Browsing by Subject "Web 2.0"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
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    A Rhetorical Perspective on Trust in E-Health Websites
    (2015-07) Bakke, Abigail
    This dissertation is centered on the issue of trust in e-health, a product of the internet opening access to information at a broad scale. Medicine, as a discipline whose authority has traditionally been based upon expertise and hierarchy between physician and patient, is one domain in which this increased access has led to special concern. My study intervenes in ongoing discussions about e-health information by asking "How does trust operate in e-health sites?" �and does so from a rhetorical perspective. Through a comparative rhetorical analysis of three e-health sites that represent a continuum of informational to interactive, I found that trust operates in e-health sites in ways one might expect such as the use of credibility features to construct an expert ethos, but trust also operates socially in newer ways that are based upon community and personal experience, aligning with the broad shift to Web 2.0. This study has implications for the field of rhetoric and technical communication, in that it poses trust as a viable framework for understanding online information rhetorically and views e-patients as citizen technical communicators. This study also has implications for the design of trustworthy e-health communication.
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    Towards Effective Web 2.0 Public Engagement: A Case Study of REGULATIONROOM.ORG
    (Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs, 2013-05-13) Klaers, Kelsi
    The advent and subsequent growth of “Web 2.0,” the collection of Web development techniques and applications that evolved the Web environment from a passive platform to an active platform, has captured the interest of public engagement organizers. Specifically, Web 2.0’s pervasiveness and emphasis on many-to-many interactions are likely to reshape the traditional boundaries that define the public-government relationship and enable engagement on an unprecedented scale (Linders 2012). In partnership with Cornell University, RegulationRoom.org was the Department of Transportation’s “flagship initiative” under President Barak Obama’s Open Directive Initiative, which broadly called for a more transparent, participatory, and collaborative Federal government. Regulation Room represents a systematically designed and evaluated Web-based public engagement exercise and serves as the case this paper uses to address whether and if so, how Web 2.0 has been an effective means of public engagement. The case is analyzed with an adaptation of Rowe and Frewer’s (2000) classic public engagement evaluation framework influenced by Macintosh and Whyte’s (2008) novel e-participation evaluation framework. This paper also includes a brief backcasting exercise describing an ideal e-participation exercise, identifying major barriers, and suggesting possible remedies for overcoming them. In conclusion, Regulation Room demonstrates e-participation exercises have the potential to be effective public participation mechanisms though there is still significant room for future improvements.
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    A Web 2.0 guide to coastal resources, hazards, and habitats
    (University of Minnesota Duluth, 2013) Host, George E; Sjerven, Gerald; Will, Norman
    Lake Superior’s North Shore, due to initiatives by Minnesota’s Lake Superior Coastal Program (MLSCP), NOAA, and other federal, state and local efforts, is rich in data. The MLSCP-funded CoastalGIS web site, initiated in 2005, provides a means for users to view or download a broad range of spatial data, including spatial data for GIS users, collections of oblique aerial photographs of the Lake Superior shoreline, numerous parcel layers for townships and municipalities, as well as wetland, forest and trail inventories. MLSCP has also supported studies with strong geospatial aspects, such as assessments of impervious surface, trout streams and urban forests. Other data is ‘real-time’ or timerelevant. The award-winning www.LakeSuperiorStreams.org website, funded by MLSCP, US EPA and others, has maintained a network of real-time stream sensors in several urban trout streams, and now has a high-resolution record of core water quality variables dating back to 2002. Other data repositories include Minnesota DNR’s Data Deli, which includes information on infrastructure (roads, railroads), land cover (aerial photo, interpreted satellite imagery) and hydrography (rivers, streams, lakes). At the same time, many communities have undertaken studies to quantify and capitalize on the unique social and economic characteristics of this natural resource and tourism-based environment. However, a persistent issue facing key end users of data, including citizens, local governments, and non-governmental organizations, has been the fact that data are distributed across numerous repositories, often available only in technical formats, which makes them less accessible to end users without GIS expertise. The Coastal Atlas project, funded through MLSCP, was designed to consolidate these multiple data sources. The intent of the Atlas was to create print-copy volumes focused on the data needs of individual townships. A set of map plates was created for each township within the coastal boundary, featuring watersheds, hydrography, infrastructure, land use/land cover, recreation and other attributes important to land use planning. These data were also made available on line through the CoastalGIS website. The objective of this current project was to develop a Web 2.0 application to integrate the long-term information provided in the Atlas, CoastalGIS, and other sources with realtime or near-real time data related to coastal resources, hazards, and habitats. Web 2.0 refers to Internet applications that go beyond traditional web sites – they facilitate interactive information sharing, drawing information in real time from diverse sites, and connecting with social networks. A unique contribution of this project is the inclusion of real and near-real time data relevant to the health and well-being of citizens in the coastal region. These include beach advisory data, rip current information, weather, recreational opportunities and other attributes of coastal communities.