Uma metodologia que combina mapeamento e análise de processos, elicitação, mapeamento e análise crítica de conhecimentos e análise sociotécnica com base em análise de redes sociais foi concebida. A metodologia foi aplicada à uma pequena organização intensiva conhecimento LNMRI e permitiu a avaliação dos seus principais ativos intelectuais e sua capacidade de evoluir. Nesse sentido, com base em questões reais, tal como a saída de pessoas da organização, foram avaliados os impactos de prováveis cenários futuros. Para tal tarefa, foi analisada uma rede multimodal de processos, objetos de conhecimento e pessoas, utilizando-se um conjunto apropriado de métricas e meios, incluindo a avaliação das esferas de influências de nós chave. Para diferenciar a capacidade das pessoas em desempenhar diferentes papeis nos processos, alguns atributos dos nós foram utilizados como critérios de partição da rede, proporcionando assim, a capacidade de diferenciar o impacto da perda potencial de supervisores e operadores. A metodologia proposta possibilitou: i) a identificação de objetos de conhecimento e de suas fontes; ii) a classificação desses objetos segundo sua relevância; iii) a avaliação de vulnerabilidades da estrutura da rede LNMRI e iv) revelou os mecanismos informais de partilha de conhecimento. A metodologia concebida demonstrou ser uma ferramenta robusta para um amplo diagnóstico para subsidiar o planejamento de sucessão e também o planejamento estratégico organizacional. / A methodology combining process mapping and analysis; knowledge elicitation mapping and critical analysis; and sociotechnical analysis based on social network analysis was conceived. The methodology was applied to a small knowledge intensive organization LNMRI, and has allowed the appraisal of the main intellectual assets and their ability to evolve. In this sense, based on real issues such as attrition, the impacts of probable future scenarios were assessed. For such task, a multimodal network of processes, knowledge objects and people was analyzed using a set of appropriate metrics and means, including sphere of influence of key nodes. To differentiate the ability of peoples role playing in the processes, some nodes attributes were used to provide partition criteria for the network and thus the ability to differentiate the impact of potential loss of supervisors and operators. The proposed methodology has allowed for: i) the identification of knowledge objects and their sources; ii) mapping and ranking of these objects according to their relevance and iii) the assessment of vulnerabilities in LNMRIs network structure and iv) revealing of informal mechanisms of knowledge sharing The conceived methodological framework has proved to be a robust tool for a broad diagnosis to support succession planning and also the organizational strategic planning.

Sustainable development (SD) is a pressing global issue that is becoming increasingly prominent on clients and governing bodies agendas. In order to survive, organisations are seeking ways to negate their detrimental environmental impacts. This is no easy feat: SD is both complex and dynamic. To be successful, organisations need to leverage and expand their most valuable asset – knowledge. Civil engineering plays a significant role in SD – it shapes our environment and governs our interaction with it. However, extant research asserts that civil engineering related disciplines have been slow to adopt SD oriented practices; a possible result of their complex and fragmented organisational environments. The literature suggests that effective knowledge sharing (KS) can overcome these barriers, thus driving enhanced SD performance. Consequently, this research aims to investigate how the civil engineering sector can improve its intra-organisational sharing of SD knowledge, using an international civil engineering consultancy as an exemplar. Whilst there has been much research surrounding KS and SD there has been limited research that has investigated KS for SD, thus this thesis contributes to this limited body of knowledge. Mixed-method research was used to address the abovementioned aim. An increasingly popular approach, it is widely believed to generate greater value through complementary integration of quantitative and qualitative research paradigms. This approach lends itself also to the ethnographic inclinations of the reported research: the author was embedded within the case organisation, and sought a rich and reliable understanding of the study phenomena. An initial set of semi-structured interviews suggested that the case organisation’s members exhibit positive attitudes towards KS and SD, yet are often constrained by a number of common KS barriers, namely: a lack of organisation slack (i.e. time); a silo mentality; and poor SD ICT systems. These socio-cultural and technical barriers were subsequently investigated and contested using social network analysis techniques and an intranet acceptance model. A number of observations are made on the relationships between the findings from the research activities. It is believed the organisation often exhibits a reactive approach to KS for SD, which is deemed undesirable. This signals the need for greater senior management support to cultivate a culture where KS for SD is the norm and is integrated with work practices. A series of recommendations are provided to help the case organisation understand how such change could be cultivated. Several implications follow from this work. The mixed-method approach revealed a number of contradictions between the findings of each research activity. It is therefore postulated that mixed-method designs can provide a richer understanding, thus reducing misconceptions of KS phenomena. Following from this, the research contends that it may be too easy for researchers to identify with ubiquitous KS barriers as the reported research suggests that these may be perceived rather than actual. The research also reinforces the need for senior management support. These individuals govern the systems in which organisational members operate and thus have the ability to enhance KS for SD. Finally, the research demonstrates that SD ICT systems have little impact unless they are embedded in receptive contexts. Thus, an action research approach to KS system development is advocated to ensure systems are shaped to meet user expectations and drive desired KS behaviours. This research is presented in five peer-reviewed articles.

Information System (IS) implementations are a risky business with studies showing only a 16%-29% success rate. This research explores the use of social capital to support technology implementations. This research brings together two distinct bodies of knowledge: social network analysis (SNA) and technology acceptance models, in order to better understand the relationship between social capital and technology acceptance. The first aspect of the research looks at social network centrality and influence measures as an alternative means to measure social influence in the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) model. The social influence construct has proven to be inconsistent in past research. An individual‟s decision to adopt a new technology is influenced by their social context or the informal social network within which they work. The social capital of others influences their attitudes and decision to adopt a new technology. Social Capital, as measured through social network analysis, could be substituted for the social influence construct of the UTAUT model. Two revised UTAUT models are developed and tested. The second aspect of this research uses social capital to inform membership of a Community of Practice (CoP) to support a Finance Management System implementation in a higher education organization. SNA can be used to gain an understanding of the social network and identify individuals with high social capital. There is growing evidence that CoP support successful organizational change initiatives but it is less clear how CoP membership might be determined. SNA provides an evidence-based approach to CoP formation. The IS implementation cases described in the paper demonstrate an innovative approach to IS implementation grounded in social capital and technology acceptance research that add to the body of knowledge in both theory and practice.

While journalists were once viewed as gatekeepers, dispensing news and information via one-way communication channels, their role as information provider has evolved. Nowhere is this more apparent than on the social networking site Twitter, where information seekers have unprecedented access to information providers. The two-way communication that these information seekers have come to expect can be challenging for organizations such as ESPN who have multiple Twitter accounts and millions of followers. By designating one team of people as responsible for the organization's largest Twitter account, SportsCenter, ESPN has sought to establish manageable methods of interacting with this account's followers, while furthering the goals of the organization and providing sports news around the clock. This study provides a better understanding of the group responsible for ESPN's SportsCenter Twitter account: the motivation and strategies behind the group's Twitter use as well as the dynamics of this network, such as information flow and collaboration. Relying on the Information Seeking and Communication Model, this study also provides a better understanding of information exchanges with those outside the network, specifically a selection of the account's Twitter followers. Additionally, the role of journalist as information provider and certain themes that emerged from the content of the tweets are discussed. The research employed social network analysis and exploratory, descriptive case study methods. The results of this study contribute to social network and information theory as well as to journalistic and information science practice.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-03-05T18:40:07Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 27 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / Esta dissertação procura analisar aglomerações geográficas de empresas a partir de uma abordagem relacional, partindo da hipótese de que as relações sociais, tanto internas, quanto externas a rede, impactam no desempenho individual das organizações em tais ambientes. A base destas relações é a confiança, que é ao mesmo tempo elemento formador e estruturador do conjunto de relações e que é analisada a partir de seus componentes baseados em características, processos e instituições. Foram estudados os 53 curtumes e indústrias químicas para curtumes de Estância velha, sendo citadas ao todo 250 empresas, em um estudo quantitativo em que utilizou-se como metodologia a análise de redes sociais por esta permitir a mensuração destas relações e criação de um índice relacional. Os principais resultados obtidos permitem afirmar que as relações baseadas em processo e em instituições têm impacto significativo sobre o índice relacional, que as relações extra-rede têm grande importância para estas empresas, sendo que em al / This dissertation seeks analyze geographic agglomerations of companies starting a relational approach, based on the hypothesis that social relations, both internal as external to the network, impacting on the performance of individual organizations in such environments. The basis of these relations is trust, which is both building and structuring element of the set of relationships and is considered as of its components based on characteristics, processes and institutions. We studied all 53 leather and chemical industries of Estancia Velha, and in all 250 companies are listed in a quantitative study in which it was used as methodology of social networks analysis that enable the measurement of these relationships and create a relational index. The main results show that the relations based on process and institutions have significant impact on the relational index, that relations extra-network have great importance for these companies, while some cases end up occupying the central position in the network, in p

Submitted by Vanessa Nunes (vnunes@unisinos.br) on 2015-03-23T19:03:21Z No. of bitstreams: 1 MarciaCezar.pdf: 4782700 bytes, checksum: 2a4c5c536b06af7bb72c21aca8d4f147 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-03-23T19:03:21Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 MarciaCezar.pdf: 4782700 bytes, checksum: 2a4c5c536b06af7bb72c21aca8d4f147 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010 / FAPEMAT - Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de Mato Grosso / Os modelos de estrutura organizacional usualmente demonstrados desenvolvem aspectos extremamente técnicos, que deixam esquecidas as relações pessoais como variáveis imprescindíveis na própria organização. Considerando esse aspecto primordial, este estudo se demonstra relevante principalmente por analisar essa variável para identificar a influência das relações pessoais na estrutura multicampi da Universidade do Estado de Mato Grosso, justificando-se a escolha do objeto pelo fato de a UNEMAT possuir campus em 11 cidades do Estado de Mato grosso, com uma distância média de 500 km entre cada campus. Além dos empecilhos que essa geografia determina, foram identificados na instituição escolhida problemas na estrutura de comunicação, falta de sistemas interligados e outros entraves que fragilizam a sua estrutura. Nota-se, ainda, que a atual formação organizacional e administrativa da UNEMAT pode ser relacionada dentro de uma operacionalidade convencional, em que a organização individual segue o princípio da hierarquia funcional na qual os responsáveis por cada unidade recebem autoridade para efetuar a coordenação regional, demonstrando que esta, por sua vez, ocorre com a definição das tarefas e a supervisão das atividades feitas de cima para baixo. A metodologia utilizada foi a análise de redes sociais, permitindo, através de uma pesquisa quantitativa, chegar a um resultado de influência das relações pessoais, tendo embasamento em estudos de teóricos concernentes à ARS – Análise de Redes Sociais, análise de redes, dentre outros. / Models of organizational structure usually demonstrated shows highly technical aspects that leave personal relationships forgotten as essential variables in the organization. Considering this main aspect, this study is mainly relevant for analyzing this variable to identify the influence of personal relationships in the multicampi structure of University of Mato Grosso State, justifying the object choiced because the fact of UNEMAT has campi in 11 cities around Mato Grosso State, with an average distance of 500 km from each campus. Besides the obstacles determined because of this geographical situation, also were identified in the institution problems about communication infrastructure, lack of interconnected systems and other obstacles that weaken the structure of the institution. Moreover, the actual organizational and administrative formation of UNEMAT can be related within a conventional operation, where the individual organization follows the principle of the functional hierarchy, which those people responsible for each unit receives the authority to regional coordination, which occurs since the definition of tasks and supervision of activities carried out from top to bottom. The methodology used was the analysis of social networks, by allowing a quantitative analysis serching for a result of the influence of personal relationships, and grounding in theoretical studies concerning theSNA - Social Network Analysis, network analysis, among others.

Present day email is provided by centralized services running in the cloud. The services transparently connect users behind middleboxes and provide backup, redundancy, and high availability at the expense of user privacy. In present day mobile environments, users can access and modify email from multiple devices with updates reconciled on the central server. Prioritizing updates is difficult and may be undesirable. Moreover, legacy email protocols do not provide optimal email synchronization and access. Recent phenomena of the Internet of Things (IoT) will see the number of interconnected devices grow to 27 billion by 2021. In the first part of my dissertation I am proposing a decentralized email architecture which takes advantage of user's a IoT devices to maintain a complete email history. This addresses the email reconciliation issue and places data under user control. I replace legacy email protocols with a synchronization protocol to achieve eventual consistency of email and optimize bandwidth and energy usage. The architecture is evaluated on a Raspberry Pi computer. There is an extensive body of research on Social Network Analysis (SNA) based on email archives. Typically, the analyzed network reflects either communication between users or a relationship between the email and the information found in the email's header and the body. This approach discards either all or some email attachments that cannot be converted to text; for instance, images. Yet attachments may use up to 90% of an email archive size. In the second part of my dissertation I suggest extracting the network from email attachments shared between users. I hypothesize that the network extracted from shared email attachments might provide more insight into the social structure of the email archive. I evaluate communication and shared email attachments networks by analyzing common centrality measures and classication and clustering algorithms. I further demonstrate how the analysis of the shared attachments network can be used to optimize the proposed decentralized email architecture.

Author Cocitation Analysis (ACA), multidimensional scaling (MDS) and Social Network Analysis (SNA), has been used to analyze and visualize the invisible college of the journal European Union Politics. The concept invisible college was first introduced in the fifteenth century, through the creation of the “the Royal Society of London”, and it was reintroduced in the 1960:ies and the 1970:ies by scholars such as Price and Crane. It is said to have been interpreted in as many ways as there are authors who have used it. Here it has been used synonymously with the term citation network. To show changes over time in the invisible college and in its research themes and trends, citation data from two separate periods of time have been compared; 2003-2004 and 2007-2008. The analysis shows a shift in the invisible college on the actor level –such as changes in density, actors’ positions in the network - and changes in the research agenda towards public opinion research and integration research. Connected to these trends is the theme of “Eurosceptism” – which had a breakthrough after the first period of analysis. This seems to follow the development of the researched object itself (the European Union). The invisible college of European Union Politics has been understood to be relatively young, as is the journal and the field of European Union Politics.

When a species is housed in captivity there are facets of the managed environment that can impact on individual and population welfare. A key component of an individual’s environment is its social environment, which can have important implications for animal health and welfare. Highly social species may experience impoverished welfare if kept in captive groups that differ in size, structure and demographic to that experienced by free-living animals. Amongst the most common of social animals to be housed in captivity are the flamingos (Phoenicopteridae). The unique evolutionary biology of these birds means that key aspects of their behaviour depends upon group living. A positive relationship between breeding success and increasing flock size has previously been noted, but how flamingo flocks are structured socially remains mysterious. All six species of flamingo are currently found in captive collections. The three more generalist species, greater (Phoenicopterus roseus), Caribbean (P. ruber) and Chilean (P. chilensis) flamingos are found commonly in zoos and can, under the right conditions, breed well. The other flamingo species are much more specialised in their habitat and dietary requirements and have proved more challenging with regards to their captive management. These three species are the Andean (Phoenicoparrus andinus), James’ (P. jamesi) and lesser (Phoeniconaias minor) flamingos. All six species are included in the experimental work presented in this thesis. This research aimed to evaluate specific elements of flamingo group living using social network analysis (SNA). It also aimed to assess influences of the captive environment (i.e. enclosure style and visitor number) and climate on enclosure usage, time-activity budgets and behavioural diversity to provide, as far as possible, a complete insight into how to measure, assess and evaluate captive flamingo welfare. A synthesis of the relevance of SNA to zoo animal management, and a review of current literature to identify research needs that could evidence good flamingo husbandry form the basis of the first two chapters. These two overview chapters support the questions asked in the following data-based sections of the thesis. Flamingos were observed at WWT Slimbridge Wetland Centre from March 2012 to July 2016 with data on patterns of social associations being collected four times daily (depending upon weather and bird husbandry). Associations were defined as birds within one neck length of each other and, using photos, the affiliations of each bird in the group were recorded. For assessment of bond strength, network position and identification of preferred/avoided partners a Half-Weight Index was applied to these data. Permutation testing was applied to association matrices to determine the difference between the number of observed preferential bonds (and avoided bonds) and Mantel tests were used to compare matrix correlations to assess differences between seasons, species, years and enclosures (where appropriate). The SNA programmes Socprog, UCInet and Netdraw were used to analyse network data. These network data form the basis of three chapters and show that flamingos associate preferentially with non-random bonds occurring in all flocks observed. Influences of social bonds on courtship display were also examined, and temporal changes in association were considered across time, season and year. Finally, to see any influence of animal health on bond preferences, scores of foot condition (used to identify and evaluate the presence and severity of pododermatitis on an individual bird) were analysed alongside of network measures for three flocks of flamingos. To measure enclosure usage, each species’ exhibit was measured and zones accessible to the birds were defined. As exhibit use can be based on resource use (and these resources can form differently-sized areas within an exhibit) a modified Spread of Participation Index (SPI) was used to provide an outcome between 1 (one area or resource used more than others) and 0 (equal use of all resource zones). Time-activity budgets were calculated for all flocks over daytime, and for one flock (measured using remote camera traps) over night. These data are presented in two chapters and demonstrate that captive flamingos can change their activity patterns in a similar manner to that noted in wild birds. Interestingly, flamingos are very active during the night and this provides useful data for zoo personnel to consider when re-assessing husbandry and management plans for these most ubiquitous of zoo birds.

ICT4D champions are individuals who make a decisive contribution to an ICT4D initiative by actively and enthusiastically promoting its progress through critical stages in order to mobilise resources and/or active support and cooperation from all stakeholders. Mindful of the poor performance of development projects generally, and ICT4D projects in particular, the thesis argues that the seemingly important role of key individuals, such as champions, lacks research. Based on the repeated calls for research to better understand champion-type individuals and their roles in ICT4D initiatives, the thesis claims to have identified an original and significant knowledge gap towards which it contributes. Extant literature on champions of information systems innovations shows that champions can be conceptualised in terms of three core orientations: towards results, relationships and resources. This body of literature and conceptualisations has been used in the thesis as the starting point for exploring and describing the champion phenomenon in an as yet unexplored context - ICT4D initiatives. Critical realism is the assumed philosophical position for the research undertaken in the thesis. Theoretical constructs from the model of Transformational and Transactional Leadership and Social Capital Theory are combined in a conceptual framework to guide the empirical investigations and analysis. The research draws on three ICT4D champion cases in South Africa; case data was collected through the careful combination and sequencing of multiple mixed methods: in-depth interviews, a social network analysis (SNA) survey, and semi-structured interviews with the ICT4D champions and other key initiative stakeholders. A literal replication design was followed whereby the case studies explored and described the individual champion cases and subsequently synthesised findings across the three cases. The main contribution of the thesis is a knowledge contribution; the thesis contributes fifteen empirical findings to our conceptual understanding of ICT4D champions - their origins, competencies, characteristics and motivations, and their orientations towards results, relationships and resources. The analysis has shown how ICT4D champions are similar to champions of IS innovation in some ways, but has also revealed unique aspects, such as the importance they ascribe to addressing social concerns. This, in turn, led to a number of theoretical and practical contributions, as well as a methodological and a research contribution, all emanating from the three case studies. Firstly, two inductively generated theoretical contributions are offered: i) a conceptual framework for analysing and describing the origins of ICT4D champions; ii) a hybrid and contextual model of ICT4D champions that combines a complex set of factors (personal, organisational, and external) and the orientations of champions as a means to account for the complexity of these key individuals and their roles in ICT4D initiatives. The thesis contributes to ICT4D practice by suggesting ways to identify, develop, deploy and support champions; in so doing it offers actionable guidance on how to harness the potential positive contributions of these key individuals. Furthermore, a network-based approach - such as SNA used in the thesis - are rarely, if ever, followed in conducting champion research and this is offered as a methodological contribution. Finally, ICT4D champion research is in its infancy; the exploratory approach followed in the thesis draws on literature, the empirical findings and the theoretical contributions to offer an extensive agenda for future champion research in general, and ICT4D champion research in particular.