ICT diffusion and the digital divide in tourism: Kazakhstan perspective

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The Present and Future of Internet Search

Search engines were crucial in the development of the World Wide Web. Web-based information retrieval progressed from simple word matching to sophisticated algorithms for maximizing the relevance of search results. Statistical and graph-based approaches for indexing and ranking pages, natural language processing techniques for improving query results, and intelligent agents for personalizing the search process all show great promise for enhanced performance. The evolution in search technology was accompanied by growing economic pressures on search engine companies. Unable to sustain long-term viability from advertising revenues, many of the original search engines diversified into portals that farm out their search and directory operations. Vertical portals that serve focused user communities also outsource their search services, and even directory providers began to integrate search engine technologies from outside vendors. This article brings order to the chaos resulting from the variety of search tools being offered under various marketing guises. While growing reliance on a small set of search providers is leading to less diversity among search services, users can expect individualized searching experiences that factor in personal information. The convergence of technology and business models also results in more narrowly defined search spaces, which will lessen the quantity of search results while improving their quality

Information and communication technology (ICT) for development of small and medium-sized exporters in Latin America: Brazil

Includes bibliograph

The Deep Web, dark matter, metabundles and the broadband elites: Do you need an informaticist?

The World Wide Web (WWW) is growing in size and is becoming a substantial component of life. This seems especially true for US professionals, including social workers. It will require effort by these professionals to use the WWW effectively and efficiently. One of the main issues that these professionals will encounter in these efforts is the quality of materials located on the WWW. This paper reviews some of the factors related to improving the quality of information obtained from the WWW by social workers. The final version of this manuscript for citation is: Holden, G. & Rosenberg, G. (2003). The Deep Web, dark matter, metabundles, and the broadband elite: Do you need an informaticist? Social Work in Health Care, 36(4), 1-18

The Deep Web, dark matter, metabundles and the broadband elites: Do you need an informaticist?

The World Wide Web (WWW) is growing in size and is becoming a substantial component of life. This seems especially true for US professionals, including social workers. It will require effort by these professionals to use the WWW effectively and efficiently. One of the main issues that these professionals will encounter in these efforts is the quality of materials located on the WWW. This paper reviews some of the factors related to improving the quality of information obtained from the WWW by social workers. The final version of this manuscript for citation is: Holden, G. & Rosenberg, G. (2003). The Deep Web, dark matter, metabundles, and the broadband elite: Do you need an informaticist? Social Work in Health Care, 36(4), 1-18

Business to Business Enterprise Integration: An exploratory study to develop and test an implementation model for engineer to order organisations.

This research explores the managerial problems associated with adoption of business to business (B2B) enterprise integration in the UK engineer to order (ETO) manufacturing sector. Its aim is to develop a B2B enterprise integration hierarchy to overcome managerial problems and propose a model for implementation. The first part of the research developed an overview of the evolution of the B2B enterprise integration concept, a definition, perceived business benefits and its general status in the UK manufacturing sector. The research is grounded in the extant literature covering supply chain integration, information technology acceptance literature, crisis management and implementation success factors. A qualitative case study approach was selected comprising two phases. The first phase involved key informant interviews at eleven ETO companies in the UK. Three interviews with key informants were carried out at each company. This group triangulation approach mitigated any bias. Four managerial problems were identified: management awareness of the benefits and implementation challenges, risk in terms of return on investment and business continuity during implementation, information security risk associated with loss of competitive advantage and lack of relevant skills within the organisation. From these findings, a B2B de-coupled integration hierarchy was developed and an implementation model proposed. The second phase involved an in case participatory action research study over a one year budget cycle at one of the eleven companies during implementation of a B2B system. This case study tested the use of a B2B de-coupled integration hierarchy approach and refined the proposed implementation model. The outcome of the research recommends a B2B de-coupled integration hierarchy and an iterative implementation model for overcoming the four key inhibitors identified. This is significant for practitioners, particularly in the ETO sector, who are in the process of implementing B2B enterprise integration systems. It confirms that successful implementation can be achieved if senior management teams are fully aware of the potential benefits and the implementation challenges. Additionally, business and information security risks must be dealt with by appropriate de-coupling and the workforce should have the relevant skills to deal with the new systems. From an academic perspective, this research provides two significant contributions. This is the first study to explore the managerial problems associated with adoption of B2B enterprise integration by using a combination of interviewing key informants within an organisational setting and a participatory action case study. Furthermore, it is the first study to propose an iterative implementation model to overcome managerial problems associated with adoption of B2B enterprise integration in the UK ETO sector. It should be noted that this research is limited to key informant interviews at eleven companies and one case study. In order to provide unequivocal validation and generalisability, the research should be expanded to cover other manufacturing sectors

Development of a universal enterprise model for multi-country manufacturing systems analysis

The shortcomings of the existing Enterprise Architectures (EAs) observed during the field studies in Australia, China and India is the primary motivation for this research. Each organisation is unique in its own way. A universal enterprise model needs to capture the commonalities at the core and provide the flexibility to allow differences to exist. EA’s are fundamentally driven by the People and their sphere of influence. This thesis presents five such different micro-architectural views (sometimes called sub-models) of EAs and integrates them into a macro-architecture with the given name – “Pentatomic Organisations” that can be used to describe enterprises in the 21st century universally. These five micro-architectural views are unified and universal with People in their core that manifests different attributes and characteristics to the organisations. Pentatomic organisations (PO’s) have a simple, flexible and dynamic EA understood by, and can be communicated to, all in the organisation using common language. A strategy driven organisation creates, maintains, improves and/or decommissions an enterprise during its lifecycle phases for governance and to satisfy its customers. The first and the foremost micro-architectural view of the PO is the People-Centric Model (PCM) that recognises the pervading presence of people at all levels of the organisation irrespective of their roles, functions and relationships. This sub-model has got a layered and flexible architecture pivoted on people skills flanked by resource and information on either side. The EA in PCM is a closed-loop feedback system with customer and strategy. The second micro-architectural view in PO is the Molecular Model (MM). It describes how individual outputs are created by combining skills, resources and information. By drawing an analogical comparison between humans to atoms this sub-model shows how a human atom interacts with another in a business transaction. The third sub-model is the Kaizen-Lean Six Sigma Model (KLSSM). This micro-architectural view demonstrates how ‘Continuous Improvement’ as a philosophy is so vital for any organisation intending to survive under the turbulent business environment today. The fourth micro-architectural view is the Globally Dispersed Model (GDM). This micro-architectural view represents the typical features of a truly geographically dispersed manufacturing outfit in a globalised world. This sub-model also subscribes to the principles of a human-centered and eco-friendly approach to addresses sustainable manufacturing. The fifth and the last micro-architectural view is the Disaggregated Value Chain Model (DVCM). It describes how a value chain is getting disaggregated into a human network of networks in a flat world today. It also demonstrates how individual sphere of influence interacts in a dynamic business environment. The thesis also provides a process by which an industry, manufacturing or service, may choose to adopt any of the five new EA micro-architectural views, or a combination thereof to address and embrace change that is inevitable in today’s business environment. The Pentatomic Organisation could help industries to “sense and respond” to complex external business environment as a vehicle to change people’s roles and functions by allocating timely resources to them and utilising information/data driven decision making process in lightning speed

Business plan: Creative country house

Tourism is a fast growing industry and ecotourism is its fastest growing component at an average annual rate of 7%. The demand for ecotourism and nature based products will continue to increase in future. The consumer is dissatisfied with traditional mainstream tourism products and aims to have meaningful experiences where he can learn and is challenged. Moreover, the consumers are demanding for more environmental friendly trips, want to travel to natural areas that are protected and being there, they wish to get in contact with the local community and learn about their culture. The following dissertation intends to be a business plan about a start-up company, the Creative Country House. This company will be more than an ecotourism facility. The Creative Country House wants to become a retreat, visited regularly by demanding customers who want to enjoy the nature and desire for differentiated experience. Creative Country House is the best choice for people that want to escape from the ordinary, to celebrate a special occasion or nothing less than live a meaningful and self-growing experience surrounded and in harmony with Mother Nature.O Turismo é uma industria em rápido crescimento e o ecoturismo é a sua componente que mais tem crescido, verificando uma taxa média anual de crescimento de 7%. O consumidor está insatisfeito com o tradicional turismo de massas e deseja usufruir de várias experiências que sejam autênticas, constituam um processo de aprendizagem e um desafio. Além disso, os consumidores exigem e procuram viagens mais conscientes do ponto de vista ambiental, querem viajar para áreas protegidas e estando lá, desejam contactar a comunidade local e aprender a sua cultura. A presente dissertação é um plano de negócio para a constituição de uma empresa denominada por Creative Country House. Esta empresa será mais que um mero estabelecimento de ecoturismo. O Creative Country House ambiciona transformar-se num retiro, visitado regularmente por clientes exigentes que desejem desfrutar da natureza e acima de tudo queiram uma experiência diferenciada. O Creative Country House assumir-se-à como a melhor escolha de alojamento quando uma pessoa pretende escapar à rotina, celebrar uma ocasião especial ou nada menos que viver uma experiência repleta de significado, que constitua uma oportunidade de evolução e crescimento pessoal, num ambiente de plena harmonia com a mãe natureza

Private sector provision of Internet access in rural India

Thesis (M.C.P.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 2002.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 44-46).In South India today, a number of ongoing projects seek to provide internet access to rural areas by combining computer, internet, and other telecommunications technologies in a profitable business model. Yet, in spite of growing interest in this work, few formal evaluations have been performed on specific projects and little progress has been made toward increasing discussion of the strengths and weakness of each. Though public, private, and non-profit funds have been in a number of different ways to stimulate rural projects of this sort, evaluations to date have tended to focus on efforts led by public and non-profit organizations. Little attention has been paid to the results of private sector investment. This analysis fills a portion of the existing information gap, examining the efforts of a major sugar cane processing plant in rural South India to provide internet access to villagers. The sugar cane plant's project is evaluated on viability of infrastructure; financial sustainability; and success in meeting the company's own social objectives. In the final analysis, the company seems poised to succeed in creating a functioning, profitable network of rural internet kiosks, however, its success at providing broad access to a diverse segment of communities is limited. Two important findings emerge from this study. First, though access to computers and the internet is still limited in absolute numbers, computer aware individuals and computer users are a demographically diverse group of individuals. An intense survey of rural households demonstrates that users of computers and the internet come from a broad range of backgrounds. Though only one-quarter of rural villagers in surveyed areas were computer aware and an even smaller seven percent actually use computers, the body of actual users was demographically diverse across variables such as gender, wealth, education, and age. Second, the private sector, while seemingly able to construct a viable infrastructure for providing computer and internet access in rural areas, only serves a limited range of individuals. The project examined here was used by only one-quarter of computer users in the local area, or less than 2% of village members in August 2001. Furthermore, while users in the region surveyed were, in general, from a broad range of backgrounds, usage at the rural private sector kiosks was decidedly unequal, serving mainly wealthy male farmers from higher castes. Potential does, however, exist for the expansion of the company's internet kiosk network in a way that will significantly broaden access, reducing the digital divide seen in this private sector initiative. The analysis therefore concludes with three recommendations for improving the project at the village (operator) level and three recommendations at the company (policy) level. At the village level, awareness and skill levels must be increased; information needs and existing use must be studied to facilitate content generation; and the kiosk model must be restructured to facilitate broader access. At the company level, a solid commitment should be made to explicit social objectives; an incentive program should be developed to encourage operators to reach out to a broader range of villagers; and strategic partnerships should be developed to increase demand and available content.by Ben H. Hudson.M.C.P