bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Geospatial Analysis for Real Estate Valuation Models
Authors: Wachter Susan , Thompson Michelle M. , Gillen Kevin C.
Published: May 2011

This chapter provides an overview of a major contemporary issue in real estate valuation — the use of geographical data to improve valuation outcomes. The spatial nature of real estate data allow the development of specialized models that increase the likelihood for better predictions. This chapter examines how using spatial data, with geographical information systems (GIS), can improve the accuracy of real estate valuation models. Contemporary theory in economics, planning, housing, and appraisal influences the model application that underlies the new field of GIScience and the use of Automated Valuation Models (AVMs) in practice. Exploratory methods of model development are also considered in the presentation of a case study along with a discussion of the changing history, development and future of AVMs and GIS.
GIS and the Future in Business IT
Authors: Francica Joseph R.
Published: May 2011

The development of mobile location technology, proliferation of web-based mapping applications, mandates by federal agencies, and lower cost of ownership have all spurred new interest in enterprise deployment of spatial information. Decisions taken today are already shaping the future of geographic information systems within corporations worldwide. The result is a greater reliance on spatial information, not just by executive management, but also by an increasingly mobile workforce that is using personal communications that are “location-aware.” In short, cost, components, and connectivity will continue to be key business drivers for geographic information and spatial technology management.
Consortium Agreement Template for Virtual Enterprises
Authors: Carvalho José D. , Moreira Nuno A. , Pires Luís C.
Published: May 2011

This chapter addresses the contractual legislation problem as an integration problem within the virtual enterprise context. In order to address the problem in a real legal platform, we create an example of a consortium agreement template based on the existing Portuguese legislation. The legislation is no more than standard procedures and guidelines to address an organization’s formalization within the legal system and society. Looking through the existing Portuguese legislation, as an example, we found a way to legally fit virtual enterprises (VEs). Moreover, we propose a consortium agreement template as a preestablished standard agreement to legally support VEs before specific legislation is created. We propose that the enterprises, when joining a market of service providers, would automatically accept this consortium agreement template in order to more rapidly become a partner in a VE as soon as business opportunities arise.
Virtual Enterprises and the Case of BIDSAVER
Authors: Protogeros Nicolaos
Published: May 2011

In recent years, several European projects have been launched aiming to research the new paradigm of virtual enterprise. The projects VIVE, BIDSAVER, and ALIVE are only some of which have run under the auspices of the European Commission Programme for Information Society Technologies (IST). This chapter presents the BIDSAVER project that ran between 1999 and 2002, and aimed at delivering technologies and methodologies that support the creation and operation of virtual enterprises.
Time, Place and Identity in Project Work on the Net
Authors: Jensen Sisse Siggaard , Heilesen Simon B.
Published: May 2011

This chapter identifies some of the fundamental conditions and factors that affect collaborative project work on the Net. Understanding them is fundamental to developing key qualities in Net-based collaborative learning such as confidence, reliability, and trust. We argue that: (1) Collaboration and social interaction develop in continuous oscillations between abstract and meaningful frames of reference as to time and place. (2) Such oscillations condition the creation of a double identity of writer and author modes in social interaction. (3) Collaborative work creates an ever-increasing complexity of interwoven texts that we have to develop strategies for organizing. (4) One such important strategy is the negotiation of roles among the participants. Having established this theoretical framework, we discuss how to deal with these conditions in an actual Net-based learning environment, the Master of Computer-Mediated Communication program at Roskilde University, Denmark.
Collaboration or Cooperation? Analyzing Small Group Interactions in Educational Environments
Authors: Paulus Trena M.
Published: May 2011

This chapter illustrates how computer-mediated discourse analysis (CMDA) can be used systematically to investigate online communication. It argues that intended outcomes of learner interactions, such as meaningful dialogue and joint knowledge construction, must be identified and analyzed to better understand the effectiveness of online learning activities. The CMDA approach is illustrated through analysis of a synchronous chat held by a three-person graduate student group as it completed a course assignment at a distance. Findings from the analysis reveal that while all group members participated in the task and communicated with mutual respect, a cooperative rather than collaborative approach was taken, and group members did not challenge initial opinions. These findings can assist with the future instructional design of such online learning tasks. It is hoped that this chapter provides guidance to researchers in identifying intended outcomes of online collaboration and utilizing CMDA to determine whether the outcomes have been met.
Mapping Perceived Socio-Emotive Quality of Small-Group Functioning
Authors: Buelens Herman , Van Mierlo Jan , Van den Bulck Jan , Elen Jan , Van Avermaet Eddy
Published: May 2011

This chapter demonstrates the influence of the socio-emotional quality of small-group functioning in a collaborative learning setting. It reports a case study from a sophomore class at a Belgian university. The subjects were 142 undergraduates subdivided into 12 project groups of about 12 students each. Following a description of the collaborative learning setting, a longitudinal survey study focusing upon the evolution of the learners’ perception of their own group’s socio-emotional functioning is presented. The aims of the study were to map group members’ perception of the socio-emotive quality of their own group functioning and to examine if and how problems in groups of learners can be detected as soon as possible. Having demonstrated that dysfunctionalities within groups can be detected rather early, the authors hope that corrective interventions can be implemented when they can still have an effect.
Problems and Opportunities of Learning Together in a Virtual Learning Environment
Authors: Daradoumis Thanasis , Xhafa Fatos
Published: May 2011

This chapter explores new ways of collaborative learning in a virtual learning environment based on our acquisition of knowledge from previous experience. We identify both the problems faced in real collaborative learning practices and the ways these problems can be overcome and turned into opportunities for more efficient learning. These issues concern pedagogical, organizational, and technical elements and constraints that influence the successful application of collaborative learning in distance education, such as efficient group formation, the nature of collaborative learning situations that promote peer interaction and learning, the student roles and tutor means of supervising and guiding the learning process, and an effective assessment of group work. The proposed methodology not only achieves better learning outcomes but also contributes to the tutor’s professional development in a networked learning environment that facilitates social interaction among all participants while building on existing skills.
Web-Based Learning by Tele-Collaborative Production in Engineering Education
Authors: Moshaiov A.
Published: May 2011

The purpose of this chapter is to review and discuss theoretical perspectives that help to frame collaborative learning online. The chapter investigates literature about the type of learning and behavior that are anticipated and researched among participants learning collaboratively and discusses how these attributes explain computer-supported collaborative learning. The literature about learning is influenced by perspectives from a number of fields, particularly philosophy, psychology, and sociology. This chapter describes some of these perspectives from the fields of cognitive psychology, adult learning, and collaborative group learning. Recent research into computer-supported collaborative learning that applies these theories will also be discussed.
Integrating Semantic Knowledge with Web Usage Mining for Personalization
Authors: Dai Honghua
Published: May 2011

Web usage mining has been used effectively as an approach to automatic personalization and as a way to overcome deficiencies of traditional approaches such as collaborative filtering. Despite their success, such systems, as in more traditional ones, do not take into account the semantic knowledge about the underlying domain. Without such semantic knowledge, personalization systems cannot recommend different types of complex objects based on their underlying properties and attributes. Nor can these systems possess the ability to automatically explain or reason about the user models or user recommendations. The integration of semantic knowledge is, in fact, the primary challenge for the next generation of personalization systems. In this chapter we provide an overview of approaches for incorporating semantic knowledge into Web usage mining and personalization processes. In particular, we discuss the issues and requirements for successful integration of semantic knowledge from different sources, such as the content and the structure of Web sites for personalization. Finally, we present a general framework for fully integrating domain ontologies with Web usage mining and personalization processes at different stages, including the preprocessing and pattern discovery phases, as well as in the final stage where the discovered patterns are used for personalization.
Customer Relationship Management- A Strategy for Success in Electronic Commerce
Authors: Madeja Nils , Schoder Detlef
Published: May 2011

Customer relationship management (CRM) is a concept for increasing companies’ profitability by enabling them to identify and concentrate on their profitable customers. The term “electronic commerce customer relationship management” (ECCRM) refers to the application of CRM in electronic commerce, i.e., when business relationships are maintained via the Internet or World Wide Web. Previous studies on the effectiveness of ECCRM have often focused on the process level, technical aspects, or on marketing issues. Yet only little evidence has been reported for the impact of ECCRM on the company level. In this chapter we present the results from a large-scale empirical study investigating the impact of ECCRM on corporate success in electronic commerce. The study comprises 469 cases of general companies in the German-speaking market. We find that ECCRM is a critical success factor in electronic commerce, independent of companies’ time on the Web. It is especially critical for B2C and small companies.
Predicting Internet Use
Authors: Chrismar William R. , Wiley-Patton Sonja
Published: May 2011

The technology acceptance model (TAM; Davis, 1989) has been widely used by information technology researchers to gain a better understanding of information technology (IT) adoption and its use in organizations. While TAM has been applied and tested in academic and corporate settings, involving students, business managers, and clerical and administrative types as participants, few studies have evaluated TAM in the healthcare environment. This chapter examines the applicability of the extended technology acceptance model (TAM2; Ventkatesh & Davis, 2000) in the context of physicians’ intention to adopt Internet-based health applications. Data was collected in a survey of pediatricians to see how well the extended model fits in the medical sector. This chapterdiscusses the implications, limitations, and possible explanations for the inconsistent results found within the model when applied to such professional users as physicians.
Service-Composition
Authors: Benatallah Boualem , Dijkman Remco M. , Dumas Marlon , Maamar Zakaria
Published: May 2011

This chapter provides an overview of the area of service composition. It does so by introducing a generic architecture for service composition and using this architecture to discuss some salient concepts and techniques. The architecture is also used as a framework for providing a critical view into a number of languages, standardization efforts, and tools related to service composition emanating both from academia and industry and to classify them in terms of the concepts and techniques that they incorporate or support (for example, orchestration and dynamic service selection). Finally, the chapter discusses some trends in service-oriented software systems engineering pertaining to service composition.
Service-Oriented Design Process Using UML
Authors: Latchem Steve , Piper David
Published: May 2011

This chapter presents a worked example of a design process for Service-Oriented Architecture. It utilizes the industry standard modeling notation, the Unified Modeling Language (UML) from the Object Management Group, to present a practical design for services. The authors have used their real world experience on many service-oriented projects to develop a design method using visual modeling to implement high quality services and service implementation. The chapter introduces a terminology for services and their implementing components and then works through the example to show how the implementation is designed in UML. We hope that this will show the reader how services are implemented by organizations on real projects.
A Method for Formulating and Architecting Component- and Service-Oriented Systems
Authors: Kotonya Gerald , Hutchinson John , Bloin Benoit
Published: May 2011

This chapter describes a negotiation-driven method that can be used to formulate and design component and service-oriented systems. Component and service-oriented development are increasingly being promoted in literature as rapid low-cost strategies for implementing adaptable and extensible software systems. In reality, these development strategies carry significant risk throughout the system life cycle. The risks are related to the difficulty in mapping requirements to component and service-based architectures, the black-box software used to compose the systems, and the difficulty in managing and evolving the resulting systems. These problems underscore the need for software engineering methods that can balance aspects of requirements with business concerns and the architectural assumptions and capabilities embodied in software components and services.
Content Delivery Services in a Grid Environment
Authors: Boutboul Irwin , Meliksetian Dikran S.
Published: May 2011

n this chapter, we propose a new approach for content delivery services by meshing together the best of grid computing and peer-to-peer (P2P) computing. The goal is to design a secure, reliable, and scalable system for efficient and fast delivery of content. The system consists of a combination of nondedicated servers and peers to provide the proposed service. We describe the challenges of designing such a system and discuss possible solutions and trade-offs. We detail the necessary interlacing of grid and P2P feature to achieve the goal. We present a prototype that is built based on the proposed approach.
A Customer Analysis-Based Methodology for Improving Web Business Systems
Authors: Lee Choongseok , Suh Woojong , Lee Heeseok
Published: May 2011

The Web has enabled many companies to create new business from individual customers in a variety of forms, as well as to expand their traditional contact points with them into virtual workplaces dramatically. For the success of customer-oriented businesses on the Web, it is necessary to make a continuous effort to adapt Web business systems to ever-changing customers’ needs. For this challenge, this chapter proposes a customer analysis-based improvement methodology (CAIM) to help evolve customer-oriented Web business systems; this methodology employs scenario-based and object-oriented approaches. The methodology consists of five phases: customer analysis, value analysis, Web design, implementation design, and construction. Scenarios are used to analyze customers’ needs in a natural fashion. A real-life community Web site is illustrated to demonstrate the usefulness of the methodology.
Social Networking Mapping Software
Authors: Bhattacharya Mousumi , Huntley Christopher
Published: May 2011

Recent developments in social network mapping software have opened up new opportunities for human resource management (HRM). In this chapter we discuss how social network mapping information may provide critical inputs to managers for increasing the effectiveness of their HRM programs.
Human Resource Portals and the Protean Career
Authors: Beugre Constant D.
Published: May 2011

This chapter discusses the role of human resource portals in the management of the protean career. A protean career is a career that is frequently changing due to both changes in the person’s interests, abilities, and values, and changes in the work environment. The chapter develops a three-factor model, which contends that three types of variables (individual attributes, characteristics of the human resource portals, and organizational factors) influence the effective use of Web-based human resource services. The model also argues that the effective use of Web-based human resource services plays an important role in the management of the protean career since employees act as free agents, responsible for their own career advancement opportunities. The three-factor model has implications for research and practice for both employees and employers.
Keeping Up with the Corporate University
Authors: Sherer Pamela D. , Shea Timothy
Published: May 2011

The number of corporate universities is increasing by leaps and bounds, and the role of corporate universities is rapidly evolving and becoming more tightly integrated with an organization’s strategic planning and assessment. How can HRM faculty and practitioners keep their respective curricula and organizations up to date? The first section of this chapter provides an overview of the current corporate university landscape, discussing the three major factors that influence both their growth and their role in organizations: strategy and human resources, knowledge management, and technology and e-learning. The second section includes an annotated compendium of key resources in each of these areas, especially Internet resources.
Portals-Gateways for Marketing
Authors: Michael Ian
Published: May 2011

Marketers need to understand the role portals play in the search behaviour of consumers for various products and services over the Internet. Portals, which simply mean gateways to the Internet, are slowly reaching a mature phase of the product life cycle. Many claim that their roles are changing to become more or less like very large “aggregators” for the marketing of products and services. There needs to be a good understanding of the importance and value portals can bring to the marketing function in terms of advancing the concept of relationship marketing, and also understanding key consumer behaviour habits at Web sites, in order to design real “user-friendly” portal models for marketing.
Designing E-Commerce Portal for an Enterprise- A Framework
Authors: Sharma Sushil K. , Gupta Jatinder N.D.
Published: May 2011

Portals have become the Web interface of choice for providing business users with rapid access to the information and services they need to help them do their jobs more efficiently, make better informed business decisions, and enable their organizations to become smarter, thus more competitive. Appropriate deployment of portal, content management, and collaboration technologies is essential to business success. Integrated e-commerce portals let organizations reach out to customers around the globe—inexpensively and around the clock. Integrated e-commerce portals deliver industry-leading tools for building sales, reducing costs, and making companies more efficient in a Web-enabled world. This chapter suggests a framework for developing an enterprise-wide integrated e-commerce portal for evolving organizations. The proposed framework would help to design a distributed, extensible, cross-platform, collaborative, and integrated e-commerce portal.
Employee Portals
Authors: Stein Andrew , Hawking Paul
Published: May 2011

This chapter investigates the application of portal technology to the area of human resource management. It discusses the evolution of Web-based HR solutions and looks at portal solution evolution of a leading enterprise resource planning systems vendor (SAP). The final section of the chapter employs a case study research approach to examine the implementation of an employee portal in a large Australian organisation and the evolutionary stages which occurred.
Building New Systems for Decision Support in Education
Authors: Thorn Christopher A.
Published: May 2011

Decision support is one of the promises held out by proponents of portal technologies. Role-based access to underlying knowledge management systems is touted as a method for bringing decision makers closer to the relevant data necessary for production and delivery processes. This assumes that successful implementation of knowledge management systems is actually common. Davenport suggests that only a handful of types of knowledge management approaches have been tried with any success by large enterprises (Davenport, De Long, & Beers, 1998; Davenport & Marchand, 1999). Repositories and business analytics systems are two of the most common types of knowledge management systems that school districts have attempted to build. This article argues that efforts to build portals are inseparably tied to district knowledge management system development. Educational organizations are often resource poor and exposed to many conflicting demands on their IT capabilities. The combination of low resources and high demand increases the risk associated with developing new, complex systems. Moreover, complex information systems have failed to deliver much of their promise across any sectors of the economy (Waters, 2003). Such systems have been proposed by school districts across the United States as part of the solution for improving low-performing schools (Trefny, 2002). Portal technology will be crucial to any effort to use information (and information technology) effectively to support good decision-making in educational organizations.
Survey and History of Digital Library Development in the Asia Pacific
Authors: Chen Hsinchun , Zhou Yilu
Published: May 2011

Over the past decade the development of digital library activities within Asia Pacific has been steadily increasing. Through a meta-analysis of the publications and content within ICADL and other major regional digital library conferences over the past few years, we see an increase in the level of activity in Asian digital library research. This reflects high continuous interest among digital library researchers and practitioners internationally. Digital library research in the Asia Pacific is uniquely positioned to help develop digital libraries of significant cultural heritage and indigenous knowledge and advance cross-cultural and cross-lingual digital library research.
Design Architecture
Authors: Fox Edward A. , Suleman Hussein , Gaur Ramesh C. , Madalli Devika P.
Published: May 2011

Digital libraries evolved in response to the need to manage the vast quantities of electronic information that we produce, collect, and consume. Architects of such systems have adopted a variety of design approaches, which are summarized and illustrated in this chapter. We also introduce the following three chapters, and provide suitable background. From a historical perspective, we note that early systems were designed independently to afford services to specific communities. Since then, systems that store and mediate access to information have become commonplace and are scattered all over the Internet. Consequently, information retrieval also has to contend with distributed/networked systems in a transparent and scalable fashion. In this context, digital library architects have adopted various interoperability standards and practices to provide users with seamless access to highly distributed information sources. This chapter looks at current research and emerging best practices adopted in designing digital libraries, whether individual or distributed.
Using Multi-Document Summarization to Facilitate Semi-Structured Literature Retrieval
Authors: Kan Min-Yen
Published: May 2011

This chapter examines the techniques behind a user interface that computes a multi-document summary of documents retrieved by a search. As a user’s query can retrieve thousands of relevant documents, it is paramount that they be logically organized. In digital libraries, documents are traditionally represented as a ranked list of documents ordered by computed relevance and do not take into account presentation techniques used by information professionals (such as librarians) in the physical library. This chapter examines a framework used in a consumer healthcare digital library that incorporates techniques used by librarians. It brings together commonalities between documents and highlights their salient differences to target the needs of users using the browsing and searching modes of information seeking. It achieves this by discovering common and unique topics among its input from a combination of structural and lexical cues.
Digital Libraries as Learning Environments for Youths
Authors: Pang Natalie L.S.
Published: May 2011

Students have long been associated to learn in groups in physical environments. As more and more digital libraries emerge, and libraries take a greater role in education together with academic institutions, there is a need to address digital libraries as learning environments. This chapter looks specifically at the process of learning between peers in a group and how digital libraries can lend themselves as a learning environment towards this purpose. Using a participatory process involving two groups of youths, observations were made to suggest design features for digital libraries used for electronic learning. This is a pilot study to investigate how youths collaborate with one another in a simulated learning environment. It is hoped that with a good understanding of the peer learning process, researchers can be assisted in future studies looking into digital libraries for educational purposes amongst learning groups.
A Snapshot of Digital Library Development
Authors: Foo Schubert , Theng Yin-Leng
Published: May 2011

This chapter highlights selective key issues and assesses the current situation of digital library development in the Asia Pacific under the broad categories of design architecture and systems, implementation issues and challenges, use and impact, and users and usability. Emphasis on cross-cultural and cross-lingual research would especially be beneficial to address the diversity and richness of the heritage, cultures and languages of this region. Nonetheless, a fundamental digital divide problem poses the greatest challenge as almost 70% of the population of the countries of Asia Pacific has little or no connectivity to the digital world. Concerted international collaborative efforts are much needed, not only to push ahead with the various aspects of the digital library research agenda and realize the global digital library vision of the future, but to derive novel solutions to eliminate or close the gap of digital divide across various parts of the world.
A Framework for Hybrid and Analogical Planning
Authors: Garagnani Max
Published: May 2011

This chapter describes a model and an underlying theoretical framework for hybrid planning. Modern planning domain description languages are based on sentential representations. Sentential formalisms produce problem encodings that often lead the system to carry out large amounts of superfluous operations, causing a loss in performance. This chapter illustrates how techniques from the area of knowledge representation and reasoning (in particular, analogical representations) can be adopted to develop more efficient domain description languages. Although often more efficient, analogical representations are generally less expressive than sentential ones. A framework for planning with hybrid representations is thus proposed, in which sentential and analogical descriptions can be integrated and used interchangeably, thereby overcoming the limitations and exploiting the advantages of both paradigms.
Integrating GIS, GPS and MIS on the Web
Authors: Frost Gregory A.
Published: May 2011

Computer applications for conducting complex spatial analysis of crime data are widely used by law enforcement agencies. By combining sophisticated geographic information systems with global positioning satellite tracking devices, a new tool is emerging that will remove the criminal anonymity of probationers, parolees and offenders on pretrial release. Every year, an ever-increasing number of offenders are set free on either probation or parole within our nation’s communities. As the number of offenders on our streets grows, the need for the criminal justice system to hold these offenders accountable and exert some level of control also increases. Florida’s Electronic Monitoring Protection and Crime Tracking (EMPACT) project is breaking new ground in an effort to use technology as an effective way to remove the anonymity of crime. Through the automated correlation of GPS tracking data and local crime incident data, participating criminal justice agencies are able to determine if a tracked offender was at the scene of a crime when it occurred. In addition, because EMPACT uses a Web-based interface, participating agencies also have access to each other’s data. This creates a crime-mapping environment where crime analysts and investigators have the opportunity to evaluate, at the click of a button, multi-jurisdictional crime patterns and offender track data.
Applying Automatic Data Collection Tools for Real-Time Patient Management
Authors: Puerzer Richard J.
Published: May 2011

The management of patients in healthcare facilities, such as outpatient clinics and hospital emergency departments, is a significant hospital management problem. In an effort to deal with the volume of patients who visit an emergency department, hospitals often haphazardly add more resources to their emergency department, such as hiring more personnel or adding more treatment rooms, without proper analysis of the impact of the additional resources on the system. These solutions can be quite expensive and yet their effect on improving problems in the system is often negligible. Knowledge management can make these challenges tractable and lead to more effective solutions. For example, through the application of an automated patient management system that collects and utilizes information concerning the status of patients, the flow of patients can be better managed. Hospitals can effectively deal with many of the problems associated with scheduling and overcrowding, and improve the quality of care provided by their institution. To accurately capture and provide access to the volume of precise information required to effectively manage a healthcare facility, an extensive information acquisition system must be created. The information collected can then be used for both real-time and long-term management decisions. These ideas are discussed and elaborated upon in this chapter.
"Do No Harm"
Authors: Natarajan Nat , Hoffmeister Amanda H.
Published: May 2011

The healthcare sector is a very important one in many countries and faces numerous quality and performance problems of great significance to all citizens who live there. Although there are many performance parallels between healthcare and other sectors, there are also numerous special issues and terminology, as well. Recent publications on medical errors have put the spotlight on the issue of safety in healthcare. There are opportunities for the healthcare sector to learn from other industries where many techniques and practices for preventing errors have already proved their worth. It is important and beneficial to encourage healthcare specialists to learn from other sectors the concepts, best practices, and tools for preventing errors and improving safety. This chapter addresses the key issues and challenges relating to the management and transfer of such knowledge and places them in the context of quality and knowledge management.
A Unified Software Reengineering Approach towards Model Driven Architecture Environment
Authors: Qiao Bing , Yang Hongji , O’Callaghan Alan
Published: May 2011

When developing a software system, there are a number of principles, paradigms, and tools available to choose from. For a specific platform or programming language, a standard way can usually be found to archive the ultimate system; for example, a combination of an incremental development process, object-oriented analysis and design, and a well supported CASE (Computer-Aided Software Engineering) tool. Regardless of the technology to be adopted, the final outcome of the software development is always a working software system. However, when it comes to software reengineering, there is rather less consensus on either approaches or outcomes. Shall we use black-box or white-box reverse engineering for program understanding? Shall we produce data and control flow graphs, or some kind of formal specifications as the output of analysis? Each of these techniques has its pros and cons of tackling various software reengineering problems, and none of them on its own suffices to a whole reengineering project. A proper integration of various techniques capable of solving a specific issue could be an effective way to unravel a complicated software system. This kind of integration has to be done from an architectural point of view. One of the most exciting outcomes of recent efforts on software architecture is the Object Management Group’s (OMG) Model-Driven Architecture (MDA). MDA provides a unified framework for developing middleware-based modern distributed systems, and also a definite goal for software reengineering. This chapter presents a unified software reengineering methodology based on Model-Driven Architecture, which consists of a framework, a process, and related techniques.
Towards the Integration of a Formal Object-Oriented Method and Relational Unified Process
Authors: Liu Jing , Lui Zhiming , Li Xiaoshan , Jifend He , Chen Yifeng
Published: May 2011

In this chapter, we study the use of a formal object-oriented method within Relational Unified Process (RUP). Our purposes are (a) to unify different views of UML models; (b) to enhance RUP and UML with a formal method to improve the quality of software; (c) to scale up the use of the formal method with the use-case driven, iterative and incremental aspects of RUP. Our overall aim is to establish a sound foundation of RUP and UML and scale up the use of formal methods in software-intensive system development.
Business Alignment in Agile/Virtual Enterprise Integration
Authors: Cunha Maria Manuela , Putnik Goran D.
Published: May 2011

The concept of strategic alignment between business strategy and technology is essential for improving competitiveness. The driving force of business is to fully satisfy customer needs with the right products/services, at the right price, and with the required quality and responsiveness in a global competitive market. In this context, by alignment we mean the actions to be undertaken to gain synergy between business, that is, a market opportunity, and the provision of the required product, with the required specifications, at the required time, with the lowest cost and with the best possible return. In this chapter we focus on a leading organizational model, the Agile/Virtual Enterprise model, characterized by a fast reconfigurability or adaptability face to the dynamically changing market and introduce the concept of a Market of Resources as the environment able to assure a permanent alignment of the networked structure with market. We also propose alignment strategies between business opportunities and the creation/reconfiguration of the Agile/Virtual Enterprise that is expected to meet that opportunity.
Design , Management, and Evaluation of Online Portfolios
Authors: Frampton Pamela M. , Mott Michael S. , Trekles Michael S. , Colon Robert J. , Galloway Jerry P.
Published: May 2011

This chapter focuses on implementing electronic portfolio systems into institutions of learning. In particular, the chapter discusses a particular model of portfolio implementation used at Purdue University Calumet for candidates graduating from the education administration master’s degree and licensure program. The chapter also presents current research and varying viewpoints surrounding the issue of putting professional and performance-based portfolios into electronic formats. Practical aspects of the technology and personnel resources needed to implement the model portfolio process, as well as caveats and alternative methods, are presented, as well as the outcomes and opinions expressed by both the candidates and by local superintendents who would consider hiring them as building administrators upon graduation. Additionally, the reader will find other models and resources for implementing electronic portfolios in his or her own institution and program where portfolios for evaluating candidate and student performance are being used or considered for the future.
Achieving University-Wide Instructional Technology Literacy
Authors: Passerini Katia , Cakici Kemal
Published: May 2011

This chapter reviews the efforts of a large university located in the East Coast of the United States to support faculty technology literacy through participation in development programs featuring a mix of technology skills and instructional design seminars. The success of these programs is evaluated on a series of criteria: faculty needs and satisfaction, ability to meet faculty learning objectives, and short-term and long-term benefits in terms of new initiatives implementation. Survey protocols and instruments used to evaluate program effectiveness are included to support future implementations by other institutions. The authors intend to encourage the development of similar programs, and the understanding of current obstacles that hinder a full deployment of technology in the classroom.
Does a Functioning Mind Need a Functioning Body? Some Perspectives from Postclassical Computation
Authors: Johnson Colin G.
Published: May 2011

In recent years, the idea that somatic processes are intimately involved in actions traditionally considered to be purely mental has come to the fore. In particular, these arguments have revolved around the concept of somatic markers, i.e., bodily states that are generated by mind and then reperceived and acted upon. This chapter considers the somatic marker hypothesis and related ideas from the point of view of postclassical computation, i.e., the view that computing can be seen as a property of things-in-the-world rather than of an abstract class of mathematical machines. From this perspective, a number of ideas are discussed: the idea of somatic markers extending into the environment, an analogy with hardware interlocks in complex computer-driven systems, and connections with the idea of “just-do-it” computation.
APOC
Authors: Scheutz Matthias
Published: May 2011

In this chapter, we introduce an architecture framework called APOC (Activating-Processing-Observing-Components) for the analysis, evaluation, and design of complex agents. APOC provides a unified framework for the specification of agent architectures at different levels of abstraction. As such, it permits intermediary levels of architectural specification between high-level functional descriptions and low-level mechanistic descriptions that can be used to connect these two levels in a systematic way.
Context and Learning
Authors: Figueiredo António D.D.
Published: May 2011

This chapter presents a philosophical framework to help understand the essence oflearning contexts. It starts with a brief historical account of the emergence andevolution of the problems of context in learning, and of their increased relevanceas learning activities migrate to the online world. It then presents a simple modelfor a learning event—involving learner, content, and context—from which it ana-lyzes the answers to three key philosophical questions that discriminate betweenthe positivist and the constructivist worldviews. These answers are expressed inthe form of four foundational hypotheses or principles for each worldview, whichhelp analyze the resulting two radically different interpretations of learning con-texts. The implications of these distinctions on the management of learning con-texts, on the perception of the duality between content and context, and on theapproaches to the design of learning contexts are then analyzed.
Narrative
Authors: Arnold Patricia , Smith John D. , Trayner Beverly
Published: May 2011

In this chapter we consider the role played by narrative in negotiating and reveal-ing contexts: we explore how narrative can help make more visible the contexts ofindividuals as well as of the evolving community in virtual settings. We use thenarrative genre to “walk the talk” of a research story that highlights three storiesof learning in virtual settings. Our set of cascading stories includes both designedlearning settings and settings that arose through the interactions of members in aself-organizing community. In exploring how narrative potentially fosters mean-ing making and helps uncover contexts we draw mostly on Bruner’s work on nar-rative and on situated theories of learning. In our research quest we aim todeepen our understanding of the intricate relation between narrative, context,and learning. To inform our design practice we summarize the “moral” of ourstory, transferring our insights into some initial guidelines for designing virtualsettings for learning.
Designing a Moral Dilemma Support System
Authors: Mathieson Kieran
Published: May 2011

Information technology may be able to help people become better ethical decision makers. This chapter explores philosophical and psychological issues underlying the design of a Moral Dilemma Support System (MDSS). The effects of schemas, decision strategies, social information, and emotions on dilemma analysis are considered. MDSS features that would help people understand moral dilemmas, choose a response, and explain analyses are identified.
New Paradigm of Learning and Teaching in a Networked Environment
Authors: Cheng Yin Cheong
Published: May 2011

This chapter introduces a new paradigm of learning and teaching that aims to develop students’ contextualized multiple intelligence (CMI) and create unlimited opportunity for students’ lifelong independent learning through a triplization process including individualization, localization, and globalization in teaching and learning. In particular, the chapter illustrates how students’ self-learning can be motivated, sustained, and highly enhanced in an individually, locally, and globally networked human and ICT environment. Different from the traditional emphasis on delivery of knowledge and skills in planned curriculum, the new paradigm pursues the extensive application of ICT and enhancement of teachers and students’ ICT literacy in building up a networked environment for students’ individualized, localized, and globalized learning and CMI development. It is hoped that students equipped with the necessary ICT literacy can become borderless learners with unlimited opportunities for learning and development in a networked environment.
Information Problem-Solving Using the Internet
Authors: Mills Steven C.
Published: May 2011

Today’s students must think critically and analyze and synthesize information so that they can recognize the technical, social, economic, political, and scientific problems of the information age. This chapter describes how the vast resources of the Internet can supply communication tools and information resources that facilitate the application of a robust set of instructional methodologies in the K-12 classroom to address these skills. The development of information literacy skills in today’s classrooms necessitates instructional approaches that address complex sets of learning objectives and focus on rich, multidisciplinary learning. The author maintains that Internet and information technologies provide tools and resources that enable teachers to create powerful learning environments for educating students for the information age using student-centered learning approaches, interactive communication with peers and experts, and collaborative, problem-solving methodologies.
Electronic Portfolios and Education
Authors: Hewett Stephenie M.
Published: May 2011

The use of electronic portfolios for students as an assessment tool is explored in this chapter. Portfolios have expanded from use in the arts and humanities to the field of education. Teachers, administrators, and students understand the benefits of portfolio assessment. The age of technology has improved the use of portfolio assessment by allowing the portfolio information to be transmitted and shared worldwide. No longer are portfolios limited to the single assessment of one person. Based on the current literature on electronic portfolios, the simplicity of creating electronic portfolios, the efficiency of collecting and organizing massive amounts of work, the ease of worldwide transmission of portfolio material, and the promotion of candidate-centered (student-, teacher-, professor-centered) assessment through the use of e-portfolios, the author hopes to promote the electronic portfolio as a beneficial way for the student, teacher, and professor to highlight their achievements for assessment.
Creating a Virtual Literacy Community between High School and University Students
Authors: Jetton Tamara L. , Soenksen Cathy
Published: May 2011

The authors of this chapter describe a project in which a university education professor and a high school English teacher redesigned the curricula of their classrooms, so their students could participate in a literacy project that focused on computer-mediated discussions of literature. The goal of the project was to develop both the technological literacies of these students and the more traditional literacies in the form of reading and writing skills. The Book Buddy Project afforded the authors the opportunity to create a virtual literacy community in which high school and university students incorporated the traditional literacies of reading and writing within a virtual environment that facilitated communication, collaboration, and learning with text.
Online Learning Communities
Authors: Brook Chris , Oliver Ron
Published: May 2011

This chapter reports a design framework intended to support and guide teachers in advancing K-12 literacy through principles of collaborative learning and the development of online learning communities. The study was guided by an investigation of contemporary literature focused on the community construct, online learning community development, the collaborative construction of knowledge, and the practices of experienced professionals working in the field. The intended outcome is a design framework that may be useful in guiding instructors in the advancement of K-12 literacy skills through the development of online learning communities.