Gamification: making work fun, or making fun of work?

Gamification: making work fun, or making fun of work?

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This post was previously published on 25th September 2014 at Collabor8now.com.  It is an abbreviated abstract from a research paper I submitted to Sage publications on the topic of  “Gamification”. The full article is available from the June 2014 edition of Business Information Review. Introduction: Gamification is about understanding and influencing human behaviours that organizations want to encourage amongst their workforce or customers. Gamification seeks to take enjoyable aspects of games – fun, play and challenge – and apply them to real-world business…

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Heuristics and Biases – The Science Of Decision Making

Heuristics and Biases – The Science Of Decision Making

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This article was originally published in June 2015 Vol 32 (2) edition of Business Information Review. References and links were checked and updated on 29th July 2018. Abstract A heuristic is a word from the Greek meaning “to discover.” It is an approach to problem solving that takes one’s personal experience into account.  Heuristics provide strategies to scrutinise a limited number of signals and/or alternative choices in decision-making. Heuristics diminish the work of retrieving and storing information in memory; streamlining the decision making process…

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Virtual Agents

Virtual Agents

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Society has been acquiring the benefits that artificial intelligence can produce ever since AI has been around. The summer of 1956 was a turning point for many scientists who would become leaders in their branches for decades. It was at a workshop organised at the Dartmouth College when the field of artificial intelligence research was actually founded. The first ever serious proposal in the philosophy of AI was six years earlier when Alan Turing published a paper in which he…

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Critical Steps For Building an Online Community

Critical Steps For Building an Online Community

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The following is a list of the critical points to consider when embarking on a project or plan to build an online community.  This information is available from previous blog posts I’ve shared over the years, and Slideshare presentations, but for convenience I’ve curated these posts into a single post/page of “knowledge nuggets”.  The items have been kept deliberately brief, but further and detailed information (with relevant citations and references) can be provided on request. Ensure you have community facilitator/community…

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Are any of us “experts”?

Are any of us “experts”?

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I was recently reminded of this article, which resonated with me at the time, and still does. I’m guessing all of us could pin a few names to people we might label as “confident idiots”, but I wonder how often we turn the mirror on ourselves and measure our perceived wisdom against the Dunning-Kruger curve? One particular example that I find a little irksome is the number of people who describe themselves as “expert” in their personal bios. Self-proclaimed expertise…

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The 4 Biggest Trends to Expect for Chatbots in 2018

The 4 Biggest Trends to Expect for Chatbots in 2018

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The year 2017 saw amazing strides in artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, and chatbots. The effects such innovations have had for everything from retail and customer service to data mining are even now still becoming realised. Chatbots, through their underlying technology, seek to mimic human interaction with users on websites, mobile apps, and messaging systems. They have potential to reach more customers faster and more efficiently while maintaining high levels of customer engagement and satisfaction.  Here are the four biggest…

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Science Fiction (Sci-Fi) As A Stimulus For Innovation

Science Fiction (Sci-Fi) As A Stimulus For Innovation

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As part of my role as a Facilitator for Warwick Business School’s “Knowledge & Innovation Network” (KIN), I was privileged to be invited to a Sci-Fi Symposium organised by the Defence, Science & Technology Laboratory (Dstl). The event took place just before Christmas 2017, and was led by Dr John Carney, Principal Scientist and Mrs Caz Pitt (Innovation Process & Culture Lead) at Dstl. The aim of the Symposium was  to explore whether the stimulus of Science Fiction might enable…

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Automation and AI – What does the future of work look like?

Automation and AI – What does the future of work look like?

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Our news and activity streams are buzzing with articles, blogs, analyst reports and social media hype around the topic of “AI”. It’s a fairly loosely defined topic that covers an enormous spectrum of disciplines, from big data and predictive analytics, to machine learning, natural language processing, automation and robotics. Depending on who you listen to, it’s either the most important technological breakthrough since the invention of electricity, or it heralds the end of civilisation as we know it! Extreme scenarios…

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KIN Winter workshop 2017: Data-driven decision making

KIN Winter workshop 2017: Data-driven decision making

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It’s now just over three weeks to Warwick Business School’s Knowledge & Innovation Network Winter Workshop on the 6th December. An event I’ve been busily planning over the past few months. It’s been a bit of a rocky road finding the right speakers for this event, but I think we’re finally there, and we’ve got a good blend of relevant experts who can talk about the social, ethical, political and economic impact of human-machine (augmented) decision making, and the real…

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Workplace Week Fringe Event: Automation & AI

Workplace Week Fringe Event: Automation & AI

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Warwick Business School’s Knowledge & Innovation Network (KIN) and Norton Rose Fulbright (NRF) will be facilitating a breakfast briefing during Workplace Week (13-17th November) on the topic of ‘Automation & AI in the workplace‘. Workplace automation is becoming more widespread, and today’s AI-enabled, information-rich tools are increasingly able to handle jobs that in the past have been exclusively done by people (including tax returns, language translations, accounting, even some types of surgery) – automation is destined to have profound implications…

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