<p>This thesis investigates how to reach and recruit cutting-edge users to user experience studies. The recruitment of cutting-edge users is difficult since these users usually are not registered in recruitment databases. Cutting-edge users are advanced, early-adopters of technology and sometimes referred to as opinion leaders. Telecom research projects performed at Ericsson Research involve products and services 2-3 years ahead of the market; early-adopters and cutting edge users are therefore an important user group.</p><p> </p><p>To test recruitment methods a user experience study was performed of Ericsson Labs developer portal. Ericsson Labs offers Application Programming Interfaces for mobile and web applications development. Internet marketing theories were used to form a recruitment method. Respondents were recruited from the Ericsson Labs user database and they were contacted individually via email. The users were invited to share their thoughts and ideas about the portal to help improve and possibly influence the direction of the site.</p><p> </p><p>This thesis also assessed different online qualitative research methods applied for user experience research. Online focus groups such as bulletin boards were used to interact with users in addition to individual chat and voice interviews. Performing user experience research on the Internet is a cost-efficient way to interact with users in geographically dispersed areas.</p><p> </p><p>The findings from the study show that recruitment is hard; it is especially difficult to recruit active and conversational respondents from a user database. Providing incentives and using personal communication were shown to be successful strategies to convince users to participate in a study.</p>

This thesis investigates how to reach and recruit cutting-edge users to user experience studies. The recruitment of cutting-edge users is difficult since these users usually are not registered in recruitment databases. Cutting-edge users are advanced, early-adopters of technology and sometimes referred to as opinion leaders. Telecom research projects performed at Ericsson Research involve products and services 2-3 years ahead of the market; early-adopters and cutting edge users are therefore an important user group.   To test recruitment methods a user experience study was performed of Ericsson Labs developer portal. Ericsson Labs offers Application Programming Interfaces for mobile and web applications development. Internet marketing theories were used to form a recruitment method. Respondents were recruited from the Ericsson Labs user database and they were contacted individually via email. The users were invited to share their thoughts and ideas about the portal to help improve and possibly influence the direction of the site.   This thesis also assessed different online qualitative research methods applied for user experience research. Online focus groups such as bulletin boards were used to interact with users in addition to individual chat and voice interviews. Performing user experience research on the Internet is a cost-efficient way to interact with users in geographically dispersed areas.   The findings from the study show that recruitment is hard; it is especially difficult to recruit active and conversational respondents from a user database. Providing incentives and using personal communication were shown to be successful strategies to convince users to participate in a study.

This thesis examines obstetric violence in Greece through the lens of feminist phenomenology.It focuses on two key questions: how women as embodied subjects experience obstetricviolence and how this event impacts their relationship with their bodies and significant others.This study employs a qualitative methodology, distributing an online survey in six onlinecommunities and using voluntary response and snowball sampling to recruit participants. Itincludes 63 valid participations and utilizes thematic analysis for the analysis of the data. Theresults reveal the obstetric malpractices performed in Greece and their connection to thepatriarchal social construction of the birthing woman (and her body) as a disempoweredsubject. Many feelings have been described in the survey, both distressful and empowering.The role of the community is crucial in dealing with traumatic emotions, while a physical andemotional connection with the newborn and the husband, which is not always easy to beestablished, acts as an empowering factor in women’s lives.

The purpose of this multicase study was to describe and explain the perceptions of three Spanish-English culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) high achievers on their biliteracy journeys to become educators in the United States (U.S.), by answering: What elements constitute the perspectives of three L1-Spanish/L2-English CLD high achievers on the relevance of their biliteracy experience in order to become educators in the U.S.?; What factors do these three L1-Spanish/L2-English CLD high achievers perceive as key to describe their biliteracy experience?; What relevance, if any, do these three L1-Spanish/L2-English CLD high achievers perceive their biliteracy experience had for them to become educators in the U.S.?; From the perspectives of these three L1-Spanish/L2-English CLD high-achiever educators, what impact, if any, did digital technologies have on their biliteracy experience? With a critical-pedagogy approach to multicase-study (Stake, 2006) inquiry, I used online methods to collect data on three high-achieving (GPA > 3.01) L1-Spanish graduates initially identified as limited-English-proficient by the American school system. For data collection, I used a participant-selection questionnaire, individual and group semi-structured interviews via Skype, e-journals for biliteracy autobiographies, artifact e-portfolios, my reflective e-journal, and one face-to-face unstructured interview with one participant only. Concurrently, I engaged in on-going data analysis to build meaning inductively and guide further data collection, analysis, and interpretation, until saturation, in an application of the dialectical method into research (Ollman, 2008). I included the email communications with the participants and their member checks. Two external auditors reviewed all data-collection and analytic procedures. I analyzed each case individually followed by the cross-case analysis. The findings indicated the importance of family and L1-community support, host-culture insiders as mentors, access to information, empowerment by means of conscientization, and the participants' advocacy of others by becoming educators. In this way, the study identified how the participants escaped the statistics of doom, which helps understand how to better serve growing L2-English student populations. The study closed with a discussion from the viewpoint of reviewed literature and critical pedagogy, my interpretation of the findings, and suggestions for future praxis in education and research.

Il web 2.0 ha totalmente riconfigurato il mondo della prevenzione e promozione della salute. In particolare esso ha cambiato il ruolo e le tipologie di scambi tra pazienti. Tali scambi sono centrali in quanto permetto di costruire e condividere conoscenza utile nella cura. Sebbene la rilevanza dei processi di costruzione e condivisione tra pazienti online siano chiarita dalla letteratura, questa area di studi comprende una varietà e confusione di etichette e teorie non chiariti e condivisi. Scopo di questa ricerca è di studiare gli ambienti e scambi online sul diabete in Italia tramite esplorazione sistematica del web al fine di capire come processi di condivisione e costruzione di conoscenza funzionano e come i contesti online li riconfigurano / The Web 2.0 has totally changed the healthcare prevention and communication world .In particular, it has reconfigured lay exchanges between patients. These exchanges are important because they allow knowledge processes (like knowledge sharing or knowledge building). Although the importance of online knowledge processes between patients is well established, this field of study brings together a variety of theories with concepts not uniformly shared or understood. It’s not clear how patients use Web 2.0 for knowledge processes. The aim of this research is to study online contexts and exchanges about diabetes in Italy by developing a systematic exploration of Web 2.0 in order to define how knowledge processes work and how online contexts shape them

Η παρούσα εργασία είναι μια ερευνητική προσέγγιση και συγκεκριμένα πρόκειται για μία μελέτη περίπτωσης της online ελληνικής κοινότητας ενός διάσημου πολυχρηστικού διαδικτυακού παιχνιδιού, του Hattrick. Σκοπός μας είναι να μελετήσουμε: α) τα χαρακτηριστικά της online επικοινωνίας μεταξύ των μελών μιας δικτυωμένης κοινωνίας β) το είδος των κοινωνικών σχέσεων που αναπτύσσονται εντός μιας online κοινότητας κατά την επικοινωνία των μελών της και γ) αν ευνοείται η προώθηση της άτυπης δια βίου εκπαίδευσης των μελών μιας δικτυωμένης κοινωνίας, όταν παράγονται κοινωνικές σχέσεις μεταξύ τους. Για τη συλλογή των δεδομένων μας εφαρμόζουμε πολυμεθοδολογική προσέγγιση. Ειδικότερα, διεξάγουμε online συνεντεύξεις από κάποια μέλη αυτής της κοινότητας, online παρατήρηση στις διασκέψεις της και ανάλυση κειμένου στα καταστατικά του παιχνιδιού. Κατόπιν εφαρμογής ανάλυσης κειμένου στα ερευνητικά δεδομένα μας, επιχειρούμε την ερμηνεία τους με βάση το θεωρητικό πλαίσιο του Γάλλου Κοινωνιολόγου Pierre Bourdieu, το οποίο αποτελεί μια προσέγγιση που μπορεί να χρησιμοποιηθεί ως ερμηνευτικό πλαίσιο στις έρευνες των κοινωνικών δικτυώσεων. Τα συμπεράσματα στα οποία καταλήγουμε από τη μελέτη περίπτωσης δείχνουν ότι η online κοινότητα του Hattrick αποτελεί πηγή κοινωνικού και πολιτισμικού κεφαλαίου για τα μέλη της, κι ότι μέσα από τους ποικίλους τρόπους επικοινωνίας και συμμετοχής των μελών στις διάφορες δραστηριότητες της κοινότητας, τα μέλη μπορούν να αναπτύξουν κάποιες δεξιότητές τους, να καλλιεργήσουν νέες προδιαθέσεις, να αποκτήσουν νέες στάσεις ζωής και να εμπλουτίσουν τις γνώσεις τους, γεγονός που αποδεικνύει ότι η συγκεκριμένη online κοινότητα μπορεί να αποτελέσει κι αυτή ένα άτυπο περιβάλλον προώθησης της διά βίου εκπαίδευσης. / -