A model of key characteristics affecting consumer attitudes toward the usage of free legitimate ad-supported music download services.

Digital music file sharing has had a significant negative financial impact on the recorded music industry, causing multi-billion dollar losses over the past decade. In a world where file sharing is now an activity that can be carried out with ease, industry stakeholders are continuously looking for ways to profit from changing consumer behaviour. To date, literature has looked at why people illicitly download (e.g. motivations, ethical considerations), the financial impact of file sharing (e.g. lost revenue), legal approaches to combatting file sharing (e.g. what approaches work, if any), and new business models for paid services (e.g. price sensitivity, value propositions). Academic literature has thus far largely focused on how to eliminate file sharing and convert illicit downloaders to paid platforms, but has not examined the potential for converting illicit downloaders to a free legitimate, platform. This thesis is the first piece of academic literature to consider free legitimate adsupported music download services as a way of monetizing downloaders free consumption behaviour, specifically by identifying key service characteristics that influence consumers' attitudes toward using such services, and providing a rich contextual understanding of the perceived importance and value of such characteristics. A sequential mixed methods approach was used to explore this topic and develop and validate a conceptual model. The primary research stages consisted of in-depth interviews, group interviews, and an online survey. This thesis shows there is potential for mainstream consumer adoption of free legitimate ad-supported music download services, with the caveat that the services be as good as or better than those (free services) already used. Several characteristics were found to be important influencers of attitudes in this regard. Some characteristics were found to be very important (perception of a large enough music catalogue, freedom of use of downloaded files, delays caused by advertising not being perceived as excessive), some were found to be less important (ease of navigation/use, perceived trustworthiness of the service), and some were found to be not at all important (ability of the service to recommend music, social networking facilitation via the service). While this thesis identifies what an ideal service looks like for consumers, it also finds that tension exists in the economic relationship between consumer behaviour and ideals, and what industry is able to viably deliver in an ad-supported service. The structure and conditions of today's marketplace are such that the fundamental economic viability of free ad-supported music download services is brought into question, irrespective of whether such a service can meet consumers needs. While this thesis is specifically concerned with music download services, the model developed within it could be tested for other online content services such as streaming music or video, and video download services

A case study in social media mashup concept validation

Sosiaalinen media korostaa käyttäjien välistä vuorovaikutusta ja käyttäjien luoman sisällön mahdollistamista ja jakamista. Sosiaaliseen mediaan kuuluvat myös sosiaaliset verkostot, jotka yhdistävät ihmisiä. Mashupit taas ovat palveluja, jotka yhdistävät tietoa eri lähteistä ja näyttävät tämän tiedon uudessa kontekstissa. Tässä työssä käsitellään sosiaalista verkostoa nimeltä AmiCarta. AmiCarta keskittyy paikkatiedon hyödyntämiseen sosiaalisessa verkostossa. Työn tarkoituksena on validoida palvelukonsepti käyttäjillä. Työssä analysoidaan validointiin käytettyjä metodeja sekä käyttäjätestien tuloksia. Käyttäjätestit koostuvat kukin kolmesta osasta. Käyttäjille annetaan prototyyppi tuotteen käyttöliittymästä, jonka he käyvät läpi. Prototyyppi on luotu paperiprototyypeillä ja toimii wizard-of-oz metodilla. Protoyypin tarkastelun jälkeen käyttäjiä haastatellaan puolistrukturoidulla haastattelulla ja esitetään kyselylomake. Käytetyt metodit tuottivat pääasiassa kvalitatiivista tietoa. Prototyypin käytöllä oli haittavaikutuksena se, että se tuotti pääasiassa tietoa olemassa olevista ominaisuuksista, eikä juurikaan auttanut uusien ominaisuuksien ideoinnissa. Kvalitatiiviset tulokset antoivat ideoita siitä, mihin suuntaan konseptia tulisi viedä. Kyselylomakkeen tuottamat kvantitaaviset tulokset taas olivat käytännöllisiä ominaisuuksien vertailussa. Tutkimuksen perusteella konseptin perusajatus muuttui karttapalvelusta, johon on lisätty erilaisia ominaisuuksia palveluun, joka perustuu kommunikaation helpottamiseen ja tukemiseen paikkatiedolla.In social media user-generated content and sharing are emphasized. As a subcategory for social media there are social networks that connect people. Mashups are applications that combine data from existing sources and display the data in a new context. This study considers the case of AmiCarta, a social network service that focuses on location information. The study focuses on validating the concept and evaluating the used methods for validation as well as the obtained results. The concept is validated with user tests. Each user test was conducted in three parts. In the first part, the user was demonstrated a mock-up prototype of the mobile user interface for the product that was created using paper prototyping and theprototype responds to the user in a wizard-of-oz implementation. The second phase consisted of a semi-structured interview and the third phase of a questionnaire. The methods of the study produced mainly qualitative information. As a drawback, the use of a mock-up prototype mainly generated information about the existing features of the concept. Qualitative results gave insight on how the concept could be further developed. The quantitative results of the questionnaire were useful in ranking the features. As a result of the study, the focus of the service was moved from a map application that has different features to an application that enables communication between users and supports this communication with the users' location information

Newman v. Google

3rd amended complain

Understanding Revenue Models in The Business Sustainability of Web-Indigenous Journalism: A Pragmatist Approach

This synoptic commentary explores the challenge of economic sustainability for web-indigenous journalism in the long tail. The work’s most general claim is that drawing attention to workable revenues is illuminating because without money, news media can’t make journalism. My work offers a unique panorama, spanning a pivotal decade of emergent economic practice, of sites in multiple environments at the edge of media systems, often operating in commercially weak niches: start-ups globally, hyperlocals in Europe, and those in politically pressured environments or in exile. Drawing from this internationally rich set of empirical data, the contribution to new knowledge is to define, detail and categorise diversified revenues. Such a springboard allows investigation into the evolving nexus of economic practice and advances the understanding of economic sustainability. A set longterm revenue model is fictitious, and many are still fragile. A small degree of revenue diversification is effective, but alone does not result in sustainability. Advertising dominates and deviation to other income is done through experimentation. Unlike corporate legacy and mainstream media, my work details how web indigenes carve out sustainability through a process of niche adaptation, resulting in heterogeneous revenue models. The synoptic commentary defends the pragmatist approach as a compelling lens through which to explore practice-led research, adding methodological renewal through multiple ways of coming to know. I have contributed by knitting together different practices, frameworks and theories at multiple levels of scale and inquiry, to uncover new knowledge in the media management landscape. These findings provide fresh insights to scholars and practitioners seeking a route-map for sustainable journalism in the long tail

The Missing Link: An Introduction to Web Development and Programming

Web development is an evolving amalgamation of languages that work in concert to receive, modify, and deliver information between parties using the Internet as a mechanism of delivery.While it is easy to describe conceptually, implementation is accompanied by an overwhelming variety of languages, platforms, templates, frameworks, guidelines, and standards. Navigating a project from concept to completion often requires more than mastery of one or two complementing languages, meaning today’s developers need both breadth, and depth, of knowledge to be effective. This text provides the developer with an understanding of the various elements of web development by focusing on the concepts and fundamentals through the examples within, providing a foundation that allows easier transition to other languages and a better understanding of how to approach their work. The reader will be introduced to topics in a manner that follows most project development methods, from initial conceptualization and design through front end development, back end development, and introducing additional concepts like accessibility and security, while focusing on responsive design techniques. Each section of the text includes opportunities to practice the material and assess increased knowledge after examining the topics.https://knightscholar.geneseo.edu/oer-ost/1016/thumbnail.jp

Abusing data dominance in the digital market. The application of merger control and article 102 TFEU to data-related conducts.

The internet and digital technologies revolutionized the economy. Regulating the digital market has become a priority for the European Union. While promoting innovation and development, EU institutions must assure that the digital market maintains a competitive structure. Among the numerous elements characterizing the digital sector, users’ data are particularly important. Digital services are centered around personal data, the accumulation of which contributed to the centralization of market power in the hands of a few large providers. As a result, data-driven mergers and data-related abuses gained a central role for the purposes of EU antitrust enforcement. In light of these considerations, this work aims at assessing whether EU competition law is well-suited to address data-driven mergers and data-related abuses of dominance. These conducts are of crucial importance to the maintenance of competition in the digital sector, insofar as the accumulation of users’ data constitutes a fundamental competitive advantage. To begin with, part 1 addresses the specific features of the digital market and their impact on the definition of the relevant market and the assessment of dominance by antitrust authorities. Secondly, part 2 analyzes the EU’s case law on data-driven mergers to verify if merger control is well-suited to address these concentrations. Thirdly, part 3 discusses abuses of dominance in the phase of data collection and the legal frameworks applicable to these conducts. Fourthly, part 4 focuses on access to “essential” datasets and the indirect effects of anticompetitive conducts on rivals’ ability to access users’ information. Finally, Part 5 discusses differential pricing practices implemented online and based on personal data. As it will be assessed, the combination of an efficient competition law enforcement and the auspicial adoption of a specific regulation seems to be the best solution to face the challenges raised by “data-related dominance”