The aim of this study is to analyse whether or not information has been securitised in South Africa. The degree of possible securitisation is assessed to determine the consequences of this securitised situation for the information-security nexus in South Africa. This premise is based primarily on the introduction of the Protection of State Information Bill, 2010 (hereinafter the Bill) which forms the case study. The Bill is posited by the state as a contribution to the country's information society and an enhancement of security-law to allow the State to combat threats in the Information Age. However, the Bill has received fierce criticism as a detractor to the democratic project of South Africa. The analysis of the paper is grounded in the framework of Securitisation Theory, derived from Critical Security Studies within the field of Security Studies. This theory explores the consideration of an issue or entity, as a security subject, ultimately removing the issue or entity from the public-political discourse. Accordingly, the study concludes that a partial securitisation of information has occurred in South Africa, but with justifiable defence and necessary cause. In spite of the often pejorative perspective of a securitised environment, this outcome is not necessarily detrimental to the democratic project. Not only does the proposed security law enhance the security of the country to facilitate the pursuit of national interests, it allows the state to compete more effectively and aggressively with its counterparts in the international milieu in the Information Age. / Mini Dissertation (M Security Studies)--University of Pretoria, 2016. / Political Sciences / M Security Studies / Unrestricted

Identifying and articulating a research topic and related problems are important processes for novice researchers. However, some novice researchers have trouble in these processes due to their low domain knowledge, low structural knowledge, insufficient metacognition, or insufficient information access skills. This study addressed these problems by developing an information base tool using strategies and tools investigated by previous studies. The tool includes conceptual modeling, guided search, experimental variables and relationships examination, note-taking, suggestion, file import, and review features. The tool was populated with relevant information to permit testing and formative evaluation by novice researchers. Expert reviewers evaluated the effects of each feature of the tool on scaffolding individuals who have low domain knowledge or low structural knowledge and supplementing individuals who have insufficient metacognition or insufficient information access skills. The reviewers commonly agreed that specific components of the tool would be effective in scaffolding individuals who have low domain knowledge or low structural knowledge, or supplementing individuals who have insufficient information access skills. / Ph. D.

<p>Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka problem samt lösningar i relation till informationsåtervinning över språkliga gränser. Metoden som har använts i uppsatsen är studier av forskningsmaterial inom lingvistik samt främst den relativt nya forskningsdisciplinen Cross-Language Information Retrieval (CLIR). I uppsatsen hävdas att världens alla olikartade språk i dagsläget måste betraktas som ett angeläget problem för informationsvetenskapen, ty språkliga skillnader utgör ännu ett stort hinder för den internationella informationsåtervinning som tekniska framsteg, uppkomsten av Internet, digitala bibliotek, globalisering, samt stora politiska förändringar i ett flertal länder runtom i världen under de senaste åren tekniskt och teoretiskt sett har möjliggjort. I uppsatsens första del redogörs för några universellt erkända lingvistiska skillnader mellan olika språk – i detta fall främst med exempel från europeiska språk – och vanliga problem som dessa kan bidra till angående översättningar från ett språk till ett annat. I uppsatsen hävdas att dessa skillnader och problem även måste anses som relevanta när det gäller informationsåtervinning över språkliga gränser. Uppsatsen fortskrider med att ta upp ämnet Cross-Language Information Retrieval (CLIR), inom vilken lösningar på flerspråkighet och språkskillnader inom informationsåtervinning försöker utvecklas och förbättras. Målet med CLIR är att en informationssökare så småningom skall kunna söka information på sitt modersmål men ändå hitta relevant information på flera andra språk. Ett ytterligare mål är att den återfunna informationen i sin helhet även skall kunna översättas till ett för sökaren önskat språk. Fyra olika översättningsmetoder som i dagsläget finns utvecklade inom CLIR för att automatiskt kunna översätta sökfrågor, ämnesord, eller, i vissa fall, hela dokument åt en informationssökare med lite eller ingen alls kunskap om det språk som han eller hon söker information på behandlas därefter. De fyra metoderna – identifierade som maskinöversättning, tesaurus- och ordboksöversättning, korpusbaserad översättning, samt ingen översättning – diskuteras även i relation till de lingvistiska problem och skillnader som har tagits upp i uppsatsens första del. Resultatet visar att språk är någonting mycket komplext och att de olika metoderna som hittills finns utvecklade ofta kan lösa något eller några av de uppmärksammade lingvistiska översättningssvårigheterna. Dock finns det inte någon utvecklad metod som i dagsläget kan lösa samtliga problem. Uppsatsen uppmärksammar emellertid även att CLIR-forskarna i hög grad är medvetna om de nuvarande metodernas uppenbara begränsningar och att man prövar att lösa detta genom att försöka kombinera flera olika översättningsmetoder i ett CLIR-system. Avslutningsvis redogörs även för CLIR-forskarnas förväntningar och förhoppningar inför framtiden.</p> / <p>This essay deals with information retrieval across languages by examining different types of literature in the research areas of linguistics and multilingual information retrieval. The essay argues that the many different languages that co-exist around the globe must be recognised as an essential obstacle for information science. The language barrier today remains a major impediment for the expansion of international information retrieval otherwise made technically and theoretically possible over the last few years by new technical developments, the Internet, digital libraries, globalisation, and moreover many political changes in several countries around the world. The first part of the essay explores linguistic differences and difficulties related to general translations from one language to another, using examples from mainly European languages. It is suggested that these problems and differences also must be acknowledged and regarded as highly important when it comes to information retrieval across languages. The essay continues by reporting on Cross-Language Information Retrieval (CLIR), a relatively new research area where methods for multilingual information retrieval are studied and developed. The object of CLIR is that people in the future shall be able to search for information in their native tongue, but still find relevant information in more than one language. Another goal for the future is the possibility to translate complete documents into a person’s language of preference. The essay reports on four different CLIR-methods currently established for automatically translating queries, subject headings, or, in some cases, complete documents, and thus aid people with little or no knowledge of the language in which he or she is looking for information. The four methods – identified as machine translation, translations using a multilingual thesaurus or a manually produced machine readable dictionary, corpus-based translation, and no translation – are discussed in relation to the linguistic translation difficulties mentioned in the paper’s initial part. The conclusion drawn is that language is exceedingly complex and that while the different CLIR-methods currently developed often can solve one or two of the acknowledged linguistic difficulties, none is able to overcome all. The essay also show, however, that CLIR-scientists are highly aware of the limitations of the different translation methods and that many are trying to get to terms with this by incorporating several sources of translation in one single CLIR-system. The essay finally concludes by looking at CLIR-scientists’ expectations and hopes for the future.</p>

Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka problem samt lösningar i relation till informationsåtervinning över språkliga gränser. Metoden som har använts i uppsatsen är studier av forskningsmaterial inom lingvistik samt främst den relativt nya forskningsdisciplinen Cross-Language Information Retrieval (CLIR). I uppsatsen hävdas att världens alla olikartade språk i dagsläget måste betraktas som ett angeläget problem för informationsvetenskapen, ty språkliga skillnader utgör ännu ett stort hinder för den internationella informationsåtervinning som tekniska framsteg, uppkomsten av Internet, digitala bibliotek, globalisering, samt stora politiska förändringar i ett flertal länder runtom i världen under de senaste åren tekniskt och teoretiskt sett har möjliggjort. I uppsatsens första del redogörs för några universellt erkända lingvistiska skillnader mellan olika språk – i detta fall främst med exempel från europeiska språk – och vanliga problem som dessa kan bidra till angående översättningar från ett språk till ett annat. I uppsatsen hävdas att dessa skillnader och problem även måste anses som relevanta när det gäller informationsåtervinning över språkliga gränser. Uppsatsen fortskrider med att ta upp ämnet Cross-Language Information Retrieval (CLIR), inom vilken lösningar på flerspråkighet och språkskillnader inom informationsåtervinning försöker utvecklas och förbättras. Målet med CLIR är att en informationssökare så småningom skall kunna söka information på sitt modersmål men ändå hitta relevant information på flera andra språk. Ett ytterligare mål är att den återfunna informationen i sin helhet även skall kunna översättas till ett för sökaren önskat språk. Fyra olika översättningsmetoder som i dagsläget finns utvecklade inom CLIR för att automatiskt kunna översätta sökfrågor, ämnesord, eller, i vissa fall, hela dokument åt en informationssökare med lite eller ingen alls kunskap om det språk som han eller hon söker information på behandlas därefter. De fyra metoderna – identifierade som maskinöversättning, tesaurus- och ordboksöversättning, korpusbaserad översättning, samt ingen översättning – diskuteras även i relation till de lingvistiska problem och skillnader som har tagits upp i uppsatsens första del. Resultatet visar att språk är någonting mycket komplext och att de olika metoderna som hittills finns utvecklade ofta kan lösa något eller några av de uppmärksammade lingvistiska översättningssvårigheterna. Dock finns det inte någon utvecklad metod som i dagsläget kan lösa samtliga problem. Uppsatsen uppmärksammar emellertid även att CLIR-forskarna i hög grad är medvetna om de nuvarande metodernas uppenbara begränsningar och att man prövar att lösa detta genom att försöka kombinera flera olika översättningsmetoder i ett CLIR-system. Avslutningsvis redogörs även för CLIR-forskarnas förväntningar och förhoppningar inför framtiden. / This essay deals with information retrieval across languages by examining different types of literature in the research areas of linguistics and multilingual information retrieval. The essay argues that the many different languages that co-exist around the globe must be recognised as an essential obstacle for information science. The language barrier today remains a major impediment for the expansion of international information retrieval otherwise made technically and theoretically possible over the last few years by new technical developments, the Internet, digital libraries, globalisation, and moreover many political changes in several countries around the world. The first part of the essay explores linguistic differences and difficulties related to general translations from one language to another, using examples from mainly European languages. It is suggested that these problems and differences also must be acknowledged and regarded as highly important when it comes to information retrieval across languages. The essay continues by reporting on Cross-Language Information Retrieval (CLIR), a relatively new research area where methods for multilingual information retrieval are studied and developed. The object of CLIR is that people in the future shall be able to search for information in their native tongue, but still find relevant information in more than one language. Another goal for the future is the possibility to translate complete documents into a person’s language of preference. The essay reports on four different CLIR-methods currently established for automatically translating queries, subject headings, or, in some cases, complete documents, and thus aid people with little or no knowledge of the language in which he or she is looking for information. The four methods – identified as machine translation, translations using a multilingual thesaurus or a manually produced machine readable dictionary, corpus-based translation, and no translation – are discussed in relation to the linguistic translation difficulties mentioned in the paper’s initial part. The conclusion drawn is that language is exceedingly complex and that while the different CLIR-methods currently developed often can solve one or two of the acknowledged linguistic difficulties, none is able to overcome all. The essay also show, however, that CLIR-scientists are highly aware of the limitations of the different translation methods and that many are trying to get to terms with this by incorporating several sources of translation in one single CLIR-system. The essay finally concludes by looking at CLIR-scientists’ expectations and hopes for the future.

School districts have implemented filtering and safety policies in response to legislative and social mandates to protect students from the proliferation of objectionable online content. Subject related literature suggests these policies are more restrictive than legal mandates require and are adversely affecting information access and instruction. There is limited understanding of how filtering and safety policies are affecting teaching and learning because no comprehensive studies have investigated the issues and trends surrounding filtering and safety policy implementation. In order to improve existing safety policies, policymakers need research-based data identifying end user access issues that limit technology integration in the kindergarten-12th grade (K-12) educational setting. This study sought to examine Internet filtering and safety policy implementation issues in South Carolina's K-12 public schools to determine their influence on information access and instruction. A mixed methods research design, which includes both quantitative and qualitative approaches, was used to investigate the research problem. Quantitative data were collected from information technology (IT) administrators who were surveyed regarding filtering and safety policy implementation, and school library media specialists (SLMS) were surveyed concerning the issues they encounter while facilitating information access in a filtered environment. Qualitative data were collected through interviews with a subset of the SLMS population, thereby providing further insight about Internet access issues and their influence on teaching and learning. School districts' Acceptable Use Policies (AUPs) were analyzed to determine how they addressed recent legislative mandates to educate minors about specific Web 2.0 safety issues. The research results support the conclusions of previous anecdotal studies which show that K-12 Internet access policies are overly restrictive, resulting in inhibited access to online educational resources. The major implication of this study is that existing Internet access policies need to be fine-tuned in order to permit greater access to educational content. The study recommends Internet safety practices that will empower teachers and students to access the Internet's vast educational resources safely and securely while realizing the Internet's potential to enrich teaching and learning.

The aim of this one-year master thesis was to examine the principles of arrangement used by the Swedish Royal Office archive from about 1540-1878, and how the principles of arrangement have corresponded with the information needs of that rules the Swedish Royal Office archive. The following theoretical premises were important: Berndt Fredriksson's empirical archival science, JBLD Strömberg's concepts of archive systems and Randolph C. Head's concepts of mirroring. Two questions have been examined. What connections is there between the major reorganizations of the Swedish Royal Office archive, the process for governance of Sweden / the Royal Office, access to / control over archival documents, information needs, the political situation, and changes in how the archive was arranged and inventoried. What sources of inspiration have those responsible for the reorganizations had regarding the reorganizations? My source material consisted primarily of archival inventories. In this inquiry I have used a case study in which document and literature studies were conducted. During this study I have discovered that several principles of arrangement was in use simultaneously during the examined time period. This suggests either that older ideas regarding inventory labor were present at the same time and influenced the inventory labor or that the "archivist" during this time period had great freedom to choose between different principles of arrangement. Arrangement by geographic location were used during the entire time period. The archival inventories arranged by this principle has evolved from larger descriptions over geographic places to titles in Latin over countries. It also seems likely that the countries of this archival inventories represented Sweden's foreign relations. Mirroring has been detected between the reasons for the reorganizations, major political conflicts internally and externally, changes in the governance process, the user groups of the archive, the information needs and archival inventories. Mirroring has also occurred between the principles of arrangement and information access and needs. There are several available sources of inspiration to the reorganizations and hence the principles of arrangement.

This diploma thesis deals with access to environmental information and access to justice in environmental matters introduced by Aarhus Convention in the specific conditions of Czech Republic and Ireland. These rights are considered to be very important tools for environmental protection. At a time when people threaten their own existence by negative interference with the environment it is necessary that effective means for its protection exist. These means are access to environmental information and access to justice in environmental matters, which together can be called as environmental procedural rights. The first chapter of this thesis presents the sources of environmental procedural law and observes the development of law at international, European and national level. The most important international document in this field is the Aarhus Convention that was adopted in 1998 by most of the European countries and that provides for access to environmental information, access to justice and public participation in environmental decision-making. This convention has largely affected the law of the European Union, where several directives has been adopted, including most importantly the Directive 2003/4/EC on access to environmental information and the Directive 2003/35/EC on public participation in...

Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) have had a remarkable influence on society. Many argue that the impact of ICTs, either positive or negative, affects all of humanity. Acceptance, usability, and accessibility are key for ICTs to make a positive impact on society. Previous research states that Information Technology (IT) can lead to higher salaries, better communication, and more rapid advancements from emerging to developed nations. Additionally, information technology has demonstrated the potential to improve society's effectiveness and productivity by establishing a means to circulate knowledge, increase knowledge sharing, and provide knowledge accumulation and internalization. Therefore, if information technology can improve knowledge and productivity in society, why are the indigent not leveraging technology to a higher degree? This formal research provides a benchmark analysis of a set of female Foreign Domestic Workers that have been hired as household maids. This study provides baseline insights of how these women who share low levels of skill, low wages, and to whom English, the worldwide language of the Internet is a second language, interact with technology. This study also contributes research data that can help improve development, design, and implementation of future Information Systems. It can be concluded that FDWs do have availability of technology as shown in the study results. Yet, these women are not visiting websites designed for their use, such as government portals providing information and services. The study shows that the current Information Systems developed for this segment of the population may not be providing the Design, Quality of information, nor the User Acceptance needed to make these tools successful as compared to social media sites which are being visited by FDWs. The results demonstrate that Foreign Domestic Worker's interaction with technology is still not integrated in their culture or every day activities although they have the advantage of living and working in Singapore, where infrastructure, technology and communications top ICT's charts and tables as one of the most advanced countries in the world.

Technical SMEs develop products in isolation from customers in order to have shorter time to market. However, this approach may result in a mismatch between customer needs and the product value. This research paper investigates value co-creating activities which technical SMEs can undertake with their customers to improve the value of the product and their relationship with the customers. The research paper is a case study of a Swedish technical SME, Interspectral, and their software product for the education market. The study uses a qualitative approach through semi-structured interviews with teachers in Sweden and Australia. A four-step process is used to first understand what value the product brings customers (students and teachers), the current resource integration activities and co-production activities done by customers and finally what value co-creating activities are perceived as important for customers to grow the relationship with the company. The results show that the dialogue between the customer and the firm is most important for customers during value co-creation and facilitates information access and control. Furthermore, specific co-production activities and resource integrating activities are outlined. The implication of the study is that nonmarket actors’ value co-creation should be assessed by considering the constraints placed by the service ecosystem.

Information access suffers tremendously in wireless networks because of the low correlation between content transferred across low-bandwidth wireless links and actual data used to serve user requests. As a result, conventional content access mechanisms face such problems as unnecessary bandwidth consumption and large response times, and users experience significant performance degradation. In this dissertation, we analyze the cause of those problems and find that the major reason for inefficient information access in wireless networks is the absence of any user-activity awareness in current mechanisms. To solve these problems, we propose three user-activity aware strategies for mobile information access. Through simulations and implementations, we show that our strategies can outperform conventional information access schemes in terms of bandwidth consumption and user-perceived response times.