The thesis examines how sex/gender and sexuality are represented through text and images within the Internet community Sylvia whose primary target group is girls. Through an examination of the aesthetics, the member rules and the choices that constitute the framework for the site, the study observes Sylvia as a cultural context. In relation to this setting, the ten most visited member profiles at the time for the study are more closely examined. These profiles are studied from a constructivist view of sex/gender and are analysed from the perspective of feminist and quee r theory as well as in the light of feministic debates concerning sexuality and erotica. The thesis shows how Internet as a forum and the non-heterosexual context Sylvia open up for a constructivist understanding of sex/gender and also leads to a questioning of "masculinity" and "femininity".

This work is a study in how I as a designer can create the conditions for people to work, socializing and refreshments at one place. A place that encourages creativity, where I made a suggestion at a community table designed for Urban Deli?s new business. By visiting various similar sites I have identified what I think is important in an environment like this and then gave an answer to it in a visual form.A cafe-office will draw lots of different people. Which guests come here to work? Residents, freelancers, but also those who may want surrounded by a new creative work place and maybe leave their regular offices for a day at Urban Deli.

Aim: The aim of this study is to understand why people have changed their preferred community over time. What are the main factors when changing to a new one?Method/material: The method has consisted of personal interviews with six different people in the ages between 20-22 and of different gender. The main material that has been used in this essay is the theory of Uses and Gratifications as explained by Denis McQuail, the theory of Convergence culture by Henry Jenkins and the theory about Communites of Practice by Etienne Wenger.Main results: This study shows a heavy affection that the use of communities often centers round the people around the community, rather than the functions that the communities themselves provides. Having people that you know on the community you choose is a vital part for people or at least having the support of other people and changing to another community at the same time.

With the fast development of Internet and the e-commerce during the last decades, retailers are now introducing online stores. This has been adopted as a common strategy within the industry and the phenomenon seems likely to increase over time. Theory based on brand extension is used in this study to explain the effects on brand attitude and the link with willingness to pay when a traditional retailer introduces an online store. We execute an experimental study in order to investigate the effects where we use the offline- and online channel as well as two brands with different strengths as independent variables. Results show that brand attitude and its link to willingness to pay transfers to the online channel.

This study represents seven adolescents? perspective on online poker gambling. The purpose of this study is to analyze and describe adolescents? thoughts and experiences of online poker gambling, thus gaining a deeper knowledge and understanding of how gambling affects youths in their living conditions and in their identity development. This was done by studying the symbolism and meaning that gambling has in these youths every day live and in their identity development.

In this day and age we carry out our purchases through different channels. We can shop our clothes and computers in a store or online. Nowadays we can even purchase our groceries through the Internet. The biggest retailer chains within groceries in Sweden have established virtual stores online and are distributing the goods in cities throughout the country. This thesis is dedicated to investigating crucial success factors when going about selling groceries online.

Collaborative music making on the Internet is not a new phenomenon, but no applications have yet caught on with the vast number of laptop and bedroom studio musicians active today. This is strange considering the inherent social and interactive nature of music, especially amongst trends like Web 2.0 where collaboration and user-generated data is key. In this paper I study the problems these applications face, and why they do not have a greater appeal to musicians. With the results I develop and evaluate my own framework, known as Crescendo Online: a multi-user sequencing and modular synthesis environment, intended to pave the way for a new type of online music creation platform..

Idén med att skapa en community för pensionärer föddes under hösten 2005 av dåvarande generaldirektören vid Statens pensionsverk (SPV). Denne kontaktade Mittuniversitetet i Sundsvall för att skapa en lättan-vänd och syftesuppfyllande community för pensionärer. Min uppgift har varit att utforma denna community med fokus på slutanvändaren. Uppgiften utgick från en kravanalys som tagits fram av forskare vid Mittuniversitet. Utifrån kravanalysen har ett användargränssnitt skapats enligt standarder för webbutveckling för dem som har ett funktionshinder.

Uppsatsen handlar om varför man spelar online spel, och vilka orsaker det är som gör att man lägger ned så mycket tid på det. Jag har intervjuat nio stycken väldigt erfarna onlinespelare runt om i Sverige. Syftet var att ta reda på varför man spelar onlinespel?.

This report presents a thesis project at the School of Engineering, Jo?nko?pingUniversity, where the task has been to develop a proposal for a parish communitycentre for the Swedish church?s parish community in Bankeryd.Background1 st of November in 2004 the parish in Bankeryd appointed a special commissionof inquiry called Framtidsgruppen (Future Group), to analyse the parishcommunity?s different activities during the past 5 years and analyse the futureactivities and needs for the upcoming 5-10 years. This analysis would underlie theneeds of building a new centre for the parish community.Implementation, results and conclusionThe main focal points which this report is concentrated on has been to develop abuilding that is well suited for the activities, well adjusted for disabled persons andthe building shall be appealing in an architectural point of view.Based on the information provided from the parish community, studies ofliterature, reference objects and discussions with the contact person at the parishcommunity and the instructor of this project, the programming has beendeveloped. The building?s programming has been the source for the continuedwork with floor plans and the building design..

In this paper we describe the issues of credibility in web applications and internet communities. We bring up examples of how other designers have solved credibility-problems. Further we discuss the features we have created for our community, Stickling, to make any visitor to perceive it as credible..

In todays high-technological society where the Internet plays a central role in our day-to-day life, many e-retailers are not able to attract customers to complete a transaction on their website. In order to succeed, many e-commerce sites must improve several safety aspects regarding online payment, in order to be perceived as a reliable and secured retailer. The purpose of this paper is to investigate if increment in various combinations and aspects in online payment will in fact improve the customer's perception of the e-retailer and result in completed transactions. In order to investigate this aspect, an experiment was conducted to be able to compare eight independent groups, that each had been exposed to a different security scenario on the online payment website of either a known or unknown retailer. Our results clearly prove that perceived security of the retailer's payment website increases willingness to purchase from the retailer.

Word-of-mouth marketing (WOM) has been considered as one of the most effective marketing tools, yet the least understood. While its lucrative effects have been well proven in academic studies worldwide, little is yet known of why consumers engage in WOM, and what factors actually drive this sought-after behavior, particularly in an online context. While today's research lacks holistic views on the simultaneous effects of multiple WOM-drivers, this paper takes on a meta-analytic approach by building on the pertinent literature to construct an aggregated model, including several previously acknowledged drivers divided into two categories: (1) Brand related drivers and (2) Personal and situational drivers. The authors then empirically examine what drivers are the most influential on WOM in an online social media context. By doing so, this thesis does not only contribute to marketing managers' better understanding of online communications management, it also sheds light on the theoretical knowledge of the behavioral drivers of WOM.

The purpose with this essay has been to describe and understand why youth community service became a penalty in Sweden. The political discourse in which youth community service was established has been analyzed with Laclau & Mouffe´s discourse theory. A social constructivist onset and a discourse analysis were the methodological tools of the essay. The result is two folded. Youth community service was created to strengthen the constitutional state, combined with high beliefs of the social services competence.

In this degree project I have studied how an anti-discrimination bureau can adapttheir online information to the target group ? immigrants who only have modestunderstanding of the Swedish language. This group is often subject of discriminationmatters, and therefore it?s important that they can take part of the information.To find answers to my questions I have studied different relevant theories, performeda readability analysis on the online information and have had qualitativeinterviews with representatives from the target group. I have also tested my rewrittentexts on both representatives and other readers.The result from my studies has shown that it is words that are the most difficult inthe current online information, while length and structure of the sentences are alsoof importance when it comes to the readability.