<p>This dissertation study examines the role of the public library in fostering digital literacies in underserved Illinois communities. Over the course of two years I collected data on the library as an institution, and as a context, by investigating people, policies, activities and infrastructure related to how individuals learn, comprehend and apply digital technologies in collaboration with and in relation to the library. The data was collected during visits to libraries in sixteen locations around the state with significant levels of poverty, including a selection of rural localities and predominantly African American and Latino communities. Research methods included several kinds of site observation as well as interviews with librarians. As a collective whole, these case studies yield a series of interesting and surprising stories that reflect some of the connections between social roles and service roles, as well as the particular innovations and challenges present in underserved communities. </p><p> These findings support a number of related theories and initiatives, including the need to reconstruct digital literacy as digital <i>literacies </i>, in the plural, and the impetus to see them primarily as a function of community engagement, especially in underserved community settings. The data suggests that library roles related to digital literacy are changing in several substantial ways. First, libraries are moving beyond merely providing internet to proactively promoting assisted public computing. Second, they are shifting their view of themselves as a community space to include leadership in community networking. Finally, they are working to cultivate information experiences that progress beyond consumption to involve a dimension of generative learning. </p><p> When considered in conversation with existing scholarship, these findings have important implications: they show new avenues for research into diversity and social inclusion, critical discourse analysis and dynamic models for learning. They also suggest new directions for the field of Library and Information Science (LIS) and offer a compelling reason for libraries to both participate in and help guide movements and initiatives to promote digital literacies. </p>

<p> For several decades, the intensifying trend of researchers to believe that sharing research data is &ldquo;good&rdquo; has overshadowed the belief that sharing data is &ldquo;bad.&rdquo; However, sharing data is difficult even though an impressive effort has been made to solve data sharing issues within the research community, but relatively little is known about data sharing beyond the research community. This dissertation aims to address this gap by investigating <i><b>how data are shared effectively across research and public communities</b></i>.</p><p> The practices of sharing data with both researchers and non-professionals in two comparative case studies, Encyclopedia of Life and CyberSEES, were examined by triangulating multiple qualitative data sources (i.e., artifacts, documentation, participant observation, and interviews). The two cases represent the creation of biodiversity data, the beginning of the data sharing process in a home repository, and the end of the data sharing process in an aggregator repository. Three research questions are asked in each case:</p><p> &bull; Who are the data providers?</p><p> &bull; Who are the data sharing mediators?</p><p> &bull; What are the data sharing processes?</p><p> The findings reveal the data sharing contexts and processes across research and public communities. Data sharing contexts are reflected by the cross-level data providers and human mediators rooted in different groups, whereas data sharing processes are reflected by the dynamic and sustainable collaborative efforts made by different levels of human mediators with the support of technology mediators.</p><p> This dissertation provides theoretical and practical contributions. Its findings refine and develop a new data sharing framework of knowledge infrastructure for different-level data sharing across different communities. Both human and technology infrastructure are made visible in the framework. The findings also provide insight for data sharing practitioners (i.e., data providers, data mediators, data managers, and data contributors) and information system developers and designers to better conduct and support open and sustainable data sharing across research and public communities.</p>

<p> In an environment where individuals use applications to drive activities from what book to purchase, what film to view, to what temperature to heat a home, data is the critical element. To make things work data must be correct, complete, and accurate. Many firms view data governance as a panacea to the ills of systems and organizational challenge while other firms struggle to generate the value of these programs. This paper documents a study that was executed to understand what is being done by firms in the data governance space and why? The conceptual framework that was established from the literature on the subject was a set of six areas that should be addressed for a data governance program including: data governance councils; data quality; master data management; data security; policies and procedures; and data architecture. There is a wide range of experiences and ways to address data quality and the focus needs to be on execution. This explanatory case study examined the experiences of 100 professionals at 41 firms to understand what is being done and why professionals are undertaking such an endeavor. The outcome is that firms need to address data quality, data security, and operational standards in a manner that is organized around business value including strong business leader sponsorship and a documented dynamic business case. The outcome of this study provides a foundation for data governance program success and a guide to getting started.</p>

No description available.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Union Institute (Randolph County, N.C.), 1989. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M. Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 66-70).

<p> According to Markus's theory of reuse, when digital repositories are deployed to collect and distribute organizational assets, they supposedly help ensure accountability, extend information exchange, and improve productivity. Such repositories require a large investment due to the continuing costs of hardware, software, user licenses, training, and technical support. The problem addressed in this study was the lack of evidence in the literature on whether users in fact reused enough digital assets in repositories to justify the investment. The objective of the study was to investigate the organizational value of repositories to better inform architectural, construction, software and other industries whether repositories are worth the investment. This study was designed to examine asset reuse of medical images at a health information publisher. The research question focused on the amount of asset reuse over time, which was determined from existing repository transaction logs generated over an 8-year period by all users. A longitudinal census data analysis of archival research was performed on the entire dataset of 85,250 transaction logs. The results showed that 42 users downloaded those assets, including 11,059 images, indicating that the repository was used by sufficient users at this publisher of about 80 employees. From those images, 1,443 medical images were reused for new product development, showing a minimal asset reuse rate of 13%. Assistants (42%), writers (20%), and librarians (16%) were the primary users of this repository. Collectively, these results demonstrated the value of repositories in improving organizational productivity&mdash;through reuse of existing digital assets such as medical images to avoid unnecessary duplication costs&mdash;for social change and economic transformation.</p>

<p> The worldwide software project failure rate, based on a survey of information technology software manager's view of user satisfaction, product quality, and staff productivity, is estimated to be between 24% and 36% and software project success has not kept pace with the advances in hardware. The problem addressed by this study was the limited information about software managers' experiences with data-driven decision making (DDD) in agile software organizations as a tool to improve software development productivity. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore how agile software managers view DDD as a tool to improve software development productivity and to understand how agile software development organizations may use DDD now and in the future to improve software development productivity. Research questions asked about software managers', project managers', and agile coaches' lived experiences with DDD via a set of interview questions. The conceptual framework for the research was based on the 3 critical dimensions of software organization productivity improvement: people, process, and tools, which were defined by the Software Engineering Institute's Capability Maturity Model Integrated published in 2010. Organizations focus on processes to align the people, procedures and methods, and tools and equipment to improve productivity. Positive social change could result from a better understanding of DDD in an agile software development environment; this increased understanding of DDD could enable organizations to create more products, offer more jobs, and better compete in a global economy.</p>

The reliance of organizations on the use of technology to enhance business performance has been rapidly growing since the advent of Information Technology. In current times, it is unthinkable that an organization of any significance can even attempt to survive without the use of technology. Understanding the factors that effect the implementation of new technologies therefore becomes critical for organizations in their quest to survive and prosper. This study looks at acceptance of new technology by field support technicians in a technology support services organisation. This topic is approached by way of using findings from prior studies in the context of field support technicians. This involves verifying external validity of a modified version of the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) developed in a prior study (involving healthcare professionals) for the acceptance of new technology in the case of field support technicians. The TAM explores the relationship amongst several variables (Compatibility; Social Influence; Facilitating Conditions; Perceived Usefulness; Perceived Ease of Use; and Attitude) and the influence of their interaction to Usage of a newly implemented system. The study was conducted within an Information and Communications Technology company that provides services to a large number of clients across South Africa. Data collection was approached by way of a census, with a questionnaire administered to field support technicians that were already using the new technology. Data received was then analysed and used in testing validity of the proposed model. Though the findings of the study were largely in support of prior research, a modified model was suggested for acceptance of new technology by field support technicians. The modified model takes into account the inclination of technicians towards experimenting with new technologies, a trait not observed with traditional system users studied in prior research. Since the study accounted for less than 70% variance in usage intention, it is recommended that further research be done to understand the “unexplained” variance, which is also common amongst most prior research. The findings of the study also suggest that continued research into the external validity of existing technology acceptance models for different contexts is justified. / Thesis (MBA)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Westville, 2010.

<p> Research has shown that the cost of information security (IS) breaches to organizations has been estimated to be in the billions of dollars. Extant research has linked human error to about 65% of data breaches, which involve economic loss of more than $20 billion to US companies. Researchers concur and further add that end users' behaviors contribute to internal security breaches in organizations, and that these behaviors include employee negligence and non-compliance with policies. Research has also shown that individuals' self-efficacy to strengthen information security efforts starts at home; this behavior at home creates the foundation for Internet users or individuals to continue applying security behaviors at work. This study investigated the association and the probability of a predictive relationship between the independent variable (IV), <i>type of Internet connectivity</i> and the dependent variable (DV), <i>cyber security incidents,</i> among adult users of the Internet in the U.S.A. Findings from a Chi-square test indicated that no statistically significant association and no probability of a statistically significant predictive relationship existed between the IV and the DV. These Chi-square test's results supported the results of the binomial logistic regression.</p>