bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Measuring Collaboration in Online Communication
Authors: Ingram Albert L.
Published: May 2011

Collaboration has become a key concept in the workplace, in research laboratories, and in educational settings. Companies want members of different departments located far apart to work together. Various government agencies try to establish collaborative relationships with private organizations. Academics and corporate researchers collaborate with far-flung colleagues to produce new knowledge. Students at all levels of our educational system are increasingly being asked to learn collaboratively. In addition, more work is being done online. Businesses communicate over the Internet, and increasing numbers of educational experiences are being delivered at a distance. Virtual high schools, traditional and for-profit distance education institutions, and colleges and universities are all among the current users of the Internet in education. In all of these situations—educational and non-educational, face-to-face, and online—several questions need to be addressed. First, what is collaboration? The word is sometimes used as if everyone already understands what it means, but we can find a variety of different definitions in the literature. Second, when we form groups to collaborate, how do we know when they have done so? Is it possible to measure the extent to which collaboration has occurred in a given group and setting? Third, what actions and conditions enhance the collaboration that does take place? And finally, does collaboration work? That is, do groups that are more collaborative produce better results or learning than groups that are less collaborative? This brief article will not attempt to answer all these questions, but it will concentrate on a specific issue: What methods can be used to determine whether, and how much, collaboration has occurred in online groups in various settings? We will explain our preferred definition of collaboration, based on previous research, and then discuss some of the implications of these ideas for online collaboration and for research into that issue.
Mobile Location Services
Authors: Giaglis George M.
Published: May 2011

The term “mobile era” as a characterization of the 21st century can hardly be considered an exaggeration (Kalakota & Robinson, 2001). Mobile phones are the fastest penetrating technology in the history of mankind, and global mobile phone ownership has surpassed even the ownership of fixed phones. Mobile applications, despite potentially being very different in nature from each other, all share a common characteristic that distinguishes them from their wire-line counterparts: they allow their users to move around while remaining capable of accessing the network and its services. In the mobility era, location identification has naturally become a critical attribute, as it opens the door to a world of applications and services that were unthinkable only a few years ago (May, 2001). The term “mobile location services” (MLS) [or “locationbased services (LBS), as they are sometimes also referred to] has been coined to group together applications and services that utilize information related to the geographical position of their users to provide value-adding services to them (Rao & Minakakis, 2003). This article provides a concise introduction to the major types of MLS and also introduces the reader to the most important positioning technologies that render the provision of MLS possible. Finally, the article also introduces a number of issues that are critical for the future of MLS, including privacy protection, regulation, and standardization.
Moderation in Government-Run Online Fora
Authors: Edwards Arthur , Wright Scott
Published: May 2011

A Dutch Internet dictionary has defined the moderator as “a person who exercises censorship on a mailing list or newsgroup.”1 Censoring the content of online discussion has often been considered as conflicting with the Internet’s libertarian tradition of free speech and unrestrained communication (Tsagarousianou, 1998). However, as the famous PEN-experiment (public electronic network) in Santa Monica (1990-96) showed, the desirability of free speech must be weighed against other legitimate concerns such as the need to facilitate discussion and counteract possible abuses of the medium (Docter & Dutton, 1998). This article analyses government-run online fora in which citizens and social organizations can discuss amongst themselves—or with government officials and elected representatives— issues of public concern. Effective moderation is considered crucial because the perceived anonymity in online fora weakens the norms of constitutive/self censorship that regulate face-to-face behaviour. It is thought that this can lead to “flame wars,” polarized debates and dominant minorities. Thus, while the anonymity of online environments may diminish the psychological thresholds that can limit participation, it may also exacerbate them—inhibiting the social cooperation needed to accomplish complex communicative tasks. Moderators, it is suggested, can mitigate such problems by stimulating and regulating discussions—facilitating purposeful social action (Coleman & Gøtze, 2001; Edwards, 2002, 2004; Wright, 2006a). Initial empirical analyses of online political discussion tended to focus on usenet newsgroups and found that debates were of poor deliberative quality and reinforced rather than changed pre-existing views (Davis, 1999; Hill & Hughes, 1998; Wilhelm, 2000). We must not extrapolate from this that all online political discussion is of poor quality— or, indeed, that all online discussion must be of high deliberative quality. The Internet provides us with a virtual commons upon which diverse interests can set up camp; the relative “free-for-all” provided by usenet can perform a useful socio-political function alongside regulated, government- led discussions. The two are not mutually exclusive. It is important that government-run online forums have clear aims, and are designed, structured, and moderated (or not) to ensure these are achieved (Wright, 2005; Wright & Street, forthcoming). A minimum level of moderation is normally required for legal reasons. Of course, this is balanced by local laws and rules on the right to free speech.
Motivation for Using Microcomputers
Authors: de Souza Dias Donaldo
Published: May 2011

Information technology implementation is an intervention we make in order to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of a sociotechnical system. Using microcomputers to help individuals perform their jobs and tasks is one of the most important actions we take when implementing this technology effectively. Information systems effectiveness has been extensively studied using, mainly, user satisfaction and quality of information constructs to evaluate users’ acceptability (Iivari & Ervasti, 1994; Ives et al., 1983; Neumann & Segev, 1979). However, sometimes, the result of this intervention is not successful and may even generate difficulties related to people participation in the process. This leaves us with a question: What motivates individuals to use microcomputer technology in their daily activities? Theorists and empirical researchers have been trying to understand the relevant motivators for the implementation and use of computer technology based on the idea that people make an effort if an activity is enjoyable or offers external rewards (Igbaria et al., 1996; Schwartz, 1983). They have been aiming to find out how individuals feel motivated to work with computers, and what motivates them to use computers in their daily activities.
Neural Networks for Intrusion Detection
Authors: Ma Rui
Published: May 2011

With the rapid expansion of computer networks, network security has become a crucial issue for modern computer systems. As an important and active defense technology, the intrusion detection system (IDS) plays an important role in defensive systems. IDSs provide real-time protection from interior attacks, exterior attacks, and invalid operations, and it can intercept intrusions and respond whenever the network system integrity is violated (Ma, 2004). Many intrusion detection approaches have been deeply researched and some widely deployed. But the diversification, complexity, and scale of intrusions raise new demands for IDSs. Neural networks are tolerant of imprecise data and uncertain information. With their inherent ability to generalize from learned data they seem to be an appropriate approach to IDSs (Hofmann, Schmitz, & Sick, 2003). This article discusses the detection of distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks using arti- ficial neural networks techniques. The implementation of a distributed intelligent intrusion detection system (DIIDS) is described, including both the data processing technique and neural networks approaches adopted.
Neural Networks for Retail Sales Forecasting
Authors: Zhang G. Peter
Published: May 2011

Forecasting of the future demand is central to the planning and operation of retail business at both macro and micro levels. At the organizational level, forecasts of sales are essential inputs to many decision activities in various functional areas such as marketing, sales, and production/purchasing, as well as finance and accounting (Mentzer & Bienstock, 1998). Sales forecasts also provide basis for regional and national distribution and replenishment plans. The importance of accurate sales forecasts for efficient inventory management has long been recognized. In addition, accurate forecasts of retail sales can help improve retail supply chain operations, especially for larger retailers who have a significant market share. For profitable retail operations, accurate demand forecasting is crucial in organizing and planning purchasing, production, transportation, and labor force, as well as after sales services. Barksdale and Hilliard (1975) examined the relationship between retail stocks and sales at the aggregate level and found that successful inventory management depends to a large extent on the accurate forecasting of retail sales. Agrawal and Schorling (1996) and Thall (1992) also pointed out that accurate demand forecasting plays a critical role in profitable retail operations, and poor forecasts would result in too-much or too-little stocks that directly affect revenue and competitive position of the retail business. The importance of accurate demand forecasts in successful supply chain operations and coordination has been recognized by many researchers (Chopra & Meindl, 2007; Lee, Padmanabhan, & Whang, 1997). Retail sales often exhibit both seasonal variations and trends. Historically, modeling and forecasting seasonal data is one of the major research efforts, and many theoretical and heuristic methods have been developed in the last several decades. Different approaches have been proposed, but none of them has reached consensus among researchers and practitioners. Until now, the debate is still not abated in terms of what the best approach to handle the seasonality is. On the other hand, it is often not clear how to best model the trend pattern in a time series. In the popular Box-Jenkins approach to time series modeling, differencing is used to achieve stationarity in the mean. However, Nelson and Plosser (1982) and Pierce (1977) argued that differencing is not always an appropriate way to handle trend, and linear detrending may be more appropriate. Depending on the nature of the non-stationarity, a time series may be modeled in different ways. For example, a linear or polynomial time trend model can be used if the time series has a deterministic trend. On the other hand, if a time series exhibits a stochastic trend, the random walk model and its variations may be more appropriate.
The Nomological Network and the Research Continuum
Authors: Masterson Michael J. , Rainer Jr. R. Kelly
Published: May 2011

Social science and management information systems (MIS) research have been criticized for failure to integrate theory construction and theory testing (see e.g., Subramanian & Nilakanta, 1994). In particular, concerns with MIS as a cohesive research discipline have long included inadequate construct development and lack of valid, reliable measuring instruments for those constructs (Keen, 1980). Understanding the theoretical basis of constructs and how they are developed and tested across the research continuum are fundamentals of a cohesive academic discipline. To provide a common research framework for the growth of MIS as a scientific discipline, this chapter proposes a framework for an integrated research continuum across the life cycle of the research process.
Organizational Project Management Models
Authors: de Carvalho Marly Monteiro , Barbin Laurindo Fernando José , de Paula Pessôa Marcelo Schneck
Published: May 2011

Project management plays an important role in the competitive scenario, and achieved in the 1990s the status of methodology (Carvalho & Rabechini, Jr., 2005). Nowadays, there are more than 100,000 practitioners that earned the Project Management Professional (PMP®) certification from the Project Management Institute (PMI). This indicator highlights the increasing interest in project management area, especially in the IT companies, which are one of the top five industries in PMI’s membership numbers (PMI, 2005). The widely spread framework proposed by PMI called Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBoK), now in the third edition (PMBoK, 1996, 2000, 2004), has been adopted by several kinds of project-driven organization (PMI, 2004). PMBoK clusters the main project management best practices in nine key areas. Nevertheless, a research carried out by Standish Group (2003) showed high failure level in IT project in North America. The research involved about 13.522 projects, of which only 34% can be considered a success. The main causes for IT projects failure were related to user’s commitment, manager support and requirement definition. It is important to emphasize that, regarding the project success measure in historical perspective, the success rate improved if compared to the first similar research carried out in 1999, which was just 16%. Based on this scenario, this chapter presents the main organizational project management models in order to help companies to upgrade project performance.
Policy Options for E-Education in Nigeria
Authors: Olatokun Wole Michael
Published: May 2011

Information and communication technology (ICT) has turned the world into a global village, and its impact is being felt in all spheres of life. Though it has been rightly said that what is wrong with education cannot be fixed with technology; there is no doubt that modern life is dominated by technology. In today’s globalized world, there is a universal recognition of the need to use ICT in education because the free flow of information via satellite and the Internet hold sway in global information dissemination of knowledge. The application of ICT to education brought about the concept of e-education. This chapter considers the concept of e-education vis a vis the provisions of the national policy for information technology, and gives a state of the art with regard to some e-education initiatives that have been embarked upon by the government, nongovernmental organizations, and other stakeholders in the country. It also identified the challenges constraining the effective deployment and exploitation of ICT for teaching and learning in the Nigerian education system, and recommends some policy options for the development of e-education in the country. The next section gives a background to the concept of e-education.
Project Management and Graduate Education
Authors: Brandon Jr. Daniel
Published: May 2011

Project Management is “the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to the project activities in order to meet or exceed stakeholder needs and expectations from a project” (Duncan, 1996). A project is defined as “a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product or service” (Duncan, 1996). This article provides an overview of the coverage of the project management discipline in academic graduate education.
Promotion of E-Government in Japan and Its Operation
Authors: Kitagaki Ikuo
Published: May 2011

one of the strategies of so called “e-Japan” (Ohyama, 2003). It had been decided that e-government shall be constructed within the fiscal year 2003. Preparation in terms of the legal system and technological developments made steady progress towards that goal. The construction of e-government should alleviate residents’ burdens in terms of bureaucracy, enhance service quality rationalization, lean and transparent administrative agencies, countermeasures for natural calamities, more participation in policy making and administration by residents, and so forth. Various tasks have been carried out at many places. For example, in Autumn of 2002 a “basic residential register network” was established. Its initiation enjoyed broadly smooth operation. Residents had received administrative services only within certain jurisdiction limits until then. Now they are free to enjoy access to any administrative services from anywhere in Japan thanks to this e-system. Some local authorities introduced electronic tenders to enhance transparency of administration. Some local authorities adopted an electronic voting system in part of their areas. This paper explains the details of how the construction of the e-government came about and what the status of its operation is. In constructing an e-government, basic researches in respect of relevant individual electronic chores are necessary. In reality, however, planning and drawing up an idea will often be brought about, depending on certain actual domestic social circumstances of the legal systems or certain consensus within and between relevant representative bodies of the government. Because of such circumstances, we have decided to list up general magazines easily available which report often on these themes and the most up-to-date URLs of relevant organizations of the Japanese government.
Qualitative Spatial Reasoning
Authors: Hazarika Shyamanta M.
Published: May 2011

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has, as one of its central topics, the ability to represent and reason with common sense knowledge. Early forays into common sense reasoning about the physical world involved solving textbook problems on physics and mathematics. These were not adequate for reasoning about most commonplace physical scenarios. A system suggested by DeKleer, involving both quantitative knowledge and qualitative information concerning the physical situation marked the starting point for qualitative physics (Weld & DeKleer, 1990). Hayes’ Naive Physics Manifesto (Hayes, 1985) paved the way for establishing qualitative physics (meantime re-christened qualitative reasoning) as an important topic of research within AI. Qualitative Reasoning (QR) is an approach for dealing with common sense knowledge without recourse to complete quantitative knowledge. Representation of knowledge is through a limited repository of qualitative abstractions. Space and spatial change is an important part of common sense reasoning. Naive Physics Manifesto proposed to represent space-time with four-dimensional histories. Despite early forays such as the Naive Physics Manifesto, representation of space within QR has been ill addressed. Nevertheless, there has been an increasing interest over the last few years in qualitative spatial reasoning - reasoning about space using qualitative abstractions.
Reconfigurable Computing Technologies Overview
Authors: Shih Kai-Jung , Hsiung Pao-Ann
Published: May 2011

Reconfigurable computing is breaking down the barrier between hardware and software design technologies. The segregation between the two has become more and more fuzzy because reconfigurable computing has now made it possible for hardware to be programmed and software to be synthesized. Reconfigurable computing can also be viewed as a trade-off between general-purpose computing and application specific design. Given the architecture and design flexibility, reconfigurable computing has catalyzed the progress in hardware-software codesign technology and a vast number of application areas such as scientific computing, biological computing, artificial intelligence, signal processing, security computing, and control-oriented design, to name a few. In this article, we briefly introduce why and what is reconfigurable computing in the introduction section. Then, the resulting enhancements of hardware-software codesign methods and the techniques, tools, platforms, design and verification methodologies of reconfigurable computing will be introduced in the background section. Furthermore, we will introduce and compare some reconfigurable computing architectures. Finally, the future trends and conclusions will also be given. This article is aimed at widespread audiences, including both a person not particularly well grounded in computer architecture and a technical person.
Researching Technological Innovation in Small Business
Authors: Tatnall Arthur
Published: May 2011

The introduction of a new information system into a small business, or upgrading an existing system, should be seen as an innovation and considered through the lens of innovation theory. The most widely accepted theories of how technological innovation takes place are provided by innovation diffusion (Rogers, 1995) and the technology acceptance model (Davis, 1986), but most of the research based on these models involves studies of large organizations or societal groups. This article argues that another approach, innovation translation, has more to offer in the case of innovations that take place in smaller organizations (Burgess, Tatnall, & Darbyshire, 1999; Tatnall, 2002; Tatnall & Burgess, 2004).
Security-Based Knowledge Management
Authors: Ho Shuyuan Mary , Wang Chingning
Published: May 2011

As knowledge is recognized as intellectual (or intangible) assets that can enhance an organization’s competitive capability, how to effectively manage knowledge assets has become an important issue in the information age (Alavi, 2000). Literature in knowledge management (KM) emphasizes issues on knowledge creation, knowledge codification, knowledge sharing, and knowledge utilization; however, security perspectives on assuring knowledge confidentiality and knowledge integrity are left unaddressed. This article takes an initial step to address different perspectives of security centric knowledge management. This article first presents the background of security-based knowledge management. It then discusses sources of security threats in knowledge-based organizations and identi- fies challenges in four aspects of knowledge management practices, which are culture-based, strategy-based, contentbased (or standard-based), and technology-based, along with a discussion of 10 corresponding security domains. Real-world cases are intertwined with the challenges faced by knowledge-based organizations. This article ends with further envisioning the future trends of the security-based knowledge management.
Semantic Video Analysis and Understanding
Authors: Mezaris Vasileios , Papadopoulos Georgios Th.
Published: May 2011

Access to video content, either amateur or professional, is nowadays a key element in business environments, as well as everyday practice for individuals all over the world. The widespread availability of inexpensive video capturing devices, the significant proliferation of broadband Internet connections and the development of innovative video sharing services over the World Wide Web have contributed the most to the establishment of digital video as a necessary part of our lives. However, these developments have also inevitably resulted in a tremendous increase in the amount of video material created every day. This presents new possibilities for businesses and individuals alike. Business opportunities in particular include the development of applications for semantics-based retrieval of video content from the Internet, video stock agencies or personal collections; semantics-aware delivery of video content in desktop and mobile devices; and semantics-based video coding and transmission. Evidently, the above opportunities also reflect to the video manipulation possibilities offered to individual users. Besides opportunities, though, the abundance of digital video content also presents new and important technological challenges, which are crucial for the further development of the aforementioned innovative services. The cornerstone of the efficient manipulation of video material is the understanding of its underlying semantics, a goal that has long been identified as the “Holy grail of content-based media analysis research” (Chang, 2002). Efforts to understand the semantics of video content typically build on algorithms that operate at the signal level, such as temporal and spatiotemporal video segmentation algorithms that aim at partitioning a video stream into semantically meaningful parts. To support the goal of semantic analysis, these signal-level algorithms are augmented with a priori knowledge regarding the different semantic objects and events of interest that may appear in the video and their signal-level properties. The introduction of a priori knowledge serves the purpose of facilitating the detection and exploitation of the hidden associations between the signal and semantic levels, resulting in the generation of semantically meaningful metadata for the video content. In this article, existing state-of-the-art semantic video analysis and understanding techniques are reviewed, including a hybrid approach to semantic video analysis that is outlined in some more detail, and the future trends in this research area are identified. The literature presentation starts in the following section with signal level algorithms for processing video content, a necessary prerequisite for the subsequent application of knowledge-based techniques.
Social and Legal Dimensions of Online Pornography
Authors: Ibrahim Yasmin
Published: May 2011

The dialectics between private pleasures and public needs raise various dilemmas, especially in the domain of the erotic and aesthetics. These are relative and abstract terms that can vary from individual to individual. However, in the public spaces of the Internet, the need for community standards of decency, acceptability, and taste often drag many of the debates about the Internet into a legal space, despite its description as a virtual sphere and the libertarian endeavours to keep it free from government and organizational control. While the Internet is a global resource it is often ruled through the laws of its physical embeddedness, and the global nature of the Internet also means that it is consumed and assessed through the differing cultural practices and norms that prevail in various parts of the world. The Internet as a communication and information platform is then subject to varying codes of ethical and moral conduct by different communities whether online or off-line. While the realm of the erotic is often equated with individual pleasure and psyche, the proliferation of pornography on a public platform raises social, moral, and legal concerns for communities, states, and governments. One significant element in the development of the Internet as a market place has been the availability of explicit sexual material, and these electronic networks continue to feed the pornography boom and facilitate new methods for consumers to interact with sexual content as “porn” (Spencer, 1999). These networks highlight the “privatising” potential of technology, especially in relation to sexual matters, while illuminating new forms of formal and informal exchanges (Jacobs, 2004, p.72; Spencer, 1999). The Internet, from being a rather unregulated enterprise a few years ago, has recently become the focus of multiple ethical concerns and debates and in some cases, it has amounted to moral panic (Bkardjieva & Feenerg, 2000; Cavanagh, 1999).
Software and Systems Engineering Integration
Authors: Gibson Rick
Published: May 2011

With software an increasingly significant component of most products, it is vital that teams of software and systems engineers collaborate effectively to build cost effective, reliable products. This article will identify the key aspects of software engineering and systems engineering in an effort to highlight areas of consensus and conflict to support current efforts by practitioners and academics in the both disciplines in redefining and integrating their professions and bodies of knowledge. In response to increasing concerns about software development failures, the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) pioneered a software process improvement model in 1988, with the fully developed version of their Capability Maturity Model for Software (SW- CMMâ) appearing in 1993. Since the early nineties, there have been comparable improvement models introduced in the systems engineering community as well, some of which have been published and widely accepted include: Systems Engineering Capability Maturity Model (SE-CMM), also known as the Electronic Industries Alliance Interim Standard (EIA/IS) 731, Systems Engineering Capability Model (SECM), and the Integrated Product Development Capability Maturity Model (IPD-CMM). The resulting avalanche of models and standards has been described by Sarah Sheard (Software Productivity Consortium) as a “Framework Quagmire”. In December of 2000, the SEI initiated the Capability Maturity Model–Integrated (CMMISM) project, which combines best practices from the systems and software engineering disciplines. (Note: CMMâ and CMMISM are copyrights and service marks of the Software Engineering Institute.) Recent studies (Carter et al., 2003; Goldenson & Gibson, 2003) have validated the SEI’s assertion the each of the disciplines benefit from incorporation of principles from the other. Moreover, there appears to be no fundamental differences between the disciplines that would prevent their integration.
Software Reuse in Hypermedia Applications
Authors: Paiano Roberto
Published: May 2011

Hypermedia applications were, at the beginning, hand-coded pages with “ad-hoc” links. This production method was acceptable until a few pages had to be produced, but it became rapidly unmanageable when several hundreds of pages with complex interactive objects had to be considered. In particular, two interwoven problems rapidly became relevant: how to ensure the “usability” of modern large hypermedia-applications (Garzotto, Matera & Paolini, 1999), and how to improve the efficiency of its production/maintenance process. In good hypermedia applications, in fact, the reader should be able to effectively exploit the information contained in the application: that is, he or she should be able to quickly locate the objects of interest, to understand the inner structure of the objects and to easily navigate from one object to another. Several factors concur to the achievement of usability: one of the most important is to have a good structuring of the information objects and a good structuring of the navigation patterns.
Spreadsheet End User Development and Knowledge Management
Authors: Avdic Anders
Published: May 2011

In the early days of computers, expertise was needed in order to use computers. As IT tools have become more powerful and user friendly, more and more people have been able to use computers and programs as tools when carrying out working tasks. Nowadays, it is possible for people without special IT training to develop Information Systems (IS) that only IT specialists could have done some years ago. In this paper End User Development (EUD) using a Spreadsheet Program (SP) is discussed from a knowledge management perspective. EUD can be a part of an organization’s effort to take advantage of existing, often tacit, knowledge or creating new knowledge. An end user is a person who acts both as a user and a systems developer. A typical feature of an end user is that he has a good (often unique) knowledge of the business and the work related to the IS in question, which is called the User Developed Application. It is the combination of these two sorts of knowledge which is the key to EUD as knowledge management. The aim of this of this chapter is to relate EUD to knowledge management and, specifically, to describe how tacit knowledge can be audited when end users develop spreadsheet systems for their own domain of expertise. The main source is a set of qualitative case studies carried out between 1995 and 2005. (Avdic, 1999; Westin, Avdic & Roberts, 2005)
Strategic Alignment Between Business and Information Technology
Authors: Barbin Laurindo Fernando José
Published: May 2011

Information technology (IT) has assumed an important position in the strategic function of the leading companies in the competitive markets (Porter, 2001). Particularly, ecommerce and e-business have been highlighted among IT applications (Porter, 2001). Two basic points of view can be used for understanding IT’s role: the acquisition of a competitive advantage at the value chain, and the creation and enhancement of core competencies (Porter & Millar, 1985; Duhan, Levy, & Powell, 2001). Several problems have been discussed concerned with IT project results in effectiveness of their management. Effectiveness, in the context of this article, is the measurement of the capacity of the outputs of an information system or of an IT application to fulfill the requirements of the company and to achieve its goals, making this company more competitive (Shimizu, Carvalho, & Laurindo, 2006). There is a general consensus about the difficulty of finding evidence of returns over the investments in IT (the “productivity paradox”), even though this problem can be satisfactorily explained (Farrell, 2003). Carr (2005) defends the idea that IT in itself has no more strategic value, since it is so widely disseminated that it could not be a source of strategic differentiation anymore. In order to better use these investments, organizations should evaluate IT effectiveness, which allows the strategic alignment of objectives of implemented IT applications and their results with the company business vision (Shpilberg, Berez, Puryear, & Shah, 2007; Laurindo & Moraes, 2006). Besides, it must be highlighted that if IT applications are associated with changes in business processes, it is possible to notice greater impacts in business performance (Farrell, 2003). According to Benko and McFarlan (2003), three aspects must be taken into account about IT strategic alignment: IT projects portfolio, business objectives, and the constantly changing situation of business environment. Thus, the comparison and evaluation of business and IT strategies and between business and IT structures must be a continuous process, since the company situation is constantly changing to meet market realities and dynamics.
Supporting Real-Time Services in Mobile Ad-Hoc Networks
Authors: Calafate Carlos Tavares
Published: May 2011

Mobile ad-hoc networks (MANETs) are well known by their flexibility and usefulness, being an ideal technology to support ubiquitous computing environments. Such environments are expected to support a plethora of applications, including real-time video and voice communications. In terms of applications, this technology can be used whenever there is a lack of infrastructure for support, which typically occurs in rescue missions, areas affected by natural disasters, remote areas, war scenarios, and also in the underground. The use of real-time voice and video communications could allow, for example, firemen rescue teams to communicate seamlessly and for the head officer to remotely supervise their activity using different video channels. The deployment of real-time services over mobile adhoc networks requires QoS (quality of service) support at different network layers. QoS support is understood as the network ability to offer some guarantees about the traffic being delivered. Within the scope of QoS we often define performance in terms of availability (uptime), bandwidth (throughput), latency (delay), delay jitter, and error rate. Offering QoS support in mobile ad-hoc network environments is, nevertheless, quite difficult due to the innate complexity of these networks. The problems that impact mobile ad-hoc networks can be split according to the network layer affected. At the physical layer, frequent topology changes?in conjunction with channel contention and unstable radio links?make real-time services support in such networks very hard to achieve (Georgiadis, Jacquet, & Mans, 2004). At the Medium Access Control (MAC) layer, channel access is typically distributed, provoking the well-known hidden and exposed node problems, which complicate bandwidth reservation. At the network layer, routing protocols have to deal with frequent topology changes and simultaneously discriminate among the available paths to meet QoS requirements. At the application layer, awareness of the type of networks and technologies being used allows applications to adapt themselves according to path conditions and so improve performance. This article discusses the aforementioned issues related to QoS challenges and solutions in mobile ad-hoc networks. It first includes some background information on the history of QoS support in computer networks. It then refers to the problematic of QoS support in mobile ad-hoc networks by referring MAC and routing layer solutions, along with QoS architectures for ad-hoc networks. To conclude the article there is reference to future trends in terms of QoS support in ad-hoc networks.
Technology-Enhanced Progressive Inquiry in Higher Education
Authors: Muukkonen Hanni , Lakkala Minna , Hakkarainen Kai
Published: May 2011

In higher education, students are often asked to demonstrate critical thinking, academic literacy (Geisler, 1994), expertlike use of knowledge, and creation of knowledge artifacts without ever having been guided or scaffolded in learning the relevant skills. Too frequently, universities teach the content, and it is assumed that the metaskills of taking part in expert-like activities are somehow acquired along the way. Several researchers have proposed that in order to facilitate higher-level processes of inquiry in education, cultures of education and schooling should more closely correspond to cultures of scientific inquiry (e.g., Carey & Smith, 1995; Perkins, Crismond, Simmons & Under, 1995). Points of correspondence include contributing to collaborative processes of asking questions, producing theories and explanations, and using information sources critically to deepen one’s own conceptual understanding. In this way, students can adopt scientific ways of thinking and practices of producing new knowledge, not just exploit and assimilate given knowledge.
Telemedicine Applications and Challenges
Authors: Iyer Lakshmi S.
Published: May 2011

Telemedicine has the potential to help bridge the time and distance gaps that can mean life or death for some patients. It can provide live video conferencing between local, rural doctors and clinics to the necessary specialists at a major hospital or research center. These conferences can provide quick and accurate diagnosis and save both the patient and the doctor time and money. This article presents a background on telemedicine including components, applications and benefits of telemedicine, challenges and trends in telemedicine, and conclusion with some direction for future research in telemedicine.
Toward a Framework of Programming Pedagogy
Authors: Lau Wilfred W.F. , Yuen Allan H.K.
Published: May 2011

Why is learning to program so difficult? One difficulty is that learning to program needs the acquisition of a multitude of inter-related skills. Jenkins (2002) argues that programming is a complicated task, which requires the mastery of a number of skills such as problem solving, abstraction, mathematical logic and testing, debugging and so forth. A novice programmer simply lacks these skills. More importantly, success in learning to program demands knowledge of computer itself. Ben-Ari (1998) points out that students lack a viable mental model to learn programming. On the other hand, undue emphasis is placed on the learning of programming syntax (Deek, 1999). In this article, we will focus on approaches of teaching computer programing. Winslow (1996) introduced the term “programming pedagogy” in his paper. Although programming pedagogy is not explicitly defined in the paper, the term here refers to any instructional methods and strategies which are used to teach students introductory programming. Due to these reasons, programming pedagogy calls for special attention.
Toward Societal Acceptance of Artificial Beings
Authors: Thomas Daniel I. , Vlacic Ljubo B.
Published: May 2011

In this article, we present a simple training exercise designed to test a candidate’s leadership ability to negotiate with other members of the organization, using their influence to achieve (partially or fully) their goals. While in practice, the play scenario would consist of combinations of human and artificial beings, the training scenario presented shall consist solely of artificial FEPs in order to demonstrate how influence can affect a result in a collaborative process.
Transforming Recursion to Iteration in Programming
Authors: Tsadiras Athanasios
Published: May 2011

The main advantage of a Recursive Algorithm (an algorithm defined in terms of itself) is that it can be easily described and easily implemented in a programming language (van Breughel, 1997). On the other hand, the efficiency of such an algorithm is relatively low because for every recursive call not yet terminated, a number of data should be maintained in a stack, causing time delays and requiring higher memory space (Rohl, 1984). Solving the same problem iteratively instead of recursively can improve time and space efficiency. For example, to solve a problem that involves N recursive procedure calls, it will require stack space linear to N. On the contrary, using iteration, the program will need a constant amount of space, independent of the number of iterations. There are programming languages, such as Prolog, that do not possess built-in iterative structures and so recursion should be used instead. Nevertheless, there are ways to write recursive programs that have similar behaviour with that of the corresponding iterative programs.
Trends in Information Technology Governance
Authors: Peterson Ryan R.
Published: May 2011

Information technology (IT) governance has been a perennial item on the corporate agenda of many organizations. Ever since IT proved to be more than an administrative tool, researchers and practitioners have pondered its governance. Defined as the locus of IT decision-making authority (Brown & Magill, 1994; Sambamurthy & Zmud, 1999), discussions concerning IT governance have flourished for more than four decades across research communities and boardrooms. Posed as a question of centralization during the 70s, IT governance drifted towards decentralization in the 80s, and the recentralization of IT decision-making was a 90s trend. Today, IT governance is experiencing yet another transformation, and persists as a complex and evolving phenomenon (Grembergen, 2003). As business environments continuously change and new technologies evolve rapidly, how to govern IT effectively remains an enduring and challenging question. This chapter discusses past developments and the present status quo of IT governance, and outlines several critical questions, which are pending future investigation.
Web Access by Older Adult Users
Authors: Becker Shirley Ann
Published: May 2011

The older adult population in the U.S. continues to increase at a rapid pace due to aging baby boomers and increased life expectancy. Older Americans, 60 years and older, will comprise about 20% of the total population by 2030, which is more than twice the number of aging adults than in 2000 (Administration on Aging, 2002). The Web offers an unprecedented opportunity for older adults to access a wealth of online resources. Increasingly, older adults are using the Web for information on self-diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of health problems (Preidt, 2003). They are taking advantage of electronic government resources to vote, file taxes, obtain social services, voice their opinions to officials, and search historical records. Older adults are also using the Web to stay socially active in terms of communicating with other users via lists and chat rooms (Czaja, Guerrier, Nair & Landauer, 1993; Kerschner & Hart, 1984).
Web-Based Customer Loyalty Efforts and Effects on E-Business Strategy
Authors: Forgionne Guisseppi , Ingsriswang Supawadee
Published: May 2011

Despite continued market growth, a number of Web sites have been unprofitable. Some notable failures were eToys. com, boo.com, bluefly.com, buy.com, and valueamerica. com. An examination of the companies’ IPO filings suggests that the collapses were caused by cut-price strategies, overinvestment, incorrect expectations, and non-profitability. Surviving in the digital market has become a critical challenge for Web managers. To face the business challenge, Web managers and marketers demand information about Web site design and investment effectiveness (Ghosh, 1998). As the rate and diversity of product/service innovation declines and competition intensifies, Web managers need better research on Internet-related investment decisions (Donath, 1999; Hoffman, 2000). The original article examined the role of customer retention actions in these decisions (Forgionne & Ingsriswang, 2005). This article updates the original analysis by incorporating new research on comprehensive e-business strategy models.
Wireless Ad Hoc Networking
Authors: Erbas Fazli
Published: May 2011

Mobile ad hoc networks represent a new form of communication consisting of mobile wireless terminals (e.g., handset, PDAs, notebooks). These type of networks are wireless multi-hop packet networks without any fixed infrastructure and centralized administration, in contrast to today’s wireless communications, which is based on a fixed, pre-established infrastructure. The design of wireless ad hoc networks faces many unique challenges. In this article, mobile ad hoc networks and their characteristics are described, and the design issues, applications and future trends of such networks will be discussed.
Mobile E-Health
Authors: Archer Norm
Published: May 2011

Health care is an industry with a diverse set of stakeholders: governments, private health care providers, medical practitioners (physicians, nurses, researchers, etc.), home health care providers and workers, and last but not least, clients/patients and their families. Overlapping and interacting environments include hospitals, clinics, long-term care facilities, primary care providers, homes, and so forth, involving acute, emergency, chronic, primary, and outpatient care. Patient transitions between these environments are often unnecessarily difficult due to an inability by providers to access pre-existing patient records. Mobile/wireless solutions can play an important role in supporting health care by providing applications that access health care records and reduce paperwork for clinical physicians, nurses, and other workers, community health care practitioners and their patients, or mobile chronically ill patients such as diabetics. This chapter makes the case for mobile health care and its solutions in the non-acute community health care environment, where critical issues include usability, adoption, interoperability, change management, risk mitigation, security and privacy, and return on investment. A proposed community health care application demonstrates how these issues are addressed.