Useful URL's - Network Tools
IP Subnet Calculator - http://www.subnet-calculator.com
DNS lookup's - http://www.dnssy.com/lookup.php
http://www.kloth.net/services/nslookup.php
IP trace, email trace -
http://ipaddress.my (credits to Kim Loong, Liew)
https://www.vpnmentor.com/tools/ipinfo/ (credits to Madeline H)
http://www.ip-adress.com
http://www.whatismyip.com
Bandwidth test - http://www.speedtest.net
Sunday, July 14, 2013
Sunday, March 31, 2013
Assessment of My Own Potential to be an Entrepreneur
This is my Assignment for Plymouth University about Entrepreneurship and Entrepreneur.
1. Introduction
There is generally no accepted definition of entrepreneurship or entrepreneur. Different countries have different objectives through entrepreneurship so no proper definition would satisfy all. Entrepreneurship is defined as the assumption of risk and responsibility in designing and implementing a business strategy or starting a business . An entrepreneur is one who creates new business in the face of risk and uncertainty for the purpose of achieving profit and growth by identifying opportunities and assembling the necessary resources to capitalize on them. (Zimmerer and Scarborough, 2002, p.4). The evolution of the concept has generated many definitions. Robert Ronstadt (1984) captures Entrepreneurship is the dynamic process of creating incremental wealth. This wealth created by individuals who assume the major risks in terms of equity, time, and/or career commitment of providing value for some product or service. The product or service itself may or may not be new or unique but value must somehow be infused by the entrepreneur by securing and allocating the necessary skills and resources (p. 187). An entrepreneur is a person while entrepreneurship is the process of its actual working.
My name is Sandun Fernando and I am from Negombo in the west coast of Sri Lanka. I grew up in medium-sized family with 3 siblings and I am the middlest one. I am a person with a lot of ideas . I love photography and internet . Watching films is another hobby of mine. What's more I love basketball and hanging out with my friends a lot . I got married with my wife who is really considerate and kind. I really feel grateful to have my family and my wife. They are very supportive on my decision of doing my further study in Masters. Once I completed my Bachelor of Science Degree, I worked as a Temporary Demonstrator for 2 years and promoted to Network Administrator at the University. During my studies, I was actively involved in curriculum especially in sports and arts. Now I am a post graduate student at the University of Kelaniya and reading my Masters Degree. Each semester also has its values that I have learned and gained like entrepreneurship, leadership, communication skills, knowledge, values, and etc. These all are like reflecting my destiny in this earth and guiding me to take up another challenge.
2. Analysis of the Factors that Make People Entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurship has been recognized as one of the four mainstream modern economic factors. Many people who have the knowledge, creativity, innovative, skillful and intelligent. They all are not entrepreneurs. Entrepreneur succeeds factors include from the environment and his or her personality traits.
2.1 Trait Theory
Current researches have also shown that entrepreneurs have some special traits of human supported. They identified some common traits of those entrepreneurs which made them entrepreneurs. Those traits were categorized under few main categories as given below,
• Personal characteristics
• Culture of Soceity
• Educational background
• Personality traits
Personal characteristics
This can be associated with personal environmental factors like Age, family status, gender and Ethnical groups have a relationship with entrepreneurship. In the Sri Lankan context men are more likely to be involved in entrepreneurial activity than women . Sri Lankan people think the society is not built on the women but on the men. The men should be the main provider and he should responsible for the financial guarantee of the family. Hence, he always tries to be employed. They do not have job satisfaction in his present jobs either because of the job itself, insufficient salary, conflicting with leadership. This will encourage that individual to enter business. To become entrepreneur. However, it could be noticed that there is a high potential for people who having business owning family to become entrepreneurs. Immigration is often an significant factor of entrepreneurship. Immigrants cannot easily find employment of their destination and therefore begin themselves in new business. There is a relation between ethnicity and entrepreneurship. Some cultures are naturally more entrepreneurial compared to others. This could also be seen in the Sri Lankan context. Muslim community is more self employed that the other ethnic groups. They are sometimes forced by the community and there are more favorable opportunity structures to be entrepreneurial like capital, infrastructure and supportive environment. Personal qualities common in successful entrepreneurs.
Culture of Soceity
Our culture values are formed by the influence of the Sinhalese Buddhist civilization. In the Western colonization created class identity, rules and regulations. Family, social status, education, class, caste and religion in Sri Lankan society, which have different structures. Sri Lankans think society is built on the family not individual. Individual behaviour embedded inherent cultural and social contexts. Most entrepreneurs in Sri Lanka made by their family.
Educational background
Sri Lankan education system are mostly based on western theories. It aims to prepare students for government employment (Nanayakkara, 1984). There is a positive sign of being entrepreneurs among low educated people in Sri Lankan context. Further, there are more and more such successful entrepreneurs in less educated. In Sri Lankan context distance between teacher and student are very high. It encourages student to respect to the teacher. The education system does develop self-discipline. Entrepreneurship has been identified as an important part of the national economy. However, this area has been not still identified by the Sri Lankan government. In this context, it is important to examine how far entrepreneurship have been recognized to be developed by the education system.
Personality traits
Personal qualities are highly responsible for entrepreneurship. It is discussed under this category some personality types and attributes and try to relate them with the entrepreneurship. It says that the entrepreneurs are having a need for achievement while some argue against. Especially, when we analyze the people who started new ventures and succeeded, they have a high need for achievement. For an example, we may take Mr.Hettigoda who is well succeeded as an entrepreneur in Sri Lanka started a Indigenous Herbal Cream in very small scale and became a export brand. He emphasis the fact that he had a strong ambition/commitment or need for achievement. Being Creative is one other trait that most of the entrepreneurs have. They like to be differentiated from others. Hence, they make their offerings to the market in a different manner. Always add an additional value to the product. Try to create something new. There was not any such reliable herbal cream in the market when Mr.Hettigoda comes with a unique product. He created a new market. Trait theory further says that these entrepreneurs are likely to take risks. It is obvious that it comes with the creativity. They try innovations or rather creative things. This will automatically follow the risk because they do not know whether these innovations/creative things will be success in the market or whether those concepts are realistic in the real environment. Finally, it identified that the inner locus people have more potential to be entrepreneurs. They concentrate on their own behavior or relatively permanent characteristics. They correct if there is anything wrong with them or if they need any improvements to their present qualities. They do not blame or depend on others. Most of the entrepreneurs are keen on every aspects of the business and most probably they involve with those activities. They try to manage everything by themselves. Sometimes it will be the biggest barrier for their growth.
2.2 Cognitive Model
Cognitive Model tries to identify the facts that make people entrepreneurs from a different perspective. They explain that the entrepreneurship occurs with the following conditions.
• When a person has sensitivity to it
• When environmental possibilities are exist
• When there is a social support
This model further discuss that individuals who believe in their own abilities/skills could become successful entrepreneurs. It is about positive attitudes and thinking. This is a good evident because we have experienced that two different persons see the same thing in two different ways. May be their perception. One person could see the same thing as an opportunity whereas other person takes it as a threat. Finally model says that self motivated people are more likely to be entrepreneurs. This may be due to the interest they have on the business. They are not only interested on their business but also they enjoy the business itself and its success.
3. Assessment of My Own Potential to be an Entrepreneur
It is advisable to have an assessment on my own potential on entrepreneurship. Especially, with this kind of educational background, exposures to different business areas and even to the functional areas of the organization. The assessment done by our own is the best evidence whether I could be an entrepreneur or not because of the facts known by myself from every stage of the life. However, the assessment could be done through the following aspects as a framework.
3.1 GET Test and Skills Wheel Result
GET Test by the Durham University
The General Enterprising Tendency (GET) has been designed to bring together and measure a number of personal tendencies for enterprising person. I am partially agree with the GET test as it generates unacceptable evaluation to me and all other colleagues in our group in the class. There is obviously a need to develop to Sri Lankan context. GET has generated interest amongst academics and researchers for its potential as both an educational and research tool by continent. But its not tested successfully in our country of Asian continent. I am a person who is creative and a team player. However, I get lowest score of 5 for Section5. I need to develop the self confidence to work independently like most of the entrepreneurs do. I need to focus on take advantage of opportunities and believe in controlling my own destiny. Note : I have attached a copy of the GET test done at the class in Appendices
Skills Wheel Test
It is important to have the special personality traits as well as enterprise skills for an individual to become a good entrepreneur. Skill wheel is a self evaluation test done in order to identify the once enterprise skills. It comprises of various aspects which an entrepreneur should have. Further, it measures how much you are close to the given circle and interpreted you are strong in those areas if the self drawn line is close to the given line. Finally it gives an idea on the enterprising skills under four categories. Refering to my own skill wheel result, I could say that I am in a good mind set to be an entrepreeur as the drawn line is very much close to the given outline of the circle. However, the result proveds that my creativity aspect is in a low level as it deviated more from the out line. This is second time which proved that my creativity skill should be improved. I got the same result in the GET test too. Skill wheel result strengthened my ability of working with people. This will be an advantage for me to grow the business employing more people in the business. Finally, It warned me to develop my resources management skill. As an entrepreneur, it is highly advisable to manage the resources available and get the maximum output. Note : Please refer the Skill Wheel test result is attached in Appendices
3.2 Special Skills, Attributes and Behaviors at Sri Lanka FLUX-2012
Through the Flux activity we learn how to put the theories that we learn in our class room into practical actions. Its a real situation we learn lot of business than lectures. It gave me business confidence. Open so many doors to open my eyes in a business world. We do assignments within our course works but we never had a practical business experience like this. Flux bridged the gap between skills, behaviors’, knowledge, experience for learning, work and life in general. Its a brilliance experience for me to evaluate myself as an entrepreneur. We learnt some new skills and tools like XING, which are quite useful especially in preparing business plans. XING enhance in team work, negotiation and presentation skills. As one of the team member (Team SPIRIT) under ‘Group A’ at Sri Lanka FLUX 2012, we had to be optimistic and come-up with an attractive business plan in order to impress the business experts. We went on a plan from the very beginning and make some control in order to achieve the set goal of presenting the best business plan. We eventually learn from them, and implementing advices we got. Having completed the meetings we use advice we collected and to revise our strategy and prepare a pitch to deliver. After the preliminary heats, three teams were chosen to compete in a final head-to-head challenge. To select top 3 teams out of over 9 teams is just unbelievable. Finally, with all these hard work we became the best team (SPIRIT) under ‘Group A’. That’s the winning journey of the FLUX 2012. Our outstanding teamwork and presentation skills made this a great final and I’m convinced that the 15 students that took part in the final represent the cream of our next generation of business leaders.
4. Conclusion
impact of economic and political environment on entrepreneur’s business performance entrepreneur is closely related to specific society traits. According to the GET results student have a negative attitudes related to entrepreneurship. It is need of developing personal traits and skills necessary for an entrepreneur It is the task of government to implementing entrepreneurship to direct educational programmes towards developing the skills of students according to the needs of specific target groups.
5. References
• Zimmerer, T. and Scarborough N. M. (2002). Essentials of entrepreneurship and small business management. Prentice Hall.
• Gamage, H. R. Cameron, D. & Woods, E. (2003). Are Sri Lankan Entrepreneurs Motivated by the Need for Achievement?. Proceedings of the 9th International conference on Sri Lanka Studies, University of Ruhuna, Sri Lanka.
• Gamage, H. R. Cameron, D. & Woods, E. (2003). Theory, Surprise and Reality: Exploring the World of the Sri Lankan Entrepreneur. Proceedings of the 9th International conference on Sri Lanka Studies, University of Ruhuna, Sri Lanka. • Jon Lean (2012), Module Tutorial, Plymouth Business School, United Kingdom.
• Nanayakkara, G. (1984) Cultural imperatives of policy science. Vidyodaya, Silver Jubilee Issue, pp 85-103.
• Rajopadhye , Kalyani and Strom , Bruce (2003). “Entrepreneurship”. University of Indianapolis. Retrieved May 06, 2012, from http://business.uindy.edu/oei/dates/ent/ent03.html
• Gamage H.R.(2003). Sri Lankan entrepreneurs use sociocultural values to manage risk, paper presented at the first international conference on Business Management in developing ountries, University of Sri Jayawardenapura, Sri Lanka
1. Introduction
There is generally no accepted definition of entrepreneurship or entrepreneur. Different countries have different objectives through entrepreneurship so no proper definition would satisfy all. Entrepreneurship is defined as the assumption of risk and responsibility in designing and implementing a business strategy or starting a business . An entrepreneur is one who creates new business in the face of risk and uncertainty for the purpose of achieving profit and growth by identifying opportunities and assembling the necessary resources to capitalize on them. (Zimmerer and Scarborough, 2002, p.4). The evolution of the concept has generated many definitions. Robert Ronstadt (1984) captures Entrepreneurship is the dynamic process of creating incremental wealth. This wealth created by individuals who assume the major risks in terms of equity, time, and/or career commitment of providing value for some product or service. The product or service itself may or may not be new or unique but value must somehow be infused by the entrepreneur by securing and allocating the necessary skills and resources (p. 187). An entrepreneur is a person while entrepreneurship is the process of its actual working.
My name is Sandun Fernando and I am from Negombo in the west coast of Sri Lanka. I grew up in medium-sized family with 3 siblings and I am the middlest one. I am a person with a lot of ideas . I love photography and internet . Watching films is another hobby of mine. What's more I love basketball and hanging out with my friends a lot . I got married with my wife who is really considerate and kind. I really feel grateful to have my family and my wife. They are very supportive on my decision of doing my further study in Masters. Once I completed my Bachelor of Science Degree, I worked as a Temporary Demonstrator for 2 years and promoted to Network Administrator at the University. During my studies, I was actively involved in curriculum especially in sports and arts. Now I am a post graduate student at the University of Kelaniya and reading my Masters Degree. Each semester also has its values that I have learned and gained like entrepreneurship, leadership, communication skills, knowledge, values, and etc. These all are like reflecting my destiny in this earth and guiding me to take up another challenge.
2. Analysis of the Factors that Make People Entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurship has been recognized as one of the four mainstream modern economic factors. Many people who have the knowledge, creativity, innovative, skillful and intelligent. They all are not entrepreneurs. Entrepreneur succeeds factors include from the environment and his or her personality traits.
2.1 Trait Theory
Current researches have also shown that entrepreneurs have some special traits of human supported. They identified some common traits of those entrepreneurs which made them entrepreneurs. Those traits were categorized under few main categories as given below,
• Personal characteristics
• Culture of Soceity
• Educational background
• Personality traits
Personal characteristics
This can be associated with personal environmental factors like Age, family status, gender and Ethnical groups have a relationship with entrepreneurship. In the Sri Lankan context men are more likely to be involved in entrepreneurial activity than women . Sri Lankan people think the society is not built on the women but on the men. The men should be the main provider and he should responsible for the financial guarantee of the family. Hence, he always tries to be employed. They do not have job satisfaction in his present jobs either because of the job itself, insufficient salary, conflicting with leadership. This will encourage that individual to enter business. To become entrepreneur. However, it could be noticed that there is a high potential for people who having business owning family to become entrepreneurs. Immigration is often an significant factor of entrepreneurship. Immigrants cannot easily find employment of their destination and therefore begin themselves in new business. There is a relation between ethnicity and entrepreneurship. Some cultures are naturally more entrepreneurial compared to others. This could also be seen in the Sri Lankan context. Muslim community is more self employed that the other ethnic groups. They are sometimes forced by the community and there are more favorable opportunity structures to be entrepreneurial like capital, infrastructure and supportive environment. Personal qualities common in successful entrepreneurs.
Culture of Soceity
Our culture values are formed by the influence of the Sinhalese Buddhist civilization. In the Western colonization created class identity, rules and regulations. Family, social status, education, class, caste and religion in Sri Lankan society, which have different structures. Sri Lankans think society is built on the family not individual. Individual behaviour embedded inherent cultural and social contexts. Most entrepreneurs in Sri Lanka made by their family.
Educational background
Sri Lankan education system are mostly based on western theories. It aims to prepare students for government employment (Nanayakkara, 1984). There is a positive sign of being entrepreneurs among low educated people in Sri Lankan context. Further, there are more and more such successful entrepreneurs in less educated. In Sri Lankan context distance between teacher and student are very high. It encourages student to respect to the teacher. The education system does develop self-discipline. Entrepreneurship has been identified as an important part of the national economy. However, this area has been not still identified by the Sri Lankan government. In this context, it is important to examine how far entrepreneurship have been recognized to be developed by the education system.
Personality traits
Personal qualities are highly responsible for entrepreneurship. It is discussed under this category some personality types and attributes and try to relate them with the entrepreneurship. It says that the entrepreneurs are having a need for achievement while some argue against. Especially, when we analyze the people who started new ventures and succeeded, they have a high need for achievement. For an example, we may take Mr.Hettigoda who is well succeeded as an entrepreneur in Sri Lanka started a Indigenous Herbal Cream in very small scale and became a export brand. He emphasis the fact that he had a strong ambition/commitment or need for achievement. Being Creative is one other trait that most of the entrepreneurs have. They like to be differentiated from others. Hence, they make their offerings to the market in a different manner. Always add an additional value to the product. Try to create something new. There was not any such reliable herbal cream in the market when Mr.Hettigoda comes with a unique product. He created a new market. Trait theory further says that these entrepreneurs are likely to take risks. It is obvious that it comes with the creativity. They try innovations or rather creative things. This will automatically follow the risk because they do not know whether these innovations/creative things will be success in the market or whether those concepts are realistic in the real environment. Finally, it identified that the inner locus people have more potential to be entrepreneurs. They concentrate on their own behavior or relatively permanent characteristics. They correct if there is anything wrong with them or if they need any improvements to their present qualities. They do not blame or depend on others. Most of the entrepreneurs are keen on every aspects of the business and most probably they involve with those activities. They try to manage everything by themselves. Sometimes it will be the biggest barrier for their growth.
2.2 Cognitive Model
Cognitive Model tries to identify the facts that make people entrepreneurs from a different perspective. They explain that the entrepreneurship occurs with the following conditions.
• When a person has sensitivity to it
• When environmental possibilities are exist
• When there is a social support
This model further discuss that individuals who believe in their own abilities/skills could become successful entrepreneurs. It is about positive attitudes and thinking. This is a good evident because we have experienced that two different persons see the same thing in two different ways. May be their perception. One person could see the same thing as an opportunity whereas other person takes it as a threat. Finally model says that self motivated people are more likely to be entrepreneurs. This may be due to the interest they have on the business. They are not only interested on their business but also they enjoy the business itself and its success.
3. Assessment of My Own Potential to be an Entrepreneur
It is advisable to have an assessment on my own potential on entrepreneurship. Especially, with this kind of educational background, exposures to different business areas and even to the functional areas of the organization. The assessment done by our own is the best evidence whether I could be an entrepreneur or not because of the facts known by myself from every stage of the life. However, the assessment could be done through the following aspects as a framework.
3.1 GET Test and Skills Wheel Result
GET Test by the Durham University
The General Enterprising Tendency (GET) has been designed to bring together and measure a number of personal tendencies for enterprising person. I am partially agree with the GET test as it generates unacceptable evaluation to me and all other colleagues in our group in the class. There is obviously a need to develop to Sri Lankan context. GET has generated interest amongst academics and researchers for its potential as both an educational and research tool by continent. But its not tested successfully in our country of Asian continent. I am a person who is creative and a team player. However, I get lowest score of 5 for Section5. I need to develop the self confidence to work independently like most of the entrepreneurs do. I need to focus on take advantage of opportunities and believe in controlling my own destiny. Note : I have attached a copy of the GET test done at the class in Appendices
Skills Wheel Test
It is important to have the special personality traits as well as enterprise skills for an individual to become a good entrepreneur. Skill wheel is a self evaluation test done in order to identify the once enterprise skills. It comprises of various aspects which an entrepreneur should have. Further, it measures how much you are close to the given circle and interpreted you are strong in those areas if the self drawn line is close to the given line. Finally it gives an idea on the enterprising skills under four categories. Refering to my own skill wheel result, I could say that I am in a good mind set to be an entrepreeur as the drawn line is very much close to the given outline of the circle. However, the result proveds that my creativity aspect is in a low level as it deviated more from the out line. This is second time which proved that my creativity skill should be improved. I got the same result in the GET test too. Skill wheel result strengthened my ability of working with people. This will be an advantage for me to grow the business employing more people in the business. Finally, It warned me to develop my resources management skill. As an entrepreneur, it is highly advisable to manage the resources available and get the maximum output. Note : Please refer the Skill Wheel test result is attached in Appendices
3.2 Special Skills, Attributes and Behaviors at Sri Lanka FLUX-2012
Through the Flux activity we learn how to put the theories that we learn in our class room into practical actions. Its a real situation we learn lot of business than lectures. It gave me business confidence. Open so many doors to open my eyes in a business world. We do assignments within our course works but we never had a practical business experience like this. Flux bridged the gap between skills, behaviors’, knowledge, experience for learning, work and life in general. Its a brilliance experience for me to evaluate myself as an entrepreneur. We learnt some new skills and tools like XING, which are quite useful especially in preparing business plans. XING enhance in team work, negotiation and presentation skills. As one of the team member (Team SPIRIT) under ‘Group A’ at Sri Lanka FLUX 2012, we had to be optimistic and come-up with an attractive business plan in order to impress the business experts. We went on a plan from the very beginning and make some control in order to achieve the set goal of presenting the best business plan. We eventually learn from them, and implementing advices we got. Having completed the meetings we use advice we collected and to revise our strategy and prepare a pitch to deliver. After the preliminary heats, three teams were chosen to compete in a final head-to-head challenge. To select top 3 teams out of over 9 teams is just unbelievable. Finally, with all these hard work we became the best team (SPIRIT) under ‘Group A’. That’s the winning journey of the FLUX 2012. Our outstanding teamwork and presentation skills made this a great final and I’m convinced that the 15 students that took part in the final represent the cream of our next generation of business leaders.
4. Conclusion
impact of economic and political environment on entrepreneur’s business performance entrepreneur is closely related to specific society traits. According to the GET results student have a negative attitudes related to entrepreneurship. It is need of developing personal traits and skills necessary for an entrepreneur It is the task of government to implementing entrepreneurship to direct educational programmes towards developing the skills of students according to the needs of specific target groups.
5. References
• Zimmerer, T. and Scarborough N. M. (2002). Essentials of entrepreneurship and small business management. Prentice Hall.
• Gamage, H. R. Cameron, D. & Woods, E. (2003). Are Sri Lankan Entrepreneurs Motivated by the Need for Achievement?. Proceedings of the 9th International conference on Sri Lanka Studies, University of Ruhuna, Sri Lanka.
• Gamage, H. R. Cameron, D. & Woods, E. (2003). Theory, Surprise and Reality: Exploring the World of the Sri Lankan Entrepreneur. Proceedings of the 9th International conference on Sri Lanka Studies, University of Ruhuna, Sri Lanka. • Jon Lean (2012), Module Tutorial, Plymouth Business School, United Kingdom.
• Nanayakkara, G. (1984) Cultural imperatives of policy science. Vidyodaya, Silver Jubilee Issue, pp 85-103.
• Rajopadhye , Kalyani and Strom , Bruce (2003). “Entrepreneurship”. University of Indianapolis. Retrieved May 06, 2012, from http://business.uindy.edu/oei/dates/ent/ent03.html
• Gamage H.R.(2003). Sri Lankan entrepreneurs use sociocultural values to manage risk, paper presented at the first international conference on Business Management in developing ountries, University of Sri Jayawardenapura, Sri Lanka
Monday, February 18, 2013
Effectiveness with the use of Web2.0 to enhance the web ranking of the University of Kelaniya
Background of Research :
The Web is growing very rapidly and important part of our lives. Web 2.0 has changed the rules of Internet and has produced a new marketplace based on sharing, coined in 2004 . Web 2.0 encompasses the social in nature such as the social networks, blogs, wikis, tagging and photo and video sharing sites. There are more ranking systems based on the different criteria and geographical area. The six services introduced here, but offer surprisingly similar results. The approach taken here will be Webometrics, which covers large group of Universities and research centers from all over the world. The Shanghai Jiaotong University published their famous Academic Ranking of World Universities and it was decided to use a similar system for the Webometrics data (Aguillo, 2009) . The Webometrics Ranking of World Universities (WRWU) is ranking system for the world's universities. The aim of the Ranking is to improve the presence of the academic and research institutions on the Web and to promote the open access publication of scientific results. It has been published, twice a year, January and July. University of Kelaniya(UoK) appeared within Top 100 on the South Asian region in 2009. It disappeared on the Top 100 list in 2010 and ranked 97 in July 2011 and ranked 98 in January 2012. WRWU is based on Visibility, Size, Rich Files and Scholar. Most composite indicator is Visibility and it takes 50 percent into account and impact of these web publications according to the number of external inlinks they received (Cybermetrics, 2012). Measuring and classifying the links from Web2.0 can be insightful. We can take advantage of the features that new web2.0 tools have in order to create learning experience and enhance webranking. Ideas and concepts on the Web are connected to one another through hyperlinks. Using these links, users can dig deeper to find information that stretches their ability to reason and analyse. They can interact with information online and connect instantly to relevant content that is also engaging and malleable (Solomon & Schrum, 2007). They can collaborate on projects, consult experts, and share their data with the world. Most of all, they can build on others learning by reading other posted work as a starting point for their own research and link back to it. Blogs enable users to easily create and publish text and media resources to the internet. Social news sites enable users to direct publication blog posts and any news. Web syndication is used to publish frequently updated works made available to multiple other sites. All those Web2.0 tools will enhance University webrank.
Literature review :
This paper intends to study and explore the application of Web 2.0 technologies in the context of University web sites. Sir Tim Berners-Lee found shared information space and similarity this story of the technology with the ideas of Tim O'Reilly, who has attempted to adoption of the technologies, can be used to make predictions about technology markets (Anderson, 2007). The former web appear as very much “Web 1.0,” and then found read write web as Web 2.0 (Alexander, 2006). Web 2.0 encompasses a wide range of applications and tools ranging from blogs to social networking sites to wikis (N.S. Harinarayana & Vasantha, 2010) . By utilising electronic media and Web 2.0 tools such as Wiki’s, blogs, tagging and social book-marking, new and ingenious methods of social interaction across geographic borders and industry silos are being created (Fu, 2007). The affordances of Web 2.0 seem to harmonise well with modern thinking about educational practice. It invites users to develop confidence in new modes of inquiry and new forms of literacy. Web 2.0 users must acquire the skills that are necessary to navigate and interrogate this new knowledge space. They must also welcome new opportunities for publication on the internet and the audience attention that this entails (Crook, 2008). University web sites are changing in their content and structure, with the introduction of free and open source Content Management Systems(CMS) in recent years. Also University home page integrate with most widely used Social network services like Facebook , Twitter , YouTube , Really Simple Syndication (RSS) and Blogs. According to Webometrics, University of Colombo, Peradeniya, Moratuwa and Sri Jayewardenepura has integrated Web 2.0 technologies in their home page. South Asia ranks are 8, 23, 50 and 61 respectively. It is a surprising finding that University of Kelaniya rank at 98 and yet to integrate Web 2.0 in their web site. In an earlier survey of the Web 2.0 features in university library web sites has been reported by Harinarayana et al. (2010). Harinarayana surveyed top 100 universities from the ranked list of the Times Higher Education web site. It was found that only 57 of the top 100 libraries have used at least one of the Web 2.0 features (N.S. Harinarayana & Vasantha, 2010). Some earlier studies have discussed the Link analysis using social network tools (Ortega & Aguillo, 2008). The study identifies the social network analysis techniques and measures used to know the network relationships, structure and topology and the position of different nodes. They think that the introduction of these techniques in webometric analyses is an important way to develop this discipline. Björneborn (2006) conducted a study on ‘Mini small worlds’ of shortest link paths crossing domain boundaries in an academic Web space. The findings in the present study suggest that the rich diversity of inlinks and outlinks to and from computer-science Web sites and personal link lists may be utilized for such computer-aided navigation along small-world shortcuts, which also may be exploited as transit points for more exhaustive Web coverage by search engine crawlers. As academic Web spaces increasingly include extensive scholarly self-presentations and link creations, science studies may employ small-world approaches including social network analytic concepts for automatic tracking of central gatekeepers and interdisciplinary boundary crossings in academic Web spaces (Björneborn, 2006).
Purposes :
The web was born for scholarly communication purposes, academic freedom allows a large number of independent web editors and today it is cheaper to publish on the web than in traditional journals (Aguillo, 2009). This research aims to critically examine the academics use of web 2.0 technology such as wikis, blogs and collaborative social networking portals with the aim of proposing future developments and improvement of University web rank. The embedding of technology into the assessment task is purposeful, aiming to address a recognised need for lecturers to motivate and gain the necessary academic knowledge, technical competence and, importantly, confidence to implement productive technology-based tasks in their classrooms and engage them actively in their learning experience (Brown, 2009). Web2.0 tools can have a profound effect on learning. Most graduate students already have a long experience using SNS. In order to attract faculty users, it seems inevitable that SNS-based service should provide a tailored service to them (Park, 2010). The main purpose of this research is to explore the Web2.0 factors that contribute towards web ranking within Top 10 list in South Asia region.
Objectives and Scope :
There is potential value in exploring professional learning with Web 2.0 technologies. Clearly , Web 2.0 applications are here to stay and can be of great use in the higher education (Boulos et al, 2006). The framework offers an exploratory instrument to examine how professional learning for academics could be supported with Web 2.0 technologies in ways that might have significant benefits to University web rank. In this research, researcher will explore how users interact with Web2.0 technologies in their regular day to day activities. In particular, researcher will focus on how users build their relationships with others and they could lead others to follow their links. Implementation of electronic social networking as a knowledge management tool, were identified. Reasons for the implementation of Social Networking 2.0 showed that social networking platforms increase productivity, workflow efficiency, staff motivation and up to date contact information linked to user maintained profiles (Zyl, 2009).
Methodology :
Researcher will conduct the study within the University of Kelaniya, one of best national university in Sri Lanka located in Western Provence. The student capacity approximately 12,000. Researcher will schedule semi-structured interviews and open-ended interviews conducted with undergraduates, graduates, and faculty members at all faculties including Science, Humanities, Social Sciences, Commerce & Finance and Medicine, as needed to clarify and provide insight into specific conversations. Also it will be focused to create an online survey which can be easily done by Web2.0 tools to collecting data. Online surveys are probably the most widely used technique for collecting data. Researcher will typically observe and analyse University web site traffic using Alexa and Webometrics .
References:
1.Aguillo, I. (2009) Measuring the institution's footprint in the web. Library Hi Tech. 27(4) pp. 540 - 556.
2.Alexander, B. (2006) Web 2.0: A New Wave of Innovation for Teaching and Learning? http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ERM0621.pdf [Accessed 12 January 2012].
3.Anderson, P. (2007) What is Web 2.0? Ideas, technologies and implications for education. http://www.jisc.ac.uk/media/documents/techwatch/tsw0701b.pdf [Accessed 10 June 2012].
4.Björneborn, L. (2006) ‘Mini small worlds’ of shortest link paths crossing domain boundaries in an academic web space. Scientometrics. 68(3) pp. 395–414.
5.Boulos, M., Maramba, I. & Wheeler, S. (2006) Wikis, blogs and podcasts: a new generation of Web-based tools for virtual collaborative clinical practice and education. http://www.biomedcentral.com/content/pdf/1472-6920-6-41.pdf [Accessed 15 June 2012].
6.Brown, N.R. (2009) What can you learn in three minutes?: Critical reflection on an assessment task that embeds technology. Campus-Wide Information Systems. 26(5) pp. 345-354.
7.Crook, C. (2008) Web 2.0 technologies for learning: the current landscape – opportunities, challenges and tensions. http://dera.ioe.ac.uk/1474/ [Accessed 05 June 2012].
8.Cybermetrics, L. (2012) Ranking Web of World universities: Methodology. http://www.webometrics.info/methodology.html [accessed 05 June 2012].
9.Fu, F. (2007) Empirical analysis of online social networks in the age of the. Physica A. 387(2-3) pp. 675-684.
10.N.S. Harinarayana, N. & Vasantha, R. (2010) Web 2.0 features in university library web sites. The Electronic Library. 28(1) pp. 69-88.
11.Ortega, J.L. & Aguillo, I.F. (2008) Visualization of the Nordic academic web: Link analysis using social network tools. Information Processing & Management. 44(4) pp. 1624-1633.
12.Park, J.-H. (2010) Differences among university students and faculties in social networking site perception and use. The Electronic Library. 28(3) pp. 417-431.
13.Solomon, G. & Schrum, L. (2007) web 2.0: New Tools, New Schools. http://www.iste.org/images/excerpts/NEWTOO-excerpt.pdf [Accessed 15 June 2012].
14.Zyl, A.S.v. (2009) The impact of Social Networking 2.0 on organisations. The Electronic Library. 27(6) pp. 906-918.
The Web is growing very rapidly and important part of our lives. Web 2.0 has changed the rules of Internet and has produced a new marketplace based on sharing, coined in 2004 . Web 2.0 encompasses the social in nature such as the social networks, blogs, wikis, tagging and photo and video sharing sites. There are more ranking systems based on the different criteria and geographical area. The six services introduced here, but offer surprisingly similar results. The approach taken here will be Webometrics, which covers large group of Universities and research centers from all over the world. The Shanghai Jiaotong University published their famous Academic Ranking of World Universities and it was decided to use a similar system for the Webometrics data (Aguillo, 2009) . The Webometrics Ranking of World Universities (WRWU) is ranking system for the world's universities. The aim of the Ranking is to improve the presence of the academic and research institutions on the Web and to promote the open access publication of scientific results. It has been published, twice a year, January and July. University of Kelaniya(UoK) appeared within Top 100 on the South Asian region in 2009. It disappeared on the Top 100 list in 2010 and ranked 97 in July 2011 and ranked 98 in January 2012. WRWU is based on Visibility, Size, Rich Files and Scholar. Most composite indicator is Visibility and it takes 50 percent into account and impact of these web publications according to the number of external inlinks they received (Cybermetrics, 2012). Measuring and classifying the links from Web2.0 can be insightful. We can take advantage of the features that new web2.0 tools have in order to create learning experience and enhance webranking. Ideas and concepts on the Web are connected to one another through hyperlinks. Using these links, users can dig deeper to find information that stretches their ability to reason and analyse. They can interact with information online and connect instantly to relevant content that is also engaging and malleable (Solomon & Schrum, 2007). They can collaborate on projects, consult experts, and share their data with the world. Most of all, they can build on others learning by reading other posted work as a starting point for their own research and link back to it. Blogs enable users to easily create and publish text and media resources to the internet. Social news sites enable users to direct publication blog posts and any news. Web syndication is used to publish frequently updated works made available to multiple other sites. All those Web2.0 tools will enhance University webrank.
Literature review :
This paper intends to study and explore the application of Web 2.0 technologies in the context of University web sites. Sir Tim Berners-Lee found shared information space and similarity this story of the technology with the ideas of Tim O'Reilly, who has attempted to adoption of the technologies, can be used to make predictions about technology markets (Anderson, 2007). The former web appear as very much “Web 1.0,” and then found read write web as Web 2.0 (Alexander, 2006). Web 2.0 encompasses a wide range of applications and tools ranging from blogs to social networking sites to wikis (N.S. Harinarayana & Vasantha, 2010) . By utilising electronic media and Web 2.0 tools such as Wiki’s, blogs, tagging and social book-marking, new and ingenious methods of social interaction across geographic borders and industry silos are being created (Fu, 2007). The affordances of Web 2.0 seem to harmonise well with modern thinking about educational practice. It invites users to develop confidence in new modes of inquiry and new forms of literacy. Web 2.0 users must acquire the skills that are necessary to navigate and interrogate this new knowledge space. They must also welcome new opportunities for publication on the internet and the audience attention that this entails (Crook, 2008). University web sites are changing in their content and structure, with the introduction of free and open source Content Management Systems(CMS) in recent years. Also University home page integrate with most widely used Social network services like Facebook , Twitter , YouTube , Really Simple Syndication (RSS) and Blogs. According to Webometrics, University of Colombo, Peradeniya, Moratuwa and Sri Jayewardenepura has integrated Web 2.0 technologies in their home page. South Asia ranks are 8, 23, 50 and 61 respectively. It is a surprising finding that University of Kelaniya rank at 98 and yet to integrate Web 2.0 in their web site. In an earlier survey of the Web 2.0 features in university library web sites has been reported by Harinarayana et al. (2010). Harinarayana surveyed top 100 universities from the ranked list of the Times Higher Education web site. It was found that only 57 of the top 100 libraries have used at least one of the Web 2.0 features (N.S. Harinarayana & Vasantha, 2010). Some earlier studies have discussed the Link analysis using social network tools (Ortega & Aguillo, 2008). The study identifies the social network analysis techniques and measures used to know the network relationships, structure and topology and the position of different nodes. They think that the introduction of these techniques in webometric analyses is an important way to develop this discipline. Björneborn (2006) conducted a study on ‘Mini small worlds’ of shortest link paths crossing domain boundaries in an academic Web space. The findings in the present study suggest that the rich diversity of inlinks and outlinks to and from computer-science Web sites and personal link lists may be utilized for such computer-aided navigation along small-world shortcuts, which also may be exploited as transit points for more exhaustive Web coverage by search engine crawlers. As academic Web spaces increasingly include extensive scholarly self-presentations and link creations, science studies may employ small-world approaches including social network analytic concepts for automatic tracking of central gatekeepers and interdisciplinary boundary crossings in academic Web spaces (Björneborn, 2006).
Purposes :
The web was born for scholarly communication purposes, academic freedom allows a large number of independent web editors and today it is cheaper to publish on the web than in traditional journals (Aguillo, 2009). This research aims to critically examine the academics use of web 2.0 technology such as wikis, blogs and collaborative social networking portals with the aim of proposing future developments and improvement of University web rank. The embedding of technology into the assessment task is purposeful, aiming to address a recognised need for lecturers to motivate and gain the necessary academic knowledge, technical competence and, importantly, confidence to implement productive technology-based tasks in their classrooms and engage them actively in their learning experience (Brown, 2009). Web2.0 tools can have a profound effect on learning. Most graduate students already have a long experience using SNS. In order to attract faculty users, it seems inevitable that SNS-based service should provide a tailored service to them (Park, 2010). The main purpose of this research is to explore the Web2.0 factors that contribute towards web ranking within Top 10 list in South Asia region.
Objectives and Scope :
There is potential value in exploring professional learning with Web 2.0 technologies. Clearly , Web 2.0 applications are here to stay and can be of great use in the higher education (Boulos et al, 2006). The framework offers an exploratory instrument to examine how professional learning for academics could be supported with Web 2.0 technologies in ways that might have significant benefits to University web rank. In this research, researcher will explore how users interact with Web2.0 technologies in their regular day to day activities. In particular, researcher will focus on how users build their relationships with others and they could lead others to follow their links. Implementation of electronic social networking as a knowledge management tool, were identified. Reasons for the implementation of Social Networking 2.0 showed that social networking platforms increase productivity, workflow efficiency, staff motivation and up to date contact information linked to user maintained profiles (Zyl, 2009).
Methodology :
Researcher will conduct the study within the University of Kelaniya, one of best national university in Sri Lanka located in Western Provence. The student capacity approximately 12,000. Researcher will schedule semi-structured interviews and open-ended interviews conducted with undergraduates, graduates, and faculty members at all faculties including Science, Humanities, Social Sciences, Commerce & Finance and Medicine, as needed to clarify and provide insight into specific conversations. Also it will be focused to create an online survey which can be easily done by Web2.0 tools to collecting data. Online surveys are probably the most widely used technique for collecting data. Researcher will typically observe and analyse University web site traffic using Alexa and Webometrics .
References:
1.Aguillo, I. (2009) Measuring the institution's footprint in the web. Library Hi Tech. 27(4) pp. 540 - 556.
2.Alexander, B. (2006) Web 2.0: A New Wave of Innovation for Teaching and Learning? http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ERM0621.pdf [Accessed 12 January 2012].
3.Anderson, P. (2007) What is Web 2.0? Ideas, technologies and implications for education. http://www.jisc.ac.uk/media/documents/techwatch/tsw0701b.pdf [Accessed 10 June 2012].
4.Björneborn, L. (2006) ‘Mini small worlds’ of shortest link paths crossing domain boundaries in an academic web space. Scientometrics. 68(3) pp. 395–414.
5.Boulos, M., Maramba, I. & Wheeler, S. (2006) Wikis, blogs and podcasts: a new generation of Web-based tools for virtual collaborative clinical practice and education. http://www.biomedcentral.com/content/pdf/1472-6920-6-41.pdf [Accessed 15 June 2012].
6.Brown, N.R. (2009) What can you learn in three minutes?: Critical reflection on an assessment task that embeds technology. Campus-Wide Information Systems. 26(5) pp. 345-354.
7.Crook, C. (2008) Web 2.0 technologies for learning: the current landscape – opportunities, challenges and tensions. http://dera.ioe.ac.uk/1474/ [Accessed 05 June 2012].
8.Cybermetrics, L. (2012) Ranking Web of World universities: Methodology. http://www.webometrics.info/methodology.html [accessed 05 June 2012].
9.Fu, F. (2007) Empirical analysis of online social networks in the age of the. Physica A. 387(2-3) pp. 675-684.
10.N.S. Harinarayana, N. & Vasantha, R. (2010) Web 2.0 features in university library web sites. The Electronic Library. 28(1) pp. 69-88.
11.Ortega, J.L. & Aguillo, I.F. (2008) Visualization of the Nordic academic web: Link analysis using social network tools. Information Processing & Management. 44(4) pp. 1624-1633.
12.Park, J.-H. (2010) Differences among university students and faculties in social networking site perception and use. The Electronic Library. 28(3) pp. 417-431.
13.Solomon, G. & Schrum, L. (2007) web 2.0: New Tools, New Schools. http://www.iste.org/images/excerpts/NEWTOO-excerpt.pdf [Accessed 15 June 2012].
14.Zyl, A.S.v. (2009) The impact of Social Networking 2.0 on organisations. The Electronic Library. 27(6) pp. 906-918.
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