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The German mechanical engineering sector plays a key role as provider and user of digitally integrated products, processes and business models for Industry 4.0. However, it has not yet been empirically investigated to what extent these companies are able to independently develop digital products and services and what kind of competences they need to be able to do this successfully. An online survey of 335 German mechanical engineering companies and 15 deepening expert interviews shows that they mainly regard digitized service offerings such as predictive maintenance or condition monitoring as core competences and develop them in-house. The analysis shows that agile and design-oriented development methods can significantly improve the companies’ abilities to develop digitized products themselves. An interdisciplinary approach will become more and more important in the future, as digitally integrated innovations are increasingly taking place in the intersection of different disciplines.

This paper discusses the data collection technique used to determine the skills and knowledge required of academic librarians working in a digital library environment in Australia. The research was undertaken as part of the researcher's master's thesis conducted at Tallinn University. The data collection instrument used was a freely available online survey tool, and its advantages and disadvantages are discussed in terms of the desired outcomes and circumstances surrounding the thesis project. Decisions regarding the design of the questionnaire are also discussed.

This paper discusses the methodology and data collection technique used to gather data for the researcher's master thesis study on smartphone applications. The aims of the study were to describe current usage patterns of smartphone applications, to determine users' desired specifications for smartphone applications showcasing cultural heritage collections, and to carry out a user study of the Musée du Louvre iPhone application as a model for the development of a new cultural heritage application for smartphones. An online survey tool, QuestBack, was used to collect both quantitative and qualitative data. For the quantitative data, analysis was performed using tools offered by QuestBack, while for the qualitative data, the researcher performed the coding and analysis.