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Tese de mestrado. Inovação e Empreendedorismo Tecnológico. Faculdade de Engenharia. Universidade do Porto. 2010

Thesis (M.Dev) --University of Limpopo, 2011 / Internet services can make a significant contribution towards the development of people both in the urban and rural areas. The study is focused on the demand for internet services in the community of Nkowankowa in the Greater Tzaneen Municipality (GTM) in Limpopo province. Internet services bring multiple opportunities such as information, e-mails, games, shopping, banking, and real time news. The study examined the nature of demand for internet infrastructure and services in the area. The study further explored strategies that may be cost-effective and affordable to internet users and to recommend strategies through which the municipality can improve internet service delivery. The use of internet services was also examined (i.e., what are internet services needed for)? To understand these challenges and obtain in-depth information, both qualitative and quantitative research approach were used. The study population consisted of business owners (SMMEs), schoolmaster, students, and management in the municipal management committee, internet café owners, computer home users, police management and health management in Nkowakowa community in the Greater Tzaneen Municipality, selected through a purposive sampling method. These management workers are main role players in the use of internet services. A small sample of 40 respondents was selected based on the potential or likelihood that the respondents had same knowledge and interest in internet services. The researcher has selected the relative small sample because of the limited time frame. The findings reveal that Nkowankowa has a high shortage of internet infrastructure such as telephony. The entire Section C does not have a landline infrastructure and the only possibility is mobile connection, which is expensive. The internet cafés stand at 2 against the population of 30515 (Greater Tzaneen Municipality IDP: 2005-2006:12). The community depends on those two internet cafés. Learned individuals and business have afforded to connect. Others depend on internet services from their institutions, work place, and internet cafes. Challenges of the infrastructure unavailability such as telephony have a negative impact on utilization. It was recommended that the Municipality should partner with NGOs and community based organizations to deliver internet and related services to the community.

Security and privacy practices of end-users on social media are an important area of research, as well as a top-of-mind concern for individuals as well as organizations. In recent years, we have seen a sharp increase in data breaches and cyber security threats that have targeted social media users. Hence, it is imperative that we try to better understand factors that affect an end-user’s adoption of effective security safeguards and privacy protection practices. In this research, we propose and validate a theoretical model that posits several determinants of end-user security and privacy practices on social media. We hypothesize relationships among various cognitive, affective and behavioral factors identified under the themes of posture, proficiency, and practices. These constructs and hypotheses are validated through empirical research comprising an online survey questionnaire, and structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis. The key findings of this study highlight the importance of cyber threat awareness and social media security and privacy self-efficacy, which have a direct impact on end-user security and privacy practices. Additionally, our research shows that use of general technology applications for security and privacy impacts the adoption of security and privacy practices on social media. In totality, our research findings indicate that proficiency is a better predictor or security and privacy practices as compared to the posture of an end-user. Factors such as privacy disposition, privacy concerns, and perceived risk of privacy violations do not have as significant or direct effect on security and privacy practices. Based on our research findings, we provide some key take-aways in the form of theoretical contributions, suggestions for future research, as well as recommendations for organizational security awareness training programs.

Thesis (M.A.) -- Mills College, 2006. / Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Interdisciplinary Computer Science.

For many decades in India, natural resource management (NRM) programs were implemented by government bureaucracies in a centralized, top-down manner. The programs were unsustainable and suffered from resource use inefficiency and inequity. In the 1990s, under pressure from civil society organizations and multilateral agencies, the Government of India and many State Governments introduced policies that decentralized NRM programs and mandated active participation of users in the management of resources. When implementation responsibilities were transferred to resource user-groups many of the problems associated with centralization could be reduced significantly. However, despite their proven capacity of being better resource managers than government agencies, the user-groups encountered difficulties as self-governed people's organizations. Participation of users declined and problems of equity resurfaced in many user-groups. This dissertation describes the research that examines the causes of problems in the governance of user-groups in villages of Mehsana District in Gujarat. Using an eight-fold criteria of good governance, the study looks at eight Water Users Associations (WUAs) that took over irrigation management responsibilities from the Irrigation Department. This program of decentralization of irrigation is called Participatory Irrigation Management (PIM). The assessment of each WUA on each of the eight criteria reveals a close link between characteristics of good governance and the process of democratization. It can be seen that the WUAs that performed well on participation, equity, transparency, accountability, rule of law and consensus-orientation were less likely to face situations of dysfunction than the WUAs that performed poorly on these criteria. These criteria for good governance are also the core elements of democratic governance. At the same time, the case-studies reveal the tension between the democratization process that is attempted within the WUAs and the historical and cultural legacy of the feudal, autocratic and patriarchal society that rural India has been for many centuries. The thesis supports the argument, with empirical evidence, that the decentralization process can be sustainable only when user-groups institutionalize democratic processes and the early leaders behave in a democratic manner. It also suggests that the transition from an undemocratic institution to a democratic one can be enabled when external support agencies play an important catalytic role.

In 2004, Tim O¡¦Reilly brought up the ideas ofWEB 2.0 to describe the internet phenomenon for the incoming future.Tim noticed the WEB 2.0 concept that focused on the internet characteristics such as user-generation involvement ,openness API structure, and the group sharing and interactions. He predicted the websites owners will create internet surroundings which will be controlled by user themselves.Also, the owners will return the authorities such as publishing contents and feedback of the articles on websites to the users. According to that, this study through the ¡uUse and Gratification¡vtheory to focus on evolving the individual difference between users motivations, behaviors and satisfications when they having the more and greater freedoms on internet. This study found that the users between 20 to 40 years old are the majority who lives the WEB 2.0 internet surroundings. For these researches, female users are more than males, and approximately 41.9% users log on the WEB2.0 websites six times a week, 46.6% of overall users surf on these websites for one to two hours. The most common activities the users do is ¡uinformation collection and sharing¡v, between 21:00 to 00:00. Furthermore, this study through the personnal characteristics found that the ages, professions, sex, and educations have siginificant differences on the motivation of using internet. Also, the convience of download and upload information has the highest scale on user¡¦s satisfication. This research indicates that users are more satisfied on information convience than other functions when staying in the WEB2.0 interface platforms. Besides, this study also found on the ¡usatisfication of achievements¡vaspect of motivations, not only the anticipated¡usatisfication of achievement¡vaspect, but also ¡uconvenience of information collection and delievery¡v¡B¡usatisfication of entertainment and interaction¡vand¡usatisfication of psychological performance¡v aspects have siginificant positive influence on the user¡¦s behaviors and overall satisfications. This study also proved the ideas Tim O¡¦Reilly mentioned before, which is about increasing individual values under the user-generation-content interface.

Thesis (M. Phil.)--University of Hong Kong, 2010. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 109-126). Also available in print.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Illinois. / Also published in 1967 in book form by the U.S. Office of Education under title: The effect of arrangement on the use of library catalogs: an experimental study of a divided and a dictionary catalog. Bibliography: leaves 125-128.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Delaware, 2009. / Principal faculty advisors: Ardashpal S. Sethi and Jelena Mirkovic, Dept. of Computer & Information Sciences, Includes bibliographical references.