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This research examines the strategic use of information systems and information technology (IS/IT) by public sector agencies in developing countries (PSADC). It examines mechanism for identifying strategic opportunities, the obstacles facing PSADC to develop such strategic use, and other factors that might influence the development of the strategic use of IS/IT. This research used case study methods to collect data from public sector agencies in Kuwait. Concerning identifying strategic opportunities, this study indicated that PSADC can use IS/IT to target the public, other government agencies, parliament and oversight agencies, other countries and word organisations, and specific domestic industries. The Study shows that PSADC can use IS/IT to support strategic thrusts that could be applied defensively or offensively. Those strategic thrusts are focus, innovation, alliance, differentiation, satisfying, and cost. Concerning the correlation of the development of strategic use of IS/IT, five correlates were examined. Those correlates were environmental dynamism, environmental scanning, organisational control, information intensity, and senior management's knowledge of strategic use of information systems. This study found no evidence to support their correlation with the development of the strategic use of IS/IT in PSADC. Concerning the prerequisites for developing strategic use of IT/IS in PSADC, the study indicates that a developed hardware and software platform greatly influences the development of such use. This thesis concludes with a discussion of its implications on theory and practice, in addition to suggestions for future research.

The last decade has seen explosive growth in Internet use, with the number of hosts growing rapidly year on year. The Internet has been able to withstand this colossal growth due to advances in technology (particularly in the field of optical communications) and the strength, stability and adaptability of its underlying. However, recent years have seen the emergence and deployment of a diverse range of multimedia and real time applications. These applications place increasing strain on the Internet infrastructure and its ability to provide adequate resources to meet the specific requirements of multimedia applications. There is a case to be made for changing the best effort nature of the Internet to enable some users/applications to receive better quality of service than others (for a price). The research presented in this thesis has examined the case for quality of service and the methodologies and implementations available to provide quality of service. In particular the differentiated services approach is evaluated through computer based modelling and simulation. Congestion management within the Internet is intrinsically linked to quality of service since congestion is typically the cause of any service degradation (such as increased delay and packet loss) which compromises the operation of multimedia applications. This research has compared a number of traditional congestion control schemes and thoroughly evaluated this operation and performance of the random early detection congestion avoidance scheme. The sensitivity of the random early detection algorithm to the setting of its parameters has been demonstrated and a potentially damaging flaw has been identified within the adaptive random early detection algorithm. Further research has evaluated a new and innovative distributed admission control scheme. No further details of this admission control scheme can be made available in this summary since it is the subject of an ongoing British Telecom Laboratories patent application.

The use of automatic indexing methods in bibliographic information systems is examined. It is argued that automatic methods do not result in the best set of index terms being assigned to a document representative. A method, Document Learning, is proposed to improve the set of index terms generated by an automatic indexing system. A mathematical model is set up to describe the document learning process. This process uses relevance information associated with queries processed by the information system, in order to alter the index terms associated with the retrieved document representatives. It is essential that the alterations made are not drastic but, rather, that they form part of a process of gradual change. In this manner the document representatives build up new sets of index terms based on a collection of queries. In order to implement this policy of gradual change it is necessary to weight the index terms so that their significance can be increased and decreased. Experimental work carried out to investigate the best form of the learning function is described. The learning function is the mathematical function which defines how document representatives are altered. After selection of a suitable learning function, the document learning process itself was investigated. Pairs of queries were used to see how applying the document learning process on the results obtained from one query would affect the retrieved document set of the second. Then larger sets of queries were used to simulate real users, and the effect on the retrieved document sets noted. It is concluded that the use of document learning can be effective in improving the output of automatic indexing methods, providing the learning function acts in a gradual manner.

This research is based on the premise that information is a prerequisite for exercising the rights and responsibilities of citizenship. However, evidence shows that information provision about social rights is patchy. The 'information poor' are therefore disadvantaged in access to welfare. The possession of social rights further implies an obligation on others to provide the information which is needed to exercise those rights. The study examines government information policies to inform the public about social security benefits, and explores the intentions behind the provision - or withholding - of such information. The research tests the hypothesis that government information policy can be explained by reasons other than, or in addition to, enabling citizens to exercise their social rights. Historical and contemporary evidence from interviews with policy makers and from secondary sources are analysed to detect shifts in information policy over the last fifty years. In doing so the research looks for corresponding changes in definitions of, and attitudes towards, citizenship. The study concludes that government information policies directly influence which claimants exercise their rights to the benefits to which they are entitled. Information policy is a complex and dynamic process, based on a variety influences. Of these, 'citizenship' explanations have some merit, but 'political' influences play a major part in information policy.

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