bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
E-Readiness of SMEs
Authors: Mutula Stephen M.
Published: May 2010

Increasingly, SMEs are achieving and sustaining competitive advantages using ICT that are propelling and accelerating the globalization of businesses. The growth of the Internet has created a global, cost-effective platform for businesses to communicate and conduct commerce. The Internet is making it possible for SMEs to enjoy the benefits that were once only afforded to larger businesses. A study by Ramayah et al. (2003) in Malaysia revealed that most SMEs in that country are increasingly embracing e-commerce and spending increasing amounts of money on information technology, with subsequent higher revenues. SMEs in the digital economy have significant advantages over larger competitors (Dejonckheere et al., 2003) arising out of: Increased outsourcing of information activities, resulting in • new business opportunities The low degree of capital intensity of many e-businesses, which has resulted in relatively low start-up and exploitation costs; Enhanced speed of decision-making and innovativeness; Electronic networking and clustering, which allow SMEs to combine the advantages of being small-sized with the various benefits of large scaleBenterprises.
E-Government Readiness
Authors: Mutula Stephen M.
Published: May 2010

The United Nations (2008) believes that in a world characterised by rapid changes driven by globalization and the emerging knowledge-based economy, e-government provides the means to achieve maximum cost savings and improved service delivery to both citizens and businesses. In short, the digital economy and e-government can be said to be inextricably intertwined. Global e-commerce growth and expansion in the private sector are linked to an online population that is projected to reach some 1.8 billion by 2010 (United Nations, 2008). Most of this population will be using e-government infrastructure to go online. Moreover, the widening scope of digital technologies through e-government means that few (if any) industries are exempt from some degree of transformation and electronic commerce. The UN 2008 E-government Readiness Report showed that in the United States alone, online retail sales were expected to reach nearly $120 billion by 2008 (United Nations, 2008). In less developed countries, similar trends are apparent, with Argentina, for example, having recorded a more than 100% increase in e-commerce levels from 2005 to 2006 - more than $3.3 billion online transactions were recorded in the latter year. Much of e-government reflects private sector activity, which has both encouraged and pressured public sector organizations to act in a similar manner. Fiscal constraints imposed by a quasi-competitive system of global investors, as well as a strategic desire to generate cost savings and reallocate spending to new priorities, make the nexus between technology management and efficiency a central concern in government (United Nations, 2008).
E-Business and E-Commerce
Authors: Mutula Stephen M.
Published: May 2010

E-business and e-commerce are applications around which the digital economy revolves. The concept ‘e-business’ was originated by IBM in 1997 to refer to the sum total of buying and selling goods and services, servicing customers, and collaboration amongst business partners online. E-business consists of electronic applications that offer production planning, scheduling, outsourcing, and other business-related operation processes. E-commerce is still evolving; as of yet, a widely accepted definition has not been agreed on (Coppel, 2000). Loosely defined, e-commerce refers to doing business over the Internet; in other words the buying and selling of goods and services that can be delivered offline as well as the creation of products that can be digitised and delivered online (e.g. computer software). Activities in ecommerce may include order registration, electronic advertising, electronic billing, electronic marketing, online delivery and tracking, and customer services support.
E-Records Management and Freedom of Information for SMEs
Authors: Mutula Stephen M.
Published: May 2010

While records management in general and e-records management in particular have received serious attention in large enterprises, the same cannot be said for SMEs. This is despite the emergence of an economy where transactions are increasingly carried out electronically, and where the management of e-records emanating thereof must be meticulously managed to obviate disaster. Iron Mount Digital (2007), a leading provider of data backup/recovery and archiving software based in the UK, warns in its findings (based on industry research) that SMEs are reportedly failing to put in place disaster recovery plans in the belief that such recovery plans are the domain of larger companies. Such SMEs could face total shut down or bankruptcy unless they developed contingency plans to ensure that normal operations are resumed following a serious incident. In these plans, SMEs should include a disaster contingency team, assessing key areas of risk across the business, planning for recovery, and reviewing and communicating the plan to employees. It is important for SMEs to continuously backup crucial company information so that in the event of a disaster, the company can be safe in the knowledge that it can restore company data.
Information Needs and Access in SMEs
Authors: Mutula Stephen M.
Published: May 2010

To ensure survival in today’s competitive business world, small-sized enterprises require access to accurate and relevant information both at the start-up stage and during their day-to-day operations. SMEs generally tend to be information intensive thus various interventions may be required on the part of management to ensure that the information needs and resources of the enterprises are met and well managed. However, Kirk (1999) doubts whether managers are able to exploit the wealth of information that surrounds them. Given the range of SMEs’ needs, it is important to ensure that the information they require to maintain their competitive advantage is both accessible and usable. The managers of SMEs, in turn, also require different aspects of information to plan, organise, staff, administer and control activities in ways that best achieve the enterprise’s objectives. In the digital economy, successful enterprises are expected to produce high technology goods and services; hence high quality information and effective systems are necessary to achieve such ends.
Trends and Best Practices in the Digital Economy
Authors: Mutula Stephen M.
Published: May 2010

Various global initiatives are taking place in the digital economy that aim to enhance global business trade and development, especially with regard to e-commerce. The International Chamber of Commerce - ICC (1997), for example, has been involved in a few initiatives aimed at promoting global trust in electronic trade transactions by defining, identifying, and deconstructing what constitutes best practices within the digital economy. The International Chamber of Commerce is a non-profit, private international organization that works to promote and support global trade. It also codifies and harmonizes world trade practices in various publications. The ICC focuses on three distinct areas, namely General Usage for International Digitally Ensured Commerce (GUIDEC); the Electronic Trade Practices Working Group; and E-terms Service. GUIDEC expects to instil trust in open electronic commerce by developing a common understanding of the mechanisms used to guarantee identities and authenticate transactions over electronic networks. GUIDEC was established to provide guidance in a market where different definitions in different jurisdictions threaten to undermine the utility of digital signatures in cross-border trade.
Challenges of the Digital Economy
Authors: Mutula Stephen M.
Published: May 2010

There are various challenges faced by SMEs in their endeavour to make more active use of the Internet and e-business. These challenges vary widely across different sectors of the economy as well as from country to country. The most commonly cited problems relate to being unable to apply the Internet to business; preferences for established business models; lack of an enabling environment (lack of ICT skills, poor network infrastructure); high costs associated with ICT equipment, networks, software, ongoing support, etc; and security and trust issues (the poor security and reliability of e-commerce systems, uncertainty of payment methods, etc) [OECD, 2004].
Conclusion and the Way Forward
Authors: Mutula Stephen M.
Published: May 2010

The primary focus of this book has been on digital economies, SMEs and e-readiness. With the exception of this chapter, which provides the book’s summary and conclusion, the eighteen chapters that make up this book collectively cover conceptual aspects of the core subjects discussed, i.e. the digital economy’s components and infrastructures; the digital divide and its implications to SMEs, e-readiness and the digital economy; ereadiness measurement tools and methods; e-commerce and e-business; e-government; content, knowledge and e-records management; e-readiness of SMEs in the digital economy; information needs and behaviour of SMEs in the digital economy; capacity building - SMEs and the digital economy; globalisation of the digital economy; trends and best practices in the digital economy; and challenges of the digital economy.
Hybrid Artificial Intelligence Heuristics and Clustering Algorithm for Combinatorial Asymmetric Traveling Salesman Problem
Authors: Ganesh K , Dhanlakshmi R. , Tangavelu A. , Parthiban P
Published: May 2010

Problems of combinatorial optimization are characterized by their well-structured problem definition as well as by their huge number of action alternatives in practical application areas of reasonable size. Especially in areas like routing, task allocation, or scheduling, such kinds of problems often occur. Artificial Intelligence Heuristics, otherwise called Meta-heuristic techniques that mimic natural processes, can produce ‘good’ results in reasonable short runs for this class of optimization problems. Even though those bionic heuristics are much more flexible regarding modifications in the problem description when being compared to classical problem specific heuristics, they are often superior in their results. Those bionic heuristics have been developed following the principles of natural processes. In that sense, Genetic Algorithms (GAs) try to imitate the biological evolution of a species in order to achieve an almost optimal state whereas Simulated Annealing (SA) was initially inspired by the laws of thermodynamics in order to cool down a certain matter to its lowest energetic state. This paper develops a set of metaheuristics (GA, SA and Hybrid GA-SA) to solve a variant of combinatorial optimization problem called Asymmetric Traveling Salesman Problem. The set of met heuristics is compared with clustering based heuristic and the results are encouraging.
An Enhanced Text-Classification-Based Arabic Information Retrieval System
Authors: Ghwanmeh Sameh , Kannan Ghassan , Al-Shalabi Riyad , Ababneh Ahmad
Published: May 2010

This chapter presents enhanced, effective and simple approach to text classification. The approach uses an algorithm to automatically classifying documents. The main idea of the algorithm is to select feature words from each document; those words cover all the ideas in the document. The results of this algorithm are list of the main subjects founded in the document. Also, in this chapter the effects of the Arabic text classification on Information Retrieval have been investigated. The goal was to improve the convenience and effectiveness of information access. The system evaluation was conducted in two cases based on precision/recall criteria: evaluate the system without using Arabic text classification and evaluate the system with Arabic text classification. A chain of experiments were carried out to test the algorithm using 242 Arabic abstracts From the Saudi Arabian National Computer Conference. Additionally, automatic phrase indexing was implemented. Experiments revealed that the system with text classification gives better performance than the system without text classification.
New Technique to Detect CNP Fraudulent Transactions
Authors: Al-Khatib Adnan M. , Hattab Ezz
Published: May 2010

Money in the e-commerce network, represents information moving at the speed of light, where fraud (digital crime) within the banking and financial services happened very fast and can cost billions of dollars each year-undetected and unreported. In this chapter we present a comprehensive framework that mines and detect fraudulent transactions of Card-Not-Present (CNP) in the e-payment systems with a high degree of accuracy.
Using Maturity Model to Govern Information Technology
Authors: El-Sheikh Asim , Abu Khadra Husam A.
Published: May 2010

This chapter introduces the COBiTs’ maturity model as a mean of studying the information technology (IT) governance and its affect on the perceived Security Threats. It argues that IT governance using the maturity model offers a probable influence on the level of security breaches frequency; such evidence would be extracted through a complex quantitative and qualitative approach, offers a better understanding of intricate relationships between different factors. Moreover, the authors hope that understanding the above mentioned influence using the maturity model will not only inform the researchers of a better design for IT governance and defining implementation pitfalls, but also assist in the understanding of IT governance practices trend in the Jordanian environment.
Web Engineering in Small Jordanian Web Development Firms
Authors: Altarawneh Haroon , El-Sheikh Asim
Published: May 2010

Small firms do not have the managerial experience, the financial resources and the methodological know-how to manage web-based applications projects the way large firms do. Many small firms are unaware of existing software process assessment models and standards. There’s often the assumption that assessments conformant to these models and standards can be expensive and time consuming, and therefore difficult to perform in small companies. This chapter proposes a theoretical model for small Web project development and its special features in the context small Web firms, which are capable of being “tailor able” to the particular stage of organizational development of small Web firms . The process model derived form Web engineering best practices, real case studies from Jordanian Web firms and agile development methodologies (extreme programming) . This chapter also contains results tow surveys: a questionnaire to Web developers and interview with Web mangers in Jordan.The results reflect the Web industry situation in small Jordanian firms, and the major problems they face. Most of small Web projects in Jordan run over time and budget, due to the ad hoc development and the weakness of Web project management. The results showed that there is a weakness in applying Web engineering practices in small Jordanian Web development firms.
Information Technology and Aviation Industry
Authors: Abu-Taieh Evon M. O.
Published: May 2010

This chapter pinpoints the affects of information technology on the aviation industry, specifically on the Airline ticket prices. The chapter first introduces the different costs that comprise the airline ticket. Then the chapter introduces the different information technology systems that are used in the aviation industry which in turn reduces the price of the airline ticket.
Value Configurations of Organizations
Authors: Gottschalk Petter , Solli-Saether Hans
Published: May 2010

To comprehend the value that information technology provides to organizations, we must first understand the way a particular organization conducts business and how information systems affect the performance of various component activities within the organization. Understanding how organizations differ is a central challenge for both theory and practice of management. For a long time, Porter’s (1985) value chain was the only value configuration known to managers. Stabell and Fjeldstad (1998) have identified two alternative value configurations. A value shop schedules activities and applies resources in a fashion that is dimensioned and appropriate to the needs of the client’s problem, while a value chain performs a fixed set of activities that enables it to produce a standard product in large numbers. Examples of value shops are professional service organizations, as found in medicine, law, architecture and engineering. A value network links clients or customers who are or wish to be interdependent. Examples of value networks are telephone companies, logistic and postal services, retail banks and insurance companies.
Information Resource Integration
Authors: Gottschalk Petter , Solli-Saether Hans
Published: May 2010

If a region or nation is to make the best use of its information assets and reduce duplication in gathering data, information sharing across the public sector is essential. For example, from tracing the origins and spread of foot and mouth disease to locating crime hot spots for law enforcement, geographic information systems have become indispensable for effective knowledge transfer within both the public and private sector. The potential importance of GIS is indicated in recent studies. For instance a recent US study showed that projects, which had adopted and implemented geospatial interoperability standards had an ROI (return on investment) of 119%, which means that for every dollar invested, there were annual cost savings of more than a dollar (Cabinet Office, 2005).
Stages of E-Government Interoperability
Authors: Gottschalk Petter , Solli-Saether Hans
Published: May 2010

Improved interoperability between public organizations as well as between public and private organizations is of critical importance to make electronic government more successful (Pardo & Tayi, 2007; Wang, Song, Hamilton, & Curwell, 2007). The mobilization of electronic information across organizations has the potential of modernizing and transforming information exchanges. The current information exchanges are, however, often inefficient and error-prone (Eckman, Bennet, Kaufman, & Tenner, 2007). Exchanges of information and services are fragmented and complex, dominated by technical as well as organizational problems. High-ranking issues among the defining purposes of e government are highly agile, citizencentric, accountable, transparent, effective, and efficient government operations and services (Scholl & Klischewski, 2007). For reaching such goals, the integration of government information resources and processes, and thus the interoperation of independent information systems are essential. Yet, most integration and interoperation efforts meet serious challenges and limitations.
Strategic Planning for Alignment
Authors: Gottschalk Petter , Solli-Saether Hans
Published: May 2010

Developing a strategy for E-Government interoperability is taken to mean thinking strategically and planning for the effective long-term application and optimal impact of electronic information to support knowledge work and service provision in government agencies. Strategy can simply be defined as principles, a broad based formula, to be applied in order to achieve a purpose. These principles are general guidelines guiding the daily work to reach business goals. Strategy is the pattern of resource development and application decisions made throughout the organization. These encapsulate both desired goals and beliefs about what are acceptable and, most critically, unacceptable means for achieving them.
The Role of the CIO
Authors: Gottschalk Petter , Solli-Saether Hans
Published: May 2010

The CIO can be defined as the highest-ranking IT executive who typically exhibits managerial roles requiring effective communication with top management, a broad corporate perspective in managing information resources, influence on organizational strategy, and responsibility for the planning of IT. This definition is in line with research; which applied the following criteria when selecting CIOs for empirical observation: i) highest-ranking information technology executive; ii) reports no more than two levels from the CEO, that is, either reports to the CEO or reports to one of the CEOs direct reports, iii) areas of responsibility include information systems, computer operations, telecommunications and networks, office automation, end-user computing, help desks, computer software and applications; and iv) responsibility for strategic IS/IT planning. The CIO plays a vital role in every interoperability project in digital government. There may be a CIO in each involved public agency as well as a CIO for the whole of government. For example in Hong Kong, there is an office of the government chief officer, which developed the interoperability framework for all agencies and other public organizations to follow (2007).
The Case of Police Investigations
Authors: Gottschalk Petter , Solli-Saether Hans
Published: May 2010

An investigation is an effective search for material to bring an offender to justice. Knowledge and skills are required to conduct an effective investigation. Investigative knowledge enables investigators to determine if a given set of circumstances amounts to a criminal offence, to identify the types of material that may have been generated during the commission of an offence and where this material may be found. It also ensures that investigations are carried out in a manner, which complies with the rules of evidence, thereby increasing the likelihood that the material gathered will be admitted as evidence.
Levels of Organizational Interoperability
Authors: Gottschalk Petter , Solli-Saether Hans
Published: May 2010

The most challenging of all interoperability issues seems to be related to organizational interoperability. While technical interoperability certainly represents challenges of stretching current technology and waiting for more advanced technology in the future, we know that technology can be managed, and we know that technology enjoys steady progress. Efforts at technical inter-connectivity have been enhanced by significant developments in connectivity capabilities during the past decade, such as increased availability of integrated technological solutions and favorable cost-performance trends. While Semantic interoperability might be a little more complicated, as it involves political and practical debates where stakeholders have different agendas, we nevertheless expect continuous progress in this area as well.
The Roots of Communities and Social Capital
Authors: Daniel Ben Kei
Published: May 2010

Communities are important social systems accountable for sustainability and continuity of humanity. They provide a variety of support to their members, ranging from physical to emotional. Fundamentally, communities evolve when people identify with each other; grow a shared sense of identity, shared culture, language, folklore and professional practices. Communities also develop when members identify with each other, build collective conscience and identify common goals—the village council, for example can work to fight crimes and social injustice. Though communities are to all intents and purposes immutable social system, they are not just empty social boxes waiting for people to populate. They are abstract social systems, where groups of people create shared identities, values, norms, and beliefs to systematically regulate their own behaviours. Since, communities are abstract social systems, the way they emerge, develop, change, and revitalises themselves, serving as focal interests to some individuals but remains mystery to many researchers. It is for this reason social capital is often used as an explanatory paradigm for the inner workings of communities. This Chapter provides an overview of what constitutes a community. It provides some background context to the theory of social capital. More specifically, this Chapter reviews social capital within place-based communities and the logic for extending it to virtual communities. The Chapter also outlines the goals of this book, its intended audience, and the utility derive from a model of social capital.
Approaches for Measuring Social Capital
Authors: Daniel Ben Kei
Published: May 2010

While it is possible to measure how much an economic capital is worth, at least in terms of monetary value, through the use of sophisticated econometric tools, while conditioning other factors, in comparison, measuring social capital is significantly more challenging and complex business. The complexity in measuring social capital relates to the fact it is an intangible concept, multidimensional and multivariate in nature. Further as discussed earlier, social capital lacks a unified definition and dimension. To make matters more problematic, social capital is not a static construct that can be easily captured and conditioned during measurement, but rather it is a moving target, difficult to capture, without resorting to some assumptions and conditioning during measurement. An exploration of the various ways in which researchers have measured social capital is critical to our understanding of the range of approaches and techniques available, to guide us when thinking about measuring social capital. This will also enable us to make informed decisions on the most relevant and appropriate approaches and level of measurement as per a variable or component of social capital. This Chapter presents some of the major approaches currently employed to measure social capital and the approaches used to achieve this endeavour. The Chapter describes with illustration, the dimensions taken by each approach.
Social Computing and Social Software
Authors: Daniel Ben Kei
Published: May 2010

The World Wide Web is one of the most profound technological inventions of our time and is the core to the development of social computing. The initial purpose of the Web was to use networked hypertext system to facilitate communication among its scientists and researchers, who were located in several countries. With the invention of the Web came three important goals. The first was aimed at ensuring the availability of different technologies to improve communication and engagement. The second goal was to make the Web an interactive medium that can engage individuals as well as enrich communities’ activities. The third goal was for the Web to create a more intelligent Web, in addition to being a space browseable by humans. The Web was developed to be rich in data, promoting community engagement, and encouraging mass participation and information sharing. This Chapter describes general trends linked to the development of the World Wide Web and discusses its related technologies within the milieu of virtual communities. The goal is to provide the reader with a quick, concise and easy way to understand the development of the Web and its related terminologies. The Chapter does not account for a more comprehensive analysis of historical trends associated with the development of the Web; neither does it go into a more detailed technical discussion of Web technologies. Nonetheless, it is anticipated that the materials presented in the Chapter are sufficient to provide the reader with a better understanding of the past, present and future accounts of the Web and its core related technologies.
Virtual Communities
Authors: Daniel Ben Kei
Published: May 2010

The growth of virtual communities and their continuous impact on social, economic and technological structures of societies has attracted a great deal of interest among researchers, systems designers and policy makers to examine the formation, development, sustainability and utility of these communities. Over the last two decades, the growth in research into virtual communities, though fairly diverse, can be broadly categorized into two dominant perspectives—technological determinism and social constructivism. The basic tenet of the technology determinism research is that technology shapes cultural values, social structure, and knowledge. This Chapter provides a general overview of research on virtual communities. It describes two particular types of virtual communities relevant to the analysis of social capital described in the book; virtual learning communities and distributed communities of practice. The goal of the Chapter is to provide an overall context in which social capital is reported in the book. The Chapter also describes other areas in which virtual communities are currently used. These include education, health care, business, socialization and mediating interaction among people in Diaspora.
Foundations of Social Modeling
Authors: Daniel Ben Kei
Published: May 2010

A model is an abstract representation of reality. It can be an object, a system or an idea. In general terms, one could say that a model is a simplification of reality. Modeling is a fundamental and quantitative way to understand complex phenomena and systems. Modelling make up a scientific approach that can be applied to analyse a wide range of physical and social problems. Modelling of complex systems is becoming increasingly a common practice in virtually different disciplines, giving rise to active fields of studies such as mathematical modelling, econometrics, social modelling, computational physics, chemistry, mechanics, and biology, to name just a few. Through modeling one can readily cross over from one discipline to another, the basic concepts and techniques are relatively the same. Computational models are useful tools for representing abstractions and concrete realities. Computational models are intended to provide knowledge about social and technical aspect of systems and their users. They are capable of providing computer systems designers and research analysts with rich insights to build processes, procedures and tools to support systems operations in order to adapt these operations to peoples’ technology needs. This Chapter presents an overview of computational modelling. It provides examples of computational models types and how they are currently used to inform our understanding of issues connected to users and computer systems. The goal of the Chapter is to present the reader with the background knowledge necessary for understanding the Bayesian computational approach presented in this book and to draw their attention to think about ways in which modelling can be used to analyse and understand problems in other social systems.
Construction of Bayesian Models
Authors: Daniel Ben Kei
Published: May 2010

Bayesian Belief Networks (BBNs) are increasingly used for understanding different problems in many domains. Though BBN techniques are elegant ways of capturing uncertainties, knowledge engineering effort required to create and initialize a network has prevented many researchers from using them. Even though the structure of the network and its conditional and initial probabilities could be learned from data, data is not always available and/or too costly to obtain. Furthermore, current algorithms used to learn relationships among variables, initial and conditional probabilities from data are often complex and cumbersome to employ. A qualitative Bayesian network approach was introduced to address some of the difficulties in building models that mainly depend on quantitative data. Building BBN models from quantitative data presupposes that relationships among variables or concepts of interests are known and can be correlated, causally related or they can relate to each other independently. The interdependency or relationships among the variables enable more reliable inferences which in turn help in making informed decisions about results of the model.This Chapter presents qualitative techniques and algorithms for creating Bayesian belief network models. It simplifies the construction of Bayesian models in few steps. The goal of the Chapter is to introduce the reader to the basic principles underlying the constructions of Bayesian Belief Network.
Multiliteracies and the New World Order
Authors: Baguley Margaret , Pullen Darren L. , Short Megan
Published: May 2010

Due to the importance of literacy as a key component in many education programs it appears that more than any other curriculum area its history has been marked by continual change in terms of theoretical positioning, shifts in definition and pedagogical practice. Whilst change is often viewed as a positive occurrence, recently teachers of literacy have experienced a rapid period of change in both their practice and the theoretical and research based beliefs that underpin it. This chapter will provide a brief overview of some of the ways in which literacy pedagogy has encompassed a diverse range of forms of communication and meaning making commonly referred to as ‘multiliteracies’.
The Dynamic Design of Learning with Text
Authors: Stevens Lisa Patel , Dugan Molly
Published: May 2010

In this chapter, the authors explore the current challenges facing educational institutions to design learning spaces congruent for learning with and through multimodal textual practices. The chapter reviews the inherent design, or grammar, of multimodal literacy practices and that of learning with these texts. Using examples from secondary and tertiary contexts, constructs from complexity theory offer a theoretical lens that is more generative for conceptualizing and analyzing dynamic literacy practices in educational institutions than multimodal literacy. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the tensions that arise form these examples, using Bourdieu’s (1984) habitus to problematize the future of designing dynamic educational spaces.
Rethinking Literacy in Culturally Diverse Classrooms
Authors: Rennie Jennifer
Published: May 2010

Literate demands on our youth today have become increasingly more complex due to a technological revolution, increased local diversity and a stronger connectedness with our global neighbours (New London Group, 1996). Contemporary classrooms are characterised by a diverse range of learners that come from different places, with different life world experiences and preferred ways of learning and knowing. Texts are no longer confined to print and comprehending texts involves understanding how different modes such as the audio, visual and spatial integrate to make meaning. Despite this, schools continue to measure and describe student’s literacy in relation to their ability to encode and decode print. The recent Program for International Student Assessment results (OECD, 2006) show that Australia has dropped from 5th ranking to 6th in the world in terms of reading literacy. More disturbing is the fact that this assessment showed a continuing widening gap in academic achievement between Australia’s Indigenous and non Indigenous students with very little improvement since 2000. Similarly in the United States recent literacy results show that despite some gains in the achievements of minority groups, there has been little narrowing in the gap between white students and minority students (Lee, Grigg et al., 2007). This chapter adopts a socio-cultural view of literacy and calls for a rethinking of what might count as literacy in school. It reports on a study which documented the literacy practices valued in the home community, community school and urban high school of seven Aboriginal students as they moved from Year 7 in their community school to Year 8 in their new urban high school (Rennie, Wallace et al. 2004). It discusses theoretical ideas related to a multiliteracies framework (Cope & Kalantzis, 2000), literacy as an act of translation (Somerville, 2006) and Aboriginal world views and knowledge (Martin, 2008) as a means to explore ways we might rethink the teaching of literacy in diverse and culturally rich classrooms.
Pragmatism and Philosophy
Authors: Baguley Margaret , Riordan Toni , Kerby Martin
Published: May 2010

The purpose of this paper was to investigate how a secondary boys’ College has sought to create a cultural alliance between a spatial literacy which expresses an officially sanctioned version of the past and a contemporary curriculum that embraces a far broader understanding of this concept. This investigation of spatial literacy was contextualised through the curriculum plan of the College which seeks to educate students through a student-centred curriculum that aims to develop critically aware and culturally sensitive world citizens. The perceptions of key teachers were also examined which revealed their increasing use of school spaces to address political, philosophical and environmental issues in their pedagogical approach.
Cam-Capture Literacy and its Incorporation into Multiliteracies
Authors: Cole David R. , Moyle Vikashni
Published: May 2010

It could be argued that the current literacy landscape is changing very quickly (Anstey & Bull, 2004), and that at the heart of this change one may position the notion of multiliteracies (Cope & Kalantzis, 2000; The New London Group, 1996). The concept of multiliteracies acts to infuse literacy practice with multimodality. This is the ‘switching’ between the different aspects of meaning and representation - such as the audio, visual, spatial, linguistic and gestural (Anstey & Bull, 2004, p. 83). Yet contrary to these processes, research into mainstream literacy environments has consistently shown that print literacy reading and writing activities still dominate these spaces (Winch, Johnston, March, Ljungdahl & Holliday, 2004). This chapter offers a bridge between the potential misfit between multiliteracies theory and mainstream literacy practice by investigating the use of small cameras attached to computers as educational devices – and this is henceforth called cam-capture. This writing reports on students who have used the cameras to record their thoughts about their literacy classroom activities, and changes in their literacy skills over one academic year. In so doing, the students are using digital technology torepresent their ideas and providing a pertinent commentary on current print literacy practice in middle schools through a multiliterate lens.
Multiliteracies in Secondary Chemistry
Authors: Hilton Annette , Nichols Kim , Gitsaki Christina
Published: May 2010

Digital technologies can play an important and significant role in improving students’ understanding and literacies (e.g., visual, digital, and critical literacies). To develop such multiliteracy skills, students need opportunities to process and communicate information or use specialised representations that characterise a subject area, often through multiple modalities. Digital technologies are important learning tools for helping students to interpret and communicate information multimodally. In chemistry, in particular, digital technologies are effective tools for supporting students’ understanding and representation of chemical concepts on macroscopic, molecular, and symbolic levels. Designing and scaffolding appropriate learning experiences in chemistry can be a challenge for teachers, particularly when integrating digital technologies with laboratory-based activities. The purpose of this chapter is to outline how a multiliteracies framework can be used to develop and deliver an investigative inquiry unit of work to chemistry students. It describes a scaffolding model developed and investigated through a study in which an introductory unit in senior chemistry was taught using a multiliteracies approach. It also describes student learning outcomes and perceptions of the usefulness of this scaffolding approach as these were identified through the study.
Service Science and Practice
Authors: Koumpis Adamantios
Published: May 2010

This introductory chapter aims to make clear the holistic nature of services to our lives linking the science part to the practice matters. Bringing examples for service successes and failures, this chapter shall help the reader position him or herself with the field under examination. We present and discuss the collaborative approach towards service design and the contextualisation of services as leverage for attaining competitive advantage. Critical factors are listed that concern relationship management in business service contexts and which are considered in terms of the collaboration dimension. The chapter closes with an examination of power dependencies and trust in collaborative service arrangements.
About the Nature of Services
Authors: Koumpis Adamantios
Published: May 2010

Here the author elaborates on the intangible nature of services – and how it materializes to tangible commodities and results. The aim of this chapter is to increase the awareness of the reader regarding the complexities related to even simple forms of services that we regard as trivial. Five propositions are presented upon which the proposed service development framework and the underlying processes are built; all five of them are also related with corresponding problem areas in the real world and the markets. Two sections are devoted respectively to the nowadays more increasingly and intensively faced step changes in the conceptualisation of services and the e-services iceberg.
Services and the Computers
Authors: Koumpis Adamantios
Published: May 2010

In symmetry with Chapter 4, here the core subject in this chapter is the relationships between services and their implementations in computer applications and information systems. Again, the interactive space is examined that is created to link both entities – and most importantly – how computers interact to each other through services. A theoretical part of the service development framework is presented related with Information Supply Chains and is followed by an implemented test case for a manufacturing enterprise. Important part is devoted to practical concerns like configurability of a service in other or new contexts and de novo construction of a service supply chain.
Service Physics
Authors: Koumpis Adamantios
Published: May 2010

When aiming towards user-centred service design, a core issue to the design of “ergonomically correct” service interfaces is their appropriateness with respect to the particular human user behaviour attributes, as they evolve during the utilisation of an interactive service and its constituent applications. The exploitation of human behaviour aspects in the service interaction techniques design process is of significant interest and is presented in this chapter. Though it has been tempting to synthesize many of the presented service design guidelines we prefer to adopt a laundry list-like approach as the materialisation of a service interface design technique heavily depends on a plethora of parameters. In many cases, for the same audience a service implementation needs to be differentiated from other similar services, while in certain other cases this is not part of the recommended actions.
Future of Services
Authors: Koumpis Adamantios
Published: May 2010

The dominance of services in our world and the challenges that the society and the individuals are facing. About the emergence of the Service Science as an independent discipline that will be taught, studied, researched and applied. Formulation of the scientific foundations of a Service Science. Spirituality and transcendental elements in the service discipline. Novel concepts and knowledge areas: service terrorism, service anarchy, service activism, service tyrannies. The role of history and arts and the inrush of humanities in the service domain.
Fundamentals of Collaborative Business
Authors: Unhelkar Bhuvan , Ghanbary Abbass , Younessi Houman
Published: May 2010

The modern business age is about astute collaboration. This is so because the nature of competition amongst businesses has changed significantly. The core change has resulted from the advances of electronic communications. The ability of businesses to execute their business processes independent of geographical or technological boundaries has brought about an utterly different type of business eco-system. The new business model mandates the business to look around, observe its associated businesses, establish alliances with them and provide unified solutions to its customers in a way that encapsulated the underlying ‘mix’ of complexities and combinations of services and products desired by the customer. Thus, in a way, competition has transcended itself and businesses have started associating with each other at a different level, with changed scope and global standards. The discussion on collaboration in this book is to understand the way in which it is affecting businesses and what is required of the businesses in order to handle collaboration without giving up competition completely.
Collaborative Web Based System (CWBS)
Authors: Unhelkar Bhuvan , Ghanbary Abbass , Younessi Houman
Published: May 2010

This chapter describes the modeling of the Collaborative Web Based System (CWBS). This CWBS is the means by which the CBPE model, discussed earlier in this book, is practically implemented. The focus of this chapter, however, is on the models of collaborative business processes that can be implemented in CWBS. The software architecture aspect of the CWBS is based on the detailed discussions of technologies in previous chapters 2, 4 and 5. The models in this chapter are based on the Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN) and the use cases are based on the specifications of the Unified Modeling Language (UML). These notations and the ensuing process models are important when organizations try to collaborate with each other. These process models show, visually, how the interactions amongst multiple organizations will take place from a business viewpoint.
Organizational Structure and Technology Adaptation
Authors: Unhelkar Bhuvan , Ghanbary Abbass , Younessi Houman
Published: May 2010

This chapter discusses the effect of the technologies of Web Services (WS) and Mobile Technologies (MT) on the organizational structure of an enterprise. Subsequently, this chapter also discusses the various technology acceptance models in the context of collaborative business. The survey described in this chapter highlights the importance of the various emerging technologies (as outlined earlier in Chapter 2 and discussed in greater detail in Chapter 5) in terms of their adoptability and their impact on the collaborative business.
Change Management in Collaboration
Authors: Unhelkar Bhuvan , Ghanbary Abbass , Younessi Houman
Published: May 2010

This chapter discusses the importance, relevance and the activities related to managing change in a business as it undergoes transformation to a collaborative business. One of the most significant changes that needs to take place when collaborative business is undertaken is the redefinition of traditional organizational boundaries. Senior management of the organization must understand the upcoming change process and totally support the change that follows the effort to collaborate through electronic channels. Collaborative business, especially through the use of a collaborative webbased system, will find that other participating businesses are able to come ‘inside’ the organization in order to offer as well as consume services. While this initially happens in the electronic domain, large, service-based organizations that depend on their far-flung collaborative partners will also discover that the management of change is not just at a technological level but also at a socio-cultural level.
Case Study 2
Authors: Unhelkar Bhuvan , Ghanbary Abbass , Younessi Houman
Published: May 2010

This chapter describes a case study carried out in a large energy provider organization. The case study demonstrates the application of the CBPE model in practice. This chapter presents how the CBPE model introduces new engineered processes within the organization that facilitate collaborative activities of the organization.