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The processing and storage capacity of microcomputers can now support sophisticated and powerful information retrieval systems, previously available only on larger mainframes. The characteristics of information retrieval software are discussed as are the performance capabilities of two software programs, SIRE and ZyINDEX.

Bristol City Council has received national and international recognition for its local e‐democracy work. This paper seeks to tell the story of three phases of development of local e‐democracy in Bristol. In summarising findings from the national evaluation of the Local E‐democracy Project, the paper also aims to consider stage four – where Bristol's e‐democracy programme is headed next.

Bristol acted as a lead authority on the evaluation of the Local E‐democracy National Project. This was a large multi‐method academic study, which set out to examine the aspirations and experiences of a variety of “actors” involved in more than 20 e‐democracy pilot projects across England. Professors Stephen Coleman of the Oxford Internet Institute and Ann Macintosh of the International Tele‐democracy Centre at Napier University undertook the evaluation, working with Bristol City Council as part of an E‐democracy Experts Group.

Findings from the national evaluation have been published in reports covering “top‐down” (authority‐led) and “ground‐up” (community‐led) approaches to local e‐democracy. This paper applies evaluation findings to Bristol City Council's experiences. It highlights how authorities can use e‐democracy to move between information sharing and consultation and then to creating space and conditions for ground‐up participation.

The paper focuses on common themes, rather than an in‐depth account of all of the national evaluation findings as they relate to each project that was considered. As a case study, this paper concerns the particular experiences of Bristol City Council.

The study offers insight aimed at local authority e‐democracy practitioners.

Over the past five years, Bristol City Council has accumulated considerable practical experience of local e‐democracy. The authority has benefited from a close association with leading academic experts, leaving it perhaps uniquely positioned to share learning from critical self‐reflection.

Reports that the use of new technology in English composition courses is making it easier to teach and to learn how to write, according to instructors and students at the University of Oregon. A new computerized writing classroom and extensive training of instructors in use of the classroom, plus electronic mail and the Internet, are having positive results. About 35 instructors and 750 students benefited from use of the new instructional methods and technology in 1996, according to Ann Alskaya, director of the university’s new Center for the Teaching of Writing. Eventually, the changes will affect all 4,000 freshman students who take English Composition at the UO. Later, the center will train faculty members outside the English department who want to incorporate technology and writing into their courses.

The paper seeks to demonstrate the use of a range of perspectives and methods to evaluate eParticipation initiatives. It aims to argue that there is a need for coherent evaluation frameworks employing such perspectives and methods, the better to understand current eParticipation applications and learn from these experiences.

A case study of eParticipation evaluation for four local authority led projects from the “top down” stream of the UK Local e‐Democracy National Project is presented.

Applying the eParticipation framework resulted in an assessment that was considered fair by participants. However, the framework needs further development. More consideration needs to be placed on how and when to use tools in which contexts, also, on how to combine tools to enable inclusive engagement. The evaluation timescale meant important aspects of the framework were downplayed.

Further research is needed in two main areas; first, on the applicability of eParticipation tools to particular contexts, and second, to integrate fieldwork methods to assess social acceptance of eParticipation and represent the diversity of views obtained from citizens, community groups and other stakeholders.

The paper describes the application of the framework, demonstrates the importance of a multi‐method approach, and outlines some barriers to using it.

The described framework is a basis for further development since eParticipation evaluation is in its infancy despite strong advocacy of evaluation in e‐government research and practice literature.

Reports on a conference held in 1989 in Wisconsin, which focused on the topic of providing better access to information for people with disabilities. According to the author, the conference concentrated mainly on those with vision‐related difficulties. Summarizes two of the speeches made at the conference and examines some of the technology on display. Stresses the need for adaptive technology to enable people with a disability to access the increasing amounts of computer technology in everyday life.

The University of Michigan's Information Technology Division, with the help of 21 corporate partners, created a city‐wide multivendor information network to support the EDUCOM'89 conference. This article discusses the origins of InfoNet; describes the system as the users experienced it; looks behind the scenes at how it was developed; and summarizes what was learned from creating the system on a tight timeline.

Cross-layer approach in media access control (MAC) layer will address interference and jamming problems. Hybrid distributed MAC can be used for simultaneous voice, data transmissions in wireless sensor network (WSN) and Internet of Things (IoT) applications. Choosing the correct objective function in Nash equilibrium for game theory will address fairness index and resource allocation to the nodes. Game theory optimization for distributed may increase the network performance. The purpose of this study is to survey the various operations that can be carried out using distributive and adaptive MAC protocol. Hill climbing distributed MAC does not need a central coordination system and location-based transmission with neighbor awareness reduces transmission power.

Distributed MAC in wireless networks is used to address the challenges like network lifetime, reduced energy consumption and for improving delay performance. In this paper, a survey is made on various cooperative communications in MAC protocols, optimization techniques used to improve MAC performance in various applications and mathematical approaches involved in game theory optimization for MAC protocol.

Spatial reuse of channel improved by 3%–29%, and multichannel improves throughput by 8% using distributed MAC protocol. Nash equilibrium is found to perform well, which focuses on energy utility in the network by individual players. Fuzzy logic improves channel selection by 17% and secondary users’ involvement by 8%. Cross-layer approach in MAC layer will address interference and jamming problems. Hybrid distributed MAC can be used for simultaneous voice, data transmissions in WSN and IoT applications. Cross-layer and cooperative communication give energy savings of 27% and reduces hop distance by 4.7%. Choosing the correct objective function in Nash equilibrium for game theory will address fairness index and resource allocation to the nodes.

Other optimization techniques can be applied for WSN to analyze the performance.

Game theory optimization for distributed may increase the network performance. Optimal cuckoo search improves throughput by 90% and reduces delay by 91%. Stochastic approaches detect 80% attacks even in 90% malicious nodes.

Channel allocations in centralized or static manner must be based on traffic demands whether dynamic traffic or fluctuated traffic. Usage of multimedia devices also increased which in turn increased the demand for high throughput. Cochannel interference keep on changing or mitigations occur which can be handled by proper resource allocations. Network survival is by efficient usage of valid patis in the network by avoiding transmission failures and time slots’ effective usage.

Literature survey is carried out to find the methods which give better performance.