The Qualitative Analysis of Factors Influencing the Adoption Rate of Reward-Based Crowdfunding by Polish Filmmakers

The aim of this article is to analyze and discuss the factors impacting the process of the implementation of crowdfunding by the Polish film industry. The presented study is based on the qualitative approach: unstructured or semistructured interviews, questionnaires and the analysis of case studies. The respondents enumerated and evaluated a wide spectrum of factors facilitating and hindering the adoption rate: from general barriers (e.g. legal regulation of crowdfunding) to very specific aspects for filmmaking (e.g. the unprofessional promotional video of the crowdfunding project). The findings highlighted the significance of the following factors: the existing strong filmmakers’ attitude that ‘crowdfunding is for film beginners’, the complexity of team management (film crew) during the process of crowdfunding campaigns, and the cultural aspects of seeking financial support from friends.Celem artykułu jest analiza i omówienie czynników wpływających na proces implementacji crowdfundingu przez polski sektor filmowy. Zaprezentowane w artykule badania zostały oparte na metodach jakościowych: nieustrukturalizowanych lub częściowo ustrukturalizowanych wywiadach i kwestionariuszach oraz na analizie studium przypadków. Respondenci wskazali i dokonali ewaluacji szerokiego spektrum czynników wspierających i hamujących proces akceptacji innowacji, jaką jest crowdfunding: od ogólnych barier (np. legislacji prawnych dotyczących crowdfundingu), po czynniki ściśle związane z produkcją filmową (np. nieprofesjonalne wideo promujące projekt crowdfundingowy). Wyniki badań podkreślają szczególne znaczenie następujących czynników: silnej postawy respondentów oceniającej crowdfunding jako narzędzie dla początkujących filmowców, złożoność procesu zarządzania zespołem (ekipą filmową) w trakcie realizacji projektu kampanii crowdfundingowej oraz aspekt kulturowy dotyczący szukania wsparcia dla projektu wśród grona znajomych

Characterizing the Load Environment of Ferry Landings for Washington State Ferries and the Alaska Marine Highway System

INE/AUTC 13.0

Argumentation Mining in User-Generated Web Discourse

The goal of argumentation mining, an evolving research field in computational linguistics, is to design methods capable of analyzing people's argumentation. In this article, we go beyond the state of the art in several ways. (i) We deal with actual Web data and take up the challenges given by the variety of registers, multiple domains, and unrestricted noisy user-generated Web discourse. (ii) We bridge the gap between normative argumentation theories and argumentation phenomena encountered in actual data by adapting an argumentation model tested in an extensive annotation study. (iii) We create a new gold standard corpus (90k tokens in 340 documents) and experiment with several machine learning methods to identify argument components. We offer the data, source codes, and annotation guidelines to the community under free licenses. Our findings show that argumentation mining in user-generated Web discourse is a feasible but challenging task.Comment: Cite as: Habernal, I. & Gurevych, I. (2017). Argumentation Mining in User-Generated Web Discourse. Computational Linguistics 43(1), pp. 125-17

Money as a legally enforceable debt

Money is usually regarded as a subject in the domain of economists, but it is really a fundamentally legal notion. In fact, it is a creation of the law. Money is a special object of property, and at the same time a form of debt, enforceable by law which ultimately confers on it the quality of money. The concept of dematerialised property assists in describing the concept of money accurately. The article discusses the different types of money, and the creation of money through central banks and through commercial banks by giving credit. It explores the possible legal foundation of this money creation process. The discussion also looks at the legal regulation of money creation in Germany and presents findings from an interview with a practising commercial lawyer in Germany which confirm the author’s thesis that money is a legally enforceable debt

The Effect of Impact Damage Next to Holes on the Bearing Strength of Carbon Fiber Laminates

This study was undertaken as a follow-on to a previous study that examined the effect of hole quality in the bearing strength of carbon fiber laminates. After the author of that previous study had established that hole quality had little effect on the ultimate bearing strength for carbon fiber laminates, the question was raised as to the effects of impact damage next to a hole on the bearing strength of that hole. While this is an unlikely scenario, it is still possible that this may occur on a launch vehicle structure and thus warranted study. After a literature review, results of a few studies on the hole-impact interaction with respect to resulting damage for carbon fiber laminates were found, but none that specifically addressed the resulting bearing strength. In reference 2, it was found that the holes and impact could interact to develop matrix splits. However, the lay-ups used in this study consisted of clumped plies [04/904]S, which are much more prone to matrix splitting than a laminate that would actually be used in practice (such as a lay-up of [0/90]4S). This study also focused on the analytical aspects of the problem rather than the experimental results. Reference 3 also used [04/904]S laminates (clumped plies) and examined the damage morphology, determining that, as the impact damage neared the hole, the damage zone became more asymmetrical. The effect this would have on bearing strength was not addressed. The experimental work presented in this study was to develop empirical data relating holeimpact damage effects on the resulting bearing strength of a commonly used (quasi-isotropic) lay-up of carbon fiber laminate. The emphasis was not on the morphology of the resulting damage, as it was in references 2 and 3, but rather on the practical aspects of how this damage affected the bearing strength and how this compared to the companion study1 on the effect of hole quality on the bearing strength of the laminate

Intensity of Interaction in Suppy of Business Advice and Client Impact: A Comparison of Consultancy, Business Associations and Government Support Initiatives for SMEs

This paper assesses the supply of business advice using new empirical evidence from a large scale survey of SMEs. The chief focus of the paper is on a comparison of suppliers that operate in different environments of regulation, contract and reputation. The paper argues that interaction intensity varies with the level of information asymmetry of these different environments, between different types of service supplier and their clients. Interaction intensity between suppliers also varies as a result of the level of trust they enjoy: for example, the low trust enjoyed by consultants appears to encourage higher intensity of interaction which improves the tailoring of the service to the client's needs and enhances impact. The paper assesses interaction intensity using the existence of site visits and/or a written brief/contract as indicators. Although these measures have limitations, the paper demonstrates clear and significant differences between suppliers in terms of interaction intensity, use of contracts and impact in three broad categories: private sector consultancy (low trust, high intensity, high impact), business associations (high trust, low intensity, moderate impact) and government support agencies (moderate trust, moderate to high intensity, moderate or low impact). Multivariate estimation methods demonstrate that significant differences in interaction intensity, use of contracts and impact by client type are much less important than differences in supplier type. This indicates that suppliers generally develop more into niche service fields or groups of services rather than niches related to types of firm.Business Services, Contracts, Business Link, Trust, Reputation