Investigating the relationship between internet privacy concerns and online purchase behavior

Many organizations now emphasize the use of technology that can help them get closer to consumers and build ongoing relationships with them. The ability to compile consumer data profiles has been made even easier with Internet technology. However, it is often assumed that consumers like to believe they can trust a company with their personal details. Lack of trust may cause consumers to have privacy concerns. Addressing such privacy concerns may therefore be crucial to creating stable and ultimately profitable customer relationships. Three specific privacy concerns that have been frequently identified as being of importance to consumers include unauthorized secondary use of data, invasion of privacy, and errors. Results of a survey study indicate that both errors and invasion of privacy have a significant inverse relationship with online purchase behavior. Unauthorized use of secondary data appears to have little impact. Managerial implications include the careful selection of communication channels for maximum impact, the maintenance of discrete “permission-based” contact with consumers, and accurate recording and handling of data.

Shoot first, ask questions later: Ethnographic research in an online computer gaming community

For researchers investigating online communities, the existence of the internet has made the activities and opinions of community members visible in a public domain. FPS gaming culture is a highly literate culture - members communicate and represent themselves in textual forms online, and the culture makes use of a wide variety of communication and publishing technologies. While a significant amount of insider knowledge is required to understand and interpret such online content, a large body of material is available to researchers online, and sometimes provides more reliable and enlightening information than that generated by more traditional research methods. While the abundance of data available online in some ways makes research far easier, it also creates new dilemmas and challenges for researchers. What extra knowledge is required of the researcher? How can one ensure that one's interpretations of member statements are made with an understanding of meaning within that culture? What responsibilities does the researcher have in their representation of the culture under examination? What ethical issues must be considered?

Measuring outcomes of a communication program for older people with hearing impairment using the International Outcome Inventory

The main objective of this study was to describe the outcomes of a communication education program for older people with hearing impairment using the International Outcome Inventory - Alternative Interventions (IOI-AI) and the version for significant others (IOI-AI-SO). Ninety-six people aged 58 to 94 years participated in an interactive group education program for two hours per week for five weeks. The IOI-AI was administered at one to two weeks after the last educational session and 29 significant others also completed the IOI-Al-SO at this time. Overall, positive results were obtained using both questionnaires, and satisfaction with the program was particularly high. Findings also compared favourably to reports of outcomes for other audiological interventions (i.e., another communication training program and hearing aid fitting). Principal components analysis of the IOI-AI revealed a somewhat different factor structure than the original IOI-HA. The two versions of the 101 applied in this study are recommended as simple and effective measures of the outcomes of alternative interventions.

Website physical activity interventions: preferences of potential users

Information and communication technologies (particularly websites and e-mail) have the potential to deliver health behavior change programs to large numbers of adults at low cost. Controlled trials using these new media to promote physical activity have produced mixed results. User-centered development methods can assist in understanding the preferences of potential participants for website functions and content, and may lead to more effective programs. Eight focus group discussions were conducted with 40 adults after they had accessed a previously trialed physical activity website. The discussions were audio taped, transcribed and interpreted using a themed analysis method. Four key themes emerged: structure, interactivity, environmental context and content. Preferences were expressed for websites that include simple interactive features, together with information on local community activity opportunities. Particular suggestions included online community notice boards, personalized progress charts, e-mail access to expert advice and access to information on specific local physical activity facilities and services. Website physical activity interventions could usefully include personally relevant interactive and environmentally focused features and services identified through a user-centered development process.

SQLator: An online SQL learning workbench

SQL (Structured Query Language) is one of the essential topics in foundation databases courses in higher education. Due to its apparent simple syntax, learning to use the full power of SQL can be a very difficult activity. In this paper, we introduce SQLator, which is a web-based interactive tool for learning SQL. SQLator's key function is the evaluate function, which allows a user to evaluate the correctness of his/her query formulation. The evaluate engine is based on complex heuristic algorithms. The tool also provides instructors the facility to create and populate database schemas with an associated pool of SQL queries. Currently it hosts two databases with a query pool of 300+ across the two databases. The pool is divided into 3 categories according to query complexity. The SQLator user can perform unlimited executions and evaluations on query formulations and/or view the solutions. The SQLator evaluate function has a high rate of success in evaluating the user's statement as correct (or incorrect) corresponding to the question. We will present in this paper, the basic architecture and functions of SQLator. We will further discuss the value of SQLator as an educational technology and report on educational outcomes based on studies conducted at the School of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering, The University of Queensland.

Assessment of motor speech disorders online: A pilot study

We have conducted a preliminary validation of an Internet-based telehealth application for assessing motor speech disorders in adults with acquired neurological impairment. The videoconferencing module used NetMeeting software to provide realtime videoconferencing through a 128 kbit/s Internet link, as well as the transfer of store-and-forward video and audio data from the participant to the clinician. Ten participants with dysarthria following acquired brain injury were included in the study. An assessment of the overall severity of the speech disturbance was made for each participant face to face (FTF) and in the online environment, in addition, a 23-item version of the Frenchay Dysarthria Assessment (FDA) (which measures motor speech function) and the Assessment of Intelligibility of Dysarthric Speech (ASSIDS) (which gives the percentage word and sentence intelligibility, words per minute and a rating of communication efficiency) were administered in both environments. There was a 90% level of agreement between the two assessment environments for the rating of overall severity of dysarthria. A 70-100% level of agreement was achieved for 17 (74%) of the 23 FDA variables. On the ASSIDS there was a significant difference between the FTF and online assessments only for percentage word intelligibility. These findings suggest that Internet-based assessment has potential as a reliable method for assessing motor speech disorders.

Estratégias de Comunicação e Ativismo Feminino na Esfera Pública Midiática: Estudo sobre a participação de jovens negras no hip-hop, a construção de identidades e sua presença na internet.

Estudo sobre as experiências vividas por mulheres negras que participam do movimento cultural hip-hop. Em particular, buscou-se discutir sobre a organização dos arranjos interativos e as relações de pertencimento, presença e empoderamento, tendo como elo a produção musical e as Tecnologias da Informação e Comunicação (TICs).Desvendar as implicações que as TICs têm com as práticas culturais juvenis contemporâneas de periferia, que funcionam como referência no combate às desigualdades de gênero e do racismo. Investigar as conexões entre as interações sociais, a cultura e ação política na esfera pública. A experiência de identidade, gênero e participação no universo on-line foi construída a partir de leituras sobre as políticas identitárias, teorias feministas e das interações sociais proporcionadas pelas TICs. Os procedimentos metodológicos incluem a pesquisa bibliográfica, entrevistas semi-estruturadas, aplicação de formulários, observação a partir da participação em eventos, além de estudo de sites dos grupos estudados e participação nas redes sociais. Entre os resultados, destaca-se que há o fortalecimento das ações e de ícones na disseminação da cultura hip-hop e que a proposição sobre o ativismo político e social das jovens envolvidas no hip-hop.

Estratégias de Comunicação e Ativismo Feminino na Esfera Pública Midiática: Estudo sobre a participação de jovens negras no hip-hop, a construção de identidades e sua presença na internet

Estudo sobre as experiências vividas por mulheres negras que participam do movimento cultural hip-hop. Em particular, buscou-se discutir sobre a organização dos arranjos interativos e as relações de pertencimento, presença e empoderamento, tendo como elo a produção musical e as Tecnologias da Informação e Comunicação (TICs).Desvendar as implicações que as TICs têm com as práticas culturais juvenis contemporâneas de periferia, que funcionam como referência no combate às desigualdades de gênero e do racismo. Investigar as conexões entre as interações sociais, a cultura e ação política na esfera pública. A experiência de identidade, gênero e participação no universo on-line foi construída a partir de leituras sobre as políticas identitárias, teorias feministas e das interações sociais proporcionadas pelas TICs. Os procedimentos metodológicos incluem a pesquisa bibliográfica, entrevistas semi-estruturadas, aplicação de formulários, observação a partir da participação em eventos, além de estudo de sites dos grupos estudados e participação nas redes sociais. Entre os resultados, destaca-se que há o fortalecimento das ações e de ícones na disseminação da cultura hip-hop e que a proposição sobre o ativismo político e social das jovens envolvidas no hip-hop.

COMUNICAÇÃO MERCADOLÓGICA EM MÍDIAS SOCIAIS ONLINE ANÁLISES PARA RELACIONAMENTOS EM REDES VIRTUAIS

Com o propósito de incrementar suas campanhas mercadológicas, muitas organizações, recorrem às ferramentas de mídias sociais hospedadas na Internet. Com isso, procuram o aumento de produtividade com adoção de sistemas automatizados de reprodução de mensagens, ou mesmo de recursos de acesso direto, inserindo mensagens de caráter persuasivo nos fóruns de discussões em comunidades online. Uma certa falta de sensibilidade para com o trato comunicacional, num meio potencialmente promissor, mas que pede uma outra interpretação, para posterior ação. Frequentemente implica em uma possibilidade de reverberação indicando ser imprescindível maior atenção na elaboração e no direcionamento desses fluxos comunicacionais, acentuadamente os de propósitos persuasivos. Nesse sentido, o presente trabalho propõe o estudo de comunidades online nas quais possamos a partir da identificação dos fatores que levem à sua formação, analisar e interpretar sua estrutura e seus fluxos comunicacionais, tais que, indiquem seus elementos agregadores. Para tal, com os preceitos metodológicos observados, objetivou-se demonstrar que, com esses componentes, as análises podem ser desenvolvidas para melhor adequação de estratégias de relacionamentos, possibilitando ações inerentes ao processo comunicacional mercadológico com essas comunidades. A metodologia ora empregada envolveu análise estrutural da rede com aplicações de softwares como UCINET, integrado com NetDraw, e dos fluxos comunicacionais, que formaram o corpora, analisado com a suíte Wordsmith Tools. Uma rede formada em comunidade hospedada na ferramenta orkut, por meio da obtenção dos conteúdos de fóruns temáticos, forneceu o corpora para as análises lexicais. Os resultados obtidos puderam caracterizar, não só a própria existência da rede social, como as potencialidades de relacionamento, a partir de interpretações de fluxos dialógicos de seus elementos agregadores, por meio de recursos visuais (grafos), estatísticos e lexicais.

Fibre-based devices for next generation photonics communication systems

The future broadband information network will undoubtedly integrate the mobility and flexibility of wireless access systems with the huge bandwidth capacity of photonics solutions to enable a communication system capable of handling the anticipated demand for interactive services. Towards wide coverage and low cost implementations of such broadband wireless photonics communication networks, various aspects of the enabling technologies are continuingly generating intense research interest. Among the core technologies, the optical generation and distribution of radio frequency signals over fibres, and the fibre optic signal processing of optical and radio frequency signals, have been the subjects for study in this thesis. Based on the intrinsic properties of single-mode optical fibres, and in conjunction with the concepts of optical fibre delay line filters and fibre Bragg gratings, a number of novel fibre-based devices, potentially suitable for applications in the future wireless photonics communication systems, have been realised. Special single-mode fibres, namely, the high birefringence (Hi-Bi) fibre and the Er/Yb doped fibre have been employed so as to exploit their merits to achieve practical and cost-effective all-fibre architectures. A number of fibre-based complex signal processors for optical and radio frequencies using novel Hi-Bi fibre delay line filter architectures have been illustrated. In particular, operations such as multichannel flattop bandpass filtering, simultaneous complementary outputs and bidirectional nonreciprocal wavelength interleaving, have been demonstrated. The proposed configurations featured greatly reduced environmental sensitivity typical of coherent fibre delay line filter schemes, reconfigurable transfer functions, negligible chromatic dispersions, and ease of implementation, not easily achievable based on other techniques. A number of unique fibre grating devices for signal filtering and fibre laser applications have been realised. The concept of the superimposed fibre Bragg gratings has been extended to non-uniform grating structures and into Hi-Bi fibres to achieve highly useful grating devices such as overwritten phase-shifted fibre grating structure and widely/narrowly spaced polarization-discriminating filters that are not limited by the intrinsic fibre properties. In terms of the-fibre-based optical millimetre wave transmitters, unique approaches based on fibre laser configurations have been proposed and demonstrated. The ability of the dual-mode distributed feedback (DFB) fibre lasers to generate high spectral purity, narrow linewidth heterodyne signals without complex feedback mechanisms has been illustrated. A novel co-located dual DFB fibre laser configuration, based on the proposed superimposed phase-shifted fibre grating structure, has been further realised with highly desired operation characteristics without the need for costly high frequency synthesizers and complex feedback controls. Lastly, a novel cavity mode condition monitoring and optimisation scheme for short length, linear-cavity fibre lasers has been proposed and achieved. Based on the concept and simplicity of the superimposed fibre laser cavities structure, in conjunction with feedback controls, enhanced output performances from the fibre lasers have been achieved. The importance of such cavity mode assessment and feedback control for optimised fibre laser output performance has been illustrated.