Ces dernières années, le contenu disponible sur le Web a augmenté de manière considérable dans ce qu’on appelle communément le Web social. Pour l’utilisateur moyen, il devient de plus en plus difficile de recevoir du contenu de qualité sans se voir rapidement submergé par le flot incessant de publications. Pour les fournisseurs de service, le passage à l’échelle reste problématique. L’objectif de cette thèse est d’aboutir à une meilleure expérience utilisateur à travers la mise en place de systèmes de filtrage et de recommandation. Le filtrage consiste à offrir la possibilité à un utilisateur de ne recevoir qu’un sous ensemble des publications des comptes auxquels il est abonné. Tandis que la recommandation permet la découverte d’information à travers la suggestion de comptes à suivre sur des sujets donnés. Nous avons élaboré MicroFilter un système de filtrage passant à l’échelle capable de gérer des flux issus du Web ainsi que RecLand, un système de recommandation qui tire parti de la topologie du réseau ainsi que du contenu afin de générer des recommandations pertinentes. / In the last years, the amount of available data on the social Web has exploded. For the average user, it became hard to find quality content without being overwhelmed with publications. For service providers, the scalability of such services became a challenging task. The aim of this thesis is to achieve a better user experience by offering the filtering and recommendation features. Filtering consists to provide for a given user, the ability of receiving only a subset of the publications from the direct network. Where recommendation allows content discovery by suggesting relevant content producers on given topics. We developed MicroFilter, a scalable filtering system able to handle Web-like data flows and RecLand, a recommender system that takes advantage of the network topology as well as the content in order to provide relevant recommendations.

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Kolb (1984) identifies learning as a process whereby knowledge is created through transformation of experience. Wenger (1998) would further suggest that education is a mutual development process between communities and its learners, well beyond mere socializing. The value of learning “in community”, then, affords educators an opportunity to create the just right conditions for themselves as both teacher and learner. The success of learning communities depends on reciprocal engagement of its members to share knowledge, experiences, and skills with colleagues (Kling & Courtright, 2003). This study examined the case for blogging as a means to facilitate a self-directed community of professional learners, educators who endeavour to further develop their knowledge, understanding, and expertise of teaching and learning via the cultivation of an authentic informal online learning community. Using social learning theory as the analytical framework, this study looked at ways participation in informal, self-directed online learning communities not only encourages, but discloses potential barriers in participants’ abilities to (1) develop their understanding of teaching and learning as a self-directed, informal online community of engaged professionals; (2) expand their understanding of blogging as a tool to engage and participate in informal, online self-directed professional learning; and (3) deepen their understanding of working within the context of community: self-directed professionals engaging informally online to support, enhance, and reflect critically as engaged learners, specifically through the blogging process. This study investigated various motivations and actions that might bring participants together as engaged, self-directed professional learners and better explain how and why these informal online communities might experience success. Ultimately, it was the researcher’s hope this study would identify specific elements within the participants’ learning, offering both insight and relevance for educators as an engaged, informal, self-directed online community of professional learners.

Communication methods in the corporate environment must change. Organisations can no longer expect effective communication when using intranet sites or sending employees countless emails. This type of communication does not create the learning environment and most employees either do not read the intranet sites, or there is just too much email which could be seen as spam by the employee. These types of technologies also create a culture where organisations are lead from the top and there is not a culture or platform to create feedback loops. Most large corporate organisations have a tendency where many silos are created and cliques are formed, which is not in line with the culture of a learning organisation. Although there are a number of studies which look at how Internet based micro-blogging affect social connectedness, there is however limited information as to the effect that micro-blogging, if used internal to the organisation, would have on employee engagement, or how it can affect the competitive nature to the organisation. The research is exploratory in nature and set out to review what impact internal micro-blogging has on the organisation. The research uses Vodacom, one of the leading Information and communications technology (ICT) and telecommunications companies in South Africa, as the case study, as micro-blogging was recently introduced into this organisation.

Political representatives’ democratic legitimacy rests on their ability to cover the distance between themselves and citizens. Representatives must avoid being perceived as distant and aloof from the needs and wishes of those they represent. The aim of this thesis is to increase the understanding of how new forms of communication with citizens, through participatory initiatives as well as political blogging, are used by politicians in their roles as representatives. Underlying this aim is the question of whether new forms of communication can contribute to reducing the distance between representatives and citizens. The central argument of this thesis is that such types of communication aid representative democracy only to the extent that they offer representatives efficient channels for performing functions related to political representation. This study presents a theoretical framework that identifies potential functions of communication between representatives and citizens for political representation. Its empirical analyses, presented in five articles, find that representatives widely communicate with citizens through participatory initiatives and political blogging to aid their roles as political representatives. Furthermore, results show that representatives’ communication is significantly determined by strategic, practical, and normative factors. The representatives are found to act strategically as communication practices are adapted to accommodate their particular situations, needs and normative orientations. Keywords:

The purpose of this study was to observe weblogs in their natural setting and to investigate the nature of collective learning within the debt blogging community. How individuals who blog their experiences with getting out of debt use their weblogs as well as the role of the commenter in the debt blogging process were also researched. Four distinct literature pools were used to frame this study including the theory of social constructivism, the context of communities of practice, the problem of consumer debt, and the medium of blogging. Utilizing observational netnography, six weblogs were researched which were comprised of individuals or couples trying to get out of debt or who have recently achieved that goal. The primary data included weblog entries and comments from the inception of the weblog to the date of the IRB approval. In addition, “About Me” pages, blogrolls, personal widgets, hypertext links, static text, and the visual context of the weblogs were also included as part of the data. The findings are as follows: First, the analysis of the data revealed six main themes in regard to the nature of collective learning within the debt blogging community. These weblogs (1) distinguish levels of participation, (2) unify and commit participants, (3) remove barriers, (4) contribute to personal growth, (5) allow for personal navigation, and (6) inspire/help others. Many of these themes are founded in the communities of practice literature, but were expanded in this study to illustrate understanding in the context of a weblog as a virtual community of practice. Second, research findings indicate the main uses of debt blogs were to (1) document financial life, (2) articulate opinions, (3) reach out, (4) express self, (5) build communities, and (6) promote accountability. Each of these findings with the exception of promoting accountability has been found in the literature. Accountability has two distinct components – internal and external. The debt bloggers feel obligated to post due to their own internal sense of responsibility as well as external obligation to post due to their duty to the community. This may be unique to debt bloggers or to those who blog about a specific problem. Finally, the analysis of the data provided seven distinct roles of the commenter: (1) supporter, (2) challenger, (3) confirmer/mirror, (4) admirer, (5) seeker of information/advice, (6) provider of information/advice, and (7) connector of community. The research findings revealed insights to the complex interaction of bloggers and commenters and the technical difficulty with capturing the dynamic nature of weblogs.

Exercising to maintain a healthy lifestyle is significant to our modern society, and more and more aids such as blogs on the internet dedicated to training are there to help us. The purpose of this thesis was to analyze three Swedish female bloggers all of them dedicated to training and health, with the aim to find the secular sacred among their descriptions, in relation to Kim Knott and her theory of the secular sacred. The analysis was based on twelve blog posts, categorized after exercising, workouts or health, with the intention to answer the questions “How is the concept of exercise and health described in the selected blogs?”, and“How could these descriptions be understood according to Kim Knott’s theory of secular sacred, based on three categories: sacred, profane and unidentifiable?”. Based on an abductive method the blog posts were analyzed with a qualitative text analyzing approach. Using Knott’s theory, I categorized the posts in to three groups: sacred, profane and unidentifiable. The result showed that many of the posts could be categorized as sacred due to its content. Therefore, I concluded that it was possible to find content that could be seen as sacred based on Knott’s reasoning, which indicates that sacredness is not only placed within the religious context, but can also be found in the secular.

Communication methods in the corporate environment must change. Organisations can no longer expect effective communication when using intranet sites or sending employees countless emails. This type of communication does not create the learning environment and most employees either do not read the intranet sites, or there is just too much email which could be seen as spam by the employee. These types of technologies also create a culture where organisations are lead from the top and there is not a culture or platform to create feedback loops. Most large corporate organisations have a tendency where many silos are created and cliques are formed, which is not in line with the culture of a learning organisation. Although there are a number of studies which look at how Internet based micro-blogging affect social connectedness, there is however limited information as to the effect that micro-blogging, if used internal to the organisation, would have on employee engagement, or how it can affect the competitive nature to the organisation. The research is exploratory in nature and set out to review what impact internal micro-blogging has on the organisation. The research uses Vodacom, one of the leading Information and communications technology (ICT) and telecommunications companies in South Africa, as the case study, as micro-blogging was recently introduced into this organisation.

The scholarly field of traditionally religious women has during the last decade gone from a so called “paradox-approach” which identifies women’s agency with the capacity of acting autonomously – something most clearly demonstrated through acts of resistance – to a nonparadox approach defining agency as a continuum encompassing both resistance to and compliance with traditionally religious structures. While the latter approach assumes that women’s participation in traditional religions is not necessarily a paradox – mainly because some women value religious submission – this thesis argues that the paradox of women and religion becomes essential when speaking about religious feminism. This has proven particularly evident in this study’s Grounded theory approach to blog posts written by Mormon feminists. By combining theories on cognitive dissonance with religious ambivalence this thesis finds that Mormon feminist bloggers express an agency of virtuous ambivalence where they perceive the relationship between their faith and their feminism as dissonant but simultaneously describe this as an ambivalence of religious virtue which bestow upon them a sense of freedom, authenticity and creative potential.

Since the advent of the Internet expeditioners travelling alone or in small groups to remote locations have been using email and websites to communicate with sponsors, supporters, friends and family. This brings new communication opportunities to expeditioners and at the same time may be changing the expedition experience. The author used the experience of participating in an 11-month sailing voyage around the world as a platform for this research by project. The purpose of the voyage was to raise awareness of the plight of the albatross. The author examined how the Internet shaped this expedition, the purpose of expedition communication and how meaning was constructed for a remote audience. Using a constructionist epistemology, a phenomenological approach is used in the development and analysis of a narrative account of the voyage, its preparation and aftermath. The Exegesis contains a detailed account of one Leg of the Voyage, from Cape Town to Melbourne, with a particular focus on the online communications. A full account of the voyage, again with a particular emphasis on communications, is contained in the Durable Record. The potential availability of Internet communication was found to have been intrinsic to the design of the expedition and enabled the Voyage to forgo traditional media sponsorship and yet still attract and engage a worldwide audience through an institutional community website. The lack of use of the Internet's capability to support online discussion and build communities on this Voyage and other expedition websites sampled, is explored and it is proposed to be an expression of these expeditioners' possible disinterest in feedback. The building of online communities around an expedition website is suggested to be an area of opportunity with the potential to engage site visitors, to enable new insights to be gained into the life of expeditioners, and to provide greater exposure for sponsors. A simple classification of expeditions by their leadership, organisation, purpose and membership is proposed and the differing purposes of communication in each considered. The use of email on the voyage was found to facilitate and improve contact with supporters, family and friends. Whilst adding a sense of security it was also found to be time consuming, stressful, power hungry and to build a sense of obligation to communicate. Its general reliability led to exchanges on non-critical matters and to a reduction in the feeling of remoteness that some expeditioners may be seeking. Whilst on this voyage technical and budgetary constraints limited the full use of the Internet's capability to utilise text, images and sound to construct meaning, the effective and timely use of a short daily narrative, aimed at a known audience is demonstrated. The author justifies drawing learning from his participation in the Voyage through the use of experiential learning and reflective learning theory arguing that the preparation for expeditions, participation in them and mediated reflection following them, are rich learning environments provided that good records are kept, particularly a frequently written personal journal.