Steve Sawyer, associate professor of information
sciences and technology, has done research into the
effects of communications technology on the real estate industry.
Photo: Greg Grieco
By Barbara Hale
Public Information
Realtors' tight control over residential real estate sales have been weakened by the posting of houses for sale on the Internet but the average home buyer or seller probably still needs an agent as a guide and hand-holder to get through the sale process, according to a Penn State researcher.
Steve Sawyer, associate professor of information sciences and technology and associate professor of management science, is a principal author of a recent study on the effects of new information and communications technology on the real estate industry.
"Real estate agents' traditional role as an information intermediary is being contested. Until recently, the only way a potential buyer could easily identify houses for sale was by working with an agent who could search the multiple listing service (MLS). This database was an important resource and source of power for the agent and, therefore, closely held. However, for many regions, MLS data are now publicly available on the Web," he said.
Sawyer, who joined the Penn State School of Information Sciences and Technology faculty this summer and was a faculty member at Syracuse University when the study was conducted, worked with Kevin Crowston and Rolf Wigand of the Syracuse University School of Information Studies.
The researchers also observed that since the Internet was undermining real estate agents' power, they were increasingly becoming guides in the sale process.
"The legal, as well as financial, implications embedded in the sale process are not always clear and agents and brokerages are still trying to define and specify these changes. Since most buyers and sellers participate in the sale process infrequently, real estate agents are increasingly guides and hand-holders -- and it appears that the real estate business still needs this support to run smoothly." Sawyer said.
"Basically, buyers and sellers consider a home sale or purchase a major investment and are risk-averse. They want someone around to make sure something doesn't get messed up," he said.
While some information and communication technology changes have negatively impacted the industry, the researchers also found that real estate agents could use them to enhance their social network of buyers, sellers, banks, lawyers and other service providers. For example, agents can use voice mail, pagers and cell phones to develop their social network and get more listings via acquaintances and be able to point prospective clients to value-adding service providers such as lawyers and lenders.
In addition, agents are increasingly being expected by prospective sellers to provide a Web presence for their listing. Those who can do so provide an added service and strengthen their client ties.
On the other hand, agents who used new information technologies to buffer themselves from their social network by not returning calls, not checking and responding to e-mail and not maintaining a current Web site, weakened their social relations and decreased their value to buyers and sellers.
Colleges,
especially the elite schools, not only serve as citadels of higher learning
but also as socializing institutions which pass on cultural advantages from
one privileged generation to the next.
"The college's formal curriculum is thought to promote intellectual, ethical, psychological and moral development," said Daniel B. Lee, assistant professor of sociology at Penn State DuBois. "In addition to these areas of growth, however, students also may acquire social skills and valuable networks that will effectively increase their chances of joining or remaining in the highest social stratum. Accumulating cultural capital and making personal contacts may be the most important part of the college curriculum."
Lee's research is a case study of an elite institution, Dartmouth College, and its unique traditions, rituals and symbols that are shared by students, faculty and administrators. Lee taught at Dartmouth for two years, during which time he was a participant-observer of its culture.
For the full story, check the Web at http://www.psu.edu/ur/NEWS/news/collegeculture.html.
Six million Americans over the age of 60 and up to 22 percent of those over 50 (numbers that will increase as baby boomers age), are affected by a "silent illness" -- dysphagia, or problems in swallowing.
For those afflicted there is no one medical specialist to turn to. Diagnosis and treatment may require the services of radiologists, gastroenterologists, ear-nose-throat specialists, or speech language pathologists.
"Swallowing disorders are often not noticed by the general public, because people with dysphagia do not eat in public; therefore we call this a silent illness," said James Brasseur, professor of mechanical engineering at Penn State. "When you think of the amount of socializing that you do around food, you begin to appreciate the implications of dysphagia on one's personal life."
Dysphagia can result in common ailments such as heartburn caused by acid reflux or failure to pass food through a dysfunctional esophagus, or more life-threatening problems such as chronic aspiration of food into the lungs or malnutrition.
Brasseur, president of the Dysphagia Research Society, is involved in research to uncover the mechanics behind swallowing. Recent mechanics-based research by Brasseur's group at Penn State has shown, contrary to standard medical understanding, that the transport of food down the esophagus is not one single continuous movement, but involves instead two basic contraction waves in the upper and lower esophagus. These separate contraction waves are apparently coordinated by the central and enteric nervous system, and when the two waves become seriously discoordinated food and pills are retained in the mid esophagus.
"Once the recognition of two waves and related details are understood by the average clinician, the search for discoordination in wave patterns using somewhat more sophisticated technology than is standard today will become part of routine clinical examination of the esophagus," Brasseur said.
Brasseur recently helped to organize an international medical conference in Virginia for the Dysphagia Research Society, with the purpose of narrowing the gap between basic research and clinical practice.