Sustainable tourism in geoparks through geotourism and networking

Esta tese analisa o papel desempenhado pelos geoparques e pelo geoturismo para a sustentabilidade socio-económica e sociocultural das áreas rurais e de que forma estes contribuem para o turismo sustentável. Para esse efeito, o estudo é baseado numa extensa revisão da literatura sobre geoparques, geoturismo e turismo sustentável, bem como a atividade em rede e inovação aplicada aos geoparques registados na Rede Global de Geoparques. Com base na revisão da literatura, uma série de hipóteses são formuladas para serem depois testadas na parte empírica da tese. A população estudada constou dos geoparques registados na Rede Global de Geoparques (N = 64), em 2009, a nível internacional. O primeiro questionário investigou o papel dos geoparques no desenvolvimento rural e O segundo questionário analisou a atividade em rede entre geoparques e avaliar a taxa de conectividade da Rede Global de Geoparques e da Rede Europeia de Geoparques. A realização de entrevistas a nível local permitiram revelar os efeitos significativos e tangíveis da criação de geoparques no desenvolvimento local. Assim, foi selecionado o Qeshm Geopark (Irão) como estudo de caso, e as comunidades locais que vivem nas aldeias vizinhas do geoparque foram entrevistados. Os dados foram analisados através de softwares de apoio à análise quantitativa, qualitativa e de redes, tais como o SPSS, NVivo e Pajek, respetivamente. Este último foi utilizado para produzir uma imagem da rede de relacionamento social entre os geoparques entrevistados. Com base nesses resultados uma série de implicações são sugeridas, bem como algumas recomendações para futuras pesquisas. Para além disso, a fim de investigar o papel do estabelecimento do Qeshm Geopark para o desenvolvimento rural, o trabalho de campo envolveu ainda entrevistas face a face com as comunidades locais e três matrizes SWOT foram projetadas para uma melhor gestão dos geoparques. Utilizando ambas as abordagens qualitativa e quantitativa, esta tese visa contribuir para uma melhor compreensão do novo nicho de mercado que constitui o geoturismo, bem como dos novos destinos desenvolvidos em torno dos geoparque.

Advancements and Challenges towards a Collaborative Framework for 3D Tele-Immersive Social Networking

Social experiences realized through teleconferencing systems are still quite different from face to face meetings. The awareness that we are online and in a, to some extent, lesser real world are preventing us from really engaging and enjoying the event. Several reasons account for these differences and have been identified. We think it is now time to bridge these gaps and propose inspiring and innovative solutions in order to provide realistic, believable and engaging online experiences. We present a distributed and scalable framework named REVERIE that faces these challenges and provides a mix of these solutions. Applications built on top of the framework will be able to provide interactive, truly immersive, photo-realistic experiences to a multitude of users that for them will feel much more similar to having face to face meetings than the experience offered by conventional teleconferencing systems.

Replicating the Networking, Mentoring and Venture Creation Benefits of Entrepreneurship Centres on a Shoestring: A Student-centred Approach to Entrepreneurship Education and Venture Creation

As support for both university-level entrepreneurial education and the use of experiential learning methods to foster student entrepreneurs increases, so too have the number of university-established or affiliated entrepreneurship centers. The activity at the center of this study aimed to combine experiential learning methods with assets associated with entrepreneurship centers, including venture creation, networking, and mentoring. Students were invited to participate in a competition wherein they were guided through the business creation process and pitched their ideas to investor judges who chose the winner and provided capital start-up funding and consulting. This research puts forth that university faculty at institutions without entrepreneurship centers can organize experiences to provide the benefits of entrepreneurship centers. The study used interviews to find that many of the benefits of entrepreneurship centers were able to be replicated using this method. The project is outlined, outcomes are analyzed, and the results and lessons learned are discussed.

Supporting the learning and networking experiences of doctoral students

This study explores the impact of a Graduate Virtual Research Environment (GVRE) on the learning and networking experiences of research students. The GVRE was established to support and enhance research skills and employability training across a university. It provides an extensive range of resources including video reflections based on the experiences of students and staff; GVRE members are encouraged to comment and engage in discussions on these resources. Our work is framed using social theories of learning and the role of communities in the support and development of research students. In particular, we are interested in exploring the challenges involved in developing communities and networks for students whose main focus is their individual research. The GVRE was made available to over 600 students and in this research we explore its impact on the experiences of research students. In particular, we investigate four questions: (a) what impact does the students use of the GVRE have on the development of their research skills; (b) what impact does membership of the GVRE have on the networks and communities of research students; (c) how do research students view the relationships between their research skills training programme, their individual research and the GVRE; and (d) how do research students currently use social media. We use an interpretivist approach and our data sources include site statistics, responses to a questionnaire and also feedback from a focus group. Our findings indicate that networking remains an issue and students suggested approaches to facilitating this using the GVRE: (1) A clearer pathway from skills need identification to skills acquisition; (2) Rewards for activities around networking - possibly through credit on the training scheme; (3) Activities that would involve research directly. Feedback on the GVRE indicated that it is valued by research students as it facilitates the development of their research skills. In terms of marketing the GVRE to research students important factors identified were: the ease of access to the site, the overview it gives of the PhD process; and the value of the site to students around the defining moments of their studies when the students felt they needed additional advice and guidance.

Enterprise Social Networking

Microblogging in the workplace as a functionality of Enterprise Social Networking (ESN) platforms is a relatively new phenomenon of which the use in knowledge work has not yet received much attention from research. In this cross-sectional study, I attempt to shed light on the role of microblogging in knowledge work. I identify microblogging use practices of knowledge workers on ESN platforms, and I identify its role in supporting knowledge work performance. A questionnaire is carried out among a non-representative sample of knowledge workers. The results shed light on the purposes of the microblogging messages that knowledge workers write. It also helps us find out whether microblogging supports them in performing their work. The survey is based on existing theory that supplied me with possible microblog purposes as well as theory on what the actions of knowledge workers are. The results reveal that “knowledge & news sharing”, “crowd sourcing”, “socializing & networking” and “discussion & opinion” are frequent microblog purposes. The study furthermore shows that microblogging benefits knowledge workers’ work. Microblogging seems to be a worthy addition to the existing means of communication in the workplace, and is especially useful to let knowledge, news and social contact reach a further and broader audience than it would in a situation without this social networking service.

Cartilla Networking

Desarrollo empresarial y creación de empresa

Students’ Use and Perceptions of Social Networking Technologies: Connections to Reading, Reading Ability, and Self-Perception

Abstract This study was undertaken to examine traditional forms of literacy and the newest form of literacy: technology. Students who have trouble reading traditional forms of literacy tend to have lower self-esteem. This research intended to explore if students with reading difficulties and, therefore, lower self-esteem, could use Social Networking Technologies including text messaging, Facebook, email, blogging, MySpace, or Twitter to help improve their self-esteem, in a field where spelling mistakes and grammatical errors are commonplace, if not encouraged. A collective case study was undertaken based on surveys, individual interviews, and gathered documents from 3 students 9-13 years old. The data collected in this study were analyzed and interpreted using qualitative methods. These cases were individually examined for themes, which were then analyzed across the cases to examine points of convergence and divergence in the data. The research found that students with reading difficulties do not necessarily have poor self-esteem, as prior research has suggested (Carr, Borkowski, & Maxwell, 1991; Feiler, & Logan, 2007; Meece, Wigfield, & Eccles, 1990; Pintirch & DeGroot, 1990; Pintrich & Garcia, 1991). All of the participants who had reading difficulties, were found both through interviews and the CFSEI-3 self-esteem test (Battle, 2002) to have average self-esteem, although their parents all stated that their child felt poorly about their academic abilities. The research also found that using Social Networking Technologies helped improve the self-esteem of the majority of the participants both socially and academically.

Health promotion program implementation, a socio-technical networking process : a case study of a school-based nutrition intervention

Thèse numérisée par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal.

Towards a Privacy-enhanced Social Networking Site

L’avénement des réseaux sociaux, tel que Facebook, MySpace et LinkedIn, a fourni une plateforme permettant aux individus de rester facilement connectés avec leurs amis, leurs familles ou encore leurs collègues tout en les encourageant activement à partager leurs données personnelles à travers le réseau. Avec la richesse des activités disponibles sur un réseau social, la quantité et la variété des informations personnelles partagées sont considérables. De plus, de part leur nature numérique, ces informations peuvent être facilement copiées, modifiées ou divulguées sans le consentement explicite de leur propriétaire. Ainsi, l’information personnelle révélée par les réseaux sociaux peut affecter de manière concrète la vie de leurs utilisateurs avec des risques pour leur vie privée allant d’un simple embarras à la ruine complète de leur réputation, en passant par l’usurpation d’identité. Malheureusement, la plupart des utilisateurs ne sont pas conscients de ces risques et les outils mis en place par les réseaux sociaux actuels ne sont pas suffisants pour protéger efficacement la vie privée de leurs utilisateurs. En outre, même si un utilisateur peut contrôler l’accès à son propre profil, il ne peut pas contrôler ce que les autres révèlent à son sujet. En effet, les “amis” d’un utilisateur sur un réseau social peuvent parfois révéler plus d’information à son propos que celui-ci ne le souhaiterait. Le respect de la vie privée est un droit fondamental pour chaque individu. Nous pré- sentons dans cette thèse une approche qui vise à accroître la prise de conscience des utilisateurs des risques par rapport à leur vie privée et à maintenir la souveraineté sur leurs données lorsqu’ils utilisent un réseau social. La première contribution de cette thèse réside dans la classification des risques multiples ainsi que les atteintes à la vie privée des utilisateurs d’un réseau social. Nous introduisons ensuite un cadre formel pour le respect de la vie privée dans les réseaux sociaux ainsi que le concept de politique de vie privée (UPP). Celle-ci définie par l’utilisateur offre une manière simple et flexible de spécifier et communiquer leur attentes en terme de respect de la vie privée à d’autres utilisateurs, tiers parties ainsi qu’au fournisseur du réseau social. Par ailleurs, nous dé- finissons une taxonomie (possiblement non-exhaustive) des critères qu’un réseau social peut intégrer dans sa conception pour améliorer le respect de la vie privée. En introduisant le concept de réseau social respectueux de la vie privée (PSNS), nous proposons Privacy Watch, un réseau social respectueux de la vie privée qui combine les concepts de provenance et d’imputabilité afin d’aider les utilisateurs à maintenir la souveraineté sur leurs données personnelles. Finalement, nous décrivons et comparons les différentes propositions de réseaux sociaux respectueux de la vie privée qui ont émergé récemment. Nous classifions aussi ces différentes approches au regard des critères de respect de la vie privée introduits dans cette thèse.

Webhosting and Networking

Page 1. Webhosting and Networking G. Santhosh Kumar, Dept. of Computer Science Cochin University of Science and Technology Page 2. Agenda What is a Network? Elements of a Network Hardware Software Ethernet Technology World Wide Web Setting up a Network Conclusion Page 3. What is a Network? An interconnected system of things or people Purpose of a Network? Resource Sharing Communication LANs have become the most popular form of Computer Networks Page 4. Principle of Locality of Reference Temporal Locality of Reference ...

Current Trends in Wireless Networking

Current Trends in Wireless Networking. DigitalLibrary@CUSAT. ...

Enhancing learning beyond the classroom: blogging and other social networking tools

Blogging has become one of the key ingredients of the so-called socials networks. This phenomenon has indeed invaded the world of education. Connections between people, comments on each other posts, and assessment of innovation are usually interesting characteristics of blogs related to students and scholars. Blogs have become a kind of new form of authority, bringing about (divergent) discussions which lead to creation of knowledge. The use of blogs as an innovative, educational tool is not at all new. However, their use in universities is not very widespread yet. Blogging for personal affairs is rather commonplace, but blogging for professional affairs – teaching, research and service, is scarce, despite the availability of ready-to-use, free tools. Unfortunately, Information Society has not reached yet enough some universities: not only are (student) blogs scarcely used as an educational tool, but it is quite rare to find a blog written by University professors. The Institute of Computational Chemistry of the University of Girona and the Department of Chemistry of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona has joined forces to create “InnoCiència”, a new Group on Digital Science Communitation. This group, formed by ca. ten researchers, has promoted the use of blogs, twitters. wikis and other tools of Web 2.0 in activities in Catalonia concerning the dissemination of Science, like Science Week, Open Day or Researchers’ Night. Likewise, its members promote use of social networking tools in chemistry- and communication-related courses. This communication explains the outcome of social-network experiences with teaching undergraduate students and organizing research communication events. We provide live, hands-on examples and interactive ground to show how blogs and twitters can be used to enhance the yield of teaching and research. Impact of blogging and other social networking tools on the outcome of the learning process is very depending on the target audience and the environmental conditions. A few examples are provided and some proposals to use these techniques efficiently to help students are hinted

Resum del curs "Networking professional"

Resum del curs “Networking professional”, organitzat pel COBDC. On es plantegen els conceptes bàsics relacionats amb el networking i quina utilitat pot tenir a la feina

Networking

Lecture notes and readings on networking: the telegraph, the internet and the OSI model.