published_or_final_version / abstract / Public Administration / Master / Master of Public Administration

The use of email as a communication and information sharing medium in large, complex, globally distributed engineering projects is widespread; yet there exists little understanding of the content of the emails exchanged and the implications of this content on the design project, design records and contracts. The importance of these issues is underlined by the fact that email records can now be required as evidence in legal disputes. It follows that the overall aim of this research is to assess the role and use of email in engineering design projects. A state-of-the-art review of literature pertaining to email is reported, along with a review of information and communication processes in engineering design projects. The primary contribution of this thesis is the creation of a content based approach for analysing the role and use of email in engineering design projects. This centres on the development and application of a coding scheme to email text, identifying what subject matter an email relates to, why it was sent, and how its content is expressed. Results are then analysed with respect to the frequencies of each code and other variables, including how coding varies between different senders and throughout the project duration. The second key contribution of this thesis is the analysis of emails and content in an engineering setting by applying the aforementioned approach to two case studies. The major case study concerned a large, complex, globally distributed, multimillion pound systems engineering project, from which 16 000 emails were obtained. It was found that emails are mainly used to transfer information but also to support management functions. Emails facilitate design work but little of this takes place explicitly in the email content. Characteristics of a project affect the subject matter or emails but have little effect on why they are sent. User roles and personal preferences also influence email use. If was found that the purposes for sending emails varied over the duration of a project; it was further determined that these changes could be used to identify project progress and design activity. Implications of the findings are identified in relation to: information management, knowledge management, project management, collaboration and email practice. Significantly, emails do contain potentially important design information and because these often support decisions made elsewhere, emails should be integrated with wider records. More consideration and training should be given to the use of project standards for email use and guidelines for composition. Changes in email use over the project duration could be a potential tool for project managers to identify design progress and possible issues in a project.

[pt] A Era da Informação, na qual vivenciamos atualmente é essencialmente marcada pelos grandes avanços tecnológicos tanto na área da informática, quanto no campo das telecomunicações. A acentuação do processo de globalização do mundo capitalista, bem como a necessidade crescente das empresas em atender as demandas oriundas dessa nova realidade capitalista, reforçam a necessidade de inserção destas na atual conjuntura global por meio da introdução destes avanços no contexto do pacto laboral. Em razão do baixo custo na sua manutenção; facilidade de acesso em qualquer dispositivo informático conectado à internet e, por fim, em função da grande velocidade na transmissão da informação, a utilização do correio eletrônico (ou e-mail) corporativo se tornou uma ferramenta de trabalho indispensável no meio empresarial. Contudo, não obstante aos enormes benefícios trazidos ao empregador no uso do e-mail corporativo pelo seu empregado, diversas questões jurídicas acabam sendo levantadas muito principalmente em função das lacunas legislativas acerca da sua utilização no ambiente empregatício. A doutrina e a jurisprudência vêm se debruçando sobre a questão relacionada aos limites do poder diretivo do empregador que, com fundamento no direito fundamental à propriedade garantido no artigo 5, XXII da CF/88, monitora o conteúdo das mensagens existentes nesses ditos e-mails, em aparente afronta ao direito à intimidade do empregado que se encontra tutelado pelo artigo 5, X da CF/88. O exame da questão apresentada se fará por meio da aplicação de técnicas de ponderação e por meio do uso do princípio da proporcionalidade; não se olvidando a necessidade de se estabelecer critérios prévios a este monitoramento a fim de se harmonizar tais direitos no ambiente de trabalho. / [en] The Information Age in which we are experiencing today is essentially characterized by great technological advances, both in computer science and in telecommunication field. The intensification of the capitalism s globalization, and the growing need for companies to meet new demands arising from this reality, reinforces the necessity of including these companies in the current global conjuncture embedding these improvements in the labor pact. Due to the low cost to keep it working; easy access from any computing device connected to the internet and, finally due to the high speed transmission of information, the use of corporate e-mails (or emails) has become an indispensable working tool within the business environment. However, despite the use of the corporate e-mail by employees brings enormous benefits to the employer, several legal issues arises mainly due to legal loopholes regarding its use in the employment environment. Scholars and legal doctrine have been focusing on the question regarding limits of the directing power of the employer, based on the fundamental right to property guaranteed in article 5, XXII of the Brazilian Federal Constitution, in monitoring the contents of the existing messages in these corporate emails, in apparent confront to the right to privacy of the employee who is protected by article 5, X of the same Constitution. The analysis of this issue will be presented through the application of weighting techniques and through the use of the principle of proportionality; not forgetting the need to establish prior criteria to this monitoring, in order to harmonize these rights in the work environment.

Zugl.: Giessen, Universiẗat, Diss., 2007.

<p>The rapid development of Internet technologies has led to the emergence of new communication means. E-mail has become a new powerful tool used by millions with the main purpose of exchanging information. Considering its large scope, marketers have been using the e-mail as an important direct marketing force and it has become a popular choice for many companies. The e-mail has therefore constituted a new form of on-line marketing coined “E-mail marketing”. However, the increasing use of the e-mail marketing has been adversely affected by the appearance of non-traditional marketing communication media such as unsolicited commercial e-mails (UCEs). The main reasons behind the alarming growth of the UCEs are those explained by the low-cost structure of the e-mail and, thus, a small number of responses are required for generating a profit (Moustakas <em>et al.</em>, 2006; p.45; Shenoy, 2008; p.32). This unsolicited medium used for reaching consumers has evolved from mere nuisance to actual threat (Mendleson, 2010; p.38), which has brought a new complexity into consumers’ daily lives. This in its turn calls for examination of consumer’s perception about the unsolicited commercial e-mails.</p><p> </p><p>Hence, the aim of this thesis is to examine consumer’s perceptions about the mentioned unsolicited marketing communication medium. This will provide increased awareness of the profound implications that the UCEs have on e-commerce and the e-mail marketing on the whole and, particularly, on Internet user groups such as companies, e-mail service providers and policy makers. The study was conducted with a positivistic position and followed a deductive approach, taking known theories as point of departure. The theories presented are mainly concerned with: privacy, ethical and legislation issues; consumer’s reactions and motives behind the opening of the e-mail; the impact of the UCEs on the brand image and overall implications of the UCEs.</p><p> </p><p>A self-completion questionnaire was used as method of data collection. The results indicate that the UCEs are perceived as slightly unethical and neither intrusive nor nonintrusive by the respondents. There is also no clear perceived protection by the anti-spam law, which claims the need for improvement of the policy makers’ work. The results also reveal that the most common consumer’s reaction is to disregard and delete the UCEs, although a small but considerable percentage of the consumers respond. The findings show that the different contents of the UCEs are perceived with low levels of interest by the respondents. Also, the motives behind the opening of the UCEs by the respondents are distributed nearly equal: the credibility of the sender, simply the curiosity and the attractiveness of the subject line. This study reveals a fairly negative perceived image of the companies advertised by the UCEs, which proves the associated cost of sending the UCEs. Furthermore, it has been found that the respondents are concerned about sharing their e-mail addresses with e-companies because of the UCEs and that the latter hinder the accessibility to solicited commercial e-mails in the e-mail inboxes. The e-mail service providers have been also affected since a quarter of the respondents have changed them as a consequence of receiving the UCEs. Thus, the results of this thesis show the adverse implications of the UCEs on electronic commerce, e-mail marketing and on Internet user groups.</p>

The rapid development of Internet technologies has led to the emergence of new communication means. E-mail has become a new powerful tool used by millions with the main purpose of exchanging information. Considering its large scope, marketers have been using the e-mail as an important direct marketing force and it has become a popular choice for many companies. The e-mail has therefore constituted a new form of on-line marketing coined “E-mail marketing”. However, the increasing use of the e-mail marketing has been adversely affected by the appearance of non-traditional marketing communication media such as unsolicited commercial e-mails (UCEs). The main reasons behind the alarming growth of the UCEs are those explained by the low-cost structure of the e-mail and, thus, a small number of responses are required for generating a profit (Moustakas et al., 2006; p.45; Shenoy, 2008; p.32). This unsolicited medium used for reaching consumers has evolved from mere nuisance to actual threat (Mendleson, 2010; p.38), which has brought a new complexity into consumers’ daily lives. This in its turn calls for examination of consumer’s perception about the unsolicited commercial e-mails.   Hence, the aim of this thesis is to examine consumer’s perceptions about the mentioned unsolicited marketing communication medium. This will provide increased awareness of the profound implications that the UCEs have on e-commerce and the e-mail marketing on the whole and, particularly, on Internet user groups such as companies, e-mail service providers and policy makers. The study was conducted with a positivistic position and followed a deductive approach, taking known theories as point of departure. The theories presented are mainly concerned with: privacy, ethical and legislation issues; consumer’s reactions and motives behind the opening of the e-mail; the impact of the UCEs on the brand image and overall implications of the UCEs.   A self-completion questionnaire was used as method of data collection. The results indicate that the UCEs are perceived as slightly unethical and neither intrusive nor nonintrusive by the respondents. There is also no clear perceived protection by the anti-spam law, which claims the need for improvement of the policy makers’ work. The results also reveal that the most common consumer’s reaction is to disregard and delete the UCEs, although a small but considerable percentage of the consumers respond. The findings show that the different contents of the UCEs are perceived with low levels of interest by the respondents. Also, the motives behind the opening of the UCEs by the respondents are distributed nearly equal: the credibility of the sender, simply the curiosity and the attractiveness of the subject line. This study reveals a fairly negative perceived image of the companies advertised by the UCEs, which proves the associated cost of sending the UCEs. Furthermore, it has been found that the respondents are concerned about sharing their e-mail addresses with e-companies because of the UCEs and that the latter hinder the accessibility to solicited commercial e-mails in the e-mail inboxes. The e-mail service providers have been also affected since a quarter of the respondents have changed them as a consequence of receiving the UCEs. Thus, the results of this thesis show the adverse implications of the UCEs on electronic commerce, e-mail marketing and on Internet user groups.

Spam is an increasing menace in email: 90% of email is spam, and over 90% of spam is sent by botnets---networks of compromised computers under the control of miscreants. In this dissertation, we introduce email spam filtering using network-level features of spammers. Network-level features are based on lightweight measurements that can be made in the network, often without processing or storing a message. These features stay relevant for longer periods, are harder for criminals to alter at will (e.g., a bot cannot act independently of other bots in the botnet), and afford the unique opportunity to observe the coordinated behavior of spammers. We find that widely-used IP address-based reputation systems (e.g., IP blacklists) cannot keep up with the threats of spam from previously unseen IP addresses, and from new and stealthy attacks---to thwart IP-based reputation systems, spammers are reconnoitering IP Blacklists and sending spam from hijacked IP address space. Finally, spammers are "gaming" collaborative filtering by users in Web-based email by casting fraudulent "Not Spam" votes on spam email. We present three systems that detect each attack that uses spammer behavior rather than their IP address. First, we present IP blacklist counter-intelligence, a system that can passively enumerate spammers performing IP blacklist reconnaissance. Second, we present SpamTracker, a system that distinguishes spammers from legitimate senders by applying clustering on the set of domains to which email is sent. Third, we analyze vote-gaming attacks in large Web-based email systems that pollutes user feedback on spam emails, and present an efficient clustering-based method to mitigate such attacks.

Workshop "Netz- und Service-Infrastrukturen" Hat Bayes eine Chance? Seit einigen Monaten oder Jahren werden verstärkt Bayes-Filter eingesetzt, um die Nutz-E-Mail ("`Ham"') vom unerwünschten "`Spam"' zu trennen. Diese stoßen jedoch leicht an ihre Grenzen. In einem zweiten Abschnitt wird ein Filtertest der Zeitschrift c't genauer analysiert.

The work with this paper began with a belief that the permission aspect plays acrucial part when it comes to consumers perceptions of marketing through E-mailand SMS - especially when it comes to advertising that is received through a devicethat the consumer has a strong personal relationship with. The questions to beinvestigated was: "How do users of computers and mobile phones feel aboutadvertisement received through E-mail and SMS?" and "In what way does the usersrelationship to the computer or mobile phone affect how they feel about theadvertisement?". The study was based on a questionnaire as well as an analysis of theresponses in combination with previous research on the subject. The results showed that the majority of the respondents from this papers surveywere found to have a negative attitude toward advertisement through both E-mail andSMS. However, the respondents turned out to have a slightly higher tolerance foradvertisement through E-mail than towards advertisement through SMS. The resultsalso showed that the respondents seemed to have different relationships with theirmobile phones than with their computers, but the relationship itself did not seem toaffect the users perception of advertisement through these means of communication.

Section 14 of the Constitution provides for the right to privacy, which includes the right not to have the privacy of communications infringed. The right is also protected at common law - a breach of a person's privacy constitutes an iniura. E-mail communications are therefore protected by both, the common law and the Constitution. The question that this work seeks to answer is, whether the Government has the right to intercept and/or monitor private e-mail communications. The right to privacy is not absolute, case law and legislation show that this right can be limited. At common law, a valid defence will negate the unlawfulness of the invasion. In terms of the Constitution, the right to privacy can only be limited in accordance with the limitation clause section 36. For each case, courts will have to balance, the government's interest in combating crime and that of the citizen to the privacy of their e-mail communications. In seeking to answer the question, this work considers the protection afforded by the common law and the Constitution. It also considers statutes which limit the right to privacy, including whether these statutes are applicable to e-mail communications and if they are, whether they constitute a justifiable limitation of the right, for example: the Regulation of Interception of Communications and Provision of Communication-Related Information Act and the Criminal Procedure Act - which was enacted when the 'cyber-world' was non-existent. All statutes, applicable to e-mail communications, provide for some form of requirements or guidelines before communications can be intercepted or/ and monitored. The right to privacy is also protected in foreign jurisdictions and is not absolute. There is protection only against unreasonable invasions of privacy. In conclusion, both statutory law and common law permit the government, within limitations, to intercept or/ and monitor private e-mail communications. Where there are guidelines, regulating this power, the circumstance under which and when it can be exercised. This will amount to a reasonable and justifiable limitation and therefore the right will not be violated. / Thesis (LL.M.)-University of Natal, Durban, 2003.