Social and cultural influences and their implications for sustainable tourism: A case study of Trinidad & Tobago's tourism and the growth of the LGBTQ traveler segment

Purpose: This study examined how social and cultural influences are affecting the government of Trinidad & Tobago's decision-making policies as it relates to the growth of the LGBTQ traveler tourism segment, which is currently threatening the sustainability and competitiveness of the country's tourism industry. This study also aimed to add to the literature on gay tourism in that nation and region as a whole. Research methodology: Data for this research were collected from various sources, including existing literature on the industry's competitiveness, followed by a review of official government surveys, reports and other media documents, and academic research literature. Results: The study's findings reveal that the leaders' lack of failure to understand the economic power of the LGBTQ traveler segment is short-sighted and has negative effects on the fragile nature of the industry's ability to compete globally, lack of long-term vision of the leaders. Limitations: This study relied on secondary data, limiting direct views from individuals in the local communities due to the country being on lockdown since March of 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Contribution: This study makes a few suggestions for further improvement, such as leaders in that nation deciphering existing buggery laws publicly, to show urgency and commitment to this vulnerable traveler segment; conducting robust discussions with various interest groups that are presenting barriers to changes that could result in a more robust industry, and finally, consider the use of images of members of the LGBTQ community in all marketing promotions

Enterprise Content Management Should Be Academic

The ‘digital divide’ that was formed by a curriculum that affords no direct exposure to any business-oriented enterprise content management system and the surprising ubiquity and dependency on enterprise content management systems in business provided the motivation to class-test SharePoint as a surrogate for a university-supported course management system. The classroom test became the basis of a proof-of-concept model for a college-wide document repository that was conceived to manage most of the college’s departmental and committee documents, including those related to AACSB maintenance of accreditation.  The use of a business-tested, enterprise content management system for academic purposes could narrow an academic/industry ‘digital divide’ and may remove an impediment to the adage “practice what you teach.

Bot Herding With RSS

Students in a large, introductory IT course created individual RSS feeds that pointed to personal content and syndicated, course-related content.  In a relatively short period the class had amassed approximately 1000 web resources.  The process paralleled one of a benevolent bot herder; the outcome stimulated an interest in social computing

Bot Herding With RSS

Students in a large, introductory IT course created individual RSS feeds that pointed to personal content and syndicated, course-related content.  In a relatively short period the class had amassed approximately 1000 web resources.  The process paralleled one of a benevolent bot herder; the outcome stimulated an interest in social computing.

More With Less Using RSS

Today, many receive information via RSS, an efficient delivery and aggregation technology that feeds user-specific web content to our computers. For an individual, RSS is like having an assistant available to gather the information you want to see from a variety of sources.  For businesses, RSS can be an effective mechanism to reach customers and provide them with the information they have asked for. While there is tremendous growth in the usage of RSS, surprisingly, many of us know little about what it is. 

Closing the Gap: Proficiency vs. Perception

The gaps that exist between a student’s self-perceived computer skills, their actual computer skills, and the computer skills deemed important in business pose an interesting challenge for business schools, today, and for the foreseeable future.  One strategy for managing these literacy gaps is developing curriculum that better tailors content to the evolving literacy of students. In an effort to operationalize this strategy, we have undertaken a study to measure the magnitude of the literacy gaps and the effectiveness of an introductory computer course required in our undergraduate business program. This paper presents the initial results of that study.   

The Early to Middle Triassic continental-marine transition of NW Bulgaria:sedimentology, palynology and sequence stratigraphy

Sedimentary facies and cycles of the Triassic continental–marine transition of NW Bulgaria are documented in detail from reference sections along the Iskar river gorge between the villages of Tserovo and Opletnya. The depositional environments evolved from anastomosing and meandering river systems in the Petrohan Terrigenous Group to mixed fluvial and tidal settings in the Svidol Formation, and to peritidal and shallow-marine conditions in the Opletnya Member of the Mogila Formation. For the first time, the palynostratigraphic data presented here allow for dating the transitional interval and for the precise identification of a major sequence boundary between the Petrohan Terrigenous Group and the Svidol Formation (Iskar Carbonate Group). This boundary most probably corresponds to the major sequence boundary Ol4 occurring in the upper Olenekian of the Tethyan realm and thus enables interregional correlation. The identification of regionally traceable sequence boundaries based on biostratigraphic age control is a first step towards a more accurate stratigraphic correlation and palaeogeographic interpretation of the Early to early Middle Triassic in NW Bulgaria

But I Am Computer Literate: I Passed The Test

Generic terms such as “computer literacy,” “computer competency” and “technology literacy” have been used for decades as measures of one’s aptitude with computer and information technology.  Many disregarded the ambiguity of these terms while erratic exposure to ever-changing computer technology rendered itself as computer literacy.   With an increasing focus on organizations now administering technology literacy tests, educators need to be more cognizant of the computer and information literacy assessments and the implications of these assessments for the core information systems course in business schools