Indie studios, which used to have a challenging time creating and releasing games, are on the rise. In the past, these studios have had a hard time getting their hands on useable tools. Indie developers at the time had to work with basic tools in order to create games less technologically advanced. This created a gap between triple-A and indie studios that, at the time, was widely disregarded. This stands as the lens for our study. We begin by conducting a prestudy that looks at the statistics behind games on steam. After this we form our interview questions and conducted both standardized open-ended interviews as well as surveys. The data collected suggest that there is a correlation between the availability of ease-of-use tools and content created. In our discussion we bring forth ideas about how this may help reduce the knowledge gap, and nurture the online innovation democracy.

Technological innovation is increasingly contributing to the development of smart objects, meant as semi-autonomous devices augmented by sensing, processing and network capabilities that facilitate older adults being independent and in control of a healthy lifestyle. Given the lessened familiarity that the ageing population has with internet-based technologies, a 'digital divide' among generations is often observed. This research is premised on the basis that design interventions can develop intuitive and understandable smart objects minimising age-related differences and promote a greater technology adoption. The aim of this thesis is to investigate how the understandability of smart objects for the ageing population could be supported through the application, at the product design level, of Smart Materials (SMs), a category of engineered materials whose properties can be designed to both stimulate human sensorial abilities and to develop engaging experiences. In line with such research enquiry, SMs are adopted in this thesis for their ability to embody 'analogies' and 'metaphors' into product designs and systematically stimulate the prior knowledge and memories of older adults to facilitate their understanding of new concepts, following the principle of 'familiarity'. Analogies and metaphors, powerful learning tools for written, verbal and visual communication, have been recently investigated as 'non-linguistic' tools, when physically embedded into product designs, to facilitate the users' understanding how technology works. How non-linguistic metaphors help to cope with age-related differences is still incomplete. In order to demonstrate that embodied SMs can minimise differences in the understandability of technologies across generations, a qualitative and exploratory study was conducted; empirical evidence was collected through four techniques to accomplish the following objectives: 1. identify critical areas that affect older adults' everyday life and that smart objects should cope with; 2. define a set of embodied Smart Materials to be included into the prototype of a Smart Radio, a novel communicative device specifically design for the ageing population; 3. evaluate the prototype of the Smart Radio, where age-related similarities and differences in the interpretation are made explicit. 62 participants (n=31 under-60-year-old and n=31 over-60-year-old participants) evaluated the developed Smart Radio, the main evaluation study conducted in this thesis, using four different families of SMs. Findings reveal that embodied SMs considerably help mitigate age-related differences in the understanding of smart objects; this in return may increase the chance of technology adoption among ageing users. The embodiment of Smart Materials that enable metaphorical processing shows promising improvements on the older adult's ability to reaffirm their own subjective awareness, hence control, of the world around them along with opportunities for a human-centred technology development.

The development of digital networks has allowed the largest news media organisations to consolidate and centralise their publishing businesses in flourishing capital-city markets. This has resulted in a withdrawal from other less-viable markets, especially those which are geographically remote, and the subsequent emergence of the 'digital divide' with its attendant negative effects. This thesis proposes that the combination of technologies, theories and processes which has brought about the 'digital divide' can now be realigned to reverse those negative effects, and to enhance the possibility of focussed participatory communication taking place within and between those previously less-viable markets. This enhanced participatory communication - which I have named 'integrated journalism' - brings with it measurable and positive effects, generally known as community capacity building effects, which lead to better outcomes for the members of enhanced communities, a more innovative and flourishing approach to life and business, and a more innovative and forward-looking atmosphere within enhanced communities. Two new models are devised and presented: the first allows members of audience communities to learn and implement the process of publishing a community newspaper under the tuition of an experienced journalist; the second enables both journalists and audience members to measure and direct the effects of news publication within communities.

This dissertation is about the role of institutions in bridging the Digital Divide. Its thesis is that governments must encourage the consistently increased use of information and communications technology (“ICT”) if they hope to foster sustained economic growth. Superficially, the Digital Divide describes differences in ICT usage between rich and poor nations, but it is more profoundly concerned with poor nations’ integration into a global economy. Intensive academic study demonstrates that four factors are critical to the relationship between ICT usage and economic growth: institutions; telecommunications infrastructure; investment in ICT; and human capital. The dissertation addresses three perceived shortcomings in the literature. First, proponents of institutions’ importance use the term vaguely, often obscuring important distinctions between policies, laws and institutions, thereby inhibiting detailed analysis. Second, many writers see the institutional reform needed for growth as an exceedingly slow process due to factors beyond governments’ control. Third, the literature does not adequately address which institutions are salient to the relationship between ICT usage and economic growth or how to create them. The dissertation attributes more precise meanings to key terms and contests the view that institutional reform can only proceed at a glacial pace. Its primary goal, however, is to identify specific institutions that help mediate the relationship and to suggest how they might be built relatively quickly. Good institutions can create the enabling environment that allows for the building of telecommunications infrastructure, investment in ICT goods and services and the development of human capital to lead to economic growth. The analysis of institutions identifies several salient institutions and concludes that the manner in which they are designed often determines their effectiveness. Case studies of Singapore and Malaysia examine their successful, but divergent, development paths. Their different rates of development can be attributed, in part, to the quality of their institutions.

This dissertation is about the role of institutions in bridging the Digital Divide. Its thesis is that governments must encourage the consistently increased use of information and communications technology (“ICT”) if they hope to foster sustained economic growth. Superficially, the Digital Divide describes differences in ICT usage between rich and poor nations, but it is more profoundly concerned with poor nations’ integration into a global economy. Intensive academic study demonstrates that four factors are critical to the relationship between ICT usage and economic growth: institutions; telecommunications infrastructure; investment in ICT; and human capital. The dissertation addresses three perceived shortcomings in the literature. First, proponents of institutions’ importance use the term vaguely, often obscuring important distinctions between policies, laws and institutions, thereby inhibiting detailed analysis. Second, many writers see the institutional reform needed for growth as an exceedingly slow process due to factors beyond governments’ control. Third, the literature does not adequately address which institutions are salient to the relationship between ICT usage and economic growth or how to create them. The dissertation attributes more precise meanings to key terms and contests the view that institutional reform can only proceed at a glacial pace. Its primary goal, however, is to identify specific institutions that help mediate the relationship and to suggest how they might be built relatively quickly. Good institutions can create the enabling environment that allows for the building of telecommunications infrastructure, investment in ICT goods and services and the development of human capital to lead to economic growth. The analysis of institutions identifies several salient institutions and concludes that the manner in which they are designed often determines their effectiveness. Case studies of Singapore and Malaysia examine their successful, but divergent, development paths. Their different rates of development can be attributed, in part, to the quality of their institutions.

Third Public Television Service (Channel 3) plays important roles in enhancing sense of community and encouraging involvement in community. The Cable Television Channel Planning and Management Regulations, which was promulgated on December 13 in 2004, indicate clearly that each cable station s third channel is the public channel to practice community people s media access rights. Its major purposes are to protect the freedom of speech, to ensure citizens having channels to express their opinions, and to facilitate the diverse social developments. Recently, the issue of new immigrants has become the main issue discussed in the society. In the past, scholars apply the theories of society science to the research of the issue of new immigrants. The number of study regarding the interaction of cable station¡¦s public channel is much fewer. This paper aims to use the media access rights and theory of life adjustment of new immigrants from the concept of public channel. Taking KuanSheng CATV Co., Ltd. in Pingtung as the example, we aim to explore if cable station¡¦s third public channel can play a more positive role in enhancing the right to access to the media of new immigrants to reduce digital divide, cultural gap, and life adjustment in addition to the social work unit. For the aspect of data analysis, a questionnaire was designed according to the research goals and questions, and further in-depth interview was conducted to cover the insufficient parts of questionnaire. Data were collected via either giving away the text of questionnaire or sending email. A total of 323 questionnaires were administered, leaving 176 valid questionnaires. This research has adopted statistical package software for social science including SPSS13.0 and AMOS 4.0 as the tool for data analysis. The result of research can be described as follows: public channel has brought the positive influence to the adaptability of new immigrants. Among them, programming of public channel and support of government¡¦s policies are not only crucial to public channel¡¦s impacts on the viewing of new immigrants but also the key factors of new immigrants¡¦ adjustment to new life in Taiwan.

Under the trend of ICT implementation in education, students’ learning becomes highly reliant on ICT. A student will thus suffer in his / her learning process if he / she lacks the chance of using ICT at home. This is what a divide in student’s learning is. As the occurrence of this divide is due to digital ICT devices and its effect is focussed on students’ academic performance, such divide is termed as digital divide in education (DDE). To bridge this divide, most governments around the world have spent a lot purchasing hardware for schools and even assisting students from low income families to have computers at home. The divide, however, still persists. Nowadays, almost all students have the chance to use ICT. If a student is skilful in using ICT, he / she can learn more effectively by searching useful materials on the Internet. Otherwise, the student may lose his / her learning path. Thus there is a divide in learning between the skilled and unskilled students using ICT. In addition to the learning-related usages, recent studies showed that most students mainly use ICT to play games or for social communication. The divide in learning still exists and shifts to the difference between the students who use ICT for their learning and those who mainly use ICT for other purposes. Moreover, even some of the students using ICT for their studies, such as doing assignments, may use it inappropriately for copying and reassembling materials from the Internet as their assignments for submission. Such surely impedes their learning. The divide in learning then extends to whether students use ICT appropriately. The aim of this research is to investigate the effect of DDE on students learning in terms of four facets: the chance of using ICT (access disparity), the skilfulness in using ICT (skill disparity), the ways in using ICT (usage disparity), and the appropriateness of using ICT (ethical disparity). The objective is three-fold. The first one is to examine whether the four facets of DDE affect students’ academic performance, the second one is to investigate whether the four facets are interrelated, and the third one is to explore the factors contributing to the four facets empirically. After reviewing various literatures, the potential factors are categorised into three groups: students’ personal factors, environmental factors, and ethics-related factors. A survey has been conducted to achieve the objective. A pilot test was carried out first to check the reliability and validity of the designed questionnaire. 825 valid responses were obtained from a set of random samples taken from Secondary 2 students in Hong Kong. Statistical methods are employed for investigating the relationship between the four facets and also the factors of each facet. The analysis results indicate that the latter three facets are the main constituents of DDE, significantly affecting students’ academic performance. The facets are also interrelated in a sequence. There is a significant effect of skill disparity on the other two disparities, and there is also a significant effect of usage disparity on ethical disparity. A number of key factors were also found for the facets, including students’ gender, SES, ICT experience, and also their parents’ parenting styles and ICT abilities. Their peers’ behaviour also plays an important role in affecting their appropriateness of using ICT. A number of policy implications are then proposed according to the results, in terms of financing approach of government (e.g. direct subsidy scheme), revision of curriculum, and enhancement of parenting skills. / published_or_final_version / Education / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

Στην Εργασία αυτή γίνεται μια προσπάθεια παρουσίασης του φαινομένου. Αναφέρονται οι ορισμοί και οι δείκτες μέτρησης που χρησιμοποιούνται, καθώς και τα είδη του ψηφιακού χάσματος, κάτι που είναι απαραίτητο για να προχωρήσομε και να αναλύσομε τις αιτίες που δημιούργησαν το φαινόμενο αυτό. Το ψηφιακό χάσμα είναι ένα θέμα αρκετά πολύπλοκο, η εξάπλωση του οποίου επηρεάζει την παγκόσμια οικονομία ,γιαυτό και δεν είναι τυχαίο που διοργανώνονται σύνοδοι σε παγκόσμιο επίπεδο όπου εκφράζονται απόψεις και σκέψεις για την αντιμετώπιση του προβλήματος. Οι θέσεις , οι στόχοι και οι ενέργειες που πρέπει να γίνουν ,και που συζητήθηκαν στις συνόδους Πληροφορικής ,παρουσιάζονται στην εργασία αυτή. Ιδιαίτερη σημασία δόθηκε στο ρόλο της εκπαίδευσης καθώς και στις αλλαγές που χρειάζεται να γίνουν προκειμένου όλοι οι άνθρωποι σε όλον τον πλανήτη να έχουν ίσες δυνατότητες και ευκαιρίες στον νέο ψηφιακό κόσμο. Ένας άλλος σημαντικός παράγοντας στην προσπάθεια εύρεσης οριστικής λύσης στο πρόβλημα του ψηφιακού χάσματος είναι και η αποτελεσματική χρήση των νέων τεχνολογιών η οποία σε συνδυασμό με την πρόσβαση και την κατάλληλη εκπαίδευση θα μπορέσει να βοηθήσει στην ενσωμάτωση των νέων τεχνολογιών στην ζωή των πολιτών όλου του κόσμου. Από τεχνολογικής πλευράς παρουσιάστηκε η ανάγκη επέκτασης των ευρυζωνικών υπηρεσιών . Σε ειδικό κεφάλαιο γίνεται μια προσπάθεια παρουσίασης των λόγων για τους οποίους το ψηφιακό χάσμα απέκτησε τόσο μεγάλη σημασία και απέσπασε την προσοχή από άλλα προβλήματα του αναπτυσσόμενου κόσμου επίσης σημαντικά ,όπως η πείνα , η υγεία ,ο αναλφαβητισμός, οι συνθήκες εργασίας κλπ. Τέλος με την βοήθεια στοιχείων από την Eurostat , αλλά και από τα Ηνωμένα Έθνη, παρουσιάζονται κάποια διαγράμματα που απεικονίζουν την σημερινή κατάσταση τόσο στο κόσμο και στην Ευρώπη όσο και στην χώρα μας. / This study is an effort to present the digital divide.There are reported the definitions and the indicators of measurement that are used, as well as the types of digital divide, something that is essential in order to analyse this phenomenon and the causes that created it. The digital divide is an enough complicated subject, the spread of which influences the world economy, that’s why it is not accidental that some summits are organised in world level, where opinions and thoughts are expressed for the confrontation of the problem.The objectives and the energies that should take place, and which were discussed in these summits of Information technology, are presented in this study. Particular importance was given in the role of education as well as in the changes that need to be made in order that all the persons all over the planet have equal possibilities and occasions in the new digital world. Another important factor in the effort of finding a solution in the problem of digital gap, is the effective use of new technologies, which in combination with the access and the suitable education might help in the incorporation of new technologies in the lives of citizens of all world. From technological side, the need of extension of broadband services was presented. In a special chapter there is a presentation of the reasons for which the digital gap acquired so much big importance and extracted the attention from other problems of developing world, also considerable, as hunger, health, illiteracy, work conditions etc. Finaly there are some diagrams that portray the current situation in the world, in Europe as well as in Greece.The elements that are used in these diagrams were taken from the EUROSTAT and the United Nations statistics.

Developing countries in Africa present a graphic picture of the digital divide. High costs associated with serving rural customers are the major cause of uneven distribution of services. Rural areas are characterised by a high rate of unemployment and a poor level of education. This results in a scenario where most of the residents are unable to utilize IT resources. Some people in these areas are not informed about the availability and importance of these technologies in the market. Those who are academically fit for accessing these technologies often cannot afford them. Some of the areas still have no existing telecommunications infrastructure. High deployment costs associated with broadband services makes it even more challenging to deploy such services in this environment. In Africa approximately 80% of the population is living in rural areas, which alone creates a demand for the coverage of rural regions. Leaving such a large number of residents not connected, means poor medical care, students cannot participate in distance learning programs which means poor quality of education, poor performance in businesses, poor farming and crippling delivery of government services. DSL technologies were originally designed to suit suburban to urban conditions. In this research it is shown that broadband services can be delivered to rural people by applying DSL technologies, using the existing telecommunications infrastructure. This will mean significant savings, as it does not need core network investments. DSL increases network capacity to a network, which is no longer limited to voice. With this technology a number different high bandwidth applications are delivered to the homes, schools, hospitals, telecentres and small businesses. The cost effectiveness of these technologies for several reach and rural traffic environment is investigated. This is done by investigating several promising DSL solutions in terms of diverse geography, demographics and other cost dictating parameters. / Thesis (M.Sc.Eng.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Westville, 2004.

At the heart of Project Management are time, cost and performance by utilizing the available resources. When analysing the Global Competitiveness index for 2012-2013 it becomes clear that in South Africa labour efficiency is far below what it should be, ranked 113th out of 144. In the same report Business Sophistication is ranked 38th out of 144. It becomes clear that performance, time and cost at the heart of Project Management are hampered by the low labour efficiency. The adoption of Information Communication Technology (ICT) in the Construction Project Management Environment will raise productivity and will increase the quality and speed of work, financial controls, communication, and access to common data. The effect will be improved communication, an increase in the speed of data transmission, cost savings and fewer occurrences in miscommunication. The study has been done to set a framework of how ITC can be managed and implemented in the South African Construction Project Management Environment. These enablers and disablers of ICT in Construction Project Management should be determined. The current rate of ICT adoption is verified and the future trends in ICT are researched, characteristics common to quality information should also be verified. The study determined that the future developments in ITC will be profound and if applied correctly, Project Management through the means of communication will be affected positively. In the empirical study the characteristics of quality information, the disablers and also the enablers were investigated taking into account the current rate of ICT adoption in the South African Construction Management Environment. The framework used in the study proposed and confirmed how ITC can be managed and implemented in the South African Construction Project Management Environment. It is set out in the following steps: Firstly: By determining the common characteristics of quality information, namely accuracy, completeness, consistency, uniqueness, and timeliness. The implementation of ITC in the Construction Project Management Environment can be controlled. Secondly: Disablers of ICT adoption in project management exist, namely economic factors (reduction in employment, rising cost, and limited trade), social factors (digital divide, security and lack of education), and other factors (legal, environmental and cognitive). These factors should be managed. Thirdly: Enablers of ICT adoption in project management exist, namely relative advantage, complexity, compatibility, trial ability and observe ability. These enablers must be focused on and exploited where possible. Fourthly: Determine the current rate of ICT adoption in Construction Project Management. This was done and it is clear that the digital divide has been crossed by South African Project Managers and that they will embrace future developments in ICT in general. Finally: Future trends in ICT for the next five to ten years pertaining to Project Management should be analysed and new trends with possible advantages for Project Management must be investigated on a constant basis to see what will be advantageous. / Thesis (MBA)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013.