bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Certificate Management Interoperability for E-Government Applications
Authors: Mitrakas Andreas
Published: May 2011

Secure eGovernment aims at supporting public administration in delivering enhanced public services. In eGovernment electronic signatures and certification services are used to invoke trust and security in services and applications. Certification services, however, are often on offer in an apparent geographical or contextual isolation threatening to create new fault lines across eGovernment services that rely on them. As public administration often operates at multiple levels and in a compartmental manner, the risk is that limitations in the interoperability of certification services might hamper trust and security in the whole value chain of eGovernment. Drawing from the case of small public administrations this paper proposes a certification service architecture and approach to support interoperability in secure eGovernment services.
Enabling Federated Identity for E-Government
Authors: Candia Tanya , Madsen Paul
Published: May 2011

Today’s administrative and business environment calls for information sharing on an unprecedented scale, from government to business to citizen. Sharing and interoperating among agencies, businesses, and governments around the world create opportunities to simplify processes and unify work, as well as improve the overall performance of government. Secure interoperability, based on identity management solutions, enables substantial cost savings, streamlined processes and faster communication of vital information to the benefit of governments and citizens of all nations. At the core of this revolution is the concept of federated identity management and the need for standards that are open, interoperable and decentralized. In addition, such standards must allow for privacy safeguard across all sectors. The Liberty Alliance Project (Liberty Alliance, n.d.) was established to address this need and tackle the twin issues of standards and trust.
The Promise of Digital Government
Authors: Garson G. David
Published: May 2011

E-government promises to mark a new era of greater convenience in citizen access to governmental forms, data, and information. Its advocates promise that not only will e-government bring the convenience of online transactions, but it will also reverse citizens’ disaffection from government, create dramatic savings, and reinforce rather than erode traditional American freedoms and liberties. E-government, however, is better thought of not as a revolution, but as an attempt to bring the e-business model into the public sector. A component-by-component examination of the e-business model shows that it is fraught with problems, challenges, and limitations as well as opportunities. The promise of digital government will be fulfilled only by a new generation of public managers who are generalists, not technocrats, capable of integrating the disparate fields of consideration, which are necessary aspects of the vision of e-government as a whole.
E-Government-Induced Business Process Change (BPC)
Authors: Scholl Hans J. ("Jochen")
Published: May 2011

E-government (e-gov) projects have an increasing influence on how government business processes evolve and change. While early e-gov projects focused on government-to-public information and interaction, the second and third wave of e-gov projects also emphasize internal effectiveness and efficiency, along with intra- and interdepartmental as well as intra- and interbranch integration. With these increases in scope and scale of e-gov projects, existing business processes, including core processes, become candidates for improvement and change. While the private-sector-oriented literature on business process change abounds with descriptive and prescriptive accounts, no equivalent has been found in the public-sector-related literature. Although many insights drawn from the private sector may apply, the public sector seems to develop distinct practices. This paper contributes to the understanding of current practices in e-gov-induced business process change, comparing those practices to prescriptions derived from private-sector experience. Among other factors, the more inclusive approach observed in e-gov business process change may explain the higher success rate of public-sector projects compared to those reported from the private sector.
Biometric Authentication in Broadland Networks for Location-Based Services
Authors: Thompoulos Stelios C.A. , Argyreas Nikolaos
Published: May 2011

Broadband communication networks have begun to spread rapidly over fixed networks, with wireless networks following at close distance. The excess capacity allows the offering of broadband services at competitive rates. Location based services (LBS) over wireless broadband networks are becoming mainstream in an emerging ambient intelligence society. For LBS over broadband and, in particular, pier-to-pier networks, such as ad-hoc networks, unambiguous user authentication is of paramount importance to user trust and safety, thus ultimately to the success of such service. Biometric authentication is an approach to providing irrefutable identity verification of a user, thus providing the highest level of security. This chapter addresses some of the issues associated with the use of biometric ID for user and apparatus authentication over broadband wireless networks (e.g. GPRS, UMTS, WiFi, LANs) and narrow band local networks (e.g. BlueTooth, Zigbee, PANs, BANs).
An Overview on Strategic ICT Implementations Toward Developing Knowledge Societies
Authors: Rahman Hakikur
Published: May 2011

As nations continue to conceptualize, adopt, implement and monitor their respective information and communications technologies (ICTs) policies and e-strategies, it is vital that a critical assessment is undertaken on their effective progress. This includes analysis of strategies, methodologies and best practices while weighing the impact, effectiveness and efficiency of these policies and strategies. However, the demands, motivations and incentives of various governments for adopting, adapting and initiating ICTs varies from country to country, with diverse economic, social, cultural and political environments. Researches in this aspect recognized the necessity of a cohesive ICT policy and strategic framework in each country for socio-economic development at their grass roots. The execution of these policies and strategies should include concrete national commitment and strong political will at the highest levels of government, and an enabling environment that promotes stakeholder involvement in setting agendas and implementing plans and programs. This chapter provides insights into various national implementations in promoting related activities, tried to establish an analytical approach that would assist in formulating ICT policies and strategies by identifying different ICT indicators. Furthermore, this chapter focuses on critical aspects of different strategic national level policies with short-medium-long term visions that targeted both the immediate needs of the populace and long-term needs of nations by integrating ICTs. Finally, this chapter has recommended that via coherent and complimentary policies that engage both the private sector and civil society organizations, nations can move forward towards creating a knowledge society and at the same time by leveraging capabilities of ICT can address the social, economic and political issues on the ground.
Digital Divide
Authors: Burtseva Liudmila , Cojocaru Svetlana , Gaindric Constantin , Magariu Galina , Verlan Tatiana
Published: May 2011

In this chapter the authors introduce the digital-divide concept to the reader, bring its different definitions, and describe the short history of the problem. The basic figures and facts, which characterize the information and communication technologies’ usage in different countries and regions, are given as well. Also, basic indicators that allow the monitoring of the country’s advancement on the way to bridging the digital divide are stated. The main purpose for the authors was to show that the digital divide is not only (and not as much) a technical problem, but rather a social and political one. Hence, the approaches to this problem decision, both in the world community as a whole and in separate countries, are described.
The Genesis, Political, and Economic Sides of the Internet
Authors: Targowski Andrew
Published: May 2011

The purpose of this chapter is to show that the Cold War is behind the invention of the Internet. This is one of a very few positive results of this war, which had tremendous influence on the further development of civilization. The research on the universality of info-communication processes was conducted on both sides of the Iron Curtain, which indicates the similarities in engineering thinking, regardless of the geographic locations. The political meaning of the Internet does not only result from its history but also stands for the support of democratic development and the obstruction of dictatorships. The history of the Internet is also an example of the development of great engineering talents and research and development centers, which rise to the occasion on such ambitious projects. All of these aspects of the Internet will be investigated in this paper, as well as its impact upon the emergence of the Global Civilization.
Collaboration Challenges in Community Telecommunication Networks
Authors: Albert Sylvie , LeBrasseur Rolland
Published: May 2011

This article reviews the literature on networks and, more specifically, on the development of community telecommunication networks. It strives to understand the collaboration needed for innovative projects such as intelligent networks. Guided by a change management framework, collaboration within a community network is explored in terms of the formation and performance phases of its development. The context, content, and process of each phase is analyzed, as well as the interaction of the two phases. User involvement and technology appropriation are discussed. Collaboration challenges are identified and linked to the sustainability of the community network. Policy makers are presented with a model that gives some insight into planning and managing a community network over time.
Task-Oriented Online Discussion
Authors: Havard Byron , Du Jianxia , Olinzock Anthony
Published: May 2011

A dynamic task-oriented online discussion model for deep learning in distance education is described and illustrated in this chapter. Information, methods, and cognition, three general learning processes, provide the foundation on which the model is based. Three types of online discussion are prescribed: flexible peer, structured topic, and collaborative task. The discussion types are paired with tasks encouraging students to build on their adoptive learning, promoting adaptive learning and challenging their cognitive abilities, resulting in deep learning. The online discussion model was applied during two semesters of an online multimedia design for instruction graduatelevel course. The strategies for creating dynamic discussion serve to facilitate online interactions among diverse learners and assist in the design of assignments for effective interactions. The model proposed and the strategies for dynamic task-oriented discussion provide an online learning environment in which students learn beyond the course goal.
ICT and Distance Learning for Agricultural Extension in Low Income Countries
Authors: Latchem Colin R. , Maru Ajit
Published: May 2011

About 2 billion people in low-income countries are dependent upon smallholding farming for their livelihoods. These are among the world’s poorest people. Most of them lack land tenure and farm in regions with limited land and water resources. Many must cope with drought, desertification, and environmental damage caused by failed land reforms, large-scale monocropping, overgrazing, logging, destroyed watersheds, and the encroachment of new pests and diseases. They use only the most primitive of tools and they lack the knowledge and skills to improve their farming methods, value-add their produce, and compete in national and global markets. Many of these smallholder communities have been devastated by HIV/AIDS. In some regions of sub-Saharan Africa, food production has dropped by 40%, and it is estimated that over the next 20 years, 26% of the agricultural labour force will be lost to this pandemic. And demographic and economic changes in the low-income nations are increasingly leaving farming in the hands of women, who lack the knowledge and resources to farm efficiently.
ICTs for intercultural Dialog (ICT4ID)
Authors: Minana Victor Giner
Published: May 2011

This case study will focus on UNESCO’s cross-disciplinary programme spanning the sectors of communication and culture, “Information and Communication Technologies for Intercultural Dialogue: Developing Communication Capacities of Indigenous Peoples (ICT4ID).” It will show a general overview of the five ongoing pilot projects. This programme aims at preserving indigenous peoples’ cultural resources by fostering access to ICT. These are the expected results: • Indigenous community representatives trained in media content production and ICT use. • Indigenous cultural content produced for television, radio and news media. • Awareness raised at an international level of indigenous creativity. • Advocacy made for the importance of cultural diversity and its expression through ICTs. • Reinforcement of intercultural dialogue through the inclusion of indigenous peoples’ cultural expressions in mainstream knowledge societies. In order to achieve these objectives, the programme has begun to implement five pilot projects worldwide. These five projects can be divided into two groups: the first group of projects focusing on the audiovisual and the second group consisting of two projects related to multimedia.
Guiding Our Way
Authors: King Kathleen P. , Melia Frank J. , Dunham Marlene D.
Published: May 2011

Increased accountability for student outcomes among teachers led to an examination of the needs and motivations of 324 K-12 educators who participated in 6-week online professional development modules of study. This research was conducted through focus groups and an online survey. The most telling findings indicate four themes regarding teacher online professional development: learner expectations, learner support and access, incentives, and content. This project illuminates issues that arise in formal education online learning environments as we continue to discover how to best serve educators’ learning needs. This two step study uses surveys and focus groups to empirically identify critical factors in instructional design and implementation. It benefits from large samples and the application of knowledge derived from Group A experiences to Group B. Follow-up research of 944 participants at year 4 of the project provides additional insight into technology use and motivation.
A Framework for Business Performance Management
Authors: van der Kooij Marco
Published: May 2011

To manage their performance in a dynamic and complex environment, organizations need forward-looking intelligence. Forward-looking intelligence is the ability to make reliable predictions about where the business is going to and what is driving the business. To produce forward-looking intelligence, an organization should have an insight into its business drivers, an adequate management process, and skilled people able to collaborate and share knowledge. To support the production of forward-looking intelligence, the role of information technology is crucial. However, the existing decision-support infrastructures in companies often fail to support this production. In this chapter, a framework is presented that can be used to structure and organize the production of forward-looking intelligence. This framework also serves as a background for the evaluation and implementation of a supportive ICT infrastructure.
Organizational Performance and IT Investment Intensity of South African Companies
Authors: Nel Johan
Published: May 2011

This chapter considers if a link exists between company performance and information technology (IT) investment intensity in selected South African companies. The study, which covered the period 1989–1991, was based on the hypotheses viz: that in top performing companies (1) IT costs as proportions of operating costs were higher; (2) IT costs as a proportion of turnover was lower, than in weak performing companies; and (3) that a positive correlation exists between the computerization index and operating cost efficiency ratio. Evidence is presented that company performance was linked to the level of IT investment intensity in a sample of organizations in the RSA. Findings of later case study research supporting this are also presented.
Management of Telecommunications Services
Authors: Teer Faye P. , Choi Young B. , Teer Harold B.
Published: May 2011

Telecommunications companies are facing a challenge in satisfying changing customer demands related to telecommunications services. Historically, the industry challenge was managing the changing technology; today the industry must also focus on the management of telecommunications services. The purpose of this paper is twofold: (1) to provide an argument for the importance of the management of telecommunications services as a vital new course area at the university level and (2) to describe one possible model for a new undergraduate course, Management of Telecommunications Services. The paper is targeted to university faculty and administration and corporate representatives responsible for technology education. The ultimate goal of the course is to align the university curriculum with the needs of the telecommunications industry and provide industry with entry level Information Technology employees who have an understanding of the fundamentals of the management of telecommunications services.
A Cultural Studies Approach to Gender and ICT
Authors: Lie Merete
Published: May 2011

This article introduces a cultural studies approach to the field of gender and ICT. This implies an emphasis on the symbolic aspects of technology. Technologies are approached as cultural phenomena to which meaning is attached, but in the sense that they are open to various interpretations. Technology holds a position as a key symbol in Western societies. A key symbol is, in Sherry B. Ortner’s terms, a symbol that helps us to sort out experiences and put them into place within cultural categories, and even help us think about “how it all hangs together” (Ortner, 1973, p. 1341). This key symbol has gone through a radical transformation from mechanical machines to ICTs as the leading technologies. An important question is how changing technologies are linked to another key symbol, namely that of gender. Moreover, following from that question, how can you study the relationship of gender and ICTs when both are continually changing?
A Look back at the PAKDD Data Mining Competition 2006
Authors: Noriel Nathaniel B. , Tan Chew Lim
Published: May 2011

The 10th Pacific-Asia Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining (PAKDD) 2006 Data Mining Competition involved the problem of classifying mobile telecom network customers into second generation (2G) and third generation (3G) services, with the ultimate aim of identi-fying existing 2G network customers who had a high potential of switching to using the mobile operator’s new 3G mobile network and services. This paper discusses the background behind the preparation of the dataset, the choice of judging criteria incorporating both a quantitative measure of accuracy and a set of subjective qualitative assessments, and finally a summary of the participation and results. We also highlight, in the report, interesting observations and find-ings from some of the participating teams.
Data Warehousing, Multi-Dimensional Data Models and OLAP
Authors: Deshpande Prasad M. , Ramasamy Karthikeyan
Published: May 2011

Since the advent of information technology, businesses have been collecting vast amounts of data about their daily transactions. For example, a company keeps track of data regarding the sales of its various products at different stores over a period of time. Businesses can gain valuable insights by analyzing this data to spot trends and correlations in the data. Data warehousing, multidimensional analysis, and online analytical processing (OLAP) refer to a set of technologies that address the problem of business data analysis. Data warehousing has become the established paradigm for knowledge workers to sift through mountains of historical data in order to extract nuggets of business information. Data analysis tools have been used in various forms historically since the 1960s (Pendse, 2003). Recently, there has been a rapid growth in the industry, with the total worldwide OLAP market estimated at about $3.7 billion in 2003 (Pendse). This has also been an active area of research with many contributions in data warehouse design, storage, view selection, cube computation, indexing, and query evaluation.
Exception Rules in Data Mining
Authors: Daly Olena , Taniar David
Published: May 2011

Data mining is a process of discovering new, unexpected, valuable patterns from existing databases (Frawley, Piatetsky-Shapiro, & Matheus, 1991). Though data mining is the evolution of a field with a long history, the term itself was only introduced relatively recently, in the 1990s. Data mining is best described as the union of historical and recent developments in statistics, artificial intelligence, and machine learning. These techniques are then used together to study data and find previously hidden trends or patterns within.
An Experimental Replication With Data Warehouse Metrics
Authors: Serrano Manuel , Calero Coral , Piattini Mario
Published: May 2011

Data warehouses are large repositories that integrate data from several sources for analysis and decision support. Data warehouse quality is crucial, because a bad data warehouse design may lead to the rejection of the decision support system or may result in non-productive decisions. In the last years, we have been working on the definition and validation of software metrics in order to assure data warehouse quality. Some of the metrics are adapted directly from previous ones defined for relational databases, and others are specific for data warehouses. In this paper, we present part of the empirical work we have developed in order to know if the proposed metrics can be used as indicators of data warehouse quality. Previously, we have developed an experiment and its replication, and in this paper, we present the second replication we have made with the purpose of assessing data warehouse maintainability. As a result of the whole empirical work, we have obtained a subset of the proposed metrics that seem to be good indicators of data warehouse quality.
Data Warehousing Solutions for Reporting Problems
Authors: Kontio Juha
Published: May 2011

Reporting is one of the basic processes in all organizations. It provides information for planning and decision making and, on the other hand, information for analyzing the correctness of the decisions made at the beginning of the process. Reporting is based on the data that the operational information systems contain. Reports can be produced directly from these operational databases, but an operational database is not organized in a way that naturally supports analysis. An alternative way is to organize the data in such a way that supports analysis easily. Typically, this method leads to the introduction of a data warehouse.
Improving Classification Accuracy of Decision Trees for Different Abstraction Levels of Data
Authors: Jeong Mina , Lee Doheon
Published: May 2011

Classification is an important problem in data mining. Given a database of records, each tagged with a class label, a classifier generates a concise and meaningful description for each class that can be used to classify subsequent records. Since the data is collected from disparate sources in many actual data mining environments, it is common to have data values in different abstraction levels. This article introduces the multiple abstraction level problem in decision tree classification, and proposes a method to deal with it. The proposed method adopts the notion of fuzzy relation for solving the multiple abstraction level problem. The experimental results show that the proposed method reduces classification error rates significantly when multiple abstraction levels of data are involved.
Partially Supervised Classification
Authors: Liu Zhigang , Shi Wenzhong , Li Deren , Qin Qianqing
Published: May 2011

This paper addresses a new classification technique: Partially Supervised Classification (PSC), which is used to identify a specific land-cover class of interest from a remotely sensed image using unique training samples that belongs to a specified class. This paper also presents and discusses a newly proposed novel Support Vector Machine (SVM) algorithm for PSC. Accordingly, its training set includes labeled samples that belong to the class of interest and unlabeled samples of all classes randomly selected from a remotely sensed image. Moreover, all unlabeled samples are assumed to be training samples of other classes and each of them is assigned a weight factor indicating the likelihood of this assumption; hence, the algorithm is called ‘Weighted Unlabeled Sample SVM’ (WUS-SVM). Based on the WUS-SVM, a PSC method is proposed. Experimental results with both simulated and real datasets indicate that the proposed PSC method can achieve encouraging accuracy and is more robust than the 1-SVM and the Spectral Angle Mapping (SAM) method.
The Application of Data Mining Techniques in Health Plan Population Management
Authors: Perry Theodore L. , Tucker Travis , Hudson Laurel R. , Gandy William , Neftzger Amy L. , Hamar Guy B.
Published: May 2011

Healthcare has become a data-intensive business. Over the last 30 years, we have seen significant advancements in the areas of health information technology and health informatics as well as healthcare modeling and artificial intelligence techniques. Health informatics, which is the science of health information,1 has made great progress during this period (American Medical Informatics Association). Likewise, data mining, which has been generally defined as the application of technology and statistical/mathematical methods to uncover relationships and patterns between variables in data sets, has experienced noteworthy improvements in computer technology (e.g., hardware and software) in addition to applications and methodologies (e.g., statistical and biostatistical techniques such as neural networks, regression analysis, and classification/segmentation methods) (Kudyba & Hoptroff, 2001). Though health informatics is a relatively young science, the impact of this area on the health system and health information technology industry has already been seen, evidenced by improvements in healthcare delivery models, information systems, and assessment/diagnostic tools.
Empowering the OLAP Technology to Support Complex Dimension Hierarchies
Authors: Mansmann Svetlana , Scholl Marc H.
Published: May 2011

Comprehensive data analysis has become indispensable in a variety of domains. OLAP (On-Line Analytical Processing) systems tend to perform poorly or even fail when applied to complex data scenarios. The restriction of the underlying multidimensional data model to admit only homogeneous and balanced dimension hierarchies is too rigid for many real-world applications and, therefore, has to be overcome in order to provide adequate OLAP support. We present a framework for classifying and modeling complex multidimensional data, with the major effort at the conceptual level as to transform irregular hierarchies to make them navigable in a uniform manner. The properties of various hierarchy types are formalized and a two-phase normalization approach is proposed: heterogeneous dimensions are reshaped into a set of wellbehaved homogeneous subdimensions, followed by the enforcement of summarizability in each dimension’s data hierarchy. Mapping the data to a visual data browser relies solely on metadata, which captures the properties of facts, dimensions, and relationships within the dimensions. The navigation is schema-based, that is, users interact with dimensional levels with on-demand data display. The power of our approach is exemplified using a real-world study from the domain of academic administration.
A Porter Framework for Understanding the Strategic Potential of Data Mining for the Australian Banking Industry
Authors: Smith Kate A. , Dale Mark S.
Published: May 2011

This chapter employs Michael Porter’s Five Forces model to understand the potential strategic value of data mining within the Australian banking industry. The motivation for examining the strategic potential of data mining is to counter balance the preponderance of process level arguments for adopting this technology (e.g., risk and fraud mitigation, market campaigns, etc.) with an industry level perspective of what the technology potentially means for competition between rival firms (i.e., industry behavior). In essence, this chapter explores how data mining can affect industry structure and attractiveness by assisting businesses such as banks defend themselves against forces such as those asserted by buyers, substitute products, new entrants, and suppliers. This chapter also explores the future implications of data mining for the banking industry, the operating models of those institutions and the underlying economics of the industry. The emergence of data mining presents banks with the opportunity to either continue to develop their core competencies around the design, manufacture, distribution and support of products and/or to develop critical competencies around customer relationship management. A possible “contract banking” model supported through the application of data mining is discussed.
Motivations and Barriers to the Adoption of 3G Mobile Multimedia Services
Authors: Pagani M. , Schipani D.
Published: May 2011

This chapter provides an end-user perspective on mobile multimedia services that are likely to emerge with the roll out of Third Generation Mobile Services (3G). More specifically, the objectives of the study are: to provide an insight into current behavior in terms of attitudes towards, access and usage of multimedia mobile services by current end users; to establish main clusters of mobile users; to investigate the possible motivations and barriers of usage of new mobile multimedia services as viewed by current users. The remainder of this chapter is organized into the following four sections. The first section provides a brief review of the literature on the technology acceptance model. Next we present our research model based on a qualitative exploratory survey conducted in six markets. Then we test the proposed model on the Italian market and present the analysis and results of our study. Finally we make conclusions by discussing the implications of our study, followed by presenting future research directions.
Multimedia Digital Library as Intellectual Property
Authors: Sasaki H. , Kiyoki Yasushi
Published: May 2011

The principal concern of this chapter is to provide those in the digital library community with the fundamental knowledge on the intellectual property rights and copyrights regarding multimedia digital libraries. The main objects of our discussion are the multimedia digital libraries with content-based retrieval mechanisms. Intellectual property rights are the only means for database designers to acquire their incentive of content collection and system implementation in database assembling. We outline the legal issues on multimedia digital libraries and retrieval mechanisms. As the protection of intellectual property rights is a critical issue in the digital library community, the authors present legal schemes for protecting multimedia digital libraries and retrieval mechanisms in a systematic, engineering manner.
Mobile Multimedia
Authors: Ibrahim Ismail Khalil , Ahmad Ashraf , Taniar David
Published: May 2011

Mobile multimedia, referring to multimedia information exchange over wireless networks or wireless Internet, is made possible due to the popularity and evolution of mobile computing devices, coupled with fast and affordable mobile networks. This chapter discusses various state-of-the-art communication technologies to support mobile multimedia. The range of complexity of applications and services provided to end-users also play an important part in the success of mobile multimedia.
Face Animation
Authors: Arya A. , Hamidzadeh Babak
Published: May 2011

This chapter will discuss the multimedia modeling and specification methods, especially in the context of face animation. Personalized Face Animation is and/or can be a major user interface component in modern multimedia systems. After reviewing the related works in this area, we present the ShowFace streaming structure. This structure is based on most widely accepted industry standards in multimedia presentations like MPEG-4 and SMIL and extends them by providing a higher level Face Modeling Language (FML) for modeling and control purposes and by defining image transformations required for certain facial movements. ShowFace establishes a comprehensive framework for face animation consisting of components for parsing the input script, generating and splitting the audio and video “behaviors,” creating the required images and sounds, and eventually displaying or writing the data to files. This component-based design and scripted behavior make the framework suitable for many purposes including web-based applications.
Distanced Leadership and Multimedia
Authors: Connaughton Stacey L.
Published: May 2011

At the dawn of the 21st century, more and more organizations in various industries have adopted geographically dispersed work groups and are utilizing advanced technologies to communicate with them (Benson-Armer & Hsieh, 1997; Hymowitz, 1999; Townsend, DeMarie & Hendrickson, 1998; Van Aken, Hop & Post, 1998). This geographical dispersion varies in form. For example, some organizations have adopted “telecommuting,” in which members may work at home, on the road and/or at the office (Hymowitz, 1999). Other organizations have created teams that are globally dispersed. A leader located in Palo Alto, California, for example, may be responsible for coordinating employees in Belgium, China and Mexico.
Short Message Service (SMS) as an Advertising Medium
Authors: Okazaki Shintaro
Published: May 2011

The proliferation of the Internet-enabled mobile device has extended into many parts of the world. Collectively, the mobile-network operators paid more than $100 billion for licenses to operate “third-generation” (3G) networks, which were among “the largest bet in business history on the introduction of a new technology” (Economist, 2005). This drastic move has been most illustrated by the use of short message service (SMS) and multimedia messaging service (MMS) by mobile users. For example, a recent survey indicates that SMS in the Asia-Pacific region will increase to up to 75% of mobile subscribers in 2006 (IDC Asia/Pacific, 2003). As a result, marketers and agencies are increasingly interested in taking advantage of this growth, by incorporating SMS advertising as part of an integrated marketing communications (IMC) strategy. However, there has been little academic research on mobile advertising, perhaps because its growth is still in an early stage and the technological infrastructure varies across markets. The study has two objectives: (1) to identify the factors influencing MNCs’ managerial intention to adopt SMS advertising, and (2) to test a statistical relationship between these factors and managerial intention to use SMS advertising. To this end, we conducted telephone interviews of senior executives of MNCs operating in European markets.
Incorporating User Perception in Adaptive Video Streaming Systems
Authors: Cranley Nicola , Murphy Liam
Published: May 2011

There is an increasing demand for streaming video applications over both the fixed Internet and wireless IP networks. The fluctuating bandwidth and time-varying delays of best-effort networks makes providing good quality streaming a challenge. Many adaptive video delivery mechanisms have been proposed over recent years; however, most do not explicitly consider user-perceived quality when making adaptations, nor do they define what quality is. This chapter describes research that proposes that an optimal adaptation trajectory through the set of possible encodings exists, and indicates how to adapt transmission in response to changes in network conditions in order to maximize user-perceived quality.
Agent Strategies in Economy Market
Authors: Chiong Raymond , Jankovic Lubo
Published: May 2011

IThis chapter presents a method on modelling the economy market using agent-based representation and iterated prisoner’s dilemma (IPD). While IPD has been used widely in various economic problems, most of the studies were based on quantitative data which could be deductive and inappropriate. The main objective of this chapter is to present a unique agent based approach which places lower demand on data using IPD to model the complexity of the economy market. We create a simulated market environment with agents acting as firms to perform transactions among each other with chosen IPD strategy. From empirical results, we investigate strategic interactions among different firms. In the concluding remarks, we present our observations on the qualities of a winning strategy.
What Orders Reality
Authors: Abdoullaev Azamat
Published: May 2011

To model reality by mapping its content to computable forms, we need to know how to represent the first-class entities of any existence, relationships, the adhesive of the world. Both human and machine understanding of the universe, its parts and realms, consists in knowing the cardinal relationships and underlying rules and making valid inferences from them. The Semantic Web ontology is often identified with a schema defining relationships between different resources. For instance, the OWL markup language is supposed to specify the types of relationships represented in RDF language employing an XML vocabulary, with a view to determine the relationships (and hierarchies) among diverse Web data resources identified by URI. And the formal specification of relationships determines the meaning (semantics) of knowledge domains, and the universality and credibility of any ontology, its rigor, cogency, validity, and richness, come from the capacity to fully describe all the possible types of relationships in a domain of knowledge or practice. Without a systematic theory of relations, it hardly is possible to form a universal account (language or theory) describing reality, its entity classes, properties, individuals with their particular properties, on which human or machine reasoning has to take place.
Standards for Web Services
Authors: Karakostas Bill , Zorgios Yannis
Published: May 2011

Chapter II presented the main concepts underlying business services. Ultimately, as this book proposes, business services need to be decomposed into networks of executable Web services. Web services are the primary software technology available today that closely matches the characteristics of business services. To understand the mapping from business to Web services, we need to understand the fundamental characteristics of the latter. This chapter therefore will introduce the main Web services concepts and standards. It does not intend to be a comprehensive description of all standards applicable to Web services, as many of them are still in a state of flux. It focuses instead on the more important and stable standards. All such standards are fully and precisely defined and maintained by the organizations that have defined and endorsed them, such as the World Wide Web Consortium (http://w3c. org), the OASIS organization (http://www.oasis-open.org) and others. We advise readers to visit periodically the Web sites describing the various standards to obtain the up to date versions.
Learning Objects
Authors: Hanewald Ria
Published: May 2011

This chapter provides an overview of the field of digital objects and repositories. It introduces the concepts of digital objects and repositories, their purposes, and their abilities to develop a coherent understanding of their nature and function. It continues by identifying and describing a number of generic and language-specific repositories. Examples of language objects are given to illustrate potentials and pitfalls. The review and dissemination of knowledge about these innovative resources assists educators in embracing new portals for teaching and learning languages with the most recent technologies. How they are being used and how this might fit into the future of language education is outlined to capitalize on their potential while avoiding the pitfalls. It is argued that showcasing repositories, promoting leading practice among language educators, and advocating high-quality digital resources prevents the further marginalization of language education in online environments. The main issue of standardization and neutrality are outlined, and the tension of value-free learning objects vs. the values embedded in the cultural aspects integral to language teaching and learning are explored. The chapter concludes with future research opportunities on learning objects, specifically in relation to the field of language acquisition to ensure adequate design and thus worthwhile use of future digital resources.
Frustration in Virtual Learning Environments
Authors: Gutiérrez-Colon Plana Mar
Published: May 2011

Many language teachers, students, and institutions of virtual learning environments are well acquainted with the feelings of loneliness and frustration that many students experience due to the fact that many virtual language courses base their methodology on simply uploading the material into the virtual classroom. Teachers should be aware of the learning process itself; that is, they shouldn’t talk only about new learning technologies for second language acquisition but also of new methodologies. In this chapter, we present some methodological actions that should be avoided in the virtual language classroom and try to suggest ways to improve teachers’ online practices. In order to collect data from some students enrolled in English language subjects in their degree course (English Philology and Mechanical Engineering at University Rovira i Virgili, Tarragona, Spain), a questionnaire was created. This chapter is part of the project PID08-PROFID, which receives financial support from the Institut de Ciències de l’Educació (URV).
The LAFEC Experience for Language Skills Acquisition
Authors: Simon Heli , Laine Päivö , Seppänen Ann , Barata Ana , Vaz de Carvalho Carlos
Published: May 2011

This chapter presents the tutoring methodology adopted in an e-learning language course for students in vocational training and higher education as well as staff from small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) in various European countries. The course concerns the acquisition of basic language skills essential to develop effective e-commerce Web sites in several languages. It is based on a student-centered, peer-learning approach that promotes collaboration between students and tutors. It also includes a set of new tools, such as an electronic ontology-based dictionary that allows new forms of putting theory into practice. The chapter presents results from an initial implementation with students from four European countries and China.
Civilization Market Integration
Authors: Targowski Andrew
Published: May 2011

The purpose of this chapter is to define the dynamics of the economic infrastructure, which supports any civilization and defines the modus operandi of the world civilization in the 21st century and third millennium. This chapter especially addresses the economic roles of two countries/civilizations: Will the Chinese economy, as many suggest, continue its strong economic advance under its system of “authoritarian capitalism” and surpass in size that of the United States and its economically integrated partners (currently NAFTA), or will China convulse and stagnate? This chapter explores the scenario that the United States will see its destiny at the heart of a free trade area of the Atlantic with an economy significantly greater than China’s and with an even larger population. China will remain the dominant Asian economy, but it will do so independently, not as part of a regional economic union. The future of capitalism is also addressed. What kind of capitalism or other economic system must be applied in order to keep the world population within the threshold of the Ecosystem? The answer to this question will determine the future of civilization.
The Information Architecture of the Universe
Authors: Targowski Andrew
Published: May 2011

For years, the construction of the universe has occupied the best minds of theologians and scientists. The first modern breakthrough was made by Copernicus about 500 years ago. Later, in the 20th century, contributions were made with the bold theories developed by Albert Einstein, Edwin Hubble, Roger Penrose, Stephen Hawking, and others. Science continues to discover the great mystery of the universe and life. But the more we know about this subject, the worse our outlook may be on the fate of humankind. The magnitude of the universe and our own smallness are in such contrast that it seems we are in a hopeless situation, even if you take into account only life’s perspective on the earth. However, the study of the universe may bring some unexpected surprises and humankind may after all have a future, particularly if we decipher the mystery by whom and how the universe was developed. This study has assumed the position of considering intelligent design in the origin of the universe, but with the addition of proposing that any existence of intelligent design would suggest corollary problems that must be scientifically testable.
Applications of Kernel Methods
Authors: Camps-Valls Gustavo , Martínez-Ramón Manel , Rojo-Álvarez José Luis
Published: May 2011

In this chapter, we give a survey of applications of the kernel methods introduced in the previous chapter. We focus on different application domains that are particularly active in both direct application of well-known kernel methods, and in new algorithmic developments suited to a particular problem. In particular, we consider the following application fields: biomedical engineering (comprising both biological signal processing and bioinformatics), communications, signal, speech and image processing.