Thesis (M.S.)--University of Florida, 2002. / Title from title page of source document. Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2002. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 137-145).

Thesis (M. Phil.)--University of Hong Kong, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 184-197).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Drexel University, 2002. / Includes abstract and vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 185-192).

Den utveckling som internet har genomgått har bidragit till att en rad förändringar har skett. Det innehåll som finns på internet har ändrats och skapas numer av dess användare lika mycket som av företag och organisationer. Det har skett en utökning av plattformar där användarna kan kommunicera och interagera med varandra och dela med sig av personliga åsikter och erfarenheter på ett enkelt sätt. Vi är dessutom mer kritiska till vad som skrivs på internet och reflekterar över vad som är pålitlig information eller inte, samtidigt som vi som turister och konsumenter bryr oss om och påverkas av vad andra tycker och tänker. Inom turismnäringen har TripAdvisor blivit en viktig plattform för denna form av informationsskapande och spridande. TripAdvisor är en arena där resenärer och turismverksamheter möts.   Syftet med uppsatsen är att kartlägga vad som skrivs på TripAdvisor och hur hotellverksamheter påverkas och arbetar med dessa omdömen, detta utifrån en studie av tre hotell i Karlstad. Uppsatsens syfte konkretiseras genom tre frågeställningar: Hur sker ryktesspridning via internet, så kallad e-WoM, inom hotellnäringen?, Hur ser hotellets arbete med omdömena ut? och Vilken påverkan har e-WoM för hotellen?. Detta undersöks genom kvalitativ metod i form av en textanalys av innehållet i TripAdvisor omdömen samt genom intervjuer med representanter från de tre hotellen. Uppsatsens teoretiska utgångspunkter berör user-generated content, elektronisk ryktesspridning, relations- och kommunikationsaspekter.   Studien har kommit fram till att innehållet i omdömena inte skiljer sig åt i någon större utsträckning gällande de tre hotellen. Hotellens arbete med TripAdvisor ser olika ut, två av hotellen arbetar aktivt med omdömena och det tredje saknar helt ett arbetssätt. Omdömenas påverkan är närvarande i hotellens arbete ur både positiv och negativ aspekt, här handlar det om förbättringsmöjligheter samt negativ publicitet. Att TripAdvisor omdömen fungerar som en viktig informationskälla och starkt påverkar potentiella gäster är något som framkommit tydligt under studiens gång.

Context. Augmented Reality (AR) is a technique that provides additional and varied information to a real environment. The compatibility to smartphones makes AR applications suitable for location based, social, advertisement as well as education oriented applications. Objectives. This study explores if AR is a suitable method of information visualization that can enhance User Experience(UX) comparedto more traditional methods. The information this project focuses on is 3D model and animation information. Methods. This work utilizes a comparative experiment where subjects get to test and evaluate two prototypes, one consisting of static, rendered images and a video and the other being an interactive mobileAR application. Results. Results were gathered with the Attrakdiff™ User Experience questionnaire and an interview. Conclusions. The experiment showed that there is a possibility to enhance user experience when visualizing 3D model and animation information with the help of mobile AR applications.

Information gathering from sources outside the company plays a critical role in most innovation projects. Particularly, it seems promising to approach external market experts to develop an indepth understanding of current use problems, changing customer needs and trends for new product solutions. When planning expert interviews, firms are confronted with the question whether knowledge is distributed rather homogeneously or heterogeneously ("scattered") among a pool of experts. This issue strongly determines how many experts need to be interviewed in order to develop a comprehensive understanding of a given search field for innovation. In the present paper we analyse expert interviews that were conducted in the context of an innovation project in the field of surgical hygiene products. We find high heterogeneity of expert knowledge: Market experts in our sample vary in terms of market information they provide for the particular product field. We argue that this finding is in alignment with the concept of "bounded rationality" and the theory of "contextual development of knowledge". Our findings have implications for the management of external information gathering and the identification of market experts.(author's abstract)

User education is one of the essential activities of the library to optimize the use of library services. This paper discusses the use of multimedia based videos for the promotion of library services and activities with the help of emerging trends and technologies and the power of Web 2.0 especially YouTube. Through this paper, it is tried to demonstrate the procedural aspects of promoting user education through developing multimedia based user education program and utilizing the services of YouTube as media of marketing and communication at Jaypee University of Information Technology, Solan, Himachal Pradesh, India.

Thesauri have been important information and knowledge organisation tools for more than three decades. The recent emergence and phenomenal growth of the World Wide Web has created new opportunities to introduce thesauri as information search and retrieval aids to end user communities. While the number of web-based and hypertextual thesauri continues to grow, few investigations have yet been carried out to evaluate how end-users, for whom all these efforts are ostensibly made, interact with and make use of thesauri for query building and expansion. The present paper reports a pilot study carried out to determine the extent to which a thesaurus-enhanced search interface to a web-based database aided end-users in their selection of search terms. The study also investigated the ways in which users interacted with the thesaurus structure, terms, and interface. Thesaurus-based searching and browsing behaviours adopted by users while interacting with the thesaurus-enhanced search interface were also examined.

This paper discusses the nature and levels of information access by the information deprived communities in South Africa and the role libraries play in supporting information access to the information poor. The marginalized communities and information access are defined, and how, why and where such communities access information is discussed. The library system in South Africa is described and its role, activities, programmes and services are examined. The paper further discusses how the libraries are resourced and managed, and the challenges and opportunities they face. An attempt is made to compare South African library model support to the information poor communities with those of other countries of the region. It is concluded that South Africa has a strong information access capacity and library services, though comparatively better than those in other African countries in terms of management, resource support and distribution, but still lacks the capacity for effective information provision to the marginalized communities largely because of their location and information content and format that is largely in favor of information rich environments.