The advances in library net working technology has brought an inexpensive way of distributing and sharing information within the organization as well as libraries located in remote areas.The advantages of Intranet, Extranet and Internet being numerous, includes streamlining of the information processing and management, facilitating information dissemination and enriching communications and collaborations. Attempts have been made to discuss opportunities provided by these three advanced networks enabling librarians and information professionals in efficient collection development, management and serving users with value added information at ease.

published_or_final_version / Public Administration / Master / Master of Social Sciences

Kong Yunfeng. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 280-312). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, MI : ProQuest Information and Learning Company, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / Abstracts in English and Chinese.

<p>In our everyday tasks context plays an important role, we act based on the information we have or based on what we can see, hear or feel about surrounding. Using this information about context we use to adapt ourselves and our behavior for example in class room we usually whisper when we want to communicate with other class fellow, but in cafeteria we talk normally. Due to the advancements in technology and mobile computing, we are now able to carry computers and smart phones with us, almost everywhere and use them as an alternative to desktop computers. Ubiquitous computing goes step further and refers to the world where computation is being weaved into every day object. In typical ubiquitous computing scenario many invisible computers interact with each other to help user in getting his task done. The ability of being carried easily, i.e. mobility and their presence almost everywhere make it necessary for computer systems, taking part in ubiquitous computing environment, context-aware. If computers can sense the environment they are being used in, they can help user in providing only relevant information, information at correct place and time and such systems can also adapt their behavior according to their surroundings. For example, if would be nice if our mobile phone automatically set to silent profile, whenever we are in class room or in a meeting room. Ubicollab is a platform for supporting collaboration and is a result of research work done in the areas of mobility and ubiquitous computing. Mobility and ubiquity being the inherent properties of UbiCollab, requires it to be aware of context just like another ubiquitous system. It will help UbiCollab applications to adapt their behavior as per surrounding and will enhance the experience of collaboration by using the resources nearby. I researched in the area of context-aware ubiquitous computing and used the results of my research to design and implement a solution for making UbiCollab context-aware. The proposed solution answers research problem related with context itself and different aspect of context. Context definition for UbiCollab has already been defined in work previously done; my solution addresses how to represent this contextual information in simple and effective manner, how to gather location information using different and heterogeneous sensors in understandable and standard format. The outcome of this work comprises of proposed context model, design and implementation of Space Manager for working with spaces, design and usage of flexible data store for storing space information and design and implementation of Location Service Manager for gathering location information using different location sensing technologies.</p>

<p>This project is a continuation of research work done by (Asif, 2009) which proposed an extended architecture of Mobile Student Information System (MSIS) to integrate the systems available for the students to provide student centric services on mobile devices. The architecture was developed by using Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) to provide services for collaboration and communication among the students or between students and the teachers. The mobile services are built by integrating MSIS to Twitter, Feed based systems and NTNU email system. The services have the potential to provide students an experience of a virtual environment of class, project work and discussion groups anytime-anywhere. The project has been carried out in accordance with design-science research model over a number of implementation and evaluation iterations. A user-driven evaluation of the MSIS service has been conducted among a diverse group of NTNU students. The utility as well as the usability of the system were evaluated by applying observational and empirical evaluation methods in a real-world environment at the university. The usability test identified few issues with the initial design of services, and received feedback for enhancements. The Mobile Service Acceptance Model (MSAM) has been used to examine the factors that are influential for user adoption of mobile services in the light of this project. The MSAM instrument measures different facets of a mobile information service, such as the perceived usefulness, ease of use, and usage intention. Our findings confirm that the utility of the student centric mobile services are perceived as high, and students would likely benefit from such kind of services. There is no doubt about the great potential for a service like MSIS and it is believed to be a useful addition to the existing systems.</p>

<p>This study presents the implementation of a voice messaging system using the Peer2Me framework. Voice messaging system (VMS) is an attempt for a new era of communication which is an intuitive-to-use service that adds an emotional and personal dimension to messaging. It enables the user to send voice messages in a peer-to-peer network. One of the objectives of designing VMS is to use the Peer2Me framework which is a framework for developing mobile collaborative applications on mobile phones. For this purpose an initial background study of the framework, central concepts, related technology and state of the art was carried out. We started with the realization of the idea of the VMS by defining its functional and quality requirements, software architecture and high level design. The implementation was carried out in MIDP/J2ME. The application was tested throughout the implementation process and a system test was performed on real phones on completion of the implementation phase. At the end we evaluated our work, discussed the problems we encountered, answered our research questions, gave our conclusions and described further work that could be carried out on the VMS. (All source code of the VMS is attached along with this report).</p>

<p>During the autumn project we explored how mobile technologies could be used to improve collaboration in distance education in developing countries. During this study we identified the importance of discussion groups. In this thesis continuing from the autumn project I traveled to Uganda and administered interview on the BED students in order to understand better how discussion groups are formed and managed, hence understanding better the activities technology can support. In this study we used different methods of data collection. Since we had already done a study in the previous semester we used some the information we hd gathered before to inform us about some aspect. We also used a questionnaire as earlier mentioned and observation since we were in Uganda during a face-to-face session. We presented the results which informed us and we characterised the discussion groups in two that is assignment discussion group and general discussion group giving the characteristics of each in detail. In the results presentation we grouped the chapter into major sub section that need support. We then anaylsed the data collected were we present it in form of scenarios without technology support. In this chapter we have different possibility when Markus whats to create group, join group, leave a group, etc. In here we identify some activities that need support e.g. group management, coordination, communication and collaboration. We then presented the services in the design chapter in use cases and described the different use cases. These use cases helped us to know the detail functionalities that we need to support. There after we developed demonstration prototype to demonstrate some of the functionalities of the design. Though we would have liked to have every thing on our demonstration prototype we just did a few services to demonstrate what we needed. We then evaluated our demonstrator aganist the scenarios we had earlier in the analysis by trying to see how the demonstrator solve some of the problems Markus encounted.</p>

<p>Lecture Quiz is a game used to provide more active and participant students in lectures. The game is based on a server, a teacher client and a student client. In a master thesis done in 2007, Ole Kristian Mørch-Storstein and Terje Øfsdahl have explored concept of game to be used in higher education and develop a prototype game to further evaluate that concept. Their game has three components; the first one is the server part running on a server. This component connect to a database and provide the services to the others component. The second component is called teacher client, when running the game on a lecture the teacher will use this one to show the game. This one runs on the teacher computer such as a laptop or a PC. The last component is the one running on a mobile phone of students; they will use it to interact with the game. The purpose of the previous game is about illustrating the concept of using game in the lecture. For the game to be used and accepted in the lecture and contribute to the educational environment, a lot of matters need to be considered and improved. In this master thesis, the goal is to extend the Lecture Quiz game with new functionalities that can enhance the management and gameplay of the system. The focus is on the game platform and architecture so that the game can be usable, flexible.</p>

<p>Software development with limited resources is a challenge encountered by most developers at one time or another. The limited resources in question can involve many things like: Time, money, manpower, knowledge etc. Developing countries, due to their general lack of resources are particularly well suited as arenas for the study of this concept The research questions we aim to explore are: 1) How can limited resources affect one’s work organizationally? 2) How can technological decisions affect the resource pool? Our case involves a study of the effects of limited resources on the development process of a person-based family health system in India. Our results indicate that a lack of most specific resources often manifests itself into a more general lack of the resource: Time. Technological decisions can influence time through alteration of the resource pool. Making a technological decision in a limited resource environment should therefore be motivated by the management of time for facilitating the execution of critical tasks.</p>

<p>Increasingly, the ability to improve the efficiency, safety and quality of care is being recognized across the primary health sector. Increased focus on "seamless delivery of care", particularly for those with complex care needs, has highlighted the requirement for improved information exchange between health service providers. Personal Health records (PHR) as a transmission of personal health information can be powerful tools for linking the fragmented information that exists between services and allow providers immediate access to essential clinical information. This research is to make known how personal health records (PHR) can be of a greater support or possible as a backbone for continual of service for primary health care. The acquisition of knowledge by this research is about how personal health records can contribute to the planning of efficient patient’s information which in the long run helps in acquiring the rightful treatment and which also results in the benefit of primary health organization members in the whole. The results illustrate the conceptions of the need to in cooperate and encourage the use of personal health records which in the long effect can serve as a backbone for the existing primary healthcare.</p>