bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
An Analysis of Using Expert Systems and Intelligent Agents for the Virtual Library Project at the Naval Surface Warfare Center-Carderock Division
Authors: Liebowitz Jay , Adya Monica
Published: May 2011

The Virtual Library Project1 at the Naval Surface Warfare Center/Carderock Division (NSWC/CD) is being developed to facilitate the incorporation and use of library documents via the Internet. These documents typically relate to the design and manufacture of ships for the U.S. Navy Fleet. As such, the libraries will store documents that contain not only text but also images, graphs and design configurations. Because of the dynamic nature of digital documents, particularly those related to design, rapid and effective cataloging of these documents becomes challenging. We conducted a research study to analyze the use of expert systems and intelligent agents to support the function of cataloging digital documents. This chapter provides an overview of past research in the use of expert systems and intelligent agents for cataloging digital documents and discusses our recommendations based on NSWC/CD’s requirements.
Librarians as Info Architects
Authors: Wolfe Paula J. , Olson Lori A.
Published: May 2011

Many Internet users believe that archival collections should and will be digitized and placed on the World Wide Web for all to use. This belief derives from several unrealistic ideas about what the Web can do, what archival collections are, and that technology, including processing, storage and display, is free. Attempts have been made by small and large libraries to meet expectations only to find that staff requirements, as well as financial and technological issues, present too many difficulties to overcome (Nelson, 1996). Archivists are now reevaluating the Web and the benefits it offers to their repositories.
Object Oriented Requirements Analysis
Authors: Sim Edward R.
Published: May 2011

The ability to correctly identify system requirements is seen by most Information Systems (IS) researchers and practitioners as essential to the design and development of effective information systems (Yadav, Bravoco et al. 1988; Vessey 1994). Requirements are used to drive all subsequent stages of systems development and are critical to system validation. Incorrect requirements or poorly specified requirements usually produce systems that require major revisions or are abandoned entirely (Pressman 1996). Recently, many new techniques and methodologies have been introduced to assist analysts and users in efforts to identify and specify system requirements (Coad, North et al. 1995) (Pancake 1995). One of the newest approaches to be used in this effort to improve requirements analysis is the application of object oriented analysis (OOA).
Object Oriented Testing in Software Development
Authors: Agyemang Samuel K.A.
Published: May 2011

Object oriented technology is still growing and has not yet matured. Many articles have been written on object oriented software development processes, particularly in the area of testing. Most of the publications seem to agree with the fact that object oriented testing is a challenging aspect of the software development process. The main reason for this view seems to revolve around the fact that the objects and the code are inseparable and also, the idea of inheritance. Despite these views, the publications all seem to agree on one aspect, that object oriented when successfully tested leaves a better-maintained product compared to the traditional non-object oriented software. Object oriented software makes better maintainable software; it also has an added advantage over traditional software development because in the final analysis, it will cost less by shortening the development time as well as cutting down the cost of maintenance.
Business Process Reengineering with Object Oriented Technology
Authors: Gittins Robert M.
Published: May 2011

The rise of Object Oriented (OO) technologies has been nothing if not spectacular in the past few years. The IT world has witnessed the next generation of cutting-edge technology with the advent of OO programming languages, OO analysis and design, OO CASE tools, OO database management systems (OODBMS), and OO modeling. While the potential for this new technology has IT and business professionals extremely excited, the burgeoning field is undeniably immature and currently lacks the stability necessary to be considered mainstream or a reliable option for companies that are about to reengineer their business processes. Despite the growing popularity of OO technology, there are numerous issues that have contributed to its inability to firmly entrench itself and take over from the older, proven technologies. Object Oriented technology’s image problem has created a highly difficult decision- making process for corporations about to embark on business process reengineering (BPR) projects. At this time, reengineering with OO technology is a significant risk for companies to make, and those who have moved forward with OO technology have not, for the most part, seen the results that they were hoping for and their organizations are now suffering as a result of this decision.
Community Impact of Telebased Information Centers
Authors: Falch Morten
Published: May 2011

Telebased information community centers or just telecenters have been seen as the killer application to empower local communities in developed and developing countries to meet the challenges of the information society. The point of departure has been different in various parts of the world, and a number of quite diverse models for development of telebased information centers have been applied. While centers in developed countries, with an almost universal coverage of telephony services, have been focussed on enhancing IT capabilities and access to IT-based communication services, developing countries have also focussed on provision of basic telephony. This chapter presents the approaches taken in Scandinavia, Hungary, Western Australia and Ghana in order to reach these objectives, and discusses the experiences with the different models and the national strategies used for setting up telebased information centers with special attention to their applicability in developing countries.
Reinforcing and Opening Communities through Innovative Technologies
Authors: Agostini Alessandra , Giannella Valeria , Grasso Antonietta , Snowdon Dave , Koch Michael
Published: May 2011

The aim of the Campiello1 research project (Esprit Long Term Research #25572) is to promote and sustain the meeting of inhabitants and tourists in historical cities of art and culture. This overall objective is undertaken in two main steps: reinforcing the community bounds via collective participation in both creating community knowledge and optimizing access to it. Once the local community’s sense of belonging has been reinforced, sharing its knowledge with outside people will become more natural. In this paper first we present the various technological aspects, as well as where and how innovative technology can help local communities. Then we present the context of experimentation, future plans and current achievements in one of the two project settings: Venice.
The Standardization Problem in Networks - A General Framework
Authors: Westarp Falk v. , Weitzel Tim , Buxmann Peter , Konig Wolfgamg
Published: May 2011

Every interaction and all coordination in economic processes is based upon communication. The exchange of information necessarily requires both the sender and receiver of a message to use a mutual language or set of communications standards. Communications standards can be generally defined as rules which provide the basis for interaction between actors (man, as well as machine). These rules must be known or determined ex ante, i.e. before communication begins. If n actors bilaterally agree to a set of communications standards, then n•(n-1)/2 rules must be defined. Such a Babylonian cacophony of languages rarely leads to an efficient exchange of information, however. The uniqueness of communications standards lies in their solely bilateral functionality; they work only when both the sender and the receiver of a message use identical or at least compatible standards. This basic principle for the use of communications standards applies to natural languages as well as to EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) for the electronic transfer of business documents or to network protocols like TCP/IP, for example. Thus, the decision to implement a standard is necessarily tied to the standardization decision of the communications partners. The user’s benefit from a given standard generally increases with the number of other users. This phenomenon— the increase of utility derived from a good as the number of users increases—is known as a positive network effect, or demand-side economies of scale, in economic terms. See for example Katz & Shapiro (1985) or Farrell & Saloner (1988). Network effects lead to the interdependence of decisions regarding communications standards by otherwise completely independent actors. This interdependence results in coordination problems because actors, such as firms, do not know in advance when which standards will be implemented by other firms, if at all. Our research focuses on the examination of alternative forms of coordination and their impact on the selection of communications standards. We have developed two models for evaluating different coordination designs, differentiating between centralized and decentralized coordination of standardization decisions. These models can also be used to analyze and evaluate further cooperation forms between participants in communication networks. We based the economic parameters of the models and the discussion of their implications on empirical research. To gain information about the use of software standards in enterprises, we conducted a comprehensive empirical survey, both in Germany and the U.S.A. It focuses on the corporate adoption and use of various Information Technology (IT) standards, including Internet and electronic commerce standards, business software and EDI.
Standardizing Retail Payment Instruments
Authors: Lelieveldt Simon L.
Published: May 2011

The business of payments and the provision of payment instruments have a rich history, which can be drawn upon in a discussion of standardization. In the middle-ages, for example, the mere existence of a wide variety of foreign and local coins led to a flourishing business of money exchange offices and cashiers in the Netherlands. Malpractices of some of these firms, mostly in the form of physical tampering with coins and alloy, resulted in government regulation on a municipal and province level. Yet, as these type of regulations where hard to enforce, the Amsterdam municipal government decided in 1609 to establish a municipal exchange bank, ‘de Amsterdamse Wisselbank’, originally as a government monopolist. The motivation for doing so was to prevent the regular price-increases of the good coins, to eliminate confusion to the public and to facilitate trade by providing good coins. Later on, in 1621, the regulations were adapted to the actual business practice and private cashiers were allowed – under certain conditions – to conduct business in the city of Amsterdam (van den Berge, 1939, p 34). The example shows us how a diversity of specifications and a diversity of payment instruments, will lead to the development of separate companies which make money by reducing the confusion for their consumers. It illustrates that the abuse of technological know-how and abilities for the sake of increased economic benefits by a few private companies may lead to government intervention for the sake of public interest. Furthermore it indicates that strong market powers may prevail, even in the case of restricted government regulation. As such the example contains all relevant issues with respect to IT-standardization: • can it be assumed that the market will standardize if necessary? • what role should governments play in this process? • does the end-user play a role in this process? In this chapter, I will examine the above standardization issues with respect to the retail payment instruments, developed and in use since the beginning of this century. In this time frame bank notes and coin have been widely available to the public as a basic (and standardized) payment instrument. I will however not include these instruments in this study and limit myself to a study of the standardization of noncash payment instruments that have been available to the consumer. These payment instruments can be seen as the technical means with which consumers effect money transfers to each other. Examples of payment instruments are the forms for credit transfers or in-payments, the debit- or credit cards or home-banking software. It is my opinion that, given the availability of cash an alternative payment instrument, the standardization processes of noncash payment instruments can be seen as the ‘pure’ result of market forces. The study of this process, applied to different types of instruments within one application and industry domain, will hopefully provide additional insight.
Developing Trust for Electronic Commerce
Authors: Fink Dieter
Published: May 2011

While much attention is currently being devoted to solving technological challenges of the Internet, for example increasing the bandwidth on existing narrowband network platforms to overcome bottlenecks, little attention appears to be given to the nontechnical aspects. This has been a mistake in the past as human resistance to, or incompetence during, the introduction of new Information Technology (IT) often caused Information Systems (IS) to fail. By focusing on a broad range of technical and nontechnical elements early in the adoption of Internet technology, we have the opportunity to avoid the mistakes made in the past. The Internet has given rise to electronic commerce (e-commerce) through the use of the World Wide Web (Web). E-commerce, by its nature, offers enormous possibilities but in an uncontrolled environment. Therefore, for e-commerce to be accepted, trust must be established as soon as interaction with a Web site begins. In the virtual environment of the Web trust has become even more important because the parties are not in physical proximity. There are no handshakes or body language to be observed when closing a deal. Furthermore, jurisdiction is unclear. Developments on a global scale are required that provide assurance that e-commerce can be conducted in a ‘trusting’ manner.
Managing Security Functions Using Security Standards
Authors: Janczewski Lech
Published: May 2011

In this chapter we will discuss the issue of managing security processing in business organization with special emphasis on computer systems. Our intention is not to prove that managing information security resources is the most important issue within the information security domain but that it must deal first in a chain of activities leading to building and operating information systems in a secure way. Before starting the discussion it is necessary to look at the historical developments leading to this issue. Most people are aware of the dramatic rate of development of information technology. However, few could attach quantitative values measuring this growth apart from a known statement that “If the auto industry had done what the computer industry has done in the last 30 years, a Rolls-Royce would cost $2.50 and get 2,000,000 miles per gallon.” This is true, but a more precise measure must be introduced.
Developments in Security Mechanism Standards
Authors: Mitchell Chris
Published: May 2011

However, despite this wide range of standardisation activity, the ISO/IEC JTC1/SC27 work is unique in being both truly international and also aimed at general applications. As such, while we mention the relevant work of other standards bodies, the main focus of this chapter is the work of ISO/IEC JTC1/SC27. The main purpose of this chapter is to bring the international standards for cryptographic techniques to the widest possible audience. Adoption of these standards, which have received detailed scrutiny from experts worldwide, can only help to improve the quality of products incorporating security features. Note that much of the work described in this chapter is based on recent research. For brevity, references to research papers are not included here. For further information the interested reader should consult the bibliographies in the quoted standards, or the excellent encyclopaedic work (Menezes, van Oorschot and Vanstone, 1997).
Electronic Mail, Employee Privacy and the Workplace
Authors: Prysby Charles , Prysby Nicole
Published: May 2011

Electronic mail (e-mail) has become increasingly important in the workplace. The growth of this new medium of communication has generated important legal questions about the privacy and monitoring of e-mail messages, so much so that most experts strongly recommend that organizations adopt explicit policies about e-mail for their own legal protection. The legal questions concerning e-mail in the workplace include both: (a) employee rights to privacy regarding e-mail messages; and (b) employee obligations to monitor e-mail to ensure a suitable workplace or to prevent illegal behavior. We discuss both of these topics in this chapter, attempting not only to outline current legal thinking in the area, but also to raise questions that managers and policy makers should consider. It is worth noting at the start that many of the legal issues surrounding the use of e-mail are direct extensions of principles that apply to other forms of communications. Indeed, much of the law that governs e-mail is not legislation that was written explicitly to cover this particular form of communication. Issues of the privacy of employee e-mail messages, for example, are directly analogous to issues of the privacy of employee phone calls or written correspondence. To be sure, there are questions about exactly how legal principles that were established for older communication technologies should be applied to a new one, and perhaps not all of these questions are fully settled at this point in time, but our understanding of this topic is broadened if we appreciate the application of legal principles across communication media.
World Wide Wait
Authors: Nah Fui Hoon , Kim Kihyun
Published: May 2011

The explosive popularity of the World Wide Web (WWW) is the biggest event in the Internet era. Since its public introduction in 1991, WWW has become an important channel for electronic commerce, information access, and publication. With exponential growth in the WWW market, Internet connection speed has become a critical issue. The long waiting time for accessing web pages has always been a major problem for WWW users (Lightner, Bose and Salvendy, 1996), especially with the increasing use of multimedia technology and the doubling of Internet users every 18-24 months. A recent survey conducted by the GVU (Graphic, Visualization, & Usability) Center at the Georgia Institute of Technology also indicates long downloading time to be the biggest problem experienced by WWW users (GVU, October 1998). This problem is so noticeable that WWW users sometimes equate the “WWW” acronym with “World Wide Wait”! Although information technology for supporting the infrastructure of WWW is continually being updated and improved, it is still not able to satisfy industry requirements and demand. In this chapter, we review the usage pattern of WWW as well as topics related to speed of Internet access such as bandwidth, Internet connection alternatives, and technology to speed up WWW access. In addition, we report an experimental research that measured and analyzed users’ “tolerable” waiting time in accessing the WWW. Based on the results of the study, we provide guidelines for web designers regarding page size restrictions in web development.
Web-Based Competency and Training Management Systems for Distance Learning
Authors: Whalen Tammy , Wright David
Published: May 2011

The Web has had a major impact on how corporate training departments manage employee training. The evolution of computers and networks allows companies to implement a precise customer-focused approach. Through the use of competency and training management systems such as the SIGAL system used by Bell Canada, organizational training plans can be efficiently communicated throughout the organization, training needs can be linked to the performance evaluations of individual employees, and online training materials can be conveniently delivered to employees at their desktops. In the future, we predict that training management systems will evolve to incorporate analytic tools that can calculate the return on training investment, evaluate the impact of training on job performance, and determine the impact of training on corporate profits. This chapter discusses the value to companies of using a Web-based system for competency and training management, using the case of Bell Canada as an example of how companies are implementing these tools today.
Penn State's World Campus©
Authors: Ryan James H. , Miller Gary E.
Published: May 2011

Pennsylvania State University’s World Campus© enrolled its first students in January 1998. The World Campus is one of several “virtual campus” initiatives within higher education in the United States and abroad. Penn State built the World Campus as its 25th campus, fully integrating it into the mainstream of the University’s academic life as part of an institution-wide web of innovation. It completed its first full year of operation in June 1999, initially offering courses in 10 credit and noncredit certificate and degree programs in some of Penn State’s most highly regarded disciplines. At that time, the World Campus had admitted 861 students and generated 896 individual course enrollments. It had also attracted national attention as a “bellwether institution” in the emerging online learning field. The idea of a “virtual university” has moved distance education into the mainstream of higher education. The creation of the World Campus illustrates the complexity of planning a significant technology-based innovation directed at positioning a major comprehensive university to meet the need for lifelong education in an information society. This case study provides a detailed examination of the strategies used in the development of a distance education campus and the lessons learned in the first year of World Campus operation.
Access to Internet-Based Instruction for People with Disabilities
Authors: Burgstahler Sheryl
Published: May 2011

Internet-based instruction promises to make learning accessible to almost everyone, everywhere, at any time. Internet use, however, raises a number of issues. One of them is equitable access. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 requires that those making programs and services available to the public provide the same programs and services to people with disabilities that they provide to people without disabilities. Increased access is commonly given as a key justification for offering educational programs through a distance learning format. For the most part, when this argument is made, proponents are focusing on students unable to participate because of geography. Rarely is the argument made for students unable to participate because of disabilities. Providing access to students with disabilities can be considered from several angles. Making assurances that individuals with disabilities can participate in distance learning courses is an ethical issue (Woodbury, 1998); some say it is just the right thing to do. It can also be seen as a legal issue. The ADA requires that people with disabilities be provided equal access to public programs and services. According to this law, no otherwise qualified individuals with disabilities shall, solely by reason of their disabilities, be excluded from the participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination in these programs. When people think of the ADA they often think of elevators in buildings, reserved spaces in parking lots, and lifts on buses. However, the ADA accessibility requirements also apply to educational opportunities, and more specifically, to programs offered on the Internet. As the United States Department of Justice clarifies: Covered entities that use the Internet for communications regarding their programs, goods, or services must be prepared to offer those communications through accessible means as well (ADA, 1997).
Internet Business Models for Government Agencies
Authors: Fergusson Marium
Published: May 2011

The Internet offers enormous potential as a means of communication, doing business and providing channels for service delivery. The most striking feature about the Internet as a technology has been its very high rate of growth compared with other modern communication technologies such as the telephone, television and facsimile. The trend over the last few years of increasing uptake of the Internet is evidenced by host counts doubling approximately every two years (http://www.nw.com/zone/WWW/top.html), the number of people connected, and to a lesser extent the dollar amount of trade activity generated. In addition to the sheer number of hosts and people is the amount of traffic that is being generated. The traffic level on the Internet is doubling every 100 days (International Telecommunications Union [ITU], 1999). Forecasts of the on-line trade of goods in the U.S. are in the order of $1 trillion, and revenue generated by Internet electronic services alone is of the order of $220 billion by the year 2003 (http://www.forrester.com/ER/Research/Report/0,1338,5417,FF.html). These measures of the growth of Internet participation and predictors of future uptake suggest that the Internet “revolution” is more than journalistic hype. This is underlined in a provocatively titled article “Use Net or Die, Travel Agents Told,” reporting advice from the Australian Tourism Commission (ATC) to travel agents that Internet travel sales are doubling every six months (Southgate, 1999). The ATC is predicting A$13 billion in net-based business in the Year 2000. Ansett Airlines expects 50% of its sales to be online by 2005, up from 1% today. Travel agents, like other ‘middlemen’ face significant threats from disintermediation as hotels and others who sell their wares through intermediaries work out effective strategies to use the Internet to sell direct to end consumers. Some hotels, for example, are using the commission (typically 10%) they pay to an agent to deliver lower room costs to consumers who transact directly with them over the Net. Businesses, and to some extent, governments that choose to ignore the Internet as a medium for doing business may be doing so to their detriment.
Supporting Innovative Competitive Strategies as Mass Customization by Pairing E-Commerce Techniques with Agent Technology
Authors: Turowski Klaus
Published: May 2011

The Internet has created a tremendous opportunity to conduct business electronically. By this, innovative business concepts—such as virtual enterprises, supply chain management, or one-to-one marketing— and advanced competitive strategies—such as mass customization which encompass these business concepts—may be followed up much more efficiently. However, competitive strategies like mass customization require sophisticated information infrastructures to support the indispensable business-to-business electronic commerce—even for small and medium enterprises taking part in a virtual enterprise that pursues mass customization (MC). Especially electronic data interchange (EDI), understood as a means to exchange business data, is crucial to set up and maintain virtual enterprises. Thus, there is a high demand on software that provides an inter-application system exchange of business data between companies, and which is inexpensive as well as easy to install and use. In this contribution we propose an approach to support distributed, but logically integrated inter-company business processes by applying e-commerce techniques paired with agent technology. Doing so, inter-company data exchange, procurement, and coordination of production in case of MC are improved by means of a multi-agent system. After discussing specific business requirements of companies that cooperatively produce a specific good or service, we show how an automated inter-company communication can be provided, and how this further develops into an agent-based system that automates procurement and inter-company coordination of production. By using the extensible markup language (XML) as an important cross-section technique, together with common business communication standards, we show how the border of heterogeneity between different (distributed) application systems can be overcome. With this, the business communication protocol is set up. Taking this protocol as a basis, we further present a component framework, which is implemented using the JavaBeans technology, that supports an efficient inter-company communication. In addition, we show how this approach may further develop to a means for inter-company coordination.
Conceptual Modeling Process and the Notion of a Concept
Authors: Gupta Pramila , Sykes James A.
Published: May 2011

We would like to believe that early in the new millennium the practice of conceptual modeling will rest on a sounder theory base than it does at present. Although a great deal of valuable research in information systems and conceptual modeling has been done during the last twenty years or so, the results in many cases have not yet sufficiently influenced other research work or found their way into current practice. Reasons for this might include the inaccessibility of much of the work and the time pressures on practising analysts. We think that inadequate consolidation of reported results is also a factor. Without consolidation, it is difficult to obtain an overall picture in a short time, and it can be hard to see the value of individual contributions. While it is easy to see the need for consolidation, achieving it is harder. Reviews and surveys can help, but do not by themselves provide the necessary linking of individual research efforts into some larger framework. This chapter draws on theories from philosophy, linguistics, cognitive science, conceptual modeling and information systems in order to develop such a framework. Its goals include improving our understanding of conceptual modeling as a process and relating the different representations of concepts that can occur during conceptual modeling. To illustrate some of its benefits, the framework is applied to the case of object-role modeling in its intended use as a conceptual modeling method and notation at the ontological level of a universe of discourse. The framework is applicable to other modeling methods and notations that may view the universe of discourse at a different level (e.g., epistemological). It assists analysts assessing and working with the techniques that have emerged in the late twentieth century. It provides the sound theory base we need for the new millennium.
Spatial and Topological Data Models
Authors: Deng Ying , Revesz Paeter
Published: May 2011

Spatial and topological data models are increasingly important in business applications such as urban development planning, transportation and traffic control, decision support in agriculture, pollution and environment analysis, fire and flood prevention, etc. that require handling spatial and topological data more efficiently and more effectively than older models, for example the relational data model. In this survey we compare several alternative spatial and topological data models: the Spaghetti Data Model, the Vague Region Data Model, the Topological Data Model, Worboys’ Spatiotemporal Data Model and the Constraint Data Model. We first describe how spatial and/or topological data are represented and give examples for each data model. We also illustrate by examples the use of an appropriate query language for each data model.
An Analysis of the Recent IS Security Development Approaches
Authors: Siponen Mikko T.
Published: May 2011

Recently, several Information Systems Security (ISS) development approaches that support modeling have been presented. This chapter analyzes and compares the recent approaches for the development of secure ISs. The comparison and analysis will be carried out from the viewpoints of a conceptual meta-model for IS; research methods used; the organizational roles of IS security; the objectives of the research; selected philosophical foundations (underlying epistemology, philosophy of science) and applicability. This contribution of the chapter can be divided into descriptive (assumptions that researchers should be aware of) and prescriptive implications (the direction of future research).
Principles for Managing Information Security in the New Millennium
Authors: Dhillon Gurpreet
Published: May 2011

This chapter sketches out three classes of principles. Following a brief description of the class, each principle is elaborated and suggestions made thereof as to its applicability. The three classes of principles are: Principles for managing the pragmatic aspects of an organization; Principles for managing the formal rule-based aspects of an organization; Principles for managing the technical systems
Success in the International Virtual Office
Authors: St. Amant Kirk
Published: May 2011

The advent of technologies such as company e-mail systems and corporate intranets has expanded the office to include co-workers from various national and cultural backgrounds. This new development means that certain deep-seated cultural factors can affect interoffice communications in the new workplace. This essay presents some of the more prevalent cultural “problem” areas that can affect international and intercultural communication in the new virtual workplace. This essay also provides a series of tips or strategies that can facilitate effective intercultural communication in the new atmosphere of the virtual office area as well as overview certain resources that can facilitate communication in this international and multicultural environment.
Telecommuter Selection
Authors: Henquinet Janet A.
Published: May 2011

This chapter presents a conceptual framework for the telecommuter selection process. The framework uses a systems perspective to identify critical variables and relationships in selecting effective telecommuters. The purpose of the model is twofold: to assist managers and organizations in developing selection procedures and to identify opportunities for future research
Safety and Health in the Virtual Office
Authors: St. Arnaud Bill
Published: May 2011

One of last great impediments to wide-scale and rapid deployment of the information society is the “last mile” issue. This chapter outlines some of the issues and history of the last mile problem and proposes a research and development program leading to early deployment of extreme high speed Internet access to schools and libraries (GITS), which will then underpin an architectural framework for high speed Internet access to the home-Gigabit Internet to the Home (GITH). The proposed strategy calls for the deployment of a third residential network service operating in parallel with existing telephone and cable delivery mechanisms and thereby avoiding the regulatory and technical hurdles of integrating traditional telephone and cable services into one common delivery mechanism.
Summative and Formative Evaluations of Internet-Based Teaching
Authors: Nguyen Dat-Dao , Kira Dennis S.
Published: May 2011

Teaching is a communication process in which a body of knowledge is delivered from an instructor to students (Gagne, 1985). This communication traditionally takes place in a classroom. With the proliferation of computer software and hardware at low costs and the ease of access to the World Wide Web, one should expect that the use of Internet and related information technologies will foster an alternative teaching environment. Previous works have reported on various Internet-based teaching aids such as using e-mail, posting information on a Web page and using the Internet to search for additional class materials. Integrating these teaching media in a larger framework of Distance Learning and Virtual Class (Hiltz, 1994), they would provide a synergistic effect in helping students acquire the desired body of knowledge efficiently. From this perspective, we discuss a framework for summative and formative evaluations of Internet-based teaching in higher education. The timely evaluation is necessary for the development and implementation of a new teaching/learning environment. It will assure that the technology meets the intended pedagogic goal of teaching by taking into account feedback from student-users.
The Emergence of Distance Learning in Higher Education
Authors: Howard Caroline , Discenza Richard
Published: May 2011

Although distance learning is not a new phenomenon, recently there has been a huge jump in the number of organizations offering on-line instruction. The National Center for Education Statistics released a two-year survey on distance programs for higher education on behalf of the U.S. Department of Education. The survey reported that one-third of U.S. post secondary schools offered distance education in 1995, and an additional 25% planned to offer courses within the next three years.
Commuting the "Distance" of Distance Learning
Authors: Adams Eric C. , Freeman Christopher
Published: May 2011

A primary determinant of the success of an online distance learning program is its ability to develop a sense of community among its online participants. As a participant in the Pepperdine University Educational Technology Doctoral Program, we have firsthand knowledge and experience of the impact deliberate creation of community has on learning outcomes. A vehicle for the cultivation of this community can be found in principles of knowledge management.
Web-Based Instruction Systems
Authors: Liegle Jens O. , Meso Peter N.
Published: May 2011

Education is expensive and takes time. Instructors from both industry and educational institutions have employed one of two methods, besides traditional classroom instruction, to deliver knowledge to learners more cost effectively. One approach has revolved around automating the education process through the use of Computers. The other has focused on using the existing instructors more efficiently by employing video conferencing technology to disseminate lectures to many more geographically dispersed learners concurrently. The advent of the Internet and the World Wide Web (WWW) provides for the merging of both approaches into what can be termed a Web-Based Instruction System (WBIS). A WBIS allows for the delivery of knowledge to a well-defined set of learners via the WWW by enabling both instructors and learners to fulfill all the roles that they would otherwise fulfill in a conventional learning environment. With the WBIS, it is not mandatory that the instructor and the learners be in the same physical location at the same time. Neither is it necessary to use physical means of correspondence, such as postal mail, to facilitate the learning process. Further, the facilitation of the learning process need not be synchronous. Their geographic and temporal distribution not withstanding, a WBIS allows the participants in the learning process to interact with each other and with the knowledge being delivered in such richness, it enables them to receive an equitable quality of learning to that obtainable in a conventional learning environment (Liegle and Madey 1997; McCormak and Jones, 1998). This chapter examines the WBIS from the system’s perspective. Critical issues and problems relating to WBIS are presented. The chapter proceeds to present a taxonomy for classifying the various types and technologies of WBIS currently in existence and to show how the taxonomy can guide the evaluation and selection of WBIS technologies during the development of a WBIS. It ends by assessing current technological and socioeconomic trends on the future of WBIS.
Laurier IT Priorities
Authors: Craig Ron
Published: May 2011

The newly appointed IT officer at a smaller Canadian university must reassess her priorities. Given her mandate by a president who has just left, she wonders what the direction of the new president will be. With two months on the job, she has found things to be quite different from what she had originally understood. In particular, the administrative computing system has serious problems and is not Year 2000 compliant. Furthermore, it is heavily customised and there is no documentation of the changes. Resources are an issue, as there is little slack for new initiatives. She has identified many problem areas requiring attention. At this time she is unsure of the seriousness of these problems and how much effort will be required to resolve them. How can she quickly prioritize these issues so she can start dealing with the most important ones?
The Changing Roles of IT Leaders
Authors: Gottschalk Petter
Published: May 2011

Information technology (IT) leadership has undergone fundamental changes over the past decade. Despite increased interest in recent years, little empirical research on IS/IT leadership has been done. To better understand the changes, this study compares leadership roles, individual characteristics and position characteristics of newly appointed IS/IT executives (who have been in their position for two years or less) with established IS/IT executives based on a survey in Norway. Survey results indicate that new leaders spent more time in the informational role and in the change leader role than established leaders. New leaders had worked shorter in the organization and shorter in IS/IT than established leaders. New leaders had less responsibility for computer operations, communication networks and technical infrastructure than established leaders. New leaders had more responsibility for strategic alignment between IT and business.
The Importance of the IT-End User Relationship Paradigm in Obtaining Alignment Between IT and the Business
Authors: Leonard A. C.
Published: May 2011

Sound relationships between IT professionals and their business counterparts (end users) could be regarded as one of many important factors playing a role during the alignment process between IT and the business. Research has, for example, shown that aligning with anything other than the customer leads to only momentary success. The chapter describes IT-end user relationships as intriguing and complex. These relationships should be seen and managed as multidimensional entities. Two such dimensions, the physical and abstract dimensions, form the basis of IT-end user relationships. These two dimensions enable one to fully describe the holistic nature of such relationships and to encapsulate the important elements of a support-oriented organization, namely mutuality, belonging and connection. The chapter describes how sound relationships can enhance alignment between the business and IT. A conceptual model for maintaining alignment is also introduced.
Strategic Human Resource Forecasting for an Internal Labor Market
Authors: Geerlings Wilfred S.J. , Verbraeck Alexander , Toussaint Pieter J. , de Groot Ron P.T.
Published: May 2011

Every organization needs a staff appropriate for its tasks in order to accomplish its business objectives, both now and in the future. To gain insight in the quality and number of staff needed in the future, human resource forecasting models are being used. This chapter addresses the design of a simulation model for human resources forecasting, which is being developed for the Chief of Naval Personnel at the Royal Netherlands Navy. The aim is to provide their Director of Naval Manpower Planning with tools that give insight into the effects of strategic decisions on personnel build-up, and the effects of changes in personnel on reaching the organization’s business objectives. This chapter introduces the major aspects of human resource forecasting. After that, the kinds of models that have been developed so far are presented, together with their merits and shortcomings. It is shown that a new way to investigate the future needs of manpower in an organization might be more effective than the current practice. The new models rely heavily on the use of simulation, and actually try to imitate the internal labor market and the external influences.
Semantically Modeled Databases in Integrated Enterprise Information Systems
Authors: Dunn Cheryl L. , Grabiski Severin V.
Published: May 2011

In the past several years, huge investments have been made in enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems and related applications. While the integrated database and data warehouse in such systems provides value, more value could be realized if the databases could more semantically reflect the underlying reality of the organization. Inter-enterprise commerce can be facilitated with the use of ontologically based systems with common semantics (Geerts and McCarthy, 2000; Haugen and McCarthy, 2000) instead of reliance on electronic data interchange (EDI) standards. This chapter presents a normative semantic model for enterprise information systems that has its roots in transaction processing information systems. Empirical research on semantically modeled information systems is reviewed and an example company’s semantic model is provided as a proof of concept. This model is used as the basis for a discussion of its application to ERP systems and to inter-organizational systems. Future trends and research directions are also discussed.
A Case Study of the Military Utility of Telemedicine
Authors: Paper David J. , Rodger James A. , Pendharkar Parag C.
Published: May 2011

In order to meet the medical management challenges presented by increasing global crises, the U.S. military must find ways to more effectively manage manpower and time. In response, Joint Medical Operations –Telemedicine (JMO-T) has been developed by the Department of Defense (DOD) to collect and transmit near-real-time, far-forward medical data and to assess how this improved capability enhances medical management of the battlespace. JMO-T has been successful in resolving uncertain organizational and technological military deficiencies and in improving medical communications and information management. Deployable, mobile telemedicine teams are the centerpieces of JMO-T. These teams have the capability of inserting essential networking and communications capabilities into austere theaters and establishing an immediate means for enhancing health protection, collaborative planning, situational awareness and strategic decision-making. One objective of this chapter is to relate the rationale used by the DOD to determine the military utility of the Joint Medical Operations–Telemedicine Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration (JMO-T ACTD) or ACTD for short. ACTD is a JMO-T initiative developed for the purpose of improving joint medical planning capabilities, access and timeliness of medical care, and integration of medical situational awareness. The chapter discusses in detail the complexities involved in the ACTD initiative. A second objective of the chapter is to articulate the development of Critical Operational Issues (COIS) and Measures of Effectiveness (MOE) as methodologies for investigating the military utility of telemedicine.