The concept of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in Small to Medium Enterprises (SMEs) has been significantly drawing global attention for the past decade. The solving of social, political and economic problems now fully requires the involvement of both the public and private sectors, particularly in the context of developing countries. In Zimbabwe, CSR has mainly been the responsibility of large firms, NGOs and the government. Little has been done to encourage SMEs to take initiative and responsibility on CSR matters, although these SMEs constitute about ninety percent of all economic activities in Zimbabwe. For CSR to be implemented, there is need for access to information. Public libraries are one of the major focal points in the provision of information. These public libraries have vast potential to support CSR initiatives and are capable of partnering with various organisations from different sectors as well. However, when it comes to visibility on CSR, public libraries in Zimbabwe and in other developing countries are almost non-existent. The aim of this study was to investigate the role that public libraries play in promoting CSR to SMEs in Zimbabwe as a means of contributing in shaping policies which ensure that public libraries are more relevant in society through their support of, as well as their involvement in sustainable developmental issues. In order to attain this, the study adopted the interpretive paradigm and the qualitative approach. In addition, the case study design was used, allowing the researcher to obtain detailed information about the Harare City Library in relation to the promotion of CSR to SMEs. The target population for this study included librarians at public libraries in Zimbabwe and the owners or managers of formally registered SMEs in the country. The study revealed that a great number of SMEs have limited knowledge about CSR and do not engage in it. SMEs consider CSR to be mainly philanthropic in nature, as their knowledge does not extend to include other important aspects of the concept. In addition, public libraries are not the major source of CSR information provision to SMEs, although a fair number of SMEs believe that they should be at the forefront. The study recommends that public libraries should reach out to SMEs to promote CSR to them, in addition to marketing the library’s own information resources and services. Public libraries need also to establish strategic alliances with relevant stakeholders as a means of encouraging SMEs to engage in CSR initiatives. / Information Science / M. Inf. (Information Science)

Gossip is a generic protocol which was designed for spreading information between nodes in large distributed decentralised systems. This protocol can be also used for many different applications including data aggregation, topology construction, etc. This work presents and describes a framework designed for facilitating modelling and simulation of Gossip-based systems.

Customer knowledge plays a vital part in organisations today, particularly in sales and marketing processes, where customers can either be channel partners or final consumers. Managing customer data and/or information across business units, departments, and functions is vital. Frequently, channel partners gather and capture data about downstream customers and consumers that organisations further upstream in the channel require to be incorporated into their information systems in order to allow for management information delivery to their users. In this study, the focus is placed on manufacturing organisations using third party distribution since the flow of information between channel partner organisations in a supply chain (in contrast to the flow of products) provides an important link between organisations and increasingly represents a source of competitive advantage in the marketplace. The purpose of this study is to determine whether there is a significant difference in the use of sales and marketing data marts as management information delivery mechanisms in manufacturing organisations in different industries, particularly the pharmaceuticals and branded consumer products. The case studies presented in this dissertation indicates that there are significant differences between the use of sales and marketing data marts in different manufacturing industries, which can be ascribed to the industry, both directly and indirectly. / Thesis (MIS(Information Science))--University of Pretoria, 2002. / Information Science / MIS / unrestricted

The study investigated the use of mobile phones in disseminating information on agriculture to the farming community of Mashonaland West Province of Zimbabwe, with a view to improving the coverage gap created by the available initiatives. Relevant literature on the available and successful mobile phones agricultural information dissemination platforms were extensively reviewed, taking into consideration the Mashonaland West Province farmers’ information needs. Formats, channels and sources currently being used to transmit agricultural information to farmers were investigated. Barriers to the use of mobile phones in transmitting agricultural information were as well investigated. Data was gathered on the farmers’ access to mobile phones and ownership of mobile phones. The survey research methodology was used for data collection because the research involved a large sample in a widespread geographical area. Quantitative research approach was used and questionnaires were used for data collection. The respondents for the study comprised farmers, network providers and other agricultural stakeholders in the province. A sample of 384 farmers, and 13 network providers and other stakeholders participated in the survey. Quantitative data was analysed using the the SPSS software while the little qualitative data which was available was analysed through content analysis. The findings of the study indicated that farmers in Mashonaland West Province of Zimbabwe were willing to get updates on agricultural information via cell phones. However, majority of the farmers could not afford the high mobile data tariffs being charged by network service providers, and the costs of subscription charged by the available agricultural information dissemination platforms. The study mainly recommended that the government should establish mobile phone agricultural information dissemination platforms that can be accessed by farmers for free or that which will charge affordable rates. The study adds to the existing knowledge on how mobile phones can be used in disseminating agricultural information to farmers. / Information Science / D. Inf. (Information Science)

Dans les systèmes d'alertes publiques, l’étude de la diffusion des informations dans le réseau est essentielle. Les systèmes de diffusion des messages d'alertes doivent atteindre beaucoup de nœuds en peu de temps. Dans les réseaux de communication basés sur les interactions “device to device”, on s'est récemment beaucoup intéressé à la diffusion des informations et le besoin d'auto-organisation a été mis en évidence. L'auto-organisation conduit à des comportements locaux et des interactions qui ont un effet sur le réseau global et présentent un avantage de scalabilité. Ces réseaux auto-organisés peuvent être autonomes et utiliser peu d'espace mémoire. On peut développer des caractères auto-organisés dans les réseaux de communication en utilisant des idées venant de phénomènes naturels. Il semble intéressant de chercher à obtenir les propriétés des “small world” pour améliorer la diffusion des informations dans le réseau. Dans les modèles de “small world” on réalise un recâblage des liens dans le réseau en changeant la taille et la direction des liens existants. Dans un environnement sans-fils autonome une organisation de ce type peut être créée en utilisant le flocking, l'inhibition latérale et le “beamforming”. Dans ce but, l'auteur utilise d'abord l'analogie avec l'inhibition latérale, le flocking et le “beamforming” pour montrer comment la diffusion des informations peut être améliorée. L'analogue de l'inhibition latérale est utilisé pour créer des régions virtuelles dans le réseau. Puis en utilisant l'analogie avec les règles du flocking, on caractérise les propriétés des faisceaux permettant aux nœuds de communiquer dans les régions. Nous prouvons que les propriétés des “small world” sont vérifiées en utilisant la mesure des moyennes des longueurs des chemins. Cependant l'algorithme proposé est valable pour les réseaux statiques alors que dans les cas introduisant de la mobilité, les concepts d'inhibition latérale et de flocking nécessiteraient beaucoup plus de temps. Dans le cas d'un réseau mobile la structure du réseau change fréquemment. Certaines connexions intermittentes impactent fortement la diffusion des informations. L'auteur utilise le concept de stabilité avec le “beamforming” pour montrer comment on peut améliorer la diffusion des informations. Dans son algorithme il prévoit d'abord la stabilité du nœud en utilisant des informations locales et il utilise ce résultat pour identifier les nœuds qui réaliseront du beamforming. Dans l'algorithme, les nœuds de stabilité faible sont autorisés à faire du beamforming vers les nœuds de forte stabilité. La frontière entre forte et faible stabilité est fixée par un seuil. Cet algorithme ne nécessite pas une connaissance globale du réseau, mais utilise des données locales. Les résultats sont validés en étudiant le temps au bout duquel plus de nœuds reçoivent l'information et en comparant avec d'autres algorithmes de la littérature. Cependant, dans les réseaux réels, les changements de structure ne sont pas dus qu'à la mobilité, mais également à des changements de la densité des nœuds à un moment donné. Pour tenir compte de l'influence de tels événements sur la diffusion des informations concernant la sécurité publique, l'auteur utilise les concepts de modèle de métapopulation, épidémiologiques, “beamforming” et mobilité géographique obtenu à partir de données D4D. L'auteur propose la création de trois états latents qu'il ajoute au modèle épidémiologique connu: SIR. L'auteur étudie les états transitoires en analysant l'évolution du nombre de postes ayant reçu les informations et compare les résultats concernant ce nombre dans les différents cas. L'auteur démontre ainsi que le scenario qu'il propose permet d'améliorer le processus de diffusion des informations. Il montre aussi les effets de différents paramètres comme le nombre de sources, le nombre de paquets, les paramètres de mobilité et ceux qui caractérisent les antennes sur la diffusion des informations / In public warning message systems, information dissemination across the network is a critical aspect that has to be addressed. Dissemination of warning messages should be such that it reaches as many nodes in the network in a short time. In communication networks those based on device to device interactions, dissemination of the information has lately picked up lot of interest and the need for self organization of the network has been brought up. Self organization leads to local behaviors and interactions that have global effects and helps in addressing scaling issues. The use of self organized features allows autonomous behavior with low memory usage. Some examples of self organization phenomenon that are observed in nature are Lateral Inhibition and Flocking. In order to provide self organized features to communication networks, insights from such naturally occurring phenomenon is used. Achieving small world properties is an attractive way to enhance information dissemination across the network. In small world model rewiring of links in the network is performed by altering the length and the direction of the existing links. In an autonomous wireless environment such organization can be achieved using self organized phenomenon like Lateral inhibition and Flocking and beamforming (a concept in communication). Towards this, we first use Lateral Inhibition, analogy to Flocking behavior and beamforming to show how dissemination of information can be enhanced. Lateral Inhibition is used to create virtual regions in the network. Then using the analogy of Flocking rules, beam properties of the nodes in the regions are set. We then prove that small world properties are achieved using average path length metric. However, the proposed algorithm is applicable to static networks and Flocking and Lateral Inhibition concepts, if used in a mobile scenario, will be highly complex in terms of computation and memory. In a mobile scenario such as human mobility aided networks, the network structure changes frequently. In such conditions dissemination of information is highly impacted as new connections are made and old ones are broken. We thus use stability concept in mobile networks with beamforming to show how information dissemination process can be enhanced. In the algorithm, we first predict the stability of a node in the mobile network using locally available information and then uses it to identify beamforming nodes. In the algorithm, the low stability nodes are allowed to beamform towards the nodes with high stability. The difference between high and low stability nodes is based on threshold value. The algorithm is developed such that it does not require any global knowledge about the network and works using only local information. The results are validated using how quickly more number of nodes receive the information and different state of the art algorithms. We also show the effect of various parameters such as number of sources, number of packets, mobility parameters and antenna parameters etc. on the information dissemination process in the network. In realistic scenarios however, the dynamicity in the network is not only related to mobility. Dynamic conditions also arise due to change in density of nodes at a given time. To address effect of such scenario on the dissemination of information related to public safety in a metapopulation, we use the concepts of epidemic model, beamforming and the countrywide mobility pattern extracted from the $D4D$ dataset. Here, we also propose the addition of three latent states to the existing epidemic model ($SIR$ model). We study the transient states towards the evolution of the number of devices having the information and the difference in the number of devices having the information when compared with different cases to evaluate the results. Through the results we show that enhancements in the dissemination process can be achieved in the addressed scenario

Les systèmes pair-à-pair (P2P) sont aujourd'hui très populaires. Leur utilisation va de la messagerie instantanée au partage de fichiers, en passant par la sauvegarde et le stockage distribué ou encore le streaming video. Parmi les protocoles P2P, les protocoles basés sur le "gossip" sont une famille de protocoles qui a fait l'objet de nombreux travaux de recherche durant la dernière décennie. Les raisons de l'engouement pour les protocoles basés sur le "gossip" sont qu'ils sont considérés robustes, faciles à mettre en oeuvre et qu'ils ont des propriétés de passage à l'échelle intéressantes. Ce sont donc des candidats intéressants dès lors qu'il s'agit de réaliser des systèmes distribués dynamiques à large échelle. Cette thèse considère deux problématiques rencontrées lorsque l'on déploie des protocoles basé sur le "gossip" dans un environnement réel comme l'Internet. La première problématique est la prise en compte des pare-feux (NAT) dans le cadre des protocoles d'échantillonnage basés sur le "gossip". Ces protocoles font l'hypothèse que, a tout moment, chaque noeud est capable de communiquer avec n'importe quel noeud du réseau. Cette hypothèse est fausse dès lors que certains noeuds utilisent des NAT. Nous présentons Nylon, un protocole d'échantillonnage qui fonctionne malgré la présence de NAT. Nylon introduit un faible surcoût pour gérer les NAT et partage équitablement ce surcoût entre les noeuds possédant un NAT et les autres noeuds. La deuxième problématique que nous étudions est la possibilité de limiter la dissémination de messages de type "spam" dans les protocoles de dissémination basés sur le "gossip". Ces protocoles sont en effet des vecteurs idéaux pour diffuser les messages de type "spam" du fait qu'il n'y a pas d'autorité de contrôle permettant de filtrer les messages basés sur leur contenu. Nous proposons FireSpam, un protocole de dissémination basé sur le "gossip" qui permet de limiter la diffusion des messages de type "spam". FireSpam fonctionne par filtrage décentralisé (chaque noeud participe au filtrage). Par ailleurs, il fonctionne malgré la présence d'une fraction de noeuds malicieux (aussi appelés "Byzantins") et malgré la présence de noeuds dits “rationnels” (aussi appelés "égoïstes"). Ces derniers sont prêts à dévier du protocole s'ils ont un intérêt à le faire. / Peer-to-peer (P2P) systems are very popular today. Their usage goes from instant messaging to file sharing, from distributed backup and storage to even live-video streaming. Among P2P protocols, gossip-based protocols are a family of protocols which have been the object of several research works in the last decade. The reasons behind the interest in gossip-based protocols are that they are considered robust, easy to implement, and that they have interesting scalability properties. They are then appealing candidates for implementing dynamic and large-scale distributed systems. This thesis tackles two problems faced by gossip-based protocols when deployed on a practical scenario as the Internet. The first problem is coping with Network Address Translators (NATs) in the context of gossip-based peer sampling protocols. These protocols make the assumption that, at any moment, each node is able to communicate with any other node of the network. This assumption is false when some nodes use NATs. We present Nylon, a peer sampling protocol which works despite the presence of NATs. Nylon introduces a low overhead to cope with NATs and fairly balances this overhead among nodes using a NAT and those which do not. The second problem that we study is the possibility to limit the dissemination of “spam” messages in gossip-based dissemination protocols. These protocols are in fact ideal vectors to spread spam messages due to the fact that there is no central authority in charge of filtering messages based on their content. We propose FireSpam, a gossip-based dissemination protocol which allows limiting the dissemination of “spam” messages. FireSpam implements a decentralized filtering mechanism (each node participates to the filtering). Moreover, it works despite the presence of a fraction of malicious nodes (also called “Byzantine” nodes) and despite the presence of so called “rational” nodes (also called “selfish” nodes). These latters are willing to deviate from the protocol if they have an interest in doing so.

This exploratory study identified generational preferences for receiving information from management through different communication channels and determined if age predicted productivity for productive and unproductive information received through different communication channels. This is the first study to empirically examine the relationship between age cohorts, communication channel preferences, information categories, and productivity. Sample participants worked as Extension agents at a major land-grant university. The four generations represented in the sample utilized multiple communication channels and were geographically dispersed throughout the state. The survey was administered electronically and completed by 204 (74%) of the eligible 275 employees in the organization. Independent Samples t-tests, General Linear Modeling, ANOVA’s, means analysis and linear regressions were employed to analyze the data to test the hypotheses. Regarding channel preference, the findings determined that face-to-face communication was preferred by both generations for receiving private and confidential information and for training. Media was preferred by both generations for routine and procedural and time-sensitive information. Lastly, the analysis revealed that written documents were the preferred method of both generational cohorts for compensation and benefits. Regarding productivity, the findings determined that age predicted a perceived increase in productivity tasks for production information received face-to-face from management, but did not predict a perceived increase in productivity tasks for the other communication channels. Both generational cohorts perceived productive information received face-to-face from management to increase morale and decrease stress. The cohorts, however, differed on the increase of trust as a result of receiving productive information face-to-face. Both generational cohorts perceived unproductive information received from management through all communication channels to negatively impact productivity tasks. Finally, both cohorts perceived unproductive information received face-to-face from management to negatively impact morale, trust and stress. Empirical examination of generational workforce issues is relatively new to Human Resources and research is needed to further examine generational perceptions. The study begins to open dialogue that the supposed differences inherent in the multigenerational workforce are not as much a factor of the generation as the information. The development of the new instrument in this study provides a new tool to examine organizations preferences and productivity.

Le parking intelligent, permettant aux conducteurs d'accéder aux informations de stationnement sur leurs appareils mobiles, réduit les difficultés des usagers. Tout d'abord, nous mettons en lumière la manière de recueillir les informations de parking en introduisant une architecture de réseaux de capteurs multi-saut, et les modèles d'intensité applicative en examinant la probabilité d'arrivées et de départs de véhicules. Puis nous étudions la stratégie de déploiement des réseaux de capteurs et définissons un problème multi-objectifs, puis nous le résolvons sur deux cartes de parking réelles. Ensuite, nous définissons un service Publish-Subscribe pour fournir aux conducteurs des informations pertinentes. Nous illustrons le système dans des réseaux véhiculaires et mobiles et soulignons l'importance du contenu et du contexte du message au conducteur. Afin d'évaluer la résilience du système, nous proposons un modèle Publish-Subscribe étendu et nous l'évaluons dans différentes circonstances imprévues. Notre travail est basé sur la prémisse que les capteurs de parking sont déployés à une grande échelle dans la ville. Nous considérons une vue d'ensemble des services urbains du point de vue de la municipalité. Ainsi, nous faisons la lumière sur deux thèmes principaux: la collecte d'informations sur le déploiement de capteurs et un modèle étendu de Publish-Subscribe. Notre travail donne un guide avant de démarrer un projet de parking intelligent ou tout service urbain similaire en temps réel. Il fournit également une plate-forme d'évaluation valable pour tester des jeux de données plus réalistes, comme des traces de véhicules ou de trafic réseau. / Smart parking, allowing drivers to access parking information through their smart-phone, is proposed to ease drivers' pain. We first spotlight the manner to collect parking information by introducing the multi-hop sensor network architecture, and how the network is formed. We then introduce the traffic intensity models by looking at the vehicle's arrival and departure probabilities, following the heavy-tailed distribution. We study the deployment strategy of wireless on-street parking sensor layouts. We define a multiple-objective problem and solve it with two real street parking maps. In turn, we present a Publish-Subscribe service system to provide good parking information to drivers. We illustrate the system with a vehicular network and point out the importance of content and context of a driver’s message. To evaluate the resilience, we propose an extended Publish-Subscribe model, and evaluate it under different unforeseen circumstances. Our work is based on the premise that large-scale parking sensors are deployed in the city. We look at the whole picture of urban service from viewpoint of the municipality. As such, we shed light on two main topics: the information collection on sensor deployment and an extended version of Publish-Subscribe messaging paradigm. Our work gives a guideline from network-related perspectives for city before launching a smart parking or any similar real-time urban service. It also provides a meaningful evaluation platform for testing more realistic datasets, such as real vehicle traces or network traffic.

Submitted by Marco Antonio Oliveira da Silva (maosilva@ipen.br) on 2016-12-21T15:07:24Z No. of bitstreams: 0 / Made available in DSpace on 2016-12-21T15:07:24Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 / O progresso de projetos anteriores salientou a necessidade de tratar o problema dos softwares para detecção, a partir de bases de dados de publicações científicas, de tendências emergentes de pesquisa e desenvolvimento. Evidenciou-se a carência de aplicações computacionais eficientes dedicadas a este propósito, que são artigos de grande utilidade para um melhor planejamento de programas de pesquisa e desenvolvimento em instituições. Foi realizada, então, uma revisão dos softwares atualmente disponíveis, para poder-se delinear claramente a oportunidade de desenvolver novas ferramentas. Como resultado, implementou-se um aplicativo chamado Citesnake, projetado especialmente para auxiliar a detecção e o estudo de tendências emergentes a partir da análise de redes de vários tipos, extraídas das bases de dados científicas. Através desta ferramenta computacional robusta e eficaz, foram conduzidas análises de frentes emergentes de pesquisa e desenvolvimento na área de Sistemas Geradores de Energia Nuclear de Geração IV, de forma que se pudesse evidenciar, dentre os tipos de reatores selecionados como os mais promissores pelo GIF - Generation IV International Forum, aqueles que mais se desenvolveram nos últimos dez anos e que se apresentam, atualmente, como os mais capazes de cumprir as promessas realizadas sobre os seus conceitos inovadores. / Dissertação (Mestrado em Tecnologia Nuclear) / IPEN/D / Instituto de Pesquisas Energéticas e Nucleares - IPEN-CNEN/SP

Abstracts in English, Zulu and Afrikaans / Globally, Visitor Information Centres are increasingly recognised touchpoints contributing to the success of tourism destinations. In Gauteng, South Africa, their numbers continue to decline. The service level of these remaining VICs differ across and fall below expectation. Furthermore, most models of operation are obsolete, with these centres having minimal exposure to best practices. Limited research focuses on the supply side, namely the staffing and management of centres. The study focuses on Gauteng VICs and the best practices that could improve future effectiveness. An exploratory design was followed which commenced with a concise review of best practice literature, global case studies and examples on the operation of effective VICs. An empirical study then reported on the opinions of 25 VIC staff and eight managers from eight Gauteng VICs regarding the current situation and future needs. A two-tiered approach was used to gather data via two custom-designed surveys with Gauteng VIC staff and managers respectively. A snowball sample of 25 staff members and a purposive sample of eight key informants were obtained. Data were analysed quantitatively using SPSS and qualitatively using thematic content analysis; and presented in three parts. The literature, the findings and the researcher’s recommendations culminate in a best practice framework for Gauteng VICs. The framework advocates for an integration of traditional and new media services and platforms in the dissemination of tourism information based on the funding available to a particular VIC. It is envisaged that if managers implement the best practice framework, it could avert further decline in the number of VICs. Moreover, it could improve their effectiveness in meeting the needs of the technologically-savvy and the traditional visitor, thereby ushering the Gauteng VICs into the 21st century. / Emhlabeni jikelele, izikhungo zolwazi zabavakashi (VICs) ziya ngokuya ziqashelwa njengamaphuzu okuxhumana abamba iqhaza ekuphumeleleni kwezindawo zezokuvakasha. EGauteng, eNingizimu Afrika inani labo, liyaqhubeka ngokwehla. Amazinga okusebenza kwalokho kwama-VIC asele ahluka ezindaweni zonkana futhi awela ngezansi kokulindelekile. Ngaphezu kwalokho, izinhlobo eziningi zezifanekiso zomsebenzi azisetshenziswa, nalezo zikhungo nokuba nokubanakaliswa okuncane nemikhuba ephambili. Ucwaningo olulinganiselwe lugxile ohlangothini lokunikezela, okuyizikhungo zabasebenzi nokuphathwa. Lolu cwaningo lugxile kuma-VIC aseGauteng kanye nemikhuba ephambili engase ithuthukise ukusebenza ngokuzayo. Umklamo oyisibonelo walandelwa okuyinto eyaqala ngokubuyekeza okufingqiwe okuhamba phambili kwezincwadi, izifundo zomhlaba nezibonelo zokusebenza ngempumelelo kwama-VIC. Ucwaningo lomdlandla lwabika ngemibono yamalungu abasebenzi abangama -25 beVIC nabaphathi abayisishiyagalombili abavela kuma-VIC ayisishiyagalombili aseGauteng mayelana nesimo samanje kanye nezidingo esikhathini esizayo. Izindlela ezimbili zokuhlaziya zasetshenziswa ukuqoqa imininingwane ngokusebenzisa izinhlolovo ezimbili ezenziwe ngokwezifiso nabasebenzi be-VIC eGauteng nabaphathi ngokulandelana Isampula yokudluliselwa (snowball sampling) kwamalungu abasebenzi abangama-25 kanye nesampula yokwahlulela ekhethayo (purposive sampling) yabafundisi abamqoka abayisishiyagalombili yatholakala. Imininingwane yahlaziywa ngokufanelekile kusetshenziswa iSPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) futhi ngokufanelekile kusetshenziswa ukuhlaziywa kwezindikimba okuqukethwe futhi yethulwa izingxenye ezintathu. Imibhalo, okutholakele kanye neziphakamiso zomcwaningi zifinyelele emkhubeni ophezulu wohlaka lwama-VIC aseGauteng. Uhlaka lummela ukuhlanganiswa kwendabuko futhi ukusebenzisa kwezokwazisa ngezinkundla ekusabalalisweni kolwazi lwezokuvakasha kusekelwe ngokuxhaswa ngezimali okutholakala ku-VIC ethile. Kucatshangwa ukuthi uma abaphathi beqalisa umkhuba ophambili wohlaka, kungase kugweme ukwehla okwengeziwe kwenani lama-VIC. Ngaphezu kwalokho, kungase kuthuthukise ukuphumelela kwabo ekuhlangabezaneni nezidingo zobuchwepheshe zokwenza izinqumo ezinhle kanye nesivakashi sendabuko, kanjalo kubonise ama-VIC ku-21st Century. / Besoekersinligtingsentrums word wêreldwyd toenemend erken as kontakpunte (touchpoints) wat tot die sukses van toerismebestemmings bydra. Die aantal besoekersinligtingsentrums in Gauteng, Suid- Afrika, toon ’n afname. Die diensvlakke van die oorblywende sentrums verskil en voldoen nie aan verwagtinge nie. Die bedryfsmodelle van die meeste van hierdie besoekersinligtingsentrums is ook verouderd en die betrokke sentrums het minimale blootstelling aan beste praktyk. Beperkte navorsing fokus op die aanbodkant, dit wil sê, die personeelvoorsiening en bestuur van besoekersinligtingsentrums. Hierdie studie fokus op besoekersinligtingsentrums in Gauteng en die beste praktyke wat hulle doeltreffendheid in die toekoms kan verbeter. Die navorser het ’n verkenningsontwerp gebruik, beginnende met ’n bondige oorsig van literatuur oor beste praktyk, wêreldwye gevallestudies en voorbeelde van die werkswyse van doeltreffende besoekersinligtingsentrums. Die navorser het daarna in ’n empiriese studie verslag oor die menings van 25 personeellede van besoekersinligtingsentrums en 8 bestuurders van 8 besoekersinligtingsentrums in Gauteng rakende die huidige stand en toekomstige behoeftes van die sentrums gelewer. Die navorser het ’n tweevlakkige benadering gevolg om data in te win deur twee aangemete opnames te gebruik om data van onderskeidelik personeellede en bestuurders van besoekersinligtingsentrums in Gauteng te bekom. ’n Sneeubalsteekproef van 25 personeellede en ’n doelbewuste steekproef van 8 sleutelrespondente is bekom. Data is kwantitatief met behulp van die Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) en kwalitatief deur middel van ’n tematiese inhoudsanalise ontleed en in drie dele aangebied. Die literatuur, die bevindings en die navorser se aanbevelings het op ’n raamwerk van bestek praktyk vir Gautengse besoekersinligtingsentrums uitgeloop. Ingevolge hierdie raamwerk moet tradisionele en nuwe mediadienste en -platforms geïntegreer word na gelang van die befondsing wat tot ’n bepaalde besoekersinligtingsentrum se beskikking is. Daar word voorsien dat indien sentrumbestuurders die bestepraktyk-raamwerk implementeer, dit ’n verdere afname in die aantal besoekersinligtingsentrums kan verhoed. Daarbenewens kan die raamwerk lei tot ’n verbetering in Gautengse besoekersinligtingsentrums se vermoë om in die behoeftes van beide tegnologies bedrewe en tradisionele besoekers te voorsien, en sodoende daartoe bydra dat die sentrums by die 21ste eeu aanpas. / Transport Economics, Logistics and Tourism / M. Com. (Tourism Management)