The following study examines the background of users’ decisions about their behavior concerning online identity, specifically looking at the acceptance or rejection of self-sovereign identity solutions and the technologies that support them: blockchain and asymmetric encryption. A qualitative analysis is presented of typical user narratives concerning online behavior, while exploring the cultural values underlying users’ decisions about accepting or rejecting new, potentially emancipatory technologies. The results include inventories of values and beliefs that played a key part in informing the respondents’ behaviors, and presents four distilled narratives of reasoning about online identity in the form of the archetypes of the ​Pragmatist, the Self-doubter, the ​Cyber-conscious and the ​Futurist user, each representing a specific set of values, beliefs and their interplay resulting in specific intentions and behaviors, along with design guidelines for innovative blockchain technologies based on the user expectations in these narratives. The research concludes with relating the findings to existing theory, and proposing a number of quantitatively testable hypotheses for the refinement of technology acceptance research in the specific domain of online security and identity.

I detta kandidatexamensarbete undersöker jag den demokratiska hållbarheten i kommunpolitiska beslut om sänkta krav på parkering (så kallade ”flexibla parkeringsnormer”). Den tidigare forskningen på ämnet har fokuserat på huruvida den önskade beteendeförändringen kan uppnås, varför användarnas uppfattningar kring beslutet inte studerats. Jag undersöker dessa med en kvantitativ fallstudie, där jag samtidigt diskuterar de politiska konsekvenser som uppfattningarna skulle kunna leda till och om beslutet uppfattas som demokratiskt legitimt. Fallstudien är baserad på en enkätundersökning i två flerbostadshus i Malmö som fått ett parkeringstal på ungefär 0,5 parkeringsplatser per lägenhet som följd av ett beslut om flexibel parkeringsnorm. Resultatet visar att många av de boende upplever det som svårt att få en egen parkeringsplats i bostadshuset och att månadsavgifterna upplevs som dyra. Få av de boende uppger att de känner till det politiska beslutet, och när de får veta om det uppger två tredjedelar att de är negativt inställda till det. Fyra femtedelar uttrycker dock att frågan inte är viktig nog för att få dem att rösta på ett annat parti i lokalpolitiken. En slutsats av detta är att inget omedelbart tryck på partierna för att ändra sin syn på frågan finns. Den andra slutsatsen är att ifall kommuner önskar fortsätta med denna typ av parkeringsnorm på ett hållbart sätt, eller ifall de önskar hitta politiskt stöd för att utöka sänkningen ytterligare, kommer de att behöva hitta sätt att utöka acceptansen hos de som påverkas av beslutet. / In this bachelor’s degree thesis, I explore the democratic sustainability of Swedish municipal policies reducing minimum parking requirements (so called “flexible parking requirements”). Past research into such policies has focused on their effectiveness in achieving behavioural change, while leaving the attitudes of the affected users unexamined. I examine these attitudes using a quantitative case study, while discussing the political consequences they might lead to and whether the users might find the policies democratically legitimate or not. The case study is based on a survey of residents in two blocks of flats in Malmö affected by a flexible parking requirement policy requiring about 0.5 parking spaces per flat.  The results show that many residents experience difficulty in getting a lease for a parking space within their own building and find the monthly fees to be expensive. Few of the residents report being aware of the municipal policy and two thirds state that they dislike its content when told about it. However, four fifths of the residents state that the matter is not important enough to them to affect which political party they would vote for. I conclude first that there is no imminent pressure upon the local political parties to change their stances. Secondly, if the municipalities wish to sustainably continue using such policies or to find political support for increasing the reduction further, they need to find measures to improve the acceptance among the affected users.

The aim of this study was to investigate the extent of access to and use of library electronic resources and their implications on remote users at the National Open University of Nigeria. Specific objectives were formulated to: find out the different types of electronic resources available in the NOUN Library; investigate academic staffs’ and students’ level of awareness of electronic resources available in the NOUN library; explore the various types of electronic resources used by academic staffs and students of NOUN; find out how academic staffs and students access and use electronic resources in NOUN library; analyze the policies that enable access to and use of electronic resources by academic staffs and students at NOUN; find out the perceptions and attitudes of academic staffs and students toward the electronic resources available in the NOUN library; and identify the challenges associated with access to and use of electronic resources by the academic staffs and students of NOUN. The study adopted a quantitative research approach and survey research method was employed. The study targeted 1,680 population samples of which include 1,513 Students, 140 Academic staffs, and 27 Academic Librarians. Probability (Stratified random and systematic) sampling and nonprobability (purposive) sampling methods were adopted. Two sample frames were used: Students - classified into subgroups (Level) in each selected study centers and Academic staff - classified into subgroups (academic staff/academic librarian). Online (Google form) self-administered closed-ended questionnaire was sent to participants’ email. Data collected were analyzed through Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). This finding revealed that electronic journals and electronic books are readily available in the NOUN library. Academic staff most likely, interact with the library staff or visit the library to be aware of library electronic resources, however, the students struggled to be aware through personal efforts. NOUN library creates awareness through the email and notice boards. The academic staff and students access and use the library electronic resources for various multidimensional purposes, however, there is a low patronage of these electronic resources by academic staff and students as less than 40% of academic staff and students access and use the library electronic resources. Electricity outage, low internet connectivity speed and high cost of access to internet were presented as challenges encountered while accessing and using electronic resources. Recommendations: the library management should develop awareness programmes that is appropriate for an ODL university community through the use of modern communication tools, and emphasy should be on the use of electronic resources in the university curriculum. / Information Science

Virtual reality tech is new, exciting and full of opportunities.Despite this the gaming section of virtual reality does not grow asfast as it was predicted it would be. Headsets and games areexpensive and perhaps a market model similar to the mobile gamingmarket would do the new tech good. A model that is heavily reliant onadvertisements and low prices.The purpose of this thesis is to show that virtual reality games areas viable an advertising target as mobile games that are a popularadvertisement medium. The study uses 2D billboard advertisements asthey are a non-intrusive advertisement format that can be implementedin a similar fashion on a mobile game and VR game.For this study two games were developed, one that runs on a OculusQuest VR headset and one for mobile Android devices. The games are asclose to each other as possible in terms of objective and settingwith the same advertisements implemented in them, each game featurestwo levels, one level contains advertisements and one does not.Surveys are used to find data regarding how the advertisementsaffected the game experience on both platforms. Interviews were thenconducted to find more qualitative information and to explain theresults as well as to find out what makes an advertisement good ortolerable.