Single Outcome Agreements and Partnership Working in Scottish Local Government – Year One

Single Outcome Agreements (SOAs) are a mechanism that it is argued will deliver key national and local priorities based on a new relationship between central and local government in Scotland. SOAs are to be developed and implemented through partnership working exercised by Community Planning Partnerships (CPPs). A survey of the first (2008) SOA participants from local authorities and their Community Planning partners was conducted in 2008, with a particular focus on the interrelationships between the 2008 SOA development process and partnership working at the local level. Findings of this study suggest that there was a positive link between the strength of existing CPPs and partner engagement in the 2008 SOA development. However, partner engagement in the 2008 SOA development process did not affect survey respondents' confidence that the ongoing SOA development and implementation will strengthen partnership working in the long -term. This study also suggests that in addition to the practical difficulties such as limited time and staff resources, mistrust between local partners, and local players' scepticism about the central government's intention to free up local government may be barriers to the success of the SOA. Overall, respondents in this study showed realistic but hopeful attitudes to what the SOA was about and what could be achieved through it over time. The information gathered through this study should be merited as baseline data which captured the SOA participants' early experience and expectations.     

Firestorm Response: Managing Brand Reputation during an nWOM Firestorm by Responding to Online Complaints Individually or as a Cluster

ABSTRACT

This study provides evidence of how marketers should respond to a sudden discharge of negative word-of-mouth (nWOM) communication that spreads rapidly across social media platforms, known as an online “firestorm.” The study aimed to determine whether a company’s response policy during an online firestorm influenced their brand reputation among observers of the firestorm. An experiment offered three different company approaches to the firestorm. The study used a conclusive quantitative design by manipulating independent variables in a controlled environment in order to infer causality through an online survey to 300 participants. The study shows that when faced with the option of replying to a cluster of complaints or each individual complaint, a more positive brand reputation is engendered through individual replies. While research in digital marketing has progressed to provide companies with strategies to use digital platforms as a marketing tool, the negative side of social media—in this case online firestorms—is still largely left unattended. Addressing the direct issue of how to respond to online firestorms is therefore of significant relevance to marketing practitioners and academics.     

The Internet,alternative public sphere and political dynamism: Korea's non-gaek * (polemist ) websites

Abstract

This paper explores the development of Korea's online alternative public sphere and illuminates the characteristics of this space, ‘activated’ by non-gaek websites. These websites host highly partisan discourses which are produced and disseminated by a focused political agenda that aims at political reform. Such a method of conducting discourse has led to the dissimilitude of the alternative public sphere, resulting in the birth of a multiplicity of spheres that represent divergent political views. This paper argues that although the overall extent of the alternative public sphere is expanded by non-gaek websites, it is becoming at the same time an exclusive and intolerant space. Furthermore, it is argued that to facilitate functional operation of the alternative public sphere, an institutionalization of rules and norms that can solve such problems is necessary.     

网络交易中经营者与消费者的权益平衡

经营者与消费者作为网络交易的双方主体,在市场经济体制下对其权益全面加以保护具有异乎寻常的重要性。然而,现行理论总是立足于消费者一方的权益保护,而忽视经营者一方的权益保护。为平衡网络交易中消费者与经营者的权益,挖掘现行网络交易中的双方权益平衡的缺陷,本文参考外国相关法律法规,从网络交易运行模式和法律视角探寻网络交易中经营者与消费者的权益平衡方式,以完善网络交易市场,促进市场经济秩序的完善。     

The filtered encounter: online dating and the problem of filtering through excessive information

Technologies are meant to enable us to contact more people, more often, and in this way “network” with others. Applied to dating, this would appear to be a good thing, as people would thereby benefit from having additional choice. However, the flip side of the coin is that because of the increased choice we get a case of too much information, too many choices, too many potential (and potentially unsatisfying) mates. We find in a qualitative study of online daters that filtering through the many options, partners and choices offered by online dating sites is a prime concern in online dating. Our aim in this paper is to characterize these filtering techniques, and also to discuss their potential social impact. We find that filtering begins at the initial screening process as daters try to “catch out” incongruous behaviour before investing too much energy in someone unsuitable. Participants quickly become increasingly technologically literate of the code-based features of the site in their quest for greater filtering efficiency. They also come to rely on the cultivation of their own filtering “instinct”. In the end, however, the prevalence and ongoing practice of filtering creates what can only be termed a shopping culture of dating, which often serves to sap the dating energies of participants.     

Legal/illegal: protesting citizenship in Fortress America

This article examines the issue of legality and illegality, focusing on U.S. citizenship, anti-immigrant rage, and pro-immigrant protests. The central case study is an analysis of what I call digital rage, namely, the rhetorical strategies present in anti-immigrant online activism. I argue that online performance of rage invests in acts of bordering (Nyers 2008) which propel a discourse of white supremacist pure nation and neurotic citizenship (Isin 2004). The final part of this article explores No Human Being is Illegal, a protest art exhibition. Imaginatively refusing forms of citizenship grounded in legal/illegal axis, the exhibition exposes U.S. citizenship itself as illegal, rooted in the colonization of indigenous people and in current neocolonizing practices of exploitation.     

网络赌博犯罪发展新趋势及侦查革新

网络赌博犯罪日渐猖獗,且有新的发展趋势:涉案范围跨区域性,犯罪主体幕后化、专业化,犯罪手段多样化、技术化,犯罪后果严重化、广泛化。公安机关在打击此类犯罪中存在发现难、调查取证难、侦查协作难等诸多困难。针对这类犯罪的新特点,应构建从资金流到案的侦查模式,用活"打击犯罪新机制",并加强与境外的侦查协作。     

党内基层民主建设中网络政治参与现状的实证研究

在信息化、民主化和网络化的时代背景下,运用网络政治参与的方式推动党内基层民主建设是一种有益的探索。通过对23个城市街道社区党组织网络平台建设情况的调查表明,借助网络政治参与推动党内基层民主建设的工作已经逐步展开,但在发展中也面临着:如何保证网络政治参与各栏目的科学分类并长期有效运行,如何实现网络政治选举以及如何培育网络政治参与的软环境三大难题。     

美术类在线考试系统的设计与展望

随着数字技术、多媒体技术、计算机网络技术以及人工智能的飞速发展与广泛应用,美术专业学习的方式和考核测评方式发生了革命性改变。数字美术正改变和丰富着传统的美术创作理念与规律,并顺应信息化数字时代的发展潮流,成为美术创作领域新的艺术形式。网络化考试利用计算机与网络技术开发考试系统,适应校园信息化建设和远程教育的现实需求,将成为新型的主流考试测评方式。     

Disrupting Conventional Law Firm Business Models using Document Assembly

Document assembly software is a technology that is fundamentalto disrupting law firms. This article uses the framework setout by Clayton Christensen in The Innovator’s Dilemmaand subsequent books to examine the range of business modelsthat use document assembly software, from those that are sustainingin relation to law firms to those that are disruptive in relationto law firms. It looks at three barriers that slow down thepace of disruption: a shortage of the right people, rules againstunauthorised practice, and inadequate capitalisation of lawfirms. These barriers will be overcome on a piecemeal basisas disruptive forces advance and undercut the billable hour.