bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Access Rainbow
Authors: Clement Andrew , Shade Leslie R.
Published: May 2011

This chapter presents the Access Rainbow, a seven-layer conceptual model of access to the information/communications infrastructure intended to strengthen public interest perspectives in current information highway policy discussions. In particular, it aims to provide the basis for a workable definition of universal access and point to concrete steps for achieving this ideal.
Academic-Community Partnerships for Advanced Information Processing in Low Technology Support Settings
Authors: Collins Rosann Webb
Published: May 2011

What knowledge is required to enable individuals in community agencies to harness advanced information and communication technologies (ICTs) to promote their communities’ development? Around the world organizations of all types use ICTs to significantly enhance and transform the quality and efficiency of work. Knowledge workers in community agencies, like knowledge workers in general, want to employ the full power of ICTs, both to provide services electronically and to improve their own access to information. There is an increased need to be able to “gather and interpret data efficiently and effectively into functional information for professional acting social work settings” (Grebel & Steyaert, 1995, p. 163). There are a variety of roles in community agencies, including administrators, program developers, counselors, and teachers. All individuals filling these roles would be categorized as knowledge workers because their tasks require non-routine and complex work, they must apply their knowledge capital to these tasks, their work requires significant cognitive information processing, and their written and verbal outputs have information content (Davis et al., 1993). Their needs for more information include content information to help community agency employees provide service to clients more effectively, information on community and other resources that can provide additional help for clients, as well as information that helps employees assess their service programs and the management of their agencies. These needs stem from both the desire to provide better service to clients and increased pressure from funding sources, public and private, for more accountability.
Radio B-92 in Belgrade Harnesses the Power of a Media Activist Community During the War to Keep Broadcasting Despite Terrestrial Ban
Authors: Hamman Robin
Published: May 2011

During the 1999 war between NATO and the former Yugoslavia, an opposition radio station in Belgrade used the Internet to continue to disseminate news and music despite having their terrestrial transmitting equipment confiscated by Serbian authorities. This article will discuss how Radio B-92 was able to do this through the close coordination of radio station staff in Serbia and their partners from within the European media activist community. This article will begin by setting the activities of Radio B-92 and its partners during the Spring of 1999 in a historical context by discussing the use of broadcast and other media during the wars and conflicts of the past.
The Role of Standards for Interoperating Information Systems
Authors: Hasselbring Wilhelm
Published: May 2011

For integrating heterogeneous information systems, semantic interoperability is necessary to ensure that exchange of information makes sense — that the provider and requester of information have a common understanding of the ‘meaning’ of the requested services and data. Effective exchange of information between heterogeneous systems needs to be based on a common understanding of the transferred data. This chapter discusses the role of domain-specific standards for managing semantic heterogeneity among dissimilar information sources. The process of integrating such heterogeneous information systems is also discussed in this context, whereby standards play a central role for ‘initiating’ top-down processes by means of defining common data models for the involved information sources.
E-Retailing
Authors: Sugianto Ly Fie , Sendjaya Sen
Published: May 2011

Internet commerce has brought forward a new spectrum of business practice. It radically changes the way we do business. These changes have been fairly impulsive and inevitable. Limitations caused by traditional commercial practices, such as barriers to reach the whole target market due to geographical distance,and high transaction costs due to engagement costs for attorney, agent and broker involvement, are no longer major issues as businesses become adept at identifying mechanisms to create and deliver value. In view of this new trend, a critical question to be answered is, what is the implication of Internet commerce on the conventional way of conducting business? Has Internet commerce changed the retailing market by eliminating the intermediaries out of the transaction chain? Or, has it defined new roles for the retail industries and intermediaries? This chapter attempts to reveal the impact of Internet commerce to discover new opportunities and identify challenges, in particular, for the intermediaries. It presents a physical and virtual model of business environment and highlights the business areas which would have been affected the most by the introduction of on-line services. The discussion in this chapter is aimed to enable the reader to evaluate the trends, the gains and the losses resulting from Internet commerce in today’s competitive business environment.
Consumer Motivations for Commercial Web Site Use
Authors: Stafford Thomas F. , Stafford Marla Royne
Published: May 2011

The purpose of this chapter is to explore theoretical background and previous research on new media uses and motivations as an avenue to understanding consumer motivations to use commercial Internet resources. This chapter will explore the communications theory of uses and gratifications, and will report and discuss the implications of a descriptive research process that establishes the domain of consumer motivations for Web site use. Building from a series of on-line focus groups conducted with the HotWired Internet site, the research discussed in this chapter includes the construction of an inventory of descriptive terms used to indicate the various areas of utility and enjoyment represented by the on-line experience. The objective of the chapter is to expose the reader to a theoretical perspective that is useful for understanding how consumers are motivated to use the Internet, by exploring and describing what consumers enjoy and seek in the on-line experience of Web sites. Knowledge of what consumers seek from a medium (uses), and what they enjoy about a medium (gratifications) prepares the reader to understand and utilize the tremendous communications and marketing resource represented by the World Wide Web. Research from previous studies of new media introductions provides a unique historical perspective available for grounding the conceptualization of the Web as a communications and marketing channel. The theoretical perspective developed from this research has been robust – applied over time to the introduction of television in the late 1940s and early 1950s, as well as to the innovations of video recording and time-delayed media exposure and media control through electronic remote devices.
The Retail Payments System and Internet Commerce
Authors: Lee Boon-Chye
Published: May 2011

The payments system is a linchpin of the modern economy. Transactions involving non-cash payment for goods, services, or the transfer of asset ownership rely on the payments system to effect payment. The development of electronic commerce as an extension of the way in which people carry out transactions will depend crucially on the development of efficient and secure payments methods capable of supporting electronic delivery. At the same time, the preferences of consumers regarding different payment methods, whether it is cash, credit cards, debit cards or stored-value cards, are determined by a complex mix of economic, behavioural, cultural, and institutional factors. Consumer preferences and attitudes towards different payment methods are an important factor that must be taken into account by firms offering their products and services on the Internet. Payments may be divided into two broad categories. The term “wholesale payments” is used to refer to very large value payments, typically interbank transfers related to the clearing and settlement functions of banks. “Retail payments” refers to all other payments, including consumer-to-business as well as business-to-business payments. While wholesale payments have been electronic since the 1960s, retail payments remain predominantly based on cash and paper (primarily cheques). In this chapter we focus on developments in the retail payments system, and particularly on its capacity to serve the requirements of consumers in Internet commerce. Because the development of electronic commerce technologies has been driven in large part by considerations of efficiency, it is essential that the supporting payments system be able to match the efficiency of the underlying transactions.
A Mobile Agent Computation Model for Best Buy Searching
Authors: Shih Timothy K.
Published: May 2011

The Internet changes our shopping style. With the growing popularity of Web browsers, electronic commerce (EC) has become a trend of next-generation shopping style. EC software applications are written as Web document control programs, which run on service providers. The techniques used including information retrieval, network communication, database management, communication security and others. Due to the huge volume of data transmitted on the Internet, and the number of electronic commerce shoppers, currently the Internet is overloaded on its limited communication bandwidth. Research contributions are proposed to overcome this problem. Mobile agents are computer programs that can be distributed across networks to run on a remote computer station. The technique can be used in distributed information retrieval which allows the computation load to be added to servers, but significantly reduces the traffic of network communication. Many articles indicate that this approach is a new direction to software engineering. However, it is hard to find a theoretical base of mobile agent computing and interaction over the Internet. We propose a graph-based model, with a simulation design, for the mobile agents, which evolve over the Internet. Based on the concepts of food web (or food chain), one of the natural laws that we may use besides neural networks and genetic algorithms, we define agent niche overlap graph and agent evolution states for the distributed computation of mobile agent evolution. The proposed model can be used to build an environment for many electronic commerce applications, such as advertisement agent or survey questionnaire agent.
The Challenge of the Law to Electronic Commerce
Authors: Dusollier Severine , Jacquemyns Laetitia Rolin
Published: May 2011

In the Communication on Electronic Commerce of 19971 , the European Commission stressed that “in order to allow electronic commerce operators to reap the full benefits of the Single Market, it is essential to avoid regulatory inconsistencies and to ensure a coherent legal and regulatory framework for electronic commerce.” The electronic marketplace has a crucial need to know “the rules of the game”2 in order to carry out electronic commerce. Therefore, the regulatory framework has to be clear, stable and predictable, both to enable e-commerce operators to face all challenges raised by the development of new products and services and to ensure the trust and confidence of consumers in the new electronic supermarket. These are the main objectives of the legislative action of the European Commission3 which has, in recent years, laid the foundations for a consistent setting of the legal scene for electronic commerce in Europe. It is worth recalling that the action of the Commission has been and should be guided by the key principles of the EC Treaty, particularly by the concern for the Internal Market and the enhancement of the circulation of products and services. A clear consequence is that any regulatory intervention of the Commission should be directed to a further harmonization or clarification of the existing rules in order to lift the uncertainties and discrepancies in national policies which might impede the free circulation of electronic goods and services. Other key concerns of the European Commission are to refrain from over-regulating electronic markets and businesses and to remain open to a self-regulatory approach and alternative dispute resolution. This last guideline is particularly followed in the recent Draft Directive on electronic commerce4 .
Toward an Autopoietic Approach for Information Systems Development
Authors: Abou-Zeid El-Sayed
Published: May 2011

Several weaknesses of information systems development methodologies have been identified and studied in the recent years. These weaknesses can be viewed from different perspectives such as: • The characteristics of the outcomes, i.e., information systems: The current methodologies are producing systems with rigid and inflexible that are difficult to maintain and to evolve (e.g., Loucopoulos, 1991). • The degree of the domain-independence: There is a gap between the way system development methodologies in the mainstream of scientific and technical literature and the way they are carried out in real life situations. This is mainly due to the domain-independence of most of these methodologies (Bansler & Bolker, 1993, Vessy & Glass, 1998). • The conceptual and philosophical bases: The dominance of the functionalistic view in the most of current methodologies (Hirschheim, Klein & Lyytinen, 1995, Iivari, 1991, Iivari, Hirschheim & Klein, 1998). In addition, most of information systems development methodologies under-utilize the richness of concepts and insights provided by new and emerging theories such as autopoiesis, self-organization, and fuzzy logic. Moreover, they do not accommodate the new emerging information systems and technologies such as component and framework technologies, web-enabled information systems and ERP.
An Environment for Managing Enterprise Domain Ontology
Authors: Cui Zhan , Cox Michael , Jones Dean
Published: May 2011

With the advent of the Internet and electronic commerce, future business services will be jointly offered by autonomous and collaborating units or software agents within or across company boundaries through negotiation and information exchange over a distributed data network. The key is to have collaborative information systems that help with access to information, support decision making and aid in task execution. Although the information systems may already exist to provide the necessary data, currently they often cannot inter-operate to support across boundary business services. Since these so-called legacy systems represent a considerable investment and maintenance overhead there is a need to adapt them to new business environments. This chapter proposes an ontology management environment, a methodology and a suite of tools to support legacy information system integration.
An Information Management Environment Based on the Model of Object Primitives
Authors: Georgalas Nekatarios
Published: May 2011

The explosive emergence of distributed computing environments and component-based architectures increases the demand for flexible information modeling paradigms. A review of the state-of-the-art shows that contemporary modeling methods and technology, such as object-orientation (OO) and CORBA, facilitate to an extent the functional integration of heterogeneous information management systems. However, there are still issues to be resolved that mainly involve (i) the inflexibility of modeling semantics adopted by OO methods, (ii) the complication of developing new service components and their deployment in a distributed management environment. This chapter attempts to pinpoint some of those difficulties and suggests ways to overcome them. In this direction, we give a short overview of the problems encountered in the current state-of-the-art that act as motivation for this research. In response to challenges identified, we then continue on two main strands of analysis, one theoretical and one practical. In the theoretical part we introduce the Model of Object Primitives. It aims at providing a more flexible way to model information. The main objective here is to simply pinpoint the basic principles and elements of the model and not provide a thorough analysis of its semantics. The semantics of the model is analytically described in (Georgalas, 2000). Finally, in the practical part we present an information management architecture that adopts the idea of primitives in order to build components and deliver information services to client applications.
Object-Oriented Web Applications Modeling
Authors: Rossi Gustavo , Schwabe Daniel
Published: May 2011

In this chapter we show how to design Web applications as shared views of conceptual models. We argue that Web applications are different from conventional applications because they include an additional design dimension: their hypermedia-like structure. We present the Object-Oriented Hypermedia Design Method (OOHDM), a state-of-the art approach for building Web Information systems. We stress navigational and user interface design as novel activities in development methods. Then, we address the problem of reusing design models; we introduce hypermedia frameworks as a conceptual tool to build and reuse generic models. We finally discuss navigation and interface patterns and we show how we use them to capture and convey design expertise.
A Systematic Relationship Analysis for Modeling Information Domains
Authors: Yoo Joonhee , Bieber Michael
Published: May 2011

Many conceptual modeling and system design methodologies provide tools to help system designers to model the real world. No guidelines exist, however, for determining the relationships within conceptual domains or implementations. RNA (Relationship Navigation Analysis), based on a generic relationship taxonomy, provides a systematic way of identifying useful relationships in application domains. Developers can then implement each relationship as a link. Viewing an application domain from the relationship management point of view and modeling from a philosophy of maximum access provides a unique vantage point for application design. We present RNA and its generic relationship taxonomy, describing their use for system analysis.
Designing Model-Based Intelligent Dialogue Systems
Authors: Goren-Bar Dina
Published: May 2011

Intelligent Systems are served by Intelligent User Interfaces aimed to improve the efficiency, effectiveness and adaptation of the interaction between the user and the computer by representing, understanding and implementing models. The Intelligent User Interface Model (IUIM) helps to design and develop Intelligent Systems considering its architecture and its behavior. It focuses the Interaction and Dialogue between User and System at the heart of an Intelligent Interactive System. An architectural model, which defines the components of the model, and a conceptual model, which relates to its contents and behavior compose the IUIM. The conceptual model defines three elements: an Adaptive User Model (including components for building and updating the user model), a Task Model (including general and domain specific knowledge) and an Adaptive Discourse Model (to be assisted by an intelligent help and a learning module). We will show the implementation of the model by describing an application named Stigma - A STereotypical Intelligent General Matching Agent for Improving Search Results on the Internet. Finally, we compared the new model with others, stating the differences and the advantages of the proposed model.
Managing the Virtual Team
Authors: Platt Richard G. , Page Diana
Published: May 2011

Expectations for manager and employee workplace relationships are changing because of telecommunications technology. Telecommuting allows organizations to effectively combine and use the skills and knowledge of off- and on-site employees. The focus of this chapter is to describe the unique environment and problems presented by virtual teams and to outline the skills and knowledge employees and managers must have so they can achieve team and organizational goals.
Interactive Distance Learning
Authors: Purcell-Robertson Rita M. , Purcell Sr. Daniel F.
Published: May 2011

One of the major criticisms of distance education is the perception of inferior interaction between professor and students. Although the question of sufficient interaction is just as valid in a traditional classroom setting, the very nature of distance education serves to exacerbate the problem. This doesn’t have to be the case. There are strategies an instructor can employ to ensure the interaction is maintained at a high level. In fact there is a type of distance learning structure where interaction is even higher than in a traditional classroom. This chapter will facilitate faculty in enriching the quality of the communication exchange by assisting professors in enhancing the “high touch” aspects of pedagogy when using “high tech” media.
Digital Video in Education
Authors: Smith Todd L. , Ransbottom Scot
Published: May 2011

Use of technology to support education is by no means a new concept. Educators have for centuries looked for tools to help stimulate the senses and enhance their students’ learning. Though lectures are still the predominant means of delivering material, multimedia is pervasive in educational institutions. For clarity, multimedia is considered the combination of text, graphics, audio, animation and video through electronic means (Vaughan, 1998). This chapter is concerned primarily with video. The methods for creating videos and the means of delivery continue to change with technological advancements. The earliest educators brought sample objects or hand drawn representations to the classroom in order to provide a visual perspective and enhance understanding. In the mid-1900s, educators began to use analog video signals to show tapes or live shows that were again intended to enhance students’ understanding. Today, computing systems are capable of storing and presenting video content on a one-to-one or one-to-many bases. The key issue is whether the expense and effort associated with multimedia, and specifically, digital video is worthwhile. In this chapter, we discuss the use of digital video in the modern classroom with a focus on learning. Specifically, we base the discussion on Felder’s Learning Model, Bloom’s Taxonomy , and Kolb’s Learning Cycle. First, the Background Section briefly describes these theories and provides some basic information on digital video. Second, we describe a classroom that was constructed to support digital video and detail performance issues. Finally, we discuss the synergy of video in education. The underlying questions that will be explored are (1) How should we use digital video? and (2) What are the technological constraints?
Semi-Structured Data Extraction from Heterogenous Sources
Authors: Gao Xiaoying , Sterling Leon
Published: May 2011

The World Wide Web is known as the “universe of network-accessible information, the embodiment of human knowledge” (W3C, 1999). Internet-based knowledge management aims to use the Internet as the world wide environment for knowledge publishing, searching, sharing, reusing, and integration, and to support collaboration and decision making. However, knowledge on the Internet is buried in documents. Most of the documents are written in languages for human readers. The knowledge contained therein cannot be easily accessed by computer programs such as knowledge management systems. In order to make the Internet “machine readable,” information extraction from Web pages becomes a crucial research problem.
Facilitating Knowledge Transfer in an R&D Environment
Authors: Barrett Will , Lau M. S. Lydia , Dew Peter M.
Published: May 2011

Managing knowledge is not a new idea. Although the term “knowledge management” is a recent introduction into the corporate lexicon, the concept is by no means exclusive to the 1990s. The underlying concepts of knowledge management, such as collaboration, exchange of ideas, communication, and so on, have always been present in organisations. Spontaneous, unrestricted knowledge transfer is vital to business success and the transfer of knowledge occurs within organisations whether the process is managed or not. In large, decentralised organisations, knowledge is constrained by organisational, cultural and physical barriers. In such cases, the transfer of knowledge is localised and fragmentary as mechanisms for accessing distant knowledge resources are poor or nonexistent. A traditional solution is the corporate librarian or other broker, who presides over a repository of knowledge and is aware of expertise across the organisation. However, this role may be unable to meet the modern demands of knowledge management, or be obsolete if the management of knowledge is to become part of every employee’s job.
Using an Intranet to Manage Knowledge for a Virtual Project Team
Authors: Jennex Murray E.
Published: May 2011

The Year 2000 (Y2K), or millennium bug as it has been called in the popular press, has caused many organizations to form Y2K project teams tasked with finding and fixing date problems in critical applications, embedded systems, and IT infrastructure. Most of these projects have had to perform this task under severe time restraints, typically two years or less. Additionally, these projects have been constrained with limited resources and staff. Project teams needed to maximize utilization of knowledge and experience gained during the project so they could perform to their maximum capability. Continued viability of the organization was at stake in most of these projects.
The Information Plan for Celerity Enterprises, Inc
Authors: Schatzberg Laurie
Published: May 2011

The case study describes the process of implementation of an integrated software package at the Thai subsidiary (SMTL) of a Hong Kong-based multinational company (SMHK) engaged in the manufacturing of electronic equipment. Several factors—such as a poor fit between the business process assumptions inscribed in the software and the business processes in SMTL, poor leadership at different levels, cultural clash between the headquarters and the Thai subsidiary, organizational politics, and poor human resource management—contributed to the confusion in the organization, project delays, budget overruns, and ultimately, to the “failure” of the systems implementation project. The case study is likely to be valuable for illustrating issues related to managing IS implementation in a multinational context.
Implementation Failure of an Integrated Software Package
Authors: Sarker Suprateek , Sarker Saonee
Published: May 2011

The case study describes the process of implementation of an integrated software package at the Thai subsidiary (SMTL) of a Hong Kong-based multinational company (SMHK) engaged in the manufacturing of electronic equipment. Several factors—such as a poor fit between the business process assumptions inscribed in the software and the business processes in SMTL, poor leadership at different levels, cultural clash between the headquarters and the Thai subsidiary, organizational politics, and poor human resource management—contributed to the confusion in the organization, project delays, budget overruns, and ultimately, to the “failure” of the systems implementation project. The case study is likely to be valuable for illustrating issues related to managing IS implementation in a multinational context.
Alignment through Cross-Functional Integration
Authors: Nelson Mark R.
Published: May 2011

The strategic alignment model presented in the first chapter of this book clearly identifies cross-functional integration as a critical dimension of IT alignment. This chapter focuses on the assessment and improvement of functional integration and presents a model for understanding how cross-functional integration between IT and other functional areas leads to more effective IT alignment at the functional level. By moving to higher levels in this “integration hierarchy” model, organizations can expect to achieve a higher degree of IT alignment. To provide context, the chapter presents the integration hierarchy model by focusing on the marketing and IT units. This cross-functional interface is a particularly important area for IT alignment given the environmental demand for effective e-commerce and data warehousing solutions. However, as later sections of this chapter will discuss, there are implications for the model for both practitioners and researchers beyond the marketing and IT interface.
Organizational Concepts and Measures for the Evaluation of Data Modeling
Authors: Maier Ronald
Published: May 2011

This chapter presents a concept for the evaluation of data modeling which is based on existing theoretical approaches and three empirical studies conducted or supervised by the author. The main results of these studies with respect to evaluation suggest to extend existing approaches for the evaluation of data models. It is necessary to focus more on organizational issues of data modeling, more on process instead of product quality, to consider different application scenarios of data modeling as well as to distinguish the enterprise-wide evaluation of data modeling from the evaluation of single projects using data modeling. The evaluation concept presented here focuses on the evaluation of single data modeling projects and consists of recommendations for the evaluation procedure, persons involved, instruments, the design of important organizational dimensions as well as some concrete measures of process and product quality.
Metrics for Controlling Database Complexity
Authors: Calero Coral , Piattini Mario , Genero Marcela
Published: May 2011

Software engineers have been proposing large quantities of metrics for software products, processes and resources (Fenton and Pfleeger, 1997; Melton, 1996; Zuse, 1998). Metrics are useful mechanisms in improving the quality of software products and also for determining the best ways to help practitioners and researchers (Pfleeger, 1997). Unfortunately, almost all the metrics put forward focus on program characteristics (e.g., McCabe, 1976, cyclomatic number) disregarding databases (Sneed and Foshag, 1998). As far as databases are concerned, metrics have been used for comparing data models rather than the schemata itself. Several authors (Batra et al., 1990; Jarvenpaa and Machesky, 1986; Juhn and Naumann, 1985; Kim and March, 1995; Rossi and Brinkemper, 1996; Shoval and Even-Chaime, 1987) have compared the most well-known models--such as E/R, NIAM and relational--using different metrics. Although we think this work is interesting, metrics for comparing schemata are needed most for practical purposes, like choosing between different design alternatives or giving designers limit values for certain characteristics (analogously to value 10 for McCabe complexity of programs). Some recent proposals have been published for conceptual schemata (MacDonell et al., 1997; Moody, 1998; Piattini et al., 2001), but for conventional databases, such as relational ones, nothing has been proposed, excepting normalization theory.
A Review of IS/IT Investment Evaluation and Benefits Management Issues, Problems and Processes
Authors: Lin Chad , Pervan Graham P.
Published: May 2011

Information systems / information technology (hereafter referred to as IS/IT) now represents substantial financial investment for many organisations. Information systems and technology managers have found it increasingly difficult to justify rising IS/IT expenditures. They are often under immense pressure to find a way to measure the contribution of their organisations’ IS/IT investments to business performance, as well as to find reliable ways to ensure that the business benefits from IS/IT investments are actually realised. This problem has become more complex as the nature of IS/IT investments and the benefits they can deliver has evolved over time and has changed rapidly. Furthermore, the evaluation of these IS/IT investments is a complex tangle of financial, organisational, social, procedural and technical threads, many of which are currently either avoided or dealt with ineffectively by organizations (Pervan, 1998). In this chapter we will learn what is IS/IT investment evaluation and benefits management, discuss some of the problems and challenges in this area, review some of the better known approaches to this problem, acknowledge some of the leading authors in the area, and conclude with a summary of the current status of the field and some possible directions for future research and practice.
The IT Evaluation and Benefits Management Life-Cycle
Authors: McKay Judy , Marshall Peter
Published: May 2011

It appears that somewhat of a dichotomy exists in many contemporary organisations with respect to the question of investment in information and particularly in information technology (IT). On the one hand, discussions of the new information-based economy and the promise of the new e-business domain leads inevitably to enormous faith being placed in IT, or perhaps more accurately, on the critical, appropriate utilisation of IT to deliver business benefits. Such faith is illustrated by quotes such as: “Across all industries, information and the technology that delivers it have become critical, strategic assets for business firms and their managers” (Laudon and Laudon, 2000). But such enthusiasm is tempered by another view or concern that IT is not delivering on its promises, that it is “oversold and undelivered” (Earl, 1994), and that demonstrating the business value of IT investment is difficult in many instances. This concern that managers do not perceive that they are deriving value for money when it comes to IT investments is troubling when information and IT are often presented as the very backbone of the new economy. Such cynicism is reflected in quotes such as: “There are many different ways to ruin a company. Speculation is the fastest, IT is the most reliable” (Kempis et al., 1999).
Methodologies for Investment Evaluation
Authors: Berghout Egon , Renkema Theo-Jan
Published: May 2011

The evaluation of information technology (IT) investments has been a recognised problem area for the last four decades, but has recently been fuelled by rising IT budgets, intangible benefits and considerable risks and gained renewed interest of both management and academics. IT investments already constitute a large and increasing portion of the capital expenditures of many organizations, and are bound to absorb a large part of future funding of new business initiatives. However, for virtually all firms, it is difficult to evaluate the business contribution of an IT investment to current operations or corporate strategy. Consequently, there is a great call for methods and techniques that can be of help in evaluating IT investments, preferably at the proposal and decision-making stages. The contribution of this chapter to the problem area is twofold. First, the different concepts, which are used in evaluation are discussed and more narrowly defined. When speaking about IT investments, concepts are used that originate from different disciplines. In many cases there is not much agreement on the precise meaning of the different concepts used. However, a common language is a prerequisite for the successful communication between the different organizational stakeholders in evaluation. In addition to this, the chapter reviews the current methods for IT investment evaluation and puts them into a frame of reference. All too often new methods and guidelines for investment evaluation are introduced, without building on the extensive body of knowledge that is already incorporated in the available methods. Four basic approaches are discerned: the financial approach, the multi-criteria approach, the ratio approach and the portfolio approach. These approaches are subsequently compared on a number of characteristics on the basis of methods that serve as examples for the different approaches. The chapter concludes with a review of key limitations of evaluations, suggestions on how to improve evaluation practice and recommendations for future research. This chapter draws on earlier work as published in Renkema and Berghout (1997), Berghout (1997), and Renkema (1996; 2000).
User Interface Development Throughout the System Development Lifecycle
Authors: Ambler Scott
Published: May 2011

A fundamental reality of application development is that the user interface is the system to the users. Software development process should reflect this fact. When you ask how user interface development should be reflected within an software development lifecycle (SDLC), you quickly discover that it affects all aspects of software development from requirements through to system delivery. This chapter discusses how user interface development should be reflected in a mature software process and overviews a collection of techniques for each phase of software development, showing how user interface development can easily be integrated into the overall software process.
Intelligent Agents Supporting the Social Construction of Knowledge in a Learning Environment
Authors: Ayala Gerardo
Published: May 2011

The chapter focuses on the modeling of software agents that present the performance and functionality needed for supporting collaborative learning, where collaboration is based on the social construction of knowledge, implementing the theory of knowledge creation by Nonaka and Takeuchi (1995). The chapter includes a discussion on the requirements for modeling software agents for learning environments, as well as the use of AI techniques for their implementation. The HCI issues of group configuration and awareness based on learner modeling in web-based environments are also discussed.
Application of a Cognitive Model of Collaboration to a User Interface
Authors: Sillince John , Rosenberg Duska
Published: May 2011

The problem considered in this chapter is how does an individual keep in touch with what everybody else is doing, in order to proactively participate, while ensuring they do not spend too much time on passively watching and listening? The chapter aims to consider several means of supporting the grounding process in computer mediated communication. These are the enabling factors of the user to browse the transcript of the interaction so far, evaluation of the interaction’s effectiveness, keeping track of the state of the conversation, and tracking and summarizing the way that the shared artifact has been acted upon during the interaction.
The Virtual Community
Authors: Gattiker Urs E. , Perlusz Stefano , Bohmann Kristoffer , Sorensen Christian Morck
Published: May 2011

This chapter advances our understanding about a virtual community sponsored by a not-for-profit association and including members from around the world. In particular, this chapter (1) addresses similarities and differences between social and virtual communities, (2) outlines how an inter-routine domain of virtuality and social capital theory may help explain levels of trust, structure, understanding, and free-riding in a virtual community, (3) describes a specific virtual community, its focus and the efforts undertaken to motivate its members, and (4) provides some preliminary data about how this virtual community works on a daily basis in cyberspace.
Sloan 2001
Authors: Orlikowski Wanda J. , Yates JoAnne , Fonstad Nils Olaya
Published: May 2011

In this chapter, we provide an account of the emergence of a virtual community following a shift in institutional work practice from a traditional process to one that was primarily electronic. In the 1998/99 MBA Admissions season, the Sloan School of Management moved from a primarily paper-based application process to an entirely Web-based application process. From the Admissions Office point of view, this shift to on-line admissions was intended to be a relatively contained and simple change in medium to reduce costs in one part of the process (in order to allow greater spending on another part) and to simplify work processes in the office, as well as to reinforce Sloan’s image of technological innovativeness.
Architecture and Implementation Issues
Authors: Dahanayake Ajantha
Published: May 2011

Historically the focus is on the theory of how problem-specific systems design tools can be supported by a Computer Aided Method Engineering (CAME) environment based on service object representation. To arrive at an implementation model, the conceptual model of the service object representation must be formalized. This theory is feasible when there is adequate computer support. Many researchers have emphasized strongly that requirement specification languages should have a rigorous formal basis; however, this need for formality has not been generally acknowledged in the field of information systems development. Most organizations and research groups tend to define their own methods using techniques advocated within such methods that often have no formal foundation. Discussions of modeling techniques are based on numerous examples, mostly using diagrams and notational conventions, to provide a popular style for the definition of new concepts and their behavior. In a CAME environment however, which gives the freedom to specify a modeling technique from scratch, it is difficult to avoid deficiencies such as inconsistency, lack of structure, over specification, incompleteness, ambiguity, and redundancy without using a formal approach. In automated support a formal model is used to provide stable specifications for implementation. In fact, an implementation can be seen as another, enormously detailed formal description, usually in an imperative programming language. To implement this sophisticated automated support, formal specifications of the CAME service description with adequate formal reasoning were derived earlier.
Service Qualtiy in the Virtual World
Authors: Hope Beverly
Published: May 2011

The Internet has taken globalization of the marketplace from hyperbole to present-day reality. In this marketplace, information technology can be used to create and sustain market share. One such technology is the extranet. Extranets are increasingly being used to add value through business-to-business information sharing and transaction handling in a secure environment. Yet there is limited research into perceptions of service quality in Web-based Internet environments such as extranets. In this chapter we relate the literature on services and service quality to the developing literature on extranets. Five dimensions of service quality from the physical world are applied to the virtual world of commerce. It is concluded that dimensions of quality in human-to-human interactions may also apply to human-to-computer interactions, but that the factors which contribute to each dimension may differ.
M-Commerce
Authors: Panko Raymond R.
Published: May 2011

In the next few years, we are likely to see dramatically improved wireless communication technologies and small handheld access devices (HADs) such as Internet-enabled cellphones and personal digital assistants (PDAs). These converging trends open new possibilities for electronic commerce. These new possibilities often are discussed under the banner of m-commerce or mobile electronic commerce. This chapter looks at device trends, wireless communication trends, potential applications and potential problems in m-commerce.
Adaptive Mobile Applications
Authors: Kunz Thomas
Published: May 2011

Our work is based on offloading computationally intensive application components to more powerful servers in the access network. Ideally, this “load sharing” between a portable device and more powerful machines would occur transparent to the user, at runtime, taking into account the currently available resources in the execution environment. To realize this goal, a support infrastructure is required to monitor the available resources, to decide how best to utilize these resources, and that deals with user mobility. The following sections will motivate our approach, introduce a suitable architecture, and explain what experience we collected to date in realizing various components of this architecture.
Space-Time Wireless Communications (a.k.a. Smart Antennas)
Authors: Paulraj Arogyaswami J. , Sampath Hemanth
Published: May 2011

In this chapter, we briefly describe these four leverages of space-time processing. We first discuss wireless channel impairments, next we explain how space-time processing technology helps in combating such impairments and improves overall system performance, and finally, we conclude with a summary of current industry trends.
Turning Browsers into Buyers
Authors: Pereira Rex Eugene
Published: May 2011

The chapter investigates the interaction effects between the search strategy of software agents and the consumer’s product class knowledge in the context of consumers seeking to purchase cars on the Internet. The research design used was a 2 x 4, between groups, completely randomized, two-factor, factorial design. The independent variables which were manipulated were product class knowledge (HIGH KNOWLEDGE, LOW KNOWLEDGE) and agent search strategy (elimination by aspects (EBA STRATEGY), weighted average method (WAD STRATEGY), profile building (PROFILE STRATEGY), simple hypertext (HYPERTEXT STRATEGY)). The dependent variables which were measured were satisfaction with the decision process (SATISFACTION), confidence in the decision (CONFIDENCE), trust in the agent’s recommendations (TRUST), propensity to purchase (PURCHASE), perceived cost savings (SAVINGS), and cognitive decision effort (EFFORT). Significant differences were found in the affective reactions of the subjects toward the agent/application depending on the level of product class knowledge possessed by the subjects. Subjects with high product class knowledge had more positive affective reactions towards agents/applications which used the WAD and EBA strategies as compared to the PROFILE strategy. Subjects with low product class knowledge had more positive affective reactions to agents/applications which used the PROFILE strategy as compared to the EBA and WAD strategies. When the systems were modified to increase the amount of information provided and to increase the degree of control provided to the subjects, their affective reactions to the agents/applications were found to be different from the original study. Subjects responded more positively to the previously “less preferred” strategy, thus weakening the interaction effect.
Ford Mondeo
Authors: Mol Michael J.
Published: May 2011

This case weighs the advantages and disadvantages of going global. Ford presented its 1993 Mondeo model, sold as Mystique and Contour in North America, as a ‘world car.’ It tried to build a single model for all markets globally to optimize scale of production. This required strong involvement from suppliers and heavy usage of new information technology. The case discusses the difficulties that needed to be overcome as well as the gains that Ford expected from the project. New technology allowed Ford to overcome most of the difficulties it had faced in earlier attempts to produce a world car. IT was flanked by major organization changes within Ford. Globalization did not spell obvious success though. While Ford may in the end have succeeded in building an almost global car, it did not necessarily build a car that was competitive in various markets. The Mondeo project resulted in an overhaul of the entire organization under the header of Ford 2000. This program put a heavy emphasis on globalization although it perhaps focused too little on international cooperation and too much on centralization. In terms of Ford’s own history, the Mondeo experience may not be called a new Model T, but does represent an important step in Ford’s transformation as a global firm.