bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Dynamics of Online Collaboration
Authors: Zhang Ke , Ge Xun
Published: May 2011

This chapter aims to help readers build a solid understanding of the complexdynamics of online collaborative learning from multiple perspectives, and thusbecome more capable to utilize different instructional strategies to achieve pro-ductive online collaboration. On the basis of extensive review and integration ofresearch from multiple disciplines, the authors discuss the dynamics of online col-laborative learning from four aspects: team task, team development, member rela-tionship, and communication media, with one section designated to each of them.The sections each comprise presentation of the issue, theoretical frameworks, sug-gested strategies, and how it relates to other aspect(s), as applicable. The chapterconcludes with implications for practice in online collaborative learning andfuture research for managing learning in virtual collaborative environments. Thischapter is considered a valuable artifact to guide practice and research in onlinecollaborative learning in various settings.
Software Piracy
Authors: El-Sheikh Asim , Rashed Abdullah Abdali , Peace A. Graham
Published: May 2011

Software piracy costs the information technology industry billions of dollars in lost sales each year. This chapter presents an overview of the software piracy issue, including a review of the ethical principles involved and a summary of the latest research. In order to better illustrate some of the material presented, the results of a small research study in the country of Jordan are presented. The findings indicate that piracy among computer-using professionals is high, and that cost is a significant factor in the decision to pirate. Finally, some potential preventative mechanisms are discussed, in the context of the material presented previously in the chapter.
Information Imbalance in Medical Decision Making
Authors: Joseph Jimmie L.. , Cook David P.
Published: May 2011

This chapter explores the ethical implications of a reduction in information asymmetry between health care providers and their patients. In many human interactions, asymmetry of information and experience typically raises ethical dilemmas for the party with the greater degree of information. This chapter illustrates that it is the reduction in information asymmetry that is raising ethical dilemmas in dealing with medical issues. Understanding this phenomenon may assist in identifying and managing future ethical quandaries that may occur as Internet resources provide broad access to information previously distributed only to a subset of the population.
How to Teach Using Today's Technology
Authors: Frank Moti
Published: May 2011

This chapter reviews the benefits and challenges of five approaches for integrating technology and teaching. Three of the models involve distance learning, while the two others utilize technology as a teaching aid. The first model is a lecture-based course also available through a Web site. The second is a fully online asynchronous course. The third is synchronous distance learning. The fourth combines a virtual laboratory and visualization with regular teaching, and the fifth fuses technology with different teaching methods. The pedagogical and operational aspects of the five approaches are discussed. The main pedagogical aspects discussed are: applying active and interactive learning principles, using multimedia, organizing the course and its lessons, and providing immediate feedback to students about their progress. By comparing the advantages and challenges the different models offer, teachers in K-12 will be able to match the appropriate model and its teaching strategy to their learning goals.
K-12 Educators as Instructional Designers
Authors: Hartley Kendall
Published: May 2011

This chapter will describe the realities of K-12 classroom practice and how this compares to common tenets in the field of instructional design. Specifically, the chapter will describe how trends towards the use of information and communication technologies in classrooms might be made more advantageous through the use of an instructional design approach. The chapter will include an introduction to the field and history of instructional design, an overview of current teacher preparation as it relates to designing instruction, and how a systematic instructional design perspective might differ. The chapter will conclude with a description of how changes in teacher preparation and access to the appropriate tools could facilitate increases in student achievement.
Online Assessment of Foreign Language Proficiency
Authors: Winke Paula M.
Published: May 2011

In this chapter, the challenges involved in creating online Arabic and Russian proficiency tests by using a commercial test product are discussed. Guidelines used for item and test development are presented, along with specific challenges test developers faced in designing computerized, semiadaptable tests. Also discussed are the issues involved in delivering the tests securely over the Internet to examinees, who took them on computers in college and university language labs across the United States and abroad. The chapter concludes with a list of five important lessons that could help others who are contemplating a similar test development project.
Development of a Computerized Adaptive Test for a Large-Scale Testing Program
Authors: McLeod Lori , Bethke Albert , Hill Cheryl , Van Dyk Pamela , Burling Kelly
Published: May 2011

In 1997, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) amendments stated that “children with disabilities must be included in general state-and district-wide assessment programs, with appropriate accommodations, where necessary.” Where accommodations alone could not make the testing program accessible, the amendment required that the agencies develop alternative assessments so that every child would be included in the accountability programs. In response to the IDEA Amendments, the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (NCDPI) reviewed its testing program and identified areas where additional accommodations were necessary. Based on this review, a research plan was developed for a computerized adaptive testing (CAT) accommodation, where computers and the Internet are used for administration of an adaptive test. This chapter explores several of the issues and lessons learned in the development of a computerized adaptive test in a case study of the design, development, and delivery of such a test in a large-scale testing environment. Findings from the case study have implications for item-pool development, curriculum alignment, and comparability to the paper and pencil tests, scoring and scaling of the computerized adaptive test accommodation, test reliability, validity, programming for the computer-adaptive test, and state and local technology infrastructure. The chapter concludes with lessons learned and future directions.
Introducing a Computer-Adaptive Testing System to a Small School District
Authors: Pelton Tim , Pelton Leslee Francis
Published: May 2011

A computer-adaptive test (CAT) is a relatively new type of technology in which a computer program “intelligently” selects and presents questions to examinees according to an evolving estimate of achievement and a prescribed test plan. A well written CAT can be expected to efficiently produce student achievement estimates that are more accurate and more meaningful than a typical teacher-generated paper and pencil (P&P) test with a similar number of questions. Although this method of testing sounds good in theory, many schools and districts are waiting for positive examples of practical applications and observable benefits before adopting a CAT. This chapter begins by describing the essential elements of meaningful measurement in education and the features of a typical CAT. Next, we describe the Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) system of the Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA; 2004) and observations made during the introduction of this system into a small semirural school district. Finally, as independent observers, we provide a set of recommendations to help guide other districts as they consider the potentials of implementing a CAT system to guide instruction within their schools.
Challenges in Requirements Engineering for Embedded Systems
Authors: Nasr Eman
Published: May 2011

In this chapter we are particularly interested in requirements engineering of software where the software is part of a complex engineered system; that is, embedded software. Embedded software is the software that runs on a computer system that is integral to a larger system whose primary purpose is not computational. Embedded software systems are of rising significance in the industry, and they are found in a wide range of industries in the modern world, including medical, nuclear, chemical, rail networks, aerospace, and automotive industries. The RE of this category of software is challenging because of its special properties that add to its complexity and make it more expensive and error-prone as compared with other software categories, for example, business applications. In this chapter we identify the special properties of embedded software systems to help in better understanding of such domain, discuss the special RE challenges that the special properties introduce, and introduce the main current RE approaches for the domain.
RESCUE
Authors: Jones Sara , Maiden Neil
Published: May 2011

This chapter describes RESCUE (Requirements Engineering with Scenarios for a User-centred Environment), a method for specifying requirements for complex sociotechnical systems that integrates human activity modeling, creative design workshops, system goal modeling using the i* notation, systematic scenario walkthroughs, and best practice in requirements management. This method has been, and is being applied in, specifying requirements for three separate systems in the domain of air traffic control. In this chapter we present examples showing how the method can be applied in the context of a case study involving the specification of requirements for Countdown, a system to provide bus passengers with information about expected bus arrival times. While this system shares some important similarities with systems used in air traffic control, we hope it is small and familiar enough to readers to provide meaningful insights into the application of the RESCUE process.
Institutional Research (IR) Meets Knowledge Management
Authors: Santos José L.
Published: May 2011

In this study, a selected university’s capacity to provide necessary and meaningful information under a KM framework in order to guide it through its current and new and sweeping initiatives was examined. Specifically, information generated from a university-created Study Committee charged with studying the IR function and key units that perform this function were analyzed. A critical analysis of the committee, its methodological approach to studying the IR function, the IR units, and the findings of the committee was conducted. It was found that KM principles were employed in a limited fashion, and that no knowledge creation was taking place. Another key finding was that the primary focus of the committee and a key unit in the IR function were much more concerned about the decision support systems and their ability to provide good data that, in turn, they believed would lead to excellent decision-making.
Measure for Measure
Authors: Carmean Colleen , Brown Gary
Published: May 2011

The authors examine CMS as a new enterprise technology. Using a model of transformative assessment that frames value within alignment of institutional goals and mission, they define the questions that should be asked of each of the CMS stakeholders: teachers, learners, support services, leadership and the CMS vendor.
The CMS as Shapeshifter, Catalyst, and Engaging Learning Tool
Authors: Lomas Cyprien , Rauch Ulrich
Published: May 2011

Content management systems (CMS) have been purposed for different tasks on our campuses and are in danger of becoming all things to all people. In our discussion we re-evaluate those aspects of a CMS that appear to make the greatest impact on teaching and learning. While a CMS may do duty as a vessel for containing and interacting with content, we see its greatest appeal and persuasion in its availability to all learners and teachers and its potential to transform itself according to a user’s need. By separately analyzing common uses and current applications of a CMS, we identify the tools and components of a CMS that offer the most promise in the future.
From Course Management to Curricular Capabilities
Authors: Weigal Van
Published: May 2011

The course management system (CMS) has become a focal point for conceptualizing the place and purpose of e-learning in higher education. Because of the architectural biases of these systems, some pedagogical approaches seem more “natural” or “feasible” while other — potentially more promising — approaches remain unexplored. This chapter begins by presenting four student-focused core capabilities that should be at the forefront of our pedagogical thinking — the development of skill sets related to critical thinking, self-confidence, peer learning, and knowledge management capabilities. Using this foundation, the author explores four basic curricular capabilities (or services) that learning systems of the future will require: 1) a discovery-based learning capability; 2) a 360-degree out-of-the-course capability; 3) a knowledge asset capability; and 4) a teach-to-learn capability.
Skills and the Worker
Authors: Lahey Elizabeth
Published: May 2011

Technology professionals have real lives, interests, and desires that are affected by rapid changes in the industry. With the decline of the “Organization Man” model, workers are now expected to maintain their skills and manage their careers without employers’ help. With skills that rapidly become obsolete, technologists must prepare continuously for the future. Yet, to maximize the utility of new skills, they cannot prepare too far ahead. This reality creates a dilemma for skills portfolio development. The TechCareer Compassâ (TCC) website was designed to solve the problem. The sponsors are industry-leading firms, so workers know the skills portfolio and career information is accurate and reliable.
An Exploration of the Value of Information Systems Certification
Authors: Anderson John E. , Barrett Kevin , Schwager Paul H.
Published: May 2011

Realizing that human resource (HR) professionals are often the gatekeepers to employment in organizations, this exploratory study examines the perceptions of HR professionals in relation to education, experience, and information system (IS) certification. Survey results were obtained from approximately 100 HR professionals who are members of local chapters of the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) in North Carolina. We conclude that education, certification, and experience are imperfect substitutes for each other. In addition, there seems to be a joint or halo effect conferred upon a balanced candidate. HR professionals are also willing to associate substantial positive organizational benefits with certification, specifically: enhanced IT staff credibility, competitive advantage, level of service, consistency of service provided. HR professionals also associate substantial employee benefits with certifications, specifically: enhanced credibility, preparation for new position within the current organization, compensation, mobility, preparing for other certification tests, and meeting a job requirement.
The State of Online Writing Labs
Authors: Mackiewicz Jo
Published: May 2011

This chapter analyzes the “state of the art” of OWLs, or online writing labs. It reports the results of a study of 343 OWLs that examined the extent to which OWLs have emerged into what Crump calls “true OWLs”—fully-interactive OWLs where tutors provide individualized help to students via computer-mediated communication like email. This chapter also examines what the literature and research on online tutoring say about the advantages and disadvantages of online tutoring in comparison with face-to-face tutoring. It is hoped that this chapter can illuminate the extent to which OWLs have fulfilled their promise to be places where students and tutors can freely exchange ideas and texts. It is also hoped that this chapter can suggest the extent to which OWL services can be expanded and improved.
Technology Literacy
Authors: Tomei Lawrence A.
Published: May 2011

Literacy represents the most modest level of technology-based learning. At this echelon of the taxonomy, literacy is defined as “the minimum degree of competency expected of teachers and students with respect to technology, computers, educational programs, office productivity software, the Internet, and their synergistic effectiveness as a learning strategy.”
Investigation into the Taxonomy for the Technology Domain
Authors: Tomei Lawrence A.
Published: May 2011

This final chapter on the Taxonomy for the Technology Domain provides a discretionary inquiry into the research base of this newest classification system. Similar to the historical evolution of the taxonomies of Bloom (cognitive), Krathwohl (affective), Kibler (psychomotor), Bruce and Levin (technology as media) and SeSDL (communications and information technology), a watershed text such as this is obligated to demonstrate the scholarly basis upon which the new classification schemata is built.
From Conceptual Database Schemas to Logical Database Tuning
Authors: Petit Jean-Marc , Hacid Mohand-Saïd
Published: May 2011

This chapter revisits conceptual database design and focuses on the so-called “logical database tuning”. We first recall fundamental differences between constructor-oriented models (like extended Entity-Relationship models) and attribute-oriented models (like the relational model). Then, we introduce an integrated algorithm for translating ER-like conceptual database schemas to relational database schemas. To consider the tuning of such logical databases, we highlight two extreme cases: null-free databases and efficient — though non redundant — databases. Finally, we point out how SQL workloads could be used a posteriori as a help for the designers and/or the database administrators to reach a compromise between these extreme cases. While a lot of papers and books have been devoted for many years to database design, we hope that this chapter will clarify the understanding of database designers when implementing their databases and database administrators when maintaining their databases.
PHP and PostgreSQL Web Content Management Systems at Western Michigan University Libraries
Authors: Whang Michael D.
Published: May 2011

This chapter introduces the design of a PHP and PostgreSQL content management system as a means of maintaining content within a library’s online subject guide collection. It argues that the content management system, combined with distributed authorship, provides an efficient and effective way to manage a large growing body of content that changes frequently. Furthermore, the author hopes that understanding the process of building a content management system, from system and data requirements to database design and content display, will not only inform librarians and technical staff of good system design practices, but also assist in the understanding of a content-driven library Web site.
A Socio-Technical Case Study of Bangladesh
Authors: Raisinghani Mahesh S. , Rahman Mahboobur
Published: May 2011

The revolutionary advent of IT has accelerated the pace of day-to-day office, personal and corporate communication. However, even now, Bangladesh, despite its natural resources and easily trainable workforce, cannot cope with the evolution of technology when compared to most of the developed and developing countries. Of course, there are reasons behind the slow growth of technology in Bangladesh. Despite this IT implementation here has begun, albeit a little slowly in different private and public sectors. In Bangladesh, IT use is still in a backward stage in terms of information generation, utilization and applications. In the absence of any private entrepreneur, the government initiates and funds as many of these projects as possible.
Building Police/Community Relations through Virtual Communities
Authors: Baim Susan A.
Published: May 2011

Over the past two decades, police departments around the globe have been involved in a slow, but steady transition from call-based policing to community-oriented policing. The former approach, while effective at closing cases once a crime has occurred, does little to develop crime prevention partnerships between officers on the beat and the citizens of local communities. Community-oriented policing serves to increase awareness of issues and potential problems before they occur, thus assisting police departments to provide a more proactive approach to stopping crime within their communities.
Challenges in Quality of Service for Tomorrow's Networks
Authors: DaSilva Luiz A.
Published: May 2011

The original communication networks were designed to carry traffic with homogeneous performance requirements. The telephone network carried real-time voice, with stringent latency bounds, and therefore used circuit-switched technologies with fixed bandwidth allocated to each call. Original data networks were used for electronic mail and file exchange, and therefore employed packet switching and provided best-effort service.
Chief Knowledge Officers
Authors: Herschel Richard T.
Published: May 2011

A chief knowledge officer (CKO) is a senior executive who is responsible for ensuring that an organization maximizes the value it achieves through one of its most important assets-knowledge. Knowledge is often defined as information exercised for problem solving, understanding, and benefit. By adopting a CKO, firms formally recognize that knowledge is an asset that needs to be captured, disseminated, and shared to enhance firm performance and value creation. And most of all, they realize it is an asset that must be managed. Knowledge management is seen as essential, because firms today are valued in part on market perceptions of expertise as expressed through their processes, products and services (Choo, 1998).
Collective Intentional Action in Virtual Communities
Authors: Bagozzi Richard P. , Dholakia Utpal M.
Published: May 2011

The Internet is an important innovation in information science and technology and profoundly affects people in their daily lives. To date, these effects have been construed in overly individualistic ways and often all too negatively. For example, the Internet is seen by many as an individual means for obtaining or sending information flexibly and efficiently (e.g., Dreyfus, 2001). Some researchers also claim that participation on the Internet often leads to feelings of isolation and depression and even negatively affects relationships with one’s family members and friends (Kraut et al., 1998; cf. Kraut et al., 2002; UCLA Internet Report, 2003). Likewise, Dreyfus (2001) takes a generally pessimistic tone with regard to Internet usage and worries that when we engage the Internet, it “diminishes one’s sense of reality and of the meaning in one’s life” and “…we might…lose some of our crucial capacities: our ability to make sense of things so as to distinguish the relevant from the irrelevant, our sense of the seriousness of success and failure that is necessary for learning, and our need to get a maximum grip on the world that gives us our sense of the reality of things.”
Combining Local and Global Expertise in Services
Authors: Salmela Hannu , Parnisto Juha
Published: May 2011

Since the 1990s, services characterized by a considerable geographical distance between the service person and the customer have become increasingly commonplace. Banks and insurance companies are introducing call centers or service centers to complement, or even replace, the old regional service organization. In the information and communication technology (ICT) sector, companies such as Fujitsu and IBM provide part of the end-user support for their clients from a few centralized call centers. Telecommunications operators have established call centers to serve their customers in conducting basic business transactions. To a large extent, the change in the 1990s can be attributed to ICT development. As call centers and local offices have equal access to all the information, many of the services that previously had to be provided locally can now come from a call center. Furthermore, this decade will bring new technologies that will further enhance capabilities to serve customers over long distances. They will, for instance, provide increasingly rich media for interaction between customers and remote service personnel.
Contemporary IT-Assisted Retail Management
Authors: Kotzab Herbert
Published: May 2011

Retailing can be defined as a set of specific business processes that add value to products and services sold to end users (e.g., Levy & Weitz, 2003). Such retail business processes refer to marketing processes (like assortment in order to provide end users with a required mix of products and services in terms of quantity as well as quality; and advice, advertising, and credit processes, which ease the purchase for end users, for example, offering special payment modes or informing end users about the offers) and logistics processes (such as transportation, breaking bulk, and inventory handling). The orchestration of these functions leads to various types of retail formats such as store-based retailers (e.g., supermarkets, hypermarkets, or category killers), non-store-based retailers (e.g., mail-order retailing or electronic commerce), and hybrid retailers (e.g., home delivery services or party sales services; Coughlan, Anderson, Stern, & El-Ansary, 2001).
Contingency Theory, Agent-Based Systems, and a Virtual Advisor
Authors: Burrett John R. , Burnell Lisa , Priest John W.
Published: May 2011

In this article, we investigate the potential of using a synthesis of organizational research, traditional systems analysis techniques, and agent-based computing in the creation and teaching of a Contingency Theoretic Systems Design (CTSD) model. To facilitate understanding of the new design model, we briefly provide the necessary background of these diverse fields, describe the conceptualization used in the integration process, and give a non-technical overview of an example implementation in a very complex design environment. The example utilized in this article is a Smart Agent Resource for Advising (SARA), an intelligent multi-agent advising system for college students. To test all of the potential of our CTSD model, we created SARA utilizing a distributed instructional model in a multi-university, multi-disciplinary cooperative design process.
Data Mining in Practice
Authors: Chen Sherry Y. , Liu Xiaohui
Published: May 2011

There is an explosion in the amount of data that organizations generate, collect, and store. Organizations are gradually relying more on new technologies to access, analyze, summarize, and interpret information intelligently and automatically. Data mining, therefore, has become a research area with increased importance (Amaratunga & Cabrera, 2004). Data mining is the search for valuable information in large volumes of data (Hand, Mannila, & Smyth, 2001). It can discover hidden relationships, patterns, and interdependencies, and generate rules to predict the correlations, which can help the organizations make critical decisions faster or with a greater degree of confidence (Gargano & Raggad, 1999).
Distributed Recommender Systems for Internet Commerce
Authors: Sarwar Badrul M. , Konstan Joseph A. , Riedl John T.
Published: May 2011

Recommender systems (RSs) present an alternative information-evaluation approach based on the judgements of human beings (Resnick & Varian, 1997). It attempts to automate the word-of-mouth recommendations that we regularly receive from family, friends, and colleagues. In essence, it allows everyone to serve as a critic. This inclusiveness circumvents the scalability problems of individual critics—with millions of readers it becomes possible to review millions of books. At the same time it raises the question of how to reconcile the many and varied opinions of a large community of ordinary people. Recommender systems address this question through the use of different algorithms: nearest-neighbor algorithms (Resnick, Iacovou, Suchak, Bergstrom, & Riedl, 1994; Shardanand et al., 1994), item-based algorithms (Sarwar, Karypis, Konstan, & Riedl, 2001), clustering algorithms (Ungar & Foster, 1998), and probabilistic and rule-based learning algorithms (Breese, Heckerman, & Kadie, 1998), to name but a few. The nearest-neighbor-algorithm-based recommender systems, which are often referred to as collaborative filtering (CF) systems in research literature (Maltz & Ehrlich, 1995), are the most widely used recommender systems in practice. A typical CF-based recommender system maintains a database containing the ratings that each customer has given to each product that customer has evaluated. For each customer in the system, the recommendation engine computes a neighborhood of other customers with similar opinions. To evaluate other products for this customer, the system forms a normalized and weighted average of the opinions of the customer’s neighbors.
Dot-Coming SMEs in Singapore for the New Economy
Authors: Hin Leo Tan Wee , Subramaniam Ramesh
Published: May 2011

Small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) play a very significant role in the economies of all countries. They outnumber big corporations, and are conspicuous by their ubiquity in all sectors of society. The contribution of SMEs to a country’s Gross Domestic Product is high by virtue of the large number of people they employ and the diversity of services that they offer (Unctad Secretariat, 2002). SMEs also offer a starting platform for entrepreneurs to realize their aspirations.
E-Learning Environment
Authors: Kayama Mizue , Okamoto Toshio
Published: May 2011

Nowadays, the concept/system of e-learning (or eLearning) is widespread with the advent and prevalence of the Internet. Via the Internet, people can communicate with each other at anytime and from anywhere. People can also share, rebuild, stock, and reuse various kinds of information. Here, it is clear that e-learning gets citizenship in the educational society instead of CAI (computer-assisted instruction) and CMI (computer-managed instruction). As a response to society’s advance, it is necessary to construct a new learning ecology, such as a learning organization or a learning community. To date, the need for an understanding of e-learning issues has not been met by a coherent set of principles for examining past work and plotting fruitful directions. Obviously, it would be difficult to document the many seeds sown now.
E-Mail Usage in South Pacific Distance Education
Authors: Frank Jonathan , Toland Janet , Schenk Karen D.
Published: May 2011

The impact of cultural diversity on group interactions through technology is an active research area. Current research has found that a student’s culture appears to influence online interactions with teachers and other students (Freedman & Liu, 1996). Students from Asian and Western cultures have different Web-based learning styles (Liang & McQueen, 1999), and Scandinavian students demonstrate a more restrained online presence compared to their more expressive American counterparts (Bannon, 1995). Differences were also found across cultures in online compared to face-to-face discussions (Warschauer, 1996). Student engagement, discourse, and interaction are valued highly in “western” universities. With growing internationalization of western campuses, increasing use of educational technology both on and off campus, and rising distance learning enrollments, intercultural frictions are bound to increase.
Enterprise Resource Planning and Integration
Authors: Kurbel Karl
Published: May 2011

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) is a state-of-the-art approach to running organizations with the help of comprehensive information systems, providing support for key business processes and more general, for electronic business (e-business). ERP has evolved from earlier approaches, in particular, materials requirement planning (MRP) and manufacturing resource planning (called MRP II) in the 1980s.
ERP Adoption in Indian Organizations
Authors: Tarafdar Monideepa
Published: May 2011

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems integrate various functions and processes in organizations. ERP software is developed in the form of different modules, each of which helps to perform distinct functions within the company. The modules interface with the same database and are integrated so that workflows can be designed across different modules. The software helps standardize business processes and ensures organization-wide availability of transaction data. ERP software evolved from earlier manufacturing resource planning (MRP) systems, which included inventory management, procurement and production planning functions. The implementation of ERP software started in the early 1990s and during the late 1990s, the growth rate of the ERP market was between 30 to 40%. As of 2001, 30,000 companies around the world had implemented ERP and the total value of the ERP market was at $25 billion. There is not much literature relating to ERP implementation and adoption in companies in Asia and other parts of the developing world. These organizations face issues that are significantly different from those faced by organizations in the developed world, because of differences in the sophistication of IT use, and in the cultural and social contexts. In this article, we describe some experiences that companies in India have gone through in implementing ERP systems. We present a framework for analyzing the critical factors and issues that influence the ERP adoption process, and highlight the areas of opportunity and risk. The framework is sufficiently general so as to be extended to other developing countries.
Evaluating Computer-Supported Learning Initiatives
Authors: Nash John B. , Richter Cristoph , Allert Heidrun
Published: May 2011

The call for the integration of program evaluation into the development of computer-supported learning environments is ever increasing. Pushed not only by demands from policy makers and grant givers for more accountability within lean times, this trend is due also to the fact that outcomes of computer-supported learning environment projects often fall short of the expectations held by the project teams. The discrepancy between the targets set by the project staff and the outcomes achieved suggests there is a need for formative evaluation approaches (versus summative approaches) that facilitate the elicitation of information that can be used to improve a program while it is in its development stage (c.p., Worthen, Sanders & Fitzpatrick, 1997). While the call for formative evaluation as an integral part of projects that aim to develop complex socio-technical systems is widely accepted, we note a lack of theoretical frameworks that reflect the particularities of these kind of systems and the ways they evolve (c.p., Keil-Slawik, 1999). This is of crucial importance, as formative evaluation will only be an accepted and effective part of a project if it provides information useful for the project staff. Below we outline the obstacles evaluation faces with regard to projects that design computer-supported learning environments, and discuss two promising approaches that can be used in complimentary fashion.
Experiential Perspective on Knowledge Management
Authors: Kochikar V. P. , Suresh J. K.
Published: May 2011

The last few decades have seen a growing proportion of organizational wealth being represented by intangible assets, i.e., assets with value that cannot be measured in terms of any physical attribute. Management thinking, conditioned over centuries to extract the greatest value out of physical assets, has had to bring within its ambit the leveraging of these intangible assets in building the capabilities required to deliver superior products and solutions. The discipline of knowledge management (KM) was born and came to encompass the gamut of organizational processes, responsibilities, and systems directed toward the assimilation, dissemination, harvest, and reuse of knowledge. In simpler terms, KM is the answer to the question, “How can the organization update and use its knowledge more effectively?” (Kochikar, 2000).
Geospatial Information Systems and Enterprise Collaboration
Authors: Morris-Jones Donald R. , Carter Dedric A.
Published: May 2011

Organizations and teams are becoming increasingly more distributed as groups work to expand their global presence while rationalizing team members across skill sets and areas of expertise instead of geographies. With this expansion comes the need for a robust and comprehensive language for pinpointing locations of globally distributed information systems and knowledge workers. Geospatial information systems (GISs) provide a common framework for jointly visualizing the world. This shared understanding of the world provides a powerful mechanism for collaborative dialogue in describing an environment, its assets, and procedures. The collaborative framework that GIS provides can help facilitate productive dialogue while constraining impulses of extreme positions. Collaboration and GIS intersections take many forms. Under a collaborative work-flow model, individuals use GIS to perform their job and post data back to the central database (e.g., engineering designs and as-built construction).
Inclusion Dependencies
Authors: Rivero Laura C.
Published: May 2011

Inclusion dependencies support an essential semantics of the standard relational data model. An inclusion dependency is defined as the existence of attributes (the left term) in a table R whose values must be a subset of the values of the corresponding attributes (the right term) in another table S (Abiteboul, Hull & Vianu, 1995; Codd, 1990; Connolly, Begg & Strachan, 1999; Date, 2000). When the right term conforms a unique column or a primary key (K) for the table S, the inclusion dependency is key-based (also named referential integrity restriction, rir). In this case, the left term is a foreign key (FK) in R and the restriction is stated as R[FK] <
Integrated-Services Architecture for Internet Multimedia Applications
Authors: Yang Zhonghua , Yang Yanyan , Gu Yaolin , Gay Robert
Published: May 2011

The Internet has gone from near invisibility to near ubiquity and penetrated into every aspect of society in the past few years (Department of Commerce, 1998). The application scenarios have also changed dramatically and now demand a more sophisticated service model from the network. In the early 1990s, there was a large-scale experiment in sending digitized voice and video across the Internet through a packet-switched infrastructure (Braden, Clark, & Shenker, 1994). These highly visible experiments have depended upon three enabling technologies: (a) Many modern workstations now come equipped with built-in multimedia hardware, (b) IP multicasting, which was not yet generally available in commercial routers, is available, and (c) highly sophisticated digital audio and video applications have been developed. It became clear from these experiments that an important technical element of the Internet is still missing: Real-time applications often do not work well across the Internet. The Internet, as originally conceived, offers only a very simple quality-of-service (QoS), point-to-point, best-effort data delivery. However, for a real-time application, there are two aspects of the problem with using this service model. If the sender and/or receiver are humans, they simply cannot tolerate arbitrary delays; on the other hand, if the rate at which video and audio arrive is too low, the signal becomes incomprehensible. To support real-time Internet applications, the service model must address those services that relate most directly to the time of delivery of data. Real-time applications like video and audio conferencing typically require stricter guarantees on throughput and delay. The essence of real-time service is the requirement for some service guarantees in terms of timing. In response to these demands of real-time multimedia applications, the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) has significantly augmented the Internet protocol stack based on the Internet integrated-services model, which is the focus of this article.
Interface Design Issues for Mobile Commerce
Authors: Chan Susy S. , Fang Xiaowen
Published: May 2011

Effective interface design for mobile handheld devices facilitates user adoption of mobile commerce (m-commerce). Current wireless technology poses many constraints for effective interface design. These constraints include limited connectivity and bandwidth, diverse yet simplistic devices, the dominance of proprietary tools and languages, and the absence of common standards for application development.
IT Industry Success in Finland and New Zealand
Authors: Watson Rebecca
Published: May 2011

At the beginning of the 21st century, information and communication technologies are creating global markets for goods and services. These technologies are impacting on every aspect of our lives, including how people work, communicate, and entertain themselves. Many economists have started to suggest that we may be entering a new era of greater productivity (without inflation) in the “knowledge economy” of the future.
Learning 3D Face-Animation Model
Authors: Wen Zhen , Hong Pengyu , Tu Jilin , Huang Thomas S.
Published: May 2011

A synthetic human face is useful for visualizing information related to the human face. The applications include visual telecommunication (Aizawa & Huang, 1995), virtual environments and synthetic agents (Pandzic, Ostermann, & Millen, 1999), and computer-aided education.
Library Management and Organizational Change
Authors: Hanson Ardis , Ruscella Phyllis , Arsenault Kathy , Pelland Joan , Perez Derrie , Shattuck Beverly
Published: May 2011

As academic libraries continue to develop a virtual presence, they must cope with the rapidly evolving rate of change and respond proactively to their changing environment in order to take advantage of the opportunities for increasing their visibility, restructuring to meet the needs of their users, and achieving their objective of remaining the preeminent source of information within the academy.
Management of Cognitive and Affective Trust to Support Collaboration
Authors: Sonnenwald Diane H.
Published: May 2011

Cognitive trust focuses on judgments of competence and reliability, and affective trust focuses on interpersonal bonds among individuals and institutions. Both cognitive and affective trusts play an integral role in organizations and institutions that rely on collaboration among individual members to achieve their goals and realize their vision.
Metrics for Data Warehouse Quality
Authors: Serrano Manuel , Calero Coral , Piattini Mario
Published: May 2011

It is known that organizations are very rich in data but poor in information. Today, technology has made it possible for organizations to store vast amounts of data obtained at a relatively low cost, however these data fail to provide information (Gardner, 1998). Data warehouses have appeared as a solution to this problem supporting decision-making processes and new kinds of applications as marketing.
Multimedia Computing Environment for Telemedical Applications
Authors: Murthy V. K. , Krishnamurthy E. V.
Published: May 2011

Telemedicine (in short, e-medicine) is a means of delivering medical services to any place, no matter how remote, thereby removing the limitations of space and time that exists in today’s health-care settings. Computers are indispensable in telemedicine, since they provide for efficient, relevant data gathering for large-scale applications. Besides providing immediate feedback of results to patients and doctors, they also can compare past patient records and evaluate relative improvement or deterioration. Further, they are readily available at any time, fatigue-free and can be more objective.
Multimedia Information Filtering
Authors: Parmar Minaz J. , Angelides Marios C.
Published: May 2011

In the film Minority Report (20th Century Fox, 2002), which is set in the near future, there is a scene where a man walks into a department store and is confronted by a holographic shop assistant. The holographic shop assistant recognises the potential customer by iris-recognition technology. The holographic assistant then welcomes the man by his name and starts to inform him of offers and items that he would be interested in based on his past purchases and what other shoppers who have similar tastes have purchased. This example of future personalised shopping assistants that can help a customer find shopping goods is not too far away from becoming reality in some form or another.
One Method for Design of Narrowband Low-Pass Filters
Authors: Jovanovic-Dolecek Gordana , Diaz-Carmona Javier
Published: May 2011

Fast change, uncertainty, and strong competition are challenges of the actual worldwide economic context. Competitiveness is a main requirement of enterprises, whose satisfaction requires the definition of new organisational concepts, with extremely high performances that are strongly time-oriented while highly focused on cost and quality. Several factors appear as supreme factors of competitiveness: (1) the organisations’ capability to achieve and explore competitive advantages in synergy, by using or integrating the optimal available resources for the functions that the organisation undertakes; (2) the capability of fast adaptability to the market; together with (3) the capability of managing all business processes independently of distance, to be achieved through the recent virtual enterprise (VE) organisational models (Cunha & Putnik, 2002; Cunha, Putnik, & Ávila, 2000).
Space Opera-GIS Basics
Authors: Hendriks Paul H.J.
Published: May 2011

The term “Geographical Information Systems”, commonly abbreviated to GIS, is an umbrella term covering a class of computer based information systems that are typified by their focus on geographical or spatial data and information. The basic notion underlying a GIS is that every object present on the earth can be “geo-referenced”, which refers to defining the spatial location of objects by referencing systems (e.g. latitude/longitude or postal zones). The key to specific GIS functionality is that GIS allow connection of geo-referenced data to attribute or non-spatial data of geographical objects. In varying ways and to varying degrees GIS facilitate the steps necessary for acquiring both classes of data and turning them into geographical information, including input (e.g. via GPS or scanning of maps), data processing and analysis (e.g. overlay analysis or shortest path calculation) and display (e.g., on maps).
The Impact of Sound Relationships on Achieving Alignment
Authors: Leonard Awie
Published: May 2011

International Data Corporation (CIO, 1997) surveyed 283 top executives across three vertical industries: finance, manufacturing, and retail/wholesale. They found “a strong correlation between the effectiveness of the IT department (IS organization) and the relationship between the CIO and the CEO”. “We suspect that this relationship, if it is close, permits the CIO to develop the IT department (IS organization) into a service that delivers competitive advantage for the company, thus enhancing the careers of every IT professional in the organization.” In other words, “a certain amount of mutual esteem will help IT (IS) function as a business partner”.