The pursuit of a sustainable industry is facilitated by the evolution of diverse cooperative networks. There is a limited understanding of how industrial actors can collectively foster the continuity in learning required to address wicked problems of sustainability. This study explores how industry stakeholders collectively address this wicked problem by fostering innovation in ecosystems and identifies the critical features of an ecosystem practice that supports empowerment in evolving multi-actor network settings. Employing an abductive approach, we integrate insights from the innovation literature with analyses of three empirical industrial ecosystem cases to enhance understanding of the internal dynamics inherent in collaborative innovation. This study elucidates the critical features of ecosystem practice, underscoring four key characteristics essential for empowerment. These characteristics hinge on the adept balance of the four identified critical features throughout the process of continuous innovating in ecosystems. We argue that such practices serve as catalysts for cross-industry innovation, thus expediting transformation. This research contributes to understanding the self-organizing dynamics needed for sustained learning in evolving collaboration settings where actors, their motivations and their roles change. It also advances innovation theory by illustrating how wicked problems can be collectively addressed through the continuous exploration and exploitation processes of ecosystems.

Globally, manufacturing ecosystems are facing the challenge of twin transition, i.e., how to utilize digitalization for improving or transforming the sustainability of manufacturing operations. Here, operations refer widely to the upstream of manufacturing, while the entire product lifecycle also covers the downstream and end-of-life operations. Here, sustainability is understood to consider the impact of the product lifecycle at environmental, social, and governance (ESG) levels. In this article, we explore this progress through the digitalization concept of business-to-business data sharing, and through one example of a manufacturing ecosystem in Finland. We discuss the federated data space concept and the international data spaces (IDS) architecture as technological building blocks of twin transition, and report the first results from an industry−research shared-risk project. Semi-structured interviews and a diary-style reporting from an industry−research IDS proof-of-concept (PoC) experiment are presented and analyzed within a design science research method framework. The findings give the first indications that while data sharing is seen as important and increasing in relevance in industry, it is currently challenging for companies to see how an open standard architecture creates value beyond a single limited ecosystem view. We also highlight possible avenues for further research.

Digitalisation and Industry 4.0 promote a fundamental technological disruption that requires industry, research and government institutions to revisit their roles within the innovation ecosystems. Actors in this environment need to understand value co-creation during interaction and collaboration. The purpose of this study is to investigate the triple helix collaborative capabilities in an Industry 4.0 ecosystem context. The case under study is a Finnish national publicly funded research project involving five global manufacturers, three research institutions, and several small-and medium-size enterprises (SMEs). The results demonstrate that practices related to adaptivity, experience sharing, SME co-innovation and scale up can enable the ecosystem to be managed in a dynamic way. Yet, this type of operation requires the adoption of the ecosystem approach with mutual trust, intensive collaboration and the identification of common aims among the project participants. The presented co-innovation model can be used to design innovation ecosystem projects in the future.

Edge Intelligence (EI) is an emerging computing and communication paradigm that enables Artificial Intelligence (AI) functionality at the network edge. In this article, we highlight EI as an emerging and important field of research, discuss the state of research, analyze research gaps and highlight important research challenges with the objective of serving as a catalyst for research and innovation in this emerging area. We take a multidisciplinary view to reflect on the current research in AI, edge computing, and communication technologies, and we analyze how EI reflects on existing research in these fields. We also introduce representative examples of application areas that benefit from, or even demand the use of EI.

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Industry 4.0 is forming the manufacturing industry towards more agile and networked operations enriched by exploitation of new technology. Manufacturing is also one of the key verticals defined by the 5G Infrastructure Public Private Partnership (5G PPP) aimed at digital transformation in industrial communication. In this paper, we will present the current status of the VTT’s (VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd) Industry X Smart Manufacturing Testbed, which enables Finnish industrial companies to test and experiment new production methods and technologies in an industrial-like environment. The testbed utilizes technologies varying from robotics to 5G and beyond connectivity, and from international data spaces (IDS) to extended forms of reality (AR, VR, MR) and digital twins. The testbed is built in a hierarchical manner. Inter-connected factory level testbeds comprise of factory process level processes that are grouped into use case families. These processes include several proofs of concept demonstrators, which utilize different technologies available in the testbed. In this paper, three recent proof-of-cencepts (PoC) are briefly presented to illustrate the next-generation manufacturing possibilities using the latest communication technologies available.

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In this white paper we provide a vision for 6G Edge Intelligence. Moving towards 5G and beyond the future 6G networks, intelligent solutions utilizing data-driven machine learning and artificial intelligence become crucial for several real-world applications including but not limited to, more efficient manufacturing, novel personal smart device environments and experiences, urban computing and autonomous traffic settings. We present edge computing along with other 6G enablers as a key component to establish the future 2030 intelligent Internet technologies as shown in this series of 6G White Papers. In this white paper, we focus in the domains of edge computing infrastructure and platforms, data and edge network management, software development for edge, and real-time and distributed training of ML/AI algorithms, along with security, privacy, pricing, and end-user aspects. We discuss the key enablers and challenges and identify the key research questions for the development of the Intelligent Edge services. As a main outcome of this white paper, we envision a transition from Internet of Things to Intelligent Internet of Intelligent Things and provide a roadmap for development of 6G Intelligent Edge.

People have always used tools and technologies creatively. Technology appropriation concerns on how users adopt technologies for personal purposes. In this paper, we review the appropriation literature and explicate four varieties of this concept. Then we explore these varieties in the empirical setting of a citywide network of multipurpose interactive public displays. This network was designed to support communication among a multitude of people for a variety of purposes. We show how people used this technology in ways not captured in original design. The analysis retrospectively examines cases of appropriation of different themes. We particularly concentrate on surprising “unfaithful” appropriation and discuss unanticipated users, usages, circumstances, and design for the unanticipated. Our contribution is the scrutiny of the varieties of the appropriation concept, showing these varieties in the setting of public displays in an urban space.

In this paper, we seek to complement the current public display evaluation toolbox with the analytical lens of emergent practices. This evaluation method facilitates capturing the variety of ways in which a public display operates and creates value in a given context. From this viewpoint, a public display appears as a material resource for the urban practice, as well as a site for socio-cultural enactment. Our main argument is that this type of evaluation can lead to extraction of more sustained value from actual use of public displays. We discuss the theoretical foundations of emergent practices, their place and use within the public display evaluation toolbox, and situate practices as a valuable next step of in-the-wild studies. Through an empirical dataset, we also discuss real world emergent practices observed as part of the UBI-display network in Oulu, Finland.

In this workshop, we reflect on and share the fun and frustrations of working in interdisciplinary research. We ask participants to openly reflect on their experiences of interdisciplinarity. What approaches have worked and what have failed? In addition to identifying phenomena, we aim to sketch out the next decade of interdisciplinary research in computing, especially in HCI. The third paradigm of Human-Computer Interaction focuses on the qualitative aspects of use experience and the situatedness of technologies. This new orientation has drawn in researchers from various other research and arts backgrounds and traditions, including the social sciences, architecture and industrial design among others. Therefore, we consider this third paradigm to be inherently interdisciplinary. Through workshop participants’ reflection of their own experiences, we strive to identify the common problems and pitfalls of interdisciplinary research, and to celebrate successes, as well as share best practices.

We introduce evaluation probes for conducting emic, experiential evaluation of urban technologies "in the wild" without direct researcher presence. We commence with a thorough discussion and analysis of the original cultural probes, used by Gaver, Dunne and Pacenti to gain design inspiration, and their subsequent variations. We develop the concept of evaluation probes through careful re-conceptualization and application of the cultural probes in three successive studies conducted in the wild. We recount and reflect on our use of evaluation probes and discuss their merits and limitations in experiential emic evaluation.

We report a pre-study and a three-week in-the-wild deployment of a non-moderated interactive public display prototype designed as a communication extension for an established community. A pre-study was conducted to map existing practices in order to ground the design. We explore the adoption process of the display prototype as well as rhythms of usage. We discuss findings related to extensions of presence within the community, the impact of the display on the community's activities, as well as aspects of appropriation and co-design. We illustrate how the display was used to extend one's presence within the community in addition to existing means of communication. This opens up new design possibilities when social dynamics are carefully negotiated.

Multipurpose public displays are a promising platform, but more understanding is required in how users perceive and engage them. In this paper, we present and discuss results and findings from a two-day descriptive field trial with a multipurpose public display prototype called FluiD. Our main objective was to uncover emerging issues of interaction to inform future evaluations. During the field trial within a public research exhibition, people were able to freely interact with the prototype. Twenty-six persons filled out short questionnaires and gave free-form feedback. In addition, researchers in the vicinity of the display gathered observation data. Our main findings include the difficulties encountered with mid-air gesture commands, the lack of agency in case of larger interaction area, and the possibility for stepping out from the implicit-explicit continuum in the face of potential social conflicts.