How Fablabs Manage the Knowledge They Create

A collaborative space for stimulating creativity is a place of learning through the exchange and sharing of knowledge and experience among its members. It allows the leveraging of innovation through the use of technological resources available in the space, stimulating the creativity of its participants, enabling the development of products and solutions based on personal projects—do it yourself (DIY)—from ideation, or the construction supported on knowledge developed by other elements together, collaboratively, enhancing the final result—do it with others (DIWO). A research project is being held to create a new lab, or transform and adapt one of the existing lab's, in a Fab Lab or a Maker Space to let students, teachers, and staff give wings to their imagination and develop innovative solutions to solve real problems while they interact and exchange tacit knowledge, making it explicit after concluding their projects when they share their research reports.

U.InovAcelerator

Following the reflection around the emergence of “research university” in the context of the slow but progressive increase in value of science and technology and research and development in Portugal, a study applied to the knowledge transfer and the process of innovation in the university, in the context of a master dissertation in information science (IS), study area of information management, is presented. The university is one of the most important institutions in the context of the national innovation system (SNI), being part of its mission the creation and transfer of knowledge. At the University of Porto (U.Porto), projects, such as the University of Porto Innovation unit (U.Porto Inovação) and the Science and Technology Park of the University of Porto (UPTEC) seek to support the university's innovation value chain, promoting the reinforcement and solidification of knowledge transfer and of the relations between the university and companies, as well as the promotion and support to the creation of companies with a technological, scientific, and creative base, and the attraction of numerous innovation centers of national and international companies. This chapter points out an informational perspective on I&D+i (research and development and innovation) and entrepreneurship, based on the systemic theory and the quadripolar method, as theoretical and methodological guidance tools, and an information management/knowledge management approach of innovation models for the knowledge economy, the national and international referents, and corresponding set of indicators. An exploratory study, which allowed the identification of internal and external agents, the resources, the relations between actors and institutions, the processes and flows, and the main inputs and outputs, is presented. The most relevant result is embodied in a model of innovation indicators in an academic context and applied to the University of Porto.

Organizational Urbanism

The challenges of the information society require frequent strategic reorientations that, in the context of the relational economy, emphasize the importance of IS/ICT in adapting to change, competitiveness, and economic sustainability. The easy adoption of the new technologies by the people, the paradigm of the availability of the new distribution channels, the reduction of the time-to-market, among other examples, have demanded to the responsible ones of the organizations and the SI dynamic of management, and adequate framework of the stated challenges. The preparation and management of the associated changes presuppose a coordinated and coherent combination of four vital axes for organizational success: business performance, information management, systems architecture and information technologies, and relational positioning. In this area, the development of an urban view of the value chain and its participants and the adoption of a logistics perspective on the momentum appear to be the primary adjustment in the support of organizational models to business.

Internet of Things and Internet of All Things

Interaction between devices, systems, and services is provided in internet through a new concept: internet of everything (IoE). This new concept should present numerous opportunities for the creation of new devices and applications in the years that follow and can dramatically affect the day-to-day life of all of us. New possibilities of information access, transmission, analysis, and interaction are practically infinity. With so many benefits, it is expected to come with several challenges. System structure and architecture and information confidentiality, integrity, and availability are aspects that someone should keep in mind to design an IoE application. This chapter offers to the reader an overview of the evolution of devices connectivity until it reaches the IoE. Some IoE concepts and applications, together with some challenges, are presented.

Reflecting on Analytics Impacts on Information Architecture Contexts as a Source of Business Modelling for Healthcare Services

This chapter approaches the context of healthcare, observing how information system conceptual background can help to comprehend the evolution and adoption of emerging technologies on the applicable solutions. As a critical sector, both from economic and life quality points of view, healthcare is an excellent environment to observe how these tools and its associated infrastructure make it possible for new business organizations to be proposed. The chapter is aimed to develop a theoretical and practical comprehension around concepts through isolated and integrated analysis.

On the Use of Digital Platforms to Support SME Internationalization in the Context of Industrial Business Associations

The digital economy is creating disruptions in traditional industries and markets. Industrial business associations (IBAs) may face serious challenges in a near future to meet the needs and requirements of their members, particularly in supporting their growing international trade activities and internationalization processes. Digital platforms are already transforming different types of businesses across all markets. An IBA may use a digital platform, not only to keep up with the current technological trends of markets, but also to improve the internationalization support provided to their associate small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Therefore, the aim of this chapter is to present the view of these potential digital platforms' managers, by presenting the results of an exploratory field research based on 24 interviews with IBAs from Portugal, France, and the UK. Another goal is to identify current digital platforms that are being used by IBAs and to critically evaluate their potential for supporting internationalization processes of SMEs. By using these findings, a set of requirements and features for digital platforms supporting SME internationalization in the context of IBAs are derived in this chapter. These results can be used by platform designers and by IBAs for designing and developing more effective digital platforms that can meet the specific internationalization needs of their users and managers.

The Contribution of Information Science Through Scientific and Technological Knowledge in Intellectual Property

The more than 100 million patents registered in the European Patent Office provide an unprecedented source of scientific and technological information in the history of mankind. The technological management of this information is exploited to develop technological advances in scientific, technological, and educational organizations and companies. New standards of product and process safety and effectiveness have been introduced across the world, and public and private business strategies are under constant review to comply with the prevailing paradigm. The health sector releases more than 1 million papers a year on scientific progress, while technological (patents) advance 10% per year. Therefore, updating the contribution of the information science through scientific and technological knowledge in intellectual property, a case study, will provide a contribution to reflection for the business in research, development, and innovation in health. These facts lead to constant adjustments of business in companies, universities, and government actions. In 2017, three lists of strategic products for the Brazilian Health System were changed. Using new intelligence systems, the government has adopted new strategic partnerships with the private sector, and were conceived in 2017 (others replaced) with budgets of more than US$ 2 billion. This chapter explores the contribution of information science through scientific and technological knowledge in intellectual property.

Organizational Intelligence

In the present context, the term intelligence has marked the economic and social fields. The increase in computational power of the technologies, associated with the activities of the people and organizations, economic know-how development needs of the market, the imperative of participation in economic dynamics established, among other things, is critical to the survival and for the sustainability of organizations. This is the dimension of competitive intelligence. But the term intelligence is not limited only to the external side of organizations, where this concept has gained broad meaning. This should also encompass the internal domain of organizations, organizational intelligence, and in this sense, refers to the centrality of functioning, flexibility of the articulation of resources, the indispensability of the systems architecture, and to the management insight. The ability to see important issues in the chain of value is crucial to identify the most important factors for success, to anticipate the competition, and to have pro-active management instead of reacting to market pressures.

Information Strategy

In this chapter, the implementation of an information strategy project in a Portuguese real estate company is analyzed. This involves its framing—historical and socio-economic—and a brief description of the activity sector in which the company operates. Several well managed projects have been developed to improve the competitive position of the company, but without focus all the activities lose strength because they might not reach their proposed targets. Some tools to identify the information needs of business activity developed are described, as well as the role of information as a promoter of competitive advantages. Social media tools were utilized and proved to be a great strategic decision. To conclude, a few reminders of the factors to consider in developing the information strategy to implement and that information management without a strategy could result in several diversified decisions without any positive consequence for the organization.

Patent Information Quality to Stimulate Innovations

Information, a tool to reduce uncertainty and develop knowledge in organizations, is an important aid in the decision-making process. There are several characteristics that describe the quality of information that will allow the analysis of its value. Quality information warrants us best results when competing with other organizations. Its value is related to the results that it will allow us to obtain, and it depends on the context. Patent information must be of high quality to permit the search and retrieval of the documents needed to solve a problem or stimulate new ideas and solutions. Old inventions can generate new ideas; technologies for one application can be introduced for a new domain and can be applied in ecologically sustainable solutions. The current high number of patent applications reduces the quality of patent information due to the time needed to filter and search for all the prior art available. Some standards, together with machine translation, have been set up to avoid this situation and improve the quality of the patent information retrieved by the interested public. A comprehensive survey of the relevant literature available made us aware that commercial databases supply some value-added information to help the researchers and improve the efficiency of the search queries. Some of these features could be applied by the national and international intellectual property offices.