bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Fuzzy Database Modeling
Authors: Ma Z. M.
Published: May 2011

A major goal for database research has been the incorporation of additional semantics into the data model. Classical data models often suffer from their incapability of representing and manipulating imprecise and uncertain information that may occur in many real-world applications. Since the early 1980s, Zadeh’s fuzzy logic (Zadeh, 1965) has been used to extend various data models. The purpose of introducing fuzzy logic in database modeling was to enhance the classical models such that uncertain and imprecise information can be represented and manipulated. This resulted in numerous contributions, mainly with respect to the popular relational model or to some related form of it.
Knowledge Discovery and Geographical Databases
Authors: Faïz Sami
Published: May 2011

Geographic data are characterized by huge volumes, lack of standards, multiplicity of data sources, multi-scale requirements, and variability in time. These characteristics make geographic information complex and uncertain. At the same time, the important growth of the quantity of data manipulated and the necessity to make rapid decisions imposed the appearance and the great progress of new tools like data warehousing techniques. Data warehouse is usually defined as a subject-oriented, integrated, time-variant, and non-volatile collection of data in support of decision-making processes.
Knowledge Discovery from Databases
Authors: Hernandez-Orallo Jose
Published: May 2011

As databases are pervading every parcel of reality, they record what happens in and around organizations all over the world. Databases store the detailed history of organizations, institutions, governments, and individuals. An efficient and agile analysis of the data recorded in a database can no longer be done manually.
Logic Databases and Inconsistency Handling
Authors: Alonso-Jiménez José A. , Borrego-Díaz Joaquín , Chávez-González Antonia M.
Published: May 2011

Nowadays, data management on the World Wide Web needs to consider very large knowledge databases (KDB). The larger is a KDB, the smaller the possibility of being consistent. Consistency in checking algorithms and systems fails to analyse very large KDBs, and so many have to work every day with inconsistent information.
Managing Inconsistent Databases Using Active Integrity Constraints
Authors: Flesca Sergio , Greco Sergio , Zumpano Ester
Published: May 2011

Integrity constraints are a fundamental part of a database schema. They are generally used to define constraints on data (functional dependencies, inclusion dependencies, exclusion dependencies, etc.), and their enforcement ensures a semantically correct state of a database. As the presence of data inconsistent with respect to integrity constraints is not unusual, its management plays a key role in all the areas in which duplicate or conflicting information is likely to occur, such as database integration, data warehousing, and federated databases (Bry, 1997; Lin, 1996; Subrahmanian, 1994). It is well known that the presence of inconsistent data can be managed by “repairing” the database, that is, by providing consistent databases, obtained by a minimal set of update operations on the inconsistent original environment, or by consistently answering queries posed over the inconsistent database.
Repairing and Querying Databases with Integrity Constraints
Authors: Greco Sergio , Zumpano Ester
Published: May 2011

Data integration aims at providing a uniform integrated access to multiple heterogeneous information sources, which were designed independently for autonomous applications and whose contents are strictly related.
Set Comparison in Relational Query Languages
Authors: Dadashzadeh Mohammad
Published: May 2011

Today’s de facto database standard, the relational database, was conceived in the late 1960’s by Edgar F. Codd at IBM. The relational data model offered the user a logical view of the data that was shielded from consideration of how the data would, in fact, be physically organized in storage. This feat was accomplished in large part by the introduction of relational query languages that would specify the desired set of records in a non-procedural fashion. In contrast to the prevailing record-at-a-time, loop-oriented, procedural query languages of the hierarchical and network database management systems, relational query languages were set-oriented in that they would operate on sets of records (i.e., relations or tables) at-a-time in order to produce the desired set of output records. Codd introduced both a relational algebra and a relational calculus as a basis for dealing with data in relational form. Indeed, he defined what the first relational language was: Data Sublanguage Alpha (Codd, 1971).
Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line
Authors: Hin Leo Tan Wee , Subramaniam R.
Published: May 2011

The plain, old telephone system (POTS) has formed the backbone of the communications world since its inception in the 1880s. Running on twisted pairs of copper wires bundled together, there has not really been any seminal developments in its mode of transmission, save for its transition from analogue to digital toward the end of the 1970s.
ATM Technology and E-Learning Initiatives
Authors: Littman Marlyn Kemper
Published: May 2011

The remarkable popularity of Web-based applications featuring text, voice, still images, animations, full-motion video and/or graphics and spiraling demand for broadband technologies that provision seamless multimedia delivery motivate implementation of asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) in an array of electronic learning (e-learning) environments (Parr & Curran, 2000). Asynchronous refers to ATM capabilities in supporting intermittent bit rates and traffic patterns in response to actual demand, and transfer mode indicates ATM capabilities in transporting multiple types of network traffic.
Collaborative Web-Based Learning Community
Authors: Lai-yin Percy Kwok , Yew-Gee Christopher Tan
Published: May 2011

Because of the ever-changing nature of work and society under the knowledge-based economy in the 21st century, students and teachers need to develop ways of dealing with complex issues and thorny problems that require new kinds of knowledge that they have never learned or taught (Drucker, 1999). Therefore, they need to work and collaborate with others. They also need to be able to learn new things from a variety of resources and people and investigate questions, then bring their learning back to their dynamic life communities. There have arisen in recent years learning-community approaches (Bereiter, 2002; Bielaczyc & Collins, 1999) and learning-ecology (Siemens, 2003) or information-ecology approaches (Capurro, 2003) to education. These approaches fit well with the growing emphasis on lifelong, life-wide learning and knowledge-building works.
Corporate Conferencing
Authors: Nandavadekar Vilas D.
Published: May 2011

Today’s corporate need for manpower is growing—the number of remote relationships, mobile workers, and virtual teams. The efficiency and effectiveness of manpower is real success of the corporation, which largely depends on collaborative work. The difficulty faced by the organization is in the scheduling and execution of meetings, conferences, and other events.
Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB) Applications
Authors: Chochliouros Ioannis P. , Spiliopoulou-Chochliourou Anastasia S. , Lalopoulos George K.
Published: May 2011

The topic of Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB) applications (including both infrastructures and services) is a very broad one. It encompasses not only the transmission and distribution of television-program material in digital format over various media, but also a range of related features designed to exploit the capabilities of all possible underlying technologies. Within a fully converged environment, DVB can contribute to the effective penetration and adoption of a variety of enhanced multimedia services (Fenger & Elwood-Smith, 2000) based on various forms and types of content (with major emphasis given to the audiovisual sector; European Commission, 1999). Moreover, DVB intends to support optimized solutions for different communications platforms. Europe has adopted DVB for use across all relevant technical platforms. In fact, Europe has the highest density of TV homes in the world and is leading the deployment of digital TV (European Commission, 2003a) through DVB. The focus provided by a common set of technical standards and specifications throughout the European Union (EU) has given a market advantage and spurred the deployment of digital television services. Market expansion will be determined by the rate at which broadcasters are enabled to develop services and by the cost of Set-Top Boxes (STBs) or integrated television equipment.
Electronic Commerce Technologies Management
Authors: Singh Shawren
Published: May 2011

The first e-commerce (EC) applications were started 30 years ago, in the early 1970s. The original applications were in the form of electronic fund transfers (EFT). These applications were limited to larger corporations and financial institutions (Turban, Lee, King & Chung, 2000). This type of transaction later included electronic data interchange (EDI). There is a marked difference between EDI and EC in that EC involves much more than EDI (Greenstein & Feinman, 2000).
FDD Techniques Towards the Multimedia Era
Authors: Iossifides Athanassios C. , Louvros Spiros , Kotsopoulos Stavros A.
Published: May 2011

Global rendering of personalized multimedia services is the key issue determining the evolution of next-generation mobile networks. The determinant factor of mobile multimedia communications feasibility is the air-interface technology. The Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) evolution, based on wideband code-division multiple access (WCDMA), constitutes a major step to the target of truly ubiquitous computing: computing anywhere, anytime, guaranteeing mobility and transparency. However, certain steps are still required in order to achieve the desired data rates, capacity, and quality of service (QoS) of different traffic classes inherent in multimedia services.
Fiber to the Premises
Authors: Raisinghani Mahesh S. , Ghanem Hassan
Published: May 2011

Subscribers had never thought of cable operators as providers of voice services, or telephone companies as providers of television and entertainment services. However, the strategies of multiple system operators (MSOs) and telecommunication companies (telcos) are changing, and they are expanding their services into each other’s territory. The competition between the MSOs and the telcos is just brewing up.
Information Hiding, Digital Watermarking and Steganography
Authors: Chen Kuanchin
Published: May 2011

Digital representation of data is becoming popular as technology improves our ways of information dissemination, sharing and presentation. Without careful planning, digitized resources could easily be misused, especially those distributed broadly over the Internet. Examples of such misuse include use without owner’s permission and modification of a digitized resource to fake ownership. One way to prevent such behaviors is to employ some form of authentication mechanism, such as digital watermarks.
Information Security Management in Picture Archiving and Communication Systems for the Healthcare Industry
Authors: Tong Carrison K.S. , Wong Eric T.T.
Published: May 2011

Like other information systems in banking and commercial companies, information security is also an important issue in the healthcare industry. It is a common problem to have security incidences in an information system. Such security incidences include physical attacks, viruses, intrusions, and hacking. For instance, in the U.S.A., more than 10 million security incidences occurred in the year of 2003. The total loss was over $2 billion. In the healthcare industry, damages caused by security incidences could not be measured only by monetary cost. The trouble with inaccurate information in healthcare systems is that it is possible that someone might believe it and do something that might damage the patient. In a security event in which an unauthorized modification to the drug regime system at Arrowe Park Hospital proved to be a deliberate modification, the perpetrator received a jail sentence under the Computer Misuse Act of 1990. In another security event (The Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine, 2003), six patients received severe overdoses of radiation while being treated for cancer on a computerized medical linear accelerator between June 1985 and January 1987. Owing to the misuse of untested software in the control, the patients received radiation doses of about 25,000 rads while the normal therapeutic dose is 200 rads. Some of the patients reported immediate symptoms of burning and electric shock. Two died shortly afterward and others suffered scarring and permanent disability.
Internet Adoption by Small Firms
Authors: Cragg Paul B. , Mills Annette M.
Published: May 2011

Research shows that small firms make significant contributions to their economic environment. With the significant advances being made in Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), the Internet has become very important to many small firms, enabling them to overcome various inadequacies attributed to factors such as firm size, availability of resources and other technological, operational and managerial shortfalls. Despite the contributions that the adoption of Internet technology can make to the well being of such firms, research shows that many small firms have not yet embraced the technology in ways that will allow them to capitalise on potential benefits. It is therefore important for firms and researchers to understand the factors that enable (or hinder) the adoption of various technologies.
iTV Guidelines
Authors: Prata Alcina
Published: May 2011

Technology advances ceaselessly, often in the direction of improving existing equipment. Television, for example, has benefited greatly from the emergence and/or transformations that have occurred in a variety of devices, communication platforms, and ways and methods of transmission.
Message-Based Service in Taiwan
Authors: Lee Maria Ruey-Yuan , Pai Feng Yu
Published: May 2011

The number of cellular phone subscribers has increased 107% in Taiwan, based on the Directorate General of Telecommunications reports (http://www.dgt.gov.tw/flash/index.html). Meanwhile, Internet users have reached a total of 8.8 million, and mobile Internet users have broken the record of 3 million in 2004. The combination of information and telecommunication technologies has brought people a new communication method—cellular value-added services, which have become a lucrative business for telecommunication providers in Taiwan.
Methods of Research in Virtual Communities
Authors: Pace Stefano
Published: May 2011

The Internet has developed from an informative medium to a social environment where people meet together, exchanging messages and emotions and establishing friendships and social relationships. While the Internet was originally conceived as a commercial marketspace (Rayport & Sviokla, 1994) with new opportunities for both firms and customers (Alba, Lynch, Weitz, Janiszevski, Lutz, Sawyer, & Wood, 1997), nowadays the social side of the Web is a central phenomenon to truly understand the Internet. Social gratification is among the most relevant motivations to go online (Stafford & Stafford, 2001). People socialise through the Internet, adding a third motivation to their online activity, other that the pleasure of surfing in itself (the “flow experience” described by Hoffman and Novak, 1996) and the usefulness of finding information.
Mobile Ad Hoc Network
Authors: Dhar Subhankar
Published: May 2011

A mobile ad hoc network (MANET) is a temporary, self-organizing network of wireless mobile nodes without the support of any existing infrastructure that may be readily available on conventional networks. It allows various devices to form a network in areas where no communication infrastructure exists. Although there are many problems and challenges that need to be solved before the large-scale deployment of an MANET, small and medium-sized MANETs can be easily deployed.
Mobile Location Based Services
Authors: Fraunholz Bardo , Jung Jürgen , Unnithan Chandana
Published: May 2011

Mobility has become a key factor around the world, as the use of ubiquitous devices, including laptops, personal digital assistants (PDAs), and mobile phones, are increasingly becoming part of daily life (Steinfield, 2004). Adding mobility to computing power, and with advanced personalization of technologies, new business applications are emerging in the area of mobile communications (Jagoe, 2003). The fastest growing segment among these applications is location-based services. This article offers a brief overview of services and their supporting technologies, and provides an outlook for their future.
Mobile Multimedia for Commerce
Authors: Melliar-Smith P. , Moser L.
Published: May 2011

The ready availability of mobile multimedia computing and communication devices is driving their use in commercial transactions. Mobile devices are lightweight and wireless so users can carry them and move about freely. Such devices include cell phones, PDAs and PCs equipped with cellular modems.
Multimedia Instructional Materials in MIS Classrooms
Authors: Bradley Randy V. , Mbarika Victor , Sankar Chetan S. , Raju P. K.
Published: May 2011

Researchers and major computing associations such as the Association of Information Systems (AIS) and the Association of Computing Machinery (ACM) have invested much effort in the last two decades to shape the information system (IS) curriculum in a way that addresses developments and rapid changes in the IS industry (Gorgone, Gray, Feinstein, Kasper, Luftman, Stohr et al., 2000; Nunamaker, Couger & Davis, 1982). A major objective has been to help overcome the skill shortages that exist in the IS field, a trend that is expected to continue in the years ahead (Gorgone et al., 2000). While there exist a plethora of students joining IS programs around the world (usually for the remunerative promises that goes with an IS degree), students do not seem to gain the kind of knowledge and technical expertise needed to face real-world challenges when they take on positions in the business world. There is, therefore, the need to prepare IS students for real-world challenges by developing their technical and decision-making skills.
Multimedia Interactivity on the Internet
Authors: El-Gayar Omar , Chen Kuanchin , Tandekar Kanchana
Published: May 2011

With the interactive capabilities on the Internet, business activities such as product display, order placing and payment are given a new facelift (Liu & Shrum, 2002). Consumer experience is also enhanced in an interactive environment (Haseman, Nuipolatoglu & Ramamurthy, 2002). A higher level of interactivity increases the perceived telepresence and the user’s attitude towards a Web site (Coyle & Thorson, 2001). When it comes to learning, a higher level of interactivity improves learning and learner satisfaction (Liu & Schrum, 2002). While interactivity does not necessarily enable enhanced gain in user learning, it positively influences learners’ attitudes (Haseman et al., 2002). Interactivity has been shown to engage users in multimedia systems (Dysart, 1998) to encourage revisits to a Web site (Dholakia et al., 2000), to increase satisfaction toward such systems (Rafaeli &Sudweeks, 1997), to enhance the visibility (as measured in number of referrals or backward links) of Web sites (Chen & Sockel, 2001) and to increase acceptance (Coupey, 1996).
Open Source Intellectual Property Rights
Authors: Fleming Stewart T.
Published: May 2011

The open source software movement exists as a loose collection of individuals, organizations, and philosophies roughly grouped under the intent of making software source code as widely available as possible (Raymond, 1998). While the movement as such can trace its roots back more than 30 years to the development of academic software, the Internet, the World Wide Web, and so forth, the popularization of the movement grew significantly from the mid-80s (Naughton, 2000).
Quality of Service Issues Associated with Internet Protocols
Authors: Gutiérrez Jairo A. , Ting Wayne
Published: May 2011

The objective of enabling the development of higher-level multimedia services with guaranteed quality of service (QoS) on networks has prompted developments that attempt to accommodate these new application requirements. Several architectures have been proposed, and a common basic functionality is emerging. Any new architecture that intends to satisfy the ever-growing need for bandwidth in the Internet while providing support for QoS guarantees needs to concern itself with the following aspects (Zhang, Deering, Estrin, Shenker, Zappala, 1993; Biswas, Lazar, Huard, Lim, Mahjoub, Pau, Suzuki, Torstensson, Wang and Weinstein, 1998): • Flow management: identifying the traffic characteristics of a flow so that the network can specify the QoS to be delivered to that flow • Compatibility with a wide range of routing protocols (Callon, Doolan, Feldman, Fredette, Swallow, Viswanathan, 1997) • Resource reservation • Admission control • Packet scheduling: including packet filtering and classification.
Re-Purposeable Learning Objects Based on Teaching and Learning Styles
Authors: Kaur Abtar , Dunning Jeremy , Bhattacharya Sunand , Ahmed Ansary
Published: May 2011

Web-based distance learning is hampered in many cases by a failure to deliver material in a manner consistent with the ways in which students learn and instructors teach best in traditional environments (Samorski, 2002). Excellent teachers are successful because of the ways in which they mediate content and place the content within the context of the subject matter. It is not the specific content or images the successful teacher presents, but rather the manner in which they are presented and framed within the scope of the topic area. Excellent teachers teach by presenting the content and then providing the students with substantive opportunities to apply the content to real-world problems in an effort to promote critical thinking on the part of the student. This is a highly interactive process with much information being transmitted between the student and the instructor. The interchange between the instructor and the student helps the student build a knowledge base with the assistance of the instructor’s experience and expertise in the topic area. The exact nature of the interchange is not predetermined and depends to a great extent on the creativity and breadth of experience of the instructor. The successful instructor adjusts his or her interaction with the students to the learning styles best suited to them. How do we provide the learner with this important component of traditional classroom education in asynchronous distance education or technology-mediated traditional classes? Web-based instruction is rapidly becoming the preferred mode of distance education, and we must adapt our instructional interaction styles to this medium. Our students now expect more interactive and immersive materials in Web-based learning than that typically provided in the traditional classroom or correspondence distance education (Samoriski, 2002).
Text-to-Speech Synthesis
Authors: Syed Mahbubur R. , Chakrobartty Shuvro , Bignall Robert J.
Published: May 2011

Speech synthesis is the process of producing natural-sounding, highly intelligible synthetic speech simulated by a machine in such a way that it sounds as if it was produced by a human vocal system. A text-to-speech (TTS) synthesis system is a computer-based system where the input is text and the output is a simulated vocalization of that text. Before the 1970s, most speech synthesis was achieved with hardware, but this was costly and it proved impossible to properly simulate natural speech production. Since the 1970s, the use of computers has made the practical application of speech synthesis more feasible.
A Unified Information Security Management Plan
Authors: Buche Mari W. , Vician Chelley
Published: May 2011

Information is quickly becoming the most significant asset of business practice, and it must be protected and secured in order to be useful. Information security, intrusion detection, and privacy were in the top-10-issues list from the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) survey (“Information Security Heads Top 10,” 2003). Furthermore, the potential severity of attacks encourages collaboration between vendors and business clients, including educational institutions, in combating threats (Cox & Kistner, 2003). Essentially, transactions generate data that must be stored for future access in the form of information1. Therefore, data integrity is essential because it directly impacts information quality and any decisions based on that information (Brogan & Krupin, 2003; Ross, Stoneburner, Katzke, Johnson, & Swanson, 2003).
User-Centered Mobile Computing
Authors: Mohamedally Dean , Zaphiris Panayiotis , Petrie Helen
Published: May 2011

Mobile computing and wireless communications continue to change the way in which we perceive our lifestyles and habits. Through an extensive literature review of state-of-the-art human-computer interaction issues in mobile computing (Mobile HCI), we examine recent pertinent case studies that attempt to provide practical mobile capabilities to users. We thus contribute to the reader a primer to the philosophy of developing mobile systems for user centred design.
Virtual Knowledge Space and Learning
Authors: Handzic Meliha , Lin Joanne Chia Yi
Published: May 2011

The growing importance of knowledge and innovations for modern organisations (Davenport, DeLong, & Breers, 1998; Drucker, 1998; Nonaka, 1998; Stewart, 1997), and increasing demands for new skills and capabilities suggest the need for improvement in the learning of future professional and managerial workers. This, in turn, requires an appropriate response from the education sector. So far, these demands have not been adequately addressed by management education (Seufert & Seufert, 1999). There are calls to base the learning more in reality, to make the learning and thought process visible in order to develop the learners’ metacognition (Joyce & Weil, 1986), and to achieve better balance between the imparting of knowledge to the learner and the learner’s own construction of it. It is also suggested that education should better nurture students’ qualities such as problem solving, decision making, and creativity through self-directed as well as collaborative creativity and learning. These are skills that students will require in order to be successful in their future roles as innovative professionals and business people.
Virtual Learning Communities
Authors: Fleming Stewart T.
Published: May 2011

The synthesis of global communication networks available at low cost, enormous growth in popular uptake of personal computers and communication devices, and the need for more sophisticated discussion of complex issues are continually pushing the boundaries of our expertise. Virtual learning communities (VLCs) are emerging constructs that depend on the notion of socially constructed learning to provide a focus for informed discussion and lifelong learning. They make use of increasingly sophisticated technologies to establish, support, and maintain communities—collections of individuals with a common purpose, acting in social settings, and geographically disparate.
Analyzing and Visualizing the Dynamics of Scientific Frontiers and Knowledge Diffusion
Authors: Chen Chaomei , Lobo Natasha
Published: May 2011

Estimated numbers of scientific journals in print each year are approximately close to 70,000-80,000 (Rowland, McKnight, & Meadows, 1995). Institute of Scientific Information (ISI) each year adds over 1.3 million new articles and more than 30 million new citations to its science citation databases of 8,500 research journals. The widely available electronic repositories of scientific publications, such as digital libraries, preprint archives, and Web-based citation indexing services, have considerably improved the way articles are being accessed. However, it has become increasingly difficult to see the big picture of science. Scientific frontiers and longer-term developments of scientific disciplines have been traditionally studied from sociological and philosophical perspectives (Kuhn, 1962; Stewart, 1990). The scientometrics community has developed quantitative approaches to the study of science. In this article, we introduce the history and the state of the art associated with the ambitious quest for detecting and tracking the advances of scientific frontiers through quantitative and computational approaches. We first introduce the background of the subject and major developments. We then highlight the key challenges and illustrate the underlying principles with an example.
A Case Study on the Development of Broadband Technology in Canada
Authors: Luppicini Rocci
Published: May 2011

Broadband commonly refers to Internet connection speeds greater than narrowband connection speed of 56kbs. Digital subscriber lines (DSL) and cable modems were the most popular forms of broadband in public use over the last 10 years. In 2004, over 80% of U.S. homes were equipped with cable modems, and up to 66% of U.S. households were able to receive DSL transmissions. It is expected that the impact of broadband technologies will continue to play an important role in the U.S. and the rest of the world. It is predicted that the number of broadband-enabled homes will exceed 90 million worldwide by 2007 (Jones, 2003). Canada and Korea currently are the two countries leading the way in broadband saturation. The following discussion focuses on the Canadian case of broadband development.
Cognitively Informed Multimedia Interface Design
Authors: Alkhalifa Eshaa M.
Published: May 2011

The rich contributions made in the field of human computer interaction (HCI) have played a pivotal role in shifting the attention of the industry to the interaction between users and computers (Myers, 1998). However, technologies that include hypertext, multimedia, and manipulation of graphical objects were designed and presented to the users without referring to critical findings made in the field of cognitive psychology. These findings allow designers of multimedia educational systems to present knowledge in a fashion that would optimize learning.
A Cooperative Framework for Information Browsing in Mobile Environment
Authors: Hua Zhigang , Xie Xing , Lu Hanqing , Ma Wei-Ying
Published: May 2011

Through pervasive computing, users can access information and applications anytime, anywhere, using any device. But as mobile devices such as Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), SmartPhone, and consumer appliance continue to flourish, it becomes a significant challenge to provide more tailored and adaptable services for this diverse group. To make it easier for people to use mobile devices effectively, there exist many hurdles to be crossed. Among them is small display size, which is always a challenge. Usually, applications and documents are mainly designed with desktop computers in mind. When browsing through mobile devices with small display areas, users’ experiences will be greatly degraded (e.g., users have to continually scroll through a document to browse). However, as users acquire or gain access to an increasingly diverse range of portable devices (Coles, Deliot, & Melamed, 2003), the changes of the display area should not be limited to a single device any more, but extended to the display areas on all available devices. As can be readily seen from practice, the simplest multi-device scenario is when a user begins an interaction on a first access device, then ceases to use the first device and completes the interaction using another access device. This simple scenario illustrates a general concern about a multi-device browsing framework: the second device should be able to work cooperatively to help users finish browsing tasks.  In this article, we propose a cooperative framework to facilitate information browsing among devices in mobile environment. We set out to overcome the display constraint in a single device by utilizing the cooperation of multiple displays. Such a novel scheme is characterized as: (1) establishing a communication mechanism to maintain cooperative browsing across devices; and (2) designing a distributed user interface across devices to cooperatively present information and overcome the small display area limited by a single device.
CSCW Experience for Distributed System Engineering
Authors: Villemur Thierry , Drira Khalil
Published: May 2011

Cooperation with computers, or Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW), started in the 1990s with the growth of computers connected to faster networks.
GIS Applications to City Planning Engineering
Authors: Sadoun Balqies
Published: May 2011

The rapid progress in information technology (IT) has moved computing and the Internet to the mainstream. Today’s personal laptop computer has computational power and performance equal to 10 times that of the mainframe computer. Information technology has become essential to numerous fields, including city and regional planning engineering. Moreover, IT and computing are no longer exclusive to computer scientists/engineers. There are many new disciplines that have been initiated recently based on the cross fertilization of IT and traditional fields. Examples include geographical information systems (GIS), computer simulation, e-commerce, and e-business. The arrival of affordable and powerful computer systems over the past few decades has facilitated the growth of pioneering software applications for the storage, analysis, and display of geographic data and information. The majority of these belong to GIS (Batty et al., 1994; Burrough et al., 1980; Choi & Usery, 2004; Clapp et al., 1997; GIS@Purdue, 2003; Golay et al., 2000; Goodchild et al., 1999; IFFD, 1998; Jankowski, 1995; Joerin et al., 2001; Kohsaka, 2001; Korte, 2001; McDonnell & Kemp, 1995; Mohan, 2001; Ralston, 2004; Sadoun, 2003; Saleh & Sadoun, 2004). GIS is used for a wide variety of tasks, including planning store locations, managing land use, planning and designing good transportation systems, and aiding law enforcement agencies. GIS systems are basically ubiquitous computerized mapping programs that help corporations, private groups, and governments to make decisions in an economical manner. A GIS program works by connecting information/data stored in a computer database system to points on a map. Information is displayed in layers, with each succeeding layer laid over the preceding ones. The resulting maps and diagrams can reveal trends or patterns that might be missed if the same information was presented in a traditional spreadsheet or plot. A GIS is a computer system capable of capturing, managing, integrating, manipulating, analyzing, and displaying geographically referenced information. GIS deals with spatial information that uses location within a coordinate system as its reference base (see Figure 1). It integrates common database operations such as query and statistical analysis with the unique visualization and geographic analysis benefits offered by maps. These abilities distinguish GIS from other information systems and make it valuable to a wide range of public and private enterprises for explaining events, predicting outcomes, and planning strategies (Batty et al., 1994; Burrough et al, 1980; Choi & Usery, 2004; Clapp et al., 1997; GIS@Purdue, 2003; Golay et al., 2000; Goodchild et al., 1999; IFFD, 1998; Jankowski, 1995; Joerin et al., 2001; Kohsaka, 2001; Korte, 2001; McDonnell & Kemp, 1995; Mohan, 2001; Ralston, 2004; Sadoun, 2003; Saleh & Sadoun, 2004).
Hedonic, Emotional, and Experiential Perspectives on Product Quality
Authors: Hassenzahl Marc
Published: May 2011

Human-computer interaction (HCI) can be defined as a discipline, which is concerned with the design, evaluation and implementation of interactive computing systems [products] for human use (Hewett et al, 1996). Evaluation and design require a definition of what constitutes a good or bad product and, thus, a definition of interactive product quality (IPQ). Usability is such a widely accepted definition. ISO 9241 Part 11 (ISO, 1998) defines it as the “extent to which a product can be used by specified users to achieve specified goals with effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction in a specified context of use.” Although widely accepted, this definition’s focus on tasks and goals, their efficient achievement and the involved cognitive information processes repeatedly caused criticism, as far back as Carroll and Thomas’ (1988) emphatic plea not to forget the “fun” over simplicity and efficiency (see also Carroll, 2004). Since then, several attempts have been made to broaden and enrich HCI’s narrow, work-related view on IPQ (see, for example, Blythe, Overbeeke, Monk, & Wright, 2003; Green & Jordan, 2002; Helander & Tham, 2004). The objective of this article is to provide an overview of HCI current theoretical approaches to an enriched IPQ. Specifically, needs that go beyond the instrumental and the role of emotions, affect, and experiences are discussed.
Information Rich Systems and User's Goals and Information Needs
Authors: Albers Michael J.
Published: May 2011

Currently, most of the Web is designed from the viewpoint of helping people who know what they want but need help accomplishing it. User goals may range from buying a new computer to making vacation plans. Yet, these are simple tasks that can be accomplished with a linear sequence of events. With information-rich sites, the linear sequence breaks down, and a straightforward process to provide users with information in a useful format does not exist. Users come to information-rich sites with complex problems they want to solve. Reaching a solution requires meeting goals and subgoals by finding the proper information. Complex problems are often ill-structured; realistically, the complete sequence can’t even be defined because of users’ tendencies to jump around within the data and to abandon the sequence at varying points (Klein, 1999). To reach the answer, people need the information properly positioned within the situation context (Albers, 2003; Mirel, 2003a). System support for such problems requires users to be given properly integrated information that will assist in problem solving and decision making. Complex problems normally involve high-level reasoning and open-ended problem solving. Consequently, designer expectations of stable requirements and the ability to perform an exhaustive task analysis fall short of reality (Rouse & Valusek, 1993). While conventional task analysis works for well-defined domains, it fails for the ill-structured domains of information-rich sites (Albers, 2004). Instead of exhaustive task analysis, the designer must shift to an analysis focused on providing a clear understanding of the situation from the user’s point of view and the user’s goals and information needs.
The Prospects for Identity and Community in Cyberspace
Authors: Macfadyen Leah P.
Published: May 2011

Before you read on make sure you have a photo…I will not answer to anyone I cannot imagine physically. Thanks. (Message posted to an online discussion forum) Individuals are increasingly employing Internet and communication technologies (ICTs) to mediate their communications with individuals and groups, both locally and internationally. Elsewhere, I have discussed current perspectives on the origins and impact of cyberculture(s) (Macfadyen, 2006a), theoretical arguments regarding the challenges of intercultural communication in online environments (Macfadyen, 2006b), and recent approaches to studying the language of cyberspace (Macfadyen, 2006c)—the very medium of interpersonal and intragroup communication in what is, as yet, the largely text-based environment of cyberspace. Virtual environments might in some sense be viewed as a communicative “bottleneck”—a milieu in which visual and oral cues or well-developed relationships may be lacking, and in which culturally diverse individuals may hold widely different expectations of how to establish credibility, exchange information, motivate others, give and receive feedback, or critique or evaluate information (Reeder, Macfadyen, Roche, & Chase, 2004). Anecdotal evidence, and a growing body of research data, indicate that the greatest challenge that online communicators (and especially novice online communicators) experience is that of constructing what they consider to be a satisfactory or “authentic” identity in cyberspace, and in interpreting those online identities created by others. Rutter and Smith (1998) note, for example, that in their study of a regionally-based social newsgroup in the UK, communicators showed a real desire to paint “physical pictures” of themselves in the process of identity construction, and frequently included details of physical attributes, age, and marital status. Moreover, authentic identity construction and presentation also appears to contribute to communicator’s perceptions of the possibility for construction of authentic “community” online.
Recommender Systems in E-Commerce
Authors: Gil A. B. , Garcia F. J.
Published: May 2011

Electronic commerce (EC) is, at first sight, an electronic means to exchange large amounts of product information between users and sites. This information must be clearly written since any users who accesses the site must understand it. Given the large amounts of information available at the site, interaction with an e-market site becomes an effort. It is also time-consuming, and the user feels disoriented as products and clients are always on the increase. One solution to make online shopping easier is to endow the EC site with a recommender system. Recommender systems are implanted in EC sites to suggest services and provide consumers with the information they need in order to decide about possible purchases. These tools act as a specialized salesperson for the customer, and they are usually enhanced with customization capabilities; thus they adapt themselves to the users, basing themselves on the analysis of their preferences and interests. Recommenders rely mainly on user interfaces, marketing techniques, and large amounts of information about other customers and products; all this is done, of course, in an effort to propose the right item to the right customer. Besides, recommenders are fundamental elements in sustaining usability and site confidence (Egger, 2001); that’s the reason why e-market sites give them an important role in their design (Spiekermann & Paraschiv, 2002). If a recommender system is to be perceived as useful by its users, it must address several problems, such as the lack of user knowledge in a specific domain, information overload, and a minimization of the cost of interaction. EC recommenders are gradually becoming powerful tools for EC business (Gil & García, 2003) making use of complex mechanisms mainly in order to support the user’s decision process by allowing the analogical reasoning by the human being, and avoiding the disorientation process that occurs when one has large amounts of information to analyse and compare. This article describes some fundamental aspects in building real recommenders for EC. We will first set up the scenario by exposing the importance of recommender systems in EC, as well as the stages involved in a recommender-assisted purchase. Next, we will describe the main issues along three main axes: first, how recommender systems require a careful elicitation of user requirements; after that, the development and tuning of the recommendation algorithms; and, finally, the design and usability testing of the user interfaces. Lastly, we will show some future trends in recommenders and a conclusion.
Sense of Presence
Authors: Sas Corina
Published: May 2011

Sense of presence is one of the most interesting phenomena that enriches users’ experiences of interacting with any type of system. It allows users to be there (Schloerb & Sheridan, 1995) and to perceive the virtual world as another world in which they really exist. The interest in presence phenomenon is not novel (Gerrig, 1993), but it has grown lately due to the advent of virtual reality (VR) technology. The specific characteristics of virtual environments (VEs) transform them into suitable experimental testbeds for studies in various research areas. This also resuscitated the interest in presence, and much work has focused on the development of a theoretical body of knowledge and on a whole set of experimental studies aimed at understanding, explaining, measuring, or predicting presence. All of these efforts have been made to increase the understanding of how presence can be manipulated within the VEs, particularly within the application areas where presence potential has been acknowledged. Probably one of the most important reasons motivating presence research is the relationship it holds with task performance. This debatable relationship together with the more obvious one between presence and user satisfaction suggest that presence may play an important role in the perceived system usability. Since presence may act as a catalyst for the learning potential of VEs, it can be harnessed for the training and transfer of skills (Mantovani & Castelnuovo, 1998; Schank, 1997). The potential of presence to increase the pervasive power of the delivered content motivates research on presence impact on e-marketing and advertising (Grigorovici, 2003). Another promising application area for presence research is within the realm of cognitive therapy of phobias (Strickland et al., 1997). The highly subjective nature of presence continues to challenge researchers to find appropriate methodologies and instruments for measuring it. This is reflected in the ongoing theoretical work of conceptualizing a sense of presence. The difficulties related to investigating presence led to a large set of definitions and measuring tools. The purpose of this article is to introduce the concept of presence. The first section offers some conceptual delimitations related to presence construct. The second section describes its main determinants along two dimensions (i.e., technological factors and human factors). The third section addresses the challenges of measuring presence, offering also an overview of the main methods, tools, and instruments developed for assessing it. The fourth section presents the complex relationship between presence and task performance.