M. Inf. / It has become increasingly difficult for end-users to locate, select and organise information published via the World Wide Web. This is largely due to the scattered nature of the Web and its ever-increasing use as publishing infrastructure. More scholarly information is also being published in multimedia format through the Web. Throughout the years, current awareness services and later Selective Dissemination of Information (SDI) have provided the means for scholars to keep abreast of the literature in print sources. Today such information is also published via the Web, hence scholars need to have a mechanism to keep abreast of the information published in digital format. Research was conducted to investigate guidelines scholars could use to stay abreast of new Web content. The investigation employed both a literature survey and an empirical method of collecting research data. The literature survey was conducted to establish trends in current awareness services and SDI, the use of the Web for disseminating and retrieving digital information, the impact of the Web on the scholarly communication process and current methods for keeping up to date with Web content. Empirical research in the form of structured interviews was executed to establish the needs of scholars regarding the spectrum of current awareness services that provide Web-based sources. The findings obtained from structured interviews and by means of the literature survey were used to develop a set of guidelines scholars could use to stay abreast of information published via the Web.

Marketing communications is regarded as a common function of all Web sites, even if this is not the express objective of the site. As no previous research specifically considered these issues, this study examined the extent to which lodges graded by the Tourism Grading Council of South Africa effectively use their Web sites as online marketing communications tools. A content analysis was used to investigate the Web sites of graded lodges according to a list of evaluation criteria based on the elements of the marketing communications mix (i.e., advertising, sales promotion, public relations, direct marketing and personal selling). A number of specific online marketing communications techniques that could be employed in a tourism firm’s Web site were identified from an extensive literature review for each element of the marketing communications mix. The extent to which these specific techniques were employed in the Web sites of the graded lodges was then determined. The findings show that the graded lodges are not using their Web sites effectively as online marketing communications tools for communications with their target audiences. Comparisons were also made between the three, four and five star lodges to determine whether differences were present in their Web sites based on their star grading. Overall, the lodges did not differ much in terms of the online marketing communications techniques that they employed and only slight differences existed. The main recommendation for this study is that the managers of South African graded lodges include as many of the 30 online marketing communications techniques investigated as possible in their Web sites. This study was limited as it only focused on lodges that have been graded by the Tourism Grading Council of South Africa and the findings cannot be generalised to all South African lodges or to other types of accommodation establishments. Potential reasons for the inclusion/exclusion of these techniques, whether the lodges maintain their Web sites themselves, what specific techniques Web site visitors regard as important and the fact that the researcher was the only coder of the sites were also limitations of this study that could be overcome in future research. Copyright / Dissertation (MCom)--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Marketing Management / MCom / Unrestricted

Submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Technology: Information Technology, Durban Institute of Technology, 2005. / This thesis investigates the applicability of certain software testing methodologies as the basis from which the new field of Web-based application testing can arise. In particular, it concentrates on performance testing issues and Web application testing, as these are responsible for ensuring the survival of a business organization in the new global competitive age presented by the Web and Internet technology. / M

The main purpose of this research is to investigate the Information Architecture (IA) of government web sites in Southern Africa. The government web sites of Mozambique and South Africa were selected for the purpose of this research. A further aim of this research was to derive a model for the IA of government web sites. The model was based on IA components and guidelines as well as on web site components and E-government requirements. The IA guidelines in the model were derived from general design guidelines and guidelines for government web sites. The IA guidelines in the proposed model were used to conduct an analytical and empirical evaluation of the selected sites. The selection of the sites was based on similarities in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) strategies and policies, the annual Internet growth rates, the Internet user profiles and the Egovernment initiatives in both countries. Differences between the sites also contributed to their selection. Mozambique is one of the least developed countries in the world, while South Africa is one of the most developed countries in Africa. Heuristic evaluation was used for the analytical evaluation while questionnaires and user testing were used for the empirical evaluation. Some of the usability problems identified in the heuristic evaluation, such as incorrect organisation of information and navigation issues, were also identified in the empirical evaluation, confirming to the existence of these usability problems. The results of this research show that the IA of government web sites has an impact on user performance and satisfaction and that the proposed model can be used to design and evaluate the IA of government web sites in Southern Africa.

Design guidelines are used in interaction design (IxD) for physical design and for evaluating the usability of designs and interactive products. Guidelines are widely used for physical design and evaluation, but have a number of problems. IxD patterns have been proposed as an alternative to guidelines, as they are claimed to have several advantages over guidelines. A small number of empirical studies provide evidence that patterns are beneficial when used in IxD. Additional research on the usefulness of IxD patterns is required. The primary research question investigated in this thesis was thus: How useful are IxD patterns as physical design and evaluation aids in IxD, as compared to design guidelines? The role of guidelines and patterns as design and evaluation aids in IxD was investigated and a comparison of guidelines and patterns, based on a set of guideline and pattern properties, was conducted. The concept of pattern and guideline usefulness was explored and a research agenda for guidelines and patterns was identified, together with a set of research questions for an empirical study. The empirical study of the use of patterns for evaluation, redesign and new design, as compared to guidelines, was conducted at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in 2004. The participants were a purposive sample of post-graduate Computing students, who were regarded as novice interaction designers. Two equivalent groups were formed, one that used patterns and one that used guidelines. Patterns were found to be as useful as guidelines when used as evaluation aids. Guidelines and patterns were identified as effective tools for identifying and explaining usability issues and design features. Best-effort matched sets of guidelines and patterns produced substantially different result sets when used to identify issues and features, with fairly low overlap. A substantial evaluator effect was observed for the use of guidelines and patterns for evaluation, and the results obtained were similar to those obtained by Molich et al. in their Comparative Usability Evaluation (CUE) studies. There was no statistically significant difference between the effectiveness of guidelines and patterns for evaluation. There was also no statistically significant difference between the perceived efficiency, effectiveness and satisfaction in use of guidelines and patterns for evaluation. Guidelines and patterns were found to be used in similar ways for evaluation. Patterns were found to be more effective than guidelines for redesign. Patterns were found to be as useful as guidelines when used for new design. There was no statistically significant difference between the effectiveness of guidelines and patterns for new design. There was also no statistically significant difference between the perceived efficiency, effectiveness and satisfaction in use of guidelines and patterns for redesign and new design. Guidelines and patterns were found to be used in similar ways for design. There was no statistically significant difference between the perceived usefulness of the format, content, ease of learning, and usefulness as personal and shared design languages, of guidelines and patterns. Both participant groups were equally agreeable to using guidelines and patterns in the future. The perceived usefulness of pattern collections was found to depend on the usability of the collection interface and the content quality of the patterns. The results of the empirical study thus provided empirical evidence that patterns were as useful as guidelines for evaluation and new design, and were perceived as positively as guidelines were. Patterns were found to be superior to guidelines for redesign. Patterns can therefore be used with a measure of confidence as early stage design aids for physical design and evaluation in the future. In addition to these findings, a number of opportunities for further research were identified.

In the recent past, wireless sensor technology has undergone advancements in its autonomous data collecting aspects, and has become an area worth investigating in relation to structural monitoring applications. The system described in this thesis aims at acquiring, storing and displaying overhead transmission line related data collected from a wireless sensor network. Open source tools were used in its development and implementation. The inherent linearly aligned topology of transmission line monitoring devices is not without shortcomings; hence analysis of linear node placement, hardware and software components was carried out to determine the feasibility of the system. Their limited data processing capabilities has motivated the development of a post processing wireless sensor application in order to present any collected structural data in an understandable format.

The main purpose of this thesis is an analysis of selected online stores which focus on selling bathroom products and equipment. The thesis is divided into theoretical and practical part. The theoretical part deals with basic aspects of web eshops in terms of technologies and trends. It is divided into the following parts: graphic design and web site design, visibility on the internet, SEO, communication - information, technical solutions, accessibility and eshop. These individual elements are the basis for creating an evaluation methodology, which will be used to assess selected eshops. The practical part contains its own assessment as a methodology. It evaluated a total of 11 selected eshops, one shop is assessed a detailed audit, it is a shop at www.bathshop.cz. Furthermore, all results are summarized and conclusions drawn from them, and recommendations. The main contribution of this thesis is a comprehensive comparison of selected eshops to eshop ww.bathshop.cz and making recommendations on the basis of the comparison.

Following the early days of the Internet and the World Wide Web, news media in Canada have gone on to develop their own news web sites with the intentions of meeting the on-line needs of media audiences, expanding their audience reach, and adding to revenue production and profitability on- and off-line. Web strategies have varied somewhat across the different media, but anecdotal evidence suggests that sports contents have been important for both print and television. This thesis focused on the latter, sports contents on television network websites, and was undertaken to evaluate how Canadian television stations are utilizing the Internet and web technologies to feature sports news and information. Only a few studies specific to sports television web sites have been done, and these have mainly focused on American news stations. The research objective of the thesis was to systematically examine the web presence of sports contents on Canadian television web sites by conducting a content analysis of identifiably unique sites in the Canadian context. A site analysis protocol was developed through an iterative process. An initial instrument was constructed drawing on past research in this area. In particular, prior work by Bates et al. (1996 & 1997), Pines (1999), Bucy, Lang, Potter & Grabe (1999), Sparks (2001) provided systematic measures for examiriirig the Web presence of television stations. Ha & James's definition of interactivity (1998) was also useful as was the work of Cho (1999), Rogers & Thorson (2000) on Internet advertising. The initial instrument was evaluated and modified during a series of trial scans. The final instrument focused on five areas: body of the home page, types of content, presentation mechanisms, interactivity and advertising. A systematic site analysis was conducted from August to October, 2003, and a total of twenty-one sports home pages were analyzed. Three web sites (TSN, Leafs TV and The Score) were found to have a good balance in the five areas evaluated in the study. The results of independent-samples t-tests showed that general television networks had more sports top news and hyperlinks to other news items than sport specialty networks. By comparison, sports specialty networks tended to have more sport-related search engines and greater efficiency of space. CBC's "Sports Forums" that were configured on its sports home page gave the public broadcaster the highest quotient for interactivity in comparison with the twenty private networks and stations in the study. Advertising was present in all of the sites, and the findings point to an increasing interest in the televisual and sport web site media in producing revenue through web-based advertising. / Education, Faculty of / Kinesiology, School of / Graduate

Ph.D. / Electronic government (e-Government), implemented towards transformation of public service delivery, aims to contribute to effective information management practices between the government and citizens and/or businesses. E-Government is not a panacea to problems associated with government service delivery and issues such as corruption, but it may go a long way in mitigating its existence in the public service delivery value chains. Many studies have documented the benefits associated with successful implementation of e-Government initiatives: it facilitates interactive, vertical, collaborative and participatory engagement of citizens, businesses and other governments, reducing the cost of service delivery; encourages global participation of citizens in the decision-making processes; provides an opportunity for governments to rethink and reformulate their administrative praxis and provides a framework where governments continuously re-engineer their business processes to retain currency and relevance to best practice. E-Government may further be utilised to mitigate corruption levels in the public sector. For example, the introduction of e-Procurement and e-Tendering can greatly reduce corruption in tendering processes. Zambia has started putting in place initiatives to aid e-Government implementation in the public delivery frameworks. Despite this being the case, there are no strategic initiatives to propagate e-Government. The motivation for this study stems from the fact that, apart from the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA) global e- Government assessments (at macro or global levels), little has been done to assess e- Government interventions and development in Zambia at the community, household, and individual level (that is, at micro levels). This being the case, factors to embed into the development of strategic initiatives for e-Government development in Zambia may not come from the present state of affairs on the ground. The UNDESA and other generic e- Government assessment models mostly assess e-Government readiness considering global metrics; in general, assessment is approached at a national level rather than at the micro level (such as a public organisation, community or individual level). With such generic e- Government assessment frameworks, the role of the private sector and other potential consumers of e-Government (such as citizens) is sometimes overlooked.

With the use of the Internet and the emerging of e-commerce, new and improved technologies and modeling techniques have been used to design and implement web-based database management systems.