bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Comment les quotas de diffusion radiophonique nuisent à la diversité
Authors: Perona Mathieu
Published: May 2011

Résumé Des quotas de diffusion de contenus nationaux à la radio ou à la télévision existent dans pratiquement tous les pays. Leur justification est qu’en accordant plus de place aux contenus nationaux, ils permettent de mieux financer ceux-ci et permettent à un plus grand nombre de productions nationales d’accéder à la diffusion. Cette contribution montre que ces deux effets ne vont pas nécessairement de pair et qu’il peut exister un arbitrage entre les deux. En effet, si les contenus domestiques et étrangers sont imparfaitement substituables, un quota dégrade la programmation des diffuseurs qui vont devoir compenser les auditeurs en diffusant plus souvent les contenus les plus populaires, évinçant les genres plus marginaux et réduisant la diversité.
Impact budgétaire de l'immigration en France
Authors: Chojnicki Xavier
Published: May 2011

Résumé L’objectif est ici d’étudier les bénéfices que les immigrés retirent du fonctionnement du système public avec la contribution qu’ils y apportent. L’une des conclusions est que l’évaluation de l’impact de l’immigration sur la protection sociale est fortement dépendante de la méthodologie utilisée. Ainsi, si l’on compare à une date donnée la contribution globale au budget public avec le volume des transferts versés, les immigrés apparaissent alors comme relativement favorisés par le système de redistribution. Pour autant, l’impact global de l’immigration sur les finances publiques est légèrement positif dans le long terme du fait de l’apport perpétuel d’individus d’âge actif et de la prise en compte de la contribution nette des descendants de ces immigrés.
Responsabilité civile et contrôle des activités représentant des risques mal connus
Authors: Langlais Éric
Published: May 2011

Résumé Cet article s’intéresse aux mesures de prévention et au rôle de la responsabilité civile en matière de contrôle des activités associées à des risques imparfaitement connus ou inconnus, du type risque d’innovation ou dommages accidentels (à long terme) à l’environnement. L’une des spécificités de ces risques, outre la présence de biais de perception chez les citoyens, est qu’ils sont non assurables.
La politique territoriale française sur la rive gauche du Rhin (1679-1697) : des « réunions » à la Province de la Sarre
Authors: Jalabert Laurent
Published: May 2011

Résumé Les entreprises dites de réunion de la monarchie française sous Louis XIV ont concerné les frontières du grand quart nord-est du royaume (Franche-Comté, Alsace, Lorraine). Au-delà de la démonstration de la puissance du roi, l’un des principaux objectifs était de parfaire la sécurisation de ce vaste espace. De fait, les réunions ont mis à mal des terres d’empire avec entre autres la création de la province de la Sarre, peu peuplée mais importante stratégiquement. Au contraire de la province d’Alsace, celle de la Sarre ne franchit pas vraiment le palier de l’intendance militaire ; pourtant, malgré son caractère éphémère, la mise en place de cette nouvelle province a favorisé la réimplantation du catholicisme entre la Sarre et la Queich.
Remote Experiments and Online Games: How to Merge them?
Authors: Dziabenko Olga , García-Zubia Javier , Lopez-de-Ipina Diego
Published: May 2011

Online games fulfill the basic requirements of learning environments and can provide engaging learning experience for students. The remote experimentations bring to STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) students the ability to practice configuration, deployment, and troubleshooting scenarios in real-life environment on real equipment. These two teaching methodologies are well known, developed and described in the literature. However, the concepts of integration of the remote experimentations and the game setting are yet to be developed. This paper discusses the guidelines for such integrations. The emphasis is made on the educational game design and the flow as a positive impact on learning and attitude of the players. Besides the challenges of balancing attractive elements (graphics, sounds) and educational objectives, the design of the games related to remote laboratories needs to be adjusted to contemporary technological conditions.
Experimental, Numerical and Virtual Tools for Civil Engineering Students
Authors: Marques José Couto
Published: May 2011

<span style="font-size: 10pt; layout-grid-mode: line; font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA;" lang="EN-GB">Three sets of teaching tools developed for Civil Engineering students are presented in this paper. The first is a didactic test frame for structural mechanics and its virtual replica. The second is an outfit for small scale seepage studies. The third is a set of portable devices for visual demonstration of several phenomena of interest for introductory soil mechanics classes.
A Cross-National Comparison of Knowledge Management Practices
Authors: Tovstiga George , Korot Len , Dana Leo-Paul , McElwee Gerard
Published: May 2011

Entrepreneurship, supported by continual innovation, is central to those economies regions and businesses which want to maintain competitive edge (Atherton, 2006). Businesses need to develop flexible, self-adapting organization structures that evolve and grow amidst constant and unpredictable change in their markets. Many businesses have removed political, top-down, command-and-control corporate cultures substituting open, non-hierarchical, team-driven, knowledge-sharing, innovative and rapid response cultures. A distinguishing feature of the successful ‘post Network Age’ enterprise is its intrinsic entrepreneurial character that manifests itself in key organizational knowledge practices relating to organizational culture, processes, content and infrastructure. This article reports on the outcome of field research conducted in the period 1999 to 2003 in which entrepreneurial firms in four geographic regions were analyzed with the help of a diagnostic research tool specifically developed for profiling organizational knowledge-based practices. The diagnostic tool was applied in firms located in the US Silicon Valley, Singapore, the Netherlands and Israel. The article provides evidence that innovative, entrepreneurial firms, irrespective of location, tendto exhibit organizational knowledge practices, cultural beliefs, values and behavioral norms that are more akin than dissimilar, regardless of national context. Key practices common to leading-edge firms in all regions included: (1) a propensity for experimentation; (2) collective sharing of knowledge, and (3) collective decisionmaking. The paper has four aims. It describes the research in terms of a cross-cultural comparison of the four regions, it shows key determinants of competitiveness, profiles regional characteristics which enhance innovation and entrepreneurship and finally closes with a discussion on the implications of the research outcomes for entrepreneurial firms seeking to build a global presence. The rapid rate of technological change, shorter product life cycles and intense global economies has transferred the competitive position of regional economies (O, Shea, R. 2007.171). This is the subject matter of the paper.
Description Logic-Based Resource Retrieval
Authors: Colucci Simona , Di Noia Tommaso , Di Sciascio Eugenio , Donini Francesco M. , Mongiello Marina
Published: May 2011

Resource retrieval addresses the problem of finding best matches to a request among available resources, with both the request and the resources described with respect to a shared interpretation of the knowledge domain the resource belongs to. The problem of resource matching and retrieval arises in several scenarios, among them, personnel recruitment and job assignment, dating agencies, but also generic electronic marketplaces, Web services discovery and composition, resource matching in the Grid. All these scenarios share a common purpose: given a request, find among available descriptions those best fulfilling it, or at “worse,” when nothing better exists, those that fulfill at least some of the requirements.
E-Learning for Knowledge Dissemination
Authors: Sivakumar Shyamala C.
Published: May 2011

Today, most organizations need to extend lifelong learning opportunities to their employees in order to be successful in an increasingly competitive global marketplace. Organizations are turning to technological solutions to enable online in-house training and learning for their employees. An integrated approach to e-learning is important because it can be effectively used to analyze employee performance and also to gather information for continuous online and real-time learning of organizational goals to better tailor the educational product and its content. Online learning is made possible by advancements in network infrastructure and the development of voice and multimedia protocols for the seamless transport of information. E-learning involves encouraging the employee to spend time electronically to bring about learning, and to collect information and analyze it with respect to organizational needs, learning processes, and user preferences (Alavi & Leidner, 1999). E-learning ranges from simple computer use in a classroom where instructional materials are stored on a local-area network, to the use of simulation systems used to support teaching activities, or to distance education using broadband-enabled multimedia and shared electronic work spaces. E-learning styles include learner-centric, instructor-centric, and directed environments. E-learning communication modes include synchronous vs. asynchronous modes (time of interaction), and one-to-one, one-to-many, and many-to-many interaction modes. Presentation styles include voice only, voice and video, text only, text and animation, and voice, video, and text. Pedagogical approaches include objectivist, constructivist, and collaborative approaches and situated learning. Also, it is known that learning within organizations is affected by task complexity and the organizational environment (Argyris & Schon, 1996; Bhatt, 2002; Spender, 1996).
Engineering Design Knowledge Management
Authors: Ma Z. M.
Published: May 2011

In recent years, greater global competition is pressuring organizations to produce industrial products with the shortest possible lead times, high quality, and lowest costs. The lifecycle of a product includes many phases such as requirement definition, conceptual design, production, operation, maintenance, and so forth. Each phase in the lifecycle would involve the product information, for example, using some information that comes from other phase(s) and generating some new information during the phase. Engineering design knowledge (EDK) of a product consists of the product information related to the design process of the product.
Governance of Knowledge Management
Authors: Zyngier Suzanne
Published: May 2011

Despite the more than 25 years since Nonaka wrote the Knowledge Creating Company in the Harvard Business Review (1991) there are still many barriers to implementation of knowledge management (KM) strategies. These include a lack of time and financial resources allocated to sharing knowledge, a lack of organizational understanding of the philosophy and the benefits of KM, a lack of skills in KM and difficulties in effectively establishing a return on investment (RIO) in KM. However both case studies and survey data show that greatest acknowledged obstacle to the implementation of a KM strategy is the management culture of the organization (Alavi & Leidner, 1999; DeTienne, Dyer, Hoopes, & Harris, 2004; H. Lee & Choi, 2003; McAdam & Reid, 2001; Murray, 1998; Ruzzier, Sohal, Katna, & Zyngier, 2008) These obstacles reveal a problem in the implementation of an organizational KM strategy. The problem lies not in the implementation of a given strategy per se, but in the lack of governance of that strategy.
Healthcare Knowledge Management
Authors: Metaxiotis Kostas
Published: May 2011

The healthcare environment is changing rapidly, and effective management of the knowledge base in this area is an integral part of delivering high-quality patient care. People all over the world rely on a huge array of organizations for the provision of healthcare, from public-sector monoliths and governmental agencies to privately funded organizations, and consulting and advisory groups. It is a massive industry in which every organization faces a unique combination of operational hurdles. However, what every healthcare system has in common is the high price of failure. Faced with the prospect of failing to prevent suffering and death, the importance of continuously improving efficiency and effectiveness is high on the agenda for the majority of healthcare organizations (Brailer, 1999). Taking also into consideration that the amount of biological and medical information is growing at an exponential rate, it is not consequently surprising that knowledge management (KM) is attracting so much attention from the industry as a whole.
Introducing Knowledge Management as Both Desirable and Undesirable Processes
Authors: Land Frank , Amjad Urooj , Nolas Sevasti-Melissa
Published: May 2011

Knowledge management (KM), as a topic for academic research and practical implementation, has had a short history dating back only to the early 1990s. Due to knowledge management’s recent debut as we know it, it is not surprising that much of the writing and research on the subject is controversial. In this article we note the need of a critical awareness of desirable and undesirable shades of knowledge management processes (Land, Nolas, & Amjad, 2005).
Knowledge and Intellectual Property Rights
Authors: Ryan Geraldine , Shinnick Edward
Published: May 2011

The role and importance of knowledge in economic development is a theme that can be traced back to writers such as Adam Smith, Karl Marx and Joseph Schumpeter. These authors dealt with how knowledge was created, its various uses and how to capture knowledge for gain. Later, writers such as Friedrich Hayek developed this field into areas such as the use of knowledge in society and the role of information in markets. In the economics literature, a critical distinction is made between information and knowledge. Information is seen as data that is out there for most, if not all, to see, whereas knowledge is the use and (unique) interpretation of this data. With the development of the World Wide Web, access to information and the cost of collecting information has changed dramatically. This has implications for its value. Anything that is easy to collect is less valuable than something that is more difficult to collect. Furthermore, something that is valuable will be sought by others and therefore needs to be protected against theft.
Knowledge Creation
Authors: Wickramasinghe Nilmini
Published: May 2011

Knowledge management (KM) is a newly emerging approach aimed at addressing today’s business challenges to increase efficiency and efficacy of core business processes, while simultaneously incorporating continuous innovation. The need for knowledge management is based on a paradigm shift in the business environment where knowledge is now considered to be central to organizational performance and integral to the attainment of a sustainable competitive advantage (Davenport & Grover, 2001; Drucker, 1993). Knowledge creation is not only a key first step in most knowledge management initiatives, but also has far reaching implications on consequent steps in the KM process, thus making knowledge creation an important focus area within knowledge management. Currently, different theories exist for explaining knowledge creation. These tend to approach the area of knowledge creation from either a people perspective—including Nonaka’s Knowledge Spiral, as well as Spender’s and Blackler’s respective frameworks—or from a technology perspective—namely, the KDD process and data mining.
Knowledge Dissemination in Portals
Authors: Woods Steven , Poteet Stephen R. , Kao Anne , Quach Lesley
Published: May 2011

While there are many aspects to managing corporate knowledge, one key issue is how to disseminate corporate documents with appropriate context. Upon finding an article on a certain subject, for example the material properties of titanium, a reader is likely to be interested in related articles such as applications of titanium or manufacturing methods for titanium parts. Each related article has the potential to increase the reader’s knowledge of the subject. Therefore, organizing documents into categories of interest plays an essential role in discovering and interpreting information. Furthermore, categories can be expected to provide historical context, describing how titanium was used in early designs or initial practices used for the repair of titanium parts.
Knowledge Integration
Authors: Berends Hans , van der Bij Hans , Weggeman Mathieu
Published: May 2011

In most organizations, specialized knowledge is dispersed over organization members (Tsoukas, 1996). Organization members have different educational backgrounds and working experiences and develop different perspectives. Yet, the development and production of complex goods and services normally requires the application of multiple disciplines and perspectives. Therefore, the integration of knowledge is an important task for managers and other organization members (Carlile, 2002; De Boer, Van den Bosch, & Volberda, 1999; Galunic & Rodan, 1998; Grant, 1996a, 1996b; Kogut & Zander, 1992; Okhuysen & Eisenhardt, 2002; Ravasi & Verona, 2000).
Knowledge Integration through Strategic Alliances and Virtual Networks
Authors: Camisón César , Forés Beatriz , Fabra María Eugenia
Published: May 2011

According to the Knowledge-Based View, knowledge integration is one of the main capabilities that organizations must possess in today’s markets. In some high-tech industries, especially sciencebased industries such as biotechnology that need to integrate different bases of specialized expertise, the sources of knowledge are spread across a great variety of organizations. Strategic alliances are an option that may solve problems of speed or cost in these cases. Hence, in this chapter we identify advantages that inter-organizational cooperative agreements may have in the creation of knowledge, with a special emphasis on the case of strategic alliances in which the main aim is the joint creation of knowledge between partners and not simply the appropriation of this knowledge by one of the members of the agreement. In a second phase, we argue that virtual networks add more advantages to this type of alliance because of their special features. We define the virtual network as a strategic, temporary agreement between organizations that collaborate and coordinate their work through information technologies. This dimension adds greater flexibility to strategic alliances. We identify a virtual network typology by analyzing their properties and their value for the integration of knowledge.
Knowledge Management and Intelligence Work
Authors: Badia Antonio
Published: May 2011

At the end of the Cold War, the Intelligence situation (characterized in the past by a confrontation among equals and information scarcity) changed radically to the current situation of today, characterized as an asymmetric threat: on one side, there is still a nation; but on the other, there is a relatively small group of individuals, brought together by a common ideology, usually with ethnic and religious elements. These individuals can only confront their opponent by using subterfuge, deception and terrorist acts. They try to disguise their activities by infiltrating society at large and seeking refuge in anonymity. This kind of conflict has long been analyzed in the military literature under names like low-intensity conflict (LIC) or operation other than war (OOTW) (for more on this perspective, the reader is referred to the classic work by Kitson (Kitson, 1971)). The task of the nations under terrorist threat is to detect the group’s individuals and their intentions before they can carry out destructive actions. For this, their Intelligence services count on large amounts of raw data, obtained from many different sources: signal Intelligence, open sources, tips from informants, friendly governments. However, this data is not always reliable, almost never complete, and the truly interesting events are usually to be found hidden among large amounts of similar-looking facts.
Knowledge Management in Professional Service Firms
Authors: Fink Dieter , Disterer Georg
Published: May 2011

For professional service firms, such as consultants, accountants, lawyers, architects, and engineers, knowledge is a capacity to act. Knowledge can be used to take action and to serve the client. As market pressures increase, so does the demand for securing and exploiting knowledge for the firm. In addition, a shortage of high-potential professional service providers has increased the ‘war for talent’ in which firms compete in employing the most talented professionals. These situations are exacerbated by the decrease in lifelong loyalty, a traditional value within professional groups, and the departure and retirement of professionals, often the most experienced ones.
Knowledge Producers and Consumers
Authors: Kankanhalli Atreyi , Tan Bernard C.Y. , Wei Kwok-Kee
Published: May 2011

In a knowledge-based economy, organizations find it difficult to compete based upon the individual knowledge of a few organizational members. This provides the rationale for knowledge management wherein organizational knowledge must be shared, combined, and reused in order to enable organizations to compete more effectively. Hence, knowledge sharing is considered an essential process in knowledge management. Unfortunately, sharing is often unnatural for the parties involved in it, that is, knowledge contributors or producers and knowledge seekers or consumers. Hoarding knowledge and not accepting knowledge from others are natural tendencies that are difficult to change (Davenport & Prusak, 1998). Knowledge contributors may be inhibited from sharing their knowledge due to perceptions of loss of power, lack of time or incentives, and other barriers. Knowledge seekers may find it laborious to seek advice from others and desire to discover solutions for themselves. Therefore, it is vital to understand and foster the motivations of knowledge contributors and seekers toward participating in knowledge sharing.
Going Virtual
Authors: Baralou Evangelia , Shepherd Jill
Published: May 2011

Before meeting our CoP we take the opportunity to explore issues which may affect a CoP which needs to function in a distributed international environment.
Collaboration, Communication, and Learning in a Virtual Community
Authors: Han Seungyeon , Hill Janette R.
Published: May 2011

The use of the World Wide Web (Web) for teaching and learning in higher education has increased exponentially in the last five years. Traditional universities (e.g., MIT, University System of California) as well as “virtual universities” (e.g., Western Governors University, Kentucky Commonwealth Virtual University) have moved toward offering courses and degrees around the world. Web-driven communication systems have further increased the popularity of Web-based learning. Web-based course-management and communication systems (e.g., WebCT®, Ellumination®) are specifically aimed at using the Web to support students, instructors, and experts in communicating, sharing, and collaborating with each other in the process of learning. At present, almost any Web-based application may be labeled “collaborative.” Web technologies make possible many-to-many asynchronous and synchronous communication, enabling both time and/or place independence. Time and place independence are important because they offer online learning systems the opportunities to move from individualist modes of delivery to group-oriented interactive modes (Davies, 1995). However, Internet tools such as chat, bulletin boards, or e-mail do not organize the interactions for learning (Roschelle & Pea, 1999), nor were they designed for building and sharing collaborative knowledge. Without advanced pedagogical preparation, these applications may not contribute to collaborative learning. Web-based applications can be empowering, enabling collaborative learning among participants and facilitating the creation of virtual learning communities. However, the underlying theoretical framework to explain how collaborative learning or community building might occur in Web-based contexts does not yet exist. Further, there is little to no agreement amongst researchers related to fundamental concepts associated with virtual communities (e.g., collaboration, communication, or learning) (Lipponen, 2002; Pea, 1996). While this ambiguity can be disconcerting, it is also exciting, reflecting the diversity of emerging field and paradigm for teaching and learning in virtual environments. It is necessary to review this emerging field from multiple perspectives to clarify ambiguity and embrace diversity. Through these efforts, we may be able to suggest new ways of understanding virtual learning communities, exploring what we mean by collaboration, communication, and learning, and thus enable the forward movement of the field.
Seven Principles of Good Practice for Virtual International Collaboration
Authors: Boehm Diane , Aniola-Jedrzejek Lilianna
Published: May 2011

This chapter presents seven principles of good practice for conducting virtual international collaborations with students. The authors have conducted such collaborations with several different groups of American and Polish university students using different models. The collaborations were the basis for distilling these seven principles: develop cross-cultural awareness and mutual understanding of the culture of each group; create a multifaceted virtual environment; coordinate calendars; require intermediate level of English language proficiency; create relevant, engaging collaborative assignments with rubrics and shared understandings for evaluation of student work; establish methods forsuccessful group interactions, including information-sharing and relationship-building; evaluate project outcomes. These seven principles of good practice can assist instructors to develop successful virtual intercultural collaborations that prepare students for the workplace of the 21st century.
A Virtual Laboratory for Digital Signal Processing
Authors: Dow Chyi-Ren , Li Yi-Hsung , Bai Jin-Yu
Published: May 2011

This work designs and implements a virtual digital signal processing laboratory, VDSPL. VDSPL consists of four parts: mobile agent execution environments, mobile agents, DSP development software, and DSP experimental platforms. The network capability of VDSPL is created by using mobile agent and wrapper techniques without modifying the source code of the original programs. VDSPL provides human-human and human-computer interaction for students and teachers, and it can also lighten the loading of teachers, increase the learning result of students, and improve the usage of network bandwidth. A prototype of VDSPL has been implemented by using the IBM Aglet system and Java Native Interface for DSP experimental platforms. Also, experimental results demonstrate that our system has received many positive feedbacks from both students and teachers.
Virtual Reality Simulation in Human Applied Kinetics and Ergo Physiology
Authors: Drougas Bill Ag.
Published: May 2011

Virtual reality is today an excellent tool for a full simulated experience in a modern environment where any researcher or any individual scientist may work with vital experimental environments or use parameters that sometimes does not really exist. It is already a vital step for the future of science and for the modern experiment. Ergo physiology today has many applications for research. We can find new unknown parameters for the human body searching biokinetics and ergo physiology, and it is time to use modern technologies and applications. The vital issues discussed in this chapter may offer many applications for human kinetics and movement and may also discuss biokinetics research using the physical laws and parameters in various biokinetics and physiology fields.
Designing and Assessing Virtual Assurance
Authors: Adler Terry R. , Glissmeyer Michael
Published: May 2011

This chapter suggests that computer-mediated technologies (CMTs) facilitate organizational trust and distrust by leading to what we introduce as Virtual Assurance. Through partnering and outsourcing, organizations are exposed to managing simultaneous organizational trust and distrust. For instance, CMTs allow more precise and timely monitoring of organizations in a high trust and high distrust context, a process that leads to Virtual Assurance. We further describe Virtual Assurance as a means to manage the fragility of modern interorganizational relationships, especially when high trust and high distrust is present. We also suggest that the presence of Virtual Assurance will ultimately provide a competitive advantage to firms in making contractual agreements, tracking progress, imposing penalties, and shielding organizations from potential harm.
Computer Mediated Technology as Tools for Social Interaction and Educational Processes
Authors: Stout Karen Rohrbauck
Published: May 2011

Computer mediated technologies (or CMTs) enhance educational processes and are tools that have particular implications for learning and interacting in virtual teams. To better understand how educational tools may be implemented to enhance student learning in virtual teams, the author addresses Wartofsky’s (1979) explication of tools as cultural artifacts. Distinctions about primary, secondary, and tertiary tools provide a framework to analyze implementations of educational CMT research. Implications of these tools on virtual team’s cognitive skills and collaborative learning are explored. Tertiary tools are explored in particular, as they may provide virtual teams with shared interaction space and alternative representations of the social world. The author provides examples of CMT implementation and suggestions for technological and pedagogical advancements.
Using Multimedia and Virtual Reality for Web-Based Collaborative Learning on Multiple Platforms
Authors: McArdle Gavin , Monahan Teresa , Bertolotto Michela
Published: May 2011

Since the advent of the Internet, educators have realised its potential as a medium for teaching. The term e-learning has been introduced to describe this Internet-based education. Although e-learning applications are popular, much research is now underway to improve the features they provide. For example, the addition of synchronous communication methods and multimedia is being studied. With the introduction of wireless networks, mobile devices are also being investigated as a medium to present learning content. Currently, the use of 3-dimensional (3D) graphics is being explored for creating virtual learning environments online. Virtual reality (VR) is already being used in multiple disciplines for teaching various tasks. This chapter focuses on describing some VR systems, and also discusses the current state of e-learning on mobile devices. We also present the VR learning environment that we have developed, incorporating many of the techniques mentioned above for both desktop and mobile devices.
Web-Based Handwriting Education with Animated Virtual Teacher
Authors: Leung Howard , Komura Taku
Published: May 2011

This article introduces our Web-based handwriting education system developed with 3D computer graphics and pen computing technologies. Traditionally, in teaching handwriting, the teacher writes a character on the blackboard, and then students try to follow the teacher in order to write the same character. The teacher can check whether a student’s handwriting is spatially correct by looking at its shape, but the teacher is not able to verify if the student is writing in the correct stroke order with the correct number of strokes. As a result, we design a Web-based handwriting education system. With our proposed system, students can stay at home to do the exercises for learning the handwriting of characters. A student’s handwriting can be captured in digital format with the information in both temporal and spatial domain, and the results can be sent to the teacher for evaluation. In addition, we propose to animate a virtual teacher on the student’s terminal for demonstrating the handwriting of the characters to give students a sense of presence.
Virtual Teams in the Traditional Classroom
Authors: Rains Stephen A. , Scott Craig R.
Published: May 2011

This chapter examines the technologies available to virtual teams and issues associated with training virtual teams. We first evaluate the benefits and limitations of technologies to aid communication and collaboration. We consider the merits and limitations of asynchronous and synchronous discussion tools, groupware and collaboration tools, and electronic meeting systems. We then offer three different levels of training possible for virtual teams and discuss some key issues associated with training. Each level of training varies in intensity and is dependent upon the nature of the assignment and team objectives. The chapter concludes with some predictions and recommendations about the future of new technologies and virtual teams in the educational setting. Throughout the chapter, special considerations are made for those virtual teams operating in the traditional classroom.
Virtual Reality in Medicine
Authors: Arvanitis Theodoros N.
Published: May 2011

This chapter explores the technological quest of virtual reality within the field of medicine. Although the author does not intend to provide an exhaustive review of the various health informatics applications of VR over the past 15 years of its development, he presents some of the major technological breakthroughs and their impact in the provision of healthcare services to the point-of-need (i.e., the patient).
Virtual Field Trips
Authors: Spaulding Dean T. , Ranney Patricia A.
Published: May 2011

The purpose of this chapter is to provide a brief history of videoconferencing when used as virtual field trips in educational settings and to discuss some of the various aspects in which they can be implemented. In addition, this chapter focuses on the unique benefits to students and teachers noted in the literature that videoconferencing field trips can bring to the learning community and some of the challenges that many educators, eager to use this technology, have experienced. Speculation as to what the future will hold for virtual field trips and where the technology will possibly take us is also discussed.
Culture and Communication Challenges in Virtual Workspaces
Authors: Olaniran Bolanle
Published: May 2011

The issue of globalization is one that contemporary organizations are constantly trying to unravel. However, globalization has brought about or reinvents the concept of workspaces such that work is no longer confined to a traditional space in a specific geographical setting whereby individuals are restricted to face-to-face meetings and interactions. Rather, globalization has created the idea of virtual workspaces wherein collaborations and communication interactions occur with the aid of information and communication technologies in order to allow collaboration among workers across different geographical boundaries. Virtual workspaces, however, also bring into the foreground the issue of culture and its effect on behaviors and communication interactions. This discussion explores the role of culture and its implications for virtual workspaces. At the same time, an attempt is made to address adaptation from traditional to virtual workspaces. The objective of researching and reporting on the transition of traditional to virtual workspaces is to offer organizations and their members or other practitioners a way to address differences in cultures while fostering effective collaboration in virtual workspaces which facilitates the globalization process.
Role of Trust in Virtual and Co-Located Communities of Practice
Authors: Raja Jawwad Z. , Huq Anzela , Rosenberg Duska
Published: May 2011

Information and communication technologies (ICTs) have become popular in enabling organisations to work virtually, allowing them to organise and leverage their human assets in new ways. Numerous advantages are offered to organisations in the virtual world, including the ability to bridge time and space, and utilisation of distributed human resources without physical relocation of employees (Lipnack & Stamps, 2000). However, flexibility for organisations also comes with many challenges due to its own inherent characteristics. With the separation in time and space, possibly no history of working together, and communication options that are limited, working virtually can lead to undesired outcomes. There are many fundamental factors that not only drive knowledge sharing and transfer in virtual communities, but are believed to be important in their success and failure. One of these fundamental factors is trust. The literature on trust in co-located environments suggests that the establishment of trust is of importance in the working relationship (e.g., Mayer, Davis & Schoorman, 1995). Furthermore, it is argued that trust also leads to more open communication, cooperation, and a higher quality of decision making and risk taking (Lane & Bachmann, 2000). Lipnack and Stamps (2000) argue that the success of sharing and transferring knowledge virtually begins with trust, since trust functions as a mechanism to hold individuals together. The aim of this article is to discuss types of trust and explain mechanisms of trust development in light of research on organisational dynamics. Although there is little standardisation in the trust literature, this article will attempt to critically assess contributions to the debate, illustrating points through references to communities of practice.
Pure Play vs. Bricks-and-Clicks
Authors: Zhuang Youlong , Lederer Albert L.
Published: May 2011

Pure play and bricks-and-clicks represent today’s two major retailing models. The current study answers four questions comparing the two models in terms of the e-commerce benefits achieved and information systems management practices used to achieve them. It applies a Web-based survey to compare 69 pure plays to 348 bricks-and-clicks retailers in terms of the market expansion, customer service, back-end efficiency, inventory management, and cost reduction benefits reaped, as well as in terms of the benchmarking, process redesign, and planning practices used. It found market expansion as the top benefit for both types of retailers. Pure plays exceed bricks-and-clicks at achieving back-end efficiency, inventory management, and cost reduction benefits. Pure play retailers apply benchmarking to reap their benefits while bricks-and-clicks retailers use process redesign and planning to reap theirs. Pure play retailers are better able to utilize benchmarking to realize market expansion and customer service benefits. On the other hand, bricks-and-clicks retailers are better able to utilize process redesign to realize inventory management and cost reduction benefits. The findings suggest potential directions for future research as well as electronic retail practice.
Leadership and Performance in Virtual Teams
Authors: Glückler Johannes , Schrott Gregor
Published: May 2011

This article explores the structural foundations of leadership and performance in virtual project teams. In an experimental business case, the article demonstrates the effect of structural brokerage in team communication on leadership and team performance. This research suggests that social roles as well as the acknowledgement of leadership and performance are conditional to the way individuals and teams relate to their environment. It supports structural hole theory in that leaders and a winner team achieved the highest values of flow betweenness and network efficiency. Strategically, managers of virtual knowledge networks should focus their attention not only on the qualifications of individuals, but also on communication structures within their work groups.
Web-Based Template-Driven Communication Support Systems
Authors: Remidez Jr. Herbert , Stam Antonie , Laffey James M.
Published: May 2011

Teams whose interactions might be mediated entirely via Internet-based communication, virtual teams, are emerging as commonplace in business settings. Researchers have identified trust as a key ingredient for virtual teams to work effectively (Aubrey & Kelsey, 2003; Beranek, 2000; David & McDaniel, 2004; Iacono & Weisband, 1997; Jarvenpaa, Knoll, & Leidner, 1998; Jarvenpaa, Shadow, & Staples; 2004). However, researchers have not identified scalable methods that consistently promote trust within virtual teams. Improved interface design for communication support systems used by virtual teams may contribute to solving this problem. Interface cannot solve the problem of members trusting each other, but it can support the type of activities that do. This paper describes the development and some initial experiences with a Web-based, template-driven, asynchronous communication support tool and how this system can be used to support trust development in virtual teams and performance goals of virtual teams. This article presents the capabilities and features of the communication support system. More detailed findings from an experimental study of this system’s use can be found in another publication (Remidez, 2003).
Patterns for Effective Management of Virtual Projects
Authors: Khazanchi Deepak , Zigurs Ilze
Published: May 2011

The management of virtual projects is fundamentally different from that of traditional projects. Furthermore, the research in this area comes from different reference disciplines and perspectives, and a unified view or theory of best practices does not yet exist. Being able to combine perspectives in a seamless way with skills and technology could provide integrative blueprints for best practices in virtual projects. We use the theoretical frame of patterns to propose such a view. We focus on three concepts as the underlying theoretical elements for identifying patterns of effectiveness in virtual project management: (1) coordination, (2) communication, and (3) control. As a first step in the identification of specific patterns, we conducted a series of virtual focus groups with participants from industry who had real experience with virtual projects. The brainstorming data from the focus groups was analyzed to develop an initial set of patterns. The study represents a first step in an iterative and evolutionary process.
Issues of Hand Preference in Computer Presented Information and Virtual Realities
Authors: Tilinger Adam , Sik-Lanyi Cecilia
Published: May 2011

This chapter presents the differences between left- and right-handed persons in the aspect of computer-presented information and virtual realities. It introduces five test scenarios and their results addressing this question. We showed that there are moderate differences between groups preferring different hands. The different needs of left- and right-handed people may play an important role in user-friendly interface and virtual environment design, since about a tenth of the population is left-handed. This could help to undo the difficulties that the left-handed and ambidextrous routinely encounter in their daily lives.
Understanding Effective E-Collaboration Through Virtual Distance
Authors: Lojeski Karen Sobel , Reilly Richard R.
Published: May 2011

Virtual distance is a multidimensional perceptual construct resulting from key elements that promote a sense of distance in e-collaborative work environments. Why will virtual distance help to uncover some of the potential downside risks of collaboration using virtual and outsourced resources? Research has shown that the perceived distance between two or more individuals has negative effects on communication and persuasion and promotes a tendency to deceive more than those who do not perceive themselves to be as distant (Bradner & Mark, 2002). Virtual team members and work groups are, by definition, distant from one another, not only in the physical sense but in other ways as well. Socio-emotional factors, for example, can play a role in perceived distance and these factors may contribute to decreased success (Barczak & McDonough, 2003).
Distinguishing Work Groups, Virtual Teams, and Electronic Networks of Practice
Authors: Wasko Molly McLure , Teigland Robin
Published: May 2011

Communities of practice are promoted within organizations as sources of competitive advantage and facilitators of organizational learning. A community of practice is an emergent social collective where individuals working on similar problems self-organize to help each other and to share perspectives about their work practice, resulting in learning and innovation within the community (Brown & Duguid, 1991; Wenger, 1998). Recent advances in information and communication technologies have enabled the creation of computer-supported social networks similar to communities of practice, where individuals are able to discuss and debate issues electronically. Given the success of communities of practice for facilitating knowledge exchange, both electronically and in face-to-face settings, management has recently focused on how to formally duplicate these networks and gather their benefits in work groups and virtual teams. However, with the evolution of new technology-enabled organizational forms, theoretical development is needed to distinguish between these different types of organizational forms since there are significant differences in the dynamics of formal vs. informal membership groups and between electronic and face-to-face interactions (Hinds & Kiesler, 2002).
The Role of Structured Conflict and Consensus Approaches inVirtual Team Strategic Decision Making
Authors: Fjermestad Jerry
Published: May 2011

Do procedures that improve face-to-face decision meetings also improve virtual “meetings?” Might the effectiveness of such procedures improve with practice? This longitudinal experiment investigated the efficiency, effectiveness and group member perceptions of dialectical inquiry (DI) and constructive consensus (CC) approaches to strategic decision making in a virtual (distributed) computer-mediated- communications (CMC) environment. There were no differences between DI and CC groups in terms of decision effectiveness. However, this result has not been unusual in CMC research. DI groups had significantly higher perceived depth of evaluation than CC groups. CC groups reported greater decision acceptance and willingness to work together again than DI groups. The results are discussed in terms of their implications for group support systems research and design in the era of the World Wide Web.
Team Effectiveness in Virtual Environments
Authors: Shachaf Pnina , Hara N.
Published: May 2011

This chapter attempts to address the need for more research on virtual team effectiveness and outlines an ecological theoretical framework that is applicable to virtual learning environments (VLE).  Prior empirical studies on virtual team effectiveness used frameworks of traditional team effectiveness and mainly followed Hackman’s normative model (input-process-output). We propose an ecological approach for virtual team effectiveness that accounts for team boundaries management, technologyuse, and external environment in VLE, properties which were previously either nonexistent or contextual.   The ecological framework suggests that three components — external environment, internal environment, and boundary management — reciprocally interact with effectiveness.   The significance of the proposed framework is a holistic perspective that takes into account the complexity of the external and internal environment of the team. Furthermore, we address the needs for new pedagogical approaches in VLE.