This thesis investigates how English Christian leaders and churches use the internet for personal and corporate communication, and looks for evidence of challenges to traditional understandings of authority arising from online communication. Early studies in this area suggested that online religion would cause enormous change but more recent studies reflect less polarised opinions. Religious people tend to use the internet to augment rather than replace practice of their faith, holding true for different religions globally. Leaders use the internet for a wide variety of religious information tasks. The project uses a longitudinal website census, quantitative content analysis and semi-structured interviews. 400 churches in four English denominations (Baptist, Methodist, Anglican and Catholic) were surveyed over a three year period to establish if they published a website. 147 churches from the same four denominations, located in an area equivalent to Chelmsford Diocese, were assessed on 75 categories of information and their hyperlinks analysed. Interviews with church leaders and interested parties helped foster understanding of why and how sites were created, and explored the leaders personal use of the internet. The percentage of churches with a website increased over the survey period for all denominations. Content analysis showed that currency, extent and accessibility of information on websites varied, with some being out of date, others showing no contact details and few having specific information for newcomers to church. Interview findings revealed perceptions of email overload, varying degrees of governance and control of websites by church leaders, and leaders own use of the internet and social media. Interactivity was rare on church websites. Different levels of expertise are mooted as reasons why control and governance varies between leaders. Perceptions of the internet may be influenced by moral panic. The influence of the age of congregations on adoption of social media, and the impact of volunteer webmasters are examined. Recommendations for churches planning to revisit or review their sites are included, limitations are noted and suggestions for further research made

Aim:  Optimize the usage of transactional emails, going beyond their communicative nature and combining it with marketing purposes. The project has been developed in collaboration with Incomedia, Italian software developer and vendor. Objective: Understand how Incomedia can exploit the benefits of transactional emails in a marketing perspective in order to increase the sales of its software. Limitation: The specificity of the topic, strictly related to Incomedia’s activities, products and consumers. Limits of time and variables tested with the A/B experiment. Theory/Methodology : It helped us to leverage the potential of transactional emails through the improvement of one particular element, the price discount offers. Due to the particularity of the software “medium-price” level, we have choose to do an A/B test experiment of the new transactional email by presenting the discount in two different ways: monetary and percentage terms. Result: The new transactional email, with the price discount, drove us to satisfactory results. The price discount expressed in percentage was better perceived and accepted by consumers; thanks to this, Incomedia during the experiment could highly increase its sales.

The documentation of complete and timely as-built information related to construction projects is essential for tracking progress, planning corrective action, and analyzing the schedule. The collection of site information, however, is currently a challenging, time-consuming, and error-prone manual process. To improve the tracking of as-built information, this research focused on the development of a low-cost voice-visual framework that utilizes commonly available communication tools such as email and interactive voice response (IVR). The goal of this research was to create project-wide bidirectional communication between site personnel and head office to automate the tracking of daily site information. The research involved an in-depth analysis of the possible site events and progress-tracking needs related to construction activities. Accordingly, activity-specific email forms and logical-flow diagrams were developed as a means of facilitating site data collection. A framework was then developed that integrates several components: the developed tracking forms; a cloud-based IVR service; a customized scheduling application; and an email application. During construction, the automated system identifies eligible activities to be tracked; collects as-built details from the relevant supervisors; and uses the daily time segments of the schedule as an integrated depository for all as-built details, including progress information, events by all parties, and requests for information (RFIs), quality/safety issues, and other video/audio/drawing-markup notes. The developed system generates detailed as-built schedule that clearly show the evolution of all as-built events and their accurate timing on the daily segments for each activity. The project schedule is thus converted from a static report into information-rich, visualization media, and decision-support tool that provides decision makers with timely progress details so that they can easily follow the project progress , facilitates schedule updates, facilitates accurate schedule forensics, delay analysis, , and the planning of appropriate corrective action. The developed framework was validated though a number of case studies that demonstrated its usefulness and practicality. This research contributes to construction efficiency through the facilitation of bidirectional communication between site personnel and head office and the provision of timely and legible as-built data for decision-making. Ultimately, the research will assist construction firms to have better control over construction projects and more effective decisions during construction through improved communication.

The purpose of this study was to explore how elderly people in Gävle cope with their life by using of Internet and what are their perceived benefits and barriers of the use of Internet. Qualitative methods were used with face-to-face interviews and email correspondence to gather the data. Six elderly people participated in this study. Coping theory was used to analyse the results. The results were divided into three parts. They were describing the use of Internet, benefits and barriers of using the Internet and reasons behind using the Internet and coping. Benefits include connectedness, gratification, usefulness, and active learning experience. Barriers include limitation, distrust and frustration. This paper used the coping theory to try to describe how these persons adjust the way of thinking and the way of behaving and how they use these strategies to cope with the daily life. It was found that Internet for elderly people is becoming more important nowadays and also it is significant to know how they think about the Internet.

This thesis is concerned with explicating the role of language in mobilising action through management emails. Situated within the context of organisational change in a globalised manufacturing business, the project is framed by behavioural observations from management scholars Palmer and Hardy (2000) of mobilisation strategies that utilise linguistic resources since they: (a) involve a sense of obligation or inclination in directives; (b) show how co-operation will produce mutual benefits; (c) construct desired actions as legitimate, beneficial or inevitable; and (d) use past or anticipated meanings, for or against certain actions. Systemic Functional Linguistics is the underlying framework employed to provide a theoretically principled account of the intuitively derived observations from Palmer and Hardy (2000) which are applied to a sample of twenty-seven email texts, through corpus- and text-based analysis. A major finding is that the representation of action is enacted interpersonally through the verbal group. This view complements experientially dominated accounts of the verbal group which focus on the tense system. Further, action is found to be motivated through the negotiation of evaluative stance. By relating the grammar of the verbal group as well as other resources to the discourse semantics of Appraisal, modulation (of obligation or inclination) is found to be enabled by both negative as well as positive judgements of capacity. Specifically, judgements of capacity are re-interpreted as invocations of high obligation as managers seek to mobilise (further) positive performance. The analysis demonstrates that elements in the verbal group (complex) and Appraisal co-opt action through enabling positioning of the writer, in terms of assessing and grading categorical meanings, manipulating interpersonal time, or foregrounding solidarity. A significant contribution to the thesis is an extension of the system of GRADUATION: FOCUS (Hood, 2004a) through the demonstration of how resources of the verbal group negotiate expectations of appearances and achievements. This study has also extended the resources of GRADUATION: FORCE by applying it to the management context. The practical contribution of the study is that these insights may more explicitly inform management training and enable managers to participate more effectively within their community of practice.

Psychosocial factors represent complex and enduring challenges for people with a traumatic brain injury (TBI), their families and health and rehabilitation systems, particularly in relation to social isolation, change/loss of role and identity issues. Traditional rehabilitation approaches to psychosocial issues target cognitive rehabilitation and psychological adjustment of the individual with a TBI, which reflect the medical model of health. However, the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) ushers a new era in TBI research and practice, which advances the conceptualisation of disability, to include the impact of environmental factors. The ICF identifies the Internet as one such environmental factor, which has the potential to facilitate or impede social participation of people with a disability. Empirical studies suggest the potential of the Internet to empower people with disabilities, via opportunities for social connection; social support; social role participation and identity experimentation. However, research has focused on people with sensory, physical, and mental health issues, with little known of the potential of the Internet for people with a TBI. This area of deficit warrants investigation, in view of the potential of the Internet to address many dimensions of psychosocial concern following TBI. This study explores the role of the Internet in the lives of people with a TBI, with a focus on the potential of the Internet to influence psychosocial recovery. Psychosocial recovery is conceptualised as the reconstruction of a positive identity, as found in subjective accounts of people with a TBI (Lewington, 1996), and strongly supported in the mental health consumer literature. Using a social constructionist approach, this study explores how people with a TBI use the Internet and how they make meaning of their Internet experience. This approach acknowledges the socially situated nature of Internet use and validates the subjective accounts of people with a TBI, whose perspectives are underrepresented in the rehabilitation literature. This study also trials the method of email-facilitated qualitative interviewing, to address face-to-face interviewing barriers, relating to cognitive-linguistic impairments (Lloyd, Gatherer, & Kalsy, 2006; Paterson & Scott-Findley, 2002). Thus, the Internet is the focus of the enquiry and the mediator of the method. The findings highlight the positive potential of the Internet to facilitate social participation for people with a TBI. Participants reported that features such as asynchronicity, reduced cues and anonymity made the Internet an accessible and usable technology, for social connection; social support; social role participation and identity reconstruction. A major theme emerging from the data was control of self, which this study conceptually linked to identity reconstruction and psychosocial recovery. Findings allayed concerns regarding the negative potential of the Internet to increase social isolation of vulnerable people, as participants regarded face-to-face relationships as more fulfilling than online friendships, supporting classic communication theories (Rice, 1987; Rice & Love, 1987), which propose that the Internet is a less personal medium than face-to-face communication, due to the feature of reduced cues. The findings of the method indicated that email facilitated qualitative interviewing addressed face-to-face interviewing barriers related to cognitive linguistic impairments; mobility factors; chronic health issues and environmental stimuli. Most participants indicated that asynchronicity, reduced cues, and anonymity facilitated control of communication, cognition and identity, thus enabling interview participation. The method had also advantages for the researcher, including time for reflection and the ability to yield richer data than in face-to-face contexts. However, the method was resource intensive, requiring information technology proficiency, familiarly with the impact of cognitive-linguistic impairments in online contexts and counselling experience. In addition, ethical guidelines required the involvement of a support person for the emotional protection of participants. This study makes two contributions to knowledge. One contribution relates to the potential of the Internet as an ICF environmental factor to address long-term psychosocial concerns, in addition to positively influencing psychosocial recovery from TBI, as reported by participants. This study contributes to a new era of research, which considers the impact of environmental factors on the experience of TBI, as framed by the ICF. The second contribution relates to the method of email facilitated qualitative interviewing, which advances knowledge of interviewing barriers for people with a TBI and addresses calls for innovative methods with this population. The findings of the method bring into question long held assumptions about the capacity of people with a TBI to participate in research and have implications for research design in qualitative and quantitative methodologies.

Hacking information systems is continuously on the increase. Social engineering attacks is performed by manipulating the weakest link in the security chain; people. Consequently, this type of attack has gained a higher rate of success than a technical attack. Based in Expert Systems, this study proposes a proactive and integrated Intelligent Social Engineering Security Model to mitigate the human risk and reduce the impact of social engineering attacks. Many computer users do not have enough security knowledge to be able to select a strong password for their authentication. The author has attempted to implement a novel quantitative approach to achieve strong passwords. A new fuzzy logic tool is being developed to evaluate password strength and measures the password strength based on dictionary attack, time crack and shoulder surfing attack (social engineering). A comparative study of existing tools used by major companies such as Microsoft, Google, CertainKey, Yahoo and Facebook are used to validate the proposed model and tool. A comprehensive literature survey and analytical study performed on phishing emails representing social engineering attacks that are directly related to financial fraud are presented and compared with other security threats. This research proposes a novel approach that successfully addresses social engineering attacks. Another intelligent tool is developed to discover phishing messages and provide educational feedback to the user focusing on the visible part of the incoming emails, considering the email’s source code and providing an in-line awareness security feedback.

Este trabalho consiste no estudo sobre como a inclusão de ferramentas de comunicação digital nas organizações pode influir na cultura e na comunicação. A ênfase recai na investigação de como a utilização do Correio Eletrônico, da Intranet e das Listas de Discussão podem modificar o processo de comunicação organizacional através da criação de novas práticas culturais que possibilitam a participação dos funcionários no processo comunicativo. A análise resgata o modo como essas ferramentas foram implantadas, a sua apropriação pelos membros organizacionais e as práticas culturais que foram geradas a partir do seu uso. Para isso, realizou-se um estudo de caso na Companhia de Processamento de Dados do Rio Grande do Sul (Procergs). O estudo contempla o relato dos funcionários da organização que utilizam essas ferramentas diariamente nas rotinas de trabalho. Por meio da fala dos participantes, constatou-se que essas ferramentas proporcionam maior envolvimento desses funcionários no processo de comunicação. Entretanto, elas não horizontalizam a relação existente entre os funcionários e a organização, que permanece sendo o espaço de conexão do relacionamento comunicacional. / This master thesis addresses the inclusion of digital communication tools in organizations and how it affects their culture and communication habits. The focus is on how the adoption of Electronic Mail, Intranet and Discussion Lists may change the processes of organizational communication by creating new cultural conventions that enable employees to participate in the communicative process. A case study at Companhia de Processamento de Dados do Rio Grande do Sul (Procergs) were conducted to evaluate how these tools were adopted, how the staff assimilated them and what cultural conventions were created by their use. This case study collected various reports given by staff members who use these tools on the daily work routine. The interviews demonstrated that digital communication tools allow a better involvement of the employees in the communication process. However, the tools by themselves do not equalize the relationship between the organization and its employees, which remains as the connecting space to communicative interaction.

Este trabalho consiste no estudo sobre como a inclusão de ferramentas de comunicação digital nas organizações pode influir na cultura e na comunicação. A ênfase recai na investigação de como a utilização do Correio Eletrônico, da Intranet e das Listas de Discussão podem modificar o processo de comunicação organizacional através da criação de novas práticas culturais que possibilitam a participação dos funcionários no processo comunicativo. A análise resgata o modo como essas ferramentas foram implantadas, a sua apropriação pelos membros organizacionais e as práticas culturais que foram geradas a partir do seu uso. Para isso, realizou-se um estudo de caso na Companhia de Processamento de Dados do Rio Grande do Sul (Procergs). O estudo contempla o relato dos funcionários da organização que utilizam essas ferramentas diariamente nas rotinas de trabalho. Por meio da fala dos participantes, constatou-se que essas ferramentas proporcionam maior envolvimento desses funcionários no processo de comunicação. Entretanto, elas não horizontalizam a relação existente entre os funcionários e a organização, que permanece sendo o espaço de conexão do relacionamento comunicacional. / This master thesis addresses the inclusion of digital communication tools in organizations and how it affects their culture and communication habits. The focus is on how the adoption of Electronic Mail, Intranet and Discussion Lists may change the processes of organizational communication by creating new cultural conventions that enable employees to participate in the communicative process. A case study at Companhia de Processamento de Dados do Rio Grande do Sul (Procergs) were conducted to evaluate how these tools were adopted, how the staff assimilated them and what cultural conventions were created by their use. This case study collected various reports given by staff members who use these tools on the daily work routine. The interviews demonstrated that digital communication tools allow a better involvement of the employees in the communication process. However, the tools by themselves do not equalize the relationship between the organization and its employees, which remains as the connecting space to communicative interaction.

abstract: E-Mail header injection vulnerability is a class of vulnerability that can occur in web applications that use user input to construct e-mail messages. E-Mail injection is possible when the mailing script fails to check for the presence of e-mail headers in user input (either form fields or URL parameters). The vulnerability exists in the reference implementation of the built-in “mail” functionality in popular languages like PHP, Java, Python, and Ruby. With the proper injection string, this vulnerability can be exploited to inject additional headers and/or modify existing headers in an e-mail message, allowing an attacker to completely alter the content of the e-mail. This thesis develops a scalable mechanism to automatically detect E-Mail Header Injection vulnerability and uses this mechanism to quantify the prevalence of E- Mail Header Injection vulnerabilities on the Internet. Using a black-box testing approach, the system crawled 21,675,680 URLs to find URLs which contained form fields. 6,794,917 such forms were found by the system, of which 1,132,157 forms contained e-mail fields. The system used this data feed to discern the forms that could be fuzzed with malicious payloads. Amongst the 934,016 forms tested, 52,724 forms were found to be injectable with more malicious payloads. The system tested 46,156 of these and was able to find 496 vulnerable URLs across 222 domains, which proves that the threat is widespread and deserves future research attention. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Computer Science 2016