Why social media are more like chocolate than cigarettes

While critics want social media to be regulated like Big Tobacco, our research suggest that the impact of using social media depends on how we use it. The article discusses both negative and positive effects. It suggests that social media is more like chocolate, than cigarette, and being educated and informed as well as some sort of regulation need to be considered to maximise the benefits and minimise the negative

Investigating massive open online courses (MOOCs) opportunities for developing countries: Case of Papua New Guinea

The proliferation of massive open online courses or MOOCs has proven disruptive to the traditional educational enterprise. While there is an on going debate about the future of MOOCs, it has already shown effective results for particular cohort of learners. This research investigates the adoption of MOOCs as a disruptive initiative in developing countries, and in particular in Papua New Guinea (PNG). The results from conducting in-depth interviews with PNG MOOC users and Australian based academics have been conducted. Findings suggest a framework with four dimensions: Intentional and Non-Intentional attributes distributed from a Systematic (disruptive) to Non-Systematic (nondisruptive) spectrum. Based on such finding, recommendations include generating awareness of MOOCs to educational institutions, investment in feasibility studies and engaging in established Australian institutions for long term partnership in MOOC development and deployment

Relationship development with customers on facebook: A critical success factors model

© 2015 IEEE. Social Networking Sites have been increasingly used by organizations to communicate with and manage relationship with existing and new customers. Through a review of the literature, content analysis of online discussions, and a set of interviews with SNS experts, this study has developed a critical success factor model for effective customer relationship management on Facebook. The model suggests seven critical factors: (i) Develop a strategic SNS plan, (ii) Ability to measure and monitor outcomes, (iii) Integrating SNS activities with other forms of marketing, (iv) Let the users/consumers participate, (v) Being committed to SNS task, (vi) Regular updates on the SNS, and (vii) Try to be honest and authentic during the campaign

Entrenched compartmentalisation and students’ abilities and levels of interest in science

This article explores the notion that asking and exploring so-called ‘big questions’ could potentially increase the diversity and number of students who aspire to work in science and science-related careers. The focus is the premise that girls are more interested than boys in the relationships between science and other disciplines. The article also examines the view that the practice of entrenched compartmentalisation is squeezing students’ curiosity and channelling their thinking away from creative activities such as identifying good questions to ask and devising ways to address them. Based on their findings, the authors suggest that entrenched compartmentalisation could be a barrier in schools to students’ intellectual progression and to students’, particularly girls’, interest in science

Impacts of the use of social network sites on users' psychological well-being: A systematic review

© 2018 ASIS & T As Social Network Sites (SNSs) are increasingly becoming part of people's everyday lives, the implications of their use need to be investigated and understood. We conducted a systematic literature review to lay the groundwork for understanding the relationship between SNS use and users' psychological well-being and for devising strategies for taking advantage of this relationship. The review included articles published between 2003 and 2016, extracted from major academic databases. Findings revealed that the use of SNSs is both positively and negatively related to users' psychological well-being. We discuss the factors that moderate this relationship and their implications on users' psychological well-being. Many of the studies we reviewed lacked a sound theoretical justification for their findings and most involved young and healthy students, leaving other cohorts of SNS users neglected. The paper concludes with the presentation of a platform for future investigation

Institutional vs. Non-institutional use of Social Media during Emergency Response: A Case of Twitter in 2014 Australian Bush Fire

© 2017, Springer Science+Business Media, LLC. Social media plays a significant role in rapid propagation of information when disasters occur. Among the four phases of disaster management life cycle: prevention, preparedness, response, and recovery, this paper focuses on the use of social media during the response phase. It empirically examines the use of microblogging platforms by Emergency Response Organisations (EROs) during extreme natural events, and distinguishes the use of Twitter by EROs from digital volunteers during a fire hazard occurred in Australia state of Victoria in early February 2014. We analysed 7982 tweets on this event. While traditionally theories such as World System Theory and Institutional Theory focus on the role of powerful institutional information outlets, we found that platforms like Twitter challenge such notion by sharing the power between large institutional (e.g. EROs) and smaller non-institutional players (e.g. digital volunteers) in the dissemination of disaster information. Our results highlight that both large EROs and individual digital volunteers proactively used Twitter to disseminate and distribute fire related information. We also found that the contents of tweets were more informative than directive, and that while the total number of messages posted by top EROs was higher than the non-institutional ones, non-institutions presented a greater number of retweets

Investigating the impact of facebook use on cancer survivors' psychological well-being

Rapid growth of Social Network Sites (SNSs) use by cancer survivors makes it important to examine whether there is a relationship between the use of these online communities and cancer survivors' psychological well-being. This article poses the question of how the Facebook use as the most popular SNS, may impact cancer survivors' psychological well-being. To answer this question a comprehensive literature review of studies conducted in information systems and health disciplines has been undertaken and a theoretical model is proposed. This study is expected to contribute to the existing knowledge base through the development of a new theoretical model which introduces and explains the ways that SNS use may impact cancer survivors' psychological well-being. It provides important information on the health-related SNSs use and is envisioned to assist health care organizations and cancer survivors to use SNS as an e-health application. © (2013) by the AIS/ICIS Administrative Office All rights reserved

Characterization of the use of social media in natural disasters: A systematic review

© 2014 IEEE. Social media sites are playing a significant role in rapid propagation of information when disasters occur. This effective communication platform is a great useful tool for emergency (disaster) management agencies during all phases of disaster management life cycle: prevention (mitigation), preparedness, response, and recovery. This study has conducted a systematic review of social media use in disaster management literature to identify how social media sites have been used during these four critical phases of disaster management life cycle in order to recommend strategies for government officials. A systematic method has been used to search four major academic databases for this review. The search resulted in 40 articles and categorized the findings in six main themes: situational awareness, data collection methods, distributed sensor systems, news and rumors, sentiment analysis, and digital volunteerism

A methodology for project portfolio selection under criteria prioritisation, uncertainty and projects interdependency – combination of fuzzy QFD and DEA

© 2018 Elsevier Ltd Resources of an organisation (people, time, money, equipment, etc) are never endless. As such, a constant and continuous challenge for decision makers is to decide which projects should be given priority in terms of receiving critical resources in a way that the organisation's productivity and profitability is best guaranteed. Previous literature has already developed a plenitude of project portfolio selection methodologies ranging from simple scoring to complex mathematical models. However, most of them too often fail to propose one integrated and seamless method that can simultaneously take into account three important elements: (1) prioritisation of selection criteria over each other, (2) uncertainty in decision-making, and (3) projects interdependencies. This paper aims to fill this gap by proposing an integrated method that can simultaneously address all these three aspects. The proposed method combines Quality Function Development (QFD), fuzzy logic, and Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to accounts for prioritisation, uncertainty and interdependency. We then apply this method in a numerical example from a real world case to illustrate the applicability and efficacy of the proposed methodology