A Multi-Perspective Theoretical Analysis to Web Accessibility

Accessibility has become increasingly important in information technology, particularly due to legislation pressure to make affordable public services to all. Being end-users and software companies those who have direct contact with accessibility problems, other stakeholders are committed to defining methods and change mentalities in Web accessibility implementation. In addition to a conceptual definition, this chapter presents entities views with responsibilities in the area, taking into account their work done in the past and the prospects for future. The understanding of the interaction between all these perspectives will help to realize the way it will go, which carries with it great challenges and opportunities, widely explored in this work.

Human Digital Immortality

More or less primitive homo sapiens have always secretly dreamt about, or plainly believed in immortality. All cultures had and still have beliefs, traditions, rituals, legends, old stories, and fairy tales about immortality. Unfortunately, as science and technology progressed, human immortality is a remote ideal yet. In addition, as technology development speeds up, it challenges the social nature of humankind; a possible result is people alienation. It is the purpose of this paper to propose a new prospective: opposed to the common feeling that technology alienates people – in their most intimate nature – the authors believe that modern technologies and human nature (defined by its innermost dream of immortality) converge. The ancient human dream of eternal life can be achieved through technology: i.e. human digital immortality. A day will come when the entire technical capabilities will allow personalities to be copied into a computer. Thus immortality could be provided in a virtualized form, heaven being replaced with a super computer.

Technology Satisfaction in an Academic Context

In the 21st century wireless internet technology has been extensively extending and contributing to various aspects of human lives. However, technological assessment and evaluation have been rarely taken place, especially to investigate the satisfaction among students in using wireless internet for learning and research purposes. As such, this study validates the Technology Satisfaction Model proposed by in an academic context for estimating students' satisfaction and the moderating effect of gender in using wireless internet. The findings of SEM analyses attested that students' satisfaction was directly influenced by perceived ease of use and usefulness in using wireless internet and it was also indirectly affected by computer self-efficacy medicated by usefulness and ease of use, respectively. Additionally, computer self-efficacy had a significant direct influence on ease of use and usefulness. The results of invariance analyses also discovered that gender was not a moderating variable for technology satisfaction in an academic context.

Web Accessibility and Transparency for Accountability

Local government is a political power close to citizens and constitutes a mainstay of democracy. Because of their mission, the guidelines promoted by local government must be embedded in strategies of accountability and public communication. In that sense, it is worthwhile to ask if “local government accountability is being an inclusive concept?” In Portugal, transparency of municipalities is being accessed through the Municipality Transparency Index (MTI). The study aim was to investigate whatever MTI measures accessibility. This study examined the availability of local government information on the website for a sample of 86 Portuguese municipalities and presented the results of a quantitative evaluation of the web accessibility based on W3C guidelines, using an automated tool. Based on the main concepts of transparency and accessibility, it explored static association between MTI and web accessibility. This study contributed to the discussion about transparency as a social value and is of great importance for local policy makers and civic movements in favor of disabled people.

Play It Like Beckham!

New opportunities and challenges are emerging thanks to the growing Internet importance and social media usage. Although practitioners have already recognized the strategic dimension of e-reputation and the power of social media, academic research is still in its infancy when it comes to e-reputation determinants in a social networks context. A study was conducted in the sports setting to explore the impact of social networks on the sportspeople's e-reputation. Whereas the study emphasized (1) the influence of social networks' perception on the sportspeople's e-reputation, and the neutral roles of (2) the motives for following sportspeople online, and (3) the negative content on the Internet, additional insights are formulated on maintaining, restoring and managing e-reputation on social networks. Finally, future research directions are suggested on the role of image to control e-reputation.

Exploring M-Commerce and Social Media

The proliferation of mobile phones and tablets shape a new arena for online commercial activity with unprecedented opportunities and challenges. In this omnipresent mobile environment, understanding consumer behavior constitutes a challenge for m-commerce vendors, as they seek to understand factors that affect it, positively and negatively, and to integrate social media in their mobile strategy and across mobile devices. This paper presents an exploratory qualitative research examining separately mobile phones and tablets and the use of social media, in the context of m-commerce. The results of our qualitative analysis show important factors for m-commerce and social media adoption and use, highlighting the similarities and differences between mobile phones and tablets. Our qualitative results also reveal factors having a negative effect to m-commerce, for both mobile devices. Business opportunities enabled by social media for m-commerce and how these can be leveraged in this promising multiple-device mobile context are also discussed.

Design of Human-Computer Interaction Systems with Directions and Applications

The intention of this chapter is to provide an overview on the subject of Human-Computer Interaction. The overview includes the basic definitions and terminology, a survey of existing technologies and recent advances in the field, common architectures used in the design of HCI systems which includes unimodal and multimodal configurations, and finally the applications of HCI. This chapter also offers a comprehensive number of references for each concept, method, and application in the HCI. Human–computer interaction is considered a core element of computer science. Yet it has not coalesced; many researchers who identify their focus as human–computer interaction reside in other fields. It examines the origins and evolution of three HCI research foci: computer operation, information systems management, and discretionary use. It describes efforts to find common ground and forces that have kept them apart.

Continuance Use Intention of Mobile Internet Services

In this chapter, we investigate the moderating effect of gender on the intention to continue using mobile Internet services (MIS) in an everyday life context. An extended model based on the technology acceptance theory is used to examine gender differences regarding MIS continuance intention in an everyday life context. A survey was conducted among 623 current MIS users to test the hypotheses using structural equation modeling approach. The findings show that female users expressed a stronger need for perceived usefulness and ease-of-use than male users, while male users expressed a significant need for perceived enjoyment. Interestingly, the stronger effect of perceived usefulness in females was contrary to prior TAM research. The observed gender differences suggest that MIS providers should consider gender when advertising and marketing MIS.

Insights into the Culture of Young Internet Users

This study focuses on the Internet user behaviour of young people, at a time when information and communication technologies (ICT) are rapidly transforming how individuals behave and interact in the online environment. The intention is to put forward a snapshot of contemporary Internet user behaviour, with reference to social networking, and thus provide an overview and understanding of the various online activities undertaken by Generation Y and Generation Z in a non-Anglophone context. The study uses a mixed methods approach to gather data on the thoughts, experiences and behaviours of young Internet users in order to explain their social networking. The findings suggest commonality and disparity between Generation Y and Generation Z. They also reveal the extent to which certain national differences are less apparent when using social networks, suggesting that the widespread adoption of Internet technology is generating a somewhat ‘standardised' Internet user behaviour.

Social Media and Identity

The present chapter aims to explore the relationship between social media and identity by reviewing theoretical frameworks as well as empirical studies on the topic. Considering the complexity of the concept of identity, a multidisciplinary theoretical approach is provided, including Psychological Theories, Sociological Theories and Communication Theories. These theories are revisited in the context of online identity formation and communication through social media. Different aspects of identity such as gender identity, professional identity, political identity etc., are discussed and illustrated through empirical studies in the field. Moreover, the role of social media as a factor that might either promote or hinder identity development is also discussed (e.g., phenomena such as cyber-bulling and internet addiction). Finally recommendations and suggestions for future research are provided, including the need for multidisciplinary theoretical frameworks to the investigation of the relationships between social media and identity.