bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Social Support for Ontological Mediation and Data Integration
Authors: Correndo Gianluca , Alani Harith , Salvadores Manuel
Published: May 2011

Most organisations store their data in several databases with no flexible mechanism for integration and access, and with no common vocabulary in place. Maintaining local vocabularies while realising distributed access is a challenge that most organisations face regularly. For several years, the Semantic Web community has been developing algorithms for mapping data models (ontologies). Nevertheless, ontology mapping remains to be a great challenge, and humans are always expected to verify the results of existing automatic mapping tools. The spread of social web demonstrate the possibility of using collaborative techniques for reaching consensus and fostering user participation. While a number of prototypes for collaborative ontology construction are being developed, collaborative ontology mapping is not yet well investigated. In this article, the authors describe an approach that combines off-the-shelf ontology mapping tools with social software techniques to enable users to collaborate on mapping ontologies.
Social Networking, Adult Learning Success and Moodle
Authors: Martinez Margaret , Jagannathan Sheila
Published: May 2011

We know that technology is rapidly changing the world and it is hard to keep up. Social networking is the latest online trend we need to learn about. This chapter will consider the enormous changes that impact learners of all ages and offer some insights and resources for those professionals who want to provide more than just another lonely online learning experience. Social networking activities – including sites, blogs, chats, forums and wikis - are emerging to facilitate collaboration and knowledge sharing among adult online learners. The loneliness of the Web 1.0 is passé and the read-only, passive mode of adult learning is fading away. The term Web 2.0 has been used to describe all the new applications useful for a new collaborative or social approach to sharing and repurposing Web content to learn. Just as communities were important in prehistoric times, today online communities are an inherent and critical part of the Web learning experience. Implicit in most Web 2.0+ applications are social activities which help users network, share, create content, seek or research information, or contribute and interact with others. Youthful online learners are a driving force in this new social change, a change that adults can learn from and embrace. Our young Web users find technology is second nature and are unconsciously changing the paradigm of online learning as they communicate and socialize in a variety of new ways on the Web. Many adults are already following this trend. However, these ways of learning can only become mainstream only when many more adults who are responsible for adult learners learn to use the host of networking tools available. Moodle is an example of a popular open source application used successfully by many around the world. Understanding how to support collaborative online learning activities successfully can offer a huge leap towards greater online learning confidence, contribution and achievement. More is yet to come to change the paradigm of online learning and social networking in the future.
Using Social Networking to Enhance Sense of Community in E-Learning Courses
Authors: Yuen Steve Chi-Yin , Yang Harrison Hao
Published: May 2011

This chapter provides an overview and development of sense of community and social networking; discusses the potential uses of social networking in education; and presents a case study that integrates social networking into two graduate courses for the purpose of building a sense of community, improving communications and interactions, and promoting student-centered collaboration. The construction of class social networking sites, the implementation of these networks, and their effects on the students’ learning experience are examined. In addition, an analysis of feedback from students on the value of social networking in learning is included.
Social Software for Customer Knowledge Management
Authors: Zhang Zuopeng (Justin)
Published: May 2011

Social software is assuming a significant role in electronic business, increasingly referred to as e-business, and has been utilized recently on a growing scale by companies in customer relationship management. However, it is largely unclear at what levels firms should implement social software. This chapter addresses the gap by identifying the optimal level of social software deployment for a firm that plans to maximize its transactional benefits through the management of a customer knowledge base. The conclusion reached is that the optimal level of social software depends on a range of factors: for example, the initial volume of knowledge base, transaction benefits, and the estimates of the positive and negative effects of social software use. The chapter offers insights and guidance for business managers and practitioners.
Social Networking Behind Student Lines in Japan
Authors: McCarty Steve
Published: May 2011

In a cross-cultural educational context of TEFL in Japan, the author sought to enhance the integrative motivation of students toward the target language community through a supplementary online dimension. The social networking site (SNS), Mixi, was selected because it is familiar to most college students in Japan. The Mixi Japanese language interface is illustrated in this chapter, describing functions possibly applicable to education. A You- Tube video that introduces Mixi in English, made in authentic collaboration with students, is also referenced as a representative CALL 2.0 classroom activity. More importantly, joining Mixi presented an opportunity to go behind the lines into student territory. Teachers and students, whether foreign or Japanese, customarily maintain their social distance in terms of separate affiliations. Social networking with Japanese students further involves issues of online technological proficiency, biliteracy, and the necessity of an invitation. The author negotiated with three 2007-08 classes on networking through Mixi, with varying outcomes extending beyond the classroom and the school year. Metaphors of lines and perspectives including “technoscapes” (Appadurai, 1990) are proposed to interpret the results, but Japanese socioculture may be most salient to account for the particulars. Student attitudes are probed as to a possible ambivalence in valuing their free expression in Mixi versus the integrative motivation of social involvement with a teacher. One prediction was that results would differ as to whether or not a teacher was welcome in a student community depending on how students were approached for an invitation. Social networking is proposed as a Web 2.0 educational approach that is authentic, collaborative, and immersive in cutting through power hierarchies and positively blurring the distinction between the classroom and the real life of students and teachers, which nowadays includes a virtual dimension.
Enhanced Interaction in Mixed Social Environments
Authors: Oliverio James , Beck Dennis
Published: May 2011

We introduce the term ‘mixed social environments’ as a strategic learning construct to augment student interaction when utilizing virtual world environments such as Second Life in the classroom. While an increasing number of institutions are investigating the use of virtual world environments for enhanced learning, at present there are at least three major areas that are underdeveloped: interdisciplinary research, documentation of best practices, and exploration of the use of mixed social environments. In the spring of 2007, a new interdisciplinary research seminar addressing these aspects was offered at a large American university. We present an overview of the resultant learning artifacts, outcomes, and research questions in hopes of helping to inform best practices, expand interdisciplinary research, and assist in the design of future mixed social environments for enhanced learning.
Individual Differences in Social Networking Site Adoption
Authors: Gangadharbatla Harsha
Published: May 2011

This chapter focuses on detailing the role of five individual level factors—Internet self-efficacy, self-esteem, need to belong, need for information, and gender—in influencing the attitudes toward social networking sites (SNS) and the adoption of such sites. First, the growing importance of social networking sites in business is discussed, and their usage as advertising vehicles is outlined. Individual differences in SNS adoption are presented from a technology acceptance model framework. A paperpencil- based survey is conducted and data obtained is used to test a structural model that explains the role of individual-level factors in influencing individuals’ attitudes toward SNS, their willingness to join SNS, and their actual membership on SNS. Results are presented and managerial implications are drawn.
Security and Privacy in Social Networks
Authors: Carminati Barbara , Ferrari Elena , Perego Andrea
Published: May 2011

Web-based social networks (WBSNs) are online communities that allow users to publish resources (e.g., personal data, annotations, blogs) and to establish relationships, possibly of a different type (“friend,” “colleague,” etc.) for purposes that may concern business, entertainment, religion, dating, and so forth. In the last few years, the usage and diffusion of WBSNs has been increasing, with about 300 Web sites collecting the information of more than 400 million registered users. As a result, the “net model” is today used more and more to communicate, share information, make decisions, and ‘do business’ by companies and organizations (Staab et al., 2005). Regardless of the purpose of a WBSN, one of the main reasons for participating in social networking is to share and exchange information with other users. Recently, thanks to the adoption of Semantic Web technologies such as FOAF and other RDF-based vocabularies (Brickley & Miller, 2005; Davis & Vitiello, 2005; Golbeck, 2004), accessing and disseminating information over multiple WBSNs has been made simpler (Ding, Zhou, Finin, & Joshi, 2005). If this has been quite a relevant improvement towards an easier sharing of information, it makes more urgent that content owners have control over information access. In fact, making available possibly sensitive and private data and resources implies that they can be used by third parties for purposes different from the intended ones. As a matter of fact, users’ personal data and resources are regularly exploited not only by companies for marketing purposes, but also by governments and institutions for tracking persons’ behaviors and opinions, and in the worst case, by online predators (Barnes, 2006).
Effects of Digital Convergence on Social Engineering Attack Channels
Authors: Hoanca Bogdan , Mock Kenrick
Published: May 2011

Social engineering refers to the practice of manipulating people to divulge confidential information that can then be used to compromise an information system. In many cases, people, not technology, form the weakest link in the security of an information system. This chapter discusses the problem of social engineering and then examines new social engineering threats that arise as voice, data, and video networks converge. In particular, converged networks give the social engineer multiple channels of attack to influence a user and compromise a system. On the other hand, these networks also support new tools that can help combat social engineering. However, no tool can substitute for educational efforts that make users aware of the problem of social engineering and policies that must be followed to prevent social engineering from occurring.
Emerging Online Democracy
Authors: Kelshaw Todd , Lemesianou Christine A.
Published: May 2011

The emergence and development of Web 2.0 has enabled new modes of social interaction that are potentially democratic, both within and across digitally mediated venues. Web-based interaction offers unlimited opportunities for organizing across geographic, demographic, and contextual boundaries, with ramifications in professional networking, political action, friendships, romances, learning, recreation, and entertainment. The authors conceptualize the democratization of Web-based social structures, defining online democracy as an imperfect balance of formal and informal modes of discursive control. The wrangling between formal and informal modes of discursive control ensures perpetual dynamism and innovation; the wrangling also offers the promise that diverse voices are not only welcome but also potentially responsive and responsible. The conclusion advocated is the importance of paying attention to these tendencies since they demonstrate that the Web’s proclivities for decentralization and pluralism do not necessarily lead to relativistic and nihilistic hypertextuality but to potentially novel forms of shared social control.
Agent Cognitive Capabilities and Orders of Social Emergence
Authors: Goldspink Christopher , Kay Robert
Published: May 2011

This chapter critically examines our theoretical understanding of the dialectical relationship between emergent social structures and agent behaviors. While much has been written about emergence individually as a concept, and the use of simulation methods are being increasingly applied to the exploration of social behavior, the concept of “social emergence” remains ill defined. Furthermore, there has been little theoretical treatment or practical explorations of how both the range and type of emergent structures observed may change as agents are endowed with increasingly sophisticated cognitive abilities. While we are still a very long way from being able to build artificial agents with human-like cognitive capabilities, it would be timely to revisit the extent of the challenge and to see where recent advances in our understanding of higher order cognition leave us. This chapter provides a brief recount of the theory of emergence, considers recent contributions to thinking about orders of emergence, and unpacks these in terms of implied agent characteristics. Observations are made about the implications of alternative cognitive paradigms and the position is proposed that an enactivist view provides the most logical pathway to advancing our understanding. The chapter concludes by presenting an account of reflexive and non-reflexive modes of emergence, which incorporates this view.
Increasing Capital Revenue in Social Networking Communities
Authors: Bishop Jonathan
Published: May 2011

The rise of online communities in Internet environments has set in motion an unprecedented shift in power from vendors of goods and services to the customers who buy them, with those vendors who understand this transfer of power and choose to capitalize on it by organizing online communities and being richly rewarded with both peerless customer loyalty and impressive economic returns. A type of online community, the virtual world, could radically alter the way people work, learn, grow consume, and entertain. Understanding the exchange of social and economic capital in online communities could involve looking at what causes actors to spend their resources on improving someone else’s reputation. Actors’ reputations may affect others’ willingness to trade with them or give them gifts. Investigating online communities reveals a large number of different characters and associated avatars. When an actor looks at another’s avatar they will evaluate them and make decisions that are crucial to creating interaction between customers and vendors in virtual worlds based on the exchange of goods and services. This chapter utilizes the ecological cognition framework to understand transactions, characters and avatars in virtual worlds and investigates the exchange of capital in a bulletin board and virtual. The chapter finds strong evidence for the existence of characters and stereotypes based on the ecological cognition framework and empirical evidence that actors using avatars with antisocial connotations are more likely to have a lower return on investment and be rated less positively than those with more sophisticated appearing avatars.
Situated Evaluation of Socio-Technical Systems
Authors: Bruce Bertram C. , Rubin Andee , An Junghyun
Published: May 2011

This chapter introduces situated evaluation as an approach for evaluating socio-technical innovation and change. Many current evaluations simply identify the impacts of technology and deprecate alternate uses in their analysis. Situated evaluation instead calls for understanding how innovations emerge through use; this entails consideration of diverse uses, the contexts of use, and the reasons for the development of multiple realizations. The chapter presents a comparative study of different classroom uses of electronic Quill in order to demonstrate how this alternative evaluation can be conducted and to address the value of understanding and fostering diverse cultural appropriations of a socio-technical innovation.
Social Media Marketing Web X.0 of Opportunities
Authors: Baruh Lemi
Published: May 2011

In recent years social media applications, which enable consumers to contribute to the world of online content, have grown in popularity. However, this growth is yet to be transformed into a sustainable commercial model. Starting with a brief overview of existing online advertising models, this chapter discusses the opportunities available for advertisers trying to reach consumers through social media. The chapter focuses on viral marketing as a viable option for marketers, reviews recent viral marketing campaigns, and offers recommendations for a successful implementation of social media marketing. In conclusion, the author examines future trends regarding the utilization of the emerging Semantic Web in marketing online.
Multi-Layer Network Performance and Reliability Analysis
Authors: Oikonomou Kostas N. , Sinha Rakesh K. , Doverspike Robert D.
Published: May 2011

The authors describe a methodology for evaluating the performability (combined performance and reliability) of large communications networks. Networks are represented by a 4-level hierarchical model, consisting of traffic matrix, network graph, “components” representing failure modes, and reliability information. Network states are assignments of modes to the network components, which usually represent network elements and their key modules, although they can be more abstract. The components can be binary or multi-modal, and each of their failure modes may change a set of attributes of the graph (e.g. the capacity or cost of a link). Their methodology also captures the effect of automatic restoration against network failures by including two common rerouting methods. To compute network performability measures, including upper and lower bounds on their cumulative distribution functions, we augment existing probabilistic state-space generation algorithms with our new “hybrid” algorithm. To characterize the network failures of highest impact, we compute the Pareto boundaries of the network’s risk space. The authors have developed a network analysis tool called nperf that embodies this methodology. To illustrate the methodology and the practicality of the tool, they describe a performability analysis of three design alternatives for a large commercial IP backbone network.
Data Mining in the Telecommunications Industry
Authors: Weiss Gary
Published: May 2011

The telecommunications industry was one of the first to adopt data mining technology. This is most likely because telecommunication companies routinely generate and store enormous amounts of high-quality data, have a very large customer base, and operate in a rapidly changing and highly competitive environment. Telecommunication companies utilize data mining to improve their marketing efforts, identify fraud, and better manage their telecommunication networks. However, these companies also face a number of data mining challenges due to the enormous size of their data sets, the sequential and temporal aspects of their data, and the need to predict very rare events—such as customer fraud and network failures—in real-time. The popularity of data mining in the telecommunications industry can be viewed as an extension of the use of expert systems in the telecommunications industry (Liebowitz, 1988). These systems were developed to address the complexity associated with maintaining a huge network infrastructure and the need to maximize network reliability while minimizing labor costs. The problem with these expert systems is that they are expensive to develop because it is both difficult and timeconsuming to elicit the requisite domain knowledge from experts. Data mining can be viewed as a means of automatically generating some of this knowledge directly from the data.
Experiences in Building Mobile E-Business Services
Authors: De Furio Ivano , Frattini Giovanni , Romano Luigi
Published: May 2011

Organizations in all sectors of business and government are pursuing service-oriented architecture (SOA) initiatives in response to their need for increased business agility. This is particularly true for mobile telecommunications companies. That is why mobile telecom operators need to research new and innovative sources of revenue. Innovation is not an easy task. It requires embracing a new way of doing business, where new technologies are fundamental. SOA architecture and Web services technology are proposed by IT industry as the best solution to create a network of partnership and new services, but despite software producer claims, interoperability issues arise with service composition. Such a problem can be significantly reduced by adopting a semantic approach in service description and service discovery. Our research is focused on new methods and tools for building high personalized, virtual e-business services. A new service provisioning architecture based on Web services has been conceived, taking into account issues related to end-user mobility. The following pages deal with a proposal for creating real localized, personalized virtual environments using Web services and domain ontologies. In particular, to overcome interoperability issues that could arise from a lack of uniformity in service descriptions, we propose a way for controlling and enforcing annotation policies based on a Service Registration Authority. It allows services to be advertised according to guidelines and domain rules. Furthermore, this solution enables enhanced service/component discovery and validation, helping software engineers to build services by composing building blocks and provision/deliver a set of personalized services.
Performance Evaluation of Energy and Delay Aware Quality of Service (QoS) Routing Protocols in Mobile Adhoc Networks
Authors: Asokan R. , Natarajan A.M.
Published: May 2011

Mobile adhoc network (MANET) is a collection of mobile devices which form a communication network with no pre-existing wiring or infrastructure. Multiple routing protocols have been developed for MANETs. As MANETs gain popularity, their need to support real time applications is growing as well. Quality of service(QoS) provisioning is becoming a critical issue in designing mobile adhoc networks due to the necessity of providing multimedia applications.These applications have stringent QoS requirements such as throughput, end-to-end delay, and energy. Due to dynamic topology and bandwidth constraint supporting QoS is a challenging task. QoS aware routing is an important building block for QoS support. The primary goal of the QoS aware protocol is to determine the path from source to destination that satisfies the QoS requirements. This article proposes a new energy and delay aware protocols called, energy and delay aware Adhoc On demand Distance Vector Routing (EDAODV) and energy and delay aware Dynamic Source Routing(EDDSR) based on extension of AODV and DSR. Simulation results show that the proposed protocols have a better performance than AODV and DSR in terms of energy, packet delivery ratio and end-to-end delay.
Basic Concepts of Mobile Radio Technologies
Authors: Kaspar Christian , Resatsch Florian , Hagenhoff Svenja
Published: May 2011

Mobile radio technologies have seen a rapid growth in recent years. Sales numbers and market penetration of mobile handsets have reached new heights worldwide. With almost two billion GSM users in June 2006, and 74.7 million users of third generation devices, there is a large basis for business and product concepts in mobile commerce (GSM Association, 2006). Penetration rates average 80%, even surpassing 100% in some European countries (NetSize, 2006). The technical development laid the foundation for an increasing number of mobile service users with high mobile Web penetrations. The highest is seen in Germany and Italy (34% for each), followed by France with 28%, while in the U.S., 19% account for mobile internet usage (ComScore, 2006). One of the largest growing services is mobile games, with 59.9 million downloaded in 2006 (Telephia, 2006). Compared to the overall availability of handsets, the continuing high complexity and dynamic of mobile technologies accounts for limited mobile service adoption rates and business models in data services. Therefore, particular aspects of mobile technologies as a basis of promising business concepts within mobile commerce are illustrated in the following on three different levels: First on the network level, whereas available technology alternatives for the generation of digital radio networks need to be considered; second, on the service level, in order to compare different transfer standards for the development of mobile information services; third, on the business level, in order to identify valuable application scenarios from the customer point of view.
Modeling and Simulation of IEEE 802.11g using OMNeT++
Authors: Sarkar Nurul I. , Membarth Richard
Published: May 2011

Due to the complex nature of computer and telecommunication networks, it is often difficult to predict the impact of different parameters on system performance especially when deploying wireless networks. Computer simulation has become a popular methodology for performance study of computer and telecommunication networks. This popularity results from the availability of various sophisticated and powerful simulation software packages, and also because of the flexibility in model construction and validation offered by simulation. While various network simulators exist for building a variety of network models, choosing a good network simulator is very important in modeling and performance analysis of wireless networks. A good simulator is one that is easy to use; more flexible in model development, modification and validation; and incorporates appropriate analysis of simulation output data, pseudorandom number generators, and statistical accuracy of the simulation results. OMNeT++ is becoming one of the most popular network simulators because it has all the features of a good simulator. This chapter aims to provide a tutorial on OMNeT++ focusing on modeling and performance study of the IEEE 802.11g wireless network.
Impact of Broadband VoIP on Telecoms
Authors: Fraunholz Bardo , Unnithan Chandana
Published: May 2011

VoIP is a technology that has received much attention over the past few years. Speculations are rampant that it will be “the technology” for telecommunications of the future, as broadband gains mass market penetration in every nation. It holds the promise of ubiquity and eliminates the need for a separate infrastructure for telecommunications. In this chapter, we have undertaken a cross country analysis of two economies, Germany and India, at varied levels of broadband voice over internet protocol (VoIP) diffusion, to examine the future potential of this technology in the respective nations and their telecommunications industries. Our brief analysis revealed some valuable insights regarding the impact of VoIP in both economies which may prove to be useful for other economies and telecommunication industries.
Use of Traffic Separation Techniques for the Transport of HSPA and R99 Traffic in the Radio Access Network with Differentiated Quality of Service
Authors: Li Xi , Zaki Yasir , Weerawardane Thushara , Timm-Giel Andreas , Görg Carmelita , Malafronte Gennaro Ciro
Published: May 2011

This article presents various traffic separation approaches to transmit HSPA (HSDPA/HSUPA) traffic in the existing ATM-based UMTS Radio Access Network, together with Release 99 (R99) traffic. The traffic separation technique enables QoS differentiations of HSPA and R99 traffic, while aiming to achieve a maximum utilization of the transport resources in the radio access network. The potential benefit of applying traffic separation and its impact on the performance of the transport network as well as the end users are explored in this article. The quantitative evaluations are provided by simulations. The results presented are obtained from a UMTS simulation model developed in this work which can transmit HSDPA and HSUPA traffic as well as R99 traffic simultaneously. The presented results demonstrate that applying traffic separation between HSPA and R99 traffic can considerably improve the performance of both HSPA and R99 traffic, and as well bring significant gain on efficient bandwidth utilization.
Revisiting the Gatekeeping Model
Authors: Cossiavelou Vassiliki , Bantimaroudis Philemon
Published: May 2011

Mediation in news industries has received significant attention by researchers for more than half a century. Gatekeepers decide which information should be delivered to different audiences. The Shoemaker/ReeseGatekeeping Model identifies five different filters of content processing: individual influences, professional routines, the organization, extra-media influences and ideology. Journalism practices, intra-organization and extra-media-related procedures and strategic alliances, including culture and ideology, add more complexity in the contemporary globalized media landscape. Gatekeeping is being processed through out all the above mentioned pillars. ICT technologies related to the media have influenced the interactivity among the pillars and wireless technologies have influenced the digital media landscape. The European Union has experienced dramatic changes in its regulation environment and spectrum resources allocation. In this article, the authors examine the impact of wireless technology on gatekeeping practices in the context of EU news markets.
Effects of Digital Convergence on Social Engineering Attack Channels
Authors: Hoanca Bogdan
Published: May 2011

Social engineering refers to the practice of manipulating people to divulge confidential information that can then be used to compromise an information system. In many cases, people, not technology, form the weakest link in the security of an information system. This chapter discusses the problem of social engineering and then examines new social engineering threats that arise as voice, data, and video networks converge. In particular, converged networks give the social engineer multiple channels of attack to influence a user and compromise a system. On the other hand, these networks also support new tools that can help combat social engineering. However, no tool can substitute for educational efforts that make users aware of the problem of social engineering and policies that must be followed to prevent social engineering from occurring.
Management of a Virtual Construction Management Services Company
Authors: Alsakini Wafa , Kiiras Juhani , Huovinen Pekka
Published: May 2011

Networking is the organizational form of the information age. Network organizations signify a form of collaboration designed to facilitate economic exchange and to provide an environment for interaction between people (social exchange). Economic actors are likely to sacrifice some of their own preferences in the pursuit of collective goals (Fleisch & Österle, 2000; Franke, 2001). Network organizations are characterized by (1) a purpose and shared goals unifying members, (2) independent members benefiting from being part of a whole, (3) voluntary links between members, (4) multiple leaders providing greater resilience, and (5) many levels integrating organizations, units, and people. From an intra-organizational perspective, networks are the collections of individuals and sub-units within one and the same organizational boundaries. From an interorganizational perspective, networks are the collections of more or less independent individual economic actors such as, companies, institutions, and research organizations (Franke, 2001). Three network types involve (1) internal networks as the loose associations of autonomous groups and teams, (2) stable networks where focal firms engage in long-term relationships with external suppliers or partners, and (3) dynamic networks as the temporary alliances of independent firms with key skills usually organized around a leading or brokering firm based on the exploitation of market opportunities.
Access Security in UMTS and IMS
Authors: Zhang Yan , Chen Yifan , Yu Rong , Leng Supeng , Ning Huansheng , Jiang Tao
Published: May 2011

Motivated by the requirements for higher data rate, richer multimedia services, and broader radio range wireless mobile networks are currently in the stage evolving from the second-generation (2G), for example, global system for mobile communications (GSM), into the era of third-generation (3G) or beyond 3G or fourth-generation (4G). Universal mobile telecommunications system (UMTS) is the natural successor of the current popular GSM (http://www.3gpp.org) code division multiple access 2000 (CDMA2000) is the next generation version for the CDMA-95, which is predominantly deployed in North America and North Korea. Time division-sychrononous CDMA (TD-SCDMA) is in the framework of 3rd generation partnership project 2 (3GPP2) and is expected to be one of the principle wireless technologies employed in China in the future (http://www.3gpp.org; 3G TS 35.206). It is envisioned that each of three standards in the framework of international mobile telecommunications- 2000 (IMT-2000) will play a significant role in the future due to the backward compatibility, investment, maintenance cost, and even politics.
Applied Cryptography for Security and Privacy in Wireless Sensor Networks
Authors: Kar Dulal C. , Ngo Hung L. , Sanapala Geetha
Published: May 2011

It is challenging to secure a wireless sensor network (WSN) because its inexpensive, tiny sensor nodes do not have the necessary processing capability, memory capacity, and battery life to take advantage of the existing security solutions for traditional networks. Existing security solutions for wireless sensor networks are mostly based on symmetric key cryptography with the assumption that sensor nodes are embedded with secret, temporary startup keys before deployment thus avoiding any use of computationally demanding public key algorithms altogether. However, symmetric key cryptography alone cannot satisfactorily provide all security needs for wireless sensor networks. It is still problematic to replenish an operational wireless sensor network with new sensor nodes securely. Current research on public key cryptography for WSNs shows some promising results, particularly in the use of elliptic curve cryptography and identity based encryption for WSNs. Although security is essential for WSNs, it can complicate some crucial operations of a WSN like data aggregation or in-network data processing that can be affected by a particular security protocol. Accordingly, in this paper, we summarize, discuss, and evaluate recent symmetric key based results reported in literature on sensor network security protocols such as for key establishment, random key pre-distribution, data confidentiality, data integrity, and broadcast authentication as well as expose limitations and issues related to those solutions for WSNs. We also present significant advancement in public key cryptography for WSNs with promising results from elliptic curve cryptography and identity based encryption as well as their limitations for WSNs.
A Concept for Mobile Ad-Hoc Messaging Networks (AMNet)
Authors: Stieglitz Stefan , Fuchß Christoph , Stöckel Sascha , Lattemann Christoph
Published: May 2011

This article shows an innovative approach for an ad-hoc messaging network (AMNET) which uses simple store-and-forward message passing to spread data asynchronously. This approach primarily focuses on application specific needs that can be covered by simple message passing mechanisms. In this paper we will describe a powerful network by using simple devices and communication protocols on the basis of AMNETs. Simulation results of our AMNET approach provide insights into speeding up the network setup process and enable the use of AMNETs even with few participants by introducing a hybrid infrastructure and mobile nodes.
An Ontology-Based P2P Network for Semantic Search
Authors: Gu Tao , Zhang Daqing , Pung Hung Keng
Published: May 2011

This article presents an ontology-based peer-to-peer network that facilitates efficient search for data in widearea networks. Data with the same semantics are grouped together into one-dimensional semantic ring space in the upper-tier network. This is achieved by applying an ontology-based semantic clustering technique and dedicating part of node identifiers to correspond to their data semantics. In the lower-tier network, peers in each semantic cluster are organized as Chord identifier space. Thus, all the nodes in the same semantic cluster know which node is responsible for storing context data triples they are looking for, and context queries can be efficiently routed to those nodes. Through the simulation studies, the authors demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed scheme.
Service Innovation Management
Authors: Kitsios Fotis C.
Published: May 2011

Nowadays that the world depends more and more in services, there is no issue more fundamental for service organizations than understanding the factors that separate success from failure in new service development. The new service process is not so well studied and researched as new product development, and as a result the failure rate is high. However in order to survive in the market place, service organisations need to make the most of all of their resources in order to introduce new services to market ahead of the competition. The purpose of this exploratory study is to investigate the factors that have impact on success and failure in new service development (NSD) in the telecommunication (TLC) sector. The results of the exploratory study are summarized in a conceptual model for further research.
How can Telemedicine Benefit from Broadband Technologies?
Authors: Gulla Vincenzo
Published: May 2011

The present chapter focuses on some aspects of the state of the art of telemedicine systems and their use over broadband. It starts with a brief summary of the most popular telecommunication technologies to give the reader an overview of today’s broadband technology and methods. Some important deployment data are included showing the global growth and use in many countries. Results of very significant pilot projects using videocommunication implemented in Italy and in Europe are taken into consideration, demonstrating the benefits of the patient’s psychological status in conjunction with health care assistance. The chapter proposition is to show a business model, based on an Italian reality exploiting the Marche region population development and healthcare statistics. The simulation example is the adaptation of telemedicine solution for early hospital discharge applied to a public healthcare structure, typically a hospital. The model takes into account the possible adaptation of an “early discharge solution” implemented with portable telemonitoring light videocommunication terminals, which, thanks to broadband availability, may be installed at the patient’s home for a predefined period (typically 7 to 10 days). The simulation aims to highlight and dimension cost reduction or, in a more appropriate view, give the percentage of resource that can be relocated to provide a better service and how a national healthcare service may take advantage of these scenarios.
Process Level Benefits of an Electronic Medical Records System
Authors: Radhakrishnan Abirami , David Dessa , Zaveri Jigish
Published: May 2011

The challenges faced by U.S. health care system are vividly explained in the U.S. Government’s health information technology plan, The U.S. health care system faces major challenges. Health care spending and health insurance premiums continue to rise at rates much higher than the rate of inflation. Despite spending over $1.6 trillion on health care, there are still serious concerns about preventable errors, uneven health care quality, and poor communication among doctors, hospitals, and many other health care providers involved in the care of any one person. The Institute of Medicine estimates that between 44,000 and 98,000 Americans die each year from medical errors. Many more die or have permanent disability because of inappropriate treatments, mistreatments, or missed treatments in ambulatory settings. It has been found that as much as $300 billion is spent each year on health care that does not improve patient outcomes – treatment that is unnecessary, inappropriate, inefficient, or ineffective. All these problems – high costs, uncertain value, medical errors, variable quality, administrative inefficiencies, and poor coordination – are closely connected to inadequate use of health care information technology. (U.S. Federal Government Health Information Technology Plan, 2004).
Perceptions of an Organizing Vision for Electronic Medical Records by Independent Physician Practices
Authors: Reardon John L.
Published: May 2011

Adoption and usage rates of healthcare information technology (HIT) in general and electronic medical records (EMR) in particular are below expectations even though both show potential to help solve pressing problems plaguing the U.S. healthcare system. This research explores the role an organizing vision (OV) (Ramiller & Swanson, 2003) plays in shaping independent physician practices’ (IPP) perceptions of EMRs and hence their interest in adopting and using the technology. This paper reports on an OV for EMRs by using a mail survey of IPPs and uses factor analysis to examine structural properties and content of the OV among the practices. Contributions to theory include exploring the applicability of Ramiller and Swanson’s (Ramiller & Swanson, 2003) OV on HIT innovations in healthcare research. Contributions to practice include empowering HIT decision makers with a model for addressing the introduction of a technology innovation (EMR) into an independent physician practice.
Providing Telemental Health Services after Disasters
Authors: Bhushan Gogia Shashi
Published: May 2011

The role of information technology (IT) in managing disasters is increasingly being recognized. The Healing Touch project was started after the tsunami disaster in Tamilnadu to address the healthcare needs of the survivors through IT. Specifically; it provided mental health support to the victims near their place of residence. This project has been different from other telemedicine projects because: It was sponsored and managed entirely by NGOs. The local community and local NGOs were directly trained to manage there own health problems after the natural disaster. Success was linked to the intensive pre and post execution work done. We believe that preparation and involvement of people is the key to success in most IT projects. Some problems we faced were related to a general lack of awareness and nonpenetration of IT in the community we served. If people are using IT in their day to day work; adoption of telemedicine and other e-services will be far simpler after a disaster.
Planning and Control and the Use of Information Technology in Mental Healthcare Organizations
Authors: Baars I.J. , Merode G.G. Van
Published: May 2011

Demand for mental healthcare increases. Simultaneously, the need for more patient oriented processes increases and the market develops towards more competition among providers and organizations. As a result of these developments, mental healthcare organizations are becoming more aware of efficiency and effectiveness. Often, they choose to transform to more process oriented organizations, which require changes in planning and control systems and information technology (IT). However, little is known about the required planning and control systems and IT for mental healthcare.
The Use of Information and Communication Technologies for Health Service Delivery in Namibia
Authors: Shivute Meke I. , Maumbe Blessing M.
Published: May 2011

Information and communication technologies (ICT) have transformed health service delivery (HSD) in developing countries although the benefits are not yet fully understood. This chapter examines the use of ICT for HSD in the Namibian context. To obtain insights into the extent and degree of the current ICT uses, the chapter begins by mapping a HSD landscape for Namibia. The reported ICT use patterns are based on a primary survey of 134 patients and key informant interviews held with 27 health service providers (HSPs) in Khomas and Oshana regions of Namibia. The results from the survey indicate that Namibian patients use diverse range of ICT to access health services including the traditional television and radio, and the more modern mobile phones and computers to a limited extent. HSPs reported the growing use of ICT in various functional areas such as admissions, clinical support, family planning, maternity, and emergency services. The chapter identifies key challenges and policy implications to enhance the uptake of ICT-based health services in Namibia. The relatively high penetration rates of traditional ICT such as televisions and radios coupled with a growing use of mobile phones presents new alternative opportunities for expanding HSD to Namibian patients in remote settings. The chapter will benefit HSP and patients as they decide on affordable technology choices; and policy makers as they design interventions to stimulate the use of ICT in HSD in Namibia. The results provide key insights for other Sub-Saharan African countries contemplating ICT integration in health services.
Economic Efficiency and the Canadian Health Care System
Authors: Sadanand Asha B.
Published: May 2011

In this chapter the authors examine the compatibility of the objectives of universality and public funding which are two important pillars of the Canadian healthcare system, with the objectives of cost effectiveness and more generally economic efficiency. The authors note that under some very innocuous conditions, markets and other economic based mechanisms such as second price auctions are characterized by economic efficiency and cost effectiveness. For the particular case of healthcare, some additional features that must be considered in the design of the mechanism are that healthcare services and products are valuable if, when taken together they constitute the components of a needed procedure, and otherwise they are worthless to the individual; and timely completion of procedures is what is valued, delays and waiting not only prolong suffering but may eventually prove to be more costly to the system if the condition worsens. They recommend a market-based mechanism, encompassing these features, that utilizes mobile agents representing patients and their medical needs. In order to incorporate the basic goals of universality and public funding, the agents will participate in virtual auctions using a needs based ranking as the currency for making bids.
Healthcare Ethics in the Information Age
Authors: Bauer Keith
Published: May 2011

This chapter reviews key debates about the meaning of telehealth and also considers how new and emerging systems in telehealth work to protect patient confidentiality, improve healthcare relationships, and diminish instances of compromised access and equity in the healthcare system. This chapter also looks at how these same telehealth systems could undermine those goals, making it important to assess the way in which these emerging technologies are implemented. Various technologies are examined to show how their implementation can ensure that their benefits outweigh their risks.