Diss.--Universität Graz, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.Sc.)(Technology Management)--University of Pretoria, 2004. / Includes summaries in English and Afrikaans. Includes bibliographical references.

With the rapid growth of mobile, ubiquitous and wearable computing, location-based services become an indispensable part of mobile internet. These services rely on the geographical position of the mobile devices and provide location-dependent contents or services to users, such as location-based in- stant messaging, POI browsing, map navigation, and location-based virtual reality games. Most existing systems implement these location-based services by always storing and transmitting raw, plaintext GPS coordinates. However, location information is arguably a private asset of individual user, and the disclosure of such information could lead to severe privacy disclosure of other even more sensitive information, such as religion, sexuality, medical condition, or political affiliation. To address this issue, researchers have proposed a series of techniques to protect user location privacy against location-based service providers. How- ever, it is challenging to apply these theoretical and sophisticated techniques ii to practical location systems because of the computational or network over- head imposed on the mobile devices as well as the complexity of the secure protocols and algorithms for application developers. In this thesis, I will study two real-life privacy-preserving location systems and show how they can be adopted by developers with little security background. The rst is outdoor proximity detection that determines whether two users (or a user and an ob- ject) are within a given distance threshold. This is a fundamental service in many geo-social or map services. For example, \People nearby" in Wechat and QQ interconnect users because of their locality and/or mutual interests in some topics, such as food and movies. The second is indoor location mon- itoring and tracking. Wearable devices such as smart watch and bracelets continually broadcast Bluetooth Low Energy signals, which can be easily cap- tured by monitoring devices such as WiFi routers and Bluetooth scanners. As more and more wearable devices emerge, unauthorized monitoring and track- ing by adversary becomes great privacy threats not only in the cyberworld, but also in the physical world. To protect location privacy, I develop a real- life location monitoring system that is based on Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) privacy feature that changes the device physical address periodically. To en- able users to better control their privacy level while still providing monitoring and tracking service to authorized parties (e.g., for child and elderly care), I extend BLE privacy by enriching its privacy semantics with a comprehensive set of metrics, such as simple opt-in/out, k-anonymity, and granularity-based anonymity. Both systems have been posted online and evaluated in terms of accuracy and user study.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2001. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 190-205). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2001. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 190-205). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (MPhil)--University of Stellenbosch, 2006. / On title page: Master of Philosophy in Information and Knowledge Management. Bibliography. Also available via the Internet.

Nowadays, with the rapid development of GPS-equipped mobile devices, location-based social networks have been emerging to bridge the gap between the physical world and online social networking services. Various types of data, such as personal locations, check-ins, microblogs and social relations, have been available in location-based social networks. Efficiently managing and analyzing such data to meet users' daily query requirements become a challenging task. Among all the existing works in location-based social networks, group query is one of the most important research topics. In this thesis, we investigate query techniques for location-based services in social networking applications. Specifically, considering a location-based social network, we study spatial-aware interest group queries, geo-social {dollar}k{dollar}-cover group queries, and social-aware ridesharing group queries. Firstly, we study the spatial-aware interest group queries in location-based social networks. Recently, most of the location-based social networks release check-in services that allow users to share their visiting locations with their friends. These locations, considered as spatial objects, are usually associated with a few tags that describe the features of those locations. Utilizing such information, we propose a new type of \emph{Spatial-aware Interest Group} (SIG) query that retrieves a user group of size {dollar}k{dollar} where each user is interested in the query keywords and the users are close to each other in the Euclidean space. We prove this query problem is NP-complete, and develop two efficient algorithms IOAIR and DOAIR based on the IR-tree for the processing of SIG queries. We also validate the performance efficiency of the proposed query processing algorithms by empirical evaluation. Secondly, we study the problem of geo-social {dollar}k{dollar}-cover group queries for collaborative spatial computing. In this problem, we propose a novel type of geo-social queries, called \emph{Geo-Social K-Cover Group} (GSKCG) query, which is based on spatial containment and a new modeling of social relationships. Intuitively, given a set of spatial query points and an underlying social network, a GSKCG query finds a minimum user group in which the members satisfy certain social relationship and their associated regions can jointly cover all the query points. Albeit its practical usefulness, the GSKCG query problem is NP-complete. We consequently explore a set of effective pruning strategies to derive an efficient algorithm for finding the optimal solution. Moreover, we design a novel index structure tailored to our problem to further accelerate query processing. Extensive experiments demonstrate that our algorithm achieves desirable performance on real-life datasets. Thirdly, we study the problem of social-aware ridesharing group queries. With the deep penetration of smartphones and geo-locating devices, ridesharing is envisioned as a promising solution to transportation-related problems such as congestion and air pollution for metropolitan cities. Despite the potential to provide significant societal and environmental benefits, ridesharing has not so far been as popular as expected. Notable barriers include the social discomfort and safety concerns when traveling with strangers. To overcome these barriers, in this thesis, we propose a new type of \emph{Social-aware Ridesharing Group} (SaRG) query which retrieves a group of riders by taking into account their social connections besides traditional spatial proximities. Because the SaRG query problem is NP-hard, we design an efficient algorithm with a set of powerful pruning techniques to tackle this problem. We also present several incremental strategies to accelerate the search speed by reducing the repeated computations. Moreover, we propose a novel index tailored to the proposed problem to further speed up the query processing. Experimental results on real datasets show that our proposed algorithms achieve desirable performance. The works of this thesis show that the group query processing techniques are effective, which would facilitate the wider deployment of such query services in real applications

Thesis (MTech (Business Information Systems))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2017. / Knowledge Management (KM) is a role player in assisting organisations to accomplish their desired goals and objectives by managing the knowledge embedded within individuals and available in systems. Furthermore, knowledge management considers the use of advanced technology to enhance existing knowledge, create new knowledge, and transfer knowledge. However, the process of managing knowledge cannot be successful without proper communication. When this knowledge and the associated expertise are not transferred, organisations are faced with a loss of intellectual capital as employees enter and leave with knowledge and expertise. It is therefore critical to understand who knows what, who needs to know what, and how to transfer the knowledge throughout the organisations. Hence, this research explores the dynamics of knowledge transfer in relation to communication strategies, tools, methods or systems that the selected company can implement in order to transfer knowledge between interest groups and throughout the organisation. The research philosophy adopted is subjectivism with an interpretivist stance. A qualitative research approach was applied. The data were collected using semi-structured questionnaires and analysed using descriptive data analysis techniques. The results point to poor levels of understanding the concept of knowledge management and knowledge transfer in the organisation, resulting in departments following silo processes in an effort to transfer knowledge within their specific areas. However, these processes are not sufficiently effective and cause crucial man risk within departments. The results of this study should help the organisation improve its knowledge management processes and organise internal communication in a way that will improve knowledge transfer.

The aim of my thesis is a detailed analysis of current marketing strategy of previously chosen law firm. The theoretical part of my thesis is focused on determination of basic terms and processes forming the marketing strategy of company. The practical part applies theoretical findings on a specific law firm. Furthermore, includes detailed overview of current marketing strategy and also gives recommendation for future strategy of the law firm. The practical part compares chosen law firm with its rivals on the market on previously given parameters. This comparation is realized on base of mystery shopping.

Master thesis looks into marketing communication of restaurants U Malířů and Pálffy palác. The aim is revalation of inperfections in current instruments and suggesting news, which will ensure making more visible and competitiveness. The first part consists of basic terms in marketing and communication. The following section research current situacion in restaurants. A proposals of new and more quality instruments in marketing communication and possibilities, how it can be increase attandance and sattisfaction of customers, are introcuded in last part.