Explores the geography, ecology, and antiquity of 'open ecosystems' which include grasslands, savannas, and shrublands.

Sharing information and knowledge, co-innovating with clients, communities, and competitors and adopting cognitive technology, robo advisors, crowdfunding, and blockchain reflect current socio-economic behaviour. Emerging growth regions in Asia, demographic shifts, intergenerational wealth transfers and increasing regulations are other trends that amplify each other, disrupt the client journey, and affect the entire economy. Moreover, unprecedentedly, new market entrants outside the financial sector, be it Amazon, Apple, Google, or Facebook, are increasingly expanding their scale and scope to offer financial services. Featuring case studies of Chinese business ecosystems, such as Alibaba/Ant Financial, that have transformed from displaying domestic and organic growth to rapid global expansion, this highly readable book gives you glimpses of how banking services are evolving. We break down everything you need to know about the foray of challenger banks into the financial services. You learn how they link health to wealth data and gain advantages through analytical capabilities in the race to attract sophisticated clients with highly personalized experiences. The next level of creating and capturing value for clients and businesses involves platform models embedded in cross-sector ecosystems. Digital platforms are the crucial entry point to global markets, creating value for multiple sides. They leverage self-driving ecosystems that go beyond linear value chains applied in traditional business models as the sources of growth in an interconnected world are collaboration and network effects. The winners will be those who open up and engage themselves in an ecosystem that transcends organizational boundaries and performs without sector borders because every actor contributes to the value constellation of the system. The book provides practitioners and scholars with new insights into open and holistic business models, where competition in future will be between ecosystems rather than at the company level. It encourages leaders to expand their skills and think through the lens of the ecosystem theory while developing compelling strategies to serve the next-generation clients.

Understanding how to sustain the services that ecosystems provide in support of human wellbeing is an active and growing research area. This book provides a state-of-the-art review of current thinking on the links between ecosystem services and poverty alleviation. In part it showcases the key findings of the Ecosystem Services for Poverty Alleviation (ESPA) programme, which has funded over 120 research projects in more than 50 countries since 2010. ESPA’s goal is to ensure that ecosystems are being sustainably managed in a way that contributes to poverty alleviation as well as to inclusive and sustainable growth. As governments across the world map how they will achieve the 17 ambitious Sustainable Development Goals, most of which have poverty alleviation, wellbeing and sustainable environmental management at their heart, ESPA’s findings have never been more timely and relevant. The book synthesises the headline messages and compelling evidence to address the questions at the heart of ecosystems and wellbeing research. The authors, all leading specialists, address the evolving framings and contexts for the work, review the impacts of ongoing drivers of change, present new ways to achieve sustainable wellbeing, equity, diversity, and resilience, and evaluate the potential contributions from conservation projects, payment schemes, and novel governance approaches across scales from local to national and international. The cross-cutting, thematic chapters challenge conventional wisdom in some areas, and validate new methods and approaches for sustainable development in others. The book will provide a rich and important reference source for advanced students, researchers and policy-makers in ecology, environmental studies, ecological economics and sustainable development. The Open Access version of this book, available at https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9780429016295, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.

This book describes the state-of-the-art of software ecosystems. It constitutes a fundamental step towards an empirically based, nuanced understanding of the implications for management, governance, and control of software ecosystems. This is the first book of its kind dedicated to this emerging field and offers guidelines on how to analyze software ecosystems; methods for managing and growing; methods on transitioning from a closed software organization to an open one; and instruments for dealing with open source, licensing issues, product management and app stores. It is unique in bringing together industry experiences, academic views and tackling challenges such as the definition of fundamental concepts of software ecosystems, describing those forces that influence its development and lifecycles, and the provision of methods for the governance of software ecosystems. This book is an essential starting point for software industry researchers, product managers, and entrepreneurs.

Digital asset management is undergoing a fundamental transformation. Near universal availability of high-quality web-based assets makes it important to pay attention to the new world of digital ecosystems and what it means for managing, using and publishing digital assets. The Ecosystem of Digital Assets reflects on these developments and what the emerging 'web of things' could mean for digital assets. The book is structured into three parts, each covering an important aspect of digital assets. Part one introduces the emerging ecosystems of digital assets. Part two examines digital asset management in a networked environment. The third part covers media ecosystems. - Looks to the future of digital asset management, focussing on the next generation web - Includes up-to date developments in the field, crowd sourcing, and cloud services - Details case studies to demonstrate how generic requirements are met in particular cases

Platform Ecosystems is a hands-on guide that offers a complete roadmap for designing and orchestrating vibrant software platform ecosystems. Unlike software products that are managed, the evolution of ecosystems and their myriad participants must be orchestrated through a thoughtful alignment of architecture and governance. Whether you are an IT professional or a general manager, you will benefit from this book because platform strategy here lies at the intersection of software architecture and business strategy. It offers actionable tools to develop your own platform strategy, backed by original research, tangible metrics, rich data, and cases. You will learn how architectural choices create organically-evolvable, vibrant ecosystems. You will also learn to apply state-of-the-art research in software engineering, strategy, and evolutionary biology to leverage ecosystem dynamics unique to platforms. Read this book to learn how to: Evolve software products and services into vibrant platform ecosystems Orchestrate platform architecture and governance to sustain competitive advantage Govern platform evolution using a powerful 3-dimensional framework If you’re ready to transform platform strategy from newspaper gossip and business school theory to real-world competitive advantage, start right here! Understand how architecture and strategy are inseparably intertwined in platform ecosystems Architect future-proof platforms and apps and amplify these choices through governance Evolve platforms, apps, and entire ecosystems into vibrant successes and spot platform opportunities in almost any—not just IT—industry

Welcome to the 5th International Conference on Open Source Systems! It is quite an achievement to reach the five-year mark – that’s the sign of a successful enterprise. This annual conference is now being recognized as the primary event for the open source research community, attracting not only high-quality papers, but also building a community around a technical program, a collection of workshops, and (starting this year) a Doctoral Consortium. Reaching this milestone reflects the efforts of many people, including the conference founders, as well as the organizers and participants in the previous conferences. My task has been easy, and has been greatly aided by the hard work of Kevin Crowston and Cornelia Boldyreff, the Program Committee, as well as the Organizing Team led by Björn Lundell. All of us are also grateful to our attendees, especially in the difficult economic climate of 2009. We hope the participants found the conference valuable both for its technical content and for its personal networking opportunities. To me, it is interesting to look back over the past five years, not just at this conference, but at the development and acceptance of open source software. Since 2004, the business and commercial side of open source has grown enormously. At that time, there were only a handful of open source businesses, led by RedHat and its Linux distribution. Companies such as MySQL and JBoss were still quite small.

Novel trends and innovations have enhanced contemporary educational environments. When applied properly, these computing advances can create enriched learning opportunities for students. Mobile Technologies and Augmented Reality in Open Education is a pivotal reference source for the latest academic research on the integration of interactive technology and mobile applications in online and distance learning environments. Highlighting scholarly perspectives across numerous topics such as wearable technology, instructional design, and flipped learning, this book is ideal for educators, professionals, practitioners, academics, and graduate students interested in the role of augmented reality in modern educational contexts.

Conservation Biology in Sub-Saharan Africa comprehensively explores the challenges and potential solutions to key conservation issues in Sub-Saharan Africa. Easy to read, this lucid and accessible textbook includes fifteen chapters that cover a full range of conservation topics, including threats to biodiversity, environmental laws, and protected areas management, as well as related topics such as sustainability, poverty, and human-wildlife conflict. This rich resource also includes a background discussion of what conservation biology is, a wide range of theoretical approaches to the subject, and concrete examples of conservation practice in specific African contexts. Strategies are outlined to protect biodiversity whilst promoting economic development in the region. Boxes covering specific themes written by scientists who live and work throughout the region are included in each chapter, together with recommended readings and suggested discussion topics. Each chapter also includes an extensive bibliography. Conservation Biology in Sub-Saharan Africa provides the most up-to-date study in the field. It is an essential resource, available on-line without charge, for undergraduate and graduate students, as well as a handy guide for professionals working to stop the rapid loss of biodiversity in Sub-Saharan Africa and elsewhere.

This open access book surveys the frontier of scientific river research and provides examples to guide management towards a sustainable future of riverine ecosystems. Principal structures and functions of the biogeosphere of rivers are explained; key threats are identified, and effective solutions for restoration and mitigation are provided. Rivers are among the most threatened ecosystems of the world. They increasingly suffer from pollution, water abstraction, river channelisation and damming. Fundamental knowledge of ecosystem structure and function is necessary to understand how human acitivities interfere with natural processes and which interventions are feasible to rectify this. Modern water legislation strives for sustainable water resource management and protection of important habitats and species. However, decision makers would benefit from more profound understanding of ecosystem degradation processes and of innovative methodologies and tools for efficient mitigation and restoration. The book provides best-practice examples of sustainable river management from on-site studies, European-wide analyses and case studies from other parts of the world. This book will be of interest to researchers in the field of aquatic ecology, river system functioning, conservation and restoration, to postgraduate students, to institutions involved in water management, and to water related industries.