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.

M.Sc. (Information Technology) / The internet grew exponentially over the last decade. With more information available on the web, search engines, with the help of web crawlers also known as web bots, gather information on the web and indexes billions of web pages. This indexed information helps users to find relevant information on the internet. An extranet is a sub-set of the internet. This part of the web controls access for a selected audience to a specific resource and are also referred to as restricted web sites. Various industries use extranets for different purposes and store different types of information on it. Some of this information could be of a confidential nature and therefore it is important that this information is adequately secured and should not be accessible by web bots. In some cases web bots can accidently stumble onto poorly secured pages in an extranet and add the restricted web pages to their indexed search results. Search engines like Google, that are designed to filter through a large amount of data, can accidently crawl onto access restricted web pages if such pages are not secured properly. Researchers found that it is possible for web crawlers of well known search engines to access poorly secured web pages in access restricted web sites. The risk is that not all web bots have good intentions and that some have a more malicious intent. These malicious web bots search for vulnerabilities in extranets and use the vulnerabilities to access confidential information. The main objective of this dissertation is to develop a prototype web bot called Ferret that would crawl through a web site developed by a web developer(s). Ferret will try to discover and access restricted web pages that are poorly secured in the extranet and report the weaknesses. From the information and findings of this research a best practice guideline will be drafted that will help developers to ensure access restricted web pages are secured and invisible to web bots.

This thesis presents a feasibility study of a Web-based digital music library and purchasing system. It investigates the current status of the enabling technologies for developing such a system. An analysis of various Internet audio codecs, streaming audio protocols, Internet credit card payment security methods, and ways for accessing remote Web databases is presented. The objective of the analysis is to determine the viability and the economic benefits of using these technologies when developing systems that facilitate music distribution over the Internet. A prototype of a distributed digital music library and purchasing system named WAPS (for Web-based Audio Purchasing System) was developed and implemented in the Java programming language. In this thesis both the physical and the logical component elements of WAPS are explored in depth so as to provide an insight into the inherent problems of creating such a system, as well as the overriding benefits derived from the creation of such a system.

The role and power of ICT today, particularly the Internet, cannot be underestimated. The Internet has a great impact on the business environment, where a large majority of companies and organisations have made substantial investments in an online presence in the form of websites, as well as the IT infrastructure needed to improve business processes. In terms of websites, research has shown that it is critical to identify the target market of the site and the actual users, and to construct the site according to their specific needs and preferences. This is to a large extent the focus of the field of Human Computer Interaction. It therefore makes perfect sense that many software products and websites fail to meet the users‟ needs, as they are designed mainly by Western designers for Eastern and African users. In essence, the failure is due to the fact that the design does not accommodate the cultural behaviours, understandings and preferences of the intended users, thus making it difficult for them to use and adopt them. This has been confirmed by many researchers who have studied various culture dimensions and their relation to Web design. As mentioned, the role of the Internet in terms of its effect in the business world is becoming increasingly important. However, the Internet could prove to play an influential role in the public sector as well and could therefore be used as a critical tool by government in the form of e-Government. Many countries are adopting e-Government initiatives in an attempt to improve their relations within government itself and with their citizens and businesses. This would help them to render better service delivery and at the same time empower the citizens to also participate in the governance of the country itself. The concept for this dissertation was formulated in terms of three key ingredients: e-Government, culture dimensions and Web design. The purpose of this dissertation is to examine the way a specific culture dimension, referred to as the cultural-context dimension, which focuses on the communication process, can impact in Web design. Once this is achieved, it will be possible to determine how this can positively affect the design of the South African e-Government website so that the overall usability of the site may be improved. The improvements will be justified because the site would then match the cultural behaviours, perceptions and Web design preferences of South African users. In short, the goal of this III dissertation is to provide guidelines and recommendations that will improve the South African e-Government website (www.gov.za) by examining anthropologist Edward Hall‟s cultural-context dimension and its role in the Web design process.

<p> This document describes a research study that investigates ways of designing the Web atmospherics of retail shopping sites to better support consumers in their product information seeking. In this regard, the document identifies two significant modes of product information seeking (product browsing and product searching) and concentrates on two specific types of Web atmospherics (information presentation and information focus). Information presentation concerns the format of information displayed on the Web shopping interface, while information focus concerns the granularity of this displayed information. Utilizing these theoretical constructs, this document proposes that: i) matching information presentation to information seeking mode will lead to increased levels of consumer perceived value with Web shopping sites; ii) information seeking mode will influence user preferences for Web page design elements of Web pages with different information focus granularities; iii) information seeking mode will yield distinctive patterns of on-line consumer behavior; and iv) information presentation will impact the extent to which consumers interact with a Web shopping site. </p> <p> In order to investigate the effects of information presentation and information focus on consumer Web information seeking, this document outlines a randomized experiment. The experiment places subjects into either a browsing or searching mode, and manipulates information presentation within a simulated Web shopping environment. Measured outcomes in terms of perceived hedonic and utilitarian values are used to determine interactions between information seeking mode and information presentation. An analysis of test subjects' usage of the experimental Web site is conducted to assess: i) how information presentation and information seeking mode impact test subjects' preferences for Web pages and Web page design elements of different information focus granularities; and ii) the extent to which analysis of the interactions yield distinctive patterns of on-line behavior. </p> <p> Findings from the experiment provide support for two distinct behavioral patterns corresponding to searching and browsing information seeking modes: i) searchers and browsers chose to view Web pages and Web page design elements consistent with their information focus; and ii) on-line behavior is moderated by varying the level of information presentation. Specifically, browsing is associated with a more diffuse information focus than is searching; and as predicted, browsers view more pages and click on hyper-links that are of a more diffuse information focus (category-level pages, view related products) than do searchers. Further the moderating role of information presentation is seen in the number of search pages viewed by searchers and browsers at each level of information presentation. The results also indicate that the perceived hedonic and utilitarian value scales are likely not sufficiently sensitive to measure the experimental manipulations in this experiment. </p> <p> In addition to the running of an experiment, a key deliverable of this research is the development of a research tool that simulates a real-life shopping environment where consumers browse and search for product-related information. The tool allows for placement of subjects into experimental treatments that utilize different renderings of the shopping interface. The tool also provides a means of measuring subject responses through a built-in questionnaire and a behavioral tracking mechanism. Through the running of the experiment, the tool is shown to be effective at producing treatment differences and capturing behavioral patterns of users' interactions with the simulated shopping interface. </p> / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

This qualitative case study began with a question: How can interactivity be taught, in particular online interactivity? Additionally, how does the teaching artist’s practice of online interactivity inform their studio teaching of interactive related themes? As such, this study first discloses patterns of the three select digital media artists’ artistic experiences of online interactivity. Then, this study aims to explore the reciprocal relationships between their practices and studio teaching. The three participating artists include: Lynn Hershman Leeson, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, and Martine Neddam. The three selected artists have worked with digital media, with a focus on the Internet and online web browsers since the mid to late-1990s, when the Web was in the early stages of its public access and information deployment. In order to probe into this study’s research theme through the artists’ own voices, this study conducts in-depth interviews via email and Skype meetings. This study also employs In Vivo coding for data analysis in order to closely examine the interview data. The findings present a unit of discovered key concepts in response to the central research question and its sub-questions. In response to the role of online interactivity in the artistic process, four key concepts have emerged: active participation, relationship, freedom, and artistic language. The artists believe that the creation of online interactivity has its roots in critical reflection of digital culture with humanistic views. In regard to pedagogical and instructional strategies related to the participating teaching artists’ practices of online interactivity, the three primary patterns discovered in this study are: artistic experience, problem-solving and dialogue. Surprisingly, the findings show that the artists’ responses to their pedagogies present a general view of studio art reaching, rather than an emphasis on teaching online interactivity in particular. The artists described that their pedagogies are informed by their practices, which deal with different challenges in a problem-solving process. These problems cover technological skills, practical matters, and mindsets. For the artists, their role of the artist-as-teacher is to guide their students in developing the ability to think holistically, and give them problem-solving skills in the students’ individual artistic processes.

No description available.

This content analysis examined presence of 47 public relations community support variables on a systematic random sample of 166 Fortune 500 corporate web pages. Three hypotheses and two research questions guided the analysis. Hypotheses predicted (1) the increased implementation of community support gateway links on corporate web sites since 2000, (2) that corporate industry type influences the Web presence of community support, and (3) that corporate rank influences the Web presence of community support. Research questions analyzed one-way and two-way tool presence as well as community support presence at local, national, and global community levels. Results supported corporate rank as an indicator of community support on corporate web pages; however, results did not support corporate industry as an indicator of community support or the increase of community support presence on corporate web sites. Analysis includes discussion regarding reasons for lack of community support and two-way communication tool presence on corporate web sites. The thesis concludes with recommendations for implementation of two-way public relations community support tools in order to facilitate mutual understanding, trust, and dialogue between a corporation and its local, national, and global communities. / Master of Arts

O desenvolvimento comercial da internet possibilitou o surgimento de sistemas de informação que se apoiam no uso da world wide web como plataforma. Esses sistemas baseados na web (web-based systems) têm aplicações em diversas áreas e setores econômicos. No ramo educacional, eles têm sido aplicados como base para os processos de ensino e aprendizagem via computador (e-learning) e são, comumente, denominados de Ambientes Virtuais de Aprendizagem (AVA). Os AVAs podem ser utilizados tanto para o ensino exclusivamente a distância quanto como apoio ao ensino presencial. O presente trabalho tem como objeto de investigação justamente o emprego de ambientes virtuais como tecnologia de apoio ao ensino presencial tradicional dado em sala de aula em cursos de graduação do ensino superior. O crescente uso de AVAs para tal finalidade leva ao questionamento de quais são as dimensões e características de qualidade destes ambientes e como estas dimensões estão associadas com os seus efeitos, quais sejam, a satisfação, o uso e os benefícios percebidos pelos usuários de tais sistemas? Desta forma, o trabalho tem como objetivo identificar as dimensões de qualidade em AVAs, por meio do estabelecimento de um modelo teórico que evidencie quais são os atributos determinantes em relação à qualidade em ambientes virtuais de ensino e quais são os efeitos e os impactos individuais em torno dos usuários discentes. Para tanto, são realizadas duas pesquisas de campo. A primeira é descritiva-explicativa, de abordagem quantitativa, com o emprego de Modelagem de Equações Estruturais, como método de análise e delineamento da pesquisa. Esta pesquisa foi feita com discentes usuários de um ambiente virtual disponibilizado por uma IES e teve como objetivo a elaboração de um modelo de relações de qualidade em AVAs. A segunda pesquisa consiste em um estudo com abordagem essencialmente descritiva, que tem como objetivo classificar quais são as características de relevância nos AVAs, de acordo com o Modelo Kano de classificação de requisitos. Os principais resultados apontam que a qualidade da informação e a qualidade do sistema influenciam na satisfação e nos benefícios percebidos pelos usuários dos AVAs e que as características destas dimensões são consideradas mais significativas do que as funcionalidades disponíveis nos referidos sistemas. / The commercial development of the internet enabled the birth of information systems that rely on the use of the world wide web as a platform. These web-based systems have applications in various fields and economic sectors. In the education sector, they have been used as basis for computer teaching and learning processes (e-learning) and are commonly called Virtual Learning Environments (VLE). These VLEs can be used both for distance teaching exclusively and as support for students in traditional presential classes. This work investigates the virtual environments use as support technology for students in traditional classroom undergraduate courses in higher education. The growing use of VLEs for this purpose raises the following questions: what are the dimensions and quality characteristics of these environments and how are these dimensions associated with their effects, satisfaction, use, and net benefits perceived by users of such systems? Thus, the study aims to identify the VLEs quality dimensions, through the establishment of a theoretical model showing what the relevant VLE dimensions relating to education quality are and what the effects and individuals impacts are for user-learners. To this end, two researches were conducted. The first one was descriptive-explanatory, with a quantitative approach, using Structural Equation Modeling as analysis method and research design. This research was made with students that use a VLE and had the purpose to elaborate a VLE quality relationship model. The second study is essentially descriptive, and aims to classify which features are most relevant in VLEs, according to the Kano´s Model requirements classification. The main findings indicate that the information quality and system quality influence the satisfaction and net benefits perceived by VLEs users and characteristics of these dimensions are considered more important than the functionality features available in such systems.

The project developed eBay Learning Center System (ELCS), a web-based application that provides current and potential eBay users a way to learn about the many functions of the popular online auction and shopping web site and be successful eBay traders. ELCS provides end users with online tutorials, available both in multimedia and text formats, and methods of communicating with system administrators and other users by means of a message box and a discussion forum to facilitate learning and collaborative problem solving. The system employs current technologies such as SQL, HTML, ASP.NET, VBScript, XML, ODBC, and ADO.