Search results

The Mathematisation of society

Technology, data use, and digitisation are based on mathematical structures, and this permeates many aspects of our daily lives: apps, online activities, and all kinds of communication. Equipping people to deal with this mathematisation of society is a big challenge. Which competences are needed, which skills must be mastered? Which dispositions are helpful? These are the questions that matter in the development of adult education. The concept of numeracy is mentioned already for many years as a possible useful approach to equip adults with the necessary skills. In this paper we will argue that is only true when numeracy is defined as a multifaceted concept which combines knowledges, skills, higher order skills, context and dispositions.

Promoting genealogy and local history collections using social media in Uganda

Academic libraries collect process and preserve and provide access to unique collections insupport of teaching, learning and research. Digitisation of local history collections has beenundertaken as a way to preserving fragile materials and promoting access. On the other hadsocial networking tools provide new ways of providing access to various collections to awider audience. The purpose of the study was to explore how local history collections arepromoted using social media in Uganda. An environmental scan of cultural heritageinstitutions in Uganda with a social media initiative was conducted. A case study of HistoryIn Progress Uganda project is reported in the paper. The project is chosen based on the levelof activity and ability to provide different approaches and practices in using social mediaplatforms. Findings revealed varying levels of activity. Nevertheless, there still existchallenges of promoting access to local history collections. The paper offers insights into thenature and scope of activity in promoting local history collections in Uganda.

Strengthening Collaboration Amongst Professionals in the Public Sector in the Digital Era – an Exploratory Study at Northumbria University (NU) and Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences (AUAS)

An interview-study of 18 senior professionals in the Netherlands and the UK exploring how professionals in senior positions perceive (team) collaboration in the public sector and how they manage collaboration in a fast evolving, post-pandemic world of digital transformation. Framed by team theory and theory on organisational logic, the key findings from the study highlight a number of variables important for effective collaboration between professionals in the digital era, such as trust, shared norms, shared goals, and the importance of leadership. Rapid digitisation creates many upsides for efficiency and communication possibilities but also threatens meaningful relationships, work-life balance and time for reflection in teams.

Putting Humans First

Many countries experience waning public trust in government, while digitisation of society is on the rise and public authorities continue to further digitise their services. If governments do not pay enough attention to the perspective of citizens and adopt a citizen-centric approach while designing digital services, accessibility of government services may decrease and further erode public trust. Against this background, this chapter explores the digitisation of government services from a citizen’s perspective, with a special focus on the role of the law and legal professionals. The chapter is based on the experiences of the authors over the past years with using digitisation to enhance citizens’ access to the law and to improve the way in which (internal and external) processes of public legal departments work.In current practice, the logic of the law often requires that citizens split up their problems or requests for help and approach different government bodies for different aspects of their problem. Well-designed digital government services put real-life problems that citizens experience first and combine all regulations that offer possible solutions, thus reducing complexity for the citizen and increasing their capacity to act. The limited capacity for personal contact can then be reserved for those citizens that need it. From a legal perspective, it is essential that government services are based on a traceable and transparent connection to the underlying regulations, using external knowledge models. Current government practices leave a lot to be desired in this respect. Methodologies are available to create these connections and are an important element for designing legally sound and citizen-centric government services.

The digitisation of tourism enterprises

The age of digitisation: The influence of digital channels on customer experience and customer relationships

Design/methodology Organisations are digitising the customer journey at a fast pace but have no idea what the effects of digitisation will be on customer experience and customer relationships. This paper describes two studies on digitisation in customer contact and the effects on customer experience and customer relationships. The first study examines how a relatively new medium, such as chat, relates to more a traditional medium such as the telephone. The second study examines the effects of re-directing customers from a traditional channel like telephone to the internet. Purpose: The research described in this paper was designed to measure these effects of digitisation on customer experience and customer relationships. Findings: Findings show that customers have a more positive customer experience when they use a digital channel like chat than when they use a traditional channel like phone, regardless of whether they have a simple or a complex question. The use of a digital channel does not have an impact on the customer relationship. Channel direction, however, has a negative impact on customer experience but also does not have an impact on the relationship. Practical implications: Our research shows that the use of digital channels like chat, unlike what people often think, do not necessarily have to lead to a deterioration of customer experience. In certain cases, the use of digital channels will lead to an improvement of customer experience. The research results also show that neither the used communication-medium nor a restriction of freedom of choice have a significant influence on the relational models. Originality: The most important contribution of this paper to the scientific literature is that it provides a deeper insight into the effects of some aspects of digitisation on customer experience and customer relationships. It also provides insight into the applicability of relational models in existing customer–supplier relationships.