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Providing gerontological cares represents an increased challenge when applied to rural scenarios. This paper discusses the role of technology in gerontology and specifically how technology-based solutions can be developed to assist the elderly population in rural areas. We also characterize the Northeast Portuguese region exposing its rural characteristics and presented some demographic numbers. Finally, a conceptual model and a prototype supported by mobile devices are presented to assist and monitor the elderly and enhance business opportunities. The developed prototype allows not only to assist the elderly in a set of typical elderly population routines - such as those related to health - but also to improve the interaction between the elderly and their relatives and / or caregivers. This work is part of a more extensive effort that has been made in the search for effective solutions to assist the elderly population in rural areas, typically distant from the main health and / or support services; contributing to relieve these deficits. info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

Technology is increasingly a transversal layer to all activities and, in this sense, exploring the potential of technology as a driver to support the competitiveness of organizations and nations has become a necessity for survival. Tourism is a fundamental asset in many modern economies and certainly fundamental from a civilizational and generational point of view, insofar as associated with a wide range of tourist destinations is its heritage. As such, the promotion and interpretation of destinations and their heritage are very important and, in these areas, technologies have played a fundamental and revolutionary role. In this scenario, Virtual Reality, among other technologies, demonstrates a vast potential in promoting tourist destinations and in creating immersive experiences that allow for a better interpretation of destinations and their heritage, as well as greater attractiveness for younger generations. This article, after a review of technological concepts and a discussion of their role in the context of tourism and heritage, proposes a conceptual model capable of contributing to a more agile and massified creation of Virtual Reality experiences. Finally, an experimental prototype created for an olive and olive-oil museum is presented, with the aim of facilitating the interpretation, by visitors, of its permanent exhibition objects and improving the visiting experience. UNIAG, R&D unit funded by the FCT – Portuguese Foundation for the Development of Science and Technology, Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education. UIDB/04752/2020 info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

Smart cities are, by nature, spaces with a richness and diversity of technologies incorporated in their physical spaces, in such a way that they can be seen as a single intelligent and collaborative space. As technological pillars, two important layers arise – the sensory layer and the actuator layer, both of which are strongly interconnected with each other, emerging as a large Internet of Things network. This scenario reveals an enormous potential for marketing science and for the creation of innovative strategies to promote territories as touristic destinations. Within the multiple opportunities, there is space for the development of an interactive marketing experience, revolutionizing, through creative rethink, the way destinations interact with their visitors, and make known all their potential. Although in the context of tourism, there are three main moments in the visit process – the before, the during and the after, this work focuses on the moment of the destination visit – the during. In order to understand how creative rethink can be carried out to create innovative strategies to promote touristic destinations, an introduction is carried out, substantiating the concepts of digital marketing, smart cities and Internet of Things. Then, the methodology that governed the creation of a collaborative model for smart cities is clearly defined, being contextualized the importance of destinations-communication, the concept of a smart city and some of the major technology that support this concept. After contextualization and methodological aspects, this article presents a conceptual model where its components are described and where it is discussed how the model can take advantage of the variety of technologies that exist in a smart city, in order to allow innovative digital marketing strategies and innovating in the interaction between the city and the visitant, and vice versa – the vision of interactive digital marketing. In the model discussion, some interaction-scenarios and their main benefits are highlighted, which serve as examples for validating the proposed model. Finally, we present the work limitations and mains conclusions. info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

The tourism sector has gained increasing importance in the economy of many regions, or even countries, however, the way in which organizations and terri- tories communicate and promote each other, to attract tourists, significantly impacts the success of the sector, and digital marketing strategies have stood out as promising. Thus, in a digital society, in which information and communication technologies are present in the daily life of the general population, especially mobile technologies, it is essential that the tourism sector seeks innovative and differentiating marketing and communication strategies. When considering the technological advances, which have been asserted lately, wireless communication networks with high bandwidth, processing capacity of mobile technologies, Internet of Things, Big Data, Virtual and Augmented Reality, Empowered Smart Cities with different technology; it can be said that the conditions are in place so that new paradigms and marketing strategies can emerge. These technologies allow to communicate with the target audience in a more impactful way and stimulating different senses, that is, immersive. It is in this context that the opportunity and motivation for the development of this research work arises. In this sense, this work highlights the technologies that we consider most relevant, combining them in a conceptual model that is proposed and that we consider enhancing an immersive and innovative digital marketing strategy, for the promotion of touristic destinations. info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

The economic sector of tourism has gained significant weight in the economy of many countries, highlighting the weight of this sector in Portugal. However, the inconsistency and seasonality of demand causes companies linked to the sector to encounter difficulties regarding the planning and management of resources allocated to the activity. It is often the case that there are periods of economic loss caused by a small volume of demand that is insufficient to support the costs of the activity. In this context, this article proposes a system that, based on intelligent data analysis, allows a hotel chain to segment customers and enhance exclusive offers to minimize fluctuation and demand gaps in hotel units installed in thermal instances.

The need for organizations to cooperate, especially SMEs, is currently considered an appropriate way to gain competitive capacity, and ICT are an enabler to support the creation of interorganizational cooperation networks. However, in rural regions, investment in technology is scarce and often seen as an unbearable cost. In order to respond to this reality, this work presents a conceptual technological model capable of leveraging and supporting the creation of cooperation networks, with the contextualization of the business in rural regions being previously done, exploring the fundamentals of cloud computing and cooperation networks. UNIAG, R&D unit funded by the FCT – Portuguese Foundation for the Development of Science and Technology, Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education. UIDB/04752/2020 info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

Communication among the different actors present in the school ecosystem is an essential issue. However, in a hectic world where parents do not have much time to visit schools regularly, it is crucial to create mechanisms to better monitor student’s success and school demands. The interaction among school, students and parents presents a growing complex challenge. Technology has, in recent years, shaped the concepts of learning support and monitoring – both in school and out of school – as well as the way information flows among all actors in the school ecosystem. Emergently, the evolution of mobile applications, coupled with the evolution of mobile device capabilities, has made possible to create new and more effective intercommunication mechanisms, with ubiquitous approaches and in a predictable scenario of less willingness to physically interaction of the different actors. Based on these assumptions, this paper reflects on the potential of mobile devices and their applications to support new models of intercommunication among parents or school sponsors, students and teachers. Accordingly, a conceptual model is proposed that represents a work in progress that aims the creation and evaluation of a prototype system capable of improve de intercommunication and the overall success of the school learning system societal challenges. UNIAG, R&D unit funded by the FCT – Portuguese Foundation for the Development of Science and Technology, Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education. UID/GES/4752/2019. info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

Inter-organizational strategic alliances, in which networks of cooperation stand out, have proved to be a good model to provide more competitive organizations. However, there are still shortcomings concerning models and supporting technologies that help the creation of inter-organizational arrangements. This paper presents a conceptual model for the establishment of cooperation networks, an information system that supports the proposed model and, finally, the results of a case study in the tourism sector. (C) 2015 Published by Elsevier B.V., info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

Cooperation networks are a promising model for companies. There are currently several models for the creation of this kind of networks. This paper presents a conceptual model for the development of cooperation networks, which aims at promoting the information sharing about business opportunities between members of a specific network. The proposed model is based on a Web Information System, and it is useful in the context of building and managing inter-organizational and/or intra-organizational networks.

The provision of gerontological care in rural areas represents an added challenge when applied to rural scenarios. This paper discusses the role of technology in gerontology and specifically how technology based solutions can be developed to assist the elderly population in rural areas. It is also characterized the Northeast Portuguese region exposing its rural characteristics and presented some demographic numbers. Finally, a conceptual model and a prototype supported by mobile devices are presented to assist and monitor the elderly. The developed prototype allows not only to assist the elderly in a set of typical elderly population routines - such as those related to health - but also to improve the interaction between the elderly and their relatives and / or caregivers. This work is part of a more extensive effort that has been made in the search for effective solutions to assist the elderly population in rural areas, typically distant from the main health and / or support services; contributing to relieve these deficits. UNIAG, R&D unit funded by the FCT – Portuguese Foundation for the Development of Science and Technology, Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education. UID/GES/4752/2019. info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

In small and rural regions, where we can many times find top quality products, there is, many times, a greater difficulty in promoting their products. This difficulty begins in the nature of the companies that manufacture these products. These companies are typically family-owned or small-sized, not having large capacity to carry out very elaborate marketing strategies. They often depend of the tourist attractiveness of the regions themselves to leverage their sales. This paper discuss the challenges for the promotion of regional products and rural regions, review the role of smartphones and the main tag-based contextualization mechanisms and their potential for leverage the sale of rural regional products and, finally, presents a cooperation based conceptual model, where are combined contextualization-tags and mobile devices to promote regional products, leverage sales and promote rural regions by attracting new visitants, making regional products a window-mechanism to the promotion of rural regions heritage and tourism-related services. UNIAG, R&D unit funded by the FCT – Portuguese Foundation for the Development of Science and Technology, Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education. UID/GES/4752/2016. info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion