Public Commons for Geospatial Data: A Conceptual Model

A wide variety of spatial data collection efforts are ongoing throughout local, state and federal agencies, private firms and non-profit organizations. Each effort is established for a different purpose but organizations and individuals often collect and maintain the same or similar information. The United States federal government has undertaken many initiatives such as the National Spatial Data Infrastructure, the National Map and Geospatial One-Stop to reduce duplicative spatial data collection and promote the coordinated use, sharing, and dissemination of spatial data nationwide. A key premise in most of these initiatives is that no national government will be able to gather and maintain more than a small percentage of the geographic data that users want and desire. Thus, national initiatives depend typically on the cooperation of those already gathering spatial data and those using GIs to meet specific needs to help construct and maintain these spatial data infrastructures and geo-libraries for their nations (Onsrud 2001). Some of the impediments to widespread spatial data sharing are well known from directly asking GIs data producers why they are not currently involved in creating datasets that are of common or compatible formats, documenting their datasets in a standardized metadata format or making their datasets more readily available to others through Data Clearinghouses or geo-libraries. The research described in this thesis addresses the impediments to wide-scale spatial data sharing faced by GIs data producers and explores a new conceptual data-sharing approach, the Public Commons for Geospatial Data, that supports user-friendly metadata creation, open access licenses, archival services and documentation of parent lineage of the contributors and value- adders of digital spatial data sets.

The New Futuro College Plan: Facilitating College Access

Built on a free, bilingual, "high-touch, high-tech" platform, New Futuro has created a robust community of Latino students and parents, non-profit organizations, education institutions, government agencies, and corporations to connect those that need help with those that provide it. One of the resources developed by New Futuro is a proprietary 10-Steps College Plan that provides structured information targeted to Latino students and families to help them prepare, apply and pay for college.

An Independent Art Movement: The Independent Artist, Community Television, and the Age of Information

The history of community television shows that it has been a home to activist and non-profit organizations that have created programs focused on freedom of speech. This project proposes that community television is also a place where artists can have freedom of artistic expression. The reflective paper reviews the creation of my film designed to inform and attract artists to community television. In it I critically reflect on the artistic, technical, artistic/technical, and production changes made throughout my journey from being a visual artist to becoming a video-artist. The reflective paper, along with the film, act as a wake-up call to artists who are unaware of community television and the advantages it has to offer them.

The effects of mailing design characteristics on direct mail campaign performance

Designing effective direct mail pieces is considered a key success factor in direct marketing. However, related published empirical research is scarce while design recommendations are manifold and often conflicting. Compared with prior work, our study aims to provide more elaborate and empirically validated findings for the effects of direct mail design characteristics by analyzing 677 direct mail campaigns from non-profit organizations and financial service providers. We investigate the effects of (1) various envelope characteristics and observable cues on opening rates, and (2) characteristics of the envelope content on the keeping rates of direct mail campaigns. We show that visual design elements on the outer envelope – rather than sender-related details – are the predominant drivers of opening rates. Factors such as letter length, provision of sender information in the letter, and personalization positively influence the keeping rate. We also observe that opening and keeping rates are uncorrelated at the campaign level, implying that opening direct mail pieces is only a necessary condition for responding to offers, but not per se a driver of direct mail response.

An analysis of teachers' perceptions of informal science professional development

Science professional development, which is fundamental to science education improvement, has been described as being weak and fragmentary. The purpose of this study was to investigate teachers' perceptions of informal science professional development to gain an in-depth understanding of the essence of the phenomenon and related science-teaching dispositions. Based on the frameworks of phenomenology, constructivism, and adult learning theory, the focus was on understanding how the phenomenon was experienced within the context of teachers' everyday world. ^ Data were collected from eight middle-school teachers purposefully selected because they had participated in informal programs during Project TRIPS (Teaching Revitalized Through Informal Programs in Science), a collaboration between the Miami-Dade school district, government agencies (including NASA), and non-profit organizations (including Audubon of Florida). In addition, the teachers experienced hands-on labs offered through universities (including the University of Arizona), field sites, and other agencies. ^ The study employed Seidman's (1991) three-interview series to collect the data. Several methods were used to enhance the credibility of the research, including using triangulation of the data. The interviews were transcribed, color-coded and organized into six themes that emerged from the data. The themes included: (a) internalized content knowledge, (b) correlated hands-on activities, (c) enhanced science-teaching disposition, (d) networking/camaraderie, (e) change of context, and (f) acknowledgment as professionals. The teachers identified supportive elements and constraints related to each theme. ^ The results indicated that informal programs offering experiential learning opportunities strengthened understanding of content knowledge. Teachers implemented hands-on activities that were explicitly correlated to their curriculum. Programs that were conducted in a relaxed context enhanced teachers' science-teaching dispositions. However, a lack of financial and administrative support, perceived safety risks, insufficient reflection time, and unclear itineraries impeded program implementation. The results illustrated how informal educators can use this cohesive model as they develop programs that address the supports and constraints to teachers' science instruction needs. This, in turn, can aid teachers as they strive to provide effective science instruction to students; notions embedded in reforms. Ultimately, this can affect how learners develop the ability to make informed science decisions that impact the quality of life on a global scale. ^

CEO Humility: Development of an Unobtrusive Measure and Strategic Implications

Over the past 30 years, the Upper Echelons perspective of strategic management has sought to explain a given organization’s strategies and effectiveness as a reflection of the differences in personality, background, and other characteristics of the senior executives that guides each organization. An important stream of research within this field has linked a firm’s strategy to the grandiose way that executives are often thought to view themselves – namely through examining the narcissism, core self-evaluations (CSE), and hubris of Chief Executive Officers (CEOs). In this dissertation, I focus on understanding the strategic impact of CEO humility – a trait that has often been erroneously thought of to represent a poor view of oneself. Consistent with ancient writings and recent research, humility is defined herein as a multi-faceted trait that is the common core of four dimensions: self-awareness, developmental orientation/teachability, appreciation of others' strengths and contributions, and low self-focus. In the first essay, I explore the conceptual relevance and various potential implications of executive humility. Drawing on existing empirical research about the humility construct and general behavioral implications of humility, I argue that executive humility is a critical avenue toward a more rich and nuanced understanding of the delicate interplay and implications of executive self-concept. In essay two, I develop and validate an unobtrusive measure of CEO humility. Ten indicators of humility are suggested and then validated using a self-reported survey administered to a sample of 30 U.S. and Canadian CEOs. Two behaviors were found to be significantly positively related to self-reported humility: CEOs who volunteered some of their time for non-profit organizations and CEO’s who reported that part of their own firm’s success was due to the help of the board of directors. In essay three, I examine the relationship between the level of CEO humility and four firm-level outcomes. Employing a sample of 163 CEOs appointed to S&P 500 firms between 2005-2008, I show that firms led by humble CEOs (measured by the unobtrusive indicators) tend to outperform others in regards to corporate social performance, while at the same time showing that their financial performance is generally no better or worse.

Sustainability, creativity and innovation in project management – Model development for assessing organizational performance through projects

Today a number of studies are published on how organizational strategy is developed and how organizations contribute to local and regional development through the realization of these strategies. There are also many articles dealing with the success of a project by identifying the criteria and the factors that influence them. This article introduces the project-oriented strategic planning process that reveals how projects contribute to local and regional development and demonstrates the relationship between this approach and the regional competitiveness model as well as the KRAFT concept. There is a lot of research that focuses on sustainability in business. These studies argue that sustainability is very important to the success of a business in the future. The Project Excellence Model that analyses project success does not contain the sustainability criteria; the GPM P5 standard consists of sustainability components related either to the organizational level. To fill this gap a Project Sustainability Excellence Model (PSEM) was developed. The model was tested by interviews with managers of Hungarian for-profit and non-profit organizations. This paper introduces the PSEM and highlights the most important elements of the empirical analysis.

Limpiando el cuerpo y el alma. Higiene y control social en Medellín al iniciar el siglo XX

Este artículo pretende mostrar algunos de los cambios sociales que se dieron en Medellín al finalizar el siglo XIX e iniciar XX, momento en el que la ciudad vivió un proceso de crecimiento urbano no experimentado antes y que provocó la progresiva adecuación de nuevos organismos e instituciones para suplir las demandas económicas y sociales que también se fueron incrementan­do. Organizar e higienizar el espacio urbano, acorde con las ideas de ciudad y de ciudadano que se estaban imple­mentando en Europa, fueron algunas de las metas que se establecieron para planear la ciudad y, a la vez, tratar de mitigar el impacto del crecimiento de­mográfico que acusaba problemáticas de tipo social. Casas de beneficencia, manicomios, orfelinatos, hospitales, cárceles, patronatos, teatros, universi­dades, entre otras, fueron algunas de aquellas alternativas que se idearon con el fin de prevenir estas problemá­ticas, así como también propendieron por moralizar, distraer y castigar los comportamientos que se calificaban de inadecuados por parte de las élites.

Prosument Behaviour In Brand Creating

A brand remains a considerable source of the competitive advantage. One of the elements contributing to its power is image. The information revolution and globalization make it necessary to search for new means of differentiating brands. One of them is engaging consumers in the brand creation process. In light of the development of the Web 2.0, prosumers – active consumers functioning both as consumers and partly as producers – can have a meaningful influence on the image of brands. Their activities can entail both positive as well as negative effects.

Unconventional Methods of Marketing Communication

In the era of an information revolution customers come in contact with huge numbers of marketing messages in their everyday lives. This leads to so called, information noise, which may result in many messages going unnoticed. Thus marketing managers are forced to search for more effectively ways of getting customers’ attention and are more willingly to use unconventional promotional methods based on using original forms or places in an effort to create the element of surprise and make their message more eye-catching for the targeted audience. This kind of move tends to evoke strong emotions, motiving readers to pass the message on. Creating such a buzz around brand name would also enhance the campaign’s effect. Unfortunately, this form of communication also brings with it some negative effects due to controversial or taboo topics connected with sensitive social issues. An analysis of the advertising methods used by the owners of the most powerful Polish brands shows that there is some evidence of the use of such methods in Poland. Nevertheless unconventional advertising methods are not a commonly used practice.

Age at the time of exposure to trauma modulates the psychopathological profile in early psychosis patients

Objective: To examine the potential differential impact of childhood trauma, according to the age at the time of exposure, on the psychopathological profile of patients with early psychosis treated in a specialized 3-year program during the early phase of the disease. Methods: 196 subjects with early psychosis aged 18-35 years were followed up prospectively over 36 months of treatment between 2004 and 2010. Patients who had faced at least 1 experience of abuse (physical, sexual, or emotional) or neglect (physical or emotional) were classified according to age at the time of the first exposure (early trauma: before 12 years of age; late trauma: from age 12 through 16 years) and then compared with unexposed patients (nontrauma). The level of symptoms was assessed using the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale, the Young Mania Rating Scale, and the Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale. Results: Exposure to 1 or more forms of trauma before 16 years of age was present in 31.63% of patients. Comparisons over the 3 years of treatment with the nontrauma patients revealed that (1) patients with early trauma showed consistently higher levels of positive (P = .006), depressive (P = .001), manic (P = .006), and negative (P = .029) symptoms and (2) patients with late trauma showed only more negative symptoms (P = .029). Conclusions: These results suggest that the age at the time of exposure to trauma has a modulating effect on symptoms in patients with early psychosis. Various biological and psychological hypotheses can be proposed to explain this observation, and they need to be investigated in an experimental setting in order to develop therapeutic avenues.

Formulação do quadro estratégico e plano de marketing da Fundação Rebikoff-Niggeler

Mestrado em Marketing

Sustainable tourism practices through the eyes of the tourist: a case study of a tour operator

This internship report aim was to find out the importance of sustainable tourism practices from a tourist point of view. The research study and internship took place at Back-Roads Touring - a tour operator (based in London) that specializes in small group touring for seniors travellers from Australia, New Zealand, USA and Canada. Google Forms online questionnaire was used in order to answer the objectives of the study. In total 1322 clients received an online questionnaire out of which 182 filled in the survey. The study had four objectives, however the main focus was to find out which tourism practices ( out of 15 choices) were the most important to the respondents during a Back-Roads Tour and which tourism options (using the same 15 choices) the respondents identify as sustainable tourism options ( objective 2 and 3). The results showed that the respondents valued the most small group touring and having an experienced tour leader, which are the core practices of the company. Furthermore, the respondents were not seeking for more sustainable tourism practices neither willing to donate money to local charities/non- profit organizations. This finding shows that the clients are content with a current model of a tour, are willing to return, however price and quality will be play a key role in the decision. The respondents´ lack of wish to support or donate money to charities /non-profit organizations, could be due to the fact that most of the clients were from middle class thus they did not have enough disposable income. Moreover, one of the objectives of this study was to find out if the clients valued sustainable tourism certification. The results showed that the respondents’ were not aware of the sustainable tourism certification that the company obtained, however slightly over half of the respondents said that the knowledge of the certification has positively influenced them to travel again with a company.

The public interest of sports at non-profi t sports organizations that are supported by the government

This paper analyses the concept of public interest in sport and the criteria that must be taken into consideration in terms of Government support to clubs and sports associations. The data was collected through semi structured interviews that were applied to nine sports directors with board responsibilities: seven of them from sport clubs and sport associations, and two of them from public administration. The directors pointed out that sport is considered to be of public interest when: it is developed in the concept of “sport for all”, provides health benefi ts and serves as a means of education and social development. Regarding advantages used with public utility status, tax benefi ts and partnerships with the sports system organizations were the most mentioned aspects. Given a better use of fi nancial resources provided by public administration to clubs and associations, sport directors believe that the Government should have a strategy focused on setting priorities and ranking fi nancing criteria for sport. If the government had that strategy, the development of sports results would be much better. The participants also suggest that the Government should conduct an assessment of the social role of sport clubs and associations, according to the public and social interest of sport. In conclusion, sport and physical activity should be considered as public interest activities, provided that: are able to ensure positive effects on health plans and wellness, provide a qualitative and sustainable sport development, improve economic and social development of a population.

O setor privado sem fins lucrativos e as políticas públicas de esporte e lazer (2008-2011) = : The non-profitable private sector and the public policies for sport and leisure (2008-2011)

Universidade Estadual de Campinas . Faculdade de Educação Física