While transitioning from autocracy to democracy, media in Africa has always played an important role in democratic and non-democratic states; focusing on politicians, diplomats, activists, and others who work towards political transformations. New Media Influence on Social and Political Change in Africa addresses the development of new mass media and communication tools and its influence on social and political change. While analyzing democratic transitions and cultures with a theoretical perspective, this book also presents case studies and national experiences for media, new media, and democracy scholars and practitioners.

In plain, uncomplicated language, and using detailed examples to explain the key concepts, models, and algorithms in vertical search ranking, "Relevance Rankingfor Vertical Search Engines" teaches readers how to manipulate ranking algorithms to achieve better results in real-world applications.

This reference book for professionalscovers concepts and theories from the fundamental to the advanced, such as relevance, query intention, location-based relevance ranking, and cross-property ranking. It covers the most recent developments in vertical search ranking applications, such as freshness-based relevance theory for new search applications, location-based relevance theory for local search applications, and cross-property ranking theory for applications involving multiple verticals.
Foreword by Ron Brachman, Chief Scientist and Head, Yahoo LabsIntroduces ranking algorithms and teaches readers how to manipulate ranking algorithms for the best resultsCovers concepts and theories from the fundamental to the advancedDiscusses the state of the art: development of theories and practices in vertical search ranking applicationsIncludes detailed examples, case studies and real-world situations"

A lively insider's guide to starting a successful small business selling items old and new on eBay, written with personal anecdotes, well-kept secrets, and insider tips by Adam Ginsberg, eBay's most successful private salesperson.

This is the insider's guide to making money on eBay. Adam Ginsberg is the most successful seller on eBay, moving around a million dollars' worth of merchandise every month. Not only will he impart his personal secrets on how to sell on eBay -learned through years of experience - and his tips on expanding your small business using eBay as a global market, but he'll also give fun side-notes and anecdotes, keeping the book lively and making it a fun and interesting read.

This book will be a must-have for all current and aspiring eBay sellers, all small-business owners, and anyone who wants to learn how to start a million-dollar company.

Although virtual worlds continue to grow in popularity, a substantial amount of research is needed to determine best practices in virtual spaces. The artistic community is one field where virtual worlds can be utilized to the greatest effect. New Opportunities for Artistic Practice in Virtual Worlds provides a coherent account of artistic practices in virtual worlds and considers the contribution the Second Life platform has made in a historical, theoretical, and critical context within the fields of art and technology. This volume is intended for both artists and scholars in the areas of digital art, art and technology, media arts history, virtual worlds, and games studies, as well as a broader academic audience who are interested in the philosophical implications of virtual spaces.

The Intelligent Systems Series publishes reference works and handbooksin three core sub-topic areas: Intelligent Automation, Intelligent Transportation Systems, and Intelligent Computing. They include theoretical studies, design methods, and real-world implementations and applications. The series' readership is broad, but focuses on engineering, electronics, and computer science.

Budget constraints and optimization in sponsored search auctions takes into account consideration of the entire life cycle of campaigns for researchers and developers working on search systems and ROI maximization. The highly experienced authors compiled their knowledge and experience to provide insight, algorithms and development techniques for successful optimized/constrained systems. The book presents a cutting-edge budget optimization approach that embraces three-level budget decisions in the life cycle of search auctions: allocation across markets at the system level, distribution over temporal slots at the campaign level, and real-time adjustment at the keyword level.
Delivers a systematic overview and technique for understanding budget constraints and ROI optimization in sponsored search auction systems, including algorithms and developer guides for a range of scenariosExplores effects of constraints on mechanisms, bidding and keyword strategies, and the strategies for budget optimization that developers can employAn informative reference source for both software and systems developers working in the search auctions, marketing and sales strategy optimization, services development for online marketing and advertisement, e-commerce, social and economic networking"

Social networks, particularly public ones, have become part of the fabric of how we communicate and collaborate as a society. With value from micro-level personal networking to macro-level outreach, social networking has become pervasive in people s lives and is now becoming a significant driving force in business. These new platforms have provided new approaches to many critical enterprise functions, including identifying, communicating, and gathering feedback with customers (e.g., Facebook, Ning); locating expertise (e.g., LinkedIn); providing new communication platforms (e.g., Twitter); and collaborating with a community, small or large (e.g., wikis). However, many organizations have stayed away from potential benefits of social networks because of the significant risks associated with them. This book will help an organization understand the risks present in social networks and provide a framework covering policy, training and technology to address those concerns and mitigate the risks presented to leverage social media in their organization. The book also acknowledges that many organizations have already exposed themselves to more risk than they think from social networking and offers strategies for "dialing it back" to retake control.
Defines an organization's goals for social networkingPresents the risks present in social networking and how to mitigate themExplains how to maintain continuous social networking security"

Entrepreneurship is undoubtedly a social process and creating a firm requires both the mobilisation of social networks and the use of social capital. This book addresses the gap that exists between the need to take these factors into consideration and the understanding of how network relationships are developed and transformed across the venturing process. Expert contributions from key scholars in the field illustrate how social networks evolve across entrepreneurial stages, using studies from different regions across the world. Offering a comprehensive understanding, they emphasize the role of formal networks created inside professions and firms. Also examined is the impact of context including both family and internationally variable institutions that can help entrepreneurs to access resources and competencies useful for their projects. The book concludes by emphasizing the various research challenges: which theories are useful for our endeavors and which new methods can be used to understand the dynamics of the venturing process? Dynamic and eminently practical, this book will be invaluable to scholars and students studying the entrepreneurial process and the impact of social networks. It will also prove a useful tool in aiding entrepreneurs to optimize the development of their networks and better manage their entrepreneurial processes. Contributors include: L. Aaboen, M.A. Abebe, A.R. Anderson, M. Brettel, D. Chabaud, H. Chebbi, M. de Beer, S. Drakopoulou Dodd, A. Fayolle, R.T. Harrison, F.M. Hill, S.L. Jack, W. Jansen, W. Lamine, H. Lawton-Smith, C. Lechner, C.M. Leitch, C. Leyronas, F. Lind, S. Loup, A.B.R. Lwango, R. Mauer, S. Mian, G. Mollenhorst, J. Ngijol, S. Qureshi, T. Redd, V. Schutjens, M. Virahsawmy, S. Wu

This book provides practical information about web archives, offers inspiring examples for web archivists, raises new challenges, and shares recent research results about access methods to explore information from the past preserved by web archives. The book is structured in six parts. Part 1 advocates for the importance of web archives to preserve our collective memory in the digital era, demonstrates the problem of web ephemera and shows how web archiving activities have been trying to address this challenge. Part 2 then focuses on different strategies for selecting web content to be preserved and on the media types that different web archives host. It provides an overview of efforts to address the preservation of web content as well as smaller-scale but high-quality collections of social media or audiovisual content. Next, Part 3 presents examples of initiatives to improve access to archived web information and provides an overview of access mechanisms for web archives designed to be used by humans or automatically accessed by machines. Part 4 presents research use cases for web archives. It also discusses how to engage more researchers in exploiting web archives and provides inspiring research studies performed using the exploration of web archives. Subsequently, Part 5 demonstrates that web archives should become crucial infrastructures for modern connected societies. It makes the case for developing web archives as research infrastructures and presents several inspiring examples of added-value services built on web archives. Lastly, Part 6 reflects on the evolution of the web and the sustainability of web archiving activities. It debates the requirements and challenges for web archives if they are to assume the responsibility of being societal infrastructures that enable the preservation of memory. This book targets academics and advanced professionals in a broad range of research areas such as digital humanities, social sciences, history, media studies and information or computer science. It also aims to fill the need for a scholarly overview to support lecturers who would like to introduce web archiving into their courses by offering an initial reference for students.

This book provides an overview of the emerging smart connected world, and discusses the roles and the usage of underlying semantic computing and Internet-of-Things (IoT) technologies. The book comprises ten chapters overall, grouped in two parts. Part I "Smart Connected World: Overview and Technologies" consists of seven chapters and provides a holistic overview of the smart connected world and its supporting tools and technologies. Part II "Applications and Case Studies" consists of three chapters that describe applications and case studies in manufacturing, smart cities, health, and more. Each chapter is self-contained and can be read independently; taken together, readers get a bigger picture of the technological and application landscape of the smart connected world. This book is of interest for researchers, lecturers, and practitioners in Semantic Web, IoT and related fields. It can serve as a reference for instructors and students taking courses in hybrid computing getting abreast of cutting edge and future directions of a connected ecosystem. It will also benefit industry professionals like software engineers or data scientists, by providing a synergy between Web technologies and applications. This book covers the most important topics on the emerging field of the smart connected world. The contributions from leading active researchers and practitioners in the field are thought provoking and can help in learning and further research. The book is a valuable resource that will benefit academics and industry. It will lead to further research and advancement of the field. Bharat K. Bhargava, Professor of Computer Science, Purdue University, United States