M.Inf. / The research study investigates the importance of information as a resource in academic institutions. The study serves to answer questions appertaining to management of information as a resource, such as, what is information resource management? How should information as a resource be managed in academic institutions? How should information be audited? Which stages should be followed in developing information policy? The interrelationships of information as a resource, information auditing and information policy as managerial components are discussed. Information audit and information policy become the major components of management of information as a resource. Information in various enterprises is becoming increasingly recognized as a resource. The study purports to indicate that information as a resource can be managed like other traditional resources such as labour, entrepreneurship, capital and natural resources to use it for competitive advantage. The aims of information audit and information policy are to serve as fundamental development of an information managerial strategy. The information audit enables the information service to pursue the most significant strategic marketing of its information resources. The necessary breadth of information auditing techniques, such as Burk and Horton's "Infomap" are required to fulfill a wide variety of objectives. They analyze the effective methodology for auditing information resource controls and help to identify relevant and accurate information resources for the purpose of learning, teaching and research. The purpose of developing information policy is prompted by the objective of which the information enterprise would successfully like to achieve. It is more appropriate to develop a set of information policies, each of which is concerned with a specific area of operation or focussed on other topics of interest and informational value within the academic institution. At the ultimate end the University of the North is singled out as a model for the development of information policy.

D.Litt. et Phil. / The purpose of this research was to determine the status of e-readiness of Small and Medium-Sized enterprises (SMEs) in the ICT sector in Botswana with respect to information access using ICTs for competitiveness in the local and international markets. The population of study consisted of key informants from 114 SMEs in the ICT sector in Gaborone and Francistown, the capital city and the second largest city of Botswana respectively. The official list of ICT companies provided by the government of Botswana was used as the sampling frame. The research used a two-phase design - the preliminary survey and the main survey of the project. The preliminary survey consisted of two stages. During the first stage, a short structured questionnaire was administered to a census of 114 key informants from SMEs in the ICT sector. During the second stage, six focus group discussions were used to collect data from key stakeholders in the ICT sector who included representatives from: ICT companies, ICT professional body in Botswana, government utility corporations, academia and the business community. The participants in the focus group discussions involved representatives from 55 SMEs who were identified like in the first stage using the government official list of SMEs in Botswana. The quantitative data collected through questionnaire were analysed using SPSS while the qualitative data collected through focus group discussions and in-depth interviews were analysed using thematic tables. The results were represented using tables, pie charts, categories and narrations. The results of the preliminary survey of the project were used to characterise the ICT sector in terms of its size, key players, nature of businesses, products and services traded in, distribution of business by location and the issues that affected the sector. This characterisation was important in two main respects. Firstly, it provided a clear roadmap for the design of the main survey of the research since little information existed on the subject of e-readiness on Botswana in general and with respect to SMEs in particular. Similarly, the government had invested a lot of resources in ICT infrastructure development and was focusing on SMEs especially those in the ICT sector to diversify the economy from the dominant diamond mining to service industry. Secondly, the results of the preliminary survey of the project supported the development of a structured interview schedule that was used during the main survey of the project. During the main survey of the research data was collected from companies that participated in the focus group discussions. From the focus group list of participants, an alphabetical name list of 55 SMEs was created. There were 43 Small-Sized and 12 Medium-Sized enterprises that were represented during the focus group discussions. For the purpose of carrying out the structured interviews, SMEs were stratified into two (Small-Sized enterprises and Medium-Sized enterprises). From the Small-Sized enterprises stratum, 20 companies were systematically selected (from the 43) taking every other member on the list. On the other hand, in the Medium-Sized enterprises stratum, all the 12 enterprises were selected for interviews because the number of respondents was small. The data collected was analysed using categories and thematic tables because it was largely qualitative. The results were presented in the form of thematic tables and through narrations. The findings from the SMEs surveyed indicated that most of the SMEs in the ICT sector in Botswana were Small-Sized enterprises that were largely not e-ready to participate in the global electronic business environment because of several impediments such as: the lack of awareness, inadequate policy and legislative framework, poor telecommunication and electricity infrastructures, poor e-commerce infrastructure, inadequate government support, the lack of access to credit, investment barriers, the lack of critical ICT skills and more. The major outcomes of the project include an exposition of the e-readiness status of SMEs in the ICT sector in Botswana, a road map that can assist the government of Botswana to establish a strong export-oriented ICT sector. The weaknesses and strengths of Botswana’s e-readiness status with regard to SMEs are brought to the fore, thus creating awareness upon which the government can design interventions that are tailored to meet Botswana’s SMEs’ specific needs. Similarly, this project provides a framework upon which the government can benchmark against its counterparts in the rest of the world in order to define its investment priorities. The project also provides baseline information which the government could use to implement appropriate policy and legislative decisions in order to enhance the e-readiness of SMEs in the ICT sector in Botswana. Finally, the new integrated e-readiness tool that was developed in this project is the first of its kind to bring the different major components of e-readiness (such as enterprise, ICT, human resources, information and external environment readiness) into a single assessment tool with great attention paid to information access. The tool is also modular in design and thus can allow specific e-readiness assessment of individual segments of society to be modelled independently of each other. The tool also enriches the qualitative aspects of e-readiness that are only minimally addressed in a few of the existing macro e-readiness assessment tools. Among the key recommendations from the research is the need for the government of Botswana to promulgate relevant policies and implement pragmatic programmes that would enable SMEs in the ICT sector in the country to use various information technologies in order to gain access to relevant information regarding access to credit, investment opportunities, partnerships, education and training opportunities so that they can effectively participate in both the local and international markets. The policy changes and programmes to be undertaken by the government should be underpinned by an effective legislative and regulatory framework that would enable the small business firms to identify, acquire, process, organise, disseminate and apply information for competitive advantage through the effective deployment and application of ICTs.

In fulfilment of the requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Information Systems. In the Division of Information Systems , School of Economic and Business Sciences. University of Witwatersrand 2017 / This thesis is about how an organization adopted an information system (IS) and the subsequent current use of that system. That is, the relevance of this thesis is premised within the adoption and use of IS research fields. The adoption and use of systems is still a key IS issue as organizations strive to find ways to justify investments while the research issue is in striving to profoundly describe the adoption and use behavior. The thesis employs Human resource information systems (HRIS) as the system under study, with a South African university being the context. HRIS are adopted and used in organizations, including universities, to facilitate human resource functions and practices. The adoption and use of HRIS is often critical to achieving organizational visions and mandates; however, literature in this field is still in its infancy, with no known study conducted with a South African university context. To this point, there was a need to study behavior during HRIS adoption and the subsequent use behavior, in order to inform an efficient and appropriate ongoing use. Existing scholarly HRIS literature focus on either its adoption or its use, but hardly addressing both concurrently. This thesis argues that adoption may inform present use, and therefore, paramount to study both facets, and in the same locale. The study sought to understand how HRIS was adopted as well as understand how it is presently used, in the context of a South African university. The research argument driving the thesis is that HRIS is realized in a multidimensional environment, and thus, there is a need for a framework that may inform both adoption and use dimensions. The framework ought to be cognizant of the contextual determinants which influence both adoption processes and use behavior at varied levels, so that HRIS is adopted and used effectively and efficiently, sensitive to the South African context. To conceptualize the multidimensional framework, the study was underpinned by Upper echelon theory; Social cognitive theory; Technology, organizational and environment framework; and Task-technology fit, as theoretical lenses. Majority of HRIS adoption or use studies take a positivist stance; however, this thesis deemed an interpretivist philosophy as a more appropriate stance to understanding the complexities of adoption iii and use. A qualitative inductive approach using a case study research strategy was the methodology followed. Semi-structured interviews, field observations and institutional documents were ways to collect data. The empirical data were analyzed following thematic analysis and content analysis techniques. Literature and the interpretation of study findings informed the conceptualization of the multidimensional framework for the adoption and use of HRIS. The thesis contributes theoretically by providing a framework that informs adoption and use; practically, the framework may be used by policy and decision makers to improve use and appropriate use of HRIS; Methodologically, the thesis shows how a case study following the interpretive philosophy may be a better alternative to profoundly describe and explain adoption and the use of HRIS; finally, the thesis contributes to context by giving insights unique to South African universities. Keywords: Adoption and use framework, Human resource information systems Interpretive case study, Multidimensional, South African university / GR2018

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Engineering and the built environment, University of the Witwatersrand, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Engineering. Johannesburg, 2017 / Construction fragmentation remains a major concern amongst professinals through-out project phases in South Africa.The report identifies fragmentation challenges in the context of integration, collaboration, communication and coordination encountered by professinal teams in construction projects. It also investigates whether the intrinsic properties of the construction projects, namely the project size, clients, project locations and project delivery methods, contribute to fragmentatio challenges experienced by the construction professinals. To accomplish this, the study employs mixed method research by using a qualitative tool to capture the raw data from the participants, and analysing the captured data quatitatively. While the results of the study are derived quantitatively, one could not quantitatively measure fragmentation on integration, collaboration, communication and coordination, i.e the results did not translate to weighted fragmentation. However, there are subtle, but enlightening points from the survey that exposed elements of fragmentation challenges faced by the professional team. While some of these challenges seem to lead to natural solutions, it appears most of the may be solved by implementing building information modelling. / MT2017

This mixed-methods study investigated the relationship between Advanced Placement (AP) social studies teachers' utilization of academic course blogs and student achievement. Simultaneously, the study examined the participating teachers' perceptions on the use of course blogs and other social media as supplemental learning resources. The study further explored a possible moderating effect of the social studies subject on student achievement and a possible moderating effect of students' previous academic blog usage on student achievement within the study. Quantitative data were collected from students' pre-tests and unit tests scores and analyzed for statistical significance. Qualitative data were collected through teacher-generated notes during the blogs, individual interviews, and a follow-up focus group interview. The results of this study indicated that there was no overall significant difference in student achievement between the blogging and non-blogging groups. On the contrary , a significant interaction between the social studies subject area and the use of academic course blogs was found when examining student achievement. However, this practical interaction was revealed to be a weak one. Further findings indicated that there was no significant interaction between students' previous blog usage and academic achievement during the study. From the qualitative data, participating teachers perceived the course blogs to be potentially advantageous for students and themselves, yet expressed frustration when implementing the course blogs with their students. Instead, they endorsed the academic use of Facebook, a resource that some students from two participating courses separately utilized instead of (or in addition to) the course blogs during the study. Teachers further expressed concern about relinquishing their subject knowledge and AP expertise to readily available course content on the Internet. Implications and suggestions for future f or AP social studi / teachers' promising use of Facebook and for researchers investigating the use of socail media at the high school level. / by Seth Alper. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2013. / Includes bibliography. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / System requirements: Adobe Reader.

University of Macau / Faculty of Social Sciences. / Department of Sociology

This is the thesis (critical appraisal) component of a PhD by Published Works. The overall submission was a portfolio of ten published papers supported by a critical appraisal focusing on two key areas: an exploration of the roles that Health Information Professionals (HIPs) can play within evidence based practice (EBP) and an exploration of the effectiveness and impact of the traditional supportive role played by HIPs within EBP. The published papers are listed and referenced within this document but not contained within it. The majority are available elsewhere within the University of Salford Institutional Repository. Drawing on a model developed from the library literature, the thesis highlights a wide range of supportive and active roles that HIPs can potentially play within EBP. This model is informed and illuminated by the studies within the portfolio that demonstrate how the author has fulfilled a wide range of these roles in practice, and identified a new role within systematic reviews in health and social care. This demonstrates that HIPs can transfer their skills outside their traditional library and information practice domain, thus extending their role and offering a range of professional opportunities. Using a varied range of research methodologies, the thesis also explores the effectiveness and impact of the contribution made by HIPs when using traditional skills to support EBP. Two models are used to illustrate the outcomes to which HIPs contribute. These include improving search skills and providing evidence which can, over the longer term, contribute to policy making and patient care. At present the weight of the evidence presented to support these links is weak. Methodological issues and future research that needs to be addressed to improve the strength of the evidence base are therefore highlighted and discussed.

Computer simulations have been used more than ever before to embark on developing and understanding complex systems such as Multi-Agent Systems (MAS). As simulation systems become larger and more complex, scalability becomes an important issue for their successful deployment. PDES-MAS (Parallel and Discrete Event Simulations for Multi-Agent Systems) framework is, implemented based on distributed shared memory architecture, a parallel and discrete event simulation kernel to distribute and run parallel simulation of Multi-Agent Systems (MAS). There are several issues within such system and this thesis presents a notion of logical time synchronised range queries to address the issue of data access. Accessing data efficiently in a latency-sensitive and large scale network overlay is a vital requirement for the scalability of the system. So, this thesis presents a notion of synchronised range queries with algorithms to manage distributed data structures consistently and in a time ordered fashion across the system. To localise data access in such a large scale simulation system, algorithms are provided to distribute shared state such that the distribution reflects access patterns of simulating nodes. The algorithms are evaluated within the implementation of PDES-MAS framework using various agent based simulation traces.

This thesis presents work carried out over a number of years within the field of railway vehicle instrumentation. The railway industry is currently moving to be more heavily “data driven”. This means that railway organisations are putting policies into place whereby decisions have to be justified based on recorded and citable data. To achieve this, the railway industry is increasingly turning to greater and greater levels of instrumentation to deliver the data on which to base these decisions. This thesis considers not only this increased requirement for data, but the frameworks and systems that must be put into place in order first to obtain it, and then to extract useful information from it. In particular the author considers the issue of contextualisation of data, where multiple datastreams may be used to provide context for, or allow more accurate and beneficial interpretation of each other in order to support better decision making. In order to obtain this data, the thesis explores, through a series of case studies, a number of options for different instrumentation system architectures. This culminates in the development of a distributed system of embedded processors arranged in an extensible modular framework to provide a rich, coherent and integrated dataset which can then be processed contextually to yield a better understanding of the railway system.

This thesis presents a late-Durkheimian theoretical framework on civil society as a sphere of solidarity and applies it to the development from modern society to an „information society‟. The framework is used to identify the cultural codes that exist in different information societies and to show their role in integrating or dividing the members of civil society. The framework is applied to South Korean civil society entering an information age coincident alongside processes of democratisation. Three policy debates relating to information are used as case studies to show the coexistence of, and conflicts between, a „developmental code‟ based on economic growth and anti-communism deriving from the authoritarian period of state-sponsored capitalism, and a later „democratic code‟ based on human rights. The three cases are: the Electronic National Identification Card, the National Education Information System and the credit information system. The thesis argues that the values of a „democratic‟ code are becoming more dominant in recent South Korean society, despite continuous challenge for its validity. The cases provide evidence that democratisation and informatization can operate in tandem to establish the dominance of the democratic code in public discourse in South Korean civil society.