The growing market of mobile services through SMS, MMS, WAP and soon also for 3G protocols, requires efficient test methods to ensure that the customers get what they are paying for and in a reasonable time. Preferably, these tests should be done automatically and come as close to real conditions as possible. It would be valuable to be able to make tests from end to end, i.e. requesting and receiving the mobile services on a real mobile phone and combine that with a system that controls and evaluates the tests. This thesis presents a solution to how the part of an end-to-end monitoring system for mobile services that runs on a mobile phone can be designed and implemented. The phone is made to interpret commands from a control process on a remote server and turn them into mobile service requests in a proper format (e.g. SMS or MMS). When it receives the reply from a mobile service provider, it forwards the relevant result information to the control process. The monitoring system is based on Symbian OS, an operating system developed to suit handheld devices like mobile phones. The current implementation supports tests for SMS and MMS services. The system is to be used by mobile operators or other providers of mobile services, which want to test and monitor their services.

Research question: To what extent is mobile/SMS advertising privacy norms, associated with permission, relevance and control, applied to mobile display advertising contexts by mobile ad networks? How is this motivated? Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to work as an initial step in the process of establishing what privacy norms that should be applied by mobile ad networks in mobile display advertising contexts. Insights generated, regarding potential impacts of the rapid development within the mobile advertising industry on how privacy issues are handled by mobile ad networks, are desired outcomes. Such outcomes could then potentially be used as a foundation for future research within the field. Theoretical framework: The theoretical framework of this study is based on previous research regarding mobile/SMS advertising. Methodology: I have applied a qualitative research strategy and an inductive research approach. Furthermore an interpretivistic epistemological position was taken and a constructionist ontological position. The research is designed as a multiple case study. The sample consists of the two mobile ad networks Ericsson and Inmobi. The companies were interviewed using semi-structured interviews. Results: Based on the findings, my answer to the research question is that mobile/SMS advertising privacy norms associated with permission relevance and control is only partly applied in mobile display advertising contexts. The reasons for applying/not applying the norms are all reasonable. There is no doubt about that the ad networks acts are greatly influenced by wanting to uphold consumer privacy. Established through the findings in this study is that the change within the mobile advertising industry, associated with new forms of advertising being available for advertisers through the medium and what information that is being collected about consumers, do have an effect on what privacy norms that are being applied. I view this as the main scientific contribution of this study.

Master Thesis Linnaeus University, School of Business and Economics, Växjö, Sweden Authors: Juan Calcerrada, Henrik Wapner Tutor: Sarah Philipson Title: New service development of SMS-lending companies in Sweden Introduction: Many customers started to get into debt from taking sms-loans during the last years with the news being highlighted in media frequently. After the financial crisis in 2008, new laws & regulations were imposed on the sms-lending companies. As of today, the sms- lending companies are still having problems with customers whose debts are being handled at the enforcement administration of Sweden. Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to identify the major barriers that serve as hinders for service development among sms-lending companies in Sweden. Method: A qualitative study has been conducted through semi-structured interviews with CEO’s, operation managers, and marketing managers of six companies in the sms-lending industry. Conclusion: The result shows that a standard model is not necessary for sms-lending companies in order to be profitable. However, none of the companies has a large share of the market, making it fragmented. Standardization in the market and problems to take patents on service innovation makes it difficult for the companies to innovate other than in their internal processes. The barriers to successful NSD processes are somewhat juridical and financial ones, but, although not mentioned by the interviewed companies themselves, we believe that the lack of customer involvement in the NSD process is serving as the major barrier. This is due to the fact that service companies are more dependent on customer interaction because of the service offerings being intangible, thus demanding a closely-monitored “fit” between service characteristics and customer requirements.

Text messaging is a new form of writing, brought about by technological development in the last couple of decades. Mobile phone usage has increased rapidly worldwide and texting is now part of many people's everyday communcation. A large number of users send or receive texts which include some abbreviations and shortenings, commonly referred to as textspeak. This novel linguistic phenomenon is perceived by some with indifference and by others with aggravation. The following study examines attitudes towards this linguistic change from a gender and age perspective. The comparison between two groups show that the most conservative and least positive to change are young women. The analysis and discussion around this focuses on power, prestige and patterns.

Through certain exceptions in the Swedish regulation on credit agreements for consumers, a new form of instrument for credits has arisen on the national market. The instrument, which is most commonly known as easy credits and was first seen on the Swedish market for consumer credits in 2006, has developed to become part of a vast problem with excessive debt incursion. In order to counteract this development and to harmonise the internal market within the EU, directive 2008/48 EC on credit agreements for consumers was introduced in 2008. In Sweden, the implementation of the directive has led to a proposition for a new regulation on credit agreements for consumers (SFS 2009/10:242 Ny konsumentkreditlag) coming into effect on the 1 January 2011. The proposition puts up stricter rules on creditors granting consumer credits in their course of business, and revokes the former exemption on information and practices preliminary to the conclusion of the credit agreement for minor credits. The purpose of this thesis has been to make clear whether or not the Swedish proposition will counteract the problem with excessive debt incursion that exists on the Swedish market for consumer credits. In order to reach the purpose and to be able to see the differences that the proposition can be expected to bring, a comparison between the effects of current regulation and expected effects of coming regulations must be made. The gathered conclusion of the thesis, after such a comparison, is that the proposition can be expected to counteract excessive debt incursion but also that a series of following consequences must be taken into account. / Genom förekomsten av undantag för mindre krediter i nu gällande konsumentkreditlag (1992:830) har nya kreditinstrument i form av snabblån kunnat etablera sig på den svenska marknaden. Snabblånen, som i handeln har flera namn och benämns både korttidskrediter, sms-lån och snabbkrediter och som sågs först i Sverige under 2006, har bidraget till en överskuldsättning bland konsumenter som inte kunnat förutses. På initiativ från EU skedde, genom direktiv 2008/48 EG om konsumentkreditavtal, en harmoniseringsåtgärd för att gemenskapsinternt reglera marknaden för krediter och motverka överskuldsättningsproblematiken. Sveriges genomförande av direktivet har mynnat ut i proposition 2009/10:242 Ny konsumentkreditlag som avses träda ikraft den 1 januari 2011. Lagförslaget innebär för snabblånens vidkommande att tidigare undantag för mindre krediter, rörande kreditprövning av konsumenten och tillhandahållande av information från kreditgivaren, framledes slopas och att strängare krav således införs för kreditgivare som erbjuder snabblån. Syftet för denna framställning har varit att utreda huruvida det svenska lagförslaget kommer att motverka den skuldsättningsproblematik som föreligger på marknaden för snabblån. För att frambringa de skillnader som lagförslaget kan förväntas medföra och på så vis komma till en rättvisande slutsats har jag sökt jämföra effekterna av befintliga bestämmelser och förväntade effekter av kommande bestämmelser. Den samlade bedömning som framställningen leder till är att ett visst motverkande kommer uppnås men att lagförslaget även kan förväntas medföra en del komplikationer av mindre önskat slag.

This study aims to analyse the interconnection between human memory and digital media technology, and its relation to forgetting and deletion. The main focus area is related to short messages (SMS) as a form of digital memory and mobile application Delete by Haiku that assists the user in creating poetry out of stored messages. The reception analysis approach was chosen and individual in-depth interview method was combined with focus group interview. The collected data regarding human memory and media indicates similarities between theoretical claims and respondents’ views; memory could be perceived as a narrative, storytelling, fading away. Informants’ relation to memorabilia and their deleting practices are very dependent on the personal and professional characteristics. Besides, deleting practices could be related to organization of a physical space. Delete by Haiku app could be seen as an invitation to engage into playful process of creation through deletion, however mostly for the people attached to memorabilia.

Billions of people in the world live under heavy information censorship. We propose a new class of delay tolerant network (DTN), known as a censorship tolerant network (CTN), to counter the growing practice of Internet-based censorship. CTNs should provide strict guarantees on the privacy of both information shared within the network and the identities of network participants. CTN software needs to be publicly available as open source software and run on personal mobile devices with real-world computational, storage, and energy constraints. We show that these simple assumptions and system constraints have a non-obvious impact on the design and implementation of CTNs, and serve to differentiate our system design from previous work. We design data routing within a CTN using a new paradigm: one where nodes operate selfishly to maximize their own utility, make decisions based only on their own observations, and only communicate with nodes they trust. We introduce the Laissez-faire framework, an incentivized approach to CTN routing. Laissez-faire does not mandate any specific routing protocol, but requires that each node implement tit-for-tat by keeping track of the data exchanged with other trusted nodes. We propose several strategies for valuing and retrieving content within a CTN. We build a prototype BlackBerry implementation and conduct both controlled lab and field trials, and show how each strategy adapts to different network conditions. We further demonstrate that, unlike existing approaches to routing, Laissez-faire prevents free-riding. We build an efficient and reliable data transport protocol on top of the Short Message Service (SMS) to serve a control channel for the CTN. We conduct a series of experiments to characterise SMS behaviour under bursty, unconventional workloads. This study examines how variables such as the transmission order, delay between transmissions, the network interface used, and the time-of-day affect the service. We present the design and implementation of our transport protocol. We show that by adapting to the unique channel conditions of SMS we can reduce message overheads by as much as 50\% and increase data throughput by as much as 545% over the approach used by existing applications. A CTN's dependency on opportunistic communication imposes a significant burden on smartphone energy resources. We conduct a large-scale user study to measure the energy consumption characteristics of 20100 smartphone users. Our dataset is two orders of magnitude larger than any previous work. We use this dataset to build the Energy Emulation Toolkit (EET) that allows developers to evaluate the energy consumption requirements of their applications against real users' energy traces. The EET computes the successful execution rate of energy-intensive applications across all users, specific devices, and specific smartphone user-types. We also consider active adaptation to energy constraints. By classifying smartphone users based on their charging characteristics we demonstrate that energy level can be predicted within 72% accuracy a full day in advance, and through an Energy Management Oracle energy intensive applications, such as CTNs, can adapt their execution to maintain the operation of the host device.

Thesis (MPhil (General Linguistics))--Stellenbosch University, 2009. / This study examined the impact of SMS speak on the written school work of English first language (L1) and English second language (L2) high school learners. The general aims of the study were to establish how widespread the use of SMS language is among high school learners, and to assess whether there is any evidence of the use of features of SMS speak in the English written work of these learners. Eighty-eight learners from an English-Afrikaans dual medium school in a middle class neighborhood in the Western Cape participated in this study. The participants included 43 grade 8s and 45 grade 11s, of which 51 were English L1 speakers and 37 English L2 speakers. The participants completed questionnaires from which the frequency and volume of their SMS use was determined, as well as the features of SMS speak they reportedly use while SMSing. In addition, samples of the learners’ English written work were examined for specific features of SMS speak. These features included (deliberate) spelling errors, lack of punctuation, over-punctuation, the omission of function words, the use of abbreviation or acronyms, and the use of emoticons and rebus writing. The results of this study indicate that high school learners are avid users of SMS and/or MXit. All participants reported using features of SMS speak in their SMSes, and many reported using SMS speak in their written school work. Despite this, the samples of written work did not contain a great number of incidences of SMS speak features. It seems that the general lack of SMS speak in the written work of these learners is a result of being able to assess when it is and is not appropriate to use a certain variety of language: These learners are proficient in SMS speak and use it when chatting to friends on MXit, but they can produce written work that adheres to the formally approved standards of written high school English. That said, a number of SMS speak features were indeed present in their formal written work, which indicates that SMS speak had some impact on the written work of these learners, which could in turn be attributed to the high frequency of their SMS usage. However, not all of the non-standard features of their written English could necessarily be attributed to the influence of SMS speak; specifically some of the spelling and punctuation errors could be unrelated to SMS speak, as they have been noted in the written English of high school learners from before the advent of cellphones. The learners in this study were from a school that has a strict language policy, one which does not tolerate the use of SMS speak in written work. Seven of the teachers completed a questionnaire compiled for all teachers at the school in question. Responses to this questionnaire, especially those of the language teachers, indicated that teachers either deduct marks for features of SMS speak in written language or refuse to mark written work that does not conform to the formally approved standards that the school has set in place. It is possible that the actions of the teachers and the language policy of the school play a significant role in the lack of SMS speak features in the written language use of the learners.

p. 1 - 85 / Submitted by Santiago Fabio (fabio.ssantiago@hotmail.com) on 2013-01-23T20:12:29Z No. of bitstreams: 1 555555.pdf: 614882 bytes, checksum: e0137f51dbdf71770cb3980a43e799a1 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2013-01-23T20:12:29Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 555555.pdf: 614882 bytes, checksum: e0137f51dbdf71770cb3980a43e799a1 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2007 / A telefonia celular tem se desenvolvido e no decorrer da sua evolução, o telefone celular antes visto apenas como um mero dispositivo de voz, agora passa a ser um protagonista na vida das pessoas desempenhando outras várias funções. Uma destas funcionalidades, o envio de SMS (Short Message Service)1, se tornou um padrão de comunicação usando apenas mensagens de texto para comunicação entre indivíduos. Aproveitando esta capacidade de enviar mensagens de texto para indivíduos com o intuito de divulgar e promover marcas e conceitos, surge o mobile marketing2 e mobile advertising3 que apresentam uma inovação no conceito de interação entre empresas e clientes. Neste trabalho, foi realizada uma pesquisa exploratória referente aos conceitos acerca do tema além de modelos de análise que tratam sobre os fatores de influência da receptividade de mensagens publicitárias enviadas através de SMS. / Salvador

SMS och meddelanden från sociala medier inspirerar mig att skriva tre låttexter inom genren pop. Jag undersöker vilka kreativa vinster det går att hitta i en sådan inspirationskälla samt hur en sådan arbetsprocess ser ut. Det upptäcks att denna typ av inspirationskälla gör sig bra i det tidiga stadiet av textförfattandet och öppnar möjligheten till att ha en stabil relation till sin inspiration. Jag upptäcker också att en sådan metod för låtskrivning är högst personlig och måste beprövas innan det går att säga att den passar utövaren.