bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Nation-Wide ICT Infrastructure Introduction and its Leverage for Overall Development
Authors: Pale Predrag , Gojšic Jasenka
Published: May 2011

This paper describes 10 years of efforts in introducing the state-of-the-art information and communication technologies (ICT) and development of ICT infrastructure on the national level. The aim of the project was to build Internet in Croatia and to foster its leverage in the broad range of activities of public interest in the society as a whole. The prime target group was academic and research community, as a vehicle for the overall development in the society. Croatian Academic and Research Network (CARNet) had been started as a project in 1991, and, after five years, it was transformed into a government agency. A broad range of activities had been started, from building and maintaining private nation-wide communication and computer network to information services, user support, education, pilot projects and promotion. The academic community has been treated not only as the main customer, but also as an active partner in developing and providing services. CARNet has been fully funded by the state budget for 10 years, without any participation of the commercial sector, domestic donations or international financial support. Although CARNet is treated as Croatian success story, recognized inside and outside of the country, the question is whether the initial goals have been realistic and achievements sufficient, considering the low penetration of ICT into the Croatian society. Likewise, budget cuts, continuous struggle for political recognition and authority, as well as fights with national telecommunication monopoly, have created an array of questions to be answered at the beginning of the second decade of this highly ambitious endeavor.
Integrating Information Technologies into Large Organizations
Authors: Gottlich Gretchen L. , Meyer John M. , Nelson Michael L. , Bianco David J.
Published: May 2011

NASA Langley Research Center’s product is aerospace research information. To this end, Langley uses information technology tools in three distinct ways. First, information technology tools are used in the production of information via computation, analysis, data collection and reduction. Second, information technology tools assist in streamlining business processes, particularly those that are primarily communication based. By applying these information tools to administrative activities, Langley spends fewer resources on managing itself and can allocate more resources for research. Third, Langley uses information technology tools to disseminate its aerospace research information, resulting in faster turn around time from the laboratory to the end-customer. This chapter describes how information technology tools are currently cutting cost and adding value for NASA Langley internal and external customers. Three components from a larger strategic WWW framework are highlighted: Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Integrated Computing Environment (ICE), and LANTERN (Langley’s intranet). Based on experiences with these and related projects at Langley, we suggest that there are four pillars of information technology project success: training; provision of useful services; access to enabling tools; and advertising and advocacy.
Norwel Equipment Co. Limited Partnership (L.P.) Internet Upgrade
Authors: Walsh Kenneth R.
Published: May 2011

Norwel Equipment Co. Limited Partnership (L.P.) is a Louisiana business retailer of construction equipment specializing in John Deere heavy-equipment and has secured exclusive John Deere rights for most of the State of Louisiana. Founded in 1972, Norwelis the sixth largest John Deere construction equipment dealer in the United States. This case illustrates business and technology issues facing Norwel. In mid-1999, the October 1st deadline for John Deere’s requirement to communicate by e-mail was approaching and the response time of the Norwel’s primary computers system, an AS/400, was increasing to the point where users were not satisfied with performance. Also users were requesting new computing services such as e-mail, document sharing, and Internet access. For example, the Parts Operations Manger suggested selling parts online and the Manager of the Used Equipment Division suggest supporting the sales staff through Internet connections. Managing Partner, Richard Hevey decided an upgrade to the networks and a connection to the Internet were needed. He is faced with both short-term and long-term decisions about Norwel’s infrastructure.
Information Quality
Authors: Naumann Felix , Roth Mary
Published: May 2011

Commercial database management systems (DBMS) have come a long way with respect to efficiency and more recently, with respect to quality and user friendliness. Not only do they provide an efficient means to store large amounts of data and intuitive query languages to access the data; popular DBMS also provide a whole suite of tools to assess, store, manage, clean, and retrieve data in a user-friendly way. Some of these feature address database experts, others are targeted at end-users with little or even no database knowledge. The recent developments in the field of autonomic computing drive the ease-of-use even further. In this report we study how well a typical DBMS meets the goal of providing a high-quality data storage and retrieval facility. To this end, we draw on an established set of information quality criteria and assess how well an exemplary DBMS fares. While quality criteria are usually defined for a set of data, we extend, wherever possible, the definitions to the systems that manage this data
A Tool for Working with Web Ontologies
Authors: Kalyanpur Aditya , Parsia Bijan , Hendler James
Published: May 2011

The task of building an open and scalable ontology browsing and editing tool based on OWL, the first standardized Web-oriented ontology language, requires the rethinking of critical user interface and ontological engineering issues. In this article, we describe Swoop, a browser and editor specifically tailored to OWL ontologies. Taking a “Web view” of things has proven quite instructive, and we discuss some insights into Web ontologies that we gained through our experience with Swoop, including issues related to the display, navigation, editing, and collaborative annotation of OWL ontological data.
Research Issues of the IT Productivity Paradox
Authors: Law Chuck C.H. , Ngai Eric W.T.
Published: May 2011

Although corporations in the western world, especially those in the United States, have spent generously on information technology (IT) and information systems (IS) in recent decades, many empirical studies have found limited evidence for the payoffs of surging IT expenditures. In some cases, measures of IT spending were found to be either uncorrelated, or negatively associated, with the productivity or financial performance of the sample firms. To the dismay of the researchers and business executives, the phenomenon of the IT productivity paradox lingers on to this day. A review of the literature on this subject has pointed out several possible reasons underlying such inconsistencies, which include data and methodological problems and limitations of research models. Moreover, many of these studies have been criticized as weak in theoretical underpinning when they simply fed data into statistical models for the independent (IT spending), and dependent (productivity or financial performance) measures in order to empirically ascertain the relationships that might exist. In this chapter, a research model is proposed. With expectation to mitigate the shortcomings of some of the prior studies, this model incorporates improvements in business process as an independent construct in parallel to the capabilities of IT and enterprise systems. Competitive capabilities are included as an intermediate construct to help conceptualize the linkage between the independent constructs and the dependent construct of organizational performance. Theories and empirical evidence are drawn from associated management disciplines such as operations management and from a resources-based view of the firm to illustrate and explain that investment in IT and business processes will eventually contribute to organizational performance through the creation and enhancement of competitive capabilities. Finally, the theoretical and managerial implications of this research model are highlighted.
Pricing Outcomes in Dual-Channel Monopoly and Partial Duopoly
Authors: Sheikh Farooq M. , Amin M. Ruhul , Amin Nafeez
Published: May 2011

In this chapter, the authors first study the pricing strategies of a monopolist selling a product through stores in two channels, but under single management (or coordinated management) and then propose a framework for a model for a partial duopoly market conditions. The authors find that the monopolist generally charges a higher price in the brick and mortar store than the price charged in the Internet store. If, however, there is a sufficiently large fraction of buyers who would strictly prefer to buy the product from the Internet store instead of the physical store at any given price, the monopolist might charge the same price in both the stores. The authors also find that physical store price of a dual-channel monopoly is higher than the physical store price of a single-channel monopoly; the price charged in the Internet store is generally lower than the single channel monopoly price. This chapter concludes with an identification of parameters for channel pricing strategies under partial duopoly market conditions.
Enterprise Information Systems and B2B E-Commerce
Authors: Baker C. Richard
Published: May 2011

While the overall investment in information technology (IT) decreased somewhat during the first several years of the 21st century, B2B e-commerce technologies have expanded at an increasing rate (Lim & Wen, 2002). The expansion of B2B e-commerce has been technologically based on enterprise-wide information systems (EISs) that allow electronic data transmission and execution of transactions in a secure and efficient manner. Since B2B e-commerce is Internet-based, the EISs used to support B2B e-commerce must be Internet capable. The primary language of the Internet, Hypertext Mark-up Language (HTML), is not well-suited for transmitting data and executing transactions. Consequently, Extensible Mark-up Language (XML) was developed to facilitate electronic information exchange applications, including many applications related to B2B e-commerce. As initially conceived, XML had a number of constraints, particularly in the area of data integrity and security, however, these constraints have gradually been overcome. This chapter reviews the objectives of using XML in B2B e-commerce, reviews the technical structure of XML, and discusses ways that security and privacy can be enhanced while engaging in B2B e-commerce.
Synchronous E-Learning Integrating Multicast Applications and Adaptive QOS
Authors: Deusdado Sérgio , Carvalho Paulo
Published: May 2011

A new generation of e-learning development, based on synchronous groupware applications integration, providing improved interactivity and pro-human relations, allows richer training experiences far beyond a virtual classroom. Despite WWW service evolution, e-conferencing multimedia applications remain “killer applications” and insensitive to resources degradation, in fact, the quality of service (QoS) provided by the network is still a limitation impairing their performance. Such applications have found in multicast technology an ally contributing for their efficient implementation and scalability. Additionally, considering QoS as design goal at application level becomes crucial for groupware development, enabling QoS proactivity to applications. The applications’ ability to adapt themselves dynamically according to the resources availability can be considered a quality factor. Tolerant real-time applications, such as videoconferences, are in the frontline to benefit from QoS adaptation. However, not all include adaptive technology is able to provide both end-system and network quality awareness. Adaptation, in these cases, can be achieved by introducing a multiplatform middleware layer responsible for tutoring the applications’ resources (enabling adjudication or limitation) based on the available processing and networking capabilities. Congregating these technological contributions, an adaptive platform has been developed integrating public domain multicast tools, applied to a Web-based distance learning system. The system is user-centered (e-student), aiming at good pedagogical practices and proactive usability for multimedia and network resources. The services provided, including QoS adapted interactive multimedia multicast conferences (MMC), are fully integrated and transparent to end-users. QoS adaptation, when treated systematically in tolerant real-time applications, denotes advantages in group scalability and QoS sustainability in heterogeneous and unpredictable environments such as the Internet.
Challenges in Delivering Case-Based Teaching in the Online Asynchronous Learning Environment
Authors: Chen Charlie C. , Harris Albert L. , Shang Rong-An
Published: May 2011

Case method teaching is prominent in its efficacy at improving the cognitive learning process in faceto- face classes. However, the efficacy of conducting this teaching method in an online asynchronous environment, where learners and instructor do not have real-time interactions, could be problematic. This study assesses and compares the efficacy of case method teaching in face-to-face and online asynchronous learning (OAL) environments. We proposed four hypotheses on the correlation between these two delivery modes of case method teaching and the learning performance of students. This study reports additional findings on the usage behavior of students in an online asynchronous environment. These findings are a useful aggregated surrogate to measure the effect of case teaching method in the online asynchronous environment. The overall findings of this study indicate that an online asynchronous environment can promote students’ participation in certain cases. As most antagonists for the adoption of online asynchronous case method surmised, cognitive learning gains via this learning method do not seem to be as high as in the face-to-face environment. The findings provide ample room for a further exploration of creative online asynchronous methods to continuously improve cognitive gains of learners.
An Architecture for Online Laboratory E-Learning System
Authors: Duan Bing , Hosseini Habib Mir M. , Ling Keck Voon , Gay Robert Kheng Leng
Published: May 2011

Internet-based learning systems, or e-learning, are widely available in institutes, universities, and industrial companies, hosting regular or continuous education programs. The dream of teaching and learning from anywhere and at anytime becomes a reality due to the construction of e-learning infrastructure. Traditional teaching materials and methods are shifting to the new paradigm. In higher education, laboratory work is playing an important role in the area of training students and helping students to absorb more knowledge. With the goal of bringing e-learning to the traditional laboratory experiment, in this chapter, we present an architecture for an online laboratory e-learning system to facilitate the design and deployment of lab-based courses for e-education. The chapter provides an overall view of the system design and implementation so the Internet-based laboratory can be easily integrated with the e-learning infrastructure.
Pervasive Computing
Authors: Loureiro Emerson , Ferreira Glauber , Almeida Hyggo , Perkusich Angelo
Published: May 2011

In this chapter, we introduce the key ideas related to the paradigm of pervasive computing. We discuss its concepts, challenges, and current solutions by dividing it into four research areas. Such division is how we were able to understand what really is involved in pervasive computing at different levels. Our intent is to provide readers with introductory theoretical support in the selected research areas to aid them in their studies of pervasive computing. Within this context, we hope the chapter can be helpful for researchers of pervasive computing, mainly for the beginners, and for students and professors in their academic activities.
Accessing Learning Content in a Mobile System
Authors: Trifonova Anna
Published: May 2011

This chapter has the aim to point out an important functionality of a ubiquitous mobile system, and more specifically, its application in the learning domain. This functionality is the possibility to access the learning material from mobile devices, like PDAs (personal digital assistants) during their off-line periods and the technique to approach it, called hoarding. The chapter starts with the overview of a concrete mobile learning system—Mobile ELDIT, so as to give a clear idea of when and how this problem appears and why it is important to pay attention to it. Later, a description of the development approaches for both general and concrete solutions are discussed, followed by more detailed description of the important hoarding steps.
To Ease the Dilemma of Help Desk
Authors: Leung Nelson , Lau Sim Kim
Published: May 2011

Information technology has changed the way organizations function. This resulted in the reliance of help desks to deal with information technology related areas such as hardware, software, and telecommunication. Besides, the adoption of business process reengineering and downsizing has led to the shrinkage of the sizes of help desks. Consequently, the help desks have to cover more information technology products and resolute more technical enquiries with less staff. Thus, the outcome is clear that users have to wait comparably longer before the help desk staff are available to offer assistance. This chapter describes the development of help desk, ranging from help desk structures to support tools. This chapter also discusses the application of knowledge management techniques in the development of a proposed conceptual knowledge management framework and a proposed redistributed knowledge management framework. While the conceptual knowledge management framework proposes a standard methodology to manage help desk knowledge, the proposed redistributed knowledge management framework allows simple and routine enquiries to be rerouted to a user self-help knowledge management system. The proposed system also enables help desk to provide technical knowledge to users 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Regardless of time and geographical restrictions, users can solve their simple problems without help desk intervention simply by accessing the proposed system through portable electronic devices.
Knowledge Strategic Alignment
Authors: Asoh Derek A. , Belardo Salvatore , Duchessi Peter
Published: May 2011

Knowledge has been recognized as a key organizational resource. Yet, despite commitment in knowledge management (KM), many researchers and organizations overlook the need to engage in the alignment of knowledge-related resources with business-related strategies (knowledge strategic alignment). Although many reasons may be advanced for the lack of research and practice on knowledge strategic alignment, two reasons stand out. First, the alignment concept is difficult to understand and measure (Chan, Huff, Barclay & Copeland, 1997), and second, the KM field is relatively new and lacks appropriate frameworks, models, and methodologies for expected research and practice (Earl, 2001). The objectives of this chapter are twofold: The first is an attempt to respond to the call for frameworks, models, and methodologies for research in KM; and the second is an attempt to “simplify” the understanding of the alignment concept within the KM field. To attain both objectives, we first review the KM literature, and then opine on research from the alignment “reference fields” (Information Systems/Information Technology (IS/IT) and strategic management), where the alignment concept is well researched and practiced to propose a framework for research on alignment in the KM field. We identify relevant research models, discuss conceptualizations of alignment in KM, and illustrate the application of the framework, models, and alignment concepts.
Integrating Knowledge Management Services
Authors: Maier Ronald , Remus Ulrich
Published: May 2011

Many organizations have established knowledge management initiatives, but most of them have developed instruments bottom-up, often in parallel and without strategic considerations. Many of those instruments involve information and communication technologies (ICT) which therefore are fragmented and cannot be easily reused outside their original intended organizational unit. This chapter proposes a three-layered service infrastructure that composes services from heterogeneous applications into specific knowledge management (KM) services. The infrastructure supports discovery, call, and provision of KM services from activities within business processes. It argues that integration of KM services in organizations requires alignment of the IT infrastructure, particularly its knowledge-oriented part, with the KM portion of business strategy, that is, KM strategy. This alignment can be achieved by introducing a service infrastructure that uses the concept of KM service in order to connect the customer-oriented materialization of strategic decisions on a conceptual level, that is, business processes, with their technical counterpart on the ICT level, that is, software services.
Web Engineering
Authors: Murugesan San , Ginige Athula
Published: May 2011

Web-based systems and applications now deliver a complex array of functionality to a large number of diverse groups of users. As our dependence and reliance on the Web has increased dramatically over the years, their performance, reliability and quality have become paramount importance. As a result, the development of Web applications has become more complex and challenging than most of us think. In many ways, it is also different and more complex than traditional software development. But, currently, the development and maintenance of most Web applications is chaotic and far from satisfactory. To successfully build and maintain large, complex Web-based systems and applications, Web developers need to adopt a disciplined development process and a sound methodology. The emerging discipline of Web engineering advocates a holistic, disciplined approach to successful Web development. In this chapter, we articulate and raise awareness of the issues and considerations in large, complex Web application development, and introduce Web engineering as a way of managing complexity and diversity of large-scale Web development.
Resources on Web-Centric Computing
Authors: Menzin Margaret
Published: May 2011

This chapter consists of a comprehensive bibliography of web engineering resources. Since this list will constantly be changing, the author provides a web site for a current and more comprehensive listing: (URL=”http://web.simmons.edu/~menzin/WebCentricResources.html”) This print version of this resource shows the URL’s in printed form, generally in the format as “(URL=…)”. Be sure to check the General Tools section, in addition to the sections for specific topics.
Building Trust in Networked Environments
Authors: Julsrud Tom E. , Bakke John W.
Published: May 2011

As organizations grow and become multi-national, distributed work, i.e. work where members are located in different sites, cities or countries usually follows (Meyerson, Weick et al. 1996; Jarvenpaa and Leidner 1999; Zolin and Hinds 2002; Hossain and Wigand 2004; Panteli 2005). Yet, such teams and groups have fewer opportunities to build social networks as is common in traditional groups, such as time spent together and frequent informal interaction. The “paradox of trust” in distributed work then, is that while trust is a “need to have”-asset” for distributed work groups – in particular for knowledge work – it is also difficult to foster due to the lack of physical co-location (Handy 1995). This article argues that one way to deal with the paradox is to recognize the importance of trust as generated through individuals that have trustful ties that cross central boundaries; i.e. trust brokers. Based on a relational approach to trust in groups, as well as empirical studies of distributed work groups, we argue that trust brokers can help to establish trust quickly and make the group operate in more robust and sustainable ways.
Introduction
Authors: Busch Peter
Published: May 2011

At the dawn of a new century, the principal assets of many (perhaps most) corporations are now held in the intangible form of intellectual capital. The primary market value of Microsoft, for example, lies not in its buildings, equipment, or receivables, but instead in the smarts of its people, software development capacity, patents, copyrights, and trademarks (Housel & Bell, 2001 p. xi).
Knowledge Flows
Authors: Busch Peter
Published: May 2011

Recalling from previous discussions, this book is not concerned solely with discussing knowledge management or testing for tacit knowledge. The former topic is well handled through a great deal of literature dating from the 1990s to the present day. The latter subject as we saw in the previous chapter tends to take place at the level of the individual and although a variety of techniques exist, the one by Sternberg’s group is arguably the most practical. It is the flow of (tacit) knowledge in an organisation that should also be considered for the richness it provides both at the level of the staff member and holistically at the company-wide level. As one would expect, the measurement of knowledge flows brings with it another set of complexities including but not limited to, the culture of the firm, the cultural background of the individual employee, the degree to which ICT is in place within the company, the size of work groups and the formality or structure of the groups themselves. A study of intra-organisational flows needs to understand the parameters that will have an impact on the likelihood of soft knowledge being transferred from one individual to the next.
Social Network Analysis
Authors: Busch Peter
Published: May 2011

If one seeks to measure (knowledge) flows amongst individuals, then the means of doing so are limited. Observation is one technique but is hindered by certain constraints. The first constraint is that the researcher cannot always place him or herself in the organisation for political or managerial reasons, especially if management is concerned that the work being conducted is confidential or “cutting edge” in nature. Secondly, people are known to modify their behaviour if being observed. Finally even if permission were to be given to observe workers and staff supposedly did not modify their behaviour, the nature of ICT work is largely desk or meeting-bound such that observation is not likely to reveal what it might in say occupations that were more “physical” or active in character. To that end, Social Network Analysis becomes a serious contender in seeking to examine knowledge flows between staff based on the relationships they have with one another.
Initial Results
Authors: Busch Peter
Published: May 2011

Chapter V revealed how the three IT organisations varied in their structure. Remember that Organisation X is an insurance company; however what is referred to as Organisation X herein is the IT support group for the wider organisation. Organisation Y differed insofar as it is a management consultancy with a specialisation in IT; to that end, the staff under study represent the core of the organisation, rather than the IT support staff, as is the case in Organisation X. Organisation Z is a home and office furniture supply company, however what is referred to as Organisation Z here is the IT group providing support to the logistics of storing and selling furniture items. Thus, Organisation X and Z under study are similar insofar as they provide a service role to the wider organisation. Organisation Y differs, as its mission is to deliver IT/IS managerial expertise. The population of the organisations not surprisingly reflects this. For example Organisation Y is made up of predominantly senior mono-cultural “first language is English” personnel. The other two organisations have a much broader staff profile with a far higher level of multiculturalism. There are a couple of other issues need to be clarified at this stage because they are continually referred to from now on. They are the Australian Computer Society (ACS, 2000; ACS SA, 1999) levels because of the nature of their role in relation to employee experience in each of the firms. It is also considered worthwhile to provide a short discussion on the selection of our “expert” sample population at this stage.
Server Development for Online Computer Labs
Authors: Chao Lee
Published: May 2011

This chapter will first address the server-side hardware configuration issues. After the discussion of the hardware configuration, we will deal with the server-side software configuration issues. We will discuss some general procedures of configuring the hardware and software with the lab design objectives in mind. Lastly, we will discuss some configuration issues about various special purpose servers.
Testing and Evaluating Online Computer Labs
Authors: Chao Lee
Published: May 2011

The process of developing an online computer lab is not a linear process. It is a cycle of developing a new lab, testing, evaluating an existing lab, getting feedback from users, and improving the existing lab. An online computer lab is a complicated project, especially if it a medium or large online computer lab. For such a complex project, it is difficult to make everything perfect at the first time. Some of the implementation may not meet the requirements exactly. As we all know, there would be some mistakes. There could be some conflicts when multiple classes share the lab resources. Also, technology changes at a rapid pace. Following the change of technology, the content of technology-based courses will change with it. As a result, equipments, software, and services will be updated accordingly. These factors will lead to the redesign or update of the online computer lab. Testing and evaluation are critical steps for meeting the ever changing requirements of teaching and hands-on practice. All in all, testing and evaluation provide guidelines for improving support for technology-based courses. In this chapter, we will discuss the issues related to testing and evaluation of an existing computer lab.
Trends in Online Teaching of Technology-Based Courses
Authors: Chao Lee
Published: May 2011

Online (or Web-based) teaching has become one of the main approaches to delivering knowledge. As mentioned in Chapter 1, almost all of the universities have adopted online teaching. Certainly, we have entered a new era for higher education. As the momentum builds up, more and more technology-based courses are also taught through online classes. Online computer labs are a key element to support the server-side hands-on practice in an online technology-based class. Due to the fact that an online computer lab is highly related to the advance of technology, lab-based online teaching still has a lot of areas that need to be improved. With that in mind, we will investigate the trends in Web-based teaching and in computer lab related technologies in this chapter.
Learning Personalized Ontologies from Text
Authors: Chen Shan , Williams Mary-Anne
Published: May 2011

Ontology learning has been identified as an inherently transdisciplinary area. Personalized ontology learning for Web personalization involves Web technologies and therefore presents more challenges. This chapter presents a review of the main concepts of ontologies and the state of the art in the area of ontology learning from text. It provides an overview of Web personalization, and identifies issues and describes approaches for learning personalized ontologies. The goal of this survey is—through the study of the main concepts, existing methods, and practices of the area—to identify new connections with other areas for the future success of establishing principles for this new transdisciplinary area. As a result, the chapter is concluded by presenting a number of possible future research directions.
Clustering Web Information Sources
Authors: Vakali Athena , Pallis Geroge , Angelis Lefteris
Published: May 2011

The explosive growth of the Web scale has drastically increased information circulation and dissemination rates. As the number of both Web users and Web sources grows significantly everyday, crucial data management issues, such as clustering on the Web, should be addressed and analyzed. Clustering has been proposed towards improving both the information availability and the Web users’ personalization. Clusters on the Web are either users’ sessions or Web information sources, which are managed in a variation of applications and implementations testbeds. This chapter focuses on the topic of clustering information over the Web, in an effort to overview and survey on the theoretical background and the adopted practices of most popular emerging and challenging clustering research efforts. An up-to-date survey of the existing clustering schemes is given, to be of use for both researchers and practitioners interested in the area of Web data mining.
Robustness Analysis of Patchwork Watermarking Schemes
Authors: Kim Hyoung-Joong , Xiang Shijun , Yeo In-Kwon
Published: May 2011

The patchwork watermarking scheme is investigated in this chapter. The performance of this algorithm in terms of imperceptibility, robustness and security has been shown to be satisfactory. Robustness of the patchwork algorithm to the curve-fitting attack and blind multiple-embedding attack is presented also in this chapter. Robustness against jitter attack which is a natural enemy of this watermarking al-gorithm is also studied.
Time-Frequency Analysis of Digital Audio Watermarking
Authors: Krishnan Sridhar , Ghoraani Behnaz
Published: May 2011

In this book chapter, we present an overview of our time-frequency (TF) based audio watermarking methods. First, a motivation on the necessity of data authentication, and an introduction in Digital Rights Management (DRM) to protect digital multimedia contents is presented. TF techniques provide flexible means to analyze non-stationary audio signals. We have explained the joint TF domain for watermark representation, and have employed pattern recognition schemes for watermark detection. In this chapter; we introduce two watermarking methods; embedding non-linear and linear TF signatures as watermarking signatures. Robustness of the proposed methods against common signal manipulations is also studied in this chapter.
Subjective and Objective Quality Evaluation of Watermarked Audio
Authors: Arnold Michael
Published: May 2011

Methods for evaluating the quality of watermarked objects are detailed in this chapter. It will provide an overview of subjective and objective methods usable in order to judge the influence of watermark embedding on the quality of audio tracks. The problem associated with the quality evaluation of watermarked audio data will be presented. This is followed by a presentation of subjective evaluation standards used in testing the transparency of marked audio tracks as well as the evaluation of marked items with intermediate quality. Since subjective listening tests are expensive and dependent on many not easily controllable parameters, objective quality measurement methods are discussed in section Objective Evaluation Standards. Section Implementation of a Quality Evaluation presents the whole process of testing the quality taking into account the methods discussed in this chapter. Special emphasis is devoted to a detailed description of the test setup, item selection and the practical limitations. The last section summarizes the chapter.
Watermarking Security
Authors: Furon Teddy , Cayre François , Fontaine Caroline
Published: May 2011

Digital watermarking studies have always been driven by the improvement of robustness. Most of articles of this field deal with this criterion, presenting more and more impressive experimental assessments. Some key events in this quest are the use of spread spectrum, the invention of resynchronization schemes, the discovery of side information channel, and the formulation of the embedding and attacking strategies as a game. On the contrary, security received little attention in the watermarking community. This chapter presents a comprehensive overview of this recent concept. We list the typical applications which require a secure watermarking technique. For each context, a threat analysis is purposed. This presentation allows us to illustrate all the certainties the community has on the subject, browsing all key papers. The end of the paper is devoted to what remains not clear, intuitions and future trends.
Modelling of Water Use Decisions in a Large, Spacially Explicit, Coupled Simulation System
Authors: Ernst Andreas , Schulz Carsten , Schwarz Nina
Published: May 2011

This chapter presents the purpose, the basic concepts, the implementation, and a scenario run of the agent-based part of a large Decision Support System for the water resources management of the Upper Danube basin, Western Europe. 16 process models from 11 disciplines from the natural and the social sciences are integrated in the system. They use common spatial and temporal concepts to communicate with each other at run time. A variety of agents based on large scale empirical evidence serves to model the drinking water use of households. An example scenario run under global warming conditions shows the interplay between modelled water supply companies, households, climate, and groundwater resources.
Mechanisms of Automated Formation and Evolution of Social-Groups
Authors: Gil-Quijano Javier
Published: May 2011

In this chapter, we present a multi-agent system that models and simulates the dynamics of intra-urban mobility through the automated formation and evolution of both groups of households and groups of housing-units. We consider global rules of evolution instead of individual events to represent the evolution of both the population and the housing-stock. The moving mechanism is modelled by interactions between groups and urban-sectors agents in a simulated housing market. We have tested this system on the basis of several censuses datasets of Bogotá city. The evolution of groups has been simulated over 20 years and compared to real data. The results of group formation and evolution mechanisms have been compared to classes produced by classical classification methods. Very good correlations have been found. The simulated population has been compared to real distributions of several Bogotá districts and appears to be close for an important number of them.
Examining the Myth of Money with Agent-Based Modelling
Authors: Yamadera Satoru
Published: May 2011

This chapter presents an agent-based computational model of the emergence of money. It is based on classical economic theories of money, advocating that money is a symbol of credibility. The most interesting and mysterious feature of money is a departure of its face value from its intrinsic value. People accept and appreciate a piece of paper because it is believed as money. The model examines how such belief creates money in a society. Further more, by incorporating spatial activities of agents into the simulations, the model can examine various hypotheses which were difficult to be examined in previous approaches. The simulation results show that parameters such as credibility and communication between agents will affect the outcomes. The model not only provides the foundation for more generalized theory of money, but also demonstrates that agent-based modeling can be an effective tool to examine various hypotheses of social sciences.
Stakeholder Participation in Investigating the Impact of E-Commerce Upon the Value Chain
Authors: Taylor Richard
Published: May 2011

This chapter discusses qualitative and quantitative approaches to informing and validating ABMs. Research is introduced which addresses the question of how new e-commerce technology is leading to restructuring of value chains. A case study was undertaken within a major international organisation, focusing on exploring those issues identified as interesting and important by a small stakeholder group working in the company and actively participating in the research. A central theme of this paper is the interaction and relationship with stakeholders during the project, with regards to the development of the ABM. The paper concludes that a multi-methodology approach is appropriate to simulation-based projects, and identifies stakeholder participation as being useful in several ways, in particular because it facilitiates model validation.
Web-Based Education Diffusion
Authors: Aggarwal Anil K , Legon Ron
Published: May 2011

Web-based education is diffusing across universities, disciplines, globes and educational levels. Many institutions are at the crossroad whether or not to adopt web-based education (WBE). In many cases their survival may depend on how successfully they can adopt WBE. In this regard they can learn from the early adopters of WBE, and from their experiences both good and bad without reinventing the wheel. This paper has two specific purposes: Describe WBE diffusion at a upper level university in the US, and the second is to discuss its diffusion experiences so that other universities can benefit from it This paper relates diffusion of innovation theory and the 4P’s of marketing to discuss web education diffusion. We feel this is a first attempt in this direction. This paper should be useful worldwide for universities planning to start WBE and are looking for some guidance on “how”, “where” and “what” to follow to initiate the process.
Routing Attribute Data Mining Based on Rough Set Theory
Authors: Liu Yanbing , Wang Menghao , Tang Jong
Published: May 2011

QOSPF (Quality of Service Open Shortest Path First) based on QoS routing has been recognized as a missing piece in the evolution of QoS-based services on the Internet. Data mining has emerged as a tool for data analysis, discovery of new information, and autonomous decision making. This article focuses on routing algorithms and their applications for computing QoS routes in OSPF protocol. The proposed approach is based on a data mining approach using rough set theory, for which the attribute-value system about links of networks is created from network topology. Rough set theory offers a knowledge discovery approach toextracting routing decisions from attribute set. The extracted rules then can be used to select significant routing attributes and to make routing selections in routers. A case study is conducted in order to demonstrate that rough set theory is effective in finding the most significant attribute set. It is shown that the algorithm based on data mining and rough set offers a promising approach to the attribute selection problem in Internet routing.
Enterprise Resource Planning Under Open Source Software
Authors: Davis Ashley
Published: May 2011

Open source software is becoming more prevalent in businesses today, and while still a relatively immature offering, open source enterprise resource planning (OS-ERP) systems are becoming more common. However, whether or not an OS-ERP package is the right software for a given organization is a little researched question. Building on the current real options thinking about platform acquisitions, this chapter proposes the five most critical factors to consider when evaluating an OS-ERP package. To adequately do this, a great deal of detail about the current offerings in OS-ERP software is presented, followed by a review of the real options theory and thinking behind using these factors to evaluate OS-ERP options. The international implications of OS-ERP are presented in the “Future Trends” section.
Meta-Modelling and Graph Transformation for the Definition of Multi-View Visual Languages
Authors: Guerra Esther , de Lara Juan
Published: May 2011

In this chapter, we present our approach for the definition of Multi-View Visual Languages (MVVLs). These are languages made of a set of different diagram types, which are used to specify the different aspects of a system. A prominent example of this kind of languages is UML, which defines a set of diagrams for the description of the static and dynamic elements of software systems. In the multi-view approach, consistency checking is essential to verify that the combination of the various system views yields a consistent description of the system. We use two techniques to define environments for MVVLs: meta-modelling and graph transformation. The former is used to describe the syntax of the whole language. In addition, we define a meta-model for each diagram type of the language (that we call viewpoint) as a restriction of the complete MVVL meta-model. From this high-level description, we can generate a customized environment supporting the definition of multiple system views. Consistency between views is ensured by translating each one of them into a unique repository model which is conformant to the meta-model of the whole language. The translation is performed by automatically generated graph transformation rules. Whenever a change is performed in a view, some rules are triggered to update the repository. These updates may trigger other rules to propagate the changes from the repository to the rest of the views. In our approach, graph transformation techniques are also used for other purposes, such as model simulation, optimization and transformation into other formalisms. In this chapter, we also discuss the integration of these concepts in the AToM3 tool, and show some illustrative examples by generating an environment for a small subset of UML.
XQBE
Authors: Campi Alessandro
Published: May 2011

This Chapter describes a visual framework; called XQBE; that covers the most important aspects of XML data management; spanning the visualization of XML documents; the formulation of queries; the representation and specification of document schemata; the definition of integrity constraints; the formulation of updates; and the expression of reactive behaviors in response to data modifications. All these features are strongly unified by a common visual abstraction and a few recurrent paradigms; so as to provide a homogeneous and comprehensive environment that allows even users without advanced programming skills to deal with nontrivial XML data management and transformation tasks. The intrinsic ambiguity inherent in any visual representation of richly expressive languages required a considerable effort of formalization in the semantics of XQBE that eventually lead to a solution with major advantages in terms of intuitiveness. In other words; this means that the unique (and unambiguous) effect of a statement is the one the user would expect.
GeoVisualization and GIS
Authors: Voudouris Vlasios , Marsh Stephanie Larissa
Published: May 2011

This chapter introduces the relationships among geovisualization, human computer interaction (HCI), geographic information systems (GIS) and cartography as a means of supporting decision making. It emphasizes the importance of the data modelling and the associated visualizations in terms of what we can do by way of analysis and the methods by which we can undertake the analysis. It also argues that concepts from Usability Evaluation Methods (UEMs) and other HCI techniques offer a potentially more substantive approach to understanding the use of visualizations in collaborative decision making. Furthermore, the authors hope that understanding the underlying assumptions and relations among geovisualization, human computer interaction, geographic information systems and cartography will inform researchers and decision makers of a better design for studying geovisualization as enabling means of decision making.