes
2.0 applications as those applications that make the
most of the intrinsic advantages of that platform
of services. While Web 2.0 has many and often
confusing definitions most include the concepts
of Social Networking, Weblogs, Wikis, Really
Simple Syndication (RSS) Functionality, Social
Tagging, Mashups, and User Defined Content.
21
Web 2.0
Social Networking
Millions of people are now using social networking
sites to connect, share and track the activities of
people with strong and weak ties. The emergence
of these social network sites generally focus on
specific user groups such as professionals or common interest communities (i.e. Linked In). Professional networking behaviors include maintaining
contacts, socializing, engaging in professional
activities such as attending conferences, participating in community groups, and increasing the
viability for others (Dougherty & Forret, 2001). In
Web 2.0, social networking also includes personal
and group e-mailing, blogging and joining online
social networks (Brown, Farnham, & Schwartz,
2009). Basically, social networks provide the opportunity for people to connect and communicate
in a timely manner. Most social networks focus
on a central repository to store information about
the individuals and then utilize various methods to
relate one individual to another. This relationship
is the basis for the social network in which people
can share information. The methods of creating
a relationship vary from associated metadata,
invitationS and related experiences like place of
employment.
Weblogs or Blogs
Weblogs or blogs have become so ubiquitous
that many people use the term as a synonymous
for a personal web site (Blood, 2004). Unlike
traditional Hypertext Markup Language (HTML)
web pages, blogs offer the ability for the nonprogrammer to communicate on a regular basis.
Traditional HTML style pages required knowledge
of style, coding and design in order to publish
content that was basically read only from the consumers point of view. Weblogs remove much of
the constraints by providing a standard user interface that does not require customization. Weblogs
originally emerged as a repository for linking but
soon evolved to the ability to publish content and
22
allow readers to become content providers. The

essence of a blog can be defined by the format
which includes small chunks of content referred
to as posts, date stamped, reverse chronological
order and content expanded to include links text
and images (Baoill, 2004). The biggest advancement made with Weblogs is the permanence of the
content which has a unique Universal Resource
Locator (URL). This allows the content to be
posted and along with the comments to define a
permanent record of information. This is critical
in that having a collaborative record that can be
indexed by search engines will increase the utility
and spread the information to a larger audience.
With the advent of software like WordPress and
TypePad along with blog service companies like
blogger.com, the weblog is fast becoming the
communication medium of the new web.
Wikis
A Wiki is a web site that promotes the collaborative
creation of content. Wiki pages can be edited by
anyone at anytime. Informational content can be
created and easily organized within the wiki environment and then reorganized as required (ONeill,
2005). Wikis are currently in high demand in a
large variety of fields due to their simplicity and
flexibility. Documentation, reporting, project
management, online glossaries and dictionaries,
discussion groups or general information applications are just a few examples of where the end user
can provide value (Reinhold, 2006). The major
difference between a wiki and a blog is that the
wiki user can alter the original content while the
blog user can only add information in the form
of comments. While stating that anyone can alter
content, some large scale wiki environments have
extensive role definitions which define who can
perform functions of update, restore, delete and
creation. Wikipedia, like many wiki type projects,
has readers, editors, administrators, patrollers,
policy makers, subject matter experts, content
maintainers, software developers and system
Web 2.0
operators (Riehle, 2006). All of which create an

environment open to sharing information and
knowledge to a large group of users.
RSS Technologies
Originally developed by Netscape, RSS was
intended to publish news type information based
upon a subscription framework (Lerner, 2004).
Many internet users have experienced the frustration of searching internet sites for hours at a
stretch to find relevant information. RSS is an
XML based content-syndication protocol that
allows web sites to share information as well as
aggregate information based upon the users needs
(Cold, 2006). In the simplest form, RSS shares
the metadata about the content without actually
delivering the entire information source. An author
might publish the title, description, date and copyrights to anyone that subscribes to the feed. The
end user is required to have an application called
an aggregator in order to receive the information.
By having the RSS aggregator application, end
users are not required to visit each site in order to
obtain information. From an end user perspective,
the RSS technology changes the communication
method from a search and discover to a notification
model. Users can locate content that is pertinent
to their job and subscribe to the communication.
Social Tagging
Social tagging describes the collaborative activity
of marking shared online content with keywords
or tags as a way to organize content for future
navigation, filtering or search (Gibson, Teasley,
& Yew, 2006). Traditional information architecture utilized a central taxonomy or classification
scheme in order to place information into a specific
pre-defined bucket or category. The assumption
was that trained librarians understood more about
information content and context than the average
user. While this might have been true for the local
library with the utilization of the Dewey Decimal
system, the enormous amount of content on the

internet makes this type of system un-manageable.
Tagging offers a number of benefits to the
end user community. Perhaps the most important
feature to the individual is the ability to bookmark
the information in a way that is easier for them
to recall at a later date. The benefit of this ability
on a personal basis is obvious but what about the
impact to the community at large. The idea of
social tagging is allowing multiple users to tag
content in a way that makes sense to them. By
combining these tags, users create an environment
where the opinions of the majority define the appropriateness of the tags themselves. The act of
creating a collection of popular tags is referred
to as a folksonomy which is defined as a folk
taxonomy of important and emerging content
within the user community (Ahn, Davis, Fake, Fox,
Furnas, Golder, Marlow, Naaman, & Schachter,
2006). The vocabulary problem is defined by the
fact that different users define content in different ways. The disagreement can lead to missed
information or inefficient user interactions (Boyd,
Davis, Marlow, & Naaman, 2006).
One of the best examples of social tagging is
Flickr which allows user to upload images and
tag them with appropriate metadata keywords.
Other users, who view your images, can also tag
them with their concept of appropriate keywords.
After a critical mass has been reached, the resulting tag collection will identify images correctly
and without bias.
Mashups: Integrating Information

Another Web 2.0 technology describes the efforts
around information integration or sometimes
referred to as mashups. These applications can
be combined to deliver additional value that the
individual parts could not deliver on their own.
One example of mashups is HousingMaps.com
that combines the Google mapping application
with a real estate listing service on Craiglists.
com (Jhingran, 2006). Other examples include
23
Web 2.0
Chicagocrime.org who overlays local crime statistics onto Google Maps so that end users can
see what crimes were committed recently in the
neighborhood. Another site synchronizes Yahoo!
Inc.s real-time traffic data with Google Maps.
Much of the work with web services will enable greater extensions of mashups and combine
many different businesses and business models.
Organizations, like Amazon and Microsoft are
embracing the mash-up movement by offering
developers easier access to their data and services.
Moreover, theyre programming their services
so that more computing tasks such as displaying
maps onscreen gets done on the users personal
computers rather than on their far-flung servers
(Hof, 2005).
User Contributed Content

One of the basic themes of Web 2.0 is user contributed information. The value derived from the
contributed content comes not from a subject
matter expert, but rather from individuals whose
small contributions add up. One example of user
contributed content is the product review systems
like Amazon.com and reputation systems used
with ebay.com. A common practice of online
merchants is to enable their customers to review
or to express opinions on the products they have
purchased (Hu & Liu, 2004). Online reviews are
a major source of information for consumers and
demonstrated enormous implications for a wide
range of management activities such as brand
building, customer acquisition and retention,
product development and quality assurance (Hu,
Pavlou, & Zhang, 2006).
A persons reputation is a valuable piece of
information that can be used when deciding
whether or not to interact or do business with.
A reputation system is a bi-directional medium
where buyers post feedback on sellers and vice
versa. For example, eBay buyers voluntarily comment on the quality of service, their satisfaction
with the item traded and promptness of shipping.
24
Sellers comment about the prompt payment from

buyers or respond to comments left by the buyer
(Christodorescu, Ganapathy, Giffin, Kruger, Rubin, & Wang, 2005). Reputation systems may be
categorized in three basic types: ranking, rating and
collaborative. Ranking systems use quantifiable
measures of users behavior to generate ratings.
Rating systems use explicit evaluations given
by users in order to define a measure of interest
or trust. Finally, collaborative filtering systems
determine the level of relationship between the
two individuals before placing a weight on the
information. For example, if a user has reviewed
similar items in the past, then the relevancy of
a new rating will be higher (Davis, Farnham, &
Jensen, 2002).
INTEGRATION OF WEB 2.0 INTO

ELECTRONIC COMMERCE
Earlier in this chapter, we defined the six basic
steps of electronic commerce: recognize needs,
search for available products, evaluate product
alternatives, decide and chose a product, execute
transaction and post-purchase activities. Other
than the actual transaction, all of these activities
can integrate Web 2.0 technologies. For example,
a blog could be used as a tool to help users recognize needs and create demand. A blog could also
be used to make product announcements of new
features, new optionsor new bundling packages.
While at the same time, it can help in post-purchase
activities by publishing tips and techniques about
how-to advice. Integrating Web 2.0 technologies
into the various steps would simply reflect the
marketing and branding strategy. The goal should
be to ensure a common experience across the
entire value-chain. The following section will
review specific examples of how organizations
have completed this integration.
Web 2.0
Examples and Discussion

While the model represents an ideal environment,
researchers want to see how organizations are
actually deploying the web technology and the
business value that is delivered. Returning to the
six steps of the proposed model, the recognition
phase is an ideal phase to leverage Web 2.0 tools
within the business to build brand awareness.
Twitter is a micro-blogging tool that allows individuals to send broadcast messages to anyone
and allows you to follow others who have similar
ideas (Kwak, Lee, Park, & Moon, 2010). These
messages are limited to 140 characters but do allow
organizations to monitor the brand message from
their customer base. Companies are using Twitter
as a marketing channel, much like an extension to
their corporate blogs. They will post about corporate accomplishments and distribute links that
take people back to corporate web pages, press
releases and other promotional sites.
Other organizations are leveraging Facebook
and LinkedIn to enhance their branding message.
Organizations like AT&T, Coca-Cola and Intel
are leveraging social tools in very unique ways.
One organization that stands out in the leveraging
Web 2.0 technology is the Blendtec organization.
Blendtec does a wonderful job at leveraging
YouTube to showcase their products quality and
strength. YouTube is a Web 2.0 service for sharing
videos. The Will It Blend marketing program
showcases the product blending everything from
guns to the iPhone (Blythe & Cairns, 2009). The
program is entertaining, innovative as well as informative. All of which make these advertisements
some of the most watched videos on the internet.
In the search component, we introduced new
technologies such as the end user tagging and tag
clouds. One organization that is leveraging this
technology is Snooth (http://www.snooth.com/)
which is a social environment for wine experts.
Snooth allows users to tag specific wines with
a variety of tags such as fruit, spices, Smokey,
bramble fruits, leather, black, cool and menthol.
Users can then click on these tags to view other

popular wines with the same tag classification.
Tags offer a unique method of locating specific
wines that fit the customers taste and preferences.
Snooth also utilizes a controlled vocabulary for
wine classification to go along with the free form
of tags. Here, end users can classify the wines by
location, type, color and variety.
The evaluation stage allows organizations to
integrate Web 2.0 in a variety of ways. Crutchfield
(http://www.crutchfield.com) is an electronics
retailer that has leveraged the online environment
since the 1980s. Originally a catalog retailer,
Crutchfield has moved online and now added
several Web 2.0 components to their environment. Each product in the catalog can be rated
and commented on by the customer. The company
only asks the user to create an account in order
to provide the feedback. The end result of this
capability is to allow new customers to evaluate
products based on these ratings and feedback. The
indirect benefit of utilizing this type of technology is to showcase buyer intent. Amazon.com,
for example, integrates a feature that utilizes the
user behavior. The Customers also bought or
Popular Books leverages the behavior of the
customer and in turn utilizes this information to
provide another base for evaluation. None of this
capability would have been available with just the
online catalog a few years ago.
The final area reviewed is the support area
and like the first area, here also many organizations are leveraging Web 2.0. Dunkin Donuts
sells donuts, coffee and other bakery items. The
company utilizes Facebook, social applications,
iPhone applications, twitter and a variety of other
technologies in order to support the customer.
The company has also used Facebook to run
a sweepstake where the result was to increase
their fan base by 800,000. The bottom line for
the organization is to create attention, fun and
communications with the customer community.
Another example is Starbucks which primarily sells coffee around the world. They recently
25
Web 2.0
launched My Starbucks Idea which is a Web 2.0

platform that allows customers to present ideas
on new products, better service, advertising and
customer support. Additionally, customers can
vote for and rank ideas. This allows the community to communicate whats important to them to
Starbucks. So far, over 70,000 suggestions have
been submitted and the top idea received 95,000
votes and over 1,000 comments. In the end, the
company has saved in product development and
reduced costs by implementing some of the ideas
presented through the social media technology
(Bailey & Horvitz, 2010).
As described in the background section, more
and more organizations are looking toward Web
2.0 to get closer to the consumer and build communities around the product or service. In many
enterprises, the customer is confined to a limited
role in the process of development, delivery, and
innovation of the business model. Businesses no
longer have 20 years to manage the growth cycle
and lock out competitors due to intellectual property rights. Take the Apple iPhone as an example.
Within three weeks of the products release,
hackers disabled the AT&T network connection
requirement and made changes to the hardware so
that the iPhone could be connected to any network.
Within three months, China was able to produce
the MiniOne which worked on any network and
could run more applications (Dartford, 2007).
Tapscott (2006) indicates that a power shift is
underway in which only those organizations that
can harness mass collaboration will survive.
As these examples showcase, we are moving
toward a more open and collaborative electronic
commerce environment. In order for businesses to
invest the resources in developing social software,
the business value must be easily identified. Developing and engaging the community is important
but if the result fails to deliver an increased value
to the business then resources may have been better
served in other areas. Other business models may
depend on advertising or click-thru rates which
can be greatly enhanced with Web 2.0 tools. Much
26
has been written about viral marketing which is

basically any strategy that encourages individuals
to pass on a marketing message to others, creating the potential for exponential growth in the
messages exposure and influence. Organizations
can leverage this medium to drive their value and
brand message to a large number of users fairly
quickly. The key here is the ability to tap into
the enthusiasm of the consumers so that they are
encouraged to become producers. Each of these
organizations focused on created communities to
enable this synergy which then can be translated
into real business value.
CONCLUSION
Without a doubt, Web 2.0 technologies will continue to be integrated into the core web application.
In 1968, Mel Conway (1968) devised the Conway
Law which states that the structure of systems
will reflect the structure of the organization that
develops it. Since the majority of organizations
are built under the command and control, centralized and authoritative model, the ability to
incorporate collaborative technologies will be
limited at best. Integrating these technologies into
established business models implies approaching
the problem from bottom-up rather than from top
to down. The concepts of Electronic Commerce
are well over ten years in maturity. While Web
2.0 technologies are still in their infancy, there is
still plenty of room for growth. Additionally, we
should see the plethora of new technologies and
new integration methodologies like web services
and cloud computing. Services offered within the
Web 2.0 framework are now part of the internets
evolutionary history. This implies that if a firm
wants to be on the internet, it has no choice but
to find an appropriate role for these technologies
(Benjamin, Birkland, & Wigand, 2008).
Web 2.0
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30

Collaboration: Collaboration is a term used to
describe technologies that allow multiple individuals to communicate without requiring a physical
presence. Their tools differ from Web 2.0 in that
they may or may not have social capabilities.
Electronic Commerce: Electronic Commerce
is the integration of business transactions with the
online environment.
Reputation Systems: A reputation system leverages the social metadata in order to rank or rate
individual value to the network. The idea is that
as someone contributes more or produces higher
quality information, their reputation is enhanced.
Social Networking: A social network is a
collection of individuals and the connections between them. These connections create a network
of relationships in which value can be found.
Taxonomy: Taxonomy is a term used to
describe a classification system. Taxonomy is
the method of ordering information based on the
metadata and correlating relationships.
Web 2.0: Web 2.0 is the term used to describe
technologies that allow for a many to many conversation in the online environment. That is, many
people can create content and many people can
consume the information.
31
Chapter 3
Entrepreneurship and Growth

in Knowledge Economy
Julie Vardhan
Manipal University, Dubai
ABSTRACT
Come any age, it is the ecclesial and axiomatic belief that the only sustainable resource of comparative
or competitive advantage is the knowledge and knowledge applications. In the current scenario, there
is growing evidence, interest, and belief that knowledge will provide an unbeatable cutting edge to the
entrepreneurs who want to establish and lead their business in this period. The challenge is that the
realm and concept of knowledge is still complex, and its transfer and relevance to entrepreneurship is
yet to be fully discovered and established.
The objective of this chapter is to highlight recent advances in our several understandings of such forces
that underpin the creation of knowledge, the iterative knowledge loops, the knowledge economy itself,
and the range of technologies used by the entrepreneurs leading towards knowledge diversification,
specialization, and optimization resulting into growth of the overall economy.
In this chapter, contemporary explanation of growth, knowledge-based growth, and finally, an entrepreneurially driven growth model will be explored. Growth will be researched not only in terms of knowledge
economy, but also in terms of knowledge, and economy in specific. Some of the recent knowledge based
growth models also focus upon, namely, the effects of innovation in creation of new frontiers and firms,
and more specifically, on firms exploiting various web technologies and business frontiers, inter-industry,
and cross platform avenues. The chapter conceptually demonstrates the importance of knowledge as
driver of growth, and concludes with the entrepreneurial leadership as the locus and paradigm of growth.
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-60960-581-0.ch003
Entrepreneurship and Growth in Knowledge Economy
INTRODUCTION
BACKGROUND
That knowledge has become the resource, rather

than a resource, is what makes our society postcapitalist.
What Peter Drucker in 1993 said about knowledge is that it is the only reliable source of competitive advantage, holds true and buoyant even
in this period of economic downturn. Knowledge
should be given a strategic importance by all firms
run on entrepreneurial scales.
It has been well acknowledged understanding that expanding the level of entrepreneurial
activity has increasingly been more important
for the economic well being of any country. In
the current scenario, there is a growing interest
that knowledge may prove to be the cutting edge
to the entrepreneurs who want to establish their
business in the period of downturn. Yet the realm
of knowledge is complex and its relevance to entrepreneurship is yet to be fully developed. In this
chapter an attempt has been made to draw on the
literature from knowledge, knowledge economy
and entrepreneurship and provide an understanding of how knowledge can be considered as the
most important resource for entrepreneurs. First
the concept of knowledge and entrepreneurship
would be reviewed separately and then it would
be integrated to come up with the concept of
knowledge entrepreneurship towards the growth
of the economy.
To remain competitive in todays market it
requires rapid response to changes in the market
based on sound business decisions. This is a challenge to entrepreneurs, who in this age need to take
the help of technology to remain competitive. The
main objective of this chapter is hence to highlight
the recent advances in our understanding of the
forces that underpin the creation of knowledge,
the knowledge economy and further development
of knowledge by the entrepreneur leading towards
growth of the overall economy.
Of Knowledge and
Knowledge Economy
32
If we consider the economic evolution over the

ages, we can find the civilization beginning with
the agriculture based economy. Gradually, it
moved up to the industrial age which brought
in great shift in the economy with the concepts
of mass production, global trading, franchising,
branding, customization and so on. With the onset
of internet, came the information age, where the
clients and customers had easy access to information and knowledge. So it was difficult for
any entity to remain isolated from competition.
Through evolution, the present age has been rightly
called the Knowledge Economy which is about
the organizations sustainable ability to utilize the
readily available resources to create value for the
organizations as well as for the society.
The rise in information accessibility and
technology during the last decade has helped
economies move from physical resources towards
resources which are knowledge based. But it is
not just IT which has helped economies move towards knowledge but also the organization which
has adapted more innovative approach towards
its gainful processes and through intellectual
sprawls. It is much about innovative approaches,
investment and excellence through learning and
knowledge sharing which has helped in the process
of globalization and leading to what we call the
Knowledge Economy. And so, the Knowledge
Economy is fundamentally different from the
preceding Industrial Economy or the Agrarian
Economy because its core value is related to
bytes, not bitsin the form of customized, applied information or more specifically custom
knowledge. With the dramatic increase of available
knowledge resources and with almost unlimited
capacity of databases (Rifkin, 2000), the critical
question has become: what should be selected and
what should be ignored which means majority of
the modern day organizations are operating in a

knowledge based economy gaining competitive
advantage over each other through knowledge
based resources available in common domain.
The Notion of Knowledge

The notion of knowledge has attracted numerous
definitions, discussions and attributes. At the outset, it needs to be clarified that though knowledge
and information may be used interchangeably
there is a marked distinction between the effects
that information and knowledge casts. While
information is relatively readily available, easily
codified, transmitted, and received, the custom
application of the information by the seeker can
be said to constitute knowledge. Knowledge is
therefore much more structured information that
needs greater efforts to codify, transmit and interpret because part of it is tacit (Polanyi, 1966). The
present economy is challenged by lack of custom
knowledge along with an overflow of information.
The process of selection and reflection is of vital
importance to organizations as this would generate
the differentiating factor between entrepreneurial
successes in Knowledge Economy. As Geiger and
Schreygg (2006) argue, that since this selection
will ultimately be inevitable, it is therefore better
to manage it in a reflexive manner based on arguments rather than by hidden mechanisms. Seen
this way, knowledge management would certainly
have to foster the emergence of information and
innovation, but would also ensure the quality of
the generated knowledge. From the overwhelming stream of information the knowledge should
then be structured and codified so as to make it
relevant or needed knowledge for the purpose of
innovation (Stehr,1994)
To sum up these theories, knowledge can be
said to be that resource which gathers information, churns them to find the best and the most
relevant and needed knowledge and through this
lead to innovation. [Information Knowledge
Innovation]
This brings us to the concept of innovation.

Innovation is the specific tool of entrepreneurs,
the means by which they exploit change as an
opportunity for different businesses or different
services. This definition of innovation by Drucker
(1985) sums up the importance of innovation to
entrepreneurship. The knowledge can therefore
be said to be the trigger for innovation which is
carried on by entrepreneurs.
Knowledge can be classified in different ways
according to its discourse or application so that we
may have social knowledge, scientific knowledge,
technical knowledge, entrepreneurial knowledge,
tacit knowledge and explicit knowledge. For the
purpose of our present study we shall concentrate
on entrepreneurial knowledge. Entrepreneurial
intention is formed through rational and analytical
thinking in social, political and economic contexts
and through instinct and holistic thinking based on
individual backgrounds, personalities and abilities
(Bird, 1988). The entrepreneurial knowledge is
a combination of all the inherent knowledge and
skills of the entrepreneur along with an enabling
environment whereby the entrepreneur is able to
seize the business opportunity. Before we delve
further into the relationship between knowledge
and entrepreneurship we must review in the next
section as to who is considered to be the entrepreneur.
How to Define an Entrepreneur?

Entrepreneurship is a complex exuberance and
entails a wide range of practices and parameters.
Some believe that entrepreneurship must involve
risk-taking individuals who start new ventures that
are innovative and experience rapid growth. Others
may only focus on the idea that entrepreneurship
is about starting new ventures. We begin with
the theory on entrepreneur given by Schumpeter
(1942), The fundamental impulse that sets and
keeps the capitalist engine in motion comes from
the new consumer goods, the new methods of production or transportation, the new markets.this
33
process incessantly revolutionizes the economic

structure from within, incessantly destroying
the old one, incessantly creating a new one. He
called this the creative destruction which is a
unique attribute of the entrepreneurs who effectively translate ideas and dreams into creation
of goods and services to society. Ever since the
work of Schumpeter(1934), entrepreneurship has
been regarded as a primary channel of economic
growth and creation of wealth. Schumpeter considered the entrepreneurs as the main vehicle to
move an economy forward from static equilibrium
and by inducing processes of creative destruction, challenging existing structures and changing economic equilibrium. While Schumpeter
called the entrepreneurs as creating economic
disequilibrium, Kirzner (1992) claimed that the
entrepreneurs created economic equilibrium by
using the resources and his abilities to create the
much needed equilibrium in the economy. Knight
(1921) proposed the role of the entrepreneur as
someone who had the ability to transform uncertainty into a calculable risk. Peter Drucker through
his various associations with entrepreneurs, calls
the entrepreneurs not as risk takers which is the
generally held belief, rather says that they are
better decision makers as they know which risks
to avoid and which risks to trade-off, and further
which risks to buy-in. Lazear (2005) defined the
entrepreneur as someone who specializes in taking judgmental decisions about the coordination
of scarce resources. In Shane and Venkataramans
seminal paper (2000, p. 218), entrepreneurship
is defined as: the nexus of two phenomena:
the presence of lucrative opportunities and the
presence of enterprising individuals. Shane
and Venkataraman suggest that it comprises the
analyses of how, by whom and with what effects
opportunities to produce future goods and services
are discovered, evaluated and exploited.
To take the dominant concepts forward from
the various definitions of entrepreneurship we can
say that they all revolve around the individuals
having the ability to identify and exploit oppor-
34
tunities, elicit the required information and use

the selected knowledge base to form their own
enterprise. Knowledge seems to be one critical
underlying determinant of the characteristics of the
entrepreneur. We can call the knowledge which is
most required by the entrepreneur to achieve his
objectives as the entrepreneurial knowledgeknowledge which is relevant to the functioning of
the market forces and the economy, with respect
to entrepreneurs enterprise. The information is
widely available in any given economy, but its
proper utilization depends on a large number of
macro-micro factors. Taking this institutional
aspect one step further, Acs et al. (2004) argue
that the exploitation of knowledge depends on the
broad spectrum of institutions, rules and regulations, or, in their terminology, on an economys
knowledge filter. The knowledge filter is the gap
between new knowledge and economic knowledge
or commercialized knowledge (Arrow, 1962). The
greater the knowledge filter, the more pronounced
is this creative gap between new knowledge and
new economy crystallizing into what is commercialized/ customized knowledge economy.
It can therefore be suggested that entrepreneurs
are catalysts building equilibrium in the economy
within the time-opportunity-creativity continuum
- building a perfect epitome of information and
knowledge that has eventually earned them distinction, and helped them in delivering the enablement
and creating the value for the total of society and
economy, and on occasions to state as well.
THE KNOWLEDGE PROCESSES

AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP
We shall enumerate upon the studies conducted by
selective author gallery on their views on entrepreneurship, and the characteristics of entrepreneurs
to understand better entrepreneurship relative
to knowledge. Hayek (1949) found that a key
feature of market economy is the partitioning of
knowledge among individuals. Knowledge plays
an important role across economic variables and

its agents. Hence knowledge constitutes one fundamental source of entrepreneurial opportunity. As
mentioned earlier there have been contributions
made by Schumpeter in the field of knowledge and
entrepreneurship but it can be inferred indirectly. It
was Schmitz (1989) who developed a model where
an increase in the proportion of entrepreneurship
leads to the growth of the economy. Shane and
Venkatraman (2000) presented the nexus between
opportunity and agency, whereby opportunities
are not singular phenomena, but are idiosyncratic
to the individual. This means that the individual
having unique attributes can take up the process
- these unique attributes can then build up the
knowledge in the given stream.
Since knowledge is the differentiating attribute
for entrepreneurs who through their knowledge
can create innovative products, ideas, processes
or the businesses itself, we can consider the Timmons Model (Timmons, Zacharakis and Spinelli
2004) of entrepreneurship here, according to which
an individual having certain characteristics can
muster the required resources and the opportunity to create a new venture. Timmons analyzed
more than 50 studies on the characteristics of
entrepreneurs and found a consensus around the
following general characteristics: commitment
and leadership, determination, opportunity obsession, tolerance of risk, ambiguity and uncertainty,
creativity and innovation, self reliance, ability to
adapt, and motivation to excel.
The innovation process and the new start ups
are all driven by the entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs
introduce new products and newer processes in
an economy. In the process, incumbent firms are
forced to innovate in order to withstand the pressure generated by new firms. As a result entrepreneurship has a rejuvenating effect on economies.
According to this model, the entrepreneur is the
locus for creation of wealth in any given society.
Over the years, over several years, it results in
the growth of the total of society and economy.
The Variables in the Growth Model

For the purpose of our deliberations, we consider
the Growth Model as given by the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) (Bosma and Levie,
2009). The GEM model (Figure 1) is an insightful
and comprehensive framework showing the relationship between innovation and entrepreneurship,
efficiency enhancers, basic requirements and how
these help in creation of new businesses. These
new businesses, once established, grow, have
more branches, more resources, create more
opportunities, more spiraling dependencies and
provide more returns which results in growth of
the economy.
Considering all other variables in the GEM
Model as given during a certain time period in an
economy, we can see that it would be the entrepreneur who is at the locus for bringing about the
change and introducing dynamics of growth
through his attitudes, activities and aspirations
given any economy. The motivating factors
within more factor-driven economies, where the
institutions, infrastructure, basic education and
health are the major concerns of the economy, are
the entrepreneurs basic necessity of survival and
where entrepreneur is aware of his aspirations
and limitations of the economy, and operates much
in local economy. The motivating factors within
more efficiency driven economies, where better
education and training, goods and labor market
efficiency, financial market sophistication, technological enablement, enabled export-import
regulations, single window clearance systems,
R&D transfer, government entrepreneurship
programs, commercial and legal infrastructure
and institutions are available, are entrepreneurs
advanced necessity to excel, and where entrepreneur is aware of greater facilitations and also
countering limitations. The challenge entrepreneur
lives is inclined more towards state machinery
and clauses governing economy and less towards
society and state as a whole. On contrast, the innovation driven economies are the best design
35
Figure 1. The revised GEM model (Source: Bosma and Levie, 2009)
and best configuration of the entire state, societal

and economic facilitations to administer, enforce
and enable entrepreneurial growth, and where
entrepreneurs [for example Google, Apple, MS
et al] live in a tradition of abundance and pride,
with the necessity to go beyond the horizon, beyond expectations, and the challenge they live is
equally inclined towards society, economy and
state.
Information Technology and

Collaboration Web 2.0 and
Google Perspective
The Knowledge Economy marks a profound shift
in mass appeal - mass returns whereby customers
become collaborators with their trusted partners
36
and with other customers to create experiencerich, money-rich engine. The entrepreneur in this
economy must be able to encompass the information that businesses create and apply, as well as
the wide spectrum of increasingly convergent and
linked technologies that process those experiences
and knowledge. Once again, to remain competitive in todays market it requires rapid response
to changes in the market based on sound business
decisions. This is the challenge to entrepreneurs.
Available information is often concealed, incomplete, inconsistent or out of date. When information is available, it is incessantly difficult to chart
and graph key performance indicators for trends,
or to drill down and understand what is behind
and ahead of those numbers. Finally, it is often a
dream to access all information related to ones
own domain or access the custom knowledge. The

new age technology, Web 2.0 technologies provide
solutions to these challenges to the entrepreneur.
The importance of information technology as a
competitive advantage has rightly been compared
to that of Porters competitive advantage by Kollmann, T. (2006). According to him, initially it was
important for the companies to either focus on
quality of the products or price to gain a quality
leadership or cost leadership among the competing
firms in the market. But in future, the source of
competitive advantage would be through having
information leadership in terms of better information, better processes to transfer the information
and better knowledge to use the information in the
most appropriate way. The growing relevance of
IT and the expansion of electronic data networks
have created a new commercial/ business dimension that can be called the network economy or the
Net Economy. Information transfer has become
faster with technologies such as the internet/
WWW, mobile telecommunications and interactive television (ITV). If we take the example
of Google, the new company in the Knowledge
Economy had been started independently, and is
an example of an innovative companyhow this
ultimately leads to value creation can be shown

through figure 2.
The term Web 2.0 is commonly associated
with web applications that facilitate interactive
contributions to the websites content, in contrast
to websites where users are limited to the passive
viewing of information that is provided to them.
Examples of Web 2.0 include web-based communities, hosted services, web applications, socialnetworking sites, video-sharing sites, wikis and
blogs.
Web 2.0 websites allow users to do more
than just retrieve information. They can build on
the interactive facilities of Web 1.0 to provide
Network as platform computing, allowing users to run software-applications entirely through
a browser. Users can own the data on a Web 2.0
site and exercise control over that data. The Web
2.0 era is all about services, not only software.
Using the web as a platform, Google is among
the leaders providing services using Web 2.0
core competencies like AJAX, controlling data
sources and online applications. Taking further the
example of Google, it can be seen how they have
now integrated collaborative web based technol-
Figure 2. Adapted from Kollmann, T. (2006)
37
ogy to foster innovation and ultimately growth.

Some of the services offered by Google are:
Google Maps [http://maps.google.com],
along with Gmail and Googles word processing,
spreadsheet and calendaring applications are great
examples of Rich Internet Applications, another
core competency of Web 2.0.
The Sidewiki [http://www.google.com/
sidewiki], another of its services can also share
entries through the users Google profile, Blogger,
Facebook, or Twitter.
The free Google Custom Search [http://www.
google.com/ cse], launched in October 2006, was
among the top two widgets on the web
The Subscribed Links service [http://www.
google.com/coop/subscribedlinks], again only
available to signed-in Google account holders,
may be one of the most useful of Googles custom search capabilities. The service appears to
be designed for high-volume data providers and
for websites whose contents change frequently.
With the introduction of iGoogle [http://www.
google.com/ig] in May 2005, the whole of the
Google experience can be personalized through
a portal-based webpage. There are a number
interactive applications and blocks of content
which can be added.
In late 2007, Google began testing a new product with a strong personal and social networking
context. Calling it knol, a word Google coined to
mean unit of knowledge, it [http://knol.google.
com/k] enables anyone with a Google account to
create a webpage on any topic (within the terms
of service). The chief differences between writing
and editing a Knol page and a Wikipedia one is
that Knol offers a better online editor and keeps
the author very much in charge of the content.
Knol began with what Google calls a moderated
collaboration
With the launch of Google Wave in 2009, it
can be the beginning of a convergence of several
Google service offerings into a single, unified
product and the cross fertilization of other Google
services with Wave technology. Various Google
Wave developer resources indicate that Develop38
ers can enhance their existing web applications

by embedding Google Wave directly in their application, allowing you to seamlessly integrate
communication and collaboration [http://code.
google.com/apis/wave/guide.html].
Ads by Google is found on any website
whereby revenue can be earned by enabling
Google to place contextually targeted ads on their
website. Google AdSense also enables companies
to advertise to large numbers of internet users using a basic AdWords campaign at an affordable
price. This is named as Long Tail effect.
Another core competency of a Web 2.0 company is the ability to harness the collective intelligence. One way Google does this is through its
pagerank search algorithms [http://en.wikipedia.
org/wiki/PageRank]. Google determines the true
value of a link on the web, through its link structure.
Its not just about a page being there and people
clicking on it, its about who links to this page
and how those sites are useful or related to people.
Their approach to pagerank has made Google the
top search engine on the web. Another way they
harness collective intelligence is through their
purchase of Blogger.com. Google owns one of
the largest free blogging sites on the internet and
its well known that blogs help increase a sites
pagerank dramatically.
Though Google had been founded as a business
founded on searching the web, it is transforming
itself into a real time collaborative web experience from any kind of platform. Through its many
products and services, Google as a brand is coming
to symbolize not just a search experience, but the
experience for anyone using the web through any
type of online device (Mattison, 2010).
Googles technological advantage comes
from its incremental innovations, information
collection from customers and collaborators,
research for the correct processes to be implemented and finally the value addition in terms of
the effectiveness of the search engine. Googles
technology has emerged from a series of continuous improvements and continuous outreach in the
lives of businesses and people.
Google as an example also subscribes to

the idea of cornucopia - the traditional symbol
of abundance, described by Hisrich and Peters
(2002). The value and growth begins with the
individual entrepreneur and his knowledge in the
base technology, the synthesis of the knowledge
and social needs, and then ends with products or
services available for mass consumption in the
marketplace with a ripple effect on regions, then
nations and eventually the world economy.
Measuring the Metrics in

Knowledge Economy
To integrate the concepts of Knowledge with
entrepreneurship we can show the relation as
given in figure 3.
While a number of studies have been conducted from the organizations point of view
showing the utilization of scarce resources by
these organizations to create a profitable output,
we shall consider the work of Penrose (1959),
who considered that internal factors that drive the
long-term growth of a firm are assumed to be
unutilized resources. Such resources through the
entrepreneurs knowledge can be changed to
utilized resources. This again brings us to the
concept of entrepreneurship as the characteristics
of an individual to create value for the society by
exploiting opportunities and utilizing the resources optimally.
Knowledge again seems to be the driver for
the several characteristics mentioned by Timmons,
Zacharakis and Spinelli (2004), especially to do

with opportunity and risk. The entrepreneur faces
tons of information social, economic, commercial and technical. He has to select the required,
relevant information to consider the opportunity
available to him. According to Knight, the entrepreneur has to deal with uncertainty and only
through his knowledge base, he is able to decide
upon which areas to take risks, which to avoid
and when to evade. With the availability of the
new technology, it is again up to the entrepreneur
to select the right means to reach his business
objective.
For the purpose of the present study, we shall
take up the Knowledge Economy Index (KEI) as
given by the World Bank to understand the correlation between KEI and ICT of UAE, the G7,
India and Singapore.
As mentioned in the KEI index there are
broadly four variables to measure it, namely education, the use of ICT, innovation and institutional
and economic regime.
The application of knowledge as manifested
in areas such as entrepreneurship and innovation,
research & development, software & design,
industry and banking and in peoples education
and skills levelsis now recognized to be one of
the key sources of growth in the global economy.
The KEI includes what is known as the four
pillars of the Knowledge Economy framework:

An economic and institutional regime to

provide incentives for the efficient use of
Figure 3. Process of Growth in Knowledge Economy
39
existing and new knowledge and the flourishing of entrepreneurship;

An educated and skilled population to create, share, and use knowledge well;
An efficient innovation system of firms,
research centers, universities, consultants
and other organizations to tap into the
growing stock of global knowledge, assimilate and adapt it to local needs, and create
new technology;
Information and communication technology to facilitate the effective creation, dissemination, and processing of
information.
It was designed by the World Bank for 146

countries to allow for a cross-country comparison
on these variables. The variables, both actual and
relative have been normalized on a scale of 0 to 10
relative to other countries in the comparison group.
As an example we can see in Table 1, the KEI
of UAE, the comparison group being all countries.
The examples have been taken as representing
a country according to the division of the economies by the GEM Model. Thus we have India as
a factor driven economy, UAE as an efficiency
driven economy and Singapore and G7 representing the innovation driven economies.
Table 1. KEI of UAE. Source: Knowledge Economy

Index, 2009, World Bank
United Arab Emirates
Group: All Countries
S.No.
Index
1.
Knowledge Economy Index

(Average of 3, 4, 5, 6)
6.73
2.
Knowledge Index
(Average of 4, 5, 6)
6.72
3.
Economic Incentive and

Institutional Regime
6.75
4.
Education
4.9
40
5.
Innovation
6.69
6.
ICT
8.59
Further, if we represent graphically (figure 4)

the relation between KEI and ICT, it shows how
the KEI is related to ICT and conversely how better
ICT can generate growth for the whole economy.
A comparative table showing the KEI of UAE
with G7 countries, Singapore and India has been
shown in Table 2, which highlights the challenges ahead for these countries to come to the
standards of those of developed countries in the
G7.
The entrepreneur can take the help of Web 2.0
resources such as weblogs, social networking
sites, podcasts, video and VoIP that are enabling
real-time, rich interaction among individuals
around the world at virtually no cost other than
time (assuming computer and access). The advantages to the business would be as follows.
1. It would help in collaborating and streamlining business processes between customers,
employees, and partners. The end result is
the availability of many new applications that
manipulate and deliver previously unavailable data and trends. No longer confined to
the desktop, these web-based applications
are available from any browser equipped
computer.
2. Enable secure and remote access from anywhere with an internet connection so that
there would be low software costs and little
to no set-up cost.
3. Would have the flexibility of dynamic user
interfaces and enhancing value. Google is
the premier example of this approach. Every
user who follows a Google search to a website refines the pagerank search process to
provide more accurate search results for the
next user. Amazon encourages customers to
write online reviews of its products. All these
companies have used the collaborative web
in making the users active participants which
adds value and credibility to the company
or researcher.
Figure 4. KEI and ICT Index comparison of 4 countries
Table 2. Comparative KEI of UAE with G7 countries, Singapore and India. Source: Knowledge Economy
Index, 2009, World Bank
KEI
Economic
Innovation
Education
ICT
Country
recent
1995
recent
1995
recent
1995
recent
1995
recent
1995
G7
8.72
9.12
8.15
8.82
9.19
9.3
8.75
9.13
8.8
9.22
Singapore
8.44
8.49
9.68
9.67
9.58
9.05
5.29
6.23
9.22
UAE
6.73
6.48
6.75
7.46
6.69
6.59
4.9
4.27
8.59
7.62
India
3.09
3.56
3.5
3.47
4.15
3.7
2.21
2.56
2.49
4.5
4. Social Networking sites like LinkedIn offer

services that allow users to build personal
profiles and create contact lists. Users can
then enter the names of people they wish to
contact and the software looks for relationship chains linking them to their targets.
This allows users to leverage the power
of personal relationships to meet potential
customers or partners.
5. Blogs allow business executives to create
direct channels of communication with
customers, employees and partners. Most of
the well known companies and their senior
managers have their own blogs.
6. Wikis support online communities and
teams, allowing all members to create, edit
and access information on topics of interest.
Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia, allows
content to be added or edited by any registered user.
Effective collaboration with customers, employees, and partners provides 360-degree visibility, allowing an organization to see what is
happening along the entire value chain. Customers
provide valuable information on their needs and
how well products and services meet End User
requirements. Employees and partners provide
information that supports improved business processes. Web 2.0 technologies support deeper collaboration, and thus better information gathering,
than ever before possible. Entrepreneurs succeed
better in this technology enabled environment.
Sustainable Development can be made by
countries that can be equated with entrepreneurial
entities by pursuing coherent strategic approaches
to building their countrys capabilities to create, access, and use intellectual and technological capital
as characterized by the Knowledge Economy. The
Challenge Lives for the Entrepreneur!
41
CONCLUSION
An intelligent entrepreneur equipped with relevant technological infrastructure, methodologies
and applications know-how will help himself in
identifying, assembling the right processes, and
the right people across the globe to overcome any
business challenge and set sail on the opportunities.
This chapter attempts to bring out conceptually
the relationship between information, knowledge,
technology, innovation, new ventures and how
all of these through the drive and insight of the
entrepreneurs bring about growth and creation of
wealth. The information sharing, interoperability,
user-centered design, and collaboration on the
world wide web are hallmarks of technology leverage. The exploration of these interdependent
variables of knowledge and entrepreneurship
in this chapter is expected to provide a better
understanding of the role of technology, information and knowledge in the knowledge economy
leading to competitive advantages attributable
to entrepreneurs and beneficial interests enjoyed
by its potential clients and society as a lasting
beneficiary. This is unequivocally supported by
the KEI parameters. The importance of knowledge to entrepreneurship and to the knowledge
economy is only an attempt to relate these and
various concepts to each other and accelerate the
beneficial results for the society, economy and state
as a whole. Multilateral efforts, governments at
all levels, legislation and industry platforms are
foundations to these entrepreneurial enterprises
and in the context of entrepreneurial Knowledge
Economy.
Limitations and Future

Research Directions
The burgeoning agenda among thinkers and
policy makers related to knowledge generation, its
funding, research and development and commercialization leading to the benefit of entrepreneurs
42
is confirmed by the fact to enact and establish

a number of legislations and institutions which
are in force and operating as of today, the world
around. While the subject is of living importance,
for the present study the scope excluded statistical research and analyses of secondary resources
between economies and economic variables and,
at times, may not endorse the strict assumptions
or representation of the published literature. The
discussion on the dependent or interdependent
variables of knowledge and entrepreneurship in
this chapter is expected to provide a better understanding of the role of knowledge in the knowledge
economy leading to comparative or competitive
advantages attributable to entrepreneurs. It does
seem to be a promising endeavor to further explore
the challenge through future research on each of the
variables. The future research should be based on,
governmental and multi lateral bodies statements,
industry forum statements, ministerial programs,
statistics, computing methods et al. It should be
based on larger audience and larger cross reference of the materials on the entrepreneurship and
technology, and illustrating how mutual benefits
[among entrepreneurs, industry, governments,
and society in general] could be translated into
policy and framework agreements for the well
being of all entities.
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ent2-10_TWwhitepaper.pdf
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Education: www.worldbank.org/kam
Section 2
Collaborative Applications in
Business
OVERVIEW
While it is nearly impossible to outline the complete usage and implications of the web in its current
form, given the degree of diversity and complexity of usage of web, it is very interesting to see completely new and uncharted territories of web based applications and their impact on business. As there
are and could be very many implications of business web, this section of the book tends to outline the
collaborative applications of the current form of web, which also provides a brief peek into the future
growth and directions of development of the next generation of web. The following set of seven chapters
is a distillate of experience of the authors, in their respective fields, which is as diverse as journalism to
bioinformatics to petro chemical industry.
The first chapter although set in the Indian context by Saayan Chattopadhyay on collaborative usage of web in journalism, provides a global perspective on the emergence of a collaborative web based
platform that embraces participatory, networked, hyper-mediated journalism. What Saayan argues is
that as social dynamics of journalism is changing, the newer aspects of web technology are actively
fostering collaborative journalism. Indeed, we are all aware of the usage of popular social sites like
Twitter being actively used by news networks and TV anchors to drive what is being often being called
citizen journalism.
The second chapter in this section, authored by Eva Sderstrm and Jesper Holgersson illustrates a
case study on E Services and on how new technological advancements and collaborative phenomena,
primarily virtual communities, can be used as a main source of eliciting end user requirements. The
authors analyze the data through a robust methodology which shows that end user requirements can be
effectively elicited using internet and web based tools as illustrated in this chapter.
The third chapter by Shailendra Singh and Amardeep Singh comes from a new emergent industry of
Bio- informatics as compared to the previous few. The chapter outlines the details of Bio- informatics
industry, usage of various web based tools that are typically used for this industry. The chapter illustrates
a case study to show case the usage of these tools in this industry. What makes this chapter interesting
is the fact that an industry so much dependent on constant research, is able to collaborate in research
using web based tools and also there is huge potential of utilizing the web based tools in this industry
across geographies and diversity.
The fourth chapter in this section by Nikhil Chaturvedi, provides a perspective of not only the petroleum and mining industry and potential of internet in this traditional industry, but also points out the
huge potential of collaboration of the supply chain across this industry. What Nikhil is able to point out
in this chapter, is that leading organizations in this industry like petroleum super-majors and large mining
companies have already started utilizing web for some near real-time and batch-mode interaction with
the external entities. Nikhil goes on to point out that the collaborative web has tremendous potential to
further enhance the operational efficiencies in this industry, even though the actual usage of web at this
stage is very nascent.
The next chapter by Z. Andreopoulou, T. Koutroumanidis and B. Manos comes from a completely
different background and geography. The authors have created an interesting scenario of adopting ecommerce in a rural background. Indeed, since the sector of rural production holds difficulties while
adopting e-commerce models, the authors aim of this chapter is to present a methodology aiming to
optimize the conceptual content model used in collaborative e-commerce websites promoting rural production. Interestingly, we editors found a striking similarity in the pattern of usage of internet usage in
the rural back ground in India. There has been a significant case of usage of the concept of e-commerce
in rural scenario as illustrated by the e-Choupal concept pioneered by company ITC. The case study
illustrated by Prof C K Prahalad points out in Fortune at the Base of the Pyramid: The e-Choupals,
information centers containing a computer linked to the Internet, represent an approach to seamlessly
connect subsistence farmers with large firms, current agricultural research, and global markets.
Sixth chapter in the bouquet of interesting chapters illustrating the usage of web in the diverse
business scenarios paints the picture of another country Turkey, of usage of online grocery system in
the city of Istanbul. In fact, this chapter by the authors Ronan de Kervenoael, Burcin Bozkaya, Mark
Palmer shows the typical issues and concern that arise in the implementation online grocery system. The
chapter illustrates the different patterns of resistance facing and deployed by online retailers, logistic
firms and urban planners, in the case of online grocery logistic within an emerging market metropolis
like Istanbul, and the role they play in supporting and preventing collaboration. Authors tend to prove
that online practices in retail business like grocery in the emerging large scale metropolis like Istanbul,
still have difficulty achieving the potential objectives, since the last mile digital revolution leading to
multi-actor integration and multi-product sourcing provision in supply chain management (SCM) will
take a significant amount of time to become a reality.
The last chapter in this series by Florian Birke, Maximilian Witt and Susanne Robra-Bissantz from
Germany, provides the next dimension of the web utilization, which is across companies and product and
service value chains in terms of increased innovation potential. This is a unique research by the authors,
where in they have deduced that utilization of gaming theories is a very powerful tool to increase collaboration and increase innovations in the online world of competitions. The authors argue that with online
sites like Wikipedia, it is increasingly plausible to explore one possible approach to transfer the positive
motivational effect of games to idea competitions. The authors have corroborated their thoughts with a
detailed studies of 18 cases and three interviews, that this study demonstrates the actual occurrence of
game mechanisms and their effect on the motivation of participants in online competitions and chances
of organization to utilize these results to achieve much greater success in their employee collaborations
and innovation results within and across the organizations with their end users and consumers.
The critical aspect of why we editors chose the above chapters in this section was an attempt to showcase, a very diverse emergent pattern of usage of web in different industries. What was clearly visible
is that firstly across all industries, practitioners and academicians are trying different ways to use web
to improve their business efficiencies through multi stakeholders collaboration. Although it is visible
that the benefits due to collaborative web are not commensurate in the brick mortar industries due to
last mile issues or depth penetration of internet in those industries, as compared to more information
based industries, there is still a large scale usage across all sectors. Additionally, the section illustrate that
there is a very positive pattern of usage of collaborative web in newer economies like Turkey, Greece
and India apart from developed nations like Sweden.
48
Chapter 4
Collaborative Journalism:
Networks, News Media and
the Public Sphere
Saayan Chattopadhyay
University of Calcutta, India
ABSTRACT
Journalists responsibility has an intrinsic relation with the economic and socio-political institutions
within which they work. To bring the notion of collaboration into the discussion of journalism and
news media organization irrespective of whether it is technological or social would thus broaden
its conventional intention of studying the social dynamics by which news is produced within key social
institutions, and ultimately to propose a method for correlating the changing facets due to collaborative
Web with established theories of the relationship between discourse, professional practices, and economic
endeavors. What this chapter argues is that collaboration does not hinge only between a professional
and an amateur, or trained reporters and common citizens, or perhaps more commonly, different kinds
of media; rather, it is a much greater transformation since it is a collaboration between society and
technology with its palpable economic implications. In this context, this chapter attempts to understand
the emergence of network entrepreneur and his/her engagement with the multiple discursive and
institutional networks. By referring to various mainstream and alternative news media organizations
in India and beyond, this chapter questions in what way news media and journalistic practices are
reconfiguring to accommodate a more collaborative platform that embraces participatory, networked,
hypermediated journalism.
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-60960-581-0.ch004
Collaborative Journalism
INTRODUCTION
In the past decade and a half, we have begun to
witness a radical change in the organization of
information production. Enabled by technological change, we are beginning to see a series of
economic, social, and cultural adaptations that
make possible a fundamental transformation of
how one constitutes the information environment
one occupies as autonomous individuals, citizens,
and members of cultural and social groups. A
string of changes in the technology, economic
organization, and social practices of production
within this environment has created emerging opportunities for how we produce, disseminate and
exchange information, knowledge, and culture.
The transformation brought about by the collaborative networked information environment
is deep-seated that brings fundamental structural
changes. It points to the very basis of how liberal
markets and liberal democracies have coevolved
for almost two centuries.
At present there are more than 60,000 titles
registered as newspapers in India; almost 9,000
of these are being published on a regular basis.
Besides, there are more than one hundred national
television channels and hundreds of local channels,
as well as large number of private radio stations
especially in the metros (Audit Bureau of Circulation, 2006). Parallel to this, within the ambit of
what is popularly known as new media there
is consistent development that presently rivals
the traditional media segments as well. Most of
the established media organizations have already
stepped in to the new media sector, with web
and mobile services. Websites like indiatimes.
com, manoramaonline.com, hindutantimes.com,
rediff.com, in.com, merinews.com, oneindia.in,
sulekha.com have created a niche for themselves.
Indian media have outperformed the overall
Indian economy; they are expected to be over
US$18.6 billion by 2010. Nonetheless, in keeping with the corporatization of journalism, web
journalism in India has essentially become an
extension of the already established news media

business, predominantly producing, among other
things, market-friendly soft stories and popular
syndicated content.
However, disagreements continue to unfold
regarding which website deserves to be acknowledged as news website, with different interested
parties each staking their respective claim. This
controversy stems primarily from disagreements
over how best to define what constitutes a news
site as distinct from other related types of sites.
Much of the early, experimental work was conducted by newspaper companies placing their
news reports online, thereby blurring some
might say remediating traditional categories.
Somewhat crudely, I suggest that Indian news
media sites can be categorized into four different
groups. The first group consists of the sites that
are primarily Web extensions of the existing print
media publication or news agencies: timesofindia.
com, manoramaonline.com, hindustantimes.com,
hinduonnet.com, indianexpress.com, tehelka.
com and ptinews.com. The second comprises
sites that are similar extensions of the recognized
news broadcast media: ibnlive.in.com, ndtv.com,
timesnow.tv, zeenews.com and aajtak.com. The
third is the purely online news sites, which, besides
Google and Yahoo! India news services, include
merinews.com, india-newsbehindnews.com, indiatogether.com and indianews.net. The fourth is
the news portals, which are relatively popular in
terms of traffic ranking: rediff.com, indiatimes.
com, sify.com, oneindia.in, 123india.com and so
on (Chattopadhyay, 2010, p. 293).
Within this perspective, in this chapter I examine a particular intersection of the emerging
collaborative practices within the domain of web
journalism and the more pervasive changes being perceptible in socio-economic sphere. These
changes have most visibly affected the journalistic practices or the production of news both by
individuals and by cooperative efforts in a wide
range of loosely or tightly woven collaborations.
However, the social significance of such col-
49
laborative engagement and its allied economic

consequence can never be overemphasized. In
this changing scenario, this chapter questions
the predominant world view that predictably and
rigidly disassociates the natural/social from the
technical; and the individual from the technology.
New media do not just provide a new voice; rather,
they provide the ability to fabricate new linkages of
institutions, individuals and machines. These new
linkages can be witnessed across the domain of
online journalism, in the open source community
and in a variety of other collaborative journalistic
practices as well. What this chapter seeks to argue
is that the notion of collaboration does not hinge
only between a professional and an amateur, or
trained reporters and common citizens, or perhaps
more commonly, different kinds of media rather
it is a much greater transformation since it is a
collaboration between society and technology
with its palpable economic implications. As the
networks become simultaneously real, like nature, narrated, like discourse, and collective, like
society (Latour, 1993, p.6); and the human beings emerge as Homo Sapiens Technologicus,
the collaboration entails far reaching implications
that not only questions the given categories of
modernity but also reconstitute them. Hence, it is
not only individualistic isolated communicative
nodes rather a complex negotiation of linkages
that engenders the hybridity of this medium and
calls for new practices, strategies and patterns.
COLLABORATION FOR A
NEW PUBLIC SPHERE?
Jrgen Habermas introduced the concept of the
public sphere as a sphere which mediates between
society and state, where the public organizes itself
as the bearer of public opinion, accords with the
principle of the public sphere which once had
to be fought for against the arcane policies of
monarchies and which since that time has made
possible the democratic control of state activities
50
(Habermas, 1989, p.136). It is first of all a realm

of our social life in which something approaching public opinion can be formed. Access is
guaranteed to all citizens. A portion of the public
sphere comes into being in every conversation
in which private individuals assemble to form a
public body (Ibid.). He also contended that this
bourgeois public sphere went into decline after
the consolidation of the bourgeois hegemony.
However, the scholar chiefly credited for introducing the public sphere notion into the media
debate was Nicholas Garnham. He suggested
that a market allocation of cultural resources,
combined with the destruction of public service
media, threatened public communication, which
he argued, lay at the heart of the democratic process (Garnham, 1986, p.37). Garnham pointed to
a string of negatives associated with this process
of commercialization, namely, a growing focus
on privatized domestic consumption built around
the television set, the creation of information
rich and information poor sectors and the
replacement of national cultural spheres with
an international media market (p.38). Certainly,
Habermas like Garnham and other cultural interventionists were deeply concerned at the growing
commercialization of the media; hence naturally,
at heart, the public sphere issue seems to be
about creating alternatives to one-dimensional,
narrowed, manipulated or closed communication.
It is important to note, the two crucial shifts
that mark the most advanced economies of the
world today. The first shift, is towards an economy
centered on information that includes financial services, accounting, software, science and
news and cultural, comprising of films, music
production and also news. The second move is
towards a communication environment built on
inexpensive processors with high computation
capabilities, interconnected in a pervasive networkthe phenomenon we associate with the
Internet. The collaborative environment, which
seems to be the center of new practices, strategies and patterns for news media organizations,
is only possible because of these shifts. And

echoing Benkler, I assume that it fundamentally
reshaped the notion of public sphere: from the
mass-mediated public sphere to a networked
public sphere (Benkler, 2006, p.10). Although,
whether it offers a platform for better democratic
participation; as a medium to foster a more critical
and self-reflective culture (Ibid., p.2) is a position
that I may find difficult to concur.
However what is more crucial for this study
is to identify the very ambivalent nature of this
collaborative environment. On one hand, the linkages of various communicative nodes are much
more perceptible in the domain of news media on
the web; on the other hand, these nodes remain
as individualistic and as discrete as possible. For
instance if we consider the citizen journalism
section in Indian news websites like ibnlive.in or
merinews.com the reports, photos and videos come
from locations which are generally known, if not
the hometown of that particular citizen reporter.
What he reports is something that he personally
finds interesting or amusing, which is directly opposite to the assignments that the professional
journalist are assigned to cover. It is his private,
personal involvement to something or some event
that if he finds the opportunity he attempts
to make public. Similarly, the controversy involving an Indian Minister of State and an active
Twitter user, who ran into trouble for a message
he posted on the social networking site in which
he commented sarcastically in response to a query
tweet from a journalist, points to this very aspect.
The ministers remark was meant as a humorous
private and personal reply, as he himself mentioned
later, but the underlying reason for the political
commotion ensuing from his tweet was the clear
and rigid distinction between the public and the
private, that the ministers comment somewhat
deviated. What I wish to suggest is that although
the technology is increasingly adapting to the
collaborative, participatory environment but the
collaboration between the public and the private
remains distant. Such collaboration would entail
a breakdown of these distinctions and perhaps

while attempting to create a new public sphere we
might have ended up creating a new private sphere.
JOURNALISM 2.0: NEW PRACTICES,

STRATEGIES AND PATTERNS
Irrespective of whether it is a new public sphere
or a private sphere, the notion of collaboration
undeniably remains at the heart of the debate
regarding the possibilities of new technologies,
particularly the web, to facilitate new forms of
participation in economic and public life, to reform
political debate and citizenship and to rekindle
the institutions of democracy. Although, since
the inception of the internet the utopian visions
of the internet was instrumental in this sense of
optimism centered on participation and politics.
But it has been reinvigorated recently through the
discussion around, what is popularly being termed
as Web 2.0. In this post-broadcast, digital collaborative media era, the notions of journalism and
journalists are also transformed - defined by new
alignments of productive and distributive power
and media consumption and use; hence, necessitating, perhaps too admiringly, an expression:
Journalism 2.0. The term obviously connotes a
sense of up gradation from the older practices
and concepts. Then what are the transformations
brought about through this new-fangled practices
of journalism?
Certainly there are some structural changes,
which have affected the patterns of the news media
organizations in the twenty-first century. To what
the extent print/broadcast and web journalism
should be integrated continued to be at the center
of industry discussions all through the late 1990s
and into the new millennium. The rising influence
of the web on national news reporting and the
continuing pressure online technologies brought
to bear on newsroom operations compelled more
newspapers to mull over how to best integrate
their print newspaper and online news services
51
(Compton, 2010; Allan, 2006; Noack, 1998,).

Here it is imperative to recollect how in the last
few years almost all the established print and
broadcast news media organizations in India have
integrated new web based content and services
ranging from microblogging, citizen reporting
sections and the option of commenting on the
reported stories by readers in their sites. Indeed,
it was becoming increasingly evident that the
success of the typically smaller online operations
was necessarily dependent on tapping the talents
and newsgathering resources of the vastly larger
print newsroom (Paul, 2000). Perhaps that is why,
even small and mid segment local newspapers in
India, like Aajkaal or Sangbad Pratidin in Bengali language also have their own websites; and
which is usually available in vernacular languages.
However, in developed countries, after some
experimenting, newspapers that had established
stand-alone new media divisions began reversing
course and looking to integrate their online section with the mainstream, offline news section. In
2008, Gannett Co., a leading international news
and information company that publishes 85 daily
newspapers in the USA, including USA Today,
acquired Ripple6, Inc., a leading provider of social
media services and went through a restructuring
of its business and subsequently in 2009 Gannetts online network, ended up with more than
100 digital communities and a combined reach of
approximately 25 million people that amounted
to ten percent of its revenues (Connell, 2008).
There exist a considerable number of approaches to the study of the necessity for collaboration
between the online and offline news media. In
their research on managing emerging technologies,
Day and Schoemaker (2000) found that one of the
fundamental mistakes that companies make when
establishing an innovative venture, like launching a news site, is to ignore the connections and
possible collaboration between it and the existing
parent operation. Clark (2001) and Zollman (2000)
asserted that integration or collaboration offers
synergies that facilitate marketing and financial
52
advantages other than assisting in improved

journalistic practices. However, such collaboration entails, as I have earlier mentioned, certain
structural changes; but what are the stages through
which these structural changes are initiated in the
news media organizations? Drawing upon Everett
M. Rogers influential scholarship on diffusion of
innovations, Lawson-Borders applied it to study
media organizations and new technology, while
developing the following trajectory: the first stage,
known as the agenda-setting points to the early
period, when media companies recognized the
implications of the Internet and the growth of the
personal computer; the second stage, designated
as matching refers to the consequent formation of online divisions to exploit the potential
of the world wide communication network; the
third stage, redefining/restructuring refers
to the infamous dot.com bust in early 2000,
when web media organizations retrenched and
economized online resources; and the fourth stage,
clarifying, points to the growing importance of
convergence, as journalists start being familiar
with delivering news through multiple new media
technologies. In the fifth stage, known as routinizing, which is particularly pertinent for this
study, the innovation becomes an ongoing part
of the organizations activities. Finally, the fifth
stage is still unfolding for media organizations
as they deliberate over strategies and best practices to propel the organizations into the future
(Lawson-Borders, 2003, p.93).
What kinds of emerging strategies and practices
are we witnessing? The notion of journalism 2.0
sees the Internet as allowing enthusiastic communities and individuals to come together and
provide more value for a given news and information site. Here I hasten to remind that the initial
reports of 26/11 Mumbai terrorist attack first came
through social networking sites and blogs. Mere
moments after the first shots were fired, Twitter
users in India and particularly in Mumbai were
delivering almost instant eyewitness accounts of
the situation. Furthermore, it is suspected that at
the height of the Mumbai terrorist attacks, the

Indian government attempted to shutdown the
Twitter stream people were using to disseminate
news and information, amid fears that it could be
used by the terrorists to help them evade capture
(Beaumont, 2008). I am not, of course, suggesting
that Twitter, Facebook Myspace and other social
media are in a position to replace the mainstream
news media yet; however, there can be little doubt
that they offer a potent collaborative communication platform that is emerging even in a developing
nation like India.
An analogous emerging practice is crowdsourcing that effectively demonstrates how
a large group of unpaid, non-professional but
committed individuals can outperform a small
group of experienced and paid professionals.
Crowdsourcing is a relatively new term, coined
by Jeff Howe in a 2006 article for Wired News. It
is quite similar to distributed, collaborative or
open-source reporting and many scholars and
professionals use the terms interchangeably. It is
often referred as pro-am journalism a portmanteau of professional and amateur. The focus
of crowdsourcing is usually ongoing production of
information while distributed reporting or opensource reporting relates more closely to a specific
and fixed-time project, such as responding to a
specific query or reporting on a specific subject.
The online version of Encyclopedia Britannica,
for example, cannot keep up with Wikipedia in
terms of updating articles and information. And
Microsoft, with all its resources, has struggled to
keep pace with the development of the Firefox
browser, a project powered by volunteers collaborating together under the nonprofit Mozilla
Foundation (Briggs, 2007, p.47). Rediff.com,
like Yahoo Answers includes a specific link
ask users with every news story, where the
reader can ask any question related to the article
or otherwise to other users of the site who may
provide the answer. And not to mention, most of
the websites of established Indian news media
organizations include citizen report sections that

in effect depends on crowdsourcing.
The practice of news reporting has adapted and
changed significantly to make use of the possibilities of the new media environment. For instance,
the notion of micro-reporting, sometimes also
referred as hyper-local reporting takes into
consideration events and developments normally
neglected by mainstream media. Hence, the news
and information pertaining to small towns and
remote locales, which hitherto did not receive
adequate coverage, are being reported on a regular
basis. Likewise, the notion of distributed reporting
is a form of transparency for a news organization.
Traditionally, readers learn about stories a news
organization is working on only when the articles
are finished and published. While it is customary
to keep a story idea secret to prevent the competition from running with the idea, the distributed
reporting model requires a news organization to
go public with a story idea early in the reporting
process. The reason? To allow readers to assist in
the reporting of the story (Briggs, 2007, p.48).
In addition, the nature of the news story has
changed considerably beyond the push-pull
concern of the early online reporting. Instead of
being a singular article, the news story, nowadays, has become a thread that involves multiple
authors often yielding multiple related articles.
The readers are actively involved even before the
publication of a particular news report, as they
ask questions, write comments and supplement
information through the interactive, participatory
web media. Besides, the readers also collaborate
in the promotion and dissemination of the news
report through the concept of peer-recommended
news as certain services like emailing the news,
RSS feeds or social bookmarking are becoming
ubiquitous. Hence, collaborative media do not
just provide a new voice; rather, they provide the
collaborative potential to fabricate new linkages
of institutions, individuals and machines.
Such transformations have also ushered in
new patterns of production, which Yochai Ben-
53
kler (2006) identifies as nonmarket production.

There is a large number of individuals often
comprising of artists, scientists, politicians, businessmen, and professionals belonging to various
sectors who contribute to Wikipedia, citizen
journalism sites, blogs, social bookmarking sites
or post comments in news-sites who are collectively producing works of clear economic value
but are, for the most part, not participating in an
economic market as such. As Benkler (2006, p.3)
notes, these new patterns of productionnonmarket and radically decentralized will emerge,
if permitted, at the core, rather than the periphery
of the most advanced economies. It promises to
enable social production and exchange to play a
much larger role, alongside property- and marketbased production, than they ever have in modern
democracies.
ACTOR-NETWORK THEORY:
SOCIETY, TECHNOLOGY
AND JOURNALISM
What this collaboration has in stake for society?
It is clear that these changes may seem minute,
isolated and perhaps trivial but if one looks at the
macro level then it may unravel certain notions
that go beyond media and journalism and affects
how society itself is constituted.
To this end we can constructively draw insight
from the body of sociological work known as
STS (science, technology, and society), or, more
specifically, actor-network theory (ANT). One
of the basic insights of sociologists such as Bruno
Latour, Michel Callon, and John Law, is that what
we understand as the social consists of much
more than purely human actors. Humans are thus
intricately networked with machines, software,
texts, objects, databases and so on. What we
call the social is materially heterogeneous: talk,
bodies, texts, machines, architectures, all of these
and many more are implicated in and perform the
social (Law, 1994, p.2).
54
To put it more simply, actor-network theory

as explained by Bruno Latour (1992) attempts to
analyze a series of negotiations, which explains
the progressive constitution of a network in
which both human and non-human actors take
on identities according to established strategies
of interaction. Actors identities and qualities are
defined during negotiations between representatives of human and non-human actants. What
they term an actant can be anything endowed
with the ability to act, including people and material objects. Actors and actants, both terms are,
however, occasionally used interchangeably and
actor and network are mutually constitutive.
An actor can not act without a network and a
network always consists of actors.
Journalism, especially in the new media environment, as a network of actors can therefore
be extended to include a whole series of objects,
artifacts, and technologies. This development can
be seen as a hybrid collectivity of human and nonhuman components, and thus we can sidestep the
mistake of understanding it as constituted purely
by one or the other. This, I suggest, permits us
to realize the complexity of web journalism as it
visibly collapses the rigid categorizations that are
pivotal in the understanding of modern journalism. The list of different technologies and objects
one may incorporate in this actor-network of web
journalism is potentially endless. However, certain
artifacts and technologies like the digital imaging
devices, internet, mobile phones are of particular
importance, but what must be recognized as
actor-network theorists argue is their agency
or active status.
In attempting to move away from static properties and the purity of divides and distinctions,
Latour (1993) argues that the agency of technologies and artifacts does not lie in the essence,
in the nature, of an object, but is an effect, an
outcome of a set or series of relations. This notion of relational agency means that the internet,
digital cameras, or digital communication devices
are only an agent inasmuch as series of associa-
tions are made and subsequently held together.

This active status of these new media devices is
an effect of these relations and associations. As
Bruno Latour (2005, p.247) remarks,
The question of the social emerges when the ties
in which one is entangled begin to unravel; the
social is further detected through the surprising
movements from one association to the next; those
movements can either be suspended or resumed;
when they are prematurely suspended, the social
as normally construed is bound together with
already accepted participants called social actors who are members of a society; when the
movement toward collection is resumed, it traces
the social as associations through many non-social
entities which might become participants later;
if pursued systematically, this tracking may end
up in a shared definition of a common world,
what I have called a collective; but if there are no
procedures to render it common, it may fail to be
assembled; and, lastly, sociology is best defined
as the discipline where participants explicitly
engage in the reassembling of the collective.
Hence, consistent with a world view that habitually and steadfastly separates the natural from
the mechanical and the actor from the action, naturally journalists and those who study journalism
routinely separate news and newsmakers, reporters
and audience, press and politics. Nevertheless,
as I have earlier stated, these categorizations are
starting to disintegrate in practice. As new media
technologies increasingly occupy the ambit of
journalism, they necessitate a new trajectory of
theorization, like actor-network theory with which
to comprehend the production and circulation of
public discourse and for the role of what Latour
and others might call socio-technical hybrids in
the process. Web journalism in turn offers actornetwork theory not only a new site at which to
observe the close readings of social life, but a new
professional domain in which to develop the implications of its studies of science and technology
for the study of media, discourse and governance.

Like scientists, journalists have long collaborated in the production of social order. And like
scientists, they have done their work in relation to
economic and political institutions that their work
in turn has helped shape (Turner, 2005, p.322).
NETWORK ENTREPRENEUR
AND COLLABORATIVE
JOURNALISM IN INDIA
This collaboration of multiple discursive and
institutional networks also entails an entrepreneurial aspect. Over the last decade, news media
and journalistic practices are reconfiguring to
accommodate a more collaborative platform that
embraces participatory, networked, hypermediated journalism. While, the traditional newsroom
is going through an organizational restructuring,
as I have mentioned earlier, the conventional
news organization and its business interests are
gradually shifting towards this presumably more
prospective segment.
It is noteworthy to mention here, one such
collaborative news media initiative in India
NewsRack.in. Developed by Subramanya Sastry,
a web developer, the site lets users specify certain
filtering rules which are used to select relevant
articles from incoming news feeds. The selected
articles are then classified into various categories.
The users create their own profile on NewsRack
and save news stories under different categories.
They also have an option to browse public news
archives prepared by other users. To a certain
extent, NewsRack has an advantage over the news
aggregator of Google or Yahoo. Although it is
simple to search for general news on the Google,
but when it comes to subject-specific news items it
is not all that competent. Google displays a handful of categories in which all news is classified;
whereas, in NewsRack the categories are defined
by users so, there is no limit on the number of
categorization for any news item.
55
The scheme of NewsRack complicates the

traditional understanding of journalism and news.
In journalism and much of journalism studies, actors generally come in three categories: sources,
journalists and reader/viewer; albeit all of them are
human but the members of any one group might
at times be members of the others; however, they
are treated as analytically divergent. Each one acts
as a link in a chain sources disclose information, journalists collect and package it as news,
and readers receive and consume it. Information
itself moves through a series of representations
although reasonably unaffected. This framework
in turn endorses what Michael Schudson (2003)
has called the information-based model of citizenship, in which citizens are supposed to act
rationally at the voting booth on the basis of the
news and information journalists have delivered
to them.
NewsRack, and its founder Subramanya
Sastry along with other volunteer-contributors,
in contrast serve as news gatherer, news source,
and audience member all at once. Their engagement confuses the analytical categories on which
traditional journalism studies have long depended.
However, considered along the framework of
actor-network theory, Sastry and all the others
who contribute in the filtering and archiving of
the news in various categories and of course
his web sitecan be seen to represent and form
a part of an actor-network. These actors and
actants do not merely deliver news through the
web site; on the contrary, they and the network in
which they collaborate translate it into something
new. Collectively they constitute a hybrid, an
actor-network of news which, as Latour (1993,
p.6) claimed of all networks, simultaneously real,
like nature, narrated, like discourse, and collective, like society.
In this perspective we may consider Subramanya Sastry, as what Ronald Burt would term a
network entrepreneur and his site emerges as a
form of actor-network. Being a network entrepreneur, Subramanya Sastry negotiates between mul-
56
tiple discursive and institutional networks and his

website translates a range of news stories produced
within that network and put into further circulation. In that way, Subramanya Sastry assembles
NewsRack not as something like a newspaper or
television news channel that is, an independent
account of events and information rather, more
like a sphere for public discussion. This discussion, nonetheless, predominantly permits network
members, who may or may not be a representatives of the press but they collectively classify,
organize, filter and disseminate news which are
coming from established news media; hence together it can be seen to construct new linkages of
institutions, economy, individuals and technology.
A more institutionalized form of such effort is
the first Indian website wholly devoted to citizen
journalism, merinews.com. Founded by Vipul
Kant Upadhyay, merinews.com clearly states,
People to People (P2P) interaction is of paramount importance and rather inevitable. Emanating from the need to empower democracy by
providing a media to the people of the country to
communicate with one and all, www.merinews.
com is an effort to provide one such platform to
interact and express. It is a news platform for collective wisdom, Of The People, By The People,
For The People.
Merinews.com, like the celebrated South Korean citizen journalism site, ohmynews.com, is
based on the concept of participatory, collaborative
journalism which transcend beyond the limitations of conventional media and allows citizens
of the country to report, read, write, comment
and debate news, views - happenings they find
significant (Merinews, 2010). The site does not
simply offer new conduits for the dissemination
of news; rather these networks and their human
collaborators, collaborate in the creation of new
socio-technical formations. New media do not just
offer professionals like Vipul Kant Upadhyay and
Subramanya Sastry a new medium; rather, they
offer them the ability to foster new networks that

can be witnessed across the world of web journalism, open source reporting, crowdsourcing, and
in a variety of other journalistic practices and
emerging technologies.
A similar effort is idishoom.com, which is the
only media movement of its kind in India that is
essentially run by voluntary citizen editors and
reporters, who as responsible and concerned
citizens have created idishoom as a platform to
raise a collective voice against social inequities
and injustice. Over the last three years idishoom.
com has been receiving considerable popularity
especially among the urban youth of India and
now claims to have over two million subscribers.
Another, such collaborative initiative, Instablogs
is a news ecosystem bringing bloggers, citizen
journalists and traditional media together. Founded
in 2005 by Ankit and Nandini Maheshwari,
originally, the plan was to launch a global-local
network of fifty news-based blogs but presently it
features a diverse community of news reporters,
business owners, college students, housewives,
artists, parents, and more in different countries
and regions (Instablogs, 2010).
Considered in this way, several Facebook or
Ning communities or other social media groups
can be conceived as similar but informal instances
of collaborative journalism that not only stand
to address the political world but also points
to emerging entrepreneurial aspects. Notwithstanding the fact that nonmerket production
dominates collaborative peer-production project
till date but we merely need to recognize that the
material conditions of production in the networked
information economy have transformed in ways
that enhance the relative significance of social
sharing and exchange as a modality of economic
production (Benkler, 2005, p.92).
CONCLUSION
This chapter is an attempt to investigate the nature
of the claims that speak of the ways in which the
users of online news are reconstituting the paradigms which have traditionally governed journalism and journalists. What counts as journalism
in the networked, open-source society is open
to negotiation, with fluidly changing points of
convergence and divergence between its practice
in the mainstream and in the margins. If a modern
understanding of journalism assumes a distinct
division between individuals, institutions and
technology and their respective forms of agency,
the collaborative journalistic practices on the web
allow to recognize the socio-technical hybrids
that are becoming increasingly widespread in
journalism within a networked new media environment. In the process, collaborative journalism
not only blurs traditional categories of analysis,
but raises a series of critical social questions about
the relationship between economy, society and
journalism, to the extent it is possible to discern
that notions of authority and credibility are
in flux, with certain longstanding reportorial
principles seeming tired, if not anachronistic,
since in the last few years, numerous journalists
have appeared on the web whose collaborative
work straddles the line between professional and
non-professional journalism and whose positions
bridge multiple institutions.
However, there is also no reason to believe
that industrialized and institutionalized communication will be entirely superseded by new
communication technologies. Perhaps, a more
probable situation is that the Internet will itself
become another site for institutionalized communication. Although websites in India no longer
rely on NRI (Non-resident Indian) traffic and a
large number of news-sites are now substantial
profit-making ventures but still there are several
issues that the emerging collaborative culture
has to confront. The journalists and news-mediacollaborators in India need to tackle not only the
57
increasing institutionalization of the collaborative

space and practices under the influence of global
capital, but they also need to mull over the more
elementary problems, like the paucity of online
information in native languages, shady political
intervention, and not to mention, infrastructural
inadequacy in rural areas. It can not be denied
that predominantly, information-rich elite has
access to enormous quantities of information as
well as to the capability of actively sharing ideas
and information on the Internet. The information poor, on the other hand, remain passive
and dependent and tend to draw on only from the
hegemonic mainstream communication system,
namely, the (mass) products of the culture industry
(Louw, 2001, p.66). They remain either virtually
excluded from the global communication system,
as is the case with most rural Indians or only have
access as passive recipients to mass-produced
messages in the form of free-to-air, state owned
television or radio channels like Doordarshan and
All India Radio.
Nonetheless, much can be gained from considering the relative strengths and limitations of
collaborative journalism especially its implication
in the emergence of new socio-economic formation. Do the new collaborative media technologies
necessarily create new spaces for communicative
dialogue or debate? If it does then what is the
nature of those spaces; for instance, is the notion
of a new private sphere a more feasible proposition than a new public sphere? What possibilities
can be discerned for opposing the established
discourses of global network capitalism with
nonmarket production? In what way, journalism
and news media is constituted as a socio-technical
network and how should we interpret the modality of these networks and traditional institutions?
Presumably, the struggle between the forces for
discursive closure and emerging autonomy and
open-endedness will remain an attribute of human existence amid emerging technology for the
imminent future; but how these struggles of the
future, play themselves out remains to be seen.
58
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ADDITIONAL READING
Bruns, A. (2005). Gatewatching: Collaborative
online news production. New York: P. Lang.
Fenton, N. (2001). New Media, old news: Journalism and democracy in the digital age. Thousand
Oaks, CA: Sage.
59
Greenspan, A. (2004). India and the IT Revolution:

Networks of global culture. London: Macmillan.
doi:10.1057/9780230510371
Habermas, J. (1989). The structural transformation of the public sphere: An inquiry into a category
of bourgeois society. Cambridge, Massachusetts:
MIT Press.
Jenkins, H. (2006). Convergence culture. London:
New York University Press.
McLuhan, M. (1995). Understanding media. London: Routledge. (Original work published 1964)
Poster, M. (2006). Information Please: Culture and
politics in the age of digital machines. London:
Duke University Press.
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Theory, Creative Labour, New Institutions. Rotterdam: NAI.
Shirky, C. (2008). Here comes everybody: The
power of organizing without organizations. London: Penguin.
Staiger, J., & Sabine, H. (2009). Convergence,
media, history. New York: Routledge.
Tapscott, D., & Williams, A. D. (2006). Wikinomics: How mass collaboration changes everything.
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Terranova, T. (2004). Network Culture: Politics
for the Information Age. London: Pluto Press.

Actor-Network Theory (ANT): Actor-Network theorys methodology involves scientific
60
realism, social constructivism, and discourse

analysis in its central concept of hybrids that are
simultaneously real, social, and discursive. Developed as an analysis of scientific and technological
artifacts, ANTs theoretical distinctiveness derives
from its refusal to reduce explanations to either
natural, social, or discursive categories while
recognizing the significance of each. The modern
constitution or world view uses one dimensional
language operating in the framework of opposite poles of nature and culture. Knowledge and
artifacts are explained either by society (social
constructionisms) or by nature (realism). In order
to transcend this dualism a second dimension is
needed. Through Actor-Network theory, it is possible to understand the simultaneous construction
of culture, society and nature.
Citizen Journalism: Citizen Journalism refers
to the practice of reporting news events by members of the public without professional training
in journalism or affiliation to established news
media. That information can take many forms,
from blogs, contribution in citizen journalism
sections of news media to podcast or webcast. It
can include text, pictures, audio and video.
Public Sphere: The public sphere is the arena
within which debate occurs; it is the generation
of ideas, shared knowledge and the construction
of opinion that occurs when people assemble and
discuss. According to Habermas, it is a network for
communicating information and points of view.
The public sphere is where ideas and information
are shared. Media theorists have used Habermas
public sphere to explain the importance of communication for the processes of democracy. For
Habermas, the public sphere was most constructive when not influenced by commercial interests
or state control.
61
Chapter 5
Using Virtual Communities

to Involve Users in
E-Service Development:
A Case Study
Eva Sderstrm
University of Skvde, Sweden
Jesper Holgersson
University of Skvde, Sweden
ABSTRACT
Thriving in the Internet era requires both Internet presence and careful development of the e-services
provided using this technology. However, one major problem is how to involve the end users of the eservice(s), something which is necessary if the e-services are to be useful and sustainable. This chapter
presents a case study on the e-service development process using a major player in the travel industry
as the case. The main focus is on how new technological advancements and phenomena, primarily
virtual communities, can be used as a main source of end user requirements. Virtual communities are
both of strategic and practical relevance and even cause a need to redefine the term user participation. E-services constitute a major trend for private as well as public organizations and should address
Internet technology advancements when being developed.
INTRODUCTION
The Internet enables companies to interact
with customers as never before, learning ways
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-60960-581-0.ch005
to improve service, develop new products and

fine-tune marketing strategies (Hofacker, Goldsmith, Bridges, & Swilley, 2007). An e-service
is an artifact for electronic delivery of services
and is one major trend in recent technological
Using Virtual Communities to Involve Users in E-Service Development
developments. For example, it is used to boost

e-government adoption, externally to citizens
and businesses as well as internally for increased
efficiency of work processes. In the private
sector, the focus thus far has been on the more
technical aspect usually termed web services,
which are software applications, or one technical
implementation of an e-service. However, the
concept e-service is much more than simply
technology. It encompasses the entire chain from
developer to user. Until recently, development of
e-services has been developer-driven and focused
on automating manual processes within organisations (Asgarkhani, 2005). There has been little
or no consideration to the users of the e-service
(Andersen & Medaglia, 2008; Anthopoulos,
Siozos, & Tsoukalas, 2007; Melin, Axelsson, &
Lundsten, 2008). At best, user needs are guessed
instead of thoroughly analyzed by the developing party (Jupp, 2003). The development of these
services poses somewhat different challenges and
perspectives compared to traditional information
systems development, as will be demonstrated
later in the chapter. It is therefore highly important
to investigate and analyse the conditions under
which e-services are being developed, as well as
how users can actively contribute to this process.
Internet technology has become a rising star for
eliciting or gathering input into the e-service
development process, where input primarily refers to user preferences, desires, complaints and
requirements. The new developments and innovative uses the Internet has brought is an unexplored
source of valuable information as far as e-service
development is concerned. Our primary focus is
the role of virtual communities in this scenario,
and we will demonstrate the usefulness of said
communities using a real-life industry case.
In order to set the stage, background information on e-services and user participation in
e-services development will first be discussed.
The latter includes four identified problem areas
in the said development. The primary internet
technology of interest, Virtual Communities, will
62
be explained next, before the case study itself is

introduced with its associated research methodology. The case ends with a section on solutions and
recommendations, before the chapter concludes
with future work and conclusions.
BACKGROUND
E-services are used in many different settings and
there is no commonly agreed definition (Rowley,
2006) but there are some general characteristics
applicable for most e-services. Firstly, e-services
are based on electronic interactions between a
service provider and a service consumer (Javalgi,
Martin, & Todd, 2004; Liao, Chen, & Yen, 2007;
Rowley, 2006). Secondly, e-services are intangible, inseparable and heterogeneous (Edvardsson
& Larsson, 2004; Javalgi et al., 2004; Johannesson,
Andersson, Bergholtz, & Weigand, 2008; Jrvinen
& Lehtinen, 2004). The creation of some kind of
value is also stressed by many authors (Edvardsson
& Larsson, 2004; Hultgren, 2007; Preist, 2004)
meaning that the e-service interaction must generate a positive outcome, either for the producer or
for the consumer or most preferable, for both. In
this paper we have chosen to view e-services as
artefacts for the delivery of services electronically,
i.e. e-services are viewed as applications making
it possible to offer and use services via electronic
communication channels, such as the Internet.
We distinguish between two basic types of
e-services; commercial ones and public ones.
The outmost important difference between these
is that public e-services (often described as egovernment services) are not based on the users
ability or desire to pay (Henriksen, 2004). Public
administrations do not seek profit but instead
they are striving for cost reductions by increased
internal efficiency and more efficient communication with citizens (K Axelsson & Melin, 2007;
Charalabidis, Askounis, Gionis, Lampathaki, &
Metaxiotis, 2006). Furthermore, public e-services
must be targeted towards a wide spectra of users
considering several aspects, such as different

disabilities, geographical limitations, language
issues etc. (Henriksen, 2004; van Velsen, van der
Geest, ter Hedde, & Derks, 2009) whereas commercial e-services may be targeted in any direction. Additionally, e-government services must
consider or are affected by, laws and regulations
to a much greater extent than commercial ones
(Hung, Chang, & Yu, 2006; Teicher, Hughes, &
Dow, 2002). Many public e-services are unique,
and are in many cases rarely used by citizens, for
example, an e-service for applying for a drivers
license (van Velsen et al., 2009). This means that
the citizen must adapt to new e-services processes,
which in turn requires that they are given support
in how to use the service. This situation is different
for private e-services, which often are similar and
more frequently used. This means that the private
e-service user generally finds it significantly easier
to handle these types of e-services (van Velsen et
al., 2009).
User Participation in
E-Service Development
User participation is a concept used in many different settings and most often, user participation
refers to the involvement of end users in the development process of an information system (Cavaye,
1995). User participation in the development
process may come in many forms. Nevertheless,
the same general benefits from user participation
will be accomplished, e.g. better information
quality resulting in more consistent and accurate
requirements and more realistic expectations
on the upcoming system from the users point
of view (Bjerknes & Bratteteig, 1995; Cavaye,
1995; Kensing & Blomberg, 1998; Matthing,
Kristensson, Gustavsson, & Parasuraman, 2006;
van Velsen et al., 2009).
Development of e-services has traditionally
been focusing on automating manual processes
within organizations (Asgarkhani, 2005). Attention to the end user, i.e. the consumer, has in many
cases been neglected (Andersen & Medaglia, 2008;

Anthopoulos et al., 2007; Melin et al., 2008). However the role of the user is now shifting towards
more active user participation in various forms
(K. Axelsson & Melin, 2008; Lindblad-Gidlund,
2008; Melin et al., 2008). The main arguments for
this is that user needs are more likely to be met;
meaning that not only the providing organization
but also the user of a particular e-service experiences benefits when using the e-service (Andersen
& Medaglia, 2008; Carroll & Rosson, 2007; van
Velsen, van der Geest, ter Hedde, & Derks, 2008).
By using the Internet and other electronic networks for communicating organizations today are
trying to shift focus from internal user groups with
distinct needs easy to target to a situation where
the users are external with dispersed needs which
are hard to target (Albinsson, Forsgren, & Lind,
2007). It is a challenging task as it is to target users for internal information systems development
projects but it is even more challenging to target
users of e-services aiming for external users, i.e.
customers, citizens, other businesses. (K. Axelsson
& Melin, 2008; Melin et al., 2008). (Holgersson,
Sderstrm, Karlsson, & Hedstrm, 2010) have
analyzed user participation in e-service development from a goal perspective. In doing so, they
identified four problems or challenges when including users in development: (1) Identifying the
user target segment, (2) Identifying the individual
user within each segment, (3) Getting users to
participate, and (4) Lacking adequate skills.
The Problem of Knowing the

E-Service Market Segment
An e-service should address a clear target audience, i.e. it should be clear for what purpose and
for what user it is developed. The target service
market segment for the e-service should therefore
be identified and analysed (Holgersson et al.,
2010). Depending on the degree of participation or the type of users developers have access
to, different approaches should be selected. For
63
example, an organization primarily seeking to

attract new customers or do they wish to provide
better e-services for existing customers? Is the
organization commercial and aiming for higher
revenues or is it a government striving for better
services to citizens? In this sense, e-government
services complicate things since they have to be
offered universally to all citizens (Henriksen,
2004) and therefore have to be usable for many
different types of users. Identifying new eservices for commercial reasons may call for the
user innovation approach, whereas participatory
design may be more suitable when developing
basic e-government services. The motivation is
that e-government workers may be less inclined
to thinking innovatively than commercial users.
The Problem of Identifying Users

for Development Efforts
The decision of design approach is also steered
by the amount of available resources to allocate
to a development project. Users of both commercial e-services as well as e-government services
are most often external (Albinsson et al., 2007).
This will make it more complicated to find the
appropriate users to participate with, compared
to traditional information systems development
inside organizational boundaries. Looking at
e-government services, potential users of the
e-services are scattered across different ages,
genders, ethnic background, knowledge level,
etc. It hence becomes difficult to choose a suitable group of users to work with. This is easier
for commercial, private organizations, who target
a more narrow/focused customer group (Holgersson et al., 2010). Finding lead users, a key part of
the user innovation approach, may be even more
complicated since not any representative user will
do. User innovation often seems like an appealing
design approach to choose, but in many cases,
other design approaches must be considered due
to the problem of finding the desired users.
64
The Problem of Getting Users to

Participate in E-Service Development
It may be straight forward to get users residing
in-house to participate in the design process, since
they can be obligated to participate and may see
the benefits more clearly (Albinsson et al., 2007).
E-services for commercial as well as governmental
usage pose greater challenges since participation
must be based on free will, i.e. the users must be
persuaded to participate which most likely will
reduce the number of suitable participants. It
should be noted that it is possible to command
participation in primarily governmental organizations such as the military forces. However, this
is not ideal, since voluntary participation does
provide more creative results. Restricted user
access may influence the type of interaction techniques used, that is type of seminars for eliciting
requirements etc. This problem concerns degree
of participation and is a crucial question to ask at
this stage. If active user participation is sought,
part of team or advisory participation could be
suitable approaches.
The Problem of Lacking Adequate Skills

E-services development is complex since e-service
artifacts often inherit a complex architecture from
back-office systems. Most often this complexity
is invisible to the user and it cannot be required
that they even should have such knowledge. Even
so, user participation in e-service development
increases the likelihood for mutual benefits (Andersen & Medaglia, 2008; Carroll & Rosson, 2007;
van Velsen et al., 2008) since the user needs are
more likely to be met. But in order to formulate
requirements the user is required to have extensive
knowledge of what it is possible to ask for. Hence,
skill inadequacy is a fourth challenge important
to address when letting the user participate in eservice development. The private sector has an
advantage here, since they appear more inclined
to follow the latest developments and trends than
the public sector employees are. Of course, this is

not a rule per se, but rather an observation.
Virtual Communities
The rapid development of internet gives new opportunities to create virtual communities (VCs)
in the cyberspace centered around offering communication and interaction between members
sharing the same interests (Parsell, 2008). A VC
can be seen as a group in which individuals come
together around a shared purpose, interest or goal,
where most depend on electronic communications
to support interaction among members who are
not physically collocated (Koh, Kim, Butler, &
Bock, 2007; Lu, Zhao, & Wang, 2009). VCs are
part of the web intelligence technology (Lu et al.,
2009; Zong, Liu, & Yao, 2007) and is one type
of knowledge network (Merali & Davies, 2001).
As such, it highlights the importance of the link
between social capital and knowledge resources
for effective knowledge management (Merali &
Davies, 2001). Thus far, most individuals think
of VCs as on line social networks (OSNs) which
mostly focus on maintaining social relations,
e.g. Facebook, MySpace etc. (Fogel & Nehmad,
2009; Mislove, Marcon, Gummadi, Druschel, &
Bhattacharjee, 2007) and to find and communicate with individuals sharing the same interests,
e.g. discussion forums etc. However, research is
ongoing about VC for intra-company discussion,
knowledge sharing, etc. (de Moor & Weigand,
2007). Migrating offline communities into online
VCs has the potential to greatly improve their
efficiency and ability to support the sharing of
critical information and knowledge in a timely
fashion (Koh et al., 2007).
Members in a VC have different reasons for
participating. Yu, Jiang, & Chan (2007) mention
four general categories of motives for user participation in VCs:
1. Altruism, which is the intent to increase the
welfare of one or more other individuals
2. Collectivism, which intends to increase the

welfare of a group or collective
3. Principlism, which holds some moral principles such as justice and fairness
4. Self-interest, which is the personal
motivations
Moore & Serva (2007) have expanded this
categorisation into 14 categories, which more or
less is a detailing of the ones mentioned above.
This chapter is not focused on VC research per
se, and the categorisation of four is therefore sufficient for our purposes.
USING VIRTUAL COMMUNITIES

FOR ELICITING REQUIREMENTS
WHEN DEVELOPING E-SERVICES
The chapter explores e-services development,
what makes it unique and how VCs can be used
to involve the users of the said services in the
development process without actively involving
them as traditional approaches for user participation do. The aim is twofold: to identify suitable
ways to work with users using VCs and to identify
the challenges in this work. We will investigate
these issues by using a real-life case study to
both illustrate the points made and to identify
new findings.
As stated in the background, typical VC activities include information sharing and problem
solving. Most of these activities take the form
of posting and viewing opinions, questions,
experiences, information and knowledge sharing within the VCs discussion forums. Hence,
posting and viewing are fundamental elements
in the ongoing life of any VC (Koh et al., 2007).
However, it is important to highlight the fact that
the posting activity stimulant is not necessarily
the same as the viewing activity stimulant (Koh
et al., 2007). This means that organizations can
tap into discussions of VCs to learn more about
their customers experiences, desires, needs and
65
concerns (Hofacker et al., 2007). VCs provide

a foundation for facilitating collaboration and
learning among individuals, such as customers
or citizens, separated by physical distance and
organizational boundaries (Koh et al., 2007). For
this chapter, learning to be made concerns how the
desires and requirements of e-service users can be
incorporated and used in e-service development.
VCs have been studied extensively in many aspects
for a long time, but little is yet known about how
they can be utilized for these purposes.
membership services. These points can be used

to purchase further travels and other services provided by partners. The e-services in focus in this
chapter concern those e-services that are provided
within the frame of the membership.
Research Methodology
The data collection in the case study consisted of
interviews (see table 1 for an overview) as well
as extensive studies of project documentation
with a major focus on the earlier project stages
focusing on analysis and design. In the interviews,
two senior IT architects with managerial functions
were the primary target of interest, since they have
an overview of the e-service development work
and oversee all ongoing development projects.
Both have significant, long-term experience from
e-service development and are highly familiar
with the development methodology and ongoing
trends. Another respondent came from the marketing and customer relations department, and was
a senior marketing manager with an umbrella
perspective over customer issues. In addition,
we followed one e-service development project
and conducted interviews with four participants
therein.
Interview questions started with introductory
questions to clarify for example roles and responsibilities, communication paths in development
situations, the development methodology, requirements management, user participation and maintenance issues and technical questions of the eservice, etc. There were some variations in the
The Case Study

Our case study is based on a real company and
all the background information is genuine. The
identity of the company is irrelevant and all actors will therefore be protected by anonymity.
Furthermore, the travel industry is rather tight
and any further information on geographical
location, size and types of services offered may
reveal the identity. Thus, the company from here
on will be referred to as Company X. The case
concerns private e-services rather than public egovernment services, since is intended to show
how any organization - private or public - can use
emergent phenomena to improve their e-services
and the development thereof.
Company X is an international company in the
travel industry with branches in several countries
and with services of different types offered and
provided all over the world. It offers membership
to its travelers, a membership which involves being rewarded points for travelling and using the
Table 1. Interview respondents
66
Participants
Role
Number of interviews
P1, P2
Senior IT architects
4 x 2 hours
P3
Project manager
1 x 2 hours
P4
System specialist
1 x 2 hours
P5
IT architect
1 x 2 hours
P6
Test leader
1 x 2 hours
P7
Senior marketing manager
1 x 2 hours
exact interview question set-up depending on the

role of the respondent. All interviews lasted about
2 hours and were documented via extensive notes
that were sent to the interviewees afterwards for
validation and to ensure correct interpretation of
their answers. In addition, Company X made an
extensive number of documents available for
study. These were also included in the analysis.
The data was analyzed by comparing answers and
by searching for expressions concerning requirements elicitation, channels or media that is
monitored or used during elicitation and development, along with motivations for why these
choices were made.
The Need for a Modernised Solution

One main concern in Company X is to continuously develop and enhance their customer support.
They therefore launched a membership program
some years ago, to keep and increase customer
loyalty. One consequence, however, has been that
the manual handling of member loyalty related
services increased, which became very expensive.
Furthermore, there was a need to increase the
number of ways in which to make offers and to
remove some limitations in the service structure.
Online functionality in terms of an e-service was
considered a highly suitable approach to address
these problems, and it was decided that a new
e-service would be developed. This e-service
would reduce the number of contacts made to the

customer support center, and thereby relieve the
strain on administrative functions. Communication with the users used to take place either via
telephone to the customer service or via regular
mail and other types of direct user contact. The
before-picture is shown in figure 1.
The desired solution should be generic enough
to suit different member needs concerning the
variety of services provided by Company X. Connections to surrounding systems, internal as well
as external, had to be established, and appropriate
follow-up procedures concretised. Company X
determined that unless the e-service was developed, demands on the customer support would
be continuous and Company X would fail to
compete with other similar membership programs
provided by competitors. Profitability and opportunities could thereby be lost.
The e-service stores information about all
members in the membership program, including
track records of what they do and how they travel.
When customers are to book for a specific service
and pay using the points gathered, the booking
is made in Amadeus which in turn communicates with the e-service. With the new e-service
environment, the user (Company Xs customer)
is supposed to work via a booking dialogue connected to the Amadeus e-Retail system. There,
they can pay with their customer loyalty points
or with money. Basically, the e-service offers
Figure 1. Communication patterns before the introduction of Internet technology
67
the members several options for how to interact

with company X when making various types of
bookings. In addition, the e-service provides the
member with additional information which is
easy to access and monitor in comparison with
other interaction alternatives outside the scope
of the e-service.
E-Service Development with VCs

VCs has provided X with new ways of working
with users not previously possible, as is shown in
figure 2. One major new channel is the monitoring
of traveler VCs on the Internet in which company
X and its membership service is discussed by
community members. Such VCs are knowledgesharing communities and to some extent also
problem-solving, since they can solve problems of
certain areas through collaborative networks (Yu et
al., 2007). Participation in this kind of VC is hence
motivated by personal interest and by collectivism,
since it helps this group of travelers to enhance
their travelling and use of the membership points.
Developers in Company X review the comments
and discussions in the forum and records relevant
points. These points (ideas, problems, loop holes,
etc.) are brought forward to the relevant project
group which evaluates them for possible action.
After selection based on relevance, the results
are passed on to the relevant organizational unit.
purpose, but rather as comments and feedback

on existing services and needs for new services.
These requirements are elicited by tapping into
forum discussions and from analysing customer
behavior. The customer department of Company
X uses the forum/virtual community discussions a
lot and thereby avoids overloading the customers
with questions and queries. The customer behavior
is by far the most important indicator of whether
or not e-services are appreciated by the users or
not, as well as how changes in these services affect the behavior.
Requirements Elicitation in Company X

One basic aspect of requirements elicitation is
that Company X rarely gathers new requirements,
but often wants to check how their customers
appreciate already existing things. Such things
can be those that Company X wants to evolve or
alternatively thoughts and experiences from new
services. E-services have affected the development
process, which is expressed by P4, E-services
have affected the rules, not so that they are more
difficult to keep track of, but in that it is simpler
to test them. But the same requirements still need
to be gathered. Requirements are, accordingly,
elicited by:

Basic View of User Participation in

Company X
The users of the e-services provided for the membership program are the members themselves.
However, they are, with a few exceptions, only
passive users and do not actively take part in
the e-services development. Furthermore, the
developers are users of the e-services too. Quoting P3, Many of the consultants in Company
X are frequent users themselves, and it has so
far been enough. In many cases, requirements
are not gathered from a requirements elicitation
68
Large member studies, focusing on appreciation and experience. These studies are
made via email or online via the Company
X web portal. One sample question is,
what do you think of the possibility to
use the membership points for booking
hotels?
Directed membership studies outside of
the border of the more general ones. These
studies are made towards smaller customer
segments that use an already implemented
service. For example, one upcoming study
will concern whether or not the members/
users like the new hotel booking service,
what they do not like, and so on.
Figure 2. Communication patterns after the introduction of Internet technology and e-services
Online inquiries directed at selected customer segments concerning different aspects of the membership program.
Focus groups, which are only rarely used
since Company X considers it difficult to
gain new and useful knowledge this way.
The way you ask the question determines
the answer you will get (quote Company
X). This quote emphasises the difficulties
in arranging valuable focus group sessions.
Studies can consist of tests, as highlighted

by P7, We do tests where we have both groups
and control groups. These groups get different
information, and then we monitor their behavior.
These are all real, live tests. The e-services are
provided via the Internet portal of Company X. In
addition to the inquiries and studies for requirements elicitation, other issues, ideas and problems
are identified by tracking member actions on the
web pages. This consists of following a logged-in
user in terms of where clicks are made, where they
run into problems and in particular if the users fail
in their tasks and log out. If a certain number of
users terminate their actions on the same page,
this will be subject to review and analysis in order to identify the problems and take corrective
action. Because of this tracking, which is stored

in the customer database, Company X knows its
users well. Quoting P7, We follow up behavior,
for example via customer inquiries and the like.
We know our customer segment and know approximately what they want and what they want
to do. It should be noted that the goal of using
VCs in Company X is not to elicit primarily new
requirements but rather to provide a complementary way of finding requirements in an otherwise
highly complex elicitation process.
How Does Company X

Communicate with Its Users?
One important aspect to consider is that Company
Xs membership program includes a well-defined
set of customers, with seen from the membership
program point of view a well-defined interest.
The users are focused on travels and how they as
customers can obtain and use membership points.
Many of these customers travel a lot and are active
in various VCs where the different aspects of the
membership are discussed. Quoting P7, With the
Internet and the sites, we have access to customers
and competitors directly. All information is there if
you just look. Even though there is a willingness
69
to include users more, this is still identified as

problematic, as in the quote by P4, More active
user participation is problematic, since you do get
in a lot of questions that really do not belong to
the project. It is difficult to focus on what really
shall be done. According to Company X, these
customers are extremely knowledgeable about
the membership program. The extensive and encompassing customer database enables Company
X to easily identify suitable customers in defined
spectra. There are, in other words, no problems
in identifying the customer segments, since they
only have one that is well-defined and since the
database contains all the information necessary
for this task. In cases where customers participate
in some form of activity, there is rarely a problem
to motivate participation, hence the challenges of
identifying target groups and users within these
target groups as well as getting the users to willingly participate (Holgersson et al., 2010) are no
problems for Company X. The reason is that the
customers, who generally are on the top levels in
the membership program, are genuinely interested
by the program and the services associated with
it. In summary, Company X communicates with
its users in the following ways (see also figure 2):

Online surveys
Threads in virtual communities/discussion
forums, such as Flyertalk
Dedicated virtual communities/discussions
forums, such as Facebook
In rare cases Company X gives some customers a phone call
Figure 2 displays the various ways in which

Company X communicates with its customers,
and the entrance of Internet technology has certainly affected the ways in which communication
takes place. Contrasted to figure 1, the number of
contact points has certainly increased given the
new technology. This, coupled with the extensive
customer database, has dramatically increased the
knowledge Company X has about its customers.
70
In the case of VCs, Company X should be seen

as an early adopter. Ali-Vemas & Luukkainen,
(2008) and Rogers (2003) have defined five types
of adopters: innovators, early adopters, early and
late majority and laggards. The travel industry
and hence Company X, often constitutes the early
adopters of new technology (Azzara, 2002; Murphy & Stoyanova, 2003), at least in the case of
e-services or rather the more technical aspect of
web services. One key point is that early adopters
demonstrate the value of adoption through their
own commitment (Boh, Soh, & Yeo, 2007). This
is a strong characteristic for Company X and is
essential not the least since the travel industry is
such a competitive market.
How Does Company X Get

the Users to Participate?
Company X does not, with only a limited amount
of exceptions, actively involve users when developing e-services. The customers seldom come up
with new revolutionary ideas but they are very
good at providing feedback. Still, there is a desire
to include them more, One would like to include
the users more in the development projects, but
the external ones are difficult to get to participate.
Internal ones are a different matter (P1 and P2).
However, the fact that the target group members
themselves are genuinely interested in the membership program for their own personal reasons is
one important point to make. The result is that the
customers are more willing to answer questions
and contribute with informatio, but Company X
is nevertheless reluctant to contact these users too
often given that they know of their busy schedules,
rather than it being the customers who object to
participation. Furthermore, Company X would like
to involve the users more, but in specific parts of
the development process. Quoting P3, If we are
to include users, it will need to include usability
testing for identifying mistakes.
It is often Company X itself that monitors
different VCs and the like, which means that
the customers often do not need to be enticed to

participate. They already participate in the forum
due to their own free will and Company X takes
part of their opinions and the information they
leave without users even noticing that they in
fact participate in development. Based on the
discussions and threads of interest brought up
in the VCs, new features can be developed and
improvements to existing e-services can be made.
Furthermore, the large customer database with
its huge amount of information about the customers, their behavior, preferences, etc. coupled
with tracking user behavior, is a valuable input to
e-services development and enhancement. Both
communities and the customer database can be
thought of as implicit inclusion of users in the
development of e-services. Users provide input,
but not through direct contact. There is, however,
one part of the development process where a selected user group participates, as quoted by P6,
The interaction designer has used small usability
tests for adjustments. Normally, such tests are
only used when the development concerns great
changes or large new features. There are also
several ideas of how, and for what task, users
could become more involved, as illustrated by the
quote from P5, we have had two consultants
without specific Company X knowledge. They thus
know how people who work think, but perhaps
we should have had more external dialogue tests.
Picking out some selected membership program
users in such tests would be great in an ideal
world. However, there are also ideas on including users earlier in the process, primarily during
requirements elicitation as a complement to the
VC monitoring and customer database. Quoting
P5, What the user needs to be part of is for all
the functionality, which is natural.
Solutions and Recommendations

E-service development is flourishing but the conditions and circumstances surrounding development
have changed with the new ways of communicat-
ing using internet technology, such as VCs. For

example, the ways in which knowledge can be
gained on customer/user behavior vary to a much
greater extent nowadays. The main interest in this
paper has concerned the growing role of VCs in
the development of e-services. It is no secret that
user participation has a positive influence when
developing e-services and VCs can be utilised
to tap into customer or citizen, ideas, opinions,
requirements, desires and so on. This information
is critical to really getting to know the users, their
behavior and preferences. It can then be utilised
for developing e-services of higher quality and of
greater usability, without the same extent of user
participation as in traditional development. Our
study shows that the tapping of information is
of great importance, but in addition, Company X
can provide feedback and ask for more information. They, thereby, are able to detail requirements
and desires, which is important for the quality of
the results. This extra round of inquiry is rarely
even possible when using for example traditional
questionnaires, in particular when these are anonymous. Internet technology and VCs have hence
provided more refined ways of elaborating on the
elicited requirements.
The knowledge about the customer segment
is great in organisations developing e-services
because of the VCs and the expanded use provided by internet technology. The result is that
users are influential, without necessarily participating directly in the development process. As
a consequence, we need to change the way user
participation is perceived in this setting. The
new perception, or perspective, must encompass
that users can have influence beyond traditional
requirements elicitation, in which interviews,
questionnaires, and observations are commonly
used. New internet technology and the increasing
role of VCs where users themselves participate
and share knowledge actively bring increased
user knowledge without direct communication
between them and the e-service developers. It may
therefore be valid to consider this as user influence
71
and not participation. Face-to-face meetings can

never be replaced solely by the Internet; rather,
the Internet is a valuable complement to the same.
Our intent with presenting the case study is not
to state general validity of our claims in all other
settings. Instead, it should be interpreted as an
illustration of how a company that wants to be
in the forefront can use the novel technologies
to gain knowledge and thus to develop better
services and products as a consequence. Daring
to look outside the box is a prerequisite for being an early adopter of new technology, even if
it means challenging the perceptions of industry
as well as academia.

By incorporating the new internet technology developments, users can influence e-service design
without directly participating in their development,
and sometimes not even being aware of their influence. We do not advocate that VCs should be
the only tool for eliciting user input, but rather
recommend it to be used as one more source in
addition to for example actual user involvement.
The extent to which users should be directly involved in development is a challenging balance
act for all organizations, and VCs can assist to
avoid overwhelming users with requests for input.
However, the ways in which VCs are used must be
carefully planned and tuned to the needs at hand.
They can provide a valuable information source
coupled with other means, such as the extensive
customer knowledge database in Company X,
online user surveys, online bulletin boards, and
so on. Separately, they may only provide one
piece of the puzzle, but taken together, they may
show pretty much the entire picture. Still, much
is unknown in this area.
Future work includes a more in-depth look
into VC research and use findings therein for a
more detailed analysis of for example motivational
aspects of participating in VCs. Such research may
72
provide valuable insights into how VCs can be

used for knowledge-gathering activities to support e-service development. Therefore, additional
case studies are needed in which various forms of
VCs are reviewed and tested in order to elicit eservice requirements. The ways in which e-service
developers can utilize and even organize and steer
VCs for this purpose need to be included as well.
Comparative studies between public and private
organizations may furthermore provide essential
insight into whether similar user participation
advantages can be drawn for public VCs as for
private ones. Another potential and valuable
route is to draw on knowledge management and
e-learning technology to enhance learning ability, knowledge gained and knowledge lost from
development to use of the e-services.
CONCLUSION
This chapter has explored the strategic use and
practice of using VCs for the development of
e-services and the importance of such sources in
this process. The use of VCs requires awareness,
strategic planning, and the right tools in order to
be successful, considering the vast flora of VCs
available, and the difficulty to choose which information in the VCs to incorporate. They constitute
a new way of communicating and collaborating
with users of e-services and enable developers
to create usable and useful e-services without
straining too much on the users limited available
time. However, since there is a tendency to use
VCs and similar technologies instead of involving users directly, the term user participation
will need to be redefined. We are speaking of
user involvement without participation,and both
research and practice should reflect and investigate
these changes. Internet technology developments
of recent time provide opportunities not previously possible and if used properly, consciously
and strategically, they can be tools that provide
competitive advantages. The case presented in
this chapter provides one such example. To the

best of our knowledge, there are no similar case
studies focused on how VCs can be used in eservice development. There are studies on VCs,
motivations for participating in them, their role in
creating social structures and so on. But none of
them are taking the focus that we have presented
in this chapter. There is a need for additional and
comparative studies, covering both private as
well as public organization, which will be part
of the future work. Finally, in the travel industry
and others of equal degrees of competitiveness,
having the edge can be a make or break thing.
The importance of the matter thus becomes clear
and deserves further attention.
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Company X: An international company in the
travel industry with branches in several countries
and with services of different types offered and
provided all over the world.
E-Services Development: The process of
creating, evolving and enhancing e-services
E-Services: E-services are artefacts, based
on electronic interactions between a service provider and a service consumer, for the delivery of
services. E-services are intangible, inseparable
and heterogeneous and imply creation of value
Requirements: Desires, needs and concerns
from end users or consumers which are incorporated with organizational requirements when
developing e-services.
User Participation: The involvement of end
users in the development process of an information system or e-service
User: The consumer or end user of an e-service.
Most often, the term user refers to individual
consumers but commercial organizations as well
as public authorities may also be users.
Virtual Communities: A group in which individuals come together around a shared purpose,
interest or goal, where most depend on electronic
communications to support interaction among
members who are not physically collocated.
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Chapter 6
Emerging Web Tools and Their

Applications in Bioinformatics
Shailendra Singh
PEC University of Technology, India
Amardeep Singh
Punjabi University, India
ABSTRACT
Bioinformatics is an emerging area of interest for many researchers and scientists. It has unlimited applications in many areas. The most important application of this is to know about genes, et cetera. But
nowadays, research has also started in the emerging areas of network security and threats using bioinformatics. In the present scenario, we are highly dependent on Internet. The Web has invited different
people from different backgrounds to work together sitting at far places. And to fulfill the needs of the
interested and involved people, lots of Web based tools have been developed, and many others are being
developed. In this chapter, the area of bioinformatics has been introduced along with its applications,
Web, developed Web based tools, and a case study of one such tool.
INTRODUCTION TO
BIOINFORMATICS
Bioinformatics is the study and analysis of biological information using computers and statistical techniques. It is the science of developing
and utilizing computer databases and algorithms
to accelerate and enhance biological research.
Bioinformatics is taken as more of a tool than
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-60960-581-0.ch006
a discipline for the analysis of biological data.

From information technology point of view, bioinformatics is the use of IT in biotechnology for
the data storage, data warehousing and analyzing
the bio-molecular sequences. The knowledge is
required from other branches of science and engineering like biology, mathematics, laws of physics
& chemistry, computer science & engineering and
IT to analyze biological data. Bioinformatics is not
only limited to the analysis of biological data, but
in reality it is being used to solve many biological
Emerging Web Tools and Their Applications in Bioinformatics
problems like various disorders in human beings

and to find out how living things work.
Bioinformatics has emerged out of the need to
understand the code of life, DNA (Mount, 2001).
Enormous DNA sequencing projects have been
evolved and added in the growth of the science
of Bioinformatics. The fundamental molecule of
life (DNA) directly controls the fundamental biology of life. It codes for genes which in turn code
for proteins that decide the biological makeup of
humans or any living organism. The variations and
errors in the genomic DNA define the possibility
of developing diseases or resistance to disorders.
The ultimate goal of bioinformatics is to reveal
the assets of biological information hidden in
the crowd of sequence, structure, literature and
other biological data and to use this information
to enhance the standard of life for mankind.
APPLICATIONS OF
BIOINFORMATICS
Bioinformatics is being used in various areas and
the applications are limitless (Bosu, 2009). This is
possible not only by having collaborative efforts of
different people from different background but also
widely using web based tools and Internet. There
are constantly new research projects and studies
being mdone on this amazing new line of DNA
analysis. Scientists are now using bioinformatics
to detect genetic abnormalities in different species.
This is also creating breakthroughs in the medical community. Applications of Bioinformatics
have allowed doctors to conduct genetic testing
in unborn babies to predict and find any signs of
certain genetic disorders and conditions.
Some of its applications are listed below:

DNA Identification: The identification of

DNA profile of a person can help the investigators in identifying criminals, ascertaining family associations, protecting rare
species, matching organ donors, and for

security.
Analysis of Gene Expression: The analysis of gene expression is very important for
the understanding of disorders in humans
and other species. A chemical and physical
change in a living being is not caused by a
single gene but the mutual effect of many
genes. Understanding the function of many
genes on a particular condition will, in due
course of time, present a genetic basis for
many diseases.
Analysis of Gene Regulation: The regulation is the sequence of events that begins
with an extracellular event and leads to a
change in the activity of proteins. The analysis of gene that promotes and regulates
the activity of genes and proteins helps us
to understand the behavior of species.
Risk Assessment: The deep and intense
research on human genome can help us to
assess individual risk exposure to toxic elements as resistance to external agents that
varies from person to person. It can also
help to reduce the likelihood of heritable
mutations.
Human Migration: The understanding
of human and other genomes will help us
to understand the human evolution, inheritance, traits, and disease carriers. The
study of genome comparison across organisms can help to understand similar genes
with associated disease.
Adapted Medicine: The development in
the field of pharmacogenomics will change
the prospect of clinical medicine. It shows
how an individuals genetic inheritance affects the bodys response to drugs. At present, some drugs disappear from the market
because a small percentage of the clinical
patient population shows unfavorable affects to a drug due to sequence variant in
their DNA. As a result, many potentially
77
78
life-saving drugs never make it to the marketplace. At present, doctors have to use
trial and error to find the best drug to take
care of a particular patient as those with the
same clinical symptoms can show a wide
range of responses to the same treatment.
In the future, doctors will be able to analyze a patients genetic profile and recommend the best available drug therapy and
dosage from the beginning.
Crop Development: The study of comparative genetics of the plant genomes has revealed that the organization of their genes
has remained more conserved over evolutionary time than was previously believed.
These findings imply that information obtained from the model crop systems can
be used to suggest improvements to other
food crops. Arabidopsis thaliana of water
cress and Oryza sativa of rice are examples
of available complete plant genomes.
Molecular Medicine: The human genome
will have deep effects in the fields of biomedical research and clinical medicine.
Every disease has a genetic component.
This may be inherited or a result of the
bodys response to an environmental stress
that causes alterations in the genome (e.g.
cancers, diabetes). The completion of the
human genome means that we can search
for the genes directly associated with different diseases and begin to understand
the molecular basis of these diseases more
clearly. This novel knowledge of the molecular mechanisms of disease will enable
better treatments, cures and even preventative tests to be developed.
Drug Development: At present, all drugs
in the global market target only about five
hundred proteins. More specific medicines
that act on the cause of the disease can be
developed with an improved understanding of disease mechanisms and using com-
putational tools. These extremely specific

drugs assure to have fewer side effects than
many of todays medicines.
Antibiotic Resistance: Scientists have
been examining the genome of various
species that causes the bacterial infection
among hospital patients. They have discovered a region made up of a number of
antibiotic-resistant genes that may contribute to the bacteriums transformation from
a harmless bacterium to a scary attacker.
The discovery of the region could provide
helpful markers for detecting pathogenic
strains and help to prevent the spread of
infection in wards.
Waste Cleaning: Scientists and researchers are trying to gather the knowledge
about those bacteria that can be used to
clean the waste automatically without
spending too much time and money. They
are also interested in this organism because
of its potential usefulness in cleaning up
those waste sites that contain radiation and
toxic chemicals.
Climate Change: The level of carbon dioxide emission is increasing very rapidly
and causing global warming. It is mainly
due to the extensive use of fossil fuels for
energy and is responsible for global climate change. The Department of Energy,
USA launched a program to decrease atmospheric carbon dioxide levels with the help
of the study of the genomes of microbes.
Alternative Energy Sources: The researchers and scientists are studying the
genome of the various microbes that has
an unusual capacity for generating energy
from light.
The Reality of Bio-weapon Creation:
The scientists have recently built few viruses using entirely artificial means. They
could do it by using genomic data1 avail-
able on the Internet and materials from a

mail-order chemical supply..
Improve Nutritional Quality: The scientists have recently succeeded in transferring genes into rice to increase the levels
of vitamin A, iron and other micro-nutrients. This work could have a deep impact
in reducing occurrences of blindness and
anemia caused by deficiencies in Vitamin
A and iron respectively2..
Grow in Poorer Soils and Drought
Resistant: The work has been done in developing cereal varieties that have a greater tolerance for soil alkalinity, free aluminium and iron toxicities. These varieties will
allow agriculture to succeed in poorer soil
areas, thus adding more land to the global
production base. Research is also in progress to produce crop varieties capable of
tolerating reduced water conditions.
EMERGING APPLICATIONS
While some of the work that bioinformatics has
created is under scrutiny, other areas are taking off
in the world of science and discovery. The doors
are opening for scientists to be able to find new
applications at all times. The emerging applications of Bioinformatics in the field of network
security are as below:

Recognition of Network Threats:

Bioinformatics has many interesting applications outside of biology not only including automatic voice and handwriting
recognition, but also in computing systems security. The tools and techniques
of bioinformatics are now being applied
to the problem of recognition and characterization of computer network threats
(Kozakiewicz, et. al., 2007).
Network Intrusion Detection: There have

been several researches utilizing bioinformatics techniques for host based intrusion
detection systems that detect anomalous
behavior on each host by monitoring sequences of user commands or sequences of
system calls invoked by applications.
Applications of bioinformatics have been

helping to bridge the gap between what was once
thought of as a far off possibility and a near reality in the study of human genome, comparison
of genetic information in other species, network
security, and in lots more areas (Shenbagarathai,
2007).
WEB
Web is a universal medium for data, information,
and knowledge exchange. One of the important
functions of the web is to offer web services
to its user. In simple terms, a web service is an
application or business logic that is accessible
using standard internet protocols. Web Services
can convert an application into a web-application
that can publish its function or message to the rest
of the world.
There are basically two types of web services
i.e. simple and complex. For simple web services,
only simple data types are sent or received as arguments and values that are returned from methods.
For more complex web services, Web Services
Deployment Descriptor (WSDD) is provided to
configure the ability to send and receive more
than simple types (Hoon, 2005). Web services
have two types of uses i.e. reusable application
components and connect existing software. In
reusable application components, web services
can offer application-components like: currency
conversion, weather reports, or even language
translation as services. In connect existing software, web services can help to solve the interoper-
79
ability problem by giving different applications a

way to link their data. With web services, you can
exchange data between different applications and
different platforms. The major reasons for using
web services are to gain:

Interoperability: Interoperability among

distributed applications that span diverse
hardware and software platforms. Web
services allow companies to connect with
each other based on business considerations as opposed to underlying infrastructure requirements. The benefit comes in
the form of enhanced user experience as a
much wider variety of services are offered
to customers. One of the most attractive
aspects of the web services is that there is
a significant amount of additional technological investment in the application server technology. Therefore, the companies
can begin taking advantages of the web
services.
Accessibility: Accessibility of applications through firewalls using web protocol
because web services are accessed using
standard web protocols e.g. XML, and
HTTP. The diverse and heterogeneous applications on the web can automatically access web services, solving the ever-present
problem of how different systems communicate with each other.
CHALLENGES IN BIOINFORMATICS
In the beginning, bioinformatics was applied to
the creation and maintenance of a database to
store biological information. Development of
this type of database involved not only design
issues but the development of complex interfaces
whereby researchers could both access existing
data as well as submit new or revised data. The
most critical task in bioinformatics involve the
80
analysis of sequence information. Computational

Biology is the name specified to this process, and
it involves the following:

To find the genes in the DNA sequences of

various organisms
To develop various methods to predict its
structure
To group protein sequences into families
To align similar proteins and generating
phylogenetic trees
Bioinformatics is a promising and innovative

field of research in the 21st century. The key challenges to Bioinformatics basically all relate to the
current flood of raw data, aggregate information,
prediction of bimolecular structure and evolving
knowledge arising from the study of the genome
and its manifestation. Some of these challenges
are described as below:
1. One of the key challenges in computational
biology is prediction of three-dimensional
bimolecular structures from DNA, RNA and
amino-acid sequences and the first problem
in this is that the search space of the problem
is too huge because of the vast range of possible conformations of even relatively short
polypeptides and second is that the primary
sequence may not fully specify the tertiary
structure.
2. Data from biological research is proliferating
rapidly and there is a need of advanced data
storage and analysis methods to manage it.
3. The other challenge is that the massive
amounts of protein sequence data are produced by modern large-scale DNA sequencing efforts such as the Human Genome
Project. Despite community-wide efforts
in structural genomics, the output of experimentally determined bimolecular structures
(protein structure) typically by timeconsuming and relatively expensive X-ray
crystallography or NMR spectroscopyis

lagging far behind the output of protein sequences. So there is need for a method that
can predict the protein secondary structure
in less time than in the X-ray crystallography
or NMR spectroscopy.
4. The other key challenges are that a number
of factors exist that make protein structure
prediction a very difficult task. The two main
problems are that the number of possible
protein structures is extremely large, and
that the physical basis of protein structural
stability is not fully understood.
5. The fundamental challenge for genomics is to
determine how gene variations are linked to
a certain disease and, on a broader perspective, to determine how the interactions of
genes vary with environment and lifestyle.
WEB IN BIOINFORMATICS
As stated above one of the major challenges of
bioinformatics is to manage, integrate, and analyze
the numerous, voluminous and heterogeneous data
that is growing rapidly from the current biological
research. And also to develop lots of tools that
can speedup the research work in bioinformatics
area by collaborating people, tools, machines, and
information. Numerous approaches have been
proposed to deal with this challenge, including
data warehousing and data-mining. But these
approaches are not sufficient to integrate the data
from multiple sources and these approaches go
behind a user-to-computer communication model
for data exchange, and do not facilitate a broader
concept of data sharing or collaboration among
users. One of the best solutions of this problem
is to use the web technologies by establishing
a social, collective and collaborative platform
for data creation, sharing and integration for
computer-to-computer data exchange as users
add value (Zhang et. al., 2009). This solution aims

to simplify data integration, creation, to realize
automatic analysis, to facilitate reuse, sharing of
data, and discover new knowledge.
Bioinformatics research has become increasingly data-intensive because of the completion
of many genome sequencing projects and the
abundance of genome-scale assays and analyses.
According to the 2007 update for the Bioinformatics Links Directory, there are almost 1200 publicly
web-accessible links including databases and web
servers, that intend to collect, organize, visualize,
integrate and analyze biological data (Fox et.
al., 2007). For a certain task, researchers in the
field of bioinformatics frequently need to consult
many databases and web servers. However, the
integration of heterogeneous datasets from dissimilar databases associated with multiple web
servers is discouraging for researchers. It requires
them to be capable at computationally surfing
databases to find the vital data. The challenge of
decoding volumes of biological data from dissimilar sources underscores an imperative for
greater data integration.
Using collaborative web technologies, a
global environment can be created that facilitates
a collective, social and collaborative platform for
automatic data analysis, data sharing and data
integration. Web presents a revolutionary way of
collecting and integrating online information and
knowledge repositories. The social aspect of the
web involves the participation and communication link of people located anywhere with similar
interests, forming a social network. Almost all of
the databases and tools of bioinformatics have been
made available on the Web. The web browsers are
becoming an essential tool of the experimental
biologist. The reasons for this choice of technology
are partly chance in that the growth in genomic
technologies happened to occur contemporaneously with the growth of the Web.
81
Collaborative Nature of Web

The web supports collaboration through information sharing. Theoretically, it forms a global
information space joining web pages and other
multimedia resources worldwide through hyperlinks. People can collaborate by publishing their
own web pages and by accessing web pages published by others. The use of HTML for information
representation also differentiates the web from
other Internet applications, and makes preparing
and accessing information more sensitive. Even
though it takes some endeavor for average users to
learn to create web pages, the concepts of HTML
and hyperlinks are not difficult to grasp. It is not
over exaggerated to say that these factors mutually helped driving the web to what it is today.
Web services is an enduring movement aiming
at creating a new internet-based collaboration
environment for software systems, by defining
a common workspace where software systems
can expose their functionalities and interact with
each other using open, standardized protocols
(Qu, 2008).
Although the group targets primarily on system
integration and business processes, it has the potential to extend the notion of collaboration further.
In addition to just publishing and consuming web
pages, people may also collaborate by creating
and sharing services. Whenever a user needs to
solve a problem, one can look for suitable services
over the internet, customize and combine them to
form useful assistant tools. Although more technically challenging, such notion of user centered
service-oriented collaboration is also much more
powerful, effectively turning the Internet into a
universal operating system where people can log
on and work collaboratively, anytime and anywhere. Because the same service can be reused
in unforeseeable ways to build different applications, economically speaking, it also maximizes
the class of problems solvable with duplicated
development effort reduced.
82
A well designed web framework considers

four core features so that the system brings a lot
of benefits to the organization (Abdullah, 2008).
The four core features of web framework are:
Infrastructure, Content and Portal; Collaboration and Learning; Social Capital and Expertise;
Communities, Business intelligence. The collaboration of different people like businessmen,
researchers and users under the umbrella of web
has many of the key benefits of the Web and are
also important for biologists like publishing is
economically cheap, technically straightforward,
innately distributed, decentralized, and resilient
to change. From users point of view, accessing
the web is simple, requiring no knowledge of
specific query languages but enabling query by
navigation. Now with the developments in the
web technologies, the content provided by web
sites on WWW may be read, write and execute.
Collaborative Needs in
Bioinformatics Research
The field of bioinformatics concerns development
of software techniques and tools to assist biological
research. One of the most well-known characteristics of bioinformatics is its interdisciplinary
nature i.e. close collaboration among scientists
with different background and expertise to ensure
successful scientific investigations in bioinformatics. The key participants of bioinformatics such
as mathematicians, computer scientists, software
engineers, and so on, need to work together to
perform complex data preparation, to develop
efficient computational algorithms, and to set up
suitable computing environment to achieve one
of the important goal of the bioinformatics i.e.
meaningful and timely data analysis. As decades
of research have generated enormous biological
data and related tools, however, conducting a scientific investigation today often requires significant
effort just to prepare data and set up necessary
computing environment. In case the data or tools
are distributed, or participants come from differ-
ent organizations, additional cross-organization

collaboration effort is needed.
An emerging research topic in this field is
Integrated Bioinformatics. It attempts to reduce
the burden related to harnessing the heterogeneity,
so that researchers can focus more on productive
work. For example, many systems exist that join
multiple, distributed databases each with its own
database schema, in order to provide users with
uniform query interfaces. These systems may
further package various analysis algorithms and
visualization tools so that researchers are able to
conduct data exploration and analysis in the same
place with minimal to moderate customization
effort. It is not surprising to see that web services
have also triggered a new wave of development
of service-oriented bioinformatics systems (Chen
2006). However, most efforts remain focused
on integration mechanisms at the server side.
Although most bioinformatics systems provide
end users with some degree of flexibility in query
formulation or tool invocation, more involved
transformation of data and combination of tools
are handled by technical persons. As support for
user-level collaboration remains proprietary, current development may fragment the bioinformatics field in an alarmingly rate, compromising the
original goal of integration.
One example of collaborative needs in bioinformatics research is the initiatives of the
National Center of Biomedical Ontology. This
center is eager to collaborate with the scientific
community and to assist researchers in advancing their research3. It is believed that many areas
of scientific investigation can be enabled by this
Centers technologies and methods, and a broad
range of collaborating proposals will be welcomed
that require the use of biomedical ontology as a
core component of their research plan.
As we know, that the rapid developments are
taking place in the field of web as well as bioinformatics. Both are feeding the needs of each
other and in future they will go together.
Need of Web Based Tools

The first challenge faced by the people involved
in the bioinformatics is the need to develop the
intelligent web based tools that can efficiently
provide storage of the collection of data. It is then
their responsibility to provide simple and reliable
access to this data. The data itself is insignificant
before analysis and the complete volume present
makes it impossible for even a trained person to
begin to interpret it manually. Therefore, computer
tools must be developed to allow the mining of
meaningful biological information. In the present scenario, the developed tools will be more
beneficial if they are web based because then
any researcher can access the tools online and at
the same time it also reduces the redundancy of
information.
Bioinformaticians have developed large collections of tools to make sense of the rapidly
growing pool of molecular biological data. Biological systems tend to be complex and in order to
understand them, it is often necessary to link many
data sets and use more than one tool. Therefore,
bioinformaticians have experimented with several
strategies to try to integrate data sets and tools.
Owing to the lack of standards for data sets and
the interfaces of the tools, this is not a trivial task.
Over the past few years, building services with
web-based interfaces has become a popular way
of sharing the data and tools that have resulted
from many bioinformatics projects.
With the development of human genome projects in the world, a mass of genetic information
is generated. Now there are hundreds of different
kinds of important bioinformatic databases in the
world. Integration of bioinformatics databases
from different countries has become an important
issue in bioinformatics. With the explosion of
online accessible bioinformatics data and tools,
systems integration has become very important
for further progress. Currently, bioinformatics
relies heavily on the web. But the web is geared
83
towards human interaction rather than automated

processing.
There are three vital biological processes
around which bioinformatics tools must be developed:
1. DNA sequence that determines protein
sequence
2. Protein sequence that determines protein
structure
3. Protein structure that determines protein
function
WEB TOOLS IN SEQUENCE,

STRUCTURE AND
FUNCTION CATEGORY
Web based tools that have been developed are
inviting the researcher and scientists to use it in
their work. It is a collaboration of different people
at a common platform. There are different types of
web based tools available in the category of three
vital biological processes (Jones, 2004). Some of
the tools are as below:
Sequence Alignment Tools

The common software tools4,5 used for general
sequence alignment tasks include ClustalW6, TCoffee for alignment7, and BLAST8 (Basic Local
Alignment Search tool), FASTA9 for database
searching. With these tools, we can align two
sequences, align multiple sequences, and perform
phylogenic analyses. One reason we would do this
is to determine which parts of the sequences are
conserved from one species to the next. Another
reason would be to see how much an organism
has diverged from other organisms simply by
comparing their DNA sequences (Perry, 2002).
The more similar two gene sequences are to one
another, the more closely the organisms are related.
And the more dissimilar the two sequences, the
84
farther the two genes are in relation. With these

tools, we can compare sequences to determine
how organisms have diverged possibly as a result
of evolution. Following is the description of some
of the sequence alignment tools:
BLAST: It is an algorithm for comparing
primary biological sequence information, such
as the amino-acid sequences of different proteins
or the nucleotides of DNA sequences. A BLAST
search enables a researcher to compare a query
sequence with a library or database of sequences,
and identify library sequences that resemble the
query sequence above a certain threshold. For
example, following the discovery of a previously unknown gene in the mouse, a scientist will
typically perform a BLAST search of the human
genome to see if humans carry a similar gene;
BLAST will identify sequences in the human
genome that resemble the mouse gene based on
similarity of sequence.
FASTA: It is a DNA and protein sequence
alignment software package. The original FASTP
program was designed for protein sequence
similarity searching. FASTA added the ability
to do DNA searches, translated protein searches,
and also provided a more sophisticated shuffling
program for evaluating statistical significance.
There are several programs in this package that
allow the alignment of protein sequences and DNA
sequences. FASTA is pronounced FAST-Aye,
and stands for FAST-All, because it works with
any alphabet, an extension of FAST-P (protein)
and FAST-N (nucleotide) alignment. The current
FASTA package contains programs for protein:
protein, DNA, translated DNA, and ordered or
unordered peptide searches. Recent versions of
the FASTA package include special translated
search algorithms.
HMMER10: It is a free and commonly used
software package for protein sequence analysis. It
is used for sensitive database search using profileHMMs. The profile-HMMs are based on the work
of Krogh and colleagues. HMMER is a console
utility ported to every major operating system

including different versions of Linux, Windows,
and Mac OS. HMMER is the core utility that protein family databases such as Pfam and InterPro
are based upon. Some other Bioinformatics tools
such as UGENE also use HMMER.
Structure Analysis Tools

The common software tools11 used for structure
analysis tasks include DaliLite, EMsearch, MaxSprout, Procognate etc. Several programs have
been created that give scientists the ability to look
at the three dimensional shape of proteins and
nucleotides. Examining a protein in 3D allows for
greater understanding of protein functions, as well
as providing students with a visual understanding that cannot always be conveyed through still
photographs or descriptions. We have found that
the best to date 3D program is RasMol, originally
developed by Roger Sayle. Following is the description of one of the structure analysis tool:
MaxSprout12: It is a fast database algorithm
for generating protein backbone and side chain
co-ordinates from a C(alpha) trace. The backbone
is assembled from fragments taken from known
structures. Side chain conformations are optimised
in rotamer space using a rough potential energy
function to avoid clashes.
Function Analysis Tools

The common software tools used for function
analysis tasks include CluSTr Search, Inquisitor,
Radar (Rapid Automatic Detection and Alignment
of Repeats) etc. Following is the description of
some of the function analysis tools:
CluSTr Search: There are two ways to search
the CluSTr database, the advanced search allows
protein accession queries and the simple search
allows cluster identifier searching of the databases.
Inquisitor: The Inquisitor will examine your
protein sequence and identify whether or not it
corresponds to a sequence in Integr8 (complete

proteomes only) and the UniProt Knowledgebase.
If the sequence is not identified, the Inquisitor
will return details of the closest matches to your
sequence, and will also return an analysis of the
exact sequence submitted. The Inquisitor uses
FASTA to find inexact matches, and InterProScan
to analyse sequences. A status report will keep
you informed of the analysis process. You can
continue to use Integr8 while your Inquisitor job
is running. Click on the Status item on the left
hand menu at any time to see the latest status of
your currently running jobs. Up to 10 jobs can be
submitted in a single session.
RADAR: Many large proteins have evolved by
internal duplication and many internal sequence
repeats correspond to functional and structural
units. Radar uses an automatic algorithm, for
segmenting your query sequence into repeats,
it identifies short composition biased as well as
gapped approximate repeats and complex repeat
architectures involving many different types of
repeats in your query sequence.
CASE STUDY OF WEB

BASED TOOLS
A lot of web based tools have been developed in
the field of bioinformatics to solve the problems
of molecular biology e.g. analysis of sequences,
prediction of structures, and exploration of functions performed. In this case study we will see
how the developed web based tools have saved
the invaluable time of researchers and giving
them the opportunities to work more and more
for the welfare of the mankind. The fast and fruitful development in the world and in technology
is witnessing the applicability of the web based
tools. The Biology Workbench13 is a web-based
tool for biologists. This allows biologists to search
many popular protein and nucleic acid sequence
databases. Database searching is integrated with
85
access to a wide variety of analysis and modeling

tools, all within a point and click interface that
eliminates file format compatibility problems.
It is a free, web accessible suite of resources for
working with molecular sequence and structure
data. The idea of a workbench is to provide
a single place to go for all the stuffboth raw
materials and toolsyou might need to do your
work. It also provides users with access to many
molecular data bases, analysis programs, and
tools for managing and analyzing biological data.
Three important features of the Biology Workbench make it particularly useful are:

Figure 1. Predicted protein structure using biology workbench tool
It provides a unified interface to access a

variety of tools and databases.
It is online and can be accessed with a standard web browser.
It is available at no cost to academic users.
Here we will show how these are beneficial

to us. Now we describe the various case studies
of how to predict structure of the given sequence
and how to align them etc.
An Introduction to the Interface

The use of this tool is fairly simple and does not
require any specialized technical skills.
Toolsets
Once you are logged on to the Biology Workbench
you can see that the resources are organized into
five main categories. Each is a collection of functions/scripts/programs for working with a partic.
It has following tools:

86
Session Tools: These are used to manage

sessions e.g. folders or directories, different places to store work.
Nucleic Tools: These are used for working
with nucleic acid data.
Protein Tools: These are used for working

with amino acid data.
Alignment Tools: These are used for
working with sequence alignments.
Structure Tools: These are used for determining structures.
CASE STUDY 1: To predict the structure of the

given sequences using Biology Workbench:
For this case study we have taken the following
sequence from the RS126 datasets to predict the
Figure 2. Alignment of two sequences
The alignment of multiple sequences involves the

following:

Running the ClustalW tool

Importing an alignment
Steps
1. For the alignment some sequence data is
needed in the session. Select the ClustalW
tool and several sequences to analyze.
2. The ClustalW parameters page allows us to
control many aspects of how the analysis is
run and how the results are displayed.
3. Scrolling through the results we can see
first a multiple sequence alignment, then a
distance based tree, followed by a list of the
pair wise alignment scores.
protein structure like helix, beta sheets, turns and

loops of this sequence using structure tool from
the toolsets of Biology Workbench.
Sequence (seq_1acx:):
APAFSVSPASGASDGQSVSVSVAAAGETYYIAQCAPVGGQDACNPATATSFTTDASGAASFSFTVRKSYAGQTPSGTPVGSVDCATDACNLGAGNSGLNLGHVALTFG
For Structure prediction, firstly we have to add
our sequence using protein tool and then again
clicking on the option available in the protein tool
i.e. PELE (protein structure prediction). And thus
we got the structure of the sequence.
So by using the Biology Workbench we have
predicted the structure of this sequence as shown
in figure 1.
CASE STUDY 2: This case study shows the
alignment of sequences using ClustalW web tool.
e.g. We have taken two sequences from dataset

RS126. We can add them in the protein tools and
by using ClustalW tool we can align them. Figure
2 exhibits the two sequences and the results are
obtained by running the web tool:
CONCLUSION
In present era, the research in the field of bioinformatics is gaining momentum because of its
interdisciplinary nature inviting different people
from different research areas. And this has created
a need of a common platform where researchers
and other people working in this area can share
their views, findings etc. To fulfill this need of
researchers and other people, web has emerged as
a powerful platform that supports collaboration
through information sharing. Bioinformatics has
emerged out of the need to understand the code
of life. The ultimate goal of bioinformatics is to
reveal the assets of biological information hidden
in the crowd of sequence, structure, literature and
other biological data and to use this information
to enhance the standard of life for mankind. Using
87
web technologies a global environment has been

created that facilitates a collective, social and
collaborative platform for data automatic analysis
and data sharing as well as data integration. The
social aspects of web involves the participation and
communication link of people located anywhere
with similar interests, forming a social network.
The Biology Workbench is a web-based tool
for biologists and allows biologists to search
many popular protein and nucleic acid sequence
databases. Almost all of the databases and tools of
Bioinformatics have been made available on the
Web. The web browsers are becoming an essential
tool of the experimental biologist. And now the
development in the fields of Bioinformatics and
web are helping each other.
Jones, N. C., & Pevzner, P. A. (2004). An introduction to bioinformatics algorithms. Cambridge,

MA: MIT Press.
Kozakiewicz, A., Felkner, A., Kijewski, P., &
Kruk, T. J. (2007). Application of bioinformatics methods to recognition of network threats.
Journal of Telecommunications and Information
technology, 23-27.
Lord, P. W. (2004). Applying Semantic Web
services to bioinformatics: Experiences gained,
lessons learnt.
Mount, D. W. (2001). Bioinformatics: Sequence
and genome analysis. New York, NY: Cold Spring
Harbor Laboratory Press.
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Perry, W. L. (2002). JavaScript DNA translator:

DNA-aligned protein translations. BioTechniques,
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Abdullah, R. (2008). The development of bioinformatics knowledge management system with

collaborative environment. International Journal
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Databases, tools, algorithms. Oxford University
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Shenbagarathai, R. (2007). Bioinformatics tools

and applications. Current Science, 93(7).
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collaborative Web. Proceedings of the Advanced
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Bioinformatics: Bioinformatics is the study
and analysis of biological information using
computers and statistical techniques.
Biological Data: Data in Bioinformatics
include sequences, methods, tools, algorithms,
analyzed results, papers and involved people.
Web Services: These services facilitate not

only data integration, but also automatic analysis
and data sharing.
ENDNOTES
1
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Press_Releases/PR_2002/Poliovirus.html,
Last accessed Aug 11, 2010
http://www.riverdeep.net/
current/2002/04/042902t_gmfoods.jhtml,
http://www.bioontology.org/R01-and-R21Collaborations, Last accessed Aug 11, 2010
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov, Last accesses
Aug 11, 2010
10
11
12
13
http://pbil.univ-lyon1.fr/alignment.html,
Last accesses Aug 11, 2010
http://www.ebi.ac.uk/Tools/clustalw2/. Last
accessed Aug 11, 2010
http://www.ebi.ac.uk/Tools/t-coffee/index.
html. Last accessed Aug 11, 2010
http://blast.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Blast.cgi. Last
accessed Aug 11, 2010
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html. Last accessed Aug 11, 2010
http://hmmer.janelia.org/. Last accessed Aug
11, 2010
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http://www.ebi.ac.uk/Tools/maxsprout/.
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89
90
Chapter 7
Collaborative Web for Natural

Resources Industries
Nikhil Chaturvedi
SAP Asia Pte. Ltd., Singapore
ABSTRACT
Information is a strategic asset, claimed the evangelists in the last decade of 20th Century. This paradigm has become a commonly known fact today. It needs no reiteration that everyone appreciates the
significance of managing the information and knowledge in the organization. However, the philosophy
has transcended organizational boundaries to take into its fold the entire stakeholder network of the
organization.
The Petroleum and Mining industries work along with various external entities for strategic planning,
execution, and control purposes. These entities could belong to either the business or governmental
realm. It is the collaboration with these external entities across the value chain that can be positively
affected by the Web. Leading organizations like petroleum super-majors and large mining companies
have already started utilizing Web for some near real-time and batch-mode interaction with the external
entities. However, they have touched only the tip of the iceberg. The collaborative Web has tremendous
potential to further enhance their operational efficiencies. Many of these enhancements are beyond
our imagination today. However, some have already been visualized, but are yet to be implemented at
a wide scale.
The roles of these external entities span across various functions of the core value chain. This chapter
focuses on collaboration in the core functions like geo-sciences, engineering, production operations,
supply chain, transportation & logistics, equipment maintenance, materials management, sales and
marketing, and environment health and safety (EH&S) etc.
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-60960-581-0.ch007
Collaborative Web for Natural Resources Industries
INTRODUCTION
This chapter aims to cover the following aspects:
1. Current status of web-based collaboration
(encompassing both internet as well as corporate intranet) along different categories of
companies like Oil super-majors, National
Oil Companies (NOCs) and International
Mining companies
2. Potential that web holds for enabling the
core functions across the natural resources
value chain
3. Insights into the technological aspects of
collaborative web (or web 2.0) that can be
leveraged by the natural resources companies
4. Potential contribution to collaboration by
the industry data exchange standards like
PRODML and WITSML (for Petroleum
industry managed by Energistics)
To maintain the focus, this chapter focuses
on the core value chain operations and excludes
other support functions like finance and human
resources that are also undergoing significant
collaboration with outsourcing service providers
like BPOs.
This chapter is based upon authors experience
in the operations, management and IT consulting
related to the petroleum and mining industries.
BACKGROUND
1 represents the macro-view of the petroleum

value chain.
The Upstream petroleum segment covers the
exploration, development and production of crude
oil and / or gas. This segment has a plethora of
business entities working together in a networked
manner. For instance, many a times, the oil fields
are co-owned by upto 3 or 4 companies in order
to hedge the individual risk and gather resources
and investments. The business interactions and
transactions among these companies can be improved using the web. Several suppliers, vendors
and oil field services contractors work with the
upstream oil companies and this chapter later
describes how collaborative web can increase the
efficiency among these players.
Figure 2 further details out the Upstream Oil &
Gas supply chain and the various functions therein.
The produced crude oil and/or Gas have to be
processed, distilled and refined in order to obtain
products like Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG),
Naphtha, Petrol, Diesel, Kerosene, Aviation Oil,
Lubricants, Asphalt, Petrochemicals, Aromatics
etc. This work is carried out in refineries and
downstream petrochemical plants. These petroleum products are then transported through rail,
road, marine or pipeline channels. The product
movement from the refinery to the product terminals is termed as Primary Distribution and
from the product terminals to depots / customers
Figure 1. Value Chain of Oil and Gas Industry
The natural resources industries occupy a pivotal

position among various industries, as the supply
of raw materials and energy is fundamental to
running operations across the industrial landscape.
In this chapter, the term natural resources refers
to the Oil & Gas and Mining industries.
Let us understand the Oil & Gas value chain
first. This information will help in better visualization of the processes and hence, appreciating
the value of web based collaboration. Figure
91
Figure 2. Overview of an Upstream Petroleum

Value Chain
/ retail stations / lubricant depots / LPG depots

etc. is termed as Secondary Distribution. The
Downstream Petroleum value chain is pictorially
represented in figure 3.
Of all these sub-segments in the downstream
petroleum industry, the refinery is the nerve center where the production of various petroleum
products takes place. Figure 4 shows the various
products that come out of a refinery.
As mentioned earlier, these refinery operations
are supported by complex inbound and outbound
logistics processes as shown in figure 5.
Mining industry has got some similarities to
the petroleum industry in certain aspects like
Geo-technical operations, bulk transportation etc.

Figure 6 shows the mining industry value chain
wherein various external and internal entities like
suppliers, customers, employees, contract miners,
maintenance service providers etc. interact with
the mining company in a business to business
(B2B) mode. In the following sections, many of
these interactions that can be supported through
web based collaboration are explained.
Over the decades, it has been observed that
the recessionary trends are invariably preceded
by high energy and mineral prices. These high
prices, in turn, are caused not only by the demand
surges but also by the high cost structures. Therefore, the natural resources companies are working
aggressively towards enhancing operational efficiency and cost reduction. Collaborative web
has an innate potential to facilitate these twinobjectives of the natural resources industries.
COLLABORATION ACROSS
THE NATURAL RESOURCES
SUPPLY CHAIN
Petroleum industry supply chain is a highly complex network of several networks. As described
earlier, the Oil industry itself involves several
sub-industries like Upstream (Exploration & Pro-
Figure 3. Overview of a Downstream Petroleum Value Chain
92
Figure 4. Products of a typical Refinery
Figure 5. Refinery Operations
Figure 6. Supply Chain in a Mining Company
duction), Midstream (Pipeline transportation, Primary Transportation, Refining) and Downstream

(Secondary transportation, Marketing, Retailing).
Each segment has multiple suppliers, customers,
partners and regulators to collaborate with.
The Natural Gas industry, likewise, has an
equally complex value chain. It also involves some
additional functions like Liquefied Natural Gas
(LNG) operations that encompass compression,
liquefication, transportation and re-gasification
processes. Another sub-segment of natural gas
industry is Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) that
involves its own operations like compression,
distribution and retailing for automobiles and
industrial purposes.
The idea behind alluding to these segments
and sub-segments is to highlight the vastness of
this industry. Within every sub-segment, a host
of product vendors and service providers exist
who interact with the core oil & gas companies.
This interaction encompasses flow of materials,
finances and information. The labyrinthine of information flow can be handled efficiently through
web-based collaboration among various players.
The natural resources companies have traditionally operated in the Supply-Push mode.
However, the dynamism in the market, increasing
competition and demanding customers are driving
these companies towards a Demand-Pull model.
The Supply-Push factors are still important, as the
production of crude oil, natural gas and minerals
is significantly dependent upon geo-scientific and
political factors. These push and pull factors need
to be balanced and such optimized model requires
highly efficient collaboration across the entire
spectrum of resources supply chain. The web can
play a significant role in attaining it. It can help
the petroleum and mining companies to transform
from company-centric planning to collaborative
supply-chain centric planning. The implementation and utilization of collaborative-web for this
balanced supply chain has been initiated by some
natural resources companies, though a significant
ground still needs to be covered.
93
An important building block for successful

supply chain collaboration is the availability of
inventory information. It provides all the industry players with same inventory visibility. The
supply and procurement decisions get positively
impacted through this visibility. It, in turn, helps
in better revenues due to lower opportunity losses
and lower inventory carrying and holding costs.
The inventory turnover improves, thus, creating
higher return on investment.
Collaboration in the Oil

Field Services Area
Outsourcing Oil Field Services (OFS) operations
have gained increased prominence in the petroleum industry for over last three decades now. The
operations like geophysical surveying, drilling
and well completion, materials & consumables
supplies, offshore construction etc. are outsourced
to specialist OFS companies.
For instance, the steel pipe suppliers to the
Upstream Oil & Gas companies have to deliver
the pipes according to a certain customer-defined
schedule. This schedule can be provided to the
supplier through automated email notifications,
Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), B2B interface, web-based user interface etc. The option of
suppliers accessing the supply schedule information by accessing the customer web portal has
already gained popularity. The pipe suppliers
can download the schedule, plan their production
schedules accordingly and confirm the availability
using Available-to-Promise (ATP) functionalities
of their ERP/SCM systems. Once the delivery
is received and quality tested, the supplier can
download the goods receipt document copy and
later the information on the payment status from
the Oil & Gas Companys website.
OFS companies also provide a wide variety
of materials to several petroleum companies.
Initially, they were facing a dilemma of using
multiple proprietary information systems provided
by the petroleum companies. This used to pose a
94
lot of problems, as the OFS companies employees

needed to learn various systems. Over time, the
OFS companies have developed or implemented
ERP and SCM systems in their landscape and
integrated them in the back-end with the applications of petroleum companies. This integration
could be Application Programming Interfaces
(API) or using web services or any other form of
web-based collaboration.
Through these integrated applications, the
petroleum companies can achieve the visibility
of various information elements like a comprehensive catalogue of materials (provided by OFS
company or product vendor) with an option of
mapping it against their own item / material codes.
This collaboration can also help in increasing
efficiency in handling goods receipts, warehousing, material requirement planning (MRP),
cross-docking facilities, inventory accounting
& control, providing shipping documents with
full details of multiple ownership and customs
processes etc. So, the petroleum companies get
a comprehensive range of functions for effective
management across the supply chain spectrum,
right from the starting of a material requisition
through to the final consumption.
These OFS companies can also provide the
information on the project completion status on
their secured website and through proper access
authorizations; the Oil & Gas companies can see
the project progress status, costs incurred etc.
on-line.
Collaboration in Contract
Mining Area
The mining companies have also adopted the
contract mining concept. However, the data exchange with the contract miners is largely manual.
There is a huge potential for efficiency improvement through bi-directional electronic transfer
of information comprising mining schedules,
stock transfer requisition, maintenance notifica-
tions, production, costs and invoicing related

information.
An important constraint in the web-based collaboration with the contract mining companies
is the inadequate automation and IT adoption.
The mining industry has traditionally been a
late adopter of information technology developments. Moreover, most of the mining contractor
companies have inadequate financial and human
resources to carry out the necessary IT automation. Therefore, it is the responsibility of the mining companies to help them in new technology
implementation and adoption. This is similar to
what automotive OEMs or discrete manufacturing companies have done in the field of vendor
development. The procurement strategy in the
discrete manufacturing industry is centered around
vendor development and enablement, that in turn,
benefits the OEM. A similar attitude is required
for the mining companies, without which the ITbased or web-based collaboration will remain a
pipe dream for the mining companies and they will
not be able to achieve efficiency enhancement to
the extent they need.
As mentioned earlier, at present, the information flow between the mining company and
contract miner is mostly manual. This leads to not
only work delays, but also misinterpretations and
need for data reconciliation later. Thus, web-based
collaboration will help in improving both business efficiency as well as the customer-contractor
relationship.
Collaboration in the Maintenance

Operations and Spare Parts
Inventory Management
Most of the prominent Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM) provides web-based catalogs
wherein updated information on their equipment,
spare parts and maintenance practices is available.
Any updates or developments are also followed
by emails or other forms of notifications to the
customers using the equipment. Subsequently,
the maintenance staff of natural resources companies can download the details from the OEM
website and implement them in their design and
maintenance processes.
The collaborative designing and project execution practices between natural resources companies and OEMs can be significantly improved
through web based collaboration. The natural
resources companies can share their project related
designs and details with the OEMs through web
channeling through shared folders and increase
collaborative design efficiencies.
Petroleum and Mining companies also
outsource their maintenance operations to subcontractors. The efficiencies in this process can
be enhanced by using web-based collaboration.
For instance, for the maintenance of an oil product
pipeline, the oil company can push the maintenance work orders along with the pipeline network
diagram to the sub-contactors ERP system. Upon
completion of the maintenance work, the job and
costs related information can be pushed back by the
sub-contractor to the oil companys ERP system.
In the downstream petroleum industry, the
maintenance of retail stations (also known as petrol
pumps, gas stations etc. in different countries) is
an important responsibility, as any down time
can lead to significant loss in revenue. There are
three types of retail stations, namely, Company
Owned Company Operated (COCO), Company
Owned Dealer Operated (CODO) and Dealer
Owned Dealer Operated (DODO).
For the COCO type retail stations, the maintenance responsibility lies with the petroleum company. This is normally handled through the plant
maintenance functionalities of the ERP system of
the petroleum company. The latest technological
developments in Condition Based Monitoring
(CBM) and Reliability Centered Maintenance
(RCM) have provided the engineering community with a lever for detecting the fault trends in
advance and planning preventive maintenance.
The notifications related to conditions can be
automatically sent by the devices into the plant
95
maintenance module of ERP and the maintenance

orders generated thereof. This process can be
enabled through web-based collaboration. The
maintenance staff and engineers can get the condition based maintenance notifications through
the web front-end of the ERP system and can
carry out the subsequent activities like reporting
etc. through it.
Naturally, the next question that may arise in
the readers mind is how much of it is actually
being used and practiced by the petroleum companies. And the answer is, to a limited extent.
As per authors experience and interviews with
oil industry executives, most of the oil companies
do not have adequate automation at the retail stations to do automatic tank gauging, which is the
primary piece of information for petroleum product terminals to supply automatically. Similarly,
most of the retail stations do not have equipment
and machinery with RCM capabilities to provide
alerts and reminders on maintenance requirements.
Hence, the technological concepts have not been
rolled out fully into the field.
Therefore, petroleum companies still have a
great scope for improving the collaboration of
maintenance and operations workforce using
the ERP system and web-based collaboration, as
mentioned above. Several petroleum companies
still use ERP system only to raise the maintenance
notifications and orders. The web-based collaborative features are yet to be widely adopted in
the industry.
Collaboration with the Suppliers

In addition to the supply side collaboration mentioned above, natural resources companies also
collaborate through web in the area of sourcing
and procurement. Several large International Oil
Companies (IOCs) and National Oil Companies
(NOCs) use the Supplier Relationship Management (SRM) applications to conduct web-based
collaboration with suppliers. These SRM applications enable eProcurement wherein the suppli-
96
ers can download the RFx documents from the

website of the natural resources companies and
then, submit their responses and proposals back
on the website. The results of vendor selection
can also be displayed on the company website.
The eProcurement process may be pertaining to
products (like raw materials, additives, spare parts,
MRO items, consumables etc.) or services (like
oil field services, maintenance services, catering,
transportation etc.).
As an extension to the vendor selection process, the petroleum and mining companies also
conduct reverse auctions on their websites. The
SRM solution helps in receiving bids from the
suppliers online and evaluating the bids. And this
web-based collaboration is simple for suppliers, as
all they need is an internet browser to participate
in this process.
The end-objective of these petroleum and
mining companies is to enable the desktop based
procurement by the end-users themselves. The
entire eProcurement system is evolving towards
a state wherein all the product related information like approved vendor, price, minimum units
of purchase, potential delivery schedules etc. are
available to the employees first-hand on their
desktops. Based upon their authorization limits,
these employees can place the purchase orders to
the vendors directly without the involvement of the
procurement staff. This automation of purchasing
transactions also serves the purpose of procurement function staff spending time in higher value
added activities like researching for more vendors
worldwide, vendor qualification and development,
analyzing the spend performance and trends etc.
e-Market Places
The eMarketplaces are a testimony to the internet
based collaboration among various industry players. These eMarketplaces provide a platform to the
petroleum and mining companies and their suppliers and customers to trade online. The reach for
every market-player increases exponentially. Also,
they help in improving the overall efficiency of

the process by also providing ePayment and clearing services. Some of the leading eMarketplaces
servicing Oil & Gas and Mining companies are
Quadrem (www.quadrem.com), Gulf Oil & Gas
(www.gulfoilandgas.com), Network International
(www.networkintl.com) etc.
These eMarketplaces have, so far, created
a trend and achieved some success, but a great
deal still needs to be done. Some improvements
that they need are a greater number of market
participants and increase in the volume of trading
transactions. This will also improve the value that
each market player can gain out of the marketplace.
The eMarketplaces also need to innovate, continuously providing better services and reducing
costs, e.g., for logistics related to the participants.
The eMarketplaces also need to widen their
reach by increasing the number of participants from
Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs). So
far, due to the technological capability reasons
(or the inadequacy of it) and the entry barriers,
several SME organizations hesitate in participating in eBusiness through these eMarketplaces.
In different modes of eProcurement, the
item catalogs can be either supplier-managed or
buyer-managed. This depends upon the item type.
Normally, the standard items are buyer-managed.
Items that are proprietary in nature or configurable
items or unique items manufactured by a particular
supplier are typically supplier-managed. However,
the important factor is that the catalog management (however, mundane it may seem) is of great
importance, as the effectiveness of the subsequent
process steps depends upon it.
Collaboration with the

Customers in Mining Industry
On the sales & marketing side, various mining
companies have long-term sales contracts with
their customers. These contracts involve complex
pricing mechanism, often based on the benchmark
prices listed at exchanges like London Metal Ex-
change (LME), New York Mercantile Exchange

etc. Some mining companies have interfaced
their ERP systems with the information portal
of LME, so as to automatically update the metal
price at a pre-defined frequency (like daily basis).
This web-based collaboration provides updated
price that is then used in invoice calculation for
the customers.
Oil companies also use web for Customer
Relationship Management (CRM) with industrial
as well as retail customers. Several oil companies
have started running call centers or customer
service centers that carry out customer facing
activities. At present, the mechanisms include
both web-based collaboration as well as manual
interaction. However, the future policy is aimed
at increasing the web-based collaboration component. This involves providing selective web
portal access to their customers for order placement, query resolution, checking the status of their
deliveries, payments, accounts receivable status,
reward points redemption etc.
Some oil companies also use web-based collaboration for Automated Stock Replenishment
(ASR) process. The technological developments
over the last few years have facilitated this efficiency enhancement. For instance, the Automated
Tank Gauges (ATG) in the retail stations can
automatically send information through web to
the ERP systems of oil companies when the fuel
level falls below the minimum stipulated inventory level. This triggers the process of creating
sales order and other delivery documents at the oil
company level and helps in faster replenishment
of the fuel to the retail stations. Similar process
is, now, being adopted by the commercial and
wholesale customers also.
The Lubricants and LPG businesses are based
on a dealership model. The web-based collaboration model also applies to these businesses. The
dealers can place their orders through the oil & gas
company website, check their account balances
and delivery status, download vital information
on policies and schemes etc. From oil & gas
97
companies perspective, several proactive measures are also possible. They can check the sales
and inventory status at the dealer site. This also
helps them in a first hand analysis of the inventory
turnover rate, fast moving-slow moving products,
performance of the dealer with respect to certain
customer segments etc. This proactivity facilitated
by web has made the oil & gas companies more
productive and in realizing higher sales.
Especially, the lubricants business is dependent
upon providing the right product based upon the
specific customer segment requirement. This
leads to a wide range of product and hundreds of
Stock Keeping Units (SKUs). Dealers can access
and download information on the new product
launches, product specifications and marketing
schemes. In the normal course, it would have been
fairly time consuming to provide all this information, thus resulting in sales opportunity loss.
Collaboration with the

Governments and Regulators
Improvement potential also exists in web-based
collaboration for regulatory reporting to the
Governments on the EH&S related aspects. The
Petroleum and Mining companies need to comply
with stringent EH&S regulations and also need to
provide periodic reports. The adoption of adequate
B2B technology in the industry ecosystem will
help in making the EH&S reporting automatic,
wherein the enterprise systems of natural resources
companies can push reports to the governmental
systems. Alternatively, the regulatory agencies
can pull information from the websites of natural
resources companies.
CHANGE MANAGEMENT EFFORTS

REQUIRED FOR ENHANCING
WEB BASED COLLABORATION
The success of web-based collaboration requires
significant change management efforts for cus-
98
tomers to adopt the new methods. The customers need to be trained on the new web-based
processes and sometimes, also supported in IT
related infrastructure development. The popular
perception among customers and suppliers is that
natural resources companies push the web-based
collaboration for their own efficiency gains and
cost reduction. Therefore, it is also important
for organizations to highlight the efficiency and
benefits that customers achieve by using web
instead of the manual interaction. For instance,
it provides them with the option of seeing all the
account related details and history on the screen
rather than by hearing over the phone. Moreover,
they can also download information, check product & services related offerings, read through the
new policies & initiatives etc. that are not possible
through phone conversations.
The training, as mentioned above, is not restricted only to the information technology related
aspects. Natural resources companies can use web
to train their customers on products, services, company policies, initiatives related to business and
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), warranty
schemes etc. Web is a highly effective medium to
disseminate the knowledge among the customer
ecosystem in a far more efficient way.
Oil companies have experienced that the level
of new technology adoption varies based on the
country or even region. In some of the technologically advanced countries, the customers have
embraced the web based order taking in a more
rapid manner than others. Consequently, the
change management efforts need to be fine tuned.
TECHNOLOGY BEHIND WEBBASED COLLABORATION AND

Technologically, the inter-business collaboration
can take place through one or more of the following mechanisms:
Read-only or download access to authorized users (people-to-application)

Write and update access to authorized users (people-to-application)
Data output from one application in flat file
or any other desired format that can be uploaded into another application
Interfacing for data push or pull from one
application to another within the enterprise (Application-to-Application A2A
interface)
Interfacing for data push or pull from one
application to another outside the enterprise (Business-to-Business B2B interface)
Collaborative folders for different entities to work in parallel (esp. in Project
situations)
Instant messaging and application sharing
Most enterprise software solutions (ERP, SCM,

SRM, CRM etc.) have the flexibility to integrate
with other applications for seamless data transfer.
Emergence of Web 2.0 and

Social Networking
An important trend that will have significant
impact on business, in the years to come, is the
emergence of Web 2.0. Its functionalities like chat,
blogs, social networking, instant messaging etc. are
spreading infectiously across the world. Natural
resources companies, like many other industries,
are formulating strategies on how to leverage this
trend for business benefits. This is a very good
platform that some companies in the high-tech and
software industries have started leveraging to tap
the community views and innovation. However,
the natural resources companies need to expedite
their efforts to utilize this benefit sooner rather
than later.
The Web 2.0 developments can help in establishing a community portal or a Wiki where
customers, partners and other stakeholders can
provide candid feedback on the company and its
products and services. This can also be a source

for tapping ideas for innovation and process
improvement. Natural resources companies can
establish multiple communities of practice
(CoP) pertaining to upstream, downstream, gas,
lubes and other areas. Separate communities could
also be formulated for different stakeholders like
customers, suppliers, employees, NGOs etc.
At present, there exist several challenges in
achieving a fully developed and matured system
with communities playing an important role
in providing a feedback channel. Firstly, the
natural resources companies have not created
enough communities to get an all-round feedback.
Secondly, the enrollments and participation in
whatever communities currently exist is yet to be
significant. Change management and promotional
efforts towards a greater adoption of the CoPs is
required. IT industry has started exploiting this
concept better by having dedicated persons to
manage the community websites and also making
efforts towards membership generation.
The collaborative web concept further extends
into the usage of collaborative rooms (c-rooms)
wherein internal employees and/or external
stakeholders (with authorized access) can share
documents in a real-time environment. It helps
in generating efficiencies by converting the
sequential work process to a parallel work process. Typically, natural resources companies use
software like SAP cFolders, cProjects, Document
Management system (DMS), Lotus Notes etc. for
this kind of collaborative project work.
Further, there are some new moves that are
being planned for utilizing cloud for petroleum
industry, where in a company like iStore (The
Information Store), a Microsoft Gold Certified
Partner has launched its flagship PetroTrek Digital
Oilfield solution from SharePoint 2007 onto the
cloud and has developed an entirely new approach
for creating secure data mashups online.
Indeed, iStores Digital Oilfield Online cloud
platform claims to leverage the Software Services
model significantly. The approach to the architec-
99
ture enables on-premises data or applications to be

mashed up with online, cloud-based applications
and then provide data to fit the business purpose.
This product claims to enable the petroleum
companies to leverage and extend the capabilities
of multiple on-site databases by remotely accessing and integrating it online. Conversely, companies can utilize the alternate cost structure of
cloud-based data storage to significantly enhance
their data management capabilities while they
consume the data, in their onsite application or
hand held devices (Digital Oilfield online, 2010).
It is sincerely expected that in near future
products like these and many more shall be utilizing cloud computing much more to deliver value
across the supply chain of the oil industry.
In fact, according to a recent survey by the Microsoft and Accenture across 275 Oil and Natural
Gas industry folks, reveals a significant need for
collaboration across industry as highlighted by the
Microsoft official (Oil and Gas Workers Embrace
Collaboration, 2010).
The survey findings were an eye-opener, said
Craig Hodges, Microsoft general manager, Manufacturing & Resources Sector. More than threequarters of the respondents said they spend up to
four hours a day collaborating with co-workers.
Half said they need improved communications
to coordinate multinational activities, to meet
increasingly stringent regulatory requirements,
and to better manage their changing work forces.
Yet company policies actually stand in the way
of the adoption of social media, a source of new
collaboration tools our survey shows to be in
strong demand.
Industry Data Exchange Standards

The petroleum companies have exchange agreements for trading or sharing the petroleum products
across various locations. This necessitates the
exchange of information among them. Moreover,
as mentioned earlier, there is a significantly large
100
quantum of data being exchanged by different oil

companies with the customers and suppliers. The
plethora of software applications and incompatible
data formats running in the petroleum industry had
created inefficiencies in the data interchange across
various companies. Considering this, certain leading companies in the industry have established
an association named Energistics (erstwhile,
Petroleum Open Standards Consortium POSC).
Energistics (www.energistics.org) aims to develop
vendor-neutral data exchange standards for the
petroleum industry so as to reduce the heterogeneity, data errors and need for reconciliation.
The data standards, so far, developed by Energistics are WITSML (Wellsite Information Transfer Standards Markup Language) and PRODML
(Production Markup Language). WITSML covers
the data pertaining to wells, completions and
work over. PRODML covers the data related
to oil & gas production. These standards play a
role in standardizing the data management and
transfer formats, thus facilitating the web-based
collaboration.
CONCLUSION
In summary, it is very clear that Information
Technology has the potential of being a business enabler to create competitive advantage for
the companies in this sector. Natural Resources
companies have started moving on the path of
utilizing web for collaboration with internal and
external entities.
What we have observed in the chapter earlier
is that there is a significant potential to collaborate across various partners of the value chain of
natural resources industry, be it with Government
or regulatory bodies, collaboration across client
and vendors in mining industry which is still in
its nascent stage largely. While there are some
companies who are attempting to leverage next
generation of IT or Web 2.0 to meet their increasing global workforce coordination requirements,
there is still a large chunk of business processes

which are managed across multiple partners that
warrant significant investments in IT.
Obviously, there are clear benefits that are
available for large scale operations companies in
using collaborative web and also play significant
data usage pattern improvement by using cloud.
What remains to be seen is the focus that this
industry puts in this area.
Web-based collaboration, indeed, will get
improved with various entities like customers,
suppliers, employees, regulators, and government
etc. over the next 3-5 years. Today, IT is just being able to bring companies on equal footing with
limited improvements.
However, in near future, given the tangible
benefits that accrue due to this, we will surely
notice a great deal of collaboration with various
objectives of improving the operational efficiencies of the natural resources industries.
REFERENCES
Digital Oilfield online. (2010). iStores solution
overview. Retrieved on August 3, 2010, from
http://www.istore.com/Azure.html
Exchange, L. M. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://
www.lme.com
Gulf Oil & Gas. (n.d.). Retrieved from www.
gulfoilandgas.com
Microsoft. (2010). Oil and gas workers embrace
collaboration. Retrieved on August 3, 2010,
from http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2010/jan10/01-21globalenergy.mspx
Network International. (n.d.). Retrieved from
www.networkintl.com
NewYork Mercantile Exchange. (n.d.). Retrieved

from www.cme.com
Quadrem. (n.d.). Retrieved from www.quadrem.
com

ERP: Enterprise Resource Planning software
application that integrates the data and processes
of various business departments like finance & accounting, materials management, purchase, sales
& distribution, logistics, production, equipment
maintenance, human resources, real estate etc.
International Oil Companies (IOCs): Oil &
Gas companies under private sector
National Oil Companies (NOCs): Oil &
Gas companies with majority ownership from
the Government
Natural Resources Industries: Comprising industries like Mining, Minerals, Coal Bed
Methane, Oil & Natural Gas, and Oil Sands etc.
Oil Field Services: Outsource services provided by organizations to owner, operator oil
companies (also encompasses products in addition to services)
Oil Refining: The process of refining Crude
Oil through processes like distillation, reforming,
cracking etc. to produce several petroleum products like LPG, Petrol, Diesel, Aviation Turbine
Fuel, Kerosene, Asphalt etc.
SCM: Supply Chain Management, often with
reference to SCM software applications being
used by organizations for supply chain planning,
optimization and execution
Web: Short form for World Wide Web often
referred to as Internet
101
102
Chapter 8
Optimizing Collaborative
E-Commerce Websites for
Rural Production Using
Multi Criteria Analysis
Z. Andreopoulou
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece
T. Koutroumanidis
Democritus University of Thrace, Greece
B. Manos
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece
ABSTRACT
In this chapter, we will discuss the Website features to be accounted while designing a collaborative
Website for e-commerce purposes, making the Website useful and attractive to revisit. Since the sector of
rural production holds difficulties while adopting e-commerce models, the aim of this chapter is to present a methodology aiming to optimize the conceptual content model used in collaborative e-commerce
Websites promoting rural production. The methodology approach concerns the retrieval of the relative
Websites in the Internet. Qualitative and quantitative content characteristics are identified and discussed
in the retrieved Websites to be used as criteria. Websites are further ranked according to 13 criteria using
the multicriteria analysis method. Finally, the retrieved Websites are classified in groups concerning the
above criteria and collaborative Web tools included, aiming to identify the optimum group of Websites.
The optimum group can be used to benchmark the Web design of e-commerce Websites concerning rural
production aiming to incorporate collaborative Web tools and become more appealing to Web users
accustomed to the Internet culture.
INTRODUCTION
The aim of this chapter is to present a methodology aiming to optimize the conceptual content
model for collaborative e-commerce Websites

promoting rural production using the multicriteria
analysis method of PROMETHEE II through the
qualitative Websites evaluation.
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-60960-581-0.ch008
Optimizing Collaborative E-Commerce Websites
Internet is an exceptionally dynamic environment, continually developing and as it has become

a major resource in modern business, many enterprises have already created their Web presence
(Andreopoulou et al., 2008). E-commerce consists
of the distributing, buying, selling, marketing, and
servicing of products or services over electronic
systems such as the Internet and other computer
networks. It is an innovation that changes the
traditional ways of doing business as it provides
a new marketing tool and potential customers for
a firm worldwide. It can involve electronic funds
transfer, supply chain management, e-marketing,
online marketing, online transaction processing,
electronic data interchange, automated inventory management systems, and automated datacollection systems. It typically uses electronic
communications technology such as the Internet,
extranets, e-mail, e-books, databases, and mobile
phones (Lefebvre and Lefebvre, 2002, Lefebvre
et. al., 2005). To many small/medium enterprises
(SME), e-commerce adoption seems to be a very
prospective alternative to the way they do businesses. Enterprises and individuals have become
more familiar to do business as and when they
like, thus long-established enterprises in all areas
of interest are continually searching for internetenabling their products and services (Krueger and
Swatman, 2004).
The perceived strengthening of a companys
competitive position may often be the justification
for a company to adopt e-commerce (Loughlin,
1999). E-commerce not only stimulates European
companies to economic growth and to an investment in innovation, but also it can increase industrial competition because nowadays everyone can
access the Internet (Edwards, 2002). Business-toconsumer electronic commerce (B2C) is a form
of electronic commerce in which products or
services are sold from a firm to a consumer. It is
evident that, if a commercial business-to consumer
(B2C) Website is to successfully generate sales,
that Website must have features that appeal to
potential buyers (Blake et al., 2005).
Companies that provide products or services

directly to customers are called direct sellers. These
types of B2C companies are the most well-known.
There are two types of direct sellers: e-tailers and
manufacturers. a) E-tailers: Upon receiving an
order, the e-tailer ships products directly to the
consumer or to a wholesaler or manufacturer for
delivery and b) Manufacturers: The manufacturer
sells directly to consumers via the internet. The
goal is an extended e-commerce adoption aiming
to remove intermediaries, through a process called
disintermediation -not a new idea as catalogue
companies have been utilizing this method for
years- and to establish direct customer relationships (Haag et al., 2004). On the other hand, B2B,
or B-to-B e-commerce represents roughly 7085%
of total e-commerce activities OECD, 2004).
This chapter discusses the special Website
features that are necessary to be accounted while
designing a collaborative Website for e-commerce
purposes making the site useful and attractive to
return to. Also, the perspectives and drawbacks
concerning e-commerce adoption regarding rural
production will be stated and will be presented the
various stages of e-commerce adoption. Details
will be presented about the adopted methodology
using the multi-criteria analysis method of PROMETHEE II, and compared to other multi-criteria
decision-making methods, aiming to optimize the
conceptual content model of collaborative e-commerce Websites promoting rural production. The
identified Website features to be used as criteria
will be discussed with focus on the collaborative
character of the Websites. The total ranking and
grouping will be presented and the optimum
group identified will be further described and will
be discussed in comparison to the collaborative
Web tools. Finally a case study of timber trade
enterprises in Greece will be presented..
103
DESIGNING A COLLABORATIVE
WEBSITE FOR E-COMMERCE
PURPOSES
The way to build a successful Website is the keypoint that all enterprises considering initiatives
in the Web have to face (Rosen and Purinton
2004). A business Website has been mentioned
as a business storefront (Calitz and Scheepers
2002). It is evident that, if a commercial businessto consumer (B2C) Website is to successfully
generate sales, that Website must have features
that appeal to potential buyers (Blake et al., 2005).
Some important factors to take into consideration
for an enterprise while planning to set up an ecommerce Website can be the time needed for the
development of the Website and also the costs.
While aiming to design and develop an effective
e-commerce Website, either Web-designers or
enterprises should consider following worldwide
accepted guidelines (Nielson, 2001). However, the
international e-commerce literature has rarely addressed the measurement of customer perceptions
of Website service quality in digital marketing
environments (Wang and Tang, 2004).
Among Website evaluation, usability of the
Website is another primary concern. The usability of a user interface refers to the smoothness
and easiness with which a user is able to interact
with a system without thinking about it. This
implies that they can do so naturally or without
feeling discomfort, either physical or mental
(Andreopoulou et.al., 2009). This is in line with the
definition of usability offered by the International
Organization for Standardization, which is: the
effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction with
which specified users achieve specified goals in
particular environments (Hillier, 2003). But its
not only usability that affects a Websites appeal
and visits. Studies have identified a number of
specific Website features (actual or perceived)
that impact Website appeal. Among these Website
features are: security, vividness and its correlated
riskiness, approval by referent others, like family
104
or friends, feature organization, quality of content, price, recognizability and/or desirability of

brand, and time delay/download speed (Blake et
al., 2005). Another important factor is the cultural
context of the audience that needs to be taken into
consideration.
This is particularly important in the light
of global e-commerce efforts where success of
business is dependent upon the successful interaction with a multitude of imagined audiences via
electronic means (Hillier, 2003). As it concerns
the language of the e-commerce Website, Shea,
Ariguzo and White (2008) argue that one tipping point has already occurred the majority
of users on the internet today are non-native
English speakers. The next tipping point, not too
far away, is when non-native English speakers
conduct the majority of e-commerce and further
discuss internet usage trends, including language
and diffusion models.
Since the primary measures of Website success
are high levels of user acquisition and retention,
only those sites that attract and maintain the desired target audience and build valuable customer
relationships will have the potential for long-term
success (Clarke and Flaherty 2003). Even private/
informational portals, to become successful, must
entice busy employees to alter well-established
informational search habits (Clarke and Flaherty,
2003).
Other studies within Websites evaluation have
analyzed the functions or roles played by specific
Website features as they contribute to Website appeal, such as seven functions impacting customer
loyalty to a Website: (1) customization; (2) contact
interactivity; (3)cultivation (i.e. provision of information/incentives to extend customer purchasing over time); (4) care (operationally, features
that keep customers informed of the availability of
preferred products and/or of the status of orders, or
that minimize service description); (5) provision
of a structure to facilitate exchange of opinions/
information; (6) product variety; (7) character
(i.e. text / graphics / slogans, etc. projecting an
image or personality of the merchant). Other functions include navigability, communication utility,
responsiveness, entertainment value, convenience
and flow. Interactivity has been widely proposed
as a force for site appeal (Blake et al., 2005).
Connalen (1999) had claimed that since Web
based applications execute business logic, the most
important models of a Web-based system should
focus on the business logic, not on presentation
details. Moraga et al. (2006) in their study present a brief overview of some proposals for portal
quality models.
Social networking has been a part of the new
internet culture for most of the net users and they
are used to interact with collaborative Web tools.
As e-commerce can be successfully conducted
through email, instant messaging and social networking sites, e-commerce Websites provide a
volunteer sign-up option to their virtual customers.
Emails to inbox and text messages to cell phone are
received from recipients that have already signed
up at the Website aiming to be informed about one
or more categories of products or services they
are interested in. Nevertheless, email-recipients
can preferably be removed from the mailing list
of enterprises. Another key characteristic of a ecommerce Website is personalization, a Website
feature where information is gathered and stored
about Website visitors, the information is analyzed,
and, when the visitors access the Website using
some ID, the proper information is delivered. It
constitutes a key technology especially for managing Website content (Chiu, 2001).
The security of commercial transactions on the
Internet is one major issue for internet clients and
it is usually contemplated with commonly-used
protocols, such as Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)
and Transport Layer Security (TLS), included in
most Web server products. They use the publicand-private key encryption system and include
the use of a digital certificate.
E-Commerce Adoption
and Rural Production
We can all profit from numerous e-services provided through the WEB and new opportunities emerge
concerning economic growth, better health, improved service delivery, learning through distance
education models, and social and cultural advances
(World Bank, 2003). E-services should be used as
an important component in achieving sustainable
development in rural areas and therefore it should
be encouraged (EU, 2007). Enterprises dealing
with rural production and located in rural areas,
away from great urban markets, can be benefited
from the enhanced communication between Web
customers and enterprises provided by the internet
using e-commerce Websites as a means.
Since the implementation of e-commerce
needs time to grow, in various research efforts,
researchers have presented a 4 stages adoption
model (Rao et al, 2003) that represents 4 different distinctive categories or adoption stages for
an enterprise with varying strategic objectives
and aspirations. Therefore, stages of adoption
start from simple Web presence and gradually
increase the deployment of ICT as to the total
integration or transformation.
The primary stage of adoption, which is
simple presence in the Internet, is defined as
the stage that the enterprise seeks to guarantee
its presence in the Internet and to be advertised.
These kinds of Websites have no possibility for
user-interaction. In further stages of e-commerce
adoption, the Website beyond the presence of the
enterprise in the Internet, gives the possibility to
the potential client to search into the Website as
well as the provision of useful links, and that is
usually identified as the second stage of adoption.
In the next stage, the enterprise allocates applications of e-commerce such as EDI (Electronic
Data Interchange). Consequently the enterprises
can exchange by electronic means their papers
and credentials; they also have the possibility
to provide alternatives to credit card methods
105
of payment like cash on delivery, wire transfer,

checks by post and fax orders. In this state, the
whole management of supply chain is automated
with a Supply Chain Management (SCM) system.
Supply Chain Management (SCM) is also recognized by Subramanian and Iyigungor (2008),
as a core competitive strategy for businesses
because a strong supply chain provides products
and services to consumers faster, cheaper, and
better. In the final stage of total ICT adoption,
where the value chain is optimized, as it gives its
custumers the possibility for online orders and
online payments, while they are simultaneously
in position to check the stage of their order. An
ERP system constitutes a complete proposal for
the management of all operations of an organization and its major benefit of the adoption of an
ERP system is the single technological platform,
which allows the homogenisation of information
and consequently leads to increased efficiency
(Vlachopoulou and Manthou, 2006).
Lefebvre et al. (2005), in their study on ecommerce adoption in SMEs, tried to identify
and validate metrics for B2B e-commerce adoption, related benefits and to further validate the
e-commerce adoption trajectories that were observed and their potential. A literature review on
e-commerce adoption is also described in Hong
and Zhu (2006). An extensive literature review
concerning SME-eBusiness journal articles
published between 2003 and 2006 is presented in
Parker and Castleman (2007) where they broadly
analyse the SME - eBusiness literature mainly
based on the data collection methodologies,
countries and e-business technologies, and also
the primary research objective of each article.
It is anticipated that e-commerce adoption in
agricultural sector will probably require more time
than it was expected, yet, concerning the obstacles
for e-commerce adoption in agricultural sector,
the special Website features and characteristics
for agriculture are quoted in various studies as:
a) behavior against change from the managers,
b) lack of familiarity with the information tech-
106
nology, c) location and organizational structure,

d) differentiation of prices and transactions due
to differences in place-distance, in the time of
delivery and the quality of the order, e) desire of
the customer to see, smell, process and taste the
products, before he buys them, f) lack of trust,
that is often a build out of human interaction, g)
demographic characteristics and personality of
the people of the agricultural economic sector, h)
transactions in agriculture is more a way of life,
i) internet access, connectivity characteristics
such as cost, in relation to the distance, and the
unequal growth of information technology locally,
j) weakness of the farmers to see the returns they
will have from the cost of transformation of the
way they function, due to lack of information,
k) especially, when it comes to the development
cost of the right technological structure, we must
separate the simple capability of query through
the Internet and the practice of Internet Marketing, l) change in the current industry structure
and m) increasing complexity of products sold in
market places (Hooker et.al., 2001, Leroux et.al.,
2001, Porter, 2001, Andreopoulou et. al., 2009,
Andreopoulou et.al., 2009a).
METHODOLOGY
Qualitative and quantitative content characteristics
are identified in the retrieved Websites that are
further ranked according to content characteristics/criteria using the multicriteria method of
PROMETHEE II. Finally, the retrieved Websites
are classified in groups, aiming to identify the
optimum group of Websites concerning total and
collaborative criteria achieved. The methodology
approach concerns the retrieval of the relative
Websites in the Internet using a hypertextual
search engine with the aim of key words and their
combinations.
Initially, the collected Websites are evaluated
as to their qualitative characteristics in order to
examine the type of common characteristics that
is found in the Websites. There are various material Website features introduced in the retrieved
Websites, aiming to promote the rural production
and the enterprise involved. These features are
grouped and are further attributed to variables X1
to Xn that describe a group of common Website
features or characteristics.
The Function of E-Commerce

Website Features to Become
Optimization Criteria
A typical qualitative analysis and evaluation of
the content introduced in the Websites promoting
rural production for Greece identifies 13 different
types of Website features and they are presented
in Table 1. Yet, the number of features included
could possibly vary according to the special
thematic of the rural production and the relative
penetration in the market.
In general, promotional information about
rural products and services (X1) is the basic content anticipated from customers from e-commerce
Websites. Moreover, guarantee certificates and
ISO about production can be most attractive to
Web customers. Price-lists in the Website can be
really useful for the client, aiming to perform a

market research, based on both rural products
characteristics and prices (X2). Special offers in
season products can also be appealing to customers. Thus, information about the carrier/owner of
the enterprise (X3) is a very important factor as
brand names found in a Website can be tempting
and communication features, when included, allow the customer to directly communicate with
the enterprise either online or physically, by telephone or fax, provided there is a physical enterprise
in addition to the virtual on the Internet.
Information about the policy of the enterprise
about transaction found in the Website is another
useful Website feature for Web customers, as
locality in distribution places, order and payment
policy are decisive factors for accomplishment of
the transaction (X4). Various useful links in an
e-commerce Website referring to other relative
companies, firms, organizations, carriers, etc is
an appealing feature for Web customers in their
marketing research, as they can be informed more
thoroughly (X5). Links included in the Website
that lead to Websites concerning relative thematic,
such as the local area information, the species
of production, etc can be appealing for the Web
Table 1. Description of the criteria studied for a Website and attributed variable
Variable
Criteria Achieved by the Website
X1
Information about the products/services
X2
Information about the current prices for the products/services
X3
Information about the carrier/owner/communication
X4
Information about transaction policies and local information
X5
Links to other relative companies, organisations, carriers, etc.
X6
Links to other relative elements and sources of information
X7
Enabled online transactions with traditional ways of payment,
X8
Enabled online transactions with also enabled online payment
X9
On line communities such as forums and chat rooms
X10
Additional topics with information on different categories of interest
X11
Code Access (Website areas where access is allowed only for members through codes or passwords)
X12
Third person advertisement,
X13
Personalization of the page, trace, safety
107
customer and reinforce the informational role of

the Website apart from being promotional (X6).
On-line transactions include the communication of the customer with the enterprise with eordering through online order forms and usually
follow on line confirmation of the order through
the Website. Thus it is enhanced collaboration of
the Website. Hence, online transactions can be
fulfilled either with traditional ways of payment
(X7), such as payment locally, on delivery, in
the bank, etc or on line payment using additional
e-banking features (X8).
Another interesting collaborative feature identified within rural production Websites evaluation
are online communities, forums, news groups and
chat-rooms (X9) where Web users and regular
Web site visitors of the specific Website use the
possibility to communicate with each other their
ideas, based on the emerging internet culture of
social networking. That is also a challenging
feature for Web users to become regular users.
The effectiveness and usefulness of e-commerce Websites can be enriched when there are
evaluated additional topics with information on
different categories of interest, yet of interest
to Web customers. These topics can be weather
reports, news, stock market news, recipes and
cooking proposals, etc (X10) that also constitute
a key factor for Web users to repetitively visit
the specific Website, to bookmark it and further
become permanent users and consequently clients.
The Website feature of code access refers to
Website areas where access is allowed only for
site-members through codes or passwords (X11).
These mechanisms grant code permission to
registered users, extend their security and allow
them to access significant options, information
and privileges, such as special offers, e-ordering,
bonus, etc. Ordinary security methods provide
rights to users based on their log-on credentials,
which are mainly their password; moreover they
define and restrict the directories and files an occasional user is allowed to access.
108
The Website feature of third person advertisement in an e-commerce Website provides

additional information on products and services to
Web users (X12). Banners, pop-ups and specific
frames invite users to also buy other products and
services or register to become members or receive
information on emails, text messages, participate
in gift raffles, etc.
Finally, the Website feature of personalization
of the page along with trace and safety features are
enhanced options (X13) that aim to give special
treatment to repeat Website visitors who buy and
increase its sense of security.
The Websitesevaluation is further carried out
through a quantitative analysis, in order to examine
the presence or absence of n criteria in the collected
Websites and evaluate the services/functions of
the Websites, as it was previously described. A
2-dimentional table is developed that examines
the existence of criteria for each case. Whenever
a criterion i was achieved for a Website, the value
1 was attributed to the respective variable Xi aiming at justifying the relative function within the
evaluation of the Website. Consequently, if that
specific criteria i is absent, the value 0 is attributed
to the variable Xi respectively. The study also included the total amount of criteria achieved in each
Website and the number of present characteristics
attributed to a new variable, named T. Variable T
presents the number of characteristics/ achieved
criteria that are achieved in each Website where
T is a number between 1 and n.
Multi Criteria Analysis Method for

Ranking and Grouping the Websites
Further, the total ranking of the Websites is performed and the method used is the multicriteria
analysis PROMETHEE II. That method applies a
linear form of function using the characteristics of
the Web pages as criteria. The PROMETHEE II
method is part of the outranking relations theory
(Brans and Vinke, 1985; Brans et al. 1986; Siskos
and Zopounidis 1987; Brans et al 1987; Brans et

al 1998, Zopounidis 2001).
The PROMETHEE II methodology was selected in order to perform evaluation and ranking
tasks, for the following reasons: a) because the
estimated relation of superiority (of one Website
over another) is less sensitive in small changes
and that offers an easier analysis and discussion
of the results (Zopounidis, 2001), b) the use of
the superiority relation in the PROMETHEE II
method is applied when the alternative solutions
(Websites) have to be ranked from the best to the
worst (Zopounidis, 2001), and c) the procedure
of assessing and ranking complicated cases of
Websites is proper for the application of the above
methodology in the sense that it is closer to reality
(Zopounidis, 2001).
There exist two types of the PROMETHEE
methodology, PROMETHEE I that ranks partially
and also, PROMETHEE II, which performs a full
and complete ranking, based on all of the input
data. The PROMETHEE II methodology was
applied in this project because an overall ranking
was required. It is also important that our variables concern qualitative data and PROMETHEE
II methodology can successfully deal with that
prerequisite (Koutroumanidis et.al., 2004).
Moreover, regarding the application of PROMETHEE II in the field of agriculture and environment, there are many recent research papers
where the method is successfully applied in rural
production issues (Koutroumanidis, et.al., 2002;
Andreopoulou et.al., 2005, Polyzos and Arabatzis,
2006; Andreopoulou et.al., 2008, Andreopoulou
et.al. 2009a).
The PROMETHEE methodology fits better to
the targets of the project even if it is compared
to other well-established methods. Other multicriteria methodologies, such as the ELECTRE
methods are methods of superiority that use the
rule of majority inside a relation of superiority.
The target in the ELECTRE is to determine an
alternative Website, which is relatively good,
based on a majority of criteria without being too
bad according to the rest of the criteria (Koutroumanidis et.al., 2004). Even so, this is not the
objective of this project where the objective is the
total evaluation of the Websites.
The AHP method is another recognized and
generally applied method (Koutroumanidis, et.al.,
2004) although, according to Alphonce (1997), the
ability of the AHP to analyze different decision
factors without the need for a common numerate, other than the decision makers assessments,
makes it one of the favorable multicriteria decision support tools when dealing with complex
socioeconomic problems in developing countries.
The PROMETHEE II method uses six types
of general criteria with the corresponding criteria
functions, in order to determine the superiority
(outranking) between two alternative solutions. In
our case, the aim was to determine the superiority
of one Website over another. The general level test
criterion was selected for this project, corresponding to a criterion function, which has an interval
region for the determination of superiority (Brans
and Vinke 1985; Roy 1991).
The n collected Websites were examined in
pairs as alternative solutions (ki, kj) with i=1,2,
n and j=1,2n as to their supremacy,
i.e. which of the two Websites excelled based on
the criteria used. The function H(d), which was
used to express superiority, was the following:
P (vi, vj), outranking of Website vi, if d 0
H (d) = { (1) P (vj, vi), outranking of Website vj,
if d< 0
where P(vi, vj), P(vj, vi) are the functions of preference, and d is the difference between the values
of each pair of Websites (vi, vj), for the criterion
under evaluation.
When we examined which of the two Websites
(vi, vj) is superior, the superiority function H(d)
was applied according to the value d (positive or
negative) for each criterion. In this paper, we used
the variables X1,.., Xn, which are the criteria
109
described in Table 1. The variables are unambiguous and are marked with 0 and 1. For this reason,
the function used is of linear form =1.
The multicriteria indicator of preference (vi,
vj) which is a weighted mean of the preference
functions P(vi, vj) with weights wi (for each criterion we have one weight) defined by the researcher,
express the superiority of Website vi against
Website vj after all the criteria have been tested.
The values of (vi, vj) are calculated using the
following equation (Brans et al 1987):
k
(vi , v j ) =
t (vi , v j )
W
t =1
(2)
t =1
It should be mentioned that k=n is defined to

be the number of criteria and Pi (vi, vj) the preference functions for the n criteria. The multicriteria
preference indicator (vi, vj) takes values between
0 and 1.
When two Websites (vi, vj) are compared, one
is assigned two flow values: outgoing flow and
incoming flow. The outgoing flow expresses the
total superiority of Website vi against all other
Websites vj for all criteria. The outgoing flow is
calculated by the following equation (Baourakis
et al 2001):
+ (vi ) =
(v , v )
v j A
(3)
In both cases, A is defined as the number of

alternative solutions for Websites vi.
The incoming flow expresses the total superiority of all other Websites vi against Website vj
for all criteria. The incoming flow is determined
by the following equation (Baourakis et al 2001)
(vi ) =
110
(v , v )
v j A
(4)
The total net flow for each Website vi is then

estimated as their difference. The net flow for each
Website vi is estimated by the following formula:
(vi ) = + (vi ) (vi )
(5)
It is used for the comparison between the Websites in order to obtain the ranking, as each Website
with a higher net flow is considered superior in
ranking. Moreover, the total flows allow a further
grouping of the cases using also the variable T.
Finally, the variable T, representing the sum
T of achieved criteria for each Website and the
total net flow for each Website is used for the
classification of the Websites in groups.
In the optimum Group are classified Websites
that achieve the higher value of T, as representing
the number of criteria t achieved and the higher
total flows . It is evident that these Websites
present a very high superiority against the rest
of the cases. This is identified to be the optimum
group compared to all the other Websites concerning the existed criteria/ content Website features.
Further, each group is also discussed in terms of
collaborative criteria.
COLLABORATIVE WEBSITES
OF TIMBER SMES IN GREECE
As it concerns the timber SMEs in Greece, various
enterprises, have a Website, with enhanced collaborative character. Recent research has revealed
that Websites concerning forest products in Greece
are still in the simple internet presence stage, a
low e-commerce adoption stage, in a percentage
of 34% (Andreopoulou et al., 2005). Within the
same research, it is identified that 26% of these
Websites are classified in the second stage of
interaction. Further, 20% of the sites are classified in the third stage of transaction and, finally,
only 20% of the retrieved Websites are classified
in the final stage of transformation. Typology of
agri-business in Greece provided similar findings

concerning e-commerce adoption (Andreopoulou,
et.al., 2008) as also in research concerning Websites that promote local regional development,
usually through development agencies and their
classification (Andreopoulou et.al., 2007).
Regarding the application of PROMETHEE II,
aiming to obtain ranking in the field of agriculture
and environment, there are various research papers
in Greece where the method is successfully applied
(Koutroumanidis, et.al., 2002; Koutroumanidis
et.al., 2004, Polyzos and Arabatzis, 2006) Moreover, assessment and ranking of e-commerce Websites and optimization of the conceptual framework
is also presented in studies (Andreopoulou et.al.,
2005, Andreopoulou et.al., 2008, Andreopoulou
et.al. 2009, Andreopoulou et.al. 2009a).
The adoption of collaborative e-commerce
Websites promoting rural production within timber
sector was studied for the case of Greece and the
optimum group among the cases was identified to
serve as a model while designing new Websites
or updating existing ones.
The Websites that were used for the research
were collected from the Greek Internet with the
use of proper search engines and key words concerning wood and timber trade, wood processing
units, wood products, etc. The Websites represent
commercial enterprises, usually SME in the wood
and timber trade sector such as wood industries,
wood processing and products units, timber trade
enterprises, and wood products making use of
e-commerce possibilities. There are registered
103 similar enterprises in Greece (National Statistics of Greece, 2001). Research through search
engines on the Internet resulted in the retrieval of
44 Websites concerning enterprises in the Greek
territory that trade timber, wood products, and/or
wood processing etc. That represents a percentage
of 42% among the total of similar enterprises in
Greece that have already initiated e-commerce
activities so far.
Initially, qualitative analysis was performed in
order to examine the type of common content that is
found in these Web pages; various Website features

are necessary to be accounted while designing a
collaborative Website for e-commerce purposes
to formulate the conceptual content making the
Website useful and attractive to return to. Then
a quantitative analysis was carried out, in order
to examine the presence or absence of common
characteristics.
There was a variety of material introduced
in the retrieved Websites, aiming to promote
the products and the enterprises. There were 13
Website features identified to be used as criteria.
Additionally, a 2-dimentional table was developed
and was used in order to examine the existence
of criteria and evaluate the services/functions
of the Websites, as it was previously described.
For that purpose the values were attributed to
variables X1 to X13, respectively. Whenever a
criterion was achieved for a Website the value 1
was attributed to the respective variable aiming at
justifying the relative function within the evaluation of the Website.
The findings are presented in Table 2. The
collaborative criteria represented by X9 to X13
have been highlighted. The achievement of each
content characteristic in the retrieved Websites
was analyzed and the total amount of content
characteristics achieved in each Website was also
studied. For each timber enterprise Website, the
total number of present characteristics is attributed
to a new variable; named T. Variable T presents
the total of characteristics/achieved criteria 1 to
13 that are present in each Website.
All of the cases of the retrieved Websites
(100.0%) include detailed information about the
products/services provided and that constitutes a
key Website feature, as along with promotional
informational material, guarantee certificates and
ISO about production can be most attractive to
Web customers. In a percentage of 90.9% of the
timber Websites, there is identified promotional
and informational material concerning the enterprise. Famous brand names are attractive and
contact information features enhance online sales
111
Table 2. Achievement of criteria/characteristics of the Websites (X9 to X13, shown in bold represent the
collaborative criteria)
URL
X1
X2
X3
X4
X5
X6
X7
X8
X9
X10
X11
X12
X13
Timbertrager.gr
Xylemporia.gr
Vernikoslines.com
Alfawood.gr
Guhellas.gr
Stassinopoulos-timber.gr
Arbortimber.gr
Fouras-messalas.gr
Akritas.gr
Courva,gr
Mourikis.gr
Parke.gr
Shelman.gr
Xylotomi.gr
Giotas.gr
Topmaterial.gr
Al-co.gr
Xilodome.gr
Karabela.gr
Darmak.gr
Kollimenos.gr
Abex.gr
Kabawood.gr
12
Tsoukas-xyleia.gr
Peristeropoulos.gr
Tompoulidis.gr
Gkanis.gr
Eltop.gr
12
Papaderos.gr
Gilas.gr
Nousiasbros.gr
Elaton.gr
Progresscom.gr
Timberwood.gr
Wands.gr
12
Allwood.gr
10
Elvex.gr
Ntex.gr
continued on following page
112
Table 2. continued
URL
X1
X2
X3
X4
X5
X6
X7
X8
X9
X10
X11
X12
X13
Hithellas.gr
11
Xilia.gr
10
Gla.gr
Eco-bros.gr
Xylon.gr
Kastritsis.gr
as they allow the Web customer to easily communicate with the enterprise either online or
physically.
Information on transaction fulfillment and
policy of the enterprise are found in 79,5% of the
Websites. Locality in distribution centers, delivery
policy, order fulfillment and payment policy are
decisive factors for Web customers.
The collaborative character of the Websites
is enhanced with on line ordering forms and on
line confirmation (50%), even succeeded via
traditional ways of payment, on delivery, in the
bank, etc However, only in the 18.2% of the cases
the economic transaction can be fulfilled with on
line payment using e-banking features.
The useful links Website feature sometimes
refer to other relative companies, firms, organizations, carriers, etc is found in 43.2%), an appealing
Website feature for marketing research. Links
included in the Website concerning relative issues, such as the local area information, carriers,
the species of production are found in 34.1%, and
is appealing for the Web customer because they
strengthen the informational role of the Website
apart from the promotional.
Areas where access is allowed only for members through codes and passwords (code access)
is identified in 15.9% of the cases and allow
Web customers to access significant options, information and privileges, such as special offers,
e-ordering, bonus, etc. In 29.5% of the Websites
there is the possibility for personalization of the
Website, a process where information is collected
for regular Website visitors that buy from that
Website and they enjoy special treatment, additional information beyond their interests, etc,
based on their prior data analysis.
Yet, another interesting collaborative feature
found in timber sales Websites is on line communities such as forums, news groups and chat rooms,
which appear in 22.7% of the cases, allowing the
enhanced collaborative character of the Website, as
Web users are used in the new internet traditions.
Third person advertisement is found in 20.5%
of the cases, where banners, pop-ups and frame
advertisement challenge visitors to furthermore
purchase different products and services or to
become members in advertisement lists, to receive
information on emails, text messages, to win free
gifts, to participate in raffles, etc.
However, the less frequent Website feature that
of current price-lists for the products or services
of the enterprise, with 11.4%, although price-lists
are useful for the Web customer, aiming to perform
a market research, based on both rural products
characteristics and prices. It is identified that the
majority of the studied Websites (40.9%) achieve
3 to 4 criteria. These enterprises are really in a
primal stage of e-commerce adoption, the stage
of presence that ensures that the Website is accessible by Web users to only visit and interact
with the interface in order to gain information.
Additionally, 34% of the Website cases achieve
5, 6 and 7 criteria and they present an enhanced
collaborative character.
Finally, the optimum group derived from total
ranking of the timber enterprises Websites using
the multicriteria analysis PROMETHEE II is pre-
113
sented in Table 3. The same Table 3 also includes

the total net flows estimated for each Website and
it is used for the comparison between the Websites
in order to obtain the ranking, as each Website
with a higher net flow is considered superior in
ranking. The total sum of achieved criteria T for
each Website is also included in the table.
According to these findings, the values estimated for total net flows present a great spectrum of values between +13,242 to 9,740 and
indicate a great difference concerning superiority between the first and the last case in the
ranking of the enterprises Websites. Moreover,
the total flows of the enterprises Websites, as
derived from the application of PROMETHEE II
method, allow a further grouping of the cases and
to generate 5 groups as described in the following
section.
Discussion of Identified Groups

The 5 groups of timber enterprise Websites that
were identified are as follows:
Group-1: The Optimum Group

In this group, six timber enterprises Websites are
classified that achieve 10-12 criteria and they
present a very high total flows (9,104 13,242)
that present a high superiority against the rest
Table 3. Total ranking of the Websites, sum of
achieved criteria for each Website, total net flows
and classification, in the optimum group-1
Total
Ranking
1
URL of
enterprise
Wands.gr
T sum of
Achieved
criteria
12
(total net
flows)
13,24226409
Kabawood.gr
12
13,20479883
Eltop.gr
12
12,94066679
Hithellas.gr
11
11,551761
Allwood.gr
10
9,144272127
Xilia.gr
10
9,104408761
114
of the cases. This is identified to be currently the

optimum group compared to all the other Websites
concerning the existed achieved characteristics T
and net flows. These Websites also achieve criteria enhancing the collaborative character of the
Website, such as online communities to promote
communication among regular Website visitors
(in 5 out of 6 enterprises classified in group-1),
code access for improved privileges to users using
ID, passwords, etc, third person advertisements
through banners, etc to increase interactive character of the Website and variety, site personalization
to give special treat to regular Website visitors who
buy from the Website and additional information
of interest for the Web customers. Consequently,
they are more appealing to Web customers. 13.6%
of the cases are classified in this group.
Group-2: The Superior Group

In this group, seven timber enterprises Websites
have been classified, that achieve 7-8 criteria and
medium total flows (1,986 4,854) that present a
good superiority against the rest of the cases. In
group 2, 15.9% of the cases are classified. These
Websites include mainly two collaborative Web
tools, which is online communities and code access in most of the cases.
Group-3: The Equilibrium Group

In this group, eight Websites of timber enterprises
close to zero total flows (-0,989 0,845) that
present an equilibrium between superiority and
lag against the rest of the cases. In group 3 are
classified 18.1% of the cases. They usually have
only one collaborative Website feature that is
personalization in most of the cases.
Group-4: The Average Lag Group

In this group, eleven Websites of enterprises
average negative total flows (-3,331) to (-1,072)

that present an average lag against the rest of
the cases. 25% of the cases have been identified
in this group.
Group-5: The High Lag Group

In that group are classified 11 Websites of enterprises that achieve 2-3 criteria and average negative total flows (-6,796) to (-4,538) that present a
high lag against the rest of the cases. This group
covers 25% of the cases.
The Website Parke.gr, that only achieves 1
criterion, takes by far the last place in ranking
with a very low total flow (-9,740) and present a
very high lag towards the rest of the cases. That
could possibly be identified as Group-6, including
only 1 case, 2.2% of the cases.
Groups 4 and 5 are mainly promotional informational Websites with total lack of collaborative
characteristics, hence they do not allow the Web
customers to collaborate and interact through the
net. Both groups 4 and 5 represent 50% of the cases
studied in this research presenting an average to
high lag, meaning that half of the Websites present
a lag, achieve few criteria, adopt no collaborative
Web tools and occupy negative total net flows.

Through a methodology for qualitative Website
evaluation, six Websites are classified in the
optimum group-1, with 10-12 criteria and they
appear to have a high superiority against the rest
of the cases. These Websites can be used to form
a conceptual content model while Web designing
an enhanced collaborative Website for a rural production enterprise. The model can be a prototype
while developing a Website for a rural production
enterprise in its initial involvement in e-commerce
activities aiming to expand from the physical
store and acquire a virtual storefront. Moreover,
the collaborative character of the Website should
be enhanced while in the process of improving
an existing Website for e-commerce purposes.

Websites classified in groups 4, 5 and 6 with the
worse total ranking, few achieved criteria and no
achieved collaborative Web criteria, should be
optimized to become e-commerce Websites with
a collaborative character promoting rural production, for enhanced online sales, increased number
of regular Website visitors and Website members.
Many Website design tools are available free
on the Web; however, the Web designers should
realize the necessity for introducing collaborative
Web tools in their Websites aiming to reinforce
repetitive Web visitors, who are yet accustomed
to these Website features from everyday internet
culture, portals and social networks.

E-commerce Websites have to adjust in the new
digital era. Enterprises in the rural production
sector, usually SME, have to contemplate their
drawbacks while entering the internet and they
need to improve their net appearance aiming to
become more efficient and profitable.
New internet marketing techniques should be
incorporated in e-commerce Websites aiming to
become more appealing to Web customers. Collaborative Website features should be introduced to
the e-commerce Websites, as that is the emerging
internet trend. If enterprise managers realize that
their target audience requests applications such
as e-mail, stock market information, newsgroups,
free software downloads, searching capabilities,
those applications need to be incorporated at this
stage of Website design (Clarke and Flaherty
2003). Among the basic guidelines for identifying
requirements throughout the process of designing
a Website are the deep understand about the end
users and the environment and context in which
the e-commerce Website will be used.
115
CONCLUSION
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Collaborative Web Tools: Special software
provided through the Web, allowing a group of net
users to collaborate having access simultaneously
to the same data, also groupware
E-Commerce Website: A Website especially
designed to serve the needs of an enterprise trading
products or services through the Web
E-Commerce: E-commerce, electronic commerce or EC, is the buying and selling of goods
and services on the Internet
Multicriteria Analysis: Statistical analysis
where multiple criteria/variables are used concurrently
Optimization: The procedure or procedures
used to make a system or design as effective or
functional as possible, especially the mathematical techniques involved, by maximizing desired
factors and minimizing undesired ones
Ranking: Relationship between a set of items
such that, for any two items, the first is either
ranked higher than, ranked lower than or
ranked equal to the second.
Rural Production: Production from rural
areas
Timber Trade: Trade of timber or lumber
Timber: Wood that is used in any of its stages
from felling through readiness for use as structural
material for construction
Web Design: The creation of Web pages, especially in terms of layout and presentation, the
skill of creating presentations of content (usually
hypertext or hypermedia) that is delivered to an
end-user through the WWW
Website: Evaluation: methods and techniques
aiming to assess and evaluate a Website towards
certain criteria and characteristics
Website Feature: Specific characteristic of a
Website either technical or content type
119
120
Chapter 9
Online Grocery Provision

Resistance:
Understanding Urban (Non)
Collaboration and Ambiguous
Supply Chain Environments
Ronan de Kervenoael
Sabanci University, Turkey & Aston University, UK
Burcin Bozkaya
Sabanci University, Turkey
Mark Palmer
University of Birmingham, UK
ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates the resistance by institutional actors in ambiguous supply chain environments
for online grocery provision. Recent studies have shown that significant shifts in urban geographies are
increasing consumers expectations of online retail provision. However, at the same time there is also
growing evidence that the collaborative practice in online grocery provision within the urban supply
chains is resisted. That these trends are found despite growing demand of online provision highlights
both the difficulty of bringing geographically dispersed supply partners together and the problems associated with operating within and across ambiguous environments. Drawing upon twenty-nine in-depth
interviews with a range of institutional actors, including retail, logistics, and urban planning experts
within an urban metropolis in an emerging market, we detail the different ways that collaboration is
resisted in online retail provision. Several different patterns of resistance were identified in (non-) collaboration notably, ideological, functional, regulatory and spatial.
INTRODUCTION
There is no doubt that institutions are becoming
more and more collaborative in nature. Col-
laboration, it seems, is the thing to do for the

contemporary institutions, as affirmed by the
burgeoning supply chain literature on this specific
topic. The thrust of the collaboration argument
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-60960-581-0.ch009
Online Grocery Provision Resistance
is that the firm can leverage benefits to achieve

common goals (Bowersox et al, 2000). Studies
show that the shift from arms length supply chain
relationships defined by minimal information
exchange, separate technological and functional
systems to long term collaborative relationships and is now well underway in practice and
is equally well documented in the academic literature (Simatupang and Sridharan, 2005; Sheu
et al.,2006). Empirically, moreover, collaboration
within the supply chain has been proven to have
many competitive benefits including: decreased
inventory, reduced cost and improved customer
satisfaction through increased delivery speed and
flexibility (Chou et al, 2004). This collaboration
allows firms to respond and adjust according
to consumers expectations for food provision
(Clarke, 2000; de Kervenoael et al, 2006).
Within this research programme the meaning of
collaboration, and its conceptualization within the
supply chain literature, is now routinely taken to
be self-evident, even deproblematized, rather than
contradictory with individual strategy-making
and bound with tensions and conflict. This view
places an emphasis on what firms should do, rather
than what firms actually do in practice when collaborating with partners. There is comparatively
little evidence that firms resist supply chain market driving collaboration practice when shaping
customers expectations and markets through
market-driving behaviour (Jaworski et al., 2000).
However, as Jarzabkowski and Wilson (2002) cogently pointed out, what strategists say they do (or
write in all-embracing partnership mission statements, multi-lateral contracts, annual reports or
company web pages) and what they actually do in
practice whilst strategizing, may be substantially
different. In addition the pejorative of resistance is
usually negative; frequently interpreted as an unintended outcome, or failure to implement change
successfully, or a misunderstanding of merits of
fully appreciating collaboration. It is rarely seen
as a dimension of market-driving behaviour, part
of entrepreneurial deviance, or as an outcome of
dynamic and disruptive innovation, which shapes

consumers expectations and defines environment
boundaries of emerging markets. It is contended
that resistance plays an integral part of collaborative supply chain practice; that is, market driving
behavior is a contested practice that explores and
maps out the market possibilities and, which in
turn, shapes consumers expectations. We argue
in this chapter that understanding the practice of
resistance is an important dynamic in an institutional setting, not least because of its powerful
effect on development of the places and spaces.
Overall, whenever collaborative issues are
examined within the supply chain literature, they
are almost exclusively concerned with the back
end spaces and the upstream activities with the
effective integration of suppliers, manufacturers,
warehouses and stores, rather than front end
spaces and the downstream hinterlands around
consumer provision and consumption activities.
The twentieth century legacy of policy makers
and academics from the de-industrialization
problem the so-called rust belt phenomenon
has been a burgeoning body of research which
is curiously at odds with the new industries, new
emerging markets, new online firms and new
online consumption practice driving and shaping the contemporary global marketplace (e.g.
the culture economy). Traditionally, business
academic research, and supply chain management
scholars in particular, remain either enamoured by
upstream industrial production-led manufacturing
and supply chains, which are driven by selective
bias arising from traditional path dependent research agendas, or, ontologically, research agendas
that are prejudiced towards the so-called elite
knowledge industries (e.g. software, finance)1. If
nothing else, the Western financial crisis during
2008 and the market contagion developing in its
wake has shown the vulnerability and temporality of the so-called knowledge based industries.
Similarly, the consumer marketing literature has
become rather narrow in its scope, dominated by
the wholesale importation of ideas from (social)
121
psychology, and is now relatively detached from

its home provinces of food agriculture, distribution, retailing, and channels, from which the
field emerged during the 1950s. Furthermore,
from a supply chain perspective, research in the
information and technology (IT) field has been
usually limited to the technical challenges associated with data integrity and synchronization, user
interface, scalability and standardization issues
(Hsiao, 2003), neglecting the role of IT artefacts
as potential sites of institutional work and the
various ways that actors can recreate and reshape
institutional processes through IT (see the Orlikowski and Yates, 1994 for an exception). More
often than not, existing theories of food choice
across a number of subject fields fail to consider
the actual practice of consumption, the dynamic
forces and the institutional constraints involved in
developing provision, or the unintended outcomes
of collaborative practice, beyond supplier chain
integration, store choice and product price.
At the same time, the institutional urban
geo-demographics for online consumers, specifically in large metropolises and in the ambiguous
environments of emerging markets, is changing
rapidly. Ambiguous environments are defined
as ones where there is a lack of clarity such that
it is difficult to distinguish the central features
of opportunities (Santos and Eisenhardt 2009).
One aspect of this ambiguity can be seen in the
privatization of public spaces and the creation of
secured cits within the city. Settlement areas
from the traditional core city centres are shifting to
wider urban areas, or regenerated areas, resulting
in the transformation of the settlement structures
from informal small dwellings to secured guarded
luxury complexes (e.g. the so-called gated communities). Despite or perhaps because of a
rather opaque form of urban planning and retail
infrastructure development for new dwellings,
which often emerges after the initial settlement
is created (Punakivi and Saranen, 2001), the remits of the main actors, namely online retailers,
logistic firms and urban planners are converg-
122
ing, and are increasingly interconnected by the

emerging local geography and consumption.
Together, consumers trading-up expectations
and the rapid development of new modes of
dwelling are stretching the capacity of the online
retail business operating models. Two operational
models dominate the market in-store picking
and the distribution centre. Extant studies have
now begun to question whether both models are
operationally ill-equipped, individually, to account
for the changing demography, growing choice
and increasing expectations for online provision.
Any analysis of the development of urban online
grocery provision must accordingly account for
the (non-) collaboration between these actors.
The purpose of this chapter is therefore to
identify crucial gaps in current approaches to
traditional supply chain collaborative practice
and to develop a more holistic perspective that
fills the gaps. This new perspective proposes
that an appreciation of the ways that actors resist
collaborative practice is an essential part of understanding food provision. In order to achieve this,
we develop an understanding of the issues online
retailers, urban planners and logistic providers
typically experience during the transformation of
urban settlement infrastructures and, specifically,
how they respond to the new demographic and
lifestyle found in the gated communities around the
world metropolis for online grocery provision. A
triangulation of actor experiences is fundamental
to understanding resistance practice that constrain,
inhibit or prevent collaboration. The initial findings of twenty nine phone interviews conducted
with experts (i.e. over 10 years of experience) in
online retailing, logistics and urban planning are
presented.
Three gaps have been identified in the literature. First, published work has almost exclusively
focused on the integration and operationalisation
of ex ante and pre-selected trading partners rather
than an ambiguous institutional setting whereby
online retailers are compelled to deliver choice
driven by expressed online consumers demands,
but also latent customer needs. In doing so, we

investigate the resistance within collaborative
practice amongst supply chain partners. Second,
there has been limited consideration regarding
the potential contribution of urban planners as
proactive regulators in shaping (non-) collaborations for online grocery provision. This chapter
identifies important urban-related factors in the
dynamics of (non-) collaboration within the supply chain that have been downplayed or neglected
in much of the existing literature. Third, while
online grocery services are discussed mainly in
developed economies, there has been minimal
analysis of the phenomena in emerging regions,
which fail to take into account the creation of new
management practice out of selective adaptation
within emerging institutional settings.
The chapter is organized as follows. In the
first section we review the existing literature
on resistance in the context of supply chain collaboration. A scenario model is then developed
as the basis for priming our respondents on supply chain partnerships for urban online grocery
provision. The empirical data is preceded by an
explanation of the research methods. Finally, we
discuss emerging theoretical contributions and
policy implications of deepening collaboration
among trading partners, in the specific context
of emerging markets and for rapidly developing
urban areas such as Istanbul.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Supply chain collaboration has been accredited to
several business performance enhancing dimensions for example, lowering risk, time reduction
and quality increment, dependability and global
sourcing (Mentzer et al, 2001). Collaboration is
costly however; firms must commit resources to
redesign internal organizational and technical
resource processes to advance and deepen this collaborative practice. From an operations perspective, particularly in multi-unit distributed firms,
global sourcing represents an important dimension

of increasing choice and provision. Historically,
the provision of goods has been operation supplyled and often organized in a linear fashion and
driven in a sales orientated way. Along the supply chain a shift of power is occurring however;
initially towards retailers as large-scale buyers
and as the main gate keeping sourcing agents, but
increasingly towards the online consumers as the
ultimate buyers and users. Although supply chain
collaborations have allowed greater information
flow, disintermediation, flexibility and the breaking of inter-organizational boundaries to form
extended organizations, choice is still restricted
to what is on offer inside each store/organization.
In effect, choice is determined by the retail buying department, whether on a regional, national
or global basis. Regardless of the proactive supplier initiatives, this traditional paradigm does
not necessarily reflect the emerging interests of
online consumption.
Arguably consumption-led choice pressures
are now shaping and driving supply chains in
ways that requires more mutual operational adjustment. In general, having a good choice of
product and innovative services, and a variety
of lifestyle solutions tailored to individual consumers, constitutes an important dimension that
influences consumption practice (Kirkup et al.,
2004; Garling & Axhausen, 2003; Clarke, 2000;
2004; de Kervenoael et al, 2006). To a considerable extent, these studies debate what constitutes
choice [and conclude that it] is how different
consumers themselves perceive and experience
new [and] and existing retail provision
(Clarke et al, 2006, p28). Significantly though,
consumer perceptions of what constitutes choice
are changing and this bears directly on the nature
of the supply chain collaboration. In addition to
considerable regional variation, supply chain partners must be able to account for contexts in which
both local and global choices are simultaneously
important (the so-called best-of-both-worlds and
hybridization trend), and to capture the complexity
123
and mixtures of consumer choice across different

institutional and cultural settings.
Not surprisingly consumption-led choice
pressures are fostering distinctive forms of online
business challenges. New aspirational lifestyles
are encouraging consumers to think about new
food fashions, to seek variety and experimentation, to discover novel approaches for preparation,
and ultimately go beyond traditional tastes and
conventions. For example, food consumption
immediately links to a range of issues: (i) health,
food safety and food miles; (ii) lifestyle statements
from variety (e.g. locally produced, seasonal items,
fair trade, environmental concerns) and from
depth of the range, not only based on price point
but also on assortment possibilities (iii) social
networks and the exchange of culinary ideas and
practices with each other. Contemporary food consumption is therefore inherently complex social
phenomenon, which cannot be simply framed as
a choice question. With this in mind, we frame it
more broadly as online provision and we define
it as the operation management integration of
handling, convenience, deal and collection point
market opportunities that enable online shopping
and realize online consumers expectations.
The ensuing consumption-led activity and the
associated business supply pressures involved
has made collaboration even more arduous, yet
even important for building provision. This form
of collaboration has moved beyond the control
of online retailers, requires decentralized and
less hierarchical organizational structures and is
dynamically (co-) created by online consumers.
In turn, it is expected that online provision will
result in a seamless flow (one consolidated delivery) rather than in a sequential fashion (multiple
daily delivery for the same online consumer).
At this point, some technical challenges need
to be mentioned but remain beyond the scope
of this chapter. These include data integrity and
synchronization, quality of the automated interorganizational system, user interface, scalability,
control, technology alignment and standardization
124
(Hsiao, 2003). In this new demanding and competitive setting, this will require management commitment to collaboration from all trading partners
and underpinned by openness to innovation and
trust, as suggested in the supply chain literature
(Lewis and Talalayevsky, 1997).
Significantly, in an emerging market where
foreign retail competition is less developed (i.e.
Carrefour and lately Tesco are an exception, while
Wal-Mart has not entered the Turkish market yet)
retailers may find an innovation acceptable in
principle but may decide not to adopt it at that
point in time. Resistance to web-collaboration
thus can occur at various levels, including (i) responsibility sharing, (ii) management execution,
(iii) performance measurement, (iv) planning,
(v) inventory policy, (vi) pricing, (vii) service
level, and (viii) IT standardization. In many cases
the decision to collaborate (or not) is not final,
and thus the situation is similar to Greenleaf and
Lehmanns (1995) delay, as a form of resistance. In parallel, the technology literature bears
directly on the issue, as Ram and Sheth (1989)
has suggested. Here, resistance is a response
based on a conscious choice (Szmigin & Foxall,
1998), defined by Ram and Sheth (1989, p.6) as
the resistance offered by [individuals] to
an innovation, either because it poses potential
changes from a satisfactory status-quo or because
it conflicts with their belief structure.
A much debated aspect regarding online supply
chain collaboration for online grocers relates to
questions of access in any given territory (i.e. how
many online retailers deliver in a given place?) and
also who is ultimately responsible for the order?
Attention is given to those questions precisely
because of the characteristics of groceries (i.e.
refrigeration, established brand preference, tactile
/ visual / odorous characteristics) and non-food
items sold in supermarkets that require regular restocking. From this operational level, a unique set
of resistance patterns are visible amongst supply
chain partners. These include the consideration of
(i) the usage of new technological tools such as
RFID and global positioning system (GPS) tracking, (ii) regular outsourcing of the delivery function, and (iii) possible association and partnership
collaboration strategies to widen accessibility and
stock keeping units (SKU) choices. At this level,
disparities among supply chain partners must not
to be under-estimated. This is neatly captured by
the President of the Turkish Logistics Association
who stated that IT infrastructures in the domestic
logistics firms were not strong. Usage of ERP,
key performance indicators (KPIs) and advanced
technologies in SCM programmes were nearly
non-existent. Essential operation programmes
like storage management, transport management
and barcode systems were not used by most of the
firms. Firms had to invest in upgrading technologies for all of their operations. Yet, investment
requires market confidence, visibility and often
alliances (Yldztekin, 2005).
Another important dimension of collaborative practice is the rhetoric which accommodates
and constructs collaboration amongst partners.
This is most visible in the rhetorical expressions
between partners; for example yours and not
ours and it is the local regulation, you may
not do this here, it is your role that illustrate
this boundary setting and spanning role (Pile and
Keith, 1997). Rhetorical strategies are therefore
used by individual partners to define and reinforce
institutional boundaries what Wainwright (2007)
called the entanglements of power. Rhetoric is
also important for confidence inducing cues, particularly in nascent market institutional settings,
where there is a high degree of uncertainty and
ambiguity and where the act collaborating may
induce confidence from being there with others,
together. For the three actors retailers, logistic
firms and urban planners institutional supporting
cues (i.e. voice within consortia, associations),
leadership signals from press releases and media
buzz surrounding news stories of market driving
innovation resulting from collaboration are important. At the same time it is nonetheless easy to
overlook the fact that economic possibilities and
rewards can stretch visions, resources and capabilities to a point where individual interests may
resist collaborative practice. As Scherer (1980)
explains, firms may compete for jurisdictional
control by constructing barriers for entry and
forging monopolistic and oligopolistic advantage
in a particular technology or geographical market.
In the management literature, resistance is characterized by Collinson (1994, p49) as a behavior
that challenges, disrupts or inverts prevailing
assumptions, discourses and power relations.
Studies tend to portray resistance as a disrupting
force whereby many potential trading partners
are seen as non-participative, which, in turn,
undermines, erodes, impedes the collaborative
practice for driving a market agenda (Knights and
McCabe, 2000; Fleming, 2005). Yet, frequently
the most challenging aspect of resistance acts is
the way that it can remain indirect, underground,
underlying the strategic partner planning process
of the firms (Prasad and Prasad, 2000). In this,
resistance can remain covert and hard to untangle
from the everyday institutional work of supply
chain partners. Developing this conceptual connection, Haynes and Prakash (1991, p3) point
out that resistance is bound up with domination
and all those behaviors and cultural practices by
subordinates groups that contest hegemonic social
formation, that threaten to unravel the strategies
of domination.
Yet another important dimension of collaboration is that the operational models are often built
on the outsourced business approach in effect
outsourcing logistics and delivery operations.
From this perspective, the work by Oreg (2003,
2006) is insightful in that it identifies six drivers of resistance that may affect collaborative
practice (i) reluctance to lose control, when the
control is lost by changes imposed rather than
being self-initiated; (ii) cognitive rigidity where
trait of dogmatism affects individuals approach
to change; (iii) lack of psychological resilience
which is the thought of change entailing a loss
of face by admitting that past practices were
125
faulty; (iv) intolerance to the adjustment period

involved in change; (v) preference for low levels
of stimulation and novelty indicates weaker need
for novel stimuli; (vi) reluctance to give up old
habits that constitutes a comfort zone, familiarity breeds comfort. Supplementing the above
literature review on collaborative resistance, we
now present a scenario model that departs from
the dominant operational models. It therefore
frames the basis of understanding the different
ways that resistance arises from collaborative
ventures in practice.
A SCENARIO MODEL FOR

BUILDING URBAN ONLINE
GROCERY PROVISION
In order to analyze supply chain partnership collaboration, we develop a scenario model that is
used to explore resistance towards collaborative
practice in building urban online grocery provision. While the mathematical resolution of our
proposed model and legal insurance aspects for
partners remain beyond the scope of this chapter,
this scenario model, or framework, is used as a
way to prime our respondents in terms of the
likely resistance faced by supply chain partners
in the collaboration for online grocery provision.
Scenario models are important social stimuli and
are frequently used to elicit responses, particularly
when there may be strategic response bias.
The first part of the scenario model is a modern lifestyle requirement. This scenario model
proposes a high demand for goods entitled premium (e.g. organic fresh vegetable, fish, special
occasion products), and which are typically not
available from the supermarket range and must be
retrieved from elsewhere in the supply network.
That way, in order to accomplish this work there
must be an enhanced collaborative supply chain
partnering approach, whereby premium goods are
acquired from (possibly different) vendors/suppliers at multiple locations in the supply network and
126
delivered to each customers designated delivery

address as one order. This scenario is particularly
insightful not least because of the likely cynicism
(which is a form of resistance) arising from the
notion of premium choice within an emerging
market. That is to say, individual partners may
take a stand that online consumers, particularly
in a developing market, are only interested in low
price and will not be ready to pay extra.
This part of the scenario model can leverage
potentially higher profit margins from selling
premium goods and a greater variety of goods.
We extend the traditional models by including
additional vendor and supply warehouse locations
in our logistics network (Bozkaya et al., 2009).
A customer who orders fresh fish, organic food,
regional products, complementing boutique items
or a specialty gift item is accommodated by rerouting the corresponding delivery truck to the
area where these goods can be picked up and
combined with the rest of the customers shopping bag(s). While this usually means additional
cost on the logistics side (because of employing
more trucks or running longer routes), we offset
this cost by the improved profit margin obtained
from selling the premium goods. We find that this
can only be achieved if there is enough customer
order volume. This result makes it even more
important to consider delivering near-truck-load
orders to large housing complexes (see the case
of Istanbul in methodology).
The second part of the scenario model proposes
that any store may be used as the locus of provision. Traditionally, the proximity of the store (or
hubs) is usually chosen for online grocery provision. This scenario model would further enhance
flexibility within the system in terms of avoiding
trolley picking in a particularly busy store and
further integrate technology by accommodating
specific events (e.g. road works, road accidents)
that could potentially disturb the usual delivery
route. It would also take into account congestion
and non-equitable workload at different locations
ensuring consistency in the service quality. Re-
sistance may appear as tension between offline

store managers fulfilling only part of a given order
regarding, for example, responsibilities in case
of returned products or customer complains. It
is acknowledged that individual stores are often
managed independently even if under the same
group.
The third part of the scenario model is the use
of collection and delivery points (CDPs). Collection and delivery points permit users to return and
collect their online shopping (Fernie and McKinnon, 2004; McLeod et al 2006). A collection and
delivery point can be unattended (for example,
the shared reception box concept) in the form
of locker points, or attended usually located in
service points. However, without control at the
unmanned collection and delivery point, online
supermarkets may deliberately resist this practice
or pass the cost onto other partners. Traditional
collection and delivery points have experimented
with shops-in-shops formats, locations and sites at
petrol stations, post offices, community centers,
tobacconists, underground stations and schools.
Here, resistance drivers can be psychological as
in effect online retailers may be perceived by consumers as selling their products in another shop.
Although this method has been heralded cost savings (e.g. mileage, environmental, time, capacity
utilization) and the possibility of link shopping,
it is still not making the most efficient use of the
local terrain. This model scenario proposes that
orders are consolidated from various providers,
through the use of collection and delivery points,
providing critical mass and worthiness for online
consumers to be present at the final collection and
delivery point. Resistance may be expressed as
animosity from competitive rivalry interaction, as
online supermarkets must effectively work with
their competitors allowing online consumers to
cherry pick products from different websites.
This scenario model is essentially an extension
of the traditional store picking grocery delivery
model. In that model, when a customer orders
online, the goods are typically fetched from the

store nearest to the customers delivery address and
delivered to the customer. Mathematical models
not only decide from which store to deliver to customers, but in what order, as well as determining
which store(s) to convert from a traditional brickand-mortar store to a click-and-mortar store. For
instance, Aksen and Altinkemer (2008) propose
a model to solve a location-routing problem for
companies who wish to operate on the Internet as
an online retailer. This model determines which
store(s) to convert into an online delivery sourcing store as well as the actual routing plan. Other
models attempt to produce efficient solutions for
online retailers in handling the online requests. For
instance, Scott and Scott (2006) point out the vulnerability of a sourcing store to congestion due to
online orders, and propose a mathematical model
that aims to strike a balance between traditional
shoppers and online customers. Campbell and
Savelsbergh (2005) offer customers, incentives to
choose more flexible time windows and reserve
the right to accept or reject an online order for
profit maximization purposes, given the orders
preferred delivery time slot. More recently, Zhu et
al. (2010) attempt to seek logistics cost improvements by merging supplier-to-producer trips with
producer-to-consumer trips, where the producer
can interchangeably be considered as the online
retailer in our context. This is one step beyond the
traditional view of modeling and it is optimizing
an extended part of the supply chain as a more
integrated approach.
Another part of the scenario model is the utilization of multiple trucks, or multiple fleets that
may choose to synchronize their movements to
complete the items on a customers shopping list.
While most items are picked up from a store, others (premium ones) can be fetched from different
vendors using multiple trucks. These trucks will
then meet at what we call transfer points also
regarded as collection and delivery points (CDPs)
to consolidate items from multiple vendors into
127
one delivery. Transfer points can be existing stores,

large parking lots with secured rented space, or
entrance of large housing complexes. Transfer
points may be used for two purposes: immediate
transfer of goods from one truck to another, and/
or storage, for a limited time period, partial orders
delivered by one truck until the main delivery truck
arrives and consolidates the order. Our scenario
model accommodates both of these uses.
The above problem settings can be recognized
as variants of the well-known vehicle routing
problem, which is studied extensively in the operations research and management science literature.
Variants of the problem include the cases with or
without delivery time windows, vehicle capacities,
deterministic or stochastic order locations, split
deliveries, and simultaneous pick-up and delivery
among many others. We refer the interested reader
to the surveys by Nagy and Salhi (2005, 2007),
Parragh et al (2008a, 2008b) and Braysy and
Gendreau (2005a, 2005b), as the details of these
problems and the associated models are beyond
the scope of this chapter.
METHODOLOGY
The purpose of this chapter was to gather nuanced,
institutional embedded insights, into the ways that
actors resist collaboration between different supply chain partners. These insights were gathered
from eliciting and triangulating the opinions of
twenty nine experts (i.e. over 10 years in average
of experience), including online retailers (n=15),
logistic firms (n=7) and urban planners (n=7) in
Istanbul (see the respondent profile in Table 1).
Respondents were asked, through a 60 to 120
minutes semi-structured phone interview, their
perceptions and understanding on the possible
resistance patterns, forms and drivers faced when
trying to develop online grocery provision through
supply chain collaboration practice.
128
The first set of questions was intended to

define the general context and understanding of
each respondent regarding issues within supply
chain collaborative practice. As a subsequent
starting point, a discussion of the challenges and
opportunities to build and strengthen collaboration
between the various actors was used, in conjunction with the scenario model as outlined above.
The second set of questions was aimed at identifying and classifying different types of possible
collaborative resistance patterns already identified
in the literature (see Appendix: Survey Instrument). This formed the basis for probing each
participant (see Miles and Huberman, 1994; Preissle et al, 1994 for an extended summary) and
subsequently Yins (1994) pattern matching strategy was followed. The findings and analysis
proceed concurrently with theorizing (Merriam,
1998). First, all interviews were transcribed and
translated in English using standards back to back
methodology. One author acted as a translator for
all interviews to allow similar sentences and
wording patterns to be consistent allowing
greater interpretative validity. Translated interviews were checked for consistency by their respective respondent if they understood English.
Specific efforts were made regarding the recording of extra noting reflections, anecdotes, examples and side remarks made by respondents to
uncover potential more salient strategies of resistance not to corrupt message content. Second,
each interview was analyzed separately as soon
as it was conducted sorting material to identify
similar sentences, wording, pattern of thinking
and argumentation, justification and logic.
Analysis of early interviews allowed later interviews to benefit from the preliminary insights
into the data (Strauss and Corbin, 1990). The data
were then analyzed as a whole. A peer evaluation
of coding among authors was used whereby each
emerging theme was discussed in depth in an iterative spiral process (Flint and Woodruff, 2001).
The findings were then re-interpreted in view of
Table 1. Respondents profile

Company Profile
Respondent Company
Tesco Kipa
Title
Manager
Age
Range
Sector
Establishment
year
35-40
Retail
1992
Dupont
Sourcing & Logistics Specialist
25-30
Retail
1992
Omsan Logistics
Specialist
25-30
Logistics
1978
Omsan Logistics
Specialist
25-30
Logistics
1978
Philip Morris
Analyst
30-35
Retail
1991
enpili Gda Sanayi A..
Manager
30-35
Retail
1978
Borusan Logistics
Manager
40-45
Logistics
1973
Unilever
Logistics Manager
30-35
Retail
1953
Horoz Logistics
Strategy development&IT manager
30-35
Logistics
1942
Johnson&Johnson
Logistics Manager+Sales Manager
35-40
Retail
Bahivan Gda
Logistics Manager
40-45
Retail
1956
Dzey Pazarlama
Logistics Department Coordinator
30-35
Logistics
1975
Ekol Lojistik
Warehousing-Contract Logistics
25-30
Logistics
1990
Frito Lay Gda Sanayi ve Ticaret
Manufacturing Plant-Logistics Manager
30-35
Retail
1993
Coca Cola
Brand Manager-Marketing Department
25-30
Retail
1964
Kaanlar Gda Sanayi ve TA.
Project and R&D Director
30-35
Retail
1978
Danone
Sales Specialist
30-35
Retail
1997
Nestle
Sales Development Manager
30-35
Retail
1927
Retail
1945
Retail
1980
Retail
1924
Tacirolu-Peysan Gda A..
Sales Coordinator
40-45
Altparmak Gda Sanayi ve Kolektif irketi
Project and Sales Deputee Manager+ Sales

Coordinator
35-40
Elit ikolata ve ekerleme
Logistics Specialist
30-35
TNT
Internal
30-35
Logistics
2000
Bayrampaa Municipality
Urban and zoning director
45-50
Urban Planning
Vektr
Urban planner
40-45
Urban Planning
2005
Bayrampaa Megacenter
Executive director- structure inspector
40-45
Urban Planning
1984
Bayrampaa Megacenter Operating Director
anta and Knal Municipalities Department

of Science affairs ex-manager
50-55
Urban Planning
1984
Mukhtar
Mukhtar
40-45
Urban Planning
stanbul Metropolitan Municipality
Urban planner
40-45
Urban Planning
stanbul Metropolitan Municipality
Urban planner
35-40
Urban Planning
the theoretical background with a focus on flexibility and context. Variance among respondents,
evolution and dependence on one another was
sought. Constant themes, idiosyncratic situations
and linkages between issues were made explicit.
The findings presented here remain exploratory.
Institutional Setting Turkey, Istanbul

One particular danger of exploring supply chain
partnering from a macro level lies in the possibility of eclipsing the situated practices through
129
which identities and places are contested, produced

and re-worked in particular localities (Pile and
Keith, 1997 p. 87). Regarding the macro retail
infrastructure in Turkey, it has been reported that
the number of hypermarkets and supermarkets
has quadrupled between the years 1998 and 2008,
increasing from 2,135 to 8,252 stores. Meanwhile,
the number of small grocers declined 23 percent in
the same period, from 155,000 to 113,000 stores
(Hurriyet Daily News, 2009). Alongside this
trend, the 2000s has seen a tremendous growth
in Internet usage (a recorded 700 percent growth
experienced between 2000 and 2007) and a rapid
increase in online shopping activity across Turkey,
but particularly within the urban areas. In 2008,
for example, over 16 million users were online
with total sales of USD 200 million (Aydin, 2007).
From a socio-geographical distribution of
consumers in Istanbul (see figure 1), the prime
catchment individuals (e.g. time-poor, cash-rich)
increasingly live in newly developed micro-concentrated areas around the city. The city currently
has over 12 million inhabitants growing at a rate
of 500,000 a year over the last 10 years. Planning
has become a key issue to prevent the development
of overnight dwellings in non-authorized areas.
While Istanbul is split between Europe and Asia,
traffic currently flows over two bridges with an
average road speed below 30Kms and forecasted
to be 21Kms within two years, greatly impacting logistic businesses. Social services such as
schools, hospitals, public transport and police or
basic utilities such as water, electricity, gas and
sanitation networks are under-developed and
under-funded. Daily delivery of goods and services
is mainly unregulated, creating competing traffic
with commuters and, at times, virtual gridlock.
Cost of infrastructure maintenance and provision
is not coordinated leading to exploitation of the
system especially in areas regarding parking for
business usage (i.e. triple lane parking of delivery
vans and trucks at any time) and new road construction often driven through political lobbying
rather than need (Tokatli and Boyaci, 1998).
130
Still as in many metropolises both in emerging

and developed economies, the restructuring of
the city over the last ten years has led to the majority of dwellings in Istanbul following three
main genres. The first type encompasses individual homes or apartments without any security
or common/shared services. These are usually
located in the old city centre; tend to be older, in
small streets with little parking space and large
amount of surrounding traffic. Yet, opportunities
to serve and deliver online orders to these relatively heterogeneous consumers through collaboration in few large underground car parks are
present. These underground spaces can potentially be used as drop-off points and short-term
storage areas. The second group represents small
complexes of 25-30 dwellings with security often
classified as regenerated inner city areas in developed economies. The third group represents
large complexes with up to 200 dwellings often
located in land reclaimed from old industrial areas
or located at the border of the city. Type two and
three units have for the majority been built over
the last 10 years. We contend that these two types
represent a significant opportunity for collaborative market-driving supply chain innovation. In
this respect, the chapter takes a stand that Istanbul
as the most developed city in Turkey is not unique
compared to, non-capital, major cities in Europe,
especially Southern and Eastern Europe. Shared
characteristics are: (i) most of the inhabitants in
these units have recently relocated and often lack
retail infrastructure in the immediate surrounding
areas. Some of these complexes are outside the
town in newly developed regions where the retailing structure is often poor, or simply does not
exist; (ii) IT infrastructure are usually provided
to all dwellings offering instant online access to
online retailers. (iii) through the inherent security services provided in these types of dwellings,
easily adaptable already built drop-off and storage
infrastructure are present (e.g. security station at
entrance); (iv) the critical mass for direct marketing can be reached if a minimum level of aware-
Figure 1. Istanbuls population density (2007) (Source: own, adapted from census data and primary
data collection)
ness, information and training is provided by the

retailers on site; (v) going deeper within the local
environment, a breakdown of the type of dwelling
structure and then tenants is possible allowing a
clear segmentation and targeting; and (vi) local
government authorities have difficulties in encouraging collaboration among the myriad of
firms serving the city. Figure 2 exhibit an example of a city in Istanbul.
FINDINGS
This section of the chapter outlines the different
ways in which retail firms react and resist deepening collaboration practices. Our findings point
to resistance patterns including: i) ideological
resistance; ii) functional resistance; iii) regulatory resistance; and iv) spatial resistance. Initially
emphasis was placed upon defining the perceived
future collaboration opportunities for traditional
online grocery and premium sourcing logistic in
the context of Istanbul as a growing metropolis.

The boundaries around the roles of the three actors, namely logistics firms, online supermarket
retailers and urban planners were explored. In the
resistance spirit, respondents were asked to identify bottlenecks to collaboration. These views fully
appreciate the fragmentary nature of collaboration
and the need to reconnect with the reality of urban
development. Each participant described their collaborative practices in the online channel, current
achievements and relative challenges as a starting
point for the discussion. Three key generic drivers
Figure 2. A typical city example in Istanbul
131
to collaboration resistance emerged: (i) the rapidly

developing impact of retail restructuring (e.g.
internationalization of retailers) on collaboration
needs, (ii) the need to re-visit the collaboration
situations currently in operation between the different channels, retail formats (e.g. malls versus
small business and traditional retail spaces such
as markets), and urban needs (e.g. traffic, pollution, parking) including dwelling development
(e.g. cits and privatization of the urban space)
and (iii) the upgrading of logistic models through
information communication techologies allowing
greater collaboration with the final consumers to
deal efficiently with the increasing number of
fragmented deliveries, tractability, quality control
and the usage of vehicles.
In parallel with the market driving nature of
online provision for food products were discussions linked to issues such as (i) collaborative
responsiveness, (ii) collaboration to match supply
and demand and, (iii) collaboration to clear stocks
from a variety of sources. Barriers to access and
to attain a common level of logistics collaboration ability and knowledge strongly influenced
the current decisions to somehow delay further
integration. That is, online grocery logistics collaboration was characterized by a struggle around
action and change versus keeping the status-quo.
This is a common theme across the respondents
quotations:
We are at a crossroad in terms of logistic collaboration, pushing all the logistic systems from the
various warehouses and consolidated shipments
towards satellite micro-storage systems all over
the city that need coordination. (Logistic firm)
With the online channel you need a new view on
micro collaboration, last mile logistic as well as a
macro coordinated approach. Retail and logistic
have a new intersect, online grocery is not only a
cyber thing. We need new jobs/infrastructures to
provide consolidated services, we have already
seen many experiences from abroad and our
132
brand equity is now dependent on collaborative

logistic performance not our core service alone.
(E-retailer firm)
Urban regeneration is transforming rapidly, its
focus is not only from a social services and citizen
approach but towards integrating and facilitating
the supply chain and logistics to create a collaborative win-win situation. Where and how people
shop for food is rapidly changing. The delivery of
constant small scale orders needs to be regulated
standardized and consolidated, (Urban planner)
The interviews identified four specific patterns
of collaborative resistance including, ideological,
functional, regulatory and spatial resistance. In
the following sections, we present each in more
detail, their drivers and consequences for online
grocery provision.
Ideological Resistance
At the outset a set of barriers regarding roles
and who ought to be the actors of changes in
collaborative patterns were underlined. Firstly a
gentrified approach to sectoral policy importance
was presented. A fixed, traditional hierarchy was
dominating the environment making transparent and open minded collaboration difficult. In
particular, the online retailers were perceived to
have most of the control and power. While, they
were generally perceived to be only connected
with and collaborating within their specific supply chain network (i.e. approved partners), as an
addition online retailers were also described by
our logistics firms and urban planners to operate
in a variety of different (i.e. disjointed) ways
offering sometimes contradictory collaborative
practices. For instance, a range of responses to
online logistic issues was described as ranging
from active technological adoption, acquiescence,
resignation and outright rejection of change.
Hence, logistics firms were considered only
as third party collaborators, while urban planners
were only perceived as facilitators or inhibitors

and non-proactive collaborators mainly for offline
planning site. From an urban planning perspective,
the lack of longer term standpoint and respect of (i)
city traffic absorption capacity (e.g. double, triple
parking on road), (ii) urban flow (e.g. delivery
vehicles and peak time traffic over the Bosporus
bridges) and (ii) urban space (e.g. pavements)
made logistic delivery services a core problem and
a hotly debated issue regarding wider investment
and structural issues. A polarization was evident
limiting collaborative opportunities, the value that
could be derived from collaboration and creating
a non-productive, skeptical, untrustworthy environment. That is, respondents suggested that a
revaluation of the ideological bases of division and
differences among trading partners was overdue.
The intertwining of relations between roles and
resistance drivers operates in an unstable set of
processes that were fundamentally entangled in the
power relationship among trading partners. The
solution alluded to by our respondents were too
often related to consolidation or takeover of one
partner by another rather than explicitly working
together and collaborating. Unfortunately, our sets
of respondents failed to realize that they were both
wrapped in the entanglement and resistance of
the current power situation and themselves critically active entanglers. A number of quotations
illustrate this theme:
Collaboration in logistic sector is condescended;
qualified people do not prefer to work there. The
salary policy, scarcity of qualified employees
and the general low profits in the sector can be
combined together as the main difficulties faced
by us. (Logistic firm)
Logistic firms lack attention to details, both
regarding customer and product management
(e.g. dairy items), they give us hard time and they
have not reached our level of professionalism,
collaboration can only be limited in such conditions. (E-retailer firm)
Shopping centers and small delivery vans are

diffusing like fungi all over the city. Retail infrastructure diffusion should be done in a way that
does not reduce the living standards of people. We
need more adequate urban planning collaboration that is not only following populist policies.
(Urban Planner)
We need to achieve urban transformation rather
than urban restructuring which is only aesthetic.
We need to tackle infrastructural problems of suburbanization, control of city population growth and
geographical environmental condition of the city
between Europe and Asia, other partners such as
online retailers and logistic firm must participate
in a collaborative fashion. (Urban Planner)
Functional Resistance
Another important aspect of resistance to collaboration identified was functional. First, the
importance of the online channel was seen as a
Cinderella; that is, having limited recognition
within the overall collaborative retail network.
Increasingly, due to a lack of market visibility,
where availability and affordability were no longer the fundamental growth drivers, functional
resistance to invest further in the online channel
was identified by all our respondents. Secondly,
the recent dramatic changes experienced in logistic through technological applications were
not acknowledged to be consistent, homogenous
and widespread among the trading partners. These
were described as delaying the value added potential of collaboration in the logistics functions.
Thirdly, a lack of trust among the trading partners
in the reporting and recording of the day to day
activities (i.e. collaborative processes) appeared
to undermine potential new services and encourage resistance and to maintain the current status
quo. The business model of some firms, involving
non-official reporting of activities and the thriving black economy were described as skewing
the competition, artificially driving price down
133
to unsustainable level and therefore preventing

long term capital investment in technology and
collaborative relationships. In addition the biggest
online retailer was also perceived as too strong
hence leading the sector towards their chosen
systems only. Here, respondents argued that too
few actors were present in the market, which
stifled the entrepreneurial business activity. No
less important, many trading partners were perceived as resisting the cultural turn in the direction
of a more formalized set of economic activities
geared towards productive sustainable network
of relations. Clearly, beyond day to day control
activities, trading partners were described as lacking forward thinking about the many best ways
in which to enlist one another for long term collaborative organizational networks, as suggested
in the following quotations:
Of course we deliver for the e-channel, but it has
not reached enormous levels. The sales are not in
a level where they can influence us towards more
collaboration. (E-retailer firm)
With the help of mobile phone and hand-held
terminal we can track a lot, such as the position
of the truck, information about product status, the
instant temperature of the van, the speed, the door
position, in collaborating with online retailers we
can really influence service quality but do not get
much for it as yet. (Logistic firm)
Of course we are controlling a lot all the logistic
activities as accomplishment in a professional
manner is paramount. Collaboration with all
parties is important. We are dealing with fresh
food; they need the cooling system on all the time
not just the last 30 minutes. Truck weight and
cleanliness needs to be regularly checked. Which
route planning do they use? Is it the shortest in
Kms or in time unit? (Logistic firm)
134
In Turkey, many logistics firms do not have

general records and proper accounting standards.
Some firms are active in logistics but it is all
black economy and sometimes illegal activities.
We need clearer rules and fairer competition with
professional standards and management styles
before we can start thinking about collaboration.
(Logistic firm)
Regulatory Resistance
The market rules were felt to generate considerable uncertainty in partnering at both micro
and macro levels. The micro and macro market
rules were contentious market issues. This was
particularly pertinent with micro issues such as
alcohol sales online (and associated proof of
age declaration), mixing of food and non-food
products in vans (i.e. insurance issues), returns
of unwanted/spoiled items, and payment issues.
At macro level, concerns such as foreign trade
regulations, European Union integration, transport
logistic standards and taxation were mentioned.
Here, the various actors were attempting to
initiate institutional change via the expression
of discontent. A general lack of understanding
of the macro-level regulatory environment was
perceived to lead to fear of collaboration. A lack
of a strong lobbying consortium representing the
various stakeholders was mentioned as crucially
missing. It was apparent that there was a willingness to influence regulatory decision-makers to
change policies. Strong personal linkages with
the city planning and related departments were
mentioned to be more influential than a collaborative approach. In another area, holding key
information policy setting events on collaborative practices were mentioned as limited. In fact,
many respondents were frustrated in their dealing
with the city representatives and other trading
partners in what they saw as a lack of willingness
to engage in fundamental discussion and commit
to action. Furthermore, because of the various
financial crisis suffered by Turkey over the last
10 years, logistic firm capitalization was also

described as an issue. Regarding the other side of
the coin, the online buying legal process was also
described as inadequate with issues ranging from
access (e.g. modern computers and broadband),
consumer rights, payment security and type (e.g.
credit card versus cash at the door), to fraud, as
individuals noted:
Figure 3. Istanbul main supermarket retailer locations and 15-minutes coverage areas of Migros
e-sourcing stores (Source: own, adapted from
census data and primary data collection)
The necessary regulations for a collaborative

environment are not established for online retailing hence the costs are higher than they should
be and collaboration limited. (E-retailer firm)
Lack of consistency in the regulations and
legislations put a barrier preventing the logistic
sector to mature faster. This is especially true
regarding the meaning of fair competition hence
fair collaboration. (Logistic firm respondent)
Foreign investors do not consider Turkish logistic
potential seriously as the legislation is limiting
collaboration potential. Infrastructural problems
are greater compared to Dubai for example, there
should be revision on foreign trade regulation,
taxation and industrial code organization. (Logistic firm respondent)
We need to look at the collaboration problem
differently, you could be sending three parcels to
a customer and another firm can be sending again
three parcels to that same customer but there is
no system of integration or freight consolidation.
These consolidations happen between countries
not within city. Things need to change more alliances like airlines, different firms, one market.
(Logistic firm respondent)
Turkish shoppers find themselves in a wild online business environment without having enough
shopping culture and experience to appreciate
the details of the logistic services, they do not
understand how hard it is to collaborate.(Logistic
firm respondent)
Spatial Resistance
The three previous types of resistance to collaboration were tempered by reluctance and caution
regarding possible effect of the spatial geographies
of Istanbul in the minds of our respondents. As
seen in Figure 3, for Migros the biggest online
grocer, most of its sourcing stores seem to be
outside the densely populated districts. The old
city centre geographies were not perceived to be
conducive to modern collaborative logistic operations. The interviewees conveyed a sense that
the collaborative challenges have become how
to do more within the given situation. Spatial
resistance was linked to the lack of collaboration
and coordination between the various actors. The
usage of vehicles, the links to traffic and wider
systems were at stake. The local micro situations
impacting the need for novel retailer logistics
solutions were perceived to have become core to
future business models. Not to create a series of
parallel systems, what was required according to
the respondents, was an integrative framework
and a joined up approach to give voice and allow both passive and active engagement. Added
to this, an approach that binds together our three
135
main trading partners processes, power and decisions was perceived as a pressing issue.
Furthermore, as the city develops, areas of
exclusion were described as appearing between
distinct geographical areas (e.g. squatter neighborhoods, new social housing towers, empty no-man
lands, large road interchange, industrial zones)
but also within the newly developed cits as they
have a range of accommodations (one room to
duplex apartments, and individual dwellings)
hence household, populating these new spaces.
As a consequence, transitions of population from
one part of the city areas to another were also
mentioned as important for volume creating collaboration. Alternatively, the local or geopolitical
scale was mentioned as a central driver to a lack
of collaboration. Areas adjacent to each other on
a map were often separated in trading partners
minds. In addition, how collaboration towards
better logistics processes were to be applied was
also described as dependent on the socio-political
inclination of local municipalities. However,
certain municipalities were mentioned as progressive, willing to collaborate and transparent, while
others were criticized for rules-prone decisionmaking, myopic and short term focus and reward,
arbitrary change in legislation and unseen bribery
claims and counter-claim practice.
The big retailers control many store brands and
formats but they cannot be organized sometimes in
their internal operation in SCM. These affect collaborative efficiency and planning performance
of logistic providers. For examples the shipment
has to wait in front of the door, or we have to wait
doing nothing also the retailer ought to have sufficient data and incentive to manipulate market
fluctuations and spatial variability. In new areas
there is nearly no retail presence at all, they are
not planning just reacting. These areas are far
and cost more for us. (Logistic firm)
The city and customers needs change so fast,
that in many areas we cannot judge and adapt
136
the capacity. We cannot find many addresses or

streets and shoppers find it hard to return goods
as we are very busy and they do not know how to
do it, like legal period. (Logistic firm)
Istanbul is not homogenous, in certain areas we
need multiples deliveries, we could have larger
vehicles or collaborate with other firms may be?
Others are just small pockets of consumers. This
is a serious cost/profit maximizing problem we
face. (E-retailer)
The ability to deliver products in all locations
is becoming increasingly complicated. In todays
Istanbul environment, certain areas are out of
reach at certain time, there are empty zone (poor
illegal housing development) vehicles get stuck
empty in traffic not able to come back, making it
hard to minimize the cost, collaboration may be
a solution but we do not know where to start.
(E-retailer)
Effective retailing requires the planning of
consumer needs taking into account the local environment in which they live to plan and forecast
the conditions faced and provide a satisfactory
solution. We are all aware of changing traffic
flows, weather conditions, accidents, strikes and
other aspects of a metropolis life. Retailers have
collaborate better and provide adapted delivery
solutions. (Urban Planner)
DISCUSSION OF KEY FINDINGS

AND CONCLUDING REMARKS
As the scale and scope of new technology usage
in online grocery provision increases, it is important to understand the interplay between the
practitioners, technology and surrounding spaces.
This chapter is therefore an important step in this
respect. The experiences of online retailers, urban
planners and logistic providers in driving online
food provision and, specifically, how they respond
to the new demographic and lifestyle found in the

gated communities around the world metropolis, reveals several insights into market driving
grocery provision behavior across ambiguous
environments within an emerging market setting.
Significantly, the findings identify several patterns
of resistance in shaping online grocery provision,
notably, ideological, functional, regulatory and
spatial. At times this resistance is marked far less
by open confrontation, than a passive and active
(non-) willingness. Despite the competition among
the actors for jurisdictional control and respective oligopolistic and monopolistic advantages,
the findings suggest that considerable scale and
scope for collaboration exist for online grocery
partners. The exploratory findings have also shown
the emergence and forming of a group of trading
partners that aspire towards change, are willing
and on the cusp of formally getting together and
getting organized for the purposes of collaboration. The question remains why there is inaction?
From a policy perspective we emphasize three
implications of this research. First, we identify,
considering the degree and the manner in which
resistance emerges, how policy makers need to
reshape attitudes towards new types of collaborative practice. These are found not to be available
within traditional supply chain settings, but require
the use and leverage of the regulatory environment, in our case city planners. Second, there is
a need to lead actors to question their previous
commitments and attitudes, contest traditional
collaborative practices, and drive structural change
of the industry in relation to the geo-demographic
spaces of the metropolis. The call for a reform
and re-organization of collaboration does not
imply a rejection of the current internal collaborative systems, rather it requires a rethink of the
competitiveness of such systems in view of the
new opportunities offered by the online business
organization and within metropolises physical
boundaries (Malik and Gojal, 2003). Finally,
understanding the more subtle dimensions of col-
laborative resistance beneath the obvious forms

such as rejection, postponement and opposition
also provides an insight into where commitment towards collaboration processes ends and
resistance to collaboration begins. As described
by Laclau and Mouffe (1985) in a policy context,
trading partners have to change from a logic of
difference to a logic of equivalence whereby
chains of equivalence are created between different actors who seek to challenge established
supply chain collaboration practice.
In addition to policy implications, we identify
a number of implications for the supply chain literature. Traditional supply chain strategies fail to
take into consideration; i) the dynamic and subtle
forms of collaborative resistance beyond outright
rejection; ii) the importance and impact of the
macro environment over micro daily collaborative
practice; and ii) the multiple co-existing motives
within and between trading actors not engaging
in collaborative practice.
Overall, what is initially apparent from the
findings is that online retailers, logistic firms
and urban planners need to develop a stronger
sense of commonality, indeed community. This
way they can challenge and contest the dominant
institutionalized supply chain arrangements and
offer alternative organizing logics for online
grocery provision. Critical to that practice is the
role of extra institutional entrepreneurs in bringing
about market driving collaborative practice. The
emerging conclusion is that extra-institutional
collaborative practice is a significant market driving behavior in grocery provision significant
external factors such as urban planners, alongside
other more immediate actors, need to act as agents
of change and attempt to reconfigure the meaning system and established institutional logics
within emerging markets. Insights from the role
of ideological, functional, regulatory and spatial
resistance provide an important step in understanding extra-institutional collaborative practice, but
more much work is needed in this area.
137
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This research is supported in part by TUBITAK
(The Scientific and Technological Research
Council of Turkey) under research grant #108 K
345. The authors also acknowledge contributions
of Ipek Kocoglu as research assistant. Part of
this chapter was also presented at the European
Institute of Retailing and Services Studies on
Recent Advances in Retailing and Services Science conference, Istanbul, 2010.
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ENDNOTE
1
The sticky places hypothesis (see the work

of Ann Marken in particular) was significant
in advancing knowledge economy argument,
which had been heralded as one solution
to the twentieth century legacy of the deindustrialization problem and which subsequently saw policy and academic research
agendas champion the knowledge economy.
However this sticky places hypothesis has
been largely debunked by the almost entire
collapse of the western banking system, the
ensuring global recession during 2008 and
2009.
APPENDIX
SURVEY INSTRUMENT
General Instruments
Ideological
Resistance
What are the main collaboration difficulties faced in the logistics sector when dealing with online channel growth?
Do you think logistics companies exert the necessary effort to reach the professional quality level of service? (Asked to e-retailers)
How did urban planning and restructuring affected retailing in Turkey and especially in Istanbul over the last 10 years?
Sources
Fosfuri and Ronde 2009
Scott, 1985
Oreg, 2003
Manki, 2003
Dholakia, 2000
Is there a consensus emerged on suitable control mechanisms regarding logistics

collaboration in the context of an emerging metropolis?
Functional
Resistance
What is the impact of collaboration when using the online channel to your firm
activities in terms of;
Quality of services
Price
Delivery to final consumer
B2B logistic between supplier and buyer
Van Dam et al., 2008

Oreg, 2006
Selwyn, 2003
Diamondstone, 2002
What type of logistics services do you use and how? (Ask all but logistics companies)
How did urban planning and restructuring affected retailing in Turkey and especially in Istanbul over the last 10 years?
Which are the regulations that need to be implemented but are not put into practice
or that they are wrongly implemented considering the collaboration needs between
retail restructuring, urban needs /infrastructure and logistics improvement?
Regulatory
Resistance
What are the key collaborative issues your firm faces in adapting to online retail
restructuring in Istanbul and Turkey in general?
Big vs. small retailers
Power
Price
Legislations/regulations
Laukkanen, 2008
Van Dam et al., 2008
Russel and Russel, 2006
Manki, 2003
Does urban planning take into account how the retailing is restructured? How is
online retailing collaboration restructuring if at all?
What do you think should be done in terms of logistics restructuring with the purpose of adapting successfully towards better collaboration in SCM?
Which are the regulations that need to be implemented in terms of urban restructuring and planning but that they are not put into practice at all or that they are
wrongly implemented?
Spatial
Resistance
What do you think are the greatest challenges to collaboration that require to be
sorted out in the near future? And why?
Legislation
Control technology
Education
Kragh and Andersen, 2009

Laukkanen, 2008
Wainwright, 2007
What kind of an affect do you think the 3rd bridge that is planned will have on
urban and retail restructuring of Istanbul?
Do you think the privatization of retailing areas and the increasing domination of
foreign direct investment leads to the loss of many traditional collaborative traits
of Istanbul business culture? Does the replacement of bakkals with chain stores,
bazaars with shopping centers, create a transformation in customer profile? What
do the urban planning centers do regarding this issue?
143
144
Chapter 10
Applying Game Mechanisms

to Idea Competitions
Florian Birke
Technical University Braunschweig, Germany
Maximilian Witt
Susanne Robra-Bissantz
ABSTRACT
In these times of a collaborative Web, consumers actively participate in the creation, elaboration, and
evaluation of new content. Portals like Wikipedia demonstrate how this collaborative and creative behavior can result in valuable outcome. Companies benefit, as well, from this active role of the consumer:
Consumers generate, develop, and evaluate new ideas for products and services in idea competitions.
A challenge of todays idea competitions is that the recent inflationary increase partly results in a
decrease of participation. The purpose of this study is to explore one possible approach to transfer the
positive motivational effect of games to idea competitions. The transfer of playful elements from a game
context to the model of open innovation is what we call game-based open innovation. Based on theoretical insights, analysis of 18 cases and three interviews, this study demonstrates the actual occurrence
of game mechanisms and their effect on the motivation of participants.
INTRODUCTION
A cultural change has happened on the Internet.
The customers switched their behavior from
individuals that only visit websites to users, who
also generate content (Howe, 2008). This paradigm combined with tools such as web-blogs,
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-60960-581-0.ch010
wikis, online-communities and content sharing

platforms is what todays collaborative web is all
about (Helfrich, 2008).
Rich interaction technologies enable customers to participate in business internal processes,
for example new product development (Fller,
Mhlbacher, Matzler & Jawecki 2010; Reichwald
& Piller 2009). Companies invite customers to
be a part of those processes, because they hold
Applying Game Mechanisms to Idea Competitions
important information concerning their wants and

needs. Due to this fundamental shift (Chesbrough,
2003), the internal research and development is no
longer the invaluable strategic asset that it used to
be. In the old model of closed innovation, companies relied on the assumption that innovation
processes have to be controlled by themselves
it was based on self-reliance. In these times of
collaborative web Customers are considered a
valuable source of innovation (Fller 2010, p. 98).
The integration of active customers into formerly
internal innovation processes is defined as open
innovation (Chesborough 2003). Open innovation enfolds strategies and approaches that enable
companies to transfer innovation from external
sources to the internal research and development
department more easily (Laursen & Salter, 2006).
Idea competitions are one possible approach to
open up the innovation process. Nowadays companies use them sometimes very successfully to
generate, evaluate and benefit from the ideas of
customers, regarding services and products. But
their recent inflationary increase (Fller, 2009)
partly results in a decrease of participation. The
new challenge for organizers is to find proper incentives that will enthuse customers to participate
in their competitions.
A medium, which is pretty good in animating people to participate, are video games. They
incentivize people with powerful mechanisms to
play for hours (Reeves & Leighton, 2009). The
integration of these playful elements into the model
of open innovation is what we call game-based
open innovation. This study will be concerned
with the integration of game mechanisms into
idea competitions as one mode of implementing
game-based open innovation.
The authors assumption is that playful elements are already part of todays idea competitions,
but the implementation appears to be unstructured
and non-systematic. In order to integrate game
mechanisms into idea competitions, we first need
to identify the already occurring ones. Which game
mechanisms occur in idea competitions?
To meet the requirements of a structured and

systematic integration of game mechanisms into
idea competitions, we need to identify their impact
on human beings. Therefore our second research
question is: Which motives of participants could
be triggered by the occurring game mechanisms?
If it is possible to motivate people with game
mechanisms to participate in an idea competition
it could also be possible to motivate them in long
term. Do game mechanisms have the ability to
motivate the participants continuously?
The overall purpose of this study is to establish
knowledge about the use and the integration of
game mechanisms into idea competitions. Thereby
section 2 Idea Competition will be concerned with
the question what idea competitions are and why
they could need help from game mechanisms.
Section 3 Motivation to Participate will clarify
why people are participating in idea competitions
instead of spending time otherwise. Accordingly
section 4 Game-based Open Innovation proceeds
with a literature review about games and their definition, as well as the introduction of game-based
open innovation as a model for the integration of
playful elements into the model of open innovation. At last, this chapter will provide definitions
and examples for game mechanisms. In section 5
Game Mechanisms in Idea Competitions: A Case
Study will grant an insight into the results of our
studies. With the aid of qualitative methods: one
case study and three interviews of professionals,
we try to clarify the research questions shown
above. Section 6 Conclusion will provide concluding remarks and perspectives for further research.
IDEA COMPETITION
Idea competitions are one possibility to integrate
customers into early stages of the innovation
process (Walcher, 2007). These competitions,
which are arranged privately or publicly, ask single
persons or groups to hand in contributions for a
special theme within a fixed period of time. The
145
assessment of contributions is carried out under

certain assessment-criteria, which were predefined
by an assessment-committee (Reichwald & Piller,
2009).
Companies like Starbucks, BMW, Toyota and
Intel use idea competitions in the collaborative
web partly very successfully to generate, evaluate and benefit from the ideas of customers. But
not just companies and affiliated groups arrange
them. In fact universities, federal ministries and
even social verbena do. For example the German federal ministry for education organizes
the project OFFIES 2020+1with the aid of a
few German universities. This idea competition
will lead to concepts on energy efficiency in the
domain of mobility and living. Another example
is AppQuest 20102, which is arranged by the
dpunkt.verlag3. In this competition the hosts are
looking for the best submitted application for a
famous mobile phone. The submissions will be
implemented under the themes World Cup 2010
and iCampus. On the web portal of LogoTournament4 the founder Tyler Quinn provides a way to
arrange an idea competition for almost everyone.
In this design competition, companies and freelancers are looking for new logos (Walcher, 2007).
Generally an idea competition is carried out
under a specific theme or at least in a certain domain. If a theme is highly specific, the hosts are
usually looking for attendants who are members
of the corresponding domain. For instance the
organizers of the AppQuest 2010 competition
are looking for students with the ability to implement an application. When task specificity is low,
the targeted group is not generally restricted, for
instance the LogoTournament competition.
Another determining characteristic of an idea
competition is the period of time the contestants
have for their creative performance. Thereby
the duration depends on the elaborateness of the
solution.
To find a winner, an idea competition provides
an assessment-committee, which mostly consists
of experts in the domain of the organizer. With
146
special assessment-criteria, they try to measure

creativity, newness, adequateness and the quality
of the implementation of the detected solution.
The incentives for a user to contribute are usually efficiency-oriented and range from money
rewards (LogoTournament) to non-cash prizes like
digital camera, a voucher for the German Railways
(OFFIES 2020+) or just the mentioning of the
winners names on a website (Walcher, 2007).
Idea competitions are applicable in a wide
range of missions (Ernst, 2004). They range from
continuously open platforms to concentrate actions with the purpose to solve specific problems
(Reichwald & Piller, 2009). Within the implementation the organizers utilize functionalities
and mechanisms of the Web 2.0. With this, they
try to foster interaction and collaboration of the
participants by providing comment functionalities
as well as rating mechanisms.
However, the recent inflationary increase
(Fller, 2009) of idea competitions partly results
in a decrease of participation. An organizer has
to find right incentives to let possible participants
choose its competition instead of others.
MOTIVATION TO PARTICIPATE
One of the biggest challenges in the field of open
innovation is to motivate customers to contribute
and divulge information (West, 2006). If managers wish to successfully shepherd their organizations into a time, where consumers are active and
productive (Firat & Venkatesh, 1995), they must
learn to effectively understand and deal with human motivation. Out of many theories in the field
of work motivation, Herzberg (1966) motivator
hygiene theory and Maslows (1943) need hierachy theory have been the most influential ones
in recent decades. Herzberg distinguishes in his
theory two categories of motivating factors, which
are responsible for human behavior. (1) Motivator
factors: this category enfolds every factor, which
has something to do with the activity itself such
as responsibility, autonomy and satisfaction. (2)

Hygiene factors: has something to do with the
environment and their variables as rewards and the
general condition of the participation. According to
Herzberg, the hygiene factors are the crucial ones,
because if they are insufficient, people participating in the activity will get de-motivated. Contrary
to that, the absence of motivator factors has no
negative effect. In fact the satisfaction through the
activity is rising with the amount and intensity of
those factors (Amabile, 1993). In summary one can
think about hygiene factors as basic requirements
for activities to attract people to participate and
motivator factor as valuable addition.
Maslows theory suggests that certain needs are
more important than others, akin to the relation
between hygiene and motivator factors. He differentiates between five different need categories.
Ordered from most to less important: (1) Physiological: as breathing, food, water; (2) Safety:
security of body, resources, family, health; (3)
Love/belonging: for example friendship, family;
(4) Esteem: self-esteem, confidence, respect; (5)
Self-actualization: as morality, creativity, problem
solving.
Before a participant will care about top-level
needs, he will first take care of needs that are on
beneath-layers of the pyramid. When those needs
get formalized and attached to an activity they
will result in incentives for people to participate
in that activity. According to the basic model of
motivation psychology (see Figure 1), motivation
is the result from the interaction between a situations incentives and the motives of the involved
person (Schattke & Kehr, 2009).
Motives are thereby defined as individual
preferences for certain incentive categories and
subcategories (McClelland, 1989). This implies
that not everybody responds to an incentive in the
same way. There are two big incentive categories
(Hars & Ou, 2002): (1) Internal incentives: this
category contains for instance altruism and hedonism. Altruism is a social behavior, in which an
individual takes a loss of its own benefit to ben-
Figure 1. Model of Motivation Psychology.

(Adapted from Kehr & Schattke, 2009, p. 122)
efit another one (Lenzen, 2003). This means that

a person has more costs than benefits in its activity. Hedonism is defined as a mindset in which
individuals enjoy what they are doing, because
they are feeling fun and excitement (Lakani &
Wolf, 2005). (2) External incentives: are the anticipated benefits and the need for the specific
results (e.g. a certain product). As an instance for
a specific result, one can take a kite-board5, it was
produced by a surfer who wanted to jump even
higher than others (Reichwald & Piller, 2009).
Money is another example of an anticipated benefit. If one pays someone for an activity, the individual has an effective external incentive for
the accomplishment (Alexy & Leitner, 2008).
Hars and Ou (2002) are certain that internal incentives are more important than external, because
they do not have to be recompensed. But Kehr
and Schattke (2009) detected in a literature review
that the authors found external incentives responsible for the participation in open innovation
projects. The outcome of this is a mixture of internal and external incentives, which are needed
to motivate people (Schattke & Kehr, 2009). This
mixture has to fit the motives of that person otherwise the person will not be motivated to take
part in a competition.
Hereby a distinction is drawn between three
different types of motives (McClelland, 1987): (1)
147
Figure 2. Flow Corridor. (Adapted from Salen &

Zimmerman, 2004, p. 351; Walcher, 2007, p. 163)
Motive of Achievement: This motive is all about a

personal measure of success. People with a distinct
motive of Achievement will try to reach or exceed
this measure (Rheinberg, 2006). It is based on the
proud and satisfaction of the self accomplishment
(Brunstein & Heckhausen, 2006). (2) Motive of
Affiliation: This type is about the positive relationships of human beings. A person with a distinct
affiliation motive like to get in contact with new
people, cooperate with them and try to foster the
relationship (Sokolowski & Heckhausen, 2006).
(3) Motive of Power: This motive is all about
prestige and reputation. Persons with a distinct
power motive are seeking for influence and if this
pursuit is crowned with success they will maintain
it (Schmalt & Heckhausen, 2006).
For instance a person with a more distinct
motive of achievement as affiliation will rather
finish the submission for an idea competition (internal incentive), in order to have the possibility
of winning the competition (external incentive),
than spending the afternoon with friends (Schattke
& Kehr, 2009). Every human possesses each of
these motive types in different degrees.
If the combination of internal and external
incentive is just right designed, the participant will
find himself in a condition, which is marked by
concentration, enjoyment and high productivity
148
(Schattke & Kehr, 2009). That means the person

gets incentivized by the action itself. This action
will feel like fun and the person would like to
do it more often (Schattke & Kehr, 2009). This
condition is labeled as flow. It occurs when a
person has just the right skill to accomplish something difficult. A person, which is in the state of
flow will get sucked into the activity and will
lose the sense of time (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990).
According to Csikszentmihalyi (1975) there are
three important requirements for flow. First, the
challenge has to fit the self estimated skills of the
participant as illustrated in figure 2.
If the challenge is beyond the skills, the customer would feel anxious and overstrained. When
the self estimated skill level is higher, a person
would feel bored and under-challenged. Secondly, the competition has to define clear goals
for the challenge that helps the person to concentrate on the activity step by step. Thirdly, by
providing instantly feedback the participant will
recognize if a goal is reached or what needs to be
done to reach it.
The conclusion is that idea competitions have
to provide incentives for each of the three types
of motives to activate customers as participants.
GAME-BASED OPEN INNOVATION

Concept
Games are pretty good in leading a player into
the state of flow by providing mechanisms that
immediately show the player which action brought
an advantage and what needs to be done, to reach
an overall goal (Reeves & Leighton, 2009). Games
also can skillfully match challenges and skills,
creating just enough uncertainty about an accomplishment that attention is required but not so much
that flow is precluded or interrupted (Reeves &
Leighton, 2009, p.183). Thereby a game is defined
as [] a system in which players engage in an
artificial conflict, defined by rules, that results in
a quantifiable outcome (Salen & Zimmerman,

2004, p. 80). One basic element of this definition
is the Player: A game includes one or more participants to play actively. Those participants are called
players. The number of them in a game depends
on the game type (Single- or Multiplayer-Game).
Conflict: All games contain artificial conflicts between a player and the system or between players.
They can range from cooperation to competition.
Rules: A crucial element of games are their rules,
those are defining the game-space in which the
dynamic of play can happen. In chess for instance
you are not allowed to do more than one move
per turn. If you would be allowed to do so, the
game would be pointless. Quantifiable outcome:
In the end, every game has a quantifiable goal or
outcome (Salen & Zimmerman, 2004).
What stands out is that games are not so
different to idea competitions. Comparing characteristics of the two definitions reveals similarities. The player of a game is the participant in a
competition. An artificial conflict occurs from the
interaction between the participants and the urge
to win. Rules of a game define the game-space
and in competitions it is the solution-space, which
is defined by them. The quantifiable outcome is
what the contestants win, if their idea is selected.
If the organizers could use these similarities to
transfer playful elements out of games to idea
competitions, then participants could feel the same
enjoyment and pleasure, as they feel in games.
A special game category in which players are
developing characters and relationships, strategies
and tactics for collective actions and sophisticated
communication between players are Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMOs).
Examples that are pretty famous would be World
of Warcraft (Blizzard Entertainment), EVE Online
(CCP), EverQuest (Sony Online Entertainment)
and Star Wars Galaxies (Sony Online Entertainment) (Reeves & Leighton, 2009). We think that
MMOs are the game category with the most
potential, when it comes down to transfer its playful elements to idea competition. A good reason
for that is that one of the basic infrastructures of

MMOs, the player community and communication mechanisms are already transferred to the
none-gaming context. New collaborative tools and
technology will help to integrate playful elements
to idea competitions. This integration of playful
elements into the model of open innovation is what
we call game-based open innovation. We think
that the boundaries between innovating in terms
of open innovation and playing will continue to
melt down, because flow plays an important role
for both activities. As far as we know no one has
proposed, as we do here, that games could provide
a way to bring adequate incentives and thus more
emotional experiences, higher attention, more
creativity and flow into the process of innovation.
Modes of Implementation
There are two ways to implement game-based
open innovation: Either one creates a game for
open innovation or one includes game mechanisms
into existing instruments of open innovation. In
this study we will concentrate on the way to realize game-based open innovation with the aid of
game mechanisms.
Since the earliest days of video games, designers try to incentivize people to play their games
instead of others. In the course of this competition
they invented powerful mechanisms that aided
them to create a market that is worth more than
$10 billion dollars as one of the largest existing
entertainment category (Reeves & Leighton, 2009,
p. 18). In literature you can find a few different
definitions for game mechanisms (Hunicke et al.,
2004; Kim, 2009; Salen & Zimmerman, 2004).
Hunicke et al. define them as [] the various actions, behaviors, and control mechanisms afforded
to the player within the game context. Together
with the games content (levels, assets and so on)
the [mechanisms] supports overall game play dynamics (Reeves & Leighton, 2009, p. 243-244).
The bottom line is that games provide players the
possibility to shape their own play experience with
149
the aid of game mechanisms. Contrary to Hunicke

et al. and Reeves, we think that game mechanisms
can not only be integrated into games, but also
in any other functional software. Furthermore we
think that game mechanisms can be seen as mechanisms, which affect and incentivize people. Thus,
we label game mechanisms in the following way:
Game Mechanisms are the various actions, reactions and processes, designed for an activity, in
order to advance playfulness. In interaction with
the activity-context, game mechanisms represent
incentives, which trigger motives and thereby
drive behavior.
The main components of this definition are:

Action, Reaction: This component describes the interaction between the participant and the system as well as the
interaction with other participants. In a
game, every action has an outcome, which
demonstrates the participant that he did
something.
Processes: Game Mechanisms are also processes, which are triggered by the system
to make the activity fun and compelling.
Activity: Because we are sure that game
mechanisms can be used much broader
than just in the game context we have chosen the term activity instead of game.
Incentives, motives and behavior: These
ingredients build a connection to the basic model of motivation psychology. If
persons are incentivized by the situation
it triggers their motives and will result in
motivation and certain behavior.
In the following text, we want to introduce a

few game mechanisms, which we found in online
games such as World of Warcraft (WOW), EverQuest and so on. To provide a general understanding of the possible usage of those mechanisms in
idea competitions, we will make a few examples
150
of the occurring game mechanisms in functional

software as well as partly in the real world.
Points, Levels and Leaderboard

Things that a player can earn in games are points.
They give the game a meaning and make it easier
for players to understand which action brings an
advantage. Points can occur in different types like
redeemable points, social points or system points.
Redeemable points are points which have a certain
value in a game, like a virtual currency or vouchers.
A player would earn those points by e.g. selling
his gathered items to other players at an auction
house or to a vendor. Social points6 are given by
other players to evaluate the players actions.
They usually occur as a countable amount. System
points are given by the game system for certain
activities. For example, a player earns experience
points by beating beasts in the forest. Each beast
brings him one step closer to the next level. A
Level is a different kind of view on points, there
are also others like leader boards. Levels can help
the player to advance in a game step by step. For
instance, a players avatar7 is not capable of using
certain items till he achieved a predefined level.
Besides, levels are indicators for other players to
draw conclusions about the progress of a player. In
result, levels show the progress and the competitive
ability of a player. Leaderboards are a way to see
how good they are doing compared to other players. To give an example, every player wants to be
the best in his guild8, thus the players will try as
hard as they can, to make more and more points.
A good example of the transfer of these game
mechanisms to functional software and the real
world is the Nike+ workout program9. With this
program, Nike was able to motivate over 13,500
people to run over 200 Million Miles by adding
points to their run through the neighborhood. The
interesting thing is that people are participating
even though it results in a loss of their spare time.
One reason could be that they are just having fun
doing it (Kim, 2009; Reeves & Leighton, 2009)
Bragable Achievements
Bragable achievements are a way for the participants to share their accomplishment with others.
By sharing those achievements with others, they
try to convey power and influence. A player in
the World of Warcraft would have a bragable
achievement when he finds a unique item that
just a few people possess. One Example for the
bragable achievement game mechanism in functional software would be the game Farm Ville
by Zynga on facebook. In this game, the player has
to cultivate a farm. If he will manage to enlarge
his farm, a little screen pops up. The player is
asked if he would like to show this achievement
to his friends.
Collections
This game mechanism builds on the human urge
to collect. In the real world there are a lot of examples, which fit this mechanism, for example the
collecting of trading cards or stamps. One part of
this mechanism is the power of completing a set
(Kim, 2009). For instance there are plenty armor
sets in WOW which make the player stronger.
Each item would not unfold its whole strength
until the player is wearing the complete set. So
the player will spend a lot of time looking for the
missing pieces.
Feedback
Feedback is every output or information, which is
granted to the player after taking an action. It can
appear as real-time feedback or as feedback over
time (Kim, 2009). Real-time feedback means the
direct response of the system. For example the
player clicks with his mouse on the ground and
the avatar will instantly move to that position.
Feedback over time gives the player the ability
to overview an aggregation of his previous actions. Therewith the player can self-estimate its
own skills. Another kind of feedback is social
feedback. This is given by other players. For example in WOW, a player can give another player
a compliment about his avatar. A good example
for the use of game feedback in real-life is The
fun theory10 project of Volkswagen11. In a subway
station in Stockholm, they try to incentivize people
to use the stairs instead of the escalator by adding
a different acoustic feedback (real-time) to every
stair. The outcome of this was a huge piano and
the amount of people who uses the stairs raised
by 66%.
Exchange
Exchange is a mechanism, which is often described as taking turns. In chess, it is the back
and forth of the player during a game. But it can
also stand for a social interaction as trading or
gifting. Thereby one differs between two kinds
of exchanges, explicit and implicit exchanges.
Explicit exchanges are marked by the character of
reciprocity. If a player trades an item with another
player in World of Warcraft, the other player has
to give him something in exchange. The opposite
applies for implicit exchanges. If it is an implicit
exchange, like gifting, the other player does not
have to give him something back, but social
pressure could induce him to do so. Let us take
eBay12 as an example for the integration of this
mechanism into functional software. If you buy
something on eBay and you evaluate the seller,
then it does not imply that the seller has to leave
you an evaluation as well (Kim, 2009).
Social Bonds
Social bonds are mechanisms to force the feeling
of a belonging to a group of other people. Thereby
the player gets incentivized by the social engagement of the community. To give an example, the
player is a member of a guild, and now he plays
with other people two times a day at a certain
time. In a guild everyone fulfills a specific duty.
If someone is missing, the guild is unable to fin-
151
ish certain quest. On a social media platform like

facebook, this mechanism can appear as friendship
between the users.
Character Customization
This mechanism is a way to let the player identify
itself with the virtual avatar and to separate itself
from other players. In World of Warcraft you can
customize your character to fit your personal
preferences. The moment the player starts playing
WOW, he has to choose between ten different races
and nine classes of characters. A good example
out of the functional software world is MySpace13.
On MySpace everyone can design its own profile
pages to get an individual touch and to share what
is important for them with other people.
The examples shown above are illustrating
the applicability of game mechanisms in functional software. These examples14 will help us to
identify game mechanisms in idea competitions
in the next section.
GAME MECHANISMS IN IDEA

COMPETITIONS: A CASE STUDY
This section will first introduce you to our research
method. Then it will provide an overview of cases
analyzed in this study. Ensuing we will identify
game mechanisms that appear in those cases and
will have a look on the motives they trigger. In
the last section we try to find opportunities for
a constant motivation. This chapters purpose is
to find answers to our overall research questions
stated in the introduction section.
Research Method
As we pointed out earlier that, as far as we know
no one has proposed, as we do here, that video
games could provide a way to bring adequate
incentives and thus more emotional experiences,
higher attention, more creativity and flow into
152
the process of innovation. Thus the purpose of

this research is to develop theory, not to test it.
Building theory from case studies is an appropriate
research strategy for this purpose (Eisenhardt &
Graebner, 2007). Thus we used a multiple case
study in combination with expert interviews. To
guarantee a variety of cases, we conducted a webbased search on platforms like Google15, openinnovators.net and openinnovators.de. Thereby we
have attached great importance to the fact that the
selected competitions are not just announcements,
in fact we looked for cases that were completely or
at least partly performed online. Another criterion
of this research was the actuality of the competition respectively that the competition is still up
and running. This offered the chance to slip into
the position of the participant. At the end we had
an amount of 18 cases, which covered different
domains. Even though 18 cases limited the ability
to make claims and universal theories, it carries
enough potential to come up with assumptions
about structural similarities. The second part of this
qualitative approach was to have three interviews
with experts. All three were part of a department,
which organized one of the idea competitions in
our case study. The experts had to answer round
about fourteen questions concerning the purpose
of the competition, usage of certain functionalities
and specifics of their competition. The interviews
lasted approximately thirty minutes and allowed
us valuable insights into the structure of idea
competitions.
Illustrating Cases
In this case study we analyzed the following idea
competitions:
All competitions except four were initiated
by companies (see Table 1). They were looking
for solutions to certain problems, proposals for
improvement of products or services, a new design
for a product or an innovation under a specific
theme. To find a solution or an idea, the participants of eight idea competitions had an unlimited
Table 1. Selected idea competitions of this case study

Name
Organizer
C1
AppQuest
Dpunkt.Verlag
C2
Call All Innovators
Nokia
callingallinnovators.com/
C3
Connected Drive
BMW
www.hyve-special.de/bmw/index1.php
C4
Dreamheels
Dreamheels
www.dreamheels.com/
www.enlightened-jewellery-design-competition.com
C5
Enlightened
Swarovski
C6
Ideastorm
Dell
C7
Innocentive
InnoCentive Inc.
C8
Contest 2010
IPv6 German Concil
C9
Logo Tournament
Quinn Venture inc.
Website http://...
www.dpunkt.de/veranstaltungen/appquest2010/
www.ideastorm.com/
www.innocentive.com/
www.ipv6council.de/contest2010/
logotournament.com/
C10
Machs mit
BZgA
C11
My Starbucks Idea
Starbucks
C12
netStar Award
Uni. Duisburg-Essen
C13
OFFIES 2020+
TU Munich
www.save-our-energy.de/
C14
Sapiens
TU Munich
www.sapiens.info/
C15
Smellfighters
Swirl
C16
Style your smart
Daimler AG
C17
Vision 2050
Henkel
C18
Your Rail
Bombardier
timeline, ten of eighteen were restricted. Twelve

of all had a community built in their portal. The
amount of participants ranged from 272 (Smellfighters, C15) to 7750 (LogoTournament, C9).
Innocentive (C7) was an exception with over
200,000 participants. The monetary compensation
in the analyzed idea competitions ranged between
$250 (LogoTournament, C9) and 30.000 (Call
All Innovators, C2). Therefore ten competitions
had cash prizes as main incentive. Only five had
the implementation of the idea and two non-cash
prizes as main incentives.
Types of Game Mechanisms

The purpose of this case study was to identify
game mechanisms and to reveal their use in idea
competitions. In total we found thirteen different kinds of game mechanisms in twelve out of
eighteen competitions. The appearance of mecha-
www.machsmit.de/
mystarbucksidea.force.com/
www.netstart.de/index.php?id=award
www.smellfighters.com/
www.smart-design-contest.com/
www.henkel.com/
yourail-design.bombardier.com/
nisms had a total amount of 62, which exceeded

our expectations. The three most appearing game
mechanisms were: Exchanges (Comments) in ten,
Social Feedback (Social Points) in nine and leader
boards in eight cases. Within the implemented
community, the competitions had possessed
mechanisms that let participants evaluate and
comment on the ideas of others. This constant
evaluation, which originated by participants was
part of ten out of eighteen competitions. To foster
creativity, eleven competitions offered inspiration,
nine in shape of text, four with the aid of pictures
and three in the form of examples. Table 2 offers
an overview of game mechanisms found in the
course of this study.
Activated Motives
In the last section we identified several game
mechanisms in idea competitions. In a next step,
153
Table 2. Identified game mechanisms in analyzed cases

Game Mechanism
Cases
Appearance
Leaderboard
C4, C6, C7, C9, C11, C15, C16, C18
Badges
C9, C11
C4 - C6, C10, C11, C13 - C16, C18
activity points
C4, C9, C15, C16, C18
# of comments
C4, C6, C15, C18
# of evaluations
C5, C6, C15, C16
# of ideas
C4 - C6, C9 C15, C16, C18
Idea Status
C6, C11, C14
Simulation
C4, C5, C16, C18
Social Feedback
Social Points
Points
Real-time Feedback
Level
C14
Collection
C11
Comments
C3 - C6, C9 - C11, C14 - 16, C18
10
Bulletin Boards
C5, C15, C16, C18
Exchanges
Table 3. Game mechanisms assigned to the triggered motives

Identified game mechanisms in
idea competitions
Not identified game mechanisms in idea competitions
Motive of Power
Motive of Achievement
Motive of Affiliation
Leaderboards
Badges
Social Feedback
Points
Collection
Real-time Feedback Levels
Exchange
Bragable Achievements
Set
Character Customization
Social bonds
Gifts
this study is concerned about the question: Which

motives could be triggered by game mechanisms?
To clarify this question, we need to assign the
found game mechanisms, with regards to literature
review about the basic model of classic motivation psychology, to the three motive categories
(see Table 3).
In order to assign these mechanisms to the
motive types, we focused on the basic characteristics of each one of them. The motive of power
stands for prestige, reputation and influence. We
decided to put leaderboards in this type, because
154
they present a way to compete with other participants. Participants will feel power and might
when they are on top of those boards. In idea
competitions, leaderboards can appear as a list
with a number of users that generated the most
ideas in the challenge. Bragable Achievements
can be the first place on a leaderboard. The participant wants to share and brag about it with
others. In this moment, the participant feels like
he reached an important goal for his reputation.
Not just the army uses badges for excellent attainment, games do this as well. Hence they are
symbols for prestige and reputation. In idea competitions, they can appear as an indicator that
someone produced his first idea or his tenth idea
et cetera. If a participant gets comments (Social
Feedback) to an idea, which points out that the
idea is very good and better than others, the participant would feel like he has outmatched the
others.
Participants with a distinct motive of achievement will love to see each progress they made
in the course of a competition. Therefore the
mechanism of points, is a good instrument. If
the organizers will reward the right actions with
points, they will lead the participants through the
competition without giving them explicit rules.
For instance, points could be given for good
qualitative comments that helped the participants
in improve their ideas. As well as points, a collection can be an indicator for achievements in
a competition. Components of a collection, for
example, could be all ideas a participant submitted
in different categories of an idea competition. As
soon as a participant has submitted an idea in one
category he will be anxious to also create ideas
in the other categories to complete the whole set.
Through real-time feedback, a participant gets the
possibility of learning and improving his abilities
during a competition. Real-time feedback also
provides the chance for implementation of a trial
and error process.
Positive relationships between human beings
are incentives that trigger motives of affiliation.
Exchanges are a main part of social interaction;
consequently they are dedicated to the affiliation motive. In an idea competition an exchange
could be a conversation of two participants in a
chat channel as well as leaving a comment on the
idea of another participant. Maybe it is even possible to divide the created idea into parts to share
them with other participants. The participant, who
decides to split his idea to contribute it partly to
other participants, will do an implicit exchange in
the form of gifting. Social bonds are mechanisms
to force the feeling of the belonging to a group of
Figure 3. Tendency of triggered Motives
other people. A good example of an idea competition would be the possibility in finding friends.
Character customization is a way for participants
to present themselves to the community. In idea
competitions it could happen as profile customization, hereby it has to go further than just adding
a picture to a standard profile. The assignment
of those game mechanisms to motive types is at
this moment based on assumption. An empirical
analysis will follow in further studies, because it
would have gone beyond the scope of this study.
We have noticed that the motive of achievement
was the most activated one with an amount of eight
different game mechanisms. Furthermore eight of
twelve competitions (amount of cases with game
mechanism) possessed more game mechanisms
that triggered the motive of achievement than the
motive of power or affiliation. To point out this
relation we created a graph (Figure 3) that shows
the tendency of idea competitions concerning the
triggered motives.
We will now take a look at one example to
clarify the statements of this graph. Let us take
the competition Style your Smart as an example.
In our research we found two game mechanisms
that triggered the motive of power, four for the
155
motive of achievement and two that triggered the

motive of achievement. Thereby we noticed that
the motive of achievement preponderates. Hence
we are looking for the middle line in the motive
of achievement section. Since the amount of affiliation game mechanisms is four, we choose the
fourth circle from the inside. Now we have to
compare the amount of game mechanisms that
trigger the motive of power with those, which
triggered the motive of affiliation. In this case
both motive types are triggered by two mechanisms, which mean that the dot is at the right place
(Motive of Achievement section middle line
forth circle from the inside). If the ratio would
have been one power to two affiliation game
mechanism we had to move the dot on the forth
circle one line further into the direction of the
motive of affiliation. Our assumption is that the
organizers had a different point of view on the
implementation of these mechanisms. That would
explain the increased application of game mechanisms that activates the motive of achievement.
In our case study we found that eight cases
are including the game mechanism leaderboard
in their community portal, but just one labeled it
with the term leaderboard and put it on the front
page (C11). In the other cases it was just a filter
option of a participants list. We think that game
mechanisms can only enfold their whole potential,
if participants will get the sense behind it. That
is also the estimation of the experts. One of them
told us that some of the implemented functions,
for example the improvement of an idea through
comments do not happen that often, although the
comments functionality was integrated because of
that. During further analysis, we encounter parts
of game mechanisms like narrative play and
profile customization. Narrative play means that
the participant is led by a story through the process
of idea creation. The story is hereby a possibility
for the participants to get into the theme and get
inspired by it at the same time. In 90% of cases,
the parts of profile customization were not more
than the possibility to add a picture to a profile. The
156
bottom line of what the experts said was that a lot

of companies held idea competitions in the internet
not just to generate knowledge about new products
and solutions, but also to get a basic understanding
for the adoption of Web 2.0 functionalities as well
as the adoption of tools for open innovation. As a
result, the integration of game mechanisms in idea
competitions of today is partly non-systematic
hence they trigger predominantly just one motive
type instead of all three.
Opportunities for Continuous Motivation

Our understanding of continuous motivation
comprised of two desirable modes of participation: more active participation and repeated participation. A more active participation describes
that the amount of actions a participant takes is
higher than usual. Under repeated participation,
we understand a recurring attendance that can
appear in the actual competition as well as in the
following. One opportunity to obtain constant
motivation could be the flow theory. In the state
of flow, the action will feel like fun and the person
would like to do it more often (Schattke & Kehr,
2009). The state of flow is emerging from the
right design of external and internal incentives.
In this case study, we found ten competitions
that included Social Feedback in the form of Social Points to use the community as a pre-selector
of ideas and solution. Participants had to rate on
ideas with one to five stars or with a thumb up
and thumb down rating. Because of that, the organizers had a lower quantity of ideas to verify.
A strong resemblance to this was the approach
to involve the participant in previously internal
processes of the internet presence. On the ideas
portal Sapiens (C14), we found the Level game
mechanism. Participants with an active attendance,
good ideas and comments could advance in their
status from a SAPien to a seniorSAPien. With
the new status, they were able to write articles in
the integrated news blog.
In addition there were also attempts to integrate

the participant in support and assistance processes.
The LogoTournament (C9) for example provides
a forum where users can share their experience,
find an answer to a specific question or just get
in contact with each other. This is exactly what
the exchange game mechanism is all about, social
interactions. As a summary, game mechanisms
can provide internal incentives (in this case altruism) that motivate the participants to appear
as assistants of previously internal processes of
the idea competition as well as of the internet
presence behind it. They are supporting other
participants by answering certain questions about
the idea competitions. In our opinion the transfer
of formerly internal dues to a participant results
in an incentivizing social engagement that offers
an opportunity for continuous motivation. One
expert told us that they especially try to provide
incentives that motivate participants to interact,
discuss and collaborate in the idea competitions
to increase the quality of the submission and to
create a certain connection to the platform or
rather the community behind it. Thereby he is
certain that the social motivation, which results
out of the community feeling is at least as much
important as the winning of prizes.
The LogoTournament (C9) also provides
evidence in this context. With a minimum cashprize of $250 and a maximum of $800, they are
not at the top of the monetary rewarding board.
Nonetheless they have managed to get one of the
largest communities with an estimated amount of
7750 participants in this case study. Money as an
external incentive could be suppressed by a virtual
external incentive like the game mechanism Points.
A competition that possesses points is Smellfighter
(C15). Through a so called Activity Counter
almost each and every action was rewarded with
action points from a single point for the vote of
one idea to twenty points for the submission of
an idea or a challenge. Even though, with 272
participants, this competition had the smallest
community in this case study, they managed to
generate the amount of 2404 comments, 4066

messages and 3440 evaluations. One of the experts
said in relation to the rewarding of actions with
points that they try to foster a feeling of guiltiness
if one is less active than others. Furthermore another expert told us that the activity counter could
also be used as a measure for appreciation. That
means that the participants would be directly or
indirectly biased by the amount of points the will
get for a dedicated action.
The outcome is that a game mechanism can
provide internal and external incentives. If organizers can provide them in right combination,
participants will be continuously motivated to
participate in their competitions.
CONCLUSION
Summary, Results and
Managerial Implications
A cultural change has happened on the Internet.
The customers switched their behavior from individuals that only visit websites, to users, who
generate content (Howe, 2008). In these times of
collaborative web Customers are considered a
valuable source of innovation (Fller 2010, p.
98). Idea competitions are one possible approach
to open up the innovation process. The inflationary
increase of idea competitions results in a need for
incentives that motivates the user to participate.
Accordingly, we identified two different types of
incentives (internal / external) that are responsible
for the motivation of humans. To create motivation
they need to trigger three different motive types
(Motive of power, achievement and affiliation) and
they have to reach a certain level to attract people.
If an organizer will find the right designed combination of internal and external incentives, it
will lead the participants into the state of flow.
157
Characteristics of this condition are for example: concentration, curiosity and enjoyment.
Activities that are pretty good in activating the
feeling of flow in a participant are games. Through
the similarities of games and idea competitions,
we draw a connection to transfer mechanisms
from the game context to an idea competition. The
process of implementing playful elements into the
model of open innovation has been classified as
game-based open innovation. Accordingly, we
have introduced our definition of game mechanisms as follows:
Game mechanisms are the various actions, reactions and processes in an activity, which advance
playfulness. In interaction with the activitycontext, game mechanisms represent incentives,
which trigger motives and drive behavior.
We had a look on their appearance in online
games, functional software and the real life.
Through these consolidated findings we were
able to start our research. With an explorative
case study of 18 cases and three qualitative interviews, we found answers to our three research
questions. We

158
detected 62 appearances of game mechanisms in the eighteen analyzed cases,

which was more than what we expected.
Thereby the most occurring types were:
Exchanges with ten, social feedback with
nine and leader boards with eight times.
found that all three motive types were
trigger, but not nearly with the same degree. The motive of achievement was the
most triggered one with an amount of eight
different game mechanisms. Furthermore
eight of twelve cases (amount of cases
with game mechanism) possess more game
mechanisms that triggered the motive of
achievement than the motive of power or
affiliation. The outcome of this was that
game mechanisms indeed are parts in idea
competitions of today, but that they are

non-systematically integrated. Hence they
triggered predominantly just one motive
type instead of all three.
managed to attest game mechanisms
as incentives for motivation. Hereby we
posed evidence that game mechanisms can
take effect as internal incentives as well as
external incentives. In combination with
statements about the feeling of flow, we
found that it is possible to motivate participants continuously.
Limitations and Challenges

In the course of our study, we have dealt with
a new attempt to improve the model of open
innovation by adding playful elements to it.
Thereby we encountered challenges of gamebased open innovation and limitation of this study
that deserves consideration. One way to realize
game-based open innovation is to integrate game
mechanism into an already existing instrument
of open innovation. Our study was the first step
for the realization, by revealing game mechanisms that can be transferred from games to idea
competitions and that they are able to incentivize
people. The upcoming challenge for researchers
is now to identify more of these mechanisms
and to transfer them into the context of an idea
competition. New combination of existing web
tools are needed to create game mechanism that
really feel like games. As far as we know, this
study was the first to propose game mechanisms
as incentives for certain types of motives. To have
a measurement for comparing their effect on one
of the motive types, we decided to count the occurring mechanisms instead of measuring their
efficiency because this would have gone beyond
the scope of this study.
Knowing about the fact that game mechanisms
are internal incentives that drive behavior, we need
to make sure that they drive the right behavior. If
you find volitional activities in your idea competi-
tion, then you are able to attach game mechanisms

to them to foster their usage.
From a research perspective, we think that
this study holds many exciting opportunities for
further research.
Dahan, E., & Hauser, J. (2002). The virtual

customer. Journal of Product Innovation Management, 19(5), 332353. doi:10.1016/S07376782(02)00151-0
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stm
attendance that can appear in the actual competition as well as in the following.
Flow: Is a condition in which a person gets
incentivized by the action itself.
Game Mechanisms: Are the various actions,
reactions and processes in an activity, which advance playfulness. In interaction with the activitycontext, game mechanisms represent incentives,
which trigger motives and drive behavior.
Game: [] Is a system, in which players
engage in an artificial conflict, defined by rules,
that results in a quantifiable outcome (Salen &
Zimmerman, 2004, p. 80).
Game-based Open Innovation: Is the integration of playful elements into the model of
open innovation.
Idea Competition: Which are arranged privately or publicly, ask single persons respectively
groups to hand in contributions for a special
theme within a fixed period of time. The assessment of contributions is carried out under certain
assessment-criterias, which were defined by an
assessment-committee (adopted from Reichwald
& Piller, 2009,).
Open Innovation: [] A paradigm that assumes that firms can and should use external ideas
as well as internal ideas, and internal and external
paths, to market, as the firms look to advance
their technology (Chesbrough, 2003, p. xxiv).
ENDNOTES
1
2

Continuous Motivation: We define continuous motivation as either more active participation or repeated participation. A more active
participation describes that the amount of actions
a participant takes is higher than usual. Under
repeated participation, we understand a recurring

5

3
4
Reference: http://www.save-our-energy.de/
Reference: http://www.dpunkt.de/veranstaltungen/appquest2010/
A German publisher for IT- books
Reference: http://www.logotournament.com
Kite-boards: Piece of sport equipment in the
domain of Kite-Surfing
Social points are pretty near to social feedback the difference is that they occur as a
countable amount
161

11

10
12
162
A avatar is a virtual image of the player

(Castronova, 2001)
A Guild is a coordinated group of avatars in
World of Warcraft
Nike+ is initiated by Nike a famous manufacture of sport- goods
Reference: http://www.thefunfactor.com
Volkswagen is a german manufacturer for
automobiles
eBay is one of the biggest online auction
houses
13
14
15
MySpace is a social network which holds a

lot of customization potential
Inspired by the presentations of Amy Jo Kim
(2009) and the book of Reeves & Leighton
(2009)
Searches on Google.de leads to a number of
255.000 results for Ideenwettbewerb (ger.
for Idea Competition) and to 44.400.000 for
the term Idea Competition.
Section 3
Organizational Aspects of
Collaborative Web
OVERVIEW
There are two clear trends visible today. One is the increasing number and reducing duration of business
partnerships forcing organizations to get more interactive, dynamic and agile in order to make the best
of an association. Such partnerships quite often connect competitors as collaborators. The other trend
revolves around individual empowerment churning out of the mass adoption of collaborative tools by
individuals. As a result, we are witnessing a steep increase in the number of bloggers, tweeters, social
networks and virtual communities. Open-source culture and free tools have enabled the freedom of voice.
The possibility of an individuals idea getting sold has increased. At an individual and social level, this
trend is exciting but its ramifications for organizations are severe. The issues of lost productivity and
organizational loyalty are already being felt and documented. The conventional structures and management controls cannot be adequate to hold back this motion which, to an extent, is irresistible. It is
compulsive that they relook their plans, policies and controls to give way to open structure and culture
that accommodates the individual and social behavioral patterns.
Chapter 11 addresses the first trend, wherein Paolo Renna draws attention to the emergence of informal networks formed by clusters as a new but significant feature of contemporary industrial economy.
The chapter investigates the life cycle of business networks in which the partners change dynamically.
A multi-agent architecture is proposed to support a network of enterprises collaborating in co-opetitive
relationship. A simulation environment is proposed that can help business users decide when to enter
into or exit from a partnership.
Chapter 12 by Kathrin Kirchner and Mladen udanov takes a look inside knowledge intensive
companies and questions the influence of collaborative web tools on knowledge management, structure and culture of organizations. Knowledge intensive organizations are characterized by diversity of
knowledge which is distributed across project teams, communities of practice and individuals. With the
help of structured, in-depth interviews of business managers in knowledge intensive companies, the
authors conclude that collaborative web does affect the structure, culture and knowledge management
of an organization. Their findings also suggest that there is a shift in employees loyalties from that of
company to virtual communities. Though the context of this study is based in Serbia, the implications
presented in this chapter are undoubtedly universal.
In Chapter 13, Archana Tyagi pitches the organizational impacts from the psychological perspective.
It is grounded in the fact that organizational identity and individual identities have a reciprocal relation.
Using the concept of Identity, this chapter explores the identity management and identity statuses to
understand the real and virtual identity. It reminds us of the issue of identity crisis and the associated
potential challenges in the real world. The chapter then moves on to discuss about the space extended
by virtual reality for manifestation of an alternate identity. The author suggests that experimenting with
multiple identities teaches us to be more tolerant, flexible, empathetic and social which is an integral part
of the human growth. Hence, understanding the role of collaborative web in the formation of a healthy
identity should be clear sighted with immense potential of self expression and communication leading
to better alignment between individual and organizational identities.
165
Chapter 11
Dynamic Co-Opetitive Network

Organization Supported by
Multi Agent Architecture
Paolo Renna
University of Basilicata, Italy
ABSTRACT
The emergence of institutional or informal networks, formed by cluster groups appears to be a major
new feature of the contemporary industrial economy. The focus of this chapter is the development of a
Multi Agent Architecture to support a network of enterprises that collaborate in a co-opetition relationships environment. The research concerns the investigation of a life cycle of the network in which the
partners change dynamically. In particular, the enterprises that participate in the network can exit or
continue to participate, while the enterprises that operate outside the network can evaluate to participate
in the network. A simulation environment is developed to implement and test the proposed Multi Agent
Architecture. The simulation tool allows to evaluate the proposed approach in a co-opetitive network
during the operational activities. The simulation results show that the proposed approach is a very
promising tool to support the plants participation decision.
INTRODUCTION
Nowadays, the costs of cooperation and communication among the enterprises are reduced
drastically, this condition encourages the enterDOI: 10.4018/978-1-60960-581-0.ch011
prises to establish relationship among them. The

collaboration among enterprises is necessary to
obtain a competitive advantage in the actual business environment characterized by global competition, frequent introduction of new products,
large fluctuations in product demand, etc. Several
investigations have been discussed on inter-firm
Dynamic Co-Opetitive Network Organization
relationship (Song and Panayides, 2002; White,

2005; Janssen, 2008). The importance of interfirm relationship is supported by several studies,
among them Lavie (2007) finds an increase from
32% to 95% for the percentage of corporations in
the US software industry that engage in alliances
between the beginning and the end of the 1990s.
The co-opetition paradigm seems to be the most
promising approach to establish efficacy and efficient relationship among enterprises. Co-opetition
concept was expanded upon by Brandenburger &
Nalebuff (1996a; 1996b); it is a model in which
firms engage in simultaneous cooperation and
competition with each other to create maximum
value. Several examples of co-opetition have been
developed in recent years. In the 90s GM and
Ford, the major American car-makers, established
an e-procurement platform for procuring basic
components. The joint venture between Toyota
and PSA Citroen-Peugeot, established in 2002, is
another very relevant example of co-opetition in
automobile industry. The two companies agreed
in building a common plant in Czech Republic
and using common components for the production of three new separately-owned city cars.
In Italy, in 2002, the two biggest motorcycle
companies, Aprilia and Piaggio made an alliance
for joint-procurement, though competing in the
final market. In ICT industry, the Simian is a
joint-venture among the main mobile wireless
telephones manufacturers in the world: Nokia,
Ericsson, Panasonic, Samsung, Siemens AG,
and the leading company in the mobile digital
computing, Psion. (Psionhas sold its own shares in
2004). The phenomenon of co-opetition in R&D
activities and co-promotion is also very common
in pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry.
The development and rapid expansion of World
Wide Web technologies allowed the acceleration
of applications that can support e-collaboration
for business to business applications. These tools
allow enterprises geographically dispersed to
cooperate in order to better respond to business
opportunities. Multi Agent technology has been
166
considered as an important approach for developing distributed architecture (Shen, 1999). In

particular, the multi agent technology can be used
to structure the framework for dynamic collaborative web tools. The main motivations to adopt a
multi-agent platform concern especially:

The dynamicity of the system- enterprises can evaluate the possibility to enter or
leave with the needed intelligence of software components.
The scalability of the system - enterprises
have different system to integrate and the
environmental condition can be affected
by rapid change.
The naturally distributed environment.
In this context, the multi agent technology

can be viewed as a framework at high level of
abstraction (knowledge level) to support and
implement the features of a collaborative distributed environment.
Collaborative web applications support the
development of sophisticated multi agent architectures with high intelligence that improve the
performance level of decentralized approaches.
The contribution of this chapter concerns the
following issues.
The first issue concerns the design of the Multi
Agent Architecture able to support transaction,
information sharing and collaboration among
the enterprises that participate in a co-opetition
network. In particular, to form a functional perspective, the architecture is described by using
the class diagram formalism, while its dynamics
are specified by UML activity diagrams.
The second issues concerns the development
of strategies performed by the generic firm. In
particular, the firms have to take the following
decisions:

if the generic firm participates in the network, it applies a periodic review of the
advantages / disadvantages obtained by
the participation in order to make a decision regarding the participation (continue

to participate or exit);
a generic firm that doesnt participate in
the network evaluates if the participation
can be opportune to improve its profit.
Therefore, the research regards a dynamic

network in which the partners can change during
the life cycle of the network.
Finally, a discrete event simulation environment has been proposed to implement the multi
agent architecture and to test the proposed approaches in dynamic conditions. The simulation
results allow to evaluate the real value added by
the network to the participants.
The rest of the chapter is structured as follows:
section 2 presents an overview of the literature on
dynamic alliance among firms; section 3 describes
the multi agent architecture proposed; the agents
interaction and the strategies performed by each
agent are illustrated in section 4. The developed
simulation environment and simulation results
are respectively presented in sections 5 and 6.
Finally, conclusions and further research paths
are drawn in section 7.
LITERATURE OVERVIEW
Many authors addressed the problem of evolutionary dynamics of strategic alliances investigating
case study and proposing theoretical framework.
Royer and Simons (2009) investigated the
impact of reputation on alliance creation and the
influence of expectations of partner behaviour on
alliance failure and longevity. An experimental
study with 120 chemical manufacturing project
managers picks up on current perceptions of
reputation of each manager and pre-existing
relationships within the industry in the Asia
Pacific Region. The researchers identified the
formation of over 500 alliances and investigated
the conditional effects of expectation matching
and expectation mismatching on alliance duration. In real life inter-firm alliances, probably
more emphasis is placed on the reputation of the
whole entity (i.e., the corporate reputation). This
however is difficult to model in an experimental
setting. Therefore, they had chosen their approach
as a starting point for understanding the impact of
reputation on alliance formation on an individual
level. However, this research is a first analysis for
further investigation on this issue.
Jiang et al. (2008) presented a theoretical
framework for understanding the evolutionary
dynamics of strategic alliances using an integrated
process model. They analyzed the conceptual
characteristics and antecedents of the stability of
strategic alliances. Their analysis suggested that
in the partner selection stage, complementarity of
partners resources, partner reputation and prior
ties may be key attributes. This perspective has
important implications for managerial practice.
First, firms should choose those organizations with
complementary resources and good reputation as
partners. Further, if they had previous cooperative
experience with a partner in which the alliance
performed well, they could consider collaborating with the same partner again, and by doing so
they could ensure the existence of a reciprocal,
favorable and stable alliance relationship.
Li et al. (2009) modeled and simulated the
evolution of complex adaptive supply networks
(CASNs) based on complex adaptive system and
fitness landscape theory. Then, a case study of the
evolution of the low voltage equipment apparatus
supply network in the emerging Chinese market
has been explored to validate the findings from
the simulation and develop a better understanding of the general principles influencing the
emergence, adaptation and evolution of CASNs
in the real world. Based on the simulation and
the case study, they proposed some propositions
about the factors and principles influencing the
evolutionary complexity of CASNs. The external
environment factors and firm-internal mechanisms
appear to be the dominant forces that shape the
167
gradual evolution of CASNs. Factors in the external environment, such as government regulation,
market demand and market structure appear to
have a long-term impact on the evolution, while
a firms strategies, product structure, technology,
and organization appear to be the internal factors
that exert an immediate influence on the evolution
of CASNs. Among these factors, cost and quality
considerations appear to be the primary forces that
influence the structure complexity, centralization
and formalization of CASNs.
Pathak et al. (2003) introduced a multi-paradigm dynamic system simulator based on discrete
time and discrete event formalism for simulating
a supply chain as a complex adaptive system.
Simulating dynamic supply chain networks
over extended periods using the multi-paradigm
dynamic system simulator allows observing the
emergence of different structures. The simulator
was implemented using a software agent technology, where individual agents represent firms in a
supply chain network. In this paper, the authors
presented an example scenario run on the simulator
and shared the preliminary results. This multiparadigm tool provides a valuable investigation
instrument for real-life supply chain problems.
Pathak et al. (2007) investigated how supply
chains, or supply networks evolve, and adapt over
time. To study this complex phenomenon, they
identified some primary topological structures that
supply networks may form. Then, to investigate
the evolution of such structures, a theory-based
framework was developed that combines aspects
of complex adaptive systems theory, industrial
growth theory, network theory, market structure
and game theory. This framework specifies categories of rules that may evoke different behaviors in the two fundamental components of any
adaptive supply networks. The framework was
implemented as a multi-paradigm simulation
utilizing software agents and it joins discrete-time
with discrete-event simulation formalisms. This
methodology allows the spontaneous generation
of network structures so that it is possible to ex-
168
amine the potential factors behind the evolution

of different supply networks topologies. Using
data and parameters extracted from 80 years of
the U.S. automobile industry, they have been able
to grow a wide range of SN topologies and preliminary results show that certain environmental
and firm-level factors may impact the eventual
evolution of such structures.
More recent contributions organize in a
framework different kinds of co-opetitions. Garraffo (2002) defined a typology co-opetition and
showed how such a strategy may contribute to
the value creation or construct a framework to
measure intensity and diversity of co-opetition in
order to provide some guidelines for building up
co-opetitive relationships (Luo, 2007). The papers
presented above, even those which explicitly study
co-opetition issues, focus on analyzing inter-firms
relationships within co-opetition frameworks.
Kupke and Lattemann (2008) investigated
Deutsche Brse AG case study. The case study
shows that the DBAG is successful in contractual
collaborations with smaller exchanges and clearing institutions as well as all mergers with smaller
firms are successful. They are not successful in
the other clusters, in particular in alliances with
bigger or same-sized companies.
Li et al. (2009b) proposed an evolution model
of supply networks in order to understand the
general principle of supply network evolution.
The paper conducted a multi-agent simulation
on the evolution model, and disclosed that the
supply network emerges and evolves from
firms dynamic interaction under the dynamic
environment. Dominated by the environment
and firms internal mechanism, the evolution is
highly sensitive to the initial condition, and it is
path-dependent and difficult to predict precisely.
Although the dynamics of environment are different, a supply network enjoys the stable structure in
different environments. Higher level of structure
stability and fitness of the supply network are
achieved when the firms in the supply network
adopt the long-term collaboration strategy rather
than the short-term strategy. Finally, a China case

is explored which validates the self-organization
evolution of supply networks.
Several authors addressed the decision problem
on entering in an alliance.
Doz et al. (2000) examined the creation of R&D
firms consortia to uncover the formation processes
underlying the formation of cooperative inter-firm
networks. They identified an emergent process by
which environmental changes and shared views
among participants facilitate network formation,
and also an engineered process in which a triggering entity actually recruits potential members.
Together, the identification and elucidation of
these two processes provide us with insights into
the formation of networks.
Baum et al. (2000) utilize a unique data set on
biotech start-ups to examine the role of start-ups
network composition on their innovative performance. Their findings suggest that the structure
of their network of ties and the identity of their
partners can have a significant influence on their
performance. They used these empirical findings
to reflect on some implications that may help
managers of start-ups.
In marketing literature and in agricultural
economics, there are some examples of game
theoretic approaches, for instance, in analyzing
effects and results of joint advertising or copromotion in presence of competition among
partners (Krishnamurthy, 2000; Bass et al., 2005;
Isariyawongse et al., 2007).
Park and Zhou (2005) focused on the decision
of a firm to enter an alliance from the perspective
that this decision is assumed to be primarily based
on the competitive pressure in the market. They,
therefore, adopt a strategic game form setting and
perform simulations.
Some papers focused on the aspect of exiting
the alliance during the life cycle alliance behavior
(Arend and Seale, 2005; Phelan et al., 2005). They
argue that modeling an alliance as a prisoners dilemma neglects the exit option that is available to
partners. They proposed a game in which alliance
partners have three strategies at their disposal:

commitment, opportunism and exiting.
From the analysis of the literature, is it possible
to extrapolate some useful highlights:

the most part of the researcher have proposed frameworks to build and manage coopetition networks. These studies analyzed
the requisites to form a network and the
motivation to obtain a long-term collaboration among enterprises.
some authors addressed the problem of decision to participate in a network. In this
case only the enter option is considered.
the option of an enterprise to enter or leave
a network was not investigated using the
information of the cooperation protocol
among the partners during the operative
activities of the network.
This research overcomes the previous studies

in the following issues:

it utilizes a Multi Agent Architecture as a

framework for the considered network in
order to manage all the activities of the enterprises and the life cycle of the network.
it has developed a coordination protocol
among the partners of the network based
on negotiation approach.
the generic enterprise decides to enter or
leave the network using the information of
the network (the real benefits that the network can provide to the generic enterprise).
Moreover, a simulation environment is developed in order to test the proposed approach and
to evaluate their real added values.
MULTI AGENT ARCHITECTURE

The electronic co-petitive network considered in
this chapter has the objective to share capacity
169
Figure 1. Class diagram
among the partners. Each partner operates in a

regional market in which the customers put in
some orders. Therefore, the enterprises that have
an excess of capacity can provide them to the
enterprises that have an over-loaded situation.
The cooperation allows the enterprises to share
capacity and therefore to reduce the needs of
capacity investment and to react to the market
fluctuations.
The environment context consists of a set of
plants located in different regional markets in
which customers input orders. The network connects a set of plants together by an electronic marketplace managed by an independent third party.
The class diagram of figure 1 shows the agents
that compose the framework developed.
As the reader can notice, the architecture consists of two principal agents: Plant Agent (PA)
and Mediator Agent (MA). The PA is composed
of three agents: Decision Support Agent (DSA),
Request Capacity Agent (RCA) and Capacity
Offering Agent (COA).
The PA performs the following activities:

170
Participate or leave a network; the PA using the information and the model of the
DSA decides if participate in a network or
leave a network.
Capacity offer state; if the plant is in under-loaded situation it can offer capacity to
the other plants of the network. Then, the

plant activates the COA in order to negotiate the capacity to provide to other plants
of the network by the MA.
Capacity request state; if the plant is in
over-loaded situation it needs capacity to
satisfy its customers. Then, the plant activates the RCA in order to negotiate the
capacity to acquire by the other plants of
the network by the MA.
The MA is in charge of managing synchronization in RCA and COA system communication by

using coordination mechanisms and coordinates
the plants that enter or leave the network.
AGENTS INTERACTIONS
The coordination approach of the electronic network used in this research is a negotiation model,
first proposed in Renna et al. (2010), and here
briefly described.
The negotiation process is characterized by the
following constraints (Negotiation constraints):

the negotiation is a multi-lateral one and it

involves one to many agents;
the negotiation is an iterative process with
a maximum number of rounds, rmax ; after
that an agreement is reached or the negotiation fails;

during each round (r) the COA can submit
a new counter-proposal (N) to the RCA
while, at r= rmax, it can only accept (A),
reject (R) or ask for last counter proposal.
Obviously, the RCA answers at generic
round r, can be referred as (A R N)r ;
the agreement is reached only if the RCA
accepts the COA counter proposal at round
r< rmax; in this case the agents sign an electronic contract; if there are multiple agreements, the first COA that satisfies the RCA
sings the agreement.
the agents behavior is assumed to be rationale according to their utility functions;
the RCA does not know COAs utility
functions and vice versa.
The common variables considered for the

network formalization are: the market price of the
kth product, the associated productive cost, related
to the price by a mark-up strategy, the productive
capacity of each plant and the quantity of each
product required by the market. Specifically:
price pk is the market price of kth product, for
the generic pth plant;
cos t pk is the production cost of kth product,
for the generic pth plant. It is a function of productive and managerial costs. It also takes into
account the efficiency of the plant and its relative
geographical dispersion. It is obtained with a
mark-up strategy;
C pk is the productive capacity of kth product,
for the generic pth plant;
Rpk is the quantity of kth product required by
the market, for the generic pth plant.
For both approaches, agents are identified and
classified in overloadedOG = {1,..., i,..., N } and
under-loaded UG = {1,..., j,..., M } . Afterwards
each of them respectively compute the capacity

it needs to produce a given product k, RC ik , or
the one it can offer,OC jk , to other plants of the

network. The only variable all agents take into
account is the price to pay to obtain -or make
over- their capacity.
The UML activity diagram of Figure 2 shows
the agents interaction workflow. As the reader
can notice three swim lines, corresponding to
the above described agents, have been located
in the diagram.
Specifically, for the COA the following activities can be highlighted:

Wait: the agent is in its initial state of waiting for a proposal (from RCA);
Evaluates proposal: the COA evaluates
the proposal of the RCA in terms of required capacity and offered price. At the
first round the COA communicates the
amount of capacity it is willing to offer
(the minimum value between the one requested by the RCA and its own unused capacity). Subsequently, the COA communicates to the RCA if it accepts or refuses the
proposed price to exchange the promise
amount of capacity. Then the COA evaluates the proposal of the RCA by a threshold
function given by (1):
r 1
k

val jk ,r = price kj (price kj cos t jk )
M ij
r
max
(1)
being M ijk = min(RC k ,OC k )

i
(2)
Expression (1) computed by the COA is a

threshold level. Starting from the market price
value, during the negotiation the variable r increments and the threshold level decreases until the
value of production costs. In this case the generated profit is null.
At this point, the following expression is
checked:
171
Figure 2. Negotiation Activity Diagram
k ,r
valik ,r val j
(3)
If (3) is verified, the jth plant supplies the

requested capacity of the ith plant: they reach an
agreement and each ones can update their available capacity.

172
Updates threshold level: if the COA refuses the price submitted by the RCA, it updates the threshold level for the next round
of negotiation (increases the value of r in
expression (1)); if the algorithm reached
the last round, the COA simply quits the
negotiation.
Updates capacity: if the negotiation
reaches an agreement, the COA updates the
capacity it owns. In case no more capacity

resources are available, it quits, otherwise
it goes in its Wait state.
The RCA performs the following activities:

Proposal elaboration: the RCA elaborates a
proposal in terms of price and amount of capacity to acquire, and transmits this information to
the MA. The submitted price is obtained by the
following expression:
r r
k

= priceik (priceik cos tik ) max
M ij
r
max
k ,r
vali
(4)
Expression (4) computed by the RCA starts

with a price equal to production costs: the generated profit is the same obtained when the products
are produced by its own plant. During the negotiation the price is increased upto the value given
by the market price. In this case the generated
profit is null.

Wait: the RCA waits for counter-proposal

by the COAs.
Counter-proposal computation: if the
COA refuses the proposal and the negotiation is still running, the RCA computes a
new counter-proposal (increases the value
of r in expression (4)). Otherwise (i.e. it is
the last round of negotiation), the process
ends with no agreement.
Updates capacity: if the negotiation
reaches an agreement, the RCA updates
their information; if the acquired capacity
is exactly as the required one, it quits, otherwise it computes a new proposal for the
residual capacity it needs.
Wait: the MA is in its initial state of waiting for a proposal (from the RCA).
Computes raking list: the MA computes
a ranking list among all the plants that
requested capacity. The way it does it depends on several variables; in this research,
the ranking is done favoring first plants
with high need of capacity, allowing them
to better satisfy the customers requests.
Transmits proposal: the MA transmits the
proposal computed by RCA, at the ranking
list of COAs.
Wait: the MA is in state of waiting for the
counter-proposal by all the COAs.
Transmits counter-proposal: the MA
transmits the counter-proposal of the COA
to the RCA.
After having uploaded all the necessary values,

the generic ith plant that does not reach the entire
capacity it needs is again inserted in the ranking
list. At this point the negotiation starts again. To
avoid a deadlock, the agent that does not reach any
agreement at the end of the negotiation process
is removed by the ranking list.
Agents Interaction of the

Decisional Approach
Figure 3 shows the activity diagram that involves
the Decision Support Agent and Mediator Agent
when the generic plant evaluates if participates
or leave a network.
The Decision Support Agent works through
the following activities:

The MA performs the coordination activities

between COA and RCA.

Periodic evaluation: the generic plant applies a periodic strategy to evaluate if it

participates or leaves a network. Therefore,
the process to evaluate the state of the plant
is activated between two sets of periods
(Tp).
Decision model: the DSA makes the decision by a decisional model. Two cases
173
Figure 3. Participation Activity diagram
have to be described: if the plant participates in the network or the plant operates
alone. If the plant operates alone, it evaluates if the participation in the network can
improve the performance. The information
used by the generic i-th plant is: unsatisfied customer demand (UDi) and the variability of the demand (VDi). The plant can
gain benefit from the network, if the customer demand has high variability and the
unsatisfied customer demand is limited.
This condition means that the plant i-th is
characterized by some peak of demand,
but no increasing trend of customer demand (in this last situation, the plant needs
to invest in capacity). Moreover, the high
variability of customer demand causes that
in some periods, the plant have excess of
174
capacity that it can sell to the other plants

in the network. Therefore, the environment
condition in which the plant can gain high
benefit is the following:
IF UDi IS LOW AND IF VDi IS HIGH
In this chapter, it is proposed to have two
thresholds values to define the conditions LOW
and HIGH. In particular, the LOW condition is
defined as ThrUDi and HIGH as ThrVDi (generic
plant i-th). Therefore,
UDi IS LOW is verified when UDi < ThrUDi
and
VDi IS HIGH is verified when VDi>ThrVdi.
Updates network composition: the MA

analyzes the proposal submitted by the
plant and updates the composition of the
network.
Sends network information: the MA
transmits the technological and protocol
information to participate or leave the
network.
In case the plant participates in the network,

the decision concerns the possibility to continue
the participation or leave the network. The information that the plant uses is: the profit gained by
selling capacity to the other plants of the network
(exchprofi) and unsatisfied customer demand
(UDi). The environment condition that leads the
decision to leave the network is the following:
IF exchprofi IS LOW AND UDi IS HIGH
The above Multi Agent architecture is generic

and it can be easily re-configured for introduce
other requirements.
The above rule means that the plant i-th gains

a low profit selling capacity to the network (exchprofi) and the unsatisfied customer demand is
high with the chance of reducing its market share.
The low value of profit can be caused by the production costs of the plant that are incompatible
with the other plants of the network and the plant
does not reach agreement during the negotiations. Further, in this case two thresholds values
are proposed to define the conditions LOW and
HIGH. In particular, the LOW condition is defined
as ThrExchi and HIGH as ThrUDi (generic plant
i-th). Therefore, exchprofi IS LOW is verified
when eschprofi < ThrExchi and UDi IS HIGH
is verified when UDi>ThrUDi.

Sends request to participate/leave: the

generic plant sends the decision to participate or to leave the network based on the
above two cases described.
Wait: the plant waits for the answer of the
Mediator Agent.
Updates state: after the answer of the
Mediator Agent the plant updates its state
(participate or leave the network).
The Mediator Agent performs the following

activities:

Wait: the MA is in the initial state of waiting for a proposal to enter/leave from a
plant.
Decisional Parameters Computation

The parameters used to make the decision by the
generic plant are computed as follows.
The value of unsatisfied demand of the plant
i-th (UDi) is computed as average of the unsatisfied demand during the Tp periods of the periodic
review policy. Then, the index UDi is the ratio
between the unsatisfied demand and the capacity
of the plant in order to obtain a value between 0
and 1.
The VDi is computed as square root of variance
of the customer demand observed during the last
Tp periods. Therefore the value is between 0 and 1.
The exchprofi is computed as the average
amount of exchanged money for buy or sell capacity during the last Tp periods. In order to obtain
a value minor of one, the exchprofi is divided to
the potential turnover, to be more precisely, the
amount of invoice if all the capacity is sold.
SIMULATION ENVIRONMENT
A distributed simulation environment has been
developed based on the proposed Multi Agent
Architecture to simulate the electronic co-opetitive
network. It consists of a simulation environment,
developed by using Java development kit package, able to test the functionality of the proposed
approaches and to understand the related advan-
175
Table 1. Plants characteristics

Parameter
Values
C pk
100
pricepk
cos t pk
6.4
In order to reduce the computational time, just

one product typology has been considered (k=1).
Moreover, the plants characteristics are equal for
all plants to evaluate only the effect of the customer demand on the performance of the network.
Table 2 reports the threshold levels for each parameters used by the plants to decide the participation in the network. The meaning of the threshold levels is the following: the threshold ThUDi
concerns the acceptable limit of unsatisfied demand fixed to 10% of the capacity; the ThVDi is
related to the variability of customer demand fixed
to 5% of the capacity; finally, the ThExchi is
minimum value of exchange acceptable to participate in the network, this is related to the potential profit of the plant.
Several customer demand typologies have
been considered, however in all of them the customer demand, at the beginning of the simulation,
has a value comparable to the plants capacities.
Table 3 reports the customers demand for each
simulated case.
Furthermore, because of the random input and
in order to guarantee a statistical validity of the
results for each run, the number of executed replications guarantees, for the output performance
measures, that the length of confidence intervals
(95% level) of the mean among replications is
lower than 5% of the mean itself.
The following performance measures have
been considered to compare the proposed coordination strategies:
tages and/or limits. The modeling formalism

adopted here is a collection of independent agents
interacting via messages. This formalism is quite
suitable for MAS development. In particular,
each object represents an agent and the system
evolves through a message sending engine managed by a discrete event scheduler. Specifically,
the following objects have been developed: the
DSA, COA, the RCA, the MA deeply described
in the previous section-, the Scheduler, the Model
and the Statistical agents. The scheduler, model
and statistical agents are developed to support
the simulator used to test the proposed approach.
The Scheduler agent is in charge of the system
evolution by managing the discrete events of the
simulation engine. Differently, Model agent is
in charge of the agents interaction. Finally, the
Statistical agent collects the output data -at the
end of simulation- and it generates reports and
statistical analysis. The simulation network replies
72 periods with a Tp of 9 periods. The plants
characteristics are reported in table 1.
Table 2. Threshold values
176
Parameter
Threshold
Value
UDi
ThUDi
10% of C p
VDi
ThVDi (average for period)
5% of C p
exchprofi
ThExchi (average for period)
0.55% of C p *( price p - cos t p )
Table 3. Customers demand

Customers
demand
Distribution
Characteristics
No.1
UNIFORM [90-110]
Low variability
No. 2
UNIFORM [50-150]
High variability
UNIFORM [50-150]
Three plants have fluctuation of +/-10% over three periods and three plants have high variability
No. 3
No. 4
50% of plants with high variability and 50% with low variability
the total profit (TP) reached by the whole

network; it has been computed as the sum
of each single profit generated by all the
plants of the network;
the total unsatisfied demand (TUD): it is
the difference existing between the quantity of products required by the market and
the one the network has been able to satisfy. It could be considered as a customer
performance;
the unitary total unsatisfied demand
(TUD*): it is the total unsatisfied demand
computed by the following expression:
TUD * =
TUD
number of periods number of plants average demand
(5)
The index reported in expression (5) proposed
a value that does not depend on the condition of
the network (number of periods, customer demand
and plants involved).

the total unutilised capacity (TUC): it is

the difference existing between the whole
capacity of the network and the unallocated capacity;
the participation index (PI): it is the ratio
between the periods in which the plant operates in the network and the total periods
(in this chapter 72). The PI index is computed for the network (PI of the network)
as the ratio between the average of periods
in which the plants participate to the network and the total periods.
SIMULATION RESULTS
The simulations have been conducted defining
four cases:
1. (case 1) when simulation starts, all the plants
participate in the network;
2. (case 2) when simulation starts, all the plants
dont participate in the network;
3. (case 3) the plants collaborate in the network
with no possibility to exit (this is used as the
best benchmark);
4. (case 4) in the last case, the plants cant collaborate (this is used as a worst benchmark).
As the reader can notice, (see table 4) the
participation in the network leads to low benefit
for the plants because the increment of the profit
is very low. The main benefit is for the customer
that can reduce the total unsatisfied demand
(TUD) significantly. It has been considered that
the average TUD for unit of period and unit of
plant related to the average customer demand is
very low.
Therefore, from the analysis of the plants
decision during the activities of the network the
following issues can be drawn:

the markets in which the plants operate are

very stable, therefore the benefit for the
plants to participate is very low.
the plants data decision shows how three
plants decide to leave the network because
the unsatisfied demand is very low and also
177
Table 4. Simulation results - Customers demand No.1

Case 1
Case 2
Case 3
Case 4
TP
68323.2 (+1.50%)
67312 (0%)
68520 (+1.79%)
67312
TUD
459 (-57.93%)
1091 (0%)
336 (-69.20%)
1091
TUD*
1.06%
2.53%
0.78%
2.53%
TUC
498 (-55.93%)
1130 (0%)
375 (-66.81%)
1130
PI Plant 1
72/72
0/72
72/72
0/72
PI Plant 2
45/72
0/72
72/72
0/72
PI Plant 3
72/72
0/72
72/72
0/72
PI Plant 4
54/72
0/72
72/72
0/72
PI Plant 5
36/72
0/72
72/72
0/72
PI Plant 6
72/72
0/72
72/72
0/72
PI of the Network
58.5/72
0/72
72/72
0/72
Case 1
Case 2
Case 3
Case 4
TP
66120 (+9.47%)
65324.8 (+8.15%)
66120 (+9.47%)
60401.6
TUD
1891 (-65.40%)
2388 (-56.30%)
1891 (-65.40%)
5465
TUD*
4.38%
5.53%
4.38%
12.65%
TUC
1875
2372
1875
5449
Profit 1
11202.4
11026.4
11202.4
10158.4
Profit 2
11042.4
10917.6
11042.4
9968
Profit 3
10369.6
10256
10369.6
9600
Profit 4
11630.4
11512
11630.4
10432
Profit 5
11468.8
11371.2
11468.8
10378
Profit 6
10406.4
10241.6
10406.4
9865.6
PI of the network
72/72
63/72
72/72
0/72
the exchange with the other plants of the

network is very low.
Finally, in case 2 (when in the initial state
the plants operate alone) no one plant decides to participate in the network.
These results confirm that the proposed approach is suitable when the markets environment
is quite stable, because in this case the network can
provide limited benefits to the partners. In fact,
in this context the plants (case 2) dont decide to
participate in the network.
178
The second experimental class has been conducted with all the markets in which the plants
operate with high variability.
From the simulation results reported in table
5 the following issues can be drawn:

when the markets are characterized by high

volatility, no one of the plants leave the
network and in case 2 (the initial state with
no collaboration among the plants), all the
plants decide to participate in the network.

Case 1
Tp=3
Tp=6
Tp=9
Tp=12
TP
66179.2
66632
66750.4
66844.8
TUD
2090
1807
1733
1674
TUD*
4.84%
4.18%
4.02%
3.88%
TUC
1838
1555
1481
1422
PI plant 1
27/72
72/72
72/72
72/72
PI plant 2
66/72
72/72
72/72
72/72
PI plant 3
21/72
6/72
72/72
72/72
PI plant 4
72/72
72/72
72/72
72/72
PI plant 5
15/72
72/72
45/72
72/72
PI plant 6
66/72
72/72
72/72
72/72
PI of the Network
44.5/72
61/72
67.5/72
72/72
Moreover, in case 2, the benefits for the

plants (total profit TP) are significantly
high and the reduction of TUD is important.
This case can be viewed as the opposite situation of the experimental case 1.
The third experimental class has been conducted with three plants characterized by a stable
market (plants 1, 3 and 5) and three plants with
high volatility market (plants 2, 4 and 6). Moreover, an analysis of the Tp it has been conducted
by changing the number of periods between the
plants decision.
The simulation results show how the Tp parameter determines the decision of the plants (see
Table 6). When the number of periods in which
the parameter to decide is evaluated is high, no
one of the plants leave the network. The reduction of Tp leads to an increase in the number of
the plants that leave the network or the plants
leave earlier during the periods observed. This
is caused by the reduction of the information to
evaluate the decisional parameters; therefore in
a limited number of periods the plants exchange
low capacity and this can caused the decision to
leave the network. As the reader can notice, when
Tp=3 the network was dissolved; after 62 periods
only one plant wants to collaborate. Then, Tp is a

crucial parameter for the existence of the network.
The fourth experimental class has been conducted with three plants that have a fluctuation
(+/-10%) over three periods of the customer demand and three plants with high customer demand
variability (see Table 7).
The above simulation results confirm, also in
this case, the comments of the third experimental
class. In this case, three plants have fluctuation
of the customer demand, so it is important to
investigate the decision of each plant during the
72 periods for the case study 2 (the plants operate
alone at period 0).
The results of table 8 show that in case of Tp
low(3) and high (12) the network is characterized
by a reduction of average periods in which the
plants participate in the network (PI network);
this causes the reduction of the performance (TP
and TUD). Therefore, Tp high can be opportune
when the network is composed at early stage
and allows to keep a stability, while when the
network starts with low number of plants the Tp
high postpones the decision to participate by the
plants that operate alone.
179

Case 1
Tp=3
Tp=6
Tp=9
Tp=12
TP
64427.2
66070.4
66113.6
66113.6
TUD
2453
1426
1399
1399
TUD*
5.68%
3.3%
3.24%
3.24%
TUC
2933
1906
1879
1879
PI plant 1
24/72
72/72
72/72
72/72
PI plant 2
51/72
72/72
72/72
72/72
PI plant 3
57/72
72/72
72/72
72/72
PI plant 4
3/72
72/72
72/72
72/72
PI plant 5
63/72
72/72
72/72
72/72
PI plant 6
21/72
66/72
72/72
72/72
PI network
36.5/72
71/72
72/72
72/72
Table 8. Simulation results Customers demand No.4

Case 2
Tp=3
Tp=6
Tp=9
Tp=12
TP
64158.4
65524.8
65193
65070.4
TUD
2621
1767
1974
2051
TUD*
6.07%
4.09%
4.57%
4.75%
TUC
3101
2247
2454
2531
PI plant 1
0/72
42/72
36/72
24/72
PI plant 2
42/72
66/72
63/72
60/72
PI plant 3
60/72
66/72
63/72
60/72
PI plant 4
0/72
54/72
18/72
48/72
PI plant 5
63/72
66/72
63/72
60/72
PI plant 6
12/72
54/72
54/72
36/72
PI network
29.5/72
58/72
49.5/72
48/72
CONCLUSION AND FUTURE

RESEARCH PATHS
The chapter deals with the decision to participate
or not in a network of enterprises. The network
considered is an electronic co-opetitive network
of plants that can exchange productive capacity
among them. Then, a Multi Agent architecture implementation is proposed to support the network.
180
The proposed multi agent architecture is able

to support and automate the workflow among the
enterprises involved. Moreover, the architecture
developed is a valid tool to support the development of the collaborative web infrastructure. The
architecture designs the functional prospective:
function and intelligence of each agent; and dynamics prospective: the activities of the agents
and the interactions among them. The simulation
environment, based on the developed architecture,
suggests how to evaluate the real value of coopetitive tools in e-business environment
The decisional methodology proposed is
based on three types of information processed by
the plants: one is the degree of volatility of the
customer demand computed by the variance of
the demand distribution; the second is the level
of customer demand unsatisfied and the last is
the level of exchange with the other plants of the
network. The evaluation of these parameters is
computed by the plants with a periodic review
policy. The simulation environment developed
allows investigating the interaction between the
operational activity of the plants (satisfaction of
customer orders) and the decisional activity about
the participation in the network. Concerning the
specific problem of participation in the network,
the following conclusions can be drawn:

The two opposite cases analyzed (all the

markets quite stable and all the markets
with high fluctuations) are used as a benchmark to evaluate the proposed approach.
The simulation results show that the proposed approach works according to these
opposite cases.
Further simulations conducted show the
crucial importance of the Tp parameter in
the periodic review policy. In particular, if
the number of periods of Tp is excessively
low, the decision of the plants is related
to limited observations and it can lead to
the dissolution of the network. Otherwise,
if the Tp is characterized by high number
of periods, the information used is old and
this leads to a static composition of the
network.
Moreover, Tp high can postpone the entrance of new partners in the network, because the old information is as a barrier to
entrance in the network.
At strategic level, this research shows that:
Multi Agent System is a suitable approach

to implement a distributed architecture
both for the activities of the network (capacity exchange) and for the decisional
activities. The Architecture can support the
electronic co-opetitive network of enterprises in several activities.
Discrete event simulation is a powerful
tool to test approaches and highlight the
real added value of these approaches in a
electronic co-opetitive network. This tool
reduces the risk related to the ICT investment and agent based technology.
Future research paths concern several problems

to be deeply investigated. The threshold levels
used in this research can be improved following
two issues. First issue is about the use of fuzzy
logic to implement the decision of human managers on the choice of the level of the parameters
used to take the decision. The other issue is the
use of a proper learning algorithm to adapt the
threshold level to the changes in market environment. Another important issue to investigate is
the possibility to participate in several networks
and therefore a competition among networks.
The Multi Agent Architecture and discrete event
simulation tools presented in this chapter can be
promising methodologies to develop these further
research paths.
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184
Chapter 12
The Influence of
Collaborative Web on
Knowledge Management,
Organizational Structure
and Culture in KnowledgeIntensive Companies
Kathrin Kirchner
Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Germany
Mladen udanov
University of Belgrade, Serbia
ABSTRACT
Knowledge-intensive companies are quickly changing, involving many people working in different activities. Knowledge in such companies is diverse and its proportions immense and steadily growing. The
distribution of knowledge across project teams, communities of practice, and individuals is therefore an
important factor. With collaborative Web, tools like wikis, blogs, or social networks are used for collaboration and knowledge sharing. In this chapter, we question what influence these tools have on knowledge
management, organizational structure, and culture of knowledge-intensive companies. As a result of our
interviews and surveys done in Serbia, we found that with collaborative Web, organizational structure,
culture, and knowledge management change is perceived among employees and that employees loyalty
changes from company orientation toward virtual community orientation.
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-60960-581-0.ch012
The Influence of Collaborative Web
INTRODUCTION
Knowledge-intensive companies are based on their
capability of making use of intangible, intellectual
resources and assets (Styhre, 2000). Personnel are
the most significant resource of such a company,
whereas capital and equipment can be regarded
as less important (Alvesson, 2000). Competencies
of such organizations can be advanced by the
development of inter-organizational collaboration
(Wikstrm et al., 1994), whereas team organization is important (Blackler, 1995).
Knowledge-intensive organizations have
problems identifying the content, location and
use of their knowledge (Rus &, 2002). For example, in knowledge-intensive business, software
development is a group activity, whereas groups
are divided geographically. They have to communicate, collaborate and coordinate in their
group but also with software developers of other
groups or even of other companies. Collaboration
tools for knowledge management could help to
share knowledge and collaborate in the software
development field.
With Web 2.0 (OReilly, 2005) or Collaborative
Web, companies explore new ways to cultivate
and exploit knowledge sharing with customers,
suppliers and partners (Mentzas et al., 2007). Web
2.0 has totally reinvented the vision of the web as
a participatory space in which every user is invited
to contribute in the context of online interactions.
According McKinsey (2007), companies use tools
like Wikis, Blogs or Social Networks because they
are important for supporting their market position
and for addressing customers demands. These
web 2.0 tools can improve organizational and
individual performance, but they also encounter
several problems. This chapter aims to discuss
the influence of collaborative web on knowledgeintensive companies, especially on knowledge,
organizational structure and culture.
Collaborative Web provides tools for knowledge creation and distribution that until recently
existed only within the boundaries of best organizations. These tools are available to open
communities of interested parties at little or no
cost, radically changing environment in which
organizations do business. Revolution that internet
related technologies had on business and other
aspects of our world has been compared several
times to the printing press (Builder, 1993; Badwen & Robinson, 2000) or, more modestly with
the telegraph (Standage, 1998). Improvements
in the nature of web continued to influence not
only knowledge in the organizations, but also
culture, processes, structure and even the nature
of relationship between an organization and its
employees.
The benefits of collaborative Web for business
have been studied (Aissi et al., 2002; Tredinnick,
2006; Chen et al., 2007) even before the dissemination of Web 2.0 (Cutkosky et al., 1996).
Collaboration, described as sharing of common
business goals by employees, should bring the
organization out of all physical boundaries of
departments, functions and levels of hierarchy
(Malik & Goyal, 2003). In accordance with change
management theory, a first surge of publications
related to emerging concepts describing tangible
benefits on business. As the concept matures, we
believe that the research focus can be widened and
aimed at research of influence that collaborative
web has on other aspects of the organization, such
as knowledge, structure and culture.
Our main aim is to discuss the influence of collaborative Web on knowledge-intensive companies. The main body of organizational knowledge
has resided within the organizational boundaries
since the dawn of the first organization. The development of practical and economical technology to
access vast amount of mainly explicit knowledge
was one of the influence directions internet had
on organizations.
The dissemination of Web 2.0 concepts opened
new qualitative improvements of influence of the
web to the organizations. According to Forrester
185
Research (Young, 2008), especially global and big

companies use these new Web 2.0 tools whereas
surprisingly half of smaller businesses are not
even considering Web 2.0 applications. Kirchner
et al. (2008) state, that open company culture and
management support are facilitators for the success of these tools. With the development of a new
tool that has similar effect on knowledge sharing
such as printing press, organizations will not only
change effectiveness and benefit economically
from such concept, but will also change in nature.
The description of change is a very complicated
task, and therefore we have focused on several
aspects of that change. An impact can be observed
by different dimensions of the organizational
structure, such as specialization, decentralization,
departmentalization, coordination and control
(Mintzberg, 1979). Cultural change can be observed by changes in dominant values, beliefs,
rituals and attitudes. One of our hypotheses is
that collaborative Web is changing the loyalty
of the employees, from the company towards an
informal union of practitioners.
BACKGROUND
We decided to perform our study in knowledgeintensive companies in Serbia and neighboring
countries. Serbian companies flourished through
the golden age before SFR Yugoslavia was disintegrated (Srensen, 2003), and afterwards had a
steep decline in all economical indicators during
the 1990s. The period of economic recovering
began after 2000. Most of the companies from
Serbia, regardless of size and industry, invested
effort in making up for the loss. However, small and
medium companies were more agile in acquiring
new practices. Among these practices was knowledge management, which is accepted as a way to
excellence, as most successful organizations use
combined organizational and inter-organizational
knowledge to be productive. Because of this in-
186
teresting historical background we concentrated

our work on the collaborative web influence in
Serbian companies.
To define collaborative Web, we first use
the definition of collaborative network given
by Camarinha-Matos et al. (2009) as a network
consisting of a variety of entities (e.g. organizations and people) that are largely autonomous,
geographically distributed, and heterogeneous
in terms of their operating environment, culture,
social capital and goals, but that collaborate to
better achieve common or compatible goals, thus
jointly generating value, and whose interactions
are supported by computer network. Therefore we
can define collaborative Web as system of internet
based computer software and hardware resources
aimed at computer-mediated communication,
that enable such set of entities (organizations and
people) to function like collaborative network. In
most cases, free or relatively inexpensive internet
services can comply with this definition of collaborative Web. Figure 1 gives connection between
collaborative network as defined by CamarinhaMatos et al. (2009) and collaborative web.
Collaborative Web can be created intentionally, with a closed domain of organizations and
individuals that possess adequate ICT infrastructure, enabling them to interact and collaborate
like a network. Corporate intranet services can
be understood as collaborative web as defined
before, with small caps w, in smaller scale, and
with restricted number of users. Enterprise software solutions that have networking options
(usually internet based) can also be perceived as
smaller and internal kind of collaborative web.
But overwhelming mass of examples of collaborative Web is represented by internet services.
Some Web 2.0 features like wikis, Internet forums,
(we)blogs and social networks have potential to
enable collaborative network, and therefore can
be seen as collaborative Web. We must stress that
mentioned tools have potential to be used as enablers of collaborative network, but also could be
Figure 1. Connection between collaborative network and collaborative Web
used in everyday leisure. On wiki, large number

of autonomous geographically distributed and
heterogeneous individuals and organizations can
collaborate to jointly generate or record knowledge. In internet forums, similarly, described
entities can collaborate to find solution of a problem. Forum for knowledge interactions among
employees is presented as communication and
collaboration tool for development of a knowledge
support system for dynamic manufacturing networks (Hemila, 2010). Interactive blogs can also
be viewed as a tool where collaboration of individuals can lead to mutually beneficial solution
for involved parties. Using a collaborative blog,
multiple users can publish posts, creating collaborative network that Christodoulou and Styliaras (2008) see as useful in digital art creation.
Internet social networks, especially business
oriented social networks, can connect interested
parties, and using integration of external functionalities for communication and coordination
can create network of resources that can be used
to solve complex business problems. Collaborative networks represented by virtual organizations
are connected to social networks (Pedersen, 2007;
Hardy, 2009), boosted by internet social networks.
Influence on Knowledge
Management
After the first phase, in which companies started
knowledge management initiatives with traditional tools like data bases or groupware systems,
now the second phase of knowledge management
has emerged where companies use collaborative
Web tools including wikis, social networks or
blogs.
The use of Web 2.0 tools for knowledge management enable companies to reap large benefits
compared with traditional KM systems. Employees can communicate with other team members
inside their organization or business partners.
Companies can reach much more customers and
get valuable feedback while promoting products
and services. The usage of collaborative web tools
for knowledge management in companies has been
examined in several papers (e.g. in Kirchner et al.,
2008, Shimazu & Koike, 2007, McKinsey, 2007).
Influence on Organizational
Structure
Collaborative Web is, according to prior definition, one aspect of implementation of ICT in
187
organizations. The influence of ICT adoption on

organizational structure has been seen as cause
of greater formalization (Bailey & Nielsen, 1992;
Bovens & Zouridis, 2002;Sinkovics et al., 2004;
Jean, 2007). The structure in such case becomes
more centralized, and conflicts for power may
emerge among managers. On the other hand
some authors believe that ICT enables decentralization and flexible operations, but increase
interdependence of actors and centralize power
and knowledge. Authors such as Bitner et al.
(2000), Forster (2000), Martin & Matlay (2001),
Bielowski & Walczuch (2002), and Antonioli et
al. (2009) describe how ICT shifts power towards
lower levels of organizational structure, leading
toward less formalized, flexible structures. This
paradox has been discussed by Bloomfield &
Coombs (1992), Groth (1999), Daft (2004) and
Cudanov et al. (2009). Information and communication technologies in general expand the number
of solutions that are available in organizational
design, therefore enabling both decentralized and
centralized alternatives. Collaborative Web as
one example of ICT in organizations has some
particularities, because its use is connected with
team work and less formalized tasks and structures.
Those tools also have strong incentive towards
decentralization.
Influence on Organizational Culture

Knowledge Management, e.g. while using collaborative Web tools, efforts often seem to conflict
with organizational culture and therefore have
limited impact on the organizations (Delong &
Fahey, 2000). Effective knowledge management
requires an organizational culture that fosters and
rewards creation, use and sharing of knowledge
(Davenport et al., 1998). Kayworth and Leidner
(2003) discuss that effective knowledge management may be hindered by a lack of trust between
people working in the same or in different teams.
Organizational cultures that are highly formalized
188
and depend on standard procedures, rules and

regulations also hamper knowledge management.
Employees from knowledge-intensive companies usually know collaborative Web software
from their leisure activities, e.g. social networks
like Facebook to stay in contact with friends. So it
is easier for them to use these skills in their working environment for sharing business knowledge
within their company. (Kirchner et al., 2008)
Research Method
Based on our literature review, in this chapter the
following research theme is being explored: How
are collaborative Web tools like blogs, wikis and
social networks used today in knowledge-intensive
companies? How much do these tools influence
organizational structure, culture and loyalty
of employees? Therefore we used a three-step
approach. First, we started a four week online
discussion on elitesecurity.org, the major technological collaboration tool in Serbia (with more
than 240,000 of registered users), that is used as a
base for collaboration among software developers
and other knowledge-intensive professionals in
Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia Herzegovina, Montenegro
and neighboring countries.
Second, we interviewed two Serbian highgrowth companies in knowledge intensive
industries, namely in software development for
sport betting and web portal development. Third,
we developed a questionnaire, which was published online as well as sent by mail to Serbian
knowledge-intensive companies.
Following this approach, we used collaborative Web that enabled us to conduct discussion
and information exchange while research is in
progress rather then after its completion, which
Pastore (2008) sees as one of the benefits of Web
2.0 driven platforms to scientific community.
INFLUENCE OF COLLABORATIVE
WEB ON ORGANIZATIONAL
STRUCTURE AND CULTURE
Online Forum Discussion

on Elitesecurity.Org
Forum discussion was very useful in perceiving general attitude of the community. That was
used as pilot research that guided further, more
conventional scientific approach. Our four weeks
discussion gathered 6233 views and 118 responses.
The main question was whether collaborative
Web concepts that have been described e.g. as
Web 2.0 features like wikis, forums, blogs, social
networking are helping professional communities
to connect more quickly, create sense of professional adherence, create and exchange knowledge,
create informal conducts of acceptable behavior,
socialize and even lead to community resembling
medieval guilds. Next question was whether
organizational structure, culture and knowledge
management change in knowledge-intensive
organizations by such phenomena or otherwise.
One part of the responses was emotionally
colored and aimed at criticism of a need for formal
association some kind of software engineers
guild hall e.g. national software engineers
association. Those responses aimed at possible
bureaucratization and restrictions that such formal association could cause. Although a formal
certification by association already exists e.g. in
Canada, and is recognized by law in six provinces,
community members expressed fear that power
held by such an organization might be misused.
Members involved in discussion expressed doubt
that a formal organization could present cost effective means to select appropriate candidates for
license. That could be caused by corruption that
still plagues Serbian society (Svensson, 2005) and
results in less confidence in formal institutions.
However, system of designation of Information
system professional functions in Canada, and
grants titles to individuals with:
Appropriate mastery of the CIPS Body of

Knowledge (BOK);
Adherence to the Code of Ethics and
Professional Conduct;
CIPS Membership (Note: One can apply
for the I.S.P. designation without being
a CIPS member, but active membership
must be held in order to hold and use the
I.S.P. designation);
Sponsorship by two relevant sponsors; and
A minimum of 1000 hours of professional
work experience during the 12 months prior to submitting the application.
On the other hand, during discussion it was

agreed upon that in software engineering there
is some kind of informal association, where a
network of professionals has been developed, using collaborative Web features like forums, blogs
and social networks. At least their own status in
the enterprise can be affected by belonging to
such network, as it was confirmed by examples.
Some software engineers presented cases where
they were interviewed on a job application by a
person who was part of the same virtual community. Therefore he/she was already familiar with
the applicant as part of that community, although
they never met in person before. Usually such
mutual link provides more information about the
candidate for the reviewer and results in a more
adequate selection process. On the other side some
software engineers on senior positions described
how they valued a person that was interviewed
for the job by them, among other features, by the
position of that person in specialized forums, blogs
and professional social networks all examples
of a collaborative Web. Some software engineers
described cases where the position in collaborative Web (e.g. being a moderator on a forum, blog
author) resulted in invitations for a job position.
189
Relation between Collaborative

Intranet and Culture in Mozzartbet
Two companies have been studied for the usage
of collaborative Web. First is Mozzartbet, the
major and fastest growing division of Stepanovi
& ipka Corporation that is in sport betting business. Mozzartbet is a high-growing company,
and its size has increased a few hundred times
in the first eight years. Besides the development
of software for sport betting, the company owns
several betting shops, produces betting machines
and publishes a weekly sports magazine.
In the context of knowledge management,
the IT sector is of major importance, because it
is the source or target of most knowledge in the
company. Among several tools for knowledge
management, employees use wiki as a tool which
allow users not only to have access to its content
but also to change the content online (Raitman et
al., 2005). In that context, Cress and Kimmerle
(2008) describe wiki as a tool for collaborative
knowledge building. Mozzartbet is using an open
source solution, JSPWiki to develop their internal
collaborative network. An active developer community has structured Mozzartbets knowledge in
more than 1100 articles. Initially, in 2006, it was
used as a good replacement for face to face discussions about trivial and common issues. Since most
of the time was wasted in transfer of that knowledge to junior employees, wiki development was
initially targeted to the description of knowledge
concerning most used modules and functionalities
of the software. Maintenance of knowledge in the
wiki system is not formally obliged, and therefore
some articles were not up to date with changes,
so employees still, after four years of usage, tend
to utilize direct communication as a first mean of
acquiring knowledge, except if that knowledge is
about important parts of the software system, or
parts of the system maintained and developed by
senior programmers who regularly update wiki. In
practice, if a software developer or an administrator needs knowledge about something he or she
190
knows that is developed by senior developers, or

that is very important for the system, first choice
is often wiki, otherwise developers, especially
junior, tend to directly ask person they presume
to have knowledge.
In Mozzartbet, collaborative Web expressed
by wiki has the most impact on organizational
culture. We cannot construct clear conclusion
whether culture caused creation of collaborative
Web or collaborative Web sustained relaxed and
academic organizational culture that existed since
the beginning of the company, but evidently, relation between those two features exists. Software
development and system administration department have strong organizational culture sharing
relaxed, academic values, beliefs and behavior.
Interviewed employees were sure that there is no
significant personal conflict among employees of
that department. On the other hand employees
do not fear to express different attitudes about
technical issues, where conflicts are common,
but never deepened to personal feelings. In such
a way, conflicts remain functional in the context
of organizational goals. Collaboration in problem
solving is spread through different processes in
organizations, not only related to wiki. That made
the departments more creative, more responsive
to client needs, with higher employee job satisfaction, which is usual case in organizations in
which functional conflict is a part of the culture
(Jordan & Troth, 2002). Other features of culture
in that department are low power distance between
managers and non-managerial employees, relaxed
general attitude, flexible approach to working
time but strict approach to tasks, and a constant
development of interpersonal relations among
employees. Sport events between employees are
regularly held, and employees often take part in
excursions, extreme sporting events, social events
etc. several times per year. All that resulted in a
large number of friendships, even family relations
among employees, most of the employees know
each other quite well, they have studied together,
worked together before or they had another way
of interaction outside work. It could be hypothesized that there is relation between successful
application of internal collaborative web and
whole organizational culture of collaboration.
One of the organizational cultural values is,
however, problem for wiki application. Knowledge sharing practices are usually affected by cultural expectations such as what knowledge should
be shared with the organization and what should
be hoarded by individuals (Zheng et al., 2010),
but in the case of Mozzartbet, orientation towards
short-term results is much more significant an
obstacle. Culture here points employees towards
tangible short-term results instead of intangible
long term benefits that are caused by maintaining
wiki. Minor changes and updates in the code are
therefore often not documented on wiki pages, and
that overall decreases the level of confidence. So
we can suggest relation of internal collaborative
network success and culture oriented towards
short-term results. Short term result orientation
is connected to reward systems and performance
measurement systems (Neely et al., 1996). If such
orientation has negative impact on collaboration
systems in the organization, top management
should make effort in shifting the focus using
mentioned factors. Currently, wiki updates are not
connected to the reward system which is defined
by top management. Senior software engineers,
concerned for improving collaborative culture and
knowledge management in the organization often
suggest bonuses for employees that contribute
to the development of collaborative intranet, but
such advice is not always followed, although it is
always given consideration. Also, a large time gap
exists between such advice coming from senior
staff to management and actual reward even if the
advice is accepted. Therefore, junior developers
see no direct connection between collaborative and
knowledge sharing behavior and tangible rewards.
This could be a guideline for implementing collaborative intranet, where motivation and rewards
should not be left to informal means.
Relation between Collaborative

Intranet and Culture in Infostud
Second interviewed company, Infostud, was
founded in 2000 and started as enterprise for current and future students. It was the first web site in
Serbia where young people could get information
about studies. After several acquisitions and fast
paced growth, company now owns several leading
Serbian web portals, among which www.infostud.
com was the best known site in former Yugoslavia
(Vidas-Bubanja et al. 2002). In 2008, Daily Mail
and General Trust plc, a successful media group
from UK, acquired 25% of the company, which
was the first acquisition of a.com company from
Serbia.
Today companys diversified portfolio covers,
among other web sites, portals for job applicants
and recruiting companies, life-long learning, college application and entry exams, second-hand car
trade and vacation arrangements. Problems that
fast-paced growth created for knowledge management in this organization were discussed in an
interview with the co-founder Branislava Gaji,
who witnessed growth from a family startup to a
company with 35 web developers in eight years.
To support knowledge creation and sharing, this
company has in parallel developed an internal
environment that could be understood as collaborative Web as defined and organizational culture
that will support collaboration. Collaborative
Web is represented by an internal web site, where
employees interact, present ideas and can read
procedures and work instructions, knowledge database with advanced search options, and internal
messaging system. That requires organizational
culture aimed at collaboration, so a reward system has been developed to support such values.
A significant part of the budget was reserved for
development of human resources and knowledge
improvement, and it was even increased by 20%
during financial crisis in 2009, as a clear message
of values that management stands for. Estimation
191
of management is that because of such culture and

existing collaborative intranet resources, around
50% of existing knowledge is successfully shared
within the company, even 80% within team and
20% with business partners.
Survey of Collaborative Web

Influence on Structure, Culture
and Knowledge Management
To empirically see whether there is some perceived
influence that collaborative Web has on employees, we have done a survey among employees
in knowledge based industries (e.g. software
engineering, business analysis, consulting, higher
education, design). Overall we have gathered 100
responses. We are aware that the survey is not fully
representative but it gives us a first insight into
the use of collaborative Web tools in companies
and the influence of them in Serbia.
The survey consisted of a descriptive part,
where respondents stated their kind of business,
size of their company, the number of full time
employees, average number of Web 2.0 features
like forums, wiki, blogs and social networks
employees use for the sake of job tasks and some
comments. The term Web 2.0 was used instead
of term collaborative network, because collaborative network as a relatively new term could
confuse participants. Large number of interviewed
personnel was working in software engineering/
development (26), education (15), marketing
related professions (14) or high education (12).
Total working experience ranged between six
months and 30 years, with mean of 6.18 years.
Regarding usage of Web 2.0 concepts that among
other features enable collaborative Web, respondents have given 94 valid responses, resulting
in a mean of 22.77 and a median of 6 uses per
week, with standard deviation of 36.27. Figure
2 represents weekly usage of Web 2.0 features,
given on x-axis in number of times respondents
use those features per week on their workplaces
in order to solve some business related issue. This
192
axis uses logarithmic scale. Y-axis represents total

percentage of users in our sample that use Web
2.0 features signified number of times. As could
be seen on Figure 2, usage ranges from none to
more than 140 times per week.
Furthermore, we asked for the perception of
how collaborative Web - represented in forums,
blogs, wikis and social networks - influence
structure, culture and knowledge management in
the organization. The responses were different.
On a scale between 0 and 5, where 0 stands for
low influence, and 5 for very high influence,
average influence of whole sample is shown in
Table 1. Mean and median values are quite low,
and could be explained as perception of interviewed employees in knowledge-intensive industries is that mentioned concepts have below
moderate influence on organizational structure.
Electronic ties of all sorts, including collaborative
networks are found to be loosening the constraints
of organizational structure (Faraj & Wasko, 2001).
The influence of computer networks on organizational structure is already elaborated, and it is
concluded that computer networks (including
collaborative networks) enable new organizational forms (Alavi & Leidner, 1999).
Perception of employees about influence of
mentioned concepts on culture is higher than on
structure, and respondents gave average grade of
3.01, with standard deviation of 1.32. This could
be interpreted as perception that the mentioned
Web 2.0 concepts have moderate influence on
organizational culture. Most influence, as was
expected, was perceived on knowledge management, where average grade is 3.17, with standard
deviation of 1.14.
We used a two-step cluster analysis (Banfield
& Raftery, 1993) to find groups in data according
to the usage of collaborative Web tools and the
influence of these tools. Two-step clustering can
handle different levels of measurement and finds
automatically an adequate number of clusters. With
our data, the algorithm found 2 clusters:
Figure 2. Weekly usage of Web 2.0 features
Table 1. Mean and median analysis on whole sample

How much
do those
Web 2.0
concepts
influence
structure
N
Valid
Missing
Mean
Median
Std. Deviation
How much
do those Web
2.0 concepts
influence
culture
How much do
those Web 2.0
concepts influence
knowledge
management
How much
do those Web
2.0 concepts
influence loyalty
of employees
How is the loyalty

of employees
divided between
enterprise and the
profession
How often does

respondent use
Web 2.0 (forums,
blogs, wikis,
social networks)
weekly
100
99
100
99
97
94
2.29
2.81
3.01
2.39
3.17
22.77
2.0
3.0
3.0
2.0
3.0
6.0
1.22
1.27
1.32
1.25
1.14
36.26
Cluster 1: Collaborative Web Beginners
more than 60% from IT related business (software development, software

engineering), apart from that marketing, sales, personal management
use Web 2.0 tools 2 to 5 hours a week
extremely low structural changes
low cultural changes
low
changes
of
knowledge
management
loyalty the same between company

and community
Comments, e.g.: All employees in
my firm are sitting in the same room.
So I first ask the most experienced
colleague sitting behind me, and then
I use Google. I think this is a good
practice because it encourages team
communication.
193
Cluster
2:
Community-oriented
Changers
50% higher education and research,

30% IT-based
2 to 10 hours a week with Web 2.0

tools
Low to medium structural changes
Higher influence on change of culture
Medium to high influence on knowledge management
Loyalty changes towards community
Comments, e.g.: Internet is a knowledge treasure; therefore it is of most

importance to use it every single
day. My boss is often out of office thats why we communicate with
messenger, and we have an in-house
wiki knowledge base.
With the two clusters, it can be found that

employees in higher education companies like
research institutes or universities as well as people
from innovative IT companies use Web 2.0 tools
and mention organizational changes (cluster 2),
whereas employees from companies in cluster 1
dont use Web 2.0 tools heavily. The comments
people belonging to these two clusters gave are
especially interesting to see the cultural and structural differences in both clusters. Whereas in the
first cluster, personal communication inside the
company is important, people assigned to second
cluster like to use Web 2.0 tools, they sometimes
work in virtual teams or are specialized in their
work so that there is no one in company they could
ask personally for help. Furthermore, looking at
both clusters, it can be noted that the influence of
collaborative web usage on organizational culture
is higher than on organizational structure.
If we discuss loyalty of employees, we can see
the difference between the two clusters with lower
and higher usage of Web 2.0 concepts. Employees
traditionally regarded their companies as primary
source of knowledge for everyday working problems. Collaborative Web has shifted that outside
194
the company. Yan and Assimakopoulos (2005)

describe China Software Developer Net, Internet
professional community based on collaborative
Web features that had more than 800,000 members in 2004 growing since then to more than
six millions of members on December of 2009.
That community is very similar to elitesecurity
forum. If support for knowledge is shifted outside
the company, we can presume that loyalty of
the employees will shift from company towards
profession. For example, some established professions (lawyers, doctors etc.) have high loyalty to
profession, hold regular meetings and conferences,
and sometimes are even more loyal to profession
than to organization they are currently working for,
somewhat like medieval guilds. Other professions,
in contrast, do not have that sense of community
with other colleagues from different companies
(some manual workers e.g.). Our presumption is
that external collaborative Web is shifting loyalty
of employees from the company toward profession, which could be observed in the following
table, with comparison of means of two groups.
If we analyze perception about influence, we
can discuss correlation between usage of Web 2.0
tools and perception of influence on structure,
culture and knowledge management. Following
this idea we have performed a regression analysis
using total perceived influence as dependent variable and usage of Web 2.0 features and constant
factor as independent variable. Although sum of
residual squares is much larger than regression
squares, pointing us to conclusion that model is
not capable of explaining major part of variation
in the dependent variable, and that model should
be expanded with additional factors that help account for a higher proportion of the variation in
the dependent variable. However, low value of
significance for F statistics indicates that independent variable successfully explain the variation
in the dependent variable. The results that are
given in table 2 point us towards a conclusion of
an existence of a positive correlation between the
two selected variables.
Table 2. Regression analysis for total perceived influence and usage of Web 2.0 features
Model
1
Sum of Squares
df
Mean Square
Sig.
Regression
180.956
180.956
4.294
0.041
Residual
3834.936
91
42.142
Total
4015.892
92
If the amount of usage of Web 2.0 features has

a positive effect on knowledge management,
organizational culture and structure we can expect
that organizations face a lot of changes if Web
2.0 tools are introduced in companies or are used
more heavily.

Introduction of collaborative Web in knowledgeintensive companies is also the introduction of
organizational change that should include changes
in structure and culture. Mental models of the
employees and organizational structure and culture significantly influence implementation and
usage of groupware technologies (Orlikowsky,
1992). This study shows that according to the
perception of the employees, there is also some
inverse influence from usage of collaborative
network on structure of the organization. Such
bidirectional influence should be considered by
the managers during the planned implementation
of collaborative network in organizational tasks.
Although during initial stages of such implementation, represented by Lewins (1958), unfreeze
stage of organizational change structural changes
are not necessary. Later stages of change demand
that new forms of behavior need to be formalized
and included as part of authority division, reward
system and positions in organizational structure.
That should result in flatter organizational forms,
more relaxed control systems, incentives based on
result rather than on activity and more freedom
for employee initiatives.
In parallel to that, influence that collaborative

network has on structure and vice versa needs to
be analyzed in context of similar influences from
and on organizational culture. There is certain
interaction between information technologies in
general and organizational change (Markus &
Robey, 1988). Collaborative network and its usage in organization can itself be an artifact of the
culture that supports values such as open minded
approach, internal and external collaboration,
continuous organizational learning, and pioneering usage of new technologies, not uncommon
in knowledge-intensive companies. However,
sometimes external factors like pressure from
the competitors, demand for fast learning and
interaction with environment can demand usage
of collaborative network, while existing organizational culture as internal factor can hinder it. This
study shows that employees perceive collaborative
network influence on organizational culture as
higher than on structure, but that factor is only one
among numerous factors that influence organizational culture. Collaborative network introduction
therefore should include a plan of structure and
culture transition in order to increase chances for
successful implementation.
Also, knowledge management practices need
to be adapted. Besides collaboration inside team
or company, one of the most important principles
of Web 2.0 is the concept of harnessing collective knowledge and collective intelligence, along
with related concepts of user-generated content,
wisdom of the crowd and collaboration. (Musser
& OReilly, 2007)
195

With our research, we won a first insight in the
usage of Web 2.0 tools in Serbian knowledgeintensive companies. With our two clusters, we
found knowledge-intensive companies that started
to use Web 2.0 tools and cannot state changes in
culture, structure and knowledge management
practices in their organization yet. The other group
of companies uses collaborative Web tools more
often and state changes in culture and structure
of company.
In our future research, we plan to analyze
these phenomena in more detail. It is interesting to investigate the organizational culture and
structure of companies before and with the usage
of collaborative Web tools in both clusters and to
evaluate the differences. We plan a more detailed
questionnaire and more interviews with companies
from both clusters.
CONCLUSION
In our research work, we focused on knowledgeintensive companies in Serbia and surrounding
areas. We examined how such companies use
collaborative web tools and how this usage influences knowledge management, organizational
structure and culture. Two clusters of companies
could be found one with starters in the field of
collaborative web, who did not mention changes
in structure and culture of the company. The other
cluster contained community-oriented companies
with cultural changes in their organizations. In
this cluster, the loyalty of employees shifted from
company-oriented to profession-oriented. These
employees use collaborative web tools like blogs
to discuss problems with people outside their
company.
The usage of collaborative web tools for
knowledge management in companies is still at
the beginning in Serbia, although it is often used
in some of the interviewed companies. However
196
changes in company cultures can be found and

this development will continue with the duration
of collaborative web usage.
As could be seen from our research, an open
communication culture in companies is very
important for effective knowledge management.
Therefore, company management has to encourage knowledge exchange between employees.
Instead of resisting the sharing of knowledge,
people should be motivated to publish and give
their knowledge in order to become an expert.
Collaboration, community of practice, dialogue between colleagues and the development of
a knowledge-sharing organizational culture should
address lack of trust, low mistake tolerance, closed
corporate culture, internal competition and resistance to change. Organizations should take care
of strong hierarchies, insufficient formal spaces
to collaborate and inflexible company structures.
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Collaborative Web: Collaborative Web describes the social change in handling and using
the internet as an information and collaboration
platform that enables the direct interaction and
communication between users inside and outside
of organizations.
Guild: A guild is an organization of craftsman
in a particular trade. Many professional organizations today resemble the guild structure. Software
communities sometimes develop a guild-like
structure.
Knowledge-Intensive Company: A knowledge-intensive company is based on its capability
of making use of intangible, intellectual resources
and assets. Personnel are the most significant
resource of such a company, whereas capital and
equipment can be regarded as less important.
Knowledge Management: Knowledge Management involves practices and strategies used to
identify, create, present and distribute of insights
and experiences within an organization. This
includes knowledge from individuals as well as
knowledge embedded in organizational processes.
Organizational Culture: It defines the psychology, attitudes, experiences, beliefs and values
of an organization. A change in organizational
culture is often a long term project.
Organizational Structure: Organizational
structure describes the subordination of people
that collaborate and contribute to serve a common aim within an organization. An effective
structure should facilitate working relationships
between people in the organization and improve
the working efficiency.
Web 2.0: The term Web 2.0 is associated with
web applications that facilitate interactive information sharing, interoperability, user-centered
design and collaboration in the Web. It includes
web-based communities, social networking sites,
wikis, blogs and mashups.
201
202
Chapter 13
Virtual Reality and

Identity Crisis:
Implications for Individuals

and Organizations
Archana Tyagi
University of Business and International Studies Geneva, Switzerland
ABSTRACT
Identity has become one of the single most important issues for human development and adjustment in
todays turbulent times. Virtual world is changing the interface of identification and communication.
Virtual reality has recently emerged as an effective tool to extend a healing space for an alternative
identity. The focus of this chapter is on the challenges faced by the young generation, which is struggling
to understand its identity. The exploration of identity in such virtual environments may be a search for
a unitary construct about the self (Erikson, 1968). In this paper, the concept of identity and identity
crisis and the potential challenges identified in the real and virtual world are discussed at length. In
todays world people are pulled in different directions, thanks to the different kinds of societal demands
from family, friends and society. It becomes difficult to find a uniqueness of ones self and yet able to
fulfill the norms and parameters set up by the society. Respect for diversity of self would go a long way
in allowing people to be uniquely themselves while belonging to a community. Healthy crisis or
exploration can afford people the opportunity to knowledgeably investigate choices in which there is
positive meaning with regard to where they have come from, where they presently exist, and where they
envision their future to be (International Encyclopaedia of the Social Sciences, 2008). An attempt to
explore the identity management and identity statuses has also been made to understand real and
virtual reality. Identity crisis and psychosocial moratoriums linkage (Erikson, 1963) to virtual reality
have also been touched upon. An understanding of organizational identity with the individual identity.
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-60960-581-0.ch013
Virtual Reality and Identity Crisis
INTRODUCTION
An identity is a set of meanings applied to the self
in a social role or as a member of a social group
that define who one is.(Burke and Tully, 1977)
In the present era, questions regarding one self
areconstantly being asked and challenged. Issues
of personal identity affect how we relate to others. However, identity in the online world is still
poorly understood both by the general public
and scholars. As the internet becomes a central
part of everyday life, these questions continue to
rise in importance (Berman, Joshua and Bruckman
(2001). In the present era questions regarding one
self are constantly being asked and challenged. By
reflexively adjusting ones perception of self in reaction to society, people construct their individual
identity (Boyd, 2001).The constant adjustment
of ones SELF, with the expectations of others
and the societal norms plays an important role in
building up an identity of oneself. The thought
of gaining strength and support from ones own
identity is very crucial, for gaining inner strength.
As Erikson argues, the construction of a single,
unitary identity is achieved throughout the lifetime as individuals explore and then consolidate
changes in how they define themselves (Grotevant
1998, quoted by Calvert 2002: 58). According
to Calvert (2002), identity is often characterized
in terms of ones interpersonal characteristics,
such as self-definition or personality traits, the
roles and relationships one takes on in various
interactions, and ones personal values or moral
beliefs. In psychology, identity is understood as a
continual experience of the individual self; of that
persons uniqueness and authenticity, as well as
the identification with life roles and the experience
of belonging to bigger or smaller social groups
(Vybiral et al, 2004).
Identity plays an inherent role in defining our
social interactions. In face-to-face communication,
many physical cues exist with which we convey
our identity and our intentions. These physical
cues take a different form in a virtual world. And

hence it is important to understand the purpose
and meaning of the term virtual identity so as
to understand the gradual merging of the physical
identity into virtual identity. In the words of Vybiral
and his associates, (2004),In the environment
of the Internet, the individual is not present as a
physical subject, but only as a virtual representation. Thus on the internet, we do not influence
our own selves, but our virtual representations.
A virtual representation does not have an identity
in the psychological sense. It is a cluster of
digital data, a set of data that is ordered in some
way. This virtual representation often includes
digitally recorded and stored information about
who we are a name or nickname, history, and
status within the given virtual society. Just as in
real life there is a physical record of identity in the
form of an identity card, birth certificate, passport,
etc., there is a record of identity (this time in a
non-psychological sense) or identification in the
virtual environment. One such record is an e-mail
address, which is recorded and stored. In a way,
the e-mail address represents our identity in the
Internet environment. It becomes our virtual representation. We then project part of our real ideas
and feelings parts of our many-sided I into
our virtual representation.
It is crucial to understand the role and interaction of identity in a virtual reality (VR). VR was
originally conceived as a digitally created space
that humans could access by donning sophisticated
computer equipment (Lanier, 1992; Rheingold,
1991; Sutherland, 1968).Futurists heralded VR as
an imminent transition in the ways humans would
experience media, communicate with one another,
and even perform mundane tasks. In the early nineties, pioneering scientists began considering new
ways through which this groundbreaking technology could be used to study social interaction and
other psychological phenomena (Bente, 1989;
Biocca 1992a, b; Loomis, 1992).In subsequent
years, VR has continued to capture the imagination of scientists, philosophers, and artists for its
203
ability to substitute our physical environment and

our sensory experiences what we understand as
reality with digital creations (Quoted by Fox,
J et al, 2009). VRconveys a different kind of
interaction, with ones own self leading towards
an Identity, free from societal pressures.
This chapter is intended to highlight the potential in various kinds of approaches, in relation
to identity, identity crisis and psychosocial moratorium in employees, in real as well as in virtual
environment. The research idea is to identify the
implications of identity crisis and to chart out a
new area of application for collaborative multiuser environments. In this progression; it becomes
crucial to link individual identity crisis with the
organizational/corporate identity crisis as well.
The ultimate objective is to find ways, in which
the virtual environment (VE) can act as a place
for not only reinventing oneself but also to help
in resolving real life crisis by using VR as a tool
for learning and therapeutic purposes.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Virtual Reality (VR) and its relation to understanding and resolving social sciences issues have been
increasing day by day. As Biocca and Delaney
(1995) noted, VR is a medium for the extension
of body and mind (p.58).Given the ability to
recreate both real and fantasy environments and
the multitude of sensory experiences within each,
VR presents the opportunity to explore many
social and psychological phenomena both those
that occur in the physical world as well as novel
experiences unique to VR (Fox, J et al, 2009).
Social scientists are finding immense potential in
VR not only as a medium of expressing oneself
but also to interact with each other. One variable
of interest is presence (also referred to as telepresence), the users feelings that the mediated
environment is real and that the users sensations
and actions are responsive to the mediated world
as opposed to the real, physical one (Biocca,
204
Harms, & Burgoon, 2003; Lee, 2004; Lombard

& Ditton, 1997; Loomis, 1992; Riva, Davide, &
Ijsselsteijn, 2003; Slater & Steed, 2000; Steuer,
1992;Wirth et al., 2007;Witmer & Singer, 1998).
In a review of the research, Lee (2004) identified
three different aspects of presence, including
physical, spatial, or environmental presence (the
feeling that you are in a particular virtual space;
Lee, 2004), social presence (the feeling that another person is sharing the virtual space with you;
Biocca et al., 2003), and personal or self presence
(the experience of a virtual self-representation
as an extension of the self; Ratan, Santa Cruz, &
Vorderer, 2008). As VR has gained traction in the
social sciences, innovative scholars have begun
exploring its viability in the creation of novel
stimuli, treatments, and learning environments
for use outside of the laboratory. One of the most
common applications of VEs is via virtual reality
exposure therapy (VRET); Gregg & Tarrier, 2007;
Parsons & Rizzo, 2008; Powers & Emmelkamp,
2008; Riva, 2005; Rothbaum, Hodges, & Kooper,
1997).Presently, research on identity is expanding to consider influences from the realm of the
Internet (Mantovani & Riva, 1999; McKenna &
Bargh, 1999; Riva & Glimberti, 1998; Turkle,
1984, 1995, 1997).
In the realm of computer-mediated communication, identity becomes a much more ambiguous
conception (Lu, 2007). Identity is a reference to
a part of a self, composed of the meanings that
persons attach to the multiple roles they typically
play in highly differentiated contemporary societies (Stryker, et al., 2000). Identity development
was conceptualized as the Internet users degree of
commitment to a specific conception of self (Erickson, 1968). The concept of identity development
has been widely studied by scholars from different
disciplines, including the social psychological
(e.g., Adler, 1974; Cote & Levine, 2002; Erikson,1950, 1963, 1968; Marcia, 1980, Tajfel, 1978;
Waterman, 1992), communication (e.g. Brewer
& Gardener, 1996; Martin & Nakayama, 1997;
Ponterotto & Pederson, 1993), and critical studies
(e.g. Althusser, 1971; Katz, 1995).By reflexively

adjusting ones perception of self in reaction to
society, people construct their individual identity
(Boyd, 2001 pg 22).In the present chapter, the basic
aim is to understand the meaning of identity in
todays context and to ponder whether the world
of VR is able to fulfill its role as a substitute of
real life per se. The challenge is to understand
the formation of identity and identity crisis not
only in real life but also in VR. Understanding
and resolving Identity Crisis in virtual settings
has been one of the most important and critical
concerns. Identity statuses are also discussed and
psychosocial moratorium theory has been linked
with the resolution of identity crisis.
can be a very safe and secure place to make a

commitment towards ones own original self.
Identity management requires the awareness of
both, what the individual is presenting and what
previous information has been shared. In other
words, people must have a sense of what they are
presenting to others. Identity management requires
the ability to properly understand the immediate
context and harness the appropriate facet to present an acceptable face for a given situation. Thus,
people need the ability to manage their facets as
a way of managing their identity (Boyd, 2001).
Main Issues
Life is about having fun and taking risks, the

same holds for virtual life too (Kokswijk, 2008).
Technologically, VR is defined as- a technology that convinces the participant that he or she
is actually in another place by substituting the
primary sensory input with data received and
produced by a computer The as-if quality of
virtuality becomes a pragmatic reality when the
virtual world becomes a workspace and the user
identifies with the virtual body and feels a sense
of belongingness to a virtual community (Heim,
1998, p. 220-221). The 21st century is experiencing
rapid shifts into a more highly mediated reality
than ever before-virtual reality. This new environment has vast effects on society, so many of which
cannot be understood in foresight; however, trying to understand such environments while they
are sill relatively new will be beneficial to the
understanding of where the notions of humanity
are leading. Multi user dungeons (MUD), is a type
of on line virtual environment, which is being
used by the users, to portray their online identities
in creative forms. In Life on the Screen (1995),
Turkle describes how assuming different personal
identities in a MUD may be therapeutic. It already
seems, that the behavior of the identities in MUDs
are very egocentric, prompted by both conscious
and unconscious emerging needs (Dacko, 2003).
Identity Formation / Development /

Management in Real Life
Life is a challenge and leads towards a path, where
everyone tends to learn and acquire the meaning
with the help of their own failures, success and
insecurities. Identity development is ultimately
the result of a lifelong journey. Although identity development is most often associated with
adolescence, each developmental stage offers
opportunities for re-evaluation and modification
(Wikipedia). Identity achievement during adolescence serves as a basis for our adult expectations
and goals (Whit Bourne, 1987). Identity crisis is
that aspect of human identity which many a time
tends to follow identity formation, because of
the turmoil it brings in the life of human beings.
And if not resolved in time, may lead to painful
dissociation. According to Erikson (1968) the
most secure identities are the ones that enrich the
relationship between the individual and society.
Unfortunately, many times, a person is not free
to explore and discover the self in real life,
since he/she is hankering after the acceptance
and approval of the others. Exploration of the self
many a times leads a person towards VR which
Identity Formation in
Virtual Environments
205
A virtual identity is a persona that is implied when

communicating online. It is a perceived view of
who you are when online. The online identity
changes due to the fact that it is a visual medium
with relatively small levels of truth, actually being
described. Virtual identities are the online users
published personality, physical description and
the ability to improvise whoever you want to be
(Kokswijk, 2008).Because a Web page can be
continuously and easily revised, it is a medium
ideally suited for the dynamic process of identity
construction (Chandler, 1998). Fragmented, online
social presentations provide even greater flexibility for the multi-faceted individual, as it allows
them to walk through common spaces presenting
different aspects of themselves rather than being
required to maintain one persona per space, as is
necessary offline (Reid 1998: 37). Researchers
have found that those who have made a strong
commitment to an identity tend to be happier and
healthier than those who have not. Commitment
with ones identity tends to give a human being
strong hold with ones values and beliefs in life.
And ultimately these values and beliefs become
the ultimate foundation stone for the survival.
Those with a status of identity diffusion tend to
feel out of place in the world and dont pursue a
sense of identity.
Over the past several decades, virtual environments such as the internet, Multi-User Domains
(MUDs), and video games have provided a
new context for identity exploration (Asgari &
Kaufman, 2005).The anonymity of such environments gives people the opportunity to play
with their identities and experience new ones.
Ultimately it is important to create a virtual world
of ones own liking, with expectation and understanding. It is necessary, therefore, to explore
the reasons and implications of creating virtual
identity, in a virtual environment (VE). According to Bruckman(1992), MUDs are a workshop
for the concept of identity. Many players notice
that they are somehow different on the net than
off, and this leads them to reflect on who they
206
are in real life. It helps people to understand the

concept of identity and the ways in which we
construct ourselves. VR helps us in finding a
safe world, where prejudices, stereotypes and
false assumptions are missing. Identity formed
in VR allows users to alter, develop and build a
new safe platform to interact.
A virtual identity is a projection of ones
dreams, fantasies, vision, unconscious self and
desires. It helps in constructing an ideal virtual
self, which might not be a true version of ones
real self. With the construction of a virtual identity many unfulfilled dreams and desires are also
fulfilled. Its been rightly submitted by McKenna
and Bargh (1999), people are turning to internet
to meet important social and psychological needs
(p.2). Expressing identity is a strong self-motivator
for using the net. And not getting swayed by the
fear of peer/societal pressure is a big motivator
for the people to use the net. People step through
the screen into virtual spaces and express multiple
aspects of their self (Turkle, 1995). They choose
a name, character, and enter a world that not only
identifies with that character on the screen, but
acts for it. In such environments, especially roleplaying video games in MUDs, players can enact
different roles and experience multiple identities.
Through developing characters, they can play
outside their real identity, and project their own
values and hopes onto the virtual identity (Gee,
2003). Human beings, enabled by technology,
have increasingly become the central observers and constructors of their own reality. VR is
the contemporary and future articulation of the
philosophical and psychological question of how
we define (and create) reality (Jones, 2006). Like
beauty, reality of ones identity, lies in the eyes
and in the perception of ones self. Turkle (1995)
sees potential for online worlds to function as a
space for people to work out issues of identity
through their avatar selves and their interaction
with others. She found, in MUD, a variety of integrative and dissociative issues related to digital
identity (1995). The ambiguity of identity in
virtual communities, and the relative security of

knowing that our online selves cannot be easily
traced to our physical selves, affords us the freedom to experiment with our identities (Donath,
1998; Turkle, 1995). One constructs a home
page by composing or pasting on it words, images, sounds. Ones identity emerges from whom
one knows, ones associations and connections,
writes Turkle (1995).There is many popular virtual
platforms available on the internet, where users
tend to experiment with their identities. SL is one
such virtual community, which has been entirely
built by its residents and, therefore, is seemingly
owned by them. Since opening to the public in
2003, it has grown explosively and as of 2007
was inhabited by a total of 7,914,938 people from
around the globe (Linden Research, Inc, 2007).
Residents of SL, often experiment with bridging
their SL identities with their real life identities.
SL, created by the California-based corporation
Linden Lab, is a virtual world in which users can
interact with each other in a three-dimensional
setting (Ondrejka, 2007).They come to project
their own values and desires onto the virtual
identity of their avatar. VR creates a protected
learning space in which the learner can take risks
where real-world consequences are lowered (Gee,
2003; Turkle, 1995). The very mutability of our
self-representations in online environments is a
fundamental aspect of what it means to have a
virtual identity (Turkle, 1995). It is Ericksons
(1968) understanding that an optimum achieved
identity status is represented by a sense of continuity between what one has become in childhood and
what one will become in the future. The quality of
our understanding of life experiences, values and
beliefs fosters a level of continuity that strengthens our fidelity towards a particular self-concept.
Therefore, evidence of this continuity in online
interactions among adolescents is relevant to the
evaluation of the internets impact on identity
development.
Cyberspace enables us to divvy up and present
our self-representations into packages of various
sizes and content (Suler, 2002: 455).Presently,

research on identity is expanding to consider influences from the realm of internet (Mantovani
& Riva, 1999; McKenna & Bargh, 1999; Riva
& Glimberti, 1998; Turkle, 1984, 1995, 1997).
Erikson (1965) understood that one of the main
psychological functions of identity is to provide
a sense of inner self-sameness and continuity; to
bind together a persons past, present and future
into a coherent whole. Pertinent to this continuity
is the process of individuation or the ability to
think and choose independently without fear of
losing support from foundational relationships.
Identity formation involves the individuation
process and normally occurs between the age of
twelve and twenty. Erikson (1968) was careful to
point out; this stage of life is a time of searching
for identity not necessarily achieving one. The inner search or crises takes place during a period
of development called psychosocial moratorium
or a time between distinct phases of childhood
and adulthood. And looking at the involvement
of internet in todays life the search for identity
also happens online, which ultimately can be
a means of gaining psychosocial moratorium.
Before discussing and elaborating the concept
of Psychosocial Moratorium, we will discuss,
deliberate and elaborate the Identity Crisis and
Identity statuses concept in depth.
Identity Crisis and Identity Statuses

James E. Marcia (1966) introduced an identity
status framework consisting of different levels of
crisis and commitment related to an adolescents
quest for identity. Marcia, whose influential
framework launched a new paradigm with more
than 300 empirical studies over the last few decades (Dunkel and Anthis 2001), proposed that
identity is resolved by an internal, self-constructed
and dynamic organization of aspirations, skills,
beliefs and other factors. Such research has shed
further light on how the development of self entails a complex, shifting process of negotiation
207
during adolescence and early adulthood. From

the dimensions of exploration and commitment,
he derived four identity statuses: Achievement
(exploration resulting in commitment), Moratorium (present exploration with the intention of
achieving a commitment), Foreclosure (ascribed
commitment with no exploration), and Diffusion
(no commitment whether exploration has taken
place in the past or not). Moratorium is the status
of crisis or exploration, defined by the need
to arrive at a self-definition, which is actively
propelled by the individual. Mixed societal demands are particularly problematic for identity
formation and its refinement at a time when one
is seeking continuity or looking to find a sense of
ones uniqueness yet still fit within ones societal
parameters over time. In those instances in which
one is part of a minority (e.g., by race, ethnicity,
or sexual orientation) or if one has identifications
with multiple groups (e.g., by being biracial), or if
one is pulled by conflicting messages (e.g., those
coming from the media and the family), an identity
crisis is likely to emerge. Respect for diversity of
self would go a long way in allowing people to
be uniquely themselves while belonging to a
community. The Healthy crisis and the creative
exploration of the self (Moratorium), can find a
meaningful platform in the virtual reality.
Identity Crisis and its

Linkage with the VR
Expressing identity is a strong self-motivator
for using the internet. People who feel important
aspects of their identity are unexpressed due to
fear of a negative reception, will often search chat
rooms for role relationships in which to engage
stigmatized aspects of their identity (Long & Chen,
2007). Building on the idea of Erikson, that in the
search of identity achievement, adolescents are
given permission to try out different things and
different aspects of their personality, the internet
is said to have become a new context in which
adolescent identity exploration and construction
208
is taking place (Calvert 2002). If the identity crisis stage is left without a successful resolution,
the young adult may adopt a negative identity
or a condition known as role confusion or the
inability to choose a direction in life beyond one
that is superficial at best. A positive resolution of
the identity crisis results in the person gaining the
virtue of fidelity which is the ability to sustain
loyalties freely pledged in spite of contradictions
in value systems (Erikson, 1964, p. 125). Waterman (1992) used personal expressiveness to
describe ones personal daemon or true self,
based on the classical Greek understanding of
expressiveness, meaning those potentialities of
each person which represent the greatest fulfillment in living of which each is capable (p.58).
Resolving of identity crisis through play method
has been explained by Erikson in his book, Childhood and Society (1950).
In Childhood and Society the psychoanalyst
Erik Erikson writes about a four-year-old girl who
was brought to him because of a bed-wetting problem, and by creating a toy situation, ultimately a
safe place for the young girl, he was able to resolve
the dilemma in the situation. In Eriksons words:
The child indicates clearly that I will not get
anything out of her. To her growing surprise and
relief, however, I do not ask her any questions; I
do not even tell her that I am her friend and she
should trust me. Instead I start to build a simple
block house on the floor. There is a living room; a
kitchen; a bedroom with a little girl in a bed and
a woman standing close by her; a bathroom with
the door open; a garage with a man standing next
to a car. This arrangement suggests, of course, the
regular morning hour when the mother tries to
pick the little girl up on time, while the father
gets ready to leave the house.
Our patient, increasingly fascinated with this
wordless statement of a problem, suddenly goes
into action. She relinquishes her thumb to make
space for a broad and toothy grin. Her face flushes
and she runs over to the toy scene. With a mighty

kick she disposes of the woman doll; she bangs
the bathroom door shut, and she hurries to the
toy shelf to get three shiny cars, which she puts
beside the man. She has answered my question:
she, indeed, does not wish the toy girl to give to
her mother what is her mothers, and she is eager
to give to her father more than he could ask for
(Erikson,1985, p. 49-50)
Erikson states that We offer her a toy situation
so that she may reveal and commit herself in its
unreality [Erikson, 1985, p. 52]. The virtual
world of dolls and blocks created a safe space
in which the little girl was able to express her
feelings. Virtual worlds, whether they are made
of blocks of wood or blocks of text, form a rich
psychological play space. Many players notice
that they are somehow different on the net than
off and this leads them to reflect on who they
are in real life. It helps people to understand the
concept of identity and the ways in which we
construct ourselves (Bruckman, 1992). And the
peace, which the little girl was able to find in
the imaginary safe world, is the same which
human beings find by creating a safe place in
the VR. It becomes a place where one can take
risks; make safe assumptions and where blame
games can be avoided. VR helps us in finding
a safe world, where prejudices, stereotypes and
false assumptions are missing. Identity formed in
VR allows users to alter, develop and build a new
safe platform to interact. And this safe platform
encourages oneself to introspect and take a deeper
look while exploring the identity issues.
Psychosocial Moratorium
and Virtual Identity
Ideally the moratorium allows individuals freedom
from the daily expectations for role performance.
Their experimentation with the new roles, values
and belief systems results in a personal conception
of how they can fit into society so as to maximize
their personal strengths and gain positive recognition from the community. Wallace (1999) claims
that experimenting with identities is an integral
part of human development, and considers this
experimentation valuable for personal growth. It
will be safer to say that virtual environments can
provide a space called psychosocial moratorium
that allows letting people take risks and freely
project their creative self. Smahel (2005) has
studied the role of virtual identity in the context
of Marcias (1980) theory, on Czech Adolescents.
Pertinent findings supporting our study has been
obtained:

Adolescents in the status moratorium use

internet more often as a resource for selfexploration and clarification of their attitudes and values.
Adolescents in the status moratorium experiment on internet more often with their
identity (they impersonate other people
more often etc.).
Adolescents in the status moratorium more
often break the norms and rules which are
well-known from their real life.
Time in cyberspace reworks the notion of

the moratorium because it may now exist on an
always-available window (Turkle, 2003). It is a
safe place to experiment with one self and take
risks. Norms and values of the society, no longer
play a hindering role. These spaces can contribute
to the experience of self as a multiplicity of parts,
the player can take risks, real-world consequences
are lowered, and the development of identity is
facilitated. Players have the opportunity to try,
practice, develop their skills, and when they fail,
try again. Psychosocial moratorium (Asgari &
Kaufman, 2005) is a consequence-free period of
experimentation that facilitates the development of
identity. According to Gee (2005), video games are
good at providing such space. They present players with simulated worlds where consequences of
experiments are lowered. Players can try, prac-
209
tice, and develop new skills. As Gee mentions,

all learning in all domains needs identity work.
It requires taking on new identities and forming
bridges from ones old identities to the new ones.
The concept of virtual and real self identity will
remain isolated if the identity of organizations is
not touched upon.
Identity of Organizations
It is crucial to understand and link individual identity with the organizations identity, as one tends to
spend major part of ones life in close alignment
with the organization. Ashforth and Mael (1989)
argued that individuals who identify with employing organization tend to choose activities that are
congruent with organizations identity. Under
this perspective, organizational identification is
a specific form of social identification where the
individuals define themselves in terms of their
membership in a particular organization (Mael
and Ashforth, 1995, p.310). The organizational
literature view trust as resulting from individuals
perception of the characteristics or qualities of
certain groups or systems (Lee, 2004). Perceived
trust plays an important role in organizational
activities and processes such as, improvement of
cooperation behavior, performance evaluation,
goal setting, leadership, team spirit enhancement
(McAllister, 1995; Jones and George 1998; Mayer
et al., 1995), organizational commitment, and job
satisfaction (Huff and Kelley, 2003).
The relationship between individual and organizational identities is regarded as reciprocal,
such that organizational identities can influence
individual behavior, and individual behavior
can influence organizational identity (Pratt &
Foreman, 2000; Huemer et al 2004). Albert and
Whetten (1985), suggested that organization
identity consists of those attributes that members
feel are fundamental to the organization, uniquely
descriptive of it and persisting within it over time.
In other words, organizational identity refers to
what is central, distinctive and enduring in an
210
organization, when considering its past, present

and the future. Organizational identity is commonly seen as the property of a collective. In
other words, organizations identity defines a more
or less shared and collective sense of who we
are as an organization. In todays scenario, it is
necessary to understand the linking of identity of
one self, with organizational identity. Or as Hatch
& Schultz (2000) describe it: Organizational
identity, as the object of commitment and a sense
of belonging, is seen as providing a cognitive and
emotional foundation on which organizational
members build meaningful relationships with
the organization concerned. Identification has
been defined as an individuals sense of oneness
or belongingness within an organization. (Mael &
Ashfort, 1992). The question of identification is
relevant and current nowadays when organizations
are going through constant changes.
Identity Crisis in Organizations

It is important to mention here, the various types
of identity crisis, which organizations generally
suffer from in turbulent times. In the words of
Jolton & Geisert (2009), Inside-out conflict, can
be one of the major type of identity crisis, which
organizations are facing. Inside-out conflict is
when the image (brand) that the company promotes
to the world (and its customers) is incongruent
or vastly different from its internal culture and
work experience. Another important source of
crisis for organizations, in the words of Jolton
& Geisert (2009), is that internal conflicts often
stem from changes in leadership and strategy. A
founder of the company may have created a very
patriarchal, yet caring, internal brand where people
are valued for what they know. Then the founder
retires and is replaced by a professional manager,
who sees that in order to compete, people need
to be valued for their performance and creates a
need for buckling down on expenses and frills.
The caring, trusting identity becomes conflicted
with the performance-driven hardnosed identity.
This also results in the company hiring one type

of employee who serves the needs of one identity,
but who conflicts with another type of employee,
who serves the needs of the other identity. Instead
of working in tandem, they work in opposition.
Identity crises faced by organizations are natural phases of business growth and development
cycles. It is how they are managed that determines
where the organization will benefit or suffer. It
can be due to radical changes in the business
environment, or it can be changes in leadership
and values. But more often than not, it is just the
fact that the leadership hasnt invested any time or
care into understanding who it is and the impact
this has on the business. It is very important to
keep the business goals aligned with the organizational culture- to maintain a healthy identity of
its executives. In each case of identity crisis, the
underlying opportunity is in learning more about
who an organization is, what is in conflict and
then working from this point to actively manage
that identity. Resolving the underlying corporate
identity crisis will not only unleash new energy,
but will also bring the focus for the organization
and the employees. But just as people are constantly evolving and changing, organizations do as
well. Managing a corporate identity is an ongoing
process. Like one self journey, it never ends, but
can be a source of inspiration and strength (Jolton
& Geisert, 2009).
Solutions and Recommendations:

Resolving of Identity
Crisis through VR
In a virtual world, avatars are cultural representations of real people in the quest of a virtual
identity. Cultural identity (CI), in cyberspace
differentiates virtual identities, and helps situate
avatars in a specific social structure (Hoffman,
1998). CI is the product of cultural beliefs and
practices that one may not realize easily. VR, for
many people may be an outlet that helps them
escape their reality and helps them find ways to
cope with identity struggles through the safety

of fantasy (Jagodzinski, 2006). A player identifies with his/her avatar as an object, as avatars
can be compared to empty shells that are filled
with the players emotions, feelings, and state of
mind. And it becomes a therapeutic ritual to fill
in the canvas of life; with the help of VR, with
different kinds of self created projected selves.
As stated by Hampton (1999), individuals do
not enter into cyberspace as clean slates but
bring with them aspects of their lives (p.1578).
Aggressiveness in SL, according to Jagodzinski
(2006) is the acting out of aggression towards the
other through the imaginary and symbolic orders
as the subject fends for itself and abject alterity
(p. 288). VR, then, enables its players to intensely
transfer their hidden selves into their avatar. An
avatar becomes a virtual counterpart that exists in
the imaginative space and time, it becomes, like
a ghost - a guardian angel or devil - capable of
magically acting through the will of the player
(Jagodzinski, 2006, p. 289). Virtual reality is
therefore inherently good in both experiential
and transcendent senses because it allows us
to envision the world and recreate it beyond the
bounds of our current conceptions of the real (Zhai,
1998, p. 153). We are capable of experiencing it
as a new reality, since what we call reality now
is constructed by the senses alone (Zhai, 1998).
Virtual worlds, like other technologies, can have
positive and/or negative psychological effects
on the user. The exploration of identities online
can be beneficial as well as potentially harmful
(Jones, 2006). The main concern is of exploring
and building a healthy identity through the avatars
in the virtual world, with out carrying the crutches
of prejudices and stereotypes and discriminations,
of the real world.
Discussion and Future Implications

Individuals are the main pillars of the organizations and ultimately they are the builders for the
success and failures of any organization. In the
211
words of Erikson (1968), it is important to help

individuals in identifying with an identity, which
not only maintains continuity with the past but
also provides meaning for the present and gives
direction for the future. Identity is a very broad
and ambiguous concept, yet it focuses attention
on critical questions about personal development
and social relationshipsquestions that are crucial
(Buckingham, 2008). VE in social scientific study
is becoming a natural phenomenon of study. In
everyday life, there are areas of identity that an
individual can control, such as work roles, ideological values, and social relationships. However,
there are many other dimensions that individuals
have little control over, such as their biological
sex, race, age, and other physical features, all of
which are important in identity construction. In
VEs, these areas can be controlled, making the
exploration of identity more flexible (as noted by
Asgari & Kaufman, Calvert, 2002). This flexibility
of creation can give a sense of achievement
to human beings and also provide them with a
chance of gaining immense satisfaction. The
word crisis has been seen as an opportunity
by Erikson. If people are able to see the crisis
taking place in real life as an opportunity, it
will be a step towards the ultimate growth and
enhancement. In addition to the role of VEs as
a digital mirror to project images and identities,
these environments can provide a space called a
psychosocial moratorium that let people take risks.
Psychosocial moratorium is a consequence-free
period of experimentation that facilitates the development of identity (Asgari & Kaufman, 2005).
This working through period of experimentation
can lend support to everyone in their private and
public life, in gaining an understanding of learning
about different aspects of themselves.
It is essential and important for the organizations to help individuals in understanding the
process of self- reflection and selfdefinition,
which ultimately helps them in resolving an identity crisis. The indulgence in virtual reality can
help them in having the freedom of expression
212
of thoughts. The online authorship of creation of

blogs and homepages can be a way of encouraging
the individuals to identify with their thoughts and
trying to resolve the conflicts and crisis.SL, face
book and twitter can be such few online spaceswhich help in expression of one self along with
the social interaction and affiliation.
CONCLUSION
Recent times provide some great examples of
how in business, we never know what is going to
come next. The same thing happens in real life as
well. There has to be a level of adaptability and
flexibility while one is still trying to be focused
and well adjusted. We need to take advantage
of unexpected opportunities, which we are presented with and be comfortable with the same.
Online communities are a good place to learn to
overcome the fear of unknown. As mentioned by
Turkle (1995), in todays world, people have to
be flexible. Our professional lives depend upon
being able to interact successfully, in team effort,
with people who are very different from us. Many
of us no longer live in isolated, stable communities, with shared values, but rather in large, fluid,
cosmopolitan communities in which we come in
regular contact with people whose background
and values are very different from our own. In the
past, stability of the self was a paramount virtue,
but perhaps, in the modern world, flexibility, the
ability to accommodate to diversity, is more important, and perhaps assuming roles online will
help us to develop that kind of flexibility. Having
different online identities can teach us how to
be flexible, creative adults and more tolerant of
diversity. Wallace (1999) claims that experimenting with identities is an integral part of human
development, and considers this experimentation
valuable for personal growth. He also states that
experimenting with identities is not restricted only
to the period of adolescence and describes what
he calls a MAMA (Moratorium Achievement
Moratorium Achievement) pattern, in which

adults repeatedly return to questions of identity,
values and goals. And ultimately each individual
has to find the unique answer pertaining to his
own unique self. What is needed is an optimum
level of adaptability and flexibility, while one is
still trying to be focused and execute a strategy.
To use an old phrase we need to expect the
unexpected, and more than that, take advantage
of unexpected opportunities with which we are
presented. Hence we can see that experimenting
with multiple identities teaches us to be more
tolerant, flexible, empathetic and social which
is an integral part of the human growth. Hence,
understanding the role of collaborative web in the
formation of a healthy identity should be clear
sighted with immense potential of self expression
and communication leading to better alignment
between individual and organizational identities.
Bente, G. (1989). Facilities for the graphical computer simulation of head and body movements.
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Identity Crisis: It is that time of life, when
human beings start questioning and exploring the
nature of their being.
Identity Formation: The process of gradually
forming a distinct personality of an individual.
Identity: An individuals knowledge of a
distinct comprehension of having a unique self.
Multi-User Domains (MUDs): Multi user
dungeons or MUD as popularly called is a multi
user real time virtual world, created only in text,
in which the users feels immersed in an artificial
space containing representations of data, programs
and other users.
Psychosocial Moratorium: The term Psychosocial Moratorium has been coined by Erikson
(1959), to describe a period of free experimentation, before a final identity is achieved. The basic
idea of using this concept is to give freedom to
the individuals from the daily expectations from
their role performance.
Second Life: is a virtual world created by the
linden lab in June 2003, which gives individuals
freedom to explore and create an imaginary world
of its own kind.
Virtual Reality: is a computer simulated environment, which has been created to either depict
a real world or an imaginary world.
Section 4
Blending Real and Virtual

Worlds
OVERVIEW
As we conclude this book with this last section, we would like to present to the readers some specific
peek into the future, illustrated by a set of chapters spanning the less explored territories. Indeed, as the
industry and market trends reveal, we are set on some real unknown cross roads. There are ongoing trends
which relate to some very interesting phenomenon like blurring of social, personal and professional lives
most of us as individuals have experienced that. The future of hardware becoming increasingly fast,
miniaturized and also with extremely high storage capacities, the focus is already more on convergence
of hand held devices than other forms of computation like laptops and other computations. The release
of products like i-Pads and enthusiasm that this has generated, is simple case in point. Another interesting trend is a movement from GUI based devices to more and more touch enabled and NUI or natural
user interface devices. And of-course, user driven content and increased collaboration, that has been a
continuing theme across our entire book.
The first chapter in this set by Arhlene A. Flowers and Kimberly Gregson from U.S. provides us
with the perspective of virtual meetings and their increasing penetration in the organizations and how
companies are leveraging web to the full to enable their employees to work across geographies, time
zones and with much greater productivity and far lesser costs. The chapter covers the complete aspect
of evolution of technology for virtual meetings, a comprehensive theoretical analysis of tele-presence
in virtual meetings, and case studies of companies utilizing virtual worlds as meeting venues, and of
course a practical consideration for conducting virtual meetings and events.
The next chapter by Roma Chauhan and Ritu Chauhan brings forth the opportunities and challenges
associated with virtual business events. Conventionally, organizations have been spending a lot of time,
cost and energies in planning and organizing business events such as conferences, road shows and exhibitions. With the advent of collaborative web tools, and particularly post recession, many of the fortune
500 companies have started extending their business events in the realm of virtual world. Though virtual
conferences have been relatively well accepted in practice, there are larger issues of acceptance of virtual
exhibitions. With the help of real life examples, the authors of this chapter suggest blending the face to
face business events with virtual world based events as a way forward.
Finally, the last chapter in this book, is dedicated to a totally new dimension of emerging web of user
touch based, 3D technologies, which is termed as Augmented Reality (AR). AR as a concept explained
by Lukas Ritzel in the chapter, is much more of a sensory internet, that leads to an entirely new experience of bridging the off-line with the on-line world. This chapter illustrates AR applications and the way
it can alter our lives and business with the support of cyberspace for ever.
With this in the background, we present to you the last set of three chapters which are focused on
virtualization in general, with the impact on the same within the organization, across the value chain in
terms of exhibitions and marketing campaigns and finally a completely new paradigm of Augmented
Reality presented to us in the last concluding chapter. The future presents to us exciting picture of the
potentially brave new world, where each one of us would perhaps interface around us with our virtual
avatars and shall be able to accomplish many of the new things which we have not yet even imagined.
Already the reflections of the same are visible in the semi-science fictional movies like Inception,
after the earlier set of movies like Matrix I and Matrix II. We editors hope that these chapters provide
a fitting end to this theme of Web 2.0 and collaborations and provide a completely new perspective to
the future that is unraveling around us and will definitely transform the way we think, work and interact
with and around ourselves in the very near future.
221
Chapter 14
Virtual Worlds for

Collaborative Meetings
Arhlene A. Flowers
Ithaca College, USA
Kimberly Gregson
Ithaca College, USA
ABSTRACT
Whether businesses will make use of virtual worlds for meetings, training, and events is not just an
academic question. Use of existing and newly developed virtual worlds is expected to grow for the
near future among all age groups. International companies are entering a variety of virtual worlds to
promote collaboration among their geographically dispersed workforce for training and meetings, as
well as for business-to-business and business-to-consumer applications with internal and external audiences. These worlds provide engaging experiences that are enjoyable and memorable. This chapter
addresses opportunities and challenges in conducting meetings in virtual worlds. It covers the evolution
of technology for virtual meetings, a theoretical analysis of telepresence in virtual meetings, case studies
of companies utilizing virtual worlds as meeting venues, and practical considerations for conducting
virtual meetings and events.
INTRODUCTION
The evolution from videoconferencing to internet
technology, particularly in virtual worlds, has
provided more affordable and efficient technology for organizations to meet and communicate
from multiple locations for lectures, workshops,
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-60960-581-0.ch014
conferences, staff meetings, training, and other

business-to-business and business-to-consumer
applications. Virtual worlds, such as Second
Life, are predicted to grow in popularity in the
near future among all age groups (Gartner, 2007;
KZero, 2009), because they let organizations
create environments where people can interact in
ways that work with existing work flows. They
have opened up unique communication platforms
Virtual Worlds for Collaborative Meetings
for organizations to connect face to face with

the online worlds growing number of residents
through events, demonstrations, exhibitions, market research, online distance learning, and other
collaborative platforms. Todays virtual worlds
emulate elements of experiences that were once
considered pure fantasyfrom the holodeck, an
entertainment room with holographic simulations
in Star Trek, to the metaverse, a futuristic virtual
world in Neal Stephensons novel Snow Crash
from 1992. Teleporting is a reality in Second
Life, where avatars can be beamed instantly to
different locations. Collaborations for businesses,
nonprofits, and governments can be realized with
virtual face-to-face transactions in new threedimensional immersive worlds.
In this chapter, we review technology from
picture phones to virtual worlds used to facilitate
collaboration in organizations with geographically
distributed members. We then describe one particular virtual world, Second Life, which has been
used for many types of meetings and events since
its founding. Four case studies based on interviews
with a variety of stakeholders describe elements
of the process. We conclude with practical considerations on how organizations can select the
most appropriate virtual world venue, provide the
necessary training and resources for participants,
establish guidelines for effective collaboration,
address privacy and security issues, document
and promote in-world activities, and utilize unique
collaborative opportunities.
EVOLUTION OF
VIDEOCONFERENCING TO
VIRTUAL WORLDS MEETINGS
Videoconferencing is defined as an electronic
form of on-line audio and visual communication which overcomes the problems of physical
distance while reducing the need for travelling
(Panteli & Dawson, 2001, p. 89) and it has enabled
people to meet visually without being physically
222
present. These systems allowed for synchronous

communication, similar to actual face-to-face
meetings.
The Picturephone was an early attempt by
AT&T to help people meet virtually; it was introduced in 1956 and later showcased as the improved
Mod 1 Picturephone at the 1964 Worlds Fair
in New York at a futuristic Walt Disney company
exhibit. In 1970, AT&T introduced a commercial
application for the Picturephone, but the product
was not a financial success because of its high
cost, bulky size, small screen, and unfriendly user
controls (AT&T, 2010a). In a collaborative AT&T
project, NASA used early satellite transmissions
for videoconferences and television feeds from
astronauts (AT&T, 2010b). Affordable satellite
technology in the 1980s created opportunities
for conference facilities to use videoconferencing for global meetings with physically large and
costly systems.
The growth of personal computers and the
commercialization of the internet opened the
way for a variety of PC-based videoconferencing
systems, such as IBMs PicTel in 1991, Apples
CU-SeeMe in 1992, and Microsofts NetMeeting in 1996. Many new developments provided
higher quality images that were almost television
quality for much less money (Carey, 2002). Journalists used videoconferencing on cell phones to
report live from the front in Afghanistan in 2001
(Roberts, 2004). High-end telepresence systems
introduced in 2007 claimed to improve quality by
reducing jerky images, sound delays, and other
annoying irregularities. However, these systems
can cost over $300,000 for a room-based system
(Stafford, 2008).
Systems over the last few years have become
smaller and portable, and some are even deskbased to work with the users own computer. More
users with broadband connections to the internet
have spurred innovations in webconferencing to
share presentation slides and other files, write
notes on a shared whiteboard, watch streaming
video, conduct polls to solicit feedback, and
Figure 1. Staff sharing documents and collaborating in a virtual office in ProtoSphere. ( 2010, ProtonMedia.com. Used with permission.)
record the meetings. As products improved, four

categories of products developed: general business communication, collaboration tools, project
management focus, and training tools (Winfield,
2004). Earlier systems were replaced with Adobe
Connect, Cisco WebEx, Microsoft LiveMeeting,
IBM Web Conferencing Service, and Linktivity
MeetNow. These systems were more affordable
and lighter, offering innovative features with
higher-quality imagery and sound. However, some
controls were still difficult to learn and some issues included delay in audio and the lack of the
sense of actually being physically present at the
virtual meeting.
Malhotra (1998) observed that the discussions
about the latest technology for videoconferencing
were overly optimistic and asked if videoconferences and other new technology are offering
solutions as panaceas for the business challenges
of the knowledge era (p. 58). Researchers began
to question the validity of industry claims about
the beneficial effects of media richness on performance. Ferran and Watts (2008) found that
videoconferences were more mentally challenging
than face-to-face communication, so participants
actually had decreased capacity for the content of
the meeting. Discussions tended to be more hostile than meetings with similar people held face
to face (Stuhlmacher & Citera, 2005). However,
videoconference attendees under time pressure

had faster responses than face-to-face groups
(Cabeller, Gracia, & Peir (2005).
Meetings in Virtual Worlds

A new type of system was being developed for
virtual worlds, such as Linden Labs Second
Life, ProtonMedias ProtoSphere, Altadyns
3DXplorer, and Teleplace, Inc.s Teleplace; they
enable businesses, media, governments, and
higher-education institutions to meet in mediated
spaces (see Figure 1). A virtual world creates an
environment in which people from anywhere
around the globe can connect. This ease of travel
without actual transportation expense and traveler
fatigue makes virtual worlds convenient venues
for businesses to meet with their clients and
professional audiences. Although virtual worlds
will not completely replace the need for people
to meet face-to-face, many marquee brands are
experimenting and learning how to operate in
this space (Biba, 2007, p. 17). This technology
lets organizations face the limitations (managing
distractions and the learning curve in utilizing the
technology), benefits (cost-savings of travel expenditures and time spent traveling), and logistics
and constraints of any type of meeting whether
223
in a physical or virtual space (agendas, protocol,

and engagement of participants).
A few studies have looked at the decisions
made by organizations to host events and meetings
in virtual worlds. Damer (2007) reviewed the
history of a series of events hosted by the Contact
Consortium from 1996 to 2004 in AlphaWorld,
an avatar-based virtual world. Contact Consortium
held its first Cyberconference in 1998, with most
events in AlphaWorld (the original name for Active Worlds), and with smaller simultaneous events
held in other virtual worlds. The venue was set
up to mimic a real-world conference with exhibitors, speakers, and social events. AlphaWorld
was chosen as the site of the event because the
audience had experience in virtual worlds and the
subject of the conference was virtual worlds.
AlphaWorld allowed for user creation of content,
such as the conference site and avatars, and the
audience and speakers could attend from around
the world. The virtual conference participants
encountered a variety of problems due to the large
number of users attending the event. Only a few
avatars could be shown on the screen at any one
time, although all attendees could hear the speakers. Objects showed up slowly on the screen and
users found it hard to move their avatars.
The Evolution of Second Life from

Personal to Business Users
Second Life, a virtual world created by Linden Lab in 2003, and other virtual worlds have
changed the way people interact and meet online.
Second Life is one of the latest internet developments that have presented new opportunities at
the beginning of the 21st century for individuals,
educational institutions, nonprofits, and corporations to communicate and collaborate in an
immersive virtual environment. Second Life, an
online three-dimensional virtual world imagined,
created, and owned by its residents, offers a platform for communication, business, education,
224
and organizational development to anyone who

wants to try it.
Since its inception, Second Life has grown
dramatically with approximately 19 million
registered users (Keegan, 2009), represented by
customizable animated images known as avatars,
in a virtual area that is the approximate land mass
of the state of Rhode Island with approximately
2 billion square meters (Takahashi, 2009), where
individuals, universities, charities, corporations,
and government agencies have a dialogue with its
inhabitants. Second Life compiles daily updated
economic statistics on acres auctioned, land for
sale, number of logged in users, resident transactions in its local currency (Lindens), total supply
of Lindens, in-world business profits, and monthly
customer spending distribution. Raw data files
can be accessed at http://secondlife.com/statistics/
economy-data.php.
Second Life residents are empowered to
change their gender, appearance, race, age, and
even the species of their avatars. Residents can
take classes, make and sell virtual goods, attend
events, drive a car, or fly a space ship. Second
Life is designed to give residents control over
every aspect of their in-world life; the world is as
vibrant and alive as the residents are creative and
involved (Ondrejka, 2004). An in-world economy
functions with currency earned in-world that can
be exchanged for dollars back into the real world.
According to Linden Lab, the economy in Second Life totaled US$567 million in 2009, a 65%
growth over 2008, and its virtual world residents
earned US$55 million in gross resident earnings,
representing an 11% growth over the previous
year (Linden, 2010).
In 2006, Second Life began to experience a
steady increase in personal users (Nino, 2008),
and also in business and corporate presence,
with major household brands, such as IBM,
Toyota, Sony, Kraft, and 1-800-FLOWERS.
Just as residents are able to customize and build,
businesses can access the same tools to engage
in a dialogue and undertake specific activities
with the residents in Second Life. The business

world seemed to take notice of Second Life in
2006 starting with a BusinessWeek cover story
and several sidebars (Hof, 2006) that extolled the
opportunities for real-world corporations and inworld entrepreneurs. A series of positive articles
followed in magazines, such as Wired (Wallace,
2006) and Fortune (Kirkpatrick, 2006). The media
coverage focused on opportunity, creativity, and
financial gain. Profiles featured Anshe Chung, a
land owner who made US$1 million in Second
Life, and Kermit Quirk, the avatar name of Nathan
Kier, who invented a videogame in Second Life
called Tringo (Andrews, 2007) that was licensed
for the GameBoy Advance hand-held videogame
console (Thompson, 2006), and the technology
background of the Linden Lab founders (Colligan,
2006). Hemp (2006) questioned whether in virtual
worlds, such as Second Life, businesses should
market to the real person or to the avatar. The
overall media message during this period seemed
to be that businesses needed to be in Second Life
right away.
The positive press did not continue forever.
Beginning in December 2006, a ValleyWag blog
post from Clay Shirky kicked off a backlash against
all the positive coverage (Shirky, 2006), criticizing the user statistics reported by Linden Lab and
accusing the company of overestimating the user
base to attract businesses. The negative publicity
continued in 2007, starting with a Los Angeles
Times article (Semuels, 2007), and quickly spread
to other media including BusinessWeek (McConnon & Jana, 2007), Forbes (Rosmarin, 2007),
and Wired (Rose, 2007)the same magazines that
provided the overwhelmingly positive coverage
in 2006. Most of the negative coverage seemed
to assume that companies time in Second Life
has been ill-spent; some articles plainly suggested
companies should get out while they still could.
BusinessWeek (McConnon & Jana, 2007) listed
all the companies that left Second Life in order to
have more control. Organizations, such as AOL,
American Apparel, and Wells Fargo, established
islands, hosted a few events, and then left, perhaps because the islands were not successful as
an additional revenue stream. A public relations
executive explained the situation when brands
began leaving Second Life: recent failures can
be compared to the mistakes that led the dotcom
bubble to burst in 2000the firms that struggled
were the ones that overspent too quickly without
thinking the process through (Devaney, 2008, p.
24). In the debates about the hype or relevance
of Second Life, this virtual world represents a
glimpse into the future of online communication,
interactivity and commerce (Holtz, 2007, p. 19).
However, a variety of for-profit companies,
nonprofits, and educational institutions have begun to utilize Second Life for a different form of
business-to-business and business-to-consumer
communicationas a place to connect with
audiences for lectures, workshops, and other applications. IBM, New Media Consortium (NMC),
Northrop Grumman, MacArthur Foundation, the
American Library Association, and other entities
are a few examples. Second Life has been the
site of weekly Science Friday sessions (an NPR
radio program), weekly Metanomics presentations
(virtual world economics discussions hosted by
Cornell professor Robert Bloomfield), and special
events for such conferences as BlogHer, SL Case
Camp, and NetRoots.
Second Life has developed a section on its Web
site called, Second Life Work, which includes
a list of companies working in Second Life, tips
on how to work in-world, and how to conduct
meetings in-world. The Meetings and Events
in Second Life section covers virtual providers,
such as the Alpine Executive Center, Rivers Run
Reds Immersive Workspaces, and Virtualis
Convention and Learning Center, as well as case
studies, blogs, and media coverage. The IBM case
study on its Academy of Technology s Virtual
World Conference and Annual Meeting in Second
Life estimated that the return on investment was
$320,000, comparable to one-fifth the cost of
a real world event (Linden Lab, 2009c, p. 1).
225
Figure 2. Virtual office collaboration among various users in ProtoSphere. ( 2010, ProtonMedia.com.
Used with permission.)
Second Life compares its meeting capabilities

to that of videoconferencing, stating that video
conferencing enables you to see your colleagues
faces, but the quality of these meetings is often
uneven and you still dont get a sense of a shared
environmentparticularly helpful in training,
simulation, and prototyping activities (Linden
Lab, 2009d, 5).
Although Second Life is currently the most
prominent virtual world for collaboration, other
virtual worlds offering environments for businesses have emerged. Established in 2006, ProtonMedia, a provider of virtual world technology,
developed ProtoSphere as a secure, private virtual
world environment for collaboration and learning (ProtonMedia, 2010, 1). ProtonMedia has
226
created immersive environments (see Figure 2)

for such organizations as AstraZeneca, Johnson
& Johnson, National Defense University, Merck
Inc., Chevron, Duke Universitys Fuqua School
of Business, and TIAA-CREF. The 2010 Virtual
Edge Summit also had sessions about virtual meetings conducted by InXpo, Unisfair, and ON24.
Telepresence in Virtual Meetings

Past studies of consumers acceptance of technology have found a small number of variables involved in the acceptance process. The technology
acceptance model (TAM) has often been used to
examine users intentions to apply a technology.
Davis (1989, 1993) and Davis, Bagozzi, and
Warshaw (1989) identified two basic variables

that have been included in most studies of TAM:
perceived usefulness (i.e. something that will
enhance job performance) and perceived ease of
use (i.e. relatively free from effort) as positive
influences on attitudes towards application of
technology. Venkatesh and Davis (2000) extended
the model, adding variables such as voluntariness
of technology use, quality of the output, and how
easily results can be demonstrated.
A number of studies have looked at the role
of fun or enjoyment in adopting technology.
Venkatesh and Davis (1996) added measures of
enjoyment to see if users having fun with the system were more likely to use it. Teo, Lim, and Lai
(1999) introduced perceived enjoyment and Moon
and Kim (2001) included perceived playfulness.
In a study of individual user decisions to play
online games, Hsu and Lu (2007) included flow
and social use measures. Chung and Tan (2004)
extended TAM with variables related to the user
such as computer-using skills, personal innovativeness, and playfulness to the technology, such
as whether a Web site was flexible, interactive,
easy to use, navigate, and search.
Shen and Eder (2009) examined users intentions to use virtual worlds for business and
extended the model with three user variables
that influenced perceived ease of use: computer
anxiety, computer playfulness, and computer
self-efficacy. They extended TAM by including a
Second Life specific measure of perceived enjoyment by asking if the user had fun and found the
experience enjoyable, and a more general measure
of computer playfulness by asking if the user was
typically imaginative and inventive when using
computers. Perceived enjoyment had a significant
and positive effect on the behavioral intention to
use virtual worlds. Computer playfulness had a
significant effect on perceived ease of use and
an indirect effect on behavioral intention to use
virtual worlds through perceived usefulness. All
the extensions increased the variance explained
over the original TAM. The attitude towards
technology was positively affected by perceived

usefulness and pleasure, which in turn positively
influenced attitude towards technology and the
intention to adopt. Users want to know they will
have fun using technology and that it is easy to
use and useful.
Owens, Davis, Murphy, Khazanchi, and Zigurs
(2009) identified several components for a model
of teamwork in virtual environments. The people
on the team are one important component. They
identified presence, defined by Steuer (1992)
as a sense of being in an environment and now
more broadly considered to include copresence,
social presence, and telepresence as something
that affects people on virtual teams. People get
the feeling that they are together with others in a
shared space and that they can work together with
the other people. People experience a stronger
sense of presence as the technology (i.e., screen
resolution and virtual world interface) improves;
enhanced technology allows for more realistic
representations of avatars and a wider array of
interactions. As with the research on TAM, this
model of virtual teamwork focuses on the individual users and not on the people who made the
actual decision to use the technology for teamwork.
Sarker, Valacich, and Sarker (2005) proposed
a model for technology adoption by small groups
(TAG) as a process of discussion and consideration
of existing attitudes towards technology to create
what they call a group valence (p. 44) that takes
into account factors such as pre-existing attitudes
towards technology, the attitudes after discussion
of the majority as well as of high-status members,
and any conflict between members, along with
characteristics of the technology itself, such as
its utility and complexity that are similar to the
TAM factors of perceived usefulness and ease
of use. Leder, Maupin, Sena, and Zhuang (2000)
discovered that TAM variables plus quality of
information found explained use of Web sites
relevant to their jobs.
227
Case Studies on Organizations

Conducting Virtual Meetings
Companies are hosting virtual meetings and
events for business-to-business and business-toconsumer applications. Consumers could enter a
design contest sponsored by Coca-Cola, an event
with Bruce Willis to promote a new Die Hard sequel, and events for customers and employees of
technology companies, such as Sun Microsystems,
Dell, Microsoft, and Cisco. Sports-related events
were sponsored by Major League Baseball and
the National Basketball Association. During the
2007 National Convention and Design Exposition,
Autodesk held events on its island in Second Life
for conference attendees. Educational organizations make use of virtual worlds for events and
training. The International Society for Technology
in Education used Second Life for networking
and collaborative events during the 2007 National Education Computing Conference. The
Idaho Bioterrorism Awareness and Preparedness
Program worked with a group called Play 2 Train
to simulate real-world, high-risk emergencies to
provide no-risk training to program participants
(Rittenberry, 2008).
A number of benefits have been identified
in studies of past events held in virtual worlds.
An important benefit is cost savings. Intel saved
$265,000 by moving its Embedded Channel
Conference from a real-world hotel to a virtual
world (Linden Lab, 2009e). There are no travel
costs, no hotel or conference hall rentals, and no
catering costs; employees do not lose productive
work time traveling to meeting sites. Employees
private lives are not disrupted by being away from
home for several days at a time. Reuben Steiger,
head of design firm Millions of Us, puts the cost
benefit into perspective, The advantage [virtual
world meeting] has over the real world is cost,
and the advantage it has over the Web is its like
the real world (Biba, 2006, p. 17).
Recently, companies have come to realize that
virtual meetings are environmentally friendlier,
228
eliminating carbon emissions associated with

flying or driving to the meeting site. Virtual
world meetings bring with them elements of fun
and surprise that increase engagement with the
content. Collaboration is enhanced by the variety of communication tools in virtual worlds.
Dave Elchoness, former chairman of the Association of Virtual Worlds, described virtual
worlds as a global hallway in which a chance
meeting in the hallway or a drive-by into your
office is what really gets ideas shared and work
accomplished(Greenfield, 2008b, p. 1).
Several limitations have been identified,
including people being distracted by events in
their offices or real lives while attending virtual
meetings and the often extreme learning curve
associated with using virtual world software.
Companies have had to overcome firewall barriers and incompatible hardware issues, as well. To
be successful, virtual meetings and events need
to overcome resistance from staff and some have
only succeeded after receiving buy-in from upper
level management. Adopting social media in the
corporate environment enabled greater communication and collaboration, but it only works with
the buy-in of the CEO (Ashling, 2007, p. 29). An
interesting problem that several companies have
had to deal with is developing protocols for virtual
meetings including dress codes, security, agenda
sharing and communication privacy.
Sense of Fun: Conference

and Event Rental Spaces
Companies that want to host an event in Second
Life have several options. They can acquire an
island for an initial fee and monthly payments, hire
a designer, and build their own custom space. This
is ideal for companies that plan to have recurring
events, need to have the space for many attendees, or want to be able to close off the island for
a private event. Using these sites lets a company
take a slow approach to having virtual world
events, so they can minimize their costs, check
Figure 3. Sunrise at the Alpine Executive Center on the MeetingSupport Island in Second Life. ( 2008,
Alpine Executive Center. Used with permission.)
out the risks, and help their employees navigate

in the space. These sites usually provide tools to
help participants interact with each other and with
information. They have spaces for undertaking
group projects, collaborating, and socializing.
Many visual elements attract and hold participants
attention when distractions are needed (Smith &
Jainschigg, 2009). Here people talk within the
same virtual space, unlike the disembodied voices
of a phone conference or the faces in a different
room on a videoconference.
Several spaces like this in Second Life have
been developed. One of the first was set up by
the Crowne Plaza hotel chain on its The Place to
Meet Island with several buildings resembling its
real-world hotels; it was described as a serene
and private island. Interested parties could rent
space for events or meetings in those buildings.
The island had two meeting rooms with streaming media and PowerPoint display tools, chairs
and tables, and a choice of several real-world
cityscapes as the view out the window, and a lounge
for social events or casual meetings (Crowne
Plaza, 2007). The hotel provided staff to assist
with the meeting, just as they would in the real
world, including someone to greet visitors and

direct them to the meeting room. Crowne Plaza
hosted the invitation-only Leading Brands Summit on the Impact of Emerging Media to launch
the island (Zimmer, 2007).
Another such facility is Swiss-based group
Visions Alpine Executive Center, begun in 2006,
and still in existence in early 2011. The center is
set up to look like a mountain resort with pine
forests, snow-covered mountains, and even an
ice dragon in the middle of a frozen pond (see
Figure 3). A train helps visitors get around the
island. Guests enter the resort lobby to pick up
their nametags at a central registration desk. The
goal was to create a site with a sense of place
where attendees would feel as if they had been
some place specific and with other real people.
Having a space resemble an architectural style,
rather than reproducing some specific place, gives
people a sense of space, suggesting a style that
they are familiar with. The space can help lead
them through the event and trigger emotional responses. The center has traditional meeting rooms
and spaces in rooms carved into the ice (see Figure
4). A variety of proprietary tools are made avail-
229
Figure 4. Alpine Executive Centers reactive sculpture artworks by Pol Jarvinen on exhibit in the Ice
Caverns Gallery. ( 2008, Alpine Executive Center. Used with permission.)
able to meeting attendees, including support for

brainstorming, categorizing, and voting. Events
can be recorded to share results with others in the
office or to review after the meeting. The center
is designed to support the philosophy that fun is
an important element to company events, making
them more memorable with skiing, snowboarding,
and ice skating, as well as with hot air balloons
and an art gallery with rotating exhibits set up in
ice caverns (Adams, 2009).
Sometimes in-world events are held in lieu of
real-world events. The center hosted a 24-hour
technology product kick-off event for Unisys. An
announcement was distributed to over 10,000
people on the companys mailing list. While only
several hundred people attended the Second Life
events, thousands viewed it on the companys
Web site, continuing to promote the new product.
The company gained exposure for less than
$10,000, a price much smaller than a similar realworld event. Some events are only possible to
host in a virtual world. The center hosted Hong
Kong Net, an educational program with universities in Hong Kong, the Netherlands, and the
United States, which was set up to investigate
information technologies in a global environment.
230
Students learned to work in multicultural teams

while developing management and collaboration
skills. Virtual worlds are ideal for fun teambuilding events. A department from Sun Microsystems rented the island for Employee Day with
downhill ski races and other entertaining platforms. Using virtual worlds can add elements of
fun and surprise to even dry topics, which can
benefit from elements of entertainment, and even
games (Alpine Executive Center, 2010).
Sense of People: Job Fairs

An interesting use of Second Life for businesses
is trying to recruit employees who use virtual
worlds. Manpower Inc., an employment services
company, set up Manpower Island in 2007 with
tools to learn about real-world and virtual-world
jobs. Career Builder. com, an online job site, set
up at least 50 branded kiosks around Second Life
with information and applications for jobs available in Second Life. TMP Worldwide organized
the first virtual job fair in May 2007, a three-day
event that it labeled Network in World with the
tagline in world interviews, real world jobs,
with companies including eBay, Microsoft, and
Verizon (TMP Worldwide, 2007a). More than 750

people requested interviews and approximately
150 were selected and attended actual interviews
(TMP Worldwide, 2007d). Because of the strongly
positive responses from job seekers and firms,
TMP held a second fair in August 2007 with different companies, including GE and Accenture
(TMP Worldwide, 2007c). Fairs were set up by
TMP Worldwides European branch for European
companies. Electric Sheep Company set up four
similar job fairs over two years for firms trying
to attract MBA students (Gold, 2009). The goal
in each case was to attract international applicants
by demonstrating through the use of the virtual
world that the company was forward thinking
and technologically advanced in a cost-effective
manner (Gold, 2009; Vong, 2009).
In each case, the companies participated in the
fairs because they wanted to reach an international
audience to broaden the pool of applicants for
positions at the firms. Using Second Life gave
the firms an opportunity to brand themselves
as innovative risk takers. They realized that the
event would not attract hundreds of applicants,
but they thought it would help them reach people
who were using cutting-edge technology. The
client of the Electric Sheep Company had tried
using streaming video for interviews, but found
the experience impersonal. The firms received
positive media attention for their efforts in the
virtual world, which they realized would help them
attract more qualified employees in the future.
The TMP events were structured similarly.
To make sure things ran smoothly, TMP and the
participating firms worked together to accomplish
many of the same things they would with real
interviews. Applicants were pre-screened and
the companies invited only the most qualified for
their job openings. TMP provided greeters at the
landing site to make sure people had appointments
and to direct them to the correct interviewer. TMP
opened the island before the event, so potential
applicants could practice using Second Life and
dress their avatars in appropriate business attire.
Most applicants came and learned on their own

instead of taking advantage of the provided training. TMP trained the company representatives
and provided branded clothing for them to wear.
Each company interviewing applicants received a
branded area on the job fair island. Applicants were
encouraged to explore the companies creative
and detailed in World settings (TMP Worldwide,
2007b). They could meet one on one with applicants in a space set up like a traditional meeting
room. Most of the conversations took place using
the communication tools built into Second Life.
The event also let firms brand themselves as fun
employers. Many companies set up activities in
their space for the job fair participants to use, such
as a roller coaster branded with the company logo
and colors, and another sponsored a parachute
ride (Vong, 2009). According to a Second Life
job fair organizer, companies involved in the
fair found that the fun atmosphere lightened the
often tense interview situations. Job seekers and
interviewers reported that they were less nervous.
Other companies wanted to showcase the firm and
selected more business-like settings and events,
instead of showing off the features of the virtual
world (Gold, 2009).
The overall response was positive. Employers
and applicants felt engaged during the interviews
and using avatars made it seem more human than
a phone interview or even an interview with text
chat and streaming media (Gold, 2009). Some
participants specifically mentioned it was more
engaging than using a videoconferencing system
(Vong, 2009). Typing animations and on-screen
indications of speech make it easier to tell who
is talking. Three-dimensional space and avatars
give a greater sense of presence than do other
systems. These indications add to the sense of
being physically together with the other attendees.
Second Life gave them the flexibility to have two
kinds of spaces: business-like meeting rooms with
chairs and tables, and playful games for socializing. At the time, the companies knew the event
would generate positive media coverage, which
231
would make the impact of the job fair larger than

just the people who attended. Although TMP
Worldwide is still active in Second Life, it has
not run another job fair because its clients felt that
the media coverage would not be as extensive as
the exposure generated during the earlier events.
Role of the Champion

As with many businesses using virtual worlds, the
Fenimore Art Museum, based in Cooperstown,
NY, is in Second Life because of the efforts of
one person. In this case, the vice president and
chief curator of the museum was encouraged to
experiment with the virtual world by the museums
research librarians who heard about it at a conference in late 2007. Usually the champion comes into
Second Life voluntarily (Smith and Jainschigg,
2009). These champions spend some of their own
money and a lot of their own time to investigate.
Sometimes they set up company-related events
on their own initiative to bring other people into
Second Life. This helps them bring more people
in-world, because they can demonstrate both the
fun and business-related elements. Executives
hear about the events the individual set up, see
the press attention, and come in-world to check
it out for themselves, before getting the company
more formally involved.
Unlike the businesses involved in the other
case studies, the museum does not have its own
island in Second Life. The museum has exhibits
in several spots to provide content and events to
reach different audiences. This allowed the museum to be involved with several communities
in Second Life, including an exhibit by a deaf
artist in a site suggested by leaders of the deaf
community, and exhibits on historically themed
Sims. The museum has to be concerned about the
institutions image, and with the opinions of the
owners of the images in the real-world museum
about what kinds of content its images should be
exhibited near. It now has a permanent space on
an island owned by an established community
232
with content guidelines. The images from the

museum are displayed much like at the real-world
museum, with notecards with information about
the exhibit. The museum has security on the images, so that they cannot be copied. The images
are for sale, however.
One of the reasons to be in-world is to connect
the museum with new audiences. Programming attracts viewers and builds support for the museums
continued presence in Second Life, with events
such as exhibit opening receptions, gallery talks,
and lectures. The curator also visits other peoples
exhibits and art events to build connections and
support for his museums activities. The exhibits
supplement real-world activities of the museum,
as a low-cost way of gaining attention for the
works the museum has gathered. The museum only
pays rent for one of the four sites where images
are exhibited. The museum has established a rich
social media marketing strategy and its Second
Life activities are one part of that strategy.
Focus on Security: IBM and

Second Life Enterprise
IBM has held a variety of business-to-business
events to collaborate with developers (Borremans,
2007). IBM uses a variety of tools to bring its international workforce together, including phone and
videoconferencing tools with shared whiteboards
and facilities for recognizing who wants to speak
next to facilitate discussion. However, when IBM
wants more immersive interaction and for staff to
work on large builds together, the company also
uses many virtual worlds including Active Worlds,
Unity, and Metaverse, a rudimentary one built inhouse. The virtual worlds create stronger memories
of the events, because they evoke a sense of place
for the attendees. Some of the tools require little
hardware power, so more people can use them.
However, not one is as flexible or allows users
to be as creative as Second Life (Bishop, 2009).
IBM has more than 5,000 employees in Second
Life and has held a number of training exercises
(Greenfield, 2008a); and operated at least 35 IBM

islands in early 2010. The IBM Business Center
in Second Life lets visitors consult with IBM
concierges from around the world and contains
nine areas, including meeting spaces, exhibitions,
and a library (IBM, n.d.). IBM found that this
virtual world helped connect its global workforce
efficiently for meetings. An IBM consultant for
its virtual business unit, launched in September
2006, said, They are all shocked how real [interviewing avatars in-world] feels (Wetzler, 2007,
15). IBM issued dress codes guidelines for its
employees when they are avatars in Second Life.
The companys global director of 3D Internet and
virtual business said, they need to be mindful
of presenting professional images. That means
that they wouldnt want to show up at a business
meeting dressed as a fuzzy character (Kitchen,
2007, p. F04).
Since Second Life Enterprise Beta was introduced in November 2009, at least 14 companies
have been involved in testing this virtual world
platform, formerly known as Nebraska (Linden
Lab, 2009a), but IBM has been the largest test
user (Linden Lab, 2010). It gave IBM privacy,
security, and the ability to authenticate users
three things that the regular consumer version
of Second Life does not do well at all. Second
Life Enterprise Beta allows companies to run
Second Life on their own servers, behind their
firewalls for maximum security. Companies can
host a number of islands simultaneously, enough
to bring together 800 people simultaneously for
events (Linden Lab, 2009b). They can assign
whatever names they want, including connecting registration to company employee lists. They
can introduce their own currency if they choose.
Performance is enhanced and they do not have to
work around Linden Labs downtime schedules.
Existing behind the IBM firewall makes it easy
for everyone at the company to access the virtual
world. IBM employees can have team meetings
on a Second Life Enterprise island. The IBM
Technology Academy hosts the top 300 technical
experts in Second Life. Since many of the sessions were about virtual worlds, IBM decided to
have events in such a world. IBM wanted social
events and fun activities along with the business
sessions, which the company was able to create
in-world. The company saved money on travel
and lost productivity. Its only cost was for building items on its enterprise server (Bishop, 2009).
PRACTICAL CONSIDERATIONS
FOR VIRTUAL MEETINGS
As in planning a real-world meeting, the major
starting point is asking a few basic questions:

What is the objective of the meeting? Is it

informational or motivational?
Who needs to attend the meeting? Are they
external or internal audiences? Where are
they located? Who will be running the
meeting and serving as presenters? What is
the total number of attendees?
What are your set-up needsdisplays, audio-visual equipment, staging, seating, and
entertainment? How much interactivity
will be needed?
When does the meeting need to be held?
How long will the meeting be held?
How does the meeting need to be captured
or recorded?
What is the budget?
Having the answers to these core questions will

help those responsible for planning meetings and
events to address important considerations to hold
a collaborative meeting or event in a virtual world:

What are the technological skill sets of the

people conducting or attending the event?
Have they been in virtual worlds before,
even for pleasure? Have they participated
in videoconferences or webconferences?
233
Does the organization have a presence in

any virtual world, such as existing islands
in Second Life? Has the organization ever
conducted any activities in a virtual world?
How long will the set-up need to exist or
will it be used on an ongoing basis?
Is it a hybrid event, bringing elements of
a real-world event into the virtual world?
Selecting the Best Virtual

World Venue
Selecting the best metaverse is a major decision,
considering the evolving and growing number of
virtual worlds and immersive software vendors
entering the marketplace. Organizations can host
events or meetings in an existing virtual world,
adapt an existing 3D environment, or create their
own. The increasing sophistication of the virtual
platforms enables participants to communicate
real-time by voice or text, emulate body language, exchange business cards and documents,
track brainstorming with interactive whiteboards,
stream in video, conduct surveys or even visual
polling, and record sessions. Many virtual platforms have simulated a broad range of conference
facilities, such as boardrooms, theaters, lounges,
and exhibition halls, while others can replicate
real-world locations. Service providers can plan
and organize a virtual event from start to finish,
including training participants, simplifying avatar selections, designing the agenda, providing
in-world support in real time, and documenting
and evaluating the events to best suit the organizations needs.
Large companies use a variety of tools to
help their employees collaborate and innovate.
One alternative to Second Life that more than
100 companies, including Second Life users
Intel and Chevron, are using is Teleplace, which
launched in 2007 (Teleplace, 2007a). Users can
easily share documents inside the application and
see who is editing the documents, watch videos
together, and collaborate on projects. The result
234
is a data-centered space to focus on collaborative

work. Content can be imported to customize and
brand the space. Avatars or users can appear on the
screen in a video window with tools to see who is
talking to enhance the sense of being in a shared
space together. Events can be recorded to be shared
with others (Teleplace, 2010). Security in terms
of who visits the spaces created in Teleplace is
not an issue. The spaces created using Teleplace
are not open to the public and users have to be
invited to attend. All communication is encrypted.
Teleplace runs on computers behind company
firewalls. Organizations using Teleplace include
oil companies for training and collaborating
(see Figure 5), the U.S. Navy Undersea Warfare
Center for exploring whether virtual worlds can
be used in operation planning and sailor training
(Teleplace, 2010a), the Air Force for delivering
training (Teleplace, 2009b), and Chevron for
distributed training exercises (Teleplace, 2010a).
ThinkBalm provided a list of immersive software vendors (Driver, E. & Driver, S., 2009).
Current vendors include Altadyns 3DXplorer
(www.3dxplorer.com), Forterra Systems (www.
forterrainc.com), Immersive Workspaces (http://
immersivespaces.com), ProtonMedia (www.
protonmedia.com), INXPO (www.inxpo.com),
Teleplace (www.teleplace.com, formerly Qwaq),
Unisfair (www.unisfair.com), among others.
Linden Lab, creator of Second Life, provides
resources to businesses wanting to work, meet,
and collaborate in its virtual world. Second Life
Enterprise Beta provides additional security,
privacy, and control behind corporate firewalls
for a fee. IBM, Intel, Northrop Grumman, and the
New Media Consortium are a few examples of
organizations using Second Life Enterprise Beta
for events, meetings, and training simulations.
Linden Labs CEO Mark Kingdon explained in
an interview that with very minimal set-up, a
company can be holding or hosting virtual events
in Second Life with more than 250 Solution
Providers globally who are creating customized
work and learning experiences for enterprises,
Figure 5. Oil company employees in Teleplace collaborating and examining Gulf of Mexico storm data.
(@ 2010, Teleplace, Inc. Used with permission.)
government agencies, educational institutions,

and non-profits (Lamont, 2009, 4). More information about working in Second Life and a
directory of solution providers can be accessed
from its Web site.
Providing Training and

Resources for Participants
In-world training is essentialand the extent of
time to train would be dependant on the technological abilities of the participants. Many of our
interviewees mentioned that they set up training
sessions for meeting attendees and they conduct
one-on-one training with any interested executives, particularly those presenting at the meeting.
Attendees need to be comfortable navigating their
avatars in virtual worlds, mastering such basics
as walking, sitting, teleporting, and manipulating
body gestures, as well as understanding how to
communicate by voice or text, participate in activities, and share documents. Generational groups
may have varying learning curves: Gen X [1961
to 1976], the only generation to start out with
analog technology and see everything go digital;
and Gen Y [1977 to 1994], the first generation
to only know digital technology (Goldenberg,

2007, p. 12).
Establishing Guidelines
A panel of virtual world innovators conducted by
Human Resources magazine in the UK all agreed
that virtual worlds need just as much control as
real ones (Crush, 2008, 16), addressing the
value of setting up a structure for people to work
within virtual worlds, a venue that may offer more
freedom to people than they are willing to accept
or function in successfully without guidelines.
Smith and Jainschigg (2009) described a process
they go through with companies to set up access
and building controls, name controls, and avatar
appearance controls before moving to discussing
virtual presence and events.
The physical appearance of the participants avatars needs to be considered. An avatar is a virtual
extension of an individuals physical self. Would
staff take a conversation with a baby penguin or
bouncing eyeball seriously or be overwhelmed by
Beowulf or the grim reaper? Guidelines need to be
established about dress codes and how much the
avatars need to look like the real people in terms
235
of sex, ethnicity, and other physical characteristics.

Some service providers offer quick solutions to
creating avatars, with a menu to select from, or
can customize avatars with uploaded photos to
resemble real-world people.
As in the real world, the best meetings and
events follow a clear agenda with set timings, logical flows and breaks, orientation and registration,
pre-arranged presenters, easy-to-follow visual
materials, engaging activities with interactive
discussions, entertainment, food and beverage
(most virtual meetings offer virtual refreshments), giveaways, and feedback and assessment
mechanisms.
Addressing Privacy and Security

For public events, Second Life is currently the
largest in scale of residents to attract to a companysponsored event. Second Life is a freewheeling
virtual world, open to the public (Lohr, 2007, p.
C6) and losing some control is a reality, however.
Griefers (troublemakers) can be a nuisance, but can
be squelched easily. Second Life is self-policing
but the technology remains vulnerable (Cane,
2007, p. 3). This led to Second Life Enterprise
Beta for organizations seeking stronger privacy.
Other virtual worlds providing business meetings
and events also provide security measures. According to the vice president of business affairs
for Second Life: corporate gated communities in
virtual worlds...will be the equivalent of corporate
intranets on the Web (Lohr, 2008, p. C6).
Some companies have opted to create their
own virtual environments. For example, MTV
Networks, originally used Second Life, and
later created Virtual MTV with the assistance of
Makena Technologies as an online 3D experience
for consumers to connect with the brand and its
shows through events, games, and other activities.
236
Documenting and Promoting

Meetings and Events
Documenting meetings and events held in virtual worlds can be beneficial for gaining media
exposure, building relationships with employees
and stakeholders, positioning an organization as
innovative and embracing new technology, and
adding original content to corporate Web sites.
From a public relations standpoint, organizations
can promote meetings and events held in virtual
worlds by disseminating news releases to generate publicity in traditional media outlets, e-zines,
and blogs, particularly outlets that contain editorial sections on technology. Second Life has its
own in-world blogs, newspapers, magazines, and
television and radio programs that cover news
and activities held in this specific virtual world.
One of the largest Second Life publications, The
Metaverse Messenger (http://metaversemessenger.com), is a virtual newspaper published
weekly in a PDF format. Treet TV (http://treet.
tv/), an entertainment network covering in-world
events, broadcasts live in Second Life and streams
content onto the Web.
The documented results of a meeting or event
can be shared with employees and other stakeholders via an electronic or print newsletter or
with another type of electronic communiqu with
a link to the online content. News releases can
be posted on a companys Web site, along with
screenshots and edited videos of virtual events and
meetings. A case study or white paper also can be
uploaded on the Web sites of the company and
the service provider of the virtual world. Linden
Lab, Teleplace, ProtonMedia, and other virtual
service providers post in-depth case studies online
about successful applications of organizations,
from corporations to governments, utilizing 3D
capabilities for collaboration.
UTILIZING UNIQUE
COLLABORATIVE OPPORTUNITIES
A 3D virtual world can replicate the real world,
simulate dangerous crises, or create worlds of
fantasy and imagination that would be too challenging or expensive to conduct or stage in the
real world. Companies can have their real-world
offices, showrooms, training centers, or other
facilities re-created into a virtual world that can
be utilized by their employees, clients, customers, and other invited audiences. In todays global
economy, businesses benefit by having backup
locations, such as virtual replications, to maintain
operations and continue meetings when a blizzard
or a volcano erupts and disrupts travel plans or a
man-made crisis occurs that affects the transportation of people and cargo.
The elements of surprise and fun can be fully
realized in virtual worlds for creativity and unique
interactions. Organizations can conduct virtual
meetings where participants could enjoy social
activities to climb a mountain, scuba dive in vibrant
coral reefs, bungee jump off a majestic waterfall,
ski a challenging slalom course, and then talk
about their experiences at an exotic beachside
resort--all during the same day without leaving
their offices or homes.
In addition, virtual worlds can open up new
ways to interact with colleagues. Using virtual
worlds lets people participate who would be unable
to travel to a regular real-world meeting. IBM has
a worldwide workforce with dispersed teams who
meet virtually. That company has used Second Life
for many collaborative events, including a virtual
cultural festival for their employees with sessions
to accommodate participation from employees in
different time zones (Bishop, 2009). The consulting firm, ThinkBalm, has held events in a variety
of virtual worlds to introduce businesses to the
potentials of these worlds (Driver, 2009). The
New Media Consortium has hosted a variety of
events in Second Life to introduce educators to
the possibilities of virtual worlds.
Virtual worlds also can be used for mixedreality events where people can be involved in
the real world and in virtual worlds. Attendees
in the virtual world can see and hear the real-life
speakers and see the crowds. They can participate in conversations by having someone at the
conference monitor the chat channel or by having
screens at the real-world venue showing Second
Life. The U.S. Air Force set up MyBase in Second Life, a virtual air force base where visitors
can learn about the history of the Air Force and
fly an airplane. The idea is to reach people who
would have few opportunities to collaborate with
members of the military and where service personnel can meet and undertake training (Knuteson,
2008). The Air Force made the decision in 2010
to give every member of the Air Force an account
in Second Life. Using the virtual world is a way to
encourage training and professional networking.
The U.S. Navy has re-created many warships that
people can tour in Second Life (Wright, 2010).
Using virtual worlds lets tech-savvy young people
experience the military and, concurrently, serves as
a tool to increase recruitment (Thompson, 2010).
Second Life is ultimately a social networking tool
that takes online interaction and collaboration to
unprecedented levels, breaks down hierarchies,
and eliminates geographic boundaries (Gronstedt, 2007, p. 46).
CONCLUSION
With corporate budgets being slashed and travel
costs rising in an increasingly global workforce,
along with the hassles involved in air travel, virtual
meetings and events offer cost-effective solutions
with significant savings in airfare, rental cars or
mileage reimbursements, hotel accommodations,
and food and beverage expenses. Another benefit
includes less stress from the wear and tear of
travel on the staffs professional and personal
lives. Reducing carbon dioxide emissions has a
237
positive impact on the environment. Recording a

virtual event is also much cheaper.
For example, Stratus Technologies re-evaluated its real-world conferences in Las Vegas and
hired Unisfair to create a virtual multilingual
event. It resulted in attracting more than half of
the attendees from international markets, drawing
prospective customers who would not attend the
real-world conferences, costing about $100,000,
a tremendous savings compared to the $1 millionplus price tag for the live events (Bassett, 2009,
13).
Virtual worlds offer unique employee and
customer interaction with the organization, its
brand and products or services in a world that
replicates the real-world company or other locations, simulations of dangerous environments or
fantasy experiences. Having backup operations in
a virtual world also makes good business sense,
because when a natural or man-made disruption
occurs anywhere in the world, the machinery of
global capitalism slows down (Gross, 2010, p.
46) and replicated environments can help keep a
company functioning.
The benefits outweigh the potential challenges,
such as acceptance of technology, learning curve
of staff, adequate training of staff and time allocations, bandwidth of computer equipment, security
and privacy, buy-in from management, and cost of
outsourcing expertise. Innovations will continue
that will most likely create more photorealistic,
lifelike virtual environments with simpler navigational tools and seamless, high-quality audio and
visual capabilities for avatars to communicate. In
addition, mixed-reality events, such as conference
sessions held in both the real and virtual worlds,
can increase participation and enable people in
both worlds to interact. Virtual worlds can be more
cost effective than most videoconferencing and
webconferencing products, offering a greater sense
of presence. Virtual worlds provide an innovative
tool for richer and more nuanced communication
and collaboration among workers, industry partners and customers (Lohr, 2008, p. 6).
238
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jobs/experience.aspx
Worldwide, T. M. P. (2007c). TMP hosts another
work in world job fair on Second Life, August 2123. Retrieved January 15, 2010, from http://www.
ADDITIONAL READING
Carter, L. (2007). Event planning. Bloomington,
IN: AuthorHouse.
Driver, E., & Driver, S. (2009, May 26). ThinkBalm immersive internet business value study,
Q2 2009. Immersive internet analyst report series,
issue #2. ThinkBalm. Retrieved January 29, 2010,
from http://www.thinkbalm.com/2009/05/26/
thinkbalm-publishes-business-value-study/.
Linden Lab. (2009). Solution provider directory.
Retrieved January 30, 2010, from http://solutionproviders.secondlife.com/.
Linden Lab. (2010). Working inworld. Retrieved
March 3, 2010, from https://blogs.secondlife.com/
community/workinginworld.
Rufer-Bach, K. (2009). The Second Life grid: The
official guide to communication, collaboration,
and community engagement. Indianapolis, IN:
Wiley Publishing, Inc.
Rymaszewski, M., Au, W. J., Ondrejka, C., Platel,
R., Van Gorden, S., & Czanne, J. (2008). Second
Life: The official guide. Indianapolis, IN: Wiley
Publishing, Inc.
243
Streibel, B. J. (2003). The managers guide to

effective meetings. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

Avatar: Graphic representation of a realperson in a virtual world; digital persona.
Beta: A version of software that is still being
tested and examined for errors.
Firewall: A technological barrier created to
block unauthorized access of sections of a computer network.
Griefers: Avatars in virtual worlds who act
as troublemakers, such as making insulting comments or interrupting events.
244
In-World: Being logged into Second Life or

another virtual world.
Island: Geography in Second Life. Companies
can buy islands or rent space on them. In reality,
each island is one server at Linden Lab running
the Second Life software.
Lindens: Official currency used in Second
Life, named after Linden Lab, the creator of
Second Life, which can be exchanged for U.S.
dollars through the Lindex currency exchange
at a rate that changes periodically or a collective
term for the employees of Linden Lab.
Notecard: A text document in a virtual world.
Service Providers: Companies that specialize
in providing virtual world support. Also called
solution providers.
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Chapter 15
Collaborative Virtual
Business Events:
Opportunities and Challenges

Roma Chauhan
Institute for Integrated Learning in Management, India
Ritu Chauhan
Jamia Hamdard, India
ABSTRACT
Virtual worlds immersive collaborative environment has brought immense potential for innovation and
transformation within business processes. While online business transactions have been well in place and
largely stabilized now, collaborative business events using the virtual world are an emerging and less
explored area. This chapter delves into the offerings of rich interactive virtual exhibition and conference
space to enable business events. In addition to saving time and cost, such offerings also enable knowledge on demand, so crucial for the end users. While virtual conference technologies can be carried out
using audio or video and have been relatively high on usage, virtual exhibitions exercise the use of 3-D
virtual worlds. Ideally, any effective business event needs to have an integration of virtual conferences
and virtual exhibitions. The chapter brings out the services and usage trends available in this virtual
space. Related challenges for the end users, organizers, and developers are discussed.
INTRODUCTION
The beginning of 21st century has shown remarkable increase in the number of users operating
in virtual reality. The cyber space has made this
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-60960-581-0.ch015
world a small place to live in, it has narrowed the

dispersed geographic locations. Virtual world is a
synthetic environment offering unlimited scope
of expansion to business organizations and learning institutes. The virtual reality can be used in
multiple ways to enhance business goals such like
training, events, trade shows, and conferences. In
Collaborative Virtual Business Events
this chapter, primary focus will be on conduct of

virtual conferences and exhibitions to meet the
business goals.
Manetta & Blade (1995) define Virtual Reality
as A computer system used to create an artificial
world in which the user has the impression of being in that world and with the ability to navigate
through the world and manipulate objects in the
world (pp. 35-39). With the evolution of World
Wide Web and internet technologies the collaboration process over the web has improved. This has
enabled rise in virtualization of business organizations with unimaginable scale and scope. It has
transformed the way the firms in this contemporary
era compete with each other. The collaborative
enterprise driven by virtual economy will create
millions of potential users in next few years.
There has been lot of buzz about virtual events
but is it a hope or hype for business organizations
is the question that needs to be answered. The
virtual worlds are used in multiple ways such as
by individuals for gaming and entertainment. But
the chapter focuses on professional use of virtual
world by business organizations to facilitate their
business functions. Gilbert (2008) states that Numerous activities and forces are at work to help
validate virtual worlds value proposition and to
overcome the many barriers to mass participation.
Virtual reality is used by a number of organizations for key business processes like sales and
promotion, building up external relations, training
and recruitment. The virtual reality penetration in
businesses is already in action and is supposed to
take a giant leap in the coming years. According to
Strategy Analytics (2008), The forecast of virtual
world adoption globally by broadband users shows
that over the next ten years, there will be rise in
about 22 percent of users who will get registered
for one or more virtual worlds resulting in market
approaching one billion registrants and an eight
billion dollar services opportunity.
The dynamic digital advertising in virtual world
can enhance the business prospects. The virtual
world offers tremendous expression of excitement
246
to the visitors. The major companies have started

experimenting to see how it can be used to achieve
their desired business goals. It acts as a low cost
option for companies to hold meetings and conduct
training sessions. The existence of virtual world
over web is in two forms: public and private. The
public virtual space is available to all and anyone
can enter and do anything they feel like. On the
contrary private virtual world offers more secure
environment for business organizations which is
within the firewall of their organization. Also, the
private virtual world can be customized to meet
the business requirement.
This chapter elaborates on how collaboration
in business world is influenced by virtual world
and related technologies. This chapter also explains how companies in this new century use
virtual world to shape their business. The chapter
is organized as follows: the next section explains
the background motivation. Further information
about the companies into this business is covered
explaining the reason why a company these days
needs to make a shift towards virtualization. Virtual
conference and exhibition concepts are explained,
in the next section. The chapter also elaborates on
the examples and vendors in virtual exhibitions
space. A brief real world case is described for
better understanding of the extent of virtualization. This case explores collaboration between
an Indian company and a US based company to
deliver Virtual Experience Platform (VEP). The
challenges encountered by the end users, developers and organizers are also discussed.
BACKGROUND
With the advent of technology, there is huge
transformation in how business is conducted over
the web. There is steep migration from traditional
business of conference and exhibition to online
SaaS (Software as a Service) model based conference and exhibition space.
The world of virtual reality is cyber space where

physical entities and imagination are recreated
and redefined using technology for monetization.
Its a journey in cyberspace where people get an
opportunity to extend their living, business and
work as per their imagination. As a known fact,
many conferences that happen across the globe
are accompanied with exhibitions. While online
conference business is penetrating widely into
the market, it is quite unlikely that the exhibition
domain lags behind. The modes of a virtual show
appear to be endless ranging from chat to online
webcast and monetizing it is a sheer challenge.
Daily Times, India (2010) still sees virtual market
an evangelical market, though the recession has
helped businesses see their value. Shiels (2010),
a BBC news reporter reported Sharat Sharan,
founder ON24 as saying, Think about all those
savings from hotel rooms to airfares for attendees
to meals and conference space. One of our biggest technology clients had a sales meeting earlier
this year where they generally spend 5 million
dollars. They spent a tenth of that by holding a
virtual conference.
The end users of virtual exhibitions can be
broadly classified into three levels based on their
information needs: casual visitors, intentional visitors and specialists (Paterno, Fabio & Bucca, 1997;
DiSilvestro, Alessandra, Garzotto, & Paolini,
1999; Callery, Bernadette & Thibadeau, 2000;
Schaller, David & Bunnell, 2002). In order to accommodate the diversity of users, functionality of
supporting customized information and adaptive
presentations are expected in this system (Paterno,
Fabio & Mancini, 1999). An early definition of
virtual exhibition (VE) describes it as an online
Web-based hyper-textual dynamic collections
devoted to a specific theme, topic, concept or idea
(Silver, 1997). A virtual exhibition is viewed as a
dynamic platform which often undergoes change
in terms of design, activity and content, including
encouraging users to contribute towards it, thereby
adding to its dynamism (Foo, 2008).
Douglas & John (2009) say that The virtual

worlds we want to focus on operate in much the
same way as other digital environments with one
important difference. While the architecture of
these worlds is distributed across the Internet,
the activities within these virtual worlds create
a sense of shared space and co-presence which
make real-time coordination and interaction not
only possible, but a necessary part of the world
(pp. 37-49). There have been studies over 2009
recession which seems to be a probable reason for
immense increase in the demand of such products.
It seems to be a promising way for businesses to
save cost. The global economic meltdown has
made marketers and customers to look out for
smarter time and budget saving alternatives. 6Connex (2009) point of view on recession and business scenario is something like As a result, both
marketers and customers have further embraced
online technology as a key tool for efficiently
gathering information, communicating, making
purchases, and essentially doing more with less.
Events are a major revenue stream and, it is one
of the major tools for knowledge sharing across
the globe. The basic thought is that events happen
and they die out. Due to many hurdles such as geographical hindrances, time constraints, monetary
aspects and many such barriers, one fails to attend
a particular seminar. And the worst is that one can
never have the charm of attending the same again.
The reason behind leading companies acquiring
virtual space is also due to the following factors:

Time and budget constraints are a growing

concern for companies of all sizes, greatly
reducing the feasibility of attending traditional tradeshows. In contrast, virtual
events promise greater access to more information at nearly no cost to the visitor.
Simple, one-click access to industry-leading speakers and technologies
The freedom to view the information you
want on your own schedule
247
Figure 1. Event Digitization & Delivery Process [Source: Authors]
Downloadable information you can save

and review at your convenience
No travel expenses or lost productivity
The following sections explore the challenges

encountered in online space after closely visiting
a companys real time requirement to deliver
the services. A study of the companies websites
offering virtual exhibition space was conducted
in order to closely understand the market and
technology scenario.
VIRTUAL CONFERENCES
& EXHIBITIONS
Let us try and understand a virtual conference and
a virtual exhibition which are very closely linked.
The real world conference invites people from all
around the globe to be present on the event premises in order to attend the event. The limitation that
real world conference indicates is that the person
needs to travel all over to attend the conference.
While a virtual conference offers better interface
to users saving their traveling time and expenses,
the event on the web can be accessible free or
on payment. Usually in business of paid virtual
conferences, organizations integrate the concept
of SaaS. It allows users to attain the conference
in the form of an online service. Where the users
subscribe to a license fee payment quarterly or
pay per click type packages to access the data.
Cohen (2008) says In the new model of Virtual
Worlds, the recent SaaS model means firms can
obtain computing and data storage resources on
demand. A firm will not have to spend money on
248
software, computers, or data-storage facilities

because it will access them using the new 3D
Internet of Virtual Worlds.
A virtual conference is available in two ways:
1) Live and 2) On-Demand. The live conference
is available on web within lag of fraction of seconds, which gives the feel of real time event. In
comparison with live event, on-demand conference is delivered on the requirement of the user,
which is definitely not live. The technology used
for broadcast of video is very to that of video
streaming. In case of live and on-demand event,
the video buffering happens and the videos are
downloaded from streaming servers. After the
complete event processing, the processed event
is finally broadcasted live or on-demand according to the requirement of the event organizer. In
case of live event, the technical team needs to be
present at event venue to perform the processing
tasks on the spot in real time. Figure 1 describes
the process of creation of virtual conference from
initial capture state to final delivery to the user.
The technology of video streaming is also used
by virtual exhibition booths to broadcast live
video when the exhibition happens. Contrary to
conferences, a virtual exhibition is a showcase to
present products which are otherwise showcased
in real exhibitions. The issues related to video
streaming are covered later in the chapter. As you
walk into real exhibition, there are booths, specifically used for product marketing. Virtual
worlds offer improved experience by providing
3-D interactive booths. These virtual booths provide chat facility and video streaming to the
visitors. The streaming video process is similar
for virtual conference and exhibition space.
The combination of virtual conference and

exhibition seems to have huge potential. The audience can attend the conference and exhibition
without even leaving their home or office. The
interactive immersive feature set offers excellent
collaboration among visitors. They can post questions live and get answered. The virtual meetings
held during conferences and exhibitions are used
as employees time savers. Jamcracker (2008)
reports following relevant facts and figures:

According to Gartner, the SaaS opportunity globally is estimated to be around $19.1

billion by 2011.
McKinsey reports that the proportion of
CIOs considering adoption SaaS applications in the coming year has gone from
38% a year to 61%.
By 2010, at least 65 percent of all businesses will have deployed at least one SaaS
application.
According to Springboard Research, the
Market for SaaS in India is expected to
touch US$ 165 Million by 2010 (over Rs
700 Crores).
The virtual conference and event market is going to take huge leap of around
$18.6 Billion over the period 2010-2015.
Additionally, the virtual trade show market nearly doubled from 2008 to 2009 by
Virtual Conference & Trade Show Market
Forecast 2010-2015 report by Market
Research Media.
According to Market Research Media (2010),

By year 2010 virtual event acceptance will come
to the level of maturity. By year 2015 appears to
be promising year for corporations, conference
organizers for wide technology acceptance. The
virtual trade show and conference market will
observe rapid boost in number of paying visitors.
Real-Time Usage Pattern

There are multiple vendors offering virtual conference services; a few to name are Virtualsoft
Systems Limited (VSL), Sonic Foundry, ON24
and Cisco. In business of virtual exhibitions, pioneers are such like ON24, Unisfair and 6Connex
(Johnson, 2010). According to Market Research
Media (2009) the maximum hits that happened
for virtual shows were for On24 virtual events
with unique monthly visitors of 294,790. Following ON24 was Inxpo with 44,532 visitors,
Unisfair with 38,615 visitors and 6Connex for
2,462 visitors.
Figure 2 exhibits the daily traffic ranking statistics for three leading virtual event organizers
- on24.com, webex.com and unisfair.com. On the
whole, traffic rank of On24 and Webex in United
States is 1,854 and 716 respectively. Traffic rank
of Unisfair is at 2,059 in Cyprus. Webex taken by
Cisco seems to be most popular world wide in
terms of number of visitors on site.
Comparing the traffic statistics of VSL with
6Connex,(Alexa Traffic stastics, 2010) it seems
to fall in huge proportions. The traffic rank for
VSL during May-July, 2010 is 9,718,009 and the
percentage change is falling. The number of
minutes the visitors spent on VSL during this
period is 0.41667 minutes, which is very less in
comparison to that for 6Connex (3.26000 minutes),
according to Alexa traffic statistics as recorded
on July 20, 2010. Following section delves
deeper into the case of partnership between VSL
and 6Connex to offer integrated services for holding virtual business events. The case description
is based on the study of related websites and news
items.
249
Figure 2. Website visitors trend [Data Source: Alexa Traffic stastics, 2010]
VIRTUAL BUSINESS
EVENTS: A CASE STUDY
The Context
As a part of its international expansion plans,
6Connex entered into a partnership1 with VSL,
where VSL was supposed to deliver virtual conference part and 6Connex the virtual exhibition part.
6Connex, a wholly owned subsidiary of Design
Reactor, is a pioneer in virtual experience technology. Its Virtual Experience Platform2 (VEP)
enables businesses and individuals to connect
and engage virtually anytime and anywhere using a 3D environment-like architecture for B2B
or B2C social networking for a tradeshow. It is a
new channel to build up sales, customer relationship and media distribution. The organizations are
exploring this as a medium for corporate sales and
services. The VEP booth catalog offers the current
library of 20 booth designs with great look-n-feel.
Booths range from 1 to 6 nodes in size and to
twenty different colors and styles. It allows for a
total of 400 booth variations to choose from. Many
of the Fortune 500 companies3 such as Cisco, HP,
Microsoft, Procter & Gamble, and Dupont are its
listed customers.
250
VSL4 provides the content packaged as a

product in India and internationally. It has been
into content capture, process and delivery of rich
digital components (video, voice, text and graphics) to deliver synchronized, indexed, searchable
and immersive environment in a multi window
or multimodal format for conferences. The companys business profile also includes online conference, e-learning and e-training. The company
also offers conference content offline and online
in form of Knowledge on Demand (KOD). The
online conference content delivery over internet
network helped the company to drive into this
new space.
As in Figure 3, Alexa traffic statistics for daily
time spent on sites veplatform.com and ciscolive.
com in three months time shows that the number of
visitors are spending more number of minutes on
ciscolive website. In virtual business events market
space, Ciscolive and Webex Ex are already there;
however it is worth noting that while Ciscolive
is a hybrid event, webex is a conferencing tool
without a support for 3-D exhibitions. Though,
6Connex is not a leader in the overall business
events space but the technology and extent of
effective virtual reality possible through its kind
of solutions has far reaching potential.
Figure 3. Time Spent (in minutes) [Source: www.Alexa.com]
VIRTUAL TRADESHOW LAUNCH

Virtual trade shows are tailored to deliver rich
content to the audience. The visitors enter the
exhibition hall along with online badge allotted
to them. A show has components of web conference, seminar and meetings. It provides interactive
interface to users where they can simultaneously
communicate live with others. In general, the
tracking mechanism is provided to the booth
owner to determine traffic flow to a booth. This
methodology is favorable for the companies as
they dont have to organize road shows to connect
with the audience; just access to virtual booth
provides them with all the product information.
Powered by VEP, the Biztech2.0 enterprise
technology show is an example of everlasting
Virtual Experience leveraging the latest, cutting edge 3D virtual technologies, videos and
Web2.0. The show allows visitors to choose and
attend conference session, visit booths, download
exhibitor brochures and network with each other.
The collaborative feature of chat allows online
visitors to exchange ideas (Biztech2.0, 2010).
Commenting on the initiative Surya Mantha, CEO,
Web18, mentions, The Internet today has evolved
to such an extent that we can actually leverage a
platform of this sort (IBN Live, 2010). The vir-
tual experience provides a highly comprehensive

interaction environment where experts can come
and be part of virtual social gathering and spend a
good amount of time exploring their environment,
interact with other industry experts.
Biztech trade show platform aims at bringing
the IT buyers closer to the vendors, where the
buyers can have a higher level of anonymity but
at the same time access to a greater amount of
information, without getting involved in travel of
any kind. Ivor Soans, Managing Editor, Biztech2
comments, This Virtual Experience Platform will
redefine and revolutonise how Indian IT Leaders
make use of conferences and trade expos and is the
future of IT Leader networking and knowledgeenhancement for more informed, smarter IT buying decisions (Money Control, 2009).
Features and Benefits

The virtual shows in virtual market place are
launched with interesting interactive features to
excite and invite the visitors. A few of the Virtual
Experience Platforms noteworthy features (Design Reactor, 2008) are as follows.

Beautifully rendered 3D hall and booth

environments
251
Customization of promotions, booth branding and content

Ability to post a wide range of content,
from video and audio, to downloads and
live links
Content recommendations for visitors
based on personal preference
Keyword search ability for all content, including video and audio
Other Features that can be described for virtual

exhibitions are such as:

252
Interactive landing page for pre-registration and registration.

E-Mail campaign organization for event
organizers and booth owners
Interactive halls
Ad-Banners in halls for advertisement
Schedule chat sessions text or video. The
chat session can be multiple where a single
user can talk with multiple visitors at one
time. User booth representatives have list
of visitors to their booth to initiate conversation with them. The chat behavior can
also be recorded and monitored like number of chat invitations sent and accepted.
Virtual event bag that contains downloadable content that can be used as a reference
later by the visitor
Tracking and reporting system for metrics
and analytics of event. The data for each
registered user is captured to analyse user
tracking such as for how long was the visitor online, which booth was much crowded. Total number of attendees, registered
users, number of video views, downloads
in a event can be calculated.
Live video feeds through streaming.
The digital content of audio and video is
monetizable.
Semantic keyword based search
VIRTUAL BUSINESS
EVENTS: CHALLENGES
As listed in the previous section, virtual business
event technologies undoubtedly bring along a
new and innovative way for organizations to
collaborate with stake holders. They also bring
in value addition for business customers and
individuals. However, just as any new technologies, virtual business event technologies also need
time and experimentation to become more stable,
acceptable and workable. While there are distinct
benefits, there is skepticism also around their use;
thus they are no better, no worse (Yu, 2010). E.g.
while virtual events are cheap, easier to plan and
possible to review; the networking opportunities
are seen as limited in comparison with face to face
events and serendipitous run-ins with customers
as well as touch and feel of products seem to be
missing.
Based on our field observations and studies,
we classify the following three categories of challenges associated with virtual business events.
End Users Challenges

Downstream Bandwidth
Trade shows since decades have been a popular
medium to communicate the business messages. But when running an online 3D virtual
trade show requires sufficient bandwidth to run
live or on-demand video feeds, webinar and lot
more. Chocking bandwidth, no speed, Im out of
bandwidth demo cant be seen are few problems
encountered by the audience. The primary requirement to smoothly run the show requires high speed
internet access. The higher the bandwidth requirement, in proportion their will be increase in cost
of downstream bandwidth. A crucial parameter
in network streaming is, of course, bandwidth.
That is the amount of traffic generated by a stream,
which strictly depends from our connectivity. It is
directly proportional to the quality and resolution
of images, therefore the general rule is: the more

quality you need, the more bandwidth you need
(Jaromil, 2003).
The Missing Connectivity

The virtual shows may be possibly popular
through out the different business verticals but
the question is: are they a replacement of real
physical business? The virtual show connects
business but they fail to connect the business
emotionally. Jeff Molander, CEO of The Partner
Marker LLC, a Chicago based software provider
said that There is no face to face interaction or
ability to see someones emotional reactions and
its distracting to stay at home or at the office and
try to commit the time required of a virtual trade
show (Sandra, 2006).
Event Organizers Challenges

Leads Generation
To influence the customer and make an impression
into his mind needs a company to be present in all
the forms of the media. So, trade show looks like
an obvious place to go for. But, the major challenge
is to invite people to see and then finally buy the
product. The lead generation can be explained
as the number of individuals who conducted a
badge swipe at a booth in the event. The cost of
monetization of product needs to be anticipated.
While some companies have eliminated physical events to reduce costs and carbon footprint,
and to take advantage of the reduced costs of lead
generation, there is no suggestion that going virtual will, or even should, entirely replace people
meeting face-to-face in the real world (Virtual
expo, 2010).
Digital Content Monetization

The freedom to use digital content online is
supposed to disappear with the adoption of
DRM Systems. The online events provide rich

knowledge-on-demand to attract huge number of
online audience. In the context of online events
of conference and exhibitions, the digital content
such as video, audio and PPTs are presented. It
becomes very essential for organizers to protect
their valuable monetizable content against free
duplication. The online visitor is provided with
legitimate privileges under valid copyright law.
The digital content cannot be downloaded on
system, it can only be played once or any number
of times as per the payment to the content author
or event organizer.
The online visitor can access digital content
on-demand on basis of models like pay per view or
monthly subscription to access content. The user
feels restricted in using the digital content as their
restriction on making back up copies, transfer of
file to CD, recording streaming content and exchanging. The content is subjected to geographic
restrictions. For the author and organizer DRM
seems to be a golden way but for users it can be
tedious. The user needs to download and install
certain software before use. From user perspective
he pays a big amount to watch video in limited
period of time say once in 24 hours. The service
provider does not give right to produce back up
copy. Handling the file compatibility on other
portable devices is cumbersome. However, if
badly applied, heavy handed and overly restrictive,
DRM is more like a traffic jam denying people
access to the content they want and crucially
denying rights-holders the revenue they want
(Leeming, 2007). Security issues for consumers
may for instance arise when DRM systems are
in conflict with other software installed on a PC.
Since most DRM systems need an Internet connection, e.g. for registration, they are relatively open
for external attacks, but can be hardly controlled
by consumers in this respect (Helberger, Dufft,
Gompel, Kernyi, Krings, Lambers, Orwat and
Riehm 2004).
253
Developers Challenges
Real Time SaaS Integration
To leverage SaaS integration, the team needs to
be skilled enough. To implement models like
pay per use, on-demand subscription model or
license model needs to be provided on customer
requirement. For the re-shuffled project team
it got basically time consuming and difficult to
implement and deliver the project on time.
Upstream Bandwidth
The delivery of live event requires sufficient bandwidth supply for uploading the content to streaming servers. The lower the upstream bandwidth
more will be the required time to upload heavy
multimedia content. Motorola (2008) in one of
their white papers quoted that Upstream bandwidth (faster upload speed) will become a more
important differentiator for different service tiers.
The above mentioned issues can make project
think tanks to revisit the project once more. They
team before hosting a virtual event needs to sit
together for brainstorming meeting to discuss on
how to avoid issues encountered mentioned to
provide satisfactory experience to visitors. The
companies already in virtual conference business
and wanted to penetrate in the virtual trade show
market needs to closely plan the collaterals as the
challenges in virtual conference and exhibition are
almost similar. No doubt the virtual conference
and exhibition space are different but the issues on
their use are same. To reach wider audience does
the project on initial stages require cutting down
the cost of content monetization is the probable
raised question in the mind of the event organizers?
(Clarke, 2007) states that People attend
events for three reasons: 1) gather information/
gain knowledge; 2) network with others; and 3)
for the location. For those who cannot afford the
time or expense to attend a physical event in an
exotic locale, a virtual event can deliver on these
254
first two objectives as well as or better than physical events (p.3). Despite of the mentioned fact
there are series of challenges those needs to be
revisited by companies while implementing virtual
events in future such as: Will the virtual exhibition
platform be able to challenge a real exhibition,
How to market and draw enough audience to the
virtual booths, How can the calculation on Return
on Digital Investment (RODI) be done?, Which
types of online video are more likely to engage
consumers and hold viewers attention.
DISCUSSIONS AND CONCLUSION

It is not uncommon for emerging technologies
to have associated challenges. However, if the
challenges are mismanaged or ignored, technology adoption can be a risky affair. According to
Gartner hype cycle of emerging technologies,
public virtual worlds, Web 2.0, online videos, and
social network analysis belong to the segment
of Trough of Disillusionment (see Figure 4).
The cycle indicates that the technologies which
enter this segment will more likely fail in meeting
user expectations and will in short time become
unfashionable in next two to five years of time.
These technologies have high expectations but
they are hyped.
Organizations may use Gartner hype cycle as
an aide for making investment decisions in emerging technologies. This cycle characterizes the
typical progression of an emerging technology,
from over enthusiasm through a period of disillusionment to an eventual understanding of the
technologys relevance and role in a market or
domain (Fenn, Raskino & Gammage, 2009).
Though business event technologies fall in
the trough of disillusionment, with proper vision,
strategies and implementation, organizations
can turn technologies to their benefit. Given the
benefits and increasing adoption, as presented in
the earlier sections of this chapter, virtual business events are not worth ignoring. Reuter (2009)
Figure 4. Virtual Technologies in the Trough of Disillusionment [Adapted from Gartner Hype Cycle
(Carpenter, 2009)]
reports that 70% of the respondents are actively

producing, considering or interested in pursuing
virtual events. Their study shows that while most
of the planners are not looking at replacing their
physical events with virtual ones; they visualize
the benefits of virtual events as a parallel channel
to address new markets. As an example, Cisco
runs its physical conference along with virtual
event called Cisco Live, which has won Grand
Ex Awards 2010 (Event Marketer, 2010).
The hybrid model of technology adoption is an
acceptable model as has been well proven by the
prevalent approach to e-commerce implementation. It needs innovation and out of the box thinking to retrieve business value out of the available
technology offerings.
The current chapter is based on qualitative
analysis of websites in this market and thus has its
inherent problems. However, we believe that, with
the help of market trends and offerings this chapter provides directions to business organizations
for improved collaboration and business growth.

Research about virtual business events is an
emerging area. Though the technologies related
to virtual reality have been in place for quite some
time, the knowledge and experience about their
business use is quite limited. Further research
work is suggested to conduct empirical analysis
of users and service providers in the arena of
virtual business events. More in-depth analysis
of challenges as well as business benefits of
virtual business events is required to support the
investors and event organizers in the making of
informed decisions.
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Digital Rights Management: Digital Rights
Management (DRM) System enables rules to
safeguard original work (copyrighted) in digital
environment. It protects the digital content unauthorized use such like copying from copyrighted
offline digital media (CD/ DVD). Online it can
be used to provide security in case of on-demand,
pay per view services.
Event Processing: The term is denoted to processing of a real time event to deliver it digitally.
Example a conference happening in particular of
country is available live or on-demand on internet
globally using encoding, compression, streaming
and broadcasting.
Example: Events in virtual world like virtual
conference, exhibition, learning, training and
meeting.
Knowledge on Demand: The concept explains
providing digital content in form of video, audio
etc as on requirement by the registered user.
Software as a Service (SaaS): The computing concept allows software to be sold in form
of online service to user. It operates on shared
infrastructure and the cost of use is estimated on
basis of usage.
Video Streaming: It is transfer of digital
content over internet in compressed form applied
in case of videos. The user does not have to wait
for complete file to be downloaded from server
but it employs special servers known as stream-
259
ing servers. The servers let users to view video

with little buffering and view option. Example:
As in case of YouTube video is downloaded and
viewed through video streaming.
Virtual Conference: The real time conference recreated using synthetic environment
implemented using SaaS technology to facilitate
immersive collaborative interaction in cyberspace.
The objective is to participate remotely as delegate
or speaker in session tracks.
Virtual Event: The online web based event
which is as immersive as real time event. The virtual event includes virtual conference, exhibition,
training and learning. It gives an opportunity for
users to connect, collaborate and communicate
efficiently.
Virtual Exhibition: The artificial 3-D immersive booth space as a digital version of an
event for promoting a product or a service online.
A virtual exhibition has realistic looking booth
space for product and service demonstration.
The registered users can login to browse and buy
showcased stuff as desire.
260
Upstream Bandwidth: The maximum rate

at which the number of programs or files can be
uploaded on internet server in bits per second.
In contrary to downstream bandwidth which
is number of bits downloaded per second from
internet server.
ENDNOTES
1
http://www.6connex.com/partners_directory.php, last accessed Aug 12, 2010.

http://www.veplatform.com/, Last accessed
Aug 14, 2010.
http://6connex.com/customers.php, Last
accessed Aug 14, 2010.
http://www.virtsoft.com/, last accesses Aug
12, 2010.
261
Chapter 16
Augment Your Business Reality

with New Age Web Tools
Lukas Ritzel
IMI University Centre, Switzerland
ABSTRACT
When Berners Lee invented the Internet, he for sure could not have imagined the beast he unleashed.
Today, some years later, the Internet is the single most important tool of communication, leisure, and
information gathering. With Web 2.0 and social networks becoming more and more mainstream, we
must ask the question about what more is about to come. If ever we will look back and define the current
moments in 2010 as Web 3.0, it will for sure be the talk of touch screens, 3D technologies, and most of
all, the rise of Augmented Reality (AR). This more sensory Internet leads to an entirely new experience
of bridging the off-line with the on-line world. It makes the use more human and easier to use because
it simulates various aspects of needs and activities we would demand and use even if we were not computer freaks. This chapter talks about AR and its applications and the way it can change our lives and
businesses with the support of cyberspace.
INTRODUCTION
It was not so long ago that organizations viewed
the web as a source of information overload or as
a tool for those interested in passive game playing. Today organizations around the world realize
that these conceptualizations were erroneous. On
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-60960-581-0.ch016
the contrary, there is more creativity and active

exchange of knowledge and information going on
because of the web than ever before.
The implications of Web 3.0 to organizational
governance is the subject of this chapter where
the author will look in detail at new trends and
discuss some of the implications they will have
on society and on the way we conduct business. In
much the same way as wikis, Twitter, Facebook,
Augment Your Business Reality with New Age Web Tools
Second Life, and other Web 2.0 applications have

been welcomed by new generations until they
became mainstream and part of our lives; Web
3.0 technologies will have a similar impact on the
future. No change is all good or all bad, and critics
should be heard because they are the ones enabling
us to see the downsides, driving all stakeholders to
strive towards further changes. Evolution is a test
-and- run approach that makes us move in a Z
shape between boundaries set by extremes. The
lesser the critics are listened to, the farther and
the more dangerous the extremes (ex: dot.com
crash). The more the businesses and thinkers listen
to those critics; the sooner the course-corrections
can be applied. Isabelle Michelet, French thinker,
and author, wrote to me in an email dated Dec 12
2009. Yes, change is wide and deep and irreversible. But a lot of what is seen today looks like the
rather extremist frenzy of novelty. For sure many
adjustments will be made to find a new balance,
and only when this new balance is found will we
be able to say that we have really entered a mature
Cybernetic Era.1
This chapter focuses on the impact of change
on business organizations, the way organizations
need to change their business models and management paradigms to adjust to and make the best of
these changes. The key question therefore is when
and how should organizations change their ways?
The next section builds the necessary background
to understand the meaning and evolution of web
from Web 1.0 to Web 3.0.
were three of the most important aspects of a

Web 1.0 world. Still today, most web content is
still only Web 1.0 style. Corporate Websites are a
dominant feature of todays Internet. One of the
phenomenon which resulted from Web 1.0 was
information overflow.
But Web 1.0 has already had a huge impact on
changing some aspects of how business has been
done. Ecommerce opened up new markets and
by using the internet channel made it available
to reach anybody and anywhere. eBay and Amazon were among the first to profit from this new
era. Amazon for example turned the publishing
industry upside down bringing (e)books into the
mainstream by killing retailer business. A further
example is the Google pay per click business
model which reinvented marketing, making it
much more targeted and measurable.
Web 1.0 also provoked a rethinking of Human
Resources Management (HRM). Suddenly new
competencies were in demand and therefore new
job titles became part of the average organization
chart. On the wish lists of managers were job
titles such as: PPC Salesman, Web Strategist,
Googler, Virtual Trainer and Voice Over the Internet Recruiter.
But then the Internet started to change. Users
became more active, Prosumers (mix of Producers
and Consumers) were ready to emerge. Inclusion
replaced the passive consumption of the huge
information available on the Web.
BACKGROUND
The term Web 2.0 was coined in 1999 by Darcy

DiNucci in her article, Fragmented Future
(DiNucci, 1999). But the term is closely associated with Tim OReilly because of the OReilly
Media Web 2.0 conference in 2004 (Battele and
OReilly, 2004). Some still argue that it is just a
buzzword, while others see it as the start of a new
web revolution. The most striking feature of Web
2.0 lies in user provided content and therefore the
empowering of users through sharing, collabo-
Definitions of Web 1.0,

Web 2.0 & Web 3.0
Web 1.0
The whole content is published on the web in a
static manner. Hyperlinking web-pages, bookmarking and HTML language used for all websites
262
Web 2.0
rating, recommendation, tagging, trust and tribe

building. This led to a totally new user behavior
and once again changed the way business was
done. Oreillys blogpage presents extensive information about Web 2.0 (http://radar.oreilly.com/
Web 2). Figure 1 presents the QRcode to access
Oreillys meaning of web 2.0. Description of QR
code (a 2-D barcode) and the way to access it is
given in a later section in this chapter and also
as an endnote2.
The impact of Web 2.0 to HRM was visible
in the rise of further new job titles such as Social
Media Networker, Web 2.0 Marketing Manager,
Trendwatcher, YouTube Communicator, Facebooker, Wiki Project Manager and Tagger.
Figure 1. QR Code for OReilly (http://oreilly.com/

web2/archive/what-is-web-20.html)
Web 3.0
The definition of what Web 3.0 is or will be is
still undefined. There are different perceptions
available. One basic definition which seems to be
accepted by all is that it will be mobile, even more
multimedia and most of all multi-device. There
is much more to Web 3.0 and once again it will
revolutionize the way business is done. Future
managers will need to get a competitive advantage
by adding new competencies to the corporate
competencies dictionary and add new positions
to their planned organizational workforce.
Technological Change and

Its Integration into Reality
The time when CEOs resisted change and declared
that change was not needed is long gone. Where
resistance to change could still be widely heard ten
years ago, fewer voices were heard five years ago
and today nobody seems to argue against change
as an important driver for any business. Rather,
the question CEOs ask relate to whether what is
seen around us is mature, what is simply part of
the novelty frenzy and will disappear or at least
be significantly adjusted? Hence, to what exactly
should the organization adapt, and to what should
it integrate? It takes time for any organization

(and especially the big ones) to integrate change.
It would be counterproductive to launch a change
that, once it has been integrated, proves to have
become obsolete already. Here the author is not
talking about minute technological changes, but
about the big mutations that result from these
technologies integration into daily life. The
resistance observed among CEOs today is not
really a resistance to change but rather the fear
of meeting the dot.coms fate change, yes, but
in which way?
Once an organization decides to implement
change, the question about how they actually want to execute it will certainly meet a lot
of obstacles related to cultures, mental models,
and traditions. As US economist Dr. James Fay
explained, In my way of thinking, everyone
does not need to learn to fly an airplane in order
to benefit from the speed of flying versus ground
transportation. What I would like to see spelled
out more clearly is how those who cant fly an
airplane or use the internet to the fullest extent
are going to benefit from people who do know
how to fly the internet (Fay, 2010).
263
Dr. B. K. Passi, India adds, A connected

society and 21st century technologies and processes are enabling us to create decentralised and
autonomous localities, pariwars (families) and
communities with self-governance. These groups
can move on along their path of social development and transformation, become part of consortia,
promote creative and innovative industries and
economy capable of offering wholesome work to
individuals and groups, and create local and global
communities that can influence and transform the
existing individualistic and competitive world.
Mass-collaboration and cooperation that helps
in creating common wealth of resource becomes
the basis for innovative and creative activities in
a connected society. The new society has entirely
different set of cultural and value system (Passi,
2010).
Old school academics and managers who
try to preserve the traditional ways of doing
business, and who react negatively to the use of
Wikipedia as a reference tool or block access to
social networks during work time, miss out on
the huge opportunities which all these great tools
provide. Interdependence should be the synergy
of multiple independences. The individual independence is for me fundamental in that it is the
reflection of human craving for freedom. (Passi
by phone, 2010).
On a positive note, it seems as if the companies of today have finally stopped fighting over
the emergence and feasibility of social web, and
now, convinced of its sustainable influence to business, are embracing it within their own company
philosophies. For an international hotel school in
Switzerland (IMI University Centre), Face-book
as well as YouTube have become, after Google,
the most important marketing tools. Many of the
leading Swiss management schools recruit many of
its new students for their MBA programs through
social network sites like LinkedIn.
It is important that businesses do more than just
embed such new technologies into the organization. Instead, these technologies must be made a
264
part of the overall strategy so as to leverage technology and people to achieve successful change.
It seems as if this approach is not only the right
one, but the only one which will help companies
to stay competitive. Recent trends in what we call
today Web 2.0, as well as what will follow, seems
to make this task easier than in recent years.
THE SUCCESS OF WEB 2.0

Connectivity is essential for the success of Web
2.0. While the digital divide still exists, 89%
of Americans with an income over US$75,000
per year presently have broadband (Leichtman
Research, 2009). By 2013, it is estimated that
there will be 635 million broadband users in 40
countries (IT Facts, 2009a). Wifi is available
almost everywhere. The author was in Laos just
four years ago, where it was almost impossible
to get a decent internet connection. In 2010 there
were more Internet cafs opening by the day and
Wifi is now available at various hot spots in Laos.
Today the former student community application, Facebook, is the worlds largest social website
(Arrington, 2008), and its fastest growing user
segment is that of 55-65 year old females (Smith,
2009). If Facebook was a country, it would be the
worlds fourth largest in population, just after the
US and still larger than Indonesia (Christoffer,
2009). Over twenty hours of video are uploaded to
YouTube, one of the killer applications for Web 2.0,
every minute (June, 2009). YouTube developed
from a simple Web 2.0 database of videos to the
worlds second largest search engine (Hill, 2008).
The whole Web 2.0 wave has already drastically
changed how marketing is done today and Web 2.0
marketing is the key to most current businesses,
from fashion to education and even government.
For example, in tourism the review features have
dramatically changed how hotels and hospitality
related services and products are perceived. Some
hotel chains like Sheraton have spearheaded this
change, putting the social feedback component
dominantly on their homepage. Web 2.0 has helped

to create tribes. (Godin, 2008). The tribes idea
by Godin is a simple as well an old one, people
are turned into a tribe by shared interest. The
recent rise and acceptance of social networks has
done its share to make tribe initiation and leading easier. If the interest is in an off-mainstream
Marvel superhero like the Silversurfer; one will
find it much easier to locate a virtual community
and experts, who are more than willing to share
and to network about this topic.
Businesses have also been affected, when
companies like Apple very successfully used the
Internet to support a group of followers through
digital means. Successful companies and their
leaders normally do not have to create followers
but rather become leaders and provide platforms
for them to network. Just like with the Mac-fans;
Steve Jobs did not invent the stylish multimedia
computer users and digital designers but rather he
became their leader. Some companies have been
more and less successful than others in building
tribes. Microsoft is no doubt a successful brand
but has so far failed to create a tribe (Maffesoli,
1996). Just consider a visit to any computer fair,
would you see more visitors proudly wearing
a Microsoft hat or t-shirt or one with the apple
logo? This then leads to more loyal customers.
Now back to the Sheraton example, their bold
move to place customer feedback and images right
onto their homepage is exactly what we mean by
building loyal tribes rather than just a one-time
good experience.
Joel Cere, Co-founder VP Marketing Karmony
Inc wrote on his blog (http://beyondpr.blogspot.
com/) The evolution to Web 2.0, for lack of
a better term is about attitude and expectation.
Whether it is technology that led to a change of
attitude, or that a shift in our relation to the web led
to new technology is an academic debate which I
will leave to the more technically endowed. In the
90s, the web was driven by companies seeking to
turn it into a giant shopping mall. Consumers are
now reclaiming the web for what it was intended

for: a collective space bringing people together so
that they could share experience and information.
Just picture this: a collection of mega websites
competing to attract eyeballs v. loose networks
accessible by search engines, tags and connections where you can share information, engage
in conversations and co-create. I am caricaturing
here but the change is quite noticeable...
Crowdsourcing
It did not take a long time for the clever generation Y community to find ways to use this new
collaborative web for business and money making.
Crowdsourcing (Howe, 2006), is leveraging
mass collaboration and is being enabled by Web
2.0 technologies to achieve business objectives,
where the action of taking tasks traditionally performed by staff or contractors, are outsourced to
a group of people (crowd) in the form of an open
call or competition.
The crowds have become active. The knowledge community has become active as content
providers to Wikipedia and the like. Freelance
photographers become providers to huge photo
databases like iStockphoto, and can financially
profit from it. Freelance writers become citizen
journalists on the blogsphere as exemplified
by a recent case in Iran, when freelance writers played a dominant role in decision making,
replacing the traditional media (http://twitter.
com/persiankiwi). Designers contribute very
successfully to 99designs.com and create a flow
of steady income. Finally, open source and cloud
computing motivate and empower the developer
community to add new codes and enhance existing ones and make them available for the active
community. Web 2.0 services like the ones from
Amazon Webservices (http://aws.amazon.com)
enable, through clouds, scalable databases, web
applications and tools and an almost total financial
freedom for the hungry development elite to test
265
Figure 2. QR Code for BIG BREAK (www.bigbreak.com)
their latest applications in real time. IBM recently

launched their Developers Work site to support
young entrepreneurs and developers, giving them
a high capacity playground not only to discuss
and exchange developers experiences and tips,
but to really deploy their applications on high
powered servers (http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/). Such freedom can then lead to success.
For example, the iPhone and its huge database of
software, where users have created over 100,000
applications within the last 3 years which can now
be downloaded and deployed through the iTunes
apps store Apple website (Nov 2009)
But the crowdsourcing phenomena does not
stop at the developers or designer level. The
new official tourism movie for New Zealand has
currently been produced and selected through
crowdsourcing on 100% Pure New Zealands site.
See figure 2 for the related QR code.
THE SHIFT TO WEB 3.0

All these examples lead to a totally new way of
using the collaborative web, making it more active
than ever, transparent and accessible to an ever
266
Figure 3. QR Code for More Details on Augmented Reality (http://augment-business-reality.

wikispaces.com/AR_samples)
growing user community. This recent development

has not only been triggered by those technologies
already mentioned, or more user friendly programming tools like XMLS, Ajax, Eclipse and PHP, but
is also a response to the changing mindset of the
generations Y & Z, which all have a much more
relaxed and positive approach to the social web.
Moreover, current technologies change computing itself to become more human and from this,
new GEN-minded users are not the only ones
who profit. A more user-friendly Internet and its
applications become more accessible to older
generations who may still have a problem with
keyboards and simple text on the web.
Recent technologies once again have added a
totally new level to the data gathered in the social
web with geospatial and NOW (http://now.netapp.
com/) as their added dimensions. The technology
hype or buzz word of 2010, which has replaced
Twitter, is called AR or augmented reality. Following section briefly describes AR. QR Code given in
figure 3 provides more information on Augmented
Reality samples collected by the author.
THE RISE OF AUGMENTED

REALITY, AUGMENTED VIRTUALITY
AND THE SEMANTIC WEB
Augmented reality (AR) is when technology recognizes what you are doing, and then enhances it.
Specially augmented reality (whereby the digital
world enhances the real world), and augmented
virtuality (whereby the real world enhances digital
worlds) technologies, with new applications, are
presented at almost every technology fair today.
Augmented reality is much more than just one
new technology, but leads to a more instrumented,
interconnected and intelligent internet experience.
AR is simply the instrument to achieve this.
The launch of Googles goggle application with
its innovative visual search engine has been seen
as a mainstream example of this new trend, which
actually started many years ago. AR (and all the
different technologies which it represents) is not
entirely new; it just seems as though the world
has become more ready for it. In Europe in 2009
only one AR Development Conference took place.
Now, in the first quarter of 2010, there were already
five AR conferences in different European cities,
sponsored by large companies like IBM. It would
be simplistic to limit AR to the way Goggle is
using it, but its not only about visual search. AR
is about bridging the real world with the digital
world, adding a totally new dimension and new
possibilities to todays world. Fundamentally, AR
can actually lead to a better understanding of the
world through experiences and overlay of digital
information to the real world. Such new potential
leads once again to change and a rethinking of factors such as digital content, socio-cultural trends
and the new importance of mobile computing
(the world in your hand). Today, the examples
of AR are abundant. Some of the examples are
discussed below.
Mobile Market
The iPhone with its revival of touch screen and
many other user-friendly innovations packed in
their killer phone not only revolutionized the
mobile phone industry but spearheaded a totally
new understanding of human technology. It finally
brought the Internet away from the PC at home
and placed it in your hand. Todays mobile phone
industry is again innovative and over the last
12 month period, more changes have happened
than over the last 3 years together. With Googles
Android and Symbian, the competition on the
mobile internet market has well and truly been
launched and winners are not yet clear (Gartner,
2010). Apples iPad adds to the trend of mobile
computing and one can only guess what impact
tablet computers with their touch technologies
will have on various industries and consumer
behavior. It is already expected that the iPad will
save the publishing industry, doing for magazines
what Amazon did for books.
Geo
Recent developments in online mapping are showing that the times of traditional NASA streamed
data down to earth may as well be counted and
replaced by crowdsourced bottom-up data produced and created by the millions of tool using
and camera enabled users out there. Those then
may build the new real time and detailed virtual
world which will be available through the internet to everybody. Such user-generated geo-data
in combination with AR applications will enable
many striking products to make their mark and
certainly wont stop the on-going discussions on
privacy and copyright issues.
Gaming
Nintendos Wii, with its totally new understanding
of how gaming should be done has spearheaded a
new development of how games can be more so-
267
cial, more fun, more intuitive, and more emotional.

It shows that gaming finally found its way into the
heart of the female market. Whats driving the
Wii sales is the use of Wii by women, girls and
families, said Ubisofts senior brand manager,
Ann Hamilton (2009). Sonys Playstation reacted
with their understanding of how augmented game
playing should look like with its launch of interactive iPet. This is certainly only the beginning and
will soon be followed by many more augmented
applications, which will ultimately find their way
into other categories like education and business.
But for the end of 2010, another system (Natale
by Microsoft3) is announcing again a new level
of interactive gaming, this time without the need
for a console. This project is bridging the virtual
and real world gap even more and getting closer
to the ideal human computer interaction where
On becomes Off and Off becomes On.
Barcodes
2D barcode technologies like QR-codes (used
within the text here), are already very popular in
Japan, and as they move into other regions, these
barcodes will merge with the world of print, and
to the collaborative web. Not to say that this is
in any way a latest technological advancement,
since the Japanese company Denso invented those
codes in 1994. While it is uncertain whether 2D
barcodes will ever totally replace the traditional
and much more limited bar codes used for products, there is however evidence of this transition.
Roger Fischer, founder of Kaywa, mentioned on
his company website that GS1, the organization
behind the traditional barcodes, recently adopted
the QR Code as one of the 2D barcodes (together
with Datamatrix) to replace the traditional Barcodes. QR codes may very well be a transitional
technology and later be replaced through more
sophisticated tags like for example RFID (radio
frequency identification tags) which can send
signals active to a smartphone near bye. But for
2010 they are still very much in demand.
268
Figure 4. QR Code for More Information on

QR Codes by Sienceray (http://scienceray.com/
technology/industry/are-qr-codes-replacingbarcodes/)
The QR code in figure 4 leads the reader to a

great information site on QR codes by Sienceray
Walk in or 3D Web
The web, as already demonstrated by some Firstmover companies, is ready to become much more
than just flash supported animated brochures,
but will actually allow visitors to walk in places,
which simulate real senses in a digital world. For
example, HSV football, through a small plug-in
HSV, provides its visitors with a complete 3D
interactive experience to their arena. The latest
arena website plug-in to follow into 3D is from
St. Pauli as well a German football club based
in Hamburg. Figure 5 contains the QR code for
3D Arena. This QR code will bring you to their
homepage where you can test the 3D world they
created (in German language only)
Whole ecommerce solutions, like Interactive
Kingdom (http://interactivekingdom.ch), will take
such walks in the web to a totally new level - which
is believed to soon replace the traditional websites
Figure 5. QR Code for 3D Arena (http://enter3d.

de/fcstpauli/)
as experienced today. Panoshop (http://www.

shopalive.net/) allows companies to build their
own 3D shops online and share it instantly with
the online community.
But the change to more interactive human
interfaced technologies mashed up with social
net Web 2.0 components does not simply happen
to the developers, techies, and young entrepreneurs out there. As Andrew Pincon, US, Digital
Workforce Education (2010) noted, mainstream
companies like Manpower have long left the Web
2.0 worlds and are already well established in what
we commonly would call the nextweb or Web 3.0
(Augmented Reality being only one component
of this Web 3.0, Semantic Web being another).
Manpower, Inc. (http://www.manpower.com/)
convenes Avatar Thought Leaders in Second Life
to discuss the virtual workforce of the future. According to the Chairman and CEO of Manpower,
Jeff Joerres (2009),
Since we established our presence in Second Life
two years ago, social networks have completely
evolved the labor market. Now, every social network has some underlying current related to job
searching or career development. We are seeing
Figure 6. QR Code for Manpower (http://marquette.edu/differencenetwork/feature_joerres.

php)
the emergence of a flexible new model for virtual

work, led by entrepreneurial, tech-savvy individuals who dictate when, where and how they work.
We are focused on what motivates and interests
this new breed of workers, giving us the ability
to create practical solutions that help our clients
attract, engage and retain winning talent.
The QR code in figure 6 will open up the speech
from manpower CEO Jeff Joerres.
Such examples demonstrate that it is not the
most important issue to discuss if Second Life is
the way to go, but to ensure that companies get
themselves ready to compete within these new
paradigms and get themselves ready for whatever will follow Second Life.
WHAT WILL WEB 3.0 BE?

Two quotes to start with:
The Economist Technology Quarterly newspaper in September 2009 stated4 that Trying to
imagine how AR will be used is like trying to
forecast the future of the web in 1994. In No-
269
vember 2009, Juniper Research made a forecast

for 2014 as AR on the mobile to generate $732
million. 350 millionhandsets expected to be AR
enabled (Juniper Research, 2009).
Though web 3.0 is not exactly defined but one
can get some hints on the future of possibilities
by looking at examples available around us. Following sub sections bring forth selected insightful
examples and their related QR Codes and web
links. Thereafter the downside and upside of the
web 3.0 is discussed.
Figure 7. QR Code for a Documentary on New

Design Ideas by Dale Herigstad (http://www.
youtube.com/watch?v=L3k9wgdZBKo)
Some Insights
AR Used in Advertising
In 2009, the interactive media designer Dale Herigstad installed multiuser touch screens at the Cannes
Lions advertising festival. These touch screens
were very similar to the one he designed for the
futuristic movie Minority Report which could
identify delegates by their radio tags (RFID) and
then projected relevant information about them on
a screen. Herigstad stated: We agreed the future
would not be devices and keyboards, it would be
gesture (Interface Design, 2008). For the 2010
festival, more advanced technology is planned
to be shown which will further demonstrate how
interactive features and tagging can enhance the
real world in advertisement
Figure 7provides the QR code for a documentary on new design ideas by visionary Dale
Herigstad (in German only).
A Window Shopping Experience

Hugo Boss installed a very successful augmented
reality wall in the windows of its outlets in London
over Christmas (Black Magic, Sloane Square,
London). Walk-by customers could experience an
augmented window shopping experience through
specially triggered cards (tags) on a specific card
handed out to them. They were also given the
270
chance to play virtual Black Jack on a screen in

order to win a shopping voucher.
Through the QR code in Figure 8, you can
access a movie about this AR installation of
Hugo Boss.
As the agency SimonJohn, which stood behind
this concept explained: I think it took us all by
surprise the overwhelming positive response from
their readers. They seem to relish the opportunity to interact with the technology. (SimonJohn,
PR Hub, Dec 17, 2009)
Sixth Sense
The internet gives us all access to a world of information. Web 2.0 enables us to become part of this
new cyberbrain called the internet. The nextweb
(Web 3.0) represents a new evolution of what we
call the internet today. As Web 3.0 becomes part
of our everyday tools, users become cyborgs of
the web and its applications. TED movie on Sixth
Sense by Pranav Mistry from MIT, November 2009
gives a good experience towards this. Follow the
QR code given in figure 9 to experience a TED
Figure 8. QR Code for a Movie About the AR

Installation of Hugo Boss (http://www.youtube.
com/watch?v=bag1HdO2fQY)
movie on Sixth Sense technology by MITs Pranav

Mistry, the guru of augmented reality.
Sensory Web for the Non-Technicals

Hardware and software merges more and more,
helping to make the internet a full sensory experience involving our natural senses of touch,
vision, hearing and smell. The touch screen has
experienced a revival and opened up complicated
tasks for a non-technical population. Readers can
see more on augmented reality and its potential by
visiting the pages from Layar (http://www.layar.
com/), one of the leaders of this new technology
(see figure 10 also).
AR Maps
AR applications add information to the world
around us. Watching some of the cutting edge
technologies at 2009 & 2010 TED (www.ted.com)
conferences provides insight into the potential
extent of AR uses. Such sensory multimedia col-
Figure 9. QR Code for the Movie on Sixth Sense

by Pranav Mistry (http://www.ted.com/talks/
pranav_mistry_the_thrilling_potential_of_sixthsense_technology.html)
laborative technologies move into arts, education

and business. Data mining will further our ability to both filter and group enormous amounts
of data which will in turn, be accessible in new
ways along the model of Wolfram, which looks
at information in a semantic way. Because of
the amount of data being fed by millions to the
internet on social networking sites or wikis, mining technologies will usher in a new paradigm. A
sample of the power of social content available on
the internet empowered by new technologies is
shown by microsofts powerful augmented reality
maps which were presented during the TED 2010
conference by Blaise Aguera y Arcas (See figure
11 for related links).
The Downside
In the near future, the world will become even more
transparent. Providers of services and products
cannot rely on their shiny glossy brochures and
websites, governments cannot block media channels to keep the world blind. This transparency
271
Figure 10. Qr Code to see Layar in Action. (http://

www.youtube.com/watch?v=b64_16K2e08)
triumph will be rejected by some, and loved by

others, but it is clearly here to stay. Critics will
discuss the ramifications of Web 2.0 contents
which stays on multiple servers around the world
even if the user itself has long since died, or the
problem with current applications which do not
allow a user to be deleted (as stated on the official
Skype support page: you cannot permanently
delete a Skype name). Another problem seen
by current critics is the issue of being always
online, an addiction to being online and losing
communication skills.
During AR DevCamp in March, 2010, in
Zurich, Dan Romescu from AugmentedCitizen.
org asked for an international code of conduct for
the augmented citizen. He demonstrated this call
through a made up slide showing an augmented
mashup, The case against augmented reality.
Figure 12 exhibits a composition simulated by the
author to visualize such a scenario of AR mashup
with Web 2.0.
Only recently has media started to cover more
issues on understanding and providing answers
to online privacy related issues in Web 2.0 (see
272
Figure 11. QR Code for a Movie on AR Maps (http://

www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/blaise_aguera.html)
for example, recent media coverage of http://

pleaserobme.com). Dan Romescu (http://www.
augmentedcitizen.org/) truly could make the point
that such issues will be augmented through AR
and raise the problem to a higher level.
The QR code given in Figure 13 will guide
you to the latest presentation slides on the topic
of augmented citizen by Dan Romescu.
The Upside
On the other side, this new freedom is very much
in demand for todays generation. Users now want
to rate everything, from hotels, to professors and
products, and add their personal anecdotes to
news stories. Generation Y and Z are willing to
share, and, as opposed to older generations, seem
to accept that sharing your private data on social
networks ultimately leads to the whole world
knowing all about you. When signing up for a
facebook account, users agree that all content
belongs to facebook. In Human Resources Management, social media already plays a significant
role where recruiters will first research about a
Figure 12. A Scenario of AR Mashup
potential employee through the internet before

having had a first interview.
This same Generation of users also demands an
internet that is more individualized to a micro-level
that only a few years ago was unimaginable. All
this will lead to a paradigm shift to a new species
which will not only use all media, channels, and
technologies, but will embrace them, live them,
apply them and be utterly successful with them.
Where multimedia and Web 2.0 brought the
world into the office, classroom, and the house,
the augmented and semantic web will take us
into the world.
As mentioned earlier in this chapter, the hope is
that AR will not just add even more of an information load to the existing cyberspace, but will actually help make the world more understandable. AR
enables anybody to look at a range of mountains
during a walk, through a mobile device equipped
with a camera and receive additional information.
But only, if the user then can connect to real-time
information based on facts (for example Wikipe-
Figure 13. QR Code for Augmented Citizen (http://www.slideshare.net/search/

slideshow?q=augmented-citizen+romescu)
dia) or social media content (feedback, reviews,

opinions) and layer it over the real time image,
273
then users may achieve greater clarity in an ever

growing and more complex world of things. This
transition comes naturally since it bridges those
two worlds, the world we live in and the abstract
world of digital information available online.
During a live demonstration of different AR
applications to a crowd of students at ETH University in Zurich, the author experienced a novelty. A
high percentage of non technical people not only
had great fun but also demonstrated great ease in
grasping those new applications almost instantly.
No words needed to be exchanged to experience
and come to an agreement on the added value
and the edutainment value of applications such
as Junaio, SwissPeaks, Mobilizy and games like
Gbanga.
The need for simplified, more natural technology which does just what it should has recently
been studied in research done by Oxford University
students. This research investigates the post-digital
era and the current transition from an early phase
Co-digital - in which a technology goes through
as the user community appropriates it and influences its development - towards a Postdigital
one, in which the power of the technologies arises
in the act of their colonization, or appropriation,
by people into their lives when they cease
to be technology and become simply stuff that
works (52 Group)
The Internet (1995-1999) period was all about
the great disorderly promise of cyber-space
and on-line shopping. The Web 2.0 (20052009) period was the time it took to really figure
out what to do with user generated content, rich
web applications and social media. The Web 3.0
(2008-?) period, including augmented reality and
virtuality, is where mobile technology and wireless
broadband make the internet finally omnipresent
and inescapable (Purves, 2009). This new world
will increase transparency, further reduce privacy,
enable constant access to edutainment so that in
theory, anyone can easily know everything there is
to know about anything and anyone from anywhere
they are. Expect this not only to be enabled through
274
Figure 14. QR Code for Bucklands Visionary

Designs of AR Applications (http://matthewbuckland.com/?p=1041)
your mobile phone but through almost any tool

which is within reach. What this could look like
has already been suggested by Matthew Buckland
and Philip Langley on their blogpage. Figure 14
provides the QR code to the visionary designs of
Matthew Buckland of how AR applications may
look in the very near future.
The success of AR in using intelligent data
rather than just another amount of data overflow
is supported by the development of new search
engines being able to filter and group the enormous
amount of flying, unstructured and unrelated data
in current databases, internet and clouds, which
will be accessible and usable in new structured
ways. This idea of LinkedData is spearheaded by
Tim Berners-Lee who envisions a Semantic Web
where all those free-floating unrelated documents
and statistical data available in cyberspace would
become linked together in an intelligent web.
Some success was achieved through semantic
search engines like Wolfram Alpha, showing
results superior to more traditional search engines.
Still this endeavor seems to be much more com-
plex than first thought and we will certainly need

some more time to achieve this semantic web.
ANOTHER BUZZ OR A SERIOUS

AGENT OF CHANGE?
Why is AR important? This question was raised
during 1st European Augmented Reality Business
Conference April 23, 2010 Berlin (Arbcon, 2010).
The world itself is becoming the universal and
intuitive interface with mobile AR. This explosion
of the interface into ambient space means an explosion of opportunities to interact, communicate,
collaborate, and make transactions.
It is imperative that business leaders do not
block any of these new technologies within the
workplace, because many new applications, once
digested by the users, turn out to be advantageous
for business. There are many examples to support
this, but certainly one of the most recent examples
is Twitter. None of the twitter brains ever imagined
what a monster they had unleashed with their
simple little mini blog in real time applications. It
was only the users which came up with thousands
of useful (and some less useful) applications.
The author believes that by now businesses
do have a pretty good idea of the opportunity for
change brought about by the cybernetic revolution.
Decision makers can analyze what is happening
today and, after distancing themselves a little,
may be able to estimate what will probably stay
and what will need to be adjusted. Leaders now
really have to wonder how to bring economic
organizations from where they are (basically
industrial-minded communities that use modern
technologies without integration) to where they
should be. Some serious scenario building must
be done. So far, it was so important to convince
people of the reality of change that we were content with just the vaguest descriptions of what the
organization of tomorrow could look like. The
problem is, now that people are convinced of
the reality of change, they want more, and they
want solid scenarios and guidelines. The digestion of social media and what we call today the
Web 2.0, is largely a fait accompli. Web 3.0.
where technology becomes more human through
augmented reality, augmented virtuality, and the
semantic internet, is happening right now. Web
3.0 will, for once, not add just more to the existing
palette of existing technologies and applications,
but, once the hype has calmed down, will result
in value- added applications which lead to a better understanding of a more and more complex
world. The key message one should draw is that
technology recently has become much more user
friendly and allows a totally new audience to
participate online and for once really have fun
with technology which is sensory, bridging online
and offline in a never before possible way (Ritzel,
2010a and Ritzel, 2010b).
Figure 15 contains the QR code for an interactive presentation from a TEDx event in Switzerland
on the sensory Web.
Many of those already existing AR applications, through the linking and overlay of addiFigure 15. QR Code to Access an invited Talk on
Sensory Web by the author at TEDx Event (http://
prezi.com/qem4oz8qb5vk/lukas-ritzel-ted-x-zugevent-may-27-2010-sensory-web-web30/)
275
Figure 16. QR Code for view of an AR Research

Project by BMW (http://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=P9KPJlA5yds)
tional (mostly) tourism related information are

very close to reality. This is achieved either through
visual, geospatial or audio recognition. As previously stated, marketing is already heavily affected by such technologies but the interest of the
sales and service industry is too powerful for it
to be neglected and the author expects to have
such applications popping up more and more over
the next few months.
During the first AR Development Conference
in March 2010 in Zurich, the audience specifically
came up with some great solutions and applications
for AR in real life and business. Specifically in
healthcare, it seems only to be a question of time
before we have such systems to support a faster
information share between healthcare staff and
/ or patients. In the business of knowledge, the
essential question is to acquire fast access at the
right time. Already in 2007, BMW did a concept
piece on AR where a mechanic is in the process of
replacing a part while wearing augmenting glasses
which project detailed instructions to him whilst
276
he works. Figure 16 gives the QR Code to link to

a clipping of the AR research project by BMW.
Looking, for example, at online fashion shopping, one can already see clear tendencies of how
AR technologies can enhance the online shopping
experience. During the last few years, very little
has changed. Online shopping applications and
websites allow us to select different clothes, change
colors and eventually experience them in 3D.
Then with the likes of Otto.de for Windows
Vista, something fundamental changed and the
actual online shopping GUI became a 3D interactive walk-in place itself. One could select a
model, put selected clothes and accessories on
and combine different pieces. But even this enhancement was still pretty far away from the real
shopping experience. Only now, thanks to AR,
online clothing shops like Tobi (www.tobi.com)
can provide all shoppers with an almost real experience with their own image in real time and
an easy user interface. Print a marker from the
website, launch the AR dressroom application,
allow the camera to be activated, cycle through
hundreds of dresses, select and let the technology
do the rest, overlaying the dresses onto a life
video of you. If you are still not sure, you can
make a snapshot and connect to Facebook and let
your friends comment.
Follow the QR code given in figure 17 to
watch a presentation of AR shopping as provided
by Tobi online shopping.
To augment future realities, we can only imagine how many other possible mash-ups will be
possible and how many other inputs will be adding enhanced reality to given problems. Recent
developments demonstrate that once again we are
at a borderline of a new exciting development.
The core technologies behind AR are improving
dramatically in their ability to work in any situation and connect with multiple data sources. This
challenge goes along with enterprise mobility
which is considered to be one of the most important ICT challenges of the next few months. The
report by Research Berlekon and Frauenhof in-
Figure 17. QR Code For an AR Shopping Experience (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rn_

iPjGKd0M)
stitute in Germany supports corporate decision

makers and IT executives in choosing a suitable
solution for the central management of mobile
devices. It describes key requirements for device
management systems and defines adequate
evaluation criteria. The mobile Internet will play
a major role within companies in the months to
come and augmented applications with it.
The emergence of AR will significantly change
many activities and will cause a series of far reaching changes to how business will be done, in a
similar way as how Web 2.0 and social networks
have already affected many industries and in some
cases have almost reinvented them (tourism and
music industry, for example).
AR will only add on to companies who already did make use of the internet to their business advantage. Expectation will go beyond the
mobile phone as a tool to augment reality. As we
are now bringing the Internet away from the PC
to the mobility of mobile phones, we may see in
the near future that just about any tool can have
the capacity to overlay real time information over
physical objects. Christine Perey, consultant and

analyst of AR technologies added in email sent
to me on March 8, 2010 This could, I believe,
significantly reduce the number of products
which are returned to the manufacturer due to
the customer feeling that it is too complicated to
use it or simply because of misperception of the
product itself.
By enhancing many aspects of doing business,
AR will be a particularly enriching experience for
the customer. Technology has always done its part
to make things easier, faster and more precise.
Technologies with an AR edge will further help to
create a more complete user satisfaction in getting
customers engaged and enrich the relation between
brands and customers. Through visualizations of
concepts, new products and designs can be tested
without huge investment and much faster than was
previously possible. Furthermore, AR is great in
helping to create awareness and attention. This
helps further to create a strong bonding between
customer and product. The fact that AR is truly
mobile and is therefore constantly available,
additionally leads to a closer relation between
product and client. The augmented information
can be called upon at the time and place it is
needed. Even if both the real time and the virtual
experience have already been in existence for a
long time, only the fusion of both worlds leads
to a new experience which is so much stronger
than each of its separate parts.
AR opens up new ways to experience products
in a way never done before. The author remembers how mind-blowing it was to experience the
explodes assembly drawings applied by Dorling
Kindersley, which seemed to open a totally new
universe and view of what had never been seen
and experienced before on common products. AR
has the very same effect and will have an even
greater effect on how we all experience products,
tools, scenery and even people. Mashing such
factual enhanced information with user generated
content will further add on value. Specifically on
new products and services, where one cannot rely
277
on public opinion, those taste neighbors common

among vertical social networks like Last.fm (http://
www.last.fm)can make a huge difference to the
perception and success of such products.
There is almost no more a business, which does
not extend to a digital level, through websites, presence in Web 2.0 and other digital means. Therefore
a technology which finally helps to bridge the two
worlds is clearly a value added proposition. Many
of todays existing AR applications play with this
new way of reality getting its way to cyberspace
and the other way around.
SOME BUSINESS MODELS

POSSIBLE TO BE SEEN (OR
ALREADY IN EXISTENCE
AT THE VERY MOMENT)
Experience complex systems: Augmented Reality
will help to understand and experience complex
systems which are difficult to be seen in reality,
because they are too small, too dangerous, too
expensive. This can be done in 3D, interactively
and with the use of exploded views.
Merge and Enhancement of Media: Be it TV,
Cinema, Books or magazines; they all can be
enhanced through AR added value. The author
could as well imagine enhanced pop concerts and
sporting events through AR applications.
Facial Recoginition: As already covered,
facial recognition mashed with social online
available data can lead to interesting but as well
scary scenarios. Shops could actually scan
their visitors when entering their stores to know
more about them (consumer behavior, likes and
dislikes, network, purchase power even eventual
danger factor).
AR virals: Similar to viral videos through
YouTube and the likes. Expect almost any cool
brand to enhance their marketing through AR 3D
models and toys.
AR conferences: One step further to webcam
conferences would be the AR 3D conference where
278
companies can invite their boss model or trainers into their palm to deliver a corporate message.
AR Tourism: Many samples have been embedded in this article already but be sure to expect
many more to come, including, AR city guides,
AR enhanced museums and shows as well as story
telling buildings and perhaps even graveyards.
AR guides: There are endless possibilities to
guide anybody to anything - from the next subway to the closest Starbucks, or simply the next
washroom from your present position at a foreign
airport all seen directly through your AR browsers.
AR training: AR Can be used to enhance simulations for the learning of complex tasks or ensure
the automatism to perfection of your tee in golf.
AR education: Course books can be enhanced
through AR. See and experience math, chemistry
and history through countless new AR applications
as free download to your smart phone. Tablets
could even have the same impact on education as
Wikipedia did some years back. Imagine being
in the zoo to see and experience the night active
Wombat or scan right through the pouch of a
mother kangaroo.
AR Added Value: Try your new furniture in
your own house through AR overlay. Experience
your newly built house on your just purchased
land or see yourself in this new designer dress
right on the computer screen.
AR safety apps: In any danger scenario, you
can have your AR application ready to guide you
on what to do for the best. Like in the case of a
fire emergency, the arrows show you the fastest
way out through the smoke.
But because AR is such a new topic for business, there simply is not too much of business
models and business available yet and even less
success stories available.
CONCLUSION
We are still at the very beginning of AR and nobody right now can say what it will have for an
effect in our daily lives. It would be the same as

if we would have expected Wales, Zuckerberg or
Berners Lee to know what their applications and
technologies once would have for an impact. But
there sure are enough indications that there is still
a lot to come and that business better get ready to
be riding with the train.
The question of course will as well be, who
will be the major players in the AR market, will
it once again be the big ones Microsoft, Adobe
and Apple? Right now its a jungle out there. No
standards and no killer AR application are visible.
The problem is that for every AR application, the
user will have to install a specific widget, add on
or application to their device.
FUTURE DIRECTIONS FOR

RESEARCH AND ANALYSIS
The field of AR is promising but yet less explored;
so quite naturally this field is pregnant with
research issues. Extensive research is required
to gain understanding, experience, insight and
confidence in these technologies before we get
them to use. For example, How different is are the
new marketing channels such as Pay per click?
What kind of new competencies are needed for
new positions like PPC Salesman, Web Strategist,
Googler, Virtual Trainer and Voice Over the Internet Recruiter? Out of the box strategies are required
to move towards adoption of Facebook and/or
Youtube kind of tools to be important marketing
tool and what is their impact on the perception
gained and thus build the brand (tribes)? How the
iPad combined with the iTunes business model
may help to save the wailing magazine industry?
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About the Contributors
Kamna Malik is currently an Associate Professor of Information Systems and Assistant Dean, Research at U21Global Graduate School, Singapore. Dr. Maliks work profile is a good mix of practice,
teaching, research and academic administration. She has a wide range of experience with leading business organizations and business schools in the region. She has been involved with management education for over 18 years and has conducted courses for many variants of management programs in face to
face as well as pure online setting. Her teaching interests include strategic Information Systems, software
design and quality, and e-business. Her research focus lies in enabling better use of information technology for improved business value. She has published books, edited books and research articles in the
areas of Information Systems strategy, software quality, e-learning and collaborative Web. She is an
active conference organizer and reviewer for peer reviewed journals.
Praveen K. Choudhary is a BE and PGDBM (Marketing) from XLRI Jamshedpur, India. He has
around 16 years of experience in industry, teaching, and consultancy. He has extensive experience in
enterprise level process applications, QA, program management, consulting, and process definitions
activities for QA including post business acquisitions for international clients. An active guest faculty
for many premier b-schools like IMT Ghaziabad and MDI Gurgaon, in the region, he has published one
book titled Software Quality Practitioners Approach published by Tata McGraw Hill, and several
national and international papers in field of quality, operations and supply chain management. His broad
academic and industry focus lies in next generation Web, e-commerce and supply chain management,
bringing business value through process excellence, and quality enabling organization culture change.
***
Zacharoula Andreopoulou holds a BS degree in Mathematics, a BS degree in Forestry and Natural
Environment and a PhD degree in Forest Informatics, all from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki,
where she is currently an assistant professor in the Laboratory of Forest Informatics and teaches courses
on networks and Web services, databases, project management, and software programming. Her Ph.D.
dissertation concerns the contribution of IT within forest service in Greece. Her scientific and research
interests include networks, Web services and Web design, databases and project management in natural
environment, sustainable development, and regional development applications. She is a co-author in books
Forest Informatics I and II, she has participated many international and domestic conferences, and
her recent publications include papers in International Journal of Business Information Systems, Journal
of Environmental Protection and Ecology, Mediterranean Journal of Economics, Agriculture and Environment, International Journal of Operational Research, International Journal of Applied Systemic Studies.
Florian Birke studies Information Systems at the Technische Universitt Braunschweig, Germany.
His main focus is information management, Web technologies, and human computer interaction. In addition to his studies he worked for Siemens Transportation Systems in Braunschweig as well as in New
York City, NY. His field of responsibility ranged from the supervision of an intranet Webpage to the
process of designing and establishing an Information System. At the moment he is in the final stages
of his studies and will finish it at the end of 2010. In his thesis, he will address virtual innovation communities, open innovation, and game-based open innovation.
Burcin Bozkaya is a Senior Lecturer of Management Science at Sabanci University. He received his
Ph.D. from Alberta University. Burcin research interests lie in operations research including: operations
management, combinatorial modeling and optimization, heuristic algorithm design and optimization,
transportation and logistics planning, Geographical Information Systems, and applications. This work
has been published in European Journal of Management, European Journal of Operational Research
and Interfaces.
Saayan Chattopadhyay is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication at Baruipur College, Calcutta University. After a stint as a journalist, he is currently engaged
in research and academics. He has published articles and book chapters in Sarai Reader, Senses of Cinema, Gyanpratha, Sussex Academic Press, among others. His research interests include, postcolonial
journalism, new media, performative theory and masculinity studies.
Nikhil Chaturvedi is a Director in the Industry Business Unit (IBU) Mining & Mill Products at
SAP Asia Pte. Ltd., Singapore. He is also the Global Lead for SAP Solution Management for Mining
Industry. Nikhil is a Petroleum Engineer from Indian School of Mines and MBA from JBIMS, University of Mumbai. He is also a Certified Production & Inventory Management (CPIM) professional
from APICS, USA. Nikhil has an experience of over 15 years and has been associated with the natural
resources industries through engineering operations, business & IT consulting and SAP solutions related
work. He is also the Committee Member for Society of Petroleum Engineers, Singapore chapter.
Roma Chauhan is working as Assistant Professor, Computer Science Department, Institute of
Management Education, Sahibabad, India. She has obtained her Masters in Computer Science from
Jamia Hamdard, Hamdard University, New Delhi. Prior to joining academics, she worked with leading
corporate giants in software project development. She has conducted multiple programming languages
training sessions on different programming languages to impart improved technology absorption. Her
approach is towards practical oriented, industry based learning and implementation. She has inclination towards research and has research papers published at national and international level in journals
and conferences. Her research interests include semantic Web, Web mining, business intelligence, and
technology enhancement to meet critical business requirements.
Ritu Chauhan is pursuing her Ph.D. in computer Science from Jamia Hamdard, Hamdard University, India. As a keen academician and researcher, she has been involved with number of responsibilities
such as development of curriculum in data mining and analysis for several data mining techniques at her
university. She has contributed number of research papers in field of medical data mining. Her research
314
interests include statistical analysis of medical and spatial databases using data mining algorithms as
well as developing data mining algorithms. As an author, she has published her research papers in leading conferences and journals at national and international level.
Mladen udanov got his magister degree at Faculty of organizational sciences in 2006 and is finishing his PhD thesis. Currently he is in assistant position at Faculty of Organizational Sciences, University
of Belgrade. He has been visiting for one semester as an assistant professor in joint programs of iVWA
from Germany and Jiangsu College of Information Technology from Wuxi and Zhuhai City Polytechnics
from Zhuhai in China. He has (co)authored 3 books and more than 40 journal and conference articles. He
has consultant experience in more than 50 projects, some of which were in major companies of Serbia
and neighboring countries. His major research interests are influence of ICT on organizational design,
restructuring of business systems, and organizational change.
Ronan de Kervenoael is a Lecturer of Marketing at Sabanci University and network Lecturer at
Aston University. He received his Ph.D. from Sheffield University, UK. Ronan has a particular interest in choice and anti-choice investigating both consumers and within the supply chain actors through
their everyday practice. His wider research interests lie under the umbrella of consumer behavior and
retailing, the principal theme being the socio-spatial context of consumption. He is currently particularly
interested in the Information Communication Technology change situation of emerging markets and
associated strategies. This work has been published in Environment & Planning A, World Development,
Journal of Industrial Relation, International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, International
Review of Retail Distribution and Consumer Research.
Arhlene A. Flowers is Assistant Professor of Integrated Marketing Communications in the Department of Strategic Communication at the Roy H. Park School of Communications, Ithaca College, N.Y.,
where she teaches writing, public relations, and meeting and event planning. Her research encompasses
virtual worlds, interactive marketing, visual literacy, social media application in crisis communications,
and marketing to children. She also has two decades of industry experience in global public relations
agencies and in-house marketing departments in New York City and Toronto. Born in Hawaii and raised
in New York, Arhlene holds a Bachelor of Arts from New York University and a Master of Professional
Studies from the New School in New York City. She is a member of the Public Relations Society of
America, International Communication Association, and National Communication Association.
Kimberly Gregson served as Assistant Professor in the Department of Television-Radio at the Roy
H. Park School of Communications, Ithaca College, N.Y., specializing in game design and research
methods, from 2002 to 2010. Her publications on virtual worlds, websites, and online communication
have appeared in book collections and academic journals. She also has conducted classes, events, and
research in Second Life. She received her Ph.D. in Mass Communication from Indiana University and
an M.S. in Information Science from Indiana University-Bloomington, and a B.A. from the University
of Missouri-Columbia.
Jesper Holgersson is a PhD student at the University of Skvde and the University of rebro. His
main research area is focused on development of e-government services and how to incorporate consum-
315
ers into the development process. He has participated in several national research projects focusing on
development and usage of Web services and e-services.
Pankaj Kamthan has been teaching in academia and industry for several years. He has also been a
technical editor, participated in standards development, served on program committees of international
conferences, and is on the editorial board of a number of journals including the International Journal of
Technology Enhanced Learning and the International Journal of Teaching and Case Studies. His research
interests include Conceptual Modeling, Software Quality, and Web Engineering.
Kathrin Kirchner finished her studies in computer science in 2000 and in adult education in 2006.
She completed her doctorate in 2006 on spatial decision support systems for the rehabilitation of gas
pipeline networks in Jena. Since then, she has held a post-doctoral research and teaching position in the
Department of Business Information Systems at Friedrich Schiller University Jena. Her research includes
domains such as data mining, business process modelling, decision support and knowledge management. Previous work includes around 30 refereed journal articles, book chapters, and conference papers.
Theodoros Koutroumanidis holds a BS degree in Civil Engineering from the Democritus University of Thrace, a B.S. degree in Mathematics from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, and a Ph.D.
degree in Data Statistical Analysis from the Democritus University of Thrace, where he is currently a
professor in faculty of Agricultural Development. He has nineteen publications of papers in international scientific magazines and eleven publications of papers in international conference proceedings.
Additionally, he has thirty four publications of papers in domestic scientific magazines and conference
proceedings. Furthermore, he teaches courses on Statistics, Applied Economic Statistics and Applied
Econometrics while his scientific research interest include multicriteria analysis, ARIMA models, fuzzy
logic models and cointegration analysis.
Basil Manos is a Professor of the Department of Agricultural Economics at the Aristotle University
of Thessaloniki, Greece. He holds a BSc in Mathematics from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki,
a BSc in Economics from the University of Macedonia in Thessaloniki and a MSc from London School
of Economics. He teaches and works in agricultural economics, farm and agribusiness management
and regional planning. He obtained his PhD from the Department of Agricultural Economics of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. He is a co-ordinator in various EU projects. His recent publications
include papers in the European Journal of Operational Research, Regional Studies, Journal of Policy
Modelling, British Food Journal, International Journal of Social Economics, Journal of Environmental
Planning and Management, Environmental Monitoring and Assessment, International Journal of Business Information Systems.
Mark Palmer is a Senior Lecturer of Marketing at Aston Business School, Aston University. His
research explores the contested process of retail corporate strategizing and market development. This
work draws upon the insights of consumers eschewing markets, stores and products, market and corporate
divestment, interventions from institutional investors, and the resistance by consumer groups in markets.
This work has been published in the Journal of Economic Geography, European Journal of Marketing,
Journal of Marketing Management, Environment & Planning A, and the Journal of Strategic Marketing.
316
Paolo Renna is an Assistant Professor at Department of Environmental Engineering and Physics in

the Engineering Faculty of Basilicata University (Italy). He took Ph.D. degree at Polytechnic of Bari in
Advanced Production Systems. His academic researches principally deal with the development of innovative negotiation and production planning in distributed environments and manufacturing scheduling in
dynamic environment. Several contributions have been presented on design multi agent architecture and
test by discrete event simulation in Business to Business environment. Among his contributions, he is
co-author of two research books about e-marketplaces and production planning in production networks.
Moreover, he has developed coordination approaches in multi-plant production planning environment
and innovative scheduling approaches in flexible and reconfigurable manufacturing systems.
Lukas Ritzel is a Web Strategist and Lecturer for Bachelors program at IMI University Centre,
Switzerland - one of the top international hotel, tourism, and events management schools Master program.
He also lectures at Spanish Empresa University in Management, ranked among the top 10 worldwide
and first in Europe. He has been TED x Speaker at second ever TED x event in Switzerland on the topic
of sensory Web (http://www.tedxzug.com). He is an affiliate professor at Grenoble Graduate School of
Business (http://www.grenoble-em.com) and has been evaluated outstanding professor by students in
2010 (Entrepreneurship Graduate Track). He is an honorary member of All India Association for Educational Research (http://www.aiaer.net/). His website www.imi-luzern.com has been voted among the
top 100 Swiss business websites because of its innovative usage of Web 2.0 (http://www.anthrazit.org).
Susanne Robra-Bissantz currently manages the Institut of Business Information Systems and its
Information Management Group at the Technische Universitt Braunschweig, Germany. She mainly
passed her education (study of business management, doctoral thesis and habilitation in business Information Systems) at the university Erlangen-Nrnberg. In Braunschweig, she focuses her research on
the role of information and Information Systems as a strategic asset for companies. Main fields are ITbased business communication, coordination, and cooperation with special interest in customer oriented
e-services, e-service engineering, and cooperation systems with Web 2.0-technologies. In this area, she
supervises about 15 Ph.D. students that work in different scientific and industry funded research projects.
Amardeep Singh received his B.Tech. degree in computer science and engineering, his M.Tech.
degree in computer science and engineering from Punjabi University, Patiala, and Ph.D. degree from
Thapar University, Patiala in 2007. He is currently a faculty member of computer science and engineering department at University college of Engineering, Punjabi University, Patiala. His research interests
include bioinformatics, DNA computing, and digital circuit testing. He has received several awards and
recognition in teaching and conferences. He is member of various professional societies.
Shailendra Singh received his B.Tech. degree in computer science and engineering from Harcourt
Butler Technological Institute (H.B.T.I.) Kanpur, M.E. degree in computer science and engineering from
Thapar Institute of Engineering and Technology, (T.I.E.T.) Patiala in 2003. He is currently a faculty
member of computer science and engineering department at PEC University of Technology, Chandigarh.
His research interest includes bioinformatics, natural language processing, and soft computing. He has
received several awards and recognition in teaching and conferences. He is member of various professional societies. One of his projects entitled DEEPTI was featured by BBC.
317
Eva Sderstrm is an associate professor at the University of Skvde, Sweden. She earned her PhD
in Computer and System Science from Stockholm University/Royal Institute of Technology in 2004,
on the subject of B2B standards implementation. Her current research is focused on trust and standards
for inter-organisational collaboration, through, for example, e-services and e-government services. She
has led and participated in several national and international projects, and has published over 70 internationally reviewed publications.
R. Todd Stephens is the Sr. Technical Architect of the Evolving Technologies for the AT&T Corporation. Todd is responsible for setting the corporate strategy and architecture for the development and
implementation of the enterprise collaborative and metadata solutions. Todd has over 130 professional
and academic publications including 3 patents, six patent pending filings, and he writes a monthly column for Data Management Review. Todd holds degrees in Mathematics and Computer Science from
Columbus State University, an MBA degree from Georgia State University, and a Ph.D. in Information
Systems from Nova Southeastern University.
Archana Tyagi is a PhD in Psychology, D.M & S P (Diploma in Medical and Social Psychology
(Clinical Psychologist) from C I P Kanke, Ranchi and MA from BHU (India). She has experience of
nearly 18 years in the areas of teaching, management development programme, and research. She has
been a professor of OB/HR in IMT-Ghaziabad (India) for nearly 15 years. She has presented papers
in national and international conferences. She has publications in refereed national and international
journals. She has conducted workshops and training programs for public and private sector organizations. She has written a book on Organizational Behavior publishes by Excel Publishers. She is currently
based in Geneva and is associated with UBIS-Switzerland as an adjunct faculty in the area of OB/HR,
since January, 2008.
Julie Vardhan is currently Sr. Lecturer at Manipal University, Dubai. Since 2006, she has been associated full-time in the core academic field teaching Programs in Management including subjects such as
Strategic Management, Organizational Behavior, Human Resources Management, International Marketing, Marketing Communications, Sales and Distribution Management, Services Marketing, Training, and
Development. Prior to joining Manipal University, Dubai in 2008, she was Faculty Member at ICFAI,
Lucknow, India. After completing her Graduate Hons. in 1996, and later MBA in 1998, she worked in
the corporate sector for five years gaining rich diversified experience in national media, international
bank, and trading companies, as well as academics. Her area of research interest includes advertising,
experiential marketing, emotional intelligence, destination marketing, leadership and change management,
and entrepreneurship, on which themes, she has attended numerous conferences and published papers.
Maximilian Witt studied business management at the university of Erlangen-Nrnberg, Trinity
College (Dublin) and University of Boston. After his studies, he worked at the University of ErlangenNrnberg as research assistant in an open innovation project funded by the German Federal Ministry of
Research and Technology and the EU. He is now Ph.D. student and research assistant at the Technische
Universitt Braunschweig (institute of Information Systems, in particular information management
group) and part of a cooperation project together with Volkswagen. His current research focuses on open
innovation, especially on how fun and enjoyment motivate customers to take part in open innovation.
318
319
Index
A
accessibility 7, 9-10, 12, 14, 16-17, 32, 80, 125
Actor-Network theory (ANT) 54-56, 60
Adapted Medicine 77
AdWords 38
alternative news media 48
altruism 65, 147, 157
Amadeus e-Retail system 67
Antibiotic Resistance 78
Application-to-Application (A2A ) 99
AR Development Conference 267, 276
Augmented Reality (AR) 261, 266-267, 269-281
Automated Stock Replenishment (ASR) 97
Automated Tank Gauges (ATG) 97
Available-to-Promise (ATP) 94
Avatar 150-152, 162, 206-207, 211, 215, 217, 225,
234-235, 243-244, 269
B
Basic Local Alignment Search tool (BLAST) 84, 89
bioinformatics 76-77, 79-85, 87-88
biological data 76-77, 81-83, 86-88
Biology Workbench 85-88
biotechnology 76, 166, 182
Business-to-Business (B2B) 11, 74, 92, 94, 98-99,
103, 106, 117-118, 221, 225, 228, 232, 250,
258
Business-to-Consumer (B2C) 11, 103-104, 221,
225, 228, 250
C
Capacity Offering Agent (COA) 170-173, 176
Citizen Journalism 51, 54, 56, 58, 60
Climate Change 78
collaboration 13, 18, 21, 26, 29-30, 36, 38, 41-42,

48, 50-52, 54-55, 60, 66, 73, 81-84, 87, 90-98,
100-101, 108, 120-126, 128, 130-137, 139,
141, 146, 165-166, 168-169, 178, 184-185,
187-188, 190-191, 195-196, 198-199, 201, 218,
221-223, 226, 228, 230, 236-238, 242-243,
246, 249, 255-256, 265
collaborative filtering systems 24
collaborative journalism 48, 55-58
collaborative network 186-187, 190-192, 195
collaborative Web 37-38, 40, 48, 81, 88, 90-92, 99,
101-103, 105, 114-116, 119, 144-146, 157, 166,
180, 184-196, 201, 213, 265-266, 268
collaborative Web beginners 193
collaborative Web tools 102-103, 105, 114-116,
119, 166, 187-188, 192, 196
collection and delivery points (CDPs) 127
collectivism 65, 68
communities of practice (CoPs) 99, 184, 218
community-oriented changers 194
company orientation 184
company owned company operated (COCO) 95
company owned dealer operated (CODO) 95
Company X 66-72, 75
complex adaptive supply networks (CASNs) 167168, 182
compressed natural gas (CNG) 93
condition based monitoring (CBM) 95
consumer business model 19
contemporary industrial economy 165
continuous motivation 156-157, 161
Conway law 26
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) 98
crop development 78
crowdsourcing 53, 57, 59, 160, 265-266, 280
cultural identity (CI) 211, 213
customer relationship management (CRM) 97, 99,
239
Index
dealer owned dealer operated (DODO) 95

decision support agent (DSA) 170, 173, 176
demand-pull 93
deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) 77, 80, 84, 88
digital content monetization 253
digital era 115
digital immigrants 5
digital laggards 5
digital rights management (DRM) 253, 256, 259
DNA identification 77
document management system (DMS) 99
drug development 78
game-based open innovation 144-145, 148-149,

158, 161
game mechanisms 144-145, 149-150, 152-159, 161
GEM model 35-36, 40
gene expression 77
gene regulation 77
global entrepreneurship monitor (GEM) 35-36, 40,
43
global positioning system (GPS) 125
Google 23-24, 36-40, 43, 49, 55, 152, 160, 162,
193, 262, 264, 267, 280
griefers 236, 244
growth 8, 20, 26, 31-36, 38-40, 42-44, 52, 77, 81,
103, 105-106, 130, 133, 168, 191, 209, 211213, 222, 224, 238, 240, 255
E
efficiency driven economies 35
electronic business (e-business) 4, 19, 74, 106, 116,
118, 181, 196, 199
electronic collaboration (e-collaboration) 166, 218
electronic commerce (e-commerce) 11, 18-21, 24,
26-28, 30, 74, 102-108, 110-111, 113, 115-119,
160, 199, 242, 255, 258-259
electronic data interchange (EDI) 94, 103, 105
electronic delivery (e-delivery) 61
electronic government (e-government) 28, 62-64,
66, 73-75
electronic retail (e-retail) 67, 103
electronic services (e-services) 61-66, 68-75, 105
energy sources 78
enterprise resource planning (ERP) 94-97, 99, 101,
106, 119, 125
entrepreneurs 31-36, 41-42, 44, 74, 137, 225, 266,
269
entrepreneurship 31-35, 39-40, 42-44, 58, 199-200
environment health and safety (EH&S) 90, 98
e-services development 62, 64-65, 68, 71, 75
event processing 248, 259
evolution model of supply networks 168
eXtensible markup language (XML) 4, 23, 80
F
factor-driven economies 35
FASTA 84-85, 89
firewall 228, 233, 244, 246
fitness landscape theory 167
320
H
HMMER 84-85, 89
Human Genome Project 80
human-information interaction (HII) 6, 8, 14
human migration 77
human resources management (HRM) 262-263, 272
hypertext markup language (HTML) 22, 28, 38, 44,
58, 82, 89, 101, 117-118, 159, 199, 214-215,
238-243, 256-257, 262-263, 271-272, 279-280
I
idea competition 145-146, 148-149, 155, 157-158,
161-162
identity crisis 202, 204-205, 207-208, 210-212,
215, 218
identity development 204-205, 207, 217
identity formation 205, 207-208, 214, 217-218
identity management 202, 205, 217
immersive collaborative environment 245
India 39-41, 48-49, 52-53, 55, 57-58, 60, 76, 245,
247, 249-250, 256-257, 264
inflationary increase 144-146, 157
information and communication technology (ICT)
15-16, 39-41, 44, 105-106, 118-119, 166, 181,
186-188, 197-198, 276
information and technology (IT) 1-3, 5-6, 8-14, 1921, 24-29, 31-40, 42, 48-58, 60, 62-72, 76-78,
80-86, 90-101, 103-106, 108-111, 113-114,
120-128, 130, 134-137, 145, 147-152, 154-158,
166, 168-177, 179, 181-182, 188-198, 201-207,
209-212, 215, 218, 221-222, 224, 227-234,
238, 240-241, 245-255, 259-270, 272-280
Index
information poor 50, 58

information rich 50
information scent 17
innovation 13, 26, 31, 33, 35, 38-40, 42-44, 52, 64,
73, 99, 103, 121, 124-125, 130, 139, 141, 144149, 152, 156-161, 196, 216, 245, 255
innovation driven economies 35, 40
innovation system 40
interactive television (ITV) 37
interface design 6, 21, 270
international oil companies (IOCs) 96, 101
InterProScan 85
in-world 222, 224-225, 230, 232-236, 238, 244
island 224, 228-233, 244
Istanbul 123, 126, 128-131, 135-136, 138
mobile telecommunications 37
model 2, 7, 10, 13, 15, 17-21, 23, 25-27, 31, 35-36,
40, 53, 56, 59, 74, 78, 81, 93, 97, 99, 102-103,
105, 111, 115-116, 118, 123, 126-128, 133,
138-139, 144-145, 147, 149-150, 154, 158,
161, 166-168, 170, 173, 176, 194, 198-200,
215-217, 226-227, 239-240, 243, 246, 248,
254-255, 262, 269, 271, 276, 278-279
molecular medicine 78
Mozzartbet 190-191
multi agent architecture 165-167, 169, 175, 180-181
multi agent technology 166
multicriteria analysis 102, 108, 113, 118-119
multicriteria analysis method 102
multi-user domains (MUDs) 205-206, 218
journalist 51
national oil companies (NOCs) 91, 96, 101

natural resources industries 90-92, 101
network economy (net economy) 37, 43
network entrepreneur 48, 55-56, 58
network intrusion detection 79
network threats 79, 88
news media 28, 48-53, 55-56, 58, 60
non-resident Indian (NRI) 57
notecard 244
nutritional quality 79
K
key performance indicators (KPIs) 36, 125
Knol page 38
knowledge 2, 8, 11-13, 15, 17, 21-23, 28, 31-44, 49,
60, 64-65, 69-76, 78-82, 88, 90, 98, 121, 132,
142, 145, 156, 166, 184-201, 218, 223, 241,
245, 247, 250, 254-255, 258-259, 261, 265, 276
knowledge economy 31-34, 36-37, 39-42, 142
knowledge economy index (KEI) 39-42
knowledge-intensive companies 184-186, 188,
195-196
knowledge-intensive company 199, 201
knowledge management 15, 33, 65, 72, 88, 184201, 241, 258
knowledge on demand (KOD) 245, 250, 259
L
Lindens 224, 244
liquefied natural gas (LNG) 93
liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) 91-92, 97, 101
London Metal Exchange (LME) 97, 101
long tail effect 38
M
market rules 134
material requirement planning (MRP) 94
MaxSprout 85, 89
mediator agent (MA) 27, 29, 42-44, 59, 88, 138,
159-160, 170, 173, 175-176, 213
Migros 135
O
object-oriented hypermedia design method
(OOHDM) 7
oil field services 91, 94, 96, 101
oil refining 101
online grocery provision 120, 122-123, 126, 128,
132, 136-137
online social networks (OSNs) 22, 65, 75
open innovation 73, 144-149, 156, 158-161
open source software (OSS) 8, 15, 159-160
operationalisation 122
organizational change 140, 195, 198
organizational culture 141, 188, 190-192, 194-196,
198, 200-201
organizational identity 202, 210, 213-214
organizational knowledge 185
organizational structure 106, 184-189, 192, 194197, 201
original equipment manufacturers (OEM) 95
outsourcing oil field services (OFS) 94
321
Index
P
participation index (PI) 110, 177, 179
pattern 8-9, 14, 16-17, 101, 128, 213, 249
people to people (P2P) 56
Petroleum Open Standards Consortium (POSC)
100
plant agent (PA) 15, 27, 29, 119, 170
portable document format (PDF) 6, 43-44, 159,
198, 213, 236, 238, 241, 256-257, 259
preference ranking organization method for enrichment evaluation (PROMETHEE) 102-103,
106, 108-109, 111, 113-114, 117
principlism 65
production markup language (PRODML) 91, 100
professional and amateur (pro-am journalism) 53
psychosocial moratorium 202, 204-205, 207, 209,
212, 218
public sphere 48, 50-51, 58-60
Q
QR code 263, 266, 268-277, 281
quality 5, 8-17, 21, 24-25, 28, 30, 33, 37, 44, 63,
71, 75, 79, 94, 104-106, 118-119, 123-124,
126, 132, 134, 140-141, 146, 157, 168, 205,
207, 222, 226-227, 241, 252-253
R
radio frequency identification (RFID) 125, 268, 270
rapid automatic detection and alignment of repeats
(RADAR) 85, 198, 263
really simple syndication (RSS) 21, 23, 27, 53
reliability centered maintenance (RCM) 95-96
reputation systems 24, 27, 29-30
request capacity agent (RCA) 170-173, 176
requirements 5, 13, 15, 35, 41, 61-69, 71-72, 75, 80,
96, 100, 115, 145, 147-148, 175, 256, 277
return on digital investment (RODI) 254
risk assessment 77
rural production 102-103, 105, 107-109, 111, 115116, 119
S
SaaS integration 254
Second Life 215-216, 218, 221-244, 262, 269
secure sockets layer (SSL) 105
self-interest 65
Semantic Web 1, 12-13, 15, 17, 75, 88, 198, 267,
269, 273-275
322
service providers 74, 91-93, 234, 236, 244, 255

sidewiki 38
simulation environment 165, 167, 169, 175, 180181
small-to-medium-size enterprises (SME) 10, 14, 97,
103, 106, 111, 115
social networking 14, 18, 21-22, 27, 29-30, 38,
40-41, 51-52, 99, 105, 108, 116, 189, 200-201,
237, 250, 271, 279
social web 1, 12-15, 17, 21, 264, 266
software as a service (SaaS) 246, 248-249, 254,
257, 259-260
spatial resistance 131-132, 135, 137
stakeholder 2, 90
stock keeping units (SKUs) 98
STS (science, technology, and society) 54
supply chain management (SCM) 94, 99, 101, 103,
106, 119, 121, 125, 136, 138-141
supply-push 93
sustainable development 14, 41, 105
T
target service market segment 63
taxonomy 14, 23, 27, 30, 73
technology acceptance model (TAM) 161, 226-227,
240-241, 243
The Scientific and Technological Research Council
of Turkey (TUBITAK ) 138
timber 103, 110-111, 113-114, 119
timber trade 103, 111, 119
total profit (TP) 173, 175-177, 179, 181
total unsatisfied demand (TUD) 177, 179
total unutilised capacity (TUC) 177
transport layer security (TLS) 105
Turkey 116, 120, 129-130, 134, 138-139, 141
U
UML-based Web engineering (UWE) 7
unified modeling language (UML) 8, 117, 166, 171
United Arab Emirates (UAE) 39-41
unit of knowledge (knol) 38
universal design 14, 17
universal resource locator (URL) 22, 281
upstream bandwidth 254, 260
upstream petroleum 91-92
urban planning 120, 122, 133
usability 7, 9-10, 12, 14-17, 70-71, 104, 117
Index
user 3-7, 12-13, 17, 19, 21-25, 27, 40-41, 51, 61-75,
79-80, 82, 94, 104, 108, 122, 124, 146, 157,
185, 204-205, 211, 216, 218, 222, 224-225,
227, 233, 238-240, 246, 248, 252-254, 256257, 259, 262-264, 266, 272-277, 279
user innovation 64
user participation 12, 17, 61-66, 68, 70-73, 75
V
video streaming 248, 257, 259-260
virtual communities (VCs) 27, 61-62, 65-66, 68-75,
207, 258-259
virtual community orientation 184
virtual conference 224, 245-250, 254, 257, 259-260
virtual economy 215, 246
virtual exhibition (VE) 204, 206, 212, 245, 247248, 250, 254, 258-260
virtual experience platform (VEP) 246, 250-251,
256-257
virtual identity 203, 206-207, 209, 215
virtual platforms 207, 234
virtual reality 202-204, 208, 211-218, 242, 245-247,
250, 255, 257-258
virtual reality exposure therapy (VRET) 204, 216
virtual representation 203
virtualsoft systems limited (VSL) 249-250
W
waste cleaning 78
wave technology 38
Web 2.0 198, 251
Web applications 1-17, 37-38, 88, 166, 201, 265,
274
Web design 11, 15-17, 102, 118-119
Web engineering 2-3, 7, 9, 11, 14-17
Web journalism 49, 51, 54-55, 57-58
Web modeling language (WebML) 8
Web services 24, 26, 62, 70, 73, 75, 79-80, 82-83,
88-89, 94, 197
Web services deployment descriptor (WSDD) 79
Website 37-38, 40, 49, 56, 94-97, 102-111, 113-119,
146, 250, 264, 266, 268, 276
Website feature 105, 107-108, 111, 113-114, 119
Wellsite information transfer standards markup
language (WITSML) 91, 100
Wiki 22, 28, 38, 44, 99, 187, 190-192, 194, 263
World Wide Web (WWW) 15, 20, 25, 28, 37-38,
42-44, 56, 58-59, 82, 89, 97, 100-101, 116-119,
139, 142, 159-162, 166, 191, 198, 214-215,
217, 234, 238-240, 242-243, 246, 251, 255260, 266, 269-273, 276-281
323

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Business Organizations

and Collaborative Web:

Senior Editorial Director:

Published in the United States of America by

British Cataloguing in Publication Data

Editorial Advisory Board

Detailed Table of Contents

Compilation of References ............................................................................................................... 282

Towards Collaborative Web

Web has changed peoples behaviors, in some

Towards a Characterization of the Developmental Environment of Web Applications

considers the implications of these characteristics

Basic Terminology Related

For the sake of this chapter, Web Engineering

Stakeholders of Web Applications

Related Work on Characterizing the

Towards a Characterization of the Developmental Environment of Web Applications

It has been noted that Web Applications vary

chapter is in a confluence of [C-1] [C-8]. It is

[C-1] Computing EnvironmentNeutral

Towards a Characterization of the Developmental Environment of Web Applications

The proliferation of information technologies such

Towards a Characterization of the Developmental Environment of Web Applications

plications such as digital immigrants or digital

Towards a Characterization of the Developmental Environment of Web Applications

on the users and their environment may lead to

[C-3]). Therefore, attention and commitment to

Figure 2. The information interface in the hierarchy of human-to-machine interaction

Towards a Characterization of the Developmental Environment of Web Applications

ing. There are a number of advantages of modeling

Figure 3. An example of an information interface for a Web Application

Problem Domain Model

Requirements Elicitation and Specification, Glossary

Project Management Plan

User Requirements Elicitation and Specification, Acceptance Testing

Use Case Model

Cost Estimation, Behavioral Requirements Elicitation, Test Case Specification

Interaction Design Description

Towards a Characterization of the Developmental Environment of Web Applications

[C-6] Open Environment-Based

Web Applications. The family of OSS clients,

Towards a Characterization of the Developmental Environment of Web Applications

familiar to the users of Web Applications, and it

ness of accessibility in the development of Web

Web Application Quality Model

Web Application Stakeholder Model

Towards a Characterization of the Developmental Environment of Web Applications

so on. Therefore, the needs pertaining to quality

Towards a Characterization of the Developmental Environment of Web Applications

Conceptual Model Quality Model

Domain Model Quality Model, Use Case Model Quality Model

Specification Quality Model

Requirements Specification Quality Model

Information Quality Model

Design Quality Model

Navigation Design Quality Model, Presentation Design Quality Model

Implementation Quality Model

Data Quality Model, Source Code Quality Model

Implications of Characterizing the

Implications for Knowledge Transfer

Implications for Management

Towards a Characterization of the Developmental Environment of Web Applications

environment. This trend is likely to continue for

FUTURE RESEARCH DIRECTIONS