A Comparative Evaluation of the Internets Influence on International Market Penetration and Development Strategies of Australian SME's

The Internet has the capability to generate geographical international market expansion and future growth for the firm, a concept known as Internetalisation. However, it is yet to be determined as to how much or to what level the Internet influences internationalisation, and thus international market growth. Both international market penetration and the development of new international customers are achievable goals for the Internet enlightened SME. The aim of this research is to explore the influence of the Internet on international market penetration and development from the strategic perspective of the SME in Australia. It was found that although the Internet has given firms the capabilities to become instantly international, a new theory is not needed but rather an evolved version of network theory may be a better explanation of internationalisation of SME’s in today’s digital environment

Cloud service localisation

The essence of cloud computing is the provision of software and hardware services to a range of users in dierent locations. The aim of cloud service localisation is to facilitate the internationalisation and localisation of cloud services by allowing their adaption to dierent locales. We address the lingual localisation by providing service-level language translation techniques to adopt services to dierent languages and regulatory localisation by providing standards-based mappings to achieve regulatory compliance with regionally varying laws, standards and regulations. The aim is to support and enforce the explicit modelling of aspects particularly relevant to localisation and runtime support consisting of tools and middleware services to automating the deployment based on models of locales, driven by the two localisation dimensions. We focus here on an ontology-based conceptual information model that integrates locale specication in a coherent way

Experiences and opportunities in teaching ukrainian students at the faculty of mining and geoengineering in AGH University of Science and Technology

The paper presents the influence of various factors on the process of internationalisation of higher education in Poland, and particularly in AGH University of Science and Technology from the perspective of the Faculty of Mining and Geoengineering. It lays out educational opportunities for learners at mining and geology study courses, and the benefits stemming therefrom for international students, including students from Ukraine. Possibilities of academic exchange were discussed and that of international cooperation, in particular with Ukraine, in order to support the potential of science and higher education in both countries. Lastly, factors were indicated in favour of taking education with AGH

Localisation and linguistic anomalies

Interactive systems may seek to accommodate users whose first language is not English. Usually, this entails a focus on translation and related features of localisation. While such motivation is worthy, the results are often less than ideal. In raising awareness of the shortcomings of localisation, we hope to improve the prospects for successful second-language support. To this end, the present paper describes three varieties of linguistic irregularity that we have encountered in localised systems and suggests that these anomalies are direct results of localisation. This underlines the need for better end-user guidance in managing local language resources and supports our view that complementary local resources may hold the key to second language user support

Observations and Recommendations on the Internationalisation of Software

As computer programs enter the lives of more and more people worldwide, it is becoming increasingly unacceptable to assume that software with a user interface designed for an indigenous English speaking market will be acceptable outside its country of origin simply by changing the currency symbol. Developers of software who are serious about expanding sales into new markets must consider many issues when giving thought either to the creation of new software or the modification of existing software to work within the linguistic and cultural constraints of these new markets. The purpose of this paper is to examine the task of preparing software to be used in countries and cultures other than that in which it is created. We do this by reviewing some of the most important localisation issues that have been identified, and some of the tools and practices that are available to the software designer to deal with them. We shall also consider some of the areas of the software development process that are currently less well understood and supported. Our major emphasis is in non-graphical applications targeted at European markets. Keywords: Internationalisation, I18N, Localising, Enabling, Multi-lingual

Cross-Cultural Understanding of Interface Design: A Cross-Cultural Analysis of Icon Recognition

This paper reports the findings of a small-scale study that investigated cultural aspects of understanding the website of a virtual campus. Results indicate differences in expectations and understanding due to the users’ knowledge of everyday life and real world experience, and suggest that the campus metaphor that was used is not universally transferable

Offshore education : offshore education in the wider context of internationalisation and ICT: experiences and examples from Dutch higher education

This report presents a study on offshore education conducted by a consortium of Dutch higher education researchers and commissioned by the Digital University (DU). The study explored the extent to which Dutch higher education institutions are involved in offering their educational services abroad (offshore education). After thoroughly embedding offshore education in the wider contexts of internationalisation and ICT policies, the study particularly explores the practical experiences with a number of real-life offshore activities of Dutch higher education. As a warm-up to this report, a few interesting cases are briefly touched upon below

Digital libraries and minority languages

Digital libraries have a pivotal role to play in the preservation and maintenance of international cultures in general and minority languages in particular. This paper outlines a software tool for building digital libraries that is well adapted for creating and distributing local information collections in minority languages, and describes some contexts in which it is used. The system can make multilingual documents available in structured collections and allows them to be accessed via multilingual interfaces. It is issued under a free open-source licence, which encourages participatory design of the software, and an end-user interface allows community-based localization of the various language interfaces - of which there are many

Authorised Translations of Electronic Documents

A concept is proposed to extend authorised translations of documents to electronically signed, digital documents. Central element of the solution is an electronic seal, embodied as an XML data structure, which attests to the correctness of the translation and the authorisation of the translator. The seal contains a digital signature binding together original and translated document, thus enabling forensic inspection and therefore legal security in the appropriation of the translation. Organisational aspects of possible implementation variants of electronic authorised translations are discussed and a realisation as a stand-alone web-service is presented.Comment: In: Peer-reviewed Proceedings of the Information Security South Africa (ISSA) 2006 From Insight to Foresight Conference, 5 to 7 July 2006, Sandton, South Afric

Persuasive Technology for Learning in Business Context

"Persuasive Design is a relatively new concept which employs general principles of persuasion that can be implemented in persuasive technology. This concept has been introduced by BJ Fogg in 1998, who since then has further extended it to use computers for changing attitudes and behaviour. Such principles can be applied very well in learning and teaching: in traditional human-led learning, teachers always have employed persuasion as one of the elements of teaching. Persuasive technology moves these principles into the digital domain, by focusing on technology that inherently stimulates learners to learn more quickly and effectively. This is very relevant for the area of Business Management in several aspects: Consumer Behavior, Communications, Human Resource, Marketing & Advertising, Organisational Behavior & Leadership. The persuasive principles identified by BJ Fogg are: reduction, tunnelling, tailoring, suggestion, self-monitoring, surveillance, conditioning, simulation, social signals. Also relevant is the concept of KAIROS, which means the just-in-time, at the right place provision of information/stimulus. In the EuroPLOT project (2010-2013) we have developed persuasive learning objects and tools (PLOTs) in which we have applied persuasive designs and principles. In this context, we have developed a pedagogical framework for active engagement, based on persuasive design in which the principles of persuasive learning have been formalised in a 6-step guide for persuasive learning. These principles have been embedded in two tools – PLOTmaker and PLOTLearner – which have been developed for creating persuasive learning objects. The tools provide specific capability for implementing persuasive principles at the very beginning of the design of learning objects. The feasibility of employing persuasive learning concepts with these tools has been investigated in four different case studies with groups of teachers and learners from realms with distinctly different teaching and learning practices: Business Computing, language learning, museum learning, and chemical substance handling. These case studies have involved the following learner target groups: school children, university students, tertiary students, vocational learners and adult learners. With regards to the learning context, they address archive-based learning, industrial training, and academic teaching. Alltogether, these case studies include participants from Sweden, Africa (Madagascar), Denmark, Czech Republic, and UK. One of the outcomes of this investigation was that one cannot apply a common set of persuasive designs that would be valid for general use in all situations: on the contrary, the persuasive principles are very specific to learning contexts and therefore must be specifically tailored for each situation. Two of these case studies have a direct relevance to education in the realm of Business Management: Business Computing and language learning (for International Business). In this paper we will present the first results from the evaluation of persuasive technology driven learning in these two relevant areas.