As a means of enhancing our everyday lives, ICT industry has caused and experienced significant transformations during past two decades. This transformation relates to technological advances within ICT, and beyond the ICT ecosystem. Wireless ICT is also not an exception in this regard. Accordingly, if we consider Internet of Things (IoT) as the main enabler for transformation, M2M is then the technological enabler of IoT that represent the Wireless ICT in the process of transformation. In this thesis we benefit from the concept of Smart City as a place where Wireless ICT participates for digitalizing other industries. We investigate how smartification is taking place, where our findings show that wireless ICT mainly empowers other industries to provide M2M-enabled services. Consequently, this participation imposes major changes on the wireless ICT ecosystem itself. Therefore, we study the changes that are forming the “future wireless ICT”. We have studied cases from smart cities, and expanded our data collection by performing semi-structured interviews with experts and decision makers, as well as participating in multiple projects and workshops. Accordingly, we have benefited from two major theories for analyzing the collected data; namely ARA model and Five Forces framework. Finally, we argue that traditional actors (i.e. MNOs &amp; Vendors), first have to adopt value co-creation in new businesses. This means cooperation among these actors, which changes the Seller-Buyer relationship to Supplier-Customer, in which they co-create the value. Accordingly, we argue that the linear processes of creating value are inefficient in these new markets and value networks must be adopted instead. As a result, we introduce “vertical coopetition” as a dominant business relationship among traditional actors, and new entrants in future wireless ICT. As the main contribution of this thesis, we discuss the logic behind vertical coopetition while comparing it with horizontal coopetition. / <p>QC 20160815</p>

abstract: The microfinance industry provides financial services to the world's poor in hopes of moving individuals and families out of poverty. This dissertation document suggests that information and communication technologies (ICTs) are changing the microfinance industry, especially given recent advancements in mobile banking, Internet usage and connectivity, and a decreasing digital divide. These impacts are discussed in three essays. First, ICTs impact intermediation among various players in the microfinance industry. Second, ICTs impact the extent to which microfinance institutions (MFIs) extend their outreach to poorer or more geographically remote borrowers. Finally, ICTs impact the location of decision rights given newly forming peer-to-peer (P2P) social microlending organizations. As the microfinance industry increases its adoption and reliance on ICTs, new and interesting opportunities abound for researchers in the information systems discipline. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Business Administration 2012

Information and communication technology (ICT), population growth, gross capital formation, Openness, labour and inflation are frequently well-thought-out as important drivers of economic growth for all countries, so as for Arab countries in our case. This study aims to examine the effect of these factors on 18 selected Arab countries economic growth, covering the period from 1995 to 2013, with the main interest of the impact of ICT. The results show positive and significant impact of ICT index (infodensity that represents the capital and labour stock of ICT) for each individual country (except for Djibouti with negative ICT index elasticity and UAE with insignificant impact) ranged from 0.10 for Lebanon to 0.469 point for Qatar. The panel regression results show that ICT positively and significantly affect the whole sample of 18 Arab countries economic growth with 0.108 point, as well as GCF ratio with 0.129 impact, in addition to openness which encounters positive and significant impact with 0.054 point, and inflation with negative significant impact. These results are accommodated with many related studies. Population growth is insignificant to economic growth. The 18 Arab countries are divided into three sub groups according to their infodensity levels. The research results show that there is a relatively large gap between first and second groups of high and intermediate infodensity values in one side and the third group (with low infodensity and GDP per capita values) on the other side. In order to verify further the results of positive and significant impact of ICT on economic growth, a second study model that depends on Cobb-Douglas production function is applied with ICT and non-ICT capital services and labour services. This second model is applied on five Arab countries that covers the period from 1993 to 2014 using ARDL method. The regressed results show a long run equilibrium cointegrated relationship between ICT and non-ICT capital services, in addition to labour services and GDP growth. The results tell a positive and significant elasticity of ICT capital services at short and long run, and this value is more than the ICT capital services compensation share, which indicates ICT spillover in these Arab countries. Labour services impact on GDP growth is positive and significant on long run, but for non-ICT capital services, there is a negative and significant impact. So finally it is worth for the Arab countries to invest more and efficiently in ICT assets, in addition these countries have to efficiently use the available ICT resources.

This dissertation is thematically focused on the issue of public procurement and consist of two parts. The theoretical part explains the basic concepts related to the issue of public procurement, especially types of public contracts, types of procurement procedures, supervision of public procurement, there is also described the historical development of public procurement, the issue of e-procurement and a separate chapter is devoted to IT procurement . The concepts of the theoretical part are further utilized and elaborated in detail in the practical part, which is focused on the development of public contracts in the Czech Republic in 2006 - 2015. The practical part is consist of individual subsections; the first is devoted to the general development of public procurement in the Czech Republic, including results of the Office for Protection of Competition in the years 2006 - 2015. The second subsection deals with the development of IT contracts awarded in the Czech Republic in the years 2008 - 2015. The third section is focused on the development of procurement through electronic marketplaces and the last chapter is devoted to the development of public contracts awarded in the years 2010 - 2015 in selected subjects at various levels of the public and the government. In the practical part are evaluate the changes and development contracts in the selected period and the methods used to achieve the results of the work, particularly comparison and analogy to compare the various trends. In the practical part are also used in basic and chain indexes from index analysis and trend prediction of time series analysis. The results of the practical part are obvious that the issue of public procurement is very complex and we need to ensure strict adjustment to this issue covered and ensure maximum transparency. Permanent amendments to the Act in many cases cause problems for both the authorities and suppliers who will then try to intentionally or unintentionally circumvent the law.

Submitted by Jordan (jordanbiblio@gmail.com) on 2017-04-24T15:09:31Z No. of bitstreams: 1 DISS_2015_João Vinícius Ferraz Dias Ferreira.pdf: 1627653 bytes, checksum: 6438976e86f3ae8b0c7859a8dc5b8aac (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Jordan (jordanbiblio@gmail.com) on 2017-04-27T14:03:05Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 DISS_2015_João Vinícius Ferraz Dias Ferreira.pdf: 1627653 bytes, checksum: 6438976e86f3ae8b0c7859a8dc5b8aac (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-04-27T14:03:05Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 DISS_2015_João Vinícius Ferraz Dias Ferreira.pdf: 1627653 bytes, checksum: 6438976e86f3ae8b0c7859a8dc5b8aac (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-02-27 / Este trabalho apresenta um estudo sobre um produto educacional – EducaTICs, um software de repositório de dados online que propõe uma otimização do trabalho do professor ao facilitar-lhe a busca por aplicativos disponíveis no mercado e que lhe sejam úteis em sua prática diária, como organização pessoal e de material didático. Com o auxílio do formulário eletrônico de pesquisa oferecido pelo aplicativo Google Drive, analisamos a afinidade entre o educador e as tecnologias de informação disponibilizadas atualmente com o objetivo de confrontar tais dados com a imensa variedade de opções apresentadas. Além de caracterizar os sujeitos da pesquisa, as informações obtidas sobre espaço virtual, instrumento computacional de auxílio ao lecionar, recursos para pesquisas científicas, software para organização pessoal e didática e aplicativo baseado no conceito de computação nas nuvens, permitiram o desenvolvimento do instrumento pedagógico EducaTICs. Sessenta e cinco professores responderam à pesquisa, destes, 29 do sexo masculino e 36 do sexo feminino, com idades entre 21 e 63 anos; sendo 63% com tempo de experiência profissional na docência inferior a dez anos. Do total de participantes da pesquisa, 71% atuam na rede pública de ensino e 17% no ensino público e privado. Cinquenta e sete por cento já participaram de formação continuada na área de TIC. A maioria relatou que acessa com maior frequência a página do Google. As redes sociais são usadas por 71% dos respondentes para se relacionarem com amigos. Entre os espaços virtuais mais utilizados está o Blog (32%) seguido pelo site pessoal (12%). O mais utilizado dentre os instrumentos computacionais como auxílio ao professor, para lecionar, são os softwares de apresentação de slides (94%); entre os sujeitos dessa pesquisa, 69% consideram que não utilizam qualquer recurso tecnológico como apoio à organização pessoal. Dos professores que utilizam ferramentas baseadas no conceito de computação nas nuvens, 57% são usuários do DropBox. Os resultados obtidos são representativos para compreensão de que os professores utilizam pouca diversidade nas ferramentas de TICs que podem servir de apoio à sua atividade didática, o que corrobora com o objetivo da ferramenta proposta. / This paper presents a study on an educational product – EducaTICs, an online data repository software that proposes an optimization of the teacher's job to facilitate his search for apps available in the market and which are useful in his daily practice, as an organization staff and teaching materials. Helped by electronic search form offered by Google Drive application, we analyze the affinity between the educator and information technologies currently available in order to confront these data with the immense variety of options presented. In addition to characterizing the subjects, the information obtained on virtual space, computational instrument of aid to teaching, resources for scientific research, software for personal and didactic organization and application based on the concept of cloud computing, enabled the development of pedagogical tool EducaTICs. Sixty-five teachers responded to the survey, of these, 29 males and 36 females, aged between 21 and 63 years; 63% with years of professional experience in teaching less than ten years. Of the participants, 71% work in the public education and 17% in public and private education. Fifty-seven percent have participated in continuing education in Information and Comunication Tecnologies. Most reported that accesses more frequently Google page. Social networks are used by 71% of respondents to engage with friends. Among the most used virtual spaces is the Blog (32%) followed by personal website (12%). The most widely used among the computational tools as an aid to the teacher, to teach, are the slideshow software (94%); among the subjects of this research, 69% consider not using any technology resource in support of personal organization. Teachers using tools based on the concept of cloud computing, 57% are users of DropBox. The results are representative for understanding that teachers use little diversity in ICT tools that can serve to support their teaching activity, which agrees with the objective of the proposed tool.

This thesis deals with the possibilities of using computers for training teachers of German. The theoretical part addresses the general possibility of using computers by foreign language teachers in their everyday work. The latest trends in education are shown in this part. The practical part focuses on mapping IT skills of future German language teachers, currently studying at university. The last part of the thesis shows various possibilities of using computers in pre-service teachers? training and also brings several worksheets for a ready-prepared sample lesson, designed for teaching in a multimedia computer lab. The conclusion summarizes and evaluates results of the work.

How to integrate new technologies into initial education?Currently, the relationship computer-children is a debate that generates still little agreement, because it is a new subject with to much to learn. This essay seeks to contribute to its thematic analysis, exposing a series of ideas and practical insights for achieving appropriate integration of new technologies at the initial level, which is a process without return. It is therefore necessary that the teachers manage key criteria to make the pedagogical decisions of the case in the exercise of its training role with the «digital natives», their students, forming the skills needed to act effectively in the new information and knowledge society. It will also be necessary as «immigrants from the virtual environment», that the teacher arise the need for training in the field of computer science to understand this new language in relation to the world of today. / En la actualidad, la relación computadoras - niños constituye un debate que generaaún pocas coincidencias debido a que es un tema nuevo sobre el que falta muchopor aprender. El presente ensayo busca contribuir al análisis temático del mismo,exponiendo una serie de ideas y reflexiones teórico-prácticas para lograr una integración adecuada de las nuevas tecnologías al nivel inicial, lo que constituye un proceso sin retorno. Por tanto, es necesario que las docentes manejen criterios claves para tomar las decisiones pedagógicas del caso en el ejercicio de su rol formativo con los «nativos digitales» (niños y niñas), formando habilidades necesarias para actuar con eficiencia en la nueva sociedad del conocimiento y de la información.Asimismo, será necesario que como «inmigrantes del entorno virtual», las docentes se planteen la necesidad de formarse en el campo de la informática para comprender este nuevo lenguaje de relación con el mundo de hoy.

Banverket ICT är en relativt ny enhet med de sammanslagna enheterna Banverket IT och Banverket Telenät. För att få ihop det nya arbetssättet finns långt gångna tankar på att jobba enligt ITIL. ITIL är ett arbetssätt som skall hjälpa organisationer att arbeta mer organiserat och därmed öka effektiviteten för IT-processen. ITIL utgår från processarbete och varje process har sina speciella uppgifter. ITIL är framtaget av OGC (Office Government of Commerce) i England Rapporten visar att ett införande av valda delar ur ITIL bör ske etappvis över hela organisationen inom Banverket ICT, i en kombination med ett ständigt förankringsarbete.

Over the past decade, research conducted for the benefit of IT project management has pointed to numerous factors that contribute to organisational project success. Support from executives and top management is often cited as an imperative factor, whilst having clear business objectives for conducting projects follows closely behind. The linchpin between the executive leadership team and project managers is the project sponsor, who is in a position to directly contribute to the two aforementioned project success factors. The precise responsibilities of the sponsor, however, remain relatively poorly defined. As a result, it is important to focus on this very important role and provide those who are in this position with a set of activities that would facilitate greater project success. Further to this, the corporate governance scandals of the past few years and the consequent publication of relevant acts of legislation and governance standards has forced top management to become more interested in the conduct of their organisation’s portfolio of projects. This research study therefore addresses both the formal and informal aspects of the role of the project sponsor and has provided guidance to organisations and professional associations in defining the role and responsibilities of the project sponsor within a corporate governance framework. The first goal was therefore to establish a holistic corporate governance framework that encompasses the roles of IT and project management in the organisation. By doing so, executives are given a road map that aligns all IT projects with organisational strategy and a means to facilitate greater internal control over all IT project-related activities. This was developed by identifying the relevance and implications that recent corporate scandals around the world have had on IT and project management in general. This then led to combining COBIT (which is an IT governance Abstract ii framework) and a new project governance framework (known as the PG framework) to form a corporate governance framework. This is followed by the development of a generic project sponsorship competency framework that provides organisations with a benchmark that assesses whether an individual is appropriately suited for the role of sponsoring an IT project. Both frameworks provide a means to facilitate better strategic alignment and internal control of all IT project-related activities, and thus contribute to the improvement of IT project management capability within the organisation. / Labuschagne, L., Prof.

South Africa’s rural communities have received Information and Communication Technologies services through initiatives such as tele-centres, living labs, Thusong service centres and donations of computer applications. There is need, with little plans in place to ensure that the rural communities will benefit from those initiatives. As a result of this, it is necessary to establish a framework for implementing Information and Communication Technologies for development initiatives in order to ensure successful implementation of these initiatives in rural communities. Literature shows that in order to successfully implement an ICT initiative for rural communities, there should be active engagement with ICT stakeholders, consultation of Information and Communication Technologies policies, presence of ICT infrastructure, ICT services, monitoring, evaluating, training and maintenance. Current literature on ICT developments shows that in order to successfully implement an ICT initiative for rural communities, there should be active engagement with ICT stakeholders, consultation of ICT policies, and presence of ICT infrastructure, ICT services, monitoring, evaluating, training and maintenance. Unstructured interviews were used as a research method to collect primary data that was used as a basis to develop the proposed framework. Findings from the studies carried out indicated that several ICT4D initiatives which were abandoned due to challenges such lack of proper resources, trainings, lack of local content, access, lack of ownership and lack of stakeholders’ involvement. This study presents a framework for implementing ICT for development initiatives in rural communities which has been developed in order to reduce the number of initiatives that are abandoned or which end up not serving their intended purpose in rural communities of South Africa.