Master of Science / Department of Computing and Information Sciences / Gurdip Singh / Deluge is a protocol used for remote re-programming of nodes in a wireless sensor networks by injecting messages into a network of motes without having the motes directly connected to the PC. It uses the 3-way handshake protocol consisting of 3 types of messages: advertise, request and data. The protocol is very useful but is restricted to homogeneous networks wherein all nodes must be programmed with the same code. This project is an attempt to modify the existing protocol to work for heterogeneous networks where different motes function differently and have to be programmed differently. The project was developed using Java and nesC (a dialect of C) which supports component based programming. The nodes run an operating system called tinyOS which is specifically designed for sensor networks. The system was tested on a network of micaZ and TelosB motes.

Increasingly, workplace information seeking takes place in digital information environments and is reliant upon search systems. Existing systems are designed to retrieve information that is relevant to the query, but are not capable of identifying information that is well-suited to the context and situation of a search. This is a problem for professionals who often are searching for a small amount of useful information that can be applied to a problem or task, and have limited time to browse through large sets of results. This inability of search systems to discriminate between relevant and useful documents is one of the core problems in information retrieval. In this dissertation, I address this problem by studying the role that contextual factors play in determining how a group of professionals searches for and selects information. The central question concerns the nature of the relationships between these contextual factors, specifically between the genres in the document collection and the tasks of the searcher, with an aim to exploit such relationships to improve workplace information retrieval. Research was conducted through multiple studies in three phases, moving from an exploratory study of workplace information behaviour to a controlled experimental user study. Findings confirm that workplace context shapes search behaviour. This relationship is modeled as a set of key contextual factors and sets of context-dependent access constraints, preferred document characteristics, and search strategies. Among the contextual factors identified, work tasks and information tasks were found to be significantly associated with document genres. This task-genre relationship was modeled as a matrix of associations between domain-specific task and genre taxonomies and successfully implemented as a filtering component in a workplace search system. This is the first major study of the relationship between task and genre in information seeking and of its application to information retrieval systems.

Master of Science / Department of Journalism and Mass Communications / Steven Smethers / Although scholars have increasingly recognized the important role of the Internet within the field of mass communications, little research has been done analyzing the behavior of individuals online. The success or failure of a site is often dependent on the number of visitors it receives (often called “traffic”) and this includes newspapers that are attempting to direct larger audiences to their websites. Theoretical arguments have been made for certain factors (region, social media presence, backlinks, etc.) having a positive correlation with traffic, but few, if any, statistical analyses have been done on traffic patterns. This study looks at a sample of approximately 300 high-traffic websites and forms several regression models in order to analyze which factors are most highly correlated with Internet traffic and what the nature of that correlation is.

This dissertation is an exploratory case study of the archives of Canadian artist Vera Frenkel and their acquisition by Queen’s University Archives in Kingston, Ontario. The research seeks to understand, through empirical investigation, the many factors that shape the artist’s recordkeeping and archives in the personal sphere and contribute to the nature of the eventual archival fonds in the institution. The foundation for the research includes the literatures of archival studies, life narrative, and art. Vera Frenkel’s interdisciplinary art work reflects a deep engagement with questions of truth and fiction. As an aspect of this theme, records and archives play a role in several of her works, often being revealed as problematic sources of evidence. Fundamental to the artist’s approach to interdisciplinarity is a complex layering of elements that builds uncertainty in the viewer. Given these aspects of Frenkel’s work, research that elicits the artist’s testimony about her archives must be able to accommodate a degree of ambiguity in the construction of that testimony. In a series of in situ interviews with the artist in her studio, the author investigated Frenkel’s recordkeeping habits and their relationship to her creative practice. As a data source, these interviews were supplemented by the artist’s photographs and hand-drawn maps of the studio. The author also investigated the processes entailed by archival transfer, examining the extant Vera Frenkel fonds at Queen’s University Archives and interviewing Heather Home, the archivist responsible for the acquisition. Both the personal and institutional spheres were taken into consideration as essential contributors to the nature of Frenkel’s archives as a complex cultural artifact. The research argues for the central role of archives in the acquisition and preservation of contemporary art. It contributes a foundation for understanding the nature of visual artists’ archives.

Although online social media have achieved spectacular success in some instances, the design of such systems remains an art. In some specialized areas, such as online deliberation systems for participatory democracy, experiences from many projects have been reported in the research literature. Designers can benefit from knowledge accumulated from these experiences. However, the knowledge is dispersed and not organized for ready access by practicing professionals. This thesis proposes a framework for structuring and codifying design knowledge from published studies to help designers make design choices that will attain design objectives.

Although end-user support is an important aspect of EMR implementation, it is not known in what ways it affects EMR success. To investigate this topic, a case study of end-user support for an open-source EMR was conducted in an Ontario Family Health Organization using 7 semistructured interviews based on the DeLone and McLean Model of Information System Success. Second, documentation for an open-source and proprietary EMR was analyzed using Carroll’s Minimalism as a theoretical framework. Finally, themes from this thesis were compared and contrasted with a multiple case study that examined support for a commercial EMR in 4 Ontario family health teams. Main findings include the role of informal support, which was important for ensuring that data are documented consistently, which in turn enabled information retrieval for providing better preventive care services. Also, formal support was important for mitigating problems of system quality, which had potential implications for patient safety.

Although online social media have achieved spectacular success in some instances, the design of such systems remains an art. In some specialized areas, such as online deliberation systems for participatory democracy, experiences from many projects have been reported in the research literature. Designers can benefit from knowledge accumulated from these experiences. However, the knowledge is dispersed and not organized for ready access by practicing professionals. This thesis proposes a framework for structuring and codifying design knowledge from published studies to help designers make design choices that will attain design objectives.

Although end-user support is an important aspect of EMR implementation, it is not known in what ways it affects EMR success. To investigate this topic, a case study of end-user support for an open-source EMR was conducted in an Ontario Family Health Organization using 7 semistructured interviews based on the DeLone and McLean Model of Information System Success. Second, documentation for an open-source and proprietary EMR was analyzed using Carroll’s Minimalism as a theoretical framework. Finally, themes from this thesis were compared and contrasted with a multiple case study that examined support for a commercial EMR in 4 Ontario family health teams. Main findings include the role of informal support, which was important for ensuring that data are documented consistently, which in turn enabled information retrieval for providing better preventive care services. Also, formal support was important for mitigating problems of system quality, which had potential implications for patient safety.

This dissertation is an exploratory case study of the archives of Canadian artist Vera Frenkel and their acquisition by Queen’s University Archives in Kingston, Ontario. The research seeks to understand, through empirical investigation, the many factors that shape the artist’s recordkeeping and archives in the personal sphere and contribute to the nature of the eventual archival fonds in the institution. The foundation for the research includes the literatures of archival studies, life narrative, and art. Vera Frenkel’s interdisciplinary art work reflects a deep engagement with questions of truth and fiction. As an aspect of this theme, records and archives play a role in several of her works, often being revealed as problematic sources of evidence. Fundamental to the artist’s approach to interdisciplinarity is a complex layering of elements that builds uncertainty in the viewer. Given these aspects of Frenkel’s work, research that elicits the artist’s testimony about her archives must be able to accommodate a degree of ambiguity in the construction of that testimony. In a series of in situ interviews with the artist in her studio, the author investigated Frenkel’s recordkeeping habits and their relationship to her creative practice. As a data source, these interviews were supplemented by the artist’s photographs and hand-drawn maps of the studio. The author also investigated the processes entailed by archival transfer, examining the extant Vera Frenkel fonds at Queen’s University Archives and interviewing Heather Home, the archivist responsible for the acquisition. Both the personal and institutional spheres were taken into consideration as essential contributors to the nature of Frenkel’s archives as a complex cultural artifact. The research argues for the central role of archives in the acquisition and preservation of contemporary art. It contributes a foundation for understanding the nature of visual artists’ archives.

This thesis examines the quality and effectiveness of online political deliberation, within the framework of Jurgen Habermas’ public sphere and discourse theories. The thesis analyzes a deliberative process that took place online, in June 2011, as part of the Liberal Party of Canada’s Extraordinary Convention, specifically through content and discourse analysis of data from online discussion platforms. The analysis sought to ascertain whether the objectives of the convention were met, measured the quality of discourse and identified insights to support the creation of more effective spaces for political deliberation online. Analysis of the results revealed a difference in the discourse quality for each platform, attributed to the synchronicity or asynchronicity of the platform. The thesis concludes with suggestions for a design that makes use of both the synchronous and asynchronous features of the online discussion platforms in order to more specifically target the objectives of the political process.