Orientador: José Eduardo Santarém Segundo / Co-orientadora: Jodi Schneider / Banca: Plácida Leopoldina Ventura Amorim da Costa Santos / Banca: José Fernando Modesto da Silva / Banca: Silvana Aparecida Borsetti Gregório Vidotti / Banca: Fabrício Silva Assumpção / Resumo: A inclusão de livros digitais em bibliotecas proporciona outras formas de oferta de serviços e acesso à informação aos usuários. Se por um lado amplia a oferta de acervo, por outro demanda ajustes de metadados bibliográficos e de gestão, acompanhamento da movimentação de livros digitais presentes na(s) plataforma(s) dos fornecedores e atualização constante dos dados e recursos disponíveis aos usuários. A Web Semântica, seus conceitos e tecnologias vêm sendo pesquisadas no ambiente de bibliotecas, analisando as possibilidades para sua utilização em rotinas diversas como, por exemplo, o enriquecimento de catálogos e o reaproveitamento de dados que estão disponíveis na Web. Este cenário despertou o interesse em averiguar se a Web Semântica pode ser utilizada para a criação de modelo de dados (framework) para contribuir com o tratamento, enriquecimento, publicação e reuso de registros bibliográficos e de licenciamento entre fornecedores e bibliotecas e condicionou a formulação do problema de pesquisa. O objetivo geral desta tese consiste na elaboração de proposta de modelo de dados com uso da Web Semântica para gestão de livros digitais licenciados. Para construir este modelo foi realizada pesquisa bibliográfica visando identificar as principais dificuldades observadas com a gestão de livros digitais licenciados e os elementos da Web Semântica que permitam o enriquecimento, publicação e reutilização de dados. A partir dos resultados desta revisão de literatura foi realizada pesqu... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: Adding digital books to a library's collection allows offers of new services and access to the new information for patrons. On one hand, it is possible to enhance the collection but, on the other hand, it is necessary to update bibliographic and management metadata, in accordance to the moving of resources in providers' platforms. The Semantic Web and its concepts and technologies have been studied in libraries, analyzing the possibilities to use it in several activities such as catalog enrichment and data reuse from sources available on the Web. This scenario sparked interest in whether the Semantic Web can be used to create a framework for the treatment, enrichment, reuse, and publishing bibliographic and licensing records by providers and libraries. This situation results in the formulation of the research problem. The main objective of this dissertation relies on the proposal of a framework using the Semantic Web for digital books management. To construct this framework, bibliographic research was performed focusing on identifying the main difficulties in digital books management and the core elements of the Semantic Web that allow the enrichment, publishing and reusing of data. From the results of this literature review, exploratory research was done to identify if the Linked Open Data can be used for the treatment, enriching, and patterning of bibliographic data, and if the Linked Enterprise Data can be used for licensing data. The needed metadata for resource descripti... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Doutor

Sharing and exploitation of information resources across a diverse organisation can confer a significant competitive advantage but also can be a substantial challenge in coordinating across structural and specialisation boundaries. This challenge reflects the difficulties traditionally associated with lateral relations, which were recognised by classical organisational theorists but are more pronounced with the emergence of information as a critical resource. Notwithstanding the benefits of information sharing across the organisation, the classical concept of specialisation remains fundamental to organisational theory; thus there is potential for friction between requirements for specialisation and coordination. This research therefore examines information management arrangements to balance specialisation and coordination in a diverse organisation. The research takes advantage of organisational and systems theory literature to appreciate complex information management requirements in terms of differentiation/cohesion and integration/coupling of organisational elements. Information management???s business and technology perspectives define the conceptual framework, within which gaps in the literature are identified and become the focus of the research. The two key research areas are the opportunities enabled by technology for business integration through collaborative decision-making and the management of organisation-wide information technology infrastructure. Collaborative decision-making is an integrating mechanism that can provide balance between specialisation and coordination contingent upon the nature of decision tasks and their organisational context. Propositions associated with an adaptive approach to collaborative decision-making were tested in laboratory experiments, with positive support for the contingency model albeit constrained by individual cognitive variances. Organisations increasingly are adopting centralised approaches to the provision of IT services, with IT governance as an integrating mechanism and a need for multiple business-IT alignments to add value according to the differentiation required by organisational elements. Propositions relating to the adaptation of IT management arrangements based upon organisational characteristics were tested using a multi- iv -discipline approach, which resulted in support for the model although practical difficulties were experienced in the action research component. This research provides a framework for maintaining effective variety of information capabilities commensurate with the diverse organisation???s mission and environment, while also exploiting the synergies and economies of shared information resources for holistic benefits.

This study was primarily an empirical investigation in the field of Information Systems (IS) and the related fields of occupational psychology and management. It focussed specifically on the concept of user satisfaction, the construct of cognitive style as applied to users and systems analysts, and their interrelationships. Prior studies were found rarely to investigate the changes in user satisfaction during system usage. Further, any reference to cognitive style in the IS literature proved to be sparse, open to question and discouraging in terms of its value. By developing and using a new instrument, the System Satisfaction Schedule, or SSS, the present study was able empirically to demonstrate clear patterns of changing user satisfaction during system usage. These were demonstrated, both as a general trend and in terms of its relationship to the cognitive styles of the key players (analyst and user) involved in system development and maintenance. Cognitive style was measured using Kirton's Adaption-innovation Inventory, or KAI. This study was thus able to suggest new rules for system development based on the assessments of the cognitive styles of both users and systems analysts. These rules focussed primarily on simple team choice: which analyst to put with which user. However, inferences for larger system development teams were drawn and suggestions for further research duly made. The present study thus also contributes to the successful practice of system development. To give effect to the above, this study set out to investigate empirically the way user satisfaction changes over 1½ to 2 years of system usage and, as mentioned above, the way user satisfaction is impacted by the cognitive styles of the user and the systems analyst. Most significantly, relationships were studied between user satisfaction and the difference in cognitive style between the analyst and user. It was found that user satisfaction generally rises linearly with usage, and that while the size of the analyst user cognitive differential does negatively impact user satisfaction over most of the time of system use, this effect is only particularly strong for two short periods; one within the first four months of usage and the other in the last three. From these results the new rules for system development mentioned above, followed. In terms of the decline of users' mean perceived severities of individual problems, the exponential decay and reciprocal models were found to fit the data the best. This study developed a new model for the motivation to use, develop or maintain a system (the Mechanical Model), based on its own results and Herzberg's two-factor theory of motivation. In this, Herzberg's hygiene factors have been replaced with the concept of dissatisfiers. These are measured as expressions of dissatisfaction as and when they occur. Their use removes the researcher's need, when designing user satisfaction instruments, to speculate on complete lists of factors which may satisfy users, and which may date as technology and other contextual factors change.

Information is an important business asset in today’s enterprises. Hence enterprise information security is an important system quality that must be carefully managed. Although enterprise information security is acknowledged as one of the most central areas for enterprise IT management, the topic still lacks adequate support for decision making on top-management level. This composite thesis consists of four articles which presents the Enterprise Information Security Assessment Method (EISAM), a comprehensive method for assessing the current state of the enterprise information security. The method is useful in helping guide top-management’s decision-making because of the following reasons: 1) it is easy to understand, 2) it is prescriptive, 3) it is credible, and 4) it is efficient. The assessment result is easy to understand because it presents a quantitative estimate. The result can be presented as an aggregated single value, abstracting the details of the assessment. The result is easy to grasp and enables comparisons both within the organization and in terms of industry in general. The method is prescriptive since it delivers concrete and traceable measurements. This helps guide top-level management in their decisions regarding enterprise-wide information security by highlighting the areas where improvements efforts are essential. It is credible for two reasons. Firstly, the method presents an explicit and transparent definition of enterprise information security. Secondly, the method in itself includes an indication of assessment uncertainty, expressed in terms of confidence levels. The method is efficient because it focuses on important enterprise information security aspects, and because it takes into account how difficult it is to find security related evidence. Being resource sparse it enables assessments to take place regularly, which gives valuable knowledge for long-term decision-making. The usefulness of the presented method, along with its development, has been verified through empirical studies at a leading electric power company in Europe and through statistical surveys carried out among information security experts in Sweden. The success from this research should encourage further researcher in using these analysis techniques to guide decisions on other enterprise architecture attributes. / QC 20101028

University of Macau / Faculty of Science and Technology / Department of Computer and Information Science

University of Macau / Faculty of Science and Technology / Department of Electromechanical Engineering

Not available / text

No description available.

The purpose of the research was to evaluate whether the Education Management Information System (EMIS) units within Provincial Education Departments can take advantage of the information management and communication tools to enhance the flow of information within the education system. The research investigates the clients' insight on the support provided by EMIS in the education department. Clients were only limited to Senior Managers and Unit Heads within the Head Office of a specific provincial education department. / Thesis (M.B.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2004.

This study explores the reasons behind why EasyPay, a financial services Information Technology company, has not been able to balance the need to innovate its service offering with the pressure to stabilise its service and maintain revenue growth. Despite its good financial performance, service delivery issues had hampered the company for a long period of time. Poor customer service continued to restrict growth and put the company's long-term survival at risk. The researcher believes that the understanding this research has provided will put management in a position to formulate a more effective strategy to take the company from its current reality to its future vision. There was an overwhelming amount of information available in the form of events, patterns, issues and opinions. This information had to be organised and understood. The theory was built from the ground up and derived directly from the evidence collected. The research was iterative in nature and, as such, yielded questions along the way, and this guided the review of the literature. There was first a need to develop a systemic appreciation of the dynamics of the situation before deciding on what strategic management plan to suggest that would balance the pressures on the business and satisfy customer needs. This study therefore focused on developing an appreciation of the situation. Systems thinking theory was used in developing this appreciation, as it provided a language for describing and understanding the forces and interrelationships that shaped the behaviour of the system in EasyPay. When the system had been grasped the researcher went back and revisited the events and patterns, and used the derived systemic model to explain more clearly what happened in the company. The researcher discusses the mental models that he became aware of, in the course of the study, that were in part responsible for the existence of the system in EasyPay. Finally the researcher suggests some recommended actions and highlights areas that he believes require attention. / Thesis (MBA)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2006.