Department of International and European Studies

Blogs are becoming a major source of communication, a good
way of circulating new ideas, producing a well-informed
public and helping people's participation in political processes.
This paper studies how two recent political events about
the Pan-Hellenic Socialist Movement, are discussed through
blogs. It uses Social Networking Theory and Statistical
Analysis to examine whether political polarization is reproduced
in blogging, for the Greek case. The paper also considers
how different political events have a different impact on the
polarization of bloggers' political communication. Findings
suggest that polarization is reflected in blogs’ conversational
patterns. Debate events are associated with more polarized
social networks of blogs.

Blogs have the advantage of speedy publication and an advantage in socially constructing interpretive frames for understanding current events. Blogs appear to play an increasingly important role as a forum of public debate, with knockon consequences for the media and for politics. In Greece where the ratio of internet users is relatively small there is however an expanding portion of bloggers who comment regularly and have the power to a certain degree and in certain
circumstances to trigger off political movements. Based on the relative literature, the paper locates Greek political blogs and provides indicators of their popularity and interconnections. As a case study, the paper considers the recent debate that took
place on the Web relatively to the election of PASOK’s new President. Pan-Hellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK) (one of the two major parties in Greece) was defeated on the national election of September 16 2007, and this defeat brought up a major leadership crisis. Election for a new leader was held on November 11 2007. The paper examines the posts of blogs that were pros or cons the two main candidates for presidency for the period from September 16 to November 13. Using social networking theory and statistical analysis, it presents and measures blogs’ connectivity, conversational patterns and variations over time. It examines the skewdeness of incoming blog links and finds the core blog groups that serve as focal
points for political bloggers. The paper adds to the study of political blogs by reporting patterns of blogging and making one of the few contributions to the study of political blogging in Greece.

One of the primary objectives of governments currently, is to improve the services rendered to citizens and to this end, governments invest in eGovernance services. However citizens’ are not fully engaged in available eGovernance services. Moreover Greece falls back in adoption of eGovernance with regards to other EU countries. The degree to which governments invest in electronic services is based on their understanding of what citizens need and without taking into consideration the factors that increase the willingness of citizens to adopt eGovernment services. The purpose of this paper is to investigate factors influencing eGovernance acceptance in the field of education as teachers represent a percentage of 40.69% of the permanent civil servants. The Greek educational system is centralized and is characterized by intense bureaucracy, strict hierarchical structures, extensive legislation and formalism. Previous studies have shown that bureaucracy in an organization strongly affects adoption of eGovernance. The study analyzes the impact of trust and risk
perceptions and user satisfaction on the intention of teachers to continue using an educational eGovernance website. Trust in eGovernance websites consists of disposition to trust, trust to Internet and trust in government. Primary and secondary education teachers responded to an online survey resulting to 230 questionnaires. LISREL is used to analyze the data. Model estimation is done using the maximum likelihood approach, with the item covariance matrix used as input. A SEM validation of the proposed model reveals that that trust, perceived
risk and satisfaction are key research constructs influencing directly or indirectly intention to continue using eGovernance websites. Although a limited number of factors that influence eGovernance websites adoption by teachers were identified, the study could help policy makers in the public sector to develop and implement new eGovernance plans.

It is essential for hotel companies to evaluate and improve website performance in order to keep and increase their online presence and competitiveness in the marketplace. This article proposes an evaluation framework for hotel websites, which categorizes web information services into six information dimensions and also uses managers’ and users’ views. Based on the relative literature, the model proposes some improvements, taking into account certain aspects of the evaluation
procedure. An application compares the performance of the top 25 hotel brand websites with the Greek hotel websites. Top hotels lead in Facilities, Guest contact, Reservation/prices, and Surrounding area information provision, while Greek hotel websites fall back especially in providing online reservation and prices information.

This paper describes a quantitative method of measurement and evaluation of the information provided by hotel websites. It aims to measure the richness of specific and comprehensive information dimensions, which as a whole constitute the information services offered through the web. Data from
an extended web search along with responses of hotel managers regarding the importance of the offered information services are used. A conceptual model that describes the hotel web sites information features is used in order to summarize the data and to present the overall information volume offered. The applied model combines seven data dimensions: facilities information, customer contact information, reservation and prices information, surrounding area information, management
of the web site, company information and communication. Hotel managers’ perceptions are used to weight the relative importance of both the information services and the seven dimensions. We apply the model to Greek hotel web sites. Greek hotels make small use of their websites potential. They are rated low level with respect to crucial dimensions such as reservation and prices information, medium regarding facilities and customer contact information. The overall volume of offered information only reaches the one third of its top rating score.

The uniqueness of the web lies in its interactivity. Interactivity refers to the reciprocity provided by a site during the process of using it and it has been positioned conceptually as a process, a function and a perception. Implemented appropriately may affect the success or failure of commercial websites. Perceived interactivity should be based on consumers’ actual interactions with the stimulus and
means that consumers have perceived control over information and communication flow. Expected interactivity is the extent of interactivity that a person expects to experience during a prospective interaction with a medium. The paper explores the differentiations between consumers’ expected interactivity towards the web, and their perceived interactivity of hotel websites. The top25 hotel websites are used for the analysis. A group of users rate both expected interactivity towards the web
and perceived interactivity of the hotel websites. Recently developed scales of perceived interactivity are used, which emphasize response time, communication, control, responsiveness and personalization issues. A comparison of expected with perceived interactivity is performed. The
findings indicate that the hotel web sites are informative and perform fast but they provide less control than expected, while provide primarily one-way and no concurrent communication.

Internet has tremendous potential for creating business opportunities. Travel agencies should take advantage of the Internet and refocus their business strategies to maintain their competitiveness in order to avoid being replaced. The purpose of this study is to explore agents’ attitudes towards Internet applications and also to find out the current state of Internet use and the relative maturity of the websites among travel agencies in Greece. An on-line survey addressed to all tourism agencies
which are members of Official Greek web directories, provides the attitudes of travel agents. The findings of the study indicate that Greek travel agencies consider Internet as a means to expand and
complete online business, keep up with competition, and do more effective marketing. However security issues and lack of interpersonal communication are the main barriers for Internet adoption. Findings suggest that the current delay regarding full use of Internet adoption will probably last for at
least the near future.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to adopt a total view on the issue of usage and attitude of travel agents towards internet technology. Many aspects are being investigated, such as agents' attitudes towards internet applications, the current state of internet use, the relative maturity of the web sites, and internet marketing by Greek tourist agencies.

Design/methodology/approach – An online survey was conducted. Greek Travel Pages (GTP), notified travel agents via e-mail sent about the online questionnaire web site. Travel agents willing to participate visited a tailor made web site replied to the questionnaire and the data were recorded to a database. A total of 117 questionnaires were answered. The questionnaire used included five sections and questions were adopted from previous researches.

Findings – Facilitation of global marketing and completion of online services are the most important reasons for using internet practices according to tourism agents. Travel agencies generally do not use internet practices effectively as a relatively small number of transactions are completed on line. The web pages are merely used as another means to exhibit their static information. Security difficulties and the need for social interaction are the main barriers to marketing over the internet

Research limitations/implications – This is an exploratory study addressed to agents on-line. Further research and studies are needed by a broader range of travel agencies

Practical implications – Provides suggestions for good practices to tourism agents along with an understanding of their attitudes on internet use

Originality/value – Enables travel agents to recognize the pros and cons of using internet and to make technology an essential part of the company.

Education service quality, even though it has become a major issue in higher education worldwide, in Greece it has gained attention only in the last few years. The paper analyzes how students and staff shape opinion about quality of education in a HE institute in Greece. This is one of the few analyses of the perceptions about quality of educational services, viewed both by students and staff of Higher Education Institute in Greece. The study uses the SERVQUAL instrument, adjusted in the educational context. It finds the gaps within students’ and staff’s attitudes and reveals possible differences between students’ and staff’s views. Gaps exist among some students’ attitudes regarding perceived and expected quality. Staff presents greater gaps than students in every SERVQUAL dimension. Although staff’s scores about perceived and expected quality differentiate significantly from students’ scores, no statistically significant difference exists regarding the final SERVQUAL scores. The SERVQUAL instrument presents high reliability indices, however its validity is questioned. The issue has important strategic and managerial implications because it relates to the ability of the institution to bridge staff’s and student’s attitudes. Although SERVQUAL presents some limitations regarding applicability it still may be used as a complementary research instrument for assessing service quality. In the educational context SERVQUAL can be used to reveal differentiation among views of the key stakeholders, such as students and staff. Managers should take steps to ensure that both parts form a realistic view of the educational process.

Blogs are considered to be powerful and have great political influence. Political blogs have a potential to shape politics, political discourse and political participation. The paper studies how two recent political events about Pan!Hellenic Socialist Movement, are discussed  through blogs.  It uses Social Networking Theory and Multivariate  Statistical Analysis  to examine whether political polarization  is  reproduced  in blogging,  for  the  Greek  case.  The  paper  also  considers  how  different  political  events  have  different impact  on  polarization  of  bloggers’  political  communication.  Findings  suggest  that  polarization  is
reflected  to  blogs’  conversational  patterns.  Debate  events  are  associated with more  polarized  social networks of blogs.

Based on previous research and experience on the study of WEB2.0 applications, this book provides a broad introduction to WEB2.0 application, blogging and political blogging. Several methodologies for studying blogs communication patterns through the study of blogs links are presented. After presenting a wide literature review, the book presents and explains how a hyperlink analysis of blogs can be made. Techniques derived from Social Networking Theory and Multivariate Statistics are presented and applied in a case study regarding Greek political blogs. The study analyses connectivity patterns of Greek political blogs using Social Networking Analysis of the blogs and identifies focal conversational points. This book offers both bibliographical information and a set of methodological tools for those interested in studying blogging and communication patterns between blogs.

Table of Contents:
INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER 1: WEB 2.0 APPLICATIONS

CHAPTER 2: BLOGS

CHAPTER 3: ANALYSIS OF BLOGS COMMUNICATIONS PATTERNS

CHAPTER 4: A SOCIAL NETWORKING THEORY APPROACH

CHAPTER 5: EXPLORING BLOGS COMMUNICATION PATTERNS

CONCLUSION

REFERENCES

Series:
Media and Communications - Technologies, Policies and Challenges
Binding: Softcover
Pub. Date: 2010 4th quarter
Pages: 6 x 9
ISBN: 978-1-61728-922-4

Blogs provide an easy way for an average person to publish material online sharing in this way a huge
amount of knowledge. Travel and tourism blogs provide a new way of sharing tour experiences with an
international audience and act as virtual forms of networking among travelers. TravelPod.com is the most
popular travel blog. The paper aims at exploring whether Thravelpod.com is indeed an example of social
network application. In other words the paper explores whether current top application with regards to travel
communities, make use of the features that Web2.0 offers, or whether they are just a collection of travelers
websites with limited either “social” or “networking” characteristics. Graph theory indexes are used to
investigate linkage patterns among travelers participating in Travelpod.com.

Purpose – The paper, using Travelpod.com, aims to provide a
methodology to locate central groups of travelers and to describe pattern characteristics of central travelers.
Design/methodology/approach – The paper uses snowball sampling to locate travelers and analyze their hyperlinks interconnections to identify central travelers’ groups. Analysis of the adjacency matrix of the social network of travelers using Multidimensional Scaling and Hierarchical Cluster Analysis to identify core travelers’ groups follows.
Findings – Seven % of travelers are considered as central travelers. They form core groups containing the most active and information providing travelers. Group membership is correlated with common travelers’ characteristics.
Research limitations/implications – Research is limited to a
specific network of travelers, to a specific time interval, and to a specific sampling method. Repetition of the study in other travelers’ networks in several time instances using a full list of member travelers would help to generalize findings. Also other graph theoretic approaches, besides the statistical analysis used, could reveal more properties.
Practical implications – Travelers in core groups are more likely to be reached by others who navigate through a series of incoming links that lead to  them and it is probable that these travelers have the potential to address many visitors and therefore to have a significant impact on the provision of information.
Originality/value – The originality of the paper lies on the use of multivariate statistics on the network adjacency matrix to locate core travelers groups and on finding groups of the most influential travelers.
Keywords travel blogs, communication patterns, social network, central travelers’ groups, clusters
Paper type Research paper

Blogging in the wine industry is widespread. There are blogs sharing the passion for wine, blogs
providing wine news, blogs about the review and consumption of wine, blogs that rate wine, wineries’,
marketers’ and retailers’ blogs, wine travel blogs and blogs that deal with the business of wine. The objective of
the present paper is to establish the Top 100 Wine Blogs and to locate the central groups of wine-bloggers, using
the Wine Blog Searching Engine. Central groups of blogs serve as focal conversational points where probably
the interesting conversation and information provision is taking place. Next, the paper describes features of
these blogs. It attempts in this way to investigate what are the characteristics that distinguish these blogs and
make them to be appreciated and be considered worth visiting.

Blogs are an effective way to participate in politics and have the potential to support eParticipation. Political discourse is formed through hypertext links, blogrolls, posts and opinionated commentary, calls to political action, and requests for feedback. The paper applies a methodology to locate focal conversational points within the blogosphere. These take shape as
central clusters of blogs having many incoming links. Next, the paper investigates the communication patterns among these focal points and associates the findings to the content of
blogs participating in these focal points. Through statistical analysis and content analysis it is shown that linkage patterns among focal point blogs are reproduced to content similarities.

This paper investigates the properties of central or core political blogs. They can be located as clusters of blogs whose members have many incoming links. Other blogs form clouds around them in the sense that they link the core blogs. A case study records Greek political blogs and their incoming links reported through their blogrolls. The adjacency matrix from the blogs’ social network is analyzed and clusters are located. Three of them, those with the larger numbers of incoming links, may be considered to be central. Next, four measures of influence are used to test the influence of the central blogs. The findings suggest that there are many kinds of central blogs, influential and non-influential, and high influence does not always involve high hyperlinking.