Protecting Children Online: Exploring the Impact of an Online Identifier for Registered Sex Offenders on Adult Internet Users’ Online Information Sharing Behaviors

Currently registered sex offenders share in the anonymity afforded by the Internet. With over 500,000 convicted sex offenders on the National Sex Offender Registry, this anonymity is potentially problematic. The potential problem exists in that adult Internet users are unable to identify where their online communications intersect with a registered sex offender. This inability for identification can increase risks to children through the online social networking behaviors of adults. The current study examines how protection of children online could be increased through the impact of an online identifier for registered sex offenders on the online social networking site behaviors of adult Internet users

Opening the Closet Door: Exploring the Role of Social Media in the Coming Out Process for Individuals who Self-Identify as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and/or Queer (LGBQ)

Social media has become synonymous with every day communication in our technologically advanced society. Individuals use it to share information, make plans with friends and keep up with folks geographically dispersed from them. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and queer (LGBQ) individuals often use social media to find other individuals with whom they can share about their sexual orientation. In this study we use qualitative methods to examine the role of social media in the coming out process and the experiences of individuals who self-identify as LGBQ. We focus on one emergent theme: feelings of decreased risk in sharing online

Protecting Children Online: Identifying Registered Sex Offenders’ Presence on the Internet and Consequent Online Social Behavior

Research regarding the threat of registered sex offenders has highlighted their reentry into society and the threat they pose to vulnerable populations such as the children in society. However, the research regarding the presence of registered sex offenders on the Internet is focused mainly on societal fears and incidents of unwanted sexual solicitation of youth. Currently, Internet users are unable to identify registered sex offenders online, which create an environment of insecurity online. The paper presents the concept of a transparent sex offender online presence and a proposed research model for studying the impact of this transparency on individuals’ online social behaviors

Training for real: starting in the University

Graduates of Engineering in Uganda face great challenges in the work place as they are expected to be fully prepared to start work with little or no further training. In view of this, training has to begin at the University, where it has been found that the quality of teaching is poor, by admission of the lecturers themselves. This paper reports on an initiative by Uganda Martyrs University to systematically analyse the nature of teaching in the Faculty of Building Design, and to design, develop, implement and evaluate an intervention in the form of training to equip lecturers with basic teaching skills. It is hoped that this will in turn increase the chances of students being trained for real

Pengaruh Variasi Konsentrasi Tepung Kulit Ari Kopi Pada Tepung Terigu terhadap Mutu Biskuit

Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui perbandingan kulit ari kopi dengan tepung terigu menjadi roti biskuit. Penelitian dilakukan di Laboratorium Pengolahan Hasil Pertanian, Fakultas Pertanian Program Studi Teknologi Hasil Pertanian, Universitas Katolik Santo Thomas, Medan. Penelitian ini dilakukan dengan menggunakan metode ekploratif dengan  perbandingan persentase dengan tepung terigu. Penelitian ini dilakukan dengan perbandingan persentase tepung terigu 90% dengan 10% tepung kulit ari kopi, tepung terigu 80% dengan 20% tepung kulit ari kopi, tepung terigu 70% dengan 30% tepung kulit ari kopi, tepung terigu 60% dengan 40% tepung kulit ari kopi, tepung terigu 50% dengan 50% tepung kulit ari kopi, tepung terigu 40% dengan 60% tepung kulit ari kopi, tepung terigu 30% dengan 70% tepung kulit ari kopi, tepung terigu 20% dengan 80% tepung kulit ari kopi, tepung terigu 10% dengan 90% tepung kulit ari kopi. Perbandingan persentase ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui perbandingan konsentrasi yang baik dalam penggunaan tepung kulit ari kopi sebagai bahan dalam pembuatan biskuit. Perbandingan persentase terbaik dalam pembuatan roti biskuit terdapat pada konsentrasi tepung terigu 90% dengan 10% tepung kulit ari kopi

Knowledge Seeking and Knowledge Sharing in a nonprofit organizational partner network: a social network analysis

This research empirically examines the online social network of a national, non-profit organization called the national alliance to reduce violence (NARV), non-profit organizations across the US which address the issue of interpersonal violence. As a network of practice, knowledge shared by the non-profit organizations originates across a breadth of experts in the disciplines of advocacy, science, practice and policy. Two problems served as the motivation for this research. First, how does the online network structure support current knowledge contribution and knowledge retrieval within the network? Second, how could the online network structure enhance knowledge contribution and knowledge retrieval to meet the needs of the organization? We acquired network structure and knowledge sharing data through the collection of survey responses from NARV’s membership list. The data were analyzed as a two-mode affiliation network using UCINET, For the first research question, we found that the action groups of research and public awareness are positioned to be strong sources of knowledge contribution within the current network due to the number of nodes with whom they are connected. For the second research question, we identified training and mentoring as the action group from which other nodes desire knowledge

Dark side of information systems and protection of children online: examining predatory behavior and victimization of children within social media

Protecting children online from sexual predators has been a focus of research in psychiatry, sociology, computer science, and information systems (IS) for many years. However, the anonymity afforded by social media has made finding a solution to the problem of child protection difficult. Pedophiles manipulate conversation (discourse) with children in social media in order to exercise power, control and coercion over children leading to their psychological and often physical victimization. Recent IS research points to "individuals, groups, and organizations that have been transformed - in intended and unintended ways - by technology" (Dang and Brown 2010, p. 2). This research examines a darker side of social media that demonstrates unintended consequences that are negatively transforming and affecting lives of children who fall victim to predatory coercion. There is a critical need for information systems research to investigate and understand how sexual predators victimize children online. The knowledge gained could help society as a whole to develop interventions to better protect children online, enabling them to use valuable online resources for education, social development and becoming better citizens in the future. In this context, this dissertation contributes to the larger research narrative of information systems and critical social issues. This dissertation comprises three studies. Study 1 addresses how online sexual predators use social media, as a discursive system, to propagate their ideology of acceptance of sexual acts between adults and children. Study 2 addresses how online sexual predators use and manipulate the text of institutional logics within negotiated cyber-social realities to victimize children. Study 3 examines how online sexual predators use text to construct and control negotiated cyber-social realities during the online victimization of children. Across these three studies we examined how online sexual predators used computer-mediated communications to coerce and victimize children within social media. This research introduces: (1) critical discourse analysis in information systems research to critically examine the role of social media in society, (2) an example of a mixed methods research combining critical discourse analysis, structured content analysis and grounded theory approach for the development of theory in social media and, (3) the use of institutional logics to examine social media phenomena. The central contribution of this dissertation is the development of theoretical models that uncover ways in which power relations and effects of pedophilic ideology are manifested in language and discourse between pedophiles and children in social media. The resulting theoretical models of: (1) pedophilic ideology manifestation, coercion and victimization of children in social media, (2) cyber-victimization logic and, (3) negotiated cyber-social realities provide the foundation for further research, social intervention and policy formulation that lead to better protection of children in social media. Additionally, we present a matrix of predatory coercion and victimization of children within social media that aggregates the results of all three studies. This dissertation aims to contribute beyond the traditional focus of IS research on business and organizations, leveraging the wealth of knowledge from IS research to positively impact societal causes that affect the lives of millions of our fellow citizens - in this particular research - millions of children that are the most vulnerable population in our society. These contributions aim to empower the powerless and expose power abuse as expressed in coercion of children leading to their victimization

An Ounce of Prevention – Understanding the role of IS in ending Interpersonal Violence

This paper presents the findings of an investigation into the role of social technologies in violence prevention non-profitorganizational networks. The research was conducted with the cooperation of a partner organization that serves as aknowledge hub connecting various providers of services related to the treatment and prevention of instances of interpersonalviolence. From our time working with this project we developed the SASA (Share and Share Alike) Framework of SustainedKnowledge sharing among non-profit partner networks. This paper presents an overview of the SASA framework anddiscusses its role in facilitating the creation of a sustainable knowledge contribution network for non-profit service providers