bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Informing Industry via Academic Research in ICT Skill and Capability Development
Authors: Petrova Krassie , Medlin Dawn
Published: May 2010

In recent years significant changes have occurred in the skill sets underpinning the undergraduate information systems and information technology curricula. It is imperative that educators comprehend the needs and demands of the industry where their graduates are going to need to apply their acquired knowledge and skills. It may be argued that employers and job recruiters also need to be aware of what skill sets and capabilities new graduates may be expected to come equipped with, in order to develop successful strategies for retaining and growing staff in an environment where the demand for professionals in information and communications technologies (ICT) exceeds the supply. In this chapter, a research framework representing the dynamics of the ICT profession supply and demand of graduates with relevant skills and capabilities is used to facilitate the initiation of a dialogue between industry and academia with the objective to identify issues raised from the lack of alignment between the two and to suggest a way of using academic research results to address these issues. The discussion is supported by the findings of two relevant case studies.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
Authors: Raisinghani Mahesh , Albur Abdu , Leferink Sue , Lyle Thomas , Proctor Stephen
Published: May 2010

This chapter discusses customer relationship management (CRM) as a customer-focused business strategy enhanced by technology that automates and enhances business processes to proactively manage profitable and long-term customer relationships. CRM solutions span a continuum of implementations from a narrow tactical implementation of a specific technical solution to a broad strategic implementation of a customer centric solution. Furthermore, the authors hope that understanding the underlying assumptions and theoretical constructs through the use of CRM will not only inform researchers of a better CRM design for studying e-commerce and Internet marketing, but also assist in the understanding of intricate relationships between different factors.
Trends of Web Services Adoption
Authors: Yen Vincent C.
Published: May 2010

The technology of Web services (WS) has been a hot area in the software industry for many years. Many organizations in the past 5 years have conducted surveys designed to get a profile of the state of Web services adoption in various subject areas. Some of those survey results are available free from the Internet. Since conducting a large scale Web services survey takes time and significant financial commitment, the research conducted in this chapter is a synthesis from published free survey results. All sources of surveys indicate Web services are being adopted more or less in all mid-size to large organizations because of realized benefits, and are anticipated to become a viable component of information systems infrastructure. Some of the current issues in Web services adoption and implementation are standards, training, and security.
The Web Strategy Development in the Automotive Sector
Authors: Memmola Massimo
Published: May 2010

Especially in recent years, a transformation is ongoing: the Web, besides being a means of information sharing (internal-external), becomes a powerful tool for saving costs, reducing the distribution structure, initiating distance transactions, and ever more, becomes a mechanism of integration with the external environment and a catalyst of experiences for all stakeholder. Starting from the identification of the key elements, potentialities, and of the impact of the Internet on firms’ performance, competitiveness, effectiveness, and efficiency, this chapter is focused on the changes in the automotive sector due to the integration between business strategy and Web strategy. Therefore, starting from the consideration of a clear identification and subsequent sharing need of strategic goals, a research work will be presented exploring, on the basis of an interpretative model, the Internet potential in the automotive sector in order to achieve the identification of an optimal path definition and development of Web strategy. This objective will be developed through a desk analysis focused on the strategic positioning of the current businesses in the automotive sector (i.e., complexity evaluation of the presence on the Internet, strategic architecture, quality, and effectiveness of this presence).
Adaptive Mobile Web Browsing Using Web Mining Technologies
Authors: Hu Wen-Chen , Zuo Yanjun , Chen Lei , Yang Chyuan-Huei Thomas
Published: May 2010

Using mobile handheld devices such as smart cellular phones and personal digital assistants (PDAs) to browse the mobile Internet is a trend of Web browsing. However, the small screens of handheld devices and slow mobile data transmission make the mobile Web browsing awkward. This research applies Web usage mining technologies to adaptive Web viewing for handheld devices. Web usage mining is the application of data mining techniques to the usage logs of large Web data repositories in order to produce results that can be applied to many practical subjects, such as improving Web sites/pages. A Web usage mining system must be able to perform five major functions: (i) usage data gathering, (ii) data preparation, (iii) navigation pattern discovery, (iv) pattern analysis and visualization, and (v) pattern applications. This approach improves the readability and download speed of mobile Web pages.
An Action Research Case Study of the Facilitators and Inhibitors of E-Commerce Adoption
Authors: Kirwan Orla
Published: May 2010

This research has studied an established Irish retail business as it takes its first tentative steps into the e-commerce arena. Although the adoption of e-commerce is widely studied in the academic world, only a small percentage of these studies focus on the small to medium size enterprise (SME) retail sector. SMEs account for 97% of Irish companies and employ up to 800,000 people (Chamber of Commerce Ireland, 2006). While examining the SME’s adoption of e-commerce, the factors that affected the adoption process were specifically identified and understood. This was achieved by conducting an action research case study. Action research merges research and practice, thus producing exceedingly relevant research findings. This chapter demonstrates how the research was undertaken, and also discusses the justification, benefits, and limitations of using action research. The research concluded that the adoption of e-commerce within the SME sector tends to be slow and fragmented, the presence of a ‘Web champion’ is paramount to the success of the project, and Internet adoption is faster with the recognition of a business need. It also supported the evidence that a SME is more likely to adopt e-commerce when the SME owner has a positive attitude towards IT.
Acceptance of the Mobile Internet as a Distribution Channel for Paid Content in Germany
Authors: Hagenhoff Svenja
Published: May 2010

This chapter is about a survey based on 7,178 valid responses which analyses the mobile content usage in Germany. Key findings are that paid mobile contents will not be a mass market in the medium term. Nevertheless, we found that respondents that are familiar with mobile radio and handset technology and read specialized printed media on a regular basis showed the highest acceptance of mobile paid contents. The mobile Internet is perceived as a chance for the media industry to generate additional revenues from paid contents. Successful business models for the mobile Internet will only be possible if mobile content formats generate added consumer value. In this context, media companies planning to establish mobile services for content distribution are facing the problem that acceptance of mobile services has not yet been researched thoroughly.
Information Quality Satisfaction of Communication Portals
Authors: Ho Kevin K.W.
Published: May 2010

Information quality is critical for a communication portal because there are a myriad of information types, including textual, audio, video, and other complex information types, which an organization has to manage. In this study, we examine whether information generated from an in-house developed communication portal of the Hong Kong government would have higher quality than those sister portals developed by individual government departments using commercial packages. We conducted a surveybased study to understand how users evaluate the information quality of these communication portals. This portal case is interesting because (1) the Hong Kong government has invested millions of U.S. dollars in its implementation and (2) the number of potential users is huge (over 140,000).
The Effect of Culture and Product Categories on the Level of Use of Buy-It-Now (BIN) Auctions by Sellers
Authors: Ho Kevin K.W. , Yoo Byungjoon , Yu Seunghee , Tam Kar Yan
Published: May 2010

While previous studies on buy-it-now (BIN) auctions focus on the impact of BIN format on economic performances, our study focuses on factors that affect the level of use of BIN auctions by sellers. We propose a conceptual model where culture and product categories are two important factors on the level of use of BIN auctions. Our empirical investigation shows that the level of use of BIN auctions can be explained by the Hofstede Cultural Dimensions. While power distance brings a positive impact, uncertainty avoidance and individualism bring negative impacts on the level of use of BIN auctions by sellers of different countries. Our result also shows that the level of use of BIN auctions by sellers increases with the ease of judging product quality. Our results provide valuable insights for marketplace operators to refine their business strategies and market mechanisms for expanding their businesses to overseas markets.
On the Need to Include National Culture as a Central Issue in E-Commerce Trust Beliefs
Authors: Gefen David , Heart Tsipi
Published: May 2010

Deliberate exploitation of natural resources and excessive use of environmentally abhorrent materials have resulted in environmental disruptions threatening the life support systems. A human centric approach of development has already damaged nature to a large extent. This has attracted the attention of environmental specialists and policy makers. It has also led to discussions at various national and international conventions. The objective of protecting natural resources cannot be achieved without the involvement of professionals from multidisciplinary areas. This chapter recommends a model for the creation of knowledge-based systems for natural resources management. Further, it describes making use of unique capabilities of remote sensing satellites for conserving natural resources and managing natural disasters. It is exclusively for the people who are not familiar with the technology and who are given the task of framing policies.
Information Systems Research in China
Authors: Ji Shaobo , Min Qingfei , Han Weihe
Published: May 2010

The purpose of this study is to review current research activities concerning information systems (IS) in mainland China. We thus examined Chinese IS research with reference to discipline, research topic, research method, and units of analysis, identifying and reviewing a total of 604 research papers, published in 18 leading Chinese academic journals from 1999 to 2003. The results show that: (1) IS itself represents the major theoretical reference of the studies; (2) the IS research in China has clearly focused on organizational and system/software issues; (3) non-empirical studies were dominant in the field of IS research in China; and (4) the majority of studies were conducted at an organizational or systemic level.
A Study in the East Asian Context on Computer Support of Pre-Negotiation and Negotiation Stages
Authors: Lim John
Published: May 2010

Two seemingly disparate phenomena, advancement in computing technologies and rise in complexity of business negotiations owing to globalization, have fostered and made appealing computer-supported negotiations. Whereas past studies of Negotiation Support Systems (NSS) have examined the potential benefits of supporting negotiations, computer support for pre-negotiation activities has been largely ignored in so far as empirical work is concerned. This chapter addresses this gap by categorizing negotiation activities into the pre-negotiation phase and the negotiation phase, and reports on an experimental study of the impact of NSS on the different phases of negotiation. Results show that both pre-negotiation and negotiation support improved gains in outcome with increased time in reaching agreement. Further, pre-negotiation support led to more equal outcomes for negotiating dyads. The findings show the usefulness of NSS in enhancing the quality of differing stages of negotiation. Notably, this chapter recognizes the important role of culture in the negotiation setting, and discusses its pertinence with respect to the context of the current study. The corresponding implications and conclusions are highlighted.
Mobile Number Portability in an Asymmetric Telecommunications Market
Authors: Lee Sang-Woo , Park Myeong-Cheol , Kim Dan J.
Published: May 2010

This study relies on a customer demand-based view to examine how mobile number portability affects competition in the Korean mobile telecommunications market. Using a contingent valuation method, we investigate 1,161 subscribers’ willingness to pay for mobile number portability. The findings show that there is a difference in demand for number portability among the subscribers to service providers. Unlike previous studies on number portability, the introduction of number portability to the market in which the brand effect of a dominant player exists would have an adverse effect on competition in the mobile telecommunications market. The study also shows that if the market structure is asymmetric with a strong, dominant player, some additional regulatory mechanisms are needed for the facilitation and the implementation of number portability in order to reduce the side effect of it. Implications and avenues for future research are discussed in the conclusion section of the chapter.
Cultural Effects on Technology Performance and Utilization
Authors: Lippert Susan K. , Volkmar John A.
Published: May 2010

Research to date on information technology (IT) adoption has focused primarily on homogeneous single country samples. This study integrates the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) and the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) with Hofstede’s (1980, 1983) Masculinity/Femininity (MAS-FEM) work value dimension to focus instead on post adoption attitudes and behaviors among a mixed gender sample of 366 United States and Canadian users of a specialized supply chain IT. We test 11 hypotheses about attitudes towards IT within and between subgroups of users classified by nationality and gender. Consistent with the national MAS-FEM scores and contrary to the conventional consideration of the U.S. and Canada as a unitary homogenous cultural unit, we found significant differences between U.S. men and women, but not between Canadian men and women. These results support the importance of the MAS-FEM dimension—independent of gender—on user attitudes and help to clarify the relationship between culture and gender effects. Implications for managers responsible for technology implementation and management are discussed and directions for future research are offered.
Basic vs. Advanced Modes of Internet Adoption
Authors: Teo Thompson S.H.
Published: May 2010

The Internet can be used for different purposes ranging from simple Internet presence to using the Internet for business transformation. This study examines two modes of Internet adoption - basic and advanced. Questionnaires were sent to 566 firms in Singapore and 159 usable responses were received. Results suggested that firms operating in an advanced adoption mode invest more in Internet technology, had larger firm size, proactive business strategy, and significantly greater perceived Internet contributions to competitive advantage than did those operating in a basic adoption mode. No significant differences were found between the two adoption modes in terms of industry sector and hierarchical level of respondents. The results provide some useful information on the relationships between adoption modes and organizational characteristics as well as the impact of adoption modes on the five dimensions of competitive advantage (namely, differentiation, cost, innovation, growth and alliance). Implications of the results are discussed.
IT Implementation in a Developing Country Municipality
Authors: Sanford Clive , Bhattacherjee Anol
Published: May 2010

This article presents an interpretive analysis of the key problems and challenges to technology implementation in developing countries, based on a three-year case analysis of an IT project in a city government in Ukraine. We employ the concept of technological frames of reference as an analytical tool for articulating the group-level structures related to the implementation context from the perspectives of key stakeholders and examine the degree of conflict between these frames using a Fishbone diagram. We report that conflict between technological frames held by key stakeholders in large-scale system implementation projects often create an unexpected, dysfunctional, and politically charged implementation environment, ultimately leading to project failures, even if the project enjoys a high level of financial and management support. This, in turn, creates unique challenges for technology implementation projects in developing countries that are often overlooked in the traditional academic and practitioner literatures based on experiences from developed countries.
KARMA
Authors: Russ Meir , Fineman Robert , Jones Jeannette K.
Published: May 2010

Companies tend to start their knowledge management initiatives with a knowledge management audit. A framework used for developing this specific audit, as well as some issues encountered while utilizing the audit, are illustrated. A number of benefits and weaknesses are also identified. Finally, a detailed, open-ended audit tool is introduced, knowledge assessment review and management audit-KARMA.
The Green Bay Chamber of Commerce
Authors: Mattek Philip
Published: May 2010

Knowledge management is many things to different people. Within complex organizations, this reality needs to be acknowledged. For an organization to utilize and enhance knowledge for competitive advantages, systems and culture need to be analyzed within the context of an organization’s strategy. Once analyzed, an honest appraisal of the knowledge systems in place and those needed to fulfill the strategic goals of the organization will have to be performed. For everyone within an organization to be able to “pull in the same direction” and achieve maximum value from a knowledge management system, that system will have to mean the same thing to all. If a knowledge management system is to be central in maintaining a competitive advantage for organizations, it will engulf the organization. To understand financial systems, audits are undertaken to ensure that systems provide the information as expected. It is well understood that for financial information to be meaningful, it must be understood. To be understood, it must be logically prepared and presented in a manner useful and timely to the end user. Through an audit process of this nature performed on knowledge management systems within the context of business strategy and culture, an organization learns what is needed to get their divergent individuals on the same page, as it were, to fulfill the promise of enhancing its most valuable resource in a competitive world. This chapter examines how to systematically conduct a knowledge management audit. By design, the audit was simplified and designed around a single specific issue. By breaking apart where the organization needs to go and combining it with a study of what it will take to get there from a knowledge management systems standpoint, individuals can come together to build the framework literally from the ground up. Companies can use this framework to assess how they plan with knowledge management as the central, differentiating factor in their business strategy.
A Model for Knowledge Management and Intellectual Capital Audits
Authors: López-Nicolás Carolina , Meroño-Cerdán Ángel L.
Published: May 2010

Due to contradictory results obtained in knowledge management (KM) initiatives, a model of audit is presented. The main action in the international project “Strategi” is the development and application of a model to diagnose and propose suitable recommendations concerning the management of knowledge and intellectual capital of a firm. A brief description of the model is presented after the exposition of its key scientific assumptions.
C3EEP Typology and Taxonomies
Authors: Russ Meir , Fineman Robert , Jones Jeannette K.
Published: May 2010

This chapter proposes the C3EEP typology as a framework of knowledge management strategies by using six knowledge based strategic dilemmas. A number of graphic presentations of the complete typology are reported. Based on the typology, nine taxonomies of knowledge management (KM) are proposed and are followed by a framework that uses the six dilemmas and the knowledge levers as leading dimensions for the development of organization’s knowledge management strategy. The proposed typology and taxonomies are closing a gap in academic knowledge management and strategic management literatures.
Linking Exploration and Exploitation Capabilities with the Process of Knowledge Development and with Organizational Facilitators
Authors: Camisón-Zornoza César , Boronat-Navarro Montserrat
Published: May 2010

Knowledge management is a fundamental capability in today’s evolving markets. Management needs to understand which organizational processes are necessary to trigger each of the stages in knowledge development. The objective of this study is to outline the main concepts and stages in the process of knowledge development in organizations and the organizational activities that have a positive influence on those stages. A conceptual framework is proposed which combines the model of knowledge development proposed by Nonaka (1994) with the concepts of exploration and exploitation initially described by March (1991). Information systems are seen to play a fundamental role in supporting this process, especially in activities related to exploitation capability.
Aurora Health Care
Authors: Ginter Thomas , Root Jane
Published: May 2010

Aurora Health Care, Wisconsin’s largest employer and healthcare provider faces intense competition, consolidation, and reform. Its choice is to view these challenges as opportunities instead of problems. A key component to realizing Aurora’s opportunities is an aggressive knowledge management system. They understand that to maximize their potential, they must get the most out of their knowledge management. The purpose of this chapter is to present to you a case study of knowledge management applications in the healthcare industry through the many lenses of Aurora Health Care. First we will describe the background of this accomplished healthcare provider. We will then look at their business and knowledge management strategies. Next will be a review of the major components: core competencies, knowledge base, culture, implementation, and key success indicators.
Creating and Delivering a Successful Knowledge Management Strategy
Authors: Wu Jiming , Du Hongwei , Li Xun , Li Pengtao
Published: May 2010

Over the past decade, the rapid proliferation of knowledge management (KM) has been one of the most striking developments in business. Viewing KM as a key driver of competitive advantage, we attempt to provide managers with important guidance on how to create and deliver a successful KM strategy. Specifically, we develop a framework of three factors that are vital to KM success: top management support, a culture of organizational learning, and effective measures of KM performance. To offer a better understanding of the factors, their multiple facets are further investigated and discussed.
Aligning Business and Knowledge Strategies
Authors: Taxén Lars
Published: May 2010

The alignment of business and knowledge strategies necessarily includes the individual and the organizational perspectives. A major problem in this context is to reconcile these perspectives into a common framework for alignment. To this end, an intermediate level is introduced–the activity domain. The activity domain is a canonical structure comprising all kinds of organizational units, irrespective of size and organizational level. The organization is regarded as a constellation of activity domains, each having a capability to produce an outcome that the organization needs in order to fulfill its goals. Alignment is defined as the management of dependencies between capabilities such that these capabilities fit the business’s strategic intents. As a consequence, business and knowledge strategies can be linked to the same target–the activity domain. Practical guidelines and alignment targets for these strategies are suggested.
The Implications of the Development and Implementation of CRM for Knowledge Management
Authors: Luck Diana
Published: May 2010

Throughout the past decade, CRM has become such a buzzword that in contemporary terms the concept is used to reflect a number of differing perspectives. In brief, CRM has been defined as essentially relating to sales, marketing, and even services automation. CRM has also been increasingly associated with cost savings and streamline processes. Accordingly, the topic has been widely covered in terms of its alignment with business strategy. However, there appears to be a paucity of coverage with regards to the concept’s alignment with knowledge management. This chapter demonstrates how CRM in fact pivots upon the dynamics of knowledge management. Furthermore, this chapter emphasises how by lieu of its conceptual underpinnings and operational dimensions, CRM is aligned with business development in the context of knowledge management. References have been made to specific strategies and tactics within the hotel industry in order to illustrate the relevance of this contended association.
Quality and Continuous Improvement in Knowledge Management
Authors: Radziwill Nicole M. , DuPlain Ronald F.
Published: May 2010

Knowledge management requires people to synthesize and interpret information, and technologies to organize, make sense of, and draw conclusions from the collection of knowledge. Together, these people and technologies shape part of a sociotechnical system. The relationships between them make the sociotechnical system behave as a network, where communication and knowledge transfer can occur, and the network becomes a community once elements of the system interact in meaningful ways. The quality of a knowledge management system depends on how well these meaningful exchanges are promoted and cultivated. This chapter examines how to construct a high-quality knowledge management system, taking into consideration the challenging sociotechnical nature of such an effort. By relating the four stages of a continuous improvement process, the five measures of quality within a knowledge management system, and EASE (Expectations, Actionability, Sustainability, and Evaluation), we present an approach to examine the business processes associated with knowledge management. Managers can use this framework to assess the quality of knowledge management systems and formulate strategies for continually improving them.
Translating Knowledge Management Practices into the Boundaries of Supply Chain
Authors: Bak Ozlem
Published: May 2010

This chapter aims to evaluate the application of knowledge management (KM) literature in supply chains. The underlying understanding derived from this evaluation can be used to devise a valid business strategy to encourage knowledge management practices in supply chains. The concept of a supply chain encompasses businesses organised around a common goal of delivering a product or service from the initial supplier to the end customers. In this respect, the importance of knowledge management within the boundaries of supply chain management has been iterated by many authors; some underline the strategic and tactical importance of knowledge management, whereas others focus on the advantages and tools used to create knowledge in supply chains. The difficulty of assessing knowledge management is twofold when considering supply chains–first, the underlying difficulty of locating the trail of knowledge creation in supply chains and secondly how this can be utilised to devise a business strategy. On close examination of the literature in this field, we can identify a salient need for the theoretical categorisation of existing theoretical frameworks of supply chain management (SCM) on KM-related practices. This chapter explicitly looks into three supply chains, namely learning chains, virtual chains and build-to-order supply chains, and the specific challenges that these create for knowledge management and devising a valid business strategy.
Desktop Grids
Authors: Cappello Franck , Fedak Gilles , Kondo Derrick , Malecot Paul , Rezmerita Ala
Published: May 2010

Desktop Grids, literally Grids made of Desktop Computers, are very popular in the context of “Volunteer Computing” for large scale “Distributed Computing” projects like SETI@home and Folding@home. They are very appealing, as “Internet Computing” platforms for scientific projects seeking a huge amount of computational resources for massive high throughput computing, like the EGEE project in Europe. Companies are also interested of using cheap computing solutions that does not add extra hardware and cost of ownership. A very recent argument for Desktop Grids is their ecological impact: by scavenging unused CPU cycles without increasing excessively the power consumption, they reduce the waste of electricity. This book chapter presents the background of Desktop Grid, their principles and essential mechanisms, the evolution of their architectures, their applications and the research tools associated with this technology.
Benchmarking Grid Applications for Performance and Scalability Predictions
Authors: Prodan Radu , Nadeeem Farrukh , Fahringer Thomas
Published: May 2010

Application benchmarks can play a key role in analyzing and predicting the performance and scalability of Grid applications, serve as an evaluation of the fitness of a collection of Grid resources for running a specific application or class of applications (Tsouloupas & Dikaiakos, 2007), and help in implementing performance-aware resource allocation policies of real time job schedulers. However, application benchmarks have been largely ignored due to diversified types of applications, multi-constrained executions, dynamic Grid behavior, and heavy computational costs. To remedy these, the authors present an approach taken by the ASKALON Grid environment that computes application benchmarks considering variations in the problem size of the application and machine size of the Grid site. Their system dynamically controls the number of benchmarking experiments for individual applications and manages the execution of these experiments on different Grid sites. They present experimental results of our method for three real-world applications in the Austrian Grid environment.
A Fuzzy Real Option Model to Price Grid Compute Resources
Authors: Allenotor David , Thulasiram Ruppa K. , Chiu Kenneth , Tilak Sameer
Published: May 2010

A computational grid is a geographically disperssed heterogeneous computing facility owned by dissimilar organizations with diverse usage policies. As a result, guaranteeing grid resources availability as well as pricing them raises a number of challenging issues varying from security to management of the grid resources. In this chapter we design and develop a grid resources pricing model using a fuzzy real option approach and show that finance models can be effectively used to price grid resources.
Runtime Adaptation Techniques for HPC Applications
Authors: Gabriel Edgar
Published: May 2010

This chapter discusses runtime adaption techniques targeting high-performance computing applications. In order to exploit the capabilities of modern high-end computing systems, applications and system software have to be able to adapt their behavior to hardware and application characteristics. Using the Abstract Data and Communication Library (ADCL) as the driving example, the chapter shows the advantage of using adaptive techniques to exploit characteristics of the network and of the application. This allows to reduce the execution time of applications significantly and to avoid having to maintain different architecture dependent versions of the source code.
A Scalable Approach to Real-Time System Timing Applications
Authors: Grigg Alan , Guan Lin
Published: May 2010

This chapter describes a real-time system performance analysis approach known as reservation-based analysis (RBA). The scalability of RBA is derived from an abstract (target-independent) representation of system software components, their timing and resource requirements and run-time scheduling policies. The RBA timing analysis framework provides an evolvable modeling solution that can be instigated in early stages of system design, long before the software and hardware components have been developed, and continually refined through successive stages of detailed design, implementation and testing. At each stage of refinement, the abstract model provides a set of best-case and worst-case timing ‘guarantees’ that will be delivered subject to a set of scheduling ‘obligations’ being met by the target system implementation. An abstract scheduling model, known as the rate-based execution model then provides an implementation reference model with which compliance will ensure that the imposed set of timing obligations will be met by the target system.
Scalable Algorithms for Server Allocation in Infostations
Authors: Bertossi Alan A. , Pinotti M. Cristina , Gupta Phalguni
Published: May 2010

The server allocation problem arises in isolated infostations, where mobile users going through the coverage area require immediate high-bit rate communications such as web surfing, file transferring, voice messaging, email and fax. Given a set of service requests, each characterized by a temporal interval and a category, an integer k, and an integer hc for each category c, the problem consists in assigning a server to each request in such a way that at most k mutually simultaneous requests are assigned to the same server at the same time, out of which at most hc are of category c, and the minimum number of servers is used. Since this problem is computationally intractable, a scalable 2-approximation online algorithm is exhibited. Generalizations of the problem are considered, which contain bin-packing, multiprocessor scheduling, and interval graph coloring as special cases, and admit scalable on-line algorithms providing constant approximations.
Scalability of Mobile Ad Hoc Networks
Authors: Grigoras Dan , Doolan Daniel C. , Tabirca Sabin
Published: May 2010

This chapter addresses scalability aspects of mobile ad hoc networks management and clusters built on top of them. Mobile ad hoc networks are created by mobile devices without the help of any infrastructure for the purpose of communication and service sharing. As a key supporting service, the management of mobile ad hoc networks is identified as an important aspect of their exploitation. Obviously, management must be simple, effective, consume least of resources, reliable and scalable. The first section of this chapter discusses different incarnations of the management service of mobile ad hoc networks considering the above mentioned characteristics. Cluster computing is an interesting computing paradigm that, by aggregation of network hosts, provides more resources than available on each of them. Clustering mobile and heterogeneous devices is not an easy task as it is proven in the second part of the chapter. Both sections include innovative solutions for the management and clustering of mobile ad hoc networks, proposed by the authors.
Network Selection Strategies and Resource Management Schemes in Integrated Heterogeneous Wireless and Mobile Networks
Authors: Shen Wei , Zeng Qing-An
Published: May 2010

Integrated heterogeneous wireless and mobile network (IHWMN) is introduced by combing different types of wireless and mobile networks (WMNs) in order to provide more comprehensive service such as high bandwidth with wide coverage. In an IHWMN, a mobile terminal equipped with multiple network interfaces can connect to any available network, even multiple networks at the same time. The terminal also can change its connection from one network to other networks while still keeping its communication alive. Although IHWMN is very promising and a strong candidate for future WMNs, it brings a lot of issues because different types of networks or systems need to be integrated to provide seamless service to mobile users. In this chapter, the authors focus on some major issues in IHWMN. Several noel network selection strategies and resource management schemes are also introduced for IHWMN to provide better resource allocation for this new network architecture.
Scalable Fault Tolerance for Large-Scale Parallel and Distributed Computing
Authors: Chen Zizhong
Published: May 2010

Today’s long running scientific applications typically tolerate failures by checkpoint/restart in which all process states of an application are saved into stable storage periodically. However, as the number of processors in a system increases, the amount of data that need to be saved into stable storage also increases linearly. Therefore, the classical checkpoint/restart approach has a potential scalability problem for large parallel systems. In this chapter, we introduce some scalable techniques to tolerate a small number of process failures in large parallel and distributed computing. We present several encoding strategies for diskless checkpointing to improve the scalability of the technique. We introduce the algorithm-based checkpoint-free fault tolerance technique to tolerate fail-stop failures without checkpoint or rollback recovery. Coding approaches and floating-point erasure correcting codes are also introduced to help applications to survive multiple simultaneous process failures. The introduced techniques are scalable in the sense that the overhead to survive k failures in p processes does not increase as the number of processes p increases. Experimental results demonstrate that the introduced techniques are highly scalable.
Efficient Update Control of Bloom Filter Replicas in Large Scale Distributed Systems
Authors: Zhu Yifeng , Jiang Hong
Published: May 2010

This chapter discusses the false rates of Bloom filters in a distributed environment. A Bloom filter (BF) is a space-efficient data structure to support probabilistic membership query. In distributed systems, a Bloom filter is often used to summarize local services or objects and this Bloom filter is replicated to remote hosts. This allows remote hosts to perform fast membership query without contacting the original host. However, when the services or objects are changed, the remote Bloom replica may become stale. This chapter analyzes the impact of staleness on the false positive and false negative for membership queries on a Bloom filter replica. An efficient update control mechanism is then proposed based on the analytical results to minimize the updating overhead. This chapter validates the analytical models and the update control mechanism through simulation experiments.
Image Partitioning on Spiral Architecture
Authors: Wu Qiang , He Xiangjian
Published: May 2010

Spiral Architecture is a relatively new and powerful approach to image processing. It contains very useful geometric and algebraic properties. Based on the abundant research achievements in the past decades, it is shown that Spiral Architecture will play an increasingly important role in image processing and computer vision. This chapter presents a significant application of Spiral Architecture for distributed image processing. It demonstrates the impressive characteristics of spiral architecture for high performance image processing. The proposed method tackles several challenging practical problems during the implementation. The proposed method reduces the data communication between the processing nodes and is configurable. Moreover, the proposed partitioning scheme has a consistent approach: after image partitioning each sub-image should be a representative of the original one without changing the basic object, which is important to the related image processing operations.
Scheduling Large-Scale DNA Sequencing Applications
Authors: Gunturu Sudha , Li Xiaolin , Yang Laurence Tianruo
Published: May 2010

This chapter studies a load scheduling strategy with near-optimal processing time that is designed to explore the computational characteristics of DNA sequence alignment algorithms, specifically, the Needleman-Wunsch Algorithm. Following the divisible load scheduling theory, an efficient load scheduling strategy is designed in large-scale networks so that the overall processing time of the sequencing tasks is minimized. In this study, the load distribution depends on the length of the sequence and number of processors in the network and, the total processing time is also affected by communication link speed. Several cases have been considered in the study by varying the sequences, communication and computation speeds, and number of processors. Through simulation and numerical analysis, this study demonstrates that for a constant sequence length as the numbers of processors increase in the network the processing time for the job decreases and minimum overall processing time is achieved.
State-Carrying Code for Computation Mobility
Authors: Jiang Hai , Ji Yanqing
Published: May 2010

Computation mobility enables running programs to move around among machines and is the essence of performance gain, fault tolerance, and system throughput increase. State-carrying code (SCC) is a software mechanism to achieve such computation mobility by saving and retrieving computation states during normal program execution in heterogeneous multi-core/many-core clusters. This chapter analyzes different kinds of state saving/retrieving mechanisms for their pros and cons. To achieve a portable, flexible and scalable solution, SCC adopts the application-level thread migration approach. Major deployment features are explained and one example system, MigThread, is used to illustrate implementation details. Future trends are given to point out how SCC can evolve into a complete lightweight virtual machine. New high productivity languages might step in to raise SCC to language level. With SCC, thorough resource utilization is expected.
Organizational Change, IT and Business Process Redesign
Authors: Petti Claudio , Klein Mark
Published: May 2010

Change in the business environment is pervasive and accelerating. New, agile, and often IT-based organizational forms are emerging. Recent management literature has paid a great deal of attention to observing and advocating this kind of organizational change. Relatively little attention has been given, however, to how to deal practically with these changes. How, for example, can companies foster the business process changes necessary to become agile? How can IT be leveraged for this purpose? In the attempt to provide some insights into these issues, this chapter will present a methodology for redesigning and inventing new business processes that relies on a handbook of process models, and is particularly suited to taking advantage of information technology to enable new organizational forms.
Evaluating Adequacy of Business Process Modeling Approaches
Authors: Bider Ilia , Perjons Erik
Published: May 2010

From the practical point of view, the most important parameter that describes the quality of a particular model is its adequacy to the task for which the model will be used. The selection of a “right for the task” modeling approach can substantially increase chances of creating a high quality model. To ensure the “right” choice of modeling approach the following three factors should be considered: (a) properties of the object to be modeled, (b) characteristics of the environment in which the model is being built, (c) intended use of the model. This chapter is devoted to the analysis of these factors for the domain of business process modeling. It presents a simplified classification of the approaches to business process modeling. It lists the most essential properties of business processes, it classifies modeling environments, and it discusses some practical tasks where a business process model can be used. Based on the analysis, practical recommendations on what modeling approach to choose are given dependent on the type of the process under consideration, the task at hand, and the environment in which the model is being built and verified.
Inter-Workflow Patterns in Logistic Processes
Authors: Bae Hyerim
Published: May 2010

In logistic environments, a process, in that it manages the flow of materials among partners, inherently involves more than one organization. In this regard, a logistic process can be considered as a combined process consisting of multiple sub processes, each of which is managed by a single participant. In achieving systematic management of a logistic process, traditional Business Process Management (BPM) cannot be used for the entire flow, since it lacks the ability to manage interactions among partners. In this paper, then, we propose inter-workflow patterns that represent the relations among separate processes. We specify the inter-workflow patterns between processes, which patterns enable the generation of ECA (Event-Condition-Action) rules to control the execution of the logistic process. A rule engine can then take charge of managing the interactions among processes. A prototype system was developed for the purpose of demonstrating the effectiveness of our approach.
Identifying Batch Processing Features in Workflows
Authors: Liu Jian-Xun , Wen Jiping
Published: May 2010

The employment of batch processing in workflow is to model and enact the batch processing logic for multiple cases of a workflow in order to optimize business processes execution dynamically. Our previous work has preliminarily investigated the model and its implementation. However, it does not figure out precisely which activity and how a/multiple workflow activity(s) can gain execution efficiency from batch processing. Inspired by workflow mining and functional dependency inference, this chapter proposes a method for mining batch processing patterns in workflows from process dataflow logs. We first introduce a new concept, batch dependency, which is a specific type of functional dependency in database. The theoretical foundation of batch dependency as well as its mining algorithms is analyzed and investigated. Based on batch dependency and its discovery technique, the activities meriting batch processing and their batch processing features are identified. With the batch processing features discovered, the batch processing areas in workflow are recognized then. Finally, an experiment is demonstrated to show the effectiveness of our method.
Policy as a Bridge across the Global Digital Divide
Authors: Chary Meena , Aikins Stephen K.
Published: May 2010

This chapter assesses how public policy can be used to bridge the global digital divide, especially in developing nations. First, the chapter characterizes the Internet technologies encompassed within the digital divide according to dimensions of individual socioeconomic characteristics and service provider infrastructure characteristics. Then, the chapter develops a set of technology policy dimensions as they affect those two dimensions, using case vignettes from India to illustrate policy actions. Finally, the chapter makes policy action recommendations to bridge the digital divide, including investments in education and literacy, e-governance, intermediary services, infrastructure, and regulation.