Aquesta tesi estudia els aspectes econòmics de la interconnexió entre Ases, identifica desafiaments que amenacen el futur d'Internet i proposa solucions per resoldre'ls. Primerament vam realitzar el primer estudi analític i empíric sobre el peering remot, un tipus emergent d'interconnexió que relaxa les limitacions geogràfiques dels Ases i facilita interconnexions a un menor cost. Després vam presentar CIPT i T4P, dos nous tipus d'interconnexions que redueixen els costos d'interconnexió entre xarxes. Ja que algunes de les limitacions són inherents a la present arquitectura d'Internet, vam finalitzar la tesi proposant Route Bazaar, una nova arquitectura d'Internet que, inspirada en el mecanisme de block chain i les eines criptogràfiques típiques de les criptomonedas, proveeix un marc contractual per realitzar tipus d'interconnexions molt flexibles. / Internet es un ecosistema en continua evolución. Formado por una multitud de redes o Sistemas Autónomos (Ases), los acuerdos de interconexión son una pieza esencial de Internet, que permite que los usuarios finales disfruten de conectividad global. La vertiginosa adopción de Internet, el desmesurado crecimiento de su trafico y las crecientes demandas por una mayor calidad de servicio son un desafío que produce constantes conflictos sobre los acuerdos económicos entre las redes y cuestiona la capacidad de Internet para proveer servicios críticos. Esta tesis estudia los aspectos económicos de la interconexión entre Ases, identifica desafíos que amenazan el futuro de Internet y propone soluciones para resolverlos. Primeramente realizamos el primer estudio analítico y empírico sobre el peering remoto, un tipo emergente de interconexión que relaja las limitaciones geográficas de los Ases y facilita interconexiones a un menor coste. Después presentamos CIPT y T4P, dos nuevos tipos de interconexiones que reducen los costes de interconexión entre redes. Puesto que algunas de las limitaciones son inherentes a la presente arquitectura de Internet, finalizamos la tesis proponiendo Route Bazaar, una nueva arquitectura de Internet que, inspirada en el mecanismo de block chain y las herramientas criptográficas típicas de las criptomonedas, provee un marco contractual para realizar tipos de interconexiones muy flexibles. / The Internet is an evolving ecosystem where a multitude of interconnected networks, or Ases (Autonomous Systems), support global connectivity of end users. By providing economic incentives for routing traffic on behalf of other networks, interconnection agreements between ASes are a cornerstone of the Internet. However, rapid Internet adoption, unrelenting traffic growth, and increasing demands for quality and performance are challenging to cope with, provoke recurrent conflicts over the economic settlement of interconnections, and question the capacity of the Internet to provide critical services. This thesis studies the economic aspects of the interconnections between ASes, identifies challenges hampering the future of the Internet, and proposes solutions to resolve them. We begin by presenting the first analytical and empirical study on remote peering, an emerging type of interconnections that relaxes the geographical constraints of ASes and also facilitates interconnections at a lower cost. Then we introduce CIPT and T4P, two novel interconnection arrangements that reduce traffic delivery costs for the ASes. Because some of the limitations are inherent to the current Internet architecture we end this thesis presenting Route Bazaar, a new Internet architecture that, inspired by the use of the block chain mechanism and cryptographic tools in cryptocurrencies, provides a contractual framework for flexible interconnections with rich policies.

La tesi sosté que les empreses privades que presten serveis de connectivitat constitueixen actors cada vegada més influents en la migració contemporània. Per això analitza els discursos comercials dels proveïdors de telefonia mòbil i serveis de transferència de diners a Espanya, i els contrasta amb les experiències d'equatorians i marroquins que viuen a Catalunya i usen aquests serveis per mantenir-se en contacte amb les seves xarxes personals, tant en les societats d'origen com de destinació. El disseny de la recerca combina els Estudis Culturals i els Estudis Crítics del Discurs per analitzar els testimoniatges dels migrants així com els discursos comercials a través de la publicitat i d'entrevistes amb responsables de les empreses. D'una banda, les conclusions van mostrar els mecanismes mitjançant els quals els discursos corporatius han mercantilizat i estetizat les experiències de connectivitat dels migrants. D'altra banda, es va evidenciar un paper actiu dels migrants com a agents de les seves estratègies de connectivitat, apropiant-se dels serveis oferts i creant estratègies de baix cost per convertir limitacions en oportunitats, en moments de creixent mobilitat, connectivitat digital i la consolidació d'una economia de serveis. / La tesis sostiene que las empresas privadas que prestan servicios de conectividad constituyen actores cada vez más influyentes en la migración contemporánea. Por ello analiza los discursos comerciales de los proveedores de telefonía móvil y servicios de transferencia de dinero en España, y los contrasta con las experiencias de ecuatorianos y marroquíes que viven en Cataluña y usan estos servicios para mantenerse en contacto con sus redes personales, tanto en las sociedades de origen como de destino. El diseño de la investigación combina los Estudios Culturales y los Estudios Críticos del Discurso para analizar los testimonios de los migrantes así como los discursos comerciales a través de la publicidad y de entrevistas con responsables de las empresas. Por un lado, las conclusiones mostraron los mecanismos mediante los cuales los discursos corporativos han mercantilizado y estetizado las experiencias de conectividad de los migrantes. Por otro lado, se evidenció un papel activo de los migrantes como agentes de sus estrategias de conectividad, apropiándose de los servicios ofrecidos y creando estrategias de bajo costo para convertir limitaciones en oportunidades, en momentos de creciente movilidad, conectividad digital y la consolidación de una economía de servicios. / The thesis argues that private enterprises providing connectivity services are increasingly becoming influential actors in contemporary migration. It focuses on the commercial discourses of providers of mobile phone and money transfer services in Spain, contrasting them with Ecuadorian and Moroccan migrant users’ experiences of connectivity to keep in touch with their personal networks in both origin and destination societies. The research design combined Cultural Studies and Critical Discourse Studies to look at migrants’ accounts as well as service providers’ first-hand accounts and commercial advertising texts. On the one hand, the conclusions showed the mechanisms through which corporate discourses have commodified and aestheticized migrants’ experiences of connectivity. On the other hand, they evidenced migrants’ active roles as agents of their connectivity strategies, appropriating the services offered, creating low-cost strategies that turn constraints into opportunities, in times of increasing mobility, digital connectivity and the consolidation of a service based economy.

Submitted in accordance with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Library and Information Science at the University of Zululand, South Africa, 2012. / The use of tools for development has evolved from the industrial revolution in the late 18th and 19th centuries that saw the increased use of machines and developments in the mining industries, to the increased use of information and technology in the 20th century and major breakthroughs that sparked the evolution into the information and knowledge society of the 21st century. The basis of the information and knowledge society revolves around technology’s increased assimilation and diffusion in human society, particularly information and communication technologies and their rapid growth and use in the exchange of information and knowledge. This society offers many opportunities and benefits to people in terms of the facilitation of information creation, distribution, diffusion, access and use for growth and development in various spheres of life. Information and communication technologies are thus regarded as tools for the advancement and development of communities, and this includes rural, illiterate, marginalized and poor communities and the female entrepreneurs in the informal sector who are the subject of this thesis. The aim of this study was to examine information and knowledge society and its impact on poverty alleviation and the economic empowerment of informal sector women entrepreneurs in South Africa and develop a model for utilization of information and knowledge in the informal sector. Both qualitative and quantitative approaches were employed for triangulation, although the qualitative approach significantly outweighed the quantitative in this study. The absence of a comprehensive list of informal activities in KwaZulu-Natal led to the decision to use snowball, purposive and haphazard sampling techniques to select the sample for the study. Focus group discussions, interviews, observation and content analysis were used to collect data from 118 women entrepreneurs from the informal sector, 17 women leaders, and 4 officials from the Hlabisa Local Municipality in KwaZulu-Natal.

Vortrag anlässlich des Doktoranden-Kolloquiums des UNESCO-Lehrstuhls für Internationale Beziehungen am 23. Juli 2012 im Lingnerschloss Dresden. Die westliche Gesellschaft befindet sich im Übergang von der Industrie- zur Wissensgesellschaft – so lautet eine der bekanntesten Thesen der aktuellen Gesellschaftstheorie. Dabei ist es in erster Linie der Umgang mit Wissen, der die Grundlage für die Bearbeitung aktueller Herausforderungen auf nationaler wie internationaler Ebene darstellt.

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / This essay presents a study which has taken place in two public schools in Aracaju-SE on Educational Computing through a Computing Program in Education (ProInfo). Its main goal is to analyse wheather ProInfo is managing to improve skills such as authonomy and critical thinking in the learning process once they are required in the knowledge society. The methodology applied was participant observation (which allowed to realize the day by day at schools concerning computing lab usage) and semi-structured interview (for subjective answers allowed new questions in order to get deeper answers from the interviewees). This study was based on pedagogical and technological principles through theoretical and methodological categories that lead the usage of computing resources in the learning process. Educational computing is in the center of some discussions and this happens because we are living in the age of Information and knowledge where information tends to be the main source of development. Therefore, schools must priorize in their pedagogical proposals not only the conception but also the assessment of computing, hence the citzen must get a holistic education which engage TIC, through which, both students and teachers would learn meaningfully. In the schools where this study has taken place the usage of computers for pedagogical purposes has provided learning once students feel motivated to learn through this tool and also they have to cope not only with an insufficient number of computers but also lack of qualified teachers. This qualification must be urgent so that it will enable teachers to use the technology in education in a more critical and attractive way so that they will better mediate the learning process itself. / Este trabalho apresenta um estudo realizado em duas escolas da rede estadual de ensino em Aracaju-SE sobre a Informática Educativa através do Programa de Informática na Educação (ProInfo). Teve como objetivo maior analisar se o ProInfo está favorecendo o aprimoramento de habilidades no processo ensino-aprendizagem tais como a autonomia e o pensamento crítico exigidas na sociedade do conhecimento. A metodologia aplicada foi a observação participante (através da qual foi possível perceber o cotidiano das escolas no que se refere à utilização dos laboratórios de informática) e a entrevista semi-estruturada (porque as respostas subjetivas possibilitam inserir novas questões para aprofundar as respostas dos entrevistados). O estudo foi norteado por princípios pedagógicos e tecnológicos através de categorias teóricas e metodológicas que orientam a prática de utilização dos recursos da Informática no processo ensino-aprendizagem. A Informática Educativa está no centro das discussões, e isso acontece porque estamos na era da Informação e do Conhecimento, em que o informacionalismo passa a ser o principal meio de desenvolvimento. Assim, faz-se mister que as escolas priorizem-na em suas propostas pedagógicas de forma mais ampla, desde a concepção de uso à avaliação, pois o cidadão deve, agora, receber uma educação holística que engendre as TIC, sendo o computador um dos meios pelos quais alunos e professores realizam a aprendizagem de forma significativa. Nas escolas pesquisadas, o uso do computador na educação está favorecendo a aprendizagem dos alunos, pois eles sentem-se atraídos para aprender através desta ferramenta, apesar de todas as dificuldades enfrentadas: desde o número insuficiente de computadores funcionando adequadamente, até à formação do professor. Esta, por sua vez, torna-se urgente e necessária para que os professores possam ensinar utilizando as tecnologias na educação de forma mais crítica e atrativa, podendo, assim, melhor mediar o processo de aprendizagem dos alunos.

Benefiting from the process of globalisation and becoming an information and knowledge society, has become the vision for many governments throughout the world. However, as it has been demonstrated in this thesis, becoming an information and knowledge society is much easier for developed countries that already possess some of the prerequisite criteria, such as an efficient and effective ICT infrastructure. By investing in such an infrastructure, the interaction and exchange of data, information, and knowledge from a local knowledge system with the global knowledge system is enabled. Through this two-way flow of information, the other criteria these countries have to comply with are stimulated, making it much easier and faster for these countries to achieve their goal. However, for the developing countries that are still in the grip of the digital divide, the goal of becoming information and knowledge societies seem nearly unattainable. Owing to this digital divide that is experienced by developing countries, combined with other barriers such as the social barriers that include the overall health and education level of citizens, the citizens of these countries cannot take part in the interaction and exchange process. Thus, this interaction and exchange process cannot aid these countries in complying with the other criteria needed to become information and knowledge societies, and in this way, the progress of developing countries towards becoming information and knowledge societies are seriously hampered. How does the interaction and exchange of data, information, and knowledge between developing countries’ local knowledge systems and the global knowledge system contribute to their development and positive participation in the global information and knowledge society? This is the research question that has guided this thesis. To get an answer to this question the author addressed the following issues:<ul> <li>The author sketched the theoretical foundation of this thesis by providing a brief historical perspective of the Information Science domain. This provided a better understanding of concepts such as data, information, knowledge, global-, western-, and scientific knowledge as well as indigenous-, traditional-, and local knowledge as applied in this thesis. The underlying relationship between these concepts were also explored. Furthermore, the phenomenon of the global information and knowledge society was discussed as one of the opportunities presented by globalisation.</li> <li>The author then analysed the criteria of the information and knowledge society as discussed in Chapter 3, and identified indicators that the stated criteria are constructed from. To investigate whether developed countries are information and knowledge societies, these indicators were applied to Norway and the USA. It was concluded that both countries comply with the stated criteria and are thus information and knowledge societies. </li> <li>The author followed the same method of investigation and applied the indicators identified in Chapter 4 to two developing countries, namely Niger and South Africa. It was concluded that both these countries do not comply with the stated criteria and, thus, are not information and knowledge societies. Furthermore, barriers were identified by the author that inhibit these countries from becoming information and knowledge societies.</li> <li>Lastly, the author discussed proposed solutions and recommendations that can be used to overcome the various barriers that inhibit the progress of developing countries becoming information and knowledge societies. </li></ul> / Thesis (DPhil)--University of Pretoria, 2008. / Information Science / DPhil / unrestricted

Made available in DSpace on 2016-12-08T16:35:12Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 claudia.pdf: 997701 bytes, checksum: e4354bdf3c01e268f3194f44ca5ec638 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-11-16 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / To be imported from the world of production and administration, the concept of innovation related to education came steeped in the idea that the advancement of science and technology would determine the economic, social and cultural development. The predominance of Information and Communication Technologies - ICT in the so-called Information and Knowledge Society can unfold into new strategies, new forms of administration, and new perspectives to the educational process. In this research, we intend to investigate concept(s) of educational innovation that permeates the proposals for integrating ICT in education programs like Proinfo from Brazil, Educar from Argentina and Enlaces from Chile by analyzing official documents available at these programs sites and in their Educational Ministries. To achieve the goals we set out to do a literature research related to the field of education studies such as: innovation and educational change, public policies for integrating ICT in the educational environment, and; inclusion and digital gap. We seek to make a documentary analysis of a qualitative nature in order to understand the educational innovation, considering the contexts of its genesis, its insertion and its uniqueness as ongoing processes of public politics in Latin American for ICT integration. Find points of convergence in the proposed integration of ICT, that take different aspects of the concepts of innovation in education and support to warrant such inclusion. We saw that very general conclusion is that innovation on ways of teaching and learning is associated with the introduction of ICT in the class room. As well, the vision of innovation in education as a facilitator of the process of modernization and thus participate in the global economy / Ao ser importado do mundo da produção e da administração, o conceito de inovação relacionado à educação surgiu impregnado da concepção de que os avanços da ciência e da tecnologia determinariam o desenvolvimento econômico, social, cultural e educacional. A predominância das Tecnologias de Informação e Comunicação TIC na denominada Sociedade da Informação e do Conhecimento - SIC pode desdobrarse em novas estratégias, novas formas de administração, e em novos olhares para os processos educativos. Nesta pesquisa, investigamos o(s) conceito(s) de inovação educacional existentes nas propostas para inserção das TIC na educação nos programas Proinfo do Brasil, Educar da Argentina e Enlaces do Chile por meio de análise dos documentos oficiais disponíveis nos sites destes programas e respectivos Ministérios de Educação. Para atingir o os objetivos de pesquisa partimos de levantamento bibliográfico relacionado ao campo de estudos da educação como: inovação e mudança educacional; políticas públicas de inserção das TIC no meio educacional, e; inclusão e brecha digital. Procuramos realizar uma análise documental de cunho qualitativo no intuito de compreender a inovação educacional, considerando os contextos de sua gênese, de sua inserção e suas singularidades como processos decorrentes das políticas públicas latino-americanas de integração das TIC. Encontramos pontos de convergência nas propostas de inserção das TIC, que se apropriam de diferentes aspectos dos conceitos de inovação em educação como suporte para justificarem tal inserção. Vimos que é bem generalizada a conclusão de que a inovação quanto às formas de ensino e aprendizado está associada com a introdução das TIC na sala na aula. Como também, a visão da inovação da educação como facilitadora do processo de modernização e assim participar da globalização da economia