Contributions in Merlin

Die ökonomische Analyse des Glücks anerkennt, dass wirtschaftliche Aktivität kein Selbstzweck ist, sondern nur insoweit von Wert, als sie zur Wohlfahrt des Menschen beiträgt. Dabei wird die individuelle Wohlfahrt näherungsweise über Befragungen zum subjektiven Wohlbefinden gemessen. Darauf aufbauend lässt sich empirisch untersuchen, inwiefern wirtschaftliche Bedingungen und institutionelle Faktoren das individuelle Wohlbefinden beeinflussen. Die Arbeit skizziert die Grundzüge des neuen Ansatzes und präsentiert zwei Anwendungen. Die erste nimmt die Grundidee eines relativen Nutzenkonzepts auf und illustriert sie anhand des Verhältnisses zwischen Einkommen und Glück. Die zweite stellt den Lebenszufriedenheitsansatz als ein neues Instrument vor, um die individuelle Wohlfahrt im Kontext der Kosten-Nutzen-Analyse zu untersuchen. Abschliessend wird der Frage nach einer das Glück maximierenden Politik nachgegangen.

This thesis compares various open-source learning management systems on their functionality in relation to a glossary. The picture of an ,,optimal glossary`` gets created. An analysis of usable standards for storing a glossary shows that a new format needs to be defined. The glossary in OLAT (Learning Management System at the University of Zurich) will be enhanced in glossary-functionality and be connected to a morphological service.

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In this bachelor thesis, the terrain rendering system named RASTeR developped by the Vi- sualization and MultiMedia Lab (VMML) of the University of Zurich has to be extended to be able to manage different datasets in one planetary coordinate system. Furthermore, the existing presentation of the terrain on a plane has to be changed to a presentation on a globe, so that the earth can be seen in its natural form. In addition, the existing GUI should be ported from GLUT to Qt and extended by a overflight-mode. The result, an extended implementation of RASTeR, is able to manage numerous datasets at the same time. This is possible because high-resolution tiles can be, when required, connected to a basetree at run-time. The GUI has been successfully ported to Qt and extended by the requested functionality, as well as the data is now presented on a globe. However, the transitions between different tiles are visible and the selection of the appropriate level of detail doesn’t work adequately, which causes sometimes a laggy, sometimes a blurry representation of the terrain. The existing implementation didn’t allow to just extend it to the new behaviour; a big part of the application should have been rebuilt to meet the new requierments. However, it was not possible to completely achieve this within the limits of this thesis.

Mobile Communities are a rather new research area and are not established jet. At the beginning of these paper the differences between virtual and mobile communities are discussed and the resulting challenged for mobile communities. Personalisation in the mobile setting has to consider the location too, not only the factors known from the internet. In the second part a field study in the old town of Zurich showes that tourist videos can support a visit. The travellers said that the videos did not disturb from the sights, actually the videos supported the experience. Not all footages were rated as helpful, there were differences between the people and personalisation is needed. The results of the study point to a promising future for video based traveller guides.

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The main objective of this thesis is the research of new critical success factors for large custom software development projects in an offshore model. Focus is a Global delivery approach from a vendorís perspective. Problem areas are identified from a case study of a corresponding project and compared to critical success factors known from literature. Based on these consolidated findings an elaboration of a set of new critical success factors, especially valid for analogical projects, is performed. Where adequate, a testing method used as an early indicator, is propagated. These new critical success factors would positively influence the control of similar projects.

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