bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Understanding Multi-Layer Mobility
Authors: Tarkoma S. , Korhonen J.
Published: May 2011

The aim of this article is to examine the addressing models and investigate cross-layer interactions of different mobility protocols. One of the interesting questions is how mobility should be handled and coordinated when there are multiple layers offering support for mobility. We also consider the case of the hop-by-hop routed layer-7 environment, implemented typically using SOAP (W3C, 2003), CORBA, or SIP in the telecommunications sector. These three technologies are the most frequently used, have differing characteristics and product bases, and contain the essence of middleware/application layer communication. SOAP is an abstract and generic messaging framework with extendable header system, allowing rich facilities for hop-by-hop propagation of messages.
Wireless Security
Authors: Belsis M. , Simitsis A. , Gritzalis S.
Published: May 2011

The fast growth of wireless technology has exponentially increased the abilities and possibilities of computing equipment. Corporate users can now move around enterprise buildings with their laptops, PDAs, and WiFi; enable VoIP handsets; and retain communications with their offices. Business users can work from almost anywhere by attaching their laptops to WiFi hotspots and connecting to their corporate network. However, not many enterprises know and understand the potential security vulnerabilities that are introduced by the use of WiFi technologies. Wireless technologies are insecure by their nature. Anyone with the appropriate hardware can steal information transmitted using the airwaves. This article discusses the security vulnerabilities that are inherited in wireless networks. Also, it provides a description of the current security trends and protocols used to secure such WiFi networks along with the problems from their application.
Workflow Management Systems in MANETs
Authors: Rosa F.
Published: May 2011

The widespread availability of network-enabled handheld devices (e.g., PDAs with WiFi) has made pervasive computing environment development an emerging reality. Mobile (or multi-hop) Ad-hoc NETworks (MANETs-Agrawal & Zeng, 2003) are mobile device networks communicating via wireless links without relying on an underlying infrastructure. Each device in a MANET acts as an endpoint and as a router forwarding messages to devices within radio range. MANETs are a sound alternative to infrastructure-based networks whenever the infrastructure is lacking or unusable, for example, military applications, disaster/relief, emergency situations, and communication between vehicles.
E-Business
Authors: Gottschalk Petter
Published: May 2011

The Internet is an extremely important new technology, and it is no surprise that it has received so much attention from entrepreneurs, executives, investors, and business observers. Caught up in the general fervor, many have assumed that the Internet changes everything, rendering all the old rules about companies and competition obsolete. According to Porter (2001), that may be a natural reaction, but it is a dangerous one. It has led many companies, dot-coms and incumbent alike, to make bad decisions — decisions that have eroded the attractiveness of their industries and undermined their own competitive advantage. The time has come to make a clearer view of the Internet. Internet technology provides better opportunities for companies to establish distinctive strategic positioning than did previous generations of information technology. The Internet’s greatest impact has been to enable the reconfiguration of existing industries that had been constrained by high costs for communicating, gathering information, or accomplishing transactions. For example, the Internet tends to dampen the bargaining power of channels to providing companies with new, more direct avenues to customers (Porter, 2001).
Strategy Implementation
Authors: Gottschalk Petter
Published: May 2011

Stages 6 and 7 cover strategy implementation in the Y model. While stage 6 is concerned with implementing the plan and describing results, stage 7 is concerned with evaluating results as illustrated in Figure 6.1. The creation of IS/IT strategy has become a major challenge to business executives and IS/IT executives in recent years. Investments in information technology have been large, and many failed investments reflect this challenge. The impact of IT on organizational performance has grown in strategic importance, and thus the significance of failed IT investments is even greater. Information processing and information technology are becoming critical to many business and government operations, and the technology itself is changing at a rapid rate. New information technology will continue to transform organizations, and changes in how industry participants use IT can alter established relationships in an industry. Strategic IS/IT planning can play a critical role in helping organizations to increase efficiency, effectiveness and competitiveness. Although organizations use different methods in their analysis of current and desired situation, the resulting plans are to be implemented.
Sourcing Theories
Authors: Gottschalk Petter
Published: May 2011

In Chapter I, general theories of the firm and value configurations of firms were introduced. Here we return to more theories. While theories and value configurations in Chapter I were introduced to develop e-business strategy, more theories are introduced here to understand the specifics of sourcing in general and outsourcing in particular. We want to understand why companies choose IT outsourcing in the middle of the Y model. We know that many companies choose IT outsourcing based on an analysis of core competencies. As we shall see, there are, however, many other theories that can be applied and that may provide both convergent and divergent answers to an outsourcing question. An example of divergent answer would be the theory of core competencies suggesting that non-core IT can be outsourced, while the resource-based theory suggests that non-core IT should be kept in-house if we have strategic IT-resources (valuable, non-imitable, non-substitutable, non-transferable, combinable, exploitable and available).
Sourcing Markets
Authors: Gottschalk Petter
Published: May 2011

According to Gartner (2004b), IT infrastructure consolidation and standardization characterized the largest multibillion IT outsourcing contracts during 2003 and 2004 and are expected to continue for the next several years. These contracts are not just exercises in cost reduction necessitated by economic doldrums, but they are also intended to advance clients toward becoming enterprises that are more efficient. The foundation of an IT portfolio is the firm’s information technology infrastructure. This internal IT infrastructure is composed of four elements as was illustrated in Figure 2.3. The presentation of Weill and Vitale’s (2002) work on infrastructure services indicated the number and complexity of services that constitute the IT infrastructure in an organization to enable electronic business. Successfully implementing e-business initiatives depends on having the necessary IT infrastructure in place. E-business initiatives can be decomposed into their underlying atomic e-business models, which can have quite different IT infrastructure requirements.
Knowledge Management in Governance
Authors: Gottschalk Petter
Published: May 2011

The knowledge-based view of the firm has established itself as an important perspective in strategic management. This perspective builds on the resource-based theory of the firm. The knowledge-based view of the firm implies that information systems are designed to support knowledge management in organizations. Knowledge management can be defined as a method to simplify and improve the process of sharing, distributing, creating, capturing, and understanding knowledge in a company. Knowledge management is description, organization, sharing, and development of knowledge in a firm. Knowledge management is managing knowledge-intensive activities in a company. Knowledge management refers to identifying and leveraging the collective knowledge in a company to help the company compete. Knowledge management is a method for achieving corporate goals by collecting, creating and synthesizing and sharing information, insights, reflections, thoughts, and experience. Knowledge management is a discipline focused on systematic and innovative methods, practices, and tools for managing the generation, acquisition, exchange, protection, distribution, and utilization of knowledge, intellectual capital, and intangible assets (Montana, 2000). The purpose of knowledge management is to help companies create, share and use knowledge more effectively. Effective knowledge management causes fewer errors, less work, more independence in time and space for knowledge workers, fewer questions, better decisions, less reinventing of wheels, improved customer relations, improved service, and improved profitability. Knowledge management is purported to increase both innovation and responsiveness. The recent interest in organizational knowledge has prompted the issue of managing knowledge to the organization’s benefit (Alavi & Leidner, 2001).
Why Software Review?
Authors: Wong Yuk Kuen
Published: May 2011

The aim of this chapter is to discuss the benefits of software review. The key benefits of software are improving software quality and providing cost saving and productivity improvement. It has been agreed that software review is one of the best influence on software engineering. This chapter describes the structure of the book and explains each chapter’s focus. The overall objective of this book is to provide an understanding of the critical factors affecting software review performance and to provide practical guidelines for software reviews.
Software Review Tools and Technologies
Authors: Wong Yuk Kuen
Published: May 2011

This chapter presents software review tools and technologies which include: paper-based vs. tool-based software review, collaborative asynchronous vs. synchronous software reviews, applying software review tools in the software review process, paper-based and Web-based reviews tools, evaluation of asynchronous and synchronous design, and comparing software review tools features. This chapter also presents the software review tools can monitor and improve software review process, especially in a group review process. The final section of the chapter presents a knowledge centric software framework for building tools that perform software review, analysis, and transformations.
How Software Review Tools Work
Authors: Wong Yuk Kuen
Published: May 2011

There are many software review tools for supporting the software review process, particularly in a group review. This chapter presents an overview of common software review tools and discussions on how these tools work in software review process. A number of software review tools will be discussed in this chapter. These include: Intelligent Code Inspection in a C Language Environment (ICICLE), Scrutiny, Collaborate Software Inspection (CSI), InspeQ, CSRS, Requirement Traceability tool (RADIX), InspectA, Asynchronous Inspection of Software Artefacts (AISA), Web Inspection Prototype (WiP), Asynchronous/Synchronous Software Inspection Support Tool (ASSIST), CORD, Agent-based Software Tool, Web-based Software Review System, Internet-Based Inspection System (IBIS) and VisionQuest.
Software Review, Inputs, Process, and Performance
Authors: Wong Yuk Kuen
Published: May 2011

The literature review in this chapter is aimed to critique the use of inputs and process support strategies in the software review process. This chapter presents the important relationships between the use of inputs, meeting process, and software review process performance. Inputs can be classified into explicit and implicit inputs. Explicit inputs refer to software review artefacts and supporting documents. Implicit inputs refer to a software reviewer’s characteristics. A meeting process refers factors that affect meeting process. The software review performance refers the outcomes from the meeting process. Software review performance can be measured by qualitative and/or quantitative methods. The final section presents the limitation of current software review literature.
A Theoretical Model for Analysis of Software Review Performance
Authors: Wong Yuk Kuen
Published: May 2011

The aim of this chapter is to develop a theoretical model to assist in the analysis of critical inputs to software reviews and to identify process factors that might impact positively on software review performance. The Explicit, Implicit Input-process-Output (EIIO) model provides a sound theory to drive empirical research in software review and a different perspective to the existing literature that helps to facilitate understanding of the input-process-output relationship in software review process. An overall objective of the EIIO model is to identify what the key inputs are and process factor(s) that significantly influence review outcome(s). Five propositions, ten research questions, and 14 hypotheses are formulated to validate the important relationships between software inputs, processes, and performance.
A Revised EIIO Model and a Simple Software Review Guide
Authors: Wong Yuk Kuen
Published: May 2011

This chapter presents the revised EIIO model from the industry survey results. This includes analyzing the structure paths and validation of the final EIIO model. Use of inputs, meeting process, and review performance describes in the final section of the chapter. The chapter also proposes a simple guide for conducting software reviews, which includes: 1) identifying the characteristics of the software artefact, 2) decision of which supporting documents (reports and previously reviewed software documents) to use and reviewers’ experience required which are determined by software artefact characteristics, 3) selection of reviewers should be based on their role (review) experience and working experience in the software industry, and how they perceive company support and encouragement, and their acceptance levels of the company that is organising and conducting the software review; and 4) In the review meeting process, the most critical factor is teamwork which can be affected by the characteristics of the software artefact, use of previously reviewed software documents and reports, and perceived contingency (motivation).
Creative Thinking and Problem Finding Underlie Optimal Decision Making
Authors: Thierauf Robert , Hoctor James
Published: May 2011

• To explore rethinking creative thinking in terms of what needs to be done organizationally over time • To look at the various creative techniques that are useful to decision makers • To explore the use of problem finding from the standpoint of turning problems into opportunities • To examine how problem finding can assist in expanding the wisdom of decision makers
Computer Software Found in Optimal KM/WM Systems
Authors: Thierauf Robert , Hoctor James
Published: May 2011

• To show the importance of computer software to connect “points of wisdom” in a typical company • To underscore the changing nature of computer software of today and tomorrow that affects optimal KM/WM systems • To set forth appropriate computer software that is found in implementing and growing optimal KM/WM system • To present an overview of effective software for optimal KM/WM systems that is capable of assisting decision makers in judging soundly over time
Optimal KM/WM Systems in Manufacturing
Authors: Thierauf Robert , Hoctor James
Published: May 2011

• To examine conventional wisdom versus an enlarged view of connecting manufacturing “points of wisdom” for what needs to be done over time • To set forth the important elements underlying an effective manufacturing model • To explore areas that are related to production planning and execution • To set forth a typical optimal KM/WM system application in manufacturing
Introduction
Authors: Colarik Andrew
Published: May 2011

Learn more about recent terrorist atrocities. Ö Identify the main sponsors of global terrorism today. Ö Comprehend the link between diminished terrorist attacks over time and their need to create new venues/methods of global reach and devastation. Ö Understand the organizational link between terrorists and technology. Ö Begin to discover the importance of securing the global information infrastructure.
Cyber Terrorism Evolution
Authors: Colarik Andrew
Published: May 2011

Begin to discern the connection between terrorism and technology. Ö Understand the evolution from hackers to crackers, crackers to cyber criminals, and cyber criminals to cyber terrorists. Ö Identify the key elements that comprise the term cyber terrorism. Ö Become familiar with the support role that a cyber terrorist can bring to a terrorist organization. Ö Understand the potential collaborations between criminal organizations and terrorist groups in attaining cyber skills.
Discovering Quality Knowledge from Relational Databases
Authors: Owrang O. M. Mehdi
Published: May 2011

Current database technology involves processing a large volume of data in order to discover new knowledge. However, knowledge discovery on just the most detailed and recent data does not reveal the long-term trends. Relational databases create new types of problems for knowledge discovery since they are normalized to avoid redundancies and update anomalies, which make them unsuitable for knowledge discovery. A key issue in any discovery system is to ensure the consistency, accuracy, and completeness of the discovered knowledge. We describe the aforementioned problems associated with the quality of the discovered knowledge and provide some solutions to avoid them.
Semantic Web mining for Personalized Public Services
Authors: Markellos Konstantinos , Markellou Penelope , Panayiotaki Angeliki , Tsakalidis Athanasios
Published: May 2011

As citizens are confronted with increasing volumes of information, boundless choices and endless opportunities in the Web environment, the need for personalized public e-services is more compulsory than ever. This chapter explores the way Semantic Web Mining technologies can be incorporated into public e-services domain in order to better meet citizens and authorities requirements. It describes the various steps of personalization process and examines techniques in use today to support it. In sequence, it introduces a recommendation scenario for an e-city portal. Finally, the chapter illustrates current trends in the field suggesting directions that may lead to new scientific results in the area.
Requirements Analysis and General Functional Model of Seamless, Citizen-Oriented Service Delivery
Authors: Pettenati Maria , Mugellini Elena , Abou Khaled Omar
Published: May 2011

Seamless services provide citizens with what they need to know in a particular topic without having to know which government level or agencies they must contact to get it. Seamless services meet efficiency targets, reduce costs and respond to citizen demands for improved services; they help governments to be more citizen-centered, outcome-oriented, efficient and accountable. This chapter outlines main requirements for the delivery of seamless services and presents a general functional model (e-government service marketplace) for the delivery of shared services to citizens at transaction level (i.e. supporting a complete online handling of a service). The main functionalities of the egovernment service marketplace are analyzed in details. Advantages, disadvantages and the impact of this concept on the three fundamental axes: social, economic and technical are discussed as well. The chapter ends with some insights on future trends and open issues about seamless services delivery and enabling systems.
Healthcare Network Centric Operations
Authors: Lubitz Dag von , Wickramasinghe Nilmini
Published: May 2011

Healthcare has yet to realize the true potential afforded by e-health. To date, technology-based healthcare operations are conducted chaotically, at a wide variety of non-integrated fronts, with little or no long-term strategy, and at a tremendous and ever increasing cost. This chapter proposes that in order for healthcare to ever reap the full benefits from e-health it is imperative for the development of a doctrine of healthcare network centric operations. Otherwise, millions if not billions of dollars will be spent on a futile chase of the definitions of how and when will the computer, healthcare provider, and healthcare administrator interact most efficiently and at the least expense. The concept of a doctrine - “conceptual platform” that outlines the consequent, goal-oriented way forward, and integrates all constituent elements into a smoothly operating whole, is utilized to great effect in the military. Drawing upon the strategies and techniques employed by the military to develop a network centric doctrine, the chapter outlines the essential components necessary for the establishment of the doctrine for healthcare network centric operations (HNCO), and in so doing not only highlights the integral role played by information computer and communication technologies (IC2T) but also the pivotal role of policy makers and governments. In fact, HNCO underscores the important yet rarely acknowledged confluence of e-health and e-government
E-Government Concepts, Measures, and Best Practicies
Authors: Young-Jin Shin , Seang-tae Kim
Published: May 2011

This chapter introduces e-government theory according to the development of information communication technology (ICT), in which the importance of national informatization has been emphasized and the goal of government has been converted to a new concept: that of e-government. First, we define several national concepts based on the study of those countries and international agencies with the most advanced structures of information society, and from these concepts, we establish the general concept from the viewpoints of supply, demand, and policy. Second, we explain how international agencies (UN, Brown University, Accenture, etc.) measure e-government according to the standards and performance. Third, we explain e-government projects that have been accepted as national policies under the national informatization plans and which have been executed in each country for better public service and efficient administration. Thus we expect that the countries needing a benchmark model while developing their own e-government may adopt the concepts we propose in this paper and may benefit from our experience to quickly embody e-government and evolve into the new paradigm that is mobile-Gov, TV-Gov, or ubiquitous-Gov.
Some Portions of Dooyeweerd's Positive Philosophy
Authors: Basden Andrew
Published: May 2011

This chapter explains some portions of Dooyeweerd’s positive philosophy which author has found useful in understanding IS. It covers Dooyeweerd’s theory of modal spheres (aspects), his theory of things, his theory of knowing, experience and assumptions, and, on the basis of these, it draws together his approach to everyday life. What it does not cover is his notion of cosmic time and the relationship between the self and the Divine, nor his extensive discussion of the State. It also reviews some criticisms of Dooyeweerd.
A Framework for Understanding Human Use of Computers
Authors: Basden Andrew
Published: May 2011

This chapter seeks to open it up further and explore how Dooyeweerd’s philosophy can be used to understand human use of computers (HUC) by exposing some of the challenges and issues therein and enable us to formulate a framework for understanding it. The framework developed aims to be sensitive to everyday issues as they present themselves to us as users in both research and practice.
A Framework for Understanding Information Technology as Ecology
Authors: Basden Andrew
Published: May 2011

Information technology (IT) deeply influences the way we live, our assumptions, aspirations, expectations, habits -- our very life-and-world-views (LWVs). It has become an environment in which we live and work, a kind of ecology in which modern life takes place. We have created it, but it also creates, or at least deeply affects, us. This area is concerned with what Lyon (1988) called the information society and Castells (1996), the network society, and it is in this area that such things as Walsham’s (2001) discussion of globalisation are considered. It addresses issues of the type found in Vignette 5 in the Preface.
Critical Role of Supply Chain Decoupling Point in Mass Customisation from Its Upstream and Downstream Information Systems Point of View
Authors: Saghiri S.
Published: May 2011

Concentrating on the role of supply chain decoupling point, this chapter introduces different levels of customisation and mass operations and three types of mass customisation. It argues that in each mass customisation type, information systems which are upstream and downstream of the decoupling point can be varied. Consequently, information flows in different types of mass customisation have been examined. This analysis is an endeavour to organise mass customisation information systems across the supply chain, while it can be a useful structure for future researches in this area as well.
Classification of Multiple Interleaved Human Brain Tasks in Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Authors: Martínez-Ramón Manel , Koltchinskii Vladimir , Heileman Gregory L. , Posse Stefan
Published: May 2011

Pattern recognition in functional magnetic resource imaging (fMRI) is a novel technique that may lead to a quantity of discovery tools in neuroscience. It is intended to automatically identify differences in distributed neural substrates resulting from cognitive tasks. Previous works in fMRI classification revealed that information is organized in coarse areas in the neural tissues rather than in small neural microstructures. This fact opens a field of study of the functional areas of the brain from the multivariate analysis of the rather coarse images provided by fMRI. Nevertheless, reliable pattern classification is challenging due to the high dimensionality of fMRI data, the small number of available data sets, interindividual differences, and dependence on the acquisition methodology. The application of kernel methods and, in particular, SVMs, to pattern recognition of fMRI is a reasonable approach to deal with these difficulties and has given reasonable results in accuracy and generalization ability. Some of the most relevant fMRI classification studies using SVMs are analyzed in this chapter. All of them were applied in individual subjects using ad hoc techniques to isolate small brain areas in order to reduce the dimensionality of the problem. Some of them included blind techniques for feature selection; others used the previous knowledge of the human brain to isolate the areas in which the information is presumed to lie. Nevertheless, these methods do not explicitly address the dimensionality, small data sets, or cross-subject classification issues. We present an approach to improve multiclass classification across groups of subjects, field strengths, and fMRI methods. We use an approach based on the segmentation of the brain in functional areas using a neuroanatomical atlas, and each map is classified separately using local classifiers. A single multiclass output is applied using an Adaboost aggregation of the classifier’s outputs. This Adaboost combined the region-specific classifiers to achieve improved classification accuracy with respect to conventional techniques without previous ad hoc area or voxel selection.
Probabilistic Kernel PCA and its Application to Statistical Modeling and Inference
Authors: Cremers Daniel , Kohlberger Timo
Published: May 2011

We present a method of density estimation that is based on an extension of kernel PCA to a probabilistic framework. Given a set of sample data, we assume that this data forms a Gaussian distribution, not in the input space but upon a nonlinear mapping to an appropriate feature space. As with most kernel methods, this mapping can be carried out implicitly. Due to the strong nonlinearity, the corresponding density estimate in the input space is highly non-Gaussian. Numerical applications on 2-D data sets indicate that it is capable of approximating essentially arbitrary distributions. Beyond demonstrating applications on 2-D data sets, we apply our method to high-dimensional data given by various silhouettes of a 3-D object. The shape density estimated by our method is subsequently applied as a statistical shape prior to variational image segmentation. Experiments demonstrate that the resulting segmentation process can incorporate highly accurate knowledge on a large variety of complex real-world shapes. It makes the segmentation process robust to misleading information due to noise, clutter and occlusion.
Introduction to Web Services
Authors: Pennington C.
Published: May 2011

This chapter introduces the theory and design principles behind Web Service technology. It explains the models, specifications, and uses of this technology as a means to allow heterogeneous systems to work together to achieve a task. Furthermore, the authors hope that this chapter will provide sufficient background information along with information about current areas of research in the area of Web Services that readers will come away with an understanding of how this technology works and ways that it could be implemented and used.
The Process of Semantic Annotation of Web Services
Authors: Ringelstein C.
Published: May 2011

Web services are software components that are—in general—distributed over multiple organizations. They provide functionality without showing implementation details for the purpose of abstracting from implementation as well as for the purpose of hiding private, that is, organization-internal, processes. Nevertheless, to use a Web service one must know some of its details, that is, what it does, what it requires, what it assumes, what it achieves, and to some extent, how it achieves its purpose. The different Web service standards, frequently summarized as WS*, allow Web services to be specified with descriptions of such details. In this chapter, we argue that one should go beyond WS* and that it is preferable to provide semantic descriptions, that is, specifications that can be understood and correctly interpreted by machines. Thereby, the particular focus of this contribution lies in analyzing the process of semantic annotation, that is, the process of deriving semantic descriptions from lower level specifications, implementations and contextual descriptions. Hence, the concern of this chapter is really orthogonal to most other work which equates Web service annotation with Web service specification. We illustrate here that this is not the case.
IT Innovation in Local Government
Authors: Hinnant Charles C. , O’Looney John A.
Published: May 2011

We examine the adoption of information technology within local governments in the United States. The social and technical factors that impact the process of technological innovation are discussed in reference to the adoption of advanced electronic government (e-government) technologies in local government. In particular, we discuss how the adoption of IT, and e-government, is influenced by the local government’s motivations to innovate, technology characteristics, available resources, and stakeholder support. We then discuss several strategies that may address these factors. We argue that local governments should seek to formally assess the need to adopt e-government technologies, develop new funding strategies, and develop a mix of in-house and contracted IT services. While local governments have aggregately adopted advanced transaction-based forms of e-government at a lower rate than state and federal governments, it is our contention that local governments are merely reacting to innovation factors within their social and technical environments.
Computers and Social Survey Research for Public Administration
Authors: Vasu Michael L. , Vasu Ellen Storey , Ozturk Al O.
Published: May 2011

The integration of social survey methods into public-administration research and practice is the focus of this chapter. Coverage applies to other social science disciplines as well. This chapter reviews the use of computers in computer-assisted survey research (CASR), computer-assisted interviewing, computer-assisted telephone interviewing (CATI), computer-assisted personal interviewing (CAPI), and survey research methods. The chapter takes the perspective of total survey error.
Geographic Information System Applications in the Public Sector
Authors: Carr Douglas A. , Carr T. R.
Published: May 2011

Geographic information systems emerged in the 1970s and have become a significant decision-making tool as their capabilities have been enhanced. This chapter discusses various GIS applications and highlights issues that public managers should consider when evaluating implementation of a geographic information system. GIS applications provide benefits at the planning level by producing maps efficiently, and at the management decision-making level through an ability to geographically display important information for policy-level decisions. While GIS analysis can be a powerful tool, there are a number of issues that pubic managers should consider in order to achieve effective implementation and use of geographic information systems.
Business Modeling in Process-Oriented Organizations for RUP-Based Software Development
Authors: Duarte Francisco J. , Fernandes João M. , Machado Ricardo J.
Published: May 2011

Several organizations are nowadays not particularly comfortable with their internal structuring based on a hierarchical arrangement (sub-divided in departments), where collaborators with a limited view of the overall organization perform their activities. Those organizations recognize the need to move to a model where multi-skilled teams run horizontal business processes that cross the organization, and impact suppliers and clients. To develop software systems for any organization, the development process must always be appropriate and controlled. Additionally for organizations who want to migrate to a horizontal business processes view, it is required to model the organizational platform where the organizational processes will run. This necessity is also true when the organization under consideration is a software house. In this chapter, a proposal of a generic framework for process-oriented software houses is presented. The way of managing the process model and the instantiation of their processes with the Rational Unified Process (RUP) disciplines, whenever they are available, or with other kind of processes is recommended as a way to control and define the software development process. To illustrate the usefulness of the proposal, it is presented how the generic reference framework was executed in a real project called “Premium Wage” and shown, in some detail, the created artifacts (which include several UML models) during the development phases following the RUP disciplines, especially the artifacts produced for business modeling.
A Reference Model for Savings Bank
Authors: Mauser Annett
Published: May 2011

With approximately 17490 well-defined modeling objects, the SKO -Datenmodell is probably the most extensive reference data model in German for the banking area. So far, this reference data model has been used in about 30 projects describing different subject areas. The detailed project data models that have been derived from these projects have been reintegrated into the generic reference data model, as far as the results are applicable to the entire Sparkassen-organisation. The SKO-Datenmodell was initially developed approximately 15 years ago. It is derived from the Financial Services Data Model (FSDM), which has been provided by IBM. The FSDM is a reference data model which is generally valid for the banking area. In contrast to the FSDM, the SKO-Datenmodell is specialized for the requirements of the Sparkassenorganisation. The basic elements of the reference data model are a conceptual design of data model abstraction levels, an extensive Methods and Procedures Handbook with precise quality requirements and an integrated tool support by m1 and Rochade . The different levels of the SKO-Datenmodell and the use of these levels in practice are described in this chapter.
A Reference Model for Strategic Supply Network Development
Authors: Albani Antonia , Mussigmann Nikolaus , Zaha Johannes Maria
Published: May 2011

Based on rapidly changing market conditions and increasing pressure on cost and productivity, companies in different industries have started to concentrate on their core competencies and to decrease vertical range of manufacture. This resulted in an increasing dependency between the producing companies and their suppliers. Enterprise networks are formed emerging the necessity to focus on the strategic development of supply network partners. While currently strategic purchasing mainly deals with direct suppliers future strategic purchasing needs to deal with flexible and dynamic supply networks. This results in a paradigm shift in the domain of strategic sourcing from a supplier centric to a supply network scope. In order to support the paradigm shift the development of a reference model specifying the organizational and functional implications is necessary. This chapter therefore introduces a reference model for the domain of strategic supply network development extending the traditional frame of reference in strategic sourcing to a supply network perspective.
Interchange Formats for Reference Models
Authors: Mendling Jan , Neumann Gustaf , Nuttgens Markus
Published: May 2011

This chapter presents interchange formats as an enabler for reference model reuse on a technical level. We use a framework to describe the interplay of modeling tools and interchange formats. Based on an extended framework, we discuss the potential of interchange formats for the reuse aspect of reference models. Furthermore, we distinguish four cases of different technical sophistication that is needed to make interchange work. As it is unrealistic that everybody will use the same tool, the standardization of open interchange formats is the second best solution to leverage reference model reuse across different tools. After briefly sketching XMI, BPEL, XPDL, and PNML, we focus on Event-driven Process Chains (EPCs) as they are frequently used as a language for process reference models. The introduction to EPC Markup Language serves as an example to illustrate the design of an open interchange format for a reference modeling language.
Outsourcing Knowledge
Authors: Gottschalk Petter
Published: May 2011

With changing business environments, the locus of value creation is no longer within the boundaries of a single firm, but occurs instead at the nexus of relationships between parties. With the growing importance of pooling knowledge resources, knowledge management will have to transcend organizational boundaries. Based on current research literature, this chapter develops research propositions to study causal aspects of knowledge management systems supporting IT outsourcing relationships. Perspectives from the research literature applied in this chapter include knowledge transfer, strategic intent, knowledge management technology stages, intangible assets, resource-based theory, vendor value proposition, value shop, and knowledge strategy (Gottschalk & Solli-Sæther, 2006). Research propositions in this chapter suggest that knowledge transfer is the most important knowledge process in an IT outsourcing relationship, increase in knowledge transfer between vendor and client will improve partnership quality in IT outsourcing relationships, a higher level of strategic intent for IT outsourcing requires a higher stage of knowledge management systems, and vendor and client need to be at the same technology stage of growth to be able to successfully communicate with each other through knowledge management systems.
Semiotic Brains and Artificial Minds
Authors: Magnani Lorenzo
Published: May 2011

At the roots of thinking abilities there is a process of disembodiment of mind that presents a new cognitive perspective on the role of external models and representations. Taking advantage of Turing’s comparison between “unorganized” brains and “logical” and “practical” machines” the presentation will illustrate the centrality to cognition of the disembodiment of mind from the point of view of the interplay between internal and external representations, both mimetic and creative. The last part of the presentation will describe the concept of mimetic mind I have introduced to shed new cognitive and philosophical light on the role of computational modeling and on the decline of the so-called Cartesian computationalism.
Projector-Based Augmentation
Authors: Bimber Oliver
Published: May 2011

Projector-based augmentation approaches hold the potential of combining the advantages of well-establishes spatial virtual reality and spatial augmented reality. Immersive, semi-immersive and augmented visualizations can be realized in everyday environments – without the need for special projection screens and dedicated display configurations. Limitations of mobile devices, such as low resolution and small field of view, focus constrains, and ergonomic issues can be overcome in many cases by the utilization of projection technology. Thus, applications that do not require mobility can benefit from efficient spatial augmentations. Examples range from edutainment in museums (such as storytelling projections onto natural stone walls in historical buildings) to architectural visualizations (such as augmentations of complex illumination simulations or modified surface materials in real building structures). This chapter describes projector-camera methods and multi-projector techniques that aim at correcting geometric aberrations, compensating local and global radiometric effects, and improving focus properties of images projected onto everyday surfaces.
Real-Time 3D Design and Modelling of Outdoor Structures Using Mobile Augmented Reality Systems
Authors: Piekarski Wayne
Published: May 2011

This chapter presents a series of new augmented reality user interaction techniques to support the capture and creation of 3D geometry of large outdoor structures. Named construction at a distance, these techniques are based on the action at a distance concepts employed by other virtual environments researchers. These techniques address the problem of AR systems traditionally being consumers of information, rather than being used to create new content. By using information about the user’s physical presence along with hand and head gestures, AR systems can be used to capture and create the geometry of objects that are orders of magnitude larger than the user, with no prior information or assistance. While existing scanning techniques can only be used to capture existing physical objects, construction at a distance also allows the creation of new models that exist only in the mind of the user. Using a single AR interface, users can enter geometry and verify its accuracy in real-time. Construction at a distance is a collection of 3D modelling techniques based on the concept of AR working planes, landmark alignment, constructive solid geometry operations, and iterative refinement to form complex shapes. This chapter presents a number of different construction at a distance techniques, and are demonstrated with examples of real objects that have been modelled in the physical world.
Creating Augmented Virtual Environments
Authors: Neumann Ulrich , You Suya
Published: May 2011

An augmented reality fuses computer graphics onto images or direct views of a scene. In a new alternative augmentation approach a real scene is captured as video imagery from one or more cameras, and these images are used to augment a corresponding 3D scene model or virtual environment. This arrangement is termed an Augmented Virtual Environment (AVE) and it produces a powerful visualization of the dynamic activities observed by cameras. This chapter describes the AVE concept and the major technologies needed to realize such systems.
Social and Physical Interactive Paradigms for Mixed Reality Entertainment
Authors: Cheok Adrian David
Published: May 2011

In this chapter, we explore the applications of mixed reality technology for future social and physical entertainment systems. Throughout the case studies that will be presented here, we will show the very broad and significant impacts of mixed reality technology on variety aspects of human interactivity with regards to entertainment. On the technological aspect, the various systems we would be touching on incorporated different technologies ranging from the current mainstream ones such as GPS tracking, Bluetooth, RFID to pioneering researches of vision based tracking, augmented reality, tangible interaction techniques and 3D live mixed reality capture system. We will discuss each projects in detail in terms of their motivations and requirements of the particular application domain, their system description and design decisions, as well as their future impacts on the human social and physical entertainment field.
The Weather Tool, An Agent-Based Approach to Information Integration
Authors: Kalra Gunjan
Published: May 2011

This chapter discusses the process of providing information in its most accurate, complete form to its users and the difficulties faced by the users of the current information systems. The chapter describes the impact of prevalent technologies such as the Multi-Agent Systems and the Semantic Web in the area of information supply via an example implementation and a model use case. The chapter offers a potentially more efficient and robust approach to information integration and supply process. The chapter intends to highlight the complexities inherent in the process of information supply and the role of emerging information technologies in solving these challenges.
Overview
Authors: Hunter M. Gordon
Published: May 2011

This book is about the experiences of contemporary chief information officers (CIO). CIOs in New Zealand, Taiwan, and the United States of America agreed to participate. They also agreed to be identified along with the name of their company. They provided their interpretation of issues that have been dealt with and those they anticipate having to deal with in the foreseeable future. The results of the interviews allowed the identification of emerging themes related to management and technological aspects. Another important result is the identification of an alignment issue. That is, it is important to ensure that the interpretation of the CIO role is clearly and explicitly agreed upon by both the chief executive officer (CEO) and the CIO.
Analyzing CIO Comments
Authors: Hunter M. Gordon
Published: May 2011

This book is about the experiences of contemporary chief information officers (CIO). CIOs in New Zealand, Taiwan, and the United States of America agreed to participate. They also agreed to be identified along with the name of their company. They provided their interpretation of issues that have been dealt with and those they anticipate having to deal with in the foreseeable future. The results of the interviews allowed the identification of emerging themes related to management and technological aspects. Another important result is the identification of an alignment issue. That is, it is important to ensure that the interpretation of the CIO role is clearly and explicitly agreed upon by both the chief executive officer (CEO) and the CIO.