Search results

The purpose of this paper is to describe the currently experienced benefits and obstacles for enhancing facilties management (FM) with the currently available technological enablers.

This paper presents an integration of several studies conducted to identify the current benefits and obstacles of mobile technology as perceived by the Finnish FM professionals. The main intentions of the study were: to describe the current technological enablers for the utilisation of mobile technology at FM settings; and to interview the FM professionals on their perceived benefits and obstacles of the utilisation of the currently available technology.

The change of practice to support the exploitation of mobile technology is emergent. The findings of the empirical part include the currently feasible mobile solutions and their perceived limitations. The experiences benefits are discussed and critical success factors are nominated. The perceived benefits are mostly related to improved resource efficiency and quality control. The essential success factors and remaining obstacles are discussed.

The empirical part is limited to Finnish settings, but the observations are likely valid in several other developed countries as well.

The change of FM practice to benefit from the exploitation of mobile technology is emergent.

The paper gives experience‐based suggestions for both demand and supply sides of the service procurement to gain the feasible benefits and avoid the currently hindering obstacles, as the paper provides insight of the current and future tools for the mobile aspects of FM. The findings are relevant for the service providers and operators as well.

The purpose of this paper is to describe how healthy performance of facilities can be monitored and performance data delivered as information flow according to specific user groups' needs.

The context of performance in facilities is described, and a tool for the collection of performance data and communicating the data as relevant information for the facility management (FM) and other stake holders is developed.

Various user groups are utilizing the same performance data to ensure optimal and healthy conditions. The integration of performance data to deliver meaningful and exploitable results for each user requires collection of the relevant data, compilation of data into information, and delivery of user specific information to the correct instance. A performance sensing system with data management was developed into a FM tool for this purpose.

FM is enabled to real time decision making by sensor‐based performance monitoring.

The results are generic and FM tools may be built on this basis for the specific information and display needs of various FM professionals and other stakeholders.

The paper aims to give an introduction to radio frequency identification (RFID) technology with near field communication (NFC) to enable users to access content and services with hand‐held devices. It also aims to give a general overview on RFID utilization, its obstacles, diffusion and expected benefits. Some pilot applications are already being used commercially. Finally, it seeks to summarize applications of the technology in the facilties management (FM) industry.

The paper uses literary research and also interdisciplinary specialist analyses to find out the usage of IT‐based services in the FM field and supply of service providers. Some real pilots have been made and analysed in cooperation with service providers (FM and IT), building owners and building users (customers).

Mobile phones are heavily used in the FM industry for speech and text messaging (SMS) communications, but usage of other mobile phone services has not been established as a part of operation processes. The exploitation of RFID in FM as well as construction industry seems to be rather low, in fact in an infant stage. Accordingly pilot FM service using RFID technology proved to be very usable.

IT‐based mobile services are common in many countries and in various industries but using a mobile phone as a RFID reader is familiar mostly in Finland (Nokia phone).

The use of RFID/NFC technology in FM and also in the construction industry seems to be very prominent with high potential technology adoption for improving services.

This paper brings forward a quite novel technology application for the FM industry and presents the experiences of real pilot projects.

Past research has shown there is a relationship between body image, sexual behavior, and pleasure. However, the majority of this research has centered on heterosexual participants. In this analysis, the author considers how this relationship between body image, sexual behavior, and pleasure may look within women and genderqueer individuals who are all AFAB (assigned female at birth) with 26 out of 30 participants identifying as LGBTQIA+. The author examines perceptions of body size, body hair, and genitals to consider how intersections of social structures – specifically internalized sexism, racism, and misogyny – influence the participants’ experience of sexual interactions. Both resistance and embodiment of traditional gender norms, even as queer women and genderqueer individuals, were examined in these narratives. The majority of the moments where traditional gender norms are examined describe situations when the participants were sexually interacting with cis-gendered men.

In this chapter, I examine stories that foster care youth tell to legislatures, courts, policymakers, and the public to influence policy decisions. The stories told by these children are analogized to victim truth testimony, analyzed as a therapeutic, procedural, and developmental process, and examined as a catalyst for systemic accountability and change. Youth stories take different forms and appear in different media: testimony in legislatures, courts, research surveys or studies; opinion editorials and interviews in newspapers or blog posts; digital stories on YouTube; and artistic expression. Lawyers often serve as conduits for youth storytelling, translating their clients’ stories to the public. Organized advocacy by youth also informs and animates policy development. One recent example fosters youth organizing to promote “normalcy” in child welfare practices in Florida, and in related federal legislation.

Resurgent interest in the life and work of the Italian Cambridge economist Piero Sraffa is leading to New Directions in Sraffa Scholarship. This chapter introduces readers to some of these developments. First and perhaps foremost is the fact that as of September 2016 Sraffa’s archival material has been uploaded onto the website of the Wren Library, Trinity College, Cambridge University, as digital colour images; this chapter introduces readers to the history of these events. This history provides sharp relief on the extant debates over the role of the archival material in leading to the final publication of Production of Commodities by Means of Commodities, and readers are provided a brief sketch of these matters. The varied nature of Sraffa scholarship is demonstrated by the different aspects of Sraffa’s intellectual legacy which are developed and discussed in the various entries of our Symposium. The conclusion is reached that we are on the cusp of an exciting phase change of tremendous potential in Sraffa scholarship.

Accreditation agencies both institutional and professional (such as the American Library Association) have asked educators to demonstrate student learning outcomes for every academic program that they are assessing, and that they use the data gathered for continuous improvement of programs. This chapter reports on the development of an electronic portfolio (ePortfolio) structure for accomplishing an assessment process within a school of library and information science. From the student side, the portfolio prompts them to select work that they feel is their best effort for each program outcome such as “assist and educate users.” From the faculty side, all items for a given outcome can be downloaded and assessed quantitatively and qualitatively so as to arrive at an understanding of how well the program as a whole is doing, with sufficient detail to guide specific improvement decisions. During design, researchers employed a sequential qualitative feedback system to pose tasks (usability testing) and gather commentaries (through interviews) from students while faculty debated the efficacy of this approach and its place within the school's curricular structure. The local end product was a usable portfolio system implemented within a course management system (Oncourse/Sakai). The generalizable outcome is an understanding of key elements necessary for ePortfolios to function as a program-level assessment system: a place for students to select and store artifacts, a way for faculty to access and review the artifacts, simple aggregations of scoring and qualitative information, and a feedback loop of results into program design for improved student learning.