An Exploratory Study on how Weblog Technologies fit Virtual Community Members\u27 Social Needs

Initially perceived to be a medium for amateur journalists and other individuals to share their knowledge, weblog appear to suddenly merge into the community building tool of choice for young people. This study explores this new use of weblog and how technology creates this new wave of social community by fulfilling the bloggers’ needs

Examining online knowledge contribution from the digital identity perspective

Master'sMASTER OF SCIENC

Evaluating the task-technology fit of e-readers in the South African secondary school environment

The purpose of this research was to evaluate the task-technology fit of e-book readers in the South African secondary school environment. Many information system performance models put a large focus on the user’s intention to use the system. For educational e-book reader evaluations this is different, as learners are not always given a choice between e-books and printed books. A case study of the EduReader, a popular South African e-reader used in secondary schools, was presented to highlight the current technology characteristics of this e-reader. Learners who use the e-book reader in South African schools were interviewed. The interview data and the case study were used to identify the task requirements of secondary school learners and the technology characteristics of the EduReader e-reader. Task requirements were identified from interview transcripts using process and descriptive coding across the data set. The resulting model shows a set of the technology characteristics of the EduReader e-reader and the task requirements of its users, identifying the gaps in the e-book reader’s technology characteristics. A model was presented that shows the fit between task requirements and technology characteristics as a precursor of e-book utilisation in South African secondary schools. This model can be reused by researchers in a generic fashion to determine the task-technology fit of other e-book readers in South African secondary schools. As a practical contribution this dissertation presented a set of task-technology fit guidelines in the form of 30 true/false statements that e-book developers/designers can apply when developing an e-book reader for the South African secondary educational sector. The guidelines are categorised per task requirement identified in this dissertation and developers can exclude sections which are not applicable to the application they develop.Dissertation (MCom)--University of Pretoria, 2018.TM2019InformaticsMComUnrestricte

Definición de una arquitectura software para dar soporte a comunidades de voluntarios en emergencias

.La gestión de emergencias es un dominio complejo que abarca desde la prevención y preparación ante posibles situaciones de emergencias hasta la respuesta y recuperación ante las mismas. Dentro de este dominio, las comunidades de voluntarios desempeñan una labor que es considerada fundamental. Estas comunidades se componen de individuos que, movidos por un interés común por la gestión de emergencias y su efecto en la sociedad, se asocian y colaboran altruistamente con organismos y agencias oficiales de Protección Civil. Fruto de esta colaboración, desarrollan una práctica compartida en consonancia con los propósitos, normas y valores establecidos tanto por la comunidad como por los organismos y agencias con las que colaboran. La inclusión de tecnologías de información como medio para mejorar el desempeño de las comunidades es una realidad que ha ido adquiriendo una relevancia creciente. En este sentido, las tecnologías de la información son reconocidas como un instrumento conveniente para asistir la actividad desarrollada dentro de estas estructuras, facilitando la colaboración y la práctica en las comunidades. El proceso de diseño y construcción de sistemas software para dar soporte a este tipo de comunidades es una tarea intrínsecamente compleja. En primer lugar, esta complejidad viene determinada por la propia naturaleza del sistema software a desarrollar. Se trata de sistemas compuestos por módulos y servicios interdependientes, los cuales deben orquestarse para soportar procesos de elevada complejidad, tal y como pueden ser la colaboración, la coordinación o la gestión del conocimiento compartido. Además, la naturaleza compleja de este tipo de sistemas se ve acrecentada por las características propias del dominio en el que se pretende implantar. El voluntariado en emergencias es un dominio con importantes particularidades, y en el que contar con sistemas eficaces es fundamental debido a la inherente criticidad en las actividades desarrolladas. A fin de superar estas dificultades, el objetivo de la presente tesis doctoral es definir una arquitectura software que establezca la estructura, componentes y relaciones que deben considerarse al desarrollar herramientas software orientadas a dar soporte a comunidades en el dominio específico del voluntariado en emergencias. En concreto, tomando como referencia una estructura multicapa y orientada a servicios, esta arquitectura consta de una capa de da-tos, que describe la semántica del dominio, y una serie de capas de servicios que formalizan las necesidades funcionales de este tipo de comunidades. La aplicación de diversos métodos de evaluación ha permitido comprobar la calidad y utilidad de la solución de cara a la construcción de herramientas software que sirvan de apoyo a la colaboración dentro de estas comunidades de voluntarios. Asimismo, se han podido identificar una serie de trabajos futuros que se encaminan principalmente a la profundización en el estudio del papel de la tecnología para el desarrollo de las comunidades. Como resultado del trabajo se han realizado distintas contribuciones en el ámbito del diseño software para dar soporte a comunidadesEmergency management is a complex context that covers from prevention and preparedness of potential crisis situations, to response and recovery when these situations occur. Within this domain, communities of volunteers are recognized as a fundamental staff. These com-munities are composed by individuals who share a common interest in the emergency domain and therefore come together to altruistically collaborate with the official Civil Protection organisms and agencies. As a consequence of this collaboration, they develop a shared practice according to the objectives, values, and norms established by both the community and the organisms they collaborate with. The inclusion of information technologies as a way of improving the performance of com-munities is a reality which is becoming more and more relevant. In this sense, information technology is considered a convenient instrument to support community activity, facilitating collaboration and practice within these structures. The process of designing and building community-based information systems is an intrinsically complex task. Firstly, this complexity is derived from the nature of the system tin question. These systems are composed by modules and interdependent services that need to be orchestrated to support highly complex processes such as collaboration, coordination, or knowledge management. Moreover, the complex nature of this type of system is enhanced by the specific characteristics of the domain in which is implemented. Emergency volunteering domain has relevant particularities that must be addressed as well as requiring effective systems to deal with the inherent criticality of the activities developed within such domain. In order to overcome these drawbacks, this research thesis aims at defining a software architecture that establishes the structure, components and relations to be considered to construct community-based tools for the specific domain of emergency volunteering. Based on a layered service structure, this architecture is composed by a data layer and a set of service layers. The data layer describes the semantic of the domain while the services layers formalize the functional needs of this kind of community. The application of different evaluation methods has allowed the validation of the quality and the utility of the solution to guide the construction of community-based tools that assist collaboration within the emergency volunteering domain. Furthermore, it has been identified a number of research issues for further work. These issues are mainly oriented towards a more in-depth focus on studying the role that technology plays in community development. As a result of this work, diverse contributions to the area of software design for supporting and building communities have been established.Programa Oficial de Doctorado en Ciencia y Tecnología InformáticaPresidente: Víctor Amadeo Bañuls Silvera.- Secretario: Marco Romano.- Vocal: Francisco Martín Ric