Government Applications of Virtual Communities

2011 ◽  
pp. 218-222
Author(s):  
Susan A. Baim
Keyword(s):  
Web Sites ◽  
Virtual Communities ◽  
Income Taxes ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Local State ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Governmental Agencies ◽  
Building Permit

Local, state and federal governments face a continuing need to supply increased amounts of information to their constituencies. Requests for information involve routine matters such as filing for a building permit, checking a property’s legal description, or looking up employment statistics. Requests for information can also involve more complex matters such as seeking advice on how to file income taxes, how to apply for government-sponsored loan programs and/or jobs, or ways to lobby lawmakers to advance a political point of view. In many cases, individuals are now looking to their governments to interact with them electronically, with the same level of sophistication, accuracy, and timeliness that they are experiencing from other online organizations. As a result, there is a tremendous incentive for governmental agencies to understand the Internet-based needs and wants of their constituencies and to respond to them accordingly. The use of efficient and effective virtual communities and interactive Web sites can assist in this process.

scholarly journals ALVIC versus the Internet: Redesigning a Networked Virtual Environment Architecture

2008 ◽  
Vol 2008 ◽  
pp. 1-9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Quax ◽  
Jeroen Dierckx ◽  
Bart Cornelissen ◽  
Wim Lamotte
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Environment ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Virtual Communities ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Generic Framework ◽  
Short Period ◽  
Networked Virtual Environment ◽  
Near Future

The explosive growth of the number of applications based on networked virtual environment technology, both games and virtual communities, shows that these types of applications have become commonplace in a short period of time. However, from a research point of view, the inherent weaknesses in their architectures are quickly exposed. The Architecture for Large-Scale Virtual Interactive Communities (ALVICs) was originally developed to serve as a generic framework to deploy networked virtual environment applications on the Internet. While it has been shown to effectively scale to the numbers originally put forward, our findings have shown that, on a real-life network, such as the Internet, several drawbacks will not be overcome in the near future. It is, therefore, that we have recently started with the development of ALVIC-NG, which, while incorporating the findings from our previous research, makes several improvements on the original version, making it suitable for deployment on the Internet as it exists today.

Comparative Shopping on Agent Web Sites

2011 ◽  
pp. 124-128
Author(s):  
Ming Wang
Keyword(s):  
Web Sites ◽  
Credit Card ◽  
Information Overload ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Purchase Order ◽  
Customer Reviews ◽  
Online Shoppers ◽  
The Individual

The enormous amount of commercial information available on the Internet makes online shoppers overwhelmed and it difficult to find relevant information. The recent development of shopping agents (bots) has offered a practical solution for this information overload problem. From the customer’s point of view, a shopping agent reduces search complexity, increases search efficiency, and supports user mobility. It has been proposed that the availability of agent Web sites is one of the reasons why e-markets should be more efficient (Mougayar, 1998). Shopping bots are created with agent software that assists online shoppers by automatically gathering shopping information from the Internet. In this comparative shopping environment, shopping agents can provide the customer with comparative prices for a searched product, customer reviews of the product, and reviews of the corresponding merchants. The agent will first locate the merchants’ Web sites selling the searched product. Then, the agent will collect information about the prices of the product and its features from these merchants. Once a customer selects a product with a merchant, the individual merchant Web site will process the purchase order and the delivery details. The shopping agent receives a commission on each sale made by a visitor to its site from the merchant selling the product on the Internet. Some auction agent Web sites provide a negotiation service through intelligent agent functions. Agents will represent both buyers and sellers. Once a buyer identifies a seller, the agent can negotiate the transaction. The agents will negotiate a price and then execute the transaction for their respective owners. The buyer’s agent will use a credit card account number to pay for the product. The seller’s agent will accept the payment and transmit the proper instructions to deliver the item under the terms agreed upon by the agent.

Draw to Participate in Virtual Communities

2011 ◽  
pp. 145-149
Author(s):  
Susan A. Baim
Keyword(s):  
Web Sites ◽  
Search Engines ◽  
Virtual Communities ◽  
The Internet ◽  
User Needs ◽  
Complex Matrix ◽  
The World ◽  
Common Interests ◽  
Enormous Number

Over the last decade, the Internet has emerged as an important channel for marketing products and/or services to consumers around the world. Interactive Web sites, advertising submitted to search engines, mass e-mailings, and a broad range of other innovative virtual-based marketing techniques are utilized to build interest in an organization’s current and/or future offering(s). Similarly, individuals use the Internet to seek out information, to buy and sell products/services, and to communicate with their friends, relatives and associates. Throughout the complex matrix that forms current Internet communications, an enormous number of “gathering spots” have developed in recent years where individuals and organizations, alike, can share common interests and meet differentiated user needs and wants. These “gathering spots” are called virtual communities.

Methods and Issues for Research in Virtual Communities

2009 ◽  
pp. 912-920
Author(s):  
Stefano Pace
Keyword(s):  
Web Sites ◽  
Virtual Communities ◽  
Social Research ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Online Activity ◽  
Main Research ◽  
The Social ◽  
Pros And Cons ◽  
Social Side ◽  
The Web

The Internet has developed from an informative medium to a social environment where people meet together, exchange messages and emotions, and establish friendships and social relationships. While the Internet was originally conceived as a commercial marketspace (Rayport & Sviokla, 1994), nowadays the social side of the Web is a central phenomenon to truly understand the Internet. Social gratification is among the most relevant motivations to go online (Bagozzi & Dholakia, 2006; Stafford & Stafford, 2001). People socialise through the Internet, adding a third motivation to their online activity, other that the pleasure of surfing in itself (the “flow experience” described by Hoffman & Novak, 1996) and the usefulness of finding information. Virtual communities are springing up both as spontaneous aggregation (like the Usenet newsgroups) or forums promoted and organised by Web sites. The topics of a community range from support for a disease to passion for a given product or brand (Muñiz & O’Guinn, 2001). The intensity and relevance of the virtual sociality cannot be discarded. Companies can receive useful and actionable knowledge around their own offer studying the communities devoted to their brand. Hence social research should adopt refined tools to study the communities in order to achieve reliable results. The aim of this article is to illustrate the main research methods viable for virtual communities, examining their pros and cons.

A Primer on E-Government

2005 ◽  
pp. 11-15
Author(s):  
Shannon Howle Schelin
Keyword(s):  
Federal Government ◽  
Web Sites ◽  
Local State ◽  
Electronic Government ◽  
The Internet ◽  
American Life Project ◽  
Life Project ◽  
Government Services ◽  
Internet Users ◽  
County Managers

E-government (electronic government) has become a mainstay in local, state, and federal government. The era of e-commerce and e-business began with the widespread adoption of the Internet in the mid-1990s and today many citizens expect the same responsiveness and access to government services as found in the private sector. According to the 2002 International City/County Managers Association e-government survey, over 73 percent of municipalities with populations larger than 2,500 have Web sites. The 2002 Pew Internet and American Life Project indicates that 58 percent (68 million people) of American Internet users have accessed at least one governmental Web site (Larson and Rainie, 2002).

scholarly journals Segmenting The Web 2.0 Market: Behavioural And Usage Patterns Of Social Web Consumers

2011 ◽  
Vol 6 (7) ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlota Lorenzo-Romero ◽  
Efthymios Constantinides ◽  
Maria-del-Carmen Alarcon-del-Amo
Keyword(s):  
Web 2.0 ◽  
Web Sites ◽  
Social Networking Sites ◽  
Information Exchange ◽  
Virtual Communities ◽  
Research Area ◽  
Current Phase ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Social Web ◽  
The Web

The evolution of the commercial Internet to the current phase, commonly called Web 2.0 (or Social Web) has firmly positioned the web not only as a commercial but also as a social communication platform: an online environment facilitating peer-to-peer interaction, socialization, co-operation and information exchange. Internet users are not any more passive consumers of information but are actively involved in online creation, editing, and dissemination of content. They form virtual communities and interact with each other making use of a variety of interactive applications like social-networking sites, online forums, blogs, and wikis. This new social environment entails new challenges and opportunities for marketers, practitioners and behavioural researchers encompassing an appealing and untapped research area. In this empirical study we develop a classification of Web 2.0 users.  Segments are identified on the basis of socio-demographic features, involvement, usage of the Internet, online purchase behaviour, personality characteristics, and the degree of use of Social Web sites. We analyze the differences between user segments, their trust levels and satisfaction and conclude that the degree of online experience is one of the most important antecedents of trust and satisfaction with Web 2.0 applications. The study identifies issues of further research and ways that can help field marketers to better map and understand their online markets in order to utilize effectively the Internet and particularly of the Web 2.0 domain as part of their marketing strategy.

"Can I pin this?" The legal position of Pinterest and its users: An analysis of Pinterest's data storage policies and users' trust in the service

First Monday ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Kasakowskij ◽  
Regina Kasakowskij ◽  
Kaja J. Fietkiewicz
Keyword(s):  
Data Storage ◽  
Web Sites ◽  
Data Streams ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
The Internet ◽  
European Economic Area ◽  
Digital Environment ◽  
Economic Area ◽  
Legal Position

It has been known for some time that in the digital environment enormous data streams are generated in which data is disclosed, forwarded, and stored. Once on the Internet, data is difficult to control. Often when creating and/or sharing content on the Internet, legal concerns about copyright and data protection might arise among the user as well as the platform provider. The same holds true for Pinterest, especially when considering that the main feature of the service is the possibility to re-pin (hence, collect and publicly share) content from external Web sites and from other users (i.e., someone else’s creation). It is unclear how Pinterest handles the data of its users and external Web sites and protects it from misuse. It is also questionable whether the users familiarize themselves with terms of use, privacy policy, and the use of cookies by Pinterest as well as their legal awareness when using the service. This study contributes to resolve this uncertainty and to secure a more precise picture of how data is handled from the company’s point of view. For this purpose, an online survey with 365 participants was carried out. It was found that many users do not read the terms and conditions or guidelines but trust the service. In addition, an investigation on Pinterest’s guidelines has shown that a great deal of different data is stored and indirectly passed on to other companies. It was also found that users in the European economic area are not protected against copyright infringements when using Pinterest. This could lead to problems with state authority, at least for European users.

Tanggapan dan Horizon Harapan Pembaca terhadap Le Petit Prince Karya A. De Saint-Exupery: Tinjauan Resepsi Sastra

Metahumaniora ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 300
Author(s):  
Tania Intan ◽  
Trisna Gumilar
Keyword(s):  
Research Data ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Data Sources ◽  
The Internet ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Literary Reading ◽  
Reading Experience ◽  
Reader Responses ◽  
Qualitative Descriptive ◽  
Research Type

AbstrakPenelitian ini bertujuan untuk (1) mendekripsikan tanggapan pembaca terhadap novel Le Petit Prince (2) mendeskripsikan horizon harapan pembaca terhadap novel Le Petit Prince, dan (3) mendeskripsikan faktor-faktor penyebab perbedaan tanggapan dan horizon harapan pembaca. Penelitian ini termasuk jenis penelitian deskriptif kualitatif. Data penelitian berupa teks yang memuat tanggapan pembaca novel Le Petit Princeyang terdiri dari 20 orang, sedangkan sumber datanya berupa artikel dan makalah yang dimuat di media massa cetak dan elektronik termasuk internet. Instrumen penelitian berupa seperangkat konsep tentang pembaca, tanggapan pembaca, dan horizon harapan. Teknik pengumpulan data dengan cara observasi dan data dianalisis dengan menggunakan teknik deskriptif kualitatif. Hasil penelitian yang didapat sebagai berikut. (1) Seluruh pembaca menanggapi atau menilai positif unsur tema, alur, tokoh, latar, sudut pandang, gaya bahasa, teknik penceritaan, bahasa, dan isi novel Le Petit Prince. (2) Harapan sebagian besar pembaca sebelum membaca novel Le Petit Prince sesuai dengan kenyataan ke sembilan unsur di dalam novel Le Petit Prince, sehingga pembaca dapat dengan mudah menerima dan memberikan pujian pada novel Le Petit Prince. (3) Faktor penyebab perbedaan tanggapan dan horizon harapan pembaca selain perbedaan stressing unsur yang ditanggapi juga karena perbedaan pengetahuan tentang sastra, pengetahuan tentang kehidupan, dan pengalaman membaca karya sastra.Kata kunci: tanggapan pembaca, horizon harapan, Le Petit PrinceAbstractThis study aims to (1) describe reader’s responses to the novel Le Petit Prince (2) to describe the reader's expectations horizon of Le Petit Prince's novel, and (3) to describe the factors causing differences in responses and the horizon of readers' expectations. This research is a descriptive qualitative research type. The research data consist of a set of paragraphs that contains readers' responses to Le Petit Prince's novel, while the data sources are articles and papers published in print and electronic mass media including the internet. The research instruments are a set of reader concepts, reader responses, and expectations horizon. The technique of collecting data is observation and data are analyzed by using qualitative descriptive technique. The results obtained are as follow: (1) All readers respond and valuethe theme elements,plots, characters, background, point of view, language, titles, storytelling techniques, language, and extrinsic novel Le Petit Prince positively. (2) The expectations of most readers before reading Le Petit Prince's novels are in accordance with the nine facts in Le Petit Prince's novel, so readers can easily accept and give prise to Le Petit Prince's novel. (3) Factors causing differences in responses and horizon of readers' expectations other than the stressing differences of the elements being addressed also due to the differences in knowledge of literature, knowledge of life and literary reading experience. Keywords: readers responses, expectations horizon, Le Petit Prince

Arising of Informal Women's Learn-to-code Communities

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-24
Author(s):  
Louise Ann Lyon ◽  
Chelsea Clayton
Keyword(s):  
Learning Community ◽  
Virtual Communities ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Customer Relationship ◽  
Activity System ◽  
Learning Group ◽  
Management Platform ◽  
High Level ◽  
Verbal Encouragement ◽  
Activity Systems Analysis

Female-focused, grassroots communities purporting to help women learn to code are popping up in a variety of settings, indicating the motivation on the part of the participants to evade male-dominated settings while learning. However, little is known about how these groups function as an activity system. With current technology enabling the forming of virtual communities and the meteoric rise in use of the Salesforce CRM (customer relationship management) platform, a group of women have formed a coaching and learning community designed to help women move from Salesforce administrators to software developers through learning to code. We used activity systems analysis (ASA) to investigate this real-world instance of the larger phenomenon using an ethnographic approach. We used ASA to organize and make sense of the data by first creating a table listing the points on the activity system triangle (subject, rules, object, etc.) and filling in the points of the triangle based on the design of the coaching and learning group as described by participants; this gave us a high-level view of the activity system. To understand the subjects’ point of view of the system, we then created a new column in the table to fill in themes that emerged from our qualitative data analysis organized by dimension of the activity system. This process enabled us to capture the activity and the voices of participants as well as tensions that had emerged in the system. Findings show a range of outcomes, from participants crediting the group as a kickstart to the journey to successfully landing a job as a developer to members stalling in their progress after involvement. Results also show that purposeful tensions of welcoming novice questions and offering unsolicited verbal encouragement built into the activity system create a welcoming, safe environment for women learning to code.

Internet Connections for Arthritis and Other Rheumatic Diseases

1999 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 368-369
Author(s):  
Bruce C. Carlstedt
Keyword(s):  
Rheumatic Diseases ◽  
Web Sites ◽  
Professional Associations ◽  
Educational Institutions ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Amount Of Information ◽  
Professional Journals ◽  
Internet Connections

Access to the Internet provides us with an incredible amount of information about the rheumatic diseases. There are numerous arthritis organizations, professional associations, educational institutions, research and professional journals and patients with Web sites devoted to the rheumatic diseases. Some are reviewed and listed here.

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