Testing advertising via new media : an exploratory study of advertising practitioner attitudes

New media, as a free and universal communication tool, has had an impact on the power of the general public to comment on a variety of issues. As the public can comment favourably or unfavourably on advertisements, such as on Youtube, the advertising industry must start using weblogs to research reaction to their advertising campaigns. This exploratory study examines the responses of some advertising industry practitioners, both advertisers and agencies, on the impact of new media, specifically weblogs, and the use of new media as a source of research on advertising campaigns.

From reader to writer : citizen journalism as news produsage

Today, participatory or citizen journalism – journalism which enables readers to become writers – exists online and offline in a variety of forms and formats, operates under a number of editorial schemes, and focusses on a wide range of topics from the specialist to the generic, and the micro-local to the global. Key models in this phenomenon include veteran sites Slashdot and Indymedia, as well as news-related Weblogs; more recent additions into the mix have been the South Korean OhmyNews, which in 2003 was “the most influential online news site in that country, attracting an estimated 2 million readers a day” (Gillmor, 2003a, p. 7), with its new Japanese and international offshoots, as well as the Wikipedia with its highly up-to-date news and current events section and its more recent offshoot Wikinews, and even citizen-produced video news as it is found in sites such as YouTube and Current.tv.

Trust, reputation and the small firm : building online brand reputation for SMEs

Social media provides numerous opportunities for small businesses to promote their products and services, build brand communities and reach diverse market niches. An important factor in seizing these opportunities is developing trust and creating reputation among consumers. This qualitative study examines how a group of Australian small business managers utilize social media websites to connect to, communicate with and maintain their customer base. For the purpose of this paper we are using case studies of four companies physically based in Victoria, Australia. These businesses have a high presence in online consumer groups, being both active members of communities and representatives of their businesses. The duality of their role as participant and company representative imposes difficulties in creating reputation among community members. We have used in-depth interviews as a primary research method, additionally monitoring their activities on social media sites such as forums, social networking services, blogs and micro-blogs. We have identified practices helpful for developing trust, building reputation and create a brand image in online communities.

Buy, boycott or blog : exploring online consumer power to share, discuss and distribute controversial advertising messages

The availability of new media as a universal communication tool has an impact on the power of the general public to comment on a variety of issues. This paper examines this increase in consumer power with respect to bloggers. The research context is controversial advertising, and specifically Tourism Australia’s “Where the bloody hell are you?” campaign. By utilising Denegri-Knott’s (2006) four on-line power strategies, a content analysis of weblogs reveals that consumers are distributing information, opinion and even banned advertising material, thereby forming power hubs of like-minded people, with the potential to become online pressure groups. The consequences and implications of this augmented power on regulators, advertisers and bloggers are explored. The findings contribute to the understanding of blogs as a new communication platform and bloggers as a new demographic of activists in the process of advertising.

Case Study 4: Education Doctoral Student - "An Exploratory Study of Online Social Networking within a Doctorate of Education Program"

Introduction The professional doctorate is specifically designed for professionals investigating real-world problems and relevant issues for a profession, industry, and/or the community. The focus is scholarly research into professional practices. The research programme bridges academia and the professions, and offers doctoral candidates the opportunity to investigate issues relevant to their own practices and to apply these understandings to their professional contexts. The study on which this article is based sought to track the scholarly skill development of a cohort of professional doctoral students who commenced the course in January 2008 at an Australian university. Because they hold positions of responsibility and are time-poor, many doctoral students have difficulty transitioning from professional practitioner to researcher and scholar. The struggle many experience is in the development of a theoretical or conceptual standpoint for argumentation (Lesham, 2007; Weese et al., 1999). It was thought that the use of a scaffolded learning environment that drew upon a blended learning approach incorporating face to face intensive blocks and collaborative knowledge-building tools such as wikis would provide a data source for understanding the development of scholarly skills. Wikis, weblogs and similar social networking software have the potential to support communities to share, learn, create and collaborate. The development of a wiki page by each candidate in the 2008 cohort was encouraged to provide the participants and the teaching team members with textual indicators of progress. Learning tasks were scaffolded with the expectation that the candidates would complete these tasks via the wikis. The expectation was that cohort members would comment on each other’s work, together with the supervisor and/or teaching team member who was allocated to each candidate. The supervisor is responsible for supervising the candidate’s work through to submission of the thesis for examination and the teaching team member provides support to both the supervisor and the candidate through to confirmation. This paper reports on the learning journey of a cohort of doctoral students during the first seven months of their professional doctoral programme to determine if there had been any qualitative shifts in understandings, expectations and perceptions regarding their developing knowledge and skills. The paper is grounded in the literature pertaining to doctoral studies and examines the structure of the professional doctoral programme. Following this is a discussion of the qualitative study that helped to unearth key themes regarding the participants’ learning journey.

Blogging

Weblogs, or blogs, constitute a form and genre of online publishing that emerged in the mid-1990s as a logical consequence of the confluence of personal and professional home pages and new web publishing technologies. To overcome technological limitations, where news updates had to be manually inserted by editing the underlying HTML code, the early content-management systems in the second half of the 1990s built on server-side database technology to dynamically generate web pages; this enabled more convenient and more frequent content updates. Weblogs utilised such technologies to provide an up-to-date news feed, presenting individual news items in reverse chronological order. Most blogging platforms provide commenting functions that enable readers to respond to and discuss individual blog posts...

Blogs as virtual environments for teaching and learning in Higher Education

The transformation of the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) into knowledge and learning technologies is increasingly becoming a matter of concern. Teaching settings associated with the use of blogs in Higher Education are presented in this paper, proceeding from an innovative learning experience of projects carried out by a group of professors between 2009 and 2013. Both, teachers and students who took part in the subjects that implemented the blog, considered it as helpful resource to create a virtual and learning-teaching environment due to the multiple potentialities it offers. Among some of these potentialities, some stand out: it makes easier the access to knowledge, promotes a more active and reflective learning, expands the social experience of learning, provides evidence about the students’ progress which helps to reorient the teaching-learning process, and encourages the critical judgment. Nevertheless, several problems related with the students’ participation and the teacher’s blog management have been identified.

Produtos e serviços de informação nos websites das bibliotecas da Universidade de Lisboa: um contributo para a sua avaliação

A presente investigação visa verificar a oferta de produtos e serviços de informação nos websites das bibliotecas da Universidade de Lisboa (UL) e avaliar o impacto que as plataformas sociais, e as ferramentas disponíveis na Web, têm na sua gestão. Para tal adotouse uma metodologia de pesquisa bibliográfica e de estudo de caso, através de um questionário, com perguntas abertas, e da técnica de observação direta dos websites. Assim, para além da revisão da literatura, para o processo de recolha de dados foi enviado um questionário por e-mail aos bibliotecários responsáveis e efetuada a observação dos websites através da adaptação de uma grelha de análise construída a partir do Guia de Boas Práticas de websites da Administração Direta e Indireta do Estado versão 3.0 de fevereiro de 2003. A utilização destes diferentes instrumentos visou obter dados de diferentes tipos, os quais proporcionaram a possibilidade de cruzamento de informação. Através da revisão da literatura e da observação e análise de conteúdos dos websites pretendeu-se: 1) demonstrar que as bibliotecas universitárias da UL podem ampliar as suas fronteiras e visualizar as possibilidades de inovar as suas atividades a partir da utilização e exploração das tecnologias de informação e comunicação, de um modo geral, e da Web 2.0 em particular, através de estratégias inovadores ao nível do marketing, com recurso às redes socias; 2) salientar o papel dos websites como elo de ligação entre a biblioteca e o utilizador; 3) verificar a utilização da Web 2.0 como forma de mudança na maneira como as bibliotecas oferecem e disponibilizam os seus serviços. Para esse efeito, identificamos e observamos as principais práticas e estratégias de marketing aplicadas pelas bibliotecas nomeadamente: weblogs, folksonomias, wikis, canais RSS e serviços Web de criação, edição e partilha e identificamos a cultura organizacional e de participação dos portais. Finalmente, apontamos alguns casos de boas práticas e algumas ferramentas e manuais da Web 2.0, que visam tornar a presença das bibliotecas universitárias na Internet, mais colaborativa antevendo uma oportunidade de desenvolvimento e melhoria de forma a ampliar a sua participação ativa na Sociedade da Informação.

Which Legal Standards Should Apply To Web-logs? The present legal position of Internet journals in the European iuris prudence in the light of the European Parliament Committee’s on Culture and Education report and Polish Supreme Court decision

The article discusses the present status of weblogs and examines whether legal standards applicable to traditional press and media should be applied to that specific forum. The analysis is based on two key documents: the Draft Report on the concentration and pluralism in the media in European Union (2007/2253(INI)) of the European Parliament Committee on Culture and Education presented in March 2008 and a landmark decision of the Polish Supreme Court from July 26, 2007 (IV KK 174/07) in the light of present judicial tendency in other European countries. The first of the mentioned documents calls for the “clarification of the legal status of different categories of weblog authors and publishers as well as disclosure of interests and voluntary labelling of weblogs”. It emphasizes that the “undetermined and unindicated status of authors and publishers of weblogs causes uncertainties regarding impartiality, reliability, source protection, applicability of ethical codes and the assignment of liability in the event of lawsuits”. The position of the European Parliament, expressed in the document, raises serious questions on the limits of freedom of thought and speech on the Internet and on the degree of acceptable state control. A recent Polish Supreme Court decision, which caused quite a stir in the Polish Internet community, seems to head in the very direction recommended by the EP Culture Committee. In a case of two editors of a web journal (“czasopismo internetowe”) called “Szyciepoprzemysku”, available on-line, accused of publishing a journal without the proper registration, the Polish Supreme Court stated that “journals and periodicals do not lose the character of a press release due solely to the fact that they appear in the form of an  Internet transmission”, and that ‘’the publishing of press in an electronic form, available on the Internet, requires  registration”. The decision was most surprising, as prior lower courts decisions declined the possibility to register Internet periodicals. The accused were acquitted in the name of the constitutional principle of the rule of law (art. 7 of the Polish Constitution) and the ensuing obligation to protect the trust of a citizen to the state (a conviction in this case would break the collateral estoppel rule), however the decision quickly awoke media frenzy and raised the fear of a need to register all websites that were regularly updated. The spokesman of the Polish Supreme Court later explained that the sentence of the Court was not intended to cause a mass registration of all Internet “periodicals” and that neither weblogs nor Internet sites, that were regularly updated, needed registration. Such an interpretation of the Polish press law did not appear clear based only on the original text of the judgment and the decision as such still raises serious practical questions. The article aims to examine the status of Internet logs as press and seeks the compromise between the concerns expressed by European authorities and the freedom of thought and speech exercised on the Internet.

3000 / futuristische Phantasmen und aktuelle Fantasien der Technokultur

Die Kernthese dieser Arbeit ist eine Leerstelle. Ihre Formulierung beruht auf einer Beobachtung, wie sie von William Gibson stammen könnte: kulturell avantgardistische Gruppen der Gesellschaft internalisieren für ihre technologisch gestützten Praktiken futuristische Phantasmen geschichtlicher Vorläufer, die in Literatur und Mediengeschichte detektivisch aufspürbar sind. Werden diese Verinnerlichungen in aktuelle Fantasien umgewandelt, entsteht eine hybride Mischung vielfältigster Beschäftigungen, Reflexionen und Entwürfe von Technokultur. Bringt man diese Kopplungen auf das Jahr 3000, die nächste epochale zukünftige Zäsur, wird die Absurdität des Projekts, Technokultur überhaupt zu thematisieren deutlich. Technokultur ist im dynamischen Wandel sozio-ikonografisch untersuchbar, wird aber durch Unschärferelation zum object trouvé und Triebmoment für eine in es selbst hinein assimilierbare Analyse. Der daraus folgenden Vermessenheit kann durch instrumentelle Serendipity begegnet werden, die hier nicht Effekt wäre, stattdessen als Methode Verwendung findet: Finden statt Suchen. Das verhältnismäßig neue Schreib/Lese-Medium Hypertext bietet sich dafür als geradezu prädestiniert an. Hypertext ist prinzipiell unabgeschlossen, er folgt hier Arbeitsprinzipien wie sie seit den frühen 1990ern in Online-Tagebüchern und seit den frühen 2000er Jahren in Weblogs (World Wide Web Logbooks) auszumachen sind: Notizen, Found Text (analog zu Found Footage), Zitate, Fragmente, die kurze Form, kurz: wissenschaftliche Alltagstextproduktion wird nach Ordnungskriterien a-systematisiert und verwoben - weniger archiviert denn gesammelt. Eine Art Second Hand Theorie entsteht.

A User-Centric Perspective on Parallel Programming with Focus on OpenMP

The process of developing software that takes advantage of multiple processors is commonly referred to as parallel programming. For various reasons, this process is much harder than the sequential case. For decades, parallel programming has been a problem for a small niche only: engineers working on parallelizing mostly numerical applications in High Performance Computing. This has changed with the advent of multi-core processors in mainstream computer architectures. Parallel programming in our days becomes a problem for a much larger group of developers. The main objective of this thesis was to find ways to make parallel programming easier for them. Different aims were identified in order to reach the objective: research the state of the art of parallel programming today, improve the education of software developers about the topic, and provide programmers with powerful abstractions to make their work easier. To reach these aims, several key steps were taken. To start with, a survey was conducted among parallel programmers to find out about the state of the art. More than 250 people participated, yielding results about the parallel programming systems and languages in use, as well as about common problems with these systems. Furthermore, a study was conducted in university classes on parallel programming. It resulted in a list of frequently made mistakes that were analyzed and used to create a programmers' checklist to avoid them in the future. For programmers' education, an online resource was setup to collect experiences and knowledge in the field of parallel programming - called the Parawiki. Another key step in this direction was the creation of the Thinking Parallel weblog, where more than 50.000 readers to date have read essays on the topic. For the third aim (powerful abstractions), it was decided to concentrate on one parallel programming system: OpenMP. Its ease of use and high level of abstraction were the most important reasons for this decision. Two different research directions were pursued. The first one resulted in a parallel library called AthenaMP. It contains so-called generic components, derived from design patterns for parallel programming. These include functionality to enhance the locks provided by OpenMP, to perform operations on large amounts of data (data-parallel programming), and to enable the implementation of irregular algorithms using task pools. AthenaMP itself serves a triple role: the components are well-documented and can be used directly in programs, it enables developers to study the source code and learn from it, and it is possible for compiler writers to use it as a testing ground for their OpenMP compilers. The second research direction was targeted at changing the OpenMP specification to make the system more powerful. The main contributions here were a proposal to enable thread-cancellation and a proposal to avoid busy waiting. Both were implemented in a research compiler, shown to be useful in example applications, and proposed to the OpenMP Language Committee.

Premios Joaquin Guichot y Antonio Domínguez Ortíz : XXI Edición.

Modalidad Joaquín Guichot : Primer premio 'Alberinto'; Mención especial 'La música popular como recurso didáctico en el aula'; Modalidad Antonio Domínguez Ortiz : Primer Premio 'El patio como recurso pedagógico'; Mención Especial 'Programa de enriquecimiento curricular: nosotros queremos saber más'; Mención Especial 'Los weblogs como herramienta educativa: taller cooperativo de escritura creativa'; Mención Especial: 'Interactuando con el azar'

Los nuevos medios de comunicaci??n y el aprendizaje en colaboraci??n

Resumen tomado de la publicaci??n

El Blog como herramienta docente para la autogestión del aprendizaje. Un ejemplo en historiografía

Ante los retos del EEES, la experiencia de la asignatura Tendencias Historiográficas II se ha propuesto desarrollar un proceso de enseñanza – aprendizaje mediante un bloc que facilite el desarrollo del pensamiento crítico en el alumnado, un conocimiento adecuado de las grandes formas de hacer historia en la actualidad y la capacidad de aplicar este conocimiento para valorar los textos historiográficos (y, por tanto, para capacitar al alumnado para aplicarlo en otras circunstancias). Pieza clave de este proceso ha sido el uso del blog del profesor y de los blogs del alumnado para elaborar comentarios de textos que sean accesibles para todos, permitan la autoevaluación del alumnado y el desarrollo de su aprendizaje autónomo, y, en último término, consigan un aprendizaje significativo. El texto expone los objetivos que se proponían, el desarrollo de la asignatura, evalúa los resultados obtenidos y, finalmente, reflexiona sobre los efectos del uso de Internet sobre nuestra forma de trabajar y de pensar

El Blog d'Engega

Editorial de la revista Engega sobre la renovació del mandat de la rectora, la creació del Blog Engega, i la nova seu de la Facultat d'Educació i Psicologia