Social Capital and Knowledge Networks of Software Developers

Software development is a problem-solving activity, where ideas are combined in complex ways to create a software product that embodies new knowledge. In this endeavor, software developers constantly look for actionable knowledge to help solve the problem at hand. While knowledge management efforts in the software development domain traditionally involved technical initiatives such as knowledge repositories, experience factories, and lessons-to-learn databases, there is a growing appreciation in the software community of the role of developers' personal knowledge networks in software development. However, research is scarce on the nature of these networks, the knowledge resources accessed from these networks, and the differences, if any, between developers of different experience levels. This research seeks to fill this void. Based on a case study in a software development organization, this research explores the nature of knowledge networks of developers from a social capital perspective. Specifically, it examines the structural and relational dimensions of developers' knowledge networks, identifies the specific actionable knowledge resources accessed from these networks, and explores how entry-level and more experienced developers differ along these dimensions. The findings from the qualitative analysis, backed by limited quantitative analysis of the case study data underpin the discussion, implications for practice and future research directions.

CHALLENGES AND STRATEGIES OF ACADEMIC LIBRARIES DURING COVID-19 CRISIS AMONG NOCEI MEMBER SCHOOLS IN THE PHILIPPINES

Objective. As the world continuously grapples with the massive impact of COVID-19 pandemic on all domains of life, higher education institutions (HEIs) are at the forefront of reshaping and redefining their operations, mostly transitioning into online delivery of services where libraries are not exempted. The way libraries around the globe continue to face their mandate of providing knowledge resources merits research attention, especially in the context of the present health crisis. This study aimed at identifying the challenges and strategies of academic libraries during COVID-19 crisis among member schools of NOCEI, a consortium of higher educational institutions in Region IV-A (CALABARZON), Philippines. Methods. Descriptive in nature, the study utilized online survey which was accomplished by 31 head librarians from the said organization. Results. Findings revealed that barriers on transformation from physical collections to digital format, reduced budget cuts and decrease in purchasing and usage of print and physical materials are the top challenges encountered while there was a strong agreement on strategies utilized primarily on the availability of various online library services for clients and assistance through the Ask a Librarian chat service where students have access to librarian’s help in real-time through virtual chat. Conclusions. As a whole, results implicate the need for HEIs to ensure sustainability of library services during and beyond the pandemic, highlighting various measures that would respond to the ever changing landscape of education and knowledge sharing.

Man vs. machine: comparison of pharmacogenetic expert counselling with a clinical medication support system in a study with 200 genotyped patients

Background Medication problems such as strong side effects or inefficacy occur frequently. At our university hospital, a consultation group of specialists takes care of patients suffering from medication problems. Nevertheless, the counselling of poly-treated patients is complex, as it requires the consideration of a large network of interactions between drugs and their targets, their metabolizing enzymes, and their transporters, etc. Purpose This study aims to check whether a score-based decision-support system (1) reduces the time and effort and (2) suggests solutions at the same quality level. Patients and methods A total of 200 multimorbid, poly-treated patients with medication problems were included. All patients were considered twice: manually, as clinically established, and using the Drug-PIN decision-support system. Besides diagnoses, lab data (kidney, liver), phenotype (age, gender, BMI, habits), and genotype (genetic variants with actionable clinical evidence I or IIa) were considered, to eliminate potentially inappropriate medications and to select individually favourable drugs from existing medication classes. The algorithm is connected to automatically updated knowledge resources to provide reproducible up-to-date decision support. Results The average turnaround time for manual poly-therapy counselling per patient ranges from 3 to 6 working hours, while it can be reduced to ten minutes using Drug-PIN. At the same time, the results of the novel computerized approach coincide with the manual approach at a level of > 90%. The holistic medication score can be used to find favourable drugs within a class of drugs and also to judge the severity of medication problems, to identify critical cases early and automatically. Conclusion With the computerized version of this approach, it became possible to score all combinations of all alternative drugs from each class of drugs administered (“personalized medication landscape “) and to identify critical patients even before problems are reported (“medication alert”). Careful comparison of manual and score-based results shows that the incomplete manual consideration of genetic specialties and pharmacokinetic conflicts is responsible for most of the (minor) deviations between the two approaches. The meaning of the reduction of working time for experts by about 2 orders of magnitude should not be underestimated, as it enables practical application of personalized medicine in clinical routine.

Connecting information literacy and social capital to better utilise knowledge resources in the workplace

Human resources and intellectual capital are best utilised through an ongoing interaction between individual and social processes. Still there is a research gap of empirical multilevel studies, focusing both on individual and organisational aspects of knowledge processes. To fill this gap, this article reports on a quantitative study, where the relationship between information literacy and social capital, representing the individual and social contexts affecting organisational knowledge processes, is explored. Structural equation modelling-based analysis of 378 employees working in different companies in Finland demonstrated that information literacy supports all three dimensions of social capital at workplace. Strong information handling skills enable better access to knowledge beyond the resources of an individual, that is, social capital. The results of the study contribute to a better understanding of how to manage human resources and the information and knowledge processes that employees are expected to be involved in.

Towards Developing “Oops! Solver” for Elderly Care

Long-term care costs, burdens of caregivers, and their resultant shortage are prevalent concerns in an increasingly aging society. Use of information and communication technologies is one possible solution to expedite human resource development; however, there are few knowledge resources that are interpretable by computers. In this study, we present Example of structured manuals for elderly care as a knowledge resource for question-answering systems. We conducted semi-structured interviews with caregivers in a care facility and retrieved information from an open data set to collect “Oops” incidents in daily caregiving. Based on the collected incidents, we created questions worded in natural language and corresponding computer-interpretable queries. Consequently, we obtained 150 Oops incidents and 33 computer-interpretable queries and confirmed the queries can retrieve relevant knowledge from the knowledge resource.

The Hadith Methodology according to Kadei Ayiad in his book "Al-Shifa" (Part I)

This research article focuses on Kadei Ayiad Al-Muhadith and what he has added to the field of modern industry in terms of form and content through his book AL-Shifa. Moreover it sheds light on his singular contributions regarding handling of diversity of knowledge resources, and informed reading and correct transmission.

How Does Knowledge Coupling Affect Firm’s Incremental Innovation? The Moderating Effects of Government Support Policies

Acquiring and combining different knowledge elements across organizational boundaries has become an important strategy for firms’ innovation outcomes. Based on the theory of resource orchestration, this paper divides knowledge coupling into two dimensions: complementary knowledge coupling and substitutable knowledge coupling. Then, this study aims to explore the different impacts of knowledge coupling types on firm’s incremental innovation and verify the moderating role of government support policies in this relationship. Based on the survey of 279 high-tech enterprises from China, our analysis results indicate the following. (1) Complementary knowledge coupling has an inverted U-shaped impact on firm’s incremental innovation, while substitutable knowledge coupling has a positive influence on incremental innovation. (2) The fitness between government support policies and knowledge coupling types can promote the result of firm’s incremental innovation: when firms adopt complementary knowledge coupling strategies, finance and taxation support policies are more conducive to firm’s incremental innovation; when enterprises use substitutable knowledge coupling strategies, innovative environment support policies are better for the promotion of firm’s incremental innovation. The research results provide a theoretical basis for firms to select appropriate government support strategies to exert the effects of innovation based on characteristics of internal and external knowledge resources.

Sources of Students’ Difficulties with Proof By Contradiction

The literature on proof by contradiction (PBC) is nearly unanimous in claiming that this proof technique is “more difficult” for students than direct proof, and offers multiple hypotheses as to why this might be the case. To examine this claim and to evaluate some of the hypotheses, we analyzed student work on proof construction problems from homework and examinations in a university “Introduction to Proof” course taught by one of the authors. We also conducted stimulated-recall interviews with student volunteers probing their thought processes while solving these problems, and their views about PBC in general. Our results suggest that the knowledge resources students bring to bear on proof problems, and how these resources are activated, explain more of their “difficulties” than does the logical structure of the proof technique, at least for this population of students.

An Integrated Knowledge Management Model for Community Enterprises: A Case Study of a Rural Community Enterprise in Thailand

<p>This research seeks to explore the characteristics, organisational culture and current knowledge management (KM) practice in a community enterprise (CE). Prae Pun - a hand weaving CE in the northeast rural area of Thailand - has typical CE characteristics - self-employed and collaborative management, and a home-based production system utilising local resources and knowledge. This research used a qualitative method. Data were collected through narrative inquiry, participant observation and document analysis. The 18 respondents were Prae Pun members, committee members, an advisory committee member and office staff members. The data were analysed through theme analysis. The findings of this research reveal that, although community members would not be aware of doing so, Prae Pun managed its knowledge through informal educational activities - learning by doing and observation - and work processes concerned with collaboration and informality. The current KM practice of Prae Pun entails three processes: basic skill development, competence building and new knowledge creation through creation, capture, sharing, transferring, verification, utilisation and codification. Significantly for this study, KM of Prae Pun focuses on organisational knowledge creation and indigenous knowledge systems. The current KM of Prae Pun also has four other components. Its knowledge resources come from members, other villagers, other hand weaving groups, support organisations and markets. Most of the knowledge is tacit and indigenous. The operation and management systems determine the knowledge processes and provide supportive and incentive systems. The organisational culture and resources, including funding, social capital and appropriate technologies, also provide supportive and incentive systems. The resources are also the tools that facilitate the knowledge processes. The knowledge assets encompass actual assets - products, cloth designs, techniques, and operation and management systems - and competencies including members' skills and abilities, social capital, and shared values, which are not registered as intellectual properties but are in the forms of organisational memories. The traditional KM practice of Prae Pun can be possibly strengthened by integrating modern KM concepts, including knowledge resources from academic and government agencies, appropriate technologies to facilitate knowledge codification and knowledge transfer, extrinsic reward and incentive systems, and facilitators or consultants to enhance members' communities of practice (CoPs). The findings of this study and the KM model contribute to both CE development and further research on KM in a CE context and indigenous KM.</p>

An Integrated Knowledge Management Model for Community Enterprises: A Case Study of a Rural Community Enterprise in Thailand

<p>This research seeks to explore the characteristics, organisational culture and current knowledge management (KM) practice in a community enterprise (CE). Prae Pun - a hand weaving CE in the northeast rural area of Thailand - has typical CE characteristics - self-employed and collaborative management, and a home-based production system utilising local resources and knowledge. This research used a qualitative method. Data were collected through narrative inquiry, participant observation and document analysis. The 18 respondents were Prae Pun members, committee members, an advisory committee member and office staff members. The data were analysed through theme analysis. The findings of this research reveal that, although community members would not be aware of doing so, Prae Pun managed its knowledge through informal educational activities - learning by doing and observation - and work processes concerned with collaboration and informality. The current KM practice of Prae Pun entails three processes: basic skill development, competence building and new knowledge creation through creation, capture, sharing, transferring, verification, utilisation and codification. Significantly for this study, KM of Prae Pun focuses on organisational knowledge creation and indigenous knowledge systems. The current KM of Prae Pun also has four other components. Its knowledge resources come from members, other villagers, other hand weaving groups, support organisations and markets. Most of the knowledge is tacit and indigenous. The operation and management systems determine the knowledge processes and provide supportive and incentive systems. The organisational culture and resources, including funding, social capital and appropriate technologies, also provide supportive and incentive systems. The resources are also the tools that facilitate the knowledge processes. The knowledge assets encompass actual assets - products, cloth designs, techniques, and operation and management systems - and competencies including members' skills and abilities, social capital, and shared values, which are not registered as intellectual properties but are in the forms of organisational memories. The traditional KM practice of Prae Pun can be possibly strengthened by integrating modern KM concepts, including knowledge resources from academic and government agencies, appropriate technologies to facilitate knowledge codification and knowledge transfer, extrinsic reward and incentive systems, and facilitators or consultants to enhance members' communities of practice (CoPs). The findings of this study and the KM model contribute to both CE development and further research on KM in a CE context and indigenous KM.</p>