bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Effective Integration of Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning into Knowledge Management Structures
Authors: Neto Francisco M.M. , Brasileiro Francisco V.
Published: May 2011

Support for knowledge management (KM) requires mechanisms for creation, mapping and transference of knowledge. Many organizations use computer tools, like knowledge mapping tools, knowledge repositories, tools to support communities of practice and computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL), to achieve these goals. In particular, CSCL can support knowledge transfer at the same time that it improves the process of creating new knowledge. However, whole CSCL potential to transfer knowledge and foment learning is not being used adequately, mainly because of the lack of appropriate integration with other KM tools. In fact, there is a lack of guidance on how to effectively integrate CSCL into KM and how to evaluate the benefits of this integration. This chapter fills in this gap by proposing a model to improve KM through the consistent and effective integration of CSCL into the KM structure of organizations. It also describes a framework to evaluate the results of this integration.
Value Creation through Customer Derived Revenue
Authors: Hall Michael
Published: May 2011

This chapter presents a model that allows customer capital to be incorporated into a company’s human capital in a way that is not now practiced. The model outlines the essential steps necessary to tap into the vast reservoir of a firm’s customer tacit knowledge and this will increase the potential for greater revenues. Companies that take advantage of the advances in IT hardware and software can provide interested loyal customers with the opportunity to enter a company’s inner circle of knowledge and offer innovative ideas, pose questions and provide answers to other customers’ queries. This approach to knowledge acquisition in this chapter is called customer derived revenue (CDR). The essential company architecture necessary to successfully implement CDR is explained and case studies utilizing similar methods are presented to lend support for this new approach to customer capital to be adopted on a wider scale to extract more value for a firm.
Collaborative Engineering Communities- Architecture and Integration Approaches
Authors: Gronau Norbert
Published: May 2011

Regarding the growing task distribution in the area of design and product development (engineering), the idea of communities gets more importance next to the creation of classical development partnerships in engineering. Communities are known as a new organizational kind for users of electronic communication media. The main aim of this chapter is to transfer the idea of communities to engineering networks. Therefore an overview on creation, requirements and profit of collaborative engineering communities is provided. Also a possible integration is shown between collaborative engineering environments and enterprise resource planning systems.
ITFG
Authors: Peters Georg , Lang Tobias , Lie Mike
Published: May 2011

In this chapter we present results of a project in the field of groupware systems. Munich University of Applied Sciences has set up an initiative called IT-Forum to coordinate IT activities across its 14 different departments. As part of this initiative a groupware system was developed on the basis of the Web application server ZOPE and the database mySQL. The objective of this project was to use the groupware systems operatively as communication platform within the IT-Forum and in project-orientated student courses. Furthermore the development and use of the application has been accompanied by some research work in the field of groupware systems. The main focus of this chapter is to describe this groupware system and report some experience of the use of it.
Socio-economic Influence on Information Technology
Authors: Azari Rasool , Pick James
Published: May 2011

This chapter examines the influence of socio-economic factors on the employment, payroll, and number of enterprises of three technology sectors for counties in California. Based on correlation and regression analyses, the results reveal that factors that are important correlates of technology sectors are professional/scientific/technical services, other services, and educational services, ethnicity, and college education. As a whole, the findings emphasize the importance of the association of socio-economic factors with the per capita magnitude of the technology sectors. This chapter suggests steps that can be taken by the state of California and its county and local governments to foster technology and reduce the digital divide.
Web Accessibility for Users with Disabilities
Authors: Dudley-Sponaugle Alfreda , Lazar Jonathan
Published: May 2011

When designing information systems, it is important to consider the needs of users with disabilities, including those with visual impairment, hearing impairment, or color-blindness. This is especially important for designing Websites. It takes time and money to create or redesign Websites for easy access for users with disabilities. This is also known as Web accessibility. This chapter will discuss the ethical implications involved with Web accessibility. An ethical analysis of Web accessibility will be performed using a partial combination of two structured analysis approaches. It is the position of the authors of this chapter that Website development should consider accessibility for users with sensory and motor disabilities as an ethical requirement.
Wavelets for Dealing with Super-Imposed Objects in Recognition of Music Notation
Authors: George Susan E.
Published: May 2011

This chapter is concerned with a problem that arises in Optical Music Recognition (OMR) when notes and other music notation symbols are super-imposed upon stavelines in the music image. We investigate a general-purpose, knowledge-free method of image filtering using two-dimensional wavelets to separate the super-imposed objects. Some background is given to the area of wavelets and a demonstration of how stavelines can be located in a wavelet-filtered image. We also explore the separation of foreground objects (notes) from the background (stavelines) over a variety of image resolutions, in binary and greyscale images using a pixel-based truth representation of the image to evaluate the accuracy with which symbols are identified. We find that the Coifmann family of wavelets appear most suitable for vertical image components, and the Daubechies for the horizontal. The motivation for this chapter stems from the desire to (i) make an original wavelet application in image processing, (ii) provide a fresh (theoretical) perspective on the problem of super-imposed objects in music notation, recognizing the duality of the segregation task that exists with staveline removal/symbol extraction and (iii) evaluate how beneficial wavelet image filtering might be to the OMR process.
Modeling Music Notation in the Internet Multimedia Age
Authors: Bellini Pierfrancesco , Nesi Paolo
Published: May 2011

Music notation modeling is entering the new multimedia Internet age. In this era new interactive applications are appearing on the market, such as software tools for music tuition and distance learning, for showing historical perspective of music pieces, for musical content fruition in libraries, etc. For these innovative applications several aspects have to be integrated with the model of music notation and several new functionalities have to be implemented, such as automatic formatting, music notation navigation, synchronization of music notation with real audio, etc. In this chapter, the WEDELMUSIC XML format for multimedia music applications of music notation is presented. It includes a music notation format in XML and a format for modeling multimedia element, their relationships and synchronization with a support for digital right management (DRM). In addition, a comparison of this new model with the most important and emerging models is reported. The taxonomy used can be useful for assessing and comparing suitability of music notation models and format for their adoption in new emerging applications and for their usage in classical music editors.
An Overview of Efforts to Bring Clinical Knowledge to the Point of Care
Authors: Sittig Dean F.
Published: May 2011

By bringing people the right information in the right format at the right time and place, state of the art clinical information systems with imbedded clinical knowledge can help people make the right clinical decisions. This chapter provides an overview of the efforts to develop systems capable of delivering such information at the point of care. The first section focuses on “library-type” applications that enable a clinician to look-up information in an electronic document. The second section describes a myriad of “real-time clinical decision support systems.” These systems generally deliver clinical guidance at the point of care within the clinical information system (CIS). The third section describes several “hybrid” systems, which combine aspects of real-time clinical decision support systems with library-type information. Finally, section four provides a brief look at various attempts to bring clinical knowledge, in the form of computable guidelines, to the point of care.be sufficiently expressive to explicitly capture the design rational (process and outcome intentions) of the guideline’s author, while leaving flexibility at application time to the attending physician and their own preferred methods.” (Shahar, 2001)
Social Capital, An Important Ingredient to Effective Knowledge Sharing
Authors: Whittaker Jay , Van Beveren John
Published: May 2011

This chapter introduces social capital as a concept useful in identifying the ingredients necessary for knowledge sharing in Healthcare. Social capital is defined and its importance as a concept for identifying the conditions necessary for knowledge exchange is discussed. Furthermore the introduction of an online database and tutorial system (Meditute) is presented as a case study to highlight the importance of social capital where information systems are used in the sharing process. The authors anticipate that the use of social capital to analyse knowledge sharing initiatives will lead to more holistic approaches. Such approaches will inform both researchers and managers as to the many factors that affect knowledge sharing.
Organizational Structure Without Hierarchy in a Dynamic Global Business Environment
Authors: Kern Tomaz
Published: May 2011

The chapter deals with the inefficiency of classical business systems in a dynamic global business environment. The main reasons for inefficiency are complicated processes, which are limited and influenced by inadequate classical business structures. But in new circumstances business structures must be designed according to process needs. Classical business systems should be urgently renewed to survive. Furthermore the author concludes that a single business system re-engineering project is not the definitive answer. In the global business environment, changes are constant. The efficiency of business processes can be maintained and increased in the long term only by constant but effortless adaptation of structures. This is possible by the introduction of the organizational structure without hierarchy and the mechanism for dynamic adaptation of structures to business.
Using DSS for Global Competitiveness
Authors: Kamel Sherif , Zyada Ahmed
Published: May 2011

With a changing global environment driven by the innovative evolutions of information and communication technology, organizations are setting their priorities to cater to a global marketplace. In that respect, they are focusing on adding value propositions to different data and information elements gathered to help know more about customers and various environments where products and services are manufactured and traded. Therefore organizations continuously need to increase their business intelligence by monitoring systems that analyze information and develop indicators coupled with support mechanisms to decision makers to handle semi-structured and un-structured problems characterized by varying alternatives and parameters to understand the problem spectrum and help develop alternative solutions. This chapter discusses concepts and characteristics of decision support methods and demonstrates the gap between the decision maker and the decision support systems techniques demonstrating the experience of the government of Egypt in building its information infrastructure to help develop the decision-making process both at the government level and the local public administration level.
Biologically Inspired Collective Robotics
Authors: Kube C. Ronald , Parker Chris A.C. , Wang Tao , Zhang Hong
Published: May 2011

In this chapter, we review our recent research in the area of collective robotics, and the problem of controlling multiple robots in the completion of common tasks. Our approach is characterized with a strong inclination for biological inspiration in which examples in nature — social insects in particular — are used as a way of designing strategies for controlling robots. This approach has been successfully applied to the study of three representative tasks, namely, collective box-pushing, collective construction, and collective sorting. Collective box-pushing deals with the purposeful motion of an object too large to be moved by a single robot and we rely on the group prey transport phenomenon found in ants to derive the necessary behaviors for accomplishing this task. Collective construction is concerned with the building of a geometric structure with the combined efforts of many individuals in parallel, without centralized control and we study a species of ant known to possess this capability, to model and control the process of creating a circular nest with multiple robots. Finally, in collective sorting the broad behavior in ants serves as the motivation behind designing robotic behaviors that depend on only local sensing in clustering objects of different types into separate piles. The success of our proposed approach is supported by both simulation and physical experiments using robots.
Denmark
Authors: Rask Morten
Published: May 2011

With a CLIP-device in hand, communication is not dependent on location and time. Users can get location-specific, proactive information from m-portals, reactive SMS notifications and have an always-ready e-wallet. The Danish m-commerce market has been through some difficult times and is now ready to develop further along the CLIP dimensions. Practical and research challenges lie in terms of micro coordination, reinterpreting the meaning of distance and the tradeoffs between richness and reach.
Japan
Authors: Lennon Mark M.
Published: May 2011

Japan is a world leader in the development and deployment of mobile communications and m-commerce. The country maintains this position by both staying on the cutting edge of technologies and catering to a user base eager to embrace new mobile technologies. Mobile commerce has developed beyond just data transmissions between the handset and the Web. The handsets can now serve as an “e-wallet” for conducting physical, real world transactions. In the course of this chapter, we will explain briefly the historical advances in mobile technologies which have enabled and engendered m-commerce applications of increasing complexity. Concurrently, we will present a series of micro-cases about m-commerce and give analysis of these cases from the CLIP framework. Finally, we will draw conclusions and lessons learned that might be applicable in other m-commerce markets.
South Korea
Authors: Bang Jounghae , Choi Inyoung
Published: May 2011

Koreans envision a world in which anyone can access information and the tools to explore it anytime, anywhere. Korea has been one of the leaders in the mobile industry and this chapter explores the past, present and future of mobile technology and markets in Korea. Starting with background and a brief overview of the current situation, this chapter uses the CLIP framework to describe mobile services in Korea. The chapter concludes with a brief discussion of challenges and future strategies.
Application Service Provision
Authors: Guah Matthew W. , Currie Wendy L.
Published: May 2011

The Application Service Provision (ASP) business model offers a pragmatic adoption path for inter-organizations in the Internet Age. Given this pragmatic adoption path, academics are beginning to question the following: Where are enterprises adopting ASP technology first? Why are they choosing these areas? Where will they apply the evolving Web services technology next? This chapter’s primary purposes are to point out a number of issues that concern management of inter-organizations of the Internet Age and to explore the impact of ASP on such organizations. It will examine the strategies that will enable inter-organizations to better manage ASP resources for competitive advantage. While the phenomenon of ASP is still in an embryonic stage, we draw from seminal works of IS pioneers like Markus, Porter, Checkland, Maslow, and others. Their intellectual contributions, plus findings from research work at Brunel University, provide a framework for discussion. By shedding light on patterns of ASP’s trajectory, drivers, benefits, and risks, the chapter will help managers and academics to reflect on determining where ASP—and associated technologies—might be deployed and define a broad implementation program to exploit the potential of the ASP business model. The chapter seeks to find if Web services architectures are distinctively able to enhance the flexible coordination of business processes, which span various enterprises and rely on inter-organization information systems in the Internet Age.
Personalization Systems and Their Deployment as Web Site Interface Design
Authors: Kumar Nanda
Published: May 2011

This chapter reviews the different types of personalization systems commonly employed by Web sites and argues that their deployment as Web site interface design decisions may have as big an impact as the personalization systems themselves. To accomplish this, this chapter makes a case for treating Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) issues seriously. It also argues that Web site interface design decisions made by organizations, such as the type and level of personalization employed by a Web site, have a direct impact on the communication capability of that Web site. This chapter also explores the impact of the deployment of personalization systems on users’ loyalty towards the Web site, thus underscoring the practical relevance of these design decisions.
Extrinsic Plus Intrinsic Human Factors Influencing the Web Usage
Authors: Sanchez-Franco Manuel Jesús
Published: May 2011

Researchers are confronted with a choice among models to explain Web acceptance and usage. Therefore, as Venkatesh et al. (2003) suggest, there is a need for a review and synthesis in order to progress toward a unified view of Web acceptance and usage. In this situation of development, a theoretical model based on technology acceptance (TAM) and flow, is proposed to describe the extrinsic and intrinsic motivations, respectively, for Web users. The aim of the research is thus (1) to investigate how well flow-model theory can be aligned with TAM and (2) to provide a relationship with the Web acceptance and its proper usage. Furthermore, better measures for predicting and explaining Web use will have greater practical value. Singular Web sites would like to assess user demand for new design ideas to facilitate electronic service quality and flow. Users would like to find a Web site leading to an enduring and cost-effective relationship.
User Satisfaction with Web Portals
Authors: Xiao Li , Dasgupta Subhasish
Published: May 2011

A Web portal is a site that aggregates information from multiple sources on the World Wide Web and organizes this material in an easy user-friendly manner. Portals usually consist of a search engine, e-mail, news, and interactive chat facilities. The two main types of portals are horizontal and vertical portals. A horizontal portal is a Web site that provides consumers access to a number of different sites in terms of content and functionality. A vertical portal focuses on a specific community of users who share a common interest. In this chapter we investigate the impact of user characteristics such as gender, age, experience, and Web use on user satisfaction with Web portals. In our study we are unable to detect any differences in satisfaction based on gender. We find that the users with seven to 10 years of work experience are most satisfied with Web portals, while users with more than 10 years work experience report least satisfaction with Web portals. We also find that users that use Web portals the least (30 to 60 minutes per week) are least satisfied with them. Users of vertical (or customer community) portals are always more satisfied than users of horizontal (or mega) portals.
Internet Markets and E-Loyalty
Authors: Sohn Changsoo , Lee Dong-Il
Published: May 2011

As expectation of e-businesses has changed to disappointment, many e-business companies are trying to survive in Internet markets. As a way to survive in Internet markets, they try to build customers’ loyalty. This chapter explains critical components to build customers’ loyalty such as trust and switching costs. E-business companies need to try to enhance trust levels with setting up high switching costs.
Approaches to Knowledge Management
Authors: Gottschalk Petter
Published: May 2011

There is a growing recognition in the business community about the importance of knowledge as a critical resource for organizations. Traditionally, this resource has not been treated with the degree of systematic, deliberate, or explicit effort devoted to managing human, material, and financial resources. But in the coming years, the firm that leaves knowledge to its own devices may be putting itself in severe jeopardy. More and more practitioners and researchers believe that knowledge resources matter more than the conventionally tended resources (material, labor, capital) and must be managed explicitly, not left to fend for itself (Holsapple & Joshi, 2000).
IS/IT in Knowledge Management
Authors: Gottschalk Petter
Published: May 2011

As we trace the evolution of computing technologies in business, we can observe their changing level of organizational impact. The first level of impact was at the point where work got done and transactions (e.g., orders, deposits, reservations) took place. The inflexible, centralized mainframe allowed for little more than massive number crunching, commonly known as electronic data processing. Organizations became data heavy at the bottom and data management systems were used to keep the data in check. Later, the management information systems were used to aggregate data into useful information reports, often prescheduled, for the control level of the organization – people who were making sure that organizational resources like personnel, money, and physical goods were being deployed efficiently. As information technology (IT) and information systems (IS) started to facilitate data and information overflow, and corporate attention became a scarce resource, the concept of knowledge emerged as a particularly high-value form of information (Grover & Davenport, 2001).
A Twofold Approach for Evaluating Inter-Organizational Workflow Modeling Formalisms
Authors: Aubert Benoit A. , Dussart Aymeric , Patry Michel
Published: May 2011

This chapter presents a twofold methodology for the evaluation of inter-organizational workflows modeling formalisms. The first approach is ontological and based on the Bunge-Wand-Weber models. The second is based on prototyping and consists in the development of a WFMS for language evaluation. The dual evaluation methodology is then applied to the UML with a practical example from the aerospace industry. Both convergent and divergent results are found from the two validations. Possible enhancements to the UML formalism are suggested from the convergent results. On the other hand, the divergent results suggest the need for a contextual specification in the BWW models.
Some Applications of a Unified Foundational Ontology in Business Modeling
Authors: Guizzardi Giancarlo , Wagner Gerd
Published: May 2011

Foundational ontologies provide the basic concepts upon which any domain-specific ontology is built. This chapter presents a new foundational ontology, UFO, and shows how it can be used as a guideline in business modeling and for evaluating business modeling methods. UFO is derived from a synthesis of two other foundational ontologies, GFO/GOL and OntoClean/DOLCE. While their main areas of application are natural sciences and linguistics/cognitive engineering, respectively, the main purpose of UFO is to provide a foundation for conceptual modeling, including business modeling.
Citizen-Centered Environmental Information Dissemination via Multiple Information Channels
Authors: Rose Thomas , Peinel Gertraud , Karatzas Kostas , Johansen Per Henrik , Lindberg Jon Erik
Published: May 2011

Citizens call for timely and high-quality environmental information for reasons of awareness and personal well-being. Only an informed citizen will be in the position to participate in urban environment decision making and planning. This interest recommends an easy-to-understand and easy-to-access presentation of such up-to-date information. Rather than presenting raw data in an extensive fashion, one ought to engineer customizable information services that can be tailored to individual user groups, be it for reasons of content or be it for reasons of citizen’s ease of access. Apnee has designed information services that draw upon various information channels, such as mobile technologies, interactive portals for the Internet, as well as street panels for municipality usage scenarios. In a nutshell, the Apnee system promotes user-friendly information management and dissemination services via multiple information channels, effectively combining information content and service providing schemes. This dissemination platform can be applied not only to the environmental sector but also in multiple information domains. Based on the Apnee approach, environmental information turns into an attractive product (electronic information service).
Online One-Stop Government
Authors: Tambouris Efthimios , Wimmer Maria
Published: May 2011

One-stop government refers to the integration of public services from a customer’s (citizen, business) point of view. One-stop government suggests that customers may request any public service through a single point of access using the communication channel of their choice (e.g., citizen center, call center, Internet, etc.). The one-stop concept further attempts to reduce the number of contacts with the authorities per service consumption to a minimum— one single interaction at best. The information and public services offered are organized and integrated in a customer-focused manner to address the personal needs and to cover the exact requirements of the citizens and business customers. To exploit the potential of one-stop government, the public sector should be accommodated with a set of information and communication technology tools that allow the back-office processes to interoperate. The public servants may thereafter use these tools in order to create and manage information and integrated public services that match the needs of their customers. In this chapter, the concept of online one-stop government is examined and a framework for realizing one-stop government is proposed. The proposed framework consists of process models and an open interoperable software architecture. A demonstrator that has been developed to implement the architectural design is also presented. Furthermore, the results of the trial use of the demonstrator in three European countries are outlined. Finally, experiences gained are provided and impact is assessed.
A Comparative Study of Strategic Issues of Digital Government Implementation Between Developed and Developing Countries
Authors: Chen Yining , Huang Wayne , Li D. , Shen H. Z. , Zhang P. Z. , Klamo Lori
Published: May 2011

Over the last decade, the Internet has become one of the most important means of communication in all social areas. The success of Web technology adoption in the private sector has put pressures on the public sector to adopt the Internet to present information and service resources. The concept of creating more efficient and convenient interaction between government and the interacting parties using Internet technology is referred to as digital government (or e-government). Recent studies have shown an increase in the adoption of digital government by various countries. Nevertheless, the level of implementation diverges from country to country. This study compares strategic issues of digital government implementation between developed and developing countries. Critical success factors for digital government implementation are discussed. In addition, recommendations are made to developed and developing countries for their implementation of digital government.
Building the Network State
Authors: Spahni Dieter
Published: May 2011

The administration portal for Switzerland, www.ch.ch, is based on a powerful meta-database of available resources and services of the public administration and allocates a unique name, the Uniform Resource Name (URN), to every resource. The URN:Technology, adapted to the requirements of www.ch.ch, has become an open standard and a building block of the Swiss e-government platform. This chapter shows why portals in widespread, long-established federal structures with decentralized responsibility for the resources and interlinking can benefit from the URN:Technology, enabling the implementation of the vision of a network state. In this chapter, a blueprint of the network state in Switzerland based on URN:Technology will be presented.
E-Commerce Activity, Opportunities, and Strategies in Latin America
Authors: Gouvea Raul , Di Gregorio Dante , Kasicieh Suleiman K.
Published: May 2011

In this chapter, we analyze international differences in e-commerce activity and strategies within Latin America and between Latin and non-Latin markets. Starting at a macro-level, we compare e-commerce activity and Internet-related developments in Latin America with developments in other regions. Moving to a closer focus on Latin America, we then discuss the evolution of e-commerce within Latin American countries, with an emphasis on Brazil, Chile, and Mexico. Finally, we identify prevalent business models and analyze the strategies of key players in this sector, and discuss the outlook for the future.
Evolution of Telecommunications and Mobile Communications in India
Authors: Unnithan Chandana , Fraunholz Bardo
Published: May 2011

Electronic business is a concept that has been adopted by businesses all over the world. The developing world takes it as a viable economic opportunity to catch up with other economies. A significant underlying factor in this development is the evolution of telecommunication infrastructure, especially in developing economies. In this chapter, we have synthesized this critical evolution in India. In the process, we found that there is a second layer of evolution into mobile communications and subsequently mobile business, which is gaining momentum in India. We conclude with an outlook for the future for these developments.
Open Sourcing E-Learning for Developing Countries
Authors: Lee Ronald M. , Zielinski Manfred , Somasundaram Ramanathan
Published: May 2011

A critical success factor for developing countries is advancing their intellectual capacity. Nearly all aspects of economic development depend on the ability of individuals to extend their understanding of their business, suppliers, customers, laws and society from a local perspective to a broader, more international one that is able to assimilate change brought by new technologies and respond with innovations that bring competitive advantage. The Internet offers countries information access to the entire world — if only one can understand it. That same Internet also offers fantastic educational resources — effectively a global knowledge base. However, much of Internet content is oriented towards the needs and interests of industrialized countries. Here we propose an approach for developing countries to pool efforts to create a digital commons of e-learning resources that are appropriate and relevant to their specific needs.
Strategic and Operational Values of E-Commerce Investments in Jordanian SMEs
Authors: Abu-Samaha Ala M.
Published: May 2011

This chapter aims to articulate lessons learned from a quantitative study of Internet Technology use in Jordan. To do so, a questionnaire was devised to measure the business value and strategic advantages of being online for Jordanian organizations. The findings of the study are presented and discussed in the course of this chapter. The survey shows that an increasing number of organizations in Jordan depend heavily on e-mail to conduct their daily activities within and across organizational boundaries. And the majority of SMEs in Jordan believe that the Internet has become a fact of business life. The statistical analysis shows that the majority of surveyed organizations use the Internet for more than simply promotional reasons. They use the Internet for provisional and co-operative reasons. On the other hand, the number of transactional Web sites is very limited due to many shortcomings in the available technical, legislative and organizational infrastructures.
Challenges and Opportunities for Information Brokers in Brazil
Authors: Scornavacca Jr. Eusebio , Becker Joao Luiz , Barnes Stuart J.
Published: May 2011

Information is no longer just a control tool for managers — it is a basic resource as important as raw materials or the human resource. Consequently, it is a significant managerial responsibility to decide which kind of information should support the organization’s decision-making process. This is particularly the case when expanding the business. This chapter presents the results of a study examining the information needs of 796 Southern-Brazilian enterprises contemplating business growth. The survey is part of a program of research into information intermediation via the Internet. The results show a marked convergence of the sample’s informational needs, but also some significant differences among specific business groups. In addition, the research has surfaced some clear “core” of informational needs, supported by some “peripheral” needs. The chapter concludes with a summary, reflections and some future research directions.
Strategies for Managing Project Generated Knowledge
Authors: de Kretser Steve , Wilkinson Suzanne
Published: May 2011

If consulting construction companies made more effective use of project-generated knowledge, the financial health of the company would increase. This chapter discusses how wasted, lost, and ineffective use of knowledge leads to inefficiencies and reworking of past problems. The chapter focuses on the development of project-generated knowledge management systems and the benefits that construction companies can reap from such developments. Through a detailed case study, the chapter shows where the main problem areas occur in managing knowledge and proposes possible solutions to these problems. The chapter concludes that it is the people that use and produce the knowledge that are in the best position to help develop such a project-generated knowledge management system, with senior managers and company knowledge managers providing structure, facilitation, and support. With such collaboration and involvement of all staff in a company, failures of such systems will be reduced and the company as a whole will benefit.
Community of Practice Software Management Tools
Authors: Jewell Mark , Walker Derek H.T.
Published: May 2011

This chapter provides insights from a large UK construction organisation case study where communities of practice have been supported through use of a software tool and management approach that encourages their spread across the organisation. We provide a descriptive characterisation of what the community of practice (COP) software tool does, how it evolved, and anecdotal evidence from interviews with its users of its value to the UK case study organisation. We recognise the need to investigate COP value generation more formally, and we have developed a research proposal to undertake further work in a collaborative study with industry to provide useful COP performance measures to be undertaken. This chapter provides valuable insights from several years’ reflection upon the tool’s use and application, and we highlight both drivers and barriers to its deployment. The objective was to provide a practical example of what COP management tools could and should address.
A Knowledge Management Portal System for Construction Projects Using Knowledge Map
Authors: Tserng H. Ping J. , Lin Yu-Cheng (V.)
Published: May 2011

Knowledge management (KM) has become an important term in the construction industry. Knowledge management involves creating, securing, capturing, coordinating, combining, retrieving, and distributing knowledge. Most know-what, know-how, and experience exists only in the minds of individual participants during the construction phase of construction projects. The knowledge can be reused and shared among the involved engineers and experts to improve the construction process and reduce the time and cost of solving problems. Sharing and reusing knowledge depends on acquiring and preserving of both tacit knowledge and explicit knowledge as the property of a corporation. This study addresses application of knowledge management in the construction phase of construction projects and proposes a construction activity-based knowledge management (ABKM) concept and system for general contractors. This chapter proposes a practical methodology to capture and represent construction project knowledge by using knowledge maps. Using knowledge maps, users can get an overview of available and missing knowledge in core project areas and take appropriate management in tacit and explicit knowledge. Also, a Web-based system is developed to assist and present project-related knowledge by providing keyword and map search on the Internet environment. The ABKM system is then applied in a case study of a construction precast building project in Taiwan to verify our proposed methodology and demonstrate the effectiveness of sharing knowledge special in the construction phase. By effectively using information and Web technologies during the construction phase of a project, knowledge can be captured and managed to benefit future projects. The combined results demonstrate that an ABKM-like system can be an effective tool for all experts and engineers participating in construction projects by utilising the knowledge management concept and Web technology.
The Spreading Use of Digital Cash and Its Problems
Authors: Kurihara Yutaka
Published: May 2011

It has been several years since the words “digital cash” and other related terms were introduced. Although e-commerce has been growing, digital cash has not been a focus of much attention. Digital cash has some problems associated with it that need to be solved before its use can continue to grow. There are two points the author emphasizes in this chapter. The first is that the essential characteristics of digital cash, its advantages and disadvantages, should be carefully examined. The second point is since financial institutions cannot stop this trend, it would be prudent for them to view it as a business opportunity. Monetary authorities should pay careful heed to the trend as well, guiding the “sound” market to maturity, taking care not to exercise excessive intervention.
On Software Piracy
Authors: Poddar Sougata
Published: May 2011

The pervasiveness of the illegal copying of software is indeed a worldwide phenomenon. Economists argue that when the piracy takes place at the end-users’ level, the original software developer finds it profitable to allow limited piracy when the effect of network externality is reasonably strong in the users market. We argue when the piracy is of retail in nature, the same logic cannot be extended as the reason for piracy and show that it is always optimal for the original software developer to protect its software even when the effect of network externality is strong in the end-users’ market. We suggest that piracy depends on more fundamental issues like demand environment, market structure, nature of piracy and nature of competition. The other issue we cover here is the economic impact of piracy on the welfare of a society. We discuss various policy implications on regulating piracy in developing as well as developed markets.
ICT Growth and Diffusion
Authors: Borbora Saundarjya
Published: May 2011

This chapter examines the role of technology in economic and social development in developing countries, with a particular emphasis on India as an example. The concepts of ICT growth and ICT diffusion are examined. From this the chapter reviews the Indian government’s successful policies encouraging ICT Growth through the support of the export-oriented service industry. This industry has witnessed long-term growth primarily as the result of the increasing tradability and consequent internationalization made possible by changes in ICTs. However, the export focus policy has created enclaves within the Indian economy without significant forward and backward linkages. Evidence suggests that the International Digital Divide may be increasing. This chapter suggests that in order to maintain its relative technological position and to increase its comparative advantage in the IT sector, government policy should focus on domestic ICT Diffusion. The chapter reviews several local public, private, and public-private initiatives to spread the use of ICT throughout Indian regions that have been successful and may serve to offer examples for future development. We conclude that ICT-driven development may be achieved with supportive central government policies, lessening the International Digital Divide.
Digital Technologies and the Cross-Border Expansion of South African Banks
Authors: Roberts Joanne , Mukonoweshuro Chipo
Published: May 2011

This chapter explores the role of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in the international development of South African banks. It is argued that South African banks derive important advantages from the use of ICTs in their expansion into neighbouring countries. Using Dunning’s (1989, 1988) eclectic approach as a mechanism with which to assess the evidence supporting this argument, ICT is explored both as an ownership specific capacity, as a locational specific factor influencing the geographical pattern of international expansion, and as a facilitator of the internalization of cross-border banking networks. Through an investigation of the significance of digital technologies in the cross-border expansion of South African banks, including case studies of Stanbic and ABSA, this chapter highlights the opportunities and challenges confronting such organizations. In so doing, the chapter will contribute to the understanding of intra-African foreign direct investment in the banking sector and the emerging digital economy in developing countries.
Technology and culture
Authors: Efendioglu Alev M. , Yip Vincent F.
Published: May 2011

The number of Internet users around the world has been steadily growing and this growth has provided the impetus and the opportunities for global and regional e-commerce. However, as with the Internet, different characteristics (infrastructure and socio-economic) of the local environment have created a significant level of variation in the acceptance and growth of e-commerce in different regions of the world. Our research focuses on the impact of these infrastructure and socio-economic factors on e-commerce development in China and the findings provide insights into the role of culture in e-commerce, and the factors that may impact a broader acceptance and development of e-commerce in China. In this chapter, we present and discuss our findings, and propose some strategies for success for e-commerce in China.
Corporate Strategies in a Digital World
Authors: Kansal Purva , Arora Keshni A.
Published: May 2011

These days, the majority of management literature stresses the concept of “learning organizations”, i.e., an organization’s capacity to change. However, it is not easy for people to accept this fundamental aspect especially when it comes to the Internet and technologies’ growing importance in business operations. They claim it’s a temporary trend that will leave little visible change in the way business is conducted. For these businessmen, the philosophy seems to be “keep making better products and offering new services, and the customers will keep buying”. They ignore changes occurring in the buying habits of customers and impact of technology. There are some businesses who are happy to follow the leader and adopt tools like supply chain management. Supply chain management is a recognized discipline to shorten cycle times, reduce inventories, decrease logistics costs and streamline communication process across the business network. On the other hand are the businessmen who understand the learning organization concept and develop a forward orientation. They are prepared to ride the technology wave to new heights and accomplishments by using technology as a defining element in business operations. This chapter suggests a new approach to this new breed of entrepreneurs. In this chapter, we are trying to give supply chain management a customer orientation and to study its results. We highlight the synergistic advantage of linking supply chain management with customer relationship management into a tightly knit network using technology. The main focus is on finding a solution to deal with Internet empowered customers and to learn how to apply technologies demanded in the new digital economy.
Dynamical Simulation Models of the Open Source Development Process
Authors: Antoniades I. P. , Samoladas I. , Stamelos I. , Angelis L. , Bleris G. L.
Published: May 2011

This chapter will discuss attempts to produce formal mathematical models for dynamical simulation of the development process of Free/Open Source Software (F/OSS) projects. First, a brief overview for simulation methods of closed source software development is given. Then, based on empirical facts reported in F/OSS case studies, we describe a general framework for F/OSS dynamical simulation models and discuss its similarities and differences to closed source software simulation. A specific F/OSS simulation model is introduced. The model is applied to the Apache project and to the gtk+ module of the GNOME project, and simulation outputs are compared to real data. The potential of formal F/OSS simulation models to turn into practical tools used by F/OSS coordinators to predict key project factors is demonstrated. Finally, issues for further research and efforts for improvement of this first-attempt model are discussed.