bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Breakthroughs and Limitations of XML Grammar Similarity
Authors: Tekli Joe
Published: May 2011

W3C’s XML (eXtensible Mark-up Language) has recently gained unparalleled importance as a fundamental standard for efficient data management and exchange. The use of XML covers data representation and storage, database information interchange, data filtering, as well as Web applications interaction and interoperability. XML has been intensively exploited in the multimedia field as an effective and standard means for indexing, storing, and retrieving complex multimedia objects. SVG1, SMIL2, X3D3 and MPEG-74 are only some examples of XML-based multimedia data representations. With the ever-increasing Web exploitation of XML, there is an emergent need to automatically process XML documents and grammars for similarity classification and clustering, information extraction, and search functions. All these applications require some notion of structural similarity, XML representing semi-structured data. In this area, most work has focused on estimating similarity between XML documents (i.e., data layer). Nonetheless, few efforts have been dedicated to comparing XML grammars (i.e., type layer). Computing the structural similarity between XML documents is relevant in several scenarios such as change management (Chawathe, Rajaraman, Garcia- Molina, & Widom, 1996; Cobéna, Abiteboul, & Marian, 2002), XML structural query systems (finding and ranking results according to their similarity) (Schlieder, 2001; Zhang, Li, Cao, & Zhu, 2003) as well as the structural clustering of XML documents gathered from the Web (Dalamagas, Cheng, Winkel, & Sellis, 2006; Nierman & Jagadish, 2002). On the other hand, estimating similarity between XML grammars is useful for data integration purposes, in particular the integration of DTDs/schemas that contain nearly or exactly the same information but are constructed using different structures (Doan, Domingos, & Halevy, 2001; Melnik, Garcia-Molina, & Rahm, 2002). It is also exploited in data warehousing (mapping data sources to warehouse schemas) as well as XML data maintenance and schema evolution where we need to detect differences/updates between different versions of a given grammar/schema to consequently revalidate corresponding XML documents (Rahm & Bernstein, 2001). The goal of this article is to briefly review XML grammar structural similarity approaches. Here, we provide a unified view of the problem, assessing the different aspects and techniques related to XML grammar comparison. The remainder of this article is organized as follows. The second section presents an overview of XML grammar similarity, otherwise known as XML schema matching. The third section reviews the state of the art in XML grammar comparison methods. The fourth section discusses the main criterions characterizing the effectiveness of XML grammar similarity approaches. Conclusions and current research directions are covered in the last section.
Cognitive Issues in Tailoring Multimedia Learning Technology to the Human Mind
Authors: Kalyuga Slava
Published: May 2011

In order to design effective and efficient multimedia applications, major characteristics of human cognition and its processing limitations should be taken into account. A general cognitive system that underlies human performance and learning is referred to as our cognitive architecture. Major features of this architecture will be described first. When technology is not tailored to these features, its users may experience cognitive overload. Major potential sources of cognitive load during multimedia learning and how we can measure levels of this load will be presented next. Some recently developed methods for managing cognitive overload when designing multimedia applications and building adaptive multimedia systems will be described in the last two sections, which will be followed by the conclusion.
Contract Negotiation in E-Marketplaces
Authors: Esmahi Larbi , Badidi Elarbi
Published: May 2011

The advancement in distributed and intelligent computing has facilitated the use of software agents for implementing e-services; most electronic market places offer their customers virtual agents that can do their bidding (i.e., eBay, onSale). E-transactions via shopping agents constitute a promising opportunity in the e-markets (Chen, Vahidov, & Kersten, 2004). It becomes relevant what kind of information and what kinds of bargain policies are used both by agents and by the market place. There are several steps for building e-business: (1) attracting the customer, (2) knowing how they buy, (3) making transactions, (4) perfecting orders, (5) giving effective customer service, (6) offering customers recourse for problems such as breakage or returns, and (7) providing a rapid conclusion such as electronic payment. In the distributed e-market paradigm, these functions are abstracted via agents representing both contractual parts. In recent years, many researchers in intelligent agents’ domain have focused on the design of market architectures for electronic commerce (Fikes, Engelmore, Farquhar, & Pratt, 1995; Schoop & Quix, 2001; Zwass, 1999), and on protocols governing the interaction of rational agents engaged in such transactions (Hogg & Jennings, 1997; Kersten & Lai, 2005). While providing support for direct agent interaction, existing architectures for multiagent virtual markets usually lack explicit facilities for handling negotiation protocols, since they do not provide such protocols as an integrated part of the framework. In this article we will discuss the problem of contract negotiation in e-marketplaces. In the next section, we will present related models commonly used to implement negotiation in e-markets, game theory models, auction models, and contract-net protocols. Then the following section continues with the presentation of a negotiation protocol based on dependency relations. We then present a negotiation strategy based on risk evaluation. The conclusion summarizes the article and paves the further way concerning the truth in the negotiation strategy and the use of temporal aspects on commitments and executions of contracts.
Critical Issues in Content Repurposing for Small Devices
Authors: Rowe Neil C.
Published: May 2011

Content repurposing is the reorganizing of data for presentation on different display hardware (Singh, 2004). It has been particularly important recently with the growth of handheld devices such as “personal digital assistants” (PDAs), sophisticated telephones, and other small specialized devices. Unfortunately, such devices pose serious problems for multimedia delivery. With their small screens (240 by 320 for a basic Palm PDA), one cannot display much information (like most of a Web page); with their low bandwidths, one cannot display video and audio transmissions from a server (“streaming”) with much quality; and with their small storage capabilities, large media files cannot be stored for later playback. Furthermore, new devices and old ones with new characteristics have been appearing at a high rate, so software vendors are having difficulty keeping pace. So some real-time, systematic, and automated planning could be helpful in figuring how to show desired data, especially multimedia, on a broad range of devices.
Design and Evaluation for the Future of m-Interaction
Authors: Lumsden Joanna
Published: May 2011

Mobile technology has been one of the major growth areas in computing over recent years (Urbaczewski, Valacich, & Jessup, 2003). Mobile devices are becoming increasingly diverse and are continuing to shrink in size and weight. Although this increases the portability of such devices, their usability tends to suffer. Fuelled almost entirely by lack of usability, users report high levels of frustration regarding interaction with mobile technologies (Venkatesh, Ramesh, & Massey, 2003). This will only worsen if interaction design for mobile technologies does not continue to receive increasing research attention. For the commercial benefit of mobility and mobile commerce (m-commerce) to be fully realized, users’ interaction experiences with mobile technology cannot be negative. To ensure this, it is imperative that we design the right types of mobile interaction (m-interaction); an important prerequisite for this is ensuring that users’ experience meets both their sensory and functional needs (Venkatesh, Ramesh, & Massey, 2003). Given the resource disparity between mobile and desktop technologies, successful electronic commerce (e-commerce) interface design and evaluation does not necessarily equate to successful m-commerce design and evaluation. It is, therefore, imperative that the specific needs of m-commerce are addressed–both in terms of design and evaluation. This chapter begins by exploring the complexities of designing interaction for mobile technology, highlighting the effect of context on the use of such technology. It then goes on to discuss how interaction design for mobile devices might evolve, introducing alternative interaction modalities that are likely to affect that future evolution. It is impossible, within a single chapter, to consider each and every potential mechanism for interacting with mobile technologies; to provide a forward-looking flavor of what might be possible, this chapter focuses on some more novel methods of interaction and does not, therefore, look at the typical keyboard and visual display-based interaction which, in essence, stem from the desktop interaction design paradigm. Finally, this chapter touches on issues associated with effective evaluation of m-interaction and mobile application designs. By highlighting some of the issues and possibilities for novel m-interaction design and evaluation, we hope that future designers will be encouraged to “think out of the box” in terms of their designs and evaluation strategies.
Digital Filters
Authors: Jovanovic Dolecek Gordana
Published: May 2011

A signal is defined as any physical quantity that varies with changes of one or more independent variables, and each can be any physical value, such as time, distance, position, temperature, or pressure (Elali, 2003; Smith, 2002). The independent variable is usually referred to as “time”. Examples of signals that we frequently encounter are speech, music, picture, and video signals. If the independent variable is continuous, the signal is called continuous-time signal or analog signal, and is mathematically denoted as x(t). For discrete-time signals, the independent variable is a discrete variable; therefore, a discrete-time signal is defined as a function of an independent variable n, where n is an integer. Consequently, x(n) represents a sequence of values, some of which can be zeros, for each value of integer n. The discrete–time signal is not defined at instants between integers, and it is incorrect to say that x(n) is zero at times between integers. The amplitude of both the continuous and discrete-time signals may be continuous or discrete. Digital signals are discrete-time signals for which the amplitude is discrete. Figure 1 illustrates the analog and the discrete-time signals. Most signals that we encounter are generated by natural means. However, a signal can also be generated synthetically or by computer simulation (Mitra, 2006). Signal carries information, and the objective of signal processing is to extract useful information carried by the signal. The method of information extraction depends on the type of signal and the nature of the information being carried by the signal. “Thus, roughly speaking, signal processing is concerned with the mathematical representation of the signal and algorithmic operation carried out on it to extract the information present,’’ (Mitra, 2006, pp. 1).
DMB Market and Audience Attitude
Authors: Kim Mi-kyung
Published: May 2011

Since the late 1990s in Korea, there have been many users of mobile devices, and we have extended leisure time. The terrestrial broadcasting market is very competitive because a lot of media has emerged dividing the market. Therefore, terrestrial broadcasters introduced terrestrial DMB (digital multimedia broadcasting) service to sustain audiences for the terrestrial broadcasting market and increase audience satisfaction. In Korea, telecommunication businesses are saturated, and wireless network operators, in their effort to diminish their revenue dependence on mobile voice services on one hand, and to recoup the huge investments made on third generation networks on the other, try to develop new services and business models such as DMB service. Consumer behavior research is critical toward accelerating the diffusion and consumer adoption of new media. However, consumer behavior in DMB has not yet been the subject of much research, though consumer adoption of DMB service is expanding rapidly in Korea. While there is much discussion on the emerging DMB service, there is still little evidence indicating what influences consumers in their decision to adopt DMB service and which specific features they would like included in the DMB service. This article examines behavioral intensions toward DMB service through consumer survey in Korea. More specifically, this study explores the specific using features of DMB service such as the motive for adoption, the satisfaction with DMB service, major using hours, and favorite contents. Additionally, this article investigates the favorite genre of consumers. This study is to explore the emerging marketing challenges in the field of DMB and provide direct managerial implications to the key-market players.
E-Learning Systems Content Adaptation Frameworks and Techniques
Authors: Goh Tiong T. , Kinshuk  , Kinshuk
Published: May 2011

Content adaptation is defined as the process of selection, generation, or modification of content which include text, images, audio, video, navigation, interaction, any object within a Web page, and associate service agreement (Forte, Claudino, de Souza, do Prado, & Santana, 2007) to suit user’s context (TellaSonera, 2004). With the proliferation of mobile devices such as personal digital assistants (PDA) and smart mobile phones which have the capability of accessing the Internet anytime and anywhere, there is an increasing demand for content adaptation to provide these devices with appropriate content that is aesthetically pleasant, easy to navigate, and achieve satisfying user experiences. This article first provides an overview of frameworks and techniques in Web content adaptation that are being developed to extend Web applications to non-desktop platforms. After describing general adaptation techniques, this article focuses particularly on the adaptation requirements for e-learning systems, especially when they are accessed through mobile devices.
Evolution not Revolution in Next-Generation Wireless Telephony
Authors: Ainamo Antti
Published: May 2011

Traditionally, design for industry transformed consumers’ and other product users’ everyday lives in one of two ways: “technology-push” or “market-pull”. In technology-push, producers took a given technology or a well-specified technological subsystem, applying it into consumers’ everyday lives as true to the original as possible. In market-pull, producers took consumer demand as their point of origin, channeling only those new technologies that consumers demanded (Ulrich & Eppinger, 1995). The traditional trade-off was that technology-push isolated design from consumers and other users, and market-pull isolated it from technology. Now, with technological advances, the market-pull side has developed a wholly new kind of sensibility to mold the evolution of technology. This is because of the multitude and diversity of the kinds of technologies that can be offered to consumers. Besides designing products or services by using front-end planning, products or services can also be designed by using feedback from users and customers, who thus become key “co-producers” (Wikström, 1996). This kind of evolution is not, of course, altogether new. This kind of a strategy of “robust design” (i.e., the market introduction of a new product or service and its flexible adaptation to feedback) can be said to trace at least as far back as Edison. In the case of the electric light, Edison introduced the idea of diffusing the science-based benefits of technology to small businesses and consumer households in a way that was earlier reserved for only “high-tech” and large businesses (Hargadon & Douglas, 2001). The design of innovations that have followed this model include the design of automobiles, computers, and mobile telephones, respectively (Ainamo & Pantzar, 2000; Castells, 1996; Castells & Himanen, 2002; Djelic & Ainamo, 2005; Pantzar & Ainamo, 2004). Ford made the automobile accessible, while General Motors played a role in the 1920’s in contributing to the spread of the product platform concept as a basis for mass customization (see Pantzar & Ainamo, 2004, for a review). Apple made personal computers a consumer product. The current “third generation” of mobile telephony is finally bringing on the arrival into consumer homes of what has been called the “information society” (Bell, 1999). Now, there is obviously much interest in, and excitement about, “the next generation” of mobile telephony. Besides researchers who often have held a purely intellectual interest in the issue, many professional or novice engineers have a technological interest. Still other people are financial investors who are interested in the next generation to make money. Consumers and users of phones have an obvious interest in how to “domesticate” third-generation mobile telephony so as to manage their everyday life with a mobile phone and to run and organize their routines. How to approach next-generation mobile telephony? This article provides an overview of how the next-generation of telephony will be more a point in a long chain of evolution than it will be a revolution.
Evolution of Technologies, Standards, and Deployment of 2G-5G Networks
Authors: Akhtar Shakil
Published: May 2011

The fourth and fifth generation wireless mobile systems, commonly known as 4G and 5G, are expected to provide global roaming across different types of wireless and mobile networks, for instance, from satellite to mobile networks and to Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs). 4G is an all IP-based mobile network using different radio access technologies providing seamless roaming and providing connection always via the best available network [1]. The vision of 4G wireless/mobile systems is the provision of broadband access, seamless global roaming, and Internet/data/voice everywhere, utilizing for each the most “appropriate” always best connected technology [2]. These systems are about integrating terminals, networks, and applications to satisfy increasing user demands ([3], [4]). 4G systems are expected to offer a speed of over 100 Mbps in stationary mode and an average of 20 Mbps for mobile stations reducing the download time of graphics and multimedia components by more than 10 times compared to currently available 2 Mbps on 3G systems. The fifth generation communication system is envisioned as the real wireless network, capable of supporting wireless world wide web (wwww) applications in 2010 to 2015 time frame. There are two views of 5G systems: evolutionary and revolutionary. In the evolutionary view the 5G (or beyond 4G) systems will be capable of supporting wwww allowing a highly flexible network such as a Dynamic Adhoc Wireless Network (DAWN). In this view advanced technologies including intelligent antenna and flexible modulation are keys to optimize the adhoc wireless networks. In revolutionary view 5G systems should be an intelligent technology capable of interconnecting the entire world without limits. An example application could be a robot with built-in wireless communication with artificial intelligence. The 4G system is still predominantly a research and development initiative based upon 3G, which is struggling to meet its performance goals. The challenges for development of 4G systems depend upon the evolution of different underlying technologies, standards, and deployment. We present an overall vision of the 4G features, framework, and integration of mobile communication. First we explain the evolutionary process from 2G to 5G in light of used technologies and business demands. Next we discuss the architectural developments for 2G-5G systems, followed by the discussion on standards and services. Finally we address the market demands and discuss the development of terminals for these systems.
Exploiting Captions for Multimedia Data Mining
Authors: Rowe Neil C.
Published: May 2011

Captions are text that describes some other information; they are especially useful for describing nontext media objects (images, audio, video, and software). Captions are valuable metadata for managing multimedia, since they help users better understand and remember (McAninch, Austin, & Derks, 1992-1993) and permit better indexing of media. Captions are essential for effective data mining of multimedia data, since only a small amount of text in typical documents with multimedia—1.2% in a survey of random World Wide Web pages (Rowe, 2002)—describes the media objects. Thus standard Web browsers do poorly at finding media without knowledge of captions. Multimedia information is increasingly common in documents as computer technology improves in speed and ability to handle it, and people need multimedia for a variety of purposes like illustrating educational materials and preparing news stories. Captions are also valuable because nontext media rarely specify internally the creator, date, or spatial and temporal context, and cannot convey linguistic features like negation, tense, and indirect reference. Furthermore, experiments with users of multimediaretrieval systems show a wide range of needs (Sutcliffe, Hare, Doubleday, & Ryan, 1997), but a focus on media meaning rather than appearance (Armitage & Enser, 1997). This suggests that content analysis of media is unnecessary for many retrieval situations, which is fortunate, because it is often considerably slower and more unreliable than caption analysis. But using captions requires finding them and understanding them. Many captions are not clearly identified, and the mapping from captions to media objects is rarely easy. Nonetheless, the restricted semantics of media and captions can be exploited.
High Speed Packet Access Broadband Mobile Communications
Authors: Iossifides Athanassios C. , Louvros Spiros
Published: May 2011

Mobile broadband communications systems have already become a fact during the last few years. The evolution of 3G Universal Mobile Telecommunications Systems (UMTS) towards HSDPA/HSUPA systems have already posed a forceful solution for mobile broadband and multimedia services in the market, making a major step ahead of the main competitive technology, that is, WiMax systems based on IEEE 802.16 standard. According to the latest analyses (GSM Association, 2007; Little, 2007), while WiMax has gained considerable attention the last few years, HSPA is expected to dominate the mobile broadband market. The main reasons behind this forecast are: • HSPA is already active in a significant number of operators and is going to be established for the majority of mobile broadband networks worldwide over the next five years, while commercial WiMax systems are only making their first steps. • Mobile WiMax is a competitive technology for selection by operators in only a limited number of circumstances where conditions are favourable. Future mobile WiMax systems may potentially achieve higher data transfer rates than HSPA, though cell coverage for these rates is expected to be substantially smaller. In addition, WiMax technology is less capable in terms of voice traffic capacity, thus limiting market size and corresponding revenues. • In order to overcome the aforementioned disadvantages, WiMax commercial launches are expected to introduce a relative CAPEX disadvantage of at least 20–50% comparing to HSPA, in favorable cases, while there are indications of an increase by up to 5–10 times when accounting for rural areas deployments. The short commercial history of HSDPA (based on Rel.5 specifications of 3GPP) started in December of 2005 (first wide scale launch by Cingular Wireless, closely followed by Manx Telecom and Telekom Austria). Bite Lietuva (Lithuania) was the first operator that launched 3.6 Mbps. HSUPA was first demonstrated by Mobilkom Austria in November 2006 and soon launched commercially in Italia by 3 in December 2006. Mobilkom Austria launched the combination of HSDPA at 7.2 Mbps and HSUPA in February 2007. By September of 2007, less than two years after the first commercial launch, 141 operators in 65 countries (24 out of 27 in EU) have already gone commercial with HSDPA with 38 operators among them supporting a 3.6 Mbps downlink. In addition, devices supporting HSDPA/HSUPA services are rapidly enriched. 311 devices from 79 suppliers have already been available by September 2007, including handsets, data cards, USB modems, notebooks, wireless routers, and embedded modules (http://hspa.gsmworld.com).
HyperReality
Authors: Terashima Nobuyoshi
Published: May 2011

On the Internet, a cyberspace is created where people communicate together, usually by using textual messages. Therefore, they cannot see each other in cyberspace. Whenever they communicate, it is desirable for them to see each other as if they were gathered at the same place. To achieve this, various kinds of concepts have been proposed, such as a collaborative environment, Tele-Immersion, and tele-presence (Sherman & Craig, 2003). In this article, HyperReality (HR) is introduced. HR is a communication paradigm between the real and the virtual (Terashima, 1995, 2002; Terashima & Tiffin, 2002; Terashima, Tiffin, & Ashworth, in press). The real means a real inhabitant, such as a real human or a real animal. The virtual means a virtual inhabitant, a virtual human, or a virtual animal. HR provides a communication environment where inhabitants, real or virtual, that are at different locations, meet and do cooperative work together as if they were gathered at the same place. HR can be developed based on virtual reality (VR) and telecommunications technologies.
Interactive Multimedia Technologies for Distance Education in Developing Countries
Authors: Rahman Hakikur
Published: May 2011

With the extended application of information technologies, the conventional education system has crossed the physical boundaries to reach the unreached through virtual education system. In distant mode of education, students get opportunity to education through self-learning methods with the use of technology-mediated techniques. Accumulating a few other available technologies, efforts are being made to promote distance education in remotest regions of the developing countries through institutional collaborations and adaptive use of collaborative learning systems (Rahman, 2000a). Distance education in a networked environment demands extensive use of computerized LAN/WAN, excessive use of bandwidth, expensive use of sophisticated networking equipment, and in a sense, this is becoming a hard-to-achieve target in developing countries. High initial investment cost always demarcates thorough usage of networked hierarchies where the basic backbone infrastructure of IT is in a rudimentary stage. Furthermore, multimedia puts additional pressure on communications systems with types of information flow, bandwidth requirements, development of local and wide area networks with a likely impact on narrowband and broadband ISDN. Developed countries are taking a leading role in spearheading distance education through flexible learning methods, and many renowned universities of the western world are offering highly specialized and demanding distance education courses by using their dedicated high bandwidth computer networks. Many others have accepted a dual mode of education, rather than sticking to the conventional education system. Research indicates that teaching and studying at a distance can be as effective as traditional instruction when the method and technologies used are appropriate to the instructional tasks with intensive learner-to-learner interactions, and instructor-to-learner interactions. Radio, television, and computer technologies, including the Internet and interactive multimedia methods, are major components of the virtual learning methodologies. The goals of distance education, as an alternative to traditional education, have been to offer accredited education programs, to eradicate illiteracy in developing countries, to provide capacity development programs for better economic growth, and to offer curriculum enrichment in the nonformal educational arena. Distance education has experienced dramatic global growth since the early 1980s. It has evolved from early correspondence learning using primarily print-based materials into a global movement using various technologies.
Investing in Multimedia Agents for E-Learning Solutions
Authors: Kidd Terry T.
Published: May 2011

The waves of technology are changing the workplace and the worker of today as we approach the 21st century. To be prepared, people need to be proactive, to ride the next wave, to adapt to change, learning new things constantly.” Lowell Gray, CEO of Shorenet, an Internet service provider in Lynn, MA. Are multimedia agents effective tool for e-learning solutions to assistant performance improvement specialist in the organization development challenges? This question was investigated through the evaluation of existing research materials on e-learning and multimedia agents. Research has shown that multimedia and e-learning solutions have a positive effect on job training and job performance. Is it an effective instructional tool both in cost and for performance interventions? This report begins with a background discussion into the definition and appropriate training issues dealing with e-learning and multimedia agents tools including adult learning, active training methods that are associated with the interactive multimedia agents, as well as the value e-learning and multimedia has on the organization. In addition, the study continues to discuss how multimedia and e-learning based instruction for on the job training meets the benefits for business result and improvement of job performance that trainers seek in their instructional outcome.
Library 2.0 as a New Participatory Context
Authors: Widén-Wulff Gunilla
Published: May 2011

The Library 2.0 is a continuation of the development of digital libraries and user oriented digital information services such as MyLibrary. The 2.0 is used to distinguish the present initiatives from the traditional library and information services denoted as Library 1.0 (Maness, 2006). Because of the technological development of electronic resources, the means of collecting, storing, managing, and using widely distributed knowledge resources stored in a variety of electronic forms has changed (Griffin, 1998). Digital libraries have been seen as libraries without walls being logical extensions to libraries (Fox & Urs, 2002) and they have shortened the distance between author and reader by giving a more direct involvement in the dissemination of information. The fundamental mission to facilitate and provide access to information and knowledge has remained, but the processes, tools, and techniques have undergone major development. The initiatives describing personalized Web services like MyLibrary (Cohen, Fereira, et al., 2000) are a further development of digital libraries, which define personalized library services to users who are Web users. This group of users expects customization and interactivity. After the initial MyLibrary initiative there have been several dozen implementations of similar projects worldwide. However, during the initial years, the adoption rates of these services reached only about 10% of the potential user community (Gibbons, 2003). It is important to look at the barriers to personalized service because this seems to be the future of the digital world and the next big challenge at hand; what challenge will the Web 2.0 services pose to the libraries where libraries share the technological and social space with the Web? New trends like personalization, self service, mobility, and technology have created a Web environment that is transforming how users are interacting with information (Bearman, 2007; Benson & Favini, 2006; Coombs, 2007).
Mobile Computing and Commerce Legal Implications
Authors: Kaupins Gundars
Published: May 2011

This article summarizes the present and potential legal constraints of mobile computing and commerce and provides company policy suggestions associated with wireless data collection, dissemination, and storage. The legal constraints focus on major American laws that directly and indirectly involve mobile computing and commerce. Mobile computing is the ability to use wireless devices such as laptops and handheld computers in remote locations to communicate through the Internet or a private network. The technology involves a computer linked to centrally located information or application software through battery powered, portable, and wireless devices (Webopedia.com, 2007b). Mobile commerce uses computer networks to interface with wireless devices such as laptops, handheld computers, or cell phones to help buy goods and services. It is also known as mobile e-commerce, mcommerce, or mcommerce (Webopedia.com, 2007b). Radio frequency identification (RFID) technologies are often a part of mobile commerce. The technologies use radio waves to provide services such as identifying product packaging, paying tolls, purchasing at vending machines, and covertly monitoring employee locations (Grami & Schell, 2007). This article is significant because mobile computing and commerce are expanding at a terrific pace. Laws have been slow to catch up with the new technologies. However, some existing laws on mobile computing and commerce already have a large impact on how communication is disseminated, security and privacy are maintained, and companies develop mobile policies. This article helps corporate managers reduce potential litigation because these mobile laws are described and their implications on company policies disseminated.
Mobile Geographic Information Services
Authors: Hui Lin , Lei Ye
Published: May 2011

The birth of mobile geographic information service (GIS) is introduced first, which is coming from the value-added service requirements in third generation (3G) telecommunications and functionally supported by geographic information system technologies. Then the history of mobile geographic services coming from mobile GIS (MGIS) is introduced. The present turning inside-out model of mobile geographic information service is discussed. The future developing trends of mobile geographic information services supported by ubiquitous computing research is proposed. The overview of mobile geographic information service is summarized in the conclusion, and the relationships and fusions between location-based services (LBS) and mobile geographic information services are discussed.
Multimedia Standards for iTV Technology
Authors: Khadraoui Momouh , Hirsbrunner Béat , Khadraoui D. , Meinköhn F.
Published: May 2011

Forms of broadcast media, such as TV and radio, are considered passive because the consumer simply receives the message and does not choose whether or not view or to listen (other than by changing the channel). Interactive television (iTV) is changing this. It gives users control over the programs they receive, as well as a range of online services such as electronic programming guides, e-mail, e-commerce, games, interactive advertising, video on demand (VOD), and Web browsing. This is taking place by creating enhanced programming and offering compelling interactive services. The iTV market is growing at a remarkable rate. Its services have been launched across many countries, including in much of Europe and the U.S. According to the state of interactive TV 2005 report from Kagan Research at present (http://www.kagan.com/), 34.1 million households subscribe to iTV services, and the number of subscribers is expected to reach 69 million by 2009. Revenues from electronic transactions for games, television, or t-commerce (television commerce), and interactive advertising are estimated to reach $2.4 million by 2009. During the same period, we estimate that the interactive services segment will generate $780 million in operator revenue or cable, digital broadcast satellites (DBS), and telecoms. The switch from analog TV to digital television is referred to as the digital TV (DTV) transition. We expect that in the coming decade most broadcast signals will become digital. In 1996, the U.S. Congress authorized the distribution of an additional broadcast channel to each TV broadcaster so that they could introduce DTV service while simultaneously continuing their analog TV broadcasts (http://www.dtv.gov/consumercorner.html). In Europe several countries have already started making digital transmissions, and gouvernment has developed a roadmap that indicates when all transmissions will be digital. For the industry point of view, over the past few years it has been developing and selling devices for digital transmission and reception. The growing integration trend between personal computers and digital TV will affect the birth of new emerging markets for interactive TV broadcasting and Web TV. They can offer several different simultaneous TV programs, with visual and sound quality that is equal to or better than what is generally available nowadays. In addition, broadcasters can simultaneously transmit a variety of other information through a data bit stream to both enhance TV programming and to provide entirely new services (http://www.dtv.gov/consumercorner.html). Both set-top boxes (STB) and DTV are able to handle digital content. The advantages of DTV consist of audio and video quality improvement, providing more channels, more languages per channel, and additional data, for instance applications delivering.
Policy-Based Management for Call Control
Authors: Turner Kenneth J.
Published: May 2011

This article discusses the use of policies to control calls—whether in traditional telephony or in its more modern versions such as mobile telephony or Internet telephony. Call control is as old as telephony. It allows subscribers and the network to manage calls. Trivially, users initiate calls by dialing and terminate calls by hanging up. However, modern telephony offers many more options for managing calls. For example, they may be forwarded if the user is busy or away. Conference calls may be set up. Voicemail and answering services can be used to take messages. The solutions in conventional telephony are, however, relatively limited. This article investigates the relevance to call control of the kinds of policies used to manage computerized and networked systems. As will be seen, policy-based management of call control offers a much more flexible approach.
Re-Purposeable Learning Objects Based on Teaching and Learning Styles
Authors: Bhattacharya Sunand , Dunning Jeremy , Kaur Abtar , Daniels David
Published: May 2011

Web-based distance learning is hampered in many cases by a failure to deliver material in a manner consistent with the ways in which students learn and instructors teach best in traditional environments (Samoriski, 2002). Excellent teachers are successful because of the ways in which they mediate content and place the content within the context of the subject matter. It is not the specific content or images the successful teacher presents, but rather the manner in which they are presented and framed within the scope of the topic area. Excellent teachers teach by presenting the content and then providing the students with substantive opportunities to apply the content to real-world problems in an effort to promote critical thinking on the part of the student. This is a highly interactive process with much information being transmitted between the student and the instructor. The interchange between the instructor and the student helps the student build a knowledge base with the assistance of the instructor’s experience and expertise in the topic area. The exact nature of the interchange is not predetermined and depends to a great extent on the creativity and breadth of experience of the instructor. The successful instructor adjusts his or her interaction with the students to the learning styles best suited to them. How do we provide the learner with this important component of traditional classroom education in asynchronous distance education or technology-mediated traditional classes? Web-based instruction is rapidly becoming the preferred mode of distance education, and we must adapt our instructional interaction styles to this medium. Our students now expect more interactive and immersive materials in Web-based learning than that typically provided in the traditional classroom or correspondence distance education (Samoriski, 2002). The TALON learning object system is a series of repurposeable learning object templates based on styles of teaching and learning as described by Dunning et al. (2003). These flash-based templates allow instructors to design and execute interactive learning objects in approximately 10% of the time required to create them from first principles, because the use of them requires little or no alteration of existing source code or writing of additional code (Abtar, Dunning, Harvinder, & Halimatolhanin, 2004; Dunning et al., 2004). The fact that the learning objects are based on the successful learning styles experienced in the traditional classroom ensures that the student is both engaged and allowed to build a knowledge base about the content being covered.
A Security Framework for E-Marketplace Participation
Authors: Ratnasingam Pauline
Published: May 2011

The increasing trend in the use of Internet-based emarketplace applications has created tremendous opportunities for businesses to manage effective supply chain management. An electronic market exists when a supplier provides goods and services to a customer in a transaction partially or fully automated by information technology. E-Marketplaces can be defined as a digital infrastructure that supports industrial commerce, such as auctions, catalogues and exchanges (Ivang & Sorenson, 2005). IDC predicts IT and e-marketplace spending will reach $496.7 billion in the U.S. and $1.3 trillion globally by the year 2009. Despite extensive research on this topic, there has been limited work in the realm of e-marketplace security. These e-marketplaces are generally implemented on the Internet, whose original purpose was to provide a robust heterogeneous distributed computing environment for applications that may not yet be developed. Previous researchers have noted that the formation of electronic marketplaces has been declining and that the failure rates are high. For instance, Dai and Kauffman (2002) suggest that only one-fifth of the electronic marketplaces in operation would succeed since firms have to face serious technical challenges. Theoretically e-marketplaces should enable firms to trade and collaborate more efficiently. The reason for this is due to the proliferation of affordable technology and the explosive growth of B2B transactions that have allowed buyers and sellers to conduct transactions electronically and to generate substantial savings and revenue for participants and owners (Sharifi, Kehoe, & Hopkins, 2006). Nevertheless, in reality, many emarketplaces disappeared during major consolidation phase (Tran, 2006).This study aims to examine the nature of security in e-marketplaces. We identify four types of risks, namely economic, technological, implementation, and relational risks in seven e-marketplace firms from a cross-section of different industries. We then present the control measures as in the responses that the seven firms enforced in order to reduce and manage their risks. The contribution of this study is the development of a security framework based on the findings for e-marketplace participation.
Simulation-Based Comparison of TCP and TCP-Friendly Protocols
Authors: Hosszú Gábor
Published: May 2011

Internet streaming media changed the Web from a static medium into a multimedia platform, which supports audio and video content delivery. In our days streaming media turns into the standard way of global media broadcasting and distribution. The low costs, worldwide accessibility, and technical simplicity of this telecommunication way make media streams very attractive for content providers. Streaming works by cutting the compressed media content into packets, which are sent to the receiver. Packets are reassembled and decompressed on the receiver side into a format that can be played by the user. To achieve smooth playback, packets are buffered on the receiver side. However, in case of a network congestion, the stream of packets slows down, and the player application runs out of data, which results in poor playback quality. This article presents the comparison of different transport level congestion control schemes, including variants of the TCP. The protocol mechanisms, implemented in various protocols, are hard to investigate in a uniform manner; therefore, the simulator SimCast (Simulator for multiCast) is developed for traffic analysis of the unicast and multicast streams. In this article the TCP and other transport protocol mechanisms will be compared using the SimCast simulator (Orosz & Tegze, 2001). The simulated results are presented through examples. Due to spreading of traffic lacking end-to-end congestion control, congestion collapse may arise in the Internet (Floyd & Fall, 1999). This form of congestion collapse is caused by congested links that are sending packets to be dropped only later in the network. The essential factor behind this form of congestion collapse is the absence of end-to-end feedback. On the one hand an unresponsive flow fails to reduce its offered load at a router in response to an increased packet drop rate, and on the other hand a disproportionate-bandwidth flow uses considerably more bandwidth than other flows in time of congestion. In order to achieve accurate multicast traffic simulation—being not so TCP-friendly yet—the effects of the flow control of the TCP protocol should be determined (Postel, 1981). However, there are many different kinds of TCP and other unicast transport protocol implementations with various flow control mechanisms, which make this investigation rather difficult (He, Vicat-Blanc Primet, & Welzl, 2005).
Acquisition Targets
Authors: Andriole Stephen J.
Published: May 2011

This chapter looks at the range of investment targets ranging all the way from software applications to communications networks to new advanced technologies like Web 2.0 and Web 3.0. The chapter talks about the opportunities in succession describing the range of opportunities available to CIOs, vendors, and VCs. The chapter also highlights the individual opportunities for all three investors through investment guidelines that appear at the end of each major section.
Enterprise Investing in Radio Frequency Identification (RFID)
Authors: Andriole Stephen J.
Published: May 2011

This is a case of enterprise investing in a specific technology—Radio frequency identification (RFID)—in an effort to add another technology-based service to, in this case, Oracle Corporation’s, repertoire of products and services. Oracle USA is one of the top software companies in the world today, with over 50,000 employees, $14 billion in revenues, and 150,000 customers. Oracle USA spends over $1 billion a year in research and development (R&D). Deciding upon a technological course requires a substantial investment in market research to ensure that R&D funding leads to products whose marketability goes from intuition to fruition. One of Oracle’s latest investments has been in the area commonly referred to as sensor-based computing (SBC) centered around a technology known as Radio Frequency Identification, or “RFID.”