Despite the demand for ICT skills, businesses are experiencing an ICT skills shortage. Constantly changing ICT technologies require business leaders to find qualified ICT professionals to implement new business strategies and business processes. The Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector is experiencing a continued skills shortage and various initiatives have been launched to address the problem. Businesses continually struggle to find qualified and suitably skilled ICT personnel. As a result businesses have had to outsource their ICT requirements off-shore to obtain the required ICT skills and maintain their competitive advantage. In a country desperate for job creation, entrepreneurial inclination and start up of new businesses may play a pivotal role in the economic development and well being of individuals able to capitalise on the availability of ICT opportunities. Entrepreneurship is a critical factor in promoting innovation, creating employment opportunities and generating social and economic wealth in a country's economy. Sectors such as Information and Communication Technologies can be seen as archetypal entrepreneurial industries and can consequently play a key role in economic development. In the research that follows the author identifies an ICT skills shortage in South Africa. This is followed by an exploratory study that investigates the influence of psychological traits and socio-cultural variables on the entrepreneurial intent of selected ICT SMME’s in the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Area. The findings revealed that both psychological traits together with socio-cultural variables influence an individual’s intention to start up a business. The predominant psychological trait discovered during the research was perseverance. Family environmental issues were the dominant socio-cultural variable influencing entrepreneurial intention amongst the case study subjects.

In today’s world, information and the associated Information Technology are critical assets for many organizations. Any information security breach, or compromise of these assets, can lead to serious implications for organizations that are heavily dependent on these assets. For such organizations, information security becomes vital. Organizations deploy an information security infrastructure for protecting their information assets. This infrastructure consists of policies and controls. Organizations also create an information security management system for managing information security in the organization. While some of the policies and controls are of a purely technical nature, many depend upon the actions of end-users. However, end-users are known to exhibit both compliant and noncompliant behaviours in respect of these information security policies and controls in the organization. Non-compliant information security behaviours of end-users have the potential to lead to information security breaches. Non-compliance thus needs to be controlled. The discipline of information security and its management have evolved over the years. However, the discipline has retained the technology-driven nature of its origin. In this context, the discipline has failed to adequately appreciate the role played by the end-users and the complexities of their behaviour, as it relates to information security policies and controls. The pervasive information security management philosophy is that of treating end-users as the enemy. Compliance is sought to be achieved through awareness programs, rewards, punishments and evermore strict policies and controls. This has led to a bureaucratic information security management approach. The philosophy of treating end-users as the enemy has had an adverse impact on information security in the organization. It can be said that rather than curbing non-compliance by end-users, the present-day bureaucratic approach to information security management has contributed to non-compliance. This thesis calls this the end-user crisis. This research aims at resolving this crisis by identifying an improved approach to information security management in the organization. This research has applied the service management approach to information security management. The resultant Information Security Service Management (ISSM) views end-users as assets and resources, and not as enemies. The central idea of ISSM is that the end-user is to be treated as a customer, whose needs are to be satisfied. This research presents ISSM. This research also presents the various components of ISSM to aid in its implementation in an organization.

In recent years the field of Business Process Modelling (BPM) has gained increasing attention from both the business and research communities. One of the primary drivers for BPM is the improved understanding of Business Processes (BPs) and the competitive advantage gained over competitors. In addition, BPM can improve communication in an organisation and facilitate increased support for change management. BPM is a collaborative activity that needs to be carried out in a team environment, and Collaborative Business Process Modelling (CBPM) promotes improved readability, accuracy and quality of process models as well as a reduced workload for modellers. In spite of the increased popularity of CBPM, there is limited research related to the collaborative nature of the modelling tasks performed by modellers and specifically to the synchronisation of shared process models. In addition, tools and techniques to support CBPM do not support this synchronisation effectively or efficiently. This study proposes a conceptual framework for CBPM using touch technologies in a colocated collaborative environment. The main research problem addressed by this study is that modellers experience difficulties conducting BPM activities in a co-located collaborative environment. In order to address the research problem and clarify and elaborate on the problems of CBPM, a two-fold approach was undertaken. Firstly, after an in-depth literature review, a BPM survey was designed and then sent to modellers in South African Information Technology (IT) consulting companies in order to provide a more in-depth understanding of the status and challenges of CBPM in IT consulting organisations. The results revealed that available BPM software do not adequately cater for CBPM and software tools do not enforce versioning and synchronisation. In addition, hardware constraints were reported as well as problems with integrating different parts of the process model that the modellers were working on. The results of the survey also showed that the positive aspects of CBPM are that ideas could be shared and overall there is a better understanding of the BPs being modelled. The second part of the problem elaboration consisted of usability field studies with participants from both education and industry using a traditional popular BPM software tool, Enterprise Architect (EA). Whilst several benefits of CBPM were confirmed, several challenges were encountered, particularly with regard to the integration and synchronisation of models. To overcome the problems of CBPM, a framework was developed that allows for co-located CBPM using tablet PCs. The framework includes a developed prototype of the BPMTouch software which runs on tablet PCs, as well as some theoretical aspects of CBPM. The BPMTouch software supports effective and efficient CBPM and the synchronisation of process models since it allows multiple modellers to work together on one BP model, with each modeller using his/her own tablet. If one modeller makes changes to the model, the changes are immediately reflected on the tablets of the other modellers since the changes to the model are updated in real time. Modellers cannot draw on the same model simultaneously, however, everyone can see what the active modeller (active participant with the green flag) is doing. Other participants can then become the active modeller and make changes to the model once the flag has been released and re-allocated. The results from the field studies, industry surveys and usability evaluations were all incorporated into the BPMTouch software tool design and into the aspects of CBPM in order to assist with the process of co-located CBPM using touch technologies. Usability evaluations were carried out in which industry and student participants used BPMTouch to create an integrated model and simultaneously and synchronously create a process model. The evaluations of the BPMTouch prototype revealed that participants prefer this system over traditional BPM software since the BPMTouch removes the need for post modelling integration. The theoretical contribution of the framework consists of aspects proposing that organisations should take the potential benefits and challenges of CBPM into consideration and address the Critical Success Factors (CSFs) before embarking on a CBPM project. These aspects can help with decisions relating to CBPM. The use of this framework can improve the quality of process models, reduce the workload of modellers and in this way increase the success rate of CBPM projects.

<p> This purpose of this thesis is to analyze voice-activated recording artifacts, using a playback audio created in Adobe Audition. To show how an automated voice recorder with standby mode treats the silence of a recording. This thesis focuses on the WAV PCM format. The WS-550M, WS-560M, and the DM-520 recorders did not have the option to create a WAV PCM file, therefore the WS-550M and the 560M created MP3 files and the DM-520 created a WMA file. Each of the recorders have automated standby mode. The recorders were set to create a WAV PCM that was a 16-bit stereo file at 44kHz. The following is a list of the devices that will be used in this study. Olympus DM-520, Olympus DM-620, Olympus WS-550M, Olympus WS-560M, Olympus WS-700M, Olympus WS-700M, Olympus WS-750M, Olympus WS-760M, Olympus WS-802, Olympus WS-822, Olympus WS-823, Philips Voice Tracer.</p><p>

<p>Cloud storage is a widely used service for both a personal and enterprise demands. However, despite its advantages, many potential users with sensitive data refrain from fully using the service due to valid concerns about data privacy. An established solution to this problem is to perform encryption on the client?s end. This approach, however, restricts data processing capabilities (e.g. searching over the data). In particular, searching semantically with real-time response is of interest to users with big data. To address this, this thesis introduces an architecture for semantically searching encrypted data using cloud services. It presents a method that accomplishes this by extracting and encrypting key phrases from uploaded documents and comparing them to queries that have been expanded with semantic information and then encrypted. It presents an additional method that builds o? of this and uses topic-based clustering to prune the amount of searched data and improve performance times for big-data-scale. Results of experiments carried out on real datasets with fully implemented prototypes show that results are accurate and searching is e?cient.

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Abstract not available.

Using the XO laptop as a case study, this project explores the tension, if any, between modernization and the diffusion of information and communication technologies in developing countries. Modernization, the diffusion of innovation, and Burniske's (2003) chain of doing serve as theoretical frameworks to examine new visions of development that One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) aims to introduce to impoverished people on a global scale, with poverty alleviation being their main goal. Employing a qualitative approach, namely document analysis and analysis of online discussions, this research concludes that modernization is still used in new visions of development.

This thesis reports the findings from an empirical study of eleven information systems built by Canadian companies and installed in their customers' premises. It examines the factors which enable or inhibit the success of these strategic information systems. Specifically, it investigated factors which enable a company to: 1. Create a customer-oriented strategic system (COSS) before its competitors. 2. Achieve a high level of adoption of the COSS by the customers. 3. Achieve competitive advantage from the COSS. Also examined were the effects that the COSS had on the company which originated it. The findings are as follows: 1. Factors which were associated with "first-movers" are: a. A corporate sense of urgency. b. Management support (the chief executive or a champion). c. A competent, proactive IS department. 2. Factors which are associated with high early adoption are: a. A well-identified need recognized by the customer. b. A low price charged for the use of the COSS by customers. c. A COSS that matches the desired company-customer relationship. 3. Factors that are associated with low early adoption are: a. Absence of a recognized need by the customer. b. A high price charged for the use of the COSS. c. A sales team with low competence at selling the COSS. 4. Factors associated with high late adoption and high competitive advantage: a. Many enhancements made to the COSS over the years. 5. Factors associated with low late adoption and low competitive advantage: a. A system that is perceived to be of poor quality. b. A lack of continuity of the champion. c. A system that has had few enhancements. 6. The main effects that a COSS had on the originating companies were: a. The IS operations staff needed to change their service levels, procedures and attitudes. b. The product sales people who had to sell the COSS needed to upgrade their skills to become comfortable selling an information technology system. In summary, the findings showed that the competitive advantage which accrues from an information system can take many years to become reality. It is imperative that companies wishing to create such systems take the time to develop a customer-oriented strategy, to develop a good quality system and to prepare for several years of enhancements. / Business, Sauder School of / Graduate

M.Comm.