Latest articles in english

• [Cahier de recherche] Are employees really satisfied with ICT?

  21 May 2007, by Ludivine Martin, Nathalie Colombier, Thierry Pénard

  The dissemination of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) within firms induces organizational changes which modify employee perceptions of working conditions. This article aims to evaluate the effects of the use of cell phones, computers and the Internet on job satisfaction, striving to distinguish between direct effects (due to ICT) and indirect effects (due to ICT combined with organizational changes). We have used the results of a survey by the INSEE (French national statistic institute) on standards of living in French households, conducted in October 2005. Econometric results show that these three technologies have complementary and globally positive impacts on job satisfaction, especially the computer. As for the cell phone, it has ambivalent effects, as it is also a source of stress for the employee. Finally, our results clearly show the existence of direct and indirect effects of ICT, effects which can sometimes cancel out or reinforce each other.

• [Rapport] Impact of the Information and Communication Technologies on the land/sea integration: the case of maritime fishing vessels and of auction sales.

  16 May 2007, by Annabelle Boutet-Diéye, Christine Chauvin-Blottiaux

  The Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) have deeply modified the relations between ships and land. Thanks to the ICT (telephones by satellites and, possibly the Internet), a ship (trading vessel, military ship or fishing vessel) at sea is no longer cut off the world : it stays in contact with its armament, with the traffic control stations, with the harbour services. The ICT also allow the sailors to stay in touch with their families. As a consequence, the ICT have modified the sailors’activities in a positive way. From now on, thanks to remote maintenance or to telemedicine, it is possible to use skills which are not present aboard. However, the links maintained with the ground can be perceived like a violation towards the independence of the sailors (e.g. an increase in the control of the trajectories of the ships) and contribute to the drop in value of the work of sailor. The purpose of the study is to bring support to the public decision within the scope of the diffusion of information and communication techniques.

• [Cahier de recherche] ICTE and new professional degree programs in higher education: anthropological approaches

  27 March 2007, by Pascal Plantard

  ABSTRACT.

  This paper is related to two empirical research projects: one was an investigation of users of a University Service of Distance Learning; the second was an ethnographic research which was aimed at identifying the pedagogical models underpinning new professional degree courses (2004-2006). Our methodology is essentially qualitative relying both on the direct observation of practice and on the analysis of the discourse of ICTE users to identify progressively the differing pedagogical models implicit in such practice. Our particular theoretical approach is to place Information and Communication Technologies in the wider context of knowledge relationships. In Education and Training, the relationship which users of ICTE have with such technologies can be studied in part as a relationship to specific knowledge which, when put into other contexts, opens up other, much wider, theoretical questions. And this led us to a range of questions at three differing levels: a generalized view of ICTE; the cultural experience of ICTE; and the systematization of ICTE. To each level, we have attributed three core concepts: ‘gathering’ butinage, ‘poaching’-braconnage, and ‘odd jobbing’ -bricolage. In the generalized view of ICTE, ‘gathering’ relates to notions of navigation. Within the cultural experience of ICTE, ‘poaching’ relates to notions of programming, and in the systematizing of ICTE, ‘odd-jobbing’ relates to notions of systems development. It seems that this last dialectic is, as far as ICTE is concerned, the most productive.

  Résumé.

  Cet article s’appuie sur deux recherches empiriques : une sur les étudiants d’un service d’enseignement à distance et une, ethnographique, ayant pour objectif l’identification des modèles pédagogiques soutenant les nouvelles licences professionnelles (2004-2006). Il s’agit, par l’observation directe des pratiques et par des analyses de discours des usagers des TICE, d’identifier progressivement les différents modèles pédagogiques implicites mis en jeux. Théoriquement, nous approchons les TICE sous l’angle plus général du rapport au savoir, qui, recontextualisé, renvoie à des questions théoriques beaucoup plus larges. Ces recherches, nous font nous interroger sur plusieurs notions dans trois registres : « la vision », l’expérience culturelle des TICE et la formalisation des dispositifs TICE. Dans ces trois registres, nous proposons trois concepts : butinage – braconnage – bricolage. Dans le registre de la « vision », le butinage entretient des relations dialectiques avec la notion de navigation. Dans celui de l’expérience culturelle, le braconnage entretient des relations dialectiques avec la notion de programmation. Dans celui de la formalisation des dispositifs TICE, le bricolage entretient des relations dialectiques avec la notion d’ingénierie. Pour les TICE, la dialectique bricolage-ingénierie est probablement la plus féconde.

  Mots clefs: TICE, enseignement supérieur, modèles pédagogiques, ingénieries, butinage, braconnage, bricolage.

• Experimental economy applied to the cooperation and confidence in online communities : a series of innovative experiments led at the CREM (Rennes 1)

  16 décembre 2006, par David Masclet, Laurent Denant-Boemont, Thierry Pénard

  Within the framework of this research project, researchers of the CREM (Rennes 1) carried out a series of experiments on the experimental platform of the LABEX, which aimed at analyzing the role of information, reputation, confidence and incentives in a context of repeated relations in networks (online communities, intranet and extranet).

  These experiments aimed at identifying and charecterizing the technical, behavioral, psychological and institutional factors that can encourage or destabilize collective coordination in networks.

• Beginner Research on Tourism and the Tourist : Beware of Words and Caricatures !

  9 octobre 2006, par Christine Petr, Nicolas Guéguen

  Basée sur un entretien avec un anthropologue français spécialiste du tourisme, cet article propose un panorama du phénomène « tourisme » à destination du chercheur débutant un travail. La recherche se concentre surtout sur les dangers de caricature et de développement d’une vision simpliste du sujet et propose un portrait bien plus stimulant pour la recherche du touriste.

  ABSTRACT.

  Based on an interview with a French anthropologist particularly well versed in tourism, this article offers a useful overview of the phenomenon of tourism to the beginner researcher. The research focuses essentially on the dangers of caricatures and simplistic views, and offers a more stimulating portrait of the tourist as a research field.

  Key words : Caricature ; Tourist ; Tourism ; Research postulates ; Interview with an expert.

  Cet article est une version préliminaire d’un article publié dans la revue « Tourism Analysis ».

• [Cahier de recherche] Free/Libre/Open Source Software (FLOSS) : lessons for intellectual property rights management in a knowledge-based economy.

  30 août 2006, par Jean-Benoît Zimmermann, Nicolas Jullien

  Résumé.

  Dans cet article nous nous intéressons au fait qu’aujourd’hui, le logiciel libre n’est plus produit simplement par des individus, mais par des entreprises, qui ont leurs propores stratégies/objectifs de développement et qui embauchent des développeurs pour les atteindre. Il est alors important de comprendre les bénéfices qu’elles tirent d’un tel engagement. Autrement dit, nous nous intéressons aux différents modèles économiques de ces entreprises et leur évolution possible. Nous montrons d’abord que logiciel libre est une nouvelle manière de penser et de gérer sa propriété intellectuelle, qui amène à repenser les bénéfices qu’on peut retirer des taches de production de connaissances. Nous proposons ensuite une typologie des différentes stratégies industrielles vis-à-vis du logiciel libre, et comment ces stratégies correspondent aux caractéristiques techniques, économique de chaque sous-secteur. Dans une partie conclusive, nous essayons de tirer les principales leçons de l’expérience industrielle du logiciel libre et de son extension à d’autres activités commerciales basées sur la connaissance.

  ABSTRACT.

  The aim of this paper is to focus on the emerging situation in which open source software is nowadays produced not only by individual developers but in a growing proportion by firms that hire programmers for their own objectives of development in open source or for contributing to open source projects in the context of dedicated communities. As commercial firms it is important to analyze how and why they are capable to draw benefits from such involvement and their connected activities. In other way we want to stress the different types of business model these firms are leaning on and the possible evolution they are likely to know in a near future. We shown how Open Source principles provide an alternative way of thinking and managing intellectual property that do not come up against the same problems but needs a radical change in the way of drawing commercial benefits from knowledge development tasks. Then we analyze the growing involvement of commercial actors by setting up of a typology of the different business model that can be observed in the OS landscape, how they correspond to different strategies of industrial firms according to the main characteristics of their technical skills and market position. Finally, in a conclusive section we will intent to draw the main lessons of the FLOSS experience for a possible enlargement of those principles of IPR management and business to other knowledge based commercial activities.

  Keywords : FLOSS, industrial organization in ICT.