bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Intelligent Agents Supporting Distributed Collaborative Learning
Authors: Chen Weiqin , Wasson Barbara
Published: May 2011

In the context of distributed collaborative learning, it is usually difficult for students to be aware of others’ activities and for instructors to overview the process and regulate the collaboration. In order to facilitate collaborative learning, intelligent agents were developed to support the awareness and regulation of the collaboration. This chapter discusses the facilitation role of intelligent agents and how they support students and instructors in distributed collaborative-learning environments. By monitoring the collaboration, the agents compute statistics, detect possible problems, and give advice synchronously and asynchronously to the students and instructor based on their activities and requests. In so doing, the agents not only help students to self-regulate their activities but also help instructors to maintain an overview of the collaboration so that they can intervene when necessary.
Privacy and Trust in Agent-Supported Distributed Learning
Authors: Korba Larry , Yee George , Xu Yuefei , Ronggong Song , Patrick Andrew S , El-Khatib Khalil
Published: May 2011

The objective of this chapter is to explore the challenges, issues, and solutions associated with satisfying requirements for privacy and trust in agent-supported distributed learning (ADL). Accordingly, the first section will present the background, context, and challenges. The second section will delve into the requirements for privacy and trust as seen in legislation and standards. The third section will look at available technologies for satisfying these requirements. The fourth section will discuss an often-ignored area—that of building trustworthy user interfaces for distributed-learning systems. Finally, the chapter will end with conclusions and suggestions for further research.
Knowledge Agents
Authors: Anagnostopoulos Achilleas , Lampropoulos Nikolaos , Michalakos Sotiris
Published: May 2011

In this chapter, we approach some significant concepts consistent with knowledge and cognitive processes that are essential for any kind of contemporary organization. Therefore, after citing a generic approach to knowledge management and its facilitating tools, along with a description of software agents and their categories, we indicate precious elements and details for the prerequisites while designing and implementing such intelligent solutions. As prerequisites, we deem organizational context, programming, and developing tools. We then discuss collaborative agent systems, known as agent societies, and present some appealing implementations of complex agent systems. Finally, we portray some of our thoughts regarding the perspective of employing smart agent technology in our everyday life.
Ontology-Based Competency Management
Authors: Sicilia Miguel-Angel
Published: May 2011

Learning activities can be considered the final outcome of a complex process inside knowledge intensive organizations. This complex process encompasses a dynamic cycle, a loop in which business or organizational needs trigger the necessity of acquiring or enhancing human resource competencies that are essential to the fulfillment of the organizational objectives. This continuous evolution of organizational knowledge requires the management of records of available and required competencies, and the automation of such competency handling thus becomes a key issue for the effective functioning of knowledge management activities. This chapter describes the use of ontologies as the enabling semantic infrastructure of competency management, describing the main aspects and scenarios of the knowledge creation cycle from the perspective of its connection with competency definitions.
Japanese IT-Skill Dilemma
Authors: Takeda Yoko
Published: May 2011

Japanese companies are facing a dilemma regarding their IT skills. Although many Japanese feel the need to expand the scope of their information systems by implementing newer technologies, they are still obsessed with the “not-made-for-us syndrome.” Japanese IS vendors have been unable to establish a new business model, because the integration of new and old technologies is not easy. When considering the IT skills in Japanese firms, our attention is primarily focused on the characteristics of traditional IT skills before focusing on the newly required skills, because the traditional IT skills have developed strong inertia that prevents change. We will analyze the current situation of the Japanese IT-skill dilemma and discuss methods to resolve it.
Digital Watermarking
Authors: Seitz Juergen , Jahnke Tino
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 nonnatural 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. But digital media, like audio, video, images, and other multimedia documents, can be protected against copyright infringements with invisible, integrated patterns based on steganography and digital watermarking techniques. 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 rights 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 such as robustness, nonperceptibility, nondetectability, and security. Most watermarking algorithms are resistant to selected and application-specific attacks. Therefore, even friendly attacks in the form of usual file and data modifications can easily destroy the watermark or falsify it. This paper gives an overview of watermarking technologies, classification, methodology, application, and problems.
Technology Collaboration (Level 2.0)
Authors: Tomei Lawrence A.
Published: May 2011

The effective use of technology includes written communication, the professional exchange of information, and interpersonal collaboration. As the second level of the Taxonomy for the Technology Domain, Technology Collaboration (Level 2.0) is defined as “the ability to employ technology for effective interpersonal interaction.”
Transformation-Based Database Engineering
Authors: Hainaut Jean-Luc
Published: May 2011

This chapter posits a widening gap between workplace writing practices and traditional composition pedagogies. In particular, this chapter suggests that traditional composition pedagogies persist in foregrounding solitary, proprietary authors as model composers, despite the limited applicability of these models. The fields of technical and professional communication, by contrast, have long valued collaboration and modes of authorship that do not always imply the composer’s ownership of a given text. These fields’ biases are reinforced by the advent of digital media, and the Internet in particular. Digital technologies facilitate collaboration and promote a greater range of authorial stances than their print counterparts. The chapter concludes by offering pedagogical approaches directed at promoting composition pedagogies commensurate with the challenges faced by professional and technical writers working in digital composing spaces.
Declarative Transformation for Object-Oriented Models
Authors: Duddy Keith , Gerber Anna , Lawley Michael , Raymond Kerry
Published: May 2011

This chapter provides a context and motivation for a language to describe transformations of models within an object-oriented framework. The requirements for such a language are given, and then an object-oriented model of the language’s abstract syntax is provided that meets these requirements. A concrete syntax is introduced along with some example transformations. Finally, we discuss the tools required to use the language within a model-driven software engineering paradigm. The authors aim to demonstrate the principles of model transformation within an object-oriented framework, and show how this can be applied to the development of software systems.
Email - Message Transmission and Social Ritual
Authors: Day Eileen
Published: May 2011

In considering the implications of what it means to be moving towards an Interaction Society, my research into intraorganisational email illuminates some of the inherent social complexity and the subtle nuances of its use within organisational life. A range of significant insights emerged through a deep hermeneutic understanding of the ways that people within the study were constructing email as an everyday part of their workplace. As a consequence, I have constructed a new concept, message web to encapsulate the social interaction and human sense-making activities around email in association with its technical capabilities as daily life is being played out within organisational cultures today. In this chapter, I tell an ethnographic story concerning just one strand of the case study organisation’s message web: the copying function of email. And being an ethnographic story, I’ve also embedded reflective glimpses of my research processes.
Learning While Playing
Authors: Jegers Kalle , Wiberg Charlotte
Published: May 2011

This chapter reports on the initial results of a study conducted in the project FunTain. The main purpose was to identify general guidelines/implications for edutainment games, in order to guide designers of such games as they often lack in design guidelines. Usability evaluations were conducted on an edutainment game in order to find usability problems. These findings were analyzed and used as input in focus group meetings, held with joint teams of game designers and HCI experts. The outcome of the focus groups was a proposal of a list of ten general design guidelines. Findings indicate that users had problems in understanding the underlying model for the game as well as identifying the knowledge related content. Experts, further, gave comments about feedback problems and different types of consistencies. Some of the implications from the findings are guidelines for earning and loosing points, scoring and performance feedback and game object characteristics.
A Language/Action Based Approach to Information Modelling
Authors: Johannesson Paul
Published: May 2011

There are several different views of the role of information systems. Two of the most important are the data view and the communicative view. According to the data view, the primary purpose of an information system is to provide a model of a domain, thereby enabling people to obtain information about reality by studying the model. In this respect, an information system works as a repository of data that reflects the structure and behaviour of an enterprise, and the system provides data that can be used for decisions about the enterprise. In contrast, the communicative view states that the major role of an information system is to support communication within and between organisations by structuring and coordinating the actions performed by organisational agents. The system is seen as a medium through which people can perform social actions, such as stating facts, making promises, and giving orders.
Adaptive Mobile Applications
Authors: Kunz Thomas , Gaddah Abdulbaset
Published: May 2011

The convergence of two technological developments has made mobile computing a reality. In the last few years, developed countries spent large amounts of money to install and deploy wireless communication facilities. Originally aimed at telephone services (which still account for the majority of usage), the same infrastructure is increasingly used to transfer data. In parallel, wireless LAN technologies are providing hotspot coverage in many high-traffic locations. The second development is the continuing reduction in size of computer hardware, leading to portable computation devices such as laptops, palmtops, or functionally enhanced cell phones. Given current technology, a user can run a set of applications on a portable device and communicate over a variety of communication links, depending on his/her current location.
Analyzing the Quality of Virtual Teams
Authors: Verburg Robert M. , Andriessen J. H. Erik , de Rooij Joris P.G.
Published: May 2011

Global market developments and the large-scale use of diverse applications in the area of information and communication technology (ICT) have been key factors in the emergence of distributed teams. Such teams are often referred to as virtual teams. Virtual teams enable collaboration between people across traditional boundaries and offer tremendous opportunities for various achievements. Businesses are no longer tied to a single time zone and are, for example, able to develop software around the 24-hour clock. The Internet—as the almost universal medium for interaction across boundaries—has created an infrastructure that enables many organizations to launch virtual teams. Hardly any technical obstacle for communication and collaboration across geographic boundaries remains, as these processes are supported by high-tech collaboration solutions such as groupware and other collaborative applications (e.g., videoconferencing, electronic blackboards). Virtual teams have a number of opportunities that are not found with co-located teams, such as involving rare expertise.
Benefits and Challenges of Blended Learning Environments
Authors: Graham Charles R. , Allen Stephanie , Ure Donna
Published: May 2011

The term “blended learning” has become a corporate buzzword in recent years (Lamb, 2001). Recently, the American Society for Training and Development identified blended learning as one of the top ten trends to emerge in the knowledge delivery industry in 2003 (Rooney, 2003). In higher education, the term blended learning is being used with increased frequency in academic conferences and publications. Issues related to the design and implementation of blended learning environments (BLE) are surfacing as technological advances continue to blur the lines between distributed learning and the traditional campus-based learning. Many universities are beginning to recognize the advantages of blending online and residential instruction. The Chronicle of Higher Education recently quoted the president of Pennsylvania State University as saying that the convergence between online and residential instruction was “the single-greatest unrecognized trend in higher education today” (Young, 2002). Along the same lines, the editor of The Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks is predicting a dramatic increase in the number of hybrid (i.e., blended) courses to include as many as 80-90% of the range of courses (Young, 2002). The article provides an overview of blended learning environments (BLEs) and outlines the most common benefits and challenges identified in the research literature.
Building Educational Technology Partnerships through Participatory Design
Authors: Carroll John M.
Published: May 2011

Educational technology provides many examples of how efficient software development and deployment is not enough. Teachers work in a complex and dynamic context in which measurable objectives and underlying values collide on a daily basis. Traditionally, teachers work in isolation from their peers; individual teachers have well-established personal practices and philosophies of education. Teachers have enormous discretion with respect to what goes on in their classrooms, yet are also routinely interrogated by supervisors, by parents and other community members, and by educational bureaucracies. This has led to an abiding tension in the culture of schools: Teachers’ innovative practices are often not adequately acknowledged or valued, and at the same time, teachers often passively resist school reforms that are imposed top-down.
Challenges in M-Commerce
Authors: Lei Pouwan , Chatwin Chris , Young Rupert
Published: May 2011

E-commerce activity is growing exponentially, and it is revolutionizing the way that businesses are run. In Asia, there is now an explosion of mobile wireless services. The number of 3G users in Korea has surpassed 1 million while in Japan it has grown from 50,000 in 2001 to 2 million in 2003. Mobile e-commerce (m-commerce) makes business mobility a reality; mobile users can access the Internet at any time, from anywhere and from their shirt pockets/purses using ubiquitous inexpensive computing infrastructure. It is estimated that the m-commerce market will grow to over USD200 billion by 2005 (Abbott, 2002). There are many definitions of m-commerce. One definition consists of all or part of mobile wireless services ranging from mobile phone networks to wireless local area networks. However, the service provided by mobile phone systems has achieved huge success. Mobile phone users originate from all walks of life and include almost all age groups, from teenagers to retired people. It creates a new method of personal communication without location constraints. Instead of briefly describing all mobile wireless services, we will concentrate on the mobile phone and PDA related to mobile telecommunication. Hence, m-commerce is defined as electronic commerce carried out in handheld devices such as the mobile phone and PDA through a mobile telecommunication network.
Classification-Rule Discovery with an Ant Colony Algorithm
Authors: Parpinelli Rafael S. , Lopes Heitor S. , Freitas Alex A.
Published: May 2011

Ant colony optimization (ACO) is a relatively new computational intelligence paradigm inspired by the behaviour of natural ants (Bonabeau, Dorigo & Theraulaz, 1999). The natural behaviour of ants that we are interested in is the following. Ants often find the shortest path between a food source and the nest of the colony without using visual information. In order to exchange information about which path should be followed, ants communicate with each other by means of a chemical substance called pheromone. As ants move, a certain amount of pheromone is dropped on the ground, creating a pheromone trail. The more ants follow a given trail, the more attractive that trail becomes to be followed by other ants. This process involves a loop of positive feedback, in which the probability that an ant chooses a path is proportional to the number of ants that have already passed by that path.
Computer-Mediated Learning Groups
Authors: Graham Charles R. , Misanchuk Melanie
Published: May 2011

Online learning has seen tremendous growth over the past decade in both the corporate and higher education sectors of society. This has been facilitated by rapid increases in the availability of computer- and network-based technologies for communication and sharing of information. The U.S. National Center for Educational Statistics (2003) recently reported that for the 2000-01 academic year, 2- and 4-year institutions offered over 127,000 different distance education (DE) courses and had over three million enrollments. Of the institutions offering DE courses, 90% reported using the Internet and asynchronous communication as an instructional delivery mode (National Center for Educational Statistics, 2003). In the corporate sector, the American Society for Training & Development reported record levels technology-mediated training (or e-learning) accompanied by slight decreases in face-to-face classroom training (Thompson, Koon, Woodwell, & Beauvais, 2002). At the same time, there has been an increased awareness among distance educators and researchers regarding the importance of human interaction in the learning process. These two trends have driven the study of computer-mediated communication (CMC) and computer support for collaborative learning (CSCL). Groupwork has long been an important instructional strategy used in face-to-face learning environments and is now being explored in computer-mediated environments. This article will define critical aspects of computer-mediated groupwork and outline benefits and challenges to using computer-mediated groups as an instructional strategy. Additional details for the research presented in this article can be found in full-length publications by the authors (Graham, 2002a, 2002b, 2003; Graham & Misanchuk, 2003).
Consistent Queries Over Databases with Integrity Constraints
Authors: Greco Sergio , Zumpano Ester
Published: May 2011

The aim of data integration is to provide a uniform integrated access to multiple heterogeneous information sources, which were designed independently for autonomous applications and whose contents are strictly related.
Credit Card Users' Data Mining
Authors: de Carvalho André , Braga Antonio P. , Ludermir Tersea
Published: May 2011

The widespread use of databases and the fast increase in the volume of data they store are creating problems and new opportunities for credit companies. These companies are realizing the necessity of making efficient use of the information stored in their databases, extracting useful knowledge to support their decision-making processes.
Data Communications and E-Learning
Authors: Dixon Michael W. , Karlsson Johan M. , McGill Tanya J.
Published: May 2011

Information and communications technology (ICT) has increasingly influenced higher education. Computer-based packages and other learning objects provide a useful supplement to students studying conventionally by illustrating aspects of the curriculum. Other packages are directed at aspects of course administration such as automated assessment (for example, see Randolph et al. (2002)). Initially such software and materials played only a supplementary role in course offerings, but this has changed rapidly. For example, Coleman et al. (1998) describe a successful early attempt to replace all lecturing with computer-aided learning. Remote delivery of courses also became a viable option because of the advent of the WWW. For example, Petre and Price (1997) report on their experiences conducting electronic tutorials for computing courses. Online education of various sorts is now routinely available to vast numbers of students (Alexander, 2001; Chen & Dwyer, 2003; Peffers & Bloom, 1999). Various terms have been used to label or describe forms of education supported by information technology. These include e-learning (e.g., Alexander, 2001; Campbell, 2004), Web-based learning (e.g. Huerta, Ryan & Igbaria, 2003; Khosrow-Pour, 2002), online learning (e.g., Simon, Brooks & Wilkes, 2003), distributed learning and technology-mediated learning (e.g., Alavi & Leidner, 2001); with e-learning probably the most commonly used term used to describe education and training that networks such as the Internet support.
Data Warehouse Development
Authors: Cavero Barca José María , Martinez Esperanza Marcos , Piattini Mario G. , de Miguel Adolfo Sánchez
Published: May 2011

The concept of data warehouse first appeared in Inmon (1993) to describe a “subject oriented, integrated, non-volatile, and time variant collection of data in support of management’s decisions” (31). It is a concept related to the OLAP (online analytical processing) technology, first introduced by Codd et al. (1993) to characterize the requirements of aggregation, consolidation, view production, formulae application, and data synthesis in many dimensions. A data warehouse is a repository of information that mainly comes from online transactional processing (OLTP) systems that provide data for analytical processing and decision support.
Democratic E-Governance
Authors: Anttiroiko Ari-Veikko
Published: May 2011

The changing role of the state and a managerialist view of the operations of public-sector organizations gave rise to the idea of new public governance. Gradually, more citizen-centered views of governance also emerged, reflecting a need to strengthen the role of citizens and communities in governance processes at different institutional levels. This development, especially since the mid-1990s, has been affected by new technologies, leading to a kind of coevolution of institutional arrangements and technological solutions that have paved the way for a better understanding of the potentials of democratic e-governance.
Design Levels for Distance and Online Learning
Authors: Boettcher Judith V.
Published: May 2011

The importance of design for instructional programs — whether on campus or online or at a distance — increases with the possible combinations of students, content, skills to be acquired, and the teaching and learning environments.
Developing Dynamic Balanced Scorecards
Authors: Saha Pallab
Published: May 2011

With the advent of scientific management in the late 19th century came attempts to increase worker efficiency by setting standards for various factors in an industrial system. While measuring financial factors of a business was prevalent even during late 19th century, the scientific management ideology heralded the start of an era of formally measuring non-financial factors. This ignited several performance measurement frameworks that were used by businesses.
Digitization of Library Information and Its Accessibility for People with Disabilities
Authors: Schmetzke Axel
Published: May 2011

After 20 years of digitization efforts, hardly a single type of library information resource remains that has not shifted, at least to some extent, to an electronic, Web-based format: information about the library itself, catalogs, indexes, dictionaries and encyclopedias, books and journals, tutorials, reserve materials and reference services. The online migration of these resources has opened unprecedented opportunities to people with “print disabilities”, who cannot independently access printed works because of lack of sight, dyslexia or insufficient motor control (Coombs, 2000), but who are able to access electronic text with the help of assistive input and output technology, such as modified computer keyboards and screen readers with speech or Braille output (Mates, 2000; Lazzaro, 2001).
Dynamic Multidimensional Data Cubes for Interactive Analysis of Massive Datasets
Authors: Riedewald Mirek , Agrawal Divyakant
Published: May 2011

Rapidly improving computing and networking technology enables enterprises to collect data from virtually all its business units. The main challenge today is to extract useful information from an overwhelmingly large amount of raw data. To support complex analysis queries, data warehouses were introduced. They manage data, which is extracted from the different operational databases and from external data sources, and they are optimized for fast query processing. For modern data warehouses, it is common to manage Terabytes of data. According to a recent survey by the Winter Corporation (2003), for instance, the decision support database of SBC reached a size of almost 25 Terabytes, up from 10.5 Terabytes in 2001 (Winter Corporation, 2001).
E-Business Systems Security for Intelligent Enterprise
Authors: Trcek Denis
Published: May 2011

Security became a topic of research with the introduction of networked information systems, or networked IS, in the early eighties. In the mid-nineties the proliferation of the Internet in the business area exposed security as one of the key factors for successful online business, and the majority of effort to provide it was focused on technology. However, due to lessons learned during this period, the paradigms have since changed, with increasing emphasis on human factors. It is a fact that security of information systems is becoming part of the core processes in all e-business environments. While data is clearly one of the key assets and has to be protected accordingly, IS have to be highly integrated and open. Appropriate treatment of these issues is not a trivial task for managers of intelligent enterprises and requires new approaches, especially in light of new technologies.
E-Business Transaction in Web Integrated Network Environment
Authors: Murthy V. K. , Krishnamurthy E .V.
Published: May 2011

The World Wide Web (or the “Web”) is revolutionizing the concept of service -oriented computing. It permits the integration of the local area networks (LAN) and wide-area networks (WAN), thereby providing servers that are interconnected at a worldwide or an intergalactic level. Such an integration serves as a backbone for the Web-based business or e-business to access information, as well as perform e-business transactions across the globe with adequate security and reliability. In this article, we describe the issues involved in the design of an e-business transaction processing system and the solutions that have been proposed for these problems using the techniques of AI, conventional database transaction processing methodology and protocol engineering principles. These techniques will be useful for improved transaction throughput and scalability in e-commerce (Brancheau & Shi, 2001; Menasce & Almeida, 2000; Murthy, 2002).
Ecological Models and Information Systems Curriculum
Authors: Tatnall Arthur , Davey Bill
Published: May 2011

To those of us involved in research and teaching in information systems (IS) it is clear that curriculum innovation and change is complex, and anything but straightforward. The amount of control that individual IS academics have over the curriculum varies between universities. In some cases there is complete control over curriculum content, whereas in others just control over delivery with content determined externally. This chapter concentrates on the former situation but still has some relevance to the latter. All curriculum innovation is complex (Fullan, 1993) due to the involvement of a large number of human actors, but in information systems curriculum change this is particularly so due to the need to consider the part played by such non-human actors (Latour, 1996) as the technology itself.
E-Commerce Taxation Issues
Authors: Raisinghani Mhesh S. , Petty Dan S.
Published: May 2011

This article is designed to give the reader a balanced perspective on some of the issues surrounding the current discussions related to state and local taxation of Internet access fees and sales transactions. It attempts to express the issues being discussed and presents several viewpoints. The proponents of Internet taxation are searching for technological and administrative system to meet their goal. After much deliberation, the Advisory Commission on Electronic Commerce released its final recommendations to Congress in April 2000. Major emphasis is being placed on simplification, neutrality, avoiding double taxation and accepting the existing tax rules with no new taxes.
Electronic/Digital Government Innovation, and Publishing Trends with IT
Authors: Inoue Yukiko , Bell Suzanne T.
Published: May 2011

With scientific achievement and technological advancement, “American society is poised for a radical shift in the manner in which individuals learn and work, conduct their business, and are entertained and informed, arising from the innovation of new information technologies” (Schorr & Stolfo, 1998, p. 15). One of the significant innovations in information technology in this digital age has been the creation and ongoing development of the Internet: The Internet increases communication flexibility while reducing cost by permitting the exchange of large amounts of data instantaneously regardless of geographic distance (McNeal, Tolbert, Mossberger, & Dotterweich, 2003). Internet technology has changed rules about how information is managed, collected, and disseminated in commercial, government, and private domains.
Enterprise Resource Planning for Intelligent Enterprises
Authors: Framinan Jose M.
Published: May 2011

Enterprise resource planning systems can be defined as customizable, standard application software that includes integrated business solutions for the core processes and administrative functions (Chan & Rosemann, 2001). From an operative perspective, ERP systems provide a common technological platform, unique for the entire corporation, allowing the replacement of mainframes and legacy systems. This common platform serves to process automation as well as to simplify current process either by an explicit reengineering process or by the implicit adoption of the system ‘best practices’ (Markus & Tanis, 2000). Finally, the common centralized platform allows the access to data that previously were physically or logically dispersed. The automation of the processes and the access of data allows the reduction of the operating times (thus reducing operating costs) while the latter serves to better support business decisions (see, e.g., Umble, Haft & Umble, 2003, for a detailed review of ERP benefits).
Executive Judgment in E-Business Strategy
Authors: Baker Valerie , Coltman Tim
Published: May 2011

One of the main strategic challenges for organizations today is to effectively manage change and stay competitive in the future. Change appears to be the only constant in contemporary business and is present in every industry and in every country (Brown & Eisenhardt, 1998). Moreover, the key area of importance, current within many organizations, is how to effectively leverage technology within such a complex and dynamic business environment (Sauer & Willcocks, 2003). The alignment or fit approach, which has its roots in contingency theory, has long been promoted as the way to get high returns from technology investment. However, the realization of advantage from the Internet and related e-business technology investment has long been a source of frustration for corporate executives. Impressive performance returns by companies such as Dell Computers, Cisco Systems and General Electric illustrate that returns can be achieved by linking the Internet and related e-business technologies to firm strategy. These companies have shown that successful management of their IT investments can generate returns as much as 40% higher than those of their competitors (Ross & Weill, 2002). Yet, many executives view the Internet and related e-business technologies with intense frustration. They recollect investment in the great speculative bubble of the 1990s and excessive expenditure on year 2000 (Y2K) compliant systems (Keen, 2002). They recall high profile examples of botched enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems that have consistently run over time and budget and report that customer-relationship management (CRM) initiatives were largely a flop (Reinartz & Chugh, 2002). Unfortunately, it is not yet clear how firms should go about capturing the potential that exists in e-business, as few normative frameworks exist to guide practitioner investment.
Faculty Perceptions and Participation in Distance Education
Authors: Dooley Kim E. , Linder James R. , Elbert Chanda , Murphy Timothy H. , Murphrey Theresa P.
Published: May 2011

Research in the field of distance education has recognized the need for a change and modification of the faculty role in teaching at a distance (Jones, Lindner, Murphy & Dooley, 2002; Kanuka, Collett & Caswell, 2002; Miller & Pilcher, 2001). While technological advancements are an important part of the distance-learning environment, basic changes in teaching methods, technique, and motivation are needed to make distance education more effective (Purdy & Wright, 1992). Many studies cite faculty resistance to instructional technology as a primary barrier to the continued growth of distance education programs (Jones et al., 2002; McNeil, 1990). McNeil (1990) noted that attitudinal issues related to how faculty perceive and interact with technology are a bigger barrier to adoption and diffusion of distance education than is technology infrastructure.
Forward Engineering of UML Static Models
Authors: Favre Liliana , Martinez Liliana , Pereira Claudia
Published: May 2011

The Unified Modeling Language (UML) has emerged as a modeling language for specifying, visualizing, constructing, and documenting software-intensive systems. It unifies proven software modeling languages that incorporate the object-oriented community’s consensus on core modeling concepts. It also includes additional expressiveness to handle problems that previous visual languages did not fully address (Rumbaugh, Jacobson & Booch, 1999).
Global Implications of E-Commerce Tool and Artefact Creation
Authors: Bunker Deborah
Published: May 2011

It is argued that Electronic Commerce (EC) platforms can be seen as artefacts—tools that are made, used, inherited and studied within a cultural context. This context encompasses economic, historical, technical, and social values and assumptions that are focused on particular ideas and definitions (relating to the example of B2C activities and processes contained within Electronic Grocery Systems (EGS)). The issue we should face as makers, users, inheritors, and scholars of these tools, however, is that the tool context and inherent in-built values on which this context is based, particularly relating to matters of effective use of EC tools in a B2C marketplace, may not be in evidence across all cultures. This would make the successful use of EC, in a global sense, a difficult and complex undertaking.
How Teachers Use Instructional Design in Real Classrooms
Authors: Rogers Patricia L.
Published: May 2011

From filmstrips and mimeographs, to computer-based simulations and virtual reality, technology seems to dominate teachers’ lives as they master the new instructional media for use in their classrooms. Good teaching and learning practices tend to take a back seat while the focus on mastery of the technology reduces teaching into basic presentations and lectures, a format most easily controlled by the instructor. While most pre-K-12 and post-secondary instructors do develop effective courses in which students learn, many would be hard pressed to describe how they arrive at certain goals and teaching strategies.
Implementing an Online Academic Evaluation System
Authors: Lightfoot William S.
Published: May 2011

The explosive growth of networks and the World Wide Web over the past decade has led to increased adoption of new applications by educational institutions. Critical uses of software including courseware such as Blackboard, WebCT, and others have led to an increase in computer literacy amongst faculty and staff. Consistent with this increased literacy, newer applications including the use of the web for tests, surveys, and student evaluation has been increasing. There are many benefits of using web-based surveying and online evaluation techniques (see Table 1). As Mehta and Sivadas (1995) have noted, response times can be reduced from days and weeks to minutes and hours. It is common practice in many universities to have students provide feedback about courses in the form of a questionnaire, at the end of each course. As Felton, Stinson, and Mitchell (2003, p. 2) note, “these surveys are assumed to measure a professor’s performance and successfulness in his or her various classes.” McGourty, Scoles, and Thorpe (2002, p. 5) cited one of the key benefits as the “immediate availability of data for analysis and reporting and more extensive qualitative responses from students to the open-ended questions.” Other studies (see Handwerk, Carson, & Blackwell, 2000; Hmieleski & Champagne, 2000) had similar conclusions. And although not all e-mail users check their e-mail everyday (Kent & Lee, 1999), past research found that e-mail responses generally occurred within the first three days (Comley, 1997; Mehta & Sivadas, 1995).
Incremental Expansion of a Distributed Database System
Authors: Chin Amita Goyal
Published: May 2011

Recent years have witnessed an increasing trend in the implementation of distributed database management systems (DDBMSs) for more effective access to information. An important quality of these systems, consisting of n servers loosely connected via a communication network, is to adjust to changes in workloads. To service increases in demand, for example, additional servers may be added to the existing distributed system and new data allocations computed. Conventionally, this requires a system shutdown and an exhaustive data reallocation. Such static methods are not practical for most organizations for these methods result in high costs and in periods of data unavailability.
Innovation Link Between Organization Knowledge and Customer Knowledge
Authors: Mitchell Helen
Published: May 2011

In 1959 Penrose referred to the importance of knowledge for using resources more innovatively and profitably, and in the same year Drucker indicated greater value should be placed on knowledge workers. An article by Nonaka (1991) suggested that the source of lasting competitive advantage is knowledge. Since then there has been a growing interest in knowledge, and an emerging view that the sharing of knowledge and creation of new knowledge leading to innovations is the key to providing future economic growth. In 1998, Amidon referred to the survey in 1996 produced by The Economist describing how rich economies will increasingly depend upon “their ability to innovate” (p. 24).
Institutional Dimensions of Information Systems Evaluation
Authors: Serafeimidis Vassilis
Published: May 2011

Information systems (IS) evaluation is a complex organizational and social decision making process. IS evaluation has attracted a lot of interest from the academic community and practitioners during the last few decades. This interest in some way has been generated by the tremendous increase of IT investments and the fact that IT/IS have become an organizational “necessity” in order to, for example, support routine data processing operations, initiatives for competitive advantage, and business transformation exercises.
Intelligent Agents for Competitive Advantage
Authors: Raisinghani Mahesh S. , Nugent John H.
Published: May 2011

Since 1494 with the appearance of the double-entry accounting system, developed by Pacioli, those involved in business have attempted to measure business performance in an organized manner. As many accounting functions are repetitive in nature (payroll, inventory, etc.), accounting was one of the first business disciplines to which early computing technology was applied. Today we see comprehensive enterprise models that have been incorporated into ISO Standards in an attempt to build quality, capability, and uniformity into business enterprise systems. Supporting these models and systems is an effort to also launch the Extensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL), such that metadata models gain uniformity and make business information more readily accessible across systems and enterprises.
International Digital Studies Approach for Examining International Online Interactions
Authors: St. Amant Kirk
Published: May 2011

As global access to the Internet increases, so does the potential for miscommunication in international online interactions (IOIs). Unfortunately, many models for examining cross-cultural communication focus on conventional (offline) interactions or settings. As a result, researchers lack a mechanism for examining how cultural factors could affect online discourse.
IS Implementation in the UK Health Sector
Authors: Barnes Stuart J.
Published: May 2011

Since the mid-1980s, the UK public sector has been the subject of wide-ranging reforms involving the introduction of IS and IT. Change has been sought in the ways that services are managed and delivered, the evaluation of the quality of aforesaid services, and in accountability and costing. One of the most predominant of such changes has been the introduction of competition for services, the motivation of which has been to invite efficiency, effectiveness, and related benefits ensuing from the accrual of economies.
Knowledge Discovery Using Heuristics
Authors: Lazar Alina
Published: May 2011

Uninformed or blind search, which processes and evaluates all nodes of a search space in the worst case, is not realistic for extracting knowledge from large data sets because of time constraints that are closely related to the dimension of the data. Generally, the search space increases exponentially with problem size, thereby limiting the size of problems that can realistically be solved using exact techniques such as exhaustive search. An alternative solution is represented by heuristic techniques, which can provide much help in areas where classical search methods failed.
Knowledge Management and Social Learning
Authors: Ali Irena  , Warne Leoni
Published: May 2011

There are probably as many variations of knowledge management definitions as there are practitioners and researchers in the discipline. Complete consensus in such a group would be a surprising finding. This is because the two words are loaded with pre-existing meanings that do not always sit comfortably in juxtaposition, so what it means to “manage knowledge” is difficult to ascertain, and hence comes to mean different things to different people.
Life Cycle of ERP Systems
Authors: de Souza Cesar Alexandre , Zwicker Ronaldo
Published: May 2011

The 90’s witnessed an impressive growth of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems in the market of corporate IT solutions. For instance, O´Leary (2000) reports that a single ERP system (SAP´s R/3) is used by more than 60% of the multinational firms. Among the explanations for this phenomenon are the competitive pressures suffered by the companies that have forced them to seek alternatives for cost reduction, differentiation of products and services and integration of their business processes. The ERP systems evolved exploiting the need for quick deployment of integrated systems to meet these new business requirements, while companies were (and still are) under pressure to outsource all the activities that are not embraced by their core business.
Limited-Perspective Bias in Technology Projects
Authors: Moore Jo Ellen , Burke Lisa A.
Published: May 2011

Limited-perspective bias is a human tendency to overestimate the completeness of what we know and to act on our own (limited) perspective of what is important (Moore & Burke, 2004a). In organizations, each person possesses a view that evolves from what he or she experiences and observes on a daily basis. Given one’s location or role in an organization, these views often differ and can affect one’s perspective on a problem or situation (O’Reilly & Pondy, 1979). Each individual perspective, however, is by and large “valid” in that it represents a distinct cognitive reality within that firm.
Macromedia Flash on the Client and the Server
Authors: Barone Robert
Published: May 2011

The Internet and more specifically the World Wide Web is a global communication environment. Either via a personal or commercial Web site, we seek to express ourselves as individuals or as organizations through this technological forum. We desire to provide an experience that will bring visitors back to our site. Providing rich multimedia content is the contemporary paradigm in achieving these ends. The software company Macromedia has addressed this need with their commercial product known as Flash. Macromedia Flash is used to create interactive multimedia environments in the client. There are also server-based technologies that communicate via Flash directly or indirectly.