Magazine publishers and their online strategies

It seems as if magazine publishers have only haphazardly listed multiple goals for their websites, and have not carefully reflectedon how to achieve them. We present a framework for defining a magazine's onlinestrategy based on previous studies and on secondary data from the industry. We identify three steps in the strategy process. The first is to determine whether the magazine would actually benefit from online presence: although most magazines will never make money from their websites, a web presence may still be justified. The second step is to choose an optimal online strategy that matches the magazine's competitive strategy. Finally, we argue that magazine publishers should carefully consider to what extent they should allow their readers to be involvedin the web pages. This interactivity could be seen as a key factor in exploiting the unique nature of the Internet. It is our understanding that virtual communities could, at best, be a way of creating more value for a magazine's readers, advertisers and editors, alike. We formulate a typology of five different onlinebusiness concepts for magazines based on these three strategic steps.

Database Rights in Safe European Home: The Path to More Rigorous Protection of Information

1. Introduction "The one that has compiled ... a database, the collection, securing the validity or presentation of which has required an essential investment, has the sole right to control the content over the whole work or over either a qualitatively or quantitatively substantial part of the work both by means of reproduction and by making them available to the public", Finnish Copyright Act, section 49.1 These are the laconic words that implemented the much-awaited and hotly debated European Community Directive on the legal protection of databases,2 the EDD, into Finnish Copyright legislation in 1998. Now in the year 2005, after more than half a decade of the domestic implementation it is yet uncertain as to the proper meaning and construction of the convoluted qualitative criteria the current legislation employs as a prerequisite for the database protection both in Finland and within the European Union. Further, this opaque Pan-European instrument has the potential of bringing about a number of far-reaching economic and cultural ramifications, which have remained largely uncharted or unobserved. Thus the task of understanding this particular and currently peculiarly European new intellectual property regime is twofold: first, to understand the mechanics and functioning of the EDD and second, to realise the potential and risks inherent in the new legislation in economic, cultural and societal dimensions. 2. Subject-matter of the study: basic issues The first part of the task mentioned above is straightforward: questions such as what is meant by the key concepts triggering the functioning of the EDD such as presentation of independent information, what constitutes an essential investment in acquiring data and when the reproduction of a given database reaches either qualitatively or quantitatively the threshold of substantiality before the right-holder of a database can avail himself of the remedies provided by the statutory framework remain unclear and call for a careful analysis. As for second task, it is already obvious that the practical importance of the legal protection providedby the database right is in the rapid increase. The accelerating transformationof information into digital form is an existing fact, not merely a reflection of a shape of things to come in the future. To take a simple example, the digitisation of a map, traditionally in paper format and protected by copyright, can provide the consumer a markedly easier and faster access to the wanted material and the price can be, depending on the current state of the marketplace, cheaper than that of the traditional form or even free by means of public lending libraries providing access to the information online. This also renders it possible for authors and publishers to make available and sell their products to markedly larger, international markets while the production and distribution costs can be kept at minimum due to the new electronic production, marketing and distributionmechanisms to mention a few. The troublesome side is for authors and publishers the vastly enhanced potential for illegal copying by electronic means, producing numerous virtually identical copies at speed. The fear of illegal copying canlead to stark technical protection that in turn can dampen down the demand for information goods and services and furthermore, efficiently hamper the right of access to the materials available lawfully in electronic form and thus weaken the possibility of access to information, education and the cultural heritage of anation or nations, a condition precedent for a functioning democracy. 3. Particular issues in Digital Economy and Information Networks All what is said above applies a fortiori to the databases. As a result of the ubiquity of the Internet and the pending breakthrough of Mobile Internet, peer-to-peer Networks, Localand Wide Local Area Networks, a rapidly increasing amount of information not protected by traditional copyright, such as various lists, catalogues and tables,3previously protected partially by the old section 49 of the Finnish Copyright act are available free or for consideration in the Internet, and by the same token importantly, numerous databases are collected in order to enable the marketing, tendering and selling products and services in above mentioned networks. Databases and the information embedded therein constitutes a pivotal element in virtually any commercial operation including product and service development, scientific research and education. A poignant but not instantaneously an obvious example of this is a database consisting of physical coordinates of a certain selected group of customers for marketing purposes through cellular phones, laptops and several handheld or vehicle-based devices connected online. These practical needs call for answer to a plethora of questions already outlined above: Has thecollection and securing the validity of this information required an essential input? What qualifies as a quantitatively or qualitatively significant investment? According to the Directive, the database comprises works, information and other independent materials, which are arranged in systematic or methodical way andare individually accessible by electronic or other means. Under what circumstances then, are the materials regarded as arranged in systematic or methodical way? Only when the protected elements of a database are established, the question concerning the scope of protection becomes acute. In digital context, the traditional notions of reproduction and making available to the public of digital materials seem to fit ill or lead into interpretations that are at variance with analogous domain as regards the lawful and illegal uses of information. This may well interfere with or rework the way in which the commercial and other operators have to establish themselves and function in the existing value networks of information products and services. 4. International sphere After the expiry of the implementation period for the European Community Directive on legal protection of databases, the goals of the Directive must have been consolidated into the domestic legislations of the current twenty-five Member States within the European Union. On one hand, these fundamental questions readily imply that the problemsrelated to correct construction of the Directive underlying the domestic legislation transpire the national boundaries. On the other hand, the disputes arisingon account of the implementation and interpretation of the Directive on the European level attract significance domestically. Consequently, the guidelines on correct interpretation of the Directive importing the practical, business-oriented solutions may well have application on European level. This underlines the exigency for a thorough analysis on the implications of the meaning and potential scope of Database protection in Finland and the European Union. This position hasto be contrasted with the larger, international sphere, which in early 2005 does differ markedly from European Union stance, directly having a negative effect on international trade particularly in digital content. A particular case in point is the USA, a database producer primus inter pares, not at least yet having aSui Generis database regime or its kin, while both the political and academic discourse on the matter abounds. 5. The objectives of the study The above mentioned background with its several open issues calls for the detailed study of thefollowing questions: -What is a database-at-law and when is a database protected by intellectual property rights, particularly by the European database regime?What is the international situation? -How is a database protected and what is its relation with other intellectual property regimes, particularly in the Digital context? -The opportunities and threats provided by current protection to creators, users and the society as a whole, including the commercial and cultural implications? -The difficult question on relation of the Database protection and protection of factual information as such. 6. Dsiposition The Study, in purporting to analyse and cast light on the questions above, is divided into three mainparts. The first part has the purpose of introducing the political and rationalbackground and subsequent legislative evolution path of the European database protection, reflected against the international backdrop on the issue. An introduction to databases, originally a vehicle of modern computing and information andcommunication technology, is also incorporated. The second part sets out the chosen and existing two-tier model of the database protection, reviewing both itscopyright and Sui Generis right facets in detail together with the emergent application of the machinery in real-life societal and particularly commercial context. Furthermore, a general outline of copyright, relevant in context of copyright databases is provided. For purposes of further comparison, a chapter on the precursor of Sui Generi, database right, the Nordic catalogue rule also ensues. The third and final part analyses the positive and negative impact of the database protection system and attempts to scrutinize the implications further in the future with some caveats and tentative recommendations, in particular as regards the convoluted issue concerning the IPR protection of information per se, a new tenet in the domain of copyright and related rights.

The synchronization of personal information between mobile devices and online services by using SyncML

Monet henkilökohtaiset mobiililaitteet tarjoavat mahdollisuuden tallentaa henkilötietoja ja mahdollisuuden lyhyen kantaman radiotekniikoiden hyödyntämiseen. Vastaavasti henkilötietoja käyttävien tai vaativien verkkopalveluiden määrä on kasvussa. Mobiililaitteisiin tallennetut henkilötiedot tarjoavat potentiaalisen keinon välttää samojen henkilötietojen toistuva käsinsyöttö erilaisiin verkkopalveluihin ja keskitettyyn ajantasallapitoon. Tässä työssä käydään läpi ratkaisumalli henkilökohtaisen mobiililaitteen ja verkkopalveluiden välillä tapahtuvaan henkilötietojen siirtoon ja synkronointiin. Malli pohjautuu selainlaajennukseen, joka voi pyytää sekä selaimessa auki olevalta verkkopalvelun sivulta että mobiililta päätelaitteelta senhetkiset henkilötiedot ja synkronoida ne. Jo olemassaolevia henkilötietojen hallintaa helpottavia ratkaisuja käydään läpi arvioiden käyttökelpoisuutta tämänkaltaisiin tarpeisiin. Ratkaisumallin kannalta olennaiset tekniikat ja standardit, erityisesti Bluetooth ja SyncML, esitellään. Ratkaisumallin arkkitehtuuri käydään korkealla tasolla läpi ja esitellään toteutuksen yksityiskohtia. Tuloksena on periaatteeltaan kelvollinen henkilökohtaisten tietojen synkronointijärjestelmä, jonka toteutusta nykyisten mobiilien päätelaitteiden toiminnallisuus jossain määrin hankaloittaa.

Ilmakehan hiukkasmaisten ioniyhdisteiden online-mittaus

Ilmakehän hiukkaset aiheuttavat merkittäviä ympäristö- ja terveyshaittoja, joihin vaikuttaa hiukkasten kemiallinen koostumus. Hiukkasten kemiallisesta koostumuksesta voidaan hankkia tietoa hiukkasmittauksilla. Työn tavoitteena oli rakentaa jatkuvatoiminen mittausjärjestelmä, jolla voidaan mitata ilmakehän aerosolihiukkasten ionipitoisuuksia. Mittausjärjestelmä koostuu virtuaali-impaktorista, denuderputkista, PILS-laitteesta ja ionikromatografista. Näyteilmavirtaus kulkee ensin esierottimena toimivan virtuaali-impaktorm lävitse, joka poistaa aerodynaamiselta halkaisijaltaan 1,3 um:a suuremmat hiukkaset ilmavirtauksesta. Näyte, joka sisältää 1,3 um:a pienemmät hiukkaset kulkee virtuaali-impaktorin jälkeen kahden 1 % KOH-liuoksella käsitellyn denuderputken lävitse, joilla poistetaan hiukkasmääritystä häiritsevät happamat kaasut näytevirtauksesta. Denuderputkien jälkeen ilmavirtaus saapuu PILS-laitteeseen, jossa hiukkaset kasvatetaan vesihöyryn avulla aerosolipisaroiksi, törmäytetään keräyslevyyn ja sekoitetaan sen jälkeen sisäistä standardiainetta (NaBr) sisältavään kuljetusliuokseen. Kuljetusliuoksen ja aerosolipisaroiden seoksesta koostuva näyteliuos johdetaan PILS-laitteesta ionikromatografille analysoitavaksi. Mittausjärjestelmään liitetyllä ionikromatografilla voidaan analysoida neljä näytetta tunnissa. Näytteistä määritettävät anionit olivat sulfaatti, nitraatti ja kloridi. PILS-mittausjärjestelmää testattiin keräämällä hiukkasnäytteitä samanaikaisesti PILS-laitteella sekä virtuaali-impaktorilla tai suodatinkeräimellä ja vertaamalla saatuja aerosolihiukkasten sulfaattipitoisuuksia keskenään. Testeissa kerättiin joko VOAG-laitteella tuotettuja ammoniumsulfaattihiukkasia tai laboratorion huoneilmaa. PILS-mittausjärjestelmällä mitatut sulfaattipitoisuudet olivat 2-20 % pienempia kuin suodatinkeraimella mitatut, kun kerättiin keinotekoisesti tuotettuja ammoniumsulfaattihiukkasia. Huoneilmaa kerättäessä PILS-mittausjärjestelmällä saadut pitoisuudet olivat noin 10 % pienempiä kuin suodatinkeräystulokset. Koetulokset osoittivat, että mittausjärjestelmällä saadaan analysoiduksi luotettavasti hiukkasten sulfaattipitoisuudet.

Validation of plant dynamic model by online and laboratory measurements – a tool to predict online COD loads out of production of mechanical printing papers

COD discharges out of processes have increased in line with elevating brightness demands for mechanical pulp and papers. The share of lignin-like substances in COD discharges is on average 75%. In this thesis, a plant dynamic model was created and validated as a means to predict COD loading and discharges out of a mill. The assays were carried out in one paper mill integrate producing mechanical printing papers. The objective in the modeling of plant dynamics was to predict day averages of COD load and discharges out of mills. This means that online data, like 1) the level of large storage towers of pulp and white water 2) pulp dosages, 3) production rates and 4) internal white water flows and discharges were used to create transients into the balances of solids and white water, referred to as “plant dynamics”. A conversion coefficient was verified between TOC and COD. The conversion coefficient was used for predicting the flows from TOC to COD to the waste water treatment plant. The COD load was modeled with similar uncertainty as in reference TOC sampling. The water balance of waste water treatment was validated by the reference concentration of COD. The difference of COD predictions against references was within the same deviation of TOC-predictions. The modeled yield losses and retention values of TOC in pulping and bleaching processes and the modeled fixing of colloidal TOC to solids between the pulping plant and the aeration basin in the waste water treatment plant were similar to references presented in literature. The valid water balances of the waste water treatment plant and the reduction model of lignin-like substances produced a valid prediction of COD discharges out of the mill. A 30% increase in the release of lignin-like substances in the form of production problems was observed in pulping and bleaching processes. The same increase was observed in COD discharges out of waste water treatment. In the prediction of annual COD discharge, it was noticed that the reduction of lignin has a wide deviation from year to year and from one mill to another. This made it difficult to compare the parameters of COD discharges validated in plant dynamic simulation with another mill producing mechanical printing papers. However, a trend of moving from unbleached towards high-brightness TMP in COD discharges was valid.

The Finnish Online University of Applied Sciences - from National to International

Julkaistu CD-ROM-levyllä

Online Community System Development, Case PROFCOM

The purpose of this bachelor's thesis is the development of online community. Nowadays Internet lets user to collaborate and share information online. Internet is also full of communities and the number of community users is continuously rising. Companies have also noticed this and want to make use of it. The result of the work was an online community for the use of PROFCOM research project. At the same time information was gathered about what kind of platforms are available as a backbone for an online community. Designing and developing of the online community provided experience about Drupal-environment. It also gave pros and cons of Drupal’s features. Drupal is a multifunctional software, which can handle big online communities, but its installation and maintenance is, however, reasonably simple.

Kalman Filtering in Online Paper Quality Assessment

Controlling the quality variables (such as basis weight, moisture etc.) is a vital part of making top quality paper or board. In this thesis, an advanced data assimilation tool is applied to the quality control system (QCS) of a paper or board machine. The functionality of the QCS is based on quality observations that are measured with a traversing scanner making a zigzag path. The basic idea is the following: The measured quality variable has to be separated into its machine direction (MD) and cross direction (CD) variations due to the fact that the QCS works separately in MD and CD. Traditionally this is done simply by assuming one scan of the zigzag path to be the CD profile and its mean value to be one point of the MD trend. In this thesis, a more advanced method is introduced. The fundamental idea is to use the signals’ frequency components to represent the variation in both CD and MD. To be able to get to the frequency domain, the Fourier transform is utilized. The frequency domain, that is, the Fourier components are then used as a state vector in a Kalman filter. The Kalman filter is a widely used data assimilation tool to combine noisy observations with a model. The observations here refer to the quality measurements and the model to the Fourier frequency components. By implementing the two dimensional Fourier transform into the Kalman filter, we get an advanced tool for the separation of CD and MD components in total variation or, to be more general, for data assimilation. A piece of a paper roll is analyzed and this tool is applied to model the dataset. As a result, it is clear that the Kalman filter algorithm is able to reconstruct the main features of the dataset from a zigzag path. Although the results are made with a very short sample of paper roll, it seems that this method has great potential to be used later on as a part of the quality control system.

Designing features for supporting social interactions in online communities

This Master's thesis studies the development of interaction and socialization in online communities. A large number of online communities fade away even before they really get started. In many occasions the reason is that the community does not give anything new, or even if they do, the delivery does not satisfy the users. In this thesis guidelines were developed to help to see important things, which might be forgotten when developing an online community. The thesis goes through the characteristic of an online community and human behaviour related to them and also compares behaviour in the Internet and real life. In addition, usability is an important part of the online communities and thus it is also covered in this thesis. As a result of this thesis an 8-step guideline was developed to ease the design of an online community. Guidelines were also applied to two real life cases which are described as one part of this work.

Evaluating Firm-Hosted Online Communities

This thesis centers to three firm-hosted online communities which operate in the field of software development. The communities were analyzed by using a particular design framework. This thesis investigates how companies can benefit from firm-hosted online communities and how well the design principles are present in analyzed communities. The framework also gives perspective and indicators which enables the possibility to analyze and compare communities with each other. This thesis also discuss how well a design framework designed for measuring social software fits to measuring online communities of software development.