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Advances in the Human Side of Service

Engineering: Proceedings of the AHFE


2020 Virtual Conference on The Human
Side of Service Engineering, July 16-20,
2020, USA Jim Spohrer
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Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing 1208

Jim Spohrer
Christine Leitner Editors

Advances in
the Human
Side of Service
Engineering
Proceedings of the AHFE 2020
Virtual Conference on The Human
Side of Service Engineering,
July 16–20, 2020, USA
Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing

Volume 1208

Series Editor
Janusz Kacprzyk, Systems Research Institute, Polish Academy of Sciences,
Warsaw, Poland

Advisory Editors
Nikhil R. Pal, Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata, India
Rafael Bello Perez, Faculty of Mathematics, Physics and Computing,
Universidad Central de Las Villas, Santa Clara, Cuba
Emilio S. Corchado, University of Salamanca, Salamanca, Spain
Hani Hagras, School of Computer Science and Electronic Engineering,
University of Essex, Colchester, UK
László T. Kóczy, Department of Automation, Széchenyi István University,
Gyor, Hungary
Vladik Kreinovich, Department of Computer Science, University of Texas
at El Paso, El Paso, TX, USA
Chin-Teng Lin, Department of Electrical Engineering, National Chiao
Tung University, Hsinchu, Taiwan
Jie Lu, Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology,
University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia
Patricia Melin, Graduate Program of Computer Science, Tijuana Institute
of Technology, Tijuana, Mexico
Nadia Nedjah, Department of Electronics Engineering, University of Rio de Janeiro,
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Ngoc Thanh Nguyen , Faculty of Computer Science and Management,
Wrocław University of Technology, Wrocław, Poland
Jun Wang, Department of Mechanical and Automation Engineering,
The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong
The series “Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing” contains publications
on theory, applications, and design methods of Intelligent Systems and Intelligent
Computing. Virtually all disciplines such as engineering, natural sciences, computer
and information science, ICT, economics, business, e-commerce, environment,
healthcare, life science are covered. The list of topics spans all the areas of modern
intelligent systems and computing such as: computational intelligence, soft comput-
ing including neural networks, fuzzy systems, evolutionary computing and the fusion
of these paradigms, social intelligence, ambient intelligence, computational neuro-
science, artificial life, virtual worlds and society, cognitive science and systems,
Perception and Vision, DNA and immune based systems, self-organizing and
adaptive systems, e-Learning and teaching, human-centered and human-centric
computing, recommender systems, intelligent control, robotics and mechatronics
including human-machine teaming, knowledge-based paradigms, learning para-
digms, machine ethics, intelligent data analysis, knowledge management, intelligent
agents, intelligent decision making and support, intelligent network security, trust
management, interactive entertainment, Web intelligence and multimedia.
The publications within “Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing” are
primarily proceedings of important conferences, symposia and congresses. They
cover significant recent developments in the field, both of a foundational and
applicable character. An important characteristic feature of the series is the short
publication time and world-wide distribution. This permits a rapid and broad
dissemination of research results.
** Indexing: The books of this series are submitted to ISI Proceedings,
EI-Compendex, DBLP, SCOPUS, Google Scholar and Springerlink **

More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/11156


Jim Spohrer Christine Leitner

Editors

Advances in the Human Side


of Service Engineering
Proceedings of the AHFE 2020 Virtual
Conference on The Human Side of Service
Engineering, July 16–20, 2020, USA

123
Editors
Jim Spohrer Christine Leitner
IBM Research - Almaden Centre for Economics and Public
San Jose, CA, USA Administration
London, UK

ISSN 2194-5357 ISSN 2194-5365 (electronic)


Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing
ISBN 978-3-030-51056-5 ISBN 978-3-030-51057-2 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-51057-2
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license
to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether
the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of
illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and
transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar
or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this
publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from
the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this
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authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained
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to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
Advances in Human Factors
and Ergonomics 2020

AHFE 2020 Series Editors


Tareq Z. Ahram, Florida, USA
Waldemar Karwowski, Florida, USA

11th International Conference on Applied Human Factors and Ergonomics and the
Affiliated Conferences

Proceedings of the AHFE 2020 Virtual Conference on the Human Side of Service
Engineering, July 16–20, 2020, USA

Advances in Neuroergonomics and Cognitive Hasan Ayaz and Umer Asgher


Engineering
Advances in Industrial Design Giuseppe Di Bucchianico, Cliff Sungsoo
Shin, Scott Shim, Shuichi Fukuda,
Gianni Montagna and Cristina Carvalho
Advances in Ergonomics in Design Francisco Rebelo and Marcelo Soares
Advances in Safety Management and Human Pedro M. Arezes and Ronald L. Boring
Performance
Advances in Human Factors and Ergonomics in Jay Kalra and Nancy J. Lightner
Healthcare and Medical Devices
Advances in Simulation and Digital Human Daniel N Cassenti, Sofia Scataglini,
Modeling Sudhakar L. Rajulu and Julia L. Wright
Advances in Human Factors and Systems Isabel L. Nunes
Interaction
Advances in the Human Side of Service Jim Spohrer and Christine Leitner
Engineering
Advances in Human Factors, Business Jussi Ilari Kantola, Salman Nazir and
Management and Leadership Vesa Salminen
Advances in Human Factors in Robots, Drones Matteo Zallio
and Unmanned Systems
Advances in Human Factors in Cybersecurity Isabella Corradini, Enrico Nardelli and
Tareq Ahram
(continued)

v
vi Advances in Human Factors and Ergonomics 2020

(continued)
Advances in Human Factors in Training, Salman Nazir, Tareq Ahram and
Education, and Learning Sciences Waldemar Karwowski
Advances in Human Aspects of Transportation Neville Stanton
Advances in Artificial Intelligence, Software and Tareq Ahram
Systems Engineering
Advances in Human Factors in Architecture, Jerzy Charytonowicz
Sustainable Urban Planning and Infrastructure
Advances in Physical, Social & Occupational Waldemar Karwowski, Ravindra S.
Ergonomics Goonetilleke, Shuping Xiong,
Richard H.M. Goossens and Atsuo
Murata
Advances in Manufacturing, Production Beata Mrugalska, Stefan Trzcielinski,
Management and Process Control Waldemar Karwowski, Massimo Di
Nicolantonio and Emilio Rossi
Advances in Usability, User Experience, Wearable Tareq Ahram and Christianne Falcão
and Assistive Technology
Advances in Creativity, Innovation, Evangelos Markopoulos, Ravindra S.
Entrepreneurship and Communication of Design Goonetilleke, Amic G. Ho and Yan
Luximon
Preface

If there is any one element to the engineering of service systems that is unique, it is
the extent to which the suitability of the system for human use, human service, and
for providing an excellent human experience has been and must always be con-
sidered. The International Conference on the Human Side of Service Engineering
(HSSE 2020) was organized within the framework of the International Conference
on Applied Human Factors and Ergonomics (AHFE) as an Affiliated Conference.
This conference included over 60 presentations during the 3-day event in sessions
which focused on the study of people as the key variable in service systems, with
service innovation as the primary goal to invent, adapt, and engineer better skills,
technologies, organizations, information resources, and value propositions to
address the needs, wants, and aspirations of diverse people in service systems.
Newly included topics for HSSE relate to determinants of trust: standards, expe-
rience, public policy, privacy, and ethics. All of these are types of shared infor-
mation resources that influence trust between actors and will be impacted by
advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI).
The book is divided into seven major sections as follows:
Section 1 Digital Services for Product Innovation
Section 2 Research Approaches to Service Innovation: Organizational
Perspectives
Section 3 Service Design Techniques: Healthcare Applications
Section 4 Emerging Research Innovations in AI, User Experience and Design
Section 5 Challenges and Opportunities for Designing Smart Service with AI
Section 6 Service Science and Knowledge Science
Section 7 Empowerment of Citizens, Public Sector Employees and Other
Stakeholders in the Digital Age
A major area of expansion in this conference is in AI, Big Data, and Knowledge
Science in Human-Side of Service Engineering. Also, new was the exploration
of a computable scholarly record, including meta science and engineering
reproducibility in the era of AI.

vii
viii Preface

We are deeply indebted to all Session Chairs for their contributions to HSSE
2020. We hope that you find this volume useful and interesting, and invite all to
join us for next year’s meeting. Our sincere thanks and appreciation goes to the
Board members listed below for their contribution to the high scientific standard
maintained in developing this book.
T. Abel, USA
L. Anderson, USA
S. Badesha, USA
C. Bassano, Italy
F. Bodendorf, Germany
J. Busquets, Spain
W. Cellary, Poland
B. Edvardsson, Sweden
M. Ehret, UK
S. Fosso Wamba, France
L. Freund, USA
W. Ganz, Germany
C. Glauser, Switzerland
K. Hidaka, Japan
H. Kim, USA
Y. Kohda, Japan
A. Kumar, USA
S. Kwan, USA
K. Lyons, Canada
P. Maglio, USA
C. Mele, Italy
Y. Misnikov, UK
Y. Moghaddam, USA
C. Nebeker, USA
S. Parikh, India
F. Polese, Italy
G. Ramirez, Colombia
M. Rosenbaum, USA
D. Satterfield, USA
Y. Sawatani, Japan
D. Simmons, USA
S. Vargo, USA
L. Walletzký, Czech Republic
Preface ix

M. Warg, Germany
C. Zagel, Germany
A. Zimmermann, Germany

July 2020 Jim Spohrer


Christine Leitner
Contents

Digital Services for Product Innovation


Identifying Trendsetters in Online Social
Networks – A Machine Learning Approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Martina Fricke and Freimut Bodendorf
Consume Less, Create More – Digital Services in the Context
of Sustainability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Rebecca Fischer and Lena Pieper
“Innovation? Yes, I Can”–Individually Perceived Creative
Self-efficacy as an Effect of Vividness Targeting Creativity Methods . . . 17
Lena Pieper, Rebecca Fischer, and Hauke Hasenknopf
Service Innovation for Cyborgs – Human Augmentation
as a Self-experiment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Christian Zagel
Influence of Survey Link Locational Placement on the User Rating . . . . 28
Adelka Niels
Why Do You Listen to This? Experiencing Black Metal . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Hauke Hasenknopf, Nassrin Hajinejad, Lena Pieper,
and Rebecca Fischer

Research Approaches to Service Innovation: Organizational


Perspectives
Research Approaches to Service Innovation:
Organizational Perspectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Laura C. Anderson, Kelly Lyons, and Yuriko Sawatani
Innovation-as-a-Service: Emergent Lessons from an AI Innovation
Management Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Christine T. Wolf and Jeanette L. Blomberg

xi
xii Contents

Barriers to Service Innovation Using Data Science . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57


Rohan Alexander and Kelly Lyons
Service Design Approaches to Drive Employee Engagement . . . . . . . . . 63
Laura C. Anderson and Cheryl A. Kieliszewski
Methodological Reinforcements: Investigating Work Through Trace
Data and Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Corey Jackson, Laura C. Anderson, and Cheryl A. Kieliszewski

Service Design Techniques: Healthcare Applications


Architecture and Its Multifaceted Roles in Enabling Value
Co-creation in the Context of Human-Centered Service Design . . . . . . . 79
Markus Warg
Value Co-creation as the Core of Service Innovation: Impacts
of a Case Study of a Fully Digitized Health Insurance Company . . . . . . 86
Roman Rittweger, Anselm Kronibus, and Peter Weiß
Improving the User Experience for Healthcare Professionals
Using a Conversational Agent to Complete Business
Intelligence Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Dorian Miller, Rebecca Niehus, and Robert J. Moore
Design Principles for Health Service Innovations: Nudges
from the IBM Health Records Service Platform . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
Ingo Bahrs, Ronald Fritz, and Martin Semmann
A Conceptual Framework for Workforce Management:
Impacts from Service Science and S-D Logic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Markus Frosch and Markus Warg
Microfoundations for Building Systems of Engagement:
Enable Actor Engagement Using Service Dominant Architecture . . . . . 116
Peter Weiss
Analyzing the Role of Artificial Intelligence in the Development
of Human-Centered Service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
Andreas Zolnowski and Dietmar Frey
Predicting Future Accident Risks of Older Drivers by Speech Data
from a Voice-Based Dialogue System: A Preliminary Result . . . . . . . . . 131
Yasunori Yamada, Kaoru Shinkawa, Akihiro Kosugi,
Masatomo Kobayashi, Hironobu Takagi, Miyuki Nemoto,
Kiyotaka Nemoto, and Tetsuaki Arai
Contents xiii

Predictive Analytics and the Return of “Research” Information


to Participants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
Shengzhi Wang, Ellen E. Lee, Benjamin Zywicki, Ho-Cheol Kim,
Dilip Jeste, and Camille Nebeker
The Use of Digital Technologies and the Transformation
of Work in a Hemodialysis Clinic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
Saturnina Alves da Silva Martins, Marcia Terra da Silva,
and Ivonaldo Vicente da Silva

Emerging Research Innovations in AI, User Experience and Design


Thoughts on Design Education’s Future . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
Sunghyun Ryoo Kang
Locked Out: Engaging Design Students in UX and Access Design
Processes to Address Homelessness in Los Angeles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
Tom Tredway, Jose Rivera-Chang, Debra Satterfield, David Teubner,
and Wesley Woelfel
A New Approach for Experience Design Education: Developing
Conceptual Framework with Storytelling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
Sang-Duck Seo
Creating Socially Conscious Designers Through the Lens
of Empathy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
Kimberly Mitchell
AI Is the New UX: Emerging Research Innovations in AI, User
Experience, and Design as They Apply to Industry, Business,
and Education, and Ethics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
Debra Satterfield and Troy D. Abel
Mitigating Misinformation: Using Simulations to Examine
the Effectiveness of Potential Strategies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
Ryan Kirk
Picking Apart the Black Box: Sociotechnical Contours
of Accessibility in AI/ML Software Engineering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
Christine T. Wolf

Challenges and Opportunities for Designing Smart Service


with Artificial Intelligence
Typology-Based Analysis of Artificial Intelligence
in Service Companies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
Walter Ganz and Thomas Meiren
xiv Contents

Artificial Intelligence as Driver for Business Model Innovation


in Smart Service Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212
Jens Neuhüttler, Holger Kett, Sandra Frings, Jürgen Falkner,
Walter Ganz, and Florian Urmetzer
Validating and Improving the Smart Servicescape Wheel:
A Qualitative Video Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220
Hyo-Jin Kang, Jieun Han, Bokyung Yun, and Gyu Hyun Kwon

Service Science and Knowledge Science


Value-Dominant Logic: An Evolving Quantum
Theory of Economics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231
Hunter Hastings
The Impact of Chatbots on Customer Service Performance . . . . . . . . . . 237
Alexander Rossmann, Alfred Zimmermann, and Dieter Hertweck
Can Humans Learn from AI? A Fundamental Question
in Knowledge Science in the AI Era . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244
Youji Kohda
Intelligence Augmentation (IA) in Complex Decision Making:
A New View of the VSA Concept of Relevance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251
Sergio Barile, Clara Bassano, Mattia Lettieri, Paolo Piciocchi,
and Marialuisa Saviano
A Framework for a Practical Nurse Scheduling Approach:
A Case of Operating Room of a Hospital in Thailand . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259
Pavinee Rerkjirattikal, Van-Nam Huynh, Sun Olapiriyakul,
and Thepchai Supnithi
Analysis and Feedback of Movement in Manual Assembly Process . . . . 265
Raveekiat Singhaphandu, Van-Nam Huynh, and Warut Pannakkong
Towards an Application of Remote Sensing Technology
for Decision Making During Natural Disaster . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271
Hideomi Gokon
Case Study on Applicability of Artificial Intelligence for IT Service
Project Managers with Multi Value Systems in the Digital
Transformation Era . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278
Hiroyuki Endo and Youji Kohda
Evolution of Smart Service Architectures Through
Cognitive Co-creation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289
Alfred Zimmermann, Kurt Sandkuhl, Rainer Schmidt, Dieter Hertweck,
and Alexander Rossmann
Contents xv

Empowerment of Citizens, Public Sector Employees


and Other Stakeholders in the Digital Age
Open Banking and PSD 2: The Promise of Transforming Banking
by ‘Empowering Customers’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299
Christian M. Stiefmueller
Multi-contextual View to Smart City Architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306
Leonard Walletzký, Luca Carrubbo, Angeliki Maria Toli, Mouzhi Ge,
and Františka Romanovská
The Impact of Fraternity and Sorority Participation on NAE’s
Engineer of 2020 Outcomes for Civil Engineering Undergraduates . . . . 313
Denise R. Simmons and Anh D. Chau
Empowering European Mobile Youth: Case Studies from Austria
and Estonia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 320
Christine Leitner, Mohammad Allagha, Jelizaveta Krenjova,
Kristina Reinsalu, and Christian Stiefmueller

Author Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327


Digital Services for Product Innovation
Identifying Trendsetters in Online Social
Networks – A Machine Learning Approach

Martina Fricke(&) and Freimut Bodendorf

Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Lange Gasse 20,


90403 Nuremberg, Germany
{Martina.Fricke,Freimut.Bodendorf}@fau.de

Abstract. Especially in the fashion business consumers nowadays ask con-


tinuously for new styles and products, which forces companies to generate new
ideas and innovative products faster than ever. Besides, consumers interact with
each other on social media platforms and exchange their problems, needs,
preferences, and ideas. With 95 Mio. daily postings on Instagram, it becomes
obvious that such a platform is a huge data source containing important and
valuable information regarding product requirements, customer tastes and needs,
and upcoming trends. This paper presents a model to identify trendsetters based
on their social media profiles and interactions on Instagram by using multiple
machine learning classifiers. The model is trained with data of 665 user
accounts, considering 59 features. Maximum Entropy Model performs the best
with a F1-score of 66.67%.

Keywords: Online social networks  Trendsetter  Machine learning

1 Introduction

The development of fashion trends has changed in terms of diffusion time and fashion
trend actors during the last years. The fashion industry is undergoing a transition from
the traditional bi-seasonal fashion collections towards so-called fast fashion with
constantly changing, new intermediate collections [1] [2]. This leads to shorter product
life cycles with a decreasing timespan between a new design release and consumption
[2], which forces companies to generate new ideas and innovative products faster than
ever. Besides, the increasing usage of online social networks (OSNs) and the resulting
high connectivity across borders increase the power of consumers regarding trend
creation [3]. Internet users are transforming from bare consumers to active creators of
internet content [4] as social media platforms support the exchange of this user-
generated content, enable the social interaction between the users [5] and therefore play
a key role in information diffusion these days [6]. It has also been shown that the online
buzz mirrors the real world and tracking the information online helps to identify trends,
even before the “offline” world becomes aware of them [7]. Therefore, content pub-
lished in OSNs can be used for trend detection [8], to identify popular topics early or
even serve as an inspiration source for new product development [9].
There are 3.5 billion active social media users worldwide, which is 45% of the total
global population [10]. Instagram, which is one of the most relevant OSNs related to

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license
to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
J. Spohrer and C. Leitner (Eds.): AHFE 2020, AISC 1208, pp. 3–9, 2020.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-51057-2_1
4 M. Fricke and F. Bodendorf

fashion today [11], has one billion monthly active users, 95 million daily postings and
4.2 billion likes per day [10]. Compared to the informational Twitter, the visual-based
platform Instagram is often used for self-expression [12] and inspiration [10] as it
mostly spawns aesthetically pleasing and creative content. This shows its high potential
as a data source for detecting upcoming trends and new ideas.
The question which arises is how to find and exploit the relevant data which
contains information about new product ideas and innovative consumer perspectives
out of this huge data source?
There have been many studies investigating trends and influential actors in OSNs,
which can be divided into three main research strings according to the components of
information diffusion in OSNs [6]. The first pillar focuses on analyzing the process of
information diffusion resp. trends. Therefore, elaborate statistical methods are applied
for various purposes, e.g., to forecast the final size of an information cascade, such as
retweets [13], or to predict the future evolution of the popularity of hashtags. For the
latter, Ma et al. tested different classification methods and find that Maximum Entropy
performs the best and that considering content and context features is beneficial for
prediction accuracy [14].
The second stream concentrates on the investigation of attributes and the content of
influential messages [11, 15]. Jaakonmäki et al. investigate the most influential content
features of an Instagram post on the engagement of followers and use LASSO, a
regression algorithm, for this [15].
The third string deals with identifying relevant user or user groups regarding new
trends, such as opinion leaders, and often focus on the position in the network or the
personal traits of such actors [11, 17, 18]. For this, different approaches have been
tested, mainly using means of social network analysis [17] or a combination of these
with text mining and statistical analyses [18]. These studies dealing with trends and
opinion leader identification have often based on Twitter data. Instagram, however, has
been neglected by academic research for a long time [16]. Hence, research focuses
mainly on analyzing the shared content and structure of the network. As Instagram is a
photo-sharing application, a big portion of current research analyzes the posted images,
e.g., to identify objects or faces on shared pictures [19] or investigate the hashtags [20]
and comments below a picture [21]. Few studies, however, focus on the classification
of user accounts. Ciampaglia et al. tried to predict whether a fashion model becomes
popular based on Instagram data by using classification algorithms [22]. To the best of
our knowledge, studies which concentrate on classifying Instagram accounts in a
fashion-related area do not exist.
Hence, this paper presents a machine learning approach, which aims to recognize
trendsetter accounts on Instagram. Firstly, we create a concept for labeling a training
data set which bases on Rogers Innovation Diffusion Model. Then, we derive the
features based on literature to finally train and compare several classifiers regarding
their performance. For our research, we use publicly available data of Instagram
accounts. After introducing the theoretical framework, the structure of the paper fol-
lows the different steps of a machine learning process, closing with the presentation of
results and conclusion.
Identifying Trendsetters in Online Social Networks 5

2 Theoretical Framework

Despite reducing product life cycles and very fast shelf turnover rates, the diffusion of
products still follows a specific process, the fashion life cycle curve [2]. It comprises
the phases introduction, growth, maturity, and decline and resembles Rogers’ diffusion
curve. Rogers Diffusion Model, which originally focuses on innovations, shows the
adoption process related to different adopter types. According to Rogers, an innovation
is any idea, practice or object that is perceived as new by an individual or another
adopter [23]. By this definition, a new product or fashion trend can be considered an
innovation. Therefore, Rogers’ model can be applied in the context of fashion and new
product ideas. He differentiates in his model five types of adopters - innovators, early
adopters, early majority, late majority, and laggards - according to their innovativeness,
which describes the degree to which a user adopts innovations relatively earlier than
other members of a social system [24]. Innovators are the first 2.5% of consumers who
adopt a new idea or innovation. They have a high impact on the introduction of
innovation to a larger audience and therefore play a gatekeeping role in the flow of new
ideas into a system [24]. Early adopters are the next 13.5% of consumers in this
process. They are well integrated into a digital or real-world network [2], serve as role
models for later adopter groups [23] and play an important role regarding trendsetting
as they have the ability to influence others’ behavior and attitudes [24]. Both, inno-
vators and early adopters come up with new ideas or recognize the potential of
innovation. They pass it on to their social system and play a decisive role in whether it
will be accepted as a trend [23]. These two groups are summarized as trendsetters.

3 Methodology
3.1 Data Collection
Due to its high relevance regarding fashion, the OSN Instagram was chosen as a data
source. There are three ways of accessing the necessary data. First, data is scraped
through an API. Data like posts and comments are parsed by instaloader. Therefore,
publicly available scripts are used, which can be found on GitHub1. Profile informa-
tion, however, is extracted using the HTML-site of the respective accounts. We collect
all available data of a fashion-related sub-community with a specific topic focus on
sneakers. For this, we apply a content-based snowball sampling technique starting with
the initial hashtag #sneakers and then proceed with the following lists of initial users.
To ensure high sneaker relevance of sampling and to avoid bots and highly commercial
accounts in our database, we consider the content of biography and the last 12 postings
within the collection process. As an example, we exclude accounts that have words like
for example “reseller” or “store” in their biography as this indicates their commercial
purpose. The collected data set contains data of 724 user accounts within the timespan
from May 2011 to August 2019, including all postings since account creation, which
counts 459,243 postings and around 1.3 million comments with related context data.

1
https://github.com/ping/instagram_private_api, https://instaloader.github.io/.
6 M. Fricke and F. Bodendorf

3.2 Data Labeling


The aim of our labeling concept is to minimize subjective bias. Our concept uses past
product trends to classify users according to Rogers into trendsetters and non-
trendsetters. A new successfully released Sneaker Model is defined as product inno-
vation resp. product trend. We consider 40 successfully released sneakers of different
brands in 2017/18 and extract all relevant postings with the related user data from the
initial data set. According to Rogers, we label users who are in the group of the first
16% postings for at least one of the listed Sneaker Models as trendsetters (n = 263).
Users who talked about the product later in time are labeled as non-trendsetters
(n = 402). In total, our labeled data set consists of 665 user accounts.

3.3 Feature Extraction


For these 665 user accounts, we extract the features which we identify as potentially
important according to existing literature treating with detecting influential user groups.
We derive four categories of features based on literature review, which are network-
related features like pagerank, user-related features like external links in biography,
context-related features like minimum time to comment, and content-related features
like number of posted images. For their calculation, we use statistical and social
network analysis as well as text mining. As the features differ in their value space and
type, e.g., numeric values, like the average number of posted images, and Boolean
values, like the presents of external link in the biography, we normalize the data. To
ensure that the features are in the same vector space, the vectorization of features is
based on feature value’s quantile.

3.4 Classification
We compare the performance of seven different machine learning algorithms (cf.
Table 1) as they are often used for binary classification problems. As our labeled data
set is imbalanced, containing much fewer trendsetters than non-trendsetters, we
resample the training set applying undersampling (US) and oversampling (OS). For
that, there are various approaches, e.g., random over- and undersampling or cluster-
based sampling methods [25]. We use random undersampling and oversampling as
well as SMOTE2 for oversampling [26]. The reason for this is their broad acceptance
and available implementations to combine them with different classifiers. After
resampling, all classifiers are trained on an equal number of training samples per class.
We use a train-split approach, setting the train data x = 80% and the test data y = 20%
randomly. To increase the performance of classifiers, we perform a grid search to
obtain the best parameter settings. We evaluate and compare the performance of
selected classifiers by using the measures precision, recall, and F1-score. The latter
considers both, recall and precision. Recall is calculated as the ratio of all correctly
classified trendsetters (true positives) to all true trendsetters in the data set (true posi-
tives + false negatives), whereas precision is the number of correctly classified

2
Synthetic Minority Oversampling Technique.
Identifying Trendsetters in Online Social Networks 7

trendsetters divided by the number of correctly and incorrectly classified trendsetters


(true positive + false positives). False positives are trendsetters which the model
incorrectly labels as trendsetters [27]. For further evaluation of the model and to ensure
that we face no overfitting or underfitting, we apply k-fold cross-validation, choosing
k = 5. We also investigate the relevant features of each classifier, applying a linear
SVC3 algorithm to compare the performance with and without feature selection
beforehand. The general idea of feature selection is to remove features that do not
influence or even decrease performance. The analysis is done in Python with the scikit-
learn4 library as well as the imbalanced-learn5 library for resampling.

4 Results

Table 1 shows the best result for each of the classifiers. In our experiments, the
Maximum Entropy Model performs best with a F1-score of 66.67% using SMOTE
oversampling and applying feature selection (FS) beforehand. At the same time, 5-fold
cross-validation verifies that neither overfitting nor underfitting problems exist. Overall,
the predictive power across all classifiers increases with prior resampling excluding
support vector machine (SVM). The three boosting algorithms perform worst.

Table 1. Classifier performance


Classifier Data Set Train/Split 5-Folds
Precision Recall F1-Scr. F1-Scr.
Maximum Entropy Model (+FS) OS SMOTE 55.88% 82.61% 66.67% 64.25%
Naive Bayes (+FS) US 56.25% 78.26% 65.45% 63.51%
Random Forest OS SMOTE 54.41% 80.43% 64.91% 63.75%
SVM (+FS) Imbalanced 54.55% 78.26% 64.29% 50.64%
AdaBoost OS SMOTE 56.14% 69.57% 62.14% 57.48%
GradientBoost OS SMOTE 54.10% 71.74% 61.68% 62.12%
HistGradientBoost OS SMOTE 55.56% 65.22% 60.00% 62.24%

Currently, the best performing model recognizes over 80% of trendsetters. How-
ever, the probability that the model classifies a non-trendsetter as trendsetter is high
(precision = 55.88%). Nevertheless, for the purpose to detect early signals of trends or
upcoming needs and preferences of consumers, it is more important to detect a high
portion of trendsetters (high recall value) rather than not considering data of non-
trendsetters (high precision value).

3
Linear Support Vector Classification .
4
scikit-learn: http://scikit-learn.org/.
5
imbalanced-learn: http://contrib.scikit-learn.org/imbalanced-learn/stable/index.html#.
8 M. Fricke and F. Bodendorf

5 Discussion and Future Research

In a next step, we want to continue to optimize the model by considering further


features for training our classifier to achieve better results than our current 66.7% F1-
score. Besides, some limitations of analyses need to be mentioned. The training of
algorithms and development of the model is done for a specific topic-community
within the fashion area. As various communities may differ in their behavior and
interaction, trendsetters of other fields or even with another fashion focus may behave
in another way. Due to this, we want to validate the model once applied to another
fashion community; the second test will be conducted using a community with a topic
focus on sustainability and environment in order to check the transferability of the
model to other areas. Furthermore, we want to analyze the postings published by
trendsetters regarding upcoming trends and innovative consumer perspectives and
discuss the results with designers and experts in the field of product innovation to
investigate the potential of our classification model in practice.

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Consume Less, Create More – Digital Services
in the Context of Sustainability

Rebecca Fischer(&) and Lena Pieper

Masterstudiengang ZukunftsDesign, Hochschule Coburg, Coburg University


of Applied Sciences, Friedrich-Streib-Straße 2, 96450 Coburg, Germany
{rebecca.fischer,lena.pieper}@hs-coburg.de

Abstract. In 2019 the Coburg University of Applied Sciences offered the


course “consume less, create more” to an interdisciplinary group of master
students. The course offered a theoretical part including topics like sustain-
ability, maker culture and upcycling as well as a practical part. The practical part
was carried out through different project teams using old materials and unused
objects from the student’s households to create usable products for the students
themselves.
The course took place at the maker space of Coburg University, offering
classic tools and machines like laser cutters and 3d printers. The challenge was
to find different criteria for sustainable DIY projects, produce at least one pro-
totype and to create a tutorial. The main question to be answered is what
conclusions can be derived for Digital Services concerning Sustainability from
the course. The main methods are discussions with the students accompanied by
individual interviews carried out by the authors. Also, observation is used to
analyze how Digital Services are used during the creation of the different items.
The findings are suggestions for various areas and ideas for Digital Services that
concern Sustainability and target an interdisciplinary audience with higher
education.

Keywords: Sustainability  DIY  Upcycling  Consumption  Mass


consumption

1 The Master Course “Consume Less, Create More”

The master course “consume less, create more” took place in November 2019 at the
Coburg University of Applied Sciences in the interdisciplinary study program
“ZukunftsDesign”1. Aim of the course was to sensitize the students to the problem of
sustainability and to encourage them to use upcycling and do-it-yourself approaches to
create a more sustainable lifestyle. A more specific goal was also to create a usable
subject for everyday life from old materials using modern technologies like laser
cutting or 3D printing. It was requested to create a tutorial for the respective subject.

1
ZukunftsDesign is German and can be translated as “designing the future”.

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license
to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
J. Spohrer and C. Leitner (Eds.): AHFE 2020, AISC 1208, pp. 10–16, 2020.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-51057-2_2
Consume Less, Create More – Digital Services 11

The duration of the course was set to be three working days. The teaching staff had
scientific backgrounds in Design, Media & Communication Sciences and Business
Administration. There was also support from technicians and staff of Coburg
University.
In terms of content the first day of the course was reserved for a theoretical input
about the topics Sustainability, DIY2 and Maker Culture as well as the organizational
part like creating teams. In the Sustainability part the students debated about different
definitions of the term “Sustainability”, analyzed a text of the sociologist Hartmut
Rosa, concerning the difference between buying something and consuming something,
and had a summarizing discussion. The section concerning Maker Culture was com-
posed of a historical overview and present examples. Finally, on the first day of the
course a challenge for all students was introduced: creating a usable subject from old
materials using modern technologies and tools. The subject also should fulfil sus-
tainability criteria which the students developed themselves. Also, a Tutorial should be
created which would enable other people to reproduce the creation of such a subject.
For the second and third day of the course, the students could use the whole Maker
Space of Coburg University which is called “Creapolis” and is a project funded by
German State to transfer knowledge and new techniques into society. Noteworthy
devices available there are CO2 Laser Cutter, 3D Printer, Textile Plotter and a Wood
Workshop with various tools itself.

2 Discussing Sustainability

Given the prognosis on global consumption of natural resources, Sustainability has


become a significant concern in almost all sectors of human life. Before working with
the term and create a goal derived from it, a proper definition in the context of the
master course is necessary.
The German term “Nachhaltigkeit” is different in its etymology from the English
Term “Sustainability”. While the German term implicates that something endures for a
long time, the English Term Sustainability already is composed of the words sustain
and ability. Therefore, the meaning of sustaining a system can be derived. In Germany,
the term “Nachhaltigkeit” is first mentioned in a guidebook to reforestation. The name
of this publication is “Sylvicultura oeconomica” by the author Hans Carl von Car-
lowitz. The term itself spread soon to other parts of society [1]. For a contemporary
understanding of the concept of Sustainability, the definition by the United Nations
World Commission on Environment and Development shall be used. The report states
“sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without
compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own need” [2]. This
quotation is a condensed description of the full spectrum the topic of Sustainability
concerns. Sustainability itself also is composed of three pillars in common under-
standing. Which is Ecology/Environment, Society and Economy. While there is an
understanding of all three parts as equally important elements there is also a priority

2
Do-it-yourself.
12 R. Fischer and L. Pieper

model. This states that Environment is most important since there is no Society without
Environment, and there is no Economy without Society.
In discussion with the students, three main findings can be stated. First, there is no
common understanding of Sustainability. The teaching staff expected that sooner or
later in the discussion Sustainability will be defined by the students as setting
parameters in a way that a system could sustain itself. No such approach happened.
Second, the definition of Sustainability is determined by private and professional
background of the person. And at last Sustainability as the term already made
ambivalent impressions on the students based on the way it is used in society and
media.
The fact that every student had its approach and there was no minimal consensus in
the definition of the term showed that Sustainability itself is a very popular concept but
not universally defined. After approaching a more scientific definition of Sustainability,
every student was able to name a scenario in which the term is used but does not fit.
The concept of “greenwashing” which is making something look eco-friendly or
sustainable, was discussed. It was mentioned that the term is not only misused for
marketing purposes in various cases but also politics.
Concerning Digital Services, it was mentioned that there are internet platforms and
apps available which can help to figure out to which degree a product or service is
sustainable. Also, the overall importance of networking as the consumer was pointed
out. Social Media and various platforms can help to create communities which aim to
be more sustainable.

3 Methodical Approach

Discussions during the course provided a base for different argument concerning
Digital Services in the context of Sustainability. Through the format of the course
close-meshed support for the students through the teaching staff resp. authors were
necessary. Therefore, immediate feedback on the topic as well as observation of the
process was possible. Also, after finishing the course interviews with participating
students were a crucial source of further information.
This information was combined with scientific concepts about consumption and
Sustainability to derive conclusions for the use of Digital Services in the context of
Sustainability.

4 The Act of Buying and the Act of Consumption

The sociologist Hartmut Rosa wrote the text “Über die Verwechslung von Kauf und
Konsum”3 for the compilation “Die Verantwortung des Konsumenten: Über das
Verhältnis von Markt, Moral und Konsum”4. This text should serve as a discussion

3
About the confusion of the act of buying and the act of consuming.
4
The duty of the consumer: about the relationship of the market, moral and consumption.
Consume Less, Create More – Digital Services 13

basis for the students of the master course “consume less, create more”. Rosa defined
four basic mechanics besides acceleration which are triggered by digitalization and
modern society, therefore also by Digital Services [3].
The Dematerialization of consumption describes the ability to consume something
without a physical representation. Books, Movies, Songs, Pictures and much more are
available in the digital representation. Physical media has been replaced by the internet
and access to it. The devices used to show such content are interchangeable. There is no
longer a physical representation like in books or CDs necessary.
The Decommodification of consumption describes how content can no longer be
used for a commercial purpose. Crucial world literature like Goethe’s Faust is freely
available on the internet. Songs and movies, specialized information, blueprints and
various other content can be accessed for free on the internet.
The Re-Materialization of consumption describes how certain fields of the market
expand in contemporary society. In social sciences, a “Body Turn” is stated which
means that services around the optimization of the human body expand. This concerns
mainly offers in the field of beauty and health.
The Re-Commodification of consumption is a trend also triggered by Digital
Services. For the example of media content, we no longer buy certain movies or books,
we often buy access rights. The focus is more about having options. These also
translates to physical products. An example is the purchase of convenient products
which are not meant to consumed by the buyer but bought to be at stock in case of an
unexpected visit.
Based upon these four dynamics Rosa discusses the more and more common
confusion of the act of buying and the act of consumption. Rosa defines the act of
buying as purchasing a good or an access right etc. The act of consumption is defined
as actual usage of a product. The most common example is that it is not identical to buy
a book and to read a book. According to Rosa, it is more and more common in
industrial societies to get satisfaction and reputation by buying something rather than
consuming something in terms of reading a book or use a certain item [3].
The thoughts of Hartmut Rosa delivered a base for reflecting own consumption
behaviour amongst the students and teaching staff. A broad discussion about the effects
of mass consumption on the planet and sustainable solutions was initiated in which
students at first agreed with Rosas ideas.
In the context of Sustainability and Digital Services, ambivalent notions were
made. Students agreed that Digital Services can be a solution to create more sustainable
approaches but also are a huge impact on the planet itself. More specific, processing
power in server farms is needed to make Digital Services possible at all. On the other
hand, Digital Services can help to improve sustainable behaviour. The most important
part identified by the students is the spreading of knowledge and information. This task
can be carried out by platforms, online services and Apps for example. Furthermore,
Digital Services like a CO2 Calculator App enables consumers to reflect their own
behaviour in terms of Sustainability. In summary can be stated that Digital Services are
tending to accelerate all dynamics (spreading information, seeking information, seeking
cooperation partners, reflecting on own behaviour, spread sustainable ideas) of sus-
tainable development.
14 R. Fischer and L. Pieper

5 Sustainability as a Creative and Individualized Process

The main part of the course “consume less, create more” was the task to create a usable
item through upcycling. Therefore, three teams were built and named after different
heroes of sustainability. The heroes were defined as scientists, entrepreneurs or activists
that had an impact on society. While two of three groups focussed on physical items,
one group created a concept which combines the qualities of a retail store and a
recycling facility.
During the brainstorming phase of creating the individual project approaches the
students had to think about how to reuse the material. Therefore, online research was
crucial support. There are Apps available that concern DIY and Upcycling, which can
help to create a general overview of the possibilities. But it can be stated that there was
no Service available that covered the exact needs in this phase, which are figuring out
what to produce out of certain materials in combination.
In the production phase, Digital Services seemed to be more seamlessly integrated
into the workflow of the students. For example, one group made four large shopping
bags (one for each team member) from a skateboard, old curtains and a shower curtain.
They labelled the project “Upskate” as a reminiscence to Upcycling. To create the bag
handle the CO2 laser was used to cut it out from the skateboard and to engrave it. In
these process Software and online services like a graphic icon, hosts were fluently
integrated. However, in the actual process of creation, which was creating the cutting
pattern and the sowing no assistance through Digital Services was used.
To sum it up, Digital Resources were used mainly to inspire and to get details like
icons. For the whole process, the students relied on their own skills in Design and
Craftmanship.

6 Potentials of Digital Services in the Context of DIY,


Upcycling and Sustainability

In conversations with the students and separate interviews, various approaches were
created on how Digital Services could support a more Sustainable Lifestyle.
The main need for assistance was identified in the benchmarking of the Level of
Sustainability. Benchmarks could be used for the Lifestyle, like CO2 Calculators that
already exist. They could also be used to make DIY projects more sustainable. These
concerns the materials a product is made of as well as its durability.
The offering of blueprints for DIY projects and Upcycling projects is also already
realized in services like www.buildsomething.org. An improvement would be a search
engine in which you select the available materials and you get suggestions on what to
build out of it.
It should be noticed that a lot of already existing Digital Services can be used as a
tool to achieve more Sustainability. There are YouTubers which focus on the topic,
Facebook Groups, Instagram a Twitter Hashtags and countless online platforms. Also,
to mention “ecosia”, a search engine like google which invests in reforesting from its
revenue. Another aspect is platforms to start sustainable projects, like change.org or
Kickstarter.
Consume Less, Create More – Digital Services 15

All in all, in the perception of the students there is still a huge potential for
approaches of more quality. The most successful DIY platforms are not focusing on
sustainability [5]. Not everything labelled as sustainable fulfils strict criteria. To
establish and proof true Sustainability through Digital Services is still an approach with
enormous unused potential.

7 Summary

Creating upcycled products in groups of interdisciplinary students was used to reflect


on Sustainability in the context of Digital Services. Modern technologies like CO2
lasers and 3D printers can empower consumers to produce their own goods and open
new possibilities to repurposing materials.
To work on sustainable concepts a proper definition of Sustainability is crucial.
Sustainability covers three areas: Environment, Society and Economy. Also, Sustain-
ability is ambivalent in definition and meaning to individuals depending on their pri-
vate and professional background.
Digital Services are ambivalent when it comes to Sustainability. On the one hand,
online applications consume power and resources through server farms. On the other
hand, they are an accelerator for sustainable communities, spreading information and
benchmarking the level of sustainability on DIY-builds, products and services.
Already existing services are used to create sustainable approaches and commu-
nities and spread information. Services, especially for sustainable purposes, are getting
more important since society is getting more aware of the importance of Sustainability.
Great potential lies in the quality, customization and individualization of Digital
Services. Since Sustainability is crucial in all areas to continue and improve our
society, the improvement of Digital Services in the context of Sustainability will be an
improvement on Sustainability overall.

References
1. von Carlowitz, H.C.: Sylvicultura oeconomica (1713)
2. World Commission on Environment and Development: Our Common Future. Oxford
University Press, Oxford (1987)
3. Rosa, H.: Über die Verwechslung von Kauf und Konsum: paradoxien der spätmodernen
Konsumkultur. In: Heidbring, L.; Schmidt, I., Ahaus, B. (eds.) Die Verantwortung des
Konsumenten. Über das Verhältnis von Markt, Moral und Konsum, pp. 115–132. Campus
Verlag, Frankfurt am Main/New York (2011)
4. Becker-Olsen, K., Potucek, S.: Greenwashing. SpringerLink (2019). https://link.springer.com/
referenceworkentry/10.1007/978-3-642-28036-8_104. Accessed 4 Feb 2019
5. Dabija, D., Bejan, B.: Green DIY store choice among socially responsible consumer
generations. SpringerLink (2019). https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s40991-018-
0037-0. Accessed 1 Feb 2019
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
In 1770 Kennett Meeting’s committee performed [Sidenote: Visit
a general visit to all possessed of slaves and found performed to all
there was not the desired willingness to manumit slave holders]
them which they had expected.[1267] From the
report made seven years later, we must judge the situation had not
changed very considerably since we find one member signified to
them that he did not incline to release his Negroes from bondage,
nor did he know that ever he should.[1268]
It does not, however, seem that the occasional stubborn brother
had a discouraging effect on the rest of the meeting. In 1779 the
records stated,
It is desired that Friends attend to the circumstances and the
situation of such negroes as have been set free, that we may fully
discharge our duty to them, by endeavoring to instruct them, both for
their spiritual and temporal good....[1269]
A committee of three men was immediately appointed to perform
the service. This work with committees continued constantly, with the
result that nine years later (1788) the meeting reported “none held as
slaves amongst us” and that attention was given to education.[1270]
The registration of 1780 showed only three held as slaves in the
whole township.[1271]
In New Garden attention was early called to the [Sidenote: New
Negroes,[1272] and a committee appointed then Garden]
reported in 1781 that most of them were living
among Friends and were generally well provided for.[1273] That
committee was released,[1274] and a new one reported in 1785 the
following state of affairs:
[Sidenote: Most
We have paid some attention to the case of Negroes reported
free negroes, and find there are but few able to read and
amongst us, most of whom we have visited write]
where they reside.... They are generally well provided for with
the necessaries of life and some care taken of their religious
education, in which we believe there may be an improvement.
We also inspected their school education and find most of
them can read and some write.[1275]

In 1789 one case of holding a slave came before the meeting, but
at its direction a writ of manumission was immediately secured for
the same.[1276] The registration in 1780 for New Garden township
returned one slave only, held by a Scotchman.[1277]
Uwchlan Monthly Meeting (Caln Quarterly), as [Sidenote:
early as 1765, received a report from a delegation Uwchlan]
sent from the quarterly meeting stating it as their
opinion that Friends ought to inspect into the care [Sidenote: No
Negro school]
which Friends who had Negroes, extended toward
them with regard to their education.[1278] A [Sidenote: Aid
solicited to school
committee was accordingly appointed by the poor Negroes]
monthly meeting to serve in that capacity. How
considerable was their activity in the interval elapsing between their
appointment and their first formal report of conditions which was
returned to the meeting in 1779, one cannot judge accurately. We
may judge from the report above mentioned that there was no Negro
school, for that race alone; it was perhaps not demanded by the
numbers who would have been eligible.[1279] It appears the
committee had visited all (Wilmington excepted) who had been
freed, and found all generally in a very satisfactory state. Some are
reported not able to give their children schooling, and for them aid is
solicited;[1280] for others advice is requested to guide them in their
outward affairs. The direction of the Negroes’ education, as nearly as
can be made out, was of the most practical nature, laying emphasis
on the industrial side, at that time an apprentice type of education.
[1281] The interest in the apprentice did not stop as soon as he was
placed, but continued, for it was customary to place him with
Friends, if possible, and the member of Friends was responsible to
his meeting for the fulfilment of his contract with the apprenticed. The
following extract from the Middletown records will serve to show the
general regulation by which the apprenticing was carried on among
members of the society.
... and his sonnes giving security to the orphans court, and to
pay interest for the money that belongs to the said ... ever
since the time it became due, and also the said Thomas do
abide at Robert Heaton’s house for his table and to be kept to
school for a year, or so long as the Meeting may think fit.[1282]

Sadsbury, 1782, reported they had visited the [Sidenote:


free Negroes, who were situated nearly as before. Sadsbury report
[1283] No statement was given of the entire number on situation of
Negroes]
within this locality, but five were listed as having no
trade.[1284] It appears, however, in spite of that fact, they were not
dependent on the community for support. One woman owned a
house and lot, “her own purchase”; a man with family rented a small
tenement; and the other three worked as common laborers.[1285]
The Bradford minutes (also of Cain Quarterly) [Sidenote:
devote almost no space to the status of the Negro Bradford reported
in their vicinity. This may have been because there few slaves]
were few slaves there. At the registration of slaves,
compelled by law in 1780,[1286] the townships of East and West
Bradford returned none whatever.[1287]
In the discussion of Concord Quarterly there will [Sidenote:
be material presented from Chester, Concord and Concord
Goshen. In 1779 Chester Monthly Meeting reported Quarterly]
they had made a visit to all freed Negroes, of whom [Sidenote: Poor
it was said, some were quite poor and unable to Negroes to be put
school their children.[1288] The visiting committee to trades]
recommended that the poor should be put out to [Sidenote:
trades and given schooling, and suggested that a Negroes sent to
subscription should be raised for that purpose. The school and books
sent among then]
meeting was heartily in favor of this and at once
appointed a committee to look after the subscriptions and their
application.[1289] Two years later (1781) after a similar visitation by
committee, it was reported that they had been advised of their
temporal and religious duties, many sent to school and books
distributed among them.[1290] At these dates no special schools for
Negroes were mentioned, and the date of their establishment is not
found, but in 1785 the report of the committee on Negroes,
requesting a new subscription for supporting Negro schools,
indicated that there were special schools established for them.[1291]
The situation at Concord Meeting was very [Sidenote:
similar to that of Chester, as appears by their report Concord]
of 1779. Following the customary visitation, it was
stated that the visit was satisfactory in many [Sidenote: 8
children reported
places, but in some families were found small of school age but
children, eight of whom were of school age, but not in school]
whose parents were unable to school them.[1292]
The meeting was asked to give its attention to the matter, but nothing
was found in the minutes to indicate what they did further to remedy
the matter.
The Goshen Meeting seems from its answers to [Sidenote:
the queries in 1756 to be in a very satisfactory Goshen]
state with regard to slaveholding, “none having
been purchased of late years,” though they consider they are not
careful enough in educating them in Christian principles.[1293] They
were, however, careful to deal individually with those few who were
engaged in any manner in holding slaves in bondage.[1294] In 1758
the record stated:

Those few negroes amongst us we believe are provided


with a sufficiency of food and clothing, but doubt some are too
careless in affording them religious instruction.[1295]

Four years later conditions were somewhat improved, and their


report stated:
[Sidenote:
No purchase since our last account that we Endeavors to
know of. Those amongst us who keep negro teach negroes to
read, reported]
slaves, we believe afford them a sufficiency of
food and clothing and endeavors are used with some to learn
them to read.[1296]

If we read a little further the records for the same [Sidenote:


year, we are informed that some were sent to Negroes sent to
school, supposedly to a “White school” due to the school]
small number of Negroes among Friends.[1297]
From the above references, then, taken in connection with one of the
second month, 1764, we are led to infer that the education of the
Negroes under Friends’ care was carried on in a school and not in
the home, under individual instructors, whoever might be able to do
it. The reference of 1764 stated “some are sent to school to learn to
read.”[1298]
Simultaneously with this care in their education, [Sidenote:
the meeting was working on each individual case, Manumission
among the members, to convince them of the continually urged]
propriety of the manumission practice. In 1776
Randle Mailin manumitted his Negro man Peter Cuff, and produced
his record of the same to the meeting to have it recorded on their
books.[1299] The next year (1777) Nathan Hoop manumitted a Negro
woman, 18 years old, and her two mulatto boys as soon as they
should become 21 years of age.[1300] The following brief extract is
illustrative of the many cases where pressure was brought to bear in
a kindly way, to the end that this or that person might set Negroes
free.
[Sidenote:
Complaint is brought against Thomas Discipline of
Pennington for buying and selling a negro members guilty of
woman. Joseph Thomas and Randle Mailin are slave dealing]
appointed to deal with him as our discipline directs.[1301]

In 1778 the Goshen Meeting appointed a [Sidenote:


committee, Randle Mailin and Caleb Maris, to join Schooling of
with a committee appointed by the Quarterly Negroes under
care]
Meeting (Concord) to advise together concerning
the education of the Negroes.[1302] This is a very [Sidenote: Low
good indication that organized action was taken, return in Quaker
townships in 1780
educationally, and that it was not left to individual registrations]
choice. In 1780 the monthly meeting reported to
the yearly meeting that its committee (the one formerly appointed)
had been “advising Negroes” on their religious education and had
their “schooling under care.”[1303] The registry of slaves in 1780
showed thirteen as the full quota for Goshen township.[1304] As a
general rule very few were returned from the Quaker townships while
the vast majority came from those of the Welsh (Charlestown,
Tredyffrin and East Nantmeal) and the Scotch-Irish (Newtown,
Londonderry, Oxford and East Nottingham.)[1305]
From the meeting records in the Abington [Sidenote:
Quarter there will be presented some of the Abington Quarter]
material relating to Horsham, Byberry (not
established a monthly meeting till 1810),[1306] and Gwynedd, which
may be taken as representative of that quarterly meeting.
Though there is scant evidence in the Horsham [Sidenote:
Monthly Meeting minutes to indicate what they did Horsham Monthly]
in reference to the Negroes’ education, we are not
left entirely in the dark. The Horsham School [Sidenote:
Negroes schooled
Committee, which made a report of its own after at expense of
1783, made occasional reference thereto, and it school committee]
must be understood from these reports that the
Negroes were schooled at the expense of the school committee. The
only proof of this statement, given in the records, is found in
statements like the following:

An account of Thomas Hallowell for schooling Griffith


Camel’s and negro Caesar’s children was produced and
considered, and the treasurer ordered to pay him grant given.
That of Caesar’s lies for inspection.[1307]

This makes clear that cases of Negro schooling were taken before
the same committee as cases of poor Whites and were investigated
and disposed of in the same manner.
Byberry Preparative Meeting makes no reference [Sidenote:
during the early years to the status of the Negro in Byberry]
its limits. Martindale, in a History of Byberry and
Moreland, states that slavery came into Byberry [Sidenote:
in 1721]
Slaves

about 1721,[1308] the slaves being employed by the


more opulent class to do the roughest work. The [Sidenote: 1727]
inventory of a Friends’ property (1727) showed that
he possessed “one negro girl, £20, and one negro boy, £30.”[1309] Of
their intervening history little is recorded, though the Negroes were
set free by many members of Friends, and in 1779 the meeting
authorized Silas Walmsley and William Walmsley to provide a
suitable burying ground for the use of Negroes who had been freed.
[1310] What was done for their education is not known.

It is noticeable that in the earliest answers to the [Sidenote:


query concerning Negroes (about 1756) the Records not
majority of the monthly meetings usually answered always to be
relied upon]
in an offhand manner that they were “clear” or there
were “none to be charged with that breech,” or something to that
effect. The writer believes these reports first sent in were perhaps
made from only a general knowledge of the situation, and not the
result of an exact knowledge of their members’ practices. This
statement is not capable of an exact proof, but the remarkable
similarity in all the meeting records for the first few reports, certainly
indicate that such was the case. Quite frequently, yes, in most cases,
the “clear” reports are followed after a few months or years by
statements that some are imported, a few held as slaves, or one
Negro sold and similar reports. This was true in the case of
Gwynedd. In 1756 the meeting reported “we have not to charge
any,”[1311] and three months following, “Friends think themselves
clear in this respect”;[1312] the nature of the wording in the last would
imply it was based more on implicit faith than explicit judgment.
Eleven years thereafter we have more definite reports, such as:
... clear of importing negroes; the few possessed by Friends
are well used, their slavery excepted,[1313] and none bought
or sold that we know of; those that have them use them well
as to the necessities of life and some are brought to meetings
at times.[1314]

From that time forward the reports made to the monthly meeting
were very definite. In 1775 a report was brought in which purported
to cover the entire compass of the meeting. It stated the number
held, their status, and what was done for their benefit. It is interesting
to note that a few enjoyed some educational opportunities, limited to
be sure, the details of which are presented here, as they appeared in
the minutes of the meeting.
[Sidenote: Report
We of the committee appointed by the on Negroes in
Monthly Meeting to visit such of our members 1775]
as are possessed of slaves, and detaining them
in bondage, contrary ... visited all such of our members that
are under that circumstance as we know of, which are eight in
number, who are possessed of sixteen negroes and one
mulatto, viz.: 1st possesses one negro girl about 17 years of
age and appeared in a disposition rather to justify the practice
of detaining her in bondage during life than otherwise. 2d,
possesses five negroes one of which is a man about 35 years
of age, who he said he intended to set free at the next quarter
sessions. The other four—three boys and a girl, are young,
whom he said he intended to set free as they came of age,
the boys at 21 and the girl at 18, giving them learning to fit
them for business. 3rd, two negroes, a man and a woman, the
man about 30 years of age, who was in the possession of a
Friend, lately deceased, now in his executors, who said he
intended they should soon enjoy their liberty. 4th, possessor
of three negroes, one a woman 20 years old, who he said he
expected should have her liberty in a short time—the other
two, a man and a woman about 20 years of age, both as we
thought, incapable of freedom. 5th, possessor of 2 negroes, a
woman about 32 years old, who he said should have her
liberty, when she earned him thirty pounds. The girl about ten
years old who he said is to be set free by his last will when
she arrives at the age of 30 years. 6th. Possessor of two
negroes, both women, one about 34, the other about 19 years
old; the said Friend not in a capacity of giving any account of
what might be done for them. 7th. Possessor of a mulatto girl
about 11 years old, bound to him till she is 31, who he said he
intended to set at liberty at the age of 21, with endeavors to
learn her to read. 8th. Possessor of a negro girl about 17
years old, who her mistress said she intended to do the best
she could by.[1315]

In 1779 it is reported that the affairs of Negroes [Sidenote:


are still in the hands of the committee for that Members
purpose, but that not much more has been disciplined for
failure to manumit
accomplished than was last reported.[1316] It would slaves]
seem though that the committee was decidedly
active in dealing with individual cases of discipline both at that time
and in the years following. Especially did they urge first the freedom
of the slave, and when this was refused, as it occasionally was, they
did not hesitate to eject the recalcitrant member.[1317] So effective
was their service that by 1790 there were none held as slaves by
Friends and in regard to their education they reported: “Some care
and labor is extended towards the instruction and education of such
Negroes as are under Friends’ care.”[1318]
It would be interesting to compare the Friends’ own account of
their activity with that of an outsider who merely looked on, but the
writer has been unable to find any opinion on the subject by any
contemporary, either through this investigation or from those made
by others. Many, it is true, comment on their social and economic
status but little mention is ever made of their education.[1319]
The Warrington and Fairfax Quarterly Meeting [Sidenote:
(Baltimore Yearly Meeting) reported in 1776 that Warrington and
their Negroes were well taken care of, but their Fairfax Quarterly]
education was “much neglected.”[1320] Three years later they
reported:
[Sidenote: Some
By the accounts now received it appears that care taken in their
the religious education of such negroes and education]
their children as have been restored to freedom
has been attended to and a visit performed to most of them to
good satisfaction, and there appears to be a hopeful prospect
that those who have been under their immediate care will
comply with Friends’ advice with respect to the school
education. Some care has been taken therein.[1321]

ATTITUDE TOWARD THE INDIANS


The uncommon relation existing from the time of [Sidenote:
the first settlement of Penn’s colony throughout the Friendly relation
entire colonial history, is well known to every of Quakers and
Indians]
schoolboy; such relations, between any possibly
antagonistic groups, have been without parallel in the history of this
country. Applegarth, speaking of this happy relationship, states that
the results of his study revealed but two instances in which Friends
had been massacred by Indians, and these cases were entirely the
results of misunderstanding.[1322]
It is aside from the point to relate at length the means employed by
Penn and the Quakers to cultivate the friendship of these people.
Nothing was more forceful than his immediate association with, and
travels among them, and the messages in which he explained that
he and his people were one with them and that they were all the
“Friends of Onas.”
Indian affairs were considered in a rational [Sidenote: No rum
manner and occupied much of the time of the to any but
Governor and Council. Instances of a solicitous chieftain
1701]
by law,

interest in the Indians[1323] are seen in the laws of


1701, forbidding the sale of rum to any but the chiefs, who should
distribute it as they thought best,[1324] and a still more restrictive law
in 1722, which prohibited the sale of liquor to Indians. Of still more
importance was the establishment of the principle that an abuse
committed by an Indian towards the Whites must be adjusted by the
Indian chief, not revenged by the Whites, which was given out in the
instructions to colonists; and the converse stated later (1728) by the
Governor, that if a White injured an Indian he should make complaint
to the Whites, who would then punish the offense under their own
laws.[1325]
Friends’ ministers were also active in the [Sidenote: Work
missionary work among the Indians, which was first of missionaries]
urged and practiced by George Fox. Not only the
numerous excursions of Penn, but also those of [Sidenote: Specific
Thomas Story, Thomas Turner, Chalkley and educational work]
others, evidence the ready spirit with which the
commands of Fox were received.[1326] Besides the general
missionary work and relief for the Indians, that from time to time is
mentioned in the several meetings, there is no evidence that
anything considerable towards a school education was attempted till
the latter part of the century. In a letter of the yearly meeting in 1796,
it is stated that Friends are,

engaged in an undertaking to furnish them with some of the


comforts of civilized life. A fund is raising to supply the
expense of instructing them in Agriculture, in mechanic arts,
and in some useful branches of learning.[1327]

An excellent illustration of this movement towards the education of


the Indian, and the naive friendly manner with which they made
known their needs is found in the following communications, which
are self-explanatory.
[Sidenote: The
To the children of the friends of Onas, who first Indians request
settled in Pennsylvania: aid]
Brothers, The request of Cornplanter, a chief of the Seneca
Nation.
The Seneca Nation sees that the Great Spirit intends that
they shall not continue to live by hunting, and they look
around on every side, and inquire who it is that shall teach
them what is best for them to do. Your fathers have dealt fairly
and honestly with our fathers, and they have charged us to
remember it; and we think it right to tell you that we wish our
children to be taught the same principles by which your
fathers were guided in their councils.
Brothers, we have too little wisdom among us, we cannot
teach our children what we perceive their situation requires
them to know, and we therefore ask you to instruct some of
them; we wish them to be instructed to read and write, and
such other things as you teach your own children; and
especially teach them to love peace.
Brothers, we desire of you to take under your care two
Seneca boys, and teach them as your own; and in order that
they may be satisfied to remain with you, and be easy in their
minds, that you will take with them the son of our interpreter,
and teach him according to his desire.
Brothers, you know it is not in our power to pay you for the
education of these three boys; and therefore you must, if you
do this thing, look up to God for your reward.
Brothers, You will consider of this request, and let us know
what you determine to do. If your hearts are inclined toward
us, and you will afford our nation this great advantage, I will
send my son as one of the boys to receive your instruction, at
the time which you shall appoint.[1328]
Cornplanter his mark
X
Signed 2-10-1791
In presence of Joseph Nichols.
To Cornplanter, The Seneca Chief: [Sidenote: His
request granted]
The written message of Cornplanter, dated at
Philadelphia, on the 10th of February last, was not received
by us until some weeks after. His request that we would take
under our care two Seneca boys, one of them his own son,
accompanied with the son of Joseph Nicholson, we have
considered, and do agree to receive them when they can
conveniently be sent to us; intending they shall be treated
with care and kindness and instructed in reading, writing and
husbandry as the other children of our Friends are taught; the
Governor of Pennsylvania, when informed of this proposal,
having expressed his approbation thereof, as did General
Knox.[1329]
Signed on behalf, and by appointment of a meeting of the
representatives, of the said people, on the second day of the
sixth month, called June, 1791. By several Friends.

In 1795 a committee was appointed by the Yearly [Sidenote:


Meeting of Pennsylvania and New Jersey for the Committee
promotion and improvement of the Indian natives. appointed by
yearly meeting in
[1330] Their first act was to attempt to learn the 1795]
Indian’s attitude towards such an activity on the
[Sidenote:
part of Friends.[1331] Accordingly a circular letter Oneidas and
was sent out to the various neighboring tribes, and Tuscaroras willing
also accompanied by a letter from the secretary of to accept
assistance]
state, signifying the government’s coöperation and
sanction.[1332] From the responses it appeared that [Sidenote: School
only the Oneidas and part of the Tuscaroras were established]
willing to accept any assistance, so the following [Sidenote:
summer of 1796, three Friends, approved by the Occupations
committee, were sent and settled among the taught]
Oneidas. In the winter of 1796 they established a
school, continued for several years, and taught by an Indian who had
been educated in New England.[1333] The Indians were found, at
first, to be quite averse to any continuous labor, and it was
necessary for the Friends to establish themselves, and to improve a
piece of land, in the hope that the Indians would see the results and
become interested in the process. This seems to have worked quite
satisfactorily, for in 1799 they report that the Indians have improved
some lands and “sowed them with wheat.”[1334] The various
occupations mentioned as being taught the boys were: smith work,
tilling soil, sewing, the preparation of lumber in sawmills, and the
details included therein. The girls were frequently instructed in
spinning, knitting, sewing, school learning, etc.[1335]
At this time (1799) the Oneidas became [Sidenote: Indians
distrustful of the motives of those in charge of the distrustful]
settlement, thinking that such an investment in
implements and the permanent nature of the farms laid out, indicated
an intention to seek after a time to take their territory from them. The
settlers became aware of this feeling and to prove their good faith,
decided to leave the settlement with all implements and
improvements in sole charge of the natives. The preparations to
leave were accomplished in a friendly conference, held in
September, 1799.[1336] The success of this work, for the Oneidas,
had been watched by the Seneca tribes, and resulted in an interest
in the same thing, culminating in the letters requesting the Friends’
assistance, which have already been presented.[1337]

SUMMARY
Though slavery had fixed itself, very early, as an [Sidenote: Slavery
institution in Pennsylvania, it was not destined to in Pennsylvania]
continue its growth unmolested. Some of the chief
factors working against it were: (1) The scruples of Friends, and
other sects, (2) the Germans and (3) the opposition of White labor.
Restrictive legislation was passed in 1700, 1705 and 1712, placing
an ever increasing duty upon those imported. Gradual abolition was
provided for by statutes of 1780 and 1788. Socially and economically
the condition of the Negro in Pennsylvania was more desirable than
in states of her latitude and further south.
To three Quakers, opposed to Negro slavery, [Sidenote: Quaker
some brief attention is given. Their expressions Antagonists of
also indicate a solicitous interest in the education of Slavery]
the Indian. Their influence was extended by
missionary journeys, speaking in public, and numerous pamphlets
published on that subject. This work was by no means limited to the
Quakers. Slavery was denounced as impracticable, unjust and
inconsistent with the ideals of a free nation.
(1) Not only individual leaders, but also the [Sidenote: The
organized meetings arrayed themselves to fight Quaker
against slavery. The first memorial to that effect organization
against slavery]
was on the part of Germantown Meeting in 1688.
This was sent to the Quarterly Meeting of Philadelphia, but at that
date they took no action in regard to it. In 1727 the Philadelphia
Yearly Meeting’s advisers censured the practice of trading in slaves.
A more extensive warning and reproof was administered in 1758.
Throughout the early half of the century efforts were made to secure
favor for the slaves’ freedom; it was necessary that in some measure
that should come first.
(2) After the active campaign for freedom, the [Sidenote:
interest in education increased, and, in the last half Schools for
of the century, there are frequent statements of that Negroes]
nature in records of meetings. Separate schools
were established for them where possible. One in Philadelphia was
set up by the meeting, though in large measure due to the active
personal influence of Benezet, who, after 1782, taught in the school
till his death. Moses Patterson was the first teacher; after 1786 two
schools are always mentioned in reports. In the five years preceding
1782 it is estimated that two hundred and fifty Negroes attended the
school.
Some attention is given to the Negroes and their [Sidenote: In
education, or lack of it, in each of the meetings. country and small
The care of this subject in those meetings was in towns]
the charge of a committee, the general character of
whose duties was indicated on page 247. The support of the Negro
schools and the education of the poor children was similar to that of
other schools.[1338] Reports on the progress in freeing, supporting,
and educating the Negro, were required by their superior meetings.
The relations between Friends and Indians were [Sidenote:
most cordial from the beginning. Though their Education of
education was preached early by missionaries and Indians]
practised in a smaller way, little organized effort
was made until 1795. In that year the yearly assembly took the
necessary steps to establish schools among neighboring tribes, the
first mentioned being for the Oneidas. The desire of the Indian for aid
in these matters is indicated by the quoted letter of Cornplanter, the
Seneca chief.
CHAPTER XII
CONCLUSION

The society, established by George Fox, near the [Sidenote: Society


middle of the seventeenth century, increased established]
rapidly in numbers, due very largely to the efforts of
its founder and the services of the men whom he [Sidenote:
Influence
associated with him in his work. This influence was extended by three
extended by means of (1) journeys made to foreign means]
parts; (2) letters; and (3) preaching out of doors to [Sidenote: Fox’s
all who would listen. Fox, from the first, was aims in education]
interested in education, particularly moral and
practical, and recommended the establishment of [Sidenote:
Organization
several schools. He was primarily interested in (1) devised by Fox]
moral training; (2) religious instruction; and (3) in
education of a practical sort which would fit every [Sidenote:
individual to earn a livelihood. These ends which Weakness in the
organization]
he strove for were likewise accepted as worthy to
be achieved, and consciously striven for by the society in its
organized meetings. This organization of meetings itself was devised
by Fox and regularly constituted in various parts before the time of
his death. It consisted of yearly, quarterly, monthly, and particular
meetings, whose relations were well defined. The functions of the
first were general and directive; those of the last were particular and
effective. The chief weakness, already pointed out in previous
chapters, was the lack of compulsory power in the yearly meeting. Its
recommendations gained results, but might be neglected in
communities desiring to do so.
An organization, of itself, performs nothing. Its [Sidenote:
accomplishments depend on men who have Leaders who
were interested in
purposes, and the determination and ability to education]
execute them. A considerable number of such men
were members of Friends, and expressed [Sidenote: Quaker
themselves definitely on education. Such leaders antipathy to
as Penn, Fothergill, Fox, Banks, Chalkley, Crisp, education
appears
Crouch, Pastorius, Benezet and others as unfounded]
important, were responsible for its educational
guidance and in the end, accomplishments. From a [Sidenote:
Education of
study of their expressions it appears that the Negroes and
criticisms, concerning the Quakers’ antipathy to Indians urged and
education, are without foundation, and arose, for effected]
the most part, from their statement that a classical
education was not essential for a minister. The life and the education
of most of them attest the fact that they sought a higher education for
themselves and promoted it for others. Not only for their own society,
but for the rich and poor of others, were efforts made to establish
schools. The education of Indians and Negroes was similarly urged
both on the part of individuals and the organization. The tangible
results of their efforts in this regard were seen in the various local
meetings.
In the establishment of schools, the direction lay [Sidenote:
in the hands of the yearly meeting. Philadelphia Schools
Yearly Meeting’s advices on that subject, for the established]
first half century, were very general in nature and [Sidenote: School
seemingly of little import to the various lower affairs in care of
meetings. A development is noticed, however, committees]
toward a definite plan for schools to be established.
[Sidenote:
The advices of 1746 and continuing thereafter, Number of
1750, 1751, 1753, 1755, 1778, and following, are schools in
definite in their ideas as to what should be done, Pennsylvania]
and the persistency with which they were urged in
the meetings, where all school affairs came to be attended to by
committees, seems to have effected tangible results. Committee
reports on educational conditions increased greatly in definiteness
after 1777, which allows a better estimate to be made of what was
done. From such reports it is estimated that by the end of the century
there were sixty or seventy schools established “according to
direction” given by the yearly meeting. Many others are reported in
various meetings, which did not measure up in any great degree to
the standards set.
These standards[1339] (stated elsewhere in this [Sidenote: The
work) demanded a high moral quality in masters Master]
and mistresses, as well as training in the subjects
to be taught. From a study of the manuscript records and
newspapers it appears that the moral standards, met by Quaker
masters, were as high, and, in Philadelphia, perhaps higher than
those of the other private school masters. The cases of open
lawlessness are at least more numerous in the latter case. The
degree of preparation for teaching ranged from the highest, the best
college trained men of the day, to the lowest, those who possessed a
most elementary education.
The opportunities offered for study, both in the [Sidenote:
lower and in the Classical School, were at all times Curriculum similar
equal at least to those of the other schools of the to that in private
schools]
day.
The Quakers established no system of public [Sidenote: No free
schools, though they were called such quite public schools]
frequently. As public school sentiment grew, and
the Quaker schools correspondingly declined in many places, they
often were taken over as public schools. In that sense they were,
truly enough, the foundation of public schools. Education was free to
the poor; in a few cases the funds might be applied to lower the rates
paid by the regular pay scholars, but such were exceptional.
In 1750 there were about fifty particular meetings [Sidenote:
in the territory covered by this study; those were Number of
under the direction of seventeen monthly meetings. schools about
1750]
[1340] With the exception of nine of them we know
from their reports that they had schools then, or established them in
the period following 1750, in which the increased activity and interest
of the yearly meeting brought the subject more fully to their notice.
From the nature of the reports, it is often impossible to determine the
date of establishing such a school, and because of the irregularity of
reports it is not known how long a school may have been in
operation before reported. For these reasons any estimate such as
made above is very unsatisfactory.
It is not to be understood that at the time above mentioned the
schools were in all cases “according to the plan” of the yearly
meeting. Many reports have been quoted wherein schools were
mentioned which did not measure up to the standards.[1341] Some
lacked buildings, grounds, Friends as masters, masters’
accommodations, and so forth.
Assuming the nine meetings, for which no [Sidenote: Quaker
schools were reported in the minutes, did not have population one-
them, there were about forty schools under control third of total]
of the Quakers, who at that date constituted one- [Sidenote:
third of the entire population.[1342] The population Proportionate
estimated by Oldmixon was about 100,000 in 1741. numberQuakers
of
[1343] Though the colony increased rapidly by decreases]

immigration,[1344] the Quaker increase was not


proportionate to their numbers stated above.[1345] In 1795 it is stated
that the Episcopalians and Quakers together constituted but one-
third of the whole population, which then numbered about 434,373.
[1346] The number of regularly established Quaker schools at that
date was between sixty and seventy.
If in 1741 we estimate the number of school age [Sidenote:
children of Quaker parentage between six and Number of
seven thousand, which is probably a less number regularly
established
than there actually were, it is apparent that the schools
schools regularly established were in no way inadequate for
adequate to the school population. The remainder their population]
were doubtless cared for in the frequently
mentioned mixed schools and neighborhood schools, which are
known to have been common. These were sometimes under partial
control of the Quaker meetings. What proportion the number of
Quaker schools bears to those established by other agencies is not
known. No studies made up to the present time have attempted to
estimate the number of schools established by all or particular
agencies. Any comparison is impossible until such a study is made.

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