The desire amongst media scholars for the fulfilment of the ideal of a universally accessible public sphere by the media is such that virtually every new communications technology that has emerged over the past 1 ~O-odd years such as radio, television or the Internet has been welcomed with enthusiasm - by some - at the prospect of the newest communications innovation bringing about universal access to information. However, the history of communications media tells of the commercialisation of each new medium, from radio to television, and the imposition of barriers to access, based on cost. Access to communications media is open to those people who can afford to pay for them. 111e emergence of the Internet spawned renewed hoped that the public sphere ideal would be realised. 111is new technology seemed more powerful than anything that had come before it. The Internet offered the means whereby one could access a global repository of information, stored on a worldwide network of computer networks, and available 24 hours a day. With the Internet, it was also possible to communicate with people on the other side of the world within seconds, using electronic mail (e-mail). Here was a medium that permitted one to send text and pictures to colleagues and friends within a fraction of the time taken by traditional means such as fax, telephone or post. To enjoy the convenience of the Internet though, one had to have a means of access. In South Africa, access could be gained through a personal computer linked to the Internet either through a network in the workplace or an academic or research institution, or via a telephone link to an Internet Service Provider (ISP). What were the names of the first ISPs to emerge in South Africa? When did they emerge and how did they develop? Did the number of ISPs grow or decline? What do ISPs give access to, at what cost and to whom? Do they provide universal access to information? This study addresses these questions by examining South Africa's leading providers of home dial-up internet access, M-Web and World Online, and by exploring the histories of their emergence and development, within the context of current media trends of concentration, diversification and globalisation.

Wang, Jingjing. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2013. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 58-62). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts also in Chinese.

Our study on interdomain traffic engineering focuses on AS Path Prepending (ASPP), a popular way for inbound traffic engineering. In order to improve the current situation that ISPs often practise this approach in a trial-and-error basis, we propose a greedy algorithm to help ISPs perform this approach systematically and efficiently. Then we demonstrate two fundamental issues of decentralized selfish traffic engineering, routing instability and global network performance degradation, based on an abstract model where ISPs perform traffic engineering for their individual load balance. We also present a real-world pathologic case of prepending instability from our measurement study. Some simple guidelines are given for ISPs to avoid such routing instability. / Our work on peering strategy is to help ISPs understand the economic implications of various traffic patterns and make proper decisions to optimize their business. We first conduct an economic analysis for an overlay streaming network to gain some insights on the free ride phenomenon. We further improve the analysis by taking the response of subscribers into consideration and formulate the dynamic market as a multi-leader-follower game to capture the Nash Equilibrium of the routing tussle among the major players of the Internet marketplace. Based on this framework together with a gravity traffic model, we present some important observations on the implications of overlays on ISPs' peering strategy. / Over the past several years, numerous types of "overlay" networks change the interdomain traffic pattern and ISPs lose the routing control of some interdomain traffic flows due to the application layer routing. As a result, some ISPs may provide unintended transit service for other local ISPs. It upsets the traditional business model and makes ISPs' peering strategies more complicated. / The Internet has quickly evolved into a vast global network owned and operated by thousands of interconnected Internet Service Providers. Each of these ISPs, as one autonomous system, has its individual economic interests. ISPs can achieve their objectives through peering strategy and interdomain traffic engineering. These two issues are important for ISPs' business and have significant implications on the Internet architecture. / Wang, Hui. / "September 2007." / Adviser: Dah Ming Chiu. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 69-08, Section: B, page: 4865. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 163-170). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / School code: 1307.

Cheung, Yang. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 85-89). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Abstract --- p.i / Acknowledgement --- p.iv / Chapter 1 --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter 2 --- Related Works --- p.4 / Chapter 2.1 --- Pricing Mechanisms --- p.4 / Chapter 2.1.1 --- Current Situation --- p.4 / Chapter 2.1.2 --- Proposed Pricing Mechanisms --- p.6 / Chapter 2.1.3 --- Congestion Pricing --- p.9 / Chapter 2.1.4 --- Bandwidth Allocation Mechanism --- p.10 / Chapter 2.2 --- Revenue Distribution Mechanisms --- p.12 / Chapter 2.2.1 --- Current Situation --- p.12 / Chapter 2.2.2 --- Novel Revenue Distribution Mechanisms --- p.13 / Chapter 3 --- Problems in Revenue Collecting Stage --- p.16 / Chapter 3.1 --- Introduction --- p.17 / Chapter 3.1.1 --- Desirable Characteristics of Internet Pricing Mechanism --- p.19 / Chapter 3.1.2 --- Existing Solution --- p.21 / Chapter 3.1.3 --- Applying Insurance into Internet Pricing --- p.22 / Chapter 3.2 --- The Internet Pricing Model --- p.25 / Chapter 3.2.1 --- System Model --- p.25 / Chapter 3.2.2 --- Decisions Time Scales --- p.27 / Chapter 3.2.3 --- Micro Time Scale Pricing --- p.28 / Chapter 3.2.4 --- Macro Time Scale Pricing --- p.29 / Chapter 3.3 --- Actuarially Fair Coinsurance Function --- p.30 / Chapter 3.3.1 --- The Actuarially Fair Coinsurance Function --- p.32 / Chapter 3.3.2 --- Properties of the Actuarially Fair Coinsurance Function --- p.34 / Chapter 3.3.3 --- How Much Insurance Should a User Buy? --- p.35 / Chapter 3.3.4 --- Numerical Examples --- p.37 / Chapter 3.4 --- Premium Coinsurance Function --- p.40 / Chapter 3.4.1 --- Problems of Allowing Pull Insurance --- p.41 / Chapter 3.4.2 --- The Premium Coinsurance Function --- p.43 / Chapter 3.4.3 --- Properties of the premium coinsurance function --- p.44 / Chapter 3.4.4 --- Numerical Example --- p.46 / Chapter 4 --- Problems in Revenue Distributing Stage --- p.48 / Chapter 4.1 --- Introduction --- p.50 / Chapter 4.2 --- System Models --- p.52 / Chapter 4.2.1 --- Topology Model --- p.52 / Chapter 4.2.2 --- Traffic Model --- p.54 / Chapter 4.3 --- Settlement Model and Definition of Fair Price --- p.55 / Chapter 4.3.1 --- Bilateral Settlement --- p.55 / Chapter 4.3.2 --- Shapley Settlement --- p.58 / Chapter 4.4 --- Fair Price Achieving the Shapley Value: The Symmetric Case --- p.61 / Chapter 4.5 --- Properties of the Fair Prices in the Symmetric Case --- p.65 / Chapter 4.5.1 --- Sensitivity to traffic pattern α --- p.65 / Chapter 4.5.2 --- Sensitivity to network topology parame- ters p and d --- p.67 / Chapter 4.6 --- Fair Price Achieving the Shapley Value: The Asym- metric Case --- p.70 / Chapter 4.7 --- Distributed and Local Approximation of the Fair Price --- p.71 / Chapter 5 --- Conclusions --- p.74 / Chapter A --- Mathematical Proofs --- p.77 / Chapter A.l --- Mathematical Proof for Chapter 3 --- p.77 / Chapter A.1.1 --- Proof of Theorem 3.3.2 --- p.77 / Chapter A.1.2 --- Proof of Proposition 3.3.5 --- p.77 / Chapter A.1.3 --- Proof of Proposition 3.3.6 --- p.78 / Chapter A.1.4 --- Proof of Proposition 3.3.7 --- p.78 / Chapter A.1.5 --- Proof of Proposition 3.4.1 --- p.79 / Chapter A.1.6 --- Proof of Proposition 3.4.3 --- p.79 / Chapter A.1.7 --- Proof of Proposition 3.4.5 --- p.80 / Chapter A.2 --- Mathematical Proof for Chapter 4 --- p.81 / Chapter A.2.1 --- Proof of Theorem 4.4.2 --- p.81 / Chapter A.2.2 --- Proof of Theorem (4.6.1) --- p.83 / Chapter A.2.3 --- Terms Description of Equation (4.1) --- p.84 / Bibliography --- p.85

This thesis presents a complete alternative service composition model named Service Trading Marketplace Network (STAMP-Net). The primary concept is to improve overall system scalability and introduce a fair business scheme for customers and providers. STAPM-Net focuses on designing an architecture based on both technical and business aspect. In STAMP-NET, users remain the ability to choose their preference service providers from potential-provider lists, and service providers are able to compete for the requested services that they can handle. For these purposes, STAMP-Net introduce a concept of 'Service Trading Marketplace Mechanism' which facilitates a problem of 'conflict of interest'; 'Indirect Service Discovery' which allows service providers to the learn existing of services being offered by other service providers; and 'Service Subcontract System' which allows service providers to subcontract any missing service to other potential service providers. In addition, this thesis also present monitor techniques, which are used to ensure the quality of services.

Google Inc. struggles arduously on the digital battlefield in China’s Internet search engine market. In China, Baidu.com has been described as China’s Google for years and challenged Google’s expansion. This study provides an overview of the Internet service development in China, an illustration of the search engines’ profitability models, and an evaluation of Guge (Google China) and Baidu’s service designs. Overall, the research shows an attempt to understand the possible advantages and disadvantages when a multinational Internet service company enters China. Two notions emerge. First, standardization and adaptation may need to be nicely balanced for the subsidiary company in order to profit in China’s Internet market. Second, Google’s operation in China, Guge, stands strong on the service design end, especially in the area of “ease of use,” “informativeness,” and “fulfillment/reliability.” However, Guge’s major rival, Baidu, shows its advantage on a wider selection of online services. Therefore, in the long run, which company will win at the finishing line is still too early to tell / Google in China -- Google, Baidu and Guge -- Search engine's revenue model in China. / Department of Telecommunications

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of New South Wales, 2003. / Also available online.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2004. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 185-197).

Thesis (M.A.)--Ball State University, 2009. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed on Apr. 16, 2010). Includes bibliographical references (p. 54-63).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Ohio University, March, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 200-210)