Performance assessment of technical reports as a channel of information for development : a Lesotho case study.

Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2002.The study aims to assess performance of Technical Reports as a channel of information for development in the Lesotho context. It concurrently evaluates how a specialized information unit of the Institute of Southern African Studies (lSAS) has performed in its obligation to devise adequate mechanisms for managing the report literature and meeting the development-related needs of users. In order to achieve that aim, the study contextualized development as a process, state, and condition and highlighted some development indicators for Lesotho. Agriculture and gender were selected as sectors of development. Global conferences, as one of the many development strategies that generate technical reports heavily, were used as a benchmark. In the performance and impact assessment methodologies, case study techniques were applied with ISAS as a site and one unit ofanalysis. Technical Reports (TRs) on Lesotho were studied. Triangulation approaches were applied in sourcing data. The academics, information workers, government officials, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and aid agencies based in Lesotho were surveyed. Research questions that guided the study centred on the productivity, distribution of technical reports, their management by intermediaries, use, non-use and the effects thereon. Seven types ofTechnical Reports feature in the development process, namely Academic, Project, Conference, Survey, Enquiry, Official and Special Committee Reports. Technical Reports are produced at varying levels depending on needs and approaches to development by producers or commissioning bodies. Academic Reports are authored mostly by the academics. The Government, Aid agencies and NGOs produce widely through external consultants/experts, who utilize centres such as ISAS where commissioning bodies do not have information services. TRs productivity is high and diverse in Lesotho, but capacity to manage the output is seemingly low, and hence under-utilization results; ISAS's out-dated mission, lack of, or limited resources and dejure national support in the form of acts and statutes affect the Institute's Technical Reports' services. Production is gender biased, thus making for imbalance in reporting on development. Agriculture as a sector is heavily researched and reported about, but the benefits to the populace are either few or non-existent. Restricted materials are estimated at 30%, but most ofthe TRs are unaccounted for. Hoarding and poor records or information management leave a vacuum that leads to a duplication of previous studies and production. The study confirmed that technical reports are required by all the surveyed groups. Technical Reports are not ofa transient nature even though they reach a peak oftopicality and use at certain periods. Where the channel conveys factual data timeously, there are developmental benefits. Low or non-use is common where there are no specialized information services especially within the civil service. Such negative factors cause delays and infrequent currency, inadequate reporting and erroneous budgetary allocations, for example. Seeminglythere is no clarity on what restricted, secret and limited materials mean. Major recommendations were made. One concerned an integrated approach to managing the channel. This would involve preparing a Manual for the production of Technical Reports which would clarify how to prepare them; for instance, the caliber of personneVexperts who should author reports, the conditions to be observed, the timeliness production, reliability of data used, and centres that would be acknowledged to then qualify for commensurate financial and other support. The other proposes that the envisaged National Research Council be given the powers to enforce the guidelines ofthe manual and related functions. The last recommends assigning to the documentalistsfor classified Technical Reports, the role of managing classified items. Consideration should also be given to important issues raised in the study, being the role of Information, Communication and Technologies (lCTs), sectors of development to be attended to, training and networking in technical report\s. Further studies are also recommended mainly for the causes and effects of the closures of information services that managed technical reports' in southern Africa; longitudinal studies on the impact of non-use oftechnical reports in major sectors ofdevelopment like Agriculture; comparative studies on the impact of specialized centres in the developed and developing countries. Further action is urged under the aegis ofbodies like the Standing Conference ofEastem, Central and Southern African Librarians (SCECSAL), Standing Conference of National and University Librarians

Marsh Hermeneutics: Performing Sites of Disorientation

The aim of this thesis is to perform an originary ‘Disorientation’ of particular sites: one that attempts to performatively tune into and map the affective technological patina of the past as a willing displacement of the present as Real Time. Disorientation is a theoretical term I take from philosopher Bernard Stiegler – and through which he, after Derrida, locates the historical ruptures brought about by successive phases of technology as externalisations of memory, as the medium of individual and collective individuation. My aim is to move an understanding of Disorientation from this solely theoretical realm to that of practice, as a willingly generative modality: to perform an understanding of place as originary technics, symbolised by the mythographic site of the marsh. Disorientation is thus uniquely understood at the material level of place itself, as its originary mode. To perform this, I develop a method of ‘Anachronic Collision’ whose fundamental elements are the tripartite relation between tool, site and personae that, when activated, release the effect of Disorientation. At the centre of this is a ‘Blind Spot of Technicity’ whose modality is spatialised delay, at stake in which is a questioning of the smoothness and speed of the past’s recall in digitised culture, as adverse Disorientation. Contra thinking Stiegler’s Disorientation solely as an effect of memory’s externalisation, this thesis perversely attempts to conjure that which has never occurred in the past, and thus what is not indexed as nostalgic loss through technology. In my multi-disciplinary art practice, this revenant zone is mapped across radio; sculptural installations; re-enactment performances; printmaking, and spoken word, as a repetitive and inter-temporal relationship with the terrain that moves between Disorientation as mode and effect. To start this ‘Marshography,’ Chapter 1 sets the scene for Disorientation in the marshes of ancient Mesopotamia, as figured in the technicity of the cuneiform tablet, the earliest known writing. Preforming the cuneiform tablet, I make manifests the ‘Marsh Regime’ as the first pre-existent technics, and the source of Ur-Disorientation. Chapter 2 is a case study of Antonin Artaud and his methodology, including props, itinerancy and hole making, which outlines his spell-casting practice as an imbrication with the geological. Chapter 3 develops both previous chapters through formulating re-enactments of a geological form of dérive through my own practice, and an emphasis on the minor mode of comedy. Ultimately, this thesis conceives of Disorientation as the original currency of spatio-temporal collaging, the originary force of life: an intervention on the ground of individuation

Typology of Web 2.0 spheres: Understanding the cultural dimensions of social media spaces

It has taken the past decade to commonly acknowledge that online space is tethered to real place. From euphoric conceptualizations of social media spaces as a novel, unprecedented and revolutionary entity, the dust has settled, allowing for talk of boundaries and ties to real-world settings. Metaphors have been instrumental in this pursuit, shaping perceptions and affecting actions within this extended structural realm. Specifically, they have been harnessed to architect Web 2.0 spaces, be it chatrooms, electronic frontiers, homepages, or information highways for policy and practice. While metaphors are pervasive in addressing and

Mining Meaning from Wikipedia

Wikipedia is a goldmine of information; not just for its many readers, but also for the growing community of researchers who recognize it as a resource of exceptional scale and utility. It represents a vast investment of manual effort and judgment: a huge, constantly evolving tapestry of concepts and relations that is being applied to a host of tasks. This article provides a comprehensive description of this work. It focuses on research that extracts and makes use of the concepts, relations, facts and descriptions found in Wikipedia, and organizes the work into four broad categories: applying Wikipedia to natural language processing; using it to facilitate information retrieval and information extraction; and as a resource for ontology building. The article addresses how Wikipedia is being used as is, how it is being improved and adapted, and how it is being combined with other structures to create entirely new resources. We identify the research groups and individuals involved, and how their work has developed in the last few years. We provide a comprehensive list of the open-source software they have produced.Comment: An extensive survey of re-using information in Wikipedia in natural language processing, information retrieval and extraction and ontology building. Accepted for publication in International Journal of Human-Computer Studie

About reading seen as a Commons

International audienceThe purpose of this article is to suggest that reading can be understood as a potential 'Commons', e.g. at the very least a shared and deep sense of inhabiting, with other readers, a common domain afforded by literature or books at large. The article traverses the field of existing literature on historical and contemporary reading practice, combining previous findings in Book History with the emerging field of digital writing and reading studies in order to find points of commonalities reconnecting current digital practices with the long history of print modes. Recent technological changes are thus put into perspective, while the discussion suggests that the social imagery, as well as the societal impact attached to reading, makes it akin to a sort of Knowledge Commons. The latter part of the essay presents a brief survey of the reading habits of two small groups of African students and brings it into dialogue with occidental reading standards such as those exhibited in a North American newspaper's literary column. This case study generates reflections on the possible differences in opportunities offered to potential readers from different communities and examines whether standards that are widely accepted and taken for granted by an occidental community of readers can be considered as equally common to or fully shared by another community such as the African students surveyed on the topic

Practice Research - Report 1: What is practice research? and Report 2: How can practice research be shared?

Practice research has a history stretching as far back as the earliest human experiments: practice is a method of discovering and sharing new findings about the world that surrounds us. In recent years, scholarly communication has undergone a series of changes that have led to a broadening of the landscape of academic research, due in part to the emergence of practice research in the academy. The formulation and dissemination of practice research affords an important opportunity for researchers in England across all research disciplines, offering a research field that conveys ways of knowing from practice, operating within, across and beyond disciplines in manners that go far beyond traditional research types. In practice research, forms of sensory, tacit and embodied knowledge can be conveyed, and its sharing presents an opportunity for the modernising and revitalising of research communication, uncovering novel dissemination routes in the digital era. In response to the conversations that have arisen across the world surrounding practice research, these reports seek to clarify the debates, discussions and promise of the practice research community in England. These reports: - provide insights and recommendations to practice researchers, and to the organisations and professionals that support practice research; - demonstrate that practice research enriches not just higher education, but learning and knowledge acquisition in other contexts including creative industries, scientific settings, non-profit organisations and independent bodies. Practice researchers are discovering new ways of generating and sharing research, embracing non-traditional types of publication. In a world whose day-to-day is rife with mixed-media and non-textual information, it is time for academic research to embrace non-textual media and formats, and the vast ever-developing array of novel communicative technologies that are used in our everyday lives. We have written these reports with the aim of reaching a diverse range of audiences, from students to researchers inside and outside of academia, from research support professionals to senior university research managers, from independent and non profit research organisations to those individuals and committees that weigh and decide policy and funding in future years

Open Education

"This insightful collection of essays explores the ways in which open education can democratise access to education for all. It is a rich resource that offers both research and case studies to relate the application of open technologies and approaches in education settings around the world. Global in perspective, this book argues strongly for the value of open education in both the developed and developing worlds. Through a mixture of theoretical and practical approaches, it demonstrates that open education promotes ideals of inclusion, diversity, and social justice to achieve the vision of education as a fundamental human right. A must-read for practitioners, policy-makers, scholars and students in the field of education.

Competing realities, diverse needs : an inter-disciplinary approach to religious engagement with HIV prevention and care

The World Health Organisation/ UNAIDS and the UK's HIV-related public health policies are premised on universal access to information, treatment and care. With a focus on wider determinants of health, such rights-based approaches and their associated commitment to consistent HIV prevention messages and effective care include also a requirement to be respectful of and sensitive to religio-cultural beliefs and practices. There is evidence that access to HIV information and care can be restricted by the moral codes, beliefs and teachings which determine some religious responses to HIV, those, for example, which address issues of sexuality and gender, identity and belonging, authority and power. With a particular interest in a UK context of religio-cultural diversity, this study asks whether existing strategic public health responses to HIV prevention and care are adequate to the multiplicity of psychosocial realities and needs of a diverse community. The study follows comparative interpretative approaches and draws on a range of theoretical perspectives, primarily those of sociology, anthropology and psychology. It identifies the potential for dialogical compatabilities between public health practice and practical theology. Gathering and analysing data and discourse this interdisciplinary, qualitative investigation examines religion-informed responses to HIV prevention and care. With a small-scale localised study positioning the content and authority of religious belief on responses to HIV prevention and care in a UK Midlands city of high religio- cultural diversity, the primary and secondary data are 'grounded' in the experience of a local community. In its tracing of the multiple realities of HIV in contexts of global and local religio - cultural diversity, the study finds that global dimensions of HIV touch the local in unavoidable and diverse ways Religion-defined identity and belonging are valued by people affected by HIV and the communities of which they are part, but the stigmatizing impact of HIV, often reinforced by religious beliefs and teachings, generates anxieties about the disclosure of a diagnosis, the initiation of open discussion and access to HIV information and care. Constraints on the access of sexual minorities, young people and women can raise particular concern. In situations of diverse need and contested reality quests for coherent meaning, identity and belonging confront a public health preference for consistent HIV health messages and for accessible and effective programmes of HIV information, support and care. The study evidences diverse and often competing perspectives on HIV and highlights the need for health and social care services and religious groups to have greater awareness of the extensive complexities which the realities of diversity bring to HIV prevention policy design and service delivery. Complexity theory and practical theology inform a new and integrative model for theological, epidemiological and public health partnering through which the inadequacies in both religion-informed responses to HIV and public health HIV prevention and care policy and service delivery can be addressed.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo