bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
iCE
Authors: Rosenberg Terry
Published: May 2011

As it becomes increasingly important to work in new sociotechnological formations such as the virtual spaces across networks, so does the requirement to build new tools to furnish this emergent landscape. This chapter looks at the way a virtual space may be built and used to facilitate group, team and individual thinking in developing projects and also shaping practice in organizations where innovation is an important focus. The chapter describes the work being done to produce an interactive networked based ‘coinnovation’ environment (iCE); where members of an organization, individually and variously, may contribute their thoughts to help innovate—develop ‘prospects’—for the organization’s projects.
Introduction to Audio and Speech Signal Processing
Authors: Perez-Meana Hector , Nakano-Miyatake Mariko
Published: May 2011

The development of very efficient digital signal processors has allowed the implementation of high performance signal processing algorithms to solve an important amount of practical problems in several engineering fields, such as telecommunications, in which very efficient algorithms have been developed to storage, transmission, and interference reductions; in the audio field, where signal processing algorithms have been developed to enhancement, restoration, copy right protection of audio materials; in the medical field, where signal processing algorithms have been efficiently used to develop hearing aids systems and speech restoration systems for alaryngeal speech signals. This chapter presents an overview of some successful audio and speech signal processing algorithms, providing to the reader an overview of this important technology, some of which will be analyzed with more detail in the accompanying chapters of this book.
Active Noise Canceling
Authors: Perez-Meana Hector , Nakano-Miyatake Mariko
Published: May 2011

Some of the main problems present in active noise cancellations are the feedback distortion due to the acoustic feedback between the cancellation speaker and the input microphone; the high computational complexity when recursive least square algorithms are used; and the secondary path estimation. This chapter presents a review of some successful solutions to these problems, such as a hybrid structure to reduce the feedback distortion; active noise cancellation (ANC) FxRLS algorithms in which the filter input signal is decomposed into a finite number; and mutually near orthogonal signal components, as well as successful secondary path estimation algorithms. Computer simulation results confirm the desirable properties of presented ANC structures.
Differentially Fed Artificial Neural Networks for Speech Signal Prediction
Authors: Iyer Manjunath Ramachandra
Published: May 2011

Speaker authentication has become increasingly important. It goes with the other forms of security checks such as user login and personal identification number and has a say in the final decision about the authenticity. One of the issues with the authentication algorithms is that the automated devices that take the call have to work with a limited data set. In this chapter, a new class of intelligent element called differentially fed artificial neural network has been introduced to predict the data and use it effectively. It keeps the model simple and helps in taking online and crisp decisions with the available limited data.
Sizing Web Applications
Authors: Mendes Emilia
Published: May 2011

Surveying and classifying previous work in a particular field brings several benefits, which are to (a) help organise a given body of knowledge, (b) provide results that can help identify gaps that need to be filled, (c) provide a categorisation that can also be applied or adapted to other surveys, and (d) provide a classification and summary of results that may benefit practitioners and researchers who wish to carry out meta-analyses. This chapter presents a literature survey of size measures (attributes) that have been published since 1992 and classifies these measures according to a proposed taxonomy. We also discuss ways in which Web companies can devise their own size measures.
What is the Best Technique?
Authors: Mendes Emilia
Published: May 2011

Although numerous studies on Web effort estimation have been carried out to date, there is no consensus on what constitutes the best effort estimation technique to be used by Web companies. It seems that not only the effort estimation technique itself can influence the accuracy of predictions, but also the characteristics of the data set used (e.g., skewness, collinearity; Shepperd & Kadoda, 2001). Therefore, it is often necessary to compare different effort estimation techniques, looking for those that provide the best estimation accuracy for the data set being employed. With this in mind, the use of graphical aids such as boxplots is not always enough to assess the existence of significant differences between effort prediction models. The same applies to measures of prediction accuracy such as the mean magnitude of relative error (MMRE), median magnitude of relative error (MdMRE), and prediction at level l (Pred[25]). Other techniques, which correspond to the group of statistical significance tests, need to be employed to check if the different residuals obtained for each of the effort estimation techniques compared come from the same population. This chapter details how to use such techniques and how their results should be interpreted.
Understanding Project Data
Authors: Mendes Emilia
Published: May 2011

The objective of this chapter is to provide an introduction to statistical techniques and concepts that are frequently used when dealing with data for effort estimation. The concepts presented here are in no way exhaustive since statistics comprises a very large body of knowledge where entire books are devoted to specific topics. The parts that are the focus of this chapter are those that are necessary to use when building effort estimation models, and also when comparing different effort estimation techniques.
NetCube
Authors: Margaritis Dimitris , Faloutsos Christos , Thrun Sebastian
Published: May 2011

We present a novel method for answering count queries from a large database approximately and quickly. Our method implements an approximate DataCube of the application domain, which can be used to answer any conjunctive count query that can be formed by the user. The DataCube is a conceptual device that in principle stores the number of matching records for all possible such queries. However, because its size and generation time are inherently exponential, our approach uses one or more Bayesian networks to implement it approximately. Bayesian networks are statistical graphical models that can succinctly represent the underlying joint probability distribution of the domain, and can therefore be used to calculate approximate counts for any conjunctive query combination of attribute values and “don’t cares.” The structure and parameters of these networks are learned from the database in a preprocessing stage. By means of such a network, the proposed method, called NetCube, exploits correlations and independencies among attributes to answer a count query quickly without accessing the database. Our preprocessing algorithm scales linearly on the size of the database, and is thus scalable; it is also parallelizable with a straightforward parallel implementation. We give an algorithm for estimating the count result of arbitrary queries that is fast (constant) on the database size. Our experimental results show that NetCubes have fast generation and use, achieve excellent compression and have low reconstruction error. Moreover, they naturally allow for visualization and data mining, at no extra cost.
Retrieval of Bio-Geophysical Parameters from Remotely Sensing Data by Using Bayesian Methodology
Authors: Notarnicola C.
Published: May 2011

This chapter introduces the use of Bayesian methodology for inversion purposes: the extraction of bio-geophysical parameters from remotely sensed data. Multisources information, such as different polarizations, frequencies, and sensors are fundamental to the development of operationally useful inversion systems. In this context, Bayesian methodologies offer a convenient tool of combining two or more disparate sources of information, models, and data. The chapter describes the development of a general model starting from a theoretical model, including the sensor noise and the model errors, by using a Bayesian approach. Furthermore, the developed procedure is applied to some experimental data sets. The author hopes that considering theoretical models and experimental data in many different configurations can give an idea of the versatility and robustness of the Bayesian framework.
Bayesian Network Approach to Estimate Gene Networks
Authors: Imoto Seiya , Miyano Satoru
Published: May 2011

In cells, genes interact with each other and this system can be viewed as directed graphs. A gene network is a graphical representation of transcriptional relations between genes and the problem of estimation of gene networks from genome-wide data, such as DNA micro-array gene expression data, is one of the important issues in bioinformatics and systems biology. Here, we present a statistical method based on Bayesian networks to estimate gene networks from microarray data and other biological data. Because microarray data are measured as continuous variables and the relationship between genes are usually nonlinear, we combine Bayesian networks and nonparametric regression to handle continuous variables and nonlinear relations. Most parts of gene networks are still unknown, and we need to estimate them from observational data. This problem is equivalent to the structural learning of Bayesian networks, and we solve it from a Bayes approach. The main difficulty of gene network estimation is due to the number of genes involved in the network. Therefore, it leads to model overfitting to the observational data like microarray data. Hence, a combination of various kinds of biological data is a key technique to estimate accurate gene networks. We show a general framework to combine microarray data and other biological information to estimate gene networks.
XML Music Notation Modelling for Multimedia
Authors: Bellini Pierfrancesco
Published: May 2011

The evolution of information technology has changed the use of music representation and notation in software applications, transforming and extending them from a simple visual coding model for music scores into a tool for modelling music for computer programs and electronic devices in general (e.g., keyboards), to support the exploitation of the multimedia characteristics lying behind music notation and representation. The MPEG Symbolic Music Representation (MPEG-SMR) is a new emerging standard for modelling music notation within the MPEG multimedia framework. MPEG-SMR provides an XML-based language to model most of the music notation in terms of the visual and audio aspects, as well as music score annotations. MPEG-SMR also provides a language to define the music score formatting rules, supporting personalisation for the score visual presentation, custom symbols and control visual rendering of the common notation symbols.
How Technology Can Support Culture and Learning
Authors: Fuschi David Luigi , Ong Bee , Crombie David
Published: May 2011

From the authors’ perspective, technology is both a tool and a developing factor which can foster cul-ture and learning development. This chapter focuses on the inter-relations that interleave education, technology, content accessibility and intercultural issues. With an introduction and related background, language learning is used as an example further to ex-plain these issues. This chapter then discusses authoring and content development for eLearning appli-cations (including authoring tools, virtual communities and forums) and examines technology and ac-cessibility issues in this context. The current state of eLearning is introduced along with a description of different tools and approaches. The chapter concludes with an overview of eLearning and the mar-ketplace.
Modified Lease Auction
Authors: Oniki H.
Published: May 2011

This paper proposes a system by means of which the utilization of radio spectrum may be improved from extreme inefficiency at present to equilibrium and efficiency in the future. It introduces a system which takes advantage of market mechanism with regard to spectrum assignment as distinct from spectrum allocation. It is composed of two parts. The first part proposes a system called “modified lease auction (MLA),” in which the government leases (rents) spectrum competitively to business and public users. To protect incumbents from excessive risk of losing spectrum rights, it proposes a number of ways including a provision of insurance. The second part considers the transition from the current system to MLA. It proposes a process in which the spectrum price be increased gradually from the current zero level to the target equilibrium level. Further, in order to reconcile to oppositions by incumbents to MLA, a scheme is proposed for compensating income to incumbents without hurting the incentive to save spectrum.
European Regulatory Challenges for Developing Digital Content Services in Modern Electronic Communications Platforms
Authors: Chochliouros I. , Chochliouros S. , Spiliopoulou A.
Published: May 2011

The European Union (EU) has recently applied a more proactive and consistent regulatory approach in the wider electronic (mainly Internet-based) communications areas, also including a variety of modern broadcasting activities, aiming to promote their strategic and commercial importance. New requirements imposed by the converged information society technologies are currently demanding high-performance access and high-quality facilities (or services) for the benefits of all market actors involved (both for operators-providers and consumers). More specifically, the continuous expansion of the Internet creates considerable potential for growth, in terms of market and business activities. The latter, however, indicate that different and adequate forms of “content” should be legally available for use, treatment, storage and distribution in various technological platforms, operated from the private and the public sectors. The proposed chapter deals with the major European regulatory challenges for the development and the effective provision either of audio-visual or of other forms of digital content services, in parallel with other important issues (intellectual property rights and copyright, digital rights management, privacy issues, consumers’ interests, e-commerce, etc.). Content is a crucial factor in the digital economy, and plays a key role both economically and socially.
Feeling Welcome
Authors: Arlt Wolfgang Georg
Published: May 2011

If used in a proper way, the Internet can be a powerful cross-cultural incoming tourism communication tool. This chapter examines to what extent the opportunities are utilized which are offered in the virtual sphere to extend across physical and cultural distances a welcoming hand to potential visitors from far-away source markets. The discussion is based on the results of a study about the non-german language Web sites of Central European DMOs, conducted in 2002 and updated in 2006, and the results of a study of German-language Web sites of non-European NTOs and DMOs, conducted in 2005. It can be shown that an increase in multilingual Web sites within the period under review can be recognized, but that an increase in cross-cultural awareness of the providers of such Web sites is still lacking.
Finding Patterns in Class-Labeled Data Using Data Visualization
Authors: Leban Gregor , Mramor Minca , Zupan Blaž , Demšar Janez , Bratko Ivan
Published: May 2011

Data visualization plays a crucial role in data mining and knowledge discovery. Its use is, however, often difficult due to the large number of possible data projections. Manual search through such sets of projections can be prohibitively timely or even impossible, especially in the data analysis problems that comprise many data features. The chapter describes a method called VizRank, which can be used to automatically identify interesting data projections for multivariate visualizations of class-labeled data. VizRank assigns a score of interestingness to each considered projection based on the degree of separation of data instances with different class label. We demonstrate the usefulness of this approach on six cancer gene expression data sets, showing that the method can reveal interesting data patterns and can further be used for data classification and outlier detection.
How Should Enterprises Integrate? From the Need to the Solution
Authors: Félix-Alves Alexandre
Published: May 2011

While industrial companies have learned to establish added-value relationships and flows with their supply chain satellite companies, when they now face the new challenge of building relationships with other value chains, they suffer from the lack of existing know-how and expertise in meta-value chain operation and management (including methodologies, reference models, case studies, best practices, and business and ICT solution maps). Collaboration only becomes a competitive advantage for a meta-value chain when it leads to meta-value chain agility. While the customisation of the single value proposition has led to the need of mass customisation in productive processes, customising and continuously adapting an extended value preposition (EVP) is mainly achieved by reshaping the composition and geometry of the whole extended enterprise (EE) relying on dynamic and agile business models. This meta-value chain agility needs, in turn, to be based on extended organizational learning. This self and external awareness requires continuous assessment processes and models based on key performance indicators.
Enterprise Organisational Structure Integration and Service-Oriented Architectures
Authors: Protogeros Nicolaos
Published: May 2011

This chapter examines the service-oriented architectures (SOA) in conjunction with the enterprise organisational structure integration problem, applied to innovative organization schemes such as virtual enterprises (VE). The evolution of software architectures from traditional to SOA is presented, along with the characteristics, advantages and disadvantages, and problems and difficulties in applying the SOA, while also focusing on the compatibility between SOA and modern organisational structures. The new standard in the service orchestration level, BPEL, is considered as a language for business process modelling, and its impact to the integration problem is examined. New messaging protocols and frameworks such as the enterprise service bus (ESB) or messaging service bus are also examined. The main focus is on the SOA technology trends of modern organisational structures, with regards to their formation and integration. The comparison between SOA and traditional architectures provides a clear path to their adoption in various cases.
RFID Systems
Authors: Wong Dennis M.L. , Phan Raphael C.W.
Published: May 2011

In this chapter, we discuss the business implications, as well as security and privacy issues, of the widespread deployment of radio frequency identification (RFID) systems. We first describe, in more detail, the components that make up an RFID system to facilitate better understanding of the implications of each, and then review the commercial applications of the RFID. We then discuss the security and privacy issues for RFID systems and what mechanisms have been proposed to safeguard these. The topics discussed in this chapter highlight the benefits of using RFIDs for user convenience in ubiquitous and pervasive commercial services and e-businesses, while maintaining the integrity of such systems against malicious attacks on the users’ security and privacy. This is vital for a business establishment to coexist with peers and remain competitively attractive to customers.
An Introductory Study on Business Intelligence Security
Authors: Yee Chan Gaik , Radha Krishna Rao G. S. V.
Published: May 2011

Firstly, the fact that business intelligence (BI) applications are growing in importance, and secondly, the growing and more sophisticated attacks launched by hackers, the concern of how to protect the knowledge capital or databases that come along with BI or in another words, BI security, has thus arisen. In this chapter, the BI environment with its security features is explored, followed by a discussion on intrusion detection (ID) and intrusion prevention (IP) techniques. It is understood through a Web-service case study that it is feasible to have ID and IP as countermeasures to the security threats; thus further enhancing the security of the BI environment or architecture.
A Robust Watermarking Scheme Using Codes Based on the Redundant Residue Number System
Authors: Goh Vik Tor , Siddiqi Mohammad Umar
Published: May 2011

In this chapter, a watermarking scheme that utilizes error correction codes for added robustness is proposed. A literature survey covering various aspects of the watermarking scheme, such as the arithmetic redundant residue number system, and concepts related to digital watermarking is given. The requirements of a robust watermarking scheme are also described. In addition, descriptions and experimental results of the proposed watermarking scheme are provided to demonstrate the functionality of the scheme. The authors hope that with the completion of this chapter, the reader will have a better understanding of ideas related to digital watermarking as well as the arithmetic redundant number system.
Propagation and Delegation of Rights in Access Controls and Risk Assessment Techniques
Authors: Muthaiyah Saravanan
Published: May 2011

Access control methods have been improvised over time, but one area that remains quite grey is the concept of assessing risk levels before any type of access rights are granted. This is relatively a new paradigm in the research of semantic Web security, and new methodologies for this effort are being studied. In this chapter, we will see how qualitative risk assessment (Nissanke & Khayat, 2004) and quantitative risk assessment are carried out. The purpose is to have different methods of assessment for better grant of access control rights and permissions. New examples based on the model described (Nissanke & Khayat, 2004) are used to illustrate the concept. A new quantities technique is also added to complement the qualitative techniques.
Developing Information Assurance Alignment in Financial Services
Authors: Ezingeard Jean-Noël , McFadzean Elspeth , Birchall David
Published: May 2011

A number of recent high-profile organizational failures have been compounded by the inadequacy of the data, information, and intelligence available to decision makers at key moments. In several other cases, the interpretation and communication of information to key stakeholders later was seen to have been distorted, if not downright dishonest. Whilst executives are being required to pay more attention to aspects of information assurance(IA) and security, few understand how to ensure its proper management and how to develop an IA strategy.
Smart Cards for Security and Assurance
Authors: Markantonakis Konstantinos , Mayes Keith
Published: May 2011

When designing and implementing a system that handles sensitive or valuable information, there can be few discussions that do not include some reference to ensuring adequate security. At a strategic level there will be high level requirements for security that will safeguard the system, which must ultimately translate to practical solutions and physical implementations. This chapter focuses on the technical implementation of security requirements and, in particular, the use of smart cards as trusted security tokens. In particular, it examines the significance of tamper resistance by exploring the different hardware and software platforms in relation to smart card attacks. It also highlights certain issues around the deployment of smart card technology in the financial industry.
Information Disclosure and Regulatory Compliance
Authors: Ghose Anindya
Published: May 2011

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) introduced significant changes to financial practice and corporate governance regulation, including stringent new rules designed to protect investors by improving the accuracy and reliability of corporate disclosures. Briefly speaking, it requires management to submit a report containing an assessment of the effectiveness of the internal control structure, a description of material weaknesses in such internal controls and of any material noncompliance. Such mandatory regulations can have some broader ramifications on firm profitability, market structure, and social welfare, many of which were unintended when policy makers first formulated this act. Moreover, the tight coupling of compliance activities, information disclosure, and information technology (IT) investment scan have implications for IT governance because of its potential to change relationships between technology investments and business. This chapter aims to provide some intuitive insights into the trade offs involved for firms in disclosure of such information, and lays the ground for some research questions that would be of interest to academics, industry executives, and policy makers, alike.
Becoming an Enterprise
Authors: Bloch Dave
Published: May 2011

This chapter provides a case study of how a rural California county transitioned its technological governance from one centered on the perceived needs of individual departments to one integrating technological needs across the entire enterprise. The chapter details the use of “communities of interest”, a way of grouping departments with related missions for broad-based analysis of technology needs and solutions. The chapter describes the process the county used to implement this new strategy. The author hopes that use of this method can help other local governments to avoid obsolescence, unmet needs, or overlapping systems in purchase and implementation of technology systems.
IT Governance at the City of Naperville, Illinois
Authors: Carlsen Donald J.
Published: May 2011

This case study details the process that the City of Naperville, IL has developed to govern its information technology project selection process. IT governance can be de?ned as “a structure of relationships and processes to direct and control the enterprise in order to achieve the enterprise’s goals by adding value while balancing risk versus return over IT and its processes.” While the de?nition sounds ominous, the reality is that IT needs to connect the needs of the business to process improvements and projects that can enhance operations, create ef?ciencies, lower costs, and solve problems. The chapter entails the description of the way that business needs and IT projects were connected in the past, why that was a problem for the city and IT, and what was done to try and to correct the problem. The case study includes an overview of a toolkit used by the city as well as a discussion of challenges and the current status of each piece of the toolkit. The toolkit includes:1. Strategic technology planning2. Project management3. Capacity analysis 4. Budget/CIP review teams 5. Budget process improvements including project scope and scoresheet 6. Information technology project evaluation team 7. Balanced scorecard
To Shop and Buy in L.A.
Authors: Taylor Paul W.
Published: May 2011

This case study focuses on the modernization of purchasing practices and policies by a large city government. It hinged on harvesting savings from existing processes as the sole means of funding the introduction of a new enterprise procurement or supply chain technology system. The case demonstrates the essential role of changing organizational behaviors, re-engineering processes, assessing risk, and judging the level of bene?ts that can realistically be achieved through the introduction of new information systems.
Conquering the Invasion of Technology
Authors: Reinke Saundra J.
Published: May 2011

This case study evaluates the offering of online property tax collections to constituents within Stonewall County, Georgia. It addresses the costs associated with offering such a service, whether or not the county’s citizens would use such a service, and the approval and/or absorption of convenience fees by the county. Most of the events in the case study are based on real-life events but the names have been changed to preserve anonymity.
Bureau of Housing Services (BHS)
Authors: Luna-Reyes Luis Felipe , Pardo Theresa A. , Ochoátegui Felipe Burgos , Sanabria Rocío Moreno
Published: May 2011

One of the main problems of information systems development in multi-agency, inter-organizational projects is sustaining willingness to participate across many different and differently organized entities with multiple, and in some cases, mutually exclusive operating assumptions. This case describes such an environment. The New York State Bureau of Housing Services faces the dilemma of using its authority to compel homeless service providers to share information needed to develop a new information system versus seeking providers’ support to develop the system through collaboration.
The Challenges of Building a Knowledge Management System for Local Collaboration
Authors: Chen Yu-Che , Thurmaier Kurt
Published: May 2011

This chapter provides a case study of building a knowledge management system for collaboration between local governments. It describes the management and development of such a system including Web sites and online search and submission of collaborative agreements. It also stresses the importance of coordination and management support for a multi-party development team. Data quality assurance should also be an integral part of the data collection and migration from a paper-based to an electronic system. The authors hope to shed light on the interrelated components of building a knowledge management system on collaboration. Moreover, the ?ndings of the case study inform the practice of managing a multi-party development team.
Requirements Engineering for Integrating the Enterprise
Authors: Sangwan Raghvinder S.
Published: May 2011

In an era of global economy, an enterprise must demonstrate agility in order to stay competitive. Agility requires continuous monitoring of the ever-changing business landscape and quick adaptation to that change. Often times, this means businesses must merge to form strategic partnerships allowing them to provide new products and services. Such partnerships create the need for critical information to flow seamlessly across the newly formed enterprise and be available on demand for effective collaboration and decision making. However, the legacy business information systems that each partner brings into the newly formed enterprise typically have a very narrow focus serving the needs of a single business unit within an enterprise. As such, it becomes necessary to integrate multiple different systems before the right information can be delivered to the right person at the right time. Integrating disparate systems from a technical perspective is not hard to achieve since the Webservices standard is fairly mature and provides an open infrastructure for software systems to interoperate. One must, however, first understand the need and level of cooperation and collaboration among the different segments of an enterprise, its suppliers, and its customers in order for this integration to be effective. This chapter motivates the need for model-driven requirements engineering for enterprise integration, reviews the research to date on model-driven requirements engineering, and examines a case study on integrating health-care providers to form integrated health networks to gain insight into challenges and issues.
Data Replication Strategies in Wide-Area Distributed Systems
Authors: Goel Sushant , Buyya Rajkumar
Published: May 2011

Effective data management in today’s competitive enterprise environment is an important issue. Data is information, and information is knowledge. Hence, fast and effective access to data is very important. Replication is one widely accepted phenomenon in distributed environments, where data is stored at more than one site for performance and reliability reasons. Applications and architectures of distributed computing have changed drastically during the last decade, and so have replication protocols. Different replication protocols may be suitable for different applications. In this chapter, we present a survey of replication algorithms for different distributed storage and content-management systems including distributed database-management systems, service-oriented data grids, peer-to-peer (P2P) systems, and storage area networks. We discuss the replication algorithms of more recent architectures, data grids and P2P systems, in detail. We briefly discuss replication in storage area networks and on the Internet.
Automatic Replication for Web Applications
Authors: Galdámez Pablo
Published: May 2011

This chapter proposes a software architecture to enhance the availability of Web-based applications at a reasonable cost. The architecture is pluggable to existing Web-applications, so that no modifications are required to existing code. There are no specific hardware or server software requirements. Availability is achieved by replication, and strong replica consistency is automatically guaranteed by using off-the-shelf group communication components. The proposed architecture is explained in detail, and it is compared against some of the most relevant highly-available solutions used nowadays. The most distinctive feature of the proposed architecture is that it explicitly addresses replica consistency, providing automatic strong replica consistency. Besides automatic consistency, attention is given to simplicity and pluggability.
Enterprise Architecture in the Singapore Government
Authors: Pheng T.
Published: May 2011

The Singapore government enterprise architecture is a blueprint that will provide a holistic view of business functions, supporting data standards, and IT systems and services, regardless of the organisational structure and ownership of these functions and systems. The blueprint will also enable analysis of IT investments and their alignment to business functions, as well as facilitate collaboration among government agencies. When implemented, the Singapore government enterprise architecture will help bring about transformation in public sector by yielding optimised end-to-end business processes and system capabilities in alignment with government enterprise needs and missions. This chapter presents the considerations and approach taken to develop the Singapore government enterprise architecture. It examines the linkages of enterprise architecture with other initiatives such as the e-government action plans, policies, and processes related to IT governance, as well as summaries of lessons learned.
Maturity of IT-Business Alignment
Authors: Wognum N. , Ip-Shing F.
Published: May 2011

Enterprise systems hold a large promise for organisations to enhance their strategic position. However, adoption and implementation of enterprise systems is not without problems. Many problems have been reported in the literature with implementation of new technology, many of which seem to reoccur over and over again. It seems difficult for organisations to learn from previous experience and successfully organise and manage complex dynamic projects like an enterprise system implementation project. Although current project and change management methods offer support in organising and managing complex projects, more is needed to increase insight into the specific situation at hand. In this chapter, research is presented aimed at collecting knowledge on the dynamics of enterprise system implementation projects. The knowledge can serve to increase awareness of potential risks and pitfalls in specific new enterprise system implementation situations. To make the knowledge accessible, a tool has been developed for assessing a start-up situation of an enterprise system implementation project in an organisation. The key concept in this assessment is the level of mutual alignment between various organisational aspects of the business in which the system is implemented, the enterprise system, and the implementation project.
Enterprise Architecture as an Enabler for E-Governance
Authors: Mahapatra R. , Perumal S.
Published: May 2011

E-governance in India is different from those in developed countries due to the peculiarities in administrative structure, geo-political and organizational culture, and process management. U.S., UK, and Denmark have effectively used enterprise architecture frameworks for e-governance implementation. In this chapter, we analyze how enterprise architecture concepts and methodology can be used to implement an efficient and effective e-governance system for citizen services administration by the Government of India. There are several enterprise architecture frameworks like Zachman framework, FEA CRM, TOGAF, DODAF, etc. We have based our analysis on the Zachman framework due to its simplicity and since most of the other frameworks have either been guided by or derived from it. We develop a framework to be applicable to the Indian initiatives and identify how it can guide the e-governance implementation in India and facilitate solving the traditional problems associated with the governance system in India through better processes.
Enterprise Architecture by a Small Unit in a Federated Organization
Authors: Sliva R.
Published: May 2011

This chapter provides specific guidance for enterprise architects who are part of a small team in a federated organization. Architects in that situation may be compelled to drastically limit the scope of their program. This chapter offers architects several actions they can take to perform current architecture, target architecture, and architecture governance as part of a wider-scoped program. Emphasis is placed on using an architecture repository tool, focusing on open standards, planning for shared business services, supporting a governance process, and building trust relationships within and between the organization’s departments.
Enterprise Architecture within the Service-Oriented Enterprise
Authors: Dowell S.
Published: May 2011

In his best selling book The World is Flat, Thomas Friedman proclaims “We are entering a phase where we are going to see the digitization, virtualization, and automation of almost everything … the real information revolution is about to begin” (Friedman, 2005). Certainly, the prevalence of high-speed connectivity has eliminated the barriers of doing business around the world. Lower cost and talented workforce in India and China are now easily if not transparently accessible and online. To thrive in the global economy, CEOs are using outsource, in-source, and offshore models to create strong partner-networks throughout the value chain. Technology leader Intel Corporation states in a recent whitepaper, “businesses are enjoying increased agility that allows them to rapidly respond to changing market needs and opportunities” (Intel Corporation, 2005). Enter a new paradigm called the “service-oriented enterprise” (SOE). In the SOE model, an organization views itself as a set of “business services” supported by adaptable, scalable, and reliable technology. Early-adopters of this model are benefiting through global collaboration, real-time business responsiveness, and productive mobile work forces. By grasping this paradigm shift, enterprise architects can guide organizations in building agility model and compete in the global economy.
A Fundamental SOA Approach to Rebuilding Enterprise Architecture for a Local Government after a Disaster
Authors: Wheeler Z.
Published: May 2011

As a result of Hurricane Katrina, the destruction of property, assets, documentation, and human life in the Gulf Port has introduced a myriad of challenging issues. These issues involve human, social, government, and technological concerns. This chapter does not address the many immediate human and social concerns brought forth from a natural disaster or major terrorist attack (NDMTA); this chapter addresses a small but significant problem of reestablishing or laying the groundwork for an enterprise architecture for local government during the response phase of the disaster. Specifically, it addresses constructing a high-level data model and fundamental SOA, utilizing the remaining local assets, XML (extensible markup language), and Web services.
Decision-Making Methods in MIS Outsourcing
Authors: Morgan Jeanette Nasem
Published: May 2011

This chapter commences with a discussion of corporate and government decision-making processes and the management sciences that support development of decisions. Special decision-making considerations, trade-offs analyses, and cost-benefit studies all figure into decisions that result in outsourcing. Technologies that support different methods of decision-making include data warehouses and data mining, rules-based logic, heuristical processes, fuzzy logic, and expert-based reasoning are presented. The chapter presents case studies and current and evolving technologies. The following sections will address the decision-making methods that are used in considering, executing and monitoring outsourced MIS projects or in service lines related to provision of information services in the organization.
Distributed Simulation in Industry
Authors: Revetria Roberto , Mosca Roberto
Published: May 2011

This chapter introduces the basic concepts of distributed simulation applied to real life industrial cases with particular reference to IEEE 1516 High Level Architecture(HLA): one of de facto standards for distributed simulation. Starting from a concise introduction HLA, the chapter proposes a simple hands-on with a complete implementation example of HLA. Successfully achieved the ability to create small federations, the reader is guided by two real life application of distributed simulation: the first is related to a supply chain modeling for the aerospace industry while the second one is focused on logistic platforms modeling. The authors have edited this chapter keeping in mind usual difficulties that can be encountered in real life projects: for such purpose a reference implementation and full code examples are provided in order to ensure a smooth but effective learning curve. The reader will also find suggestions for proper management of HLA-based simulation projects.
Intelligent Simulation Framework for Integrated Production System
Authors: Al Ajeeli Abid
Published: May 2011

This chapter addresses the problem of modeling finished products and their associated subassemblies and/or raw materials. A production system is a set of policies that monitors and controls finished products and raw materials. It determines how much of each item should be manufactured or be kept in warehouses, when low items should be replenished, and how many items should be assembled or be ordered when replenishment is needed. Practical production models rarely optimize or even represent very precise descriptions of realistic situations. The art of model design is to develop commonsense approximations that give enough information to facilitate managerial decision-making. A system with a high degree of intelligence is more robust and able to perform better in terms of lower cost and higher efficiency. The integration concept of manufacturing processing has enjoyed increased popularity among researchers and manufacturers. Integrated production system is a set of mathematical models and policies that monitors and controls raw items, sub-assemblies, and finished products. Although such systems provide a better utilization of resources they have a number of drawbacks due to the complexity of real world problems. Using intelligent simulation techniques will lead to better automated systems.
Simulation and Modelling Knowledge-Mining Architectures Using Recurrent Hybrid Nets
Authors: Al-Dabass David
Published: May 2011

Hybrid recurrent nets combine arithmetic and integrator elements to form nodes for modeling the complex behaviour of intelligent systems with dynamics. Given the behaviour pattern of such nodes it is required to determine the values of their causal parameters. The architecture of this knowledge mining process consists of two stages: time derivatives of the trajectory are determined first, followed by the parameters. Hybrid recurrent nets of first order are employed to compute derivatives continuously as the behaviour is monitored. A further layer of arithmetic and hybrid nets is then used to track the values of the causal parameters of the knowledge mining model. Applications to signal processing are used to illustrate the techniques. The theoretical foundations of this knowledge mining process is presented in the first part of the chapter, where the application of dynamical systems theory is extended to abstract systems to illustrate its broad relevance to any system including biological and non physical processes. It models the complexity of systems in terms of observability and controllability.
Design of the Man-Machine Interface
Authors: Shoval Peretz
Published: May 2011

This chapter deals with the design of the interfaces between the users and the system. First, it describes a method for the design of menus trees—for the entire system as well as for its subsystems. Then it describes how to design the inputs and outputs/reports of the systems. As a result, new classes of menus, forms, and reports are added to the class diagram.
Introduction to Cryptography
Authors: Karandikar Rajeeva Laxman
Published: May 2011

The chapter introduces the reader to various key ideas in cryptography without going into technicalities. It brings out the need for use of cryptography in electronic communications, and describes the symmetric key techniques as well as public key cryptosystems. Digital signatures are also discussed. Data integrity and data authentication are also discussed.
A Unified Taxonomy Framework of Trust
Authors: Zhao Weiliang , Varadharajan Vijay , Bryan George
Published: May 2011

In this chapter, we provide a formal definition of trust relationship with a strict mathematical structure that can reflect many of the commonly used notions of trust. Based on this formal definition, we propose a unified taxonomy framework of trust. Under the taxonomy framework, we discuss classification of trust. In particular, we address the base level authentication trust at the lower layer and a hierarchy of trust relationships at a higher level. We provide a set of definitions, propositions, and operations based on the relations of trust relationships. Then we define and discuss properties of trust direction and trust symmetry. We define the trust scope label in order to describe the scope and diversity of trust relationship. All the definitions about the properties of trust become elements of the unified taxonomy framework of trust. Some example scenarios are provided to illustrate the concepts in the taxonomy framework. The taxonomy framework of trust will provide accurate terms and useful tools for enabling the analysis, design, and implementation of trust. The taxonomy framework of trust is first part of research for the overall methodology of trust relationships and trust management in distributed systems.
Two-Layer Models for Managing Distributed Authenticity and Trust
Authors: Haenni Rolf , Jonczy Jacek , Kohlas Reto
Published: May 2011

This chapter describes the difficulty of managing authenticity and trust in large open networks. Participants of such networks are usually unknown to each other. Questioning somebody’s authenticity and trustworthiness is thus a natural reflex and an important security prerequisite. The resulting problem of properly managing authenticity and trust is an emerging research topic. The chapter proposes a common conceptual framework and compares it to several existing authenticity and trust models. The goal is to increase the awareness that authenticity and trust are not separable and to promote the corresponding two-layer requirement.