Thesis (M.S. Ed.) - - Bank Street College of Education, New York, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 27-29) and abstract.

Thesis (D. Min.)--Erskine Theological Seminary, 2001. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 155-158).

Thesis (Ed.D.)--University of West Florida, 2007. / Title from title page of source document. Document formatted into pages; contains 151 pages. Includes bibliographical references.

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.

Made available in DSpace on 2013-08-07T18:42:30Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 000424471-Texto+Completo-0.pdf: 3818721 bytes, checksum: d6fbd6820f37d0e5f23b429ebe486f73 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010 / Currently, many different services are available through the Internet and there is a growing demand for these applications. Considering that the Internet is not secure, the confidentiality of such information is a factor of increasing importance. To overcome this problem, many security techniques have emerged and each company has adopted the policies in a different way, but with a tendency to adopt the model of Service-Oriented Architectures. Sometimes different services with different security policies need to be grouped to work together, which makes it difficult to create an application that follows this pattern. A new approach is needed to facilitate the coexistence of these techniques in a productive manner. Based on these requirements, this paper presents a model aimed at the automatic processing of security features to services ordered in Service Oriented Architectures, this model serves as an intermediate system able to “translate” the safety techniques for a particular format. Based on this model, it is presented a prototype able to automatically handle different asymmetric encryption algorithms, including RSA, DSA and ECDSA. This study is to demonstrate the effectiveness of the model through a case study, presenting a situation that can be adopted by real applications. / Atualmente, diversos serviços são disponibilizados pela Internet e há uma crescente demanda por estas aplicações. Considerando que a Internet não é uma rede segura, a confidencialidade de informações que circulam na rede é um fator de importância cada vez maior. Visando solucionar este problema, várias técnicas de segurança surgiram e cada empresa as adotou em suas políticas de uma forma diferente. Porém com a tendência de adoção do modelo de Arquiteturas Orientadas a Serviços, diferentes serviços com diferentes políticas de segurança necessitaram ser agrupados para que pudessem trabalhar em conjunto, o que acabou dificultando a criação de uma aplicação que segue um determinado padrão. Uma nova abordagem se faz necessária para facilitar a coexistência destas técnicas de segurança de uma forma produtiva. Assim, este trabalho apresenta um modelo voltado ao tratamento automático de características de segurança para serviços ordenados em Arquiteturas Orientadas a Serviço. Este modelo atua como um sistema intermediário capaz de “traduzir” as técnicas de segurança para um formato determinado. Com base neste modelo é apresentado um protótipo capaz de tratar automaticamente diferentes algoritmos de criptografia assimétrica, entre eles RSA, DSA e ECDSA. O objetivo do trabalho é testar a efetividade do modelo por meio de um estudo de caso, apresentando uma situação que este pode ser adotado por aplicações reais.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-08-18T17:47:30Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Luciane Chiodi Nogueira.pdf: 5739972 bytes, checksum: 7db68830dd3355f7a37c90fe062b42b3 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009-02-19 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / A web 2.0 favorece a construção do blog de forma democrática e sem custo. O objetivo principal desta pesquisa é verificar como o Design de Hipermídia é utilizado nos blogs corporativos educacionais do país. O estudo foi bibliográfico, com delineamento exploratório, onde se buscou maior familiaridade com o problema de forma a torná-lo explícito. Para a pesquisa bibliográfica, fontes primárias que permitissem a reflexão sobre os pressupostos teóricos aqui tratados foram previamente selecionados. Em um segundo momento, realizou-se uma análise dos 13 blogs corporativos de Instituições de Ensino do país ativos em 2008. A pesquisa censitária quantitativa dos blogs corporativos educacionais demonstrou que características do Design de Hipermídia se configuram em suas construções. A pesquisa qualitativa, com análise descritiva, evidenciou que todas essas características podem ser utilizadas ao mesmo tempo na construção de blogs.

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.

CAPES / Recentemente, alguns sistemas estão sendo transferidos para a plataforma web. Muitos serviços e aplicações, incluindo sistemas de simulação e planejamento de energia e sistemas de automação, são desenvolvidos com interfaces baseadas na Internet. A usabilidade é a principal característica de uma interface e está associada com as funcionalidades de um sitema. Ela descreve o quão bem um produto pode ser utilizado para os fins propostos por seus usuários com eficácia, eficiência e satisfação. Este trabalho apresenta a aplicação de técnicas de Reconhecimento de Padrões na detecção e classificação automática de problemas de usabilidade na interface de um sistema web. O foco inicial do trabalho é centrado na identificação de possíveis problemas de usabilidade em formulários web. Os potenciais problemas de usabilidade do formulário web são definidos a partir das recomendações descritas na literatura. As tarefas realizadas pelo usuário são obtidas através da análise da interação do usuário armazenada em arquivos de log. A classificação de quais tarefas são realizadas conforme o esperado e quais são consideradas potenciais problemas de usabilidade é realizada através de uma Rede Neural Artificial. / Recently, some systems have been transferred to the web-based platform. Many services and applications, including those of power systems simulating and planning and automation systems, are developed with Internet-based interface. Usability is mainly a characteristic of the interface and is associated with the functionalities of the systems. It describes how well a product can be used for its intended purpose by its users with efficiency, effectiveness and satisfaction. This paper presents the application of pattern recognition techniques in automatic detection and classification of usability problems in the interface of a web system. The initial focus of this work is focused on identifying potential usability problems in web forms. The potential usability problems of the web form are defined based on the recommendations described in the literature. The tasks performed by the user are obtained through analysis of user interaction stored in log files. The classification of tasks which are performed as expected and what are considered potential usability problems is performed by an Artificial Neural Network.

CAPES / Recentemente, alguns sistemas estão sendo transferidos para a plataforma web. Muitos serviços e aplicações, incluindo sistemas de simulação e planejamento de energia e sistemas de automação, são desenvolvidos com interfaces baseadas na Internet. A usabilidade é a principal característica de uma interface e está associada com as funcionalidades de um sitema. Ela descreve o quão bem um produto pode ser utilizado para os fins propostos por seus usuários com eficácia, eficiência e satisfação. Este trabalho apresenta a aplicação de técnicas de Reconhecimento de Padrões na detecção e classificação automática de problemas de usabilidade na interface de um sistema web. O foco inicial do trabalho é centrado na identificação de possíveis problemas de usabilidade em formulários web. Os potenciais problemas de usabilidade do formulário web são definidos a partir das recomendações descritas na literatura. As tarefas realizadas pelo usuário são obtidas através da análise da interação do usuário armazenada em arquivos de log. A classificação de quais tarefas são realizadas conforme o esperado e quais são consideradas potenciais problemas de usabilidade é realizada através de uma Rede Neural Artificial. / Recently, some systems have been transferred to the web-based platform. Many services and applications, including those of power systems simulating and planning and automation systems, are developed with Internet-based interface. Usability is mainly a characteristic of the interface and is associated with the functionalities of the systems. It describes how well a product can be used for its intended purpose by its users with efficiency, effectiveness and satisfaction. This paper presents the application of pattern recognition techniques in automatic detection and classification of usability problems in the interface of a web system. The initial focus of this work is focused on identifying potential usability problems in web forms. The potential usability problems of the web form are defined based on the recommendations described in the literature. The tasks performed by the user are obtained through analysis of user interaction stored in log files. The classification of tasks which are performed as expected and what are considered potential usability problems is performed by an Artificial Neural Network.