bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Technology-Related Privacy Concerns
Authors: McParland Cliona , Connolly Regina
Published: May 2010

While Internet-based technologies have the potential to empower users immensely, individuals are becoming increasingly aware of the ways in which those technologies can be employed to monitor their computer-based interactions. In the past, much attention has focused on the impact of technology-related privacy concerns from a transactional perspective. However, privacy concerns regarding communication monitoring are now emerging as a significant issue with the potential to negatively impact both productivity and morale within the computer-mediated work environment. This chapter outlines the evolution of technology-related privacy concerns. The lack of definitional consensus and the resulting conceptual and operational confusion that surrounds the privacy construct is described. Furthermore, the significant deficit of rigorous academic studies on this topic is highlighted. The current state of privacy legislation in Europe is addressed and some of the key challenges that face researchers who may wish to conduct research on this phenomenon are outlined.
Web Presence Lessons for Small Businesses
Authors: Burgess Stephen , Carmine Sellitto Carmine , Karanasios Stan
Published: May 2010

Whilst writing this book it has become apparent to us that small businesses face numerous challenges and issues when they are considering their Web presence. In fact, although we thought we had the organisation of the book determined before we started, we found that it was necessary to not only increase the number of chapters, but also reorganise planned chapters. We believe this has allowed a more detailed explanation of the important issues that are investigated and explored in the book. So, let’s be honest with ourselves here. How many small business owner/managers are going to have the time to carefully sit down and work through all of the tenets that we have suggested in later chapters – whilst understanding the background (presented in this book) behind them? We believe that if they did they would benefit greatly from their investment of time. Alas, time is one resource that is limited in small businesses. In addition, in this chapter small business researchers are presented with a more concise summary of the lessons for setting up and maintaining a small business presence that have emerged during the writing of this book. The purpose of this chapter, therefore, is to present the tenets from the book, as well as the lessons from ours and other studies, in a manner that might be more informative for small business owner/managers to consider - indeed, a Web presence primer for small business operators. In the following sections we introduce the factors that small businesses should consider when setting up and maintaining their Web presence. Specific detail in relation to each of the areas is provided in the chapters in Parts Two and Three of the book. We will commence with a discussion of whether the small business is in a position to adopt a Web presence.
Readiness for a Web Presence
Authors: Burgess Stephen , Carmine Sellitto Carmine , Karanasios Stan
Published: May 2010

The new global economy has resulted in the availability of unprecedented opportunities for small business. ICTs in particular have contributed to the underpinning of a revolutionary era of trade and commerce. The Internet in particular, and the ability to use the Web as a virtual shop front (having an online shop without physical premises) has not only allowed new forms of small businesses to emerge, but created an environment where they can compete with their larger counterparts. In what has been commonly become known as the new economy, one of the most fundamental tasks for small businesses is to investigate the usefulness and relevance of ICTs for their business. Furthermore, all small businesses need to assess their capacity to adopt ICTs allowing them to leverage the technology so that they are well positioned to expand their customer base, rationalize business processes and enter new markets. Porter (2001) observed at the height of the dot-com boom that it should be evident for many businesses that it was not whether to deploy ICTs, but how to use them as a competitive part of business strategy. In this chapter we first look at some of the main barriers and drivers of ICT adoption. We then move on to examine the notion of the “readiness” of small businesses to set up a Web presence. We will also examine previous studies that have examined adoption of ICTs in small businesses, for the purpose of identifying those drivers and barriers that can affect small business wishing to go down that path.
Web Presence Strategy and Content
Authors: Burgess Stephen , Carmine Sellitto Carmine , Karanasios Stan
Published: May 2010

The purpose of this chapter is to discuss how a small business decides upon its Web presence strategy and then determines what features will make up the content of its Web presence. The Web presence strategy is considered after the overall business strategy has been determined and a SWOT analysis performed (refer previous chapter). First we will examine the Web presence strategy.
Evaluating Web Presence Success
Authors: Burgess Stephen , Carmine Sellitto Carmine , Karanasios Stan
Published: May 2010

This chapter examines the notion of how the success of a small business Web presence can be assessed. In doing so, there is initially a discussion of how a small business could classify its ICT expenses and attempt to match these outlays with any expected revenue streams. The latter part of the chapter, discusses the different approaches a small business operator can use to investigate and evaluate the success of its Web presence.
Disaster Promulgation and Collective Behaviors
Authors: Ding Amy Wenxuan
Published: May 2010

As mentioned previously, the actions or anxiety moods of others directly affect a person’s attitude, especially when the situation is ambiguous and difficult for an individual to assess. The observed actions of others may suggest the situation is more severe. Once an observable anxiety with somatic symptoms is initiated, it tends to be imitated by the population and become a social trend. In this chapter, we quantify the disaster induced possible collective anxiety and estimate population level social productivity and response efforts. We then discuss the application of the proposed models in examining the potential psychosocial effects of an infectious disease like SARS.
Security Inspection Model of Critical Infrastructure
Authors: Ding Amy Wenxuan
Published: May 2010

This chapter presents an approach that can be used to assist in border patrol and security management. On August 12, 2005, New Mexico governor Bill Richardson announced a state of emergency in four counties along the New Mexico-Mexico border in response to the booming smuggling of drugs and illegal immigrants, kidnapping, murder, and destruction of property and livestock (CNN, 2005). Three days later, Arizona governor Janet Napolitano issued a similar declaration (Media, 2005). Both states immediately released emergency funds to help patrol their borders by hiring additional law enforcement officers and paying them overtime. In addition to building fences along the US-Mexico border (Media, 2006) and drawing attention to the political issues involved, such as immigration law, these two announcements indicate the urgency and importance of planning and implementing an effective border patrol. The border patrol, an important component of the nation’s security system, requires daily, around the clock operation and is frequently overt while illegal border-crossings and other criminal events are covert. When an illegal crossing is discovered, a decision must be made immediately whether to track the illegal crossers, to continue patrolling the rest of the assigned areas, or to attempt to do both together. This decision is based largely on whether the unit of border agents itself, or the border patrol station to which it belongs, has an adequate number of guards at the time of the incident. With sufficient forces, both pursuing and patrolling can be handled immediately. Otherwise, a dilemma arises as either the assigned area of the border is left unguarded (i.e., out of control) if the choice is to track the illegal crossers only, or if the decision is to continue patrolling without interruption the team neglects its duty. The border counties mentioned in the two announcements have expressed a desire to expand the number of patrol agents on the border in addition to needing different detection devices. For example, one proposal from Arizona Senator Jon Kyl in a bill is to authorize 10,000 new Border Patrol agents (Carroll & Gonzalez, 2005). On May 15, 2006, President George W. Bush announced sending 6,000 National Guard troops to help secure the southern border (CNN, 2006).
Containing Financial Contagion at the Source
Authors: Ding Amy Wenxuan
Published: May 2010

The world financial market is currently in turmoil because of the recent housing and credit crisis. From January to November 2007, more than 1 million homes in the United States entered foreclosure. Not only are homeowners losing their homes, but paying renters are being evicted as lenders reclaim properties. Depending on the state, 48–69% of foreclosed loans come from the subprime market. Subprime refers not to interest rates but to borrower quality, determined by low credit scores, little credit history, or unstable income with limited assets. Because of the increased risk associated with loaning to them, those borrowers cannot get favorable rates and often take out loans with short-term introductory rates. These loans generally get packaged by Wall Street into residential-backed securities and structured into slices or tranches that can be priced and rated from AAA to BBB– on the basis of the credit risk inherent in each tranche. When these mortgages adjust to market rates, the borrower no longer qualifies for the existing loan and can no longer pay it back. Because techniques such as gifted down payments and no requirements to prove income were the only way to move these borrowers into mortgages, many were lured into a false sense of prosperity for which they were neither prepared nor equipped and for which they are now suffering through foreclosure.
Culturally Sensitive Healthcare for Newcomer Immigrants
Authors: Rotich Jerono P.
Published: May 2010

This chapter will give an overview of the healthcare-related challenges that most newcomer immigrants and refugees encounter as they acculturate into their new environments in Western countries. It will highlight practical tips that can: enhance the caregiver and patient relationships across cultures and across continents; enhance culturally sensitive healthcare services; and help to create culturally inviting healthcare environments. Current demographics indicate that most developed countries continue to experience a growing influx of cross culturally diverse immigrants and refugees that represent the world’s 210 nations. It is also evident that, although these newcomers enrich their new nations with their diverse backgrounds, language, and cultural differences continues to pose formidable obstacles to their health, healthcare providers and health system in general. While the patients and providers realize the effects of immigration on the quality and access to healthcare, they seem to be overwhelmed by the barriers.
Socio-Technical Structures, 4Ps and Hodges' Model
Authors: Jones Peter
Published: May 2010

This chapter explores the potential of a conceptual framework – Hodges’ model – both as a socio-technical structure and means to explore such structures of relevance to nursing informatics theory and practice. The model can be applied universally by virtue of its structure and the content which it can encompass. In apprehending this chapter, readers will be able to draw, describe and explain the scope of Hodges’ model within contemporary healthcare contexts and the wider global issues presented by the 21st Century that influence and shape nursing informatics. Critically, the reader will also gain insight into how socio-technical structures can facilitate cross fertilization of clinical and informatics theory and practice; drawing attention to information as a concept that provides a bridge between socio-technical, clinical, and informatics disciplines. This chapter will review the socio-technical literature and venture definitions of socio-technical structures related to Hodges’ model and advocate the need for sociopolitical-technical structures. The chapter also proposes the 4Ps as a tool to facilitate reflection upon and the construction of socio-technical structures. The adoption and significance of the hyphenated form as per “socio-technical” will also be explained.
Government Transformation
Authors: Nguyen Hai Thi Thanh , Obi Toshio
Published: May 2010

The incorporation of e-business models into e-government applications is an additional approach in building the citizen-centric strategy. The value chain analysis is used to prove that the additional approach can overcome the weaknesses of the main current approaches such as the one-stop service centers and customer management relationship. However, this incorporation is challenged due to the differences between governments and businesses. The value chain analysis assists to find out solutions, which are specialization into a single or group of related services and commercialization allowing the participation of the private sector in carrying e-government initiatives, in order to create the sufficient pre-conditions for integration of e-business models. In other words, government transformation in which commercialization and specialization are the essential parts is the first step to integrate e-business models into e-government applications.
Treasury Computerization in India
Authors: Siddharth S. , Baisya Rajat K. , Gupta
Published: May 2010

This case study examines the growth of e-governance in financial treasuries in India and examines the growth of computerization among treasuries using various models and tries to identify points of convergence among them. The Faridabad District Treasury in Haryana State of India, was studied to identify these stages. The two models that were considered were the Nolan model that relates to growth of Information Technology and the Laynee & Lee model that relates to growth of e-governance. The study brings out the fact that these models of growth converge at various points. The study brings into light, technology life cycle as an important factor in predicting growth. The study also throws up issues for research on what factors other than technology could be factors of growth.
CRM in E-Government
Authors: Chauhan Kalpana , Saxena K. B.C.
Published: May 2010

Customer Relationship Management (CRM), primarily a concept of the private sector for its multi-benefit approach, is catching up fast in public sector, with constituents worldwide demanding better and more customized services built around their needs and to be treated as customers. This has compelled public sector to act like the private in certain ways and to embrace CRM to ensure better planning and resource allocation leading towards constituents’ satisfaction and better quality of life. This chapter identifies the critical aspect of relationship management and provides a conceptual framework for CRM in e-government.
E-Government
Authors: Nandan Shefali
Published: May 2010

Successful implementation of e-government programs, policies, and effective service delivery to citizens is faced with many obstacles related to operations, technology, and human resource management, amongst others. The changes brought about due to introduction of Information and Communication Technology require changed work patterns, work styles, and overall management of performance. In this context, five key issues have been identified. These are identification of new performance measures, creating an environment for innovation, teamwork, fostering employee empowerment, and developing new competencies. A theoretical framework for performance management in e-government departments and agencies is proposed. A model for delivering improved service to citizens has also been developed.
The Governance of Integrated Service Delivery in Canada
Authors: Roy Jeffrey
Published: May 2010

The emergence of the Internet has given rise to internal connectivity and external, online delivery as centrepieces of both the public and private sector service strategies alike. The purpose of this chapter is to provide a critical assessment of both the Canadian federal government’s experience to date and the prospects of success for Service Canada – the new lead entity for citizen-centred service delivery in a multi-channel environment. Our primary interest lies in better understanding the organizational (managerially and politically) dimensions to this transformation and the extent to which these dimensions are well aligned in a suitable governance framework that encompasses shifting patterns of service delivery at both the federal level, and for the Canadian public sector as a whole. The Service Canada experience to date illustrates the governance complexities surrounding the introduction and pursuit of e-services and more integrated service delivery. More than a technological challenge, the realization of a new business model is the primary challenge in succeeding.
A Study of Information Systems in Indian Railways with Specific Reference to Konkan Railway Application Package
Authors: Nayyar Sanjay , Gautam Vinayshil , Gupta M. P.
Published: May 2010

The railroads sector in the developing countries like the other services sectors (i.e. electricity, post, and telegraphs, health, and transport) are still administered by the government in many counties. Organizations providing these services have a large geographical spread, an assured market, and an administered price regime. The organizations function under the twin pressures. One being to function as an entity with commercial goals thereby being financially self-sufficient; a compulsion imposed on the organizations as a result of the financial squeeze faced by the governments that support these organizations through budgetary grants. The second pressure being to support a large public service obligation; a constraint imposed by a large population with low income levels. Information Technology Management in such organizations evolves in a scenario marked by such conflicting pressures. The chapter takes a look at the evolution of the information technology applications in Railroads of select countries. A particular focus is given to the Indian Railways in an attempt to cull out the issues of Information Systems for the same. Further specific reference is the Konkan Railways enterprise systems which led to some learning for development and implementation of large information systems in the railroads. The learning could be of substantial value in developing a sound theoretical framework for information technology management practices in the services sector in the developing countries.
Understanding Retailing Concepts
Authors: Rajagopal Dr.
Published: May 2010

It has been observed that the technology has homogenized the world markets for variety of customer and industrial needs. The reduction in the tariff barriers, duties and liberalization process worldwide has further given a stimulus to the international marketing across the regional boundaries. The growing internationalization of business induces changes in the positioning of competitors and appropriate competitive strategies. As the companies attain gradual success in geographically expanding their business and effectively performing international operations, they reach at critical point and would be able to synchronize the proximity to the overseas markets and customer needs. The global companies at this point blue print their successful business systems in the emerging markets by creating relatively decentralized operations in production, marketing and sales.
Customer Value and New Product Retailing Dynamics
Authors: Rajagopal Dr.
Published: May 2010

The customer value concept is utilized to assess product performance and to determine the competitive structure of the new products. The analytical approach to the new product-market structuring based on customer value may be fitted well within the microeconomic framework. The measure of customer value as the product efficiency may be viewed from the customer’s perspective towards a ratio of outputs (e.g., perceived use value, resale value, reliability, safety, comfort) that customers obtain from a product relative to inputs (price, running costs) that customers have to deliver in exchange. The efficiency value derived can be understood as the return on the customer’s investment.
Loyalty Cards in Retailing Industry
Authors: Rajagopal Dr.
Published: May 2010

This chapter attempts to analyze drivers of compulsive buying behavior induced by store based promotion through empirical investigation in Mexico. The role of point of sales promotions in stimulating arousal and satisfaction among customer andcustomer relationship management for building store loyalty have been analyzed in the chapter. Also, acquiring new customers through innovative in-store promotions towards driving the compulsive shopping tendency and swaying store-brand loyalty through point of sales promotions in chain self service stores are discussed in the following text. This study builds arguments towards convergence of attractiveness of point of sales promotions and effectiveness of customer services as a tool for gaining competitive advantage in the retail business environment.
Internet, Reengineering and Technology Applications in Retailing
Authors: Rajagopal Dr.
Published: May 2010

The rapid growth in computer technology and commercial needs have allowed significant changes in the information management systems. There emerged in early nineties many commercial network backbones to link with the NSFnet to provide market information to the business firms. The Internet today is a combination of NSFnet and commercially available backbone services disseminating information on the decentralized networks all over the world. It is estimated that there are over 30,000 computer networks connecting over 2 million computers with each other on the Web. In view of the increasing use of electronic information sources through the networks the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) has been designed and made essential for each user networks to abide with the protocol standards which enables the data transfer and retrieval at source.
Consumer Response to High Technology Mobile Phones in Emerging Markets
Authors: Fierros Ernesto , Rajagopal Dr.
Published: May 2010

The principal objective of the study is to identify the primary variables that can make an impact on the buying decision for a mobile phone. The focus of this study is to suggest developing a high performing customer-centric marketing plan to guide the mobile telecommunication companies to gain competitive advantage in the market.
Marketing Strategy, Technology and Modes of Entry in Global Retailing
Authors: Rajagopal Dr.
Published: May 2010

A firm, which would like to involve itself in the international business, may look for its entry into international marketing in many possible ways including exporting, licensing, franchising, or as a production firm with multi-national plant locations. However, at any level of market entry the managerial trade-off lies between extent of risk and operational control. The low intensity modes of entry minimize risk e.g. contracting with a local distributor requires no investment in the destination country market as the local distributors may own offices, distribution facilities, sales personnel, or marketing campaigns.
Profit Impact on Marketing Strategy and Brand Management
Authors: Rajagopal Dr. , Rajagopal Amritanshu
Published: May 2010

In developing strategy, both corporate and business unit management need to be able to realistically appraise the level of performance that should be expected for a given business, and to be clear as to what factors explain variations in performance between businesses, and within a business over time. Important guidelines that help address these questions have been developed from the Profit Impact of Market Strategy (PIMS) program1.
Technology and Retailing and Firms
Authors: Rajagopal Dr.
Published: May 2010

Increasing globalization and competitiveness in the retail environment is thrusting retail firms to reach high levels of consistent experimentation of new technology in store management, product information, and customer services. Technology management can be used to help retailers test new ideas and implement the most successful ones.
E-Banking Technologies
Authors: Shah Mahmood , Clarke Steve
Published: May 2010

E-banking relies heavily on information and communication technologies (ICT) to achieve its promise of 24 hours availability, low error rates, and quicker delivery of financial services. When considering e-banking, bank websites usually come to mind first, but e-banking requires much more than just a good website. It needs back end applications such as account systems, support applications such as Customer Relationship Management (CRM systems), communication technologies to link e-banking to the payment systems such as LINK, and middleware to integrate all these often different type of systems. This chapter is an overview of most common technologies in use to support e-banking.
Systems Thinking and Knowledge Management for E-Banking
Authors: Shah Mahmood , Clarke Steve
Published: May 2010

As has been shown to be the case with information systems, it can be argued that the perception of knowledge seen as either a purely technical or purely social phenomenon is insufficient. This argument will be developed within this chapter, the aim being to answer the question: ‘what kind of system is an e-banking system, when seen from a knowledge management perspective?’
E-Banking
Authors: Shah Mahmood , Clarke Steve
Published: May 2010

This last chapter is a summary of previous chapters. Whereas previous chapters focused on specific issues in e-banking, this chapter presents a summarised full picture along with recommendations about good practice in the domain. We defined e-banking as provision of information about a bank and its services via a home page on the World Wide Web (WWW). More sophisticated e-banking services provide customers access to accounts, the ability to move their money between different accounts, and making payments or applying for financial products via e-Channels.
International Organizations, E-Government and Development
Authors: Ventrone Oreste
Published: May 2010

Following the diffusion of e-government in the high income countries, international organizations, notably UN, OECD, World Bank, have promoted the implementation of e-government practices in developing countries. However, the few researches conducted in the field show that the overwhelming majority of e-government projects end up in total or partial failure. Despite the recognition of the need to take into account local specificities and to get the locals involved in the process, e-government in developing countries still appears essentially as a mere transfer operated by donor countries’ firms with western technologies. Moreover, as these technologies are mostly proprietary, they prevent institutions and users from developing countries to modify and adapt the tools to their particular needs and lock them in a position of permanent technological dependency. The causality chain between e-government, good governance, and democracy, if at all plausible, looking at history should be probably read the other way around. In fact, some scholars consider the contribution of e-government to overall development irrelevant, if not negative, in the measure in which it diverts funds from higher priorities.
The Politics of the Governing the Information and Communications Technologies in East Asian Authoritarian States
Authors: Hung Chin-fu
Published: May 2010

China has vigorously implemented ICTs to foster ongoing informatization accompanying industrialization as a crucial pillar to drive its future economic development. The institutional and legal reforms involved were initiated and put into practice in order to meet the increasing demand for technological convergence and the negotiations for the expected entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO). The Chinese government has nevertheless long been torn by the ambivalence brought about by the Internet. It regards the Internet as an engine to drive economic growth on the one hand, and as a subversive challenge to undermine the ruling Communist Party on the other hand. As soon as ICTs were introduced and Web sites mushroomed, the Party was so determined to harness the new medium to assure the Internet’s economic and scientific benefits. As a consequence, controls other than stifling ICTs would be critical for the CCP’s agenda to achieve the century-long modernization process and in the meantime, consolidate its power.
Information Networks, Internet Governance and Innovation in World Politics
Authors: Padovani Claudia , Pavan Elena
Published: May 2010

Political processes are undergoing profound changes due to the challenges imposed by globalization processes to the legitimacy of policy actors and to the effectiveness of policy-making. Building on a socio-political approach to governance and focusing on global information policies and networks, this chapter aims at developing a better understanding of the possibility of change in world politics nowadays, by critically analysing two innovative elements: the reality and relevance of “multi-stakeholder” practices and the growing role of information technologies as a complementary support to actors’ relations. Looking at Internet Governance debates in recent years, the authors reconstruct networks of interaction connecting actors in the virtual space, and look at actors’ communication modes. Thus they analyze the extent to which technological, as well as processual and cognitive innovation, shapes actors’ orientations and the structures within which they interact in the specific context of Internet Governance.
Who Governs Cyberspace? Internet Governance and Power Structures in Digital Networks
Authors: Santaniello Mauro
Published: May 2010

The Internet Governance debate has, for a long time, been influenced by a well-defined characterization of information networks. The depiction of a decentralized network, governed on a consensual basis by distributed forms of authority, has therefore focused, as a consequence, little attention on the coding and configuration strategies of the network architecture that is implemented in a conflictual scenario by a set of parties whose interests are rarely explicated in the internet governance debate or in institutional plans and policies inspired by it. It follows that some important structures of network government are not publicly recognized as constitutive places where processes of economic, political and social shaping on technology application occur. On the contrary this chapter will be dedicated to the analysis on those geo-strategic issues relating to international flows of data and to remote control activities deployed by a small group of software houses and hardware manufacturers.
Measuring ICT
Authors: Giannone Diego
Published: May 2010

Starting from the assumption that any technology embeds the ideology, politics and culture of the society where it was created, this chapter reconstructs the specific historical and political link between the affirmation of neo-liberal paradigm, which has occurred since the 1970s in Western industrialized capitalist countries, and the dissemination of ICT. More in particular, it analyses the problem of measurement of ICT, emerged functionally to the need to identify new tools to legitimize the hierarchy of development, giving some countries the label of “most advanced” and the others of “developing” or “underdeveloped”. Indeed, the measurement, acting as a scientific justification for the Western superiority, is a part of those structures of knowledge which constitute an essential element in the functioning and legitimacy of the political, economic and social structures of the existing world-system. This contribution reconstructs this methods of knowledge deployed first at the international level, within and through the work of those actors who have taken the leading role in defining the interpretative lines of the measurement of ICT: the OECD, ITU, the World Bank.
Virtual Nations
Authors: Bainbridge William Sims
Published: May 2010

Virtual worlds are computer environments in which large numbers of human beings may interact, do useful work for each others, and build enduring social connections. For example, in World of Warcraft an estimated nine million subscribers form short-term action-oriented groups and long-term guilds, employing a variety of software tools to manage division of labor, spatial distributions, activity planning, individual reputations, and channels of communication, to accomplish a variety of often complex goals. A broader system of essentially permanent allegiances, comparable to current national governments and major corporations, frames the volatile forming and dissolving of small and medium-sized cooperative groups. New social technologies have a clear potential to supplement and render more flexible the existing structures of government, but they may also represent a significantly new departure in human social organization. The chapter will describe the diversity of information technology tools used to support social cooperation in virtual worlds, and then explain how they could be adapted to mediate in new ways between government and its citizens.
A Research Agenda for the Future
Authors: Amoretti Francesco
Published: May 2010

This volume does not constitute yet another account of the blessings of ICTs. Nor does it add new criticism to the old, nurturing fears about the future. The goal of this book is to provide an overview and reinterpretation of the main issues on digital information technology in world politics, relating them to the processes of transformation of the current historical system. Inspired by the Braudelian concept of the multiplicity of time—and space—diachronic and synchronic and of the close-knitted unity of the phenomenon under investigation, i.e. the capitalist world-economy, an interpretative key is developed in an approach which could substantially enable advancement in this field of study both in theoretical and methodological terms. Despite the limited number of cases and issues investigated, the contributions to this volume show that the diffusion of new technologies engender transformations that go beyond declared political objectives. Often this is understood as an expression of the “unintentional consequences” of social action. However, this is not the case. What appears as “unintentional consequences”—socio-cultural tensions and contradictions— is instead, constitutive of the capitalist system in its historical development.
Web 2.0 Social Networking Sites
Authors: Staples D. Sandy
Published: May 2010

SNS is offered, as is a short history of these sites. The existing research is reviewed and organized to summarize what we know about SNS usage (from the perspectives of student use, general population use and organizational use), and what people know about the antecedents and outcomes of SNS use. The chapter concludes with discussion of new developments, challenges and opportunities. There are many opportunities for future research and organizational applications of SNS as SNS adoption grows at incredible rates.
CUSENT
Authors: García-Crespo Ángel , Colomo-Palacios Ricardo , Mencke Myriam , Gómez-Berbís Juan M.
Published: May 2010

The current chapter introduces CUSENT, a tool for semantics-enhanced sentiment analysis of customer opinions expressed in corporate blogs. The research work presents the examination of emotions and sentiments from the perspective of information systems, and, in particular, provides a review of the principal efforts for the conceptualization of emotions and sentiments in texts. Subsequently, a description of the proposed architecture of the platform is outlined. The authors aim to contribute a solution which automates the analysis of customer opinions in company blogs that relies on existing techniques, but further exploits these methods to store and reuse customer feedback. The novel combination of opinion mining with an ontology of emotions can thus be used in organizational creation and innovation processes, which characterize the new forms of communication derived from the institutional and commercial use of Web 2.0.
Pattern Matching Techniques to Identify Syntactic Variations of Tags in Folksonomies
Authors: Echarte F. , Astrain J. J. , Córdoba A. , Villadangos J.
Published: May 2010

Folksonomies offer an easy method to organize information in the current Web. This fact and their collaborative features have derived in an extensive involvement in many Social Web projects. However they present important drawbacks regarding their limited exploring and searching capabilities, in contrast with other methods as taxonomies, thesauruses and ontologies. One of these drawbacks is an effect of its flexibility for tagging, producing frequently multiple syntactic variations of a same tag. In this chapter we study the application of two classical pattern matching techniques, Levenshtein distance for the imperfect string matching and Hamming distance for the perfect string matching, to identify syntactic variations of tags.
Insights into the Impact of Social Networks on Evolutionary Games
Authors: Sycara Katia , Scerri Paul , Chechetka Anton
Published: May 2010

The chapter explores the use of evolutionary game theory (EGT) to model the dynamics of adaptive opponent strategies for a large population of players. In particular, it explores effects of information propagation through social networks in evolutionary games. The key underlying phenomenon that the information diffusion aims to capture is that reasoning about the experiences of acquaintances can dramatically impact the dynamics of a society. The chapter presents experimental results from agent-based simulations that show the impact of diffusion through social networks on the player strategies of an evolutionary game and the sensitivity of the dynamics to features of the social network.
User-Centered Design Principles for Online Learning Communities
Authors: Daniel Ben K. , O’Brien David , Sarkar Asit
Published: May 2010

This chapter aims to introduce user-centered design and its basic concepts associated with online learning communities. Another aim is to search for guidelines to ensure quality in online learning. Human computer interaction for education provides the missing holistic approach for online learning. Functioning in a sociotechnical framework, online learning communities combine information and knowledge stores situated in shared social spaces using social learning software. In recent years, educational technologists linked theory and systems design in education. However, several disciplines combine in online learning. User-centered design provides the cross-disciplinary approach that appears to be essential for quality in online learning design and engineering. Thus, seven guidelines for experts’ evaluation are proposed as signposts: intention, information, interactivity, real-time evaluation, visibility, control, and support.
Essential, Mandatory, and Shared Parts in Conceptual Data Models
Authors: Artale Alessandro , Keet C. Maria
Published: May 2010

This chapter focuses on formally representing life cycle semantics of part-whole relations in conceptual data models by utilizing the temporal modality. The authors approach this by resorting to the temporal conceptual data modeling language ERVT and extend it with the novel notion of status relations. This enables a precise axiomatization of the constraints for essential parts and wholes compared to mandatory parts and wholes, as well as introduction of temporally suspended part-whole relations. To facilitate usage in the conceptual stage, a set of closed questions and decision diagram are proposed. The longterm objectives are to ascertain which type of shareability and which lifetime aspects are possible for part-whole relations, investigate the formal semantics for sharability, and how to model these kind of differences in conceptual data models.
Extending the ORM Conceptual Schema Language and Design Procedure with Modeling Constructs for Capturing the Domain Ontology
Authors: Bollen Peter
Published: May 2010

In this chapter the authors extend the ORM conceptual modeling language with constructs for capturing the relevant parts of an application ontology in a list of concept definitions. The authors give the adapted ORM meta model and provide an extension of the accompanying Conceptual Schema Design Procedure (CSDP) to cater for the explicit modeling of the relevant parts of an application- or domain ontology in a list of concept definitions. The application of these modeling constructs will significantly increase the perceived quality and ease-of-use of (Web-based) applications.
Integrated Requirement and Solution Modeling
Authors: Carstensen Anders , Holmberg Lennart , Sandkuhl Kurt , Stirna Janis
Published: May 2010

This chapter discusses how an Enterprise Modeling approach, namely C3S3P1, has been applied in an automotive supplier company. The chapter concentrates on the phases of the C3S3P development process such as Concept Study, Scaffolding, Scoping, and Requirements Modeling. The authors have also presented the concept of task pattern which has been used for capturing, documenting and sharing best practices concerning business processes in an organization. Within this application context they have analyzed their experiences concerning stakeholder participation and task pattern development. The authors have also described how they have derived four different categories of requirements from scenario descriptions for the task patterns and from modeling of the task patterns.
Design Principles for Reference Modelling
Authors: vom Brocke Jan
Published: May 2010

With the design of reference models, an increase in the efficiency of information systems engineering is intended. This is expected to be achieved by reusing information models. Current research focuses mainly on configuration as one principle for reusing artifacts. According to this principle, all variants of a model are incorporated in the reference model facilitating adaptations by choices. In practice, however, situations arise whereby various requirements to a model are unforeseen: Either results are inappropriate or costs of design are exploding. This paper introduces additional design principles that aim toward giving more flexibility to both the design and application of reference models.
Radio Frequency Identification History and Development
Authors: Soon Chin Boo
Published: May 2010

This chapter describes the history and development of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID). Key information on RFID such as the ratification of the RFID standards and important regulations on frequency usage is presented. As businesses move towards the convergence of information, RFID technology provides a step closer to the reality of connecting the real world and the digital world seamlessly. This is possible as RFID communication does not require the line of sight as barcodes do. Thus, is the continued existence of the barcodes technology under threat? Before RFID makes its way into the mainstream, there are teething issues to be sorted out. The immediate attention for a global uptake of RFID is the adoption of a frequency standard that is accepted internationally. This chapter provides an understanding of the RFID technology, its background and its origin.
RFID in Hospitals and Factors Restricting Adoption
Authors: Houliston Bryan
Published: May 2010

Hospitals are traditionally slow to adopt new information systems (IS). However, health care funders and regulators are demanding greater use of IS as part of the solution to chronic problems with patient safety and access to medical records. One technology offering benefits in these areas is Radio Frequency Identification (RFID). Pilot systems have demonstrated the feasibility of a wide range of hospital applications, but few have been fully implemented. This chapter investigates the factors that have restricted the adoption of RFID technology in hospitals. It draws on related work on the adoption of IS generally, published case studies of RFID pilots, and interviews with clinicians, IS staff and RFID vendors operating in New Zealand (NZ) hospitals. The chapter concludes with an analysis of the key differences between RFID and other IS, and which RFID applications have the greatest chance of successful implementation in hospitals.
RFID in Emergency Management
Authors: Ahmed Ashir , Sugianto Ly-Fie
Published: May 2010

This chapter introduces an activity-based framework for the adoption of radio frequency identification (RFID) in emergency management. The framework is based on a rather loose interpretation of the tasktechnology fit (TTF) theory. The chapter provides an overview of emergency management, a description of RFID characteristics and a scheme for classifying emergency management activities. It also reports literature survey on emergency management models, the use of RFID and RFID adoption models. Last but not least, it outlines the perceived benefits associated with the use of RFID in emergency management. It is hoped that the proposed framework can serve as a useful guidance for RFID adoption in emergency management.
Facing the Challenges of RFID Data Management
Authors: Bose Indranil , Lam Chun Wai
Published: May 2010

Radio frequency identification (RFID) has generated vast amounts of interest in the supply chain, logistics, and the manufacturing area. RFID can be used to significantly improve the efficiency of business processes by providing automatic data identification and capture. Enormous data would be collected as items leave a trail of data while moving through different locations. Some important challenges such as false read, data overload, real-time acquisition of data, data security, and privacy must be dealt with. Good quality data is needed because business decisions depend on these data. Other important issues are that business processes must change drastically as a result of implementing RFID, and data must be shared between suppliers and retailers. The main objective of this article is focused on data management challenges of RFID, and it provides potential solutions for each identified risk.
A Mobile Computing Framework for Passive RFID Detection System in Healthcare
Authors: Mohammadian Masoud , Jentzsch Ric
Published: May 2010

The cost of health care continues to be a world wide issue. Research continues into ways and how the utilization of evolving technologies can be applied to reduce costs and improve patient care, while maintaining patient’s lives. To achieve these needs requires accurate, near real time data acquisition and analysis. At the same time there exists a need to acquire a profile on a patient and update that profile as fast and as possible. All types of confidentiality need to be addressed no matter which technology and application is used. One possible way to achieve this is to use a passive detection system that employs wireless radio frequency identification (RFID) technology. This detection system can integrate wireless networks for fast data acquisition and transmission, while maintaining the privacy issue. Once this data is obtained, then up to date profiling can be integrated into the patient care system. This article discussed the use and need for a passive RFID system for patient data acquisition in healthcare facilities such as a hospital. The development of profile data is assisted by a profiling intelligent software agent that is responsible for processing the raw data obtained through RFID and database and invoking the creation and update of the patient profile.