HCI Research in the Context of E-Commerce: Studies of Customer-Technology-Company Communications on the Internet

December 4, 2013

Please mark your calendars for the last HCI@UBC lunch forum of the Winter 1 term featuring Professor Izak Benbasat from the UBC Sauder School of Business. Food will be provided. Please spread the word among your colleagues, students, lab mates.

Given that an ecommerce web site is a company’s “window to the world”, customers interact directly with a number of information technology artifacts provided by the company (such as, product recommendation software, videos for product presentations) as well as entities within that company (such as, sales assistants) and other customers (such as, collaborative shopping) via information technology mediated channels.

HCI design and evaluation in this specific context have two major components: 1) the first resembles traditional HCI work in that a customer has to interact with a computer interface to reach the online company, and 2) the second is about communication between the customer and the company that is necessary for trading to occur. The first type of interaction is designed to enhance customers’ efficiency, effectiveness and shopping enjoyment by providing high quality information technology-based services, and the second type of interaction, or more correctly communication, is intended to improve customers’ trust in online merchants, reduce their perceived risks of buying on the web, and increase their loyalty to web merchants and commitment to online shopping.

Benbasat has conducted over 20 studies with colleagues and graduate students over the last decade investigating a wide range of topics that included: how to improve product understanding on the web; how to provide services to customers via IT support; improving customers’ purchase quality via recommendation agent use, designing product recommendations agents that are trustworthy, and designing social interfaces to such agents; collaborative shopping; and reducing risk and deception in electronic commerce. The talk will provide a brief summary of these studies and their findings, and describe their practical implications for HCI designers and users of electronic commerce for improving the online shopping experiences of customers.

Biography
Izak Benbasat is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and Canada Research Chair in Information Technology Management at the Sauder School of Business, University of British Columbia. He received the LEO Award for Lifetime Exceptional Achievements in Information Systems from the Association for Information Systems in 2007, and was conferred the title of Distinguished Fellow by the Institute for Operations Research and Management Sciences (INFORMS) Information Systems Society in 2009. He was awarded the UBC Killam Research Prize in 1998 and the Killam Teaching Prize in 1996.

Wednesday December 11, 12.00-1.00PM, Lillooet Room (Rm 301), Irving K. Barber Learning Centre

Read More | No Comments

Josephine Etowa – Strengthening Leadership in Community Health Nursing and Collaborative Partnerships

December 4, 2013

In today’s complex dialogues of an ever changing health care system, nursing leaders are being required to think and work across boundaries; both to build collaborative visions and to accomplish those visions together through joint goal setting and active pursuit of those goals. Having stakeholders share commonalities of purpose have been associated with productive environment and positive health outcomes, which rightly serve the common good of Canadians. And there are reasons to believe that collaborative partnerships are effective strategies for promoting health outcomes, especially in community-based efforts. What is equally important to effective collaborative partnership is the leadership necessary to promote and sustain it. This includes leaders who have a passion for change and expertise in politics, policy making and implementation as well as communication.

This keynote lecture examines and discusses various aspects of the kind of leadership needed in community health nursing and effective collaborative partnerships including the processes, activities, and relationships necessary deal with the challenge of collaboration. It uses current research to uncover the conditions that inhibit or hinder collaborative leadership in community health and the characteristics of successful collaborative leaders. The speaker concludes with a discussion of the vital role that community health nurses may play in promoting innovation in community health practice and collaborative leadership. Hosted by the UBC School of Nursing’s 2013 Marion Woodward Lecture. The Mr. and Mrs. P.A. Woodward’s Foundation has generously supported the annual Marion Woodward Lecture since 1969.

Biography

Dr Josephine B. Etowa is an Associate Professor at the University of Ottawa’s Faculty of Health Sciences, School of Nursing. Dr Etowa completed her BSc. N and MN degrees from Dalhousie University and her PhD in Nursing at the University of Calgary. She completed a Canadian Health Services Research Foundation (CHSRF) Post-Doctoral Fellowship focusing on diversity within Canadian nursing at the University of Toronto and the University of Ottawa. Her research program which is grounded in over twenty-three years of clinical practice is in the area of inequity in health and health care as well as maternal-newborn health. Her research projects have been funded by international, national, provincial and local agencies and these projects are guided by the tenets of qualitative research and participatory action research (PAR). In an effort to explicate the complexities of the social realities often embedded in nursing research, she also uses mixed research methods including integration of both quantitative and qualitative approaches.

Select Articles Available at UBC Library

McGibbon, E. A., & Etowa, J. B. (2009). Anti-racist health care practice. Toronto: Canadian Scholars’ Press.

Vukic, A., Jesty, C., Mathews, S. V., & Etowa, J. (2012). Understanding race and racism in nursing: Insights from aboriginal nurses. ISRN Nursing, 2012(4), 1-9. doi:10.5402/2012/196437. [Link]

Etowa, J., Vukic, A., & Jesty, C. (2011). Indigenous nurses’ stories: Perspectives on the cultural context of aboriginal health care work. Canadian Journal of Native Studies, 31(2), 29. [Link]

UBC Library Research Guides

Nursing

Medical Education

Read More | No Comments

Richard Wagamese – Reading of "Indian Horse"

December 3, 2013

“Wagamese pulls off a fine balancing act: exposing the horrors of the country’s residential schools while also celebrating Canada’s national game.” – James Grainger, Globe & Mail

“Wagemese’s writing qualifies as an act of courage.” – Donna Bailey Nurse, National Post

“If we want to live at peace with ourselves, we need to tell our stories.” – Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese

In this emotional tale of Saul Indian Horse, Richard Wagamese tells the realistic story of a man whose life is drastically changed by one of Canada’s most painful histories. When Saul was a child he was taken away from his family and forced into an Indian Residential School where he witnessed and experienced unimaginable abuses at the hands of the school’s educators. In spite of the harrowing atrocities, it is at the school that Saul discovers his love of hockey, a game that, for a short time, serves as a means of escape. Saul’s talent leads to a draft with a minor league team and a spot on Team Canada during the 1972 Canada-Soviet Summit Series. However, as Saul grows into a man, he struggles with racism and alcohol addiction. Saul’s tumultuous adulthood eventually leads him back to his roots, where he confronts his past and begins a new journey towards healing.

Richard Wagamese is an Ojibway author from the Wabaseemoong First Nation in Northwestern Ontario. He is the author of several fiction and non-fiction works including For Joshua: An Ojibway Father Teaches His Son, Runaway Dreams, and Indian Horse. Wagamese has also been a journalist and, in 1991, became the first Aboriginal Canadian to receive the National Newspaper Award for Column Writing. His most recent novel, Indian Horse, was chosen as the winner of First Nation Communities Read, and is on the Globe and Mail’s bestseller’s list as well as the Canadian Booksellers Association’s bestseller’s list. Among his awards, Wagamese’s memoir One Native Life was listed as one of The Globe and Mail’s 100 Best Books of 2008. In 2010 he accepted an Honorary Doctor of Letters from Thompson Rivers University. Wagamese currently lives just outside of Kamloops, BC with his wife, Debra Powell, and Molly the Story Dog.

Library Resources

Wagamese, Richard. Medicine Walk. Toronto: Doubleday, 2014. [Available at Xwi7xwa Library – YF W34 M43 2014]

Wagamese, Richard. Indian Horse. Toronto: McLelland & Stewart, 2012. [Available at Koerner Library – PS8595.A363 I64 2012]

Wagamese, Richard. Dream Wheels: A Novel. Toronto: Anchor Books, 2007. [Available at Xwi7xwa Library – YF W34 D74 2007]

UBC Library Research Guides

Aboriginal Studies

Read More | No Comments

Ron Deibert – Under Cover of the Net: Surveillance, Privacy, and the Dark Side of Cyberspace

December 2, 2013

Professor Deibert is Director of the Canada Centre for Global Security Studies and the Citizen Lab at the Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto. The Citizen Lab is an interdisciplinary research and development hothouse working at the intersection of the Internet, global security, and human rights. He was one of the authors of the Tracking Ghostnet report that documented an alleged cyber-espionage network affecting over 1200 computers in 103 countries, and the Shadows in the Cloud report, which analyzed a cloud-based espionage network. He is the author of the forthcoming book Black Code: the battle for the future of cyberspace (McClelland & Stewart, 2013). He has been a consultant and advisor to governments, international organizations, and civil society/NGOs on issues relating to cyber security, cyber crime, online free expression, and access to information.

Biography

Ron Deibert, (OOnt, PhD, University of British Columbia) is Professor of Political Science, and Director of the Canada Centre for Global Security Studies and theCitizen Lab at the Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto. The Citizen Lab is an interdisciplinary research and development hothouse working at the intersection of the Internet, global security, and human rights. He is a co-founder and a principal investigator of the OpenNet Initiative and Information Warfare Monitor (2003-2012) projects. Deibert was one of the founders and (former) VP of global policy and outreach for Psiphon Inc.

Select Articles and Books Available at UBC Library

Deibert, R., Canadian Public Policy Collection, Canadian Defence and Foreign Affairs Institute, & Canadian Electronic Library (Firm). (2012). Distributed security as cyber strategy outlining a comprehensive approach for Canada in cyberspace. Canadian Defence and Foreign Affairs Institute. [Link]

Deibert, R., & Canadian Public Policy Collection. (2013). Canada and the challenges of cyberspace governance and security. School of Public Policy, University of Calgary. [Link]

Deibert, R. (2015). The geopolitics of cyberspace after Snowden. Current History, 114(768), 9-9.

Deibert, R. (2012). Distributed security as cyber strategy: Outlining a comprehensive approach for Canada in cyberspace. Journal of Military and Strategic Studies, 14(2). [Link]

UBC Library Research Guides

International Law

Interdisciplinary Legal Studies

Read More | No Comments

Vivian Howard – Connecting Authors and Readers: Researching and Documenting Atlantic Canadian Books for Youth

December 2, 2013

Webcast sponsored by the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre and hosted by the iSchool at UBC. In their recent history of Canadian children’s illustrated books, Gail Edwards and Judith Saltman observe that “the children’s literature of a nation is a microcosm of that country’s literary and sociocultural values, beliefs, themes, and images, including those of geography, history, and identity.” This lecture explores the importance of regional Atlantic Canadian children’s literature and the development of Sea Stacks, an authoritative web-based resource featuring information on and about Atlantic Canadian books, authors and illustrators for children and youth. Sea Stacks includes comprehensive annotated bibliographies of primary texts, author and illustrator profiles, videotaped interviews, analysis, and criticism. This presentation illustrates the use of Sea Stacks for research and concludes with a discussion of the relevance of Ian McKay’s provocative 1994 text The Quest for the Folk: Antimodernism and Cultural Selection in Twentieth-Century Nova Scotia to an analysis of contemporary Nova Scotian picture books. This talk is hosted by the iSchool at the University of British Columbia.

Biography

Vivian Howard is associate professor in the School of Information Management and Associate Dean Academic of the Faculty of Management at Dalhousie University. Her research interests include barriers and motivators for pleasure reading, particularly for young readers; social reading initiatives; and Atlantic Canadian literature for children and teens. She is the editor of the YA Hotline newsletter and is the principal investigator of a research team developing the Sea Stacks website.

Select Articles Available at UBC Library

Howard, V. (2013). Picturing difference: Three recent picture books portray the black Nova Scotian community. Bookbird, 51(4), 11. [Link]

Howard, V. (2011). What do young teens think about the public library? 1. The Library Quarterly, 81(3), 321-344. doi:10.1086/660134. [Link]

Howard, V. (2002). Hot, hotter, hottest: The best of the YA hotline. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press.

Howard, V. (2012). From Boardbook to Facebook: Children’s services in an interactive age (review). Canadian Journal of Information and Library Science, 36(3), R4-R5. doi:10.1353/ils.2012.0011. [Link]

UBC Library Research Guides

Learning Technology

Early Childhood Education

Read More | No Comments

Made in Taiwan

November 27, 2013

The Taiwanese Canadian Cultural Society, Taipei Economic & Cultural Office in Vancouver, and the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre are pleased to collaborate for the art exhibition featuring the arts and crafts “Made in Taiwan”.

A knowledge of its nature and culture is the key to a deeper understanding of Taiwan.

There was a time when “Made in Taiwan” symbolized inexpensive trinkets and plastic toys. Taiwan has since reinvented its economy, focusing on technology and computers — but alongside their high-tech industry is a re-emphasis of Taiwan’s rich history of craft traditions as a way to construct a national identity — an identity complicated in recent years by political power struggles. Certain cities and towns in Taiwan are renowned for specialty crafts.

The Irving K. Barber Learning Centre exhibition, a conduit for the visual arts and contemporary culture, presents “Made in Taiwan”, an exhibit of crafts showcasing different aspects of Taiwan’s natural diversity and beauty, historica landscapes, its folk customs, people, cities, temple festivals, and holiday celebrations.

In Partnership

Read More | No Comments

24/7 hours at the Learning Centre

November 26, 2013

Read More | No Comments

Stephen Lewis – Faculty Colloquium Talk at UBC Law

November 25, 2013

"Chew On This"- The Business Case Behind Sustainable Food

Webcast sponsored by the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre and hosted by the Faculty of Law. Stephen Lewis is a Co-Director of AIDS-Free World, a Distinguished Visiting Professor at Ryerson University in Toronto, and the board chair of the Stephen Lewis Foundation. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Clinton Health Access Initiative and Emeritus Board Member of the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, as well as the author of the best-selling book, Race Against Time. Furthermore, he has worked with the United Nations for over two decades and holds more than 35 honorary degrees.

Select Articles and Books Available at UBC Library

Lewis, S. (2005). Race against time. Toronto: House of Anansi Press. [Link]

Lewis, S. (2008). Opportunities lost: The UN’s failure to fight the HIV/AIDS crisis. Harvard International Review, 30(1), 80. [Link]

Lewis, S. (2009). Essential public health: Theory and practice. Journal of Biosocial Science, 41(1), 155-156. doi:10.1017/S0021932008003131. [Link]

UBC Library Research Guides

Population and Public Health

Read More | No Comments

Redeveloping the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs Resource Centre: New Collections, Classification and Collaboration

November 24, 2013

Alissa Cherry, Resource Centre Director, Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs

In 2012, the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs (UBCIC) Resource Centre accepted a large donation that greatly expanded the scope and size of the library collection. After nearly a year of planning and with the help of an army of students and volunteers, work began in April of 2013 to integrate the donation using a workflow that included a cleaning and condition assessment, performing necessary repairs and/or constructing protective housings, classifying all materials into a new revision of the Brian Deer scheme, cataloguing, and processing. All existing library collections passed through a similar workflow and as they were reclassified. In addition to the reclassification, the physical space of the Resource Centre was also rearranged with the addition of a multimedia room and exhibit space. This talk is brought to you by the iSchool at the UBC School of Library, Archival, and Information Studies (SLAIS).

Biography

Alissa Cherry is the Resource Centre Director for the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs (UBCIC). She manages a unique library collection and institutional archives that is used primarily for land claims research. Alissa is a founding member of the BC Digitization Coalition, a member of the Academy of Certified Archivists, and holds an MLIS from the University of British Columbia (UBC). Prior to joining the UBCIC in 2006, Alissa worked for the BC Aboriginal Child Care Society and Xwi7xwa Library at UBC, and spent six years managing the Yellowstone Research Library in Yellowstone National Park.

Wednesday, December 4, 11:30 pm – 12:30 pm, Dodson Room, Level 3, Chapman Learning Commons, Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, 1961 East Mall, UBC

Read More | No Comments

The Beauty of the Book: Selections from the Association of American University Presses 2013 Book, Jacket, and Journal Show Exhibition

November 20, 2013

The Irving K. Barber Learning Centre and UBC Press presents “The Beauty of the Book: Selections from the Association of American University Presses 2013 Book, Jacket, and Journal Show” from December 2 through 13^th, 2013. From digitization to new media to multimedia, the book is facing some serious competition. The hype has been around all things e- and i-. And yet the book continues to have a special aura about it – a certain power – that comes from a cover catching your eye, from holding its form in your hands, from reading for hours accompanied by the feel and sound of turning pages.

In January 2013, four judges gathered in New York to sift through hundreds of entries for the AAUP (Association of American University Presses) Book, Jacket, and Journal Show. They were tasked with choosing publications that exhibited excellence in design and manufacture. Their selections are now touring North America.

The Irving K. Barber Learning Centre and UBC Press are excited to host “The Beauty of the Book: Selections from the Association of American University Presses 2013 Book, Jacket, and Journal Show” which offers to the university community the chance to marvel at their intelligent, creative design and to be inspired by their beauty.

Visit the display from December 2^nd through December 13^th on the concourse of the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre. For more information on the books in the show, please find here. As a bonus attraction, award-winning books from the Alcuin Society Awards for Excellence in Book Design in Canada will also be displayed as part of this exhibition.

“In a badly designed book, the letters mill and stand like starving horses in a field. In a book designed by rote, they sit like stale bread and mutton on the page. In a well-made book, where designer, compositor and printer have all done their jobs, no matter how many thousands of lines and pages, the letters are alive. They dance in their seats. Sometimes they rise and dance in the margins and aisles.”
– Robert Bringhurst, The Elements of Typographic Style

“Despite the ongoing debates on the future of books and bookstores as we know them, I’m happy to say that good book design continues to really excite, impress, and sparks new creative ideas for me. The winning entries for this year’s AAUP competition are certainly proof of this.”

– Charlotte Strick, AAUP Book, Jacket, and Journal Show judge and award-winning designer and art director for Faber and Faber, Inc. and for paperbacks at Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.

Partner

Read More | No Comments