bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Eliciting User Preferences in Multi-Agent Meeting Scheduling Problem
Authors: Rigi Mohammad Amin , Khoshalhan Farid
Published: October 2011

Meeting Scheduling Problem (MSP) arranges meetings between a number of participants. Reaching consensus in arranging a meeting is very diffuclt and time-consuming when the number of participants is large. One efficient approach for overcoming this problem is the use of multi-agent systems. In a multi-agent system, agents are deciding on behalf of their users. They must be able to elicite their users’ preferences in an effective way. This paper focuses on the elicitation of users’ preferences. Analytical hierarchy process (AHP) - which is known for its ability to determine preferences - is used in this research. Specifically, an adaptive preference modeling technique based on AHP is developed and implemented in a system and the initial validation results are encouraging.
The Role of Social Networks in Emergency Management
Authors: Li Linna , Goodchild Michael F.
Published: October 2011

Lack of relevant information, particularly geospatial information, is one of the major challenges in emergency management. In the past few years, geospatial information created by volunteers and facilitated by social networks has become a promising data source in time-critical situations. This paper discusses the roles that social networks can play in the crowdsourcing of geospatial information for emergency management, data generation and dissemination through social networks, and investigates the relationships and interactions in social networks. Research issues arise in the areas of data access, data quality, information synthesis, emerging patterns of human behaviors in emergencies, analysis and visualization of nested social networks, implementation of information systems for emergency management, privacy, and equity.
Mining Geospatial Knowledge on the Social Web
Authors: Intagorn Suradej , Lerman Kristina
Published: October 2011

Up-to-date geospatial information can help crisis management community to coordinate its response. In addition to data that is created and curated by experts, there is an abundance of user-generated, user-curated data on Social Web sites such as Flickr, Twitter, and Google Earth. User-generated data and metadata can be used to harvest knowledge, including geospatial knowledge that will help solve real-world problems including information discovery, geospatial information integration and data management. This paper proposes a method for acquiring geospatial knowledge in the form of places and relations between them from the user-generated data and metadata on the Social Web. The key to acquiring geospatial knowledge from social metadata is the ability to accurately represent places. The authors describe a simple, efficient algorithm for finding a non-convex boundary of a region from a sample of points from that region. Used within a procedure that learns part-of relations between places from real-world data extracted from the social photo-sharing site Flickr, the proposed algorithm leads to more precise relations than the earlier method and helps uncover knowledge not contained in expert-curated geospatial knowledge bases.
Knowledge-Based Issues for Aid Agencies in Crisis Scenarios
Authors: Bali Rajeev K. , Mann Russell , Baskaran Vikram , Immonen Aapo , Naguib Raouf , Richards Alan C. , Puentes John , Lehaney Brian , Marshall Ian M. , Wickramasinghe Nilmini
Published: October 2011

As part of its expanding role, particularly as an agent of peace building, the United Nations (UN) actively participates in the implementation of measures to prevent and manage crisis/disaster situations. The purpose of such an approach is to empower the victims, protect the environment, rebuild communities, and create employment. However, real world crisis management situations are complex given the multiple interrelated interests, actors, relations, and objectives. Recent studies in healthcare contexts, which also have dynamic and complex operations, have shown the merit and benefits of employing various tools and techniques from the domain of knowledge management (KM). Hence, this paper investigates three distinct natural crisis situations (the 2010 Haiti Earthquake, the 2004 Boxing Day Asian Tsunami, and the 2001 Gujarat Earthquake) with which the United Nations and international aid agencies have been and are currently involved, to identify recurring issues which continue to provide knowledge-based impediments. Major findings from each case study are analyzed according to the estimated impact of identified impediments. The severity of the enumerated knowledge-based issues is quantified and compared by means of an assigned qualitative to identify the most significant attribute.
The Impact of Regulatory Compliance on Agile Software Processes with a Focus on the FDA Guidelines for Medical Device Software
Authors: Mehrfard Hossein , Hamou-Lhadj Abdelwahab
Published: October 2011

The difficulty of complying with different regulations has become more evident as a large number of regulated businesses are mandated to follow an ever-increasing set of regulations. These regulations often drive significant changes in the way organizations operate to deliver value to their customers. This paper focuses on the impact of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulations on agile software development processes, which in many ways can be considered as just another type of organizational processes. Particular focus is placed on the ability for Extreme Programming (XP) to support FDA requirements. Findings show that XP fails to meet many of the FDA guidelines for medical device software, which increases the risks of non-compliance for organizations that have adopted XP as their main software process. The results of this study can lead the work towards designing an extension to XP for FDA regulations.
What Practitioners Think of Inter-organizational ERP Requirements Engineering Practices
Authors: Daneva Maya , Ahituv Niv
Published: October 2011

Empirical studies on requirements engineering for inter-organizational enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems have demonstrated that the ERP vendor-provided prescriptive models for ERP roll-outs make tacit assumptions about the ERP adopter’s context. This, in turn, leads to the implementation of suboptimal solutions. Specifically, these models assume that ERP implementations happen within a single company, and so they pay only scant attention to the stakeholders’ requirements for inter-organizational coordination. Given this backdrop, the first author proposed 13 practices for engineering the ERP coordination requirements in previous publications. This paper reports a confirmatory study evaluating those practices. Using an online focus group, the authors collected and analyzed practitioners’ feedback and their experiences to understand the extent to which the proposed practices are indeed observable. The study indicated very low variability in practitioners’ perceptions regarding 12 of the 13 practices, and considerable variability in their perceptions regarding the role of modeling inter-organizational coordination requirements. The contribution of the study is twofold: (1) it adds to the body of knowledge in the sub-area of RE for ERP; and (2) it adds to the practice of using qualitative research methods in empirical RE.
Exploring Barriers to Coordination between Humanitarian NGOs
Authors: Tchouakeu Louis-Marie Ngamassi , Maldonado Edgar , Zhao Kang , Robinson Harold , Maitland Carleen , Tapia Andrea
Published: October 2011

Humanitarian nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) are increasingly collaborating through inter-organizational structures such as coalitions, alliances, partnerships, and coordination bodies. NGO’s information technology coordination bodies are groups of NGOs aimed at improving the efficiency of ICT use in humanitarian assistance through greater coordination. Despite their popularity, little is known about these coordination bodies, specifically the extent to which they address inter-organizational coordination problems. This paper examines coordination problems within two humanitarian NGO’s information technology coordination bodies. Based on data collected through interviews, observation, and document analysis, despite positive attitudes toward coordination by members, seven of eight widely accepted barriers to coordination still exist among members of these coordination bodies. Further, in a comparison of mandate-oriented, structural and behavioral coordination barriers, research finds mandate issues were most significant and structural factors were found in the greatest numbers. Findings suggest that effective humanitarian NGO’s information technology coordination bodies must pay attention to both organizational design and management issues, although the former are likely to have a greater impact on coordination.
Discrete-Event Simulation Models for Assessing Incidents in Railway Systems
Authors: Sánchez Álvaro García , Ortega-Mier Miguel , Arranz Roberto
Published: October 2011

This paper presents a discrete event simulation model developed with a commercial environment. A modular approach is adopted, which facilitates building models for different railway systems. A key feature of this simulator is that it simultaneously models train movements and passenger behavior. The simulator has been used to assess two different policies when short incidents occur. Incidents are characterized by different factors, which are analyzed for both policies. A case-study is presented based on a subsystem of the commuter train network of the province of Madrid in Spain.
Solving a Bi-Criteria Hybrid Flowshop Scheduling Problem Occurring in Apparel Manufacturing
Authors: Montoya-Torres Jairo R. , Vargas-Nieto Fabián
Published: October 2011

This paper studies the problem of production scheduling in a company belonging to the apparel industry, where textile labels are manufactured through the process of thermal transfer. The problem is modelled as a flexible flowshop with two stages. The objectives are the maximisation of system productivity (or minimisation of makespan) and the minimisation of the number of production orders with late delivery. This paper proposes a scheduling procedure based on a bi-objective genetic algorithm. An experimental study was performed using real data from the enterprise. Since validation results showed the efficiency and effectiveness of the proposed procedure, a decision-aid tool is designed. The algorithm is implemented at the enterprise and allows improved key performance metrics.
B2B Relationships in Modern Times
Authors: Hannås Gøril , Andersen Otto
Published: October 2011

Information technology (IT) enables businesses to integrate information systems across entities without altering the firms’ legal boundaries. New forms of inter-firm dependence and governance mechanisms may arise, due to the explicit investments made in technology and systems for collaboration purposes. There is an important distinction between general and customized investments in inter-organizational information systems (IOS), because the specificity level in IT exhibits certain characteristics that accentuate both the risk and value of inter-firm trade. Several research calls were made to validate governance theories on IOS. Based on a literature review, this paper provides a synthesis and integration of transaction cost economics (TCE) and IOS literature regarding governance forms. The paper discusses why the specificity level of IOS plays a central role in modern collaboration between firms, and how vertical electronic coordination (VEC) represents a mechanism for electronic governance forms and presents an agenda for future research.
Optimizing Routes with Safety and Environmental Criteria in Transportation Management in Spain
Authors: Faulin Javier , Lera-López Fernando , Juan Angel A.
Published: October 2011

The object of logistic management is to optimise the whole value chain of the distribution of goods and merchandise. One of the main aspects of such an analysis is the optimisation of vehicle routes to deliver final products to customers. There are many algorithms to optimise the related vehicle routing problem. The objective function of that problem usually involves distance, cost, number of vehicles, or profits. This study also takes safety and environmental costs into account. Thus, the authors develop variants to traditional heuristic algorithms, in which they include the traditional costs along with safety and environmental cost estimates for real scenarios in Spain. This methodology is called ASEC (Algorithms with Safety and Environmental Criteria). These considerations raise the value of the global objective function, but permit a more realistic cost estimate that includes not only the internal costs involved in the problem but also the related externalities. Finally, real cases are discussed, and solutions are offered using the new ASEC methodology.
Analysis of Reverse Logistics Operations for a Computer Company
Authors: Tan Albert Wee Kwan , Kumar Arun , Sundarakani Balan
Published: October 2011

As reverse logistics is a relatively new field in supply chain management, especially in Asia, a detailed study is conducted to understand the status of companies practicing reverse logistics to support their Asia Pacific operations. This paper discusses an empirical examination of a company performing reverse logistics in Asia with Singapore being the coordination hub with the United States (US). Data on the transaction volumes and other material information are collected over a period of two years to understand the behaviour and trends of reverse logistics in this company. Statistical tools such as serial correlation, seasonality and trend analysis are performed on the data to understand their behaviour and its managerial implication. The study has shown that there is an upward trend for the return volume and how financial closing has an impact to the return volumes.
Service Platform Development
Authors: Daim Tugrul , Brand Marius , Lin Linda
Published: October 2011

Platform concepts have been around for about a decade now. While their focus was on the manufacturing industry in the beginnings, interest has shifted to services – and Internet-based services in particular. This paper provides an overview of popular product platform concepts, a new view upon services in the light of the Internet, and links platforms to Internet-based services. Two companies with a tremendous platform potential, Google and EBay, are introduced and analyzed with respect to their usage of the product platform concept. After a brief discussion of the results, two product offerings of both Google and EBay are compared to give a practical example.
Demand Analysis by Modeling Choice of Internet Access and IP Telephony
Authors: Kurosawa Takeshi , Bolduc Denis , Ben-Akiva Moshe , Inoue Akiya , Nishimatsu Ken , Iwashita Motoi
Published: October 2011

In Japan, demands for broadband Internet access and IP telephony have increased dramatically in recent years. According to official sources, as of September 2009, there are 30.9 million users of broadband Internet access and 20.9 million of IP telephony. This study evaluates and estimates the market share of fiber-optic Internet connection, which is becoming the major player in broadband services, paying specific attention to IP telephony. A comprehensive combined choice model of Internet access line, IP telephony, and awareness of IP telephony is presented. The most suitable parameters for the model were determined by using an original market research survey conducted in Japan during 2004 with stated-preference choice experiments of both Internet access and IP telephony. The results indicate that increasing awareness has the potential to dramatically increase the penetration of IP telephony. The results also indicate a great variability in price sensitivity across income groups for the choices of Internet access line and IP telephony. The fiber optic share is shown to change with a change in its own monthly usage charge, indicating that market share gains are possible through reduced usage fees.
Optimal Compensation for Hierarchical Web Services Compositions Under Restricted Visibility
Authors: Biswas Debmalya , Vidyasankar Krishnamurthy
Published: October 2011

Over the years, the notion of transactions has become synonymous with providing fault-tolerance, reliability and robustness to database systems. To extend the same transactional guarantees to new and evolving paradigms, such as Web service, the transactional mechanisms must first be adapted to the distinguishing characteristics of Web services, mainly composability, long-running nature, and privacy and security concerns. Composability refers to the ability to form new composite services by combining the functionalities of existing services. Due to their long-running nature, compensation based mechanisms are usually preferred to provide transactional guarantees for Web services. Compensation requires access (visibility) over the execution details of the services in the composition. However, such visibility may not always be feasible in a compositional context where component services are provided by different providers across organizational boundaries, with very strong privacy and security constraints. This paper looks at compensation options for Web services in a hierarchical composition. Multiple compensation options may be available for a composite service both at the same level and at different levels of the hierarchy. This paper shows how to find an optimal compensation option under restricted visibility.
Detection of Strategies in IT Organizations through an Integrated IT Compliance Model
Authors: Marcos Antonio Folgueras , Tello José Carlos Alva , Ruiz-Mezcua Belén , Crespo Ángel García
Published: October 2011

In the past few years, many frameworks and standards have been developed to cover different aspects of IT to provide best practices, such as COBIT, ITIL, CMMI, ISO/IEC 20000, ISO/IEC 38500 and ISO/IEC 27000, and improve IT governance and IT service management in organizations. This research presents how self-assessments for IT standards improve significantly the strategic and tactical evaluation of IT requirements. Self-assessments measure the state of an organization in relation to experts’ recommendations of a specific framework. As a result of the number and excellence of the current standards, the authors propose a Compliance Model (MOPLACO) that uses, as a starting point, a combination of self-assessments and standards to plan the early strategic and tactical stages of the IT departments.
Enterprise Modeling and Enterprise Architecture
Authors: Seigerroth Ulf
Published: October 2011

Several scholars have argued for the need to integrate both the IT perspective and the business perspective during development of enterprises and IS/IT architectures. In this process, it is necessary to be able to deal with a number of sub-areas to succeed with the transformation. One challenge is the need to move beyond a narrow focus on one tradition or technology, as well as to use and integrate different concepts within an enterprise. This integrated view also includes the use and development of guidelines (methods, tools, etc.), in addition to research methodologies and human aspects. Therefore, enterprise modeling and enterprise architecture must treat all slices in a comprehensive alignment context. In this paper, the author presents a conceptualization of the research area Enterprise Modeling and Enterprise Architecture with a focus on transformation and alignment of business and IT.
Best Approach for Video Codec Selection Over VoIP Conversation Using Wireless Local Area Network
Authors: Ismail Mohd Nazri
Published: October 2011

This study evaluates video codec performance over VoIP using a campus wireless network. Today, the deployment of VoIP occurs in various platforms, including VoIP over LAN, VoIP over WAN and VoIP over VPN. Therefore, this study defines which video codec provides good video quality over VoIP transmission. The soft phone is used as a medium for communication between two parties. A network management system is used to evaluate and capture the video quality performance over VoIP. The quality of video codec is based on MOS, jitter, delay and packet loss. The experimental scope is limited to G.722 with MP4V-ES, G.726 (16) with H.261 and G.726 (24) with H.264. The results show that audio codec G.722 with MP4V-ES generates good video quality over VoIP using wireless local area network. Whereas audio codec G.726 (16) with H.261 generates low rate video and voice quality performance. Therefore, using the appropriate video and audio, the codec selection increases video quality over VoIP transmission.
Machine-to-Machine Communications and Security Solution in Cellular Systems
Authors: Saedy Mahdy , Mojtahed Vahideh
Published: October 2011

This paper introduces an efficient machine-to-machine (M2M) communication model based on 4G cellular systems. M2M terminals are capable of establishing Ad Hoc clusters wherever they are close enough. It is also possible to extend the cellular coverage for M2M terminals through multi-hop Ad Hoc connections. The M2M terminal structure is proposed accordingly to meet the mass production and security requirements. The security becomes more critical in Ad Hoc mode as new nodes attach to the cluster. A simplified protocol stack is considered here, while key components are introduced to provide secure communications between M2M and the network and also amongst M2M terminals.
A Novel Approach to Avoid Mobile Phone Accidents While Driving and Cost- Effective Fatalities
Authors: Shabeer H. Abdul , Wahidabanu R. S. D.
Published: October 2011

This paper presents the results of mobile application which helps in preventing mobile phone accidents to the great extent. An electronic circuit (Transmitter and Receiver block) also designed to detect the driver’s mobile phone automatically once he or she starts the vehicle and the circuit will switch OFF and then ON the mobile phone without human intervention with the help of 5 pin relay in order to start the application automatically. The authors further extend the research by comparing the obtained results after installing this application with a recent study of the US National Safety Council, conducted on 2010. The authors also show how far this application helps in reducing economic losses in India.
Human Resource Related Problems in Agile and Traditional Software Project Process Models
Authors: Koch Stefan , Turk Gerhard
Published: October 2011

This paper explores the impacts associated with different software process models on the staff. The main research question addressed is whether any process model leads to a higher satisfaction of staff, and less human resource related problems, including staff turnover or increased stress levels. This issue is empirically investigated using a set of projects from 15 different software developing companies. Agile-oriented models are not necessarily limited to small projects, but both groups showed nearly identical distributions for team size and duration. Interestingly, rigid-type models tend to exhibit higher effort estimations, and lower correctness in these estimations. Also customer satisfaction is slightly lower. With regard to human resource issues, the differences are not major overall, but there are some noticeable exceptions. In general, satisfaction and acceptance are higher at lower stress and overtime levels for agile-type project participants, but, interestingly and contrary to theory, people wish for more responsibility. Agile-type projects also enjoy some advantages in information sharing and communication, and in some quality aspects. Rigid-type projects show considerable higher abilities to cope with absence of personnel.
A Single-Objective Recovery Phase Model
Authors: Mehlhorn Sandy , Racer Michael , Ivey Stephanie , Lipinski Martin
Published: October 2011

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has identified the four phases of disaster related planning as mitigation, preparation, response, and recovery. The recovery phase is characterized by activity to return life to normal or improved levels. Very little research considers the recovery phase, which encompasses restoring services and rebuilding disaster stricken areas of the highway transportation network. Existing recovery phase models deal primarily with travel times and do not focus on specific routes for reconstruction. This research proposes a plan for repair and restoration of bridges to restore a highway network that allows accessibility to key facilities in the area. This research differs from other recovery phase models in that actual routes are chosen for recovery based on given criteria. The single-objective optimization model developed in this paper is a flexible model that can be applied to a variety of natural disaster situations and other situations that involve damage to transportation components where decisions on recovery strategies must be made.
Using a Sliding-Frame Approach for Scheduling Large and Complex IT Projects
Authors: Cohen Yuval , Zwikael Ofer , Sadeh Arik
Published: October 2011

Many IT projects and software development projects are very complex and sophisticated involving a large coordinated team. Such projects are a constant part of the operations of software companies such as Microsoft, SAP, Oracle, Google, Yahoo, IBM, and others. Many other companies carry large software projects as part of their IT operations. As a result of the size and complexity of such projects, a rolling horizon approach for their planning and management is not only plausible but also desirable. For large projects, traditional project scheduling techniques cannot provide an optimal and timely solution to minimum project duration under precedence and resource constraints. This paper proposes a technique that allows utilizing non-polynomial (NP) algorithms in a heuristic manner – generating high quality schedules in reasonable time. This approach can be applied efficiently for solving most project scheduling problems. The main advantage of this approach is its ability to dissect the original problem into small sub-problems of a controllable size to which exact techniques can be applied. Thus, it neutralizes the complexity of the applied algorithms (and their non-polynomial growth). Moreover, the same technique could be used for implementing a rolling-horizon approach in project planning and management.
Information Technology Project Outcomes
Authors: Badamas Muhammed A.
Published: October 2011

Enterprise IT projects can end up costing much more than initial estimations, taking much longer time than expected or delivering benefits below expectations. The success or failure of IT projects, however, depends on the project managers. Many reasons are attributed to the success or failure of an IT project. The major stakeholders who are involved in IT projects are the right people to provide these reasons. This study was conducted among IT project managers in the Washington-Baltimore Metropolitan area to find out the most important reasons that projects succeed or fail. Washington-Baltimore metropolitan is a major hub of IT activities because of the location of the U.S. Federal Government, several government agencies and the presence of many IT contactors in the area. The study provides metric for comparing reasons for success or failure of IT projects with those projects not located in the area.
Improved Algorithm for Error Correction
Authors: Toghuj Wael , Alkhatib Ghazi I.
Published: October 2011

Digital communication systems are an important part of modern society, and they rely on computers and networks to achieve critical tasks. Critical tasks require systems with a high level of reliability that can provide continuous correct operations. This paper presents a new algorithm for data encoding and decoding using a two-dimensional code that can be implemented in digital communication systems, electronic memories (DRAMs and SRAMs), and web engineering. The developed algorithms correct three errors in codeword and detect four, reaching an acceptable performance level. The program that is based on these algorithms enables the modeling of error detection and correction processes, optimizes the redundancy of the code, monitors the decoding procedures, and defines the speed of execution. The performance of the derived code improves error detection and correction over the classical code and with less complexity. Several extensible applications of the algorithms are also given.
The Medical Semantic Web
Authors: Eljinini Mohammad Ali H.
Published: October 2011

In this paper, the need for the right information for patients with chronic diseases is elaborated, followed by some scenarios of how the semantic web can be utilised to retrieve useful and precise information by stakeholders. In previous work, the author has demonstrated the automation of knowledge acquisition from the current web is becoming an important step towards this goal. The aim was twofold; first to learn what types of information exist in chronic disease-related websites, and secondly how to extract and structure such information into machine understandable form. It has been shown that these websites exhibit many common concepts which resulted in the construction of the ontology to guide in extracting information for new unseen websites. Also, the study has resulted in the development of a platform for information extraction that utilises the ontology. Continuous work has opened many issues which are disussed in this paper. While further work is still needed, the experiments to date have shown encouraging results.
Learning a Lightweight Ontology for Semantic Retrieval in Patient-Centered Information Systems
Authors: Reimer Ulrich , Maier Edith , Streit Stephan , Diggelmann Thomas , Hoffleisch Manfred
Published: October 2011

The paper introduces a web-based eHealth platform currently being developed that will assist patients with certain chronic diseases. The ultimate aim is behavioral change. This is supported by online assessment and feedback which visualizes actual behavior in relation to target behavior. Disease-specific information is provided through an information portal that utilizes lightweight ontologies (associative networks) in combination with text mining. The paper argues that classical word-based information retrieval is often not sufficient for providing patients with relevant information, but that their information needs are better addressed by concept-based retrieval. The focus of the paper is on the semantic retrieval component and the learning of a lightweight ontology from text documents, which is achieved by using a biologically inspired neural network. The paper concludes with preliminary results of the evaluation of the proposed approach in comparison with traditional approaches.
KM Approach for Improving the Labor Productivity of Vietnamese Enterprise
Authors: Pham Quoc Trung , Hara Yoshinori
Published: October 2011

In knowledge society, knowledge management (KM) is considered the best strategy for improving the labor productivity of an enterprise. However, the effectiveness of KM on labor productivity is not known exactly, especially since it depends on the development level of a country. To find a solution based on KM approach for improving the labor productivity of Vietnamese enterprise, a new model is proposed, which includes knowledge capability, technology capability, KM, employee satisfaction, and labor productivity. By analyzing data from Vietnamese enterprises, the model is tested and suggestions for improving the labor productivity of Vietnamese enterprises are made. Some results of data analysis are: employee satisfaction positively affects the labor productivity and that KM has a strong effect on employee satisfaction. Further, some suggestions for improving the labor productivity of Vietnamese enterprises are: organizing frequent meetings for shortening cultural gap between managers and employees, replacing old machines combined with improving employees’ self learning skill, improving innovation capability by creating an open culture for encouraging employees to voice their opinions.
Using Grounded Theory to Acquire Knowledge About Critical Success Factors for Conducting Software Process Improvement Implementation Initiatives
Authors: Montoni Mariano Angel , Cavalcanti da Rocha Ana Regina
Published: October 2011

The successful implementation of Software Process Improvement (SPI) depends not only on the abilities of practitioners to identify processes modifications that may help to increase organizations capabilities to develop software, but also abilities to overcome barriers that can jeopardize the organizational change process provoked by SPI initiatives. The literature reports show that SPI practitioners must have experienced skills to overcome common social-cultural factors that pose as critical barriers for successfully implementing SPI. Nevertheless, there is no consensus in the area about what the critical success factors are for conducting SPI implementation initiatives. This work presents a study based on Grounded Theory methodology to acquire knowledge about SPI critical success factors. The main product of this study is a theoretical knowledge framework consisting of a set of inter-related categories grounded on a set of propositions that explains the phenomenon associated to the success of SPI implementation initiatives.
Community-Based Development of Knowledge Products
Authors: Mikolajuk Zbigniew
Published: October 2011

International organizations and government agencies have developed and collected a wealth of knowledge resources relevant to poor communities; however, the people who need these resources most often do not know these materials exist or are unable to access or understand them. Electronic sources of knowledge materials and means of communication are rarely integrated with traditional methods of knowledge delivery. This paper addresses the issue of knowledge sharing with poor communities and presents a software tool for developing multimedia knowledge materials suitable for people with little or no formal education. A multimedia editor uses a data structure composed of multimedia objects (texts, images, video, and audio clips) to generate the knowledge browser. Local specialists with a basic knowledge of computing can modify and customize how the knowledge is presented by adding new materials relevant to the local environment.
Evaluation of Organization Structure Based on Email Interactions
Authors: Palus Sebastian , Bródka Piotr , Kazienko Przemyslaw
Published: October 2011

In every company, employees are in communication via phone, email, text messages, chats on a forum, co-author documents, events, and so forth. They collaborate with each other creating and maintaining mutual relationships in one complex social network. In this paper, the authors use this social network to evaluate company structure and based on this evaluation recommend some changes that have to be made within a company to improve its structure. The evaluation process and an example of its usage are presented in the paper.
Knowledge Mining Wikipedia
Authors: Lee Herbert , Chan Keith , Tsui Eric
Published: October 2011

The organization of information in the knowledge economy has become a primary business process in many enterprises. The better information is organized and stored, the easier it can be retrieved, so that the most relevant information will always be available. Ontology is a versatile technology for organizing information; however, the main obstacle that prevents ontology prevailing is the difficulty in its management, that is, the building and maintaining of ontology. To solve this problem, a structured knowledge source is needed. In this paper, a thorough review on the feasibility of using Wikipedia as the source for ontology management is presented. Different approaches that are based on the use of Wikipedia for such purposes are also discussed. Finally, an ontology management system, based on the use of Wikipedia as the knowledge source, is proposed.
A Survey of Research Methods and Purposes in Mobile Learning
Authors: Wingkvist Anna , Ericsson Morgan
Published: October 2011

In this paper, the authors present a survey of published research in mobile learning. The authors investigate 114 papers from mLearn 2005, 2007, and 2008, and classify them according to two dimensions: research method and research purpose. Research methods and purposes are important parts of how research is conducted. Opinions and approaches toward research differ greatly. The classified papers are evenly distributed among the research methods investigated, with one exception, there are few in basic research. In terms of research purpose, papers that describe research are well represented but there is a lack of papers targeting evaluation. Papers recounting both basic research and research evaluation are imperative, as they help a research field to mature and researchers to avoid repeating known pitfalls. This maturity, in turn, leads to better scalability and sustainability for future research efforts in the mobile learning community.
Empowered Learner Identity Through M-Learning
Authors: Wallace Ruth
Published: October 2011

E-learning has been promoted as a key component of improving educational access and opportunity internationally, but for disenfranchised learners, many forms of e-learning are just as alien as the educational systems they have rejected. M-learning utilises technologies, activities and social systems that are integrated into many people’s lives, including those who have had limited access to, or rejected, formal education systems. This paper discusses projects conducted in Northern Australia that explored a range of e-tools to support indigenous students’ engagement and recognition of their knowledge and contexts. Mobile learning tools emerged as the preferred way to learn throughout the project. This approach challenges educational institutions to connect to students’ lives and contexts. This paper shows how participants utilised m-learning to demonstrate their diverse knowledge systems, the decisions they made about representing knowledge though m-learning, and the implications for trainers and assessors.
Audio Active
Authors: Middleton Andrew
Published: October 2011

This paper challenges the dominant perception evident in the literature that mobile podcasting is primarily a medium for knowledge transmission. It describes why and how mobile audio learning can be facilitative, active and integrated, and how it can involve diverse voices, including those of students, in ways that usefully disrupt didactic pedagogy. Audio is described as an active learning environment, capable of supporting connection to the real world around education in which students are able to act as autonomous learner-gatherers. The paper responds to concerns raised by Ciussi, Rosner, and Augier (2009) that some students are disinterested in podcasting and uses a scenario-based design methodology (Carroll, 2000) to describe and evaluate six innovative applications. It concludes that mobile audio can be understood as an active medium capable of richly and meaningfully engaging learners.
Listening to an Educational Podcast While Walking or Jogging
Authors: Coens Joke , Degryse Ellen , Senecaut Marie-Paul , Cottyn Jorge , Clarebout Geraldine
Published: October 2011

The advent of podcasting offers opportunities for students to learn while performing another activity. While podcasting is advocated by many as helping to learn anywhere and anytime, research indicates that it is not so easy for people to do two things at the same time. Two experiments were set up to examine the effect of performing a secondary task while learning with an iPod. In the experimental groups, the participants had to combine a learning task (listening to an educational podcast) with a secondary task (walking or jogging). The control group only had to perform a learning task. Afterwards, all the participants had to complete a learning test. In the first study, there were no significant differences between the learning performances of students of the different conditions. In the second study, the students who were sitting down outperformed the students who were moving while studying.
Mobile Technology and Student Learning
Authors: Pollara Pamela , Broussard Kelly Kee
Published: October 2011

As mobile devices become ubiquitous, it is necessary to analyze if and how these devices can be used for learning. This systematic review is part of a larger review that analyzed 21 mobile learning research studies published from 2005-present. Eleven studies that focused specifically on student learning outcomes and processes are summarized in this review in order to better understand the direction of mobile learning in mainstream education. Overall, studies were found to be positive and indicated several benefits of using mobile devices for learning including an increase in achievement, productivity, engagement, and motivation. This paper also highlights recommendations for future research and practice in the field of mobile learning, specifically focusing on the way personal mobile device ownership may influence learning both inside and outside the classroom.
FlexRFID Middleware in the Supply Chain
Authors: Ajana M. E. , Harroud H. , Boulmalf M. , Elkoutbi M.
Published: October 2011

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) has been used since the Second World War to identify “friend or foe” aircrafts. It has become an enabling wireless technology that is widely used in a number of application areas, such as product tracking through manufacturing and assembly, inventory control, and supply chain management (SCM). By 2006, Wal-Mart used RFID for all of its suppliers. The use of RFID in supply chain networks has allowed Wal-Mart to create value through greater visibility in its networks, higher product velocity, reduce human error and labor cost, and more efficient inventory management, which led to the achievement of Quick Response (QR) and improved Customer Relationship Management (CRM) in the supply chain. However, RFID system challenges and uncertain Return-On-Investment (ROI) must be overcome to fully achieve these objectives. This paper introduces RFID technology and its key components and concepts, and presents an RFID middleware solution called FlexRFID that achieves the maximum benefits of RFID technology independently of the interested backend applications. This paper illustrates how RFID technology is used to solve the main problems in SCM, the advantages and key issues when implementing RFID in SCM networks, and the relationship between RFID and the main SCM processes.
On Cryptographically Strong Bindings of SAML Assertions to Transport Layer Security
Authors: Kohlar Florian , Schwenk Jörg , Jensen Meiko , Gajek Sebastian
Published: October 2011

In recent research, two approaches to protect SAML based Federated Identity Management (FIM) against man-in-the-middle attacks have been proposed. One approach is to bind the SAML assertion and the SAML artifact to the public key contained in a TLS client certificate. Another approach is to strengthen the Same Origin Policy of the browser by taking into account the security guarantees TLS gives. This work presents a third approach which is of further interest beyond IDM protocols, especially for mobile devices relying heavily on the security offered by web technologies. By binding the SAML assertion to cryptographically derived values of the TLS session that has been agreed upon between client and the service provider, this approach provides anonymity of the (mobile) browser while allowing Relying Party and Identity Provider to detect the presence of a man-in-the-middle attack.
Default Reasoning for Forensic Visual Surveillance based on Subjective Logic and Its Comparison with L-Fuzzy Set Based Approaches
Authors: Han Seunghan , Stechele Walter
Published: October 2011

Default reasoning can provide a means of deriving plausible semantic conclusion under imprecise and contradictory information in forensic visual surveillance. In such reasoning under uncertainty, proper uncertainty handling formalism is required. A discrete species of Bilattice for multivalued default logic demonstrated default reasoning in visual surveillance. In this article, the authors present an approach to default reasoning using subjective logic that acts in a continuous space. As an uncertainty representation and handling formalism, subjective logic bridges Dempster Shafer belief theory and second order Bayesian, thereby making it attractive tool for artificial reasoning. For the verification of the proposed approach, the authors extend the inference scheme on the bilattice for multivalued default logic to L-fuzzy set based logics that can be modeled with continuous species of bilattice structures. The authors present some illustrative case studies in visual surveillance scenarios to contrast the proposed approach with L-fuzzy set based approaches.
Navigating Through Video Stories Using Clustering Sets
Authors: Pinto-Cáceres Sheila M. , Almeida Jurandy , Neris Vânia P. A. , Baranauskas M. Cecília C. , Leite Neucimar J. , Torres Ricardo da S.
Published: October 2011

The fast evolution of technology has led to a growing demand for video data, increasing the amount of research into efficient systems to manage those materials. Making efficient use of video information requires that data be accessed in a user-friendly way. Ideally, one would like to perform video search using an intuitive tool. Most of existing browsers for the interactive search of video sequences, however, have employed a too rigid layout to arrange the results, restricting users to explore the results using list- or grid-based layouts. This paper presents a novel approach for the interactive search that displays the result set in a flexible manner. The proposed method is based on a simple and fast algorithm to build video stories and on an effective visual structure to arrange the storyboards, called Clustering Set. It is able to group together videos with similar content and to organize the result set in a well-defined tree. Results from a rigorous empirical comparison with a subjective evaluation show that such a strategy makes the navigation more coherent and engaging to users.
feelabuzz
Authors: Leichsenring Christian , Tünnermann René , Hermann Thomas
Published: October 2011

Touch can create a feeling of intimacy and connectedness. This work proposes feelabuzz, a system to transmit movements of one mobile phone to the vibration actuator of another one. This is done in a direct, non-abstract way, without the use of pattern recognition techniques in order not to destroy the feel for the other. The tactile channel enables direct communication, i. e. what another person explicitly signals, as well as implicit context communication, the complex movements any activity consists of or even those that are produced by the environment. This paper explores the potential of this approach, presents the mapping use and discusses further possible development beyond the existing prototype to enable a large-scale user study.
Analysis of a Step-Based Watershed Algorithm Using CUDA
Authors: Vitor Giovani Bernardes , Körbes André , Lotufo Roberto de Alencar , Ferreira Janito Vaqueiro
Published: October 2011

This paper proposes and develops a parallel algorithm for the watershed transform, with application on graphics hardware. The existing proposals are discussed and its aspects briefly analysed. The algorithm is proposed as a procedure of four steps, where each step performs a task using different approaches inspired by existing techniques. The algorithm is implemented using the CUDA libraries and its performance is measured on the GPU and compared to a sequential algorithm running on the CPU, achieving an average speed of twice the execution time of the sequential approach. This work improves on previous results of hybrid approaches and parallel algorithms with many steps of synchronisation and iterations between CPU and GPU.