bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Ambient Media and Home Entertainment
Authors: Lugmayr Artur , Pohl Alexandra , Müehhäueser Max , Kallenbach Jan , Chorianopoulos Konstantinos
Published: May 2011

Media are “[media] means effecting or conveying something such as (1) a surrounding or enveloping substance; or (2) a condition or environment in which something may function or flourish; or (3) mode of artistic expression or communication.”(Merriam-Webster, n.d.) In the case of ambient media, the humans’ natural environment becomes to the “enveloping media” as an environment in which content functions. This work therefore deals with the development of ambient media, far beyond seeing TV as a major entertainment platform in consumers’ homes. To satisfy the entertainment-hungry consumer, more and more advanced home entertainment (HE) systems and facilities are required to provide interactive and smart leisure content. This chapter glimpses the future of modern ambient HE systems. Experts in the field of ambient media discuss and contribute to four major lines of the future development of ambient media: (1) social implications, (2) converging media, (3) consumer content, and (4) smart devices.
Pervasive Healthcare
Authors: Boye Niels
Published: May 2011

Pervasive healthcare is a vision for the future of healthcare. Healthcare provisions can be delivered with high quality at low cost along with higher patient-experienced quality and satisfaction as a service on top of a pervasive computing infrastructure, which can be built by integrating communicating computer-power into industrial products and fixed structures in urban and rural spaces. For pervasive healthcare, integration with on body networks sensors and actuators may also be needed. This chapter discusses the prerequisites of this vision from a point of a healthcare professional. A number of parallel advances in concepts have to take place before pervasive healthcare (PH) is matured into a general method for delivering healthcare provisions. The contemporary, most widespread model of healthcare provisions as industrial products with consumer-goods characteristics has to mature into the concepts of welfare economics. New market models have to be developed for PH to pervade society and add value to the health aspects of an individual’s life. Ethical and legal aspects must also be further matured. Maturation of technology is needed. This includes all the components of the “pervasive loop” from sensors to the central intelligence back to the actuators. The “virtual patient/healthy human” as an operational digital representation of the “object/subject of care” also has to be developed. Pervasive healthcare (or the European Union term: ambient assisted living) is a promising field, that has potential to integrate health considerations and health promoting activities for patients and non-patients in their everyday conduct and provide added value to life quality for individuals.
Identity Management for Wireless Service Access
Authors: Chowdhury Mohammad M.R. , Noll Josef
Published: May 2011

In a digital home a so-called multi-play system integrates networked entertainment and communications systems. Using a mobile phone, all those services can be controlled and used ubiquitously—from everywhere, at any time. Not much research has been conducted in the field of integrated communication offers. The novelty of this study is in that it addresses the ubiquitous communication system, called the multi-play service, from the perspectives of both the customer preference and operator strategy and transforms this into valuation of resources and capabilities. This chapter provides a framework to connect the customer value preferences to firm resources. The aim of the framework is to connect customer and resource-based strategies together. As a result of the analysis the authors reveal the most important resources in contrast to the customer value preferences.
An Empirical Study of Factors Affecting RFID's Adoption in Taiwan
Authors: Shih Dong-Her , Chiu Yuh-Wen , Chang She-I , C. Yen David
Published: May 2011

RFID ticketing systems constitute a particular type of pervasive information systems providing spectators of sports events with a transparent mechanism to validate and renew tickets. This study seeks to investigate the factors that influence user acceptance of RFID ticketing systems. The theoretical background of the study was drawn from the technology acceptance model (TAM) and the innovation diffusion theory (IDT), and enhanced with factors related to privacy and switching cost features. The research model was tested with data gathered through a lab experiment (N=71). The participants perceived the system as useful and easy to use, and expressed the willingness to adopt it should it become commercially available. Moreover, the results of ANOVA tests suggest that the age and education of users influence their perception towards the usefulness of the system and its subsequent use.
Impact of RFID Technology on Health Care Organizations
Authors: Nabelsi Véronique , Stefanescu Florina
Published: May 2011

RFID technologies represent a common standard for data storage and retrieval that could improve collaboration and data sharing between noncompeting organizations. With the advent of RFID (radio frequency identification), organizations have the opportunity to rethink how their organization will be. Unlike companies in the United States and Europe which are mandated by large retailers or government departments, most Taiwan companies are investing in RFID without pressure. The article explores the factor affecting radio frequency identification adoption applications in Taiwan. Its objective is to summarize the ways in which organizations are thinking about their possible uses in a wide variety of companies and industries. An empirical investigation (n=134) found seven factors affecting RFID adoption within Taiwan. They are operation efficiency, manufacturing efficiency and supply chain efficiency, organization context, investment cost, market environment, and technology characteristic. By providing insight into these important factors, this article can help further understanding of their role in the adoption and use of RFID. The theoretical and practical implications of these results are discussed.
The Ethical Debate Surrounding RFID
Authors: Etter Stephanie , Phillips Patricia G. , Molinero Ashli M. , Nestor Susan J. , LeDonne Keith
Published: May 2011

Radio frequency identification (RFID) is a generic term that is used to describe a system that transmits the identity of an object or person wirelessly using radio waves (RFID Journal, 2005). It falls under the broad category of automatic identification technologies. RFID tags, in the simplest of terms, are “intelligent chips that can be embedded in or attached to a product to transmit descriptive data” (Gelinas, Sutton, & Fedorowicz, 2004, p. 6). According to the online RFID Journal (2005), there are several methods of identifying objects using RFID, including the most common of storing a serial number that identifies a product on a microchip that is attached to an RFID tag. RFID is not a new technology, but it has only recently been in the spotlight as more businesses are receiving press for putting the technology to work in their supply chains. RFID tag technology is sometimes associated with the term electronic product code (EPC). An EPC uniquely identifies objects in a supply chain. According to EPCGlobal, “EPC is divided into numbers that identify the manufacturer and product type. The EPC uses an extra set of digits, a serial number, to identify unique items.” The EPC number is placed on a tag composed of a silicon chip and an antenna, which is then attached to an item. Using RFID, a tag communicates its numberto a reader (EPCGlobal, 2005). In broad terms, RFID tags are placed into one of two categories: active or passive. According to the Association for Automatic Identification and Mobility (AIM, 2005), active RFID tags are powered by an internal battery and are typically designated as read-write tags. When a tag has read-write capabilities, the tag data can be modified. Passive tags, according to AIM, operate without a power source and obtain operating power from the tag reader. Passive tags are typically read-only tags, having only read-only memory. Active tags generally have a longer read range than passive tags.
From E to U
Authors: Angelopoulos Spyros P , Kitsios Fotis C. , Babulak Eduard
Published: May 2011

Telecommunications and Internet Technologies have evolved dramatically during the last decade, laying a solid foundation for the future generation of Ubiquitous Internet access, omnipresent Web technologies and ultimate automated information cyberspace. Ubiquitous computing has been investigated since 1993. As a result, current efforts in research and development in the areas of Next Generation Internet and Telecommunications Technologies promote the formation of inter-disciplinary international teams of experts, scentists, researchers and engineers to create a new generation of applications and technologies that will facilitate the fully-automated information cyberspace systems, such as Future House 2015. The authors discuss the current state-of-the-art in the world of Telecommunications and Internet Technologies, new technological trends in the Internet and Automation Industries, Emanufacturing, Ubiquity, Convergence, as well as the concept of the Fully-automated Future House 2015, the 2006 Web Report with the Microsoft project on Easy Living, while promoting research and development in the interdisciplinary projects conducted by multinational teams world-wide.
Revisiting the Impact of Information Technology Investments on Productivity
Authors: Ko Myung , Clark Jan Guynes , Ko Daijin
Published: May 2011

This article revisits the relationship between IT and productivity, and investigates the impact on information technology (IT) investments. Using the MARS techniques, we show that although IT Stock is the greatest predictor variable for productivity (Value Added), it is only significant as an interaction variable, combined with Non-IT Capital, Non-IT Labor, Industry, or Size.
Designing Reputation and Trust Management Systems
Authors: Beck Roman , Franke Jochen
Published: May 2011

This article analyzes the handling of customer complaints after shipping ordered goods by applying automated reputation and trust accounts as decision support. Customer complaints are cost intensive and difficult to standardize. A game theory based analysis of the process yields insights into unfavorable interactions between both business partners. Trust and reputation mechanisms have been found useful in addressing these types of interactions. A reputation and trust management system (RTMS) is proposed based on design theory guidelines as an IS artifact to prevent customers from issuing false complaints. A generic simulation setting for analysis of the mechanism is presented to evaluate the applicability of the RTMS. The findings suggest that the RTMS performs best in market environments where transaction frequency is high, individual complaint-handling costs are high compared to product revenues, and the market has a high fraction of potentially cheating customers.
Mining E-Mail Messages
Authors: van der Aalst Wil M.P. , Nikolov Andriy
Published: May 2011

Increasingly information systems log historic information in a systematic way. Workflow management systems, but also ERP, CRM, SCM, and B2B systems often provide a so-called “event log’’, i.e., a log recording the execution of activities. Thus far, process mining has been mainly focusing on structured event logs resulting in powerful analysis techniques and tools for discovering process, control, data, organizational, and social structures from event logs. Unfortunately, many work processes are not supported by systems providing structured logs. Instead very basic tools such as text editors, spreadsheets, and e-mail are used. This paper explores the application of process mining to e-mail, i.e., unstructured or semi-structured e-mail messages are converted into event logs suitable for application of process mining tools. This paper presents the tool EMailAnalyzer, embedded in the ProM process mining framework, which analyzes and transforms e-mail messages to a format that allows for analysis using our process mining techniques. The main innovative aspect of this work is that, unlike most other work in this area, our analysis is not restricted to social network analysis. Based on e-mail logs we can also discover interaction patterns and processes.
A Strategic Framework for Managing Failure in JIT Supply Chains
Authors: Balakrishnan Jaydeep , Bowen Frances
Published: May 2011

Supply chains can be disrupted at both local and global levels. Just-In-Time (JIT) companies should be particularly interested in managing supply chain failure risk as they often have very little inventory to buffer themselves when their upstream supply chain fails. We develop previous research further and present a strategic framework to manage supply chain failure in JIT supply chains. We identify two dimensions along which the risks of failure can be categorized: location and unpredictability. We go on to identify strategies which companies can use either before (proactive) or after (reactive) the failure to manage supply chain failure. We support our framework with examples of actual responses to supply chain failures in JIT companies. It is also hoped that our strategic framework will be validated empirically in the future leading to specific guidance for managers.
A Review of Fuzzy Models for the Semantic Web
Authors: Wang Hailong , Ma Zongmin , Yan Li , Cheng Jingwei
Published: May 2011

In the Semantic Web context, information would be retrieved, processed, shared, reused and aligned in the maximum automatic way possible. Our experience with such applications in the Semantic Web has shown that these are rarely a matter of true or false but rather procedures that require degrees of relatedness, similarity, or ranking. Apart from the wealth of applications that are inherently imprecise, information itself is many times imprecise or vague. In order to be able to represent and reason with such type of information in the Semantic Web, different general approaches for extending semantic web languages with the ability to represent imprecision and uncertainty has been explored. In this chapter, we focus our attention on fuzzy extension approaches which are based on fuzzy set theory. We review the existing proposals for extending the theoretical counterpart of the semantic web languages, description logics (DLs), and the languages themselves. The following statements will include the expressive power of the fuzzy DLs formalism and its syntax and semantic, knowledge base, the decidability of the tableaux algorithm and its computational complexity etc. Also the fuzzy extension to OWL is discussed in this chapter.
Tips for Tracking Web Information Seeking Behavior
Authors: Detlor Brian , Hupfer Maureen , Ruhi Umar
Published: May 2011

This chapter provides various tips for practitioners and researchers who wish to track end-user Web information seeking behavior. These tips are derived in large part from the authors’ own experience of collecting and analyzing individual differences, task, and Web tracking data to investigate people’s online information seeking behaviors at a specific municipal community portal site (myhamilton.ca). The tips discussed in this chapter include: (1) the need to account for both task and individual differences in any Web information seeking behavior analysis; (2) how to collect Web metrics through deployment of a unique ID that links individual differences, task, and Web tracking data together; (3) the types of Web log metrics to collect; (4) how to go about collecting and making sense of such metrics; and (5) the importance of addressing privacy concerns at the start of any collection of Web tracking information.
Migrating Web Services in Mobile and Wireless Environments
Authors: Park Myung-Woo , Kim Yeon-Seok , Lee Kyong-Ho
Published: May 2011

Mobile devices enabled with Web services are being considered as equal participants of the Web services environment. The frequent mobility of devices and the intermittent disconnection of wireless network require migrating or replicating Web services onto adjacent devices appropriately. This article proposes an efficient method for migrating and replicating Web services among mobile devices through code splitting. Specifically, the proposed method splits the source code of a Web service into subcodes based on users’ preferences for its constituent operations. The subcode with a higher preference is migrated earlier than others. The proposed method also replicates a Web service to other devices to enhance its performance by considering context information such as network traffic or the parameter size of its operations. To evaluate the performance of the proposed method, the effect of the code splitting on migration was analyzed. Furthermore, to show the feasibility of the proposed migration method, three application scenarios were devised and implemented.
Generating Join Queries for Large Databases and Web Services
Authors: Bagui Sikha , Loggins Adam
Published: May 2011

In this data-centric world, as Web services and service oriented architectures gain momentum and become a standard for data usage, there will be a need for tools to automate data retrieval. In this article the authors propose a tool that automates the generation of joins in a transparent and integrated fashion in heterogeneous large databases as well as Web services. This tool reads metadata information and automatically displays a join path and a SQL join query. This tool will be extremely useful for performing joins to help in the retrieval of information in large databases as well as Web services.
A Strategic Framework for Integrating Web 2.0 into the Marketing Mix
Authors: Bryant Samantha C.
Published: May 2011

Marketing strategy set by the marketing mix has remained fundamentally the same through years of other business disciplines being significantly disrupted by emerging technologies. Emerging Web 2.0 technologies such as wikis, blogs, YouTube, and virtual worlds are not only affecting how companies tactically approach marketing, but also their marketing strategies. This chapter will explore the impact of Web 2.0 technologies on marketing and brand management and how companies can leverage these technologies to strengthen relationships between their brands and consumers through a Web 2.0 marketing mix. This new Web 2.0 marketing mix supplements the traditional four-p marketing mix (price, product, promotion, and placement) with a new “p” lens: participation. The focus of this analysis is on B2C marketing of products and services only.
E-Tourism Image
Authors: Prats-Planagumà Lluís , Camprubí Raquel
Published: May 2011

The competitiveness of tourism destinations is a relevant issue for tourism studies, moreso, is a key element on the daily basis of tourism destinations. In this sense, the management of tourism destinations is essential to maintain competitive advantages. In this chapter tourism destination is considered as a relational network, where interaction and cooperation is needed among tourism agents, to achieve major levels of competitive advantage and a more effective destination management system. In addition, the perceptions of tourists are obtained from two main sources. The first one is the social construction of a tourism destination previous to the visit and the second one is obtained from the interaction between tourists and tourism destination agents during the visit. In this sense, the management of tourism destination to emit a homogenous and collective image is a factor that can reduce the gap if dissatisfaction from the previous and real tourist perception. The authors specifically discuss the importance of a common agreement of tourism agents on virtual tourism images projected through official Web sites, considering that the literature focused mainly in how to promote and sell destinations trough Internet but not in terms of exploiting a destination joint image. Finally, in order to analyze the integration of a tourism product and determine their consequences in tourism promotion an empirical research has been done, using the case of Girona’s province. The main findings determine that, although interactions among tourism agents can improve destination competitiveness, little cooperation in tourism promotion on Web sites is achieved, as well as a few uses of technological resources in the Web sites to facilitate to tourists a better understanding of tourism resources in the area.
A Context-Based Approach to Web 2.0 and Language Education
Authors: Motteram Gary
Published: May 2011

Web 2.0 offers potentially powerful tools for the field of language education. As language teacher tutors exploring Web 2.0 with participants on an MA in Educational Technology and TESOL at the University of Manchester, UK, we see that the potential of Web 2.0 is intimately linked with teachers’ perceptions of their teaching contexts. This chapter will describe a “context-based” approach to the exploration of Web 2.0 on a module focusing on the potential role of distributed courseware in language education. It will begin by giving an overall picture of where and how the exploration of Web 2.0 tools fits into the MA program. It will then describe the main aims and aspects of the module and discuss in some detail our context-based approach in relation to participants as well as Web 2.0 in existing literature. The chapter will conclude with two case studies concerning how teachers incorporate Web 2.0 technologies in courseware for their contexts.
City Brands and their Communication through Web Sites
Authors: Fernández-Cavia José , Huertas-Roig Assumpció
Published: May 2011

City marketing tries to position cities in the mind of the public, although the process of creating and communicating city brands is still at an early stage of its development. One of the main tools for the communication of these brands is now the World Wide Web. This chapter describes the results of two combined studies (qualitative and quantitative) that analyzes a sample of official city Web sites. The results show that official Web sites of cities give much attention to ease of navigation, but interactivity is much less implemented, especially between users. Furthermore, some lack of attention to the communication aspects of city brands can also be found. Finally, the chapter submits a number of improvement proposals.
Building Trust in E-Commerce through Web Interface
Authors: Kumar Muneesh , Sareen Mamta
Published: May 2011

The emergence of Internet has revolutionalized the way businesses are conducted. The impact of e-commerce is pervasive, both on companies and society as a whole. It has the potential to impact the pace of economic development and in turn influence the process of human development at the global level. However, the growth in e-commerce is being impaired by the issue of trust in the buyer-seller relationship which is arising due to the virtual nature of e-commerce environment. The online trading environment is constrained by a number of factors including web interface that in turn influences user experience. This article identifies various dimensions of web interface that have the potential to influence trust in e-commerce. The empirical evidence presented in the article is based on a survey of the web interfaces of 65 Indian e-Marketplaces.
Assessing the Performance of Airline Web Sites
Authors: Harison Elad , Boonstra Albert
Published: May 2011

This case takes place in the increasingly competitive environment of the airline sector.Airline websites and Internet-based booking systems enable transformation of airline operations and become strategic weapons for the majority of airlines worldwide. Established airlines are attempting to stimulate customers to use the Internet, in response to entry of low cost carriers that capture shares of their market and in order to reduce their sales costs. Nonetheless, the development and maintenance of websites and e-commerce platforms requires substantial investments in capital and labor. Therefore, airlines need to assess the performance of their e-commerce channels in terms of profitability, customer appreciation and volume of sales on a continuous basis. However, the design of an assessment model that can serve the managers of ARTFLY, one of the established airlines in the industry that deals with the recent challenges of the intensifying competition, is open for a wide variety of interpretations and should be determined due to the firm’s nature of operations and due to its aim to increase the volume of its online sales.
Feature Selection for Web Page Classification
Authors: Selvakuberan K. , Devi M. Indra , Rajaram R.
Published: May 2011

The World Wide Web serves as a huge, widely distributed, global information service center for news, advertisements, customer information, financial management, education, government, e-commerce and many others. The Web contains a rich and dynamic collection of hyperlink information. The Web page access and usage information provide rich sources for data mining. Web pages are classified based on the content and/or contextual information embedded in them. As the Web pages contain many irrelevant, infrequent, and stop words that reduce the performance of the classifier, selecting relevant representative features from the Web page is the essential preprocessing step. This provides secured accessing of the required information. The Web access and usage information can be mined to predict the authentication of the user accessing the Web page. This information may be used to personalize the information needed for the users and to preserve the privacy of the users by hiding the personal details. The issue lies in selecting the features which represent the Web pages and processing the details of the user needed the details. In this article we focus on the feature selection, issues in feature selections, and the most important feature selection techniques described and used by researchers.
The EduOntoWiki Project for Supporting Social, Educational, and Knowledge Construction Processes with Semantic Web Paradigm
Authors: Petrucco Corrado
Published: May 2011

The Web is going to produce a revolution in learning and teaching: the debate on the role of ICT in educational processes leads to a reconsideration of how we deal with information and knowledge. The widespread use in educational contexts is also due to the ease with which learning resources can be retrieved and shared: for example, the recent introduction of learning objects means that the contents which reside in different e-learning platforms is easy to find and access. But knowledge is also deeply embedded in millions of Web pages. Nonetheless, searching for information on the Web is not a simple task and the great number of documents found using search engines, such as Google, is beyond the human cognitive capacity to deal with this information overflow. Teaching information literacy skills or stimulating collaborative information filtering that supports the discovery of resources in a way that is responsive to the context of users may help, but there is a need for more efficient cognitive tools to search, organize, and discuss information in order to codify it in shared knowledge structures. In a more and more complex world we need support to think at a high level so the technologies let us develop strong knowledge structures that do not have the representational problems of the old schemas. An attempt in this direction is the Semantic Web: if we succeed in making the Semantic Web available and useful for education, it could revolutionize the way we think about teaching and learning with ICT. Our current research is aimed at the development, learning environment called EduOntoWiki that is backed up by a semantic structure based on the active consent of communities of practice.
Blending Virtual Campuses Managing Differences Through Web 2.0 Experiences in Transnational Cooperation Projects
Authors: Kazepov Yuri , Torrisi Giovanni
Published: May 2011

Starting from the increasingly widespread need to develop effective teaching in complex transnational settings, this chapter presents an innovative blended model with Web 2.0 collaborative learning strategies built in. The model balances pedagogical, technical and content related issues into an ad hoc institutionally designed 60 ECTS (European Credit Transfer System) curriculum of the European Masters in Comparative Urban Studies (E-Urbs). The chapter aims at disentangling the different dimensions involved in the curriculum delivery, highlighting the pros and cons of all dimensions of the model adopted. In doing so the chapter is divided into three sections. The first section addresses the challenges that effective teaching in complex transnational settings has to face, in particular it highlights the crucial need of managing differences. In the E-Urbs project we had 24 students from 14 countries, 5 continents, 6 disciplinary backgrounds, 32 scholars from 9 partner institutions in 8 countries. The second section deals with the way in which challenges and differences have been addressed and describes the dimensions of the blended model the authors adopted, arguing that a sound virtual campus arrangement should address the pedagogical, technical and content related dimensions in a balanced way considering the institutional setting within which they are embedded. The third section addresses the way in which the blended approach has been enriched through a Web 2.0 perspective, promoting p2p (peer-to-peer) collaboration in the generation of knowledge. The main argument is that an increasingly fluid society generates and treats information differently and learning agencies should not only acknowledge these differences but should address them with balanced learning models which take advantage of the new 2.0 paradigms. The authors argue that the result of a balanced blended Web 2.0 approach helps to transform the challenges into a resource for each of the stakeholders involved (e.g., students, scholars, partners, institutions) providing an added value in each dimension of the learning process (pedagogical, technical, content related and institutional).
Web Engineering in Small Jordanian Web Development Firms
Authors: Altarawneh Haroon , El-Shiekh Asim
Published: May 2011

Small firms do not have the managerial experience, the financial resources and the methodological know-how to manage web-based applications projects the way large firms do. Many small firms are unaware of existing software process assessment models and standards. There’s often the assumption that assessments conformant to these models and standards can be expensive and time consuming, and therefore difficult to perform in small companies. This chapter proposes a theoretical model for small Web project development and its special features in the context small Web firms, which are capable of being “tailor able” to the particular stage of organizational development of small Web firms . The process model derived form Web engineering best practices, real case studies from Jordanian Web firms and agile development methodologies (extreme programming) . This chapter also contains results from tow surveys: a questionnaire to Web developers and interview with Web mangers in Jordan.The results reflect the Web industry situation in small Jordanian firms, and the major problems they face. Most of small Web projects in Jordan run over time and budget, due to the ad hoc development and the weakness of Web project management. The results showed that there is a weakness in applying Web engineering practices in small Jordanian Web development firms.
Multi-Tier Framework for Management of Web Services' Quality
Authors: Benharref Abdelghani , Serhani Mohamed Adel , Salem Mohamed , Dssouli Rachida
Published: May 2011

Web services are a new breed of applications that endorse large support from main vendors from industry as well as academia. As the Web services paradigm becomes more mature, its management is crucial to its adoption and success. Existing approaches are often limited to the platforms under which management features are provided. In this chapter, we propose an approach to provide a unique central console for management of both functional and nonfunctional aspects of Web services. In fact, we aim at the development of a framework to provide management features to providers and clients by supporting management activities all along the lifecycle. The framework allows/forces providers to consider management activities while developing their Web services. It allows clients to select appropriate Web services using different criteria (e.g., name, quality, etc.). Clients also make use of the framework to check if the Web services they are actually using or planning to use are behaving correctly. We evaluate the Web services management features of our framework using a composite Web service.
Scalable Authoritative OWL Reasoning for the Web
Authors: Hogan Aidan , Harth Andreas , Polleres Axel
Published: May 2011

In this article the authors discuss the challenges of performing reasoning on large scale RDF datasets from the Web. Using ter-Horst’s pD* fragment of OWL as a base, the authors compose a rulebased framework for application to web data: they argue their decisions using observations of undesirable examples taken directly from the Web. The authors further temper their OWL fragment through consideration of “authoritative stheirces” which counter-acts an observed behavitheir which we term “ontology hijacking”: new ontologies published on the Web re-defining the semantics of existing entities resident in other ontologies. They then present their system for performing rule-based forward-chaining reasoning which they call SAOR: Scalable Authoritative OWL Reasoner. Based upon observed characteristics of web data and reasoning in general, they design their system to scale: the system is based upon a separation of terminological data from assertional data and comprises of a lightweight in-memory index, on-disk sorts and file-scans. The authors evaluate their methods on a dataset in the order of a hundred million statements collected from real-world Web stheirces and present scale-up experiments on a dataset in the order of a billion statements collected from the Web.
Web Content Recommendation Methods Based on Reinforcement Learning
Authors: Taghipour Nima , Kardan Ahmad
Published: May 2011

Information overload is no longer news; the explosive growth of the Internet has made this issue increasingly serious for Web users. Recommender systems aim at directing users through this information space, toward the resources that best meet their needs and interests. In this chapter we introduce our novel machine learning perspective toward the web recommendation problem, based on reinforcement learning. Our recommendation method makes use of the web usage and content data to learn a predictive model of users’ behavior on the web and exploits the learned model to make web page recommendations. Unlike other recommender systems, our system does not use the static patterns discovered from web usage data, instead it learns to make recommendations as the actions it performs in each situation. In the proposed method we combined the conceptual and usage information in order to gain a more general model of user behavior and improve the quality of web recommendations. A hybrid web recommendation method is proposed by making use of the conceptual relationships among web resources to derive a novel model of the problem, enriched with semantic knowledge about the usage behavior. The method is evaluated under different settings and it is shown how this method can improve the overall quality of recommendations.
Web-Based Corporate Governance Information Disclosure
Authors: Jiang Yabing , Raghupathi Viju , Raghupathi Wullianallur
Published: May 2011

Effective and timely use of the Internet, with a navigable and regularly-updated corporate Web site, can improve perceptions about a company’s transparency vis-à-vis corporate governance practices. Based on an empirical analysis of data from 30 company Web sites in the DJIA, we conclude that a majority of companies underutilize their Web sites in communicating corporate governance information. Nearly all companies provide only routine content disclosure using minimal Web design features. A proactive display of compliance and due diligence content is largely absent, and most companies have yet to exploit advanced Web technologies to the fullest. Companies with better quality content and design appear to have higher corporate governance quotient (CGQ) ratings thereby implying greater transparency. The resultant framework can help companies vastly improve their Web sites by including more content that reflects due diligence and transparency and implementing Web 2.0 and other advanced technologies. Companies serious about transparency will adopt a more strategic approach to Web content and design. The lists of variables we identify can serve as checklists and/or templates for executives and researchers.
Computer-Mediated Communication Learning Environments
Authors: Manca Stefania
Published: May 2011

The social, relational, and affective dynamics are receiving more and more attention in the study of learning processes, as cognitive, affective, and emotional dimensions of learning seem to be closely related. This kind of co-origination, borne out in the context of neurosciences, artificial intelligence, cognitive psychology, and education, has also been recognized in the field of Web-based learning. The research framework of computer supported collaborative learning (CSCL) has emphasized the role that a well-established social dimension plays in collaborative learning and group-based working within communities of learners. According to the socioconstructivist model, learning always implies a social dialogical process where individuals are mutually engaged in the construction and sharing of new knowledge (Scardamalia & Bereiter, 1994; Wenger, 1998). Pedagogical approaches based on these assumptions combine the advantages of a learning strategy that promotes deeper level learning, critical thinking, and shared understanding with those related to the development of social and communication skills (Garrison & Anderson, 2003).
Agents and Social Interaction Insights from Social Psychology
Authors: Bullington Joseph C.
Published: May 2011

Social interaction represents a powerful new locus of research in the quest to build more truly humanlike artificial agents. The work in this area, as in the field of human computer interaction, generally, is becoming more interdisciplinary in nature. In this spirit, the present chapter will survey concepts and theory from social psychology, a field many researchers may be unfamiliar with. Dennett’s notion of the intentional system will provide some initial grounding for the notion of social interaction, along with a brief discussion of conversational agents. The body of the chapter will then survey the areas of animal behavior and social psychology most relevant to human-agent interaction, concentrating on the areas of interpersonal relations and social perception. Within the area of social perception, the focus will be on the topics of emotion and attribution theory. Where relevant, research in the area of agent-human interaction will be discussed. The chapter will conclude with a brief survey of the use of agent-based modeling and simulation in social theory. The future looks very promising for researchers in this area; the complex problems involved in developing artificial agents who have mind-like attributes will require an interdisciplinary effort.
Mobile Social Networks and Services
Authors: Humphreys Lee
Published: May 2011

Mobile social networks allow users to connect with each other, share information, and create technologically enabled mobile communities. With the introduction of the iPhone in 2007, the public dream of the likelihood of mobile computing was realized. This chapter reviews mobile social networks ranging from early examples to current services; and, it identifies and categorizes them according to a specific media type, mode, and code. The challenges of categorization in light of technology convergence are discussed. Issues of privacy, compatibility, and pricing are presented as they relate to mobile social networks. Potential strategies are suggested for dealing with these challenges. Finally, future trends of mobile social services are identified.a
Electronic Classroom, Electronic Community
Authors: Harris Lisa
Published: May 2011

The capacity for online learning environments to provide good quality learning experiences for students has been the focus of speculation and debate in the higher education sector from the late 1990s to the present day. In this area, “quality” has become synonymous with engaging students in a learning community. This chapter reports on a qualitative research project designed to explore the significance of community for students studying online. Using three fundamentally different types of online learning environments as case studies, this research explored the relationship between the constructed online learning environment and the development of learning communities or what the author has termed social learning support networks (SLSN). Exploring the common themes to emerge from these three case studies, this research provides new evidence of the benefit of community for students studying online and argues that future online learning environments should be shaped by five key principles designed to foster a sense of social connection between students.
A Methodology for Integrating the Social Web Environment in Software Engineering Education
Authors: Kamthan Pankaj
Published: May 2011

The aim of this article is a technological revitalization of software engineering education from human and social perspectives. It adopts a systematic approach towards integrating the Social Web environment (including technologies and applications based on those technologies) in software engineering education, both inside and outside the classroom. To that regard, a feasibilitysensitive methodology for incorporating the Social Web environment in software engineering education that supports a heterogeneous combination of objectivism and constructivism is proposed and explored. The potential prospects of such integration and related concerns are illustrated by practical examples.
From Pragmatism to Interaction Design
Authors: Mørch Anders I.
Published: May 2011

This article presents an approach to interaction design that is inspired by sociotechnical systems (STS) and grounded in sociocultural theory. The focus is on the early phases of the design process and in particular how theoretical ideas can stimulate design. It starts by surveying key works in theory-based design in HCI and CSCW. The notion of ‘externalized design’ of buildings has been adopted as a framework for how to incorporate conceptual (non-computational) artifacts in user interfaces. The framework is applied to the retrospective analysis of an interactive system developed by the author (Janus). The system was stimulated by the notion of reflection-in-action. A three-staged process provides gradual steps for translating reflection-in-action into a concrete user interface: 1) selection, 2) appropriation, and 3) translation. The article ends by discussing strengths and limitations of the approach, and identifies directions for further work.
Evaluating the Effectiveness of Social Visualization Within Virtual Communities
Authors: Schimke Diana , Stoeger Heidrun , Ziegler Albert
Published: May 2011

Participation and system usage is crucial for virtual communities to develop and sustain. However, many communities report very low participation rates of members. Finding and studying strategies for fostering participation in virtual communities is therefore a growing field of research and different approaches for strengthening participation in virtual communities exist – among them social visualization. While many tools for visualizing social interactions have been developed, not much empirical evidence about their actual effectiveness exists. To find out more about the effectiveness of social visualization on the participation rate (number of logins, forum posts, personal messages, and chat posts) the authors conducted an empirical study within CyberMentor – a virtual community for high school girls interested in science and technology. In their sample of N=231 girls the authors did not find a significant difference between the number of logins in the phases before and after the introduction of the visualization tool. The number of forum post, chat posts and personal messages however increased significantly after the incorporation of the visualization tool. Long-term effects were found for one-to-many communication technologies (forum, chat), but not for personal messages (one-to-one)
The Hybrid Course
Authors: Jackson Lorraine D. , Grimes Joe
Published: May 2011

This chapter surveys the benefits and challenges of hybrid courses, which blend face-to-face instruction with online learning, and opportunities provided by the introduction of Web-based social interaction technologies. It discusses the pedagogical implications of various Web 2.0 tools: that is, asynchronous discussion boards, blogs, wikis, podcasts, RSS, e-portfolios, folksonomies, educational gaming, data mashups, and simulations. The authors argue that as hybrid courses continue to evolve to meet the needs of students, instructors, and institutions of higher learning, the integration of Web 2.0 applications in a hybrid model requires thoughtful course design, clear educational objectives, and carefully planned activities.
The EduOntoWiki Project for Supporting Social, Educational, and Knowledge Construction Processes with Semantic Web Paradigm
Authors: Petrucco Corrado
Published: May 2011

The Web is going to produce a revolution in learning and teaching: the debate on the role of ICT in educational processes leads to a reconsideration of how we deal with information and knowledge. The widespread use in educational contexts is also due to the ease with which learning resources can be retrieved and shared: for example, the recent introduction of learning objects means that the contents which reside in different e-learning platforms is easy to find and access. But knowledge is also deeply embedded in millions of Web pages. Nonetheless, searching for information on the Web is not a simple task and the great number of documents found using search engines, such as Google, is beyond the human cognitive capacity to deal with this information overflow. Teaching information literacy skills or stimulating collaborative information filtering that supports the discovery of resources in a way that is responsive to the context of users may help, but there is a need for more efficient cognitive tools to search, organize, and discuss information in order to codify it in shared knowledge structures.
Knowledge Media Tools to Foster Social Learning
Authors: Okada Alexandra , Shum Simon Buckingham , Bachler Michelle , Tomadaki Eleftheria , Scott Peter , Little Alex , Eisenstadt Marc
Published: May 2011

The aim of this chapter is to overview the ways in which knowledge media technologies create opportunities for social learning. The Open Content movement has been growing rapidly, opening up new opportunities for widening participation. One of the Open Educational Resources (OER) initiatives is the OpenLearn project, launched by the Open University, which integrates three knowledge media technologies: Compendium, FM and MSG. In this chapter, the authors analyse some examples, which show how these tools can be used to foster open sensemaking communities by mapping knowledge, location and virtual interactions. At the end, they present some questions and future horizons related to this research.