The resident assistant (RA) position at higher education institutions is a position of great influence. RAs have the opportunity to impact many students’ lives through the various roles that they engage in as a RA. The most common roles that RAs are expected to perform include developing community, serving as a peer helper, being a friend to residents, and enforcing policy. The very nature of a multi-role position presents challenges for RAs in understanding how to effectively enact all of their roles. This study aimed at developing an understanding of the ways in which RAs engage in identity management strategies with residents. To accomplish this purpose, 143 RAs were surveyed using an identity management strategies scale designed for this study. In addition, a previously designed self-monitoring scale was also administered to test the relationship between identity management strategies and self-monitoring. These scales were applied to situations representing each of the four primary roles of a RA: community developer, peer helper, friend, and policy enforcer. The results indicate that RAs are more likely to engage in avoidance strategies during the policy enforcer role than any other strategy. In addition, first-year RAs generally use more effective identity management strategies when developing community than returner RAs use. First-year RAs’ identity management strategies also appear to be more influenced by the RAs’ desires to be friends with residents than returner RAs’ identity management strategies. The results also indicate that female RAs are more effective in the community development role than male RAs. However, male RAs are more effective than female RAs in the policy enforcement role. A result that was supported throughout the study was the finding that RAs with upperclassmen residents are not as actively engaged in communicating their roles to residents than are RAs with freshmen and upperclassmen residents or only freshmen residents. Finally, the relationship of perceived self-monitoring to RAs’ choice of identity management strategies was not supported. The results of the study, interpretation of the data analysis, study implications, and directions for future research are discussed in detail.

Due to the existence of multiple stakeholders with conflicting goals and policies, alterations to the existing Internet architecture are now limited to simple incremental updates; deployment of any new, radically different technology is next to impossible. To fend off this ossification, network virtualization has been propounded as a diversifying attribute of the future inter-networking paradigm. In this talk, we provide an overview of the network virtualization environment (NVE) and address two basic problems in this emerging field of networking research. The identity management problem is primarily concerned with ensuring interoperability across heterogeneous identifier spaces for locating and identifying end hosts in different virtual networks. We describe the architectural and the functional components of a novel identity management framework (iMark) that enables end-to-end connectivity across heterogeneous virtual networks in the NVE without revoking their autonomy. The virtual network embedding problem deals with the mapping of virtual nodes and links onto physical network resources. We argue that the separation of the node mapping and the link mapping phases in the existing algorithms considerably reduces the solution space and degrades embedding quality. We propose coordinated node and link mapping to devise two algorithms (D-ViNE and R-ViNE) for the online version of the problem under realistic assumptions and compare their performance with the existing heuristics.

Due to the existence of multiple stakeholders with conflicting goals and policies, alterations to the existing Internet architecture are now limited to simple incremental updates; deployment of any new, radically different technology is next to impossible. To fend off this ossification, network virtualization has been propounded as a diversifying attribute of the future inter-networking paradigm. In this talk, we provide an overview of the network virtualization environment (NVE) and address two basic problems in this emerging field of networking research. The identity management problem is primarily concerned with ensuring interoperability across heterogeneous identifier spaces for locating and identifying end hosts in different virtual networks. We describe the architectural and the functional components of a novel identity management framework (iMark) that enables end-to-end connectivity across heterogeneous virtual networks in the NVE without revoking their autonomy. The virtual network embedding problem deals with the mapping of virtual nodes and links onto physical network resources. We argue that the separation of the node mapping and the link mapping phases in the existing algorithms considerably reduces the solution space and degrades embedding quality. We propose coordinated node and link mapping to devise two algorithms (D-ViNE and R-ViNE) for the online version of the problem under realistic assumptions and compare their performance with the existing heuristics.

Linnaeus University was created January first, 2010 and set step in to a market where the competition between universities is increasing. It’s in fact increasing to a degree where universities might be forced to shut down as a result of the competition. As the competition is growing, schools marketing efforts is getting more professional. Many universities now have a well thought out strategy for attracting students and to get a competitive advantage. In order to accomplish this it’s essential for organizations to acquire and retain some uniqueness that cannot be imitated by competitors and in the last two decades there has been an increasing attention paid to corporate identity management as a source of competitive advantage. Most researchers perceive corporate identity as an organization´s presentation of itself to its various stakeholders and the way it distinguishes itself from similar and/or competitive organizations.Using a qualitative research method we studied the case of Linnaeus University. The purpose of this research was to study how Linnaeus University is using their corporate identity in their communication against students and employers. After analyzing the results of our empirical study and reflecting on the theoretical framework we concluded that Linnaeus University places great emphasis in their identity, that it is of great importance to them and that they have put a lot of effort in their corporate identity and how they mediate it in their communication. They have a clear picture of they see the university and how they want to communicate the identity, the basis for this is clarity and a strong internal communication strategy. In accordance with the theoretical framework Linnaeus University has a good corporate identity management and the university is so far a success.We believe that there is further research that should be carried out in the field of corporate identity and image in the world of academics. More qualitative as well as quantitative empirical research would be interesting, especially to use a comparative research design investigating both several universities and potential students.

The resident assistant (RA) position at higher education institutions is a position of great influence. RAs have the opportunity to impact many students’ lives through the various roles that they engage in as a RA. The most common roles that RAs are expected to perform include developing community, serving as a peer helper, being a friend to residents, and enforcing policy. The very nature of a multi-role position presents challenges for RAs in understanding how to effectively enact all of their roles. This study aimed at developing an understanding of the ways in which RAs engage in identity management strategies with residents. To accomplish this purpose, 143 RAs were surveyed using an identity management strategies scale designed for this study. In addition, a previously designed self-monitoring scale was also administered to test the relationship between identity management strategies and self-monitoring. These scales were applied to situations representing each of the four primary roles of a RA: community developer, peer helper, friend, and policy enforcer. The results indicate that RAs are more likely to engage in avoidance strategies during the policy enforcer role than any other strategy. In addition, first-year RAs generally use more effective identity management strategies when developing community than returner RAs use. First-year RAs’ identity management strategies also appear to be more influenced by the RAs’ desires to be friends with residents than returner RAs’ identity management strategies. The results also indicate that female RAs are more effective in the community development role than male RAs. However, male RAs are more effective than female RAs in the policy enforcement role. A result that was supported throughout the study was the finding that RAs with upperclassmen residents are not as actively engaged in communicating their roles to residents than are RAs with freshmen and upperclassmen residents or only freshmen residents. Finally, the relationship of perceived self-monitoring to RAs’ choice of identity management strategies was not supported. The results of the study, interpretation of the data analysis, study implications, and directions for future research are discussed in detail.

Workshop "Netz- und Service-Infrastrukturen" vom 19.-22. April 2004 in Löbsal (bei Meißen)

Identities are present in the interactions between individuals and organizations. Online shopping requires credit card information, while e-government services require social security or passport numbers. The involvement of identities, however, makes them susceptible to theft and misuse. The most prominent approach for maintaining the privacy of individuals is the enforcement of privacy policies that regulate the flow and use of identity information. This approach suffers two drawbacks that severely limit its effectiveness. First, recent research in data-mining facilitates the fusion of partial identities into complete identities. That holds true even if the attributes examined are not, normally considered, to be identifying. Second, policies are prone to human error, allowing for identity information to be released accidentally. This thesis presents a system that enables an individual to interact with organizations, without allowing these organizations to link the interactions of that individual together. The system does not release individuals' identities to organizations. Instead, certified artificial identities are used to guarantee that individuals possess the required attributes to successfully participate in the interactions. The system limits the fusion of partial identities and minimizes the effects of human error. The concept of using certified artificial identities has been extensively researched. The system, however, tackles several unaddressed scenarios. The system works not only for interactions that involve an individual and an organization, but also for interactions that involve a set of individuals connected by structured relations. The individuals should prove the existence of relations among them to organizations, yet organizations cannot profile the actions of these individuals. Further, the system allows organizations to be anonymous, while proving their attributes to individuals. Reputation-based trust is incorporated to help individuals make informed decisions whether to deal with a particular organization. The system is used to design applications in e-commerce, access control, reputation management, and cloud computing. The thesis describes the applications in detail. / Thesis (Ph.D, Computing) -- Queen's University, 2010-04-07 11:17:37.68

Thesis (doctoral)--Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, 1994. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 171-183).

O ataque Sybil consiste na criação indiscriminada de identidades forjadas por um usuário malicioso (atacante). Uma abordagem promissora para mitigar esse ataque consiste em conceder novas identidades mediante a resolução de desafios computacionais. Apesar de suas potencialidades, as soluções baseadas em tal abordagem não distinguem solicitações de usuários corretos das de atacantes, fazendo com que ambos paguem o mesmo preço por identidade solicitada. Por conta disso, essas soluções podem não ser efetivas quando os recursos computacionais dos atacantes são muito superiores aos que os usuários legítimos dispõem. Assumindo desafios de uma determinada dificuldade, atacantes com hardware de maior capacidade conseguiriam resolver um conjunto muito superior de desafios e, com isso, obter um número elevado de identidades. Aumentar uniformemente a dificuldade dos desafios poderia, no outro extremo, tornar proibitivo o ingresso de pares a rede. Para lidar com esse problema, nesta dissertação propi5e-se o use de desafios adaptativos como limitante a disseminação de Sybils. Estima-se um grau de confiança da fonte de onde partem as solicitações de identidade em relação as demais. Quanto maior a frequência de solicitação de identidades, menor o grau de confiança e, consequentemente, maior a complexidade do desafio a ser resolvido pelo(s) usuário(s) associado(s) Aquela fonte. Resultados obtidos por meio de experimentação mostram a capacidade da solução de atribuir desafios mais complexos a potenciais atacantes, penalizando minimamente usuários legítimos. / The Sybil attack consists on the indiscriminate creation of counterfeit identities by a malicious user (attacker). An effective approach to tackle such attack consists of establishing computational puzzles to be solved prior to granting new identities. Despite its potentialities, solutions based on such approach do not distinguish between identity requests from correct users and attackers, and thus require both to afford the same cost per identity requested. Therefore, those approaches may not be effective when the attacker's computational resources are superior than those used by correct users. Assuming any choice of puzzle hardness, attackers that have access to high-performance computing resources will be able to solve puzzles several order of magnitude faster than legitimate users and thus obtain a large amount of identities. On the other way, raising the cost to solve the puzzles could restrict legitimate users too much. To tackle this problem, in this paper we propose the use of adaptive computational puzzles to limit the spread of Sybils. We estimate a trust score of the source of identity requests in regard to the behavior of others. The higher the frequency a source requests identities, the lower its trust score and, consequently, the higher the complexity of the puzzle to be solved by the user(s) associated to that source. Results achieved by means of an experimental evaluation evidence our solution's ability to establish more complex puzzles to potential attackers, while minimally penalizing legitimate users.

The globalization of the English language has rendered both positive and negative impacts to countries around the world. With the ever-increasing pervasiveness of the English language, many non-native-English-speaking (NNES hereafter) people and countries have shown growing interests in teaching and learning English. Some governments of these NNES countries have decided to implement “English” as a mandatory school subject into their compulsory curriculum in order to “connect with the world” and/or to increase their nation’s international image. However, in these NNES countries, English often does not hold official capacity and is taught as a foreign language (EFL). Although English (language) education can bring positive changes to a nation, it is not free of problems. Essentially, English education influences many NNES countries and their citizens in sociocultural, economic, and educational arenas. Some scholars, such as Tsuda (2008), assert that the “problems” and impacts are inseparable from “English language hegemony.” My country of origin, Taiwan, is one of the EFL and NNES countries that implements English education in our nation’s compulsory education. In recent decades, communicative-based English educational approaches have received great support from the Taiwanese Ministry of Education. In an EFL setting, such as that in Taiwan, the said educational approaches have complicated English education even further. In particular, the communicative-based approaches focus on teaching and practicing English oral proficiency, which average Taiwanese citizens do not need in their daily lives. Many Taiwanese people experience identity struggles and self-esteem issues because of their less-than-desirable English oral proficiency. In addition to Taiwanese, native-English-speaking (NES) teachers who are recruited to teach English in Taiwan are an integral part of the Taiwanese English education. As a Taiwanese citizen and an intercultural communication scholar, I recognize the intricate complexity of Taiwanese English education and am compelled to examine it in this dissertation as it has not received much attention in the discipline of Communication Studies. In this dissertation, I employ Identity Management Theory (IMT) (Cupach & Imahori, 1993; Imahori & Cupach, 2005) as the primary theoretical framework to examine Taiwanese English education. Particularly, I utilize IMT to study the identity construction and management (such as identity freezing), facework strategies, and intercultural relationship development among NES teachers, Taiwanese English teachers, and Taiwanese students. To carry out this research, I employ critical complete-member ethnography (CCME) (Toyosaki, 2011) as the central research methodology, because I see myself as a complete-member researcher with my research participants. I share complete-memberships with them in nuanced, complex, and contextual manners. Methodologically, CCME entails ethnography of communication, autoethnography, and critical ethnography; all are informative of my data collection methods, including ethnographic participant observation, ethnographic interview, and autoethnographic journaling inside and outside of English classes at different Taiwanese universities. These three methods helped me gather rich data for this research. To analyze and discuss the data, I employed thematic analysis (Owen, 1984) and critical examinations of consensual and conflictual theorization (Fiske, 1991; Toyosaki, 2011). Both methods render complex findings. In particular, the analysis and discussion reveal and explain (a) how the research participants manage cultural identities through marking scope, salience, and intensity with different English educational participants, (b) how they apply facework strategies to cope with identity freezing experiences, and (c) how they establish and maintain intercultural relationships with other English educational participants as they transition across different relational phases of their relationships. I deliver the findings thematically in an analytical and narrative-like manner, as I layer and weave together the field notes, the interview responses, and my autoethnographic journaling. Ultimately, I argue that English hegemony has glocalized in Taiwanese English education and is manifested through research participants’ identity management politics and their intercultural relationships. Essentially, my research shows that identity management politics is inseparable from the power differentials and inequalities imbued in Taiwanese English education. Voluntarily and/or involuntarily, the research participants and I have normalized English hegemony, embodied its presence in our knowledge production and consumption, and given English/Western ideologies consent to dominate our communicative choices, our (sub)consciousness, and our intercultural relationships. Aside from perpetuating English hegemony, I have also observed resistance against the said hegemonic impacts inside and outside of the English classrooms. In a power-laden intercultural communication context, such as Taiwanese English education, critical analyses and examinations play essential roles in revealing the identity management politics and power differentials embedded in the (mythically) “innocent” English classrooms. I further recognize how this research serves as an example to other EFL and NNES countries. In due course, I conclude that my research makes contributions to the scholarships of intercultural communication and to English education in Taiwan and beyond.