Thesis (M.Tech.: Library and Information Studies)-Durban Institute of Technology, 2004. viii, 71 leaves / The aim of the study was to investigate management and maintenance procedures that were used by other sites and how these could be used as a basis for formulating management and maintenance procedures for the SALO subject directory.

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This thesis compares an online church with a local physical church in terms of communication dimensions of the community, communication dimensions of sacramental practice, and communication dimensions of faith in general. In a local physical church, these have been traditionally conceived, defined, and profoundly understood in phenomenal or physical terms. In this, the objects of faith and the related rituals deal with the “real” and give even the transcendent physical and actual meaning. However, in an online environment, what was previously physical has become virtual, thus causing the transcendent to be virtualized as well. As such, two guiding questions for this thesis are: 1) Given the virtual nature of the Internet, do the beliefs that a church advocates seem to be or become less real or phenomenal when a church predominantly employs religious practices online; and, 2) Given the power and range of responses that individuals can have when responding to Internet content, do the beliefs that a church advocates become more ideocentric and emotional for its online users? Given the tremendous variations that are employed in religious groups, these two questions will naturally generate more heuristic rather than universal findings, as the title recognizes. LifeChurch.tv has been chosen as the subject for this heuristic investigation due to its manifestation in both an online church and in local physical counterparts. Each is examined through the LifeChurch.tv website using a method of ethnographic research, combined with a longitudinal study, and the resulting findings are interpreted through cluster criticism. A less grounded and more individualistic experience was found in the rhetoric surrounding the online church. / Literature review & theoretical background -- Methods for analysis -- A cluster analysis of a local physical church and online church website -- Major findings, limitations and suggestions for future research. / Department of Telecommunications

This heuristic study of web credibility, considered education as a previously determined demographic to compare the user based data of this study to previous findings in the literature of web credibility and source credibility. By conducting focus groups of college undergraduates, graduate students, and faculty and using grounded theory analysis, 12 categories emerged from the data. These twelve factors were used in developing a process model of web credibility to explain the data in this study. After comparing this data and model to previous findings, several implications and suggestions for future research emerged. The most significant finding was that authority may be highly undervalued in the web credibility literature. Also the data in this study shows that undergraduates reacted much differently in terms of web credibility than did the more educated participants. The data furthermore implies that the disparity between groups hinges more on training in web development than education. / Department of Communication Studies

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This thesis investigates how information and communication technologies (ICT), particularly the World Wide Web (Web), can contribute to the role that Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Conventions, and Exhibitions (MICE) properties play in local economic development (LED). The complex linkages between MICE, ICT and LED, are explored through a literature review, a website audit, in-depth interviews, and a case study from Horowhenua, New Zealand (NZ). The findings reveal that the Web has considerable but as yet largely untapped potential to facilitate linkages between MICE and local economies. Such potential can only be reached through careful planning, and the realisation on the part of managers, developers and planners, that the Web is more than simply a marketing tool, but is also an integral part of attempts to improve internal MICE performance and external links to local development.

The number of people shopping on the Internet has grown rapidly in recent years and it has been suggested that the growth rate of Internet transactions now exceeds that of traditional retailing. Despite the significant growth in the use of the Internet for business transactions, there is evidence to suggest that many customers abandon web sites without completing their transactions. It is clearly important to understand why people buy from the Internet and also the way consumers examine websites. There had been limited research undertaken to investigate the relationships between the various antecedents and the willingness to buy in the Internet environment, especially within a single study. The main trust of this research is to examine the antecedents that influence the willingness to buy from the Internet and also how these antecedents influence one another. The antecedents included in this research were brand image (Dodds, Monroe & Grewal, 1991), perceived risk (Sweeney & Soutar, 2001), trust (Lynch & Beck, 2001), affect (Lynch & Beck, 2001), convenience (Szymanski & Hise, 2000), relative price (Sweeney, Soutar & Johnson, 1999), site reputation (Baker, Grewal & Parasuraman, 1994) and web design (Szymanski & Hise, 2000). Some of the antecedents were found to be unsuitable and they were dropped from the study. The empirical results from the final model suggest that perceived value is positively influenced by affect and brand image. Both brand image and affect also positively influence the trust of the website. Willingness to buy from the website is influenced by perceived value and trust of the website.

Thesis (M.S.)--State University of New York at Binghamton, Department of Computer Science, Thomas J. Watson School of Engineering and Applied Science, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Tufts University, 2001. / Adviser: Fred Rothbaum. Submitted to the Dept. of Child Development. Includes bibliographical references. Access restricted to members of the Tufts University community. Also available via the World Wide Web;