The Digitalization in the COVID-19 Era

In December 2019, a new viral pneumonia called COVID-19 appeared in Wuhan, China causing a health crisis that then turned into an economic and social crisis. Since then, entire sectors of the economy have been slowing down, forcing them to integrate innovative digital processes to mitigate the negative impact of this crisis. In this regard, the purpose of the chapter is to initiate a reflection on digitization processes based on a review of the literature to help explain the concept. This work allowed spotlighting the existing research on digitalization through practical case studies in business, education, and health systems, and how organizations perceive digitalization during the COVID-19 pandemic. The authors analyze how digital platforms can increase the survival rate of businesses in times of crisis and ensure the continuity of customers' access to the various goods and services. The purpose behind this is to serve as a basis for further empirical research for academics and improve the knowledge base by providing insight into the efforts of the sectors studied.

Smart Contract and Collaborative Platforms

The collaborative economy (CE) involves an intensification of peer-to-peer commerce either directly or through the presence of an intermediary. Collaborative online exchanges are supported by digital processes that involve increased use of new technologies. As an intrinsically connected economy, the EC is therefore inclined to integrate the most recent technological advances, in particular smart contracts. In a recent article, Ertz and Boily raised that this technology can have important impacts for the development of the CE the intensification of exchanges between peers. This chapter consists of a conceptual review analyzing how the CE connects to smart contract technology by observing in particular the motivations of users on digital sharing platforms. The chapter also presents the organizational and managerial implications associated with the implementation of smart contracts in terms of governance, transaction costs, and user trust on collaborative online platforms. A comparison with conventional contracts is also initiated.

THE TOURISM DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION: TRENDS, OBJECTIVES, SOLUTION METHODS

The paper substantiates the relevance for development of digital technologies in the tourism industry, especially at the post-pandemic stage, and identifies main global trends in digitalization of this sector. It also describes the work experience of tourism organizations in Russia and abroad on the development and application of digital technologies. Consideration is given to the importance of entrenching digital technologies in the context of integrated digital initiatives and also the priority of government initiatives to promote and develop digital processes in the tourism industry. The conclusion is made about the need to create such institutional and infrastructural conditions in Russia that will be adequate to the objective of more rapid digitalization in the tourism industry with an account for new trends formed in digital transformation of the tourism industry in strategic documents at different planning horizons.

The cyber-consciousness of environmental assessment: how environmental assessments evaluate the impacts of smart, connected, and digital technology

Digitally-enabled technologies are increasingly cyber-physical systems (CPS). They are networked in nature and made up of geographically dispersed components that manage and control data received from humans, equipment, and the environment. Researchers evaluating such technologies are thus challenged to include CPS subsystems and dynamics that might not be obvious components of a product system. Although analysts might assume CPS have negligible or purely beneficial impact on environmental outcomes, such assumptions require justification. As the physical environmental impacts of digital processes (e.g., cryptocurrency mining) gain attention, the need for explicit attention to CPS in environmental assessment becomes more salient. This review investigates how the peer-reviewed environmental assessment literature treats environmental implications of CPS, with a focus on journal articles published in English between 2010-2020. We identify nine CPS subsystems and dynamics addressed in this literature: energy system, digital equipment, non-digital equipment, automation & management, network infrastructure, direct costs, social & health effects, feedbacks, and cybersecurity. Based on these categories, we develop a “cyber-consciousness score” reflecting the extent to which the 115 studies that met our evaluation criteria address CPS, then summarize analytical methods and modeling techniques drawn from reviewed literature to facilitate routine inclusion of CPS in environmental assessment. We find that, given challenges in establishing system boundaries, limited standardization of how to evaluate CPS dynamics, and failure to recognize the role of CPS in a product system under evaluation, the extant environmental assessment literature in peer-reviewed journals largely ignores CPS subsystems and dynamics when evaluating digital or digitally-enabled technologies.

Drawing in the Domain: An investigation into the dialogue between analogue and digital tools through the design of a Paraparaumu sports clubrooms

<p>Tourism in New Zealand is often about nature. On the Kapiti Coast, tourism is preoccupied with the island, but this research looks at possibilities of cultural tourism in Paraparaumu township: away from risks of coastal erosion, sea level rise, and potential tsunamis. Sport is important to local culture and the objective is to explore the architectural potential for the Paraparaumu Domain. The existing Paraparaumu Rugby Club, Old Boys Cricket Club, Athletics Club, and Memorial Hall are all in separate buildings, used at separate times, during different parts of the year. What kind of architecture could help celebrate local sports culture? What kind of processes might be cultivated through such a project and how could they influence the design? Through the design of a shared sports clubrooms in the domain I searched for design processes and typological hybrids that could both connect to the local cultures, but also to discover more complex technical and spatial possibilities. Beginning with a typical cement block I explored an interior quality of the existing clubrooms; one that is unpretentious and modest. I experimented with analogue and digital processes to draw out a relationship between qualities, thinking how blunt instruments can come together with more sophisticated ones.</p>

The Bionic Hand: Augmenting the Manual and the Digital

<p>The tension between the hand and machine is currently at the core of one of architecture’s biggest debates. Pallasmaa and the firm Kieran Timberlake, for example, hold very different positions on this spectrum, both with a significant following. Kieran Timberlake, who designed Loblolly House, use digital design and construction methods to discover new construction techniques for a globalised world. The capacity of parametric software, 3D printing, and robotic fabrication has been rapidly advancing in the last decade. They are opening the possibilities of new sculptural forms, more efficient construction processes, and alternative forms of detailing and ornamentation. In contrast, Pallasmaa uses ‘the thinking hand’ to draw out intimacy: nooks, irregularities, material richness, and handcraft that invite the user into a closer relationship with architecture. Hand drawing and hand making are crucial to Pallasmaa’s goals: intimacy exists in both the design process and the final form of architecture. The design process is not as divisive as famous pillars at each end of the spectrum imply. In this work, I explore: how can emerging technologies and ‘the thinking hand’ complement each other? And how might the ‘bionic hand’ inform both intimacy and efficiency? I explored this through designing a six-unit housing project in the Wellington suburb of Hataitai. The site is next to Roger Walker’s maze of intimate moments, Park Mews. I approached design through hand and digital processes. My main intention was to document a design process that integrates hand and digital techniques, showing one way an exchange between them could occur. I aimed to combine efficiency and intimacy, through exploring digital and hand techniques. This resulted in findings of the possibilities of the bionic hand in both the form and formation of architecture, the design’s place in the context of New Zealand suburbia and its place in the discipline.</p>

The Bionic Hand: Augmenting the Manual and the Digital

<p>The tension between the hand and machine is currently at the core of one of architecture’s biggest debates. Pallasmaa and the firm Kieran Timberlake, for example, hold very different positions on this spectrum, both with a significant following. Kieran Timberlake, who designed Loblolly House, use digital design and construction methods to discover new construction techniques for a globalised world. The capacity of parametric software, 3D printing, and robotic fabrication has been rapidly advancing in the last decade. They are opening the possibilities of new sculptural forms, more efficient construction processes, and alternative forms of detailing and ornamentation. In contrast, Pallasmaa uses ‘the thinking hand’ to draw out intimacy: nooks, irregularities, material richness, and handcraft that invite the user into a closer relationship with architecture. Hand drawing and hand making are crucial to Pallasmaa’s goals: intimacy exists in both the design process and the final form of architecture. The design process is not as divisive as famous pillars at each end of the spectrum imply. In this work, I explore: how can emerging technologies and ‘the thinking hand’ complement each other? And how might the ‘bionic hand’ inform both intimacy and efficiency? I explored this through designing a six-unit housing project in the Wellington suburb of Hataitai. The site is next to Roger Walker’s maze of intimate moments, Park Mews. I approached design through hand and digital processes. My main intention was to document a design process that integrates hand and digital techniques, showing one way an exchange between them could occur. I aimed to combine efficiency and intimacy, through exploring digital and hand techniques. This resulted in findings of the possibilities of the bionic hand in both the form and formation of architecture, the design’s place in the context of New Zealand suburbia and its place in the discipline.</p>

Drawing in the Domain: An investigation into the dialogue between analogue and digital tools through the design of a Paraparaumu sports clubrooms

<p>Tourism in New Zealand is often about nature. On the Kapiti Coast, tourism is preoccupied with the island, but this research looks at possibilities of cultural tourism in Paraparaumu township: away from risks of coastal erosion, sea level rise, and potential tsunamis. Sport is important to local culture and the objective is to explore the architectural potential for the Paraparaumu Domain. The existing Paraparaumu Rugby Club, Old Boys Cricket Club, Athletics Club, and Memorial Hall are all in separate buildings, used at separate times, during different parts of the year. What kind of architecture could help celebrate local sports culture? What kind of processes might be cultivated through such a project and how could they influence the design? Through the design of a shared sports clubrooms in the domain I searched for design processes and typological hybrids that could both connect to the local cultures, but also to discover more complex technical and spatial possibilities. Beginning with a typical cement block I explored an interior quality of the existing clubrooms; one that is unpretentious and modest. I experimented with analogue and digital processes to draw out a relationship between qualities, thinking how blunt instruments can come together with more sophisticated ones.</p>

The role of digital transformation on e-learning at King Khalid University considering the Corona pandemic covid 19: دور التحول الرقمي في تفعيل التعليم الإلكتروني في جامعة الملك خالد خلال جائحة كورونا (COVID-19)

The study aimed to identify the important role that digital transformation plays in activating and developing e-learning, as digital transformation has radically changed in all fields, especially in the field of education, as it allowed the emergence of modern educational methods and methods. With the rapid development in the world of technology and the trend of governments and institutions towards digital in all their services by providing digital services in a smooth and easy way that saves effort, time and money for the beneficiaries, in our current era all institutions have been keen to adopt the concept of digital transformation by replacing traditional digital processes, and developing plans and strategies to ensure the achievement of Its objectives are of quality and efficiency, as the digital transformation is able to create a competitive and attractive technical environment that achieves the highest levels of quality at the lowest costs, and that the spread and use of everything digital has accelerated over the past ten years Several challenges have imposed on traditional education, especially in light of the Corona pandemic (Covid-19), which makes relying on traditional educational methods difficult, so the study came with the aim of identifying the role of digital transformation (digital learning) at King Khalid University on the development and effectiveness of e-learning in light of the pandemic The paper followed the inductive approach and the qualitative approach. Observation, reports, documentary information and King Khalid University websites were used to collect data. The concepts of digital transformation as well as e-learning were addressed, and then a set of results were reached. King Khalid University is distinguished by the existence of an effective electronic system, that the technical environment for information technology has enabled King Khalid University to face the rapid change in the work environment, and the study concluded some recommendations. One of them is that digital transformation is no longer an option, rather it has become a necessity, so it is necessary to keep pace with technological developments and to benefit from them in the transformation towards digital learning.

Use of E-Health in Dutch General Practice during the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced general practices to search for possibilities to provide healthcare remotely (e.g., e-health). In this study, the impact of the pandemic on the use of e-health in general practices in the Netherlands was investigated. In addition, the intention of practices to continue using e-health more intensively and differences in the use of e-health between practice types were investigated. For this purpose, web surveys were sent to general practices in April and July 2020. Descriptive data analysis was performed and differences in the use of e-health between practice types were tested using one-way ANOVA. Response rates were 34% (n = 1433) in April and 17% (n = 719) in July. The pandemic invoked an increased use of several (new) e-health applications. A minority of practices indicated the intention to maintain this increased use. In addition, small differences in the use of e-health between the different practice types were found. This study showed that although there was an increased uptake of e-health in Dutch general practice during the COVID-19 pandemic, only a minority of practices intends to maintain this increased use in the future. This may point towards a temporary uptake of digital healthcare delivery rather than accelerated implementation of digital processes.