Sara Henriques

Social activities and mobile Internet diffusion: A search for the Holy Grail?:

Any technology adoption is shaped by a myriad of factors that sometimes conflict in their ultimate goals and outcomes. So is the case with mobile Internet (m-Internet) adoption and diffusion. This paper discusses this process from the stakeholders’ and users’ perspectives and confronts their understanding and attitudes towards this technology with three complementary theoretical models: network theory, activity theory, and the technology acceptance model (TAM).The study presents results for the use of m-Internet in a southern European country and frames those in light of the activities, here understood as effects of the network, undertaken by the users. We seek to assess whether individuals perform a different set of activities when using m-Internet and how different forms of access result in different network effects, adoption processes, and distinct forms of interaction. The depicted study involved a qualitative stage, consisting of a set of interviews to stakeholders of the mobile communications industry and a quantitative study that involved the survey of a nationally representative sample of individual users. The findings of these studies provide several contributions to the understanding of m-Internet adoption and diffusion and the role network effects play in them.

Using digital interactive television for the promotion of health and wellness

Digital interactive television (iDTV) is often seen as a platform with great potential to deliver health and wellness content and services directly to people. Despite the advantages of e-Health, public engagement with such services is still limited. Our research assumes that health literacy plays a key role on users’ engagement with these kinds of services and we postulate that it is one of the main predictors of users’ attitudes and behaviours towards iDTV health and wellness services. Our main goal was to identify and describe the factors that limit the efficiency of e-Health interventions and the potential depicted in this context by specific technologies – i.e. iDTV. The proposed research design adopts a mix of quantitative and qualitative methods and techniques. The studies were conducted in a southern European country – Portugal – between 2012 and 2013. We found that 51.7% of the respondents showed high probability (+50%) of having limited health literacy (low literacy) and they are more likely to be men/women with an average age of 49.81, fourth grade or less, belonging to status group D/E and showing less interest and less perception of the utility of e-Health interventions. The groups that depict limited e-Health literacy are also the ones least interested in digital TV services related to health and wellness. Following this, we propose that in order for people to realize the actual benefits of using these applications, it is essential to tailor both content and services in accordance with the depicted level of e-Health literacy.

Virtual communities and social activities: reframing the online experience

The way communities are being reconfigured via the uses people make of media technologies is a key aspect to understand how contemporary experience is evolving in a changing media environment. This article presents and discusses the findings of an ongoing project that deals with the study of media-based participatory culture and the linkages between face-to-face and virtual communities from the point of view of users specific activities. The document specifically deals with the metrics sense of community (SOC) and its reframing in the online context. Empirical evidence extracted from the study of several operational communities located in Portugal is exploited in order to discuss the relation between media use and community development, namely on what concerns the improvement of social capital amongst those groups. The main contributions discussed are: the concept of SOC and its validation for virtual communities; the role communities have in informing media consumption and the consequences online communities have for the behaviours and media use patterns depicted by existing face-to-face communities.

Playing Digital Security: Youth Voices on their Digital Rights

The United Nations UN Convention 1989 on the Rights of the Child changed the way children are viewed and treated worldwide. The Convention has been affecting governments, civil society and the private sector. ICT driven companies on the internet should not be an exception. According to Livingstone, Carr and Byrne 2015, Internet governance bodies have given little consideration and reflection to childrens rights. In this paper, it is proposed that in order for youth actively participate in an increasingly digital environment; they need to know better their rights to privacy and freedom of expression, among others. Although the understanding of the digital environments principles lies beyond the scope of average childrens school curricula, they can however play and discover simple technological concepts in the classroom. Thus, by early developing their literacy on digital identity management, they will be able to navigate, communicate, play and learn online more safely, achieving a responsible connected presence. A qualitative study on a visually oriented encrypted learning activity game among a group of students aged 16-18 years old, of the third cycle of Basic Vocational Education has been conducted with the following aims: a to understand how knowledge about security technological processes can improve youths capability for managing their digital identities; b to understand the value of pedagogies of play. Using participant observation, focus group and interviews, youth behaviours and attitudes towards this game based learning approach as well as their perceptions of their digital rights are presented.

Between M-Internet Users and Stakeholders: Convergence or Divergence?

Mobile phones’ sales are decreasing worldwide but smartphones sales show an exponential growth. This device results from the convergence between internet and mobile phones which support new uses other than voice communication. All these transformations have social consequences.

Drivers and barriers to the adoption of the digital television in portugal: the perspectives of the tv viewers and other main stakeholders

The main goal of the ADOPT-DTV project is to understand what are the most significant factors for the adoption of digital TV by the Portuguese population in the switchover context. On the 26th of April 2012, the analogue terrestrial television switchoff is planned to occur in Portugal, according to the schedule published by the national telecommunication regulator Anacom. Digital terrestrial TV was launched in the country in April 2009, turning Portugal into one of the countries with the most ambitious schedule - or risky, depending on the perspective - for the full transition from analogue to digital terrestrial television. We will start by presenting the objectives, theoretical framework and research design of the ADOPT-DTV project. Next, we will present the first results of the project focused on the barriers and drivers for the adoption of digital TV from two of the empirical studies which integrate it, namely, the quantitative inquiry applied to a representative sample of the Portuguese population and interviews with the main stakeholders in the digital TV area in Portugal. The perspectives of the television viewers are compared with other main stakeholders in this process. A brief discussion of these results and a brief enumeration of the next steps for the project will conclude this paper.