This thesis will analyze the 2012 presidential campaign strategies, and their impact on the election. Specifically it will look at whether attack ads had an impact on the swing state polls. It will also examine the influence of technology, social media and grassroots campaigning on voter turnout. From my research I conclude that the Obama Campaign outdid the Romney Campaign in all sectors previously mentioned. However, one cannot definitely claim that these factors solely decided the election outcome. What one can conclude is that these strategies, particularly technology applications and websites, social media networks and grassroots campaigning will play major roles in future elections, as well as promoting democracy and enriched voter participation.

With increasing incidence of severe disasters, global policies and frameworks have been shifting towards an emphasis on collaboration and community resilience. The greater use of information systems to assist with disasters has prompted a need to examine how technology can support collaboration and resilience. Hence, this thesis aims to identify a set of requirements for a collaborative online asset mapping tool through a requirement engineering process. A multiple case study design was used with the objective of answering: (1) what are the functional, non-functional, and general system requirements of an online asset mapping tool for disaster preparedness; (2) is a standard “off-the-shelf” asset-mapping application feasible for community development and adaptive capacity building for disaster management; and (3) what are the potential designs that can address the requirements? The specific cases examined were The Region of Waterloo, Ontario and Truro, Nova Scotia. The data from the cases was used to perform qualitative content analysis combined with activity diagrams, to determine and analyze the requirements for an online asset mapping tool to aid in disaster preparedness. The findings of the research included shared requirements between the two communities that encompassed: system purpose, system functionalities, user characteristics, and system requirements. Furthermore, prototype user interface (UI) wireframes were developed using the requirements results to show a potential design of an online asset mapping application. This thesis research addressed the need to design a tool that facilitates all aspects of the asset mapping process. Ultimately, this research builds the foundation to which future research can examine the requirements to design and develop a citizen-oriented tool to enhance community disaster resilience.

Thesis (PhD (Pscychology))--University of Stellenbosch, 2006.