bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
RFID and Supply Chain Visibility
Authors: Gupta Sumeet , Garg Miti , Xu Heng , Goh Mark
Published: May 2011

Supply chains have become increasingly complex and interdependent in the globalization era. Regulatory authorities are demanding stricter customer compliance, and customers are demanding real-time data for better decision making. At the same time, customer demand is becoming more erratic thus the need for enhanced supply chain coordination with an objective to enhance overall customer value. Radio Frequency Identification RFID, an enabler of supply chain visibility, has the potential to provide customers with large amounts of information at any point in the movement of goods through the supply chain. This technology complements the barcode technology. However, with the acceptance of RFID technology, several managerial and technical issues arise. The focus of this chapter is to thus discuss the relevance of RFID technology for enabling supply chain visibility and adoption related issues.
Bridging the Gap between Employee Surveillance and Privacy Protection
Authors: Mitrou Lilian , Karyda Maria
Published: May 2011

This chapter addresses the issue of electronic workplace monitoring and its implications for employees’ privacy. Organizations increasingly use a variety of electronic surveillance methods to mitigate threats to their information systems. Monitoring technology spans different aspects of organizational life, including communications, desktop and physical monitoring, collecting employees’ personal data, and locating employees through active badges. The application of these technologies raises privacy protection concerns. Throughout this chapter, we describe different approaches to privacy protection followed by different jurisdictions. We also highlight privacy issues with regard to new trends and practices, such as teleworking and use of RFID technology for identifying the location of employees. Emphasis is also placed on the reorganization of work facilitated by information technology, since frontiers between the private and the public sphere are becoming blurred. The aim of this chapter is twofold: we discuss privacy concerns and the implications of implementing employee surveillance technologies and we suggest a framework of fair practices which can be used for bridging the gap between the need to provide adequate protection for information systems, while preserving employees’ rights to privacy.
u-City
Authors: Hwang Jong-Sung
Published: May 2011

u-City is South Korea’s answer to urban community challenges leveraging ubiquitous computing technology to deliver state-of-the-art urban services. Korea’s experience designing and constructing u-City may be a useful benchmark for other countries. This chapter defines the concept of u-City and analyzes the needs that led Korea to embark on the u-City project ahead of others. It examines the opportunities and challenges that the nation faces in the transition stage. What has enabled Korea to pioneer the u-City concept is the development of IT infrastructure and the saturation of the IT market on the one hand, and the balanced national development strategy on the other hand. Success of u-City requires a national capability of designing forward-looking institutions to enable better cooperation among stakeholders, the establishment of a supportive legal framework and promotion of technology standardization.
Perception Gaps about Skills Requirement for Entry-Level IS Professionals between Recruiters and Students
Authors: Lee Sooun , Fang Xiang
Published: May 2011

Dramatic changes in the U.S. economic situations and offshore outsourcing trends in the IT (Information Technology) industry have affected the IS (Information Systems) job market and recruiters with regard to IS knowledge/skills that their new hires should possess. Keeping pace with these changes presents a challenge for IS recruiters and students. There is an urgent need for a study that investigates the perception gaps between IS recruiters and students about the knowledge/skill sets required for a new entry-level IS hire. This study reports the findings from a survey of IS recruiters and IS students in the U.S., detailing the differences of their understanding about the knowledge/skills requirement.
Contract Negotiation in E-Marketplaces
Authors: Esmahi Larbi
Published: May 2011

E-transactions via shopping agents constitute a promising opportunity in the e-markets. In this article we will discuss the problem of contract negotiation in e-marketplaces. We succinctly present an overview of protocols commonly used to implement negotiation in e-markets. An analysis of the interaction process within e-markets according to different situation of individual and joint profit/cost is presented. We also present a case study of a marketplace for e-services using dependency relations within the negotiation process. The experimental results of this negotiation model show that a combination of utility functions and dependency relations increase the number of contacts and reduce the differences between agents’ individual profit. Finally, we conclude the article with the introduction of some potential research problems related to e-markets, which will be explored within future extensions of this work.
A Generic Internal State Paradigm for the Language Faculty of Agents for Task Delegation
Authors: Chithralekha T. , Kuppuswami S.
Published: May 2011

Language ability is an inevitable aspect of delegation in agents to provide for collaborative natural language interaction (CNLI) during task delegation. To cater to users of different languages, the CNLI is required to be multilingual. When multilingual CNLI has to be provided in a manner characteristic of agents, it leads to realizing two types of autonomies viz. behavior autonomy - to provide CNLI in every language and management autonomy for managing the multiple language competencies. Thereby, the language ability of an agent evolves into a language faculty which encompasses behavior and behavior management autonomies. The existing paradigms for the internal state of agents are only behaviororiented and cannot accommodate the behavior and behavior management autonomies. In this paper, a new paradigm for the internal state of the language faculty of agents consisting of the belief, task and behavior (BTB) abstractions has been proposed, defined and illustrated.
Designing a Dynamic Buyer-Supplier Coordination Model in Electronic Markets Using Stochastic Petri Nets
Authors: Mahdavi Iraj , Mohebbi Shima , Cho Namjae , Paydar Mohammad Mahdi , Mahdavi-Amiri Nezam
Published: May 2011

Functional relationship between supplier and buyer in an open market place leads to investigate the role of both quantifiable and non-quantifiable parameters in coordination mechanism with the aim of achieving higher performance in supply chain activities. Here, we develop a supply chain model and a new agent to analyze and simulate the players’ behavior in the network. A cooperative game theory framework is utilized between buyer and supplier in order to increase the supply chain performance. The study is supported by presenting SC Net Optimizer as a tool for implementing the proposed coordination mechanism and evaluates the performance of the chain by simulation using stochastic Petri nets (SPNs). The model provides a more realistic optimization process by taking into consideration the dynamic information flow in an uncertainty environment.
ICT and Interculture Opportunities Offered by the Web
Authors: Corazza Laura
Published: May 2011

In Italy, as in other European countries such as Germany and France, the words “multicultural” and “intercultural” have distinct meanings1. In some ways the passage the one from the other indicates the evolution of a concept that, when examined in detail, forces us to re-examine educational political, and cultural choices in a society. “In Italy, especially in the field of pedagogy, the term multicultural indicates a situation where cultures co-exist side by side but as yet, have not found a means of comparison and relating to each other . . The term intercultural, which originated in France and then spread to other European countries, on another hand, describes a situation of interaction between different cultures, often describing a prospect, a possible point of arrival or an objective to strive for; a situation in which the people of different cultures begin to open up to reciprocal relationships, thereby bringing about the possibility of integration, characterised by a political and cultural pluralism which aims at reciprocal respect and appreciation between the respective cultures”. With Multiculturalism, people accept to live with those from other cultures with tolerance but without promoting forms of exchange and democratic co-existence. The form of social organization that derives from this is that of the “melting pot” which encourages the development of ghettos or “Little Italy” and “China towns”. However the Intercultural approach is reciprocal. It is for those who accept and listen, those who are tolerant, those who are not afraid of “contamination” but constantly seek to mediate between different points of view and backgrounds.
A Review of Methodologies for Analyzing Websites
Authors: Booth Danielle , Jansen Bernard J.
Published: May 2011

This chapter is an overview of the process of Web analytics for Websites. It outlines how visitor information such as number of visitors and visit duration can be collected using log files and page tagging. This information is then combined to create meaningful key performance indicators that are tailored not only to the business goals of the company running the Website but also to the goals and content of the Website. Finally, this chapter presents several analytic tools and explains how to choose the right tool for the needs of the Website. The ultimate goal of this chapter is to provide methods for increasing revenue and customer satisfaction through careful analysis of visitor interaction with a Website.
Integrating Web 2.0 Technologies within the Enterprise
Authors: Stephens R. Todd
Published: May 2011

This chapter examines the elements of the new Web 2.0 technology base and reviews the lessons learned when implementing these technologies. Collaborative applications have made enormous inroads into the enterprise and bring unprecedented speed and transparency to communications. Researchers and practitioners alike are focusing on how collaborative applications can replace the one-way communications inherent to Intranet sites. This chapter is intended for individuals who are looking toward the possibility of integrating these new technologies into the core communication medium. Unfortunately, there are still large barriers such as politics, turf battles, integration, and poor usability with the current product set. A company’s ability to manage information effectively over its life cycle, including sensing, collecting, organizing, processing, and maintaining information, is crucial to the long term success in a global economy. The success or failure of this integration may very well create or lose a competitive advantage for the enterprise. What is missing is a framework or roadmap in which organizations can plan out their execution of We 2.0 deployment.
A Service Oriented Ontological Framework for the Semantic Validation of Web Accessibility
Authors: Lopes Rui , Votis Konstantinos , Carriço Luís , Likothanassis Spiridon , Tzovaras Dimitrios
Published: May 2011

The Web serves as the principal mediator for information sharing and communication on a worldwide scale. Its highly decentralized nature affords a scale free growth, where each endpoint (i.e., Web site) is created and maintained independently. Web designers and developers have the onus of making sure that users can interact without accessibility problems. However, coping with users with disabilities poses challenges on how to ensure that a Web site is accessible for any kind of user. When (and if) this is done, designers and developers do it in a post-hoc way, (i.e., verify and tweak Web sites according to guidelines such as WCAG). In this Chapter the authors present SWAF, the Semantic Web Accessibility Framework, a base framework for supporting the integration of accessibility services into Web design and development processes. SWAF affords both tailoring accessibility to user needs and specifying the semantic validation of accessibility guidelines in different application situations.
Applying Semantic Web to E-Tourism
Authors: Damljanovic Danica , Devedžic Vladan
Published: May 2011

Traditional E-Tourism applications store data internally in a form that is not interoperable with similar systems. Hence, tourist agents spend plenty of time updating data about vacation packages in order to provide good service to their clients. On the other hand, their clients spend plenty of time searching for the ‘perfect’ vacation package as the data about tourist offers are not integrated and are available from different spots on the Web. We developed Travel Guides - a prototype system for tourism management to illustrate how semantic web technologies combined with traditional E-Tourism applications: a.) help integration of tourism sources dispersed on the Web b) enable creating sophisticated user profiles. Maintaining quality user profiles enables system personalization and adaptivity of the content shown to the user. The core of this system is in ontologies – they enable machine readable and machine understandable representation of the data and more importantly reasoning.
Mailing Lists and Social Semantic Web
Authors: Fernández Sergio , Berrueta Diego , Shi Lian , Labra Jose E. , Ordóñez de Pablos Patricia
Published: May 2011

Electronic Mailing lists are a key part of the Internet. They have enabled the development of social communities who share and exchange knowledge in specialized and general domains. In this chapter the auhtors describe methods to capture some of that knowledge which will enable the development of new datasets using Semantic Web technologies. In particular, the authors present the SWAML project, which collects data from mailing lists. They also describe smushing techniques that normalize RDF datasets capturing different resources that identify the same one. They have applied those techniques to identify persons through the mailing lists of open source communities. These techniques have been tested using a dataset automatically extracted from several online open source communities.
Exploring the Effects of Web-Enabled Self-Regulated Learning and Online Class Frequency on Students' Computing Skills in Blended Learning Courses
Authors: Shen Pei-Di , Tsai Chia-Wen
Published: May 2011

Web-based courses have shown to be successful in providing quality distance education. However, due to a national education policy, pure online courses are not permitted in Taiwan. In addition, there exists a lack of appropriate design and delivery of blended learning courses. In this study, the authors conducted a quasi-experiment to examine the effects in applying blended learning (BL) with web-enabled self-regulated learning (SRL) to enhance students’ skills of deploying database management system (DBMS). Four class sections with a total of 172 second-year students were taken as four distinct groups. The results showed that students in the SRL and BL groups with 5 online classes had the highest grades for using DBMS among the four groups. Students who received the treatments of web-enabled SRL also outperformed a control group that did not have the benefit of instruction in SRL. The implications of this study are also discussed.
The Effects of Web-Enabled Self-Regulated Learning and Problem-Based Learning with Initiation on Students' Computing Skills
Authors: Shen Pei-Di
Published: May 2011

Vocational degree earners represent a major portion of the work force in Taiwan. However, the reality of computing education in Taiwan’s vocational schools is that it’s not so practically oriented, revealing much room for improvement. In this context, we conducted a quasi-experiment to examine the effects of applying web-based self-regulated learning, web-based problem-based learning with initiation, and their combination to enhance students’ computing skills. Four classes in successive years, with a total of 177 third-year students, were divided into 2 (SRL vs. non-SRL) × 2 (PBL with initiation vs. PBL without initiation) experimental groups. Results were generally positive. Results revealed that the effects of webenabled SRL, web-enabled PBL with initiation, and their combinations on students’ computing skills have significant differences. We hope that the online teaching method applied in this study is also useful for those teachers engaged in e-learning, specifically, in vocational schools.
Bridging the Gap between Mobile Application Contexts and Web Resources
Authors: Dietze Stefan , Gugliotta Alessio , Domingue John
Published: May 2011

Context-awareness is highly desired, particularly in highly dynamic mobile environments. Semantic Web Services (SWS) address context-adaptation by enabling the automatic discovery of distributed Web services based on comprehensive semantic capability descriptions. Even though the appropriateness of resources in mobile settings is strongly dependent on the current situation, SWS technology does not explicitly encourage the representation of situational contexts. Therefore, whereas SWS technology supports the allocation of resources, it does not entail the discovery of appropriate SWS representations for a given situational context. Moreover, describing the complex notion of a specific situation by utilizing symbolic SWS representation facilities is costly, prone to ambiguity issues and may never reach semantic completeness. In fact, since not any real-world situation completely equals another, a potentially infinite set of situation parameters has to be matched to a finite set of semantically defined SWS resource descriptions to enable context-adaptability. To overcome these issues, the authors propose Mobile Situation Spaces (MSS) which enable the description of situation characteristics as members in geometrical vector spaces following the idea of Conceptual Spaces (CS). Semantic similarity between situational contexts is calculated in terms of their Euclidean distance within a MSS. Extending merely symbolic SWS descriptions with context information on a conceptual level through MSS enables similaritybased matchmaking between real-world situation characteristics and predefined resource representations as part of SWS descriptions. To prove the feasibility, the authors provide a proof-of-concept prototype which applies MSS to support contextadaptation across distinct mobile situations.
Enhancing the Testability of Web Services
Authors: Brenner Daniel , Paech Barbara , Merdes Matthias , Malaka Rainer
Published: May 2011

For the foreseeable future, testing will remain the mainstay of software quality assurance and measurement in all areas of software development, including Web services and service-oriented systems. In general, however, testing Web services is much more challenging than testing normal software applications, not because they are inherently more complex, but because of the limited control and access that users of Web services have over their development and deployment. Whereas the developers of normal applications, by definition, have full control over their application until release time, and thus, can subject them to all kinds of tests in various combinations (e.g., integration testing, system testing, regression testing, acceptance testing, etc.), users of Web services can often only test them at run-time after they have already been deployed and put into service. Moreover, users of Web services often have to share access to them with other concurrent users. In order to effectively test Web services under these conditions special measures and approaches need to be taken to enhance their testability. Right from the early phases of development, the testability of services needs to be taken into account and “designed into” services. In this chapter we consider these issues and with the aid of a case study we present a methodology that can be used to enhance the testability of Web services.
Utilizing Past Web for Knowledge Discovery
Authors: Jatowt Adam , Kawai Yukiko , Tanaka Katsumi
Published: May 2011

The Web is a useful data source for knowledge extraction, as it provides diverse content virtually on any possible topic. Hence, a lot of research has been recently done for improving mining in the Web. However, relatively little research has been done taking directly into account the temporal aspects of the Web. In this chapter, we analyze data stored in Web archives, which preserve content of the Web, and investigate the methodology required for successful knowledge discovery from this data. We call the collection of such Web archives past Web; a temporal structure composed of the past copies of Web pages. First, we discuss the character of the data and explain some concepts related to utilizing the past Web, such as data collection, analysis and processing. Next, we introduce examples of two applications, temporal summarization and a browser for the past Web.
The Evolution and Influence of Social Presence Theory on Online Learning
Authors: Lowenthal Patrick R.
Published: May 2011

The theory of social presence is perhaps the most popular construct used to describe and understand how people socially interact in online learning environments. However, despite its intuitive appeal, researchers and practitioners alike often define and conceptualize this popular construct differently. In fact, it is often hard to distinguish between whether someone is talking about social interaction, immediacy, intimacy, emotion, and/or connectedness when they talk about social presence. Therefore, this chapter outlines the evolution of the construct of social presence in an effort to understand better its relationship to online learning.
Educational and Social Benefits of Social Network Sites
Authors: Greenhow Christine , Robelia Beth
Published: May 2011

Online social network sites present opportunities for human service educators, practitioners, and clients. Human services education students can collaborate through multimedia networks, sharing ideas and experiences. Human services professionals can leverage online networks to problem solve, socialize and develop common resources, and clients can use such networks to engage in self-reflection and get support from those facing similar challenges. This chapter offers an introduction to online social network sites, summarizing their features, uses, demographics, and trends, and presents emerging research on their social and educational potential. An accompanying case study reveals how young adults might use online social network sites to further personal and educational goals. The chapter concludes with a discussion of how such sites might be employed by human services education students, practitioners and clients.
Web 2.0 Social Networking Sites
Authors: Staples D. Sandy
Published: May 2011

This chapter describes one of the Web 2.0 technologies, Social Networking Sites (SNS). A definition of SNS is offered, as is a short history of these sites. The existing research is reviewed and organized to summarize what we know about SNS usage (from the perspectives of student use, general population use and organizational use), and what we know about the antecedents and outcomes of SNS use. The chapter concludes with discussion of new developments, challenges and opportunities. There are many opportunities for future research and organizational applications of SNS as SNS adoption grows at incredible rates.
Social Software (and Web 2.0)
Authors: Dorn Jürgen
Published: May 2011

Social software is a class of information systems supporting the establishment and management of online communities for people in performing certain tasks. One of the first application types were bulletin boards. Social software may provide different services for community members such as finding members with similar interests, finding information on interesting subjects, discussing common problems, or simply the storing of private or publicly-accessible documents. Another similar term, collaborative software, applies to cooperative work systems, and is applied to software that supports working functions often restricted to private networks. Web 2.0 is a term coined only recently, and with this concept promoters try to focus on the change of use of the Internet. While Web 1.0 was a medium where few users published information in Web sites and many users read and surfed through these publications, in Web 2.0 many users also publish their opinions, information, and documents somewhere in the Internet. By motivating large communities for submissions and by structuring the content, the body of the aggregated information achieves considerable worth. A good example for such a community project is Wikipedia, where thousands of contributors deliver millions of articles, forming an encyclopaedia that is worth millions of dollars.
Distributed Learning Environments and Social Software
Authors: Fiedler Sebastian , Pata Kai
Published: May 2011

This chapter discusses how the construction of an adequate design and intervention framework for distributed learning environments might be approached. It proposes that activity theory has some interesting concepts and perspectives to offer in this regard. In addition, it discusses the concept of affordance, understood as perceived possibilities for action, and its potential consequences for learning environment design. Furthermore, some current technical and conceptual challenges for the implementation and maintenance of distributed learning environments are addressed. The authors consider their text as a proposal for a necessary reorientation and a call for contributions to the search for an adequate design and intervention framework for distributed learning environments.
Ambient Pedagogies, Meaningful Learning and Social Software
Authors: Ravenscroft Andrew , Sagar Musbah , Baur Enzian , Oriogun Peter
Published: May 2011

This chapter will present a new approach to designing learning interactions and experiences that reconciles relatively stable learning processes with relatively new digital practices in the context of social software and Web 2.0. It will begin with a brief position on current educational articulations of social software before offering some theoretical pointers and methodological perspectives for research and development in this area. The authors will then explain how an ongoing initiative in advanced learning design has developed notions of “ambient learning design” and “experience design” to address these issues and describe a new methodology for developing digital tools that incorporate these concepts. This approach is exemplified through ongoing work within an initiative in Digital Dialogue Games and the InterLoc tool that realises them. Finally, the implications this work has for future trends in designing for inclusive, highly communicative and engaging learning interactions and practices for the digital age are discussed.
Information Systems Development
Authors: Mattia Angela , Weistroffer Heinz Roland
Published: May 2011

Conventional wisdom has it that user participation in information systems development (ISD) is essential for systems success. Though the significance of user participation to systems success has been much discussed in the literature, results from empirical studies are inconsistent and suggest, that perhaps new avenues need to be explored. One approach may be viewing user participation as a social network that is, looking at the emergence of social structures and their technological expressions during the user participation process. In this chapter, a framework is presented that organizes user participation approaches that emerge from the different worldviews existing within organizations. This user participation approach (UPA) framework is used as the structure for the systematic arrangement of user participation approaches into a fourfold taxonomy based on extrinsic information attributed to them in the literature. In addition, a categorical analysis and social network analysis (SNA) are used to map and visualize the relationships between analyst and users, thus providing a conceptual and visual representation of the relational structures.
Social Navigation and Local Folksonomies
Authors: Bilandzic Mark , Foth Marcus
Published: May 2011

Web services such as wikis, blogs, podcasting, file sharing and social networking are frequently referred to by the term Web 2.0. The innovation of these services lies in their ability to enable an increasing number of users to actively participate on the Internet by creating and sharing their own content and help develop a collective intelligence. In this chapter the authors discuss how they use Web 2.0 techniques such as “folksonomy” and “geo-tagging” in a mobile information system to collect and harness the everyday connections and local knowledge of urban residents in order to support their social navigation practices.
Social Aspects of Mobile Technologies on Web Tourism Trend
Authors: Ferri Fernando , Grifoni Patrizia , Guzzo Tiziana
Published: May 2011

This chapter analyzes how the development and use of mobile and Web technologies are changing the way to search information, to plan, to buy, and to travel. The new technologies are changing several aspects of our life, such as the way in which people work, buy, learn, travel, and how they relate to each other, and so on. The tourist sector certainly represents one of the most dynamic markets, able to capture innovations and opportunities provided by the Web, in such a way that gets to be an out-andout model of e-business. Internet access now is not restricted to personal computer. In fact the use of mobile devices is becoming increasingly important. The chapter’s goal is to analyze social implications of Web applications and mobile devices and how they are improving the attitude of the customers both the fruition of tourism services and to development of sustainable tourism.
Social/Human Dimensions of Web Services
Authors: Draghici Anca , Barglazan Diana , Lewkowicz Myriam , Molcho Gila
Published: May 2011

This chapter presents some recent studies of the social and human dimension of Semantic Web services in the era of virtual organizations, focusing on the challenges, effects, and implications. The issues and results presented refer to the virtual organization known as the Virtual Research Laboratory for a Knowledge Community in Production (VRL-KCiP), Network of Excellence (NoE). In this chapter the authors analyze the risks arising from the modern communication process in this new form of organization, focusing in particular on the knowledge sharing process. Furthermore, they discuss the cultural aspects of managing a virtual organization that determine the efficiency of the knowledge management processes. The aim is to consider the challenges and the associated effect on developing Web services from the social/ human perspective and to examine the impact on an organization’s cultural dimensions.
WEB 2.0, Social Marketing Strategies and Distribution Channels for City Destinations
Authors: Sigala Marianna
Published: May 2011

During the last decades, the use of Web 2.0 applications for the generation, dissemination, and sharing of user-generated content (UGC) and the creation of new value added services are enormous. Web 2.0 tools have tremendously changed the way people search, find, read, gather, share, develop, and consume information, as well as on the way people communicate with each other and collaboratively create new knowledge. UGC and Web 2.0 are also having a tremendous impact not only on the behaviour and decision-making of Internet users, but also on the e-business model that organizations need to develop and/or adapt in order to conduct business on the Internet. Organizations responsible to market and promote cities on the Internet are not an exception from these developments. This chapter aims to inform city tourism organizations responsible for the development of city portals about (a) the use of the major Web 2.0 tools in tourism and their impact on the tourism demand and supply; and (b) the ways and practices for integrating the use of Web 2.0 into their e-business model and e-marketing practices.
Managing Organizational Knowledge in the Age of Social Computing
Authors: Kochikar V.P.
Published: May 2011

Technology, since the days of the Industrial Revolution, has been used by large corporations, such as factories and the railways, to great advantage. Starting around the end of the 19th century, technology began to be used directly by the consumer, but remained essentially a means of satisfying a personal need, such as lighting or listening to music. In the past decade, as technologies such as e-mail, Web, Weblogs (blogs), Wikis, and instant messaging have become pervasive, the way technology is used by individuals has changed—it has increasingly been put to use to meet social needs, such as interaction, sharing, and networking. This new paradigm of technology use, and the technologies that have enabled it, may be termed social computing. By its very nature, social computing facilitates the sharing and leveraging of knowledge residing within a community of people. In this article, we discuss how social computing can act as the primary mechanism that enables the management of knowledge within an organization.
Social Software for Bottom-Up Knowledge Networking and Community Building
Authors: Chatti Mohamed Amine , Jarke Matthias
Published: May 2011

Recognizing that knowledge is a key asset for better performance and that knowledge is a human and social activity, building ecologies that foster knowledge networking and community building becomes crucial. Over the past few years, social software has become an important medium to connect people, bridge communities, and leverage collaborative knowledge creation and sharing. In this chapter we explore how social software can support the building and maintaining of knowledge ecologies and discuss the social landscape within different social software mediated communities and networks.
The Use of Social Media by Nonprofit Organizations
Authors: Waters Richard D.
Published: May 2011

Nonprofit organizations are an essential part of the social, political, and economic landscape of contemporary society. Social media provide ample opportunities for these organizations to increase their community presence, impact, effectiveness, and efficiency. A qualitative study of 39 nonprofit leaders explored how nonprofits are utilizing the potential of the social media technologies to carry out their programs and services. Thematic analysis revealed that nonprofits are slowly embracing the possibilities offered by the new social interaction technologies. Most nonprofit organizations lag behind and wait to see how other nonprofits incorporate these new communication outlets into their budgets and daily operations. Paralleling Rogers’ diffusion of innovations theory, innovators and early adopters are using social media to revitalize their fundraising and volunteering efforts while the majority lags behind.
Social Interaction Technologies
Authors: Huang Jiehua , Aaltio Iiris
Published: May 2011

This chapter explores a relationship between social interaction technologies (SIT) and guanxi, a major Chinese informal style of networking, in the context of the careers of women managers in the information technology (IT) field in China. Addressing women’s under-representation in non-traditional occupations (such as IT), prior research has established that networking, especially informal, is an important career management tool for women. Recent advances in social capital theory and social network analysis provide a framework for understanding the role of social processes in achieving career success. Today, the growing Web-based social and professional networking in China weighs against the traditional forms of relationships, such as personal networks based on guanxi. The study indicates that SIT and guanxi should be viewed as complementary rather than mutually exclusive influences.
Social Networking Sites (SNS) and the ‘Narcissistic Turn'
Authors: Ibrahim Yasmin
Published: May 2011

The advent of the Internet hailed the ability of users to transform their identity and expression and articulation of the ‘self’ through their digital interactions. The Internet in its early days enabled the user to re-define identity through the text-based environment of the internet without declaring their offline persona or identity. In comparison new social software like Facebook have brought about a narcissistic turn where private details are placed on a global arena for public spectacle creating new ways of connecting and gazing into the lives of the others. It raises new social issues for societies including the rise of identity fraud, infringement of privacy, the seeking of private pleasures through public spectacle as well as the validation of one’s identity through peer recognition and consumption.
Embedding an Ecology Notion in the Social Production of Urban Space
Authors: Klaebe Helen , Adkins Barbara , Foth Marcus , Hearn Greg
Published: May 2011

This chapter defines, explores and Illustrates research at the intersection of people, place and technology in cities. First, we theorise the notion of ecology in the social production of space to continue our response to the quest of making sense of an environment characterised by different stakeholders and actors as well as technical, social and discursive elements that operate across dynamic time and space constraints. Second, we describe and rationalise our research approach, which is designed to illuminate the processes at play in the social production of space from three different perspectives. We illustrate the application of our model in a discussion of a case study of community networking and community engagement in an Australian urban renewal site. Three specific interventions that are loosely positioned at the exchange of each perspective are then discussed in detail, namely: Sharing Stories; Social Patchwork and History Lines; and City Flocks.
Consequences and Strategic Implications of Networked Enterprise and Human Resources
Authors: Jiménez-Zarco Ana Isabel , Martínez-Ruiz María Pilar , González-Benito Óscar
Published: May 2011

In the current environment, knowledge constitutes the starting point for the development of all economic and social agents’ activities and behaviors (Castells, 2000). Knowledge, as an internal resource, can be used intensively, which makes it possible to consider it as a productive factor as well as an important strategic element for obtaining a key source of competitive advantages (Vilaseca, Torrent-Sellens, & Jiménez Zarco, 2007). Certain works, such as the ones developed by Vilaseca et al. (2007) and others, consider the process of economic globalization, the demand changes, and the intensive use of ICT responsible for the emergence of an economy based on knowledge. Nevertheless, from a business point of view, the intensive use of ICT can be regarded as the most important factor. Thus, the globalization of markets together with the changes in demand are challenges, although the intensive use of ICT provides strength for responding to the new environmental changes and even transforming them into opportunities. Depending on the ability of firms to transform challenges into opportunities—which can be sometimes achieved through a systematic use of ICT—good results can be achieved. In order to face the growing complexity and competitiveness of the environment as well as give quick and suitable responses, the firm must consider ICT as an internal strategic factor (Bond & Houston. 2003). Hence, by favoring the accumulation and use of knowledge in all organizational activities and encouraging the organization’s flexibility, the use of ICT permits a quick adaptation of the organization to this new context as well as the development of customized competitive strategies. In contrast, the intensive use of ICT in organizations will not only influence the marketing, post-sales, and human resources departments (Vilaseca & Torrent, 2003), but also induce the development of new organizational, productive, strategic and managerial models. Thus, the intensive use of ICT facilitates both in the mmedium-and-long run the generation of more flexible schemes, more efficient and economical productive processes as well as strategic models based on the generation, processing, and use of information and knowledge (Johnson, Sohi, & Grewal, 2004).
Standards, Patents and Mobile Phones
Authors: Bekkers Rudi , West Joel
Published: May 2011

The impact of patents and patent royalties are a major concern of standards setting organisations. Here we examine the patents filed in the UMTS 3rd generation mobile phone standard, governed by the ETSI IPR policy in response to patent issues faced during the earlier GSM standardization. We contrast firm strategies and policy effectiveness between the GSM and UTMS efforts, and review the potential impact of potential changes to the ETSI IPR policy.
Static and Dynamic Efficiency in the European Telecommunications Market
Authors: Distaso Walter , Lupi Paolo , Manenti Fabio M.
Published: May 2011

In this chapter the authors provide evidence of the effectiveness of European National Regulatory Authorities in applying the basic principles of the ladder of investment. The analysis discusses and compares the regulatory approach adopted in 12 European Countries from January 2005 to July 2007. Results are not easy to interpret, given the peculiarities of the different national markets. Nevertheless, they can conclude that the policies adopted by National Regulatory Authorities are broadly consistent with the ladder of investment theory.
Hybrid Trust Structure in Self-Organizing Networks
Authors: Zhou Tong , Harn Lein
Published: May 2011

A traditional service provider of telecommunications is recognized as an authority which is trusted by the subscribers and the public. Ad hoc and Peer to Peer (P2P) networks have demonstrated advantages that service provider controlled networks lack, and they also exhibit self-organizing behaviors. A pure self-organizing network does not rely on any hierarchical management. Instead, it utilizes a web of trust for security. Its trust management is complicated and varies from node to node. In this article, we discuss a hybrid trust structure that leverages the involvement of an authority in a self-organizing network to increase trust levels between disconnected small-worlds. The new model will help service providers design more robust and innovative solutions for next generation networks and applications.
Formal Methods in Cross Layer Modeling and Optimization of Wireless Networks
Authors: Kliazovich Dzmitry , Devetsikiotis Michael , Granelli Fabrizio
Published: May 2011

The layering principle has been long identified as a way to increase the interoperability and to improve the design of telecommunication protocols, where each layer offers services to adjacent upper layers and requires functionalities from adjacent lower ones. In the past, layering has enabled fast development of interoperable systems, but at the same time limited the performance of the overall architecture, due to the lack of coordination among layers. This issue is particularly relevant for wireless networks, where the very physical nature of the transmission medium introduces several performance limitations for protocols designed for wired networks. To overcome these limitations, a modification of the layering paradigm has been proposed, namely, cross-layer design, or “cross-layering.” Several cross-layering approaches have been proposed in the literature so far. Nevertheless, little formal characterization of the cross-layer interaction among different levels of the protocol stack is available yet. A clear need exists for identifying approaches able to analyze and provide quantitative guidelines for the design of cross-layer solutions, and, more importantly, to decide, in each case, whether cross-layering represents an effective solution or not. This chapter provides a detailed survey of the state-of-the-art and future directions in the usage of formal methods for cross-layer modeling and optimization of wireless networks. The text starts by detailing the principles of layered (ISO/OSI and TCP/IP) protocol stacks as well as the cross-layer paradigm. An overview of the architectures of existing and perspective wireless networks is presented along with an analysis of the potential limitations deriving from the layering approach and detailed description of possible optimization solutions enabled by cross-layer design. Subsequent sections are devoted to the issues of modeling and optimization of wireless networks. The remaining sections cover performance optimization as well as architecture optimization (specifically in terms of signaling). The chapter ends with a summary and outlines about future directions of research on the topic.
Can Virtual Networks Encourage Knowledge Absorptive Capacity?
Authors: Camison Cesar
Published: May 2011

Organisations are finding it more difficult to keep abreast with the pace of change. The continuous rise of business opportunities and the increase in global competition demands a capability to acquire, assimilate, transform and apply external critical knowledge to renew and reconfigure existing capabilities and knowledge, and to innovate. Developing this dynamic capability requires, in turn, new proactive Knowledge Management tools and new organisational forms. This chapter presents a framework in which virtual networks constitute more flexible new organisational structures to absorb and create knowledge. It also describes how embeddedness in such a network can affect most of the factors identified as antecedents of absorptive capacity. In addition, it evidences the important role of the firm’s relational capabilities in taking advantage of the relevant business information, knowledge, resources, technologies and capabilities circulating in the virtual networks.
Modeling and Simulation of Self-Similar Traffic in Wireless IP Networks
Authors: Radev Dimitar , Lokshina Izabella , Radeva Svetla
Published: May 2011

The article examines self-similar properties of real telecommunications network traffic data over a wide range of time scales. These self-similar properties are very different from the properties of traditional models based on Poisson and Markov-modulated Poisson processes. Simulation with stochastic and long range dependent traffic source models is performed, and the algorithms for buffer overflow simulation for finite buffer single server model under self-similar traffic load SSM/M/1/B are explained. The algorithms for modeling fixedlength sequence generators that are used to simulate self-similar behavior of wireless IP network traffic are developed and applied. Numerical examples are provided, and simulation results are analyzed.
Quality of Health Information on the Internet
Authors: Alamantariotou Kleopatra
Published: May 2011

Recent statistics show that the World Wide Web has now grown to over 100 million sites: a phenomenal expansion in only 15 years (Mulligan 2007). It has been estimated that there are 100,000 sites offering health related information (Wilson 2002). As the amount of health information increases, the public find it increasingly difficult to decide what to accept and what to reject (Burgess 2007). Searching for information on the internet is both deceptively easy and the same time frustratingly difficult (Kiley 2002). The challenge for consumers is to find high quality, relevant information as quickly as possible. There has been ongoing debate about the quality of information aimed at patients and the general public and opinions differ on how it can be improved (Stepperd 1999). The purpose of this chapter is to provide a brief overview of the different perspectives on information quality and to review the main criteria for assessing the quality of health information on the internet. Pointers are provided to enable both clinicians and patients find high quality information sources. An understanding of these issues should help health professionals and patients to make effective use of the internet.