Acceptable use policy and employee computer usage: case of Sri Lankan software development industry

Organizations introduce acceptable use policies to deter employee computer misuse. Despite the controlling, monitoring and other forms of interventions employed, some employees misuse the organizational computers to carry out their personal work such as sending emails, surfing internet, chatting, playing games etc. These activities not only waste productive time of employees but also bring a risk to the organization. A questionnaire was administrated to a random sample of employees selected from large and medium scale software development organizations, which measured the work computer misuse levels and the factors that influence such behavior. The presence of guidelines provided no evidence of significant effect on the level of employee computer misuse. Not having access to Internet /email away from work and organizational settings were identified to be the most significant influences of work computer misuse.

Effect of acceptable use policy on employee computer use : case of Sri Lankan software development organizations

It is a known fact that some employees misuse the organizational computers to do their personal work such as sending emails, surfing the Internet, chatting, playing games. These activities not only waste productive time of employees but also bring a risk factor to the organization. This affects organizations in the software industry very much as almost all of their employees are connected to the Internet throughout them day./ By introducing an Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) for an organization, it is believed that the computer misuse by its employees could be reduced. In many countries Acceptable Use Policies are used and they have been studied with various perspectives. In Sri Lankan context research on these areas are scarce. This research explored the situation in Sri Lanka with respect to AUPs and their effectiveness./ A descriptive study was carried out to identify the large and medium scale software development organizations that had implemented computer usage guidelines for employees. A questionnaire was used to gather information regarding employee’s usual computer usage behavior. Stratified random sampling was employed to draw a representative sample from the population./ Majority of the organizations have not employed a written guideline on acceptable use of work computers. The study results did not provide evidence to conclude that the presence or non presence of an AUP has a significant difference in computer use behaviors of employees. A significant negative correlation was observed between level of awareness about AUP and misuse. Access to the Internet and organizational settings were identified as significant factors that influence employee computer misuse behavior.

Can social interaction skills be taught by a social agent? The role of a robotic mediator in autism therapy

Increasingly socially intelligent agents (software or robotic) are used in education, rehabilitation and therapy. This paper discusses the role of interactive, mobile robots as social mediators in the particular domain of autism therapy. This research is part of the project AURORA that studies how mobile robots can be used to teach children with autism basic interaction skills that are important in social interactions among humans. Results from a particular series of trials involving pairs of two children and a mobile robot are described. The results show that the scenario with pairs of children and a robot creates a very interesting social context which gives rise to a variety of different social and non-social interaction patterns, demonstrating the specific problems but also abilities of children with autism in social interactions. Future work will include a closer analysis of interactional structure in human-human and robot-human interaction. We outline a particular framework that we are investigating.

Computer-mediated communication in distance MA programmes: the student's perspective

This paper reports on a study of computer-mediated communication within the context of a distance MA in TEFL programme which used an e-mail discussion list and then a discussion board. The study focused on the computer/Internet access and skills of the target population and their CMC needs and wants. Data were collected from 63 questionnaires and 6 in-depth interviews with students. Findings indicate that computer use and access to the Internet are widespread within the target population. In addition, most respondents indicated some competence in Internet use. No single factor emerged as an overriding inhibiting factor for lack of personal use. There was limited use of the CMC tools provided on the course for student–student interaction, mainly attributable to time constraints. However, most respondents said that they would like more CMC interaction with tutors. The main factor which would contribute to greater Internet use was training. The paper concludes with recommendations and suggestions for learner training in this area.

Investigating familiar interfaces to help older adults learn computer applications more easily

Many older adults wish to gain competence in using a computer, but many application interfaces are perceived as complex and difficult to use, deterring potential users from investing the time to learn them. Hence, this study looks at the potential of ‘familiar’ interface design which builds upon users’ knowledge of real world interactions, and applies existing skills to a new domain. Tools are provided in the form of familiar visual objects, and manipulated like real-world counterparts, rather than with buttons, icons and menus found in classic WIMP interfaces. This paper describes the formative evaluation of computer interactions that are based upon familiar real world tasks, which supports multitouch interaction, involves few buttons and icons, no menus, no right-clicks or double-clicks and no dialogs. Using an example of an email client to test the principles of using “familiarity”, the initial feedback was very encouraging, with 3 of the 4 participants being able to undertake some of the basic email tasks with no prior training and little or no help. The feedback has informed a number of refinements of the design principles, such as providing clearer affordance for visual objects. A full study is currently underway.

Written Cypriot Greek in online chat: Usage and attitudes

This paper investigates the attitudes of Greek-Cypriot internet users towards written Cypriot Greek (CG) in online chat. CG does not have a standard official orthography and it is only used in informal oral communication. With the emergence of computer-mediated communication (CMC), a novel Romanized form of CG is used instead of Standard Greek (SG) in online environments (Themistocleous 2005). To investigate language attitudes, an online questionnaire was distributed electronically to Greek-Cypriot internet users. The results show that the majority of the informants have positive attitudes towards written CG, a practice that goes against the results of previous attitudinal surveys. In this paper, I demonstrate how the internet can influence and change the attitudes of Greek-Cypriots towards their regional variety. It is argued that the unconventional and norm-free character of CMC allows internet users to use their non-standard variety in a domain where the standard would be expected to be used.