Online Actions Research Articles

Social Movement Participation in the Digital Age

Motives to participate in online versus offline collective action were investigated among environmental activists in the Netherlands. A sample (N = 738) consisting of activists, sympathizers, and nonactivists, reported past and intended participation in online and offline activism. Using structural equation modeling, it was examined whether online activism was predicted by different factors than offline activism. A wide range of predictors was derived from central theories about mobilization and collective action, including identification, relative deprivation, attitudes, subjective norm, perceived efficacy of action, and self-efficacy. Results show that when compared with offline actions, participation in online actions was slightly more motivated by cognitive calculations (efficacy) and less by affective factors (identification). Moreover, results reflect the popularity and potential of the Internet for activities that surpass the individual. This research gives an empirical insight in the influence of Internet on motives for collective action and on the participation of peripheral members.

Children, Literacy and the Uk National Grid for Learning

This article presents a critical assessment from the standpoint of early childhood literacy of Britain’s ambitious and costly on-line learning resource, the National Grid for Learning. It provides an overview of the aims, scope and administration of the Grid, together with typical examples of content available for users in the early childhood age range (0–8 years).The authors argue that the Grid is headed in an unfortunate and counterproductive direction so far as young learners are concerned.The argument claims that in its current form the Grid is likely to generate boredom among young people in terms of Grid-promoted on-line literacy practices, and to foster mislearningof important new forms of literacy, such as email and interactivity. Furthermore, Grid activities and approaches dumb down literacy acquisition, particularly acquisition of ‘new literacies’, and impede development of personal responsibility for on-line actions. The authors claim that a major change in mindset will be necessary to reform the Grid in ways that are compatible with the official policy goals and aspirations behind its development. Examples are provided of more productive alternatives, together with concepts, principles and data supporting the judgments and suggestions advanced.

Two-Layer Control of Integrated Quality and Quantity in Dynamic Water Distribution Systems

An integrated approach to control of quantity and quality in water supply and distribution systems is proposed. The integrated control consists in optimising the operational cost, meeting a demand on water of desired quality and maintaining the constraints. This constrained optimising control problem is complex due to nonlinearities, large dimension, output constraints, mixed-integer structure of the variables involved, at least two time scales in the system dynamics and an uncertainty. A sub-optimal two-level hierarchical control structure is proposed that allows incorporating the desired controller functions and yet making the synthesis of these functions possible. The control trajectories optimising the operational cost over one day to one week horizon are generated by the upper layer. The upper layer controller operates according to a repetitive control strategy. Due to model-reality differences the prescribed bounds on chlorine residuals may not be met when the generated controls are applied to a real systems. The main objective of the lower control layer is to adjust on-line actions of the booster stations determined by the upper control layer so that the chlorine residuals are kept within the limits. The lower layer controller operates almost continuously as opposed to the upper layer one. Its design is very difficult as the dynamics between the chlorine injection nodes and monitored nodes involves time-varying delays and parameters that can abruptly change. A decentralisation of the lower layer controller into a number of independent local controllers allocated to selected sub-areas of a distribution system by using the interaction trajectories determined by the upper layer is discussed. The design of the lower layer controller and its performance are illustrated on an example water system.

Applying Quantitative Marketing Techniques to the Internet

Quantitative models have proved valuable in predicting consumer behavior in the offline world. These same techniques can be adapted to predict online actions. The use of diffusion models provides a firm foundation to implement and forecast viral marketing strategies. Choice models can predict purchases at online stores and shopbots. Hierarchical Bayesian models provide a framework for implementing versioning and price-segmentation strategies. Bayesian updating is a natural tool for profiling users with clickstream data. A key challenge for practitioners of Internet marketing is to extract value from the huge volume of data that can be collected. These techniques illustrate how this information can be leveraged to create better decisions.

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Cracking the code: web log analysis

With the web being such a universally popular medium, accounting forever more a people‘s information seeking behaviour, and with every move a person makes on the web being routinely monitored, web logs offer a treasure trove of data. This data is breathtaking in its sheer volume, detail and potential. Unlike previous computerised logs ‐ like those of OPACs for instance, web logs are capable of tracking literally millions of users worldwide and they are not confined to the actions of niche groups with specialised and largely academic needs. The data are of enormous strategic and widespread concern. Unfortunately the logs turn out to be good on volume and (certain) detail but bad at precision and attribution. They raise many questions ‐ what actually constitutes use being the biggest of them ‐ but provide far fewer answers. There are also many ways of reading logs. All the problems really arise from the fact that, in the case of the web, the virtual user is the computer. Resolving use to an individual is extremely difficult. Nevertheless, there is much that can be gleaned from web logs. Before this can be done, however, it is necessary to take precautions. First, do not rely on proprietary log analysis software. Second, do employ statistical methods to fill in the knowledge gap. Third, try to improve/enhance the data capture through other methods, like linking subscriber details to the web log. Fourth, bring an understanding of what users do when online to the interpretation of the data. The benefits (and problems) of web log analysis are demonstrated in the light of the experience of evaluating The Times and Sunday Times web sites. These sites are subscribed to by nearly a million people from around the globe and it is the online actions of these people ‐ the new international and information consumers ‐ that will be the subject of the paper.

Data Processing at the Saldanha Ore Handling Plant

A data transmitting and processing system is applied at the Saldanha-ore handling plant to support the centralized guiding and monitoring of the transport operations. The system tasks could be briefly summarized as follows:-Storage book-keeping-To compose and store the operating schedule-To generate and transfer the route preselection signals-Remote control-Synoptic panel control-To print out the operational and alarm logs-Synchronising on-line actions