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The results of two studies, in which the contents of psychologists' homepages were investigated, are presented. The results of both studies show that information about research activities dominates the contents of psychologists' homepages.

Despite a profusion of recommendations regarding the quality of web sites and guidelines related to ethical issues surrounding health-related sites, there is little guidance for the design and evaluation of sites relating to loss and grief . This article, which addresses these deficiencies, results from a community consultation process of designing and evaluating a web site--GriefLink--for bereaved consumers and for the professionals who help them. It presents the literature review that informed the project, the recommendations for design and content, the lessons learned through the process itself, and the difficulties of evaluating the benefits of a grief-related web site. Some ethical and legal dilemmas in developing grief-related web sites are discussed and issues of design, content, process, evaluation, and general features are addressed, which may also be applied to other communication forms for loss and grief matters, such as the print media.

Governments in some countries have created web-based information services so that patients requiring elective surgery can compare the waiting times of surgical units. This study investigated how accurately the waiting times of patients about to join a waiting list can be forecast by various clearance time statistics. It used 3 years of elective surgical activity data that covered 46 surgeons in 10 specialties within a public hospital. Six clearance time functions were tested, and the best function was compared with average waiting time statistics derived from census and throughput data. The forecast accuracy of the clearance time functions was found to be greatly affected by the characteristics and behaviour of a surgeon's waiting list. Although there was less difference in performance among the six functions, systematic differences between them were also found. The best of these performed better than the statistics derived from waiting time data, especially where waiting times exceeded 6 months. Yet, its accuracy was still poor. For each surgeon with an average waiting time of more than 6 months, at least 20% of patients waited more than 90 days beyond the clearance time forecast. Consequently, while waiting time information services should consider adopting the clearance time approach, they need to be explicit about its statistical limitations. Keywords: Information services; Surgery; Waiting lists; Statistics

As recently as 5 years ago, Web users were being advised to gauge Web site credibility by examining author credentials and expertise. Recent research shows, however, that users instead rely on a combination of factors such as design look, site structure, and usefulness of information when they judge Web sites. This article argues that this reliance on distributed credibility may be appropriate in a Web environment where authorship, credentials, and information sources are often not readily available for examination. Keywords: ethos; credibility; authorship; Roland Barthes

A complete list of all NBER Working Papers with searchable abstracts, and the full texts of Working Papers (issued since November 1994) are available at http://www.nber.org/wwp.html to anyone located at [...]

Online data collection, through e-mail and Web-based surveys, is becoming an increasingly popular research methodology. In this article, the authors outline the benefits and limitations of this type of data [...]

The promise of various web site features for hospitals in the areas of patient and physician communications is discussed to gauge the progress that hospitals are making in realizing the benefits of using Internet. It is observed that the progress towards using web sites for appointment scheduling or providing discussion forums about health care is likewise confined to a small group of hospitals.

Libraries need to find their place in a network environment where individuals can access information content freely through the web. This paper looks at how the National Library of Australia is addressing this challenge through its website and through the planned new Kinetica search service., The National Library of Australia's primary responsibility is to document Australia's heritage. Its collection includes maps, manuscripts, oral histories, pictures and archived websites, as well as books and journals. In [...]

Web sites reach global audiences and necessitate country-specific cultural adaptation. A framework to measure cultural values embedded in Web sites is proposed and it is tested using a content analysis of US and Japanese company Web sites.

This article reflects on the construction of the Web site Landscapes of Capital: Representing Time, Space, and Globalization in Corporate Advertising (http://it.stlawu.edu/~global/), which maps the relationship of corporate advertising to the political economy. Using a data set of more than 900 commercials, the site maps how Capital represents itself unfolding across emergent economic, social, and cultural formations. This article focuses on the relationship of the formal elements of the site to the epistemology of hypertext. First, the theoretical claim that the medium of hypertext shifts the power from author to reader because of its nonlinear design is reflected on. Second, the limits of hypertext/hypermedia as a spatial map to theorize the relationship of corporate representations to changing social and economic formations are explored. Third, the process of Web site design as a form of bricolage is investigated. Finally, the relationship of hypertext/hypermedia to academic scholarship is commented on. Keywords: globalization; advertising; hypertext; branding; capital

The World Wide Web is emerging as the new site for mourners. Many bereaved persons are creating memorial Web sites for deceased loved ones, providing text-based representations of what they have lost with frequent reference to the nature of their grief. The primary purpose of this study was to measure elements of attachment style and grief as shown by the adult daughters who had placed memorials on the Internet for their deceased mothers. Participants self-selected and were solicited and completed a questionnaire online. In addition, the 24 available Web sites were content coded for textual themes and presentational styles. Fifty-nine memorial authors responded to measures of attachment style, grief, and characteristics of the memorial they created. Results revealed a lower frequency of secure attachment styles than would be expected and higher levels of grief. Prominent among the themes expressed in these memorials were missing the deceased, narratives and letters to the deceased, comments about the deceased watching over the bereft, and other references to the self. Although smaller numbers precluded statistical analyses, several evocative attachment style differences in the use of these themes were suggested. These findings contribute to the understanding of the complex relationship between adult daughters and their deceased mothers and the potential role of attachment in the ways in which such relationships are characterized and memorialized.

Creating and visiting Web memorials represent new opportunities for post-death ritual. A content analysis was conducted on a sample of 244 of the memorials found on the largest Web Cemetery: Virtual Memorial Gardens (catless.ncl.ac.uk/Obituary/memorial.html). Analyses revealed that memorials were written, in descending order of prevalence, by children (33%), friends (15%), grandchildren (11%), parents (10%), siblings (8%), spouses (4%), and various other family members. This pattern favoring younger authors may reflect the newness of this venue and facility with computer technology. The content of such memorials often contained reference to missing the deceased, rarely spoke of the cause of death, or made mention of God or religion. Memorials were more likely to be written to the deceased (e.g., in the form of a letter) rather than about or for the deceased (e.g., eulogy/obituary or tribute). Parents, family groups, and other relatives more frequently made religions references in their memorials than did other authors. In addition to the Web as a novel, untapped data source, these memorials offer intriguing opportunities for theoretical refinement (i.e., the ongoing connection between the bereaved and the deceased).

Clustering a data array has been found useful in the design of web-sites and distributed database system. We show that a critical step during this clustering process is related to solving the Longest Hamiltonian Path Problem, a well known NP-complete problem. Using the grouping of visitation paths of web-users as a case study, we test several heuristic algorithms. As a result of our experiments, we identify a successful method for dealing with this problem. Our algorithm spends less CPU rime and provides better quality solutions than the most recent approach. Keywords: bond energy algorithm (BEA); 2-opt; local search; clustering a matrix of attributes; cell formation problems

Hundreds of family life education Web sites are available on the Internet, allowing individuals and families unprecedented access to family life education information. Evaluation is critical to ensuring the quality of and improving these Web sites; yet, few Web site evaluations have been conducted. We formatively evaluated a new family life education Web site, Forever Families (www.foreverfamilies.net), assessing site use with Web-based software and receiving visitor feedback through an online survey. Findings revealed that the site was highly used by individuals throughout the world, that the site was viewed positively and had a positive impact on users, and that site ratings did not substantially vary by user characteristics. Users provided many helpful suggestions for improvement.

This research examined the accuracy of personality impressions based on personal websites, a rapidly growing medium for self-expression, where identity claims are predominant. Eighty-nine websites were viewed by 11 observers, who rated the website authors' personalities. The ratings were compared with an accuracy criterion (self- and informant reports) and with the authors' ideal-self ratings. The websites elicited high levels of observer consensus and accuracy, and observers' impressions were somewhat enhanced for Extraversion and Agreeableness. The accuracy correlations were comparable in magnitude to those found in other contexts of interpersonal perception and generally stronger than those round in zero-acquaintance contexts. These findings suggest that identity claims are used to convey valid information about personality.

To assess the presence of quackery in the anti-aging industry, the Internet was surveyed for web sites marketing anti-aging products as well as those providing consumer advice regarding quackery and hucksterism. The United States Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act and its amendments were reviewed, particularly as they pertain to dietary supplements and human growth hormone. Anti-aging quackery and hucksterism are pervasive on the Internet and in clinics advertising anti-aging treatments. Review of the marketing techniques of the industry revealed 15 common roses used by many in the industry to market their products. Federal law states that distributing or administering human growth hormone for anti-aging or age-related problems is illegal. Nonetheless, anti-aging clinics thrive, administering human growth hormone to thousands of gullible and oftentimes vulnerable patients. Anti-aging quackery has become a multimillion dollar industry exacting great monetary, health, and social costs. Consumers and health care providers alike are wise to educate themselves on how to recognize quackery. Congress must reassess the wisdom of the 1994 Dietary Supplements Health and Education Act, which facilitates and, in numerous cases, endangers Americans on a grand scale. In the case of some substances such as human growth hormone, adequate legal safeguards are impotent without adequate resources allocated to enforcement agencies.

The functionality and development phases of web sites as customer service systems are evaluated. A descriptive taxanomy of customer needs amenable to online fulfillment, and a conceptual model of the evolution of web sites are presented.

Online information produced by Australian wine makers over the past eight years has been examined to determine what has been created and what is being preserved. The longevity of a number of Australian winery websites is examined, and sites in the digital archives of the National Library of Australia's PANDORA project and the United States-based Internet Archive are compared and contrasted. Implications for future research if current preservation strategies remain unchanged are considered., The way information is created and used changed significantly in the final decade of the 20th century. Digital information, in physical format or online, is the medium of choice for [...]

The potential for websites associated with research projects both to disseminate research and provide relevant information for service users is illustrated. An example on gendered help-seeking by young people, at times of distress, suggests that offering a website designed with different users in mind can be successful in attracting interested parties.

An exploratory experimental comparison of two different thinking approaches in a usability test that focused on navigational problems in a highly non standard website is reported. Comparing the verbal reports obtained with these methods, it is found that the type of approach does not affect the process of thinking aloud while the task performance does differ.

The Temasek Polytechnic Library in Singapore launched its new digital library portal in December 2002. Circumstances precluded usability testing prior to this so it was with some concern that the [...]

Abstract This study addresses two questions related to the evaluative criteria used by students to make judgments about the use of Web pages. Using a survey design with college students [...]

Abstract This study investigates the students' attitudes towards the e-learning environment and its effects on the teaching and learning process. We note a general positive attitude towards the online learning [...]

Abstract A four-stage model for learning critical thinking skills using multimedia has recently been proposed, and here the instructional effectiveness of this model is reported. The Design for Multimedia in [...]

Participatory design (PD) first conceived in Scandinavia, is an analysis tool for systems development based on the claim that users should be regarded as experts when they enter the design process. The regular interaction between user and designer demanded by PD is the source of quality feedback needed to improve the interface where stand-alone programs are replaced by web applications, which can be accessed through a browser all over the world.

ABSTRACT This paper reports on a study that applied the newly developed technique of measuring the incremental performance of websites to evaluate the websites of hotels in mainland China and [...]

CHOOSING a grad school is a difficult task. Not only do you have to find a school that meets all of your practical considerations, such as location, but you also […]

Web page classification is one of the essential techniques for Web mining because classifying Web pages of an interesting class is often the first step of mining the Web. However, constructing a classifier for an interesting class requires laborious preprocessing such as collecting positive and negative training examples. For instance, in order to construct a 'homepage' classifier, one needs to collect a sample of homepages (positive examples) and a sample of nonhomepages (negative examples). In particular, collecting negative training examples requires arduous work and caution to avoid bias. This paper presents a framework, called Positive Example Based Learning (PEBL), for Web page classification which eliminates the need for manually collecting negative training examples in preprocessing. The PEBL framework applies an algorithm, called Mapping-Convergence (M-C), to achieve high classification accuracy (with positive and unlabeled data) as high as that of a traditional SVM (with positive and negative data). M-C runs in two stages: the mapping stage and convergence stage. In the mapping stage, the algorithm uses a weak classifier that draws an initial approximation of 'strong' negative data. Based on the initial approximation, the convergence stage iteratively runs an internal classifier (e.g., SVM) which maximizes margins to progressively improve the approximation of negative data. Thus, the class boundary eventually converges to the true boundary of the positive class in the feature space. We present the M-C algorithm with supporting theoretical and experimental justifications. Our experiments show that, given the same set of positive examples, the M-C algorithm outperforms one-class SVMs, and it is almost as accurate as the traditional SVMs. Index Terms--Web page classification, Web mining, document classification, single-class classification, Mapping-Convergence (M-C) algorithm, SVM (Support Vector Machine).

The construction of the meaning of diversity by companies through its dimensions is examined. Large companies use the corporate diversity statement to promote diversity management policies on their websites.

Internet and web technologies have made easier for companies to conduct business, transfer information to customers and to speed up financial transactions efficiently by reducing the transaction costs of commercial activities. The web usage mining uses fuzzy rules that express customer segments surfing patterns on the basis of expert advice and recommends appropriate ads by fuzzy inference.

This study examines the extent to which online marketers comply with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998. COPPA requires online operators to seek parental permission before collecting personal information from children and to post links to their privacy policy on their homepage and every page where personal information is collected. A majority of the 162 popular children's websites analyzed in this study collected personal information from children. Only four of those sites fully complied with major components of the law. The difficulty associated with obtaining parental permission and the recency of the law may explain the lack of compliance observed. The authors conclude that parents and schools need to educate children to protect their privacy online. In the meantime, the Federal Trade Commission should continue disseminating information about the law and actively enforce it. KEY WORDS: children, COPPA, internet, online privacy

The World Wide Web is expanding and is becoming an important source of information for students. You are encourage to look things up, to find things on the web. But […]

Discovery of Web communities, groups of Web pages sharing common interests, is important for assisting users' information retrieval from the Web. This paper describes a method for visualizing Web communities and their internal structures. Visualization of Web communities in the form of graphs enables users to access related pages easily, and it often reflects the characteristics of the Web communities. Since related Web pages are often co-referred from the same Web page, the number of co-occurrences of references in a search engine is used for measuring the relation among pages. Two URLs are given to a search engine as keywords, and the value of the number of pages searched from both URLs divided by the number of pages searched from either URL, which is called the Jaccard coefficient, is calculated as the criteria for evaluating the relation between the two URLs. The value is used for determining the length of an edge in a graph so that vertices of related pages will be located close to each other. Our visualization system based on the method succeeds in clarifying various genres of Web communities, although the system does not interpret the contents of the pages. The method of calculating the Jaccard coefficient is easily processed by computer systems, and it is suitable for visualization using the data acquired from a search engine. Index Terms--Jaccard coefficient, visualization, Web community, Web structure mining.