bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Abduction and Web Interface Design
Authors: Magnani Lorenzo , Bardone Emanuele
Published: May 2011

According to Raskin (2000), the way we interact with a product, what we do, and how it responds are what define an interface. This is a good starting definition in one important respect: an interface is not something given or an entirely predefined property, but it is the dynamic interaction that actually takes place when a product meets the users. More precisely, an interface is that interaction that mediates the relation between the user and a tool explaining which approach is necessary to exploit its functions. Hence, an interface can be considered a mediating structure. A useful exemplification of a mediating structure is provided by the so-called stigmergy. Looking at the animal-animal interactions, Raskin (2000) noted that termites were able to put up their collective nest, even if they did not seem to collaborate or communicate with each other. The explanation provided by Grassé (Susi et al., 2001) is that termites do interact with each other, even if their interactions are mediated through the environment. According to the stigmergy theory, each termite acts upon the work environment, changing it in a certain way. The environment physically encodes and stores the change made upon it so that every change becomes a clue that affects a certain reaction from it. Analogously, we might claim that an interface mediates the relation between the user and a tool affording him or her to use it a certain way1. Understanding the kind of mediation involved can be fruitfully investigated from an epistemological point of view. More precisely, we claim that the process of mediating can be understood better when it is considered to be an inferential one.
Adaptable and Adaptive Web-Based Educational Systems
Authors: Gaudisio Elena , Montero Miguel
Published: May 2011

Nowadays, the use of computers and Internet in education is on the increase. Web-based educational systems (WES) are now widely used to both provide support to distance learning and to complement the traditional teaching process in the classroom. To be very useful in the classroom, one of the characteristics expected in a WES is the ability to be aware of students’ behaviors so that it can take into account the level of knowledge and preferences of the students in order to make reasonable recommendations (Hong, Kinshuk, He, Patel, & Jesshope, 2001). The main goal of adaptation in educational systems is to guide the students through the course material in order to improve the effectiveness of the learning process. Usually, when speaking of adaptive Web-based educational systems, we refer also to adaptable systems. Nevertheless, these terms are not really synonyms. Adaptable systems are abundant (Kobsa, 2004). In these systems, any adaptation is pre-defined and can be modified by the users before the execution of the system. In contrast, adaptive systems are still quite rare. In adaptive systems, any adaptation is dynamic which changes while the user is interacting with the system, depending on users’ behaviors. Nowadays, adaptable and adaptive systems recently gained strong popularity on the Web under the notion of personalized systems. A system can be adaptable and adaptive at the same time. In educational context, adaptable systems include also those systems that allow the teacher to modify certain parameters and change the response that the system gives to the students. In this situation, we claim that, in educational context, it is important to provide both types of personalization. On one hand, it is necessary to let teachers control the adaptation to students. On the other hand, due to a great diversity of interactions that take place in a WES, it is necessary to help teachers in the assessment of the students’ actions by providing certain dynamic adaptation automatically performed by the system. In this article, we will present how we can obtain adaptable and adaptive systems. Next, we will briefly present how we combine both types of personalization in PDINAMET, a WES for Physics. Finally we will describe some future trends and conclusions.
Automatic Facial Expression Analysis
Authors: Tan Huachun , Zhang Yujin
Published: May 2011

Facial expression analysis is an active area in human-computer interaction. Many techniques of facial expression analysis have been proposed that try to make the interaction tighter and more efficient.
Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning
Authors: Devedi Vladan
Published: May 2011

In computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL), information and communication technologies are used to promote connections between one learner and other learners, between learners and tutors, and between a learning community and its learning resources. CSCL is a coordinated, synchronous activity of a group of learners resulting from their continued attempt to construct and maintain a shared conception of a problem (Roschelle & Teasley, 1995). CSCL systems offer software replicas of many of the classic classroom resources and activities (Soller, 2001). For example, such systems may provide electronic shared workspaces, on-line presentations, lecture notes, reference material, quizzes, student evaluation scores, and facilities for chat or online discussions. This closely reflects a typical collaborative learning situation in the classroom, where the learners participating to learning groups encourage each other to ask questions, explain and justify their opinions, articulate their reasoning, and elaborate and reflect upon their knowledge, thereby motivating and improving learning. These observations stipulate both the social context and the social processes as an integral part of collaborative learning activities. In other words, CSCL is a natural process of social interaction and communication among the learners in a group while they are learning by solving common problems.
Design Rationale for Increasing Profitability of Interactive Systems Development
Authors: Lacaze Xavier , Palanque Philippe , Barboni Eric , Navarre David
Published: May 2011

User-centred development (Norman & Draper, 1986; Vredenburg, Isensee, & Righi, 2001) processes advocate the use of participatory design activities, end-user evaluations, and brainstorming in the early phases of development. Such approaches work in opposition of some software-engineering techniques that promote iterative development processes such as in agile processes (Beck, 1999) in order to produce software as quickly and as cheaply as possible. One way of justifying the profitability of development processes promoted in the field of human-computer interaction (HCI) is to not only take into account development costs, but also to take into account costs of use, that is, costs related to employment, training, and usage errors. Gain, in terms of performance (for instance, by providing default values in the various fields of a computer form) or in reducing the impact of errors (by providing undo facilities, for instance), can only be evaluated if the actual use of the system is integrated in the computation of the development costs. These considerations are represented in Figure 1. The upper bar of Figure 1 shows that development costs (grey part and black part) are higher than the development costs of RAD (rapid application development), represented in the lower bar (grey part). The black part of the upper bar shows the additional costs directly attributed to user-centred design. User-
Including Users with Motor Impairments in Design
Authors: Keates Simeon , Trewin Shari , Elliott Jessica Paradise
Published: May 2011

For people with motor impairments, access to, and independent control of, a computer can be an important part of everyday life. However, in order to be of benefit, computer systems must be accessible. Computer use often involves interaction with a graphical user interface (GUI), typically using a keyboard, mouse, and monitor. However, people with motor impairments often have difficulty with accurate control of standard input devices (Trewin & Pain, 1999). Conditions such as cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, and spinal injuries can give rise to symptoms such as tremor, spasm, restricted range of motion, and reduced strength. These symptoms may necessitate the use of specialized assistive technologies such as eye-gaze pointing or switch input (Alliance for Technology Access, 2000). At the same time, specialized technologies such as these can be expensive and many people simply prefer to use standard input devices (Edwards, 1995; Vanderheiden, 1985). Those who continue to use standard devices may expend considerable time and effort performing basic actions. The key to developing truly effective means of computer access lies in a user-centered approach (Stephanidis, 2001). This article discusses methods appropriate for working with people with motor impairments to obtain information about their wants and needs, and making that data available to interface designers in usable formats.
Interactive Speech Skimming via Time-Stretched Audio Replay
Authors: Hürst Wolfgang , Lauer Tbias
Published: May 2011

Time stretching, sometimes also referred to as time scaling, is a term describing techniques for replaying speech signals faster (i.e., time compressed) or slower (i.e., time expanded) while preserving their characteristics, such as pitch and timbre. One example for such an approach is the SOLA (synchronous overlap and add) algorithm (Roucus & Wilgus, 1985), which is often used to avoid cartoon-character-like voices during faster replay. Many studies have been carried out in the past in order to evaluate the applicability and the usefulness of time stretching for different tasks in which users are dealing with recorded speech signals. One of the most obvious applications of time compression is speech skimming, which describes the actions involved in quickly going through a speech document in order to identify the overall topic or to locate some specific information. Since people can listen faster than they talk, time-compressed audio, within reasonable limits, can also make sense for normal listening, especially in view of He and Gupta (2001), who suggest that the future bottleneck for consuming multimedia contents will not be network bandwidth but people’s limited time. In their study, they found that an upper bound for sustainable speedup during continuous listening is at about 1.6 to 1.7 times the normal speed. This is consistent with other studies such as Galbraith, Ausman, Liu, and Kirby (2003) or Harrigan (2000), indicating preferred speedup ratios between 1.3 and 1.8. Amir, Ponceleon, Blanchard, Petkovic, Srinivasan, and Cohen (2000) found that, depending on the text and speaker, the best speed for comprehension can also be slower than normal, especially for unknown or difficult contents.
International Standards for HCI
Authors: Bevan Nigel
Published: May 2011

The last 20 years have seen the development of a wide range of standards related to HCI (human-computer interaction). The initial work was by the ISO TC 159 ergonomics committee (see Stewart, 2000b), and most of these standards contain general principles from which appropriate interfaces and procedures can be derived. This makes the standards authoritative statements of good professional practice, but makes it difficult to know whether an interface conforms to the standard. Reed et al. (1999) discuss approaches to conformance in these standards. ISO/IEC JTC1 has established SC35 for user interfaces, evolving out of work on keyboard layouts. This group has produced standards for icons, gestures, and cursor control, though these do not appear to have been widely adopted. More recently, usability experts have worked with the ISO/IEC JTC1 SC7 software-engineering subcommittee to integrate usability into software engineering and software-quality standards. This has required some compromises: for example, reconciling different definitions of usability by adopting the new term quality in use to represent the ergonomic concept of usability (Bevan, 1999). It is unfortunate that at a time of increasing expectations of easy access to information via the Internet, international standards are expensive and difficult to obtain. This is an inevitable consequence of the way standards bodies are financed. Information on how to obtain standards can be found in Table 4
On Not Designing Tools
Authors: Kettley Sarah
Published: May 2011

The reader is no doubt well aware of HCI’s emphasis on the analysis of systems in which the computer plays the role of tool. The field encompasses positivist and pragmatic approaches in analyzing the products and the trajectories of use of technology (Coyne, 1995; Ihde, 2002; Preece et al., 1994), and many useful guidelines for the design of task-oriented tools have been produced as a result. However, use value and efficiency increasingly are leaving consumers cold; society has always needed things other than tools, and expectations of personal digital products are changing. Once utilitarian, they are now approached as experience, and Pat Jordan, for example, has successfully plotted the progression from functionality to usability to pleasure (Jordan, 2000). A precedent set by the Doors of Perception community (van Hinte, 1997) has seen slow social movements becoming more prevalent, design symposia dedicated to emotion, and traditional market research challenged by the suggestion that the new consumer values something other than speed and work ethics. This search for authenticity appears to be resistive to demographic methodologies (Boyle, 2003; Brand, 2000; Lewis & Bridger, 2000) yet underpins important new approaches to sustainable consumption (Brand, 2000; Bunnell, 2002; Csikzsentmihalyi & Rochberg-Halton, 1981; Fuad-Luke, 2002; van Hinte, 1997). The next section introduces pragmatic and critical approaches to HCI before examining the importance of the artwork as authentic experience.
Social Factors and Interface Design Guidelines
Authors: Xu Zhe , John David , Boucouvalas Anthony C.
Published: May 2011

Designing an attractive user interface for Internet communication is the objective of every software developer. However, it is not an easy task as the interface will be accessed by an uncertain number of users with various purposes. To interact with users, text, sounds, images, and animations can be provided according to different situations. Originally, text was the only medium available for a user to communicate over the Internet. With technology development, multimedia channels (e.g., video and audio) emerged into the online context. Individuals’ sociability may influence human behaviour. Some people prefer a quiet environment and others enjoy more liveliness. On the other hand, the activity purpose influences the environment preference as well. Following usability principles and task analysis (Badre, 2002; Cato, 2001; Dix, Finlay, Abowd, & Beale, 1998; McCraken & Wolfe, 2004; Neilsen, 2000; Nielsen & Tahir, 2002; Preece, Rogers, & Sharp, 2002), we can predict that business-oriented systems and informal systems will require different types of interfaces: Business systems are concerned with the efficiency of performing tasks, while the effectiveness of informal systems depend more on the user’s satisfaction with the experience of interacting with the system. Suppose you are an Internet application designer; should you provide a vivid and multichannel interface or a concise and clear appearance? When individuals’ sociability and the activity purpose contradict, should the interface design follow the sociability requirement, the purpose of the activity, or even neither of them? To answer these questions, the characteristics of communication interfaces should be examined. For face-to-face communications, sounds, voices, various facial expressions, and physical movements are the most important contributing factors. These features are named physical and social presence (Loomis, Golledge, & Klatzky, 1998). In the virtual world, real physical presence does not exist anymore; however, emotional feelings, group feelings, and other social feelings are existent but vary in quantity. The essential differences of interfaces are the quantity of the presented social feelings. For example, a three-dimensional (3-D) interface may provide more geographical and social feelings than a two-dimensional (2-D) chat room may present. To assess the different feelings that may emerge from different interfaces, a two-dimensional chat room and a three-dimensional chatting environment were developed. The identification of social feelings present in the different interface styles is presented first. Then an experiment that was carried out to measure the influence the activity styles and the individuals’ sociability have on the interface preferences is discussed. The questions raised in this article are “What are the social feelings that may differ between the two interfaces (2-D vs. 3-D)?” and “Will users prefer different interfaces for different types of activities?”
Socio-Cognitive Engineering
Authors: Sharples Mike
Published: May 2011

Socio-cognitive engineering is a framework for the systematic design of socio-technical systems (people and their interaction with technology), based on the study and analysis of how people think, learn, perceive, work, and interact. The framework has been applied to the design of a broad range of human-centered technologies, including a Writer’s Assistant (Sharples, Goodlet, & Pemberton, 1992), a training system for neuroradiologists (Sharples et al., 2000), and a mobile learning device for children (Sharples, Corlett, & Westmancott, 2002). It has been adopted by the European MOBIlearn project (www.mobilearn.org) to develop mobile technology for learning. It also has been taught to undergraduate and postgraduate students to guide their interactive systems projects. An overview of the framework can be found in Sharples et al. (2002).
Traditional vs. Pull-Down Menus
Authors: Henley Mary , Noyes Jan
Published: May 2011

Human interactions with computers are often via menus, and “in order to make information retrieval more efficient, it is necessary that indexes, menus and links be carefully designed” (Zaphris, Shneiderman, & Norman, 2002, p. 201). There are a number of alternatives to menus, such as icons, question-and-answer formats, and dynamic lists, but most graphical user interfaces are almost entirely menu-driven (Hall & Bescos, 1995). Menu systems have many advantages. For example, Norman (1991) identified low memory load, ease of learning and use, and reduced error rates as advantages of menu-driven interfaces. They frequently form the main part of a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) interface, providing most of the functionality in the more common operating systems such as Microsoft Windows. Consequently, familiarity also can be added to the list of advantages of using menus when accessing computer systems. These aspects are particularly important when considering public-access technologies, where individuals from across the population exhibiting a range of ages, skills, and experience levels will attempt to use the systems. Further, training or the opportunities for training will be minimal and, most likely, non-existent.
Understanding Cognitive Processes in Educational Hypermedia
Authors: Boechler Patricia M.
Published: May 2011

Cognitive load theory (CLT) is currently the most prominent cognitive theory pertaining to instructional design and is referred to in numerous empirical articles in the educational literature (for example, Brünken, Plass, & Leutner, 2003; Chandler & Sweller, 1991; Paas, Tuovinen, Tabbers, & Van Gerven, 2003; Sweller, van Merri¸nboer, & Paas, 1998). CLT was developed to assist educators in designing optimal presentations of information to encourage learning. CLT has also been extended and applied to the design of educational hypermedia and multimedia (Mayer & Moreno, 2003). The theory is built around the idea that the human cognitive architecture has inherent limitations related to capacity, in particular, the limitations of human working memory. As Sweller et al. (pp. 252-253) state: The implications of working memory limitations on instructional design cannot be overstated. All conscious cognitive activity learners engage in occurs in a structure whose limitations seem to preclude all but the most basic processes. Anything beyond the simplest cognitive activities appear to overwhelm working memory. Prima facie, any instructional design that flouts or merely ignores working memory limitations inevitably is deficient. It is this factor that provides a central claim to cognitive load theory. In order to understand the full implications of cognitive load theory, an overview of the human memory system is necessary.
E-Leadership
Authors: Gurr David
Published: May 2011

Advances in information and communication technology (ICT) are changing organizations, with old practices being altered and new practices, spaces and possibilities created (Wertheim, 1999). It is the capacity of the ICT to support electronically mediated social environments that is causing reconceptualization of leadership conceptions. The emerging concept of e-leadership provides a framework to explore leadership in environments mediated by ICT. Unfortunately, there is considerable conceptual confusion about the term, with at least three different research streams producing different understandings. It is this complexity surrounding e-leadership that is the subject of this article (an extended discussion of this topic can be found in Gurr [2004] and Gurr and Broadbent [2004]). Research on e-leadership is at an early stage. In terms of Reichers and Scheider’s (1990, as described in Hunt, 1999, p. 131) three-stage model of concept development, which includes introduction/elaboration, evaluation/augmentation and consolidation/accommodation, the study of e-leadership is at the introduction/elaboration stage. While there is acknowledgment that a new concept of leadership may be needed, there is conceptual ambiguity as to what this might be, and limited research. Evidence and discussion about e-leadership comes from three main types of research: consultancy discussion papers, survey-based perceptual data, and experimental and quasi-experimental research.
E-Learning vs. Traditional Teaching Methods
Authors: Blackmore Chris , van Deurzen Emmy , Tantam Diby
Published: May 2011

We have conducted a series of action research projects on elearning in recent years, funded by grants from the European Commission. The SEPT project (Tantam, 2001) showed that access to psychotherapy for those who are in most need is restricted in many European countries. Accessibility factors played a part in this, and the SEPTIMUS project was designed to widen accessibility to psychotherapy by increasing access to training for students who live in geographically isolated areas, who have family/work commitments or who have a disability. SEPTIMUS is a 1-year psychotherapy training program blending theoretical instruction and tutoring delivered by elearning methods with supervision, therapy and practical experience delivered face to face and local to one of the 16 participating training centers, located in one of eight European countries. The project was coordinated from the United Kingdom (UK), and the training program was available to students in Austria, Czech Republic, Ireland, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Romania and UK The impact of the training was evaluation by means of student self-assessments, participation, time spent on-site, tutor-marked assignments, tutor feedback, supervisor reports and student feedback. One hundred fifty-six students have completed the course, and we recruited an additional 61 students taking comparable but traditional face-to-face courses in three of our participating training institutes to act as educational controls. In this article, we present the results of a comparison between the elearning students and these educational controls.
Extending Online Communities through Virtual Parrallell Systems
Authors: Jong Chu , Mahatanankoon Pruthikrai
Published: May 2011

Internet technology has extended human social interactions across geographical boundaries. Using information and communication technology (ICT) as ways to establish social relationships (Palmer, 1998), virtual communities (VCs) provide the means for people to communicate and to store and share information for various social meetings regardless of time and distance. VCs offer a variety of social interactions ranging from casual and leisure activities to strictly business-related transactions. Many online retail stores use message boards as ways for customers to share information and ideas with other customers. Online forums and chat rooms provide discussion and support facilities for any interest group imaginable from cooking and gardening to stocks and politics. The value of VCs derives from various functions being delivered. Armstrong and Hagel (1996) suggest that the success of virtual communities rely on the ability to meet “multiple social and commercial needs.” To facilitate these needs, online communities generally charge their members minimal fees, either for usage, content, or advertising. The goals are to generate revenue and in some cases cover the operating expenses. However, with new evolutional VCs such as virtual museums, virtual libraries, virtual organizations, and telemedicine, the operating costs for providing such services can be tremendous. VCs require significant investment in their infrastructures, which can be reduced by implementing an enhanced parallel p-split mechanism on their existing servers. The goal of this article is to introduce new practical ideas to manage VCs by focusing on the underlying hardware and software infrastructures that support virtual operations. The structure of this article includes (1) an introduction to the functions and services that a VC system should have and its potential growth, and (2) the concept and basic mechanisms of the p-split with the benefit of using p-split to generate virtual servers. This article then summarizes the current progress and provides an outline for the future VC system research. The appendix provides some technical aspects in terms of the software module and system overheads of the p-split.
Hyperlink Analysis
Authors: Thelwall Mike
Published: May 2011

Links between Web pages can be used as a source of information with which to identify types of Web based communities for which interlinking is common, and to investigate community-based linking practices. These communities could be of individuals, organizations or even information sources. Hyperlink analysis, also known as link analysis, provides a set of techniques to aid data gathering, filtering and processing, as well as providing methods to help interpret results. Hyperlink analysis originated in citation analysis because of the structural similarity between links and citations (Ingwersen, 1998). Whereas links connect Web pages, citations typically connect academic journal articles. Citations have been analyzed for many years by researchers in order to analyze research communities in the scholarly literature (Borgman & Furner, 2002) amongst other things, and the first people to develop link analysis drew from citation analysis experience. Early contributors included Rousseau (1997), who dubbed links sitations, and Ingwersen (1998), who used citation counts to estimate the impact of collections of Web pages, using the assumption that more useful pages would tend to receive more links. The creators of Google also harnessed links to deliver more useful search results based upon a similar assumption (Brin & Page, 1998). One of the earliest academic applications of link analysis was to identify “communities” of information around a particular topic (Larson, 1996). Since then many others have used links to help identify Web communities (Flake, Lawrence, Giles, & Coetzee, 2002), or to describe them (Foot, Schneider, Dougherty, Xenos, & Larsen, 2003).
Online Deception Types
Authors: Rowe Neil C.
Published: May 2011

Like all societies, online communities can be victimized by deception by their members. It is helpful to identify the forms in which deception can occur (“taxonomies”) to better prepare responses. While deception can often be ignored in informal interaction, it is more serious when online communities, subgroups, or pairs of members attempt to accomplish tasks together.
Online Gaming
Authors: Griffiths Mark , Davies Mark N.O. , Chappell Darren
Published: May 2011

Despite the rise of computer games as a leisure phenomenon, relatively little research has been conducted in this area. A majority of the research to date has concentrated on adolescent players (Griffiths, 1996, 1997a). Furthermore, most of the research has tended to concentrate on the more negative aspects, such as excessive play and addiction (Griffiths, 1991, 1997b; Griffiths & Hunt, 1995, 1998; Phillips, Rolls, Rouse, & Griffiths, 1995), the effects of playing aggressive games (Griffiths, 1998, 2000) and the medical and psychosocial consequences (Griffiths, 1993, 1996). However, there have been a few psychologically-based studies on personality and computer game play (Douse & McManus, 1993; Griffiths & Dancaster, 1995) – although these have been exploratory. Thus, the image of a typical gamer (and the pastime of computer gaming) is seen as socially negative and remains firmly within a youth subculture. As the 1990s came to a close, a new generation of machines with increasingly sophisticated processing power began to replace the early 1990s consoles. However, an even more revolutionary development was also occurring, involving the Internet as a gaming forum. New games emerged that enabled people to link up online to game together. The games varied in their mode of operation. There are basically three main types of social virtual gaming over the Internet—Stand Alone Games, Local and Wide Network (LAWN) Games, and Massively Multiplayer Online Role-playing (MMORP) Games.
Predicting Activity Levels in Virtual Communities
Authors: Kushnir Ori B.
Published: May 2011

Data was collected from two communities: a smaller community with approximately 200 participants, but where the number of participants is precisely known; and a very large community, with thousands of participants, where the number of participants can only be estimated from the number of different nicknames used within a given time interval. Data from certain days when there were documented technical issues that may have affected activity has been removed from the sample. In both cases, we have taken one geographically centric data series and one global series, covering users in multiple areas and time zones. We use the number of messages sent in three-hour intervals as a proxy for the activity level in a community, as accurate figures regarding the number of messages viewed by unique persons are difficult to establish. This results in a data set of approximately 9,500 samples from each community, collected over a period of just less than four years. When fitting the models, we used accepted back-testing standards, relying on a fixed interval (one year) when fitting parameters and forecasting activity for any given point in time. One exception to this is seasonality adjustment, where we used the entire data set—this should not have a significant effect, as we made the same seasonal adjustment to the input for all models. Empirical results provided throughout the article are based on data from the larger community.
Psychological Sense of Community in Virtual Communities
Authors: Roberts Lynne D. , Smith Leigh M. , Pollock Clare M.
Published: May 2011

Sense of community has traditionally been associated with groupings of people from geographical locations (e.g., villages, suburbs, towns, and cities). Community psychologists have reported a growing disillusionment amongst people in their search for a sense of community and community values in these place-based communities (Dunham, 1977, 1986; Glynn, 1986; Sarason, 1974). Sarason (1974) stated his belief that “the dilution or absence of the psychological sense of community is the most destructive dynamic in the lives of people in our society” (p. viii). The concept of sense of community has been expanded from place-based (“locational”) communities to include communities of interest (“relational” communities) (Bess, Fisher, Sonn, & Bishop, 2002). A recent reconceptualisation of the sense of community concept proposes that each individual may experience varying degrees of sense of community in a range of locational and relational communities, rather than within a single community (Brodsky, Loomis, & Marx, 2002). The potential for relational communities has greatly increased with the widespread adoption of the Internet, enabling the grouping of individuals with common interests that is not dependent upon the geographical location of participants. A range of virtual environments have been referred to as virtual communities. These include newsgroups, Internet Relay Chat (IRC), and Multi-User Dimensions (MUDs) (Baym, 1995; Clodius, 1997; Hampton, 1996; Patterson, 1996; Phillips, 1996; Reid, 1991, 1995). Each of these environments meets the four minimal conditions for virtual communities outlined by Jones (1997): interactive communication, a minimum of three communicators, a common public space for interaction, and ongoing members. These virtual communities, based on shared interests rather than shared locations, are accessed by computer-mediated communication (Little, 1993; Wellman & Gulia, 1999) and are evidenced by shared norms, values and practices (Tepper, 1996; Watson, 1997). Over the last decade, research into virtual communities has suggested that at least some individuals are experiencing a sense of community within the virtual environments of their choice. Sense of community has been reported in IRC (Roberts, Smith, & Pollock, 1997; Surratt, 1996), MUDs (Clodius, 1997; Hampton, 1996; Roberts, Smith, & Pollock 2002), e-mail discussion groups (Kot, 1999), bulletin boards (Dunham, Hurshman, Litwin, Gusella, Ellsworth, & Dodd, 1998), computer-supported distance learning programs (Haythornthwaite, Kazmer, & Robins, 2000), online support groups (Glasser Das, 1999) and newsgroups (Baym, 1995; Blanchard & Markus, 2002; Phillips, 1996; Watson, 1997).
Reusable Learning Resources for Virtual Learning Environments
Authors: Sicilia Miguel-Angel , Sanchez-Alonso Elena
Published: May 2011

The evolution of Web-based learning has fostered the search for methods and technologies that enable a degree of reuse of learning contents and learning activity designs. Such attempt is intended to facilitate both the reuse of quality resources and the development of automated resource-search tools, and it may eventually reduce the cost of devising learning activities. The concept of learning object is at the center of a new instructional design paradigm for Web-based learning. This new paradigm emphasizes reuse as a quality characteristic of learning contents and activities. For example, the often-cited definition of learning object by Polsani (2003) explicitly includes reuse in his definition: “an independent and self-standing unit of learning content that is predisposed to reuse in multiple instructional contexts.” In one of the most referenced articles on the field, Wiley (2001) also mentions the term reuse in his learning object definition: “any digital resource that can be reused to support learning.” Nevertheless, the concept of learning object reusability as a key quality factor for content design is difficult to characterize and measure, since it encompasses not only the evaluation of the contents themselves (Vargo, Nesbit, Belfer, & Archambault, 2003), but also a balance between their usability in specific contexts and the range of educational contexts it explicitly targets (Sicilia & Garcia, 2003). In practical terms, a learning object is a piece of Web content of arbitrary type and structure described by a metadata record. This metadata record provides information about the object and its prospective educational usages. Learning object metadata, thus, is the key to reuse.
Success of Virtual Environments
Authors: Dara-Abrams Benay P.
Published: May 2011

While work has been conducted across geographical distances as long as humans have been engaged in work, advances in technology as well as changes in the global economy have increased both the requirement and the potential for teams to work together effectively across geographical and organizational boundaries (Hinds & Kiesler, 2002). Research conducted in the 1960s and 1970s on group development process provides a foundation for understanding and supporting the development of high-performance virtual teams (Tuckman, 1965; Tuckman & Jensen, 1977). Coupling group development process with groupware, computer-supported cooperative work (CSCW), and new peer-to-peer technologies, virtual teams have the support to move through the development stages until they become high-performance virtual teams. In fact, a recent benchmarking study determined that virtual teams have the potential to function even more productively than co-located teams (Majchrzak, Malhotra, Stamps, & Lipnack, 2004).
Understanding Knowledge Bases and Building Membership in Virtual Communities
Authors: Baim Susan A.
Published: May 2011

With the exception of virtual communities that exist solely for purposes of social interaction, members of a virtual community are generally interested in the transfer of knowledge. Readily transferable knowledge provides a basis for member interaction and a reason for members to return frequently to visit a virtual community. Multiple revisits over a short period of time indicate that members of a virtual community are finding value in the interactions that they share with other members. For many members, these virtual interactions cannot be duplicated elsewhere. In sponsored virtual communities, a high frequency of revisits translates into multiple opportunities for a sponsor to expose members to a firm’s products and/or services. Sponsors are able to learn more about what a virtual community’s members are thinking about a firm’s current/future offerings and they can probe members with respect to unmet consumer needs and wants. Regardless of sponsorship or non-sponsorship status, a high frequency of revisits to a virtual community is an excellent indicator of a vibrant, enthusiastic membership.
Virtual Communities' Impact on Politics
Authors: Srinivasan Vasanthi
Published: May 2011

Virtual community (VC) as a concept and reality poses some fundamental challenges to the discipline of politics. First, the term virtual undermines the appearance–reality distinction that runs through Western political thought. From Plato to Marx, political thinkers have decried the cunning with which politicians peddle mere appearances of justice or freedom. Computer-mediated communication (CMC) described as virtual defies this dichotomy between appearance and reality; the virtual is that which appears on the screen and yet is experienced as real and sometimes as more real than real. Live images and opinions from all over the globe, mediated through information and communication technologies shape our experience of politics so much so that what happens outside this media space is regarded as marginal (Castells, 1997, p. 312). Similarly, the communal aspect of VC undermines conventional political communities grounded in territorial unity. In this article, we shall clarify the challenges and opportunities posed by VCs to states and civil societies. For this purpose, only some VCs that explicitly address diasporic nationalisms, globalization, democratization, and transnational activism are relevant. How do such communities extend, modify, or subvert existing political ideas and institutions embodied in the nation, state, democracy, public sphere, and so forth? What are the new rights and virtues that come into play through VCs?
Virtual Reality User Acceptance
Authors: Brailovsky Signoret Françoise Dushinka
Published: May 2011

“Nothing can be loved or hated unless it is first known” (da Vinci, quoted by Powell, 2004, p.1). As human beings, we are always afraid about the unknown, about what is not familiar. Even though this is acceptable because of the fear of changing the way humans have been living so far, it is not justifiable. Some people have the illusion of still being rooted in the community in which they grew up (Nimon, 2003). But the truth is that our world is changing and humans are moving on with it, as happens with technology. Humans are being prompted by it. The organization of this article is as follows. The background supports the idea of this topic. This is followed by some concepts, characteristics and theories of the research methodology. Then I suggest a direction for the future, ending with the conclusion.
An Introduction in Digital Watermarking
Authors: Jahnke Tino , Seitz Juergen
Published: May 2011

In order to solve intellectual property problems of the digital age, two basic procedures are used: “Buy and drop,” linked to the destruction of various peer-to-peer solutions and “subpoena and fear,” as the creation of non-natural social fear by specific legislations. Although customers around the world are willing to buy digital products over networks, the industry is still using conventional procedures to push such a decisive customer impulse back into existing and conventional markets. Digital watermarking is described as a possibility to interface and close the gap between copyright and digital distribution. It is based on steganographic techniques and enables useful right protection mechanisms. Digital watermarks are mostly inserted as a plain bit sample or a transformed digital signal into the source data using a key based embedding algorithm and a pseudo-noise pattern. The embedded information is hidden in low-value bits or least significant bits of picture pixels, frequency or other value domains, and linked inseparably with the source of the data structure. For the optimal application of watermarking technology a trade-off has to be made between competing criteria like robustness, non-perceptibility, non-delectability, and security. Most watermarking algorithms are resistant against selected and application-specific attacks. Therefore, even friendly attacks in the form of usual file and data modifications can destroy easily the watermark or falsify it. This chapter gives an overview in watermarking technologies, classification, methodology, applications and problems.
Benefits and Difficulties of Internet Use in Hotels and Its Effects According to the Facilities Rank, Property Size, Manager's Age and Experience
Authors: Mendes-Filho Luiz A.M. , Ramos Anatália S.M.
Published: May 2011

This study aims to analyze the perception of managers on the benefits and difficulties of Internet use in hotels and its effects according to the facilities rank and property size plus managers’ age and experience time. It used a questionnaire to collect data from the managers of 35 hotels in the city of Natal, RN, Brazil. By using analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Tukey test, results showed that there is no significant difference in the perception of managers on the impact of Internet use in hotels. Hence, the managers of these hotels had similar opinions about the benefits and difficulties of the Internet use in their hotels.
Wireless Sensor Networks
Authors: Cayirci Erdal
Published: May 2011

A wireless sensor network is deployed either inside the phenomenon or very close to it. Unlike some existing sensing techniques, the position of sensor network nodes need not be engineered or predetermined. This allows random deployment in inaccessible terrains. On the other hand, this also means that sensor network protocols and algorithms must possess self-organizing capabilities. Another unique feature of sensor networks is the cooperative effort of sensor nodes. Sensor network nodes are fitted with an onboard processor. Instead of sending the raw data to the nodes responsible for the fusion, sensor network nodes use their processing abilities to locally carry out simple computations and transmit only the required and partially processed data. Realization of sensor networks requires wireless ad hoc networking techniques. In this chapter, we present a survey of protocols and algorithms proposed thus far for wireless sensor networks. Our aim is to provide a better understanding of the current research issues in this field. We also attempt an investigation into understanding design constraints and outline the use of certain tools to meet the design objectives.
Transaction Processing in Broadcast Databases
Authors: Yee Wai Gen
Published: May 2011

Broadcasting is a popular way of disseminating data due to the scalability of its request performance with an increasing population, and its ability to “match” the unique characteristics of modern wireless communications. The necessary decoupling of the clients from the server in the broadcast architecture, however, complicates database-style transaction processing. In this chapter, we describe why broadcast transaction processing is complicated and offer solutions.
From Classification to Retrieval
Authors: Lim Joo-Hwee , Jin Jesse S.
Published: May 2011

Users query images by using semantics. Though low-level features can be easily extracted from images, they are inconsistent with human visual perception. Hence, low-level features cannot provide sufficient information for retrieval. High-level semantic information is useful and effective in retrieval. However, semantic information is heavily dependent upon semantic image regions and beyond, which are difficult to obtain themselves. Bridging this semantic gap between computed visual features and user query expectation poses a key research challenge in managing multimedia semantics. As a spin-off from pattern recognition and computer vision research more than a decade ago, content-based image retrieval research focuses on a different problem from pattern classification though they are closely related. When the patterns concerned are images, pattern classification could become an image classification problem or an object recognition problem. While the former deals with the entire image as a pattern, the latter attempts to extract useful local semantics, in the form of objects, in the image to enhance image understanding. In this chapter, we review the role of pattern classifiers in state-of-the-art content-based image retrieval systems and discuss their limitations. We present three new indexing schemes that exploit pattern classifiers for semantic image indexing, and illustrate the usefulness of these schemes on the retrieval of 2,400 unconstrained consumer images.
Context-Based Interpretation and Indexing of Video Data
Authors: Mittal Ankush , Fah Cheong Loong , Kassim Ashraf , Pagalthivarthi Krishnan V.
Published: May 2011

Most of the video retrieval systems work with a single shot without considering the temporal context in which the shot appears. However, the meaning of a shot depends on the context in which it is situated and a change in the order of the shots within a scene changes the meaning of the shot. Recently, it has been shown that to find higher-level interpretations of a collection of shots (i.e., a sequence), intershot analysis is at least as important as intrashot analysis. Several such interpretations would be impossible without a context. Contextual characterization of video data involves extracting patterns in the temporal behavior of features of video and mapping these patterns to a high-level interpretation. A Dynamic Bayesian Network (DBN) framework is designed with the temporal context of a segment of a video considered at different granularity depending on the desired application. The novel applications of the system include classifying a group of shots called sequence and parsing a video program into individual segments by building a model of the video program.