Exploring different social media users from the millennials’ generation: a cross-cultural behavioral analysis of brazilian users of Facebook and chinese users of RenRen

With the increasing importance of digital communication and its distinct characteristics, marketing tools and strategies adopted by companies have changed dramatically. Among the many digital marketing tools and new media channels available for marketers, the phenomenon known as social media is one of the most complex and enigmatic. It has a range that still is quite unexplored and deeply transforms the present view on the promotion mix (Mangold & Faulds, 2009). Conversations among users on social media directly affect their perceptions on products, services and brands. But more than that, a wide range of other subjects can also become topics of conversations on social media. Hit songs, sporting events, celebrity news and even natural disasters and politics are topics that often become viral on the web. Thus, companies must grasp that, and in order to become more interesting and relevant, they must take part in these conversations inserting their brands in these online dynamic dialogues. This paper focuses on how these social interactions are manifested in the web in to two distinct cultures, Brazil and China. By understanding the similarities and differences of these cultures, this study helps firms to better adjust its marketing efforts across regions, targeting and positioning themselves, not only geographically and culturally, but also across different web platforms (Facebook and RenRen). By examining how companies should focus their efforts according to each segment in social media, firms can also maximize its results in communication and mitigate risks. The findings suggest that differences in cultural dimensions in these two countries directly affect their virtual social networking behavior in many dimensions (Identity, Presence, Relationships, Reputation, Groups, Conversations and Sharing). Accordingly, marketing efforts must be tailored to each comportment and expectations.

Cozinha da Madeira website: the online touchpoint for a sustainability oriented service of Madeira Island

Over the past several years technology has been evolving in a way that it has become crucial for most businesses and companies to have interactive technology enabled touchpoints available online. Such interactive touchpoints can be developed as mobile application, webpages, or even through social networks. In the end such touchpoints will most surely represent the most easily reachable and marketable side of the business. Today selling a product alone is no longer enough to make consumers satisfied and complete, businesses and business models are changing. Increasingly, companies are choosing to not just sell products but to combine both sale and service. These service-based approaches will provide the client with a unique and personalized experience of what the company is selling. By selling a service the company transmits values that are more complex than the simple selling of a product. A service is something immaterial, happens over time and exists in the moment of the delivery. When conceiving and designing services, the use of the new technologies becomes a crucial step in order to craft touchpoints that facilitate the whole experience cycle of the service, from attracting, orienting, interacting and retaining the client, as well as providing later support to the consumer to advocate for the service itself. This thesis reports on the design and implementation of the online touchpoint of Cozinha da Madeira, which is a service designed to support tourism, specifically promoting the discovery of tradition and landscapes in the island of Madeira. Such touchpoint developed in the form of a website, embodies completely or partially various stages of the Service Experience cycle, from attracting and connecting, orienting, interacting as well as retaining and advocating. Through this thesis we will describe the design and implementation of such touchpoint as well as the evaluation and possible future implications.

Boosting optimum-path forest clustering through harmony Search and its applications for intrusion detection in computer networks

In this paper we propose a nature-inspired approach that can boost the Optimum-Path Forest (OPF) clustering algorithm by optimizing its parameters in a discrete lattice. The experiments in two public datasets have shown that the proposed algorithm can achieve similar parameters' values compared to the exhaustive search. Although, the proposed technique is faster than the traditional one, being interesting for intrusion detection in large scale traffic networks. © 2012 IEEE.

Jornalismo online: a construção da notícia a partir do twitter no caso da falsa morte de Amin Khader

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

O uso das redes sociais online nas interações de produtores e receptores de televisão

This paper discusses the possibility of receiver’s participation in the production of television content mediated by online social networks. Buoyed by media convergence, this research demonstrates how the receiver has been working in online digital media such as TV can take advantage of the specific interaction between the medias to promote the creation of collaborative content, in which the user of social network may interfere the result of the product developed, becoming a new mediatic protagonist. Tool not so used for the production of television that slowly begins to enter the virtual reality, the forging of this new compose process would not only entertain the receiver, but also enrich the language and content television constantly criticized. This study shows the influence of the television medium in which is discussed online, the attitude still shy of the user in content production, and discusses the potential of social networks as a channel of communication between producers and receivers. This work is structured from the definition of social network, in addition to conducting the study what kind of interaction between TV and online social networks is practiced today. Finally, debate whether the potential interaction between TV and social networks is used to its fullest.

Online disclosure and privacy concerns: a study of Moroccan and American facebook users

In using online social networks to connect and interact with people has become extremely popular all around the world. Thelargest Social Networking Site (SNS), Facebook, offers its services in over 70 languages and increasingly relies oninternational users to grow its membership. Aiming to understand the role of culture in SNS participation, this study adopts a‘privacy calculus’ perspective to examine the differences in participation patterns between American and MoroccanFacebook users. Survey results show that Moroccans users disclose less on Facebook than US users, yet perceive moredamage should their privacy on Facebook be violated. American users, on the other hand, have lower privacy concerns, trustfellow SNS members and legal system more, and disclose more in their profile. From a practical standpoint, the resultsindicate that SNS providers cannot rely on the same methods to encourage user participation and disclosure in differentcountries.

A model to develop a platform for personalised health applications

Antecedentes Europa vive una situación insostenible. Desde el 2008 se han reducido los recursos de los gobiernos a raíz de la crisis económica. El continente Europeo envejece con ritmo constante al punto que se prevé que en 2050 habrá sólo dos trabajadores por jubilado [54]. A esta situación se le añade el aumento de la incidencia de las enfermedades crónicas, relacionadas con el envejecimiento, cuyo coste puede alcanzar el 7% del PIB de un país [51]. Es necesario un cambio de paradigma. Una nueva manera de cuidar de la salud de las personas: sustentable, eficaz y preventiva más que curativa. Algunos estudios abogan por el cuidado personalizado de la salud (pHealth). En este modelo las prácticas médicas son adaptadas e individualizadas al paciente, desde la detección de los factores de riesgo hasta la personalización de los tratamientos basada en la respuesta del individuo [81]. El cuidado personalizado de la salud está asociado a menudo al uso de las tecnologías de la información y comunicación (TICs) que, con su desarrollo exponencial, ofrecen oportunidades interesantes para la mejora de la salud. El cambio de paradigma hacia el pHealth está lentamente ocurriendo, tanto en el ámbito de la investigación como en la industria, pero todavía no de manera significativa. Existen todavía muchas barreras relacionadas a la economía, a la política y la cultura. También existen barreras puramente tecnológicas, como la falta de sistemas de información interoperables [199]. A pesar de que los aspectos de interoperabilidad están evolucionando, todavía hace falta un diseño de referencia especialmente direccionado a la implementación y el despliegue en gran escala de sistemas basados en pHealth. La presente Tesis representa un intento de organizar la disciplina de la aplicación de las TICs al cuidado personalizado de la salud en un modelo de referencia, que permita la creación de plataformas de desarrollo de software para simplificar tareas comunes de desarrollo en este dominio. Preguntas de investigación RQ1 >Es posible definir un modelo, basado en técnicas de ingeniería del software, que represente el dominio del cuidado personalizado de la salud de una forma abstracta y representativa? RQ2 >Es posible construir una plataforma de desarrollo basada en este modelo? RQ3 >Esta plataforma ayuda a los desarrolladores a crear sistemas pHealth complejos e integrados? Métodos Para la descripción del modelo se adoptó el estándar ISO/IEC/IEEE 42010por ser lo suficientemente general y abstracto para el amplio enfoque de esta tesis [25]. El modelo está definido en varias partes: un modelo conceptual, expresado a través de mapas conceptuales que representan las partes interesadas (stakeholders), los artefactos y la información compartida; y escenarios y casos de uso para la descripción de sus funcionalidades. El modelo fue desarrollado de acuerdo a la información obtenida del análisis de la literatura, incluyendo 7 informes industriales y científicos, 9 estándares, 10 artículos en conferencias, 37 artículos en revistas, 25 páginas web y 5 libros. Basándose en el modelo se definieron los requisitos para la creación de la plataforma de desarrollo, enriquecidos por otros requisitos recolectados a través de una encuesta realizada a 11 ingenieros con experiencia en la rama. Para el desarrollo de la plataforma, se adoptó la metodología de integración continua [74] que permitió ejecutar tests automáticos en un servidor y también desplegar aplicaciones en una página web. En cuanto a la metodología utilizada para la validación se adoptó un marco para la formulación de teorías en la ingeniería del software [181]. Esto requiere el desarrollo de modelos y proposiciones que han de ser validados dentro de un ámbito de investigación definido, y que sirvan para guiar al investigador en la búsqueda de la evidencia necesaria para justificarla. La validación del modelo fue desarrollada mediante una encuesta online en tres rondas con un número creciente de invitados. El cuestionario fue enviado a 134 contactos y distribuido en algunos canales públicos como listas de correo y redes sociales. El objetivo era evaluar la legibilidad del modelo, su nivel de cobertura del dominio y su potencial utilidad en el diseño de sistemas derivados. El cuestionario incluía preguntas cuantitativas de tipo Likert y campos para recolección de comentarios. La plataforma de desarrollo fue validada en dos etapas. En la primera etapa se utilizó la plataforma en un experimento a pequeña escala, que consistió en una sesión de entrenamiento de 12 horas en la que 4 desarrolladores tuvieron que desarrollar algunos casos de uso y reunirse en un grupo focal para discutir su uso. La segunda etapa se realizó durante los tests de un proyecto en gran escala llamado HeartCycle [160]. En este proyecto un equipo de diseñadores y programadores desarrollaron tres aplicaciones en el campo de las enfermedades cardio-vasculares. Una de estas aplicaciones fue testeada en un ensayo clínico con pacientes reales. Al analizar el proyecto, el equipo de desarrollo se reunió en un grupo focal para identificar las ventajas y desventajas de la plataforma y su utilidad. Resultados Por lo que concierne el modelo que describe el dominio del pHealth, la parte conceptual incluye una descripción de los roles principales y las preocupaciones de los participantes, un modelo de los artefactos TIC que se usan comúnmente y un modelo para representar los datos típicos que son necesarios formalizar e intercambiar entre sistemas basados en pHealth. El modelo funcional incluye un conjunto de 18 escenarios, repartidos en: punto de vista de la persona asistida, punto de vista del cuidador, punto de vista del desarrollador, punto de vista de los proveedores de tecnologías y punto de vista de las autoridades; y un conjunto de 52 casos de uso repartidos en 6 categorías: actividades de la persona asistida, reacciones del sistema, actividades del cuidador, \engagement" del usuario, actividades del desarrollador y actividades de despliegue. Como resultado del cuestionario de validación del modelo, un total de 65 personas revisó el modelo proporcionando su nivel de acuerdo con las dimensiones evaluadas y un total de 248 comentarios sobre cómo mejorar el modelo. Los conocimientos de los participantes variaban desde la ingeniería del software (70%) hasta las especialidades médicas (15%), con declarado interés en eHealth (24%), mHealth (16%), Ambient Assisted Living (21%), medicina personalizada (5%), sistemas basados en pHealth (15%), informática médica (10%) e ingeniería biomédica (8%) con una media de 7.25_4.99 años de experiencia en estas áreas. Los resultados de la encuesta muestran que los expertos contactados consideran el modelo fácil de leer (media de 1.89_0.79 siendo 1 el valor más favorable y 5 el peor), suficientemente abstracto (1.99_0.88) y formal (2.13_0.77), con una cobertura suficiente del dominio (2.26_0.95), útil para describir el dominio (2.02_0.7) y para generar sistemas más específicos (2_0.75). Los expertos también reportan un interés parcial en utilizar el modelo en su trabajo (2.48_0.91). Gracias a sus comentarios, el modelo fue mejorado y enriquecido con conceptos que faltaban, aunque no se pudo demonstrar su mejora en las dimensiones evaluadas, dada la composición diferente de personas en las tres rondas de evaluación. Desde el modelo, se generó una plataforma de desarrollo llamada \pHealth Patient Platform (pHPP)". La plataforma desarrollada incluye librerías, herramientas de programación y desarrollo, un tutorial y una aplicación de ejemplo. Se definieron cuatro módulos principales de la arquitectura: el Data Collection Engine, que permite abstraer las fuentes de datos como sensores o servicios externos, mapeando los datos a bases de datos u ontologías, y permitiendo interacción basada en eventos; el GUI Engine, que abstrae la interfaz de usuario en un modelo de interacción basado en mensajes; y el Rule Engine, que proporciona a los desarrolladores un medio simple para programar la lógica de la aplicación en forma de reglas \if-then". Después de que la plataforma pHPP fue utilizada durante 5 años en el proyecto HeartCycle, 5 desarrolladores fueron reunidos en un grupo de discusión para analizar y evaluar la plataforma. De estas evaluaciones se concluye que la plataforma fue diseñada para encajar las necesidades de los ingenieros que trabajan en la rama, permitiendo la separación de problemas entre las distintas especialidades, y simplificando algunas tareas de desarrollo como el manejo de datos y la interacción asíncrona. A pesar de ello, se encontraron algunos defectos a causa de la inmadurez de algunas tecnologías empleadas, y la ausencia de algunas herramientas específicas para el dominio como el procesado de datos o algunos protocolos de comunicación relacionados con la salud. Dentro del proyecto HeartCycle la plataforma fue utilizada para el desarrollo de la aplicación \Guided Exercise", un sistema TIC para la rehabilitación de pacientes que han sufrido un infarto del miocardio. El sistema fue testeado en un ensayo clínico randomizado en el cual a 55 pacientes se les dio el sistema para su uso por 21 semanas. De los resultados técnicos del ensayo se puede concluir que, a pesar de algunos errores menores prontamente corregidos durante el estudio, la plataforma es estable y fiable. Conclusiones La investigación llevada a cabo en esta Tesis y los resultados obtenidos proporcionan las respuestas a las tres preguntas de investigación que motivaron este trabajo: RQ1 Se ha desarrollado un modelo para representar el dominio de los sistemas personalizados de salud. La evaluación hecha por los expertos de la rama concluye que el modelo representa el dominio con precisión y con un balance apropiado entre abstracción y detalle. RQ2 Se ha desarrollado, con éxito, una plataforma de desarrollo basada en el modelo. RQ3 Se ha demostrado que la plataforma es capaz de ayudar a los desarrolladores en la creación de software pHealth complejos. Las ventajas de la plataforma han sido demostradas en el ámbito de un proyecto de gran escala, aunque el enfoque genérico adoptado indica que la plataforma podría ofrecer beneficios también en otros contextos. Los resultados de estas evaluaciones ofrecen indicios de que, ambos, el modelo y la plataforma serán buenos candidatos para poderse convertir en una referencia para futuros desarrollos de sistemas pHealth. ABSTRACT Background Europe is living in an unsustainable situation. The economic crisis has been reducing governments' economic resources since 2008 and threatening social and health systems, while the proportion of older people in the European population continues to increase so that it is foreseen that in 2050 there will be only two workers per retiree [54]. To this situation it should be added the rise, strongly related to age, of chronic diseases the burden of which has been estimated to be up to the 7% of a country's gross domestic product [51]. There is a need for a paradigm shift, the need for a new way of caring for people's health, shifting the focus from curing conditions that have arisen to a sustainable and effective approach with the emphasis on prevention. Some advocate the adoption of personalised health care (pHealth), a model where medical practices are tailored to the patient's unique life, from the detection of risk factors to the customization of treatments based on each individual's response [81]. Personalised health is often associated to the use of Information and Communications Technology (ICT), that, with its exponential development, offers interesting opportunities for improving healthcare. The shift towards pHealth is slowly taking place, both in research and in industry, but the change is not significant yet. Many barriers still exist related to economy, politics and culture, while others are purely technological, like the lack of interoperable information systems [199]. Though interoperability aspects are evolving, there is still the need of a reference design, especially tackling implementation and large scale deployment of pHealth systems. This thesis contributes to organizing the subject of ICT systems for personalised health into a reference model that allows for the creation of software development platforms to ease common development issues in the domain. Research questions RQ1 Is it possible to define a model, based on software engineering techniques, for representing the personalised health domain in an abstract and representative way? RQ2 Is it possible to build a development platform based on this model? RQ3 Does the development platform help developers create complex integrated pHealth systems? Methods As method for describing the model, the ISO/IEC/IEEE 42010 framework [25] is adopted for its generality and high level of abstraction. The model is specified in different parts: a conceptual model, which makes use of concept maps, for representing stakeholders, artefacts and shared information, and in scenarios and use cases for the representation of the functionalities of pHealth systems. The model was derived from literature analysis, including 7 industrial and scientific reports, 9 electronic standards, 10 conference proceedings papers, 37 journal papers, 25 websites and 5 books. Based on the reference model, requirements were drawn for building the development platform enriched with a set of requirements gathered in a survey run among 11 experienced engineers. For developing the platform, the continuous integration methodology [74] was adopted which allowed to perform automatic tests on a server and also to deploy packaged releases on a web site. As a validation methodology, a theory building framework for SW engineering was adopted from [181]. The framework, chosen as a guide to find evidence for justifying the research questions, imposed the creation of theories based on models and propositions to be validated within a scope. The validation of the model was conducted as an on-line survey in three validation rounds, encompassing a growing number of participants. The survey was submitted to 134 experts of the field and on some public channels like relevant mailing lists and social networks. Its objective was to assess the model's readability, its level of coverage of the domain and its potential usefulness in the design of actual, derived systems. The questionnaires included quantitative Likert scale questions and free text inputs for comments. The development platform was validated in two scopes. As a small-scale experiment, the platform was used in a 12 hours training session where 4 developers had to perform an exercise consisting in developing a set of typical pHealth use cases At the end of the session, a focus group was held to identify benefits and drawbacks of the platform. The second validation was held as a test-case study in a large scale research project called HeartCycle the aim of which was to develop a closed-loop disease management system for heart failure and coronary heart disease patients [160]. During this project three applications were developed by a team of programmers and designers. One of these applications was tested in a clinical trial with actual patients. At the end of the project, the team was interviewed in a focus group to assess the role the platform had within the project. Results For what regards the model that describes the pHealth domain, its conceptual part includes a description of the main roles and concerns of pHealth stakeholders, a model of the ICT artefacts that are commonly adopted and a model representing the typical data that need to be formalized among pHealth systems. The functional model includes a set of 18 scenarios, divided into assisted person's view, caregiver's view, developer's view, technology and services providers' view and authority's view, and a set of 52 Use Cases grouped in 6 categories: assisted person's activities, system reactions, caregiver's activities, user engagement, developer's activities and deployer's activities. For what concerns the validation of the model, a total of 65 people participated in the online survey providing their level of agreement in all the assessed dimensions and a total of 248 comments on how to improve and complete the model. Participants' background spanned from engineering and software development (70%) to medical specialities (15%), with declared interest in the fields of eHealth (24%), mHealth (16%), Ambient Assisted Living (21%), Personalized Medicine (5%), Personal Health Systems (15%), Medical Informatics (10%) and Biomedical Engineering (8%) with an average of 7.25_4.99 years of experience in these fields. From the analysis of the answers it is possible to observe that the contacted experts considered the model easily readable (average of 1.89_0.79 being 1 the most favourable scoring and 5 the worst), sufficiently abstract (1.99_0.88) and formal (2.13_0.77) for its purpose, with a sufficient coverage of the domain (2.26_0.95), useful for describing the domain (2.02_0.7) and for generating more specific systems (2_0.75) and they reported a partial interest in using the model in their job (2.48_0.91). Thanks to their comments, the model was improved and enriched with concepts that were missing at the beginning, nonetheless it was not possible to prove an improvement among the iterations, due to the diversity of the participants in the three rounds. From the model, a development platform for the pHealth domain was generated called pHealth Patient Platform (pHPP). The platform includes a set of libraries, programming and deployment tools, a tutorial and a sample application. The main four modules of the architecture are: the Data Collection Engine, which allows abstracting sources of information like sensors or external services, mapping data to databases and ontologies, and allowing event-based interaction and filtering, the GUI Engine, which abstracts the user interface in a message-like interaction model, the Workow Engine, which allows programming the application's user interaction ows with graphical workows, and the Rule Engine, which gives developers a simple means for programming the application's logic in the form of \if-then" rules. After the 5 years experience of HeartCycle, partially programmed with pHPP, 5 developers were joined in a focus group to discuss the advantages and drawbacks of the platform. The view that emerged from the training course and the focus group was that the platform is well-suited to the needs of the engineers working in the field, it allowed the separation of concerns among the different specialities and it simplified some common development tasks like data management and asynchronous interaction. Nevertheless, some deficiencies were pointed out in terms of a lack of maturity of some technological choices, and for the absence of some domain-specific tools, e.g. for data processing or for health-related communication protocols. Within HeartCycle, the platform was used to develop part of the Guided Exercise system, a composition of ICT tools for the physical rehabilitation of patients who suffered from myocardial infarction. The system developed using the platform was tested in a randomized controlled clinical trial, in which 55 patients used the system for 21 weeks. The technical results of this trial showed that the system was stable and reliable. Some minor bugs were detected, but these were promptly corrected using the platform. This shows that the platform, as well as facilitating the development task, can be successfully used to produce reliable software. Conclusions The research work carried out in developing this thesis provides responses to the three three research questions that were the motivation for the work. RQ1 A model was developed representing the domain of personalised health systems, and the assessment of experts in the field was that it represents the domain accurately, with an appropriate balance between abstraction and detail. RQ2 A development platform based on the model was successfully developed. RQ3 The platform has been shown to assist developers create complex pHealth software. This was demonstrated within the scope of one large-scale project, but the generic approach adopted provides indications that it would offer benefits more widely. The results of these evaluations provide indications that both the model and the platform are good candidates for being a reference for future pHealth developments.

Estudio del fenómeno Social Media en la pequeña empresa del sector TIC español

En un mundo en el que cada vez son más las personas que utilizan Internet para llevar a cabo sus comunicaciones y relaciones, tanto a nivel personal como profesional, las Redes Sociales se han convertido en una herramienta, para muchos imprescindible, de interacción social. A lo largo de este proyecto se realizará un análisis exhaustivo de las características del ya conocido como Fenómeno Social Media, para posteriormente centrar toda la atención en las ventajas y desventajas de dicha actividad en el ámbito empresarial. Dado que hasta el momento no se ha encontrado ningún otro estudio que trate el Fenómeno Social Media en la Pequeña Empresa del sector TIC español, el objetivo principal del proyecto se centra en conocer la influencia que las Redes Sociales están generando en la estrategia empresarial de dicho sector de empresas, cuyas características y particularidades hacen de ellas un modelo de negocio único y diferente y cuyo número se ha visto incrementado en los últimos años, debido quizás, a la situación de crisis que atraviesa el país. Para ello, se analizarán las ventajas e inconvenientes que se derivan de su uso, como afecta a la creación de valor, y, finalmente, cual es el nivel de implicación y/o inversión que la Pequeña Empresa ha adoptado al respecto. Dentro de este marco, se pretende realizar un énfasis especial en el concepto de cocreación de valor y sus variantes (Crowdsourcing, Open Innovation e Innovación Orientada por las Personas), que permita determinar el grado de importancia del usuario como generador de valor. Posteriormente, en la parte práctica, se llevará a cabo un amplio estudio de mercado, a partir de una encuesta online realizada a un conjunto de empresas, cuidadosamente seleccionadas de entre más de 100.000 compañías, según su sector de actividad, número de empleados y volumen de negocios anual, y cuyos resultados serán analizados con la intención de obtener una visión clara del comportamiento global de las empresas seleccionadas. Por último, tomaremos de referencia las dos últimas publicaciones anuales del “Observatorio sobre el uso de las Redes Sociales en las Pymes españolas” (2011 y 2013), estudios dedicados íntegramente a Redes Sociales y Pymes, y cuya información, junto con los resultados obtenidos de nuestro estudio, nos permitirán determinar la tendencia actual y futura, y en consecuencia, obtener las conclusiones oportunas que nos permitan dar respuesta a las cuestiones planteadas durante la realización del proyecto, y determinar si nos encontramos o no ante una verdadera fuente de éxito empresarial. ABSTRACT. In a world where more and more people are using the Internet to perform their communications and relationships, both personally and professionally, Social Networks have become a social interaction tool, indispensable for many people. Throughout this project we will perform a thorough analysis of the characteristics of the Social Media Phenomenon, focusing on the advantages and disadvantages of such activity in a business scope. Given that we have not found no study on the Social Media Phenomenon in Small Business of the Spanish ICT sector, the main objective of this project is to establish the influence that Social Networks are generating in the business strategy of this business sector, the characteristics and peculiarities that make them a unique and different business model and whose number has increased in recent years, perhaps due to the crisis the country is facing. To do this, we will discuss the advantages and disadvantages derived from its use, how it affects value creation, and finally, what is the level of involvement and / or investment that the Small Business has taken in this regard. In this context, we intend to make a special emphasis on the concept of value co-creation and its variants (Crowdsourcing, Open Innovation and People Oriented Innovation), to determine the degree of importance of the user to value generator. Subsequently, on the practical section, out a comprehensive market study will be carried, based on an online test to a group of enterprises, carefully selected from more than 100,000 companies, according to their sector of activity, number of employees and annual turnover, and the results will be analyzed with the intention to get a clear view of the selected company's overall performance. Finally, we will take as reference the last two annual publications of the "Observatory on the use of Social Networks in Spanish SMEs" (2011 and 2013), entirely dedicated to Social Media and SMEs studies, and whose information, together with the results obtained in our study will allow us to determine the current and future trends, and consequently, obtain the appropriate conclusions to respond to the raised questions throughout the project, and determine whether or not they are a real source of business success.

Innovación educativa en las redes sociales online: un estudio en la educación superior

Las redes sociales son tan antiguas como las relaciones entre los humanos, ya que las labores de cooperación siempre fueron imprescindibles en los procesos de asociación, tanto los formados por simples células hasta los constituidos por seres vivos. La sociedad está formada por una gran cantidad de situaciones que fomentan dicha colaboración. Desde la creación del Espacio Europeo de Educación Superior se ha promovido la utilización de entornos virtuales de aprendizaje que favorezcan una evaluación más transparente y objetiva. Las redes sociales online son las interfaces digitales más utilizadas por los estudiantes universitarios, por lo que son muchos los expertos que recomiendan analizar la utilidad educativa de este tipo de aplicaciones. Siguiendo estas recomendaciones se implementó una red social online, llamada Formatio, que se utilizó para apoyar el proceso de enseñanza y aprendizaje en la educación superior. El objetivo general de esta tesis doctoral fue valorar el nivel de aceptación de este entorno virtual de aprendizaje para los estudiantes universitarios que participaron en este estudio. Para evaluar el uso de la plataforma se analizaron las actividades generadas por los 172 estudiantes, seleccionados aleatoriamente, matriculados en la asignatura de Estadística y TIC en el curso 2010/2011, del Grado en Ciencias de la Actividad Física y el Deporte. Con el objetivo de estimar la utilidad educativa de las redes sociales online se diseñó y validó el instrumento de Valoración de Recursos Educativos Online (VREO), que fue aplicado a otra muestra aleatoria de 452 estudiantes de la misma facultad durante el curso 2011/2012. Los resultados confirman el éxito de este tipo de espacios virtuales gracias a la alta frecuencia de uso conseguida y a las buenas puntuaciones obtenidas por los alumnos, quienes tienen una buena opinión sobre las ventajas de usar las redes sociales online en la educación superior. De todos los recursos analizados la red social online Formatio ha sido la opción mejor valorada, seguida de Moodle y Facebook en segundo y tercer lugar, y de Twitter y YouTube, en cuarta y en quinta posición. Este estudio establece un punto de partida para futuras investigaciones encaminadas a obtener ciertos indicadores cualitativos y cuantitativos que faciliten una evaluación más justa de los actores integrantes de los sistemas educativos, que ayude a abrir las puertas de nuestra sociedad a la responsabilidad, la eficiencia, la transparencia y la objetividad. ABSTRACT Social networks are as old as human relations, since cooperative work has always been indispensable in all processes of association, from those composed of simple cells to those formed by living beings. Society is shaped by a large amount of situations that stimulate this cooperation. Since the creation of the European Higher Education Area, the use of virtual learning environments that favor more transparent and objective evaluation has been promoted. On-line social networks are the digital interfaces most widely used by university students, which is the reason why many experts recommend an analysis of the educational utility of this type of applications. Following these recommendations, an on-line social network called Formatio was created, which was used in order to support the teaching and learning process in higher education. The general objective of this doctoral dissertation was to evaluate the level of acceptance of this virtual learning environment by the university students who participated in this study. In order to evaluate the use of the platform, the activity created by 172 students chosen at random was analyzed; they were registered in the course on Statistics and Information and Communication Technology of the degree program in Sciences of Physical Activity and Sport during the academic year 2010/2011. With the goal of appraising the educational utility of on-line social networks, a tool for Evaluation of On-line Educational Resources (EOER) was designed, validated, and applied to another random sample of 452 students from the same department during the academic year 2011/2012. The results confirm the success of this type of virtual spaces, thanks to the high frequency of use achieved and the good grades obtained by the students who had a favorable opinion of the advantages of using on-line social networks in higher education. Out of all the resources analyzed, the Formatio on-line social network was the option that received the best evaluation, followed by Moodle and Facebook, which were second and third, and Twitter and YouTube, in fourth and fifth place respectively. This study establishes a starting point for future research that aims to obtain certain qualitative and quantitative indicators that will make it easier to engage in a fairer evaluation of the parties involved in education systems, which will help open the doors of our society to responsibility, efficiency, transparency, and objectivity.

Rede e apoio social entre idosos atendidos em um ambulatório de Geriatria

O objetivo geral deste estudo foi analisar a relação entre a rede e apoio social, satisfação com o apoio social recebido e as variáveis sociodemográficas, de saúde física e mental, dos idosos atendidos em um Ambulatório de Geriatria de um Hospital Geral Terciário do interior paulista. Trata-se de um estudo descritivo, transversal e exploratório, realizado com 98 idosos atendidos no referido ambulatório. Para a coleta de dados, utilizaram-se o Mini Exame do Estado Mental, um questionário de caracterização sociodemográfica e de saúde, a Escala de Depressão Geriátrica (EDG-15), o Índice de Katz, a Escala de Lawton e Brody, a Escala de medida da rede e apoio social do Medical Outcomes Study e a Escala de Satisfação com o Suporte Social. Os aspectos éticos foram respeitados conforme a Resolução 466/2012 do Conselho Nacional de Saúde. A média de idade dos idosos foi de 80,1 anos, 70,4% eram mulheres, 49,0% viúvos; a média de anos de estudo foi 2,3; 24,5% dos idosos residiam com o cônjuge e filhos ou somente com os filhos; a renda familiar média foi de R$1.773,70. Quanto à capacidade funcional, 80,6% eram independentes para as atividades básicas da vida diária e 88,8% eram parcialmente dependentes para as instrumentais. Os idosos possuíam, em média, 5,3 diagnósticos médicos e os sintomas depressivos estiveram presentes para 61,2% deles. Quanto à rede social, o escore total médio foi de 6,4 pessoas para contato na rede, sendo que 36,7% apresentavam médio contato e participação em atividades sociais. Em relação ao apoio social, o maior escore médio foi para a dimensão material (90,2) e o menor para a interação social positiva (81,8); já para a satisfação com o suporte social, 36,7% e 32,7% apresentaram alta e média satisfação, respectivamente. Foi encontrada correlação inversa entre os escores de todas as dimensões da escala de apoio social e os escores da EDG-15, indicando que quanto maior o apoio social em todas as dimensões, menor é a presença de sintomas depressivos e houve diferenças estatisticamente significativas para todas as dimensões, material (p=0,014), afetiva (p=0,026), interação (p=0,011), emocional (p=0,001) e informação (p=0,005); já a correlação entre os escores das dimensões da escala de apoio social e os escores na escala de Lawton e Brody, foi inversa e fraca para as dimensões material (r=-0,157) e informação (r=-0,027), sugerindo que quanto menor a independência para as AIVDs, maior o apoio social nas referidas dimensões, porém, não houve diferença estatisticamente significativa, material (p=0,121) e informação (p=0,789). A correlação entre os escores da EDG-15 e os escores da escala de satisfação com o apoio social, foi inversa e moderada (r=- 0,467), indicando que quanto maior a satisfação com o apoio social, menor a presença de sintomas depressivos, sendo estatisticamente significativa (p=0,000). Evidencia-se a importância de conhecer se os idosos estão inseridos em rede social e se percebem o apoio social para um melhor direcionamento da assistência prestada ao idoso e para o planejamento e formulação de políticas públicas, programas e projetos voltados a essa população

Linking tourism, retirement migration and social capital

A general trend in the study of international retirement migration has been the increased attention paid to the social contacts and network connections of the migrants in both the destination and the origin areas. These studies have examined the extent to which migrants build social relationships with their neighbours and the host society while also maintaining social links with their countries of origin, addressing the central role that leisure travel plays in sustaining increasingly dispersed social networks and maintaining the social capital of these networks and of the individuals involved in them. Using a case study approach to examine British retirement migration to Spain, we explore the relevance of transnational social networks in the context of international retirement migration, particularly the intensity of bidirectional visiting friends and relatives (VFR) tourism flows and the migrants’ social contacts with friends and/or family back in their home country. Building on the concept of social capital and Putnam's distinction between bonding and bridging social capital, we propose a framework for the analysis of the migrants’ international social networks. The results of a study conducted based on a sample of 365 British retirees living in the coast of Alicante (Spain) show both the strength of the retirees’ international bonding social capital and the role of ‘VFR's travel and communication technologies in sustaining the migrants’ transnational social practices and, ultimately, their international bonding social capital. It also provides evidence for the reinforcing links between tourism-related mobility and amenity-seeking migration in later life.

Social Support Networks and Self-Efficacy of Peruvian Women Diagnosed with Cancer: A Biocultural Analysis of Health Behavior Constructs

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Washington, 2016-06

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.

Indirect ties in knowledge networks:a social network analysis with ordered weighted averaging operators

This PhD thesis analyses networks of knowledge flows, focusing on the role of indirect ties in the knowledge transfer, knowledge accumulation and knowledge creation process. It extends and improves existing methods for mapping networks of knowledge flows in two different applications and contributes to two stream of research. To support the underlying idea of this thesis, which is finding an alternative method to rank indirect network ties to shed a new light on the dynamics of knowledge transfer, we apply Ordered Weighted Averaging (OWA) to two different network contexts. Knowledge flows in patent citation networks and a company supply chain network are analysed using Social Network Analysis (SNA) and the OWA operator. The OWA is used here for the first time (i) to rank indirect citations in patent networks, providing new insight into their role in transferring knowledge among network nodes; and to analyse a long chain of patent generations along 13 years; (ii) to rank indirect relations in a company supply chain network, to shed light on the role of indirectly connected individuals involved in the knowledge transfer and creation processes and to contribute to the literature on knowledge management in a supply chain. In doing so, indirect ties are measured and their role as means of knowledge transfer is shown. Thus, this thesis represents a first attempt to bridge the OWA and SNA fields and to show that the two methods can be used together to enrich the understanding of the role of indirectly connected nodes in a network. More specifically, the OWA scores enrich our understanding of knowledge evolution over time within complex networks. Future research can show the usefulness of OWA operator in different complex networks, such as the on-line social networks that consists of thousand of nodes.

The governance of online expression in a networked world:free-speech, surveillance and censorship

In recent years, we have witnessed the mushrooming of pro- democracy and protest movements not only in the Arab world, but also within Europe and the Americas. Such movements have ranged from popular upheavals, like in Tunisia and Egypt, to the organization of large- scale demonstrations against unpopular policies, as in Spain, Greece and Poland. What connects these different events are not only their democratic aspirations, but also their innovative forms of communication and organization through online means, which are sometimes considered to be outside of the State’s control. At the same time, however, it has become more and more apparent that countries are attempting to increase their understanding of, and control over, their citizens’ actions in the digital sphere. This involves striving to develop surveillance instruments, control mechanisms and processes engineered to dominate the digital public sphere, which necessitates the assistance and support of private actors such as Internet intermediaries. Examples include the growing use of Internet surveillance technology with which online data traffic is analysed, and the extensive monitoring of social networks. Despite increased media attention, academic debate on the ambivalence of these technologies, mechanisms and techniques remains relatively limited, as is discussion of the involvement of corporate actors. The purpose of this edited volume is to reflect on how Internet-related technologies, mechanisms and techniques may be used as a means to enable expression, but also to restrict speech, manipulate public debate and govern global populaces.