bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Case Study III
Authors: Guah Matthew
Published: May 2010

Prediction markets have proven high forecasting performance in many areas such as politics, sports, and business-related fields, compared to traditional instruments such as pools or expert opinion. This case study provides details about a VLITP that achieved the goal of which makes that possible for five companies providing different modes of public transport in The Netherlands. It details the implementation problems and presents focusing point for VLITP involving multiple companies on a project that requires them to share both costs and profits. This is partly due to the need to work together and improve business practices in the same industry.
Historical Evolution of the Agile and Open Source Movements
Authors: Russo Barbara , Scotto Marco , Sillitti Alberto , Succi Giancarlo
Published: May 2010

Agile Methods (AMs) are very recent but many of their basic principles are rather old, inherited from the lean production pioneered in the ‘60s at Toyota for the production of cars. Moreover, many practices on which AMs are based have a long tradition in software development. For instance, unit testing has been used since the ‘60s. However, one of the major achievements of AMs is the integration of all these well established principles and practices with some others more recent such as pair programming. The Open Source (OS) movement has a long tradition as well. However, it was born as a way of licensing software not as a development method. Moreover, people producing OS software use a wide range of different approaches to software development. Even if, it is not possible to define a single OS development method, there are some basic principles and approaches that have become common in several OS communities.
Models of Organization
Authors: Russo Barbara , Scotto Marco , Sillitti Alberto , Succi Giancarlo
Published: May 2010

The essence of XP, but in general of AMs, is making the customer a part of the team who works very closely with the developers, ideally communicating on a daily basis. However, this is not always feasible: this is due to a number of different reasons, some connected with difficulties of the customer, but others may exist, for instance, situations where the development team is offshore. In this document, we will illustrate the organizational models of XP, also throughout a number of techniques used to obtain at least a part of the benefits of close interactions in case where they are impossible. In fact, the momentum to the development of a project deriving from an ongoing communication flow is the key point of AMs and XP, in order to have a prompt integration of the deliverables into the customer’s production environment.
Coordination in Agile and Open Source
Authors: Russo Barbara , Scotto Marco , Sillitti Alberto , Succi Giancarlo
Published: May 2010

Although the situation in the software industry is improved in the last years, the percentage of software project cancelled 18%, or challenged (late, over budget, and with less than the required features) 53% is still high1. Researchers and practitioners are looking for the magic solution or the silver bullet that will allow software companies to overcome the software crisis (Brooks, 1987). New development approaches like AMs and OSD models are some of the solutions identified (Feller & Fitzgerald, 2002; Abrahamsson et al., 2003). One critical problem in software development consist of coordinating interdependent processes involving many interacting stakeholders with different interests, points of view, and expectations (Toffolon & Dakhli, 2000).
Other Agile Methods
Authors: Russo Barbara , Scotto Marco , Sillitti Alberto , Succi Giancarlo
Published: May 2010

In the early ‘90s, the IBM Consulting Group hired Alistair Cockburn to build a methodology for object-oriented development. Cockburn investigated a large number of software projects and asked to each team to identify the main reasons for their own success. Cockburn has defined Crystal (Cockburn, 2004) as a family of AMs, because he believed that different kinds of projects require different development methodologies.
Code Ownership
Authors: Russo Barbara , Scotto Marco , Sillitti Alberto , Succi Giancarlo
Published: May 2010

In many AMs, such as XP, the source code does not belong to the developer that wrote it. The common practice is that all the code belongs to the whole team; therefore every member can modify it. Collective Code Ownership encourages everyone to contribute new ideas to all parts of the project. Any developer can change any line of code to add functionality, fix bugs, or refactor. No one person becomes a bottle neck for changes. This could seem hard to understand at first. It is almost inconceivable that an entire team can be responsible for the architecture of the system (Beck, 1999; Feller & Fitzgerald, 2001).
Design Approaches
Authors: Russo Barbara , Scotto Marco , Sillitti Alberto , Succi Giancarlo
Published: May 2010

In this chapter we compare agile and OS development in terms of the adoption of design practices. We review the practices of AMs to identify the agile approaches to the design and we inspect the code of a set of open source projects to determine whether these approaches are undertaken by OS projects.
Adoption of Open Source Processes in Large Enterprises
Authors: Russo Barbara , Scotto Marco , Sillitti Alberto , Succi Giancarlo
Published: May 2010

This chapter summarizes the results of a questionnaire submitted to 50 companies and focusing on their usage of OSS. The people interviewed are project managers.
Overview of Open Source Tools for Agile Development
Authors: Russo Barbara , Scotto Marco , Sillitti Alberto , Succi Giancarlo
Published: May 2010

Tools support is extremely important in Agile development. As described in the previous chapters, the Agile development is based on the identification and the subsequent reduction of activities that do not provide value to the customer and the ability to change the code without including new and undetected bugs in the code.
Knowledge Workforce
Authors: Albert Sylvie , Flournoy Don , LeBrasseur Rolland
Published: May 2010

This chapter focuses on knowledge workers—who they are and what they do, and the impact they have on organisations and communities in the Network Society. As technology-savvy individuals, they have the training to understand and apply telecommunications and electronic media at work, at home and in the community. Because of their ICT skills and potential contributions to innovation and productivity, knowledge workers constitute a critical labour market for networked communities. Training and education institutions can play an important role in ensuring the local supply of ICT skills. To illustrate these points, four networked communities are described: • Issy-les-Moulineaux, France. This suburb of Paris has transformed itself into a preferred location for knowledge workers to live and work; • Mitaka, Japan. Mitaka is a suburb of Tokyo offering exceptional quality of life to its knowledge workers; • Taipei, Taiwan. This is a large city with a CyberCity Plan and an impressive labour force; • Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. This university town has developed an international reputation based on public-private collaboration and entrepreneurship. The chapter ends with suggestions for the measurement and evaluation of a community’s knowledge workforce.
Innovation
Authors: Albert Sylvie , Flournoy Don , LeBrasseur Rolland
Published: May 2010

The global environment has become more turbulent, and innovations in telecommunication and information processing are both part of this turbulence and an adaptive response to it. How can telecommunication infrastructure enable the social and economic development of communities? With diminishing barriers in terms of price, speed and availability, how can individuals and groups in a community become innovators? This chapter will discuss: • The importance of innovation in an ICT-enabled world; • A model of innovation for continuous and discontinuous change; • The nature of innovation—describing the concepts of creativity and invention, and the source of innovation; • The development of a local innovation culture; • Evaluation of the innovation environment.
Dualisms and Stereotypes
Authors: Kirk Mary
Published: May 2010

Dualisms are a hallmark of dominator societies, and dualistic thinking is a deeplyembedded attitude that shapes our values and beliefs. The deficiency of dualistic thinking is that it encourages us to organize knowledge in simplistic “either/or” terms, rather than considering the “both/and” complexities of our human experience. Gender is socially-defined in dualistic terms; one is either male or female. Understanding gender, the ultimate dualism, can help one begin to grasp the ways in which gendered attitudes and beliefs are reflected in the social institutions through which we learn about IT. The stereotypes (of gender, race, physical ability, age, etc.) that are purveyed by our social institutions are one of the most enduring and significant ways in which we all learn our sense of identity and “appropriate” location in the social hierarchy, as well as how we perceive and categorize others. Therefore, an in-depth understanding of stereotypes and their influence is critical to beginning to understand how we all continue to participate in recreating a dominator society. Dualisms and stereotypes are two of the most pervasive and powerful tools of a dominator social system. Audre Lorde (1984) explains that “the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house” (p. 110). If we are ever to lay down these tools and construct a different house for our human community, we must understand how proficient we have all become at using the dominator tools of dualistic thought and stereotyping.
Business as Social Institution
Authors: Kirk Mary
Published: May 2010

The global IT business as a social institution reflects the same dominator values as other social institutions in the U.S. Since IT is a large and increasingly powerful industry worldwide, the question of what kinds of values the business purveys holds growing significance to our human community. Further, our ways of doing business are defined by the economic models that we adopt. The term “economics” can be used in two ways: (1) in reference to the academic discipline “that deals with the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services”; and (2) in popular reference to describe “economic systems, policies and practices” (Eisler, 2007, p. 11). In this chapter, I refer to the latter—economic systems, policies, and practices—as we explore the following topics: (1) the dominator economic values reflected in the global IT business; (2) the relationship between postcolonialism and U.S. participation in dominator global economic development; and (3) the rising social and political significance of economic development in India and China with specific relation to the IT industry. I end this chapter with an in-depth example of a global IT giant to demonstrate the effects of dominator economic decisions on the Holocaust during World War II.
Partnership Global IT Business
Authors: Kirk Mary
Published: May 2010

In Chapter VII, I asked how our knowledge about the dramatically unequal distribution of global income combined with the estimates on global population growth might raise questions about our social responsibility to each other as a human community with regard to the direction of development efforts in the IT industry. How might we use technology to close the existing (and rapidly growing) gap between the haves and have-nots worldwide? How might we use IT in service of human need instead of placing humans in service of the technology? What are the most critical global social concerns that technology might serve? Can we afford the either/or attitude of IT businesses that completely divorce profit-making IT development from broader social concerns? What might a partnership philosophy of science look like? What might a partnership global IT business look like? This chapter outlines a few starting points for answering these questions by exploring the following topics in relation to co-creating a partnership global IT business: (1) U.S. economic dominance in IT; (2) “partnerism” a new economic model; (3) global IT development ideas between developed and developing nations; (4) partnership IT policy making; (5) examples of partnership science and IT; and (6) ideas for where you can begin to co-create partnership. In Chapter I, I contrasted the characteristics of dominator and partnership social systems. Table 1 describes the characteristics of partnership social systems that are particularly relevant to the global IT business as a social institution as they relate to the topics covered in this chapter (Eisler, 1987, 2002, 2007; Eisler & Loye, 1990; Eisler & Miller, 2004).
A Mediation Architecture for Global Comparison Services
Authors: Zhu Hongwei , Madnick Stuart E.
Published: May 2010

Global comparison services facilitate easy comparison of product offerings around the world. To offer such services, one has to address the semantic heterogeneity problems that often arise when data is collected from sources around the world. In this chapter, the authors use examples to illustrate three types of semantic heterogeneity problems that a global comparison service may encounter. Then they present a mediation architecture as a solution to addressing these problems. The feasibility of using the architecture to enable global comparison is demonstrated with a prototype application. An evaluation of the solution shows that it is scalable due to its capability of automatically generating necessary conversions from a small set of predefined ones.
Price, Product Complexity, and Durability in Comparison Shopping
Authors: Nakayama Makoto , Sutcliffe Norma
Published: May 2010

This chapter examines how product price, product complexity and product durability influence consumers’ comparison shopping process. Frequently comparison shopping is equated only to price comparisons. However, comparison shopping is becoming far broader than finding the cheapest price over the Internet. Nowadays a vast variety of products are sold over the Internet. Some are relatively simple products such as books and movie DVDs. Others are more complex such as computer related products, travel reservations and real-estate properties. As the number of key product attributes increases, consumers apply different kinds of decision making rather than just looking for the cheapest price. Consumers also use different decision making tactics between durable and non-durable products. This chapter looks into the implications of such differences for consumers and product sellers. It concludes with managerial implications and future research agendas.
How Good is Your Shopping Agent? Users' Perception Regarding Shopping Agents' Service Quality
Authors: Gurau Calin
Published: May 2010

The use of online shopping agents has increased dramatically in the last 10 years, as a result of e-commerce development. Despite the importance of these online applications, very few studies attempted to identify and analyse the main factors that influence the users’ perception regarding the service quality of online shopping agents, and consequently, the elements that determine the users’ choice of online shopping agents. The present study attempts to fill this literature gap, identifying on the basis of primary data analysis, the various circumstantial or personal factors that can determine the choice of a specific searching strategy and shopping agent.
Developing E-Learning in Geography
Authors: Rees Philip , Mackay Louise , Martin David , Conole Gráinne , Davis Hugh
Published: May 2010

Technologies offer a range of tantalizing potentials for education—in terms of providing access to media- rich context and for students to visualize and interact with learning materials, as well as a variety of mechanisms for students to communicate and collaborate with their peers and tutors. This book describes the findings of an interdisciplinary research project, which provides a contextualized case study of a concerted attempt to integrate e-learning in one discipline, geography, across an international context. This chapter outlines the learning philosophies and learning strategies that inform the development of e-learning materials, focusing on a particular discipline context. The chapter authors come from a range of disciplines: geography, education, and computer science. Out of this inter-disciplinary collaboration has come new understanding of the range of approaches to learning (by the geographers) and new understanding of the enthusiasm of subject specialists (by the non-geographers). We will also report on understanding developed through working with colleagues in another country. In particular we have gained valuable insights into the challenges associated with carrying out interdisciplinary research in this area, as well as working in an international context. At the heart of the work reported here is the notion of creation and use of learning materials for geography. We set down some definitions of learning materials to begin with. We critique the widely used “learning object” concept as being computationally convenient, but restrictive, and argue for a more specialized term that better describes the discipline context. Some definitions demand that a learning object stands alone without reference to external resources. Geography teachers usually want their learners to engage with Web-based materials. Geographers want their students to tap into a wide variety of digital resources out there in cyberspace that inform them about the world. They wish to guide the students through the resources and their uses, empowering them to make their own explorations in the future. To import materials and hermetically seal them within learning objects potentially sterilizes them and presents an oversimplified view of the world. This argument leads to the definition of a learning material unit (“nugget” was the shorthand we debated and developed in the JISC-funded DialogPLUS project, part of the Digital Libraries in the Classroom program) as materials for student use with one or more activities designed to develop understanding, combined with student evaluation of the knowledge gained (tests, exercises, reflections). Nuggets connect to external digital resources held in libraries, repositories, or Web sites. This chapter also illustrates how e-learning has developed over time within a master’s program, initially in one university but now involving collaboration between three. We conclude by drawing lessons for developing e-learning in geography.
Generic Learning Materials
Authors: Durham Helen , Leung Samuel , DiBiase David
Published: May 2010

Academic integrity (AI) is of relevance across all academic disciplines, both from the perspective of the educator and the student. From the former perspective there is the need to increase the awareness of AI amongst the student population whilst monitoring and enforcing the rules and regulation regarding plagiarism within their institution. On the other hand, students need a full appreciation of the importance of AI and a clear recognition of the penalties for flouting the regulations in order to steer a successful passage through higher education and on into their professional career. By repurposing learning materials originally developed by the Pennsylvania State University (USA), the Universities of Southampton and Leeds (UK) have developed academic integrity guidelines to support students in their studies and provide an assessment of their understanding of AI concepts. This chapter describes the development of these learning activities and examines the technical and content issues of repurposing materials for three different institutions. It also reflects on the success of embedding the guidelines and assessment in geography programmes at two UK universities, examines the effect of using the online plagiarism detection service, Turnitin, to police plagiarism cases and summaries the lessons learnt in helping geography students to enhance their study skills.
Evaluating the Geography E-Learning Materials and Activities
Authors: Fill Karen , Mackay Louise
Published: May 2010

This chapter is concerned with the evaluation of learning materials and activities developed as part of the DialogPLUS project. A range of evaluation activities was undertaken, focusing on the experiences of students, teaching staff, and the entire project team. Student evaluations included both quantitative and qualitative approaches, particularly using a questionnaire design drawing on a specific methodology and generic quality criteria, facilitating comparative analysis of results. Discussion of the student evaluations is focused on specific taught modules from both human and physical geography. Results of these evaluations were discussed with teaching staff and contributed to improvements in the various online resources. Both internal and external evaluators were involved in interviewing key project staff and their different perspectives are presented. The chapter concludes by reflecting on the effectiveness and impact of different DialogPLUS activities, highlighting the principal impacts of the project as perceived by the students and staff involved.
Reflections, Lessons Learnt, and Conclusions
Authors: Mackay Louise , Martin David , Rees Philip , Durham Helen
Published: May 2010

In this book we have illustrated the materials, software, and experience of developing and delivering geography e-learning courses and learning activities. In this chapter we summarize how the teaching of a variety of geography topics has benefited from the following set of activities: creating media-rich online materials that take full advantage of linking to digital libraries; developing and adapting online, collaborative, and design software; and internationalizing materials through geography teachers in different countries working together. We take a moment to reflect on the experience of material development and the prospects for facilitating exchange of resources and student access. We provide advice to the aspiring geography e-tutor and describe how to access the wealth of materials that have been introduced in the preceding chapters. We then explain how the materials created will continue to be relevant beyond this book. We envisage that teachers, including ourselves, will download and then adapt the materials, borrowing content, techniques for presentation, or learning style. There will be an ongoing process of teaching and review that incorporates tutor and student feedback. The material, its delivery, and its style will not remain static but we hope new developments will be shared via learning repositories. It is important to sustain good online resources. This can be achieved by readers updating the geography e-learning materials and depositing improved versions in the new UK academic learning material depository Jorum.
Learning Geography with the G-Portal Digital Library
Authors: Goh Dion Hoe-Lian
Published: May 2010

With the rapid growth of digital information, there is increasing recognition that digital libraries (DL) will play important roles in education, research, and work. DLs have correspondingly evolved from being static repositories of information, in which access is limited to searching and browsing, to those that offer a greater array of services for accessing, interacting and manipulating content (Agosti, Ferro, Frommholz, & Thiel, 2004; Goh, Fu, & Foo, 2002). Within the classroom environment, DLs have the potential to be useful tools for active learning in which activities are characterized by active engagement, problem-solving, inquiry, and collaboration with others, so that each student constructs meaning and hence knowledge of the information gained (Richardson, 1997). Consider, for example, a group of high school students working on a class project. Typical activities would require these students to acquire content from the teacher, gathering reference materials from the library or other sources, such as the Web, compiling and making sense of all the available information, synthesizing content, writing the project report and submitting the completed project for grading. Here, DL services could be designed to support these activities. An integrated work environment could allow students to collaboratively retrieve and store personal and group information objects relevant to the task at hand. Such a DL would therefore depart from the traditional role of facilitating access to digital content, and instead become an integral part of the learning process.
On the Employment of SMI Beamforming for Cochannel Interference Mitigation in Digital Radio
Authors: Hunziker Thomas
Published: May 2010

Many common adaptive beamforming methods are based on a sample matrix inversion (SMI). The schemes can be applied in two ways. The sample covariance matrices are either computed over preambles, or the sample basis for the SMI and the target of the beamforming are identical. A vector space representation provides insight into the classic SMI-based beamforming variants, and enables elegant derivations of the well-known second-order statistical properties of the output signals. Moreover, the vector space representation is helpful in the definition of appropriate interfaces between beamfoming and soft-decision signal decoding in receivers aiming at adaptive cochannel interference mitigation. It turns out that the performance of standard receivers incorporating SMI-based beamforming on short signal intervals and decoding of BICM (bit-interleaved coded modulation) signals can be significantly improved by proper interface design.
Physics of Multi-Antenna Communication Systems
Authors: Burintramart Santana , Yilmazer Nuri , Sarkar Tapan K. , Salazar-Palma Magdalena
Published: May 2010

This chapter presents a concern regarding the nature of wireless communications using multiple antennas. Multi-antenna systems are mainly developed using array processing methodology mostly derived for a scalar rather than a vector problem. However, as wireless communication systems operate in microwave frequency region, the vector nature of electromagnetic waves cannot be neglected in any system design levels. Failure in doing so will lead to an erroneous interpretation of a system performance. The goal of this chapter is to show that when the vector nature of electromagnetic wave is taken into account, an expected system performance may not be realized. Therefore, the electromagnetic effects must be integrated into a system design process in order to achieve the best system design. Many researches are underway regarding this important issue.
Joint Beamforming and Space-Time Coding for MIMO Channels
Authors: Badic Biljana , Choi Jinho
Published: May 2010

This chapter introduces joint beamforming (or precoding) and space-time coding for multiple input multiple output (MIMO) channels. First, we explain key ideas of beamforming and space- time coding and then we discuss the joint design of beamformer and space-time codes and its benefits. Beamforming techniques play a key role in smart antenna systems as they can provide various features, including spatially selective transmissions to increase the capacity and coverage increase. STC techniques can offer both coding gain and diversity gain over MIMO channels. Thus, joint beamforming and STC is a more practical approach to exploit both spatial correlation and diversity gain of MIMO channels. We believe that joint design will be actively employed in future standards for wireless communications.
Adaptive MIMO Systems with High Spectral Efficiency
Authors: Zhou Zhendong , Vucetic Branka
Published: May 2010

This chapter introduces the adaptive modulation and coding (AMC) as a practical means of approaching the high spectral efficiency theoretically promised by multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems. It investigates the AMC MIMO systems in a generic framework and gives a quantitative analysis of the multiplexing gain of these systems. The effects of imperfect channel state information (CSI) on the AMC MIMO systems are pointed out. In the context of imperfect CSI, a design of robust near-capacity AMC MIMO system is proposed and its good performance is verified by simulation results. The proposed adaptive system is compared with the non-adaptive MIMO system, which shows the adaptive system approaches the channel capacity closer.
Detection Based on Relaxation in MIMO Systems
Authors: Jaldén Joakim , Ottersten Björn
Published: May 2010

This chapter takes a closer look at a class of MIMO detention methods, collectively referred to as relaxation detectors. These detectors provide computationally advantageous alternatives to the optimal maximum likelihood detector. Previous analysis of relaxation detectors have mainly focused on the implementation aspects, while resorting to Monte Carlo simulations when it comes to investigating their performance in terms of error probability. The objective of this chapter is to illustrate how the performance of any detector in this class can be readily quantified thought its diversity gain when applied to an i.i.d. Rayleigh fading channel, and to show that the diversity gain is often surprisingly simple to derive based on the geometrical properties of the detector.
Mobile Ad Hoc Networks Exploiting Multi-Beam Antennas
Authors: Zhang Yimin , Li Xin , Amin Moeness G.
Published: May 2010

This chapter introduces the concept of multi-beam antenna (MBA) in mobile ad hoc networks and the recent advances in the research relevant to this topic. MBAs have been proposed to achieve concurrent communications with multiple neighboring nodes while they inherit the advantages of directional antennas, such as the high directivity and antenna gain. MBAs can be implemented in the forms of multiple fixed-beam directional antennas (MFBAs) and multi-channel smart antennas (MCSAs). The former either uses multiple predefined beams or selects multiple directional antennas and thus is relatively simple; the latter uses smart antenna techniques to dynamically form multiple adaptive beams and thereby provides more robust communication links to the neighboring nodes. The emphases of this chapter lie in the offerings and implementation techniques of MBAs, random-access scheduling for the contention resolution, effect of multipath propagation, and node throughput evaluation.
Key Generation System Using Smart Antenna
Authors: Hashimoto Toru , Aono Tomoyuki
Published: May 2010

The technology of generating and sharing the key as the representative application of smart antennas is introduced. This scheme is based on the reciprocity theorem of radio wave propagation between the two communication parties. The random and intentional change of antenna directivity that is electrically changed by using such an ESPAR antenna as variable directional antenna is more effective for this scheme, because the propagation environment can be undulated intentionally and the reproducibility of the propagation environment can be decreased. In this chapter, experimental results carried out at many environments are described. From these results, this system has a potential to achieve the “unconditional security.”
Omni-, Sector, and Adaptive Modes of Compact Array Antenna
Authors: Cheng Jun , Taillefer Eddy , Ohira Takashi
Published: May 2010

Three working modes, omni-, sector and adaptive modes, for a compact array antenna are introduced. The compact array antenna is an electronically steerable parasitic array radiator (Espar) antenna, which has only a single-port output, and carries out signal combination in space by electromagnetic mutual coupling among array elements. These features of the antenna significantly reduce its cost, size, complexity, and power consumption, and make it applicable to mobile user terminals. Signal processing algorithms are developed for the antenna. An omnipattern is given by an equal-voltage single-source power maximization algorithm. Six sector patterns are formed by a single-source power maximization algorithm. Adaptive patterns are obtained by a trained adaptive control algorithm and a blind adaptive control algorithm, respectively. The experiments verified the omnipattern, these six sector patterns and the adaptive patterns. It is hope that understanding of the antenna’s working modes will help researcher for a better design and control of array antennas for mobile user terminals.
Factors Influencing Individual Construction of Knowledge in an Online Community of Learning and Inquiry Using Concept Maps
Authors: Conceição Simone C.O. , Baldor Maria Julia , Desnoyers Carrie Ann
Published: May 2010

This chapter describes a study that used the community of learning and inquiry and concept maps as strategies to facilitate individual construction of knowledge in an asynchronous online course. Six factors influenced the concept map creation, which in turn affected individual construction of knowledge: group characteristics, social presence, cognitive presence, facilitation style of student, discussion summary format, and teacher presence. Working in a collaborative community allowed students to explore different ideas and concepts, but it was through the individual concept map work that students refined and expanded their knowledge and constructed personal meaning. The chapter concludes with strategies to facilitate individual learning in a collaborative online environment.
Exploring Semiotic Approaches to Analysing Multidimensional Concept Maps Using Methods that Value Collaboration
Authors: Preston Christina J.
Published: May 2010

This chapter focuses on teachers’ multidimensional concept mapping data collected at the beginning and end of a one-year Masters level course about e-learning. A multidimensional concept map (MDCM) defines any concept map that is multimodal, multimedia, multilayered and/or multi-authored. The teachers’ personal and professional learning priorities are analysed using two semiotic methods: the first is a traditional analysis of the words used to label the nodes; the second is an innovative analysis method that treats the whole map as a semiotic artefact, in which all the elements, including the words, have equal importance. The findings suggest that these tools offer deep insights into the learning priorities of individuals and groups, especially the affective and motivational factors. The teachers, as co-researchers, also adopted MDCM to underpin collaborative thinking. These research tools can be used in the assessment process to value multimodal literacy and collaborative engagement in new knowledge construction.
Mapping Concepts with Fisherfolk
Authors: Hellebrandt Denis
Published: May 2010

This chapter aims to show how concept mapping is a technique which is capable of representing complex systems in an accessible format and offers excellent opportunities for collaboration and meaningful learning. Effective communication is at the foundation of collaborative learning and concept mapping is expressly used in this research to facilitate the dialogue between participants and researcher. The chapter starts out by situating the reader by way of a conceptual background about complex systems, followed by the basis for the application of concept mapping in this project and the specific research context - a case study of small-scale fisheries in southern Brazil. Then, an account of the use of concept mapping during the fieldwork is given, with an assessment of the technique. The chapter ends with a reflection on the experience gained so far and comments on the application of collaborative learning in similar research projects.
Concept Mapping and Formative Assessment
Authors: Beaudry Jeffrey , Wilson Polly
Published: May 2010

From the authors observations and those of Kinchin (2001) teachers may know about concept mapping but they do not seem to use it as a consistent, effective strategy. The authors argue that the concept mapping may be better understood by using an expanded definition of traditional literacy, listening, speaking, reading and writing; to include visualizing, visual representation, and technological literacy Sinatra (1986). This ethnographic case study examines the use of concept mapping and collaborative learning strategies in the content area of marine ecology in high school science classrooms. To support students’ understanding of science concept and the improvement of writing students began with a field trip to study inter-coastal zones and follow-up laboratory activities, use of digital image analysis, and collaborative group work. Key vocabulary were identified to begin concept maps, and more vocabulary was added to support multiple revisions of concept maps with concept map software, and culminated with students’ writing. Concept mapping integrated with collaborative learning was used to engage students to construct and re-construct their understanding of a complex scientific concept, the energy cycle. The results showed that students benefited from the combination of collaborative learning and concept maps to focus their writing on key ideas, to organize their ideas, and include specific details. However, the interpretation and integration of quantitative data and laboratory results was not as consistent. Most importantly, initial concept maps and revisions provided the teacher with evidence of student learning in the form of formative assessment products, to guide teachers’ focused feedback and clarify specific ideas for re-teaching, as well as students’ self-assessment. The authors provide examples of concept maps and graphic organizers as formative assessment of students’ knowledge, what Novak (1998) calls heuristic or “facilitative tools,” and as visual representations and structures to provide flexible ways supporting learners’ meaningful learning through speaking, writing and in visual forms (Sinatra, 2000; Mintzes, Wandersee, and Novak, 2004).
The Italian Style of E-Justice in a Comparative Perspective
Authors: Fabri Marco
Published: May 2010

The European Union (EU) is an extraordinary laboratory of innovation and change, particularly in the justice sector. The diversity of environments within Europe provides contrasting examples of the use of technology to support the administration of justice. This chapter presents some of the findings of ongoing research on e-government in judicial administration, which has been carried on by the Research Institute on Judicial Systems of the National Research Council in Bologna, Italy. More in detail, the chapter considers the Italian case in a comparative perspective. It illustrates the great diversity of ways in which EU members are harnessing information and communication technology (ICT) to support the operation of their legal systems, and it identifies different strategies as well as tools developed. Finally, it detects some critical issues and trends in Italy in comparison with the challenges addressed by other countries.
E-Justice in Spain
Authors: Cerrillo I Martínez Agustí
Published: May 2010

Administration of justice is adding information and communication technologies in its internal operations and its relations both with judicial operators and citizens in Spain. The chapter describes the Spanish institutional framework characterized by the plurality of actors with competences in the administration of justice and the lack of mechanisms of coordination among them. Then, it sets out the different applications of ICTs within administration of justice, classified into four categories: treatment of information, management of judicial files, relations between judicial operators, and decision making. The analysis of such applications focuses on Spanish administration of justice. The chapter finally shows the impact of Spanish institutional framework of justice in the development of e-justice.
Italian Justice System and ICT
Authors: Contini Francesco , Cordella Antonio
Published: May 2010

The Italian judiciary is characterised by a weak system of governance, consequence of institutional and cultural factors. In this framework, the deployment of ICT policies has been mainly conceived as tools to improve the management, the operational efficiency, and the consistent application of rules so to strength the governance of the system. This approach to the ICT can easily be conceived as an attempt that aims to tightly couple the elements of a system that is by nature (constitutionally defined) loose coupled. In this framework, technology has been considered as, if not the instrument to govern, strengthening the liaisons in the organisation, judicial offices, where other “traditional” tools have failed due to institutional and constitutional constraints. Matching and mismatching between institutional and technological constraints are analysed, providing a framework to discusses how these policies have been deployed and the consequence that the nature of the organizational liaisons is playing while the deployment of information systems is concerned.
Digital Government and Criminal Justice
Authors: Holland J. William
Published: May 2010

This chapter outlines the history of digital government in criminal justice, starting with the Johnson Administration’s findings concerning automation in its report, “The Challenge of Crime in a Free Society,” the development of the national criminal justice network, and the creation of SEARCH Group, a consortium of states that led the effort to create computerized criminal histories of individual offenders. A brief discussion of the issues these efforts attempted to solve will be developed. The narrative will describe how these initial activities created the basic parameters for all subsequent developments in the area of criminal justice automation. Several major problems and controversies of criminal justice automation will be described and placed in their historical context. Examples of criminal justice initiatives will be provided and their success in solving some of the problems discussed will be described. The chapter concludes that it is time to rethink the older criminal justice digital government paradigm from the 1960s and create a new model more in tune with today’s developments in a highly mobile, digital and integrated society. Questions about the impact of this new model on traditional constitutional safeguards, including individual liberty and privacy will be raised.
The E-Court Roadmap
Authors: Potter Sandra , Farrelly Phil , Begg Derek
Published: May 2010

This chapter tracks the response of Australian courts to rapid advances in ICT. It shows how, despite early resistance and a reactive approach to technology, Australian courts have been transformed by the challenges of implementing ICT. It illustrates with case studies the way Australian courts have drawn on each experience to improve their processes, and have come to lead the world in using practice notes and protocols as a control measure for procedural change. It reviews current experiences in Australian jurisdictions, presenting courts who now see ICT as a tool for managing workflows throughout their organisation. The authors foresee the challenge for Australian courts will be keeping this control, and contend that courts who achieve this are more likely to have ICT as the servant, not the master, of the justice process. They anticipate that Australia’s success can be seen as a paradigm for other courts facing similar challenges
Courts on the Web in Russia
Authors: Trochev Alexei
Published: May 2010

When the Internet reached Russia in the mid- 1990s, Russian judicial chiefs actively embraced the idea of having a solid presence of national judiciary on the Web. To judges, having court Web sites would improve public awarenessabout Russian courts and relieve overloaded court clerks from answering mundane questions about the location of courthouses, hours of work, schedule of hearings, court forms, and so on. However, the chronic underfinancing of Russian courts in the 1990s and the decentralized nature of the Russian judiciary made the creation and the maintenance of the lower courts’ Web sites much more sporadic. Improving public awareness about Russian courts is a priority for Russian judges, who increasingly issue impartial decisions yet atthe same time face growing public skepticism about judicial performance (Solomon, 2003, 2004; Trochev, 2006). As the growing number of studies of the information and communication technologies (ICT) in courthouses around the world show, computerized courts can both speed up the administration of justice and strengthen public trust in the judicial system (Bueno, Ribeiro, & Hoeschl, 2003; Dalal, 2005; Fabri & Contini, 2001; Fabri & Langbroek, 2000; Fabri, Jean, Langbroek, & Pauliat, 2005; Langbroek & Fabri, 2004; Oskamp, Lodder, & Apistola, 2004; Valentini, 2003; Malik, 2002). Indeed, as the recent research demonstrates, those who know something about the courts: either about court procedures or about court-ordered public policies, tend to trust the judiciary and to comply with court decisions (Baird, 2001; Gibson, Caldeira., & Baird, 1998; Kritzer & Voelker, 1998; Tyler & Mitchell, 1994; Tyler, Boeckmann, Smith, & Huo, 1997). This article focuses on the Web sites of Russian courts as the virtual gateways in the world of judicial administration (Trochev, 2002) and discusses challenges of adapting Russian court Web sites to the needs of various users of judicial system: judges themselves, law-enforcement agencies, actual litigants, general public and scholars (Toharia, 2003).
E-Justice
Authors: Wallace Anne
Published: May 2010

A 1999 Australian report on the prospective impact of information and communications technology on the justice system presented a vision of how technology might result in a new paradigm of ‘e-justice.’ Since that report was written, Australian courts have had nearly two decades of experience of the introduction of new technologies. This chapter discusses the experience of e-justice in Australia to date and argues that it still has some way to go to achieve the goals set out in the 1999 report. It suggests that, to date, the implementation of information and communication technology (ICT) in courts has largely concentrated on enhancing traditional methods of delivering justice. The innovative potential of technology is something that courts are still coming to terms with. In particular, courts have been slow to embrace the possibilities for the delivery of new kinds of services that will transform the nature of their relationship with users.
Patient-Centered E-Health Design
Authors: Mauro Alejandro
Published: May 2010

This chapter introduces a series of techniques and tools useful for developing patient-centered e-health. As information technology (IT) is revolutionizing health care delivery, a wide range of personal health information management tools have become available to the patients. The variety and quality of information delivered by these tools will determine how useful consumers find them. Equally important is how the information is delivered. To create quality e-health, designers must attend to the needs and wants of users by engaging them in the design and testing processes. User-centered design (UCD) is a formal approach to ensuring that new products address the needs, wants, skills, and preferences of the user throughout the tool’s development. UCD is a design and evaluation process which pays special attention to the intended users, what they will do with the product, where they will use it, and what features they consider essential. This iterative approach ensures that users’ needs and wants are met and ultimately increases the likelihood users will accept the final product. This chapter focuses on UCD methods and techniques, giving examples of how to use them and when.