Online Social Capital Among Social Networking Sites' Users

This research aimed to explore types of online social capital (bridging and bonding) that the Emiratis perceive in the context of social networking site (SNS) usage. A sample of 230 Emiratis from two Emirates, Abu Dhabi and Dubai, was used to investigate the hypothesis. The results showed that WhatsApp was the most frequent SNS used by the respondents. Also, a significant correlation of the intensity of social networking usage and bridging social capital was found, while there was no significant association between SNS usage and bonding social capital. The factors determined the SNSs usage motivations among the respondents were exchange of information, sociability, accessibility, and connections with overseas friends and families. Males were more likely than females to connect with Arab (non-Emiratis) and online bonding social capital. Both genders were the same in their SNSs motivations and online bridging social capital.

Functional and Non-Functional Requirements Modeling for the Design of New Online Social Networks

Online social networks (OSNs) such as Facebook and LinkedIn are now widely used. They count users in the hundreds of millions. This chapter surveys popular social networks in order to present a pattern of recurring functional requirements as well as non-functional requirements, and a model of that pattern in the i* requirements modelling language. The pattern can serve as a starting point for requirements engineering of new OSNs. The authors test their model by applying it to a popular OSN, namely Twitter.

Advances in E-Pedagogy for Online Instruction

Many people are finding it relatively easy to engage with courseware development and simply upload it to the internet. The trouble with this approach is there are no quality controls to ensure the impending instructional strategies are designed well. This chapter presents a set of research projects that incrementally focus on instructional strategies as they apply in today's information communications technology (ICT) tools. They commence with a simple investigation into online courseware matching cognitive preferences. Next, a project extends this principle and takes the research to a government-training context to concentrate on dealing with a broader range of stakeholders to customize training for a user-centered environment. Then the authors present a project designed for mobile healthcare training on an iPad. The final research project synthesizes the current instructional systems design (ISD) thinking to promote a prescriptive information systems (IS)-design model for educational courseware, offering it to the ISD research community as an extension to the ADDIE training development model.

Tweeting About Business and Society

This chapter examines the social media content posted by a woman Indian chief executive officer (CEO) on Twitter. The active involvement of CEO in communication activities influences the business effectiveness, performance, and standing of the business headed by her. Rstudio and Nvivo, two analytical tools, were used for different analysis such as tweets extraction and content analysis. The findings show the various themes in CEO communication which are categorized in different sectors in terms of her personal views (feelings and status updates), political views, and social concerns (ranging from education, women empowerment, governance, and policy support). The chapter extends the theoretical and empirical arguments for the importance of CEOs' social media communications. Finally, this research suggests that with a well-planned and strategic social media use, CEOs can create value for themselves and their businesses.

Social Networking

The aim of this chapter is to illustrate how social networking could be used as a tool to empower people and organizations to get connected and share similar ideas and endeavors. It demonstrates the benefits when organizations employ social networking as an e-service tool to engage both consumers and businesses alike. In this chapter, a special focus is attributed to Al Ain Distribution Company (AADC), a wholly owned subsidiary of Abu Dhabi Water and Electricity Authority, in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). AADC has implemented novel e-services for the purpose of improving customer services and incorporate social networking within its existing management information system (MIS). This work has been instrumental in not only showing advantages of using social networking at AADC but also helping the company to address various consumer needs and enhancing its e-services.

The Digital Campfire

Interactive digital storytelling (IDS) allows a human user to become an active part in a story and to affect how the story unfolds. To understand IDS systems, we need to consider the partakers present in them as well as their roles and interconnections. In this chapter, the authors discern four partaking entities—interactor, author, developer, and storyworld—and describe both their affiliated sub-entities as well as their relationship to one another. Based on both reviewing relevant literature and analyzing existing IDS systems, the ontology presented here provides a cohesive view into the current state of both theoretical and practical research.

Users Holding Accounts on Multiple Online Social Networks

The last decade has seen an increasing number of online social network (OSN) users. As they grew more and more popular over the years, OSNs became also more and more profitable. Indeed, users share a considerable amount of personal information on these sites, both intentionally and unintentionally. And thanks to this enormous user base, social networks are able to generate recommendations, attract numerous advertisers, and sell data to companies. This situation has sparked a lot of interest in the research community. Indeed, users grow more uncomfortable with the idea that they do not have full control over their own data. The lack of control can even be amplified when a user holds an account on various OSNs. The data she shares is then spread over multiple platforms. This chapter addresses the notion of portable profile, which could help users to gain more control or more awareness of the data collected about her. In this chapter, the authors discuss the advantages and drawbacks of a portable profile. Secondly, they propose a conceptual model for the data in this unified profile.

Effects of Social Media Marketing Strategies on Consumers Behavior

In the information age, social media is growing rapidly and at a faster pace. Social media is playing an important role in the day-to-day life of individuals. Using social media has become the everyday routine. Many social media sites display different types of advertisements by which the decision-making process is generally getting affected. Social media is much more than just a medium of sharing information. The present study is an attempt to understand how social media affects the decision-making process of consumers and the impacts of various marketing strategies used by firms on social media. The study employs the survey method to collect primary data from 200 customers who have been regularly using social media. Factor analysis and ANOVA has been used to gain insights in the study. The selected respondents are assumed to represent the population in the urban areas of Delhi.