The LINI research programme targets defined areas that are critical to the public interest and business.
One of the crucial elements of this project is the ability to identify research areas that internationally, although of critical interest to the society, have not yet been thoroughly researched by leading scientific institutions of the Social Sciences, Information and Communications Technologies and Economics and Management.
The four separate, but inter-related areas, in which most of our research is undertaken are:
Open Source Society and Free knowledge
Research Directors: Paulo Trezentos, Gustavo Cardoso, Rita Espanha.
Open Source Software (OSS) is an emerging trend in ICT. Europe has invested a great deal of resources, funding OSS projects, in order to gain competitiveness toward USA in technology field. Where is OSS moving into? What is state of OSS adoption in Portugal? How can Public Administration and e-Government adopt policies to embrace OSS in a productive way? This area of LINI proposes not only to contribute with theoretical studies but also using all if their researchers’ background experience in OSS projects to devise new platforms and technical approaches for embodying OSS. The role of Open Source, Free Knowledge and Open Access in everyday life, business innovation and social change is thus the aim of this research area of LINI.
Research Currently Being Carried:
The Politics of Open Access. The Changing Face of Science in the Network Society (2008-2010);
Free software in Portugal: transition to network society in public administration and associations (2008-….).Past Research:_
The Network Enterprise and Innovation
Research Directors: Vítor Roldão, Gustavo Cardoso.
This area of research addresses the relationship between strategy, organisation, and business practices, and the use of ICT in companies. The aim of the research is to produce knowledge about the ways in which information technology is changing business through innovation fostering and the transformation of the organizational environment. Such an analysis allows better knowledge on productivity and competitiveness of businesses in a network economy. Our goal is also one of developing strategic research in the field of telecommunications economics and to provide guidelines and recommendations to players (end-users, enterprises, operators, regulators, policy makers and content providers) concerning the provision to citizens and enterprises of new networked broadband and wireless content delivery networks.
ICTs also offer significant opportunities for restructuring practices and institutions. We also focus our research on the productivity of the public sphere, and the management, functioning and delivery of government services and processes, focusing on e-democracy and e-government.
Research Currently Being Carried:
Innovation in Small and Medium Enterprises (COTEC Network);
Business, Innovation and Information Technologies in Portugal (BIT Network).Past Research:
Government and Democracy in the Information Age (1999-2003);
The Portuguese Vision of the Information Society Regarding e-Democracy in the Plata Region: National Visions from Portugal, Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Uruguay (2005).
Networks and Mobility in Everyday life
Research Directors: Rita Espanha, Gustavo Cardoso.
This area focuses on the Network Society. The three main research lines, under this area, are: 1) Mobile Technologies and Society. The use of the Internet and of mobile technologies by youngsters, from the cell phone to PdA and Wifi, is one of the main focuses of our research. 2) Health Care in the Network Society. In developed societies, where the increase of the average age is a strong trend, the study of ICTs and health is another major concern and an area of research of LINI. 3) Network Society and Everyday Llife. This line covers the role of the Internet and other ICT in personal interactions in the household and the needs of individuals and the wider community in work, social relationships and professional activities.
Research Currently Being Carried:
The Health in the Information Age: Doctors, Users and Media;
Mobile Society: mobile phones and social change 2006-2008;Mobile Telecommunications and the Needy (2008).
Past Research:
Ciberfaces (1999-2001);
The Network Society in Portugal (2003-2004);
The Network Society in Portugal (2006).
Networked Communication
Research Directors: Gustavo Cardoso and Rita Espanha.
This area focuses on Networked Communication that is, the networking
between interpersonal and mass media. During the last 15 years, we have
witnessed a vast change in the media landscape. A change, not only due
to technological innovation in mediation devices themselves, but also in
the ways users have chosen to socially appropriate them, and
consequently, how they have built new mediation processes. This research
line addresses what it is suggested to be the networking communicational
model of informational societies. A communicational model shaped by
three main features: 1) Communicational globalization processes; 2)
Networking of mass and interpersonal media and consequently, networked
mediation; and 3) Different degrees of interactivity usage. Another area
of analysis deals with the new communicational paradigms giving rise to
a new media system: 1) Rhetoric mainly built around moving image; 2) New
dynamics of accessibility of information; 3) Users as innovators; and 4)
Innovation in news and entertainment
models.
Research Currently Being Carried:
From Mass to Networked Communication (2008);
Media in a Mobile Network Society (2008);
E-generation: Young People and the Media (2008).Past Research:
Mass Media and the Internet (2001-2005);
Digital Television in Portugal (2008);
E-generation: Young People and the Media (2006).
