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Despite the rapid growth of the Internet during 1994 and 1995 no adequate or consistent method of referencing material from this source has been developed. Failure to address this issue will result in Internet resources not being awarded full recognition within academic discourse. Unless corrected, the significance of this oversight will be exacerbated as more academic journals become available online and more computer literate students enter tertiary study. Furthermore, the status of researchers who have published in this medium will be affected and universities may deprive themselves of the staff best equipped to meet the challenges of the electronic age.

The purpose of this paper is to examine intrinsic forms of motivation and particular incidents of play, socialisation, fun and amusement on an online crowdsourced citizen science platform. The paper also investigates gamised activity (Greenhill et al., 2014) as a form of intrinsic motivation adding a sense of play to work and tasks (Xu et al., 2012). These concepts are explored through close scrutiny of the online citizen science platform Zooniverse.org.

Qualitative techniques with an interpretivist approach are used to analyse online content found within citizen science platforms, related forums and social media by examining incidents of play, socialisation, fun and amusement to investigate how these aspects are applied as a form of user motivation.

The authors find that when users classify crowdsourced tasks voluntarily it does not matter how users are classifying as long as it is accurately. However, what does matter is why they are doing it particularly because of the complex processes that builds relationships between users and the platform. The authors present a conceptual model to enable deeper understandings of how forms of social interaction and play are motivating users contributing to citizen science project to participate in the online processes.

The findings of this paper provide practical implications for how citizen science, and also other crowdsourcing platforms, can engage with notions of play and gamification to motivate participation.

Using detailed examples of online content, the authors reveal how participants of the Zooniverse.org demonstrate aspects of “gamised” behaviour. The authors argue that the exploration of gaming as well as play provides evidence that contributing to citizen science projects can be both utilitarian and hedonic.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a conceptual framework to understand the influence that the social era is having on the value chain of the local news industry. The authors theoretically advance value chain theory by, firstly, considering the influence of community type and age on consumption and, secondly, exploring the role that consumers can play in value-adding activities. The theoretical contribution of this study lies in moving from a transactional approach towards consumer relationships in the value chain towards managing consumers as a source of relational value (e.g. co-creation and integrated perspectives).

The conceptual framework is theoretically positioned in relation to community and digital community practices in the social era. A series of research questions are presented, then these questions are explored drawing on empirical data from the Pew database. The authors then advance the framework further to consider news firm strategy towards its consumers. Fifteen in-depth executive interviews were conducted with local news organizations in the Manchester area of the UK.

The authors illustrate that different types of communities (merging cohorts and locations) are influencing levels of technological and social connectivity within the value chain. The authors also found that the news industry is experimenting with reconfiguring its consumer relations from a purely transactional to a co-created and participatory value-added activity in the social era. In terms of its policy impact, the findings in this paper show that the whole strategic value chain ideology of the news industry needs to change radically; away from its largely transactional (and lack of trust) approach in the ability of consumers to create value in the supply chain (other than to buy a product) and, move towards much greater consumer involvement and participation in value chain processes (creation, production and distribution of news products and services).

The change associated with social media and connectivity is changing the way that different community types and consumer groups are now consuming and participating in news content creation. Unlike previous studies, the authors show that there is variance and complexity in the levels of consumer participation by community type/age group. Using the Pew data, the authors contribute to knowledge on the value creation strategy of news firms in the social era, by identifying how communicative, social and communicative logics influence value and co-creation activities in the local news supply chain. Through interviews, the authors advance value co-creation theory from its strategic and marketing origins to operational and supply chain implementation.

The purpose of this study is to gain insight into craft and do-it-yourself (DIY) communities of practice (COPs) and how the use of technology provides ways for participants to connect, share and create. Gaining deeper insights into the practices of these communities may provide new opportunities to utilise within this flourishing domain.

Qualitative methods were adopted to collect data and analysed through an interpretivist lens. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with members of craft and DIY COPs to gain a deep understanding of the broader ethnographic study. Existing theoretical perspectives surrounding COPs have been applied to further current perspectives.

Findings from this study suggest that being part of a COP allows participants to connect to others, build creative enterprise and learn or enhance skills. Insights gained from this study indicate some of the detailed ways in which the application of technology redefines craft and DIY COPs.

This study provides a succinct exploration of a vast and fluid domain; if presented with more time and wider resources, the research would include further exploration of virtual COPs.

The investigation provides a rich insight into the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) within craft and DIY COPs. The application of theoretical perspectives from the area of Information Systems (IS) and Technology Management to this domain is regarded as an original research and furthers knowledge in these areas.

The investigation provides a rich insight into the use of ICTs within craft and DIY COPs. The application of theoretical perspectives from the area of IS to the domain of craft and DIY culture is original research and extends existing concepts to include skills sharing as a previously unexplored domain.

The popularity and persistence of Blogshops raises ethical issues regarding the presentation of the female teenage owners' “self” to others and the relationship they maintain with buyers and other owners.

This ongoing observational study of Singaporean Blogshops reveals a layered and interrelated typology of alternative e‐commerce activities that critiques many of the myths associated with e‐commerce particularly the extent and manner in which it can empower consumers.

It is argued that Blogshops represent a new formulation of e‐commerce practice that draws upon a rich assemblage that includes readily available and popular digital technologies and an efficient urban public transport system.

This study is primarily emic in perspective and requires complementary ethnographic research among Blogshopowners and buyers – specifically female teenage Singaporeans.

The present study introduces the phenomenon of Blogshops to a wider academic and theoried audience through a critical interpretation of observed activities. In doing this the study offers insight into the complex intersection of public transport infrastructure, freely available Web‐based technologies and the significant influence that fashion exerts upon contemporary popular culture.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how independent social and commercial activities have developed in response to the perceived decline in the UK High Street and in response to the challenges of increasing digital retailing opportunities. This examination is undertaken through the lens of the social supply chain as a means to understanding, suggesting and expanding on current research regarding retailing and the UK High Street. The authors reveal some of the challenges being posed by the changing patterns of growth and consumption in cities and couple these with shifting supply chain trends.

A case study approach is used to explore the rapid advances and influence of digital technologies on businesses operating on the primary business street of suburban centre, towns or cities (described in the UK collectively as the “high street”). The research is conducted through the analytical lens of the social supply chain.

Theoretically extending the “social” in the social supply chain, the authors illustrate the usefulness of the nuanced concept of the “social supply chain” with two related strategies concerning delivery and balance. These strategies are themselves interlinked with the actions of co-creation, co-production and co-consumption. Examples of social supply chain strategies presented include retail businesses giving away something as an incentive, where the underlying requirement from the customer is that they will bring their own specialist product, skill or social network to a specified location (real or virtual).

For the purpose of this paper, the authors use two distinct strategies relating to delivery and balancing and in relation to the actions of co-creation, co-production and co-consumption to emphasise and analyse changes currently occurring in the UK High Street. The authors take a social supply chain management (SCM) perspective to undertake a systematic critical review of the various recent efforts undertaken by local governments, communities and trader groups to revitalise the High Street.

This paper aims to understand the level of synergy between print and online activity and to assess the influence of print/online synergy on the log of circulation change.

In order to meet this aim the authors conducted an empirical study of 100 regional newspapers supplying news media services in the UK. Two hypotheses grounded in a conceptual model were developed. The authors used Pearson correlation and (stepwise) regression analysis to test two hypotheses (H1 and H2).

H1 provides us with some interesting findings. The first is that higher priced newspapers attract more unique Internet users and mobile Internet access. Higher priced newspapers who have been in business longer and have established brands attract more online readers. Also, because these issues are more expensive there is more incentive to go online to read the papers for free. Note that this last explanation is consistent with the analysis provided for H2, the beta for price is negative. The negative coefficient indicates that the circulation change of higher priced papers has reduced more. Therefore circulation change impacts greater upon premium price newspapers for an elite rather than a broad readership. The regression results presented here indicate that established firms with premium pricing, providing multiple platform distribution and specialist digital editions with free online content, have circulations that are reducing less.Practical implications – While reducing the rate of circulation decline, current levels of online presence are not reversing it. There is a need for online presence to be focused on more targeted segments/niches of circulation such as “hyper‐local” news. This suggests a much clearer consideration must be made by newspapers with a premium price for an elite rather than a broad readership.

News organizations now find themselves less socially relevant as consumers turn towards the Internet for alternative sources of “news”. News media firms are having to rebuild their brand identity and market positioning in the online marketplace. Higher priced newspapers have been in business longer and have established brand recognition for providing elite services. This is vital if they are to retain their community influence (as trusted sources of locally produced news, analysis and investigative reporting into public affairs). Commercial influence is determined by their social influence and the demise of newspapers would significantly threaten news plurality, democracy and public service journalism at the local community level.

The originality of this work concerns its specific focus on the influence of print/online synergy on the rate of circulation change. The news media industry is an under‐researched area of Internet scholarship. The study is significant on two counts: first, it estimates cross‐media synergies based on print and online interaction at an aggregated level; and second, it identifies different combinations of cross‐media exposure over individual media effects. It combines both print and online measures of circulation. Of most importance, the study is able to show that synergy is complementary and has had a positive effect on log circulation change by reducing it by a smaller number.

This paper suggests mobile ethnography as a method for data collection, where Generation Y customers are integrated as active investigators. The paper aims to contribute to the debate on museums as experience‐centred places, to understanding how the experience is perceived by Generation Y, to identifying the customer journey, to providing an insight into service experience consumption and to deriving managerial implication for the museum industry of how to approach Generation Y.

Mobile ethnography is applied to the National Museum of Australia in Canberra with a sample of Generation Y visitors as the future visitor market.

The paper finds that there is a need to involve museum management in measuring museum experiences, especially with regard to the definition and improvement of the service‐delivery processes. Service experience must be appropriately managed by museum operators by collecting, evaluating, storing and reusing relevant data on customer experience. Mobile ethnography and tools such as MyServiceFellow offer an important potential source of sustainable competitive advantage by improving customer experience, particularly for Gen Y.

The most significant limitation is the exploratory nature of the single case study derived from a small sample within only one museum.

This is one of the few studies to have addressed mobile ethnography in a service context and examined the museum experience of Generation Y. The paper finds that there is a need to involve museum management in service design to improve the service‐delivery process, especially with regard to the different mindsets of the Millennials.

This paper develops a theoretical perspective on gender and information technology (IT) by examining socio‐cultural influences on women who are members of the information technology profession in Australia and New Zealand. In‐depth interviews with both practitioners and academics give evidence of a range of socio‐cultural influences on the professional development and working lives of women IT professionals. The paper rejects the essentialist view of women and their relationship to IT that has been put forth in the information systems literature arguing, instead, the primacy of societal and structural influences. The particular contribution of this paper is a theoretical perspective of individual differences which is presented to characterize the way individual women respond in a range of specific ways to the interplay between individual characteristics and environmental influences. This perspective contributes to a better understanding of women’s involvement in the IT sector and suggests areas for proactive policy response.

This paper aims to present results of interviews with Australian students in junior, middle and senior secondary‐school. It also aims to provide a current insight into the declining diversity of the information technology (IT) student cohort that is not captured in the existing literature. Educational psychology theories of self‐efficacy shed light on the development of like and dislike towards aspects of IT, it also seeks to consider the career choice decision‐making theories and models to understand the cost‐benefit dimensions of career choice in young people in the twenty‐first century. Socio‐cultural factors that condition young women for their expected role in society also apply to career choice and build a theoretical framework for the research.

Qualitative research methodology of semi‐structured focus group interviews were conducted with students of both genders from three different year levels. The interviews were analysed using a meta matrix approach aligned with themes suggested in the literature.

This research found that IT rarely entered their schematic repertoire of possible future careers, a schematic repertoire strongly influenced by parental opinion and habitus at all stages of education. While it would appear that there is a deficit in student knowledge of what an IT career involves beyond that of the most stereotypical portrayal of a programmer, this deficit of knowledge is evident in both genders. While it would appear that there is a deficit in student knowledge of what an IT career involves beyond that of the most stereotypical portrayal of a programmer, this deficit of knowledge is evident in both genders. This research found a pattern of factors specific to Information Technology that encouraged some males to choose this career path and a pattern of inhibiting factors that had a stronger negative impact on young women than young men.

It is apparent from this study that the lack of women in IT is not necessarily a gender issue, but an issue embedded in the image of the IT discipline, an image of lower status than most other professional careers. It is apparent from this study that the lack of women in IT is not necessarily a gender issue, but an issue embedded in the image of the IT discipline, an image of lower status than most other professional careers.

A positive implication is that there is little differentiation between the genders in IT use, despite greater confidence in technical ability residing with males.

A lack of diversity in a workforce is detrimental to creativity and future design. IT professionals, industry and academics need to work together to engender greater interest in this discipline and increase their focus on parents of students.

This paper adds to current theory by suggesting that parents remain the primary influencers to student career and course choices. A second important contribution to current theory is the perpetuation of the poor image that students hold of the IT profession.