Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Internet Content Evaluation'

Le caching de réseau peut aider àgérer l'explosion du trafic sur Internet et àsatisfaire la Qualité d'Expérience (QoE)croissante demandée par les usagers.Néanmoins, les techniques proposées jusqu'àprésent par la littérature scientifique n'arriventpas à exploiter tous les avantages potentiels. Lestravaux de recherche précédents cherchent àoptimiser le hit ratio ou d'autres métriques deréseau, tandis que les opérateurs de réseau(ISPs) sont plus intéressés à des métriques plusconcrètes, par exemple le coût et la qualitéd'expérience (QoE). Pour cela, nous visonsdirectement l'optimisation des métriquesconcrètes et montrons que, ce faisant, on obtientdes meilleures performances.Plus en détail, d'abord nous proposons desnouvelles techniques de caching pour réduire lecoût pour les ISPs en préférant stocker lesobjets qui sont les plus chères à repérer.Nous montrons qu'un compromis existe entre lamaximisation classique du hit ratio et laréduction du coût.Ensuite, nous étudions la distribution vidéo,comme elle est la plus sensible à la QoE etconstitue la plus part du trafic Internet. Lestechniques de caching classiques ignorent sescaractéristiques particulières, par exemple le faitqu'une vidéo est représentée par différentesreprésentations, encodées en différents bit-rateset résolutions. Nous introduisons des techniquesqui prennent en compte cela.Enfin, nous remarquons que les techniquescourantes assument la connaissance parfaite desobjets qui traversent le réseau. Toutefois, laplupart du trafic est chiffrée et du coup toutetechnique de caching ne peut pas fonctionner.Nous proposons un mécanisme qui permet auxISPs de faire du caching, bien qu’ils ne puissentobserver les objets envoyés
Network caching can help copewith today Internet traffic explosion and sustainthe demand for an increasing user Quality ofExperience. Nonetheless, the techniquesproposed in the literature do not exploit all thepotential benefits. Indeed, they usually aim tooptimize hit ratio or other network-centricmetrics, e.g. path length, latency, etc., whilenetwork operators are more focused on moremore practical metrics, like cost and quality ofexperience. We devise caching techniques thatdirectly target the latter objectives and showthat this allows to gain better performance.More specifically, we first propose novelstrategies that reduce the Internet ServiceProvider (ISP) operational cost, bypreferentially caching the objects whose cost ofretrieval is the largest.We then focus on video delivery, since it is themost sensitive to QoE and represents most ofthe Internet traffic. Classic techniques ignorethat each video is represented by differentrepresentations, encoded at different bit-ratesand resolutions. We devise techniques that takethis into account.Finally, we point out that the techniquespresented in the literature assume the perfectknowledge of the objects that are crossing thenetwork. Nonetheless, most of the traffic todayis encrypted and thus caching techniques areinapplicable. To overcome this limit, Wepropose a mechanism which allows the ISPs tocache, even without knowing the objects being

The purpose of this study was to develop a consensus from a panel of experts composed of library deans/directors, reference librarians, and instructors with online teaching experience. The panel developed the methodology necessary for evaluating free sources of information on the Internet for inclusion in academic library holdings by the year 2010. The following areas were explored as they related to the forecast: 1) The changes in higher education institutions that will be necessary to prepare students to deal with free sources of information on the Internet; 2) The procedures that librarians need to develop and implement to ensure that free Internet materials will meet quality standards for inclusion in academic library holdings; and 3) The things that publishers of free sources of information on the Internet need to do to ensure that their materials will be considered for inclusion in academic library holdings. The Delphi panel was composed of 24 members: eight library deans/directors, eight reference librarians, and eight instructors with online teaching experience. The members of the panel were selected from the community colleges of the Tennessee Board of Regents System. In the first round of the study, panelists responded to 10 open-ended questions on an e-mail questionnaire dealing with free sources of information on the Internet. The narrative responses to the questions were specific and provided a basis on which to develop the Round 2 Questionnaire. In the second round of the Delphi study, panelists responded to 9 questions with 42 subparts. The results of this study may be used to project the information needs of students as well as suggest strategies for publishers on the basis of the data collected in this study. A major finding of the study was the need for reliable information in documents on the Internet. The Delphi panel also listed the lack of permanence of Internet sites as a major reason librarians do not use free sources of information on the Internet. The Delphi panel recommended that educators assist students in dealing with Internet materials by teaching them how to use critical thinking skills.

This paper aims to explore the current status of Internet Resources on Chinese studies among East Asian Libraries in the US. The author examined Internet Resources on Chinese Studies at the websites of 35 libraries by collecting data on the number of unique links, the kinds of websites included, the arrangement and classification of resources, the content and commonalities of the most frequently cited websites. Lists of link popularity are also complied to illustrate the current status of Internet Resources on Chinese Studies. Finally, a number of recommendations are proposed for further research.

Today’s increasing information supply raises the needfor more effective and automated information processing whereindividual information adaptation (personalization) is onepossible solution. Earlier computer systems for personalizationlacked the ability to easily define and measure theeffectiveness of personalization efforts. Numerous projectsfailed to live up to the their expectations, and the demand forevaluation increased.

This thesis presents some underlying concepts and methodsfor implementing personalization in order to increase statedbusiness objectives. A personalization system was developedthat utilizes descriptions of information characteristics(metadata) to perform content based filtering in anon-intrusive way.

Most of the described measurement methods forpersonalization in the literature are focused on improving theutility for the customer. The evaluation function of thepersonalization system described in this thesis takes thebusiness operator’s standpoint and pragmatically focuseson one or a few measurable business objectives. In order toverify operation of the personalization system, a functioncalled bifurcation was created. The bifurcation functiondivides the customers stochastically into two or morecontrolled groups with different personalizationconfigurations. Bygiving one of the controlled groups apersonalization configuration that deactivates thepersonalization, a reference group is created. The referencegroup is used to measure quantitatively objectives bycomparison with the groups with active personalization.

Two different companies had their websites personalized andevaluated: one of Sweden’s largest recruitment servicesand the second largest Swedish daily newspaper. The purposewith the implementations was to define, measure, and increasethe business objectives. The results of the two case studiesshow that under propitious conditions, personalization can bemade to increase stated business objectives.

Keywords:metadata, semantic web, personalization,information adaptation, one-to-one marketing, evaluation,optimization, personification, customization,individualization, internet, content filtering, automation.

Although the growth of the Internet has provided access to an enormous amount of previously inaccessible information, a large amount of information of dubious credibility appears online. Prior to the proliferation of the Internet, much of the informational material that a person came into contact with had been subject to a system of editorial checks and balances. Anyone can now publish information online for millions of people to access. In response, several educational associations have proposed that the teaching of information literacy be a priority in our schools. A common method provided for teaching Web site evaluation is the evaluation checklist. The checklists that currently exist in the literature tend to differ widely in their design. This evaluative research study utilized a systems approach to evaluation to create a valid and reliable Web site evaluation checklist for use with secondary level students. Students and teachers were asked to evaluate a selected set of Web sites using the checklist. The data was analyzed and conclusions were drawn as to the design elements that were most appropriate for inclusion in a checklist instrument as well as how students' and teachers' evaluations of Web sites compared when using the checklist. The results suggested that the criteria included for evaluation in this checklist were appropriate for evaluation in this context. A comparison of teacher and student responses identified areas where students had difficulty evaluating the information they encountered. Student responses suggested that they had particular difficulty in identifying persuasive elements and bias when they were present on Web site used for classroom research. Guided practice with real world problems is one strategy utilized in secondary level classrooms to assist students in developing their skill in critical thinking. The results here suggest that students need additional practice with critical thinking skills in the context of Web site evaluation and that this checklist can be an appropriate tool for guiding students in this pursuit if it is part of a structured classroom activity that includes modeling and guidance. Additionally, several recommendations were made for further study of this checklist and for alternate designs of checklists.

The market of IOT devices continues to grow at a rapid speed as well as constrained wireless sensor networks. Today, the main network paradigm is host centric where a users have to specify which host they want to receive their data from. Information-centric networking is a new paradigm for the future internet, which is based on named data instead of named hosts. With ICN, a user needs to send a request for a perticular data in order to retrieve it. When sent, any participant in the network, router or server, containing the data will respond to the request. In order to achieve low latency between data creation and its consumption, as well as being able to follow data which is sequentially produced at a fixed rate, an algortihm was developed. This algortihm calculates and determines when to send the next interest message towards the sensor. It uses a ‘one time subscription’ approach to send its interest message in advance of the creation of the data, thereby enabling a low latency from data creation to consumption. The result of this algorithm shows that a consumer can retrieve the data with minimum latency from its creation by the sensor over an extended period of time, without using a publish/subscribe system such as MQTT or similar which pushes their data towards their consumers. The performance evaluation carried out which analysed the Content Centric Network application on the sensor shows that the application has little impact on the overall round trip time in the network. Based on the results, this thesis concluded that the ICN paradigm, together with a ’one-time subscription’ model, can be a suitable option for communication within the IoT domain where consumers ask for sequentially produced data.

This thesis project explores two well-known real-time web technologies: WebSocket and WebRTC. It explores the use of a mobile phone as a gateway to connect wireless devices with short range of radio links to the Internet in order to foster an Internet of Things (IoT). This thesis project aims to solve the problem of how to collect real-time data from an IoT device, using the Earl toolkit. With this thesis project an Earl device is able to send real-time data to Internet connected devices and to other Earl devices via a mobile phone acting as a gateway. This thesis project facilitates the use of Earl in design projects for IoT devices. IoT enables communication with many different kinds of “things” such as cars, fridges, refrigerators, light bulbs, etc. The benefits of IoT range from financial savings due to saving energy to monitoring the heart activity of a patient with heart problems. There are many approaches to connect devices in order to create an IoT. One of these approaches is to use a mobile phone as a gateway, i.e., to act as a router, between IoT and the Internet. The WebSocket protocol provides efficient communication sessions between web servers and clients by reducing communication overhead. The WebRTC project aims to provide standards for real-time communications technology. WebRTC is important because it is the first real-time communications standard which is being built into browsers. This thesis evaluates the benefits which these two protocols offer when using a mobile phone as a gateway between an IoT and Internet. This thesis project implemented several test beds, collected data concerning the scalability of the protocols and the latency of traffic passing through the gateway, and presents a numerical analysis of the measurement results. Moreover, an LED module was built as a peripheral for an Earl device. The conclusion of the thesis is that WebSocket and WebRTC can be utilized to connect IoT devices to Internet.
I detta examensarbete utforskas två välkända realtidsteknologier på internet: WebSocket och WebRTC. Det utforskar användandet av en mobiltelefon som gateway för att ansluta trådlösa enheter - med kort räckvidd - till Internet för att skapa ett Internet of Things (IoT). Det här examensarbetet försöker med hjälp av verktyget Earl lösa problemet med hur insamlandet av realtidsdata från en IoT-enhet skall genomföras. I det här examensprojektet kan en Earl-enhet skicka data i realtid till enheter med Internetanslutning, samt till andra Earl-enheter, med hjälp av en mobiltelefon som gateway. Detta projektarbete förenklar användandet av Earl i design-projekt ör IoT-enheter. IoT tillåter kommunikation mellan olika sorters enheter, så som bilar, kyl- och frysskåp, glödlampor etc. Fördelarna med IoT kan vara allt från ekonomiska - tack vare minskad energiförbrukning - till medicinska i form av övervakning av puls hos patienter med hjärtproblem. Det finns många olika tillvägagångssätt för att sammankoppla enheter till ett IoT. Ett av dessa är att använda en mobiltelefon som en gateway, dvs en router mellan IoT och internet. WebSocket-protokollet erbjuder effektiv kommunikation mellan web-servrar och klienter tack vare minskad överflödig dataöverföring. WebRTC-projektet vill erbjuda standarder för realtidskommunikation. WebRTC är viktigt då det är den första sådana standarden som inkluderas i webläsare. Det här examensarbetet utvärderar fördelarna dessa två protokoll erbjuder i det fallet då en mobiltelefon används som gateway mellan ett IoT och Internet. I det här examensprojektet implementerades ett flertal testmiljöer, protokollens skalbarhet och fördröjningen av trafiken genom mobiltelefonen (gateway) undersöktes. Detta presenteras i en numerisk analys av mätresultaten. Dessutom byggdes en LED-modul som tillbehör till en Earl-enhet. Slutsatsen av examensarbetet är att WebSocket och WebRTC kan användas till att ansluta IoT-enheter till Internet.

The purpose of this research study is to analyze mental health related content on the three network affiliated stations in Las Vegas, Nevada. Online web stories from broadcast stations are analyzed in terms of the content and tone. These areas of analysis relate directly to the mass communication theories agenda setting and framing. Historically, mental health news reports have included content and tone that together can potentially create and further stigmatizing sentiments about those with mental illnesses. This study utilizes a chi square test to determine if a relationship exists between the three network affiliated stations, four a priori coded mental health content categories, and a rating of the overall tone using a value dimensions scale. Supplemental analyses include frequency evaluations of what has been called “people-first” versus “non-people first” language. By analyzing mental health related content at these three stations in the Las Vegas market this study aims to add heuristic value to the study of mental health reporting in broadcast news. This study will allow for additional research to further test relationships between stations, content, and tone in the Las Vegas and other news markets. Ultimately, this study provides analysis and discussion of the important role of agenda setting and framing in the news industry as it relates to the coverage of mental health related content.

Memoria para optar al título de Ingeniero Civil Eléctrico
El paradigma de comunicación Internet of Things (IoT), el cual plantea la posibilidad de interconectar objetos cotidianos y toda clase de dispositivos convencionales a Internet, está actualmente en pleno desarrollo. El gran número de nodos que se espera conectar a Internet exige a su vez la implementación a gran escala de Internet Protocol versión 6 (IPv6). IoT busca el desarrollo de nuevas aplicaciones y ha impulsado la creación de nuevas arquitecturas de red y nuevas clases de dispositivos. Las redes Low Power Wide Area Networks (LPWAN) han surgido recientemente como una evolución natural del concepto Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN), redes de sensores in- terconectadas. A la luz del IoT, las nuevas redes LPWAN abren un nuevo campo de desarrollo, principalmente enfocado en servicios de monitoreo y afines que se desarrollen en áreas am- plias y no requieran grandes tasas de transferencia. Los dispositivos LPWAN se caracterizan por ser de bajo consumo energético y de bajo costo, facilitando su despliegue masivo por largos períodos sin necesidad de recargar sus baterías. Long Range Wide Area Network (LoRaWAN) es una de las primeras y principales tec- nologías LPWAN, y presenta una gran flexibilidad que la hace ideal para redes de diseño propio. En América funciona en la banda industrial, científica y médica (ISM) alrededor de los 915 MHz. Sin embargo, también existen muchas otras tecnologías LPWAN con arquitec- turas y protocolos propietarios, lo que dificulta alcanzar la interoperabilidad que se desea en el entorno IoT. El grupo de trabajo para la implementación de IPv6 sobre redes LPWAN (lpwan WG) perteneciente al Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) se encuentra actualmente desarrol- lando un mecanismo de compresión y fragmentación de paquetes IPv6 para redes LPWAN denominado Static Context Header Compression (SCHC). El esquema de compresión se en- cuentra terminado, pero aún no ha sido implementado ni evaluado de manera oficial. En este trabajo se presenta una plataforma experimental para la implementación y eval- uación del mecanismo SCHC sobre una red LoRaWAN consistente en un nodo terminal Mi- crochip y un Radio Gateway (RG) de Everynet. En su desarrollo se han integrado múltiples y diversas herramientas del campo de las Telecomunicaciones y las Tecnologías de Información y Comunicación (ICT). La plataforma creada logra una implementación básica pero exitosa del esquema de com- presión de SCHC. Por medio de ella se ha llevado a cabo una evaluación preliminar del funcionamiento de SCHC, analizando el nivel de compresión logrado por el mecanismo para tres contextos de comunicación característicos de una red LPWAN. Los resultados obtenidos son positivos.

Thesis (PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2013.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The convergence of the Internet, wireless technologies, and mobile devices has led to the development of a new paradigm of transacting, namely, mobile commerce. Because banking activities are easily digitised and automated, banks have seized the mobile transacting opportunity and have developed cellphone banking applications that allow more flexibility for bank clients than internet banking in terms of anywhere, anytime banking. For banks, considering the benefits associated with multi-channel customers, the ideal situation would be that bank clients using internet banking also adopt and continue to use cellphone banking in the future. Therefore, to assist marketing managers with the development of marketing strategies to enhance the concurrent use of internet and cellphone banking, this study investigates the influence of internet banking cognitive evaluations on the perceived usefulness and the perceived ease of use of cellphone banking in the formation of the intention to use and the continuance of use intention of cellphone banking. A literature review revealed that two consumer behaviour theories can guide crosschannel cognitive evaluations between the internet banking and cellphone banking channel namely, expectation-transfer theory and status quo bias theory. In the context of this study, expectation-transfer theory can explain cross-channel evaluative synergies from the internet banking channel to the cellphone banking channel, as well as dissynergies; whilst status quo bias underpins only evaluative dissynergies. These theories point to internet banking beliefs that could influence the perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness of cellphone banking. Based on the literature review, a conceptual model was developed of the formation of intention to use and the continuance of use intention of cellphone banking in an internet banking context. To assess the validity of the model empirically, data were collected from 678 users of only internet banking and 491 users of both internet and cellphone banking. The data collected in the empirical phase of the study were analysed using the structural equations modelling (SEM) software program AMOS 20.0. The results revealed that the perceived convenience and time saving of internet banking positively influence the perceived usefulness of cellphone banking for the users of both internet and cellphone banking. On the other hand, only the perceived convenience of internet banking influenced the cellphone banking usefulness perceptions of the users of only internet banking. Furthermore, internet banking trust and risk perceptions only influenced the cellphone banking usefulness perceptions of the users of only internet banking. Expectation-transfer in both cohorts was also confirmed between the ease of use perceptions of internet banking and the perceived ease of use of cellphone banking. The results also confirmed that internet banking facilitating conditions negatively influence the perceived usefulness of cellphone banking (evidence of status quo bias). The theoretical contribution of the study is apparent at three different levels. Firstly, the conceptual model of cross-channel cognitive evaluations extends the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) with beliefs of a related technology as the determinants of perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use. Secondly, the study provides more insights into how cross-channel cognitive evaluations influence the formation of intention to use and the continuance of use intention of cellphone banking. And lastly, the study identifies additional sources of expectation-transfer and status-quo bias in the multichannel marketing context. The study provides valuable insights into internet – cellphone banking multi-channel consumer behaviour that should be considered by managers in the development of cellphone banking marketing strategies. To facilitate the conversion from internet banking to the concurrent usage of internet and cellphone banking, managers of cellphone banking services must ensure that the internet banking service is reliable and risk free. Equally important, cellphone banking must be marketed as a complementary channel to internet banking. In other words, the usefulness of cellphone banking must be emphasised in situations when the bank client is not near a computer to do internet banking or when he/she does not have the time or money to use a computer for internet banking. And lastly, to enhance the adoption of cellphone banking marketing communications must emphasise the similarities between internet and cellphone banking so that expectation-transfer between the two channels can influence behavioural intentions to adopt cellphone banking. Based on the results of the study, several recommendations can be made to enhance the continuance of use of cellphone banking. Firstly, marketing communications must remind the concurrent users of internet and cellphone banking of why they are using cellphone banking. The most important reason to remind them of is the usefulness of cellphone banking in situations where there is a lack of internet banking facilitating conditions. Marketing managers should also take note that cellphone banking users do not draw on internet banking trust and risk perceptions to form perceptions of the usefulness of cellphone banking. It may be that they only consider trust and risk perceptions directly related to cellphone banking. This conclusion emphasises the importance of cellphone banking trust and risk perceptions in cellphone banking continuance of use behaviour. Finally, the study quantified the influence of internet banking cognitive evaluations on the formation of intention to use and the continuance of use intention of cellphone banking. Considering this result, the study provides valuable information for marketing managers of cellphone services. The methodology employed can also guide future studies exploring cross-channel evaluations in a multi-channel marketing context.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die sameloop van maklike toegang tot die Internet, die ontwikkeling van draadlose tegnologieë en die beskikbaarheid van mobiele toestelle het gelei tot ʼn nuwe transaksieparadigma, naamlik mobiele handel. Aangesien bankaktiwiteite maklik digitiseer en outomatiseer, het banke die mobiele verrigtingsgeleentheid aangegryp en selfoonbankaanwendings ontwikkel wat vir bankkliënte meer buigsaamheid as internetbankdienste inhou wat ‘enige plek, enige tyd’ bankwese betref. Gegewe die voordele van multikanaal gebruik, is die ideaal vir banke dat kliënte wat internetbankdienste gebruik, ook selfoonbankdienste aanvaar en in die toekoms bly gebruik. Met die oog daarop om bemarkingsbestuurders by te staan in die ontwikkeling van bemarkingstrategieë om die gelyktydige gebruik van internet- en selfoonbankdienste te bevorder, ondersoek hierdie studie die invloed van kognitiewe evaluerings oor internetbankwese op die waargenome nuttigheid en waargenome maklike gebruik van selfoonbankdienste in die vorming van die gebruiksvoorneme en voortgesette gebruiksvoorneme ten opsigte van selfoonbankdienste. ʼn Literatuuroorsig het getoon dat twee verbruikersgedragsteorieë kruiskanaal kognitiewe evaluerings tussen die internetbankkanaal en selfoonbankkanaal kan voorlig, naamlik, Verwagtingsoordragteorie (“Expectation-transfer Theory”) en Status Quo Vooroordeel Teorie (“Status Quo Bias Theory”). In die konteks van hierdie studie kan Verwagtingsoordragteorie kruiskanaalevalueringsinergieë en dissinergieë van die internetbankkanaal na die selfoonbankkanaal toe verduidelik, terwyl Status Quo Vooroordeel Teorie slegs evaluerende dissinergieë stut. Hierdie teorieë belig internetbankoortuigings wat die waargenome nuttigheid en waargenome maklike gebruik van selfoonbankdienste kan beïnvloed. ʼn Konseptuele model van die vorming van die gebruiksvoorneme en voortgesette gebruiksvoorneme van selfoonbankdienste in ʼn internetbankkonteks is op grond van die literatuuroorsig ontwikkel. Met die oog daarop om die geldigheid van die model empiries te bepaal, is data van 678 gebruikers van slegs internet bankdienste en 491 gebruikers van internet sowel as selfoonbankdienste ingesamel. Die data wat tydens die empiriese fase van die studie ingesamel is, is met behulp van die strukturele vergelykingsmodelleringsagtewareprogram (“structural equations modelling” (SEM)) AMOS 20.0 analiseer. Volgens die resultate het die waargenome gerieflikheid en tydbesparing van internetbankwese die waargenome nuttigheid van selfoonbankdienste positief beïnvloed by gebruikers van beide internet en selfoonbankdienste. Hierteenoor het slegs die waargenome gerieflikheid van internetbankdienste die selfoonbankdiensnuttigheidswaarnemings van gebruikers van slegs internetbankdienste beïnvloed. Verder het internetbankdiensvertroue en risikowaarnemings slegs die selfoonbankdiensnuttigheid van die gebruikers van slegs internetbankdienste beïnvloed. Verwagtingsoordrag in beide kohorte is ook bevestig tussen die maklike gebruik persepsies van internetbankdienste en die waargenome maklike gebruik van selfoonbankdienste. Die resultate bevestig ook dat internetbankfasiliteringsomstandighede die waargenome nuttigheid van selfoonbankdienste negatief beïnvloed (manifestering van status quo vooroordeel). Die teoretiese bydrae van die studie blyk op drie vlakke. Eerstens brei die konseptuele model van kruiskanaal kognitiewe evaluerings die Tegnologie Aanvaardingsmodel (“Technology Acceptance Model” (TAM)) uit ten opsigte van oortuigings oor ʼn verwante tegnologie as die bepalers van waargenome nuttigheid en waargenome maklike gebruik. Die studie bied tweedens ook insigte in hoe kruiskanaal kognitiewe evaluerings die vorming van gebruiksvoorneme en voortgesette gebruiksvoorneme van selfoonbankdienste beïnvloed. Die studie identifiseer laastens ook addisionele verwagtingsoordrag- en status quo vooroordeel bronne in die multikanaalbemarkingskonteks. Die studie bied waardevolle insig oor internet – selfoonbankmultikanaal-verbruikersgedrag wat bestuurders in die ontwikkeling van selfoonbank-diensbemarkingstrategieë moet oorweeg. Om die oorskakeling van internetbankdienste na die gelyktydige gebruik van internet en selfoonbankdienste te fasiliteer, moet bestuurders van selfoonbankdienste verseker dat internetbankdienste betroubaar en risikovry is. Wat net so belangrik is, is dat selfoonbankwese as ʼn komplementêre kanaal tot internet bankwese bemark moet word. Die nuttigheid van selfoonbankwese moet, met ander woorde, beklemtoon word in situasies waar die kliënt nie naby ʼn rekenaar is vir internetbankgebruik nie of wanneer hy/sy nie die geld of tyd het om ʼn rekenaar vir internetbankdienste te gebruik nie. Laastens, om die aanvaarding van selfoonbankwese te versterk, moet bemarkingskommunikasiemateriaal die ooreenkomste tussen internet en selfoonbankwese op so ʼn wyse beklemtoon dat verwagtingsoordrag tussen die twee kanale gedragsvoornemens om selfoonbankdienste te aanvaar, beïnvloed. Verskeie aanbevelings spruit voort uit die resultate oor hoe die voortgesette gebruik van selfoonbankdienste verhoog kan word. Eerstens moet bemarkingskommunikasieboodskappe die gelyktydige gebruikers van internet en selfoonbankwese herinner waarom hulle selfoonbankdienste gebruik. Die belangrikste rede in hierdie verband is die nuttigheid van selfoonbankwese in situasies waar internetbankfasiliteringsomstandighede afwesig is. Bemarkingsbestuurders moet ook in ag neem dat selfoonbankgebruikers nie op internetbankvertroue en risikowaarnemings steun om persepsies oor die nuttigheid van selfoonbankwese te vorm nie. Hulle oorweeg waarskynlik net vertroue en risikopersepsies wat direk met selfoonbankdienste verband hou. Hierdie gevolgtrekking beklemtoon die belangrikheid van vertroue in selfoonbankdienste en riskowaarnemings in voortgesette selfoonbankgebruikgedrag. Laastens, die studie kwantifiseer die invloed van kognitiewe evaluering oor internetbankwese in die vorming van selfoonbankwese gebruiksvoorneme en voortgesette gebruiksvoorneme. Veral in die lig van hierdie resultaat bied die studie waardevolle inligting vir selfoonbankdiensbemarkingsbestuurders. Die metodes wat gebruik is, kan ook verdere studies waarin kruiskanaalevaluerings in ʼn multikanaal-bemarkingskonteks ondersoek word, rig.

The purpose of this study is to examine why the media has a more negative attitude towards lobbyism in 2014 compared to earlier years since the 1970s in Sweden. This study examines first if a change of attitude has occurred between the given years and whether the attitude is more positive, negative or neutral towards lobbyism in recent years compared to earlier years and lastly if the media are comparing different contexts in which lobbying takes place. The method of this study is based on quantitative content analysis, and on Kanol’s ideas that by implementing theories from different disciplines one can develop theories on comparative lobbying in order to increase and improve our knowledge on the phenomenon of lobbyism as the contemporary research on the subject are scars and underdeveloped. The material in this study are news articles that have been collected between 1970 to 2000 and every second year from 2000 up until 2014. This study also provides a comprehensive picture of the Swedish context in which lobbying takes place by gathering information from multiple sources and earlier studies as this information has as of yet not been gathered in a single study up until now. The conclusion is that there has been a change of attitude towards lobbyism in Sweden, however, the dominant attitude is not a negative but rather a more skeptical/cynical one which has increased since 1992. The term lobbying is controversial because it’s being mentioned in various topics that could be considered negative by the reader as the decision making whether the news article is negative or positive is subjective. Because the media has increased its negative news reporting overall and that the unconscious mind of the reader is also attracted to negative news reporting, the term lobbying can be considered “negative” overall as it is constantly being mentioned in negative contexts even when the article is not about lobbying. A reasonable explanation why the media has a more negative / skeptical attitude to lobbyism is because of previous scandals related to lobbying either in Sweden or outside the country's border, but also because the media can’t hold the elected officials responsible for their actions as transparency and accountability is absent. Because of the increased reporting in Sweden on lobbying from all over the world, the subject will most likely become more relevant on the Swedish political agenda.

Green networking is receiving attention to sustainable information and communication technology because it enables more energy-efficient networks and reduces environmental impact. Previous research made strides toward green development for network infrastructure by improving energy efficiency and leveraging renewable energy. In this thesis, we focused on green networking strategies to improve state-of-the-art telecommunication from a green perspective. We especially focused on the Internet protocol (IP) and content networking, which are indispensable core components of the current network designing and planning. The contributions of this thesis are as follows. Green IP routing. We designed an energy-efficient packet switching framework for green IP networking to reduce energy waste caused by dynamic changes in a network. The network is thereby partitioned into clusters consisting of one header node and several member nodes. Only the header node within a cluster performs the IP routing, and its member nodes put the routing-related functionality to sleep and conduct packet switching using a tag. We further investigated the performance impact of energy efficiency compared with the existing green solutions through simulations. Green content routing. To optimize content requests and caching toward green content delivery, we designed a content routing framework for green named data networking. We also introduced a quantitative metric for measuring the network’s environmental footprint to define the network node’s greenness and green path. Green paths encourage traffic to aggregate along routes powered by eco-friendly renewable energy. We evaluated the proposed approach’s performance through simulations of named data networking and green metrics under real topologies and their meteorological data followed by comparing the existing caching schemes. The performance of proposed approaches were evaluated through simulations using real Internet topologies, meteorological data, and energy metrics. The results indicated that applying the proposed green approaches to real networks achieves significant energy efficiency and environmental gains.

The purpose of this thesis is to identify and quantify the information clues found in the document representations in the World Wide Web environment. This study uses three topics to find document representations: custom publishing, distance education, and tactile graphics. Four Web search engines are used: AltaVista, InfoSeek Ultra, Lycos, and Open Text Index. The findings of the random sample show that the search engines produce little duplication in their display of the results. Just over half of the cases reveal information clues about the document's authorship, origin, format or subject. The summary field shows the highest number of information clues. The title and Uniform Resource Locator fields do not contain many information clues. Few of the fields contain clues about the authorship of the documents. Topical relevance is questionable in many of the cases. The study recommends further research on the comparison of search engines, on the study of searches on the Web for commercial, academic and personal topics, and on information seeking behaviors relating to Web searching. Recommendations are made for Web training and Web page design to assist users in finding relevant information more quickly.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI)
Our connections to the digital world are invoked by brands, but the intersection of branding and interaction design is still an under-investigated area. Particularly, current websites are designed not only to support essential user tasks, but also to communicate an institution's intended brand values and traits. What we do not yet know, however, is which design factors affect which aspect of a brand. To demystify this issue, three sub-projects were conducted. The first project developed a systematic approach for evaluating the branding effectiveness of content-intensive websites (BREW). BREW gauges users' brand perceptions on four well-known branding constructs: brand as product, brand as organization, user image, and brand as person. It also provides rich guidelines for eBranding researchers in regard to planning and executing a user study and making improvement recommendations based on the study results. The second project offered a standardized perceived usability questionnaire entitled DEEP (design-oriented evaluation of perceived web usability). DEEP captures the perceived website usability on five design-oriented dimensions: content, information architecture, navigation, layout consistency, and visual guidance. While existing questionnaires assess more holistic concepts, such as ease-of-use and learnability, DEEP can more transparently reveal where the problem actually lies. Moreover, DEEP suggests that the two most critical and reliable usability dimensions are interface consistency and visual guidance. Capitalizing on the BREW approach and the findings from DEEP, a controlled experiment (N=261) was conducted by manipulating interface consistency and visual guidance of an anonymized university website to see how these variables may affect the university's image. Unexpectedly, consistency did not significantly predict brand image, while the effect of visual guidance on brand perception showed a remarkable gender difference. When visual guidance was significantly worsened, females became much less satisfied with the university in terms of brand as product (e.g., teaching and research quality) and user image (e.g., students' characteristics). In contrast, males' perceptions of the university's brand image stayed the same in most circumstances. The reason for this gender difference was revealed through a further path analysis and a follow-up interview, which inspired new research directions to unpack even more the nexus between branding and interaction design.

Current trends in society and technology make interruption a central human computer interaction problem. Many intelligent computer systems exist, but one that determines when best to interact with a user at appropriate times as s/he performs computer-based tasks does not. In this work, an Interaction Algorithm was designed, developed and evaluated that draws from a user model and real-time observations of the user’s actions as s/he works on computer-based tasks to determine ideal times to interact with the user. This research addresses the complex problem of determining the precise time to interrupt a user and how to best support him/her during and after the interruption task. Many sub-problems have been taken into account such as determining the task difficulty, the intent of the user as s/he is performing the task and how to incorporate personal user characteristics. This research is quite timely as the number of interruptions people experience on a daily basis has grown considerably over the last decade and this growth has not shown any signs of subsiding. Furthermore, with the exponential growth of mobile computing, interruptions are permeating the user experience. Thus, systems must be developed to manage interruptions by reasoning about ideal timings of interactions and determining appropriate notification formats. This research shed light on this problem as described below: 1. The algorithm developed uses a user model in its’ reasoning computations. Most of the research in this area has focused on task-based contextual information when designing systems that reason about interruptions. Researchers support additional work should be done in this area by including subjective preferences. 2. The algorithm’s performance is quite promising at 96% accuracy in several models created. 3. The algorithm was implemented using an advanced machine learning technology—an Adaptive Neural-Fuzzy Inference System—which is a novel contribution. 4. The algorithm developed does not rely on any user involvement. In other systems, users laboriously review video sessions after working with the system and record interruption annotations so that the system can learn. 5. This research shed light on reasoning about ideal interruption points for free-form tasks. Currently, this is an unsolved problem.

Undergraduate software engineering learners demonstrate a lack of motivation with face-to-face classroom education. Limited access to the Internet via PCs and laptops, hinders effective communication and collaboration. However, the majority of learners enrolled for studies in tertiary education, have cellphones and are proficient in the use of digital technology. A technology-enhanced m-learning solution is indicated. This research project evaluates the usability and user experience of an m-learning environment, custom-designed for a tertiary educational context and delivered by mobile handheld devices, features a synthesized framework of categories and criteria, and determines the nature and scope of an emergent digital divide. A design-based research model suited to the context of the study is implemented, gathering quantitative and qualitative data from experts and learners by survey questionnaires. Analysis of data highlights usability and UX problems, provides insight into an emergent digital divide and suggests guidelines specific to the design of m-learning implementations.
Educational Studies
M. Sc. (Information Systems)

State planning and transportation agencies continually face the escalating problem of increasing needs coupled with limited financial resources to meet those needs. In this difficult fiscal environment, the importance of meaningfully involving the public in the decisions that shape the future of our cities and regions becomes even more amplified. Proactively working with the public to gain buy-in from the early stages of the planning process is one of the most effective strategies to reduce project costs. The classic process in which state planning and transportation agencies have engaged the public is no longer an effective or efficient model as public meeting attendance has consistently decreased. As technology continues to shape the way that the public communicates with each other and their government, the onus falls on state planning and transportation agencies not only to continue to provide the traditional methods of engagement, but to look for new and innovative ways to gain increased public participation in the planning process. The traditional methods of public engagement will always be an important part of the planning process, but discovering the effectiveness of emerging technologies in order to develop new best practices for public engagement is the charge of the future. This report will evaluate whether a) online participatory planning spaces expand participation in the planning process and b) examine how evaluative metrics gathered by using online tools can inform decision makers of the utility of virtual planning spaces. This report will then present an evaluative criteria in order to establish a baseline by which to assess the performance of public involvement processes. This report will then present a case study of the Oak Hill Parkway Virtual Open House Pilot Project, a pilot study conducted in Austin, Texas to test the effectiveness of online participatory planning spaces in the field. This report will also share the results of interviews with Oak Hill Parkway Project representatives regarding the usefulness of virtual planning spaces. The report will conclude with a discussion of lessons learned and future research needs.
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