The Academy of Finland Research Project

”COBWEB”Academy of Finland ICT 2023-programme

Cross-disciplinary project with wide international collaboration network

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Workshop schedule and objectives

9:00 •  Welcome (Hannu Kärkkäinen)•  Scenario of knowledge work (Thomas Olsson)

9:10 •  Brief introduction of participants (round-the-table)

9:25 •  Overview of Academy of Finland “Cobweb” project (PI’s of Cobweb)•  Preliminary schedule of Cobweb experiments (Ossi Nykänen)

10:00 •  Break

10:15 •  Workshop: Identification of knowledge work –related challenges and

development needs in partnering organizations of Cobweb (Facilitated by Thomas Olsson)

11:45 •  Wrap-up and next steps

12:00 •  Lunch (1st floor of KampusAreena, Taco House)

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What if… we were able to work in new ways in below manners / manners indicated in described scenarios?

•  Conference tinder / Researcher tinder•  Slush / Start-up matchmaking

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Cobweb goals

•  The overall goal of our research is to support novel ways of collaboration in and between professional organizations that focus on knowledge work and innovations (e.g. universities, start-ups, and SMEs in the ICT sector)

•  The overall question that we aim to answer in Cobweb is: “How to utilize the potential and latent weak ties in social big data in order to enhance collaboration in knowledge work?”

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Milgram (1967): six degrees of separation, small-world networksGranovetter (1973): weak ties are a key source of competitive advantageBurt (1992): Structural holesNewman (2001): researcher networks are small-worldsPentland (2015): collaboration structure is key predictor of performance; weak ties are vital in breaking echo chambers

How to facilitate the emergence of weak ties to support knowledge work productivity and innovation?

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The unique combination of main project partner expertise and resources ( data sources and networks)

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Ties•  Strong ties: Strong ties are

the ones that a person really trust (e.g. family)

•  Weak ties: Refers to weak links which may be known (e.g. acquaintances)

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Tie Strength Dimensions

Based on Granovetters Definition

Tie Strength

Amount of Time

Emotional Intensity

Intimacy

Reciprocal Services

Based on Newer Definitions (Marsden,Krackhardt,Li,Luam,Gilbert etc.)

Tie Strength

Amount of Time

Emotional Intensity

Intimacy

Reciprocal Services

Structural Variables

Emotional Support

Social Distance

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TLO: Knowledge work productivity and social media- based collaboration

•  Vision–  Lean and automated knowledge work and knowledge co-creation by

means of modern collaboration methods and tools•  Key people:

–  Hannu Kärkkäinen (PI), –  Jari Jussila, –  Karan Menon, –  Jayesh Gupta (Henna Salonius)

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MAT: Computational Analytics & Semantic Modeling

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•  Vision–  New socially-enabled systems and data no person can manage–  …Exploit modern methods for weak tie analysis & exploitation

•  Domain modeling–  Apply logic-based semantic modeling with method-based perspectives–  Review computational methods

•  Computational definition(s) for weak ties (etc.)–  Study definitions based on logic, SNA, and soft computing–  Validate with concrete data & use cases, iterate

•  Scenario & proof of concept application(s) development•  Key people:

–  Ossi Nykänen (PI), –  Jukka Huhtamäki

IHTE & Social Technologies

•  ”Proactive technology that augments social skills”–  Persuasive: how to ”make it happen” w.r.t. potential ties?–  Initiation, facilitation, enrichment–  Socio-technical perspective: tech. as social actor–  Visualization and sensemaking of Big Social Data–  Proximity-based solutions

•  Focus on new social opportunities and experimentation with end-users

•  Key people: –  Thomas Olsson (PI), –  Ekaterina Olshannikova,–  Susanna Paasovaara

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Project Roadmap (Iterative)2016 2017

u Q1: Inception: Understanding of the intersection of the three research areas u Q2: Backend

solutions for gathering and modeling Big Social Data u Q3: First proof of

concept applications; planning of experiments

u Q4: Experiments begin

u Q1: First field studies

u  Q2: Generalization of methods

u Q3: Synthesis

u Q4: Dissemination and next steps

Publications: Scientific peer reviewed conf. & journal, articles in Finnish popular science and expert magazines

Researcher mobility: CWI, New Jersey Institute of Technology, etc.

Open source publications: Selected tools and algorithms 23

Collaboration, co-creation, match-making, spread of ideas……in knowledge work

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”Let’s co-create on collaboration”

Part [1/2] – 45 min

•  What are the current problems?–  Who don't meet even though they should? Why?–  What hinders more effective collaboration?

•  What works well? –  Which existing practices could be strengthened?

•  What new opportunities are there?

•  What work would benefit from better collaboration?

•  What kind of new social encounters should happen?

First alone (15min) à in groups (15) à to board & share (15)25

Part [2/2] – 45 min

•  What would be good combinations of people to collaborate?–  What makes a relevant match? –  How to identify that? What data is available?

•  How to enhance spread and cross-pollination of ideas?

•  How to create serendipitous encounters?

•  Describe & sketch & create stories!–  who, where, when, why, what type of work, etc.

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To gain new perspectives… Ask yourself questions”How could we…”

–  [emphasize the good]

–  [remove the bad]

–  [question an assumption]

–  [analogy]

–  [identify unexpected resources]

–  [change the time perspective]

–  [change context]

–  [add superpowers]

–  [think what a specific person would do]

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”… make taxi driving feel like racing?”

”… remove waiting in traffic?”

”… change the whole taxi business?”

”… make taxi rides as enjoyable as a visit to hair dresser?”

”… make passenger more engaged?”

”… make rides feel like the future?”

”… make underground taxis?”

”… make taxi rides feel superhuman?”

”… be more ‘yes we can’?”

”Release the ideas” – 15 min

•  Max 3 min / group•  What are your…

–  …best ideas–  …most important concerns–  …most crucial needs–  …utopian vision of the future–  …

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Wrap-up

•  Further steps and schedule

Contacts / PI’s:

hannu.karkkainen@tut.fi040-8490228

ossi.nykanen@tut.fi040-8490730

thomas.olsson@tut.fi040-8490819

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