The seminar at the Institute of Digital Ecosystems will address timely topics in the areas of Digital Ecosystem design and mechanisms, the use of new technologies for product development in Digital Ecosystems, and user behaviour and modeling. Topics include but are not restricted to:

- Power distribution and rule-setting in digital ecosystems

- Roles and hierarchies in digital ecosystems

- Game-theoretic perspectives on digital ecosystems

- Case studies of digital ecosystems

- Human-centric digital ecosystems

- Modelling and predicting user behaviour in digital ecosystems

This seminar will give you the opportunity to either i) explore how your doctoral research connects to above topics, to identify relevant research gaps and how to address them; or ii) explore a specific topic within Digital Ecosystems. You will be provided with a research paper from Digital Ecosystems, which you will review and use as the basis for developing your own research proposal.

Upon completion of the seminar, you will have learned or further honed your skills in critically reviewing other scholars’ research, deriving well-defined and nontrivial research questions, developing a research design to answer these questions, and presenting your research in a well-structured and engaging fashion both in writing and orally.

Attendance in the first session is important because we will identify participant interests, areas of research and prior knowledge in order to assign a suitable research paper to be reviewed. A minimum attendance of 80% and active participation in class discussions is expected.

The seminar format is interactive and provides a platform for doctoral students to present and discuss their work, and explore the overlap with and links to the domain of Digital Ecosystems. The course will introduce and discuss research methods and theories in Information Systems and Digital Ecosystems. Course content and structure will depend somewhat on the interests and prior knowledge of the participating doctoral students.

Performance will be assessed based on the review of the assigned research paper, the research proposal, the presentation of said proposal, and active participation in class discussions. Content, methodology, problem-solving skills, structure and creativity will be taken into account.

20% Research paper review
20% Research proposal
40% Presentation and accompanying materials (e.g., slides)
20% Active participation in discussions and quality of contributions