The purpose of this research was to identify factors that impact on tablet PC usage in low-income communities. In order to determine and identify these factors a main research question and sub-research questions were formulated. The primary research question of this study was "What factors impact on tablet PC usage in low-income communities?" This main research question was answered by creating three sub-research questions followed by triangulating the results from these questions. The first sub-research question was aimed at determining whether prior exposure to touch screen technology impacts the user experience. In order to reach this objective an extensive literature review was conducted on the tablet PC landscape in South Africa. This literature review, coupled with the case study helped answer this first research question. The second sub-research question was concerned with determining whether existing user experience guidelines are relevant to South African users. A thorough literature review was conducted on user experience guidelines and related studies. This literature review, together with the results from the case study helped answer this second research question. The third sub-research question involved identifying specific factors which help improve the user experience of tablet PC users in a specific context. This research question was addressed in the case study. Each sub-research question provided results which were analysed in order to answer the main research question. The factors which impact on tablet PC usage were thus identified and recommendations were proposed.

This paper argues that since media or technologies are extensions or abstractions of ourselves, the technologies that we performatively produce simultaneously function to (re)produce us. Technologies are highly social spaces which have the performative power to (re)produce the very 'materiality' of that thing we call 'reality.' The performative powers of technologies manifest as the powerfully (re)productive meaningmaking paradigms and regulatory controls in operation in a given culture. After considering the predominant paradigms performed through typographic and computing technologies, this paper investigates 'gender' as a performative site of social interface (re)produced in relation to these predominating technological paradigms. This paper further argues that in the context of the cyborg, 'gender' is exposed to be a map with no territory: in a world increasingly exposed as simulation, the material reality of 'gender' is power's effect. Finally, this paper considers the theatre in relation to typographic and computing paradigms, arguing that 'play' and the imagination, in world that is all representation, are crucial sites of social practice. Indeed, 'performativity' provides a means for understanding the agency, subjectivity, materiality, and politics of construction (re)produced through this, our simulated world. / Arts, Faculty of / English, Department of / Graduate

It is the thesis of this study, that although Ayres’s theory of progress is damaging to his sociological theory as a whole, his theory of the basic dichotomy of social action, that of technology and ceremonialism, deserves greater credit than it has received and is profoundly significant sociologically.

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Our world is a world of technology, and technology is part of what has made human beings so adept at survival. Yet, the 21st century has seen a new type of technology that is unlike anything ever seen before. This new information technology is known as social media (including such things as Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, etc.), and it has the power to influence our very being. However, we are seemingly uncritical and unconcerned about social media in relation to society. This project attempts to analyze social media and its relationship to human beings from an ontological standpoint. I do so by exploring both the ontic and the ontological aspects of social media. In order to do so, I use a method of hermeneutical inquiry and phenomenological exploration. By using the works of several different thinkers, I attempt to get at the essence of the relationship between humans and social media. First, using the works of Martin Heidegger, I argue that there is an ethical dimension contained within the concept of authenticity. Then, using the works of psychologists, phenomenologists, and cognitive scientists, I show that social media has just as much control over us as we think we have over it. Lastly, I return to Heidegger's work in order to understand what the very essence of social media is, and I then explain what our relationship to social media ought to be in order to live authentically. In doing so, I attempt to explain how we can gain a free relation to social media in order to establish the ways in which it can be most helpful to us.

Orientador: Lea Maria Leme Strini Velho / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Geociências / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-14T21:47:32Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Bennertz_Rafael_M.pdf: 2805980 bytes, checksum: ffab014e26eb6fa1dd7ed36e7a751260 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009 / Resumo: Esta dissertação tem como objetivo geral contribuir para a compreensão do desenvolvimento da tecnologia do uso do álcool combustível no Brasil. Para tanto apresenta, no primeiro capítulo, uma extensa revisão teórica sobre os Estudos Sociais da Ciência e da Tecnologia, ênfase especial é dada à algumas das principais abordagens teóricas da Sociologia da Ciência e da Tecnologia. São discutidas: a Escola de Edimburgo, o Programa Empírico do Relativismo e os Estudos de Laboratório. São destacadas ainda algumas abordagens Sociológicas e Históricas sobre a Tecnologia, tais como a Construção Social da Tecnologia, os estudos sobre a emergência dos Sistemas Tecnológicos, e a Teoria Atore-rede (TAR). Guiado pelas propostas da TAR, e sustentado por dados primários, como entrevistas, e secundários como documentos, revistas, fotos e estudos específicos sobre o caso do Proálcool, o segundo capítulo descreve o caso do desenvolvimento da tecnologia de uso do álcool combustível. Neste sentido, apresenta as tentativas históricas de substituição da gasolina por álcool no Brasil, evidencia que já existiam controvérsias sobre o uso da gasolina ou do álcool e aponta a crise do petróleo de 1973 como a força propulsora que deu novas forças às tentativas de substituição da gasolina como combustível para automóveis particulares. Na seqüência, é problematizada a existência de alternativas ao uso do petróleo como, por exemplo, a possibilidade de uso de outras formas de transporte. Tendo estas reflexões por base, a pesquisa busca seguir os cientistas e os técnicos nas suas atividades estratégicas de promoção do álcool combustível enquanto objeto capaz de encerrar as controvérsias relativas ao combustível a ser utilizado no Brasil da década de 1970. O segundo capítulo se encerra com uma breve reflexão sobre como o referencial analítico ajudou a compreender a construção deste coletivo habitado por objetos técnicos e sociais. O texto conclui com uma síntese do trabalho, retomando os objetivos específicos, que foram trabalhados em cada capítulo, desenha conclusões a partir da análise do caso com base no referencial teórico e aponta para recomendações e possibilidade de aprofundamento da pesquisa. / Abstract: This dissertation has as objective to contribute to the understanding of the development of the technology for alcohol fuel consumption in Brazil. To do so it presents, in the first chapter, an extensive revision about the Social Studies of Science and Technology, a special emphasis is given on the comprehension of some school of thoughts in the sociology of science and Technology. Those are The Edinburg School, The Empirical Program of Relativism and The Laboratory Studies. Some approaches from the sociology and the history of technology as The Social Construction of Technology, Large Technological Systems and Actor-Network Theory (ANT) are emphasized as well. Under the guidance of ANT and with support from primary data as interviews, as well as from secondary data like documents, magazines, pictures and specific studies about the Proálcool case the second chapter describes the case of the development of the technology of alcohol fuel consumption. In doing so it presents the historical attempts to replace gas for alcohol fuel in Brazil, highlights the existence of controversies about the usage of gas or alcohol fuel and points the global petrol crises in 1973 as the main driving force which brought new energy to the attempts to the replacement of Gas as fuel for privately owned automobiles. In the sequence, the existence of alternatives to the usage of petro-fuel like the possibility to use other means of transportation is issued. Based on these conjectures the research tries to follow the scientists and technicians at their strategic activities to promote alcohol fuel as an object capable of closing the controversies about which fuel should be used in Brazil in the 1970's. The second chapter finishes with a brief consideration about how the analytical frame work helped to understand the construction of this collectivity populated by technical and social objects. The text concludes with a synthesis of the work, reassesses the precise objectives from each chapter, draws some conclusions from the case study and offers some hints on how to extend the research. / Mestrado / Mestre em Política Científica e Tecnológica

This thesis investigates the Out-of-Box Experience (OoBE) of interactive consumer products for older adults, with a view to improve the User Experience (UX) of a product by manipulating factors of the OoBE. This research emerges in the context of current demographic trends, which see people living longer and in better health, and the increasing ubiquity of technology in modern life. The OoBE describes the very first stages of interaction with a new product, including acquisition, unpacking and setup. This crucial initial experience has the potential to influence product acceptance and therefore determine its future use. Creating a positive OoBE requires an empathic understanding of the intended users, as well as contextual knowledge about current practices. A review of the literature revealed that many of the difficulties older adults experience with technology concern elements of the OoBE, such as complicated documentation, technical jargon and inadequate support for inexperienced users. However, the absence of research on how to engage older adults during the OoBE of new technology reinforced the need for further research. To this end, two user studies were conducted with older people, followed by a design study with designers. The first study explored older adults relationship with technology and their current practices of the OoBE, using the Technology Biography method. The second study used cultural probes to investigate the social side of UX and its effect on personal feelings of independence. Data from these two studies were used to create four personas, which were used in the design study. This third and final study focused on whether the construct of social benefits could be operationalised within the OoBE of new technology. Collectively, the findings indicated that the involvement of other people during the OoBE can be a strong motivator for older people to take up and use technology. Far from impinging on individual perceptions of independence, some older people actively manipulate the OoBE in order to derive social benefits. This research thus contributes to the discussion of how Inclusive Design can evolve through the incorporation of social benefits, in order to generate desirable and successful future products.

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Science in Information Technology in Education

published_or_final_version / abstract / Sociology / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy