bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Concept of Symbiotic Computing and its Agent-Based Application to a Ubiquitous Care-Support Service
Authors: Suganuma Takuo , Sugawara Kenji , Kinoshita Tetsuo , Hattori Fumio , Shiratori Norio
Published: May 2011

In this paper, a concept of “symbiotic computing” is formalized to bridge gaps between Real Space (RS) and Digital Space (DS). Symbiotic computing is a post-ubiquitous computing model based on an agent-oriented computing model that introduces social heuristics and cognitive functions into DS to bridge the gaps. The symbiotic functions and agent-based architecture of symbiotic applications are also discussed. Based on the concept, functions, and architecture of symbiotic applications, we develop an agent-based care-support service to enable supervision of persons by their families and friends easily while protecting privacy. In this application system, a hierarchical structure of multi-agents is organized dynamically using heuristics in agents based on the situation of a watched person and watching persons. The system appropriately alters the contents and quality of the live video. The flexible system construction scheme using a multiagent framework facilitates the symbiosis of RS and DS by bridging the gaps in the care-support service domain.
Ensuring Correctness, Completeness, and Freshness for Outsourced Tree-Indexed Data
Authors: Dang Tran Khanh
Published: May 2011

In an outsourced database service model, query assurance takes an important role among well-known security issues. To the best of our knowledge, however, none of the existing research work has dealt with ensuring the query assurance for outsourced tree-indexed data. To address this issue, the system must prove authenticity and data integrity, completeness, and freshness guarantees for the result set. These objectives imply that data in the result set is originated from the actual data owner and has not been tampered with; the server did not omit any tuples matching the query conditions; and the result set was generated with respect to the most recent snapshot of the database. In this paper, we propose a vanguard solution to provide query assurance for outsourced tree-indexed data on untrusted servers with high query assurance and at reasonable costs. Experimental results with real datasets confirm the effciency of our approach and theoretical analyses.
Impact of Age on Information Technology Salaries
Authors: Quan Jing , Dattero Ronald , Galup Stuart D.
Published: May 2011

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission of the United States of America reported in 2002 that age discrimination was its fastest-growing complaint. This chapter examines the treatment of information technology professionals using the Human Capital Model. The model results suggest that age treatment discrimination exists but varies across industries and job functions. The authors present explorative theories to explain why such variations exist and draw managerial implications based on the results.
Information Technology Portfolio Management
Authors: Kumar Ram , Ajjan Haya , Niu Yuan
Published: May 2011

There is significant interest in managing IT resources as a portfolio of assets. The concept of IT portfolio management (ITPM) is relatively new, compared to portfolio management in the context of finance, new product development (NPD), and research and development (R&D). This article compares ITPM with other types of portfolio management, and develops an improved understanding of IT assets and their characteristics. It presents a process-oriented framework for identifying critical ITPM decision stages. The proposed framework can be used by managers as well as researchers.
Social Interaction with a Conversational Agent
Authors: Chang Yun-Ke , Morales-Arroyo Miguel A. , Chavez Mark , Jimenez-Guzman Jaime
Published: May 2011

Conversational agents that display many human qualities have become a valuable method business uses to communicate with online users to supply services or products, to help in online order process or to search the Web. The gaming industry and education may benefit from this type of interface. In this type of chats, users could have different alternatives: text display, photo of a real person, or a cartoon drawing and others. This is an exploratory study that reviews five randomly chosen conversations that an animated chatbot has with Web users. The character simulates human gestures, but they are stylized to reproduce animation standards. The goal of this exploratory study is to provide feedback that will help designers to improve the functionality of the conversational agent, identify user’s needs, define future research, and learn from previous errors. The methodology used was qualitative content analysis.
Voice-Based Approach for Surmounting Spatial and Temporal Separations
Authors: O’Toole Kate , Subramanian Srividhya , Denny Nathan
Published: May 2011

This article describes a new voice-based tool for global collaboration. This tool, called EchoEdit, attempts to provide multimedia capabilities to program source code editing for the purpose of eliciting in situ vocal commentary from active developers.
On Bias-Variance Analysis for Probabilistic Logic Models
Authors: Lodhi Huma
Published: May 2011

Deliberate exploitation of natural resources and excessive use of environmentally abhorrent materials have resulted in environmental disruptions threatening the life support systems. A human centric approach of development has already damaged nature to a large extent. This has attracted the attention of environmental specialists and policy makers. It has also led to discussions at various national and international conventions. The objective of protecting natural resources cannot be achieved without the involvement of professionals from multidisciplinary areas. This chapter recommends a model for the creation of knowledge-based systems for natural resources management. Further, it describes making use of unique capabilities of remote sensing satellites for conserving natural resources and managing natural disasters. It is exclusively for the people who are not familiar with the technology and who are given the task of framing policies.
Inference Degradation in Information Fusion
Authors: Li Xiangyang
Published: May 2011

Dynamic and active information fusion processes select the best sensor based on expected utility calculation in order to integrate the evidences acquires both accurately and timely. However, inference degradation happens when the same/similar sensors are selected repeatedly over time if the selection strategy is not well designed that considers the history of sensor engagement. This phenomenon decreases fusion accuracy and efficiency, in direct conflict to the objective of information integration with multiple sensors. This chapter tries to provide a mathematical scrutiny of this problem in the myopia planning popularly utilized in active information fusion. In evaluation it first introduces the common active information fusion context using security surveillance applications. It then examines the generic dynamic Bayesian network model for a mental state recognition task and analyzes experimentation results for the inference degradation. It also discusses the candidate solutions with some preliminary results. The inference degradation problem is not limited to the discussed task and may emerge in variants of sensor planning strategies even with more global optimization approach. This study provides common guidelines in information integration applications for information awareness and intelligent decision.
Information Customization using SOMSE
Authors: Hamdi Mohamed Salah
Published: May 2011

Information overload on the World-Wide Web is a well recognized problem. Research to subdue this problem and extract maximum benefit from the Internet is still in its infancy. Managing information overload on the Web is a challenge and the need for more precise techniques for assisting the user in finding the most relevant and most useful information is obvious. Search engines are very effective at filtering pages that match explicit queries. Search engines, however, require massive memory resources (to store an index of the Web) and tremendous network bandwidth (to create and continually refresh the index). These systems receive millions of queries per day, and as a result, the CPU cycles devoted to satisfying each individual query are sharply curtailed. There is no time for intelligence which is mandatory for offering ways to combat information overload. What is needed are systems, often referred to as information customization systems, that act on the user’s behalf and that can rely on existing information services like search engines that do the resource-intensive part of the work. These systems will be sufficiently lightweight to run on an average PC and serve as personal assistants. Since such an assistant has relatively modest resource requirements it can reside on an individual user’s machine. If the assistant resides on the user’s machine, there is no need to turn down intelligence. The system can have substantial local intelligence. In an attempt to circumvent the problems of search engines and contribute to resolving the problem of information overload over the Web, the authors propose SOMSE, a system that improves the quality of Web search by combining meta-search and unsupervised learning.
A Proposed Template for the Evaluation of Web Design Strategies
Authors: Xanthidis Dimitrios , Nicholas David , Argyrides Paris
Published: May 2011

This chapter is the result of a two years effort to design a template aiming at standardizing, as much as such a task is feasible, the evaluation of Web sites. It is the product of a few publications in international conferences and journals. A thorough review of the international literature on the subject led the authors to conclude there is a very large number of opinions, thoughts and criteria from different professionals involved, directly or indirectly, with the process of designing a good Web site. To make matters even more complicated there are a number of different terms used by various scholars, scientists and professionals around the world that often refer to similar, if not the same, attributes of a Web site. However, it seems that all these differences could boil down to a systematic approach, here called evaluation template, of 53 points that the design strategies of the Web sites should be checked against. This template was tested on a significant number (232) of Web sites of Greek companies and proved it can be used to evaluate the quality of Web sites not only by technology experts but by non-experts alike. The evaluation template, suggested here, is by no means the solution to the problem of standardizing the process of evaluating a Web site but looking at other work done on the subject worldwide it is a step ahead.
Web 2.0 and E-Discovery
Authors: Kimes Bryan
Published: May 2011

Companies today face an overwhelming amount of digital information, and many of them are involved at some point in civil litigation. When a company is in the discovery (pretrial) phase of civil litigation, it usually exchanges information, including documents, with the opposing party in the litigation. The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, which govern civil litigation in federal courts, were amended in 2006 to provide additional guidance to parties with regard to electronically stored information. The management teams of many U.S. corporations are working with their IT departments and lawyers in order to understand the sources of electronically stored information that may be potentially relevant to their litigation. Over the last 20 years, technology has grown increasingly more complex, from the early mainframe and personal computers to sophisticated e-mail and instant messaging applications that enable users to send and receive millions of messages every day. This chapter addresses the issues companies may face related to the discovery of electronically stored information as a result of new communication technologies, including Web 2.0 applications.
Paralingual Web Design and Trust in E-Government
Authors: Segovia Roy H. , Jennex Murray E. , Beatty James
Published: May 2011

Can Web design improve the way governments serve their constituencies through the use of information technology [i.e., e-government]? This article proposes that the use of paralingual Web design can overcome possible trust issues in egovernment with bilingual populations. An experiment was conducted where active e-government Web pages were converted to paralingual format and then site visitors were surveyed regarding their trust in the content and readability. The results of the experiment show that trust was improved for the minority language speakers, while the majority language speakers remained neutral with neither group indicating significant decrease in readability. These findings have important implications for societies with large bilingual or multilingual populations, where issues of trust among minority speakers and majority speakers may exist, as they indicate that paralingual Web design can help reduce these trust issues.
Building Semantic Web Portals with a Model- Driven Design Approach
Authors: Brambilla Marco , Facca Federico M.
Published: May 2011

This chapter presents an extension to Web application conceptual models toward Semantic Web. Conceptual models and model-driven methodologies are widely applied to the development of Web applications because of the advantages they grant in terms of productivity and quality of the outcome. Although some of these approaches are meant to address Semantic Web applications too, they do not fully exploit the whole potential deriving from interaction with ontological data sources and from semantic annotations. The authors claim that Semantic Web applications represent an emerging category of software artifacts, with peculiar characteristics and software structures, and hence need some specific methods and primitives for achieving good design results. In particular the contribution presented in this chapter is an extension of the WebML modeling framework that fulfils most of the design requirements emerging in the new area of Semantic Web. The authors generalize the development process to cover Semantic Web needs and devise a set of new primitives for ontology importing and querying. The chapter also presents a comparison of the proposed approach with the most relevant existing proposals and positioned with respect to the background and adopted technologies.
Applying Web-Based Collaborative Decision- Making in Reverse Logistics
Authors: Tsoulfas Giannis T. , Pappis Costas P. , Karacapilidis Nikos I.
Published: May 2011

The increasing environmental concerns and the technological advances have boosted the post-use treatment of nearly all kinds of products and a new area for research and application has emerged described by the term “reverse logistics.” In this chapter, parameters that may affect reverse logistics operation are discussed from a decision-making perspective, so that alternative design options may be proposed and evaluated. In particular, these parameters are used for the qualitative evaluation of the reverse supply chain of mobile phones in Greece. For this purpose, we present an illustrative application of a Web-based decision support tool that may assist collaborative decision-making in conflicting environments, where diverse views, perspectives, and priorities shared among stakeholders have to be considered.
Innovating through the Web
Authors: Frigerio Chiara
Published: May 2011

In recent years, the financial services industry has been witness to considerable consolidation (Berger & Udell, 2006; De Nicolò, Bartholomew, Zaman, & Zephirin, 2004; Figueira, Neills, & Schoenberg, 2007) and organizational progress in order to sustain two main objectives: efficiency and commercial effectiveness (Epsten, 2005; Sherman & Rupert, 2005). In order to sustain customer-oriented and efficiency strategies, banks have started to explore new ways of conducting their business, introducing areas of innovation in their services, practices, and structures to offer the most complete array of services possible (Quinn et al., 2000). On the other hand, new services and products drive retail banks to explore new ways of producing or delivering these novelties. This is true especially for Internet banking services that offer services to customers 24/7, and it becomes clear that adding new services, that is, trading online or bill payments, is easily and quickly geared towards improving commercial effectiveness. The following chapter aims at describing to what extent the Internet has developed new services and businesses, and what are the main figures of the phenomenon in Europe. Moreover, the Internet has introduced new coordination processes within each financial institution. Let us think about Intranet portal, content management tools, and business process management suites, which are now quite spread in banks due mainly to their technological ease-of-use. Thus, Internet is representing an innovation wave extremely relevant for the financial industry as a whole, and the effects on banks’ performance is emerging. What do we expect in the near future? In all probability, the usage of Web-based application will be bigger and bigger also in other contexts of the bank processes, even if some risks could occur when clear strategies and change management practices do not direct the innovation.
An Adaptive and Context-Aware Scenario Model Based on a Web Service Architecture for Pervasive Learning Systems
Authors: Pham-Nguyen Cuong , Garlatti Serge , Lau B. Y. Simon , Barbry Benjamin , Vantroys Thomas
Published: May 2011

Pervasive learning will become increasingly important in technology-enhanced learning (TEL). In this context, development efforts focus on features such as context-awareness, adaptation, services retrieval and orchestration mechanisms. This paper proposes a process to assist the development of such systems, from conception through to execution. This paper focuses mainly on pervasive TEL systems in a learning situation at the workplace. We introduce a context-aware scenario model of corporate learning and working scenarios in e-retail environments such as shops and hypermarkets. This model enables us to integrate contextual information into scenarios and to select how to perform activities according to the current situation. Our pervasive learning system is based on a service oriented architecture that consists of an infrastructure for service management and execution that is flexible enough to reuse learning components and to deal with context changes that are not known in advance and discovered on the fly.
Modeling Best Practices in Web-Based Academic Development
Authors: Kelly Diana K.
Published: May 2011

This chapter makes a case for the importance of preparing e-teachers by requiring them to have an experience as an e-learner. The chapter begins with a review of the challenges and criticisms of e-learning. Some of the literature indicates that e-learners have been dissatisfied with their learning experiences. Some academics have concerns about the rigour of courses offered through e-learning. The literature of academic development and e-learning is used to link theory with practice. The chapter provides examples of best practice in the preparation of academic staff for e-teaching. Two case studies of lived examples of e-teaching preparation are provided from a North American perspective. Future research directions are outlined, with research questions to be explored regarding the link between the preparation of eteachers through e-learning and the quality of the e-learning experience for students.
The Use of Weblogs in Language Education
Authors: Raith Thomas
Published: May 2011

This chapter explores in how far Web 2.0, Weblogs in particular, has changed foreign language learning. It argues that Weblogs, along with Web 2.0, have created new genres for which users need new forms of literacy. A qualitative study on the relationship between the online audience of Web 2.0 and learners’ writing processes is presented and the findings are discussed. The study supports the assumption that learners are aware of the social interaction taking place through weblogs and that this awareness of audience influences the writing process. The author’s intention is to point out that Web 2.0 has created new communities of language practice and that foreign language learning is happening in these discourse communities through social interaction. The challenge in foreign language education is to integrate these communities of practice into the foreign language classroom.
Enterprise 2.0
Authors: Soriano Javier , Lizcano David , Reyes Marcos , Alonso Fernando , López Genoveva
Published: May 2011

The Web is becoming in many respects a powerful tool for supporting business strategy as companies are quickly becoming more and more reliant on new Web-based technologies to capitalize on new business opportunities. However, this introduces additional managerial problems and risks that have to be taken into consideration, if they are not to be left behind. In this chapter we explore the Web’s present and future potential in relation to information sharing, knowledge management, innovation management, and the automation of cross-organizational business transactions. The suggested approach will provide entrepreneurs, managers, and IT leaders with guidance on how to adopt the latest Web 2.0-based technologies in their everyday work with a view to setting up a business Web strategy. Specifically, Enterprise 2.0 is presented as a key enabler for businesses to expand their ecosystems and partnerships. Enterprise 2.0 also acts as a catalyst for improving innovation processes and knowledge work.
Privacy Concerns for Web Logging Data
Authors: Hawkey Kirstie
Published: May 2011

This chapter examines two aspects of privacy concerns that must be considered when conducting studies that include the collection of Web logging data. After providing background about privacy concerns, we first address the standard privacy issues when dealing with participant data. These include privacy implications of releasing data, methods of safeguarding data, and issues encountered with re-use of data. Second, the impact of data collection techniques on a researcher’s ability to capture natural user behaviors is discussed. Key recommendations are offered about how to enhance participant privacy when collecting Web logging data so as to encourage these natural behaviors. The author hopes that understanding the privacy issues associated with the logging of user actions on the Web will assist researchers as they evaluate the tradeoffs inherent between the type of logging conducted, the richness of the data gathered, and the naturalness of captured user behavior.
Hyperlink Structure Inspired by Web Usage
Authors: Lingras Pawan , Lingras Rucha
Published: May 2011

This chapter describes how Web usage patterns can be used to improve the navigational structure of a Web site. The discussion begins with an illustration of visualization tools that study aggregate and individual link traversals. The use of data mining techniques such as classification, association, and sequence analysis to discover knowledge about Web usage, such as navigational patterns, is also discussed. Finally, a graph theoretic algorithm to create an optimal navigational hyperlink structure, based on known navigation patterns, is presented. The discussion is supported by analysis of realworld datasets.
Profiling of Web Services to Measure and Verify their Non-Functional Properties
Authors: Abramowicz Witold , Kaczmarek Monika , Zyskowski Dominik
Published: May 2011

The following chapter focuses on the problem of the proper definition of non-functional properties and methods that may be applied in order to estimate their values. First of all, a reader is familiarized with the concept of non-functional properties and different views on the quality of Web services. Then, selected approaches to obtain values of nonfunctional properties are presented. The focus of attention is Web services profiling that seems to be one of the most promising methods to perform this task. The framework presented in this chapter was implemented and tested within the EU Adaptive Services Grid project.
Technological Social-ism
Authors: Wright Judson
Published: May 2011

Culture is a byproduct of our brains. Moreover, we’ll look at ways culture also employs ritual (from shamanistic practices to grocery shopping) to shape neural paths, and thus shape our brains. Music has a definite (well researched) role in this feedback loop. The ear learns how to discern music from noise in the very immediate context of the environment. This serves more than entertainment purposes however. At a glance, we often can discern visual noise from images, nonsense from words. The dynamics are hardly unique to audial compositions. There are many kinds of compositional rules that apply to all of the senses and well beyond. The brain develops these rule sets specific to the needs of the culture and in order to maintain it. These rules, rarely articulated, are stored in the form of icons, a somewhat abstracted, context-less abbreviation open to wide interpretation. It may seem somewhat amazing we can come up with compatible rules, by reading these icons from our unique personal perspectives. And often we don’t, as we each have differing tastes and opinions. However, “drawing from the same well” defines abstract groupings, to which we choose to subscribe. We both subscribe to and influence which rule-sets we use to filter our perceptions and conclusions. But the way we (often unconsciously) choose is far more elusive and subtle.
RapidOWL
Authors: Auer Sören
Published: May 2011

In this chapter we give a brief overview on the recently emerging concepts of Social Software and Web 2.0. Both concepts stress the adaptive, agile methodological character of communication and collaboration. In order to lift the adaptive collaboration and communication patterns of Social Software and the Web 2.0 towards a truly semantic collaboration, we outline an adaptive knowledge engineering methodology–RapidOWL. It is inspired by adaptive software development methodologies from software engineering and emphasises support for small enduser contributions to knowledge bases.
A Modern Socio-Technical View on ERP-Systems
Authors: Benders Jos , Batenburg Ronald , Hoeken Paul , Schouteten Roel
Published: May 2011

This chapter sketches an Organization Design perspective called “Modern Socio-technical Design”, and subsequently discusses the implementation of Enterprise Resource Planning Systems from this perspective. The authors argue that the praxis of ERP-system implementation is often at odds with socio-technical insights, leading to various problems that ERP-end users are confronted with. These tensions may not be inevitable, but simply result from taken-for-granted organization assumptions underlying ERP-implementation praxis. The sociotechnical insights are intended to help practitioners reflect on ERP-implementation praxis, and discuss to what extent an ERP-system is appropriate and if so, where socio-technically inspired choices may be made within configuration processes.
Using Notification Systems to Create Social Places for Online Learning
Authors: Laffey James M. , Amelung Christopher J.
Published: May 2011

Context-aware activity notification systems have potential to improve and support the social experience of online learning. The authors of this chapter have developed a context-aware activity notification system (CANS) that monitors online learning activities and represents relevant contextual information by providing notification and making the learning activity salient to other participants. The chapter describes previous efforts to develop and support online learning context awareness systems; it also defines the critical components and features of such a system. It is argued that notification systems can provide methods for using the context of activity to support members’ understanding of the meaning of activity. When designed and implemented effectively, CANS can turn course management systems (CMS) into technologies of social interaction to support the social requirements of learning.
Improving the User Experience of a Mobile Photo Gallery by Supporting Social Interaction
Authors: Vartiainen Elina
Published: May 2011

Today, image gallery applications on mobile devices tend to be stand-alone and offline. For people who want to share photos with others, many add-on tools have been developed to connect the gallery applications to Internet services to enable photo-sharing. The authors argue that photocentric social interaction is best supported when the gallery application is fully integrated with an Internet service. In this case, no additional tools are needed and the user’s image content is fully synchronized with the service. They designed and implemented a service-integrated mobile gallery application with a corresponding Internet service. Moreover, they conducted a field study with 10 participants to compare our application with a state-of-the-art gallery application combined with an add-on photo-sharing tool. Their application was preferred by most participants and it was especially appreciated because of the user experience. Above all, the results show that social activity increased amongst the participants while using our application.
Use of Social Software in Education
Authors: Kalelioglu Filiz , Gulbahar Yasemin
Published: May 2011

In this chapter, numerous educational activities are presented for instructors in order to address each type of multiple intelligences. Most probably, these educational activities are those which are already being experienced by many instructors. The key point here is that although students are exposed to many educational activities, instructors generally don’t have any idea or rather don’t consider the learning outcomes in terms of multiple intelligences. In general, assessment activities are based only on the chunk of knowledge that the student gains after any particular activity. In fact, instructors should deal with the effects and improvements in students other than just the knowledge, after engagement in educational activities. Thus, instructors should base their instructional plans on a theoretical basis, especially when integrating technology into their courses. Hence, the development and changing activities and other tasks of social software according to the multiple intelligences that underline individual differences were discussed briefly in this chapter.
Using Social Software for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education
Authors: Lameras Petros , Paraskakis Iraklis , Levy Philipa
Published: May 2011

This chapter focuses on discussing the use of social software from a social constructivist perspective. In particular, the chapter explains how social constructivist pedagogies such as collaborative learning and communities of practice may be supported by the adoption of social software tools. It begins by briefly discussing the social constructivist perspective considering certain pedagogies such as collaborative learning and communities of practice. Then, it explains how these pedagogies are reflected in actual practice by using a variety of social software tools such as discussion boards, blogs and wikis. Finally, the chapter presents the implications of using social software based on the impact of certain factors such as teachers’ understandings of, and beliefs about, teaching in general. The purpose of this chapter is to support higher education practitioners in theoryinformed design by distilling and outlining those aspects of social constructivism that addresses the use of social software tools. It is perceived that a gradual introduction of social software to institutional Virtual Learning Environments, with a strong focus on collaborative learning processes and engagement in online learning communities, will highlight the need for discursive tools, adaptability, interactivity and reflection.
Student Use of Social Media
Authors: Wandel Tamara L.
Published: May 2011

This chapter presents information on the usages and intent of social media by college students and administrators. Primary and secondary quantitative data is provided, as well as qualitative information obtained from interviews of multiple constituents. Researchers and postsecondary employees can more effectively examine technological trends in regard to online social networking for non-academic purposes after considering this data. Theories of self-esteem, interpersonal communication, decision making, and innovation diffusion are integrated throughout the chapter.
Marketing for Children Using Social Interaction Technologies
Authors: Brown Ruth E.
Published: May 2011

Children are spending more time online and, in most cases, this means they are using social interaction technologies. Beyond the concern for safety, another issue is gathering strength: namely, interactive marketing to children. This chapter looks at the immersive nature of interactive marketing, which can be found in blogs, chat rooms, virtual worlds, advergaming, and other forms of advertainment. The chapter also examines: the ages of targetable audiences (some of whom cannot yet read the “advertisement” label), websites for children that use interactive marketing, where and how ads are displayed, the effects of interactive marketing, the potential for data collection through interactive marketing, the lack of regulation in interactive marketing, and the future trends of interactive marketing to children.
Social Identities, Group Formation, and the Analysis of Online Communities
Authors: Code Jillianne R. , Zaparyniuk Nicholas E.
Published: May 2011

Central to research in social psychology is the means in which communities form, attract new members, and develop over time. Research has found that the relative anonymity of Internet communication encourages self-expression and facilitates the formation of relationships based on shared values and beliefs. Self-expression in online social networks enables identity experimentation and development. As identities are fluid, situationally contingent, and are the perpetual subject and object of negotiation within the individual, the presented and perceived identity of the individual may not match reality. In this chapter, the authors consider the psychological challenges unique to understanding the dynamics of social identity formation and strategic interaction in online social networks. The psychological development of social identities in online social network interaction is discussed, highlighting how collective identity and self-categorization associates social identity to online group formation. The overall aim of this chapter is to explore how social identity affects the formation and development of online communities, how to analyze the development of these communities, and the implications such social networks have within education.
Situating Social Identity through Language Convergence in Online Groups
Authors: Crabill Scott L.
Published: May 2011

According to social identity theory, individuals create and maintain their social identity through group membership. During face-to-face interactions within a group, people assess various verbal and nonverbal cues to influence the perceptions of themselves by others. However, in the context of online communication these cues are not as readily available. A screen name can be viewed as part of an individual’s “social identity creation”: a message that members of online discussion boards interpret and react to while trying to situate themselves within the group. This chapter explores how language convergence can function as a cue that facilitates situating social identity within online in-groups. Results of a content analysis of 400 screen names suggest that the screen names of discussion board members serve as an organizing variable for participants to situate themselves socially within the context of online interaction.
Building Social Relationships in a Virtual Community of Gamers
Authors: Mohd Yusof Shafiz Affendi
Published: May 2011

The purpose of this article is to understand how online gamers as a virtual community build social relationships through their participation in online games. Empirically, several aspects in the context of virtual community are still not fully understood, such as: (1) What types of rules, norms, and values are grounded in virtual community? (2) How do people institutionalize their members in a virtual community? and (3) Why do they create social relationships in virtual environment? The identified gap thus explains why studies have produced inconsistent findings on the impacts of online game play (Williams, 2003), in which many studies in the past have only looked at aggression and addiction. A more detailed understanding of the social context of in-game interactions would help to improve our understanding of the impact of online games on players and vice versa. Therefore, this article will present a case study of a renowned online game, Ever Quest (EQ), with the aim of understanding how players establish and develop social relationships. In specific, the Institutional Theory was applied to examine the social relationships among the players, and a hermeneutic-interpretive method was used to analyze the data in order to address the following general research question, “How is the social world of EQ constituted in terms of building social relationships?”
The Impact of Individual Differences on Social Communication Pattern in Online Learning
Authors: Zheng Robert Z. , Flygare Jill A. , Dahl Laura B. , Hoffman Richard R.
Published: May 2011

This chapter describes the college students’ online social communication patterns and behavior with a focus on the impact of individual differences on learners’ online communication. The study consisted of 27 college students who engaged in an online discussion over a period of fourteen weeks as part of requirements in an undergraduate educational technology course. The findings indicated that cognitive styles such as field dependence and field independence played a critical role in forming learners’ online social communication. Based on social compensation theory and Witkin et al.’s theory of individual differences, the authors claimed that effective individual communication in an online community can be fostered through creating learning support, taking into considerations factors like cognitive styles, complementary personality, interest and motivation in the process of design. Suggestions for future online learning are made with an emphasis on creating an effective online community for learning.
Guarding Corporate Data from Social Engineering Attacks
Authors: Botelho Christopher M. , Cazier Joseph A.
Published: May 2011

The threat of social engineering attacks is prevalent in today’s society. Even with the pervasiveness of mass media’s coverage of hackers and security intrusions, the general population is not aware of the possible damage that could occur should they be subjected to a social engineering attack. In order to show the damage caused by these attacks, we will discuss the results of a social engineering attack based on a survey conducted in the downtown area of a large financial center in the United States. The authors make suggestions companies can incorporate into their policies in order to protect their employees, as well as systems from intrusions based on social engineering attacks.
Social and Distributed Cognition in Collaborative Learning Contexts
Authors: Mok Jeffrey
Published: May 2011

Technological artifacts such as computers and mobile electronic devices have dramatically increased our learning interactions with machines. Coupled with the increasingly different forms of collaborative learning situations, our contemporary learning environments have become more complex and interconnected in today’s information age. How do we understand the learning and collaborative processes in such environments? How do members receive, analyze, synthesize, and propagate information in crowded systems? How do we investigate the collaborative processes in an increasingly sophisticated learning environment? What is collaboration in the current technological age? This chapter, using the conceptual framework of distributed and social cognition, will seek to answer these questions. It will describe the current perspectives on social and distributed cognition in the context of learning, and examine how these theories can inform the processes of collaborative learning with computers. The chapter will conclude with implications to our learning environments today.
Conceptualizing Codes of Conduct in Social Networking Communities
Authors: Ewbank Ann Dutton , Kay Adam G. , Foulger Teresa S. , Carter Heather L.
Published: May 2011

This chapter reviews the capabilities of social networking tools and links those capabilities to recent legal and ethical controversies involving use of social networking tools such as Facebook and MySpace. A social cognitive moral framework is applied to explore and analyze the ethical issues present in these incidents. Three ethical vulnerabilities are identified in the use of social networking tools: 1) the medium provides a magnified forum for public humiliation or hazing, 2) a blurring of boundaries exists between private and public information on social networking sites, and 3) the medium merges individuals’ professional and non-professional identities. Prevalent legal and social responses to these kinds of incidents are considered and implications are suggested for encouraging responsible use. The chapter includes a description of the authors’ current research with preservice students involving an intervention whereby students read and think about real cases where educators use social networking. The intervention was created to improve students’ critical thinking about the ethical issues involved. Recommendations for applying institutional codes of conduct to ethical dilemmas involving online tools are discussed.
Market of Resources for Virtual Enterprise Integration
Authors: Cunha Maria Manuela , Putnik Goran D. , Ávila Paulo Silva
Published: May 2011

Most definitions of virtual enterprise (VE) incorporate the idea of extended and collaborative outsourcing to suppliers and subcontractors in order to achieve a competitive response to market demands (Webster, Sugden, & Tayles, 2004). As suggested by several authors (Browne & Zhang, 1999; Byrne, 1993; Camarinha-Matos & Afsarmanesh, 1999; Cunha, Putnik, & Ávila, 2000; Davidow & Malone, 1992; Preiss, Goldman, & Nagel, 1996), a VE consists of a network of independent enterprises (resources providers) with reconfiguration capability in useful time, permanently aligned with the market requirements, created to take profit from a specific market opportunity, and where each participant contributes with its best practices and core competencies to the success and competitiveness of the structure as a whole. Even during the operation phase of the VE, the configuration can change, to assure business alignment with the market demands, traduced by the identification of reconfiguration opportunities and continuous readjustment or reconfiguration of the VE network, to meet unexpected situations or to keep permanent competitiveness and maximum performance (Cunha & Putnik, 2002, 2005a, 2005b).
A Framework for Semi-Autonomous Servers in the Wireless Network Environment
Authors: Tsiligaridis John
Published: May 2011

The problem of server performance in a contemporary, rapidly developed and multi-discipline environment is examined. Multiple requests in a very short period of time increase the number of connections and push the server to the limit. Nowadays servers’ ability to work semi autonomously, in regards to the decision of the appropriate query plan and the provision of the effective data location, plays a significant role for the query and network performance. For autonomous server operations many of the offered services need to be self-managed. Data sources’ administration during the execution of the query plan becomes of primary interest especially for the starting query server. The proposed server grouping process, server’s scale up capabilities and the application of Data Mining concepts in a wireless environment can contribute a lot to the optimization of the query plan and also increase server independence. Various methods of distributed data exploration and exploitation that support server’s semi-autonomous operational behavior are developed. Simulation results are provided. This chapter covers a significant part of cooperative domains in the area of information management and can offer integrated solutions very attractive to the mobile users.
Open Source Tool For Network Monitoring
Authors: Formoso Vreixo , Cacheda Fidel , Carneiro Víctor , Valiño Juan
Published: May 2011

Even though monitoring tools are essential to the management of communications networks, Open Source applications still confront their potential users with considerable problems. This work analyses the limitations of the currently existing tools and presents the development of a new tool that solves most of those problems. The tool is based on a new architecture of objects and remote method invocation and allows both centralized and distributed monitoring. Its configuration through web interface, its support to monitoring templates, and its flexibility make it particularly interesting for a large number of users in search of a strong but easily configurable system. The proposed extension system is based on plug-ins and it is highly innovative because of its power and simplicity. Finally, the configuration simplicity and other essential improvements of the proposed system are successfully tested in a real environment.
QoS Provisioning Framework in IP-Based VPN
Authors: Stojanovic Mirjana D. , Acimovic-Raspopovic Vladanka S.
Published: May 2011

A virtual private network (VPN) can be broadly defined as a “restricted communication between a set of sites, making use of a backbone that is shared with other traffic not belonging to that communication” (Carugi & De Clercq, 2004, p.116). Since the late nineties, with pervasive deployment of the Internet protocol (IP) technology in corporate networks, IP-based VPNs, in several forms and based on different network technologies, have become a promising solution for a wide range of corporate network services.
Omni-, Sector, and Adaptive Modes of Compact Array Antenna
Authors: Cheng Jun , Taillefer Eddy , Ohira Takashi
Published: May 2011

Three working modes, omni-, sector and adaptive modes, for a compact array antenna are introduced. The compact array antenna is an electronically steerable parasitic array radiator (Espar) antenna, which has only a single-port output, and carries out signal combination in space by electromagnetic mutual coupling among array elements. These features of the antenna significantly reduce its cost, size, complexity, and power consumption, and make it applicable to mobile user terminals. Signal processing algorithms are developed for the antenna. An omnipattern is given by an equal-voltage single-source power maximization algorithm. Six sector patterns are formed by a single-source power maximization algorithm. Adaptive patterns are obtained by a trained adaptive control algorithm and a blind adaptive control algorithm, respectively. The experiments verified the omnipattern, these six sector patterns and the adaptive patterns. It is hope that understanding of the antenna’s working modes will help researcher for a better design and control of array antennas for mobile user terminals.