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The increasing impact of algorithmically driven processes on human societies, which can exacerbate political, economic, and cultural asymmetries, raises questions about reducing human agency by constraining platform structures. We draw on the theoretical concept of algorithmic imaginary, which captures users' appropriations and ideas of these processes. In this paper, we focus on the dynamics between agency and structure in algorithmic imaginaries regarding the future of digital media platforms in Europe. The paper takes structuration theory as a theoretical starting point and employs methods of futures studies to analyze how the future is constructed in scenarios developed by a diversity of experts participating in a series of workshops. The future scenarios analysis is mapped around four actors, namely platform users, platform corporations, algorithms and institutions. By considering the role of various actors, particularly institutions, and their interdependencies this paper contributes to more balanced conceptualizations of algorithmic imaginaries, which tend to be centered around users' perspectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the academic year 2010–2011, Spain finished the process of introducing the regulatory changes derived from the Bologna Declaration and the new European Space for Higher Education (ESHE). These changes have implied the updating of university degrees’ structure as well as the inclusion of the European Credit Transfer System (ECTS). This paper describes the process of adaptation of two basic first-semester core subjects of computer engineering to one of the basic aspects of the ESHE, the adoption of the ECTS. The process described in the paper was developed in the framework of the pilot plan undertaken by the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona between 2005 and 2010. The proposed course design implies a better coordination and integration of the contents of two different subjects that students follow simultaneously, and it is based on the combination of project-based learning and cooperative learning. After the experience finished, an extended quantitative and qualitative analysis of the academic results over the five-year period has shown an improvement in the students’ learning outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Flaws in requirements often have a negative impact on the subsequent development phases. In this paper, we present a novel approach for the formal representation and validation of requirements, which we used in an industrial project. The formalism allows us to represent and reason about object models and their temporal evolution. The key ingredients are class diagrams to represent classes of objects, their relationships and their attributes, fragments of first order logic to constrain the possible configurations of such objects, and temporal logic operators to deal with the dynamic evolution of the configurations. The approach to formal validation allows to check whether the requirements are consistent, if they are compatible with some scenarios, and if they guarantee some implicit properties. The validation procedure is based on satisfiability checking, which is carried out by means of finite instantiation and model checking techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]