Electronic Commerce Research and Applications (ECRA) ECRA co-editors' introduction for volume 8, issue 5, September-October 2009

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Carbon Management for Sustainable Development: An examination of potential transition paths for the Saudi Arabian ‘national system of innovation’ towards a cleaner energy economy

PhDSince the first industrial revolution, rising carbon emissions have caused harmful effects on our environment. There is a broad consensus that climate change is happening and that it is as a result of anthropogenic carbon emissions, primarily from burning fossil fuels. This raises concern for the future of our carbon-based world energy and world economy, particularly with economies heavily dependent on oil, such as Saudi Arabia. This dissertation aims to answer the question: How could Saudi Arabia, given its oil-based economy and vast oil reserves, respond to the challenges of climate change and the world’s transitioning towards environmental sustainability, and away from fossil fuels. Two studies have been conducted, a quantitative study and a qualitative study. The first study examined the Saudi energy sector, 40 life cycle assessment (LCA) studies on both carbon capture and storage (CCS) and solar photovoltaic (Solar PV) were used to create 12 scenarios for 3 growth cases from year 2010 to 2025. Results showed massive reductions in carbon dioxide emissions in all scenarios. The second study examined the economy of Saudi Arabia, using 30 interviews with participants from across the economy, to materialise the Saudi national system of innovation. Major forces of the economy and their relationships have been identified and discussed. Using both studies, transition paths of the Saudi NSI towards a sustainable and cleaner energy economy were then constructed and discussed. A Saudi sustainable carbon management ‘system of innovation’ (SSCMSI) was proposed. Given Saudi Arabia’s heavy dependence on oil, which characterised its NSI fabric, constructing an NSI around its energy sector was important. The proposed SSCMSI role includes: accelerating innovation in the energy sector, encouraging energy efficiency, accelerating the use of renewable energy, improving market conditions, supporting technology transfer from advanced economies, utilising international cooperation and mobilizing private sector investment in energy.Yamani Cultural and Charitable Foundation YCCF scholarshi

Interacção 2010: actas da 4ª Conferência Nacional em Interacção Humano-Computador

Prefácio: Encontramo-nos perante mais uma edição do congresso nacional sobre Interacção, o “Interacção 2010”, um evento científico cuja regularidade tem permitido consolidar a sua natureza profundamente transdisciplinar. A referência do congresso continua a ser a área científica internacional de “Human-Computer Interaction”, uma área que tem ganhado relevância e valor no progresso sócio-económico desta última década, onde o ser humano e a coisa social assumem a prioridade que lhes é devida. O “Interacção” tem assumido sempre a condição da debater um vasto leque de temas, mas sempre em contextos de mediação tecnológica e onde o objectivo final é servir a condição humana. Esta edição continua a confirmar esta atitude que se reflecte nas grandes áreas temáticas que anunciou para submissão de trabalhos: Concepção, Desenvolvimento e Estudo da Interacção, Tecnologias e Aplicações de Suporte à Interacção, Aspectos Humanos, Sociais e Organizacionais, e Contextos de Interacção diversos. A resposta da comunidade científica nacional ao apelo de participação foi de extrema eficiência e riqueza. Foram submetidos um total de 64 artigos longos, artigos curtos e posters e/ou demos. O resultado da avaliação (“double-blind”) pelos revisores, e as conversões de formato sugeridas a alguns autores, conduziram a que o leitor venha a encontrar nestas actas 21 artigos longos, 20 artigos curtos e 15 posters. Por insuficiência de propostas de demos esta possibilidade de exposição não foi considerada. Esta quantidade crescente de trabalho em relação a edições anteriores do “Interacção”, e os três oradores convidados (2 internacionais e 1 nacional), originaram um programa de trabalho que incontornavelmente se estendeu a três dias de trabalho contrariando os tradicionais dois dias de congresso. O programa decorreu de 13 a 15 de Outubro de 2010 na Universidade de Aveiro e as 8 sessões que o caracterizaram foram organizadas respeitando os temas: i) Interfaces Multi-toque; ii) Interacção com Dispositivos Móveis; iii) Concepção e Desenvolvimento da Interacção; iv) Realidade Virtual e Aumentada; v) Visualização de Informação; vi) Videojogos e Interacção; vii) Acessibilidade e viii) Interacção em Contextos Diversos. Por fim, e porque um evento desta natureza não se consegue organizar sem a mobilização, o trabalho de grande qualidade e a dedicação de várias pessoas, importa agradecer a todos os elementos da Comissão Organizadora, e aos estudantes voluntários que ajudaram em toda a logística, bem como a todos os elementos da Comissão de Programa e aos revisores externos que também aceitaram analisar trabalhos submetidos. Aos nossos convidados, Francisco Providência, Jennifer Preece e Shahram Izadi, pela disponibilidade de estarem e partilharem connosco o seu conhecimento e experiência na área, o nosso sincero obrigado. Pelo papel fundamental de um secretariado profissional e eficiente fica ainda o nosso agradecimento à Anabela Viegas. Terminamos com o especial agradecimento a todos os autores e conferencistas que acreditaram na competência e rigor de toda esta equipa para acolher o seu trabalho e expô-lo publicamente. Despedimo-nos acreditando que o "Interacção" continuará por terras lusas, quiçá numa toada cada vez mais internacionalizada, e deixando votos para que a edição de 2012 seja pautada por igual sucesso e entusiasmo; a área da Interacção assim o exige e merece. Bem hajam. Aveiro, Outubro de 2010. Óscar Mealha, Daniel Tércio, Beatriz Sousa Santos, Joaquim Madeira.publishe

When Can Oil Economies Be Deemed Sustainable?

This open access book questions the stereotype depicting all Gulf (GCC) economies as not sustainable, and starts a critical discussion of what these economies and polities should do to guarantee themselves a relatively stable future. Volatile international oil markets and the acceleration of the energy transition has challenged the notion that oil revenues are sufficient to sustain oil economies in the near to medium term. But what is the meaning of economic sustainability? The book discusses the multiple dimensions of the concept: economic diversification, continuing value of resources, taxation and fiscal development, labor market sustainability, sustainable income distribution, environmental sustainability, political order (democracy or authoritarianism) and sustainability, regional integration. The overarching message in this book is that we should move on from the simplistic branding of the Gulf economies as unsustainable and tackle the details of which adaptations they might need to undertake

Energy Efficiency

Energy efficiency is finally a common sense term. Nowadays almost everyone knows that using energy more efficiently saves money, reduces the emissions of greenhouse gasses and lowers dependence on imported fossil fuels. We are living in a fossil age at the peak of its strength. Competition for securing resources for fuelling economic development is increasing, price of fuels will increase while availability of would gradually decline. Small nations will be first to suffer if caught unprepared in the midst of the struggle for resources among the large players. Here it is where energy efficiency has a potential to lead toward the natural next step - transition away from imported fossil fuels! Someone said that the only thing more harmful then fossil fuel is fossilized thinking. It is our sincere hope that some of chapters in this book will influence you to take a fresh look at the transition to low carbon economy and the role that energy efficiency can play in that process

Regulatory limitations and global stakeholder mapping of carbon capture and storage technology – a legal and multi-level perspective analysis

Carbon Capture and Sequestration Technology (CCS) is propounded as one of the key bridging technologies and temporary abatement measure in the battle against climate change. Not only is it based on well-established technology, used and improved upon for decades in the fossil fuels industry, but it also has the potential to remove vast quantities of CO2 from the atmosphere giving much needed alleviation away from climate tipping points. Despite these advantages, CCS has been slow to start and easy to stall, with financial risk and uncertainty, lack of regulatory cohesion and a disjointed policy mix all playing a part in impeding its commercialization. Systems Thinking and Transition Theory in particular have been widely adopted as methodologies which have the potential to elucidate the barriers to development in socio-technical systems of the likes of CCS. Using one such theory - Multi-Level Perspective Analysis - as an analytical framework, an in-depth investigation was performed of both the ‘Niche’ and ‘Regime’ of CCS. This was undertaken through a comprehensive legal and regulatory analysis and a global survey of 604 stakeholders involved in research and development throughout the technology chain. The combined examination of the legal and stakeholder system boundaries is used to set the ‘chessboard’ and ‘pieces’ upon which further analysis of the ‘combinations’ of moves open to CCS will be revealed. In essence, the regulatory and stakeholder configurations, which most lend themselves to CCS technology development, are explored and elucidated. This is done with the aim to address the knowledge gaps in the legal and regulatory requirements necessary for implementing CCS on a wider scale, as identified by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC, 2005).Open Acces

News on the Web in Arabic and English

In der vorliegenden Forschungsarbeit werden Nachrichten analysiert, die auf der englisch- bzw. der arabischsprachigen Website von CNN (Cable News Network) veröffentlicht wurden. Dabei wird von der Hypothese ausgegangen, dass CNN als Nachrichtenproduzentin Inhalte und Präsentationsweise der veröffentlichten Nachrichten den jeweiligen RezipientInnen anpasst. Weiters wird angenommen, dass - auch aufgrund der zunehmenden Bedeutung des Internets als Informationsquelle - die darin veröffentlichten Nachrichten eigene Charakteristika bezüglich der Form und des Inhalts entwickelt haben, sich daher von herkömmlichen Nachrichten unterscheiden und aus diesem Grund auch spezifischer Analyseinstrumente bedürfen. Die Forschungsarbeit ist interdisziplinär angelegt: Hauptsächlich in der Kritischen Diskursanalyse (CDA) verankert, bezieht sie auch Ansätze anderer Disziplinen und Zugänge, wie der Multimodalen Diskursanalyse, der Funktionalen Linguistik und der Translations-wissenschaften mit ein. Die analysierten Daten bestehen einerseits aus Nachrichten, die während eines einmonatigen Beobachtungszeitraums auf der englischen bzw. Der a rabischen Version der CNN-Website veröffentlicht wurden, andererseits aus einem Fragebogen, der an NachrichtennutzerInnen online ausgesandt wurde. Aus Gründen der Triangulation schließt die Analyse sowohl multimodale, quantitative als auch qualitative Fragestellungen zu Nachrichten und die Auswertung des Fragebogens mit ein. Die Ergebnisse der Forschungsarbeit sind: Das Internet hat sich zu einer wesentlichen Informationsquelle für viele Menschen entwickelt; in den jeweiligen Nachrichtenbeiträgen ist das geschriebene Material im Vergleich zu anderen multimodalen Elementen dominant; die verglichenen Websites adressieren ihre jeweilige Leserschaft mittels eines jeweils völlig unterschiedlichen Diskurses, indem sie Texte mit verschiedenen linguistischen, kulturellen und ideologischen Implikationen verwenden; aus der Auswertung des Fragebogens geht hervor, dass die Berichterstattung von CNN hinsichtlich Verlässlichkeit und Ausgewogenheit der Nachrichten von den Befragten als vorwiegend negativ bewertet wird. Außerdem zeigt sich, dass die Übersetzung von Nachrichten als ein Prozess des „Neu-Schreibens“ verstanden werden kann: Es entstehen völlig neue Nachrichten, die jeweils abhängig von den zugrunde liegenden ideologischen Positionen sind. Die in den Translationswissenschaften bisher verwendeten Methoden sind nicht darauf ausgerichtet, einer Analyse von Texten dieser Art gerecht zu werden. Weiters haben sich DiskursforscherInnen bis dato mehr auf monolinguale Texte als auf sprachübergreifende Diskurse konzentriert. Es erscheint daher erstrebenswert und ratsam, die behandelten Fragestellungen weiter zu bearbeiten, sowie einen kontrastiven Ansatz der Kritischen Diskursanalyse zu entwickeln, um diese Art von Texten adäquat analysieren zu können.This research consists of an analysis of the news presented by the CNN (Cable News Network) on its websites in Arabic and English. It is based on the hypothesis that the CNN as a news producer modifies the news content and presentation according to the audience it addresses. It is also assumed that, as the Web has actually become an important source of news, distinctive features of form and content are used, making web-news different from other traditional types of news and requiring different analytical tools. The research is interdisciplinary in nature. It is based mainly in the field of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), with insights from other disciplines, such as multimodal discourse analysis, functional linguistics and translation studies. The analysed data consisted of stories collected from both sites in Arabic and English during a one-month period, as well as a users’ questionnaire distributed and collected online. For the purpose of triangulation, the analysis included multimodal, quantitative and qualitative analyses of the collected websites stories and the questionnaire data. The research concludes that the Web has become a major news source for many people; the written material is more dominant compared to other multimodal elements; the websites in question address each public using a completely different discourse, i.e. using texts with different linguistic, cultural and ideological implications; and that negative views are widespread concerning CNN's reporting, reliability and balance. It also emerges that news translation is rather a process of re-writing, providing totally new products depending on different ideological positions. Translation studies tools are not adequately designed for analysing this type of text production and discourse analysis scholars have concentrated more on monolingual texts than on cross-linguistic discourse. It is therefore considered desirable and advisable to conduct further research that looks into these questions and to develop a contrastive critical discourse analysis approach for investigating them

Energy Transition and Climate Change in Decision-making Processes

There is a growing concern about the climate; numerous voices stress that, in order to overcome the climate crisis, the transition to a low-carbon society is the most reasonable path to follow. In this type of society, individuals would be characterized by making mindful efforts to drastically decrease carbon and greenhouse gas emissions, and promote benign energy sources. In order to facilitate this transition, a social perspective in addition to technological, political and economic aspects must be integrated into the relevant decision-making processes. This is necessary because the public can strongly affect actions aimed at driving profound changes in traditional energy systems. To contribute to the effort of promoting energy transition, the Editors of this book invited scholars and practitioners conducting research in the areas of climate change and the energy transition to submit their work. This book includes studies that establish a valuable source of information which can be used to enhance decision-making processes which, in turn, can turn the energy transition into reality. Hopefully, efforts such as this collection of knowledge can help economies make a step towards a secure and sustainable energy future in which renewables will have replaced the centuries-long human dependence on fossil fuels