‘Connect and create’ : young people, YouTube and graffiti communities

Dominant discourses around young people and social networking in the mass media are littered with negative connotations and moral panics. While some scholars challenge this negativity, their focus has predominantly been upon the formation of friendships, the construction of identity and the presentation of the self online. We argue that as well as engaging in such areas, young people are also appropriating social networking sites, such as YouTube, as spaces in which they can engage in what Jean Burgess terms, ‘Vernacular Creativity’ – a way of describing and surfacing creative practices that emerge from non-elite, specific everyday contexts. Using case study material we consider the processes of Vernacular Creativity as engaged with by young people in relation to doing graffiti with YouTube. Through this, and given that graffiti is a cultural practise traditionally associated with physical space, we also consider points of continuity and discontinuity in relation to Vernacular Creativity mediated with YouTube and the significance of such things in enabling young people to connect and create with like-minded others.

Internationalising Australian secondary education

This thesis presents the findings of a case study of international students who enrol in Australian secondary schools. Specifically, it focuses on the ways that staff in three schools and two international colleges position Eastern Asian international students through discourses of cultural difference. It draws together the Discourse Historical Approach to Critical Discourse Analysis with the work of Basil Bernstein and Pierre Bourdieu. The study finds that groups of students are positioned positively or negatively depending on their relationship to the dominant discourses of the Australian school. Australian students, while rarely mentioned, were positioned positively. By contrast, the Eastern Asian international students were positioned negatively in relation to the privileged discourses of Australian schooling. These discourses reflected the cultural capital that was valued in the schools. In particular, the cultural capital of active and willing engagement in competitive sports and being rough, rugged and an ‘ocker’ were privileged at the schools. International students from Papua New Guinea, and a few Eastern Asian students who behaved as ockers, were positioned positively because they realised cultural capital that was valued at the schools. By contrast, the students who were unable to be positioned through these discourses, because they did not realise cultural capital that was valued, were not viewed favourably. As a result, the data showed that there was a hierarchy of positions at the schools that were constructed in staff accounts. The analysis of data suggests that only some students are positioned favourably in Australian schools. The students who were already able to construct privileged Australian school discourses were positioned positively. The data suggest that the majority of the Eastern Asian students were represented through negative discourses because they did not realise cultural capital that was valued at the schools. Findings of this study may assist schools to identify international students who may experience their Australian school education negatively. The findings may also contribute to assisting staff to better engage with international students.

Youth Alcohol and Drug Practice Guide 3 : Practice Strategies and Interventions

This guide canvasses a range of practice strategies and interventions utilised by workers and services who engage with young people experiencing problematic AOD use whilst also exploring the many and varied challenges associated with this type of work.

Locating packaged software in information systems research

The papers in this issue focus our attention to packaged software as an increasingly important, but still relatively poorly understood phenomena in the information systems research community. The topic is not new: Lucas et al. (1988) wrote a provocative piece focused on the issues with implementing packaged software. A decade later, Carmel (1997) argued that packaged software was both ideally suited for American entrepreneurial activity and rapidly growing. The information systems research community, however, has moved more slowly to engage this change (e.g., Sawyer, 2001). The papers in this special issue represent a significant step in better engaging the issues of packaged software relative to information systems research, and highlighting opportunities for additional relevant research.

A city for all citizens : integrating children and youth from marginalized populations into city planning

Socially just, intergenerational urban spaces should not only accommodate children and adolescents, but engage them as participants in the planning and design of welcoming spaces. With this goal, city agencies in Boulder, Colorado, the Boulder Valley School District, the Children, Youth and Environments Center at the University of Colorado, and a number of community organizations have been working in partnership to integrate young people’s ideas and concerns into the redesign of parks and civic areas and the identification of issues for city planning. Underlying their work is a commitment to the Convention on the Rights of the Child and children’s rights to active citizenship from a young age. This paper describes approaches used to engage with young people and methods of participation, and reflects on lessons learned about how to most effectively involve youth from underrepresented populations and embed diverse youth voices into the culture of city planning.

We need to talk about … economics

I want to take up the “economies” part of this conference's theme, “Materialities: Economies, Empiricism and Things,” and engage with those critics of the creative industries position within media, cultural and communication studies. There's certainly been a bit of (symbolic) attempted patricide on the creative industries side, but there has been an even stronger disavowal of parentage, even a bit of—always symbolic—attempted infanticide, on the other...

Agility : customer's perspective

In competitive environments agility is emerging as an important determinant of success. Despite the widely accepted importance of agility there has been paucity in research on this construct, especially the customer’s perspective of agility. Rise of digital natives together with growth of ubiquitous information systems has changed the way firms engage with their customers. Firms are finding it difficult to establish sustained loyalty hence the long term sustained advantage over competition. Hence, firms are increasingly investing substantial resources on dynamic Customer Relationship Management systems such as mobile-CRMS to better engage with customers to sense and respond quickly (Agility of the firm) to their demands. This paper investigates firm’s customer agility from customer’s perspective, and we propose a model to understand firm’s customer agility from customer’s point of view. The proposed model is derived based on previous conceptions of agility and the expectation confirmation theory (ECT). This paper reports the initial findings of this study obtained through a pilot test. The findings of the study demonstrate that customer’s view point on firm’s customer agility is an important determinant of achieving success through sustained competitive advantage.

The getting of wisdom : the future of PM university education in Australia

The dynamic and complex nature of project management (PM) in Australia provides exciting opportunities for universities to that are willing to actively engage with their corporate partners and other key stakeholders to develop program and course offerings that simultaneously address the needs of students, employers, and other stakeholders and further the current body of PM knowledge and research. This article identifies key challenges and opportunities for the future direction of PM university education. This draws on descriptions of successful program models, examining teaching on PM skills on generic business and engineering degrees, dedicated graduate masters programs in PM, doctoral research programs in PM, and forms of effective collaboration between industry and academia.

Network governance in US airport taxicab planning activities

This thesis examines the use of network governance in US airport transportation planning activities involving taxicab services for airport patrons. The research provides US airports with new insights whereby they can successfully engage with both transportation regulatory agencies and taxicab service providers in developing mutually agreeable policies that foster the development of supply-side taxicab service improvements. A mix of quantitative and qualitative research methods is used to unearth how US airports interact with these actors, and to identify attitudes held by airport staff in their engagements involving airport taxicab planning matters. The research may ultimately lead to the achievement of sustainable increases in the air passenger ground transportation modal share at US airports, resulting in both desirable long-term operational and environmental benefits for airport management, those involved with the provision of airport taxicab services, and the traveling public.

Consumer engagement with eHealth information through smartphones and tablets : an Australian perspective

This paper is a work in progress that examines current consumer engagement with eHealth information through Smartphones or tablets. We focus on three activity types: seeking, posting and ‘other’ engagement activity and compare two age groups, 25-40s and over 40-55s. Findings show that around 30% of the younger age group is engaging with Government and other Health providers’ websites, receiving eHealth emails, and reading other people’s comments about health related issues in online discussion groups/websites/blog. Approximately 20% engage with Government and other Health providers’ social media and watch or listen to audio or video podcasts. For the older age group, their most active engagement with eHealth information is in the seeking category through Government or other health websites (approximately 15%), and less than 10% for social media sites. Their posting activity is less than 5%. Other activities show that less than 15% of the older age group engages through receiving emails and reading blogs, less than 10% watch or listen to podcasts, and their online consulting activity is less than 7%. We note that scores are low for both groups in terms of engaging with eHealth information through Twitter.

Write vs. type : tangible and situated media for situated engagement

Digital media is often criticised for being intangible, transient and ephemeral. These characteristics limit the provision of long-lasting social experiences, as it is through the use of all our senses that we attach meaning to space, creating a sense of place. This paper presents a comparative study of the affordances of two design interventions, one tangible paper-based, called Print + Talk = Love (PTL), the other digital screen-based, called Discussions in Space (DIS). The emphasis is on a) how tangible media, such as paper, provides different and meaningful collective experiences, and b) how it can stand on its own as an interactive design intervention and as a comprehensive data-gathering tool in urban public places. By positioning PTL and DIS within the context of urban public places and testing their abilities to engage participants, we examine their particular situated engagement abilities through a mixed method approach. As a result, the digital aspects of DIS, e.g., using Twitter, extend the situated experience beyond the actual location of the intervention. Moreover, informing a hybrid approach, we also found that the physical aspects of PTL and its tangible presence, kept the user experience focused on the actual place and event surrounding the intervention.

Peer review : a professional development process for librarians

Peer review is a reflective process which allows us to formalise, and gain maximum benefit from, collegial feedback on our professional performance. It is also a process that encourages us to engage in cycles of planning, acting, recording and reflection which are familiar components of action learning and action research. Entering into these cycles within the peer-review framework is a powerful and cost-effective means of facilitating professional development which is readily adapted to the library context. In 1996, a project implementing peer review, in order to improve client interaction at the reference desk, was completed at the University of Southern Queensland (USQ) Library. For that project we developed a set of guidelines for library staff involved in peer review. These guidelines explained the value of peer review, and described its principles and purposes. We also devised strategies to assist staff as they prepared for the experience of peer review, engaged in the process and reflected on the outcomes. A number of benefits were identified; the peer-review process enhanced team spirit, enhanced client-orientation, and fostered collaborative efforts in improving the reference service. It was also relatively inexpensive to implement. In this paper we will discuss the nature of peer review and its importance to library and information professionals. We will also share the guidelines we developed, and discuss the implementation and outcomes of the peer review project at the University of Southern Queensland. We will conclude by discussing the benefits perceived and the issues that arose in the USQ context, and by suggesting a range of other aspects of library service in which peer-review could be implemented.

Second international workshop on theory and applications of process visualization

The representation of business process models has been a continuing research topic for many years now. However, many process model representations have not developed beyond minimally interactive 2D icon-based representations of directed graphs and networks, with little or no annotation for information overlays. In addition, very few of these representations have undergone a thorough analysis or design process with reference to psychological theories on data and process visualization. This dearth of visualization research, we believe, has led to problems with BPM uptake in some organizations, as the representations can be difficult for stakeholders to understand, and thus remains an open research question for the BPM community. In addition, business analysts and process modeling experts themselves need visual representations that are able to assist with key BPM life cycle tasks in the process of generating optimal solutions. With the rise of desktop computers and commodity mobile devices capable of supporting rich interactive 3D environments, we believe that much of the research performed in computer human interaction, virtual reality, games and interactive entertainment have much potential in areas of BPM; to engage, provide insight, and to promote collaboration amongst analysts and stakeholders alike. We believe this is a timely topic, with research emerging in a number of places around the globe, relevant to this workshop. This is the second TAProViz workshop being run at BPM. The intention this year is to consolidate on the results of last year's successful workshop by further developing this important topic, identifying the key research topics of interest to the BPM visualization community.

Outdoor Worker Sun Protection Project : a mixed methods intervention to improve sun safety among outdoor workers

Queensland, Australia has one of the highest rates of skin cancer in the world. Outdoor workers are regularly exposed to high doses of ultraviolet radiation, and are at increased risk to develop non-melanoma and melanoma skin cancers. In 2010, a health promotion intervention to improve sun protection among outdoor workers in Queensland commenced. The intervention employed a mixed methods approach and a participatory action research framework. Fourteen workplaces were recruited from building and construction, rural and farming, local government, and public sector organisations. Management and workers were engaged in cycles of assessment, reflection and discussion, planning, implementation and reassessing, over a 14-month intervention period. Overall, at least one workplace representative from each workplace (range 1-3) and in depth focus groups were held with a subset of workers (range 3-16) to assess sun safe behaviours pre and post intervention. Workers’ attitudes, beliefs, knowledge and willingness to engage in sun protection differed depending on workplace characteristics and support. A familiar theme among workers spoke of sun safety as being “common sense” and the “workers individual responsibility”. Often there was a discrepancy in the perceptions of the workers, compared to the view of workplace representatives and the workplaces position or policy on sun safety. In larger workplaces, especially Government Departments, workers were more aware and followed sun safe practices compared to smaller workplaces where sun safety was not a high priority. These results indicate that a workplace culture which places high values on safety and polices more broadly may also have a positive effect on sun safety among outdoor workers as well. In addition, the specific characteristics of the workplace and the outdoor work tasks influence workers willingness to engage in sun safety measures.

Integrating Intangible Cultural Heritage elements and learning strategy : a case study

Tanzania has a rich and diverse cultural history based on community cultural life. However, at present, young people have limited opportunity to exploit this richness of creative expressions and engage in creative jobs as their future career. Hence, the significant challenge remains: how to integrate Intangible cultural heritage elements and learning strategy as a means of promoting creative jobs for youth. This paper presents a case study on 'Strategies for youth employment in Tanzania: A creative industries approach'. The case study employed mixed methods incorporating questionnaires, interviews and focus groups and was held in Dar-Es-Salaam, Mwanza, Dodoma, Lindi and Morogoro from July to October, 2012. This paper discusses some of the issues and argues that there is no virtual utilization of the intangible cultural heritage knowledge and skills in 'putting education to work' (UNESCO, 2012) for the better prospects of youth. Although the discussion is specific to Tanzania, the case may also apply to other developing countries.