Bakgrund och problem: Online communities är en färsk bransch där flerauppmärksammade förvärv ägt rum under det senaste året. Värderingen av nya företag påosäkra marknader kan ofta vara svår, i och med osäkerhet vad gäller hur den framtidapotentialen skall bedömas. Uppsatsens frågeställning går ut på att redogöra för hur detta kanske.Syfte: Uppsatsens explorativa syfte går ut på att inhämta så mycket kunskap och informationom ämnet som möjligt, och därigenom sträva efter att kartlägga och synliggöra den potentialoch de risker som finns inom branschen online communities.Avgränsningar: Online communities är en plats där människor träffas virtuellt för attinteragera med varandra. Vi har valt att analysera sociala, relationsfrämjande, onlinecommunities som primärt är riktade mot ungdomar i Norden vars syfte är att utgöra enträffpunkt för allmänt socialt umgänge.Metod: Uppsatsen har ett explorativt undersökningsförfarande, där ett kvalitativttillvägagångssätt begagnats för att inhämta primärdata i form utav intervjuer med analytiker,experter och uppköpare.Analys och slutsatser: Intellektuellt kapital är grunden till värdeskapandet i en onlinecommunity. Att vårda relationer till medlemmarna är av avgörande vikt för framgång.

The aim of this thesis is to fill a knowledge gap regarding how online players use libraries, their attitude towards libraries and what they want out of future libraries. We see it as a problem that the library world of today does not have much knowledge about an audience that is so prevalent in society.The theory used in the thesis is Henrik Jochumsen, Casper Rasmussen Hvenegaard & Dorte Skot-Hansens model that divides libraries into four functions. The four functions are meetings, knowledge, inspiration and experiences. In the analysis we added a suggested fifth function, a digital space, giving the digital interaction and information needs of today´s society. The method was focus groups on online forums for gamers.

The number of products offered by retailers has increased immensely during the last two decades, which has resulted in an increase of naming decisions having to be made. The importance of product names has become more significant for retailers offering their products online, as these are more visible to the customer in comparison to products offered offline. Consequently, it is of great value for retailers to gain knowledge about how a product name affects the customers' perception of the product. The purpose of this study is to examine whether product names affect customers perception of the relevant products in the online environment. This has been illustrated by applying the following theories to the relevant product names; meaningful and meaningless brand names as well as concrete and abstract words.

In the fragmented network economy of toady remote work for creative designers becomes mor eand more prevalent. This is good for a number of reasons. Mainly, creative designers can find work inside and outside of their region irrespective of where they choose to live. However, competing for jobs in a global market is harder, and the online presence of the creatives becomes their main shopping window. We have conducted a study, interviewing digital creatives in Västerbotten.

The purpose of this essay is to study the role of web radio in Sweden. To fulfill the purpose we have done a case study of two Swedish radio stations: Sveriges Radio AB, which is a public service station, and a commercial station called Mix Megapol. By interviewing two persons from each station and analyzing the contents of their web sites, we have tried to see how the relationship between radio, Internet and web radio looks like. Thus, our method is qualitative. We have come to many conclusion of which some are: The new medium web radio borrows qualities from the traditional radio.

Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka grupp- och kommunikationsprocesser i en online community där den gemensamma nämnaren mellan medlemmarna var intresset för spelet World of Warcraft. Undersökningen utfördes med hjälp av en egenkonstruerad enkät samt observationer vars syfte var att undersöka deltagarnas grupptillhörighet, vänskap, konflikthantering och kommunikation online, samt deras beteenden gentemot varandra. Syftet var även att undersöka om sociala anpassningsstrategier, standardroller och in-och utomgruppsfavoritism var applicerbara på en virtuell grupp. Undersökningsresultaten pekar på att många av de teorier gällande grupptillhörighet och vänskap även är applicerbara på grupper formade online samt att kommunikationshjälpmedel såsom smileys underlättar konversationer i skriven form. Resultaten pekar även på att de sociala anpassningsstrategierna och standardrollerna är applicerbara på en virtuell grupp, dock anses urvalet för litet och observationstiden för kort för att med säkerhet säga att dessa återfinns.

The aim of this master?s thesis is to examine the virtual reference service Ask the Library [Bibblan svarar] from a postmodern perspective. Ask the Library is a Swedish online reference service that is run by the country?s public libraries. The postmodern theories of Jean-François Lyotard are used to study how information is managed and transmitted within the service.

AbstractThis study examines the technologies appropriate in developing back-and solutions for search-driven user interfaces of e-commerce sites. The study is based on existing research in search-driven user interfaces of e-commerce sites from a design point of view, but instead the focus of this study lies within a back-end perspective. This choice of focus is a result of the gap that was encountered within research and other literature when it comes to general advice in how e-commerce sites best should build back-end solutions to support search driven user interfaces. The technologies that have been examined and compared are traditional relational databse management systems (RDMS) and the newer so called No-SQL database management systems, and also traditional search engines and the newer variant s of search engines. The study concludes that in some cases it is appropriate to combine traditional and newer technologies when it comes to databases, while the comparison of search engines indicates that there are some newer search en gines that have the ability to meet more of the needs that can be identified on the back-end solutions.Primary data consists of interviews made ?face to face? with experts on the subject and questionnaires addressed to selected e-commerce companies via e-mail.

This master thesis examines online reading groups with swedish participants. The aim is, by way of introduction, to investigate what kind of online reading groups that exist and how they work. The overall question of the thesis is: how do a conversation about books on the Internet look like? The theory used is Grounded Theory and this is a methodology which has influenced the hole structure of the study. Grounded Theory apply that issues and hypothesis must be created from the collected material, and the author collected for this reason material in the form of survey answers, email-conversations, blogmaterial and articles to draw up exact issues based on this material.The material was sorted into four different categories; social reading, reading fellowship, virtual freedom and anonymity and the issues were formulated according to this categories.

För att framföra en timmerlastbil med 74 tons bruttovikt i svensk trafik,krävs ett tillstånd från Trafikverket. Tillståndet består av ett dokument somvisar vilka vägar och broar fordonet får trafikera och vilka regler som gällernär man kör lastbilen.Skogsbolaget Sveaskog startade ett examensarbete med syfte att skapamöjlighet att i realtid presentera för lastbilsföraren vilka vägar och broarsom är en del av transportdispensen. Detta skulle ske genom att utveckla ettkartstöd för lastbilens fordonsdator med anslutning till GPS för attvisualisera dispensdokumentet med de angivna vägsträckorna och broarna.Resultatet av examensarbetet är ett kartstöd som använder tjänster frånArcGIS Online för att presentera geografisk information för användaren.Bakgrundskartan består av en grundkarta från ArcGIS Online. Övergrundkartan ligger ett GIS-skikt med vägar och ett annat skikt med broar.Information om huruvida fordonet för närvarande färdas på en väg somingår i tillståndet eller inte, samt information om regler som gäller för broarpå vägavsnittet, presenteras för föraren i realtid. Denna informationuppdateras vid varje uppdatering av GPS-positionen..

There are several possibilities for those with an eating disorder, who wishes to get treatment and recover to get help and support. But for those who are not ready to recover, there are not any help to receive. Pro-ana is a youth culture where individuals who want to achieve the anorectic ideal help and support each other. The purpose of this study was to describe and analyse the content and the need for the Pro-ana community on Internet, among young people with eating disorders. More specifically the aim was to find out how young Swedish people uses the Pro-ana communities on Internet.

The aim of this thesis is to explore the relationship between the surrounding world and the library with respect to the library?s need to provide a Library 2.0 web site. We also explore the relationship between the physical and the virtual library. Our research objects are the public libraries of Stockholm and the Umeå region, that maintain the web sites Biblioteket.se and minabibliotek.se respectively. By applying Dorte Skot-Hansen's theory of rationales we found that the Stockholm public library is acting in accordance with the experience rationale, whereas the libraries of Umeå are influenced by the instrumental rationale.

Internet och sociala medier har möjliggjort möten och kommunikation mellan människor på ett helt nytt sätt än tidigare. Dock är cybervärlden samtidigt en otrygg och problematisk plats. Brott förekommer både offline och online. Uppsatsen grundar sig i denna problematik och syftar till att få en inblick i problematiken som finns rörande ungdomar och nätbrott utifrån ungdomarnas synvinkel. Mer specifikt gäller det kränkningar, olaga hot och sexualbrott.

Immersion is a construct that measures how deeply engrossed a user is with any mediated situation. In the field of game design, immersion is a significant aspect of what makes a game enticing, and as such it is of pivotal importance to create and maintain it to keep the player's mind off the real world while inside the confines of a game framework. According to the GameFlow theory, it is one of seven key tenets of evaluating and implementing a successful game design. Yet, certain multiplayer online games are designed in a fashion that in some cases seem to break immersion, where the player is frequently put out of action, sometimes for minutes on end. In this study, using online questionnaires, we discover that players, despite claims otherwise, seem to be in several ways affected negatively by this breaking of immersion.

Immersion is a construct that measures how deeply engrossed a user is with any mediated situation. In the field of game design, immersion is a significant aspect of what makes a game enticing, and as such it is of pivotal importance to create and maintain it to keep the player's mind off the real world while inside the confines of a game framework. According to the GameFlow theory, it is one of seven key tenets of evaluating and implementing a successful game design. Yet, certain multiplayer online games are designed in a fashion that in some cases seem to break immersion, where the player is frequently put out of action, sometimes for minutes on end. In this study, using online questionnaires, we discover that players, despite claims otherwise, seem to be in several ways affected negatively by this breaking of immersion.