Search

Abstract. It is assumed that information and communication technologies (ICTs) are pivotal for globalization of higher education and in internationalization processes. Moreover, it is claimed that globalization and new technologies [...]

Abstract. The purpose of this qualitative case study is to investigate the most common communication problems from the views of faculty members at the Middle East Technical University in Ankara, [...]

This study addresses the communication apprehension of the non-native English speaker in the U.S. Previous studies which have examined the implications of communication apprehension (CA) for bilingual, non-native communicators have generated results which indicate that trait-like CA is consistent across first and second language-speaking situations. However, none of these studies have probed the cause of the cross-linguistic consistency of CA. This research is designed to provide a scientific explanation for the etiology of CA by applying the communibiological paradigm to CA theory and research. By selecting the situational constraints of international students, this study tests a theory based on proposition 4 of the communibiological paradigm (Beatty & McCroskey w/Valencic, 2001, p. 128): 'Environment or 'situation' has only a negligible effect on interpersonal behavior.' The results of this study replicate the strong relationship previously observed between CA in a first language and CA in a second language. It also found that the genetic markers employed (Eysenck's Big 3 temperament variables) predicted first and second language CA approximately equally. The results indicate that, although both first and second languages are learned, the CA associated with them most likely is not. KEY CONCEPTS Big 3, communibiology, extraversion, intercultural communication apprehension, learning model, neuroticism, [psychoticism, self-perceived communication competence, situational model, St8imulus-Organism-Response, temperament

This paper reports a series of experiments conducted to study the categorization of pictures and words. Whereas some studies reported in the past have found a picture advantage in categorization, other studies have yielded no differences between pictures and words. This paper used an experimental paradigm designed to overcome some methodological problems to examine picture-word categorization. The results of one experiment were consistent with an advantage for pictures in categorization. To identify the source of the picture advantage in categorization, two more experiments were conducted. Findings suggest that semantic relatedness may play an important role in the categorization of both pictures and words. We explain these findings by suggesting that pictures simultaneously access both their concept and visually salient features whereas words may initially access their concept and may subsequently activate features. Therefore, pictures have an advantage in categorization by offering multiple routes to semantic processing.

A series of nine simulations with the Dual Route Cascaded (DRC) model (Coltheart, Rastle, Perry, Langdon, & Ziegler, 2001) investigated neighbourhood density (N) effects in nonword and word naming. Two main finding emerged from this work. First, when naming nonwords there are two loci for the effect of N in the model, contrary to Coltheart et al.'s single locus explanation of what the model is doing. The early N effect involves interactive activation between the orthographic lexicon and the letter units such that high N facilitates letter identification, which in turn affects the nonlexical route. The late N effect arises from activation in the orthographic lexicon that feeds forward to the phonological lexicon and primes phonemes in the phoneme system. Second, when naming words the presence/absence of an effect of N on the Letter Units through feedback from the lexical level depends on the parameter settings. Implications and suggestions for future directions are made.

406 Anglo-American, Italian-American, and Italian (Northern and Southern Italy) students were asked to evaluate past conversations with same-age peers, i.e., 17 to 30 years, and older adults, i.e., 65 years and older. While according older adults more deference, all cultural groups perceived older adults as more rigid and nonaccommodating than younger adults. Exchanges with older adults were reported as having more negative affect than were those with other young adults, and were also more likely to be avoided.

Abstract This paper reports on an experimental study. Twelve university students were asked (a) not to speak any English for one day (b) to record examples of English words that [...]

Abstract This paper has three, related goals. Its main goal is to provide quantitative evidence supporting the claim that in bilingual conversation the unmarked choice can be identified via a [...]

I model people in a coordination game who use a communication network to tell each other their willingness to participate. The minimal sufficient networks for coordination can be interpreted as placing people into a hierarchy of social roles or 'stages': 'initial adopters', then 'followers', and so on down to 'late adopters'. A communication network helps coordination in exactly two ways: by informing each stage about earlier stages, and by creating common knowledge within each stage. We then consider two examples: first we show that 'low dimensional' networks can be better for coordination even though they have far fewer links than 'high dimensional' networks; second we show that wide dispersion of 'insurgents', people predisposed toward participation, can be good for coordination but too much dispersion can be bad.

Byline: Siu-Cheung Chau, Ada Wai-Chee Fu An all-to-all personalised exchange is one of the most dense collective communication operations in parallel and distributed computing and communication applications. Each node in the network needs to send a different message to each of the other nodes. Advances in electro-optic switches have made optical communication a good networking choice that can satisfy the high channel bandwidth, low communication latency, low error rate, and gigabit transmission requirements of high performance computing and communication applications. Previously proposed optical multistage interconnection networks (MINs) require at least two passes to send a message from each node to a different node (to realise a permutation) in the network. In this paper, we propose an MIN that requires only one pass to realise a permutation. That is, the new MIN requires n1 passes instead of 2n passes, the requirement for other optical MINs, for an all-to-all personalised exchange. The new network is optimal in terms of the number of passes that is required for an all-to-all personalised exchange.

Byline: Georgios N. Angelou, Anastasios A. Economides Information-communication technology (ICT) investments analysis using real options (ROs) has been a subject of active research during the last decade. It is a flexible method to value investment opportunities and to derive optimal timing of investments deployment taking into account uncertainties in future benefits and costs. We develop a framework for classifying the research on real ICT projects' evaluation using ROs. We analyse these projects with respect to three issues: the complexity of the ICT project; the ROs calculation method; the assumptions made. The ROs applicability on ICT projects has been successfully tested in a dozen real cases. The focus so far is on the evaluation of ICT investments that embed a single, apriori known option. Finally, we conclude and suggest directions for future research taking into account more complicated scenarios containing a number of ROs as well as the real competitive environment.

Byline: Anja Koutsoutos, Carsten Westerholt This research focuses on the business impacts of ICT, in particular on productivity, business models, investment activities, sectoral value chains, employment and skills. The idea behind this research is to illustrate how the diverse economic sectors respond to these new challenges, taking into consideration the highly complex structure of business related innovations. The purpose is to investigate, whether ICT really help to facilitate business processes or to establish new partnerships and new ways of working. Details can be found in the complete deliverables. The overall objective of investigating the business impacts of ICT is therefore the qualitative assessment of changes in business organisation and the structure of production.

Byline: Giampiero E.G. Beroggi, Volker G. Taube, May Levy The rapid development of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and the continuous change of technological developments, societal values and political attitudes pose major challenges to the measurability of the value of ICT for society. The Swiss Federal Statistical Office (SFSO) addressed this problem as part of Work Package 6.1 of the EU 5th Framework Project SEAMATE (Socio-Economic Analysis and Macro-Modelling of Adapting to Information Technologies in Europe). SFSO's contribution to this international project is the development of a new conceptual scheme for identifying indicators to measure the impacts of ICT on society and the business world. The method is based on a new paradigm for developing statistical indicators, relying on an inductive and hypothesis-driven approach, where the policy makers and the users of ICT are placed at the centre of the model.

Byline: Michal Arend, Pia Steiner Due to the rapid increase in the spread and relevance of modern information and communication technologies, informational inequalities between and within nations have gained growing attention in science and policy. These inequalities are often and synonymously called 'digital divides' or 'ICT-disparities'. This paper sums up the most important empirical findings of the SEAMATE project on some forms and aspects of digital divides and ICT-disparities in Europe. It is based on a disaggregated analysis of 2001 EUROBAROMETER survey data on the access to and usage of ICT in 15 member states of the European Union. The second section is dedicated to the analysis of national and socio-demographic disparities in computer, internet and mobile phone usage. In the third section, we will analyse the home ownership of (or access to) these three information and communication technologies. The final two sections deal solely with computers and investigate the relationship between the domestic ownership (access) and factual usage of computers and the spatial contexts (places) of computer usage.

Byline: Elizabeth Sillence This paper details two case studies exploring integration within digital communities. Three types of integration are introduced information, technological and onlineoffline integration. These concepts are explored through two online fan communities and through a mobile web-based system. All types of integration were present and are vital to the communication and interaction needs of the members.

Byline: Kaisa Still, Minna Isomursu, Soili Vainamo We explore how an interest-based community integrates various communication technologies, what benefits technology integration brings and what kinds of effects integration has for community operation. We evaluate the quality of the technology integration by using concepts of adaptation and perceptual experience.

Byline: Jennifer Frahm, Prakash J. Singh Innovation in terms of new product development (NPD) in the biotechnology industry is characterised by two salient features: teams operating in the global context and ever-shortening lead times. It is generally recognised that communication plays a key role in facilitating these. But, in recent years, new forms of information communication technology (ICT) based media have emerged to provide electronic infrastructure for e-innovation. The role of these newer media in the innovation process is not well understood. In this paper, six organisations operating in the biotechnology area based in Australia were studied. Results of in-depth interviews with senior representatives of these firms show that, in Australia, there is a need to ensure that the new forms of ICT media are effectively integrated with the traditional forms of communication, and that important issues such as physical propinquity have not been satisfactorily resolved to enable successful NPD using an e-innovation platform. The latter suggests that many issues remain unresolved. This paper attempts to articulate these succinctly.

Byline: Ping Lan This paper aims to examine the changes to innovation brought about by the internet. Based on a systematic survey on the current efforts made by industry and academia in expanding the frontier of innovation, it found that e-innovation add-on or collective changes to innovation brought about by Information and Communication Technology is expanding traditional innovation in three aspects: 1) having an obvious tendency to software development and application, 2) encouraging a distributed delivery, and 3) deploying different managing/operating rules and toolkits. These expansions are leading e-innovation to become a new paradigm for carrying out creative activities.

Byline: Jin Chen, Dan He, Liang Tong Being faced with more intensive global competition than ever, enterprise must nowadays transform from an efficiency-oriented strategy to an innovation-oriented strategy. The rapid development of information communication technology makes a great impact on the process of New Product Development (NPD). The theory of Business Process Reengineering (BPR) can be used in reengineering of NPD. This paper introduces the basic concepts of e-innovation and workflow, then puts forward a new model of New Product Development Workflow (NPDWF) which realises e-innovation.

Byline: Alfonso Marino This work starts from research concerning European Public Administration (EPA) and the implications of competition for Italian Public Administration. For this reason, the data is from 16 countries, focused mainly on the analysis of the degree of evolution of information and communication technology. In this research, we take into account the role of Public Administration in Italy and the relations between information and communication technology (I&CT) and personnel evolution linked to service supply. In Italy, these changes have implications for quality of service and career development in the future. In Italy, internet diffusion and e-government depends on these three factors: a) personnel motivation; b) the ability to face uncertainty; c) the modalities of management and control.

This study tested the effects of culture and self-construals (i.e., independence and interdependence) on predispositions toward verbal communication. For the purpose of this study, we focused on two main areas of verbal communication predispositions: (a) communication apprehension and (b) argumentativeness. In our path model, we expected that culture-level individualism increases one's construal of self as independent, which, in turn, leads to a higher degree of argumentativeness and a lower level of communication apprehension. We also expected that culture-level individualism decreases one's construal of self as interdependent, which, in turn, leads to a lower degree of argumentativeness and a higher level of communication apprehension. Data to test the model were drawn from undergraduates (N = 539) studying in Korea, Hawaii, and mainland U.S. The data were partially consistent with the theoretical predictions made. The implications of the results for theory and practice are discussed.

This essay summarizes a case study of the formation of two specific information technology-based publics: Time Warner's advanced interactive cable system and Internet web sites and the Capital Region Information Service of New York (CRISNY), a community freenet meant to serve the Albany metropolitan area. By using the public as a lens to analyze the social networks that constitute specific systems integral to the shaping of everyday life and attendant informal and formal political institutions, critical choices and alternatives can be identified by framing questions of communication in terms of political culture. Drawing upon approaches from science and technology studies, cultural studies, and communication studies, this project is a comparative analysis of publics situated in and emergent from advanced interactive computer-communication technologies.