Platform design

Il lavoro proposto rientra tra le attività svolte all’interno del Progetto Marie Curie Mountain Risks (Contract number MCRTN03598). L’attività ha considerato la crescente interferenza e sovrapposizione di eventi naturali sia come fattori innescanti sia per le conseguenze a effetto domino. Le classiche metodologie di analisi modellistica per singola tipologia di processo vengono integrate sempre più frequentemente in sistemi Multi-Hazard, dove i fenomeni non sono semplicemente sovrapposti ma vengono considerati per diverse potenziali nuove interazioni. Il sistema di validazione ne risulta conseguentemente modificato. L’attività ha portato alla realizzazione di un prototipo di piattaforma MultiRISK, basata su un modulo Modelling, di modellazione integrata, e un modulo Visualization, per una concreta analisi da parte di esperti dei risultati proposti, mediante semplici servizi web. Gli step operativi hanno dunque come obiettivo quello di offrire un completo sistema di modellazione ma allo stesso tempo una chiara strategia di comprensione e utilizzo del dato prodotto.

"Heralded as "the most significant invention [for film] since the coming of sound" (The Observer 2003), by 2005 DVD players were in approximately 84 million homes in the US, making it the "fastest selling item in history of US consumer electronics market" (McDonald 2007: 135). This book examines the phenomenal growth of DVDs in relation to the cultures, economies, texts, audiences and histories of film, television and new media.

Film and Television After DVD brings together a group of internationally renowned scholars to provide the first focused academic inquiry into this important technology. The book picks up on key issues within contemporary media studies, making a particularly significant contribution to debates about convergence and interactivity in the digital media landscape. Essays consider DVD as a technology that exists outside the boundaries of "new" and "old" media, examining its place within longer histories of home film cultures and production practices of the film and television industries, whilst also critically evaluating what is genuinely "new" about digital media technologies. From DVDs to downloading, peer-to-peer networking and HD-DVD, this book speaks of the rapidly evolving digital mediascape. Ultimately, Film and Television After DVD is a book that considers the convergence of film, television and new media and their academic disciplines through the DVD as a distinct cultural object, pointing to persistent questions in the study of audiovisual culture that will remain intriguing long after the shelf-life of the DVD itself."

"During field work in 2005 our attention was drawn to an interesting prehistoric remain at the Malaefono organicplantation close to Salei’moa village on ’Upolu. Several stone platforms/stone heaps and remains have been reported removed due to farming activities during the last century, which indicated that the plantation area previously housed habitations. During 2006 we carried out archaeological investigations on a remaining stone platform in the area. This“star/cog” shaped platform, with eight protrusions was mapped and test excavated. The investigations showed its internal structure and its relation to other features and the surrounding landscape. The excavation also gave indications of settlement activities prior to the construction of the platform at this site. This paper presents the results of the investigationand discusses the star mound concept in general.
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"This presentation proposes a short overview of a pilot application developed by FMSH-ESCoM for the European R&D project LOGOS (6th FP) called « People and Cultures of the World » (PCM standing for “Peuples et Cultures du Monde”).
PCM is a video portal based exclusively on re-appropriated videos (i.e. re-described, re-indexed, re-published,... videos with respect to specific user communities and needs).  Its URL is: http://semioweb.msh-paris.fr/corpus/pci/EN/Default.asp
PCM is a concrete example for user-centric re-appropriation strategies of digital heritage resources by the means of sophisticated semantic (semiotic) technologies available through a technical platform enabling any (habilitated) user to work with video resources and to publish them following his/her specific needs and desires.
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After the earthquake and tsunami occurred in Chile on February 27th 2010, the Technical University Federico Santa Maria was asked to contribute with reconstruction proposals for the commercial infrastructure destroyed in the town “San Juan Bautista”. Located 600 km (~370 mi) away from the continent, this town is not just the home of several endemic species, but is also located next to a National Protected Area and UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. Within this context, the design problem consisted on the development of a component-based strategy and prefabrication requirements, and to reduce to the minimum the implied logistics and environmental impacts of the new buildings. With a Studio of 23 final year students and the support of the Architecture Firms Association, 11 projects were developed using digital tools such as visual programming and digital fabrication. Finally, technical documentation was produced and delivered to the local and government authorities.

"We intend to design and study systems that produce artifacts with biological generative systems, where nature’s randomness and physiological needs have an important role in defining form. To understand these systems we will develop, analyze and criticize experimental models with ants, bees and mushrooms. In these models the matrices of construction and the system are defined, but the outcomes will be uncertain due to their dependence on biological variables.
Our goal is the development of artifacts in an embryonic stage as well as of the constraints for their development. By defining the matrix and some guidelines, we aim to make available to the general public systems that reproduce artifacts that are similar in their genesis, but which become unique due to their biological actuators. Among other factors, these artifacts seek to enhance an emotional bond between users and object; this bond happens due to the empathy that is generated by the proximity and the time that is required for their growth, and by the better comprehension of their morphogenesis and process. This nurturing is essential for the evolution of the matrix into the desired product.
The final products are unique and unrepeatable, and the end result arises from the close relation between the cooperators: the designer that develops the system, the person that uses it and the actuators that execute it. We believe the deeper understanding of the artifacts geneses and the bond that is created with it may result in new aesthetic qualities. "

Models of public governance are changing profoundly due to global and digital transformations and various context-specific societal pressures. One direction of development is the increased utilisation of ICTs (Information and Communication Technologies) in facilitating governance practices. Such changes are intended to improve the performance of public organisations, the quality of democratic governance, and the cost-effectiveness of service delivery. This article outlines the potentials of technological trends in building governance platforms. The discussion is based on such influential trends as open source movement, Web 2.0, geoinformatics, and ubiquitous technologies. An approach that takes into account such e-enabled platform solutions is called platform orientation in public governance, which offers a framework for supporting policy and governance informatics. It’s supposed to provide new tools to create structured environments for governance and the capacity to increase the flexibility and responsiveness of public organisations as governance actors. Such e-enabled governance platforms are an answer to the needs of a highly complex and technologically meditated society with a special view to providing easy access to governance processes, encouraging creativity, sharing information in a cost-effective way, and integrating services and governance processes so that the processes are comprehensible, easy, and value-adding for citizens and other stakeholders.

"The paper looks at how Design can be made more open to leverage the existing skill sets and capabilities of non-designers who have Designerly characteristics. The paper further discusses how this can be leveraged by businesses to engage with Design on larger canvas.
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This paper introduces the aim, scope and content of this special issue on mass customization. It begins by providing a background review of mass customization, which revolves around two questions: what is mass customization, and why mass customize? By focusing on these, the paper presents definitions and explanations of the different approaches to mass customization, and describes the potential reasons for and benefits of mass customization. In addition to setting the scene for the special issue, this introductory review asserts that there is a relative dearth of research on how to design and operate a manufacturing system capable of mass customizing. This is a system design or configuration issue, which involves determining the most appropriate or viable design for the available range of multiple and interdependent design variables. However, despite the strong interest in configurational research in the business and operations strategy area, there are few works that develop and propose models for understanding how to mass customize.