Nowadays, an increasing amount of media platforms provide the users with opportunities for sharing their opinions about products, companies or people. In order to support users accessing opinion-based information, and to support engineers building systems that require opinion-aware reasoning, intelligent opinion-aware tools and techniques are needed. This thesis contributes methods and technology for opinion-aware information management from two different perspectives, namely document summarisation and knowledge representation. Document summarisation has been widely investigated as a mean to reduce information overload. This thesis focuses on statistical models for summarisation, with a particular attention to divergence-based models, within the context of opinions. Firstly, topic-based document summarisation is addressed, contributing a study on divergence-based document to summary similarity and the definition of a novel algorithm for summarisation based on sentence removal. Secondly, summarisation models are tailored to opinion-oriented content and shown to be useful also when exploited for different tasks such as sentiment classification. Thirdly, summarisation models are applied to knowledge-oriented data, in order to tackle tasks such as entity summarisation. The comprehensive task addressed is the knowledge-based opinion-aware summarisation of content (free text, facts). This thesis also contributes a broad discussion on knowledge representation of opinions. A thorough study on how to model opinions using traditional techniques, such as Entity-Relationship (ER) modelling, underlines that a high-level, opinion-aware layer of conceptual modelling is useful since it hides away implementation details. A conceptual and logical knowledge representation methodology for modelling opinions is hence proposed, with the purpose of guiding engineers towards the use of best practices during the development of sentiment analysis applications. Specifically, an extension of the traditional ER modelling and the definition of an automatic mapping procedure, to translate opinion-aware components of the conceptual model into a relational model, help achieving a clear separation between conceptual and logical modelling. The mapping procedure yields an automatic and replicable methodology to design applications which require opinion-aware reasoning.

ThepurposeofthisBachelor’sthesiswastoexaminetheinternalinformationmanagementatBoråsBoråsTMEABviaacasestudy.InordertoachievethispurposeanInformationAuditwasconducted.ThetheoreticalframeworkormodelfortheauditwasthatofBuchananandGibb.Dataforthestudywascollectedusingfocusgroupinterviewsandpolicydocuments.Theinterviewswereanalyzedwiththehelpofqualitativecontentanalysis.ThetheoreticalmodelofChoo’sInformationmanagementcyclewasusedtofurtherdescribetheorganizationsinternalinformationmanagement.Theresultsshowalackofpredeterminedroutinesandpoliciesregardinginformationmanagementandtheuseofinformationresources.Furthermore,theunitK:,FacebookandtheweeklyThursdaystaffmeetingwereidentifiedasthethreemostimportantresourcesforinternalinformationmanagement.Inaccordancewiththeinformationauditanorganizationdescriptionwascompletedusingpolicydocuments.Theauthoralsopresentsfoursuggestionsforactionplanswiththehelpoftheresultsofthecontentanalysis.Thestudyrevealedthattheinternalinformationmanagementwasrathergood.Thiswasduetotherathersmallsizeoftheorganizationandthatthestaffhadawellfunctioningcooperation.Thiscooperationisdescribedassomewhatproblematicasfrictionbetweensomedepartmentswasidentified. / Program: Bibliotekarie

The rapid development of information technology in the recent years has added a range of new featuresto the traditional information environment, which has a profound impact on university library services and users. The Quality of Service parameter in library services has reached a broader consensus,which directly reflects customer satisfactions and loyalty. Exploring the evaluation frameworks for service quality in university libraries cannot be undermined in this context. Besides, existing evaluation frameworks of service quality of university library services are also facing numerous challenges due to their imperfections. Thus,there is an urgency and necessity to explore and enhance the efficiencies of the evaluation frameworks of service quality. To this end, this thesis conducts a systematic analysisof evaluation frameworks with a motivation of identifying the core components that needs enhancements for achieving effective service quality in Chinese university libraries through empirical methods. Furthermore, the inferences extracted from the analysis has been exploited to provide suitable recommendations for improving the service quality of university libraries.

Orientador: Marta Lígia Pomim Valentim / Banca: Ricardo Rodrigues Barbosa / Banca: Silvana Aparecida Borsetti Gregório Vidotti / Resumo: O presente trabalho apresenta uma discussão em relação aos elementos e processos constitutivos da gestão da informação e do conhecimento no ambiente Web. Para tanto, enfocou-se os processos de geração e uso da informação e do conhecimento, modelos de gestão da informação e do conhecimento utilizados pelas organizações e as tecnologias de informação e comunicação voltadas a esse ambiente. Com o crescente desenvolvimento e uso das tecnologias de informação e comunicação, as empresas desenvolveram recursos para resolver seus problemas de registro, disseminação e uso da informação interna e externa, com objetivo de gerenciar a informação organizacional, assim como estimular a construção e o compartilhamento do conhecimento. Nesse contexto, surgem os portais corporativos, cujo objetivo é reunir em um único ambiente a informação gerada, por meio de diferentes processos organizacionais e disponibilizá-la em ambiente Web. Como procedimentos metodológicos utilizou-se a pesquisa descritiva exploratória de natureza qualitativa; a coleta de dados foi realizada através da aplicação de um questionário aos sujeitos de pesquisa, um check-list aplicado aos sites corporativos e outro às Intranets corporativas. Como base para a análise e discussão dos dados, utilizou-se o método denominado 'análise de conteúdo', de Laurence Bardin. Como resultado, obteve-se uma visão atualizada sobre as organizações que atuam na área de tecnologia de informação, mais especificamente no que tange aos aspectos relacionados à gestão da informação e à gestão do conhecimento no ambiente Web, assim como às tecnologias mais utilizadas por essas organizações, referentes a esses aspectos. / Abstract: The present work presents a discussion in relation to the elements and constituent processes of the information and knowledge management in the Web space. For in such a way, one focused the processes of generation and use of the information and the knowledge, models of information and knowledge management used by the organizations and the technologies of information and communication associated to this space. With the increasing development and use of the information technologies and communication, the companies had developed resources to decide its problems of register, dissemination and use of the internal and external information, with objective to manage the organizational information, as well as stimulating the construction and the sharing of the knowledge. The corporate portals appear whose objective is to congregate in an only space the generated information, by means of different organizational processes and to provide access it in Web space. As methodological procedures, it was used exploratory descriptive research of qualitative nature; the collect of data was carried through the application of a questionnaire to the research subject, a check-list applied to the corporative sites and another one to the Intranets. As base for the analysis and discussion of the data, the called method was used ' content analysis ', of Laurence Bardin. As result, a vision brought up to date on the organizations was gotten that act in the area of information technology, more specifically in that it refers to the aspects related to the information management and knowledge management in the Web space, as well as the technologies more used by these organizations, referring to these aspects. / Mestre

This dissertation presents a study of creating maps that can be used to help people seek information from Internet documents. The study involves several different research areas in computer and information science including web mining, data mining, artificial neural network in particular self organising maps (SOM), information visualisation, user interface and information retrieval. The purpose of this dissertation is to offer an alternative way to retrieve information by visually representing the characteristics of the unseen documents and their relationships on the 2-dimensional surface of the SOM. The process starts with collecting documents that include text and images from the Internet, moving to extracting important features from them. In other words, we are performing an information retrieval indexing process. The document features are then clustered by using the SOM. As a result, documents with similar features will be clustered together on 2-dimensional maps. The maps are labelled and the documents are connected to locations on the maps based on the labels. The maps are then arranged hierarchically and visualised so that they can be used as a browsing and exploration tool for information retrieval.

In 1996 the Howard Government came to power in Australia. At that point in time the commonwealth budget was in significant deficit, the economy was weak and there was significant commonwealth debt. To address these issues the Howard Government moved to implement several cost savings and income generating projects began under the outgoing ALP government. In addition, part of the Howard reforms was the move toward the private side in the public / private mix in the delivery of government services. One of the high profile and significant projects was the outsourcing of the commonwealth public sector Information and Communications Technology (ICT) delivery. It was called the IT Initiative and was managed by the Minister for Finance, the Honourable Mr Fahey. Mr Fahey had earlier attempted significant outsourcing projects whilst in NSW government; at one time Mr Fahey was NSW Premier. The intent of the IT Initiative as policy was to achieve better and more cost effective ICT services for the commonwealth. This research reviews the efficacy of the IT Initiative. Under the Westminster system, governments can implement government policy as approved by the parliament. However not all policy is reviewed by the parliament. In this case the IT Initiative was part of the Howard pre-election policy and therefore was considered 'mandated' by the electorate. Irrespective of this approval, was the IT Initiative supported by the research at the time and did the IT Initiative and its implementation make sound business sense when compared to the research and models and in particular effectiveness, efficiency and economy. This thesis will review the IT Initiative using both static and dynamic models using Transaction Based Economics (TCE). Both models will support the view that the IT Initiative as practiced was a relatively high risk strategy. The thesis will utilise TCE and risk management to develop a risk profiling model for ICT with effectiveness, efficiency, economy as the three dimensions. Finally, the risk-profiling model, while based on earlier modelling, provides a new insight into the issue of centralising versus decentralising of government operations especially as these approaches relate to novel technological applications across various departments.

Hypermarket Taiwan become hot topic extremely now such as shop, hypermarket the shop and emphasize mainly the goods are various in style, good and inexpensive, can satisfy consumer's basic demand of the necessary for life in quantity. Only put emphasis on reducing unit's benefit cost, it has not been enough to show one's talent in the strong competition yet; Especially consumers to hypermarket the susceptibility of price differential of the shop to every quantity, increase with the income and reduce gradually. Can deal with the apparent and inside latent exchange cost outside effectively at the same time, could grow up continuously on the retail market that is saturated day by day. Research this to is it seek present situation and effect of education and training their to go to present situation, Company of case, so must understand case Company live in competition present situation and future goal, Company of case, of industry and wish the scene, find out case company's future development tactics and goal, understand case company's due education and training goal from it, therefore the research approach to take quality, through the collection of the secondary materials, to studying the important executive in the profundity interview questionnaire case company of the main purpose, sum up the possible direction of company's education and training of the case, do the reference that is carried out in the future for the case company. The result of study is found, the execution of education and training really brings the enhancement in various degree on the improvement and ability of personnel's knowledge for the case company, whole case company will be promoted because of this while managing the competition advantage. So measure the promotion of personnel of buying to sell the shop quality and passing on of information management trans-regionally, can bring limitless latent energy to enterprises.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2001. / Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 232-236). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2001. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 218-227). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.

Today, the only certainty is uncertainty. The rate of change is continuing on a steep curve upward, information is growing in volume constantly, and the complexity of the marketplace is increasing exponentially. In order to survive, decision-makers need to anticipate and accommodate developments in the world outside, to sustain and exceed their core competitive advantage. The question is how do they go about doing this? The answer lies in competitive intelligence! Competitive Intelligence is a systematic process involving planning, gathering, analysing and disseminating information on external environment for opportunities or developments that have the potential to affect a company's competitive situation. Research reveals that competitive intelligence (Cl) has evolved from an informal into a formal discipline. While many still confuse it with just being competitor information, it has proven to expand much further into a meaningful and value-added input in the strategic decision-making process. Decisionmakers need to be equipped with the proper tools before they start the strategic planning process. The purpose of this research study is to explore the impact of competitive intelligence practices on strategic decision-making. It aims to identify the best way forward in making competitive intelligence more credible within organisations. The accelerating speed and complexity of change in the business environment places a heightened premium on timely, rigorous understanding of developing threats and opportunities. Consequently, the success of competitive advantage within organisations increasingly depends on aggressive and systematic competitive intelligence efforts to support and enable strategic decision-making. The study presents an holistic competitive intelligence framework, taking theoretical, best practices and a case study approach, enabling any organisation to successfully adapt Cl processes and structures in any given situation. / Thesis (MBA)-University of Natal, 2003.