Thesis (Ph.D)--University of Wollongong, 2005. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references: leaf 172-181.

Thesis (M.B.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 1997. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A.)--Emerson College, 2000. / See Website for latest information. Disc is shelved in ARCHIVES; production book in REFERENCE.

Thesis (M.Sc. (Computer Science)) - Rhodes University, 2009.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2004. / Supervisor: Francis L. Miksa. Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Adviser: Daniel Wojcik. xiii, 299 leaves / A print copy of this title is available through the UO Libraries under the call number: KNIGHT BL37 .H69 2001 / Since the advent of the public World-Wide-Web in 1992, networked computer communication has rapidly become integral to the daily lives of many North Americans. Many researchers in the humanities and social sciences debate the potential power and nature of the effects of these new forms of communication. Some scholars see dangers in the changing forms of “media literacy,” but others see the Internet engendering new levels of democratic debate at grassroots and personal levels. However, much of this research still lacks the basic methodological rigor necessary to make reasonable claims about actual individual human communicative behavior on the Internet. By melding the behavioral ethnographic methods of folklore studies and socio-linguistics to postmodern methods of rhetorical analysis, this dissertation explores the general hypothesis that Internet media encourage the use of negotiative rhetorical strategies in the everyday expression of vernacular religious belief. By participating in the specific Christian Fundamentalist discourse known as Dispensationalism, this dissertation establishes methods for locating and classifying particular Internet expressions based on their revelatory, experiential, and/or negotiative rhetorical strategies. The hypothesis is explored through a series of five cases related to Protestant Dispensationalism: early American Puritan and Quaker autobiography, 1994 and 1995 Christian e-mail lists, the 1996 and 1997 e-mail campaign of the “Heaven's Gate” religious group, and 1999 and 2000 amateur Dispensationalist web-site builders. Based on e-mail, web-site, questionnaire, and face-to-face interview data, the results of this research have shown that the hypothesis overestimated the power of the Internet to encourage negotiative attitudes in deeply religious individuals. Although the Internet expressions of belief seem to have taken on a style of negotiation, little actual negotiation about religious beliefs or values occurred on the Internet among those documented. Instead, there was a constant exchange of similar ideas which seem to primarily function as attitudinal posturing. Though strong positions were taken and expressed to large and diverse audiences, only a very few individuals were willing to adjust their previously held beliefs as a result of their experiences with Internet communication.

Early computerized health information systems supported applications in hospital records and laboratory data collection. Since that time, software has been developed for a number of health care providers such as doctors and pharmacists. Although local area networks are installed at larger institutions, only a few small-scale, special-purpose, wide-area networks are installed for external providers. To be adopted, wide-area networks should provide greater functionality than, and be cost-competitive with, conventional communication methods. Several projects are underway in Health Information Science to develop and evaluate generic, wide-area networks. This dissertation describes the design, analysis, development, implementation and evaluation of a prototype health care network which would be accessible to providers using existing computer equipment and the public switched telephone system. The network software, Health Link, supports reliable, automatic, store-and-forward messaging of medically-sensitive information. Encrypted messages can be authenticated and the software features registered delivery. An application programming interface formats messages in accordance with the HL7 data interchange standard. Simulation studies have been conducted which demonstrate the steady state characteristic behaviour of a node in a uniform cluster. Further studies have investigated a realistic, dynamic, large scale network. A peer-to-peer model and client-server model were analyzed and both were found to be feasible with respect to certain performance and cost criteria. The client-server model was found to be less costly to operate than the peer-to-peer model. The peer-to-peer model can transfer messages in a shorter time than the client-server model. The network software was verified in a field test involving four clinics, one medical laboratory, and one hospital. Data collected in the test provide performance benchmarks, an estimate of message sizes and frequencies, network reliability statistics, and a wealth of observations. Performance benchmarks and message traffic measurements were used to calibrate the simulation models. Results from this and other research indicate that, although most of the technical networking problems can be readily overcome, consensus on standards, health care applications, and initiatives should be promoted before a wide-spread, production network is implemented. / Graduate

Thesis (MTech (Business Administration))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2011 / Online company registration is a service, which has been claimed by Congo-Brazzaville immigrant entrepreneurs. It has taken centuries for scientists to develop computers that successfully enable businesses to grow in an effective erasure of national frontiers for business purposes. B2B e-commerce, which heralded the dawn of globalisation in the EU, USA, India, New Zealand and South Africa, is not yet applicable in Congo- Brazzaville. Presently, B2B e-commerce has made the global economy porous, which consequently activated online business registration. This porosity has enabled SMMEs to save supply chain management costs, create jobs, improve customer care and contribute to the country’s GDP. However, owing to the characteristics of Congolese immigrants’ SMMEs in Cape Town, online business registration has become imperative to enable them to expand in Congo and to save supply chain management costs and contribute to the country’s economic reconstruction process. Recently, the Centre For Business and Administrative Procedures (CFBAP): Centre des Formalités Administratives des Entreprises’ (CFE) B2B e-commerce website has become in demand. Furthermore, at a national level, e-commerce website adoption at CFBAP will leverage the country’s standards of conducting business and will boost the pride of CFBAP, as an organisation, as well as its partners in an aspect that is at the core of its values. The main objective of this study is to analyse the benefits of online business registration for Congo-Brazzaville immigrant entrepreneurs in Cape Town. The study has established motivating factors to implement an e-commerce website at CFBAP in Brazzaville, but did not recommend any specific e-commerce technology for the institution. The research has also made an earnest attempt to illicit reasons why Congo-Brazzaville immigrant entrepreneurs invest in Brazzaville in spite of being well established in Cape Town. The research target population included Congo-Brazzaville immigrant entrepreneurs who were selected from their association and who live in Cape Town, where the study was conducted. The nature of the research dictated both quantitative and qualitative methodologies in order to gain a better understanding of the research problem that was identified. Key words: E-commerce, CFE, Congo-Brazzaville, World Bank, SMMEs, immigrants, Centre for Business and Administrative Procedures (CFBAP).

The twenty-first century has found education at the crossroads of change. There are burgeoning challenges facing the modern educator. To rise to the importuning, educators find themselves turning to Information Technology for the answers. The technologies utilised in attempts to overcome the challenges often include the Internet and electronic educational resources. Although the Internet is not unduly called the Information Highway, it is also fraught with misleading and incorrect information. Educators’ arduous searches result in few good and useable resources. Thus, to store, organise and efficiently retrieve the discovered resources is a matter of time-saving. The aim of the study was to develop a method to organise and retrieve educational resources in an efficient and personalised manner. In order to do this, an exploration into pedagogy and educational paradigms was undertaken. The current educational paradigm, constructivism, proposes that each learner is an individual with unique learning and personal needs. To develop a new model, the current models need to be understood. The current solutions for the organising of educational resources are realised as several software packages, also called e-learning packages. A list of criteria that describes the essential requirements for organising educational resources was established. These criteria were based upon the pedagogical principles prescribed by educators and the practical technological frameworks necessary to fulfil the needs of the teaching/learning situation. These criteria were utilised to critique and explore the available solutions. It was found that although the available e-learning packages fulfil a need within their genre, it does not meet with the core requirements of constructivism. The resource base model seeks to address these needs by focussing on the educational aspects of resource delivery over an Intranet. For the purposes of storing, organising and delivering the resources, a database had to be established. This database had to have numerous qualities, including the ability to search and retrieve resources with great efficiency. Retrieving data in an efficient manner is the forte of the star schema, while the storing and organising of data is the strength of a normalised schema. It is not standard practice to utilise both types of schemas within the same database. A star schema is usually reserved for data warehouses because of its data retrieval abilities. It is customary to utilise a normalised schema for operational databases. The resource base model, however, needs both the storage facilities of an operational database and the efficient query facilities of a data warehouse. The resource base model, therefore, melds both schemas into one database with interlinking tables. This database forms the foundation (or the back-end) of the resource base. The resource base model utilises web browsers as its user interface (or front-end). The results of the study on the pedagogy, the current e-learning solutions and the resource base were written up within this dissertation. The contribution that this dissertation makes is the development of a technique to efficiently store, organise and retrieve educational resources in such a manner that both the requirements of constructivism and outcomes-based education are fulfilled. To this end, a list of technological and pedagogical criteria on which to critique a resource delivery technique has been developed. This dissertation also elaborates on the schema designs chosen for the resource base, namely the normalised schema and the star schema. From this schema, a prototype has been developed. The prototype’s function was two-fold. The first function is to determine the feasibility of the technique. Secondly, to determine the success of the technique in fulfilling the needs expressed in the list of criteria

Magister Commercii (Information Management) - MCom(IM) / In this information age, the Internet has found a role in various industries such as transportation, advertising, etc. The travel industry, in which communication between travellers and travel service providers is a very important component, has as much potential as any other industry to make full use of this new medium. Already, most travel agencies and travel service providers promote their products and services using web sites. Searching for information online is now seen by many people as a way to save time and cost, especially in their travel activities. In order to fully deploy the Internet within the travel industry, understanding the use of the Internet in tourism is critical. This research sets out initially to examine the role and the impact of the Internet in the whole of the travel industry. But in order to define an achievable scope of work and because of its importance in South Africa at this time, tourism within the travel industry was chosen as the focus of the work. / South Africa