Instant Connectivity Research Articles

Cell-Phone Popularity, Addiction, and Funding for Biological Effect Research [Health Effects

The popularity of cell phones remains very high. Worldwide, there are more people who own and use cell phones than any other electronic gadgets, regardless whether it is in a rich or poor, developed, or developing country. They provide instant connectivity, whenever one wants to talk or conduct business transactions regardless of where.

Differences in Romanian Men's Online Personals by Sexualities

As Internet usage increases, its ability to provide almost instant connections and to pre-screen potential partners has made it a popular source for meeting people. To contribute to current literature, we examine differences in content between 187 men seeking men and 193 men seeking women in a sample of Romanian (Bucharest) personals in 2007. Results show that men seeking women provide more information about themselves than men seeking men. While the results also show that some Romanian men are more open about expressing their sexualities than others, there are still many obstacles affecting how men choose to share and express their sexualities in Romania.

Modeling consumer adoption of mobile shopping for fashion products in Korea

AbstractThis study explores the potential of a consumer technology adoption model in examining structural relationships among mobile commerce characteristics, perceived value, and intention to adopt mobile shopping for fashion products. Through an online survey method, the 511 valid questionnaires obtained from Korean users of a mobile Internet service identified perceived m‐commerce characteristics consisting of four factors: usefulness, enjoyment, ease of use, and instant connectivity. The first three factors were positively related to perceived value, whereas instant connectivity was negatively related. Moreover, estimated structural equation modeling described the important function of perceived value as mediating the effect of m‐commerce characteristics on the consumers' intention to adopt mobile fashion shopping. Managerial implications for practitioners and researchers are discussed in the context of m‐commerce. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Mobile Community Networks

The evolution of mobile devices has opened new opportunities for collaboration and communication. Instant connectivity, portability, rapidly reducing costs, etc. are some of the drivers for this change. Mobile devices have lower processing power, memory capabilities, deal with varying network conditions and the available power is less. Notwithstanding the above, mobile communities have emerged as a significant domain of research in their own right akin to the online (virtual) communities. This article traces the factors contributing to the proliferation of mobile communities and places the mobile community networks in a current and future perspective. An architecture for the mobile community network is proposed and the challenges in implementing such a network are also discussed.

Adolescents with cancer felt supported by connecting with others in similar circumstances through a teen support group

J Cassano Ms J Cassano, McMaster Children’s Hospital, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada; cassanoj@hhsc.ca What are adolescents’ perceptions of a teen support group for cancer? Qualitative descriptive study. A paediatric oncology treatment...

Time out of mind: Dissociation in the virtual world.

While greatly facilitating ease of interaction across time and geographic boundaries, the virtual world presents an unreal universe comprised of instant connection and gratification. Our culture has embraced this alternate reality in the form of online journals, chat rooms, and excessive involvement with video games, as well as Internet pornography and sexual solicitation. Psychoanalytic principles can greatly illuminate our understanding of individuals’ involvement with virtual reality as it becomes disruptive to work and meaningful relationships. Two cases will be used to illustrate overinvolvement with the virtual world as a form of dissociation in which the individuals retreat from the painful memories, deficits, and helplessness they experience in the real world to a subjective state in which they can attempt to exercise control and aggressively capture the supplies they lack. In the course of treatment, the dissociated material must be invited into the therapeutic dyad so that it may become a conscious and accepted part of the self. The process involves both verbal interpretation and relational grounding in the person of the therapist.

Mobile internet services: assessment of quality and satisfaction from the customer's perspective

There are few studies on mobile internet services from the customer’s perspective. To conduct this study, service quality, satisfaction, risk, intention to continue use, and six attributes of mobile internet service were identified. Three attributes of them – ubiquity, reachability, and instant connectivity – were found to influence mobile internet service quality, which in turn affected mobile internet service satisfaction and intention to continue use. Mobile internet service satisfaction affected intention to continue use. Mobile internet risk neither affected mobile internet service quality, nor had significant effects on mobile internet service satisfaction and intention to continue use.

What we'll wear

We're all going to end up wearing more technology, but how will it be organised. In previous columns I have written about the design of consumer electronics devices and gadgets. However, while I am a research scientist, I am also a futurologist, so I want to look a bit further into the future of devices this time, with a particular emphasis on the wearable possibilities. How might we embrace more natural and integrated methods of interacting with gadgets of the future? What benefits and disadvantages might this bring? There are already plenty of ways for people to wear electronics. In Japan (more so than in Europe), the humble mobile phone is more likely to be worn on a lanyard around the neck as an explicit and colour-coordinated fashion accessory than to be tucked away in a bag or pocket as is often the case in Europe. Many business users of BlackBerries will have their device, perhaps among many others, clipped to their belt in its plastic holster, with some actually feeling quite vulnerable if it isn't there. Apple's first iPod Shuffle was designed to be worn around the neck and the later, smaller edition was fitted with a clip. Under the careful guidance of its producer and designer, the iPod has spawned a whole ecosystem of accessories. The now iconic white ear-buds were designed to be seen and to stand out as people wore them. The telltale sign of white wires leading to someone's ears did more to market the world leader in music players than any more discreet wireless ear-buds could have. Among the iPod accessory ecosystem are a number of items of clothing, including jackets. The jackets not only have a dedicated pocket to keep the music player safe, but also buttons and sometimes a display woven into the sleeve so that the player can be controlled without removing it. The ear-buds may also be integrated into the clothing. These are the early days of wearable technology, when the smart materials industry is in its infancy. We'll reach a point when the task of making ever-more complex consumer electronics devices simple to use will need to go beyond single areas of evolutionary improvement, such as a touch and point mechanism for the user interface. Designers will need to think again about the whole device, how it presents ideas to the user, and how it fits into people's lives. One way that this will be possible is for the functions to be spread across a number of cooperating parts, each of which are individually simple, but which together provide more value to a user than simply the sum of the parts. This will be supported by high-bandwidth, short-range wireless technologies. And many of these device parts will be wearable in future. So it's possible to imagine a world in which the key identity authentication function is provided by a device that is very discretely and securely worn on, or even within, the human body. The display might be provided by special glasses that the user wears as normal spectacles, or even as active contact lenses projecting directly onto the retina. Gestures may be sensed by the clothing we wear and used to control some applications. Progress is already being made in understanding signals from the brain, in controlling artificial limbs for example it's not a great leap from this to thinking about what you want other devices to do and for them to be able to respond In the shorter term, we may find jewellers providing the initial high-end forays into wearable device parts. Earrings are an obvious candidate to become handy speakers, and a necklace might make a good candidate for a microphone and camera. Maybe a ring on the finger could provide authentication and secure storage, or even a direction indicator for navigational purposes? A few issues need to be overcome to make wearable devices practical, in addition to achieving their cultural acceptance. Wearing your gadgetry might be very convenient, but may also be very inconvenient when dressing in the morning. The materials must provide instant snap-on wireless connectivity because, apart from the most incurable technophile, wiring yourself up each time you dress is not an option. And there are lesser aspects of waterproofing and washability to deal with. Combined with, or maybe being borne out of, the inevitable expansion of ubiquitous sensor networks, perhaps beginning with RFID use after the clothing has been purchased, humans will wear increasing amounts of technology. Let's hope that the winners in the design of wearable technologies are more like those who created the iPod than those behind many of the other products that have hit the streets in recent years or we could be wearing some very strange stuff indeed.

Instant connection

Instant connection

Narrative Networks: Italian Women in Dublin

Global network analysis within migration studies. There is a growing literature in migration studies on global networks (Boyd, 1989; Portes, 1995; Douglas et al, 2005). This is arguably linked to the general shift in network analysis, as Robert Holton notes, from seeing networks as part of an organized system (Castells) to seeing them as nodes with a very fluid, mobile, and uneven set of flows (Urry) (Holton, 2005:76). This accrued meaning of networks seems in part to derive and in part to adapt to the contemporary differentiation, acceleration and globalization of migration patterns (Castles and Miller, 2005:9). Social Capital The heuristic potential of network theories within migration studies is evident in the cross-fertilization with social capital and ethnic entrepreneurship notions. Global networks are often theorized as migrants' social capital, and social capital is seen as sustained by migrants' networks (Massey at al, 2005 :96, Portes, 1995). In this sense migrants' social networks are defined as interpersonal ties that link migrants, former migrants, and potential migrants in origin and destination areas through the connections of kinship, friendship, and shared community origin (Massey at al, 2005:96). The existence of these ties is hypothesized to increase the likelihood of emigration by lowering the costs, raising the benefits and mitigating the risks of international movement (Massey at al, 2005:96). Transnationalism and diaspora Diasporic and transnational studies have brought a somewhat different emphasis to the dynamics of interconnectedness (Gilroy, 1993) inscribed in global networks. This approach has allowed us to grasp a more articulated understating of migrants' belongings, of their fluid identities and trans-border communities, conceptualizing global networks as those inter-personal connections across borders which are also inter-communal and inter-organizational (Werbner, 2004:896). Pnina Werbner emphasizes how in the global village these networks are sustained by daily contact by telephone, email, low cost flights mobile phone, which make instant connection and communication an experienced reality for transmigrants (Werbner, 2004:896). Paul Gilroy highlights the extra-nationality, [and] trans-cultural and intercultural processes that sustain global networks (Gilroy, 1997:339). Global theories, according to him, do not allow the same theoretical progress as network analysis, because they possess a too totalising immodesty and ambition (Gilroy, 1997:339). Perhaps this is too harsh a criticism, especially considering certain strands of globalization theories, which look at 'the people side of globalization' and bottom up forms of globalization. For example, Braithwaite and Drahos advance an articulation of globalization with individual agency while distinguishing between webs of powers (elite networks of business and government officials) and webs of dialogues (look at the cooperation and sharing of knowledge) (Braithwaite and Drahos, 2000 in Holton, 2005:77). Household networks Another important contribution within migration studies, is that network theories have shed new light on household and family dynamics. Networks represent a meso-level of analysis which considers both the structural and individual forces shaping migration, and looks at how classed, gendered, sexualized member of the household influence and sustain migration projects (Phizacklea, 2000:122; Hondogneu-Sotelo, 2003; Werbner, 2004). This has been particularly relevant in unpacking gender dynamics of migration, although the gendered nature of networks still remain largely undiscovered and gendered theorizations of networks still need to be developed. Ultimately the intersecting contribution of transnational, diasporic and global perspectives in network analysis has been vital to conceptualizing the complexities of modern fluid societies. Within this framework, global networks can be understood as alternative or oppositional forms of contemporary belonging and citizenship, and network analysis as a site for thinking about the complexities of the social contexts in which migration occurs, especially the difficult question of connectivity and interaction among global subjects.

Improving Accessibility and Security for Mobile Phone Shopping

Mobile shopping has not been widely deployed because of many factors like expensive connection fees, trouble in treating accounts, exposure of personal information and lack of products information. In this paper, we propose two schemes for promoting mobile phone shopping considering the attributes of security, instant connectivity and personalization. The one scheme is used for reducing connection fees and offering instant connectivity, and the other is used for enhancing password security against shoulder surfing attack during inputting of password on the clients mobile phone. To support the proposed schemes, we develop two kinds of mobile applications that considered interoperability and then apply them to a shoes mobile shopping mall. A client side personalization application shows its efficiency by reducing the data transmission time compared with a non-personalization scheme. A novel password system application also shows its security against shoulder surfing attack.

Guaranteed talk [telephony

Researchers propose a telephone availability and awareness network (TAAN) that could help businesses save time and money. The telephone is a cornerstone of modern life, giving nearly instant connections between friends, families, businesses and nations. Yet even modern systems consistently fail to enable users to make contact at the first attempt. A substantial proportion of business calls fail because the called party is unavailable and by the time a call is returned, the original caller is often unavailable. This imposes both a time and financial burden on the international business community, causing frustration and stress. Some in-house systems show when a colleague is engaged on a call, making it obvious when an internal call to that person would be pointless. This 'on-hook/off-hook' information could distributed more widely. Thus the idea of a telephone availability and awareness network was born. TAAN provides a solution to the problem of pointless telephone calls. The system is capable of indicating to a telephone user, in real time or substantially real time, the status or availability of a remote telephone line anywhere in the world. If necessary, it can function independently of the network being used for voice calls. The article outlines the concept behind TAAN.

Field hydrogeology 2059: A contemplation

April 17th 2059 April 17th 2059. On this very day, we are celebrating the 25th anniversary of the foundation of the Hydrogeological Consultancy Firm specialising in integrated water management. The agency was set up in 2034 by Magali, my elder daughter, after a few years’ experience in her profession. Now, on the threshold of my declining life (although I can still expect a few more years thanks to medical progress) this event gives me the opportunity to revive memories and recall for all present at our small party for friends and colleaques, the scanty means used by the hydrogeologists at the beginning of the 21st century (a time when I personally was at my busiest), as well as our way of life, along with the questions we would pose concerning the future of our environment. In the early 2000’s, we were at the dawn of the technological revolution that was later to guide our activity and daily lives. What may sound paradoxical to you nowadays is that hydrogeologists’ tasks in the 2000’s used to be far less geared toward field activity than they are today. To start with, I would say that in field activity in those days the means available to us would neither enable us to instantly process the data, nor carry out the essential part of our conceptualization and interpretation tasks. All this has now become possible thanks to equipment—assisted decision—making. For example, regarding Geographic Positioning: In the early 2000’s, GPS was the only system at our disposal. The 15 governments making up the European Community of the time (which was far removed from the idea of a European federal government or presidency!) had just come to an agreement over the launching of the Galileo satellite constellation. And yet, under the most favourable conditions, provided the GPS signal was not degraded and our GPS was not hampered by vegetation or high buildings, our GPS’s accuracy would at best be a few meters! We were quite a long way from the instant millimetric data you are now used to. Besides, our GPS system was not integrated into our field laptop computers, as it is today. Moreover, constantly updated instant direct connections between the GIS’s used within our field laptop and the whole range of satellite pictures and world geographic, geological, hydrogeological, hydrogeochemical, etc. databases were unheard of. Therefore, we had to use paper topographic or geological maps! I can still remember the early stages of my professional career for example when we were expected to locate geological survey stations as accurately as possible: that meant handling tools that you will now see only in museums such as a compass, a decameter, or a device designed to help us measure distances between various points with a cotton thread that had to be unwound and was left behind in the field after use. What about our laptops! Those were the days when laptops would weigh well over half a pound, with the impressive size of a sheet of notebook paper. Of course, their specifications did not include the virtual holographic 3D screens or the tiny virtual screens right on our eyeglass lenses. The virtual keyboards now available whether in the way of comfortable, stain proof, very light gloves or mental data teletransmission were unknown to us. We had to rest our laptops on some sort of a stand and move a mouse across a board, etc. Needless to say they were neither user-friendly nor very sturdy; they were vulnerable to damage from a light drizzle, let alone a downpour!... As a result, contrary to what you know today, most of the time we were spending in the field used to be devoted to jotting down various data in notebooks with a pencil. And only once back to our office after painstakingly inputting the data on former times’ computers could we start working out the data in full detail. It can’t be denied that direct writing of reports while in the field (which has now become a common practice) was unheard of. So you must be getting an inkling of what output was like in those days due to the aforementioned mechanical tasks that had to be performed and consequently what little time was left for making actual field measurements Received: 19 April 2004 / Accepted: 15 September 2004 Published online: 25 February 2005

Psychological First Aid: The Hallmark Company, Greeting Cards, and the Response to September 11

The greeting card industry specializes in selling emotion. Joyce C. Hall, who in 1910 founded Hallmark Cards, wrote, We realized ... that ours was a sensitive business. The shared sentiment a greeting card represents opens lines of communication that might otherwise be closed. A greeting card can create, enhance, and often rebuild friendships and associations (qtd. in Robinette 142-43). In essence, Hall, who began his business in Kansas City, Missouri, toting a shoebox filled with postcards, understood that his company was not simply selling greeting cards. It was also selling relationships. In 1944, Hallmark coined its popular slogan, you care enough send the very best. Subsequently, it established its brand promise for its target customers: to be the very best at helping people express their feelings and strengthen the important relationships in their (Robinette 45). Perhaps at no time was this more necessary than in the aftermath of the attacks on America on September 11, 2001, when terrorists hijacked four US commercial airliners and began collision courses across the Eastern seaboard. All told, 3,047 died in disasters at Somerset County, Pennsylvania, the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and, most notably, the Twin Towers in New York City, making September 11 the second bloodiest day in American history, behind only the battle of Antietam during the Civil War (Officials par. 18). In addition, thousands of others were injured, or their homes or businesses destroyed or damaged. However, these victims, their families, friends, and rescue workers were not the only ones affected. In an age characterized by the mass media's rapid dissemination of stories and images, news of the September 11 disaster reached millions of people via television, radio, newspapers, magazines, and the Internet, triggering an instant connection the catastrophe and initial feelings of shock and numbness at the magnitude of the loss (Corr, Nabe, and Corr 219). According T. A. Rando, a death or loss is categorized as traumatic if it includes certain elements such as (a) suddenness and lack of anticipation; (b) violence, mutilation, and destruction; (c) preventability and/or randomness; (d) multiple death; and (e) the mourner's personal encounter -withe death, where there is either a significant threat personal survival or a massive and/or shocking confrontation with the death and mutilation of others. (568-69) The losses experienced by Americans on September 11 fit this pattern and led a complicated mourning period. Television in particular best informed the public about the horrific, death-related event and its aftermath (Corr 85). Uneasy Americans watched as New York mayor Rudy Giuliani and other political and religious leaders coordinated rescue efforts and tried help make sense of the sudden, unexpected, and violent deaths (Corr 72, 78), and they wondered which target would be next. As Ray B. Browne and Arthur B. Neal assert in their introduction Ordinary Reactions Extraordinary Events, [w]ith the globahzation of popular culture, the scope of events and the range of personalities that can become the objects of public attention are substantially greater than they used be. Remote places and happenings intrude into consciousness with increasing frequency, and the activities of everyday life become refocused and extended. (11) The September 11 atrocities ripped into the nation's cultural fabric, and as the nonprofit RAND Corporation discovered in its study of stress-related symptoms following the attack, nine out of ten Americans reported at least one symptom of stress, while half reported one or more substantial symptoms of stress so severe as interfere with their lives (Kastenbaum 12). Thus, Americans mobilized, seeking ways cope and heal, and give aid and comfort those most devastated by the tragedy. In Death, Society, and Human Experience, Robert J. …

Human-scale systems in responsive environments

Every system can become smarter, efficient, and more valuable by factoring in presence information. Society's embrace of instant messaging has shown that a great deal of importance is placed on presence-enabled contact lists and instant connectivity. Even traditional resource management systems such as automated routing use availability and presence to select and connect people to the best available agent in a call center. Multimedia conferencing takes presence information a step further and asks the question of how to connect people based on their disparate communication capabilities. But all these uses of presence information, as exciting as they are now, and as much potential to develop further as they all have, are but a tip of the iceberg of the communication revolution ahead. In the future, the wealth of presence information - and the kinds of information we are able to obtain - changes everything. We can use new technologies - including sensors, wireless, image analysis, motion detection, and embedded systems - to capture, monitor, and track presence, action, and even intention. In this new era of pervasive presence information, why would my phone simply ring when my entire office could be used to alert me that someone wants to contact me? In this article, we learn of the exciting work done by the group FoAM, in which entire environments are transformed into responsive spaces where people are inextricably part of influencing their environment by their presence, actions, and even intentions. FoAM offers a small window into the future of presence technology - where a person's intentions, as well as their actions, can effect change.

Controversy over cellular mobile-telecommunication base-station-antenna installations

The two most compelling issues that cause cellular-telephone towers to be so controversial are the public health and aesthetic concerns. People love the wireless convenience and instant connectivity, but no one likes the antenna tower that enables it. The siting of the cellular mobile telephone towers remains a divisive issue, worldwide. Some concerns stem from a lack of personal freedom of choice, in being subjected to the radio-frequency radiation emitted by the tower antennas and its potential health effects. Others have raised concerns about aesthetics and property devaluation. Cell-phone towers with graceful and artistic designs that are tastefully constructed would go a long way toward calming the fears of those who abhor the presence of ugly-cell phone towers looming over homes and businesses. It would be propitious both for the wireless telecommunications industry and the local planning and zoning commissions to collaborate in creating innovative solutions to the design, siting, and installation of cellular telecommunication base-station towers.

Response to Review of Machi-Work: Education for Participation

Children, Youth and Environments. Vol 14, No.1 (2004) ISSN 1546-2250 Response to Review of Machi-Work: Education for Participation Eileen Adams Education for Sustainability Program London South Bank University Citation: Adams, Eileen. (2004). “Response to Review of Machi-Work: Education for Participation.” Children, Youth and Environments 14(1). The collaboration on which this book is based started from a presentation at a conference in Italy in 1994. Although it was in Japanese, translated into Italian, and I do not understand either of these languages, I felt an instant connection, as the story that the visuals told was so familiar– exploring young people’s relationship with their local neighborhood. Breakfast the following morning with the two Japanese presenters, Reiko Ogiwara and Ka’chan Takahashi introduced me to the work of the Machi Group in Japan, an interdisciplinary group of educators, environmental designers and local government officers. We exchanged information about our work, followed by an invitation for me to give a lecture tour in Japan. People were responsive and interested in what I showed and told, but were keen to see projects in the UK for themselves. I organized a ten-day study tour in the UK for 24 Japanese colleagues from a range of disciplines to visit schools, environmental centers and projects in residential areas in London, Hampshire, Newcastle and Glasgow to see first hand examples of participation in the design and development process, some of which I had written about previously in Changing Places: Young People’s Participation in Environmental Planning (published by The Children’s Society, 1998). Following that, four of us were invited to work with colleagues in various places in Japan. We published accounts of our experience in Streetwise published by the National Association for Urban Studies in the UK and Machi Group newsletters in Japan, but felt that the material might be of interest to a wider readership. The idea of the Machi-Work book was born, and with support from the 294 Sasakawa Foundation and The British Council for publication, Isami Kinoshita and I set to work to bring together contributions from a number of colleagues. The book celebrates both similarities and differences. There are similarities in the principles that underpin our work, but differences in practice and in the way we shared our ideas. The Japanese way was to provide a lot of narrative detail of specific projects and the British (or perhaps more accurately, Scots), was to analyze key ideas from a range of instances and to create a framework that could be applied elsewhere. We were both happy to take a critical stance to our work, recognizing that there are strengths and weaknesses and knowing that everything can be improved through practice. We communicated by email and developed a format for the book– one page of visuals, one page of English text and two pages of Japanese text. Ken Baynes was responsible for the graphic design. Strict limits on the amount of text meant that there was not always enough space for exact translation. Things worked out more or less as we had planned, except that not all the images were printed in color, although they had been selected not only for their content, but also with visual quality and color balance in mind. The experience of shared reflection was important for the authors, helping us to articulate our experience. It showed us that some strategies for supporting environmental education were transferable to situations in two different countries, but that some were culturespecific . For example, in the UK, young people are encouraged to be involved in critical study where they make judgments and form opinions. The key thing is being able to explain how you have arrived at that judgment or opinion, and show the evidence on which it is based. In Japan, it seems this is more difficult to do. Cultural mores do not make it easy to engage in critical debate. This has relevance for many people involved in education for sustainability. We are all well-intentioned and although we work primarily within one cultural setting, we imagine that the ideas we espouse have global significance. However, they are probably firmly rooted in our own cultural experience...

Response to Review of Machi-Work: Education for Participation

Children, Youth and Environments. Vol 14, No.1 (2004) ISSN 1546-2250 Response to Review of Machi-Work: Education for Participation Eileen Adams Education for Sustainability Program London South Bank University Citation: Adams, Eileen. (2004). “Response to Review of Machi-Work: Education for Participation.” Children, Youth and Environments 14(1). The collaboration on which this book is based started from a presentation at a conference in Italy in 1994. Although it was in Japanese, translated into Italian, and I do not understand either of these languages, I felt an instant connection, as the story that the visuals told was so familiar– exploring young people’s relationship with their local neighborhood. Breakfast the following morning with the two Japanese presenters, Reiko Ogiwara and Ka’chan Takahashi introduced me to the work of the Machi Group in Japan, an interdisciplinary group of educators, environmental designers and local government officers. We exchanged information about our work, followed by an invitation for me to give a lecture tour in Japan. People were responsive and interested in what I showed and told, but were keen to see projects in the UK for themselves. I organized a ten-day study tour in the UK for 24 Japanese colleagues from a range of disciplines to visit schools, environmental centers and projects in residential areas in London, Hampshire, Newcastle and Glasgow to see first hand examples of participation in the design and development process, some of which I had written about previously in Changing Places: Young People’s Participation in Environmental Planning (published by The Children’s Society, 1998). Following that, four of us were invited to work with colleagues in various places in Japan. We published accounts of our experience in Streetwise published by the National Association for Urban Studies in the UK and Machi Group newsletters in Japan, but felt that the material might be of interest to a wider 370 readership. The idea of the Machi-Work book was born, and with support from the Sasakawa Foundation and The British Council for publication, Isami Kinoshita and I set to work to bring together contributions from a number of colleagues. The book celebrates both similarities and differences. There are similarities in the principles that underpin our work, but differences in practice and in the way we shared our ideas. The Japanese way was to provide a lot of narrative detail of specific projects and the British (or perhaps more accurately, Scots), was to analyze key ideas from a range of instances and to create a framework that could be applied elsewhere. We were both happy to take a critical stance to our work, recognizing that there are strengths and weaknesses and knowing that everything can be improved through practice. We communicated by email and developed a format for the book– one page of visuals, one page of English text and two pages of Japanese text. Ken Baynes was responsible for the graphic design. Strict limits on the amount of text meant that there was not always enough space for exact translation. Things worked out more or less as we had planned, except that not all the images were printed in color, although they had been selected not only for their content, but also with visual quality and color balance in mind. The experience of shared reflection was important for the authors, helping us to articulate our experience. It showed us that some strategies for supporting environmental education were transferable to situations in two different countries, but that some were culture-specific. For example, in the UK, young people are encouraged to be involved in critical study where they make judgments and form opinions. The key thing is being able to explain how you have arrived at that judgment or opinion, and show the evidence on which it is based. In Japan, it seems this is more difficult to do. Cultural mores do not make it easy to engage in critical debate. This has relevance for many people involved in education for sustainability. We are all well-intentioned and although we 371 work primarily within one cultural setting, we imagine that the ideas we espouse have global significance. However, they are probably firmly rooted in our own...

Assets and Actions: Firm-Specific Factors in the Internationalization of U.S. Internet Firms

By providing a nearly instant connection among parties at opposite corners of the world and enabling a variety of commercial exchanges, the Internet emerged as the technology expected to create a truly global market space. Internet firms faced the challenge of capitalizing on this development. In this paper we examine what firm-specific factors are associated with the propensity of pure U.S.-based Internet firms to enhance their international presence on the Internet by developing country-specific websites. Despite the assertion that all Internet firms are born global, our findings show that the pursuit of internationalization by Internet firms is related to the levels of their intangible assets and strategic activity. Two types of intangible assets—reputation and website traffic—are positively related to the degree of internationalization; so are the levels of competitive and cooperative activity, and the interaction effects between reputation and competitive and cooperative activity. These findings suggest that ideas from both resource-based theory and research on competitive dynamics can contribute to understanding the internationalization of Internet firms.

Bragg and Laue x-ray diffraction study of dislocations in thick hydride vapor phase epitaxy GaN films

The dislocation structure of hydride vapor phase epitaxial thick GaN layers grown on sapphire is studied by analysis of the microdistortion tensor components. Symmetrical reflections (including reflections from planes forming a large angle with the basal plane) with two modes of scanning (θ and θ–2θ) in two geometries (Bragg and Laue) are used to obtain the tensor components. The instant connections between the tensor components and major dislocation types are specified. Different types of dislocation distributions have been identified in the thick GaN films grown on sapphire with and without undoped and Si-doped metalorganic chemical vapor deposited templates. Transmission electron microscopy was used to confirm the x-ray results by direct visualization of defect rearrangements.