title: Alerting in a Digital Library environment - Do Channels meet the requirements?

authors: Faensen, Daniel

subjects: computer science

abstract: An Alerting Service (AS) informs its clients about new information provided by several suppliers. Special interests of clients can be defined as profiles. In the context of digital libraries, suppliers are the providers of documents. Providers are typically scientific publishers. In this paper we assume, that the providers are known to the clients. A general model and architecture of an Alerting Service is given in [1]. Channel technology has been developed for broadcast of news and continous streams of data like stock rates. For the digital library enviroment a finer granularity in profile definition than for common broadcasting is needed. In contrast to broadcast services, publishing events of multiple providers have to be presented to each client in a uniform way. 
In this summary we evaluate how the two competing approaches of Channel technology, Netscape’s Netcaster [3] and Microsofts Active Channels [2] meet these requirements. 
To satisfy user’s needs events have to be filtered by more or less complex profiles, e. g. a set of documents (like journals), a list of keywords (selected arbitraryly or from a thesaurus) or a query in a full-fledged query language like STARTS [4]. An easy-to-use and powerful profile definition language is one requirement for an AS. The second is a unified view, that means splitting the n:m-relationship between providers and clients. 
The use of both technologies strongly depends on how the contents is to be filtered, i.e. how the user profile is to be defined.

text: Alerting in a Digital Library environment - Do Channels meet the requirements? An Alerting Service (AS) informs its clients about new information provided by several suppliers. Special interests of clients can be defined as profiles. In the context of digital libraries, suppliers are the providers of documents. Providers are typically scientific publishers. In this paper we assume, that the providers are known to the clients. A general model and architecture of an Alerting Service is given in [1]. Channel technology has been developed for broadcast of news and continous streams of data like stock rates. For the digital library enviroment a finer granularity in profile definition than for common broadcasting is needed. In contrast to broadcast services, publishing events of multiple providers have to be presented to each client in a uniform way. 
In this summary we evaluate how the two competing approaches of Channel technology, Netscape’s Netcaster [3] and Microsofts Active Channels [2] meet these requirements. 
To satisfy user’s needs events have to be filtered by more or less complex profiles, e. g. a set of documents (like journals), a list of keywords (selected arbitraryly or from a thesaurus) or a query in a full-fledged query language like STARTS [4]. An easy-to-use and powerful profile definition language is one requirement for an AS. The second is a unified view, that means splitting the n:m-relationship between providers and clients. 
The use of both technologies strongly depends on how the contents is to be filtered, i.e. how the user profile is to be defined.

year: 1998

title: Doing business in China: from contracts to a business establishment

authors: Liao, Zhixiong (Leo)

subjects: law

abstract: There are two basic ways for a New Zealand company (or other business organisation) to do business in China. One is to enter into contracts with business partners in China to purchase and/or export your products and services to China. The other is to set up in China a business establishment, either a company or a liaison office, to deal or assist with the business.

text: Doing business in China: from contracts to a business establishment There are two basic ways for a New Zealand company (or other business organisation) to do business in China. One is to enter into contracts with business partners in China to purchase and/or export your products and services to China. The other is to set up in China a business establishment, either a company or a liaison office, to deal or assist with the business.

year: 2012

title: Possibilities of transformation: discourses of difference in organisational communication

authors: Jones, Deborah Helen

abstract: In this thesis I set out to create an interdisciplinary location from which to address the relationship between gender and communication in an organisational context. I draw on feminist and post-structuralist theory to ask the question: How is ‘difference’ constructed in organisational communication? I use the term ‘difference’ here to indicate that I am interested in how ‘gender’ works in relationship with other kinds of difference, especially in relation to ethnic difference.

My thesis is intended as a contribution to feminist communication theory, and specifically, to the emerging field of feminist organisational communication. Because of the approach I take to ‘communication’, this project addresses broad issues of identity, agency and discourse in organisations. In this sense, I also see the thesis as a contribution to organisational studies, and particularly to the study of organisational discourse, which opens up new relationships between ‘organisation’ and ‘communication’. Interdisciplinarity itself is a key issue in my thesis, as I set out to create connections between disciplinary fields in the service of contesting them, rather than seeking to create new boundaries. A second key focus is the development of theoretical sophistication in the field of gender and communication. I draw on feminist/post-structuralist theory, especially feminist readings of Michel Foucault’s work to generate this development. My third key focus is the issue of agency, which I see as central to theorising organisational transformation, and also as central to re-thinking communication theory.

My writing strategies demonstrate my commitments to reflexivity in developing feminist/post-structuralist research epistemologies, and I experiment with ways of paying attention to issues of authority throughout the thesis. This thesis is divided into two main parts. In Chapters 2 to 6, I set up a theoretical framework for feminist/post-structuralist accounts of gender and ethnicity, and weave this theory through the literatures of ‘gender and communication’, ‘cross-cultural communication’, and ‘organisational communication’. I set out to produce an ‘autocritique’, an opportunity to draw on developments in post-structuralist theory to think differently about feminist ‘organisational communication’, putting it within a broader framework of ‘difference’.

In the second part of the thesis, Chapters 7 to 12, I put issues generated by this theoretical framework in a specific organisational context, asking: How are gender and ethnic differences constructed in the discourses of Equal Employment Opportunities (EEO) and Biculturalism in New Zealand government organisations? Chapters 7 and 8 introduce my field studies methodology and research subjects, and provide background narratives which frame the historical and cultural context in which they were carried out. In Chapters 9 to 12 I carry out a discourse analysis of interviews with EEO and Biculturalism practitioners, and also analyse published and unpublished documents associated with ‘difference’ in employment policies. These accounts of field studies are intended as a series of experiments with theorising ‘organisational communication’ in different ways. I complete the thesis with a ‘Review’ (Chapter 13) in which I reflect on key theoretical threads, and on further questions that emerged during the project.

text: Possibilities of transformation: discourses of difference in organisational communication In this thesis I set out to create an interdisciplinary location from which to address the relationship between gender and communication in an organisational context. I draw on feminist and post-structuralist theory to ask the question: How is ‘difference’ constructed in organisational communication? I use the term ‘difference’ here to indicate that I am interested in how ‘gender’ works in relationship with other kinds of difference, especially in relation to ethnic difference.

My thesis is intended as a contribution to feminist communication theory, and specifically, to the emerging field of feminist organisational communication. Because of the approach I take to ‘communication’, this project addresses broad issues of identity, agency and discourse in organisations. In this sense, I also see the thesis as a contribution to organisational studies, and particularly to the study of organisational discourse, which opens up new relationships between ‘organisation’ and ‘communication’. Interdisciplinarity itself is a key issue in my thesis, as I set out to create connections between disciplinary fields in the service of contesting them, rather than seeking to create new boundaries. A second key focus is the development of theoretical sophistication in the field of gender and communication. I draw on feminist/post-structuralist theory, especially feminist readings of Michel Foucault’s work to generate this development. My third key focus is the issue of agency, which I see as central to theorising organisational transformation, and also as central to re-thinking communication theory.

My writing strategies demonstrate my commitments to reflexivity in developing feminist/post-structuralist research epistemologies, and I experiment with ways of paying attention to issues of authority throughout the thesis. This thesis is divided into two main parts. In Chapters 2 to 6, I set up a theoretical framework for feminist/post-structuralist accounts of gender and ethnicity, and weave this theory through the literatures of ‘gender and communication’, ‘cross-cultural communication’, and ‘organisational communication’. I set out to produce an ‘autocritique’, an opportunity to draw on developments in post-structuralist theory to think differently about feminist ‘organisational communication’, putting it within a broader framework of ‘difference’.

In the second part of the thesis, Chapters 7 to 12, I put issues generated by this theoretical framework in a specific organisational context, asking: How are gender and ethnic differences constructed in the discourses of Equal Employment Opportunities (EEO) and Biculturalism in New Zealand government organisations? Chapters 7 and 8 introduce my field studies methodology and research subjects, and provide background narratives which frame the historical and cultural context in which they were carried out. In Chapters 9 to 12 I carry out a discourse analysis of interviews with EEO and Biculturalism practitioners, and also analyse published and unpublished documents associated with ‘difference’ in employment policies. These accounts of field studies are intended as a series of experiments with theorising ‘organisational communication’ in different ways. I complete the thesis with a ‘Review’ (Chapter 13) in which I reflect on key theoretical threads, and on further questions that emerged during the project.

year: 1998