The Pac-Man Principle
The Pac-Man Principle

Author: Alex Wade

Publisher: John Hunt Publishing

Published: 2018-07-27

Total Pages: 85

ISBN-13: 1785356062

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In spite of being well into middle-age, Pac-Man's popularity shows no sign of decline and the character has appeared in over sixty games on virtually every games platform ever released. According to the David Brown celebrity index, in 2008, nearly three decades after initial release, 94% of Americans were able to recognise Pac-Man, which gave the character greater brand awareness than Super Mario. Pac-Man, with its avowed commitment to non-violence was a videogame of many firsts, including being designed to appeal to children and females and providing the first narrative interlude in a videogame. Although iconic, Pac-Man has not been subject to sustained critical analysis. This book helps to fill that gap, providing an extensive, sophisticated, but accessible analysis of the influence of Pac-Man on the way that we live in contemporary western societies.

A Pac-Man Perspective on Organisational Change
A Pac-Man Perspective on Organisational Change

Author: Petter Ogland

Publisher: Lulu.com

Published: 2017-12

Total Pages: 366

ISBN-13: 1387398210

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Living theory is a way of making use of personal accounts of experienced practice. As the Pac-Man perspective on organisational change helps the change agent articulate the personal values he is committed to and how these values may be resisted in practice, living theory is useful for developing knowledge that has a practical impact on self-improvement and social change, but it is also a type of theory that is difficult to publish in academic outlets. As a consequence of this, publishing Pac-Man living-theory research becomes a Pac-Man game in itself, with the journal editors as one of the four adversary gatekeepers, but it is a rewarding game for those who want to contribute both theoretically and practically on how to make the world a better place.

Phantom Ex Machina
Phantom Ex Machina

Author: Anshuman Khare

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2016-10-19

Total Pages: 327

ISBN-13: 3319444689

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This book explores the factors that make digital disruption possible and the effects this has on existing business models. It takes a look at the industries that are most susceptible to disruption and highlights what executives can do to take advantage of disruption to re-invent their business model. It also examines the pivotal role that technology plays in creating new dynamics to business operations and forcing business model changes. Adoption of digital technology has caused process disruptions in a number of industries and led to new business models (e.g., Über, AirBnb) and new products. In addition to covering some of the more popular and well known examples, this book targets not so obvious disruptions in the education sector and in services and changing business models. Phantom Ex Machina: Digital Disruption’s Role in Business Model Transformation is divided into six parts. The book begins with an introduction to digital disruption and why it matters. The next part of the book focuses on business strategy which includes case studies on the impact of social media and how digital disruption changes pricing strategies and price models. For part three, the authors observe technology’s role in digital disruptions. Chapters cover how 3D printing is challenging existing business models and how the automotive industry is innovating with new perspectives. Part four covers higher education, recognizing digital disruption’s transformation in graduate management education. Part five centers upon the service industry with a look at virtual teams and the emergence of virtual think tanks. Finally the book concludes with a look to the future, embracing disruptions.

Hands on Media History
Hands on Media History

Author: Nick Hall

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2019-09-23

Total Pages: 219

ISBN-13: 1351247395

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Hands on Media History explores the whole range of hands on media history techniques for the first time, offering both practical guides and general perspectives. It covers both analogue and digital media; film, television, video, gaming, photography and recorded sound. Understanding media means understanding the technologies involved. The hands on history approach can open our minds to new perceptions of how media technologies work and how we work with them. Essays in this collection explore the difficult questions of reconstruction and historical memory, and the issues of equipment degradation and loss. Hands on Media History is concerned with both the professional and the amateur, the producers and the users, providing a new perspective on one of the modern era’s most urgent questions: what is the relationship between people and the technologies they use every day? Engaging and enlightening, this collection is a key reference for students and scholars of media studies, digital humanities, and for those interested in models of museum and research practice.

Player vs. Monster
Player vs. Monster

Author: Jaroslav Svelch

Publisher: MIT Press

Published: 2023-02-07

Total Pages: 235

ISBN-13: 0262373238

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A study of the gruesome game characters we love to beat—and what they tell us about ourselves. Since the early days of video games, monsters have played pivotal roles as dangers to be avoided, level bosses to be defeated, or targets to be destroyed for extra points. But why is the figure of the monster so important in gaming, and how have video games come to shape our culture’s conceptions of monstrosity? To answer these questions, Player vs. Monster explores the past half-century of monsters in games, from the dragons of early tabletop role-playing games and the pixelated aliens of Space Invaders to the malformed mutants of The Last of Us and the bizarre beasts of Bloodborne, and reveals the common threads among them. Covering examples from aliens to zombies, Jaroslav Švelch explores the art of monster design and traces its influences from mythology, visual arts, popular culture, and tabletop role-playing games. At the same time, he shows that video games follow the Cold War–era notion of clearly defined, calculable enemies, portraying monsters as figures that are irredeemably evil yet invariably vulnerable to defeat. He explains the appeal of such simplistic video game monsters, but also explores how the medium could evolve to present more nuanced depictions of monstrosity.

Leveraging Applications of Formal Methods, Verification and Validation: Verification Principles
Leveraging Applications of Formal Methods, Verification and Validation: Verification Principles

Author: Tiziana Margaria

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2020-10-28

Total Pages: 596

ISBN-13: 3030613623

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The three-volume set LNCS 12476 - 12478 constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 9th International Symposium on Leveraging Applications of Formal Methods, ISoLA 2020, which was planned to take place during October 20–30, 2020, on Rhodes, Greece. The event itself was postponed to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected for inclusion in the proceedings. Each volume focusses on an individual topic with topical section headings within the volume: Part I, Verification Principles: Modularity and (De-)Composition in Verification; X-by-Construction: Correctness meets Probability; 30 Years of Statistical Model Checking; Verification and Validation of Concurrent and Distributed Systems. Part II, Engineering Principles: Automating Software Re-Engineering; Rigorous Engineering of Collective Adaptive Systems. Part III, Applications: Reliable Smart Contracts: State-of-the-art, Applications, Challenges and Future Directions; Automated Verification of Embedded Control Software; Formal methods for DIStributed COmputing in future RAILway systems.

Implementing IT governance in the public sector by use of bootstrap algorithms
Implementing IT governance in the public sector by use of bootstrap algorithms

Author: Petter Ogland

Publisher: Lulu.com

Published: 2017-11-29

Total Pages: 279

ISBN-13: 1387360035

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It has been argued that the reason seventy percent of all IT projects fail is due to lack of a formal system for guiding and monitoring IT decisions. Organisations having explicit IT governance systems are generally twice as successful as those with poor governance, given the same strategic objectives, but implementing IT governance can be difficult. In this book, Dr. Ogland looks at the public sector and argues that the implementation of IT governance has to be done through bootstrapping. The bootstrap algorithm (BA) is a time-tested approach that is known to work, but it is an approach that breaks with much of the logic of the public sector bureaucracy and is expected to be met with resistance. By analysing patterns in a study of trying to convince a Norwegian public sector organisation to implement IT governance through the use of the BA, the book is able to provide rich insights on what causes failure and how to make the implementation process succeed.

I Had It All the Time
I Had It All the Time

Author: Alan Cohen

Publisher: Hay House, Inc

Published: 1995-03-07

Total Pages: 240

ISBN-13: 1401941133

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Quit Fixing Yourself and Get on with the Life You Came to Live! If you are among the millions of people who have devoted years of time, bundles of money, and buckets of effort to finding the teacher, training, or technique that will fix what’s not working in your life, you will find welcome relief in this dynamic, heartful, and humorous array of illuminating insights. Whether you are a newcomer or veteran on the path of self-improvement, I Had It All the Time will awaken you to a life so magnificent that you will laugh at the notion of improving what love made whole.

Mechanism Design for Total Quality Management
Mechanism Design for Total Quality Management

Author: Petter Ogland

Publisher: Lulu.com

Published: 2017-11-23

Total Pages: 348

ISBN-13: 1387359967

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'Mechanism Design for Total Quality Management' is clearly written in a logical manner and points are supported by real life case studies. Dr. Ogland demonstrates how a Total Quality Management strategy articulated through the use of bootstrap algorithms can be used to achieve world-class performance in challenging environments such as complex organisations saturated with power struggles and internal politics. The book features insights on critical systems thinking, game theory, quality management systems, the EFQM Business Excellence Model, self-assessment, and the implementation of TQM. Case studies provide practical insights from twenty years of empirical research on how to bootstrap TQM and Business Excellence in complex environments. The ideas developed in the book have been acknowledged as a major contribution to the theory of TQM, and the book itself is an indispensable resource for practitioners trying to implement TQM in environments where traditional implementation methods are bound to fail.

Using the Bootstrap Algorithm for Changing the Control Game
Using the Bootstrap Algorithm for Changing the Control Game

Author: Petter Ogland

Publisher: Lulu.com

Published: 2018-03-22

Total Pages: 346

ISBN-13: 1387359991

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'Using the Bootstrap Algorithm for Changing the Control Game' is clearly written and points are supported by real life case studies. Dr. Ogland demonstrates how a Total Quality Management strategy articulated through the use of bootstrap algorithms can be used to achieve world-class performance in challenging environments such as complex organisations saturated with power struggles and internal politics. The book features insights on critical systems thinking, game theory, quality management systems, the Efqm Business Excellence Model, self-assessment, and the implementation of Tqm. Case studies provide practical insights from twenty years of empirical research on how to bootstrap Tqm and Business Excellence in complex environments. The ideas developed in the book have been acknowledged as a major contribution to the theory of Tqm, and the book itself is an indispensable resource for practitioners trying to implement Tqm in environments where traditional implementation methods are bound to fail.