Initially digital communication was used primarily as a digital advertisement. Digital communication has matured and serves a valuable role for politicians and governments alike, through such campaigns as Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi’s 2010 election campaign. Digital communications continue to be used for new means, including sharing information and fundraising, with increased levels of success. The historical challenge of engaging youth aged 18-30 in civic activity and the documented high adoption rates among youth of digital communication tools such as social media, smart phones and Web 2.0 has created opportunities to engage youth by entering their digital environments. The study explores Nenshi’s campaign as a case study, exploring primary and secondary data to assess the ability to engage youth through the implementation of a digital communication strategy.

The Web 2.0 environment has altered North American society immeasurably as producers and consumers have merged into one, the prosumer. This new type of individual is visible in the blogosphere, in particular when examining travel blogs. The creators of travel blogs spend a considerable amount of their leisure and work creating and maintaining these travelogues, but little research has queried them about these efforts. The online contributions travel bloggers make potentially places their leisure choices within the Serious Leisure Perspective (SLP), more specifically within the sub-category of serious leisure. By engaging travel bloggers through a qualitative based questionnaire about their travel blogs, this research identified motivations and benefits of blogging. Recommendations for further research about online pursuits and serious leisure are suggested and the ways prosumers are linked to and have formed relationships with the mainstream travel industry are discussed. This research provides insight into travel bloggers’ perceptions of their contributions to the Web 2.0 environment, to the Serious Leisure Perspective, and to the travel industry.

Entwicklung von AJAX - Was ist Web 2.0 / Social Web? - Anwendungen im Web die AJAX nutzen

Problematisation Previous study has indicated that social media is an effective marketing tool. Moreover, Weibo, a Chinese social network contains large potential for the companies. However little theoretical guidance exists on what are the key features of Weibo marketing. Purpose and research question The purpose of this study contributes to a better understanding of the social media by analyzing the advantages and disadvantages of Weibo for Western companies that expect to launch a successful marketing strategy. Methodology This research is done through qualitative approach and is of an abductive nature . It uses a case-study methodology and relying on empirical data and theoretical conceptions. The main empirical findings are based on collection of 13 personal  interviews. Results and conclusion The result of this paper contributed to deep understanding of Weibo marketing. Therefore, the theoretical guideline in form of model has been developed and includes 8  key features (4 advantages and 4 disadvantages) that should be considered by Western companies in order to apply successful marketing strategy on Weibo.

In 2006, the United Church of Canada developed a website, WonderCafe.ca, that provided space for internet users to engage in discussions about religion and spirituality online. This website balanced user freedom to explore any topic of discussion with promoting the United Church to visitors. The website uses Web 2.0 technology, which gives internet users a great amount of freedom to shape the space that they participate in online. Using Kim Knott’s spatial analysis, this thesis explores the types of spaces created by the United Church and WonderCafe users. It also seeks to understand the factors the lead to the creation of WonderCafe, the tensions present on the website over its purpose, how one understands community online, the types of values highlighted within this community, and how internet space differs from offline space.

Thesis (M.A.)--Western Washington University, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 61-65). Also available in electronic format.

Zugl.: Chemnitz, Techn. Universiẗat, Diplomarbeit, 2008. / Literaturverz. S. [188] - 201.

Graz, Univ., Dipl.-Arb., 2009.

Zugl.: Köln, Fachhochschule, Bachelorarbeit, 2007.

Univ., Magister- und Diplomarbeit, 2010--Frankfurt (Main). / Engl. Übers. des Hauptsacht.: "Social reality in "virtual worlds""