The social web has emerged concurrent with a decline in Americans' community involvement and number of close friendships. Hundreds of millions of people connect online, but they appear to have fewer confidants and trust each other less. However, contrasting research finds that web users have better social integration and stronger relationships than their offline counterparts. This thesis resolves these contradictory views through a detailed examination of social network site (SNS) use and changes in relationships and individual well-being. The research is conducted at multiple levels looking at how different types of SNS use—direct interaction with others and more “passive consumption” of social news—influence the number and quality of individuals’ social ties and their aggregate social capital and well-being, including perceived social support, happiness, and physical health. The studies combine objective measures of SNS use (communication activity from the server logs of a popular social networking site) with self-reports of tie strength and well-being to accurately differentiate types of use with different partners. Longitudinal methods reveal how well-being changes over time with SNS use and are moderated by personal characteristics such as social communication skill and recent job loss.

With an increasing proportion of older people in the Australian population and increasing health and longevity, paid work after the age of 65 years may become an option or a necessity in the future. The focus of this research is on Australian women of the baby boom generation, their working futures, and the work-retirement decision. This is explored both from the viewpoint of women and from a social policy perspective. The research draws on Considine�s model of public policy, futures studies, and Beck�s concept of risk society. The research comprises three studies. Using focus group research, Study 1 explored the views of Australian women of the baby boom generation on work after the age of 65 years. Study 2 aimed to explore current thinking on the research topic in Australia and overseas. Computer-mediated communication involving an Internet website and four scenarios for the year 2020 were used for this study. Study 3 consists of the analysis of quantitative data from the Healthy Retirement Project, focusing on attitudes towards retirement, retirement plans, and the preferred and expected age of retirement. The importance of choice and a work � life balance emerged throughout the research. Women in high-status occupations were found to be more likely to be open to the option of continuing paid work beyond age 65 than women in low-status jobs. However, the women were equally likely to embrace future volunteering. The research findings suggest that policies for an ageing female workforce should be based on the values of inclusiveness, fairness, self-determination, and social justice, and address issues of workplace flexibility, equality in the workplace, recognition for unpaid community and caring work, opportunities for life-long learning, complexity and inequities of the superannuation system, and planning for retirement. Further, providing a guaranteed minimum income for all Australians should be explored as a viable alternative to the current social security system.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-02T19:05:53Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 3952.pdf: 2039842 bytes, checksum: 13562902fbbd07a996facebf66d35dd7 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-10-21 / Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos / In this research, we describe how common sense knowledge with machine translation can help the communication among people with different cultural background. In order to evaluate this possibility, we developed a bilingual chat called Culture-to-Chat or C2C that provides a communication channel and has resources that help its user to create messages in a second language. In the computer-mediated communication field, it is possible to notice that people are crossing geographic borders and having opportunities to share experiences among different cultures. Sharing information in a non native language can be difficult to some users. Some computational tools that support communication uses machine translation to aid users that need to work with different language. C2C also uses this approach and adopts a semantic network of cultural knowledge, collaboratively built on the Web through the Open Mind Common Sense in Brazil project (OMCS-Br) to work with cultural expression, in other words, terms whose meaning depends on user‟s culture. Following a user-centered design approach that focuses on prototyping, we present the development of C2C passing by low, middle and high fidelity prototypes. In order to observe how this computational tool is used and collect the opinion of target users, we perform a pilot study involving Brazilian and Canadian users. This study showed some enhancements for the tool and pointed evidences that this chat contributes to the communication between people with different cultural backgrounds. / Neste trabalho é descrito como o conhecimento de senso comum em conjunto com a tradução automática pode apoiar a comunicação entre pessoas de diferentes culturas. Para verificar a viabilidade do senso comum foi desenvolvido um chat bilíngue chamado Culture-to-Chat ou C2C, que, além de prover um canal de comunicação, possui mecanismos que auxiliam o usuário na criação de mensagens em língua estrangeira. No campo da comunicação mediada por computador, percebe-se que as pessoas estão cruzando as fronteiras geográficas e tendo oportunidades de troca de experiências entre diferentes culturas. Para alguns usuários, essa troca de informações é feita em uma língua não nativa, o que pode ser uma tarefa difícil para eles. Algumas ferramentas computacionais que apoiam a comunicação propõem o uso de tradução automática para trabalhar com usuários falantes de diferentes línguas. O C2C, além de adotar tal estratégia, adota a rede semântica de conhecimento cultural construida colaborativamente via Web do projeto Open Mind Common Sense no Brasil (OMCS-Br) para trabalhar com expressões culturais, ou seja, termos cujo significado depende da cultura do usuário. Utilizando uma abordagem centrada no usuário focando-se em prototipação, o desenvolvimento do C2C e suas funcionalidades são apresentados por meio de protótipos de diferentes níveis de fidelidade (baixa, média e alta). Com o intuito de observar o uso dessa ferramenta computacional e coletar opiniões de usuários, foi realizado um estudo piloto envolvendo usuários brasileiros e canadenses. Tal estudo mostrou possíveis melhorias pra a ferramenta e apontou indícios de que este chat contribui na comunicação entre pessoas de diferentes culturas.

Cette recherche a pour objet les interactions en ligne sur un réseau social numérique dédié à l’enseignement / apprentissage du français langue étrangère (FLE) et s’interroge sur la façon dont l’espace en ligne s’intègre au dispositif de formation pour fournir des contextes nouveaux pour les interactions sociales et l’apprentissage de la langue. La recherche repose sur une analyse écologique d’usages dans un contexte universitaire homoglotte d’apprentissage de la langue et une analyse des discours des différents acteurs pour mettre au jour leurs perceptions du dispositif et de ses affordances ainsi que leur appropriation de l’espace en ligne. Ce travail se veut contribuer à élaborer des outils pertinents pour l’analyse de la participation et à une meilleure compréhension de ce qui se construit dans les interactions sociales, pour les participants, dans le cadre d’une communication médiatisée en contexte pédagogique. L’analyse s’intéresse (1) aux activités participatives et à leurs formats conversationnels et énonciatifs, (2) à la pluralité des modes de participation et des modes relationnels d’engagement social qui s’installent sur le réseau socio-pédagogique, et (3) aux régimes spatiaux et attentionnels propres aux espaces numériques. L’étude montre que le réseau socio-pédagogique est peu utilisé et les usages observables profitent peu des propriétés d’ouverture, conversationnelles et sociales du réseau. Si un certain nombre d’affordances sont perçues par les participants, elles restent peu actualisées dans le cadre de notre étude. Face à ces usages limités, l’analyse tente de repérer dans les discours et les activités proposées, les freins et obstacles à des changements de pratiques. A partir de ce constat, la recherche propose des pistes didactiques tenant compte des enjeux sociaux et relationnels afin que le réseau socio-pédagogique puisse plus distinctement être perçu comme un espace médiateur d’activités sociales de littératie numérique. / This research aims at studying online interactions in a social network that is specific to teaching and learning French as a Foreign Language (FFL). It questions the way the virtual environment incorporates with the training device so to provide new contexts of interactions and language learning.The data used for this research belong to an academic and language learning context which enabled an ecological analysis of the uses.Furthermore a discourse analysis from various participants was undertaken to highlight their impressions of the device, the noticed affordances and their appropriation with the online environment. This study contributes at elaborating useful tools for the analysis of participation and a better understanding of social interactions in the case of a mediated communication in a pedagogical context.The analyses are based on (1) participative activities, their conversational and enunciative format, (2) the various participation modes and relationnal social commitment that flourishes in a socio-pedagogical network and (3) the spatial and attentionnal features that are specific to a virtual learning environment.The study shows that there are few uses of the socio-pedagogical network, and the various ones that have been noticed did not benefit from the network’s wide access, conversational and social design.As a certain number of affordances have been noted by the participants, few of them were used in the case of our study. Considering those limited uses, the analysis tries to spot the restraints and obstacles to these changing practices by taking into account the participant’s discourse and suggested activities. From this observation, the research suggests didactical guidelines that include this social and relational challenge - and to consider this socio-pedagogical network as an environment which mediates social activities and digital litteracy.

During face-to-face meetings, humans use multimodal information, including verbal information, visual information, body language, facial expressions, and other non-verbal gestures. In contrast, during computer-mediated-communication (CMC), humans rely either on mono-modal information such as text-only, voice-only, or video-only or on bi-modal information by using audiovisual modalities such as video teleconferencing. Psychologically, the difference between the two lies in the level of the subjective experience of presence, where people perceive a reduced feeling of presence in the case of CMC. Despite the current advancements in CMC, it is still far from face-to-face communication, especially in terms of the experience of presence. This thesis aims to introduce new concepts, theories, and technologies for presence design where the core is actions for creating presence. Thus, the contribution of the thesis can be divided into a technical contribution and a knowledge contribution. Technically, this thesis details novel technologies for improving presence experience during mediated communication (video teleconferencing). The proposed technologies include action robots (including a telepresence mechatronic robot (TEBoT) and a face robot), embodied control techniques (head orientation modeling and virtual reality headset based collaboration), and face reconstruction/retrieval algorithms. The introduced technologies enable action possibilities and embodied interactions that improve the presence experience between the distantly located participants. The novel setups were put into real experimental scenarios, and the well-known social, spatial, and gaze related problems were analyzed. The developed technologies and the results of the experiments led to the knowledge contribution of this thesis. In terms of knowledge contribution, this thesis presents a more general theoretical conceptual framework for mediated communication technologies. This conceptual framework can guide telepresence researchers toward the development of appropriate technologies for mediated communication applications. Furthermore, this thesis also presents a novel strong concept – presence through actions - that brings in philosophical understandings for developing presence- related technologies. The strong concept - presence through actions is an intermediate-level knowledge that proposes a new way of creating and developing future 'presence artifacts'. Presence- through actions is an action-oriented phenomenological approach to presence that differs from traditional immersive presence approaches that are based (implicitly) on rationalist, internalist views.

Online adolescent friendships and social networking among adolescents are current phenomena that have emerged, and exploded, as part of the digital age and the vast development of communication technologies. The primary aim of this study was to gain knowledge and understanding regarding the nature and quality of online friendships and social networking among adolescents. A sequential explanatory mixed method design, was put to use for the purpose of this study. The quantitative data was collected first in the form of a short survey, by utilising a self-developed questionnaire to obtain a general overview of the social network practices and the forming and maintaining of online friendships among adolescents. Twenty five participants took part in the survey. This study was followed by a qualitative study in the form of interviews, to clarify, elaborate and explain the quantitative findings. Five information rich participants were interviewed. The findings of the empirical investigation revealed that adolescents, being part of the Net Generation, base their concept of socialising with friends on digital and communication technology, especially cell phones. They are connected to their friends 24 hours a day. The sense of safety and support they experience through this constant connectedness strengthens their self-esteem, self-confidence and self-worth and contributes to their identity formation. It is therefore recommended that parents and educators should accept that adolescents live in a virtual world and their new way of socialising, needs to be acknowledged. Parents and educators should adjust accordingly, by getting educated in this field themselves. The Net Generation is a generation who focuses on relationships and collaboration through technology and this should be exploited by anybody who has contact or interacts with the adolescent of today. / Psychology of Education / M. Ed. (Guidance and Counselling)

The researcher investigated internet usage among students at the University of Nairobi using a quantitative case study method. A questionnaire-based survey was done among 381 students and face-to-face interviews were conducted with the university‟s library staff. The research findings indicate that the students' level of awareness about the internet services offered at the university was high. The students had good basic computer and internet skills; however, they lacked more advanced skills and this negatively affected their use of internet resources. The students used the internet for various purposes, including to study, teach and do research; to communicate; and for social interaction. The major recommendations of the study include providing formal internet training and adequate facilities; implementing a better, inclusive policy on internet use; and better co-ordinated university efforts. Free internet access should be made available to all the university students, if not all members of the university community. / Information Science / M.A. (Information Science)

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Syftet med studien är att presentera ett designkoncept för publika diskussioner på nätet med målet att uppnå djupare diskussioner och minska mängden information overload. Arbetet använder metoden Concept Driven Interaction Design (CDID) som går ut på att skapa ett designkoncept utifrån flera olika teorier som appliceras genom interaktionsdesign. Ett designkoncept innehåller tre delar: ett namn, ett syfte och huvudprinciper. CDID innehåller sju steg som arbetet är utformat efter: 1.      Concept Generation – Summeras i en tabell som jämför diskussioner i forum (med flera antagande) och diskussioner med hjälp av metoden Philosophy for Children (P4C), samt annan teori. 2.      Concept Exploration – Åtta olika designaspekter identifieras utifrån jämförelsetabellen. 3.      Internal Concept Critique – Designaspekterna jämförs med två snarlika diskussionsformat. 4.      Design of Artifacts – Designkoncept version 1 skapas. 5.      External Design Critique – Intervjuer utförs för att undersöka intervjupersonerna generella erfarenheter av online diskussioner, testar antagandena från jämförelsetabellen och ge direkt feedback på första versionen av designkonceptet. 6.      Concept Revisited – Ändringar görs baserat på intervjumaterial och direkt feedback. 7.      Concept Contextualization – Designkonceptet kopplas tillbaka till litteraturen. Studien resulterar i ett designkoncept kallat CoFramer och stödjer dessa huvudprinciper som ställs i kontrast till material som identifierats genom intervjuerna: Tabell 1: CoFramers huvudprinciper och faktorer från intervjuer om diskussioner på forum. CoFramers huvudprinciper | Från intervjuer om diskussioner på forum Strukturerad början och slut | Diskussion utan tydligt slut Begränsat antal deltagare | Stor mängd deltagare Minimum antal deltagare | Många inaktiva åskådare Explicita deltagare | Lite information om deltagare Gemensamma förutsättningar | Otydlighet kring deltagares förutsättningar Begränsad informationstäthet per inlägg | Långa inlägg och/eller snabba inlägg Den röda tråden och parallella trådar | Oftast parallella trådar Aktiv samtalsledare | Outredda missförstånd Studien indikerar på att CoFramer bör resultera i mer strukturerade diskussioner och som utsätter användaren för en lägre mängd information overload och mindre grounding cost jämfört med vad som vanligtvis uppstår i publika diskussioner online. / The focus of this essay is to develop a design concept for online public discussions with deep discussions and low information overload. The method used is Concept Driven Interaction Design (CDID) which involves constructing a design concept by applying a variety of theories in tangible interaction design. A design concept has three basic parts: a name, high-level goals and outlines generic principles. CDID includes seven steps which is used in this work: 1.      Concept Generation – Formatted into a table that compare forum discussion (with several hypothesis) compared to discussions with the method Philosophy for Children (P4C) and other theories. 2.      Concept Exploration – Eight distinct design aspects are identified from the comparison table. 3.      Internal Concept Critique – The design aspects are compared to three similar discussion formats. 4.      Design of Artifacts – Design concept version 1 is created. 5.      External Design Critique – Interviews are conducted to explore their general experience of online discussions, investigate the hypothesis from the comparison table and to seek direct feedback on the first draft of the design concept. 6.      Concept Revisited – Changes are made to the design concept based on the interview material and the direct feedback. 7.      Concept Contextualization – The design concept is related to the original literature. The result of the study is a design concept named CoFramer. CoFramer’s generic principles are summarized and contrasted against factors identified from the interview material in this table: Tabell 2: CoFramer’s generic principles and interviews about online discussions. CoFramer’s generic principles | From interview material on forum discussion Organized start and ending | Discussions without clear ending Limited number of participants | Large number of participants Minimum number of participants | Large number of inactive spectators Explicit participants | Low information about participants Common conditions | Vagueness in participants conditions Limited information density per post | Long posts and/or fast posts The red thread and parallel threads | Often parallel threads Active facilitator | Unresolved misunderstandings The study indicates that CoFramer would create more structured discussions with a lower amount of information overload and less grounding cost compared what normally arise in public online discussions.