Lecture: ICT in Tourism

Lecture: IT Systems - Past and Future

Knowledge Management: An Evolutionary View

Here is some information about what seems to be a pertinent article on knowledge management, social networking and social effects. Alternative link here. Please let me know in a comment if either of the the links don't work for you (and which campus you were on if it doesn't).

Audio podcasts on ICT

The wonderful ABC Radio National has a regular program on "new technologies, new approaches and new ways of thinking" (sounds like a great tag-line for a great university, don't you think? ;-) ). This last week while driving to the Tweed I heard a wonderful section of an interview about the strategic implementation of ICT with museums! They interviewed Seb Chan, the Head of Digital, Social & Emerging Technologies, Powerhouse Museum, Sydney. I found it fascinating. You can access previous podcasts related to the interview here .
If you want to know more about the program click on this link.
You can if you wish use a radio podcast like this as a popular source for your portfolio.
Happy listening!

Notes on the ABC presentation on Googlemania

This lecture slide series was generated by the class (at the TGCC) using a mind mapping program.

Lecture: Understanding search engines and the Web

Cohort 2009

Hello all ISY00244 students out there, wherever you may be living! Wecome to Trimester 2009. I'd like you to respond to this post with some information about yourself. Introduce yourself to your student colleagues, let us know where you are from, what you're studying, what your strengths are in this unit. Let us know a bit about your professional background, too. Please include a note indicating whether you're enrolled with Naresuan, or SCU, and if with SCU whether internal or external.

How Google works

Looking at the Google phenomenon: This ABC Radio program was aired in 2006, but I found it does offer a very clear explanation of how Google works, how search engines function, and how web-builders can increase traffic to their websites. You'll understand so much more about how it all works if you listen to the podcast or read the transcript.
This link will bring you to the transcript. (You need to click on "show transcript")
I'll endeavour to make the podcast available to all students soon.

Huge thanks to the Australian Broadcasting Company, ABC Radio National, and Background Briefing for their excellent research.

Translate your webpage or blog into other languages

Would you like to have a button on your webpage or blog site that allows readers to read your site in other languages? This widget offers a free Google Site Translator. Visitors can click on a country's flag to view any page of your blog or site in a selection of languages. For more on Widgets see the earlier post on this site.

Before there was email ...

ICTs & Internet Adoption in China’s Tourism Industry

Jennifer Xiaoqiu Ma, the renowned Dimitrios Buhalis, and Haiyan Song have written and published an excellent article on “ICTs & Internet Adoption in China’s Tourism Industry”. You can access the article here.

Room change Tweed campus in week 10

Dear Tweed Master's students
Firstly, thank you for participating in a lovely, lively and rewarding session today! You all did so well.
Just a housekeeping notice: On the 5/6 November 2009 the Deans and Directors of Higher Degree Research will be conducting their Bi Annual Meeting at Tweed Heads Riverside campus. The rooms affected will be Harvard 1 and Harvard 2.
As a result your classes for Thursday 5 November 2009 and Friday 6 November 2009 (Week 10 only) will be moved to R223. There will be no change in the times the classes are run.

Lecture slides introductory lecture Tri C 2009

Unit Information Guide

You can access the Unit Information Gudie for ISY00244 here.

Lecture slides Knowledge Management

Need help with some web design features?

Web design as an art and science is a fascinating component of ICT. If you need some help with design features, Dmitry Kirsanov has a web site which offers tutorials on many aspects of web design. It's worth a visit!

Academic journal: Information Technology and Tourism

For your assignments, you might like to access the peer-reviewed journal Information Technology and Tourism.

Amazing, cutting-edge technology for hotels

Charles Tee, my colleague in Singapore, drew my attention to some amazing, cutting-edge hospitality technology. You may wish to take a look at this link: http://online.hitec.org/news/154000381/4027999.html

You can download short clips by Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals (HFTP), "providing a glimpse of the technologies to be featured in its GUESTROOM 2010 prototype hotel room and adjacent pavilion. The display debuted at HITEC (Hospitality Industry Technology Exposition and Conference) 2006, June 19-22 at the Minneapolis Convention Center in Minneapolis, Minn. Based on a worldwide, comprehensive study, more than 40 different technologies were chosen to be featured in the pavilion. Few of the technologies are only conceptual, while a majority is capable of installation within 90 days."

WBSN: Web based social networking

The internet has given rise to a new social phenomenon: internet powered networking, known as 'web based social networking' (WBSN). The sites Facebook and MySpace are examples of these.

I typed "social networking" into our online library database SpringerLink (offers full text :-) articles on a number of areas but notably information technology and life science) and got 880 results.

There is a good popular article in today's Sydney Morning Herald on the Kiss and Tell of Social Networks.

Kevin Kelly: Predicting the next 5,000 days of the web

At the 2007 EG conference, Kevin Kelly shares a fun stat: The World Wide Web, as we know it, is only 5,000 days old. Now, Kelly asks, how can we predict what's coming in the next 5,000 days?

I can't embed the film clip here but the video can be viewed here

Copyright free stock photos

When embedding photos in your website you need to consider copyright issues. You can't just grab photos from the web: they may be subject to copyright. use your own photos or take them from a reputable photo stock exchange site. Click on the link for a good example.

So, how do blind people access information on the web?

I'm glad you asked that question.

You can read the answer on this site, which is about improving web accessibility for people with disabilities.

E = Q x A and web design

Effectiveness = Quality x Acceptance

If you want an effective web presence, you need a site that is of high quality, and is accepted by your target audience.

You can have the most beautifully designed, multicoloured, beautifully written English language website in the world (so Quality = 100%) but your target audience is either
-blind,
-speaks only Swahili, Latvian, and African Click, and / or
-isn't connected to the web anyway
(so, Acceptance = 0%),

... then the effectiveness of your web presence is going to be Q (100) x A (0)= Effectiveness (0).

So, before you build your web site you will need to consider who the target audience is, and what constitutes quality as far as web presence goes. Here are some links that you might find very useful.

World Best Website Awards: http://www.worldbestwebsites.com/criteria.htm
Vincent Flanders, Web Pages that Suck: http://www.webpagesthatsuck.com/
Jakob Nielsen, How users read on the web: http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9710a.html
Navigation and labelling: http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/support/Training/Online/webdesign/navigation.html
Use of colour in web design: http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/support/Training/Online/webdesign/color.html

PS Try and find out what percentage of people in the world are, to a greater or lesser extent, colour blind. The results will surprise you. If you find the answer post it here as a comment!

The Rijkswidget

Would you like a widget?

What's a widget?

A widget is a small program that only does one thing: but does that one thing, very well. My favourite widget is the Rijkswidget (see above) which is a small program that showcases a piece of art from the Royal Dutch Museum (the Rijksmuseum). A new work of art appears on your desktop every day. Click on it once and it increases in size and resolution, click on the bottom right corner and you get information about the artwork and the artist.

You can download one for free from the Rijksmuseum:
http://www.rijksmuseum.nl/widget?lang=en

There are many widgets: global clocks, weather reports, cute stuff, educational stuff, latest updated newspapers front page from all over the world ... anything. Widgetbox have a good selection, but there are many sites that allow you to download widgets.

Have fun.