ACCESS CONTROL IN A SOCIAL NETWORKING ENVIRONMENT

Collecting users into groups is a common activity in social networking sites such as Facebook, Google groups, Yahoo groups and many other web applications. This project explores access control techniques for dynamically created groups. The starting point was Yioop [1], a PHP-based search engine. The ability to create social groups was added to Yioop. The Grouping feature is enhanced by adding additional features like: blogs and pages for each individual user and as well as for groups of users. Access control is provided to every group and each user within a group based on the ownership of the group or blog. Adding these features along with the access control techniques allows users to use Yioop as a searchable social networking website. Techniques for automatically adding the access levels to groups and blogs have been explored. Activities like changing the group privacy options and transferring the administrative privileges to users within a group were implemented. Experiments were conducted to compare the access control methods of the existing social networking sites with the access control methods in Yioop and based on the comparisons it can be said that Yioop now includes the basic access control methods that a user likes to have

Competitiveness assessment of tourism in Sierra Leone : a cluster-based approach

Seven years out of brutal conflict, Sierra Leone is now a peaceful and stable country. Yet, its strides toward economic recovery and competitiveness have been modest even in sectors such as tourism, which used to be a major generator of foreign exchange revenues prior to the conflict. This paper presents a cluster-based analysis of the tourism sector in Sierra Leone. The analysis shows that tourism in Sierra Leone draws entirely on basic factor conditions such as natural endowments; high-end lodging, catering, and entertainment services are virtually nonexistent. The cluster mapping exercise reveals that several non-profit organizations are present and active within the Sierra Leone tourism cluster but that the role of commercial enterprises has been somewhat limited. A critical mass of basic service providers has emerged over time, but their functions are often hindered by the absence of a market-based incentive regime and weaknesses in backbone infrastructure services. There is a mismatch of effort by the public and private sectors. An important policy implication arising from the analysis is for Sierra Leone to initiate a joint action among tourism entrepreneurs and policymakers to develop a coherent business strategy toward overcoming the bottlenecks of skill deficiency, policy ineffectiveness, and lack of infrastructure and market access.Cultural Policy,Transport Economics Policy&Planning,Cultural Heritage&Preservation,Tourism and Ecotourism,Accommodation&Tourism Industry

Capitalism and Ethnicity facing a Rising Wave of Communism in Nepal

The difference of vocations between various cultural groups and its implications for economic differentials are aspects that have grave imprints on political and social movements, yet these have been largely ignored by economists, anthropologists and political scientists. On the one hand, business elites are the biggest beneficiaries of economic and social change; and on the other hand, they are known for their cold adherence to monetary calculations which leaves them one of the biggest obstacles when it comes to ushering any forms of social change. Although the pragmatic forces defining this class group speaks for the way they tend to willingly cooperate with political regimes of any credentials and ideologies that hold power, their engagements with the State are not always culture-neutral. A brief account of Nepal’s business history shows how there have been deep cultural overtones to the way entrepreneurs are treated by the State. This paper reconstructs Nepal’s modern history spanning half a century to highlight how business elites from certain caste and ethnic groups have flourished in Nepal during the rules of caste-based muluki ain, monarchy-based panchayat and/or multi-party democracy. It then turns to an examination of the way in which the rise of the Maoists has added a new dimension to the continuum of the rules of the game. While the Maoists seem to take some credit for finally unpacking the old baggage of caste and ethnicity in the way Nepali State politics is run, it has to be said that the nature of the struggle has been implicit within the Nepali history long before they came to dominate Nepali politics