Thesis (MPhil)--Stellenbosch University, 2004. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The Ministry of Information of Eritrea is basically aimed at providing the society with news, information, education and entertainment. In addition to its service presentation through radio, TV and printed press the Ministry of Information has taken the initiative to present its services in the digital way by publishing a website known as shabait.com. But as the technique is new to the country as well as to the organization, it is to be expected that there will be inaccuracies in the way the website was designed. Hence, evaluating and redesigning shabait.com with the goal of making it informative, attractive and easy to use will be very beneficial to the organization as well as to users of the website. This recently launched website is not very attractive and not successfully directed to its users. Therefore, the main aim of this study is to assess and find the best way of presenting information digitally to the Eritrean society, as well as to anyone interested in finding out about Eritrea through the State owned media website. This study was firstly approached by gathering previously written relevant information from books, journals, and the Internet. In addition to that interviews with concerned people in Eritrea were held to understand the aim, difficulties and challenges of the website. Subsequently the website was assessed according to the evaluation criteria developed, based on the literature review. The evaluation of the website assumed three different approaches of qualitative as well as quantitative types. A usability test with both quantitative and qualitative questions was done through a questionnaire, which was analyzed statistically. A competitive analysis, of qualitative type with two international websites was also made. In order to create a good quality website, it is essential to have clearly specified goals, policies and strategies, and adequate advanced human as well as technological resources, so that it will be easy to overcome the common challenges such as competition, diversity of users, budget constraints, and inadequacy of policy instruments. The findings of the evaluation of shabait.com indicate that the website is not attractive, is user unfriendly, of low content quality as well as with low download speed and, more importantly, was not advertised well. Therefore, shabait.com is not fit to be considered as a sole first hand information provider website for the Eritrean society as well as for anybody who is concerned about Eritrea. At the end of the study recommendations of how the website can be modified to be successful are listed. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die doelwit van die Ministerie van Inligting van Eritrea is om nuus, inligting, opvoeding en vermaak aan die gemeenskap te verskaf. Bykomend tot die radio, TV en die gedrukte media, het die Ministerie van Inligting nou ook besluit om 'n digitale diens te lewer deur middel van 'n webwerf bekend as shabait.com. Aangesien die betrokke tegnieke vir die land sowel as vir die organisasie iets nuuts is, kan daar verwag word dat die ontwerp van die webwerf onakkuraathede sal toon. Dus moet shabait.com evalueer en verbeter word om dit sodoende aantreklik en gebruikersvriendelik te maak; dit sal tot die voordeel strek van die organisasie so wel as die gebruikers. Hierdie jong webwerf is tans nie baie aantreklik of maklik om te gebruik nie. Dus is die doelwit van hierdie studie om die beste wyses te vind om die gemeenskap van Eritrea, sowel as ander belangstellendes, deur middel van 'n webwerf wat deur die staat beheer word, digitaal van inligting te bedien. Relevante geskrewe inligting is bekom deur middel van boeke, joernale en die Internet. Daar is ook onderhoude gevoer met mense betrokke by shabait.com om sodoende die doelwitte, probleme en uitdagings van die webwerf beter te verstaan. Daarna is die webwerf evalueer volgens ontwikkelde kriteria gebaseer op die literatuuroorsig. Vir die evaluasie is drie benaderings gebruik, beide kwalitatief en kwantitatief. 'n Bruikbaarheidstoets is deur middel van 'n vraelys gedoen met kwalitatiewe sowel as kwantitatiewe vrae en die antwoorde is statisties ontleed. Twee internasionale webwerwe is ook ontleed sodat hulle gehalte met dié van shabait.com vergelyk kon word. Om 'n webwerf van goeie gehalte te ontwerp, is dit noodsaaklik om duidelik omskrewe doelwitte, beleide en stategië, asook genoegsaam opgeleide mense en gevorderde tegnologiese hulpbronne te hê sodat die uitdagings soos kompetisie, verskeidenheid van gebruikers, begrotingsbeperkings en swak beleidsinstrumente oorkom kan word. Die bevindinge van die evaluasie van shabait.com toon dat die webwerf onaantreklik en gebruikersonvriendelik is, die inhoud is van swak gehalte, die aflaai spoed is laag en en die werf is nie goed adverteer nie. Daarom is die werf nie geskik om beskou te word as die enigste eerstehandse inligtingsverskaffer webwerf vir die gemeenskap van Eritrea sowel as ander belangstellendes nie. Aan die einde van die studie is daar aanbevelings vir die verbetering van die webwerf.

Thesis (DTech (Information Technology))Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2011 / It was concluded in the literature review that small- to medium-sized enterprises (SMME) should prioritise utilising the websites on the Internet, as it provides a low cost infrastructure, unlocking opportunities and allowing small- to medium-sized enterprises to market to the international customer, promoting business activities in a low-risk environment. However, visitors do not know that they do not know, meaning a need for facilitation exists between the Internet user in terms of the information required and the information available on the Internet. Search engines (governed by their organic ranking algorithms) were created for this very purpose, to facilitate users in finding relevant information on the Internet in the shortest time possible. Search engines interpret and evaluate any given indexed web page from a targeted keywords perspective, indicating that web pages must be optimised from a search engine perspective. However, the elements search engines perceive to be important may not always be aligned with what website visitors perceive to be important. Anything on the web page that may remotely impede the visitors’ experience could be detrimental as alternative website options are but a click away. An example would be the excessive use of content on a given web page. The search engine may find the excessive content useful as it may provide contextual interpretation of the web page. However, the excessive content may impede a visitor’s website interaction as it is estimated that the average visitors will often view a web page for 45-60 seconds and read a maximum of 200 words only. During the process of identifying the contradictory search engine optimisation (SEO) elements and website usability (WU) attributes, three journal articles were written, with two journal articles following their own research methodologies and the third journal article utilising all the research results in order to create the fused SEO and WU model. Journal Article 1: Two websites were used as part of the experiment: • Control Website (CW): http://www.copywriters.co.za • Experimental Website (EW): http://www.copywriters.co.za/ppc/. The CW is an existing website with no special emphasis applied to SEO and/or WU. The EW was developed by implementing the WU attributes and ignoring all contradictory SEO elements. In order to ensure integrity of the experiment, search engines were denied access to the EW. The traffic sources for the CW were search engines (organic) traffic, as well as direct and referrer traffic.

A dissertation submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Engineering in the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment School of Electrical and Information Engineering August 2017 / Modular web content management systems (WCMS) are widely adopted software plat- forms that facilitate the creation of web applications through a process of con guration and assembly of add-on modules. Although WCMSs have been used in a variety of ap- plication domains (e-commerce, news) no clear guidance as to when it is suitable to use a WCMS could be found. This work proposes a methodology to evaluate the suitability of a WCMS in a particular context. This is done by evaluating the suitability indicators (capability, e ort and ease of implementation) for a given WCMS application. The met- hodology evaluates each indicator per application requirement. Capability is evaluated on a Yes/No basis. E ort is evaluated using e ort level, a relative indicator of e ort. E ort levels are de ned in terms of increasing e ort, varying from 0 (feature present in the product) through to 5 (feature requires a custom module to be written). Ease of implementation is evaluated using a qualitative measure (easy, moderate or di cult) of the implementation di culty. The methodology has been successfully validated through the development and evaluation of a web application for a school within a university faculty. In this instance the WCMS capability was evaluated at 100%, as all require- ments could be implemented. The e ort level analysis showed 16% of requirements were present by default in the core product, 22% required some con guration of the core pro- duct, 32% required a single add-on module to be installed, and 30% required multiple add-on modules to be installed. The ease of implementation analysis showed that 86% of requirements were easy, 7% moderate and 7% di cult. The analysis is presented in order to demonstrate the operation of the methodology. Further data would be nee- ded to extrapolate general trends. With repeated use of the methodology in various contexts, it would be possible to build up a useful reference for those considering the use of a WCMS. In addition, this data would permit analysis of overall strengths and weaknesses of a particular WCMS. / MT2018

Thesis (MEng) -- Stellenbosch University, 2001. / Some digitised pages may appear illegible due to the condition of the original hard copy. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The corporate web site is essential to companies who use the Internet for e-commerce purposes. For these companies, the web site is the platform used to communicate with customers and facilitate business transactions. Internet companies will not be able to do business successfully with an ineffective web site, because this implies that the only contact point that the company has with customers is not functioning properly. It is, however, extremely difficult to identify what an effective e-commerce web site constitutes of. A great need therefore exists for a comprehensive and accurate method to evaluate the performance of the web sites of Internet companies, not only individually but also in comparison with the web sites of other companies in the same industry. Managers of Internet companies would certainly like to know how their web sites perform, what they can do to increase their performance, and which web sites in their industry can be used as a benchmark in certain areas. This thesis aims to address these needs by fulfilling three objectives: ► To develop a framework and criteria for the comprehensive evaluation of e-commerce web sites. ► To use this framework and sound statistical reasoning to develop a method that can be used to evaluate e-commerce web sites quantitively, and represent the results graphically per industry. ► To implement this method by developing computer software that enables users to evaluate web sites and plot the results. To accomplish these objectives, the following methodology was followed: ► Review the research done in the field of web site evaluation for both general and e-commerce web sites. ► Review the research on different techniques in the field of Multidimensional Scaling, and identify an appropriate technique for developing two-dimensional plots of web site evaluation data. ► Expand the web site evaluation research and develop a framework and objective criteria for the evaluation of e-commerce web sites, based on solid business principles. ► Develop a method to gather web site evaluation data that is grouped within industries, and to represent the results graphically using an appropriate Multidimensional Scaling technique. ► Implement the method by developing computer software to automate the process. This document describes the course of the methodology in detail. It reports on the e-commerce web site evaluation framework that was developed; Correspondence Analysis as the Multidimensional Scaling technique used to analyse the evaluation data; the development of the e-commerce web site evaluation method; and the software that was developed in Microsoft Visual Basic to implement the evaluation method. All three objectives were fulfilled in this thesis, in spite of some concerns that are also discussed. The evaluation framework and accompanying software can be used to evaluate all aspects of e-commerce web sites, and the output can be used to draw meaningful conclusions about how these sites can be improved. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die korporatiewe webwerf is onontbeerlik vir maatskappye wat die Internet vir e-handel doeleindes gebruik. Die webwerf is vir hierdie maatskappye die platform wat gebruik word om met kliente te kommunikeer en om saketransaksies te fasiliteer. Internetmaatskappye sal nie in staat wees om suksesvol sake te doen as hulle webwerwe oneffekti'ef is nie, omdat dit sal impliseer dat die enigste raakpunt wat die maatskappy met kliente het, nie behoorlik funksioneer nie. Tog is dit moeilik om te identifiseer waaruit 'n effektiewe e-handel webwerf bestaan. Daar is dus 'n groot behoefte aan 'n omvattende en akkurate metode waarvolgens die werkverrigting van die webwerwe van Internetmaatskappye geevalueer kan word, nie net individueel nie, maar ook in vergelyking met die webwerwe van ander maatskappye in dieselfde industrie. Bestuurders van Internetmaatskappye sal beslis wil weet hoe goed hulle webwerwe funksioneer, wat hulle kan doen om die werkverrigting van webwerwe te verbeter, en watter webwerwe in hulle industrie as uitstaande voorbeelde in sekere areas kan dien. Hierdie tesis spreek die bogenoemde behoeftes aan deur drie doelstellings uit te voer: ► Om 'n raamwerk en kriteria vir die omvattende evaluasie van e-handel webwerwe te ontwikkel. ► Om hierdie raamwerk en gegronde statistiese beredenering te gebruik ten einde 'n metode te ontwikkel wat gebruik kan word om e-handel webwerwe kwantitatief te evalueer, en om die resultate grafies per industrie uit te beeld. ► Om hierdie metode te implementeer deur rekenaarprogrammatuur te ontwikkel wat gebruikers in staat stel om webwerwe te evalueer en die resultate te plot. Die volgende metodologie is gevolg om hierdie doelstellings te laat slaag: ► Bestudeer die navorsing gedoen in die veld van webwerf evaluasie van sowel algemene as e-handel webwerwe. ► Bestudeer die navorsing oor verskillende tegnieke in die veld van Multidimensionele Gradering (Multidimensional Scaling), en identifiseer 'n toepaslike tegniek vir die ontwikkeling van tweedimensionele grafiese voorstellings van webwerf evaluasiedata. ► Brei die webwerf evaluasienavorsing uit en ontwikkel 'n raamwerk en objektiewe kriteria vir die evaluering van e-handel webwerwe, gebaseer op stewige sakebeginsels. ► Ontwikkel 'n metode om webwerf evaluasiedata te versamel wat in industriee gegroepeer is, en stel hierdie resultate grafies voor deur die gebruik van 'n toepaslike Multidimensionele Graderingstegniek. ► Implementeer die metode deur die ontwikkeling van rekenaarprogrammatuur om die proses te outomatiseer. Hierdie dokument beskryf die verloop van die metodologie in detail. Dit lewer verslag oor die e-handel webwerf evaluasieraamwerk wat ontwikkel is; Assosiasie-analise {Correspondence Analysis) as die Multidimensionele Graderingstegniek wat gebruik is om die evaluasie-data te analiseer; die ontwikkeling van die e-handel webwerf evaluasiemetode; en die programmatuur wat ontwikkel is in Microsoft Visual Basic om die evaluasiemetode te implementeer. Al drie doelstellings is in hierdie tesis bereik, ten spyte van sommige probleme—wat ook bespreek word. Die evaluasieraamwerk en meegaande programmatuur kan gebruik word om alle aspekte van e-handel webwerwe te evalueer, en die resultate kan gebruik word om betekenisvolle gevolgtrekkings te maak oor die wyse waarop hierdie webwerwe verbeter kan word.

Thesis (MPhil)--University of Stennbosch, 2001.Thesis / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The Internet connects millions of computers and people from all over the world with each other. A few clicks with a mouse are usually enough to gain access to the computers of almost any university in the world. But it is not only professors and researchers with years of experience who publish on the Internet. Anyone can publish anything for any reason without any editing or verification of the content. The Web is a valuable source of the information needed by science journalists to confirm facts of stories or to gain background information on a subject - if they know that the information is reliable. This web site identifies and discusses criteria to help establish the credibility of a web site. The Internet consists of far more than just the World Wide Web. The World Wide Web is, however, the most talked-about and bestknown part of the Internet, and the criteria discussed on this web site are applicable to the World Wide Web alone. With a little common sense and the necessary adaptations they can, however, be used to determine the credibility of information found on other parts of the Internet. Science journalists, students using the Web for research, and any other Web surfer will benefit from reading this document. Anybody can publish on the Web. Is there a set of rules that can be applied to a web site to measure its credibility? What are these rules? o FjrsUI1~ssion1i Is the layout professional? Is the site user friendly? Is the style appropriate for the type of information? Is the document free of spelling mistakes and grammatical errors? Does it take too long to load? o The_Contel1!Are there flaws in the logic used? Is the writer biased? Is there any verification for this information? Is the information accurate and complete? o A~ When was the web page published? Are there many broken links? o Sourc(?.<,)f theJnt'oxmation Who is the author? Who is the publisher? What do others have to say about this web site? o P1!!]2_O~e/Targ~_lAudiel1W~~ho is the target audience? What does the user want from the web site? What is the purpose of the web site? Who gains what? A summary of the criteria in tabular form is available here. The criteria discussed on this web site are only guidelines. Some criteria are more important than others. The situation will determine the relevance of each of the criteria. The origin of the information, the purpose thereof and the logic used are usually the most important criteria. The most important rule, however, is the use of common sense. Examine more than one source and compare them with one another. An intelligent decision regarding the credibility of the information can only be made when all (or most) sides ofa matter have been examined. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die Internet verbind miljoene rekenaars en mense regoor die aarde met mekaar. Net 'n paar klieke van 'n muis kan toegang verskaftot die rekenaars van amper enige universiteit in die wêreld. Dit is egter nie net professors en navorsers met jare se ervaring in hul veld wat hul bevindinge op die Wêreldwye Web publiseer nie. Enige-iemand kan enige-iets om enige rede publiseer sonder dat dit deur enige-iemand gelees of goedgekeur hoef te word. Die Web is 'n waardevolle bron van die tipe inligting wat wetenskap-joernaliste nodig het om die feite van hul stories te bevestig, of om agtergrondinligting oor 'n onderwerp in te samel - mits hulle seker is dat die inligting vertrou kan word. Hierdie webwerf identifiseer en bespreek verskillende kriteria wat kan help om die gehalte van die inhoud van 'n webwerfte bepaal. Die Wêreldwye Web is die bekendste deel van die Internet. Die riglyne is van toepassing op die Web alleen, maar kan met aanpassings ook op die ander dele van die Web gebruik word. Wetenskapjoernaliste, studente wat die Web gebruik vir navorsing, en enige webgebruiker sal baat vind by hierdie webwerf. Te veel mense kan publiseer. Is daar 'n stel reëls waarvolgens 'n webwerf gemeet kan word wat sal verseker dat die inhoud akkuraat en betroubaar is? Wat is daardie reëls? By die ondersoek na die gehalte van die inhoud van 'n webwerf, kan die volgende in gedagte gehou word: o Eerst_ell1ilnlkke Is die uitleg professioneel? Is die werf gebruikersvriendelik? Pas die skryfstyl by die tipe inligting? Is die dokument vol spel- en taalfoute? Laai die dokument vinnig af? o (_J~loof\yaarciigl1Yidyangi_eJnhQlIC!Is die logika wat gebruik word, logies? Is die skrywer objektief? Is daar enige ondersteuning vir hierdie inligting? Is die inligting akkuraat en volledig? o Ouci~Jd9n}Wanneer is die webbladsy gepubliseer? Is dit vol gebreekte skakels? o Qie o_QGiPJ:Qllg_Ygji1e1i1llligting Wie is die skrywer? Wie is die uitgewer of instansie? Wat het ander oor die webwerf te sê? o Q()elL(_J~h()()I Wie is die teikengehoor? Wat is die gebruiker se doel daarmee? Wat is die webwerf se doel? Waar lê die geld? 'n Opsomming van die kriteria in tabelvorm is hLer beskikbaar Die kriteria wat op hierdie webwerf bespreek word, is slegs riglyne. Sommige kriteria is belangriker as ander. Waardie inligting vandaan kom, wie verantwoordelik is daarvoor en wat die doel is daarmee is dalk die belangrikste vrae. Die belangrikheid van die ouderdom van die inligting hang van die tipe inligting wat ondersoek word, af. Die belangrikste reël by die beoordeling van 'n webwerf blyegter gesonde verstand. Meer as een bron moet ondersoek en met mekaar vergelyk word. Eers as alle (of genoeg) kante van 'n saak ondersoek word, kan 'n ingeligte besluit oor die akkuraatheid van inligting geneem word.

DISSERTATION Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree MAGISTER TECHNOLOGIAE in INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY in the FACULTY OF BUSINESS INFORMATICS at the CAPE PENINSULA UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY 2006 / Research has shown that most website developers first build a website and only later focus on the ‘searchability’ and ‘visibility’ of the website. Companies spend large amounts of money on the development of a website which sadly cannot be indexed by search engines, is rejected by directory editors and which is furthermore invisible to crawlers. The primary objective of this dissertation is to compare and report on the impact of text-based versus graphic-based hyperlinks on website visibility. The method employed in the research was to develop two e-Commerce based websites with the same functionality, contents and keywords, however utilising different navigation schemes. The one website had all hyperlinks coded in text-phrases, while the other embedded the hyperlinks in graphics. Both websites were submitted to the same search engines at the same time. A period of eight months was allowed to ensure that the websites drew sufficient ‘hits’ to enable a comparative analysis to be conducted. Two industry standard website ranking programs were used to monitor how the two websites feature in the search engine rankings. Graphs as well as text-based reports produced by the ranking programs and the t-test were used to compare and analyse the results. Evidence based on the reviewed literature indicated that there are conflicting reports on the impact of text as opposed to graphic hyperlinks on website visibility. However, there is unsupported evidence that text hyperlinks achieved higher rankings than graphics-based hyperlinks. Although the ‘human website browsers’ find a certain amount of graphical aids conducive to easier navigation, ‘search engine crawlers’ find many of these same graphic aids impossible to index. The study supported that the graphic-based website ranked higher than the text-based website, which calls for a balance to be found between these two extremes. This balance would satisfy both ‘human website browsers’ and ‘search engine crawlers’. It is posited by this author that this dissertation provides website designers with the abilities to achieve such a balance. KEYWORDS: search engines, hyperlinks, text, graphics, visibility, navigation, ecommerce, design.

DISSERTATION Submitted in partial (50%) fulfilment of the requirements for the degree MAGISTER TECHNOLOGIAE in BUSINESS INFORMATION SYSTEMS in the FACULTY OF BUSINESS INFORMATICS at the CAPE PENINSULA UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY 2005 / The growth of the World Wide Web has spawned a wide collection of new information sources, which has also left users with the daunting task of determining which sources are valid. Most users rely on the web because of the low cost of information retrieval. Other advantages of the web include the convenience in terms of time and access as well as the ability to easily record results. It is also claimed that the web has evolved into a powerful business tool. Examples include highly popular business services such as Amazon.com and Kalahari.net. It is estimated that around 80% of users utilise search engines to locate information on the Internet. This of course places emphasis on the underlying importance of webpages being listed on search engines indices. It is in the interest of any company to pursue a strategy for ensuring a high search engine ranking for their e-Commerce website. This will result in more visits from users and possibly more sales. One of the strategies for ensuring a high search engine ranking is the placement of keywords in the body text section of a webpage. Empirical evidence that the placement of keywords in certain areas of the body text will have an influence on the websites’ visibility to search engines could not be found. The author set out to prove or disprove that keywords in the body text of a webpage will have a measurable effect on the visibility of a website to search engine crawlers. From the findings of this research it will be possible to create a guide for e- Commerce website authors on the usage, placing and density of keywords within their websites. This guide, although it will only focus on one aspect of search engine visibility, could help e-Commerce websites to attract more visitors and to become more profitable.

The problem of the study was to establish valid criteria for evaluating health-related World Wide Web [WWW] sites. From a table of specifications, a pool of 39 items was developed into a Criteria List. A nine member jury of experts composed of professionals from the discipline of Library and Information Science was used to determine content validity of the items. The items on the Criteria List were sent to the expert panel of jurors for the first review. To determine which items would be retained, revised or eliminated, the items were subjected to both a quantitative and qualitative review. The revised Criteria List was then sent to the expert panel of jurors for the second review. Responses from the second review were also subjected to qualitative and quantitative analysis. However, this time the quantitative review included the use of the Content-Validity Ratio [CVR]. All items on the Criteria List that were not statistically significant at p <.05 were eliminated. The final Criteria List contained 27 items from the 39 originally proposed items. / Department of Physiology and Health Science

Made available in DSpace on 2015-05-14T12:20:08Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 arquivototal.pdf: 1493229 bytes, checksum: 6f2e3e1b3b877fd4f76604ad15133ce0 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-12-12 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / This study aimed to investigate the transparency portals of cities in Paraiba regarding the level of information s quality about public management available to society, and highlights its importance as a tool for social control. Therefore , it sought to evaluate the official websites of all 223 municipalities, from the definition of Governmental Transparency Index (ITG), obtained through the application of a data collect instrument, built by issues classified in a two-dimensional model with three characteristics (Content, Usability and Interoperability) and two aspects (General and Legal). This indicator consolidates attributes that should be present in a transparency portal facing social control. From the survey, it was observed that the level of information s quality and transparency are relatively low, according to the research model proposed. Regarding the first dimension, it is observed that governments provide, in general, little content to citizens, with poor interoperability. The best result was accomplished by Usability characteristic, which indicates that most of portals have satisfactory technological resources, with appropriate navigation conditions and search information. On the other hand, with respect to another dimension, the legal aspect of the ITG indicated that no municipality was fully complying with the transparency s laws. The study also pointed that the result of cities with a population over one hundred thousand inhabitants was far superior to others, due to the different periods defined by law to release the information. These results demonstrate that several adjustments are needed in municipal Transparency Portals so that information has sufficient quality to be used in the service of social control. After all, access to good quality information contributes to social problems discussion, integrating social participation into public administration. / Este estudo se propôs a investigar os portais da transparência dos municípios paraibanos no que tange ao nível de qualidade das informações sobre a gestão pública, disponibilizadas à sociedade, além de destacar a sua importância como ferramenta de controle social. Para tanto, buscou avaliar os sites oficiais de todas as 223 prefeituras municipais, a partir da definição do Índice de Transparência Governamental (ITG), obtido através da aplicação de um instrumento de coleta de dados, construído por questões classificadas em um modelo bidimensional com três características (Conteúdo, Usabilidade e Interoperabilidade) e dois aspectos (Geral e Legal). Tal indicador consolida os atributos que deveriam estar presentes em um portal da transparência voltado para o controle social. A partir da pesquisa, observa-se que o nível da qualidade da informação e sua transparência são relativamente baixos, de acordo com o modelo de investigação proposto. Com relação à primeira dimensão, observa-se que os governantes disponibilizam, em geral, pouco conteúdo aos cidadãos com fraca interoperabilidade. A característica com melhor resultado foi a Usabilidade, o que indica que boa parte dos portais possuem recursos tecnológicos satisfatórios, com condições de navegação e de busca de informações adequados. Por outro lado, com relação à outra dimensão, o aspecto Legal do ITG indicou que nenhum município estava cumprindo integralmente a legislação da transparência. O estudo apontou, ainda, que o resultado dos municípios com população superior a cem mil habitantes foi bem superior aos demais, decorrente do prazo diferenciado definido em lei para disponibilização das informações. Tais resultados demonstram que são necessários vários ajustes nos Portais da Transparência municipais para que as informações possuam qualidade suficiente para serem utilizadas a serviço do controle social. Afinal, o acesso à informação de boa qualidade contribui para a discussão dos problemas sociais, integrando a participação social à gestão pública.

THESIS Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree MAGISTER TECHNOLOGIAE in INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY in the FACULTY OF BUSINESS INFORMATICS at the CAPE PENINSULA UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY 2005 / The Internet has become the fastest growing technology the world has ever seen. It also has the ability to permanently change the face of business, including e-business. The Internet has become an important tool required to gain potential competitiveness in the global information environment. Companies could improve their levels of functionality and customer satisfaction by adopting e-commerce, which ultimately could improve their long-term profitability. Those companies who do end up adopting the use of the Internet, often fail to gain the advantage of providing a visible website. Research has also shown that even though the web provides numerous opportunities, the majority of SMMEs (small, medium and micro enterprises) are often ill equipped to exploit the web’s commercial potential. It was determined in this research project through the analysis of 300 websites, that only 6.3% of SMMEs in the Western Cape Province of South Africa appears within the top 30 results of six search engines, when searching for services/products. This lack of ability to produce a visible website is believed to be due to the lack of education and training, financial support and availability of time prevalent in SMMEs. For this reason a model was developed to facilitate the improvement of SMME website visibility. To develop the visibility model, this research project was conducted to identify potential elements which could provide a possible increase in website visibility. A criteria list of these elements was used to evaluate a sample of websites, to determine to what extent they made use of these potential elements. An evaluation was then conducted with 144 different SMME websites by searching for nine individual keywords within four search engines (Google, MSN, Yahoo, Ananzi), and using the first four results of every keyword from every search engine for analysis. Elements gathered through academic literature were then listed according to the usage of these elements in the top-ranking websites when searching for predetermined keywords. Further qualitative research was conducted to triangulate the data gathered from the literature and the quantitative research. The evaluative results provided the researcher with possible elements / designing techniques to formulate a model to develop a visible website that is not only supported by arrant research, but also through real current applications. The research concluded that, as time progresses and technology improves, new ways to improve website visibility will evolve. Furthermore, that there is no quick method for businesses to produce a visible website as there are many aspects that should be considered when developing “visible” websites.