title: Live television in a digital library

authors: Roüast, Maxime

subjects: digital libraries

abstract: The number of channels of digital television is increasing, particularly the number that are free-to-air. However due to the nature of broadcasting, this morass of information is not, for the main part, organized - -it is principally a succession of images and sound transmitted as multiplexed streams of data. Compare this deluge that terrestrially bombards our homes with the information available in the digital libraries we access over the Internet - -stored using software purpose built to help organize carefully curated sets of documents. This project brings together these two seemingly incompatible concepts to develop a software environment that concurrently captures all the available live television channels - -so a user does not need to proactively choose what to record - -and segments them into files which are then imported into a digital video library with a user interface designed to work from a multimedia remote control. A shifting time-based "window" of all recordings is maintained - -we settled on from the last two weeks so as to be practicably operable on a regular desktop PC. The system leverages off the information contained in the electronic program guide and the video recordings to generate metadata suitable for the digital library. A user evaluation of the developed prototype showed a high level of participant satisfaction across a range of attributes, notably date-based searching.

text: Live television in a digital library The number of channels of digital television is increasing, particularly the number that are free-to-air. However due to the nature of broadcasting, this morass of information is not, for the main part, organized - -it is principally a succession of images and sound transmitted as multiplexed streams of data. Compare this deluge that terrestrially bombards our homes with the information available in the digital libraries we access over the Internet - -stored using software purpose built to help organize carefully curated sets of documents. This project brings together these two seemingly incompatible concepts to develop a software environment that concurrently captures all the available live television channels - -so a user does not need to proactively choose what to record - -and segments them into files which are then imported into a digital video library with a user interface designed to work from a multimedia remote control. A shifting time-based "window" of all recordings is maintained - -we settled on from the last two weeks so as to be practicably operable on a regular desktop PC. The system leverages off the information contained in the electronic program guide and the video recordings to generate metadata suitable for the digital library. A user evaluation of the developed prototype showed a high level of participant satisfaction across a range of attributes, notably date-based searching.

year: 2012

title: A challenge to Marshallian orthodoxy on industrial clustering

authors: Akoorie, Michèle E.M.

subjects: medieval guilds

abstract: Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the antecedents (the medieval guild) of modern day industrial clustering. The paper challenges the notion that work of Alfred Marshall provides the intellectual underpinning of cluster thinking.
Design/methodology/approach – The source material uses archival research on medieval guilds and historical texts. In tracing the development of forms of co-operative association this paper employs the technique of genealogical spanning. The prism of forms of co-operative association is used to examine the rise and fall of the medieval guild.
Findings – Medieval guilds have been largely ignored by modern proponents of cluster theory and Italianate industrial districts. Guild activity in technological invention and innovation, in skills transfer and knowledge (both codified and tacit) had many of the same positive attributes that are found in neo-Marshallian industrial districts. The long history of cooperative behaviour in geographically concentrated firms in industrial districts had its genesis in the medieval guild.
Research limitations/implications – The paper suggests that collaboration (in craft guilds) and clusters (cooperation and relationships) have been a dominant paradigm since the Middle Ages; a viewpoint which is commonly ignored by the dominant US-centric view of individualism, competition and arms lengths relationships in business. Cooperation and relationships have attracted significant scholarly attention and most recently the studies in the cluster literature have tended to favour the social and knowledge-based approach. This phenomenon suggests that the future social, political and economic dynamics in Europe will remain firmly rooted in the creation of areas of regional specialization, as has been the case in the past.
Originality/value – This paper contributes to our understanding of the embeddedness of cooperation by comparing the characteristics of the medieval guild with the characteristics of modern day (Porterian clusters). Cooperation rather than competition is the dominant paradigm of industrial activity. The competitive divide between employers and employees was an aberration of the Industrial Revolution and promoted by political economists as a means of facilitating the mobility of labour by diffusion.

text: A challenge to Marshallian orthodoxy on industrial clustering Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the antecedents (the medieval guild) of modern day industrial clustering. The paper challenges the notion that work of Alfred Marshall provides the intellectual underpinning of cluster thinking.
Design/methodology/approach – The source material uses archival research on medieval guilds and historical texts. In tracing the development of forms of co-operative association this paper employs the technique of genealogical spanning. The prism of forms of co-operative association is used to examine the rise and fall of the medieval guild.
Findings – Medieval guilds have been largely ignored by modern proponents of cluster theory and Italianate industrial districts. Guild activity in technological invention and innovation, in skills transfer and knowledge (both codified and tacit) had many of the same positive attributes that are found in neo-Marshallian industrial districts. The long history of cooperative behaviour in geographically concentrated firms in industrial districts had its genesis in the medieval guild.
Research limitations/implications – The paper suggests that collaboration (in craft guilds) and clusters (cooperation and relationships) have been a dominant paradigm since the Middle Ages; a viewpoint which is commonly ignored by the dominant US-centric view of individualism, competition and arms lengths relationships in business. Cooperation and relationships have attracted significant scholarly attention and most recently the studies in the cluster literature have tended to favour the social and knowledge-based approach. This phenomenon suggests that the future social, political and economic dynamics in Europe will remain firmly rooted in the creation of areas of regional specialization, as has been the case in the past.
Originality/value – This paper contributes to our understanding of the embeddedness of cooperation by comparing the characteristics of the medieval guild with the characteristics of modern day (Porterian clusters). Cooperation rather than competition is the dominant paradigm of industrial activity. The competitive divide between employers and employees was an aberration of the Industrial Revolution and promoted by political economists as a means of facilitating the mobility of labour by diffusion.

year: 2011

title: The Digital Divide in New Zealand: The position of Māori and Pacific peoples

authors: Gibson, John

subjects: Māori digital access

abstract: Information and communication technology plays an ever-growing role in economic, political and social life and those who are unable to access such technologies are increasingly disadvantaged. Hence, what has come to be known as the ‘digital divide’ is of considerable significance. Here, indicators of that divide as it affects Māori and Pacific Islands peoples in Aotearoa/New Zealand are presented and discussed.

text: The Digital Divide in New Zealand: The position of Māori and Pacific peoples Information and communication technology plays an ever-growing role in economic, political and social life and those who are unable to access such technologies are increasingly disadvantaged. Hence, what has come to be known as the ‘digital divide’ is of considerable significance. Here, indicators of that divide as it affects Māori and Pacific Islands peoples in Aotearoa/New Zealand are presented and discussed.

year: 2002-09