Successful enterprises are those that consistently create new knowledge, disseminate it widely throughout the enterprise and quickly embed it in new technologies and products. These ‘knowledge-creating’ enterprises understand what knowledge is and what they should do to exploit it. In other words, they successfully manage and share their knowledge throughout their enterprise. When launching a knowledge management initiative, it is important to identify which knowledge management processes are most relevant to the enterprise’s environment and systems, and steps should be taken to support these activities and integrate them into daily operations. Broader elements and issues should also be identified and recognised for the influence they have on the knowledge management process. For example that enterprises should encourage individuals to interact, to work together on projects, or to share their ideas on an informal basis and systems are needed to codify the knowledge of individuals so that others can use it. Applying these elements involves: information technology; formal and informal structures; and specific knowledge management tools. Another important factor in the success of a knowledge management project is to ground knowledge management and knowledge sharing within the context of the enterprise’s business strategy seeing that the intranet can assist in the creation of economic value and competitive advantage for the enterprise. The knowledge sharing or knowledge contribution part of the knowledge management process seems to be the most difficult for enterprises. Knowledge sharing often takes place in enterprises via employees’ informal networks. Knowledge management could turn this informal, ad hoc process into a more systematic process. Creating a corporate culture where knowledge is valued and shared effectively is a challenge. Part of the solution could be for an enterprise to be aware of their specific corporate culture and how it influences their behaviour and attitude towards knowledge sharing. Because the employee’s behaviour determines the sharing of knowledge, leadership has an important role to play and they could use various motivational practices to encourage knowledge sharing. Leadership should commit to creating an environment, within which employees are able to share, assess and experiment with new knowledge gained. The corporate intranet could be used as such an environment, but employees need to be trained to use their knowledge management IT tools, making it as easy as possible for employees to contribute to the enterprise knowledge base. Effective intranet usage should be embedded in the enterprise’s general corporate and knowledge sharing culture. The intranet should be seen as an essential part of the enterprise’s knowledge management system and should be designed to suit and enhance the enterprise knowledge sharing activities and culture. It is also important that intranets should be evaluated regularly to determine its current contribution to as well as future potential of the knowledge sharing capability of the enterprise. The importance of evaluating and measuring the enterprise intranet and various measurement tools were discussed in depth, which consequently led to the formulation of an intranet evaluation tool in the form of a questionnaire. The prototype questionnaire was compiled by using measurement tools developed previously. The questionnaire brought together the concepts of knowledge management, knowledge sharing cultures and intranet functionalities. The evaluation tool was then applied to measure the effectiveness of a management consulting business’s intranet in enhancing the enterprise’s knowledge sharing culture. Recommendations were made to enterprises use the questionnaire when using the questionnaire in similar environments. An intranet represents a tool of potentially high value to any enterprise, but in order to realise this value, the intranets should be properly measured and managed and every employee needs to take ownership and buy into the concept of the intranet as a knowledge sharing enabler. This calls for an employee to be motivated to participate in knowledge sharing, so that they can experience the value they could add and receive by using the intranet for knowledge sharing activities. / Prof. P.A. van Brakel Mnr. J.A. Kok

The selection of one medium of communication above another may appear to be a matter of personal choice, and of little research consequence. Yet, insight into media preference when it comes to receiving internal communication messages may mean the difference between effective communication and lack of communication within an organisation. A number of theoretical perspectives have been advanced to explain communication media choice decisions. For the purpose of this study, the Media Richness Theory (MRT) and the Symbolic Interactionism Theory (SIT) were used to explore media selection at the University of Pretoria (UP). The MRT is concerned with identifying the most appropriate medium in terms of "medium richness" for communication situations characterised by equivocality and uncertainty. The SIT concurs with the MRT, but goes further and predicts that situational determinants such as distance and time and the symbolic cues provided by a medium, also influence media choice. The hypotheses were tested with data obtained from 174 employees (academic and non-academic) based on the main campus of the UP. A mail questionnaire was used to gather data. The questionnaire was developed to test MRT and SIT predictions with regard to media selection. The gathered data were analysed to reach general findings from the descriptive statistics and to test the hypotheses by using inferential statistics such as (a) chi-square tests, (b) analysis of variance (ANOVA) and (c) factor analysis. Research findings indicate that employees at UP tend to select face-to-face media for highly equivocal messages and written media for clear, objective messages. The results also indicate that where situational constraints such as distance and time pressure are present, people tend to choose "leaner" media, such as telephone and computer-mediated communication media, irrespective of the contents of the message. When symbolic meaning is intended, however, such as a desire for teamwork and trust, a "rich" medium is preferred. These findings are in support of MRT and SIT predictions. The results from the factor analysis indicate that organisational culture in UP plays a more significant role than the communicator or recipient where media selection is concerned. Based on this research, it can be accepted (at a 95% confidence level) that:<ul> <li>media selection is determined by message equivocality, message uncertainty, situational constraints and symbolic meaning; </li> <li>there is no significant dependence between years service and media selection; </li> <li>there is a tendency to use computer-mediated communication media as much as or more than conventional media where messages of a non¬personal nature are concerned; this is, however not true for messages of a personal nature.r</li></ul> In conclusion, although the findings of this study are only of an exploratory nature and based on a small section of the employees at UP, the results indicate the existence of a significant relationship between message contents, situational factors and media selection. Thus, effective internal communication may mean selecting the right medium to fit message contents and the situation in order to achieve mutual understanding and success. / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2006. / Communication Management / MA / Unrestricted

For the past few years, the University of Natal has been using an HTML-driven InnerWeb as its intranet system. The advantages of database driven intranet technologies over static HTML pages are now well established. It was felt that the University should change to a database driven intranet system which would better serve the needs of the University community. The first part of this study was conducted to establish user perceptions and requirements of such an intranet. Results from this study suggested that the functionalities and needs expressed by participants are synonymous with functionalities offered by database driven intranets. The second part of this study was therefore to follow up and prioritise the identified requirements for the main intranet interface to establish a controlled vocabulary and investigate current debate on the possibilities and limitations of intranets as a knowledge management tool. Part of the study took cognisance of Stoke's use inspired research premise by adapting constructivist research philosophy as well as Van den Akker's development research strategy to guide the study. Eclectic mixed methodology as suggested by Reeves guided the research design for this study. Thus data gathering methods which included group and on-line card sorting, semi-structured interviews, category membership expectation tests and prototype validation were used to validate each stage of the development process. Data analysis procedures included using Microsoft Excel to calculate the total score assigned to each item for possible inclusion on the intranet, cluster analysis using IBM EZSort software, analysing interview transcripts using QSR NVlvo software as well as simple eye balling of the category membership expectation data. The initial 93 items for possible inclusion, which were identified at the first part of the study were reduced to 60 items. Some distinct themes, which were identified, include research activities, library, social notices, corporate notices, learning activities, University Policies and Procedures, student activities, staff activities and on-line collaboration . The results of this study suggest that it is challenging to establish vocabulary which is common to the majority of prospective users. Thus, some of the suggested vocabulary for category labels did not have majority consensus. This study also suggests that participants expect a process driven intranet, which offers multidimensional access points and multiple ways to navigate. This implies analysing same data from different viewpoints. Participants want more from an intranet than simple document publishing though a few can not see the intranet beyond a document retrieval tool. The study suggests that users have different needs which could be better addressed by offering customisation and personalisation functionalities to suit users' individual needs. Participants expect to use the intranet as a reliable institutional memory which offers seamless remote access to synchronous and asynchronous communicating tools, access to various forms of digital media, interactive on-line administration functionalities as well as access to on-line academic related activities. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal, Durban, 2003.

D. Litt. et Phil. / Today, more and more organisations are adopting the use of the Internet and webbased technologies in the management of and provision of access to information and knowledge resources and services in digital formats. However, it appears that innovative use of the web is more pronounced in corporate organisations. For example, corporate organisations are using portals or sophisticated websites to conduct electronic commerce via the web and provide access to both internal and external information resources and services, accessed via the Internet, intranets, and extranets. The view of the researcher is that innovative use of the Internet and web-based technologies, such as portals, should not be the domain of the corporate world alone. The focus of this thesis is, therefore, to establish the potential application possibilities of portals in other types of organisations, especially agricultural research organisations in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region. The main research problem addressed in this thesis was What is the nature and application possibility of agricultural information portals in the provision of webbased, value-added information services for researchers? To address the above research problem, literature relating to the historical development of the Internet and the World Wide Web, intranet and extranet applications in organisations, as well as portals and their applications, was reviewed. In addition, a study was made of international trends regarding the provision of access to digital agricultural information resources and services via the web, and a questionnaire survey was conducted to establish whether it was necessary to use portals to provide access to digital-based agricultural information resources and services in agricultural research organisations in the SADC region. ii Resulting from the literature reviews, the study of websites of international agricultural organisations, and the survey on the need for portals in agricultural research organisations in the SADC region, the study established that: · There are several potential applications of portals in agricultural research organisations. This led to the definition of the nature and major components of the type of portal that could serve the needs of researchers in agricultural research organisations. · There is a need for portals in agricultural research organisations in the SADC region. The current use of the web in these organisations in the region is largely limited to the development of brochureware types of websites, providing access to information contained in the organisations’ brochures. Therefore, there is need to upgrade from basic Web sites to advanced sites or portals, and the study concluded that in this regard there is a need for clear guidelines to assist agricultural research organisations to plan the deployment of their information portals. Currently, most organisations are using ad hoc approaches when developing their Web sites. The dissertation, furthermore, develops the definition of an agricultural information portal as a web-based application that is accessed via the intranet or extranet and provides a personalised and adaptive interface that enables agricultural researchers to discover, track, and interact with colleagues and other people, software applications, information resources, services and tools relevant to their research interests and work. Taking into account the major components and definition of an agricultural information portal, the study proposes guidelines for use in planning the deployment of portals in agricultural research organisations. The proposed guidelines are independent of specific portal design or development methodology, application domains, and techniques.

El objetivo del presente trabajo, es aplicar patrones de diseño orientados a objetos, para el análisis y desarrollo de una Arquitectura de Software en la Facultad de Ingeniería Industrial Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos el cual se denomina “INTRANET INDUSTRIAL”, y medir el impacto en el costo de desarrollar el sistema con patrones y el costo de hacerlo sin patrones. En la primera parte del trabajo, se define los conceptos teóricos y el escenario en el que se aplican los patrones de diseño, además se incluye una categorización de los patrones mas conocidos en la industria del software. En la segunda parte del trabajo se hace referencia a los patrones de diseño utilizados para el desarrollo del sistema de software “INTRANET INDUSTRIAL”, donde se procede a esquematizarlos y clasificarlos formalmente. En la última parte del trabajo, se hace una descripción del sistema desarrollado, los módulos que lo componen, las herramientas necesarias para su desarrollo. Además se incluye una estimación del costo del sistema de software, utilizando el Patrón Informador, y sin su utilización, para esta estimación se utiliza el método de COCOMO (Modelo Constructivo de Costos). Es necesario indicar que se realizará una documentación exhaustiva de cada uno de los módulos del Sistema , tal como lo sugiere y recomienda la Metodología Racional Unified Process, sirviendo de referencia para el mantenimiento y ampliación del sistema de la INTRANET INDUSTRIAL.

Thesis (Ph. D. in Software Engineering)--Naval Postgraduate School, December 2003. / Dissertation supervisor: Luqi. Includes bibliographical references (p. 163-171). Also available online.

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Thesis (M.S.)--Central Connecticut State University, 2000. / Thesis advisor: Yunan Ju. " ... in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in [the Department of Communication]." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 54-57).

M.Sc. / Image Processing/Computer Vision and Computer Networks (in particular Intranets) may seem to have very little in common if one only looks at these fields of study superficially. In this dissertation we will look at some fundamentals and characteristics of Image Processing and examine them to see where the problem areas lie, focusing on the problem of computational requirements. We will also examine the fundamental characteristics of Computer Networks and Distributed Processing, looking for areas where we can potentially find a synergy with computational problems inherent in Computer Vision/Image Processing. To accomplish the goals stated above, the dissertation is divided into three parts. The first part examines Computer Vision and Image Processing and is followed by a section examining Distributed Computing models and Computer Networks. The final part is dedicated to suggesting a model to solve the problem of computational load associated with Image Processing. The aim of the model is to take advantage of and use the latent processing power available in an Intranet environment by distributing the processing among the machines on the network. The model is also intended to be flexible and to minimize the network load incurred by distributing the processing. In order to do so, the model is split into units that deliver specialized functionality in order to keep the components small and also to incur the minimum load on a specific machine.

The twenty-first century has found education at the crossroads of change. There are burgeoning challenges facing the modern educator. To rise to the importuning, educators find themselves turning to Information Technology for the answers. The technologies utilised in attempts to overcome the challenges often include the Internet and electronic educational resources. Although the Internet is not unduly called the Information Highway, it is also fraught with misleading and incorrect information. Educators’ arduous searches result in few good and useable resources. Thus, to store, organise and efficiently retrieve the discovered resources is a matter of time-saving. The aim of the study was to develop a method to organise and retrieve educational resources in an efficient and personalised manner. In order to do this, an exploration into pedagogy and educational paradigms was undertaken. The current educational paradigm, constructivism, proposes that each learner is an individual with unique learning and personal needs. To develop a new model, the current models need to be understood. The current solutions for the organising of educational resources are realised as several software packages, also called e-learning packages. A list of criteria that describes the essential requirements for organising educational resources was established. These criteria were based upon the pedagogical principles prescribed by educators and the practical technological frameworks necessary to fulfil the needs of the teaching/learning situation. These criteria were utilised to critique and explore the available solutions. It was found that although the available e-learning packages fulfil a need within their genre, it does not meet with the core requirements of constructivism. The resource base model seeks to address these needs by focussing on the educational aspects of resource delivery over an Intranet. For the purposes of storing, organising and delivering the resources, a database had to be established. This database had to have numerous qualities, including the ability to search and retrieve resources with great efficiency. Retrieving data in an efficient manner is the forte of the star schema, while the storing and organising of data is the strength of a normalised schema. It is not standard practice to utilise both types of schemas within the same database. A star schema is usually reserved for data warehouses because of its data retrieval abilities. It is customary to utilise a normalised schema for operational databases. The resource base model, however, needs both the storage facilities of an operational database and the efficient query facilities of a data warehouse. The resource base model, therefore, melds both schemas into one database with interlinking tables. This database forms the foundation (or the back-end) of the resource base. The resource base model utilises web browsers as its user interface (or front-end). The results of the study on the pedagogy, the current e-learning solutions and the resource base were written up within this dissertation. The contribution that this dissertation makes is the development of a technique to efficiently store, organise and retrieve educational resources in such a manner that both the requirements of constructivism and outcomes-based education are fulfilled. To this end, a list of technological and pedagogical criteria on which to critique a resource delivery technique has been developed. This dissertation also elaborates on the schema designs chosen for the resource base, namely the normalised schema and the star schema. From this schema, a prototype has been developed. The prototype’s function was two-fold. The first function is to determine the feasibility of the technique. Secondly, to determine the success of the technique in fulfilling the needs expressed in the list of criteria