bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Open Source Software Communities
Authors: Carillo Kevin , Okoli Chitu
Published: May 2011

Open source software (OSS) development has continued to appear as a puzzling and enigmatic phenomenon and has drawn increasing attention as its importance has grown. Relying upon an alternative way to develop and to distribute software, open source communities have been able to challenge and often outperform proprietary software by enabling better reliability, lower costs, shorter development times, and a higher quality of code (Raymond, 2004). Behind the software is a mass of people working together in loose coordination, even portrayed as a rowdy marketplace (Raymond, 2001, p. 1): No quiet, reverent cathedral-building here—rather, the Linux community seemed to resemble a great babbling bazaar of differing agendas and approaches … out of which a coherent and stable system seemingly emerges only by a succession of miracles. More precisely, the people behind open source projects have been defined as: “Internet-based communities of software developers who voluntarily collaborate in order to develop software that they or their organizations need” (von Krogh, 2003, p. 14). In contrast to the sacred cathedral-like software development model that gave birth to most commercial and proprietary systems, such bazaar-like communities seem to have based their success on a pseudo-anarchic type of collaboration and developers’ interaction (Raymond, 2001). However, in spite of the apparent disorganization of these bazaars, a closer look distinguishes common values and norms that rule them, specific roles that can be identified, similar motives shared by people, and practices that follow patterns. This article highlights key aspects of what forms the communities that support these projects.
Building Quality from Satisfaction in Online Learning Using Total Quality Management
Authors: Darbyshire Paul
Published: May 2011

Full degree programs have been offered via virtual classroom environments for some time now, and the pace of online program development is not abating. Even though many of these programs are beginning to mature there is still skepticism in terms of the quality of the programs utilizing the new paradigm. While some of this may be unfounded, there is always a justification phase with the introduction of a new paradigm, and it is important to demonstrate “equivalent quality”. The issue of quality education is not an online learning issue only, and often student satisfaction surveys are what we use to point to quality programs. There is often some doubt as to whether such surveys are capable of addressing the issue of quality, but in many cases these are all we have in terms of feedback.
E-Learners at Risk
Authors: Marold Kathryn A. , Haga Wayne
Published: May 2011

In a continuous improvement research project aimed at identifying the students who are best suited for Web-delivered programming courses, the authors gathered data from five online and five classroom sections of Visual Basic programming at Metropolitan State College of Denver and compared them. All sections of the course used the same syllabus and assignments, and were taught from a centralized, standardized process by the same instructor. Internet students in the midrange of achievement level were affected more by delivery method than those at either the high end or the low end of their achievement level, as measured by GPA. The research culminates a three-year study on delivering higher level CIS curriculum via Web courses. The authors conclude that more study is needed, but are convinced that the mid-level B or C student is most affected by Web delivery, and design and delivery of programming courses via the Web need careful attention.
Customer Relationship Management on Internet and Mobile Channels
Authors: Chan Susy S. , Lam Jean
Published: May 2011

The Internet has served as an effective channel for companies to build and manage relationships with customers. The mobile channel, emerging from the convergence of wireless communications and the mobile Web, promises to deliver additional support to meet consumer needs. This chapter examines features of customer relationship management (CRM) as implemented on the Internet (eCRM) and the mobile channel (mCRM) from the customer’s perspective. It further explores how companies can better coordinate their CRM strategies between these two channels to support e-commerce customers. We propose an analytical framework to examine the current eCRM and mCRM practice in terms of customer loyalty, branding, customer satisfaction, customization, and trust. These five factors affect customer acquisition, sales and services, and customer retention. A checklist was developed to guide the evaluation of CRM practice for e-commerce sites. Several examples and research directions are discussed in the chapter.
Service Discovery in Wireless and Mobile Networks
Authors: Alex Hitha , Kumar Mohan , Shirazi Behrooz A.
Published: May 2011

Service discovery is an important component of wireless and mobile network systems. An efficient service discovery mechanism would ensure high availability of services to users and applications, and high utilization of services. In this chapter, we discuss various issues and challenges facing the design and selection of a proper service discovery mechanism. This chapter also investigates service discovery mechanisms such as SLP, Jini, Salutation, and others, and assesses their suitability for applications in wireless and mobile environments.
Innovative Shot Boundary Detection for Video Indexing
Authors: Chen Shu-Ching , Shyu Mei-Ling , Zhang Chengcui
Published: May 2011

Recently, multimedia information, especially video data, has been made overwhelmingly accessible with the rapid advances in communication and multimedia computing technologies. Video is popular in many applications, which makes the efficient management and retrieval of the growing amount of video information very important. Toward such a demand, an effective video shot boundary detection method is necessary, which is a fundamental operation required in many multimedia applications. In this chapter, an innovative shot boundary detection method using an unsupervised segmentation algorithm and the technique of object tracking based on the segmentation mask maps is presented. A series of experiments on various types of video types are performed, and the experimental results show that our method can obtain object-level information of the video frames as well as accurate shot boundary detection, which are very useful for video content indexing.
A Framework for Indexing Personal Videoconference
Authors: Song Jiqiang , Lyu Michael R. , Hwang Jenq-Neng
Published: May 2011

The rapid technical advance of multimedia communication has enabled more and more people to enjoy videoconferences. Traditionally, the personal videoconference is either not recorded or only recorded as ordinary audio and video files that only allow linear access. Moreover, in addition to video and audio channels, other videoconferencing channels, including text chat, file transfer, and whiteboard, also contain valuable information. Therefore, it is not convenient to search or recall the content of videoconference from the archives. However, there exists little research on the management and automatic indexing of personal videoconferences. The existing methods for video indexing, lecture indexing, and meeting support systems cannot be applied to personal videoconference straightforwardly. This chapter discusses important issues unique to personal videoconference and proposes a comprehensive framework for indexing personal videoconference. The framework consists of three modules: videoconference archive acquisition module, videoconference archive indexing module, and indexed videoconference accessing module. This chapter will elaborate on the design principles and implementation methodologies of each module, as well as the intra- and inter-module data, and control flows. Finally, this chapter presents a subjective evaluation protocol for personal videoconference indexing.
Data Semantics
Authors: Gillman Daniel W.
Published: May 2011

Almost every organization, public or private, for profit or non-profit, manages data in some way. Data is a major corporate resource. It is produced, analyzed, stored, and disseminated. And, it is poorly documented.
Intellectual Capital
Authors: Hsu H
Published: May 2011

Today’s economy is characterized by a rapid rate of change, globalization, and knowledge-intensive products. This makes knowledge management (KM) vital to organizations. The resource-based view of the firm postulates that a firm’s profitability is not only a function of its market and competitive position but also a function of its internal capabilities and know-how in combining its resources to deliver products and services and to enhance organizational performance (Alavi, 2000).
Knowledge Sharing
Authors: King William R.
Published: May 2011

Knowledge sharing (KS) is critical to organizations that wish to use their knowledge as an asset to achieve competitive advantage. Knowledge management systems (KMSs) can be primary enablers of knowledge sharing in an organization.
Narrative
Authors: Snowden Dave
Published: May 2011

Narrative or the use of stories is an ancient discipline. Our ancestors evolved the ability to see the world through a set of abstractions, and thereby enabled the development of sophisticated language and the ability to use stories as a primary mechanism for knowledge transfer. The oral-history tradition was the only method of knowledge transfer for many eons and persists into the current day despite the prevalence of the written word. First Nation elders in Canada passing on their wisdom to young people facing the conflicts of old and new, a Seanachie (the Irish word that means far more than storyteller) ensconced with an enraptured audience around a peat fire, the Liars bench of the Midwest in the USA where old timers sit to swap tall tales, and the ubiquitous watercooler conversations of the modern organisation: all evidence the persistence of story. The archetypal story form of the myths of the Greek gods and the trickster stories of Native Americans find modern expression and use in Dilbert cartoons, and the old fairy stories of Europe find new expression in Hollywood. Good teachers always tell stories to provide context and life to otherwise dull material. Anyone joining an organisation will take months or years to hear and reexpress the key stories of past success and failure that form a key part of the organisation’s deep culture. Executives who abandon the tyranny of PowerPoint and instead tell a story rooted in their own experience nearly always discover the power of story to move people; to quote Steve Denning (2000), one of the early pioneers with his work in the World Bank—“Nothing else would do.”
Sketching in Knowledge Creation and Management
Authors: Ferri Fernando , Grifoni Patrizia
Published: May 2011

A sketch is a schematic representation of an image containing a set of objects or concepts. When people need to express and communicate a new idea, they often sketch a rough picture to represent it. Drawing a sketch helps to develop and explore new ideas and enables useful reflection on an idea, elaborating possible alternatives and promoting its evolution. The development of different interaction and communication tools has produced new attention to more natural interaction and communication modalities, including sketching. Hand-drawn sketching is easy and intuitive to use to communicate with others, and human-computer interaction is also simplified.
Adaptive Use of ICT in Response to Disintermediation
Authors: Sharma Pramod , Carson Dean , Taylor Andrew
Published: May 2011

Traditionally, the Australian travel agency sector has operated as the premium intermediary in a relatively simple distribution chain that can be depicted as follows: In such a system, it is estimated that travel agents have traditionally handled over 85% of consumer transactions (Wilde & Rosen, 2000). The advance of online technologies and ICT-based distribution systems has changed the dominant role of travel agents in the distribution and supply of travel products. This has impacted on their relevance, returns, and individual financial viability.
Building a Framework for the Development of RMIT Learning Networks
Authors: Wheeler Leone , Lewis-Fitzgerald Cheryl
Published: May 2011

Learning networks is a unit within Community & Regional Partnerships (C&RP) at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT University). Community & Regional Partnerships (C&RP) is charged with enacting RMIT’s mission to “make a difference” in the world and be “engaged, partnered and creative in supporting individuals, enterprises and communities.”1 C&RPs work is to establish, broker, facilitate and monitor sustainable partnerships between our stakeholders and the university and to build capacity in the university to enable the knowledge society and civic participation.
Connecting the Unconnected in Rural Ireland
Authors: Cosemans Anneleen
Published: May 2011

How to integrate ICT into schools in an appropriate and meaningful way remains one of the most fraught questions in education today as teachers and policy makers alike strive to make the most out of the Internet and other technologies in the classroom. Choosing appropriate content, building the necessary skills amongst teachers, finding a way to integrate computer-supported learning in all subjects, these are familiar issues.
The Definition Dilemma of E-Commerce
Authors: Cater-Steel Aileen , Grist Shelly
Published: May 2011

There is confusion among researchers, practitioners and policymakers about the meaning of terms such as e-commerce, and small and medium enterprise (SME) (Krochmal, 1998; Mesenbourg, 2001; Poon, 2002; Xydias-Lobo & Jones, 2003). The lack of standard, universally adopted definitions presents a challenge to researchers and leads to inaccurate comparisons of rates of adoption. This article provides an analysis of various popular definitions of e-commerce and highlights the distinctions between them. A classification system is proposed and applied using examples of e-commerce transactions. Recommendations are provided which should prove helpful for researchers and practitioners interested in developing regional communities with information and communication technology.
e-Bario and e-Bedian Project Implementation in Malaysia
Authors: Gnaniah Jayapragas , Yeo Alvin W. , Zen Hushairi , Songan Peter , Hamid Khairuddin Ab.
Published: May 2011

The Malaysian government inspires the country to become a fully developed nation with an emphasis on knowledge-based economy by the year 2020. Though the government has been pushing aggressively for one household to own one computer and at least an Internet connection, it is difficult to see these desires and plans of the Malaysian government going beyond the borders of urban centres and small towns due to the limited infrastructure and amenities. In Sarawak, it has been noted that there are limited mechanisms to ensure that remote rural populations are able to get the same benefits as their urban counterparts due to its vast undeveloped areas and that the majority of Sarawak’s population live in such areas. Harris (1999) has remarked that even though Sarawak’s rural population was promised a full and equitable share in the benefits of national development, it has great potential to be sidelined in the nation’s quest towards a knowledge society. This situation, if left unchecked, would produce an “unbridgeable” digital gap between the developed urban communities and the technologically impoverished rural communities.
E-Democracy as a Contemporary Framework for Citizens' Deliberation
Authors: Kozeluh Ulrike
Published: May 2011

The emergence of new media has raised the hope of many politicians, citizens, political activists and scholars from various disciplines to establish a (virtual) space for free flow of information and communication for increasing the quality of democratic decision making.1
Implementation of a Health Information Systems Programme
Authors: Quraishy Zubeeda Banu
Published: May 2011

In general, developed countries in the world is where Information and Communications Technology (ICT) is in an advanced state, governments in developing countries particularly in the Asia- Pacific region are only in the initial phases of adopting ICT. ICT has demonstrated benefits for governments in developing countries to improve management, information and reporting, streamline the delivery of government services, enhance communication with the citizenry, and serve as a catalyst for empowering citizens to interact with the government. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP, 2001) considers that ICT is a useful tool for developing countries to progress and leapfrog to the applications applied in the developed world. The Indian draft report on ICT and Human Development records that in the 21st century there is large growth and diversification of the ICT sector in India particularly in areas of agriculture and in service sectors (UNDP, 2004). The United Nations even has an ICT advisory group with representatives from governments of developing countries and the industry (Singh, 2001).
Industry-Relevant Smart Community Partnerships
Authors: Baskin Colin , Barker Michelle , Woods Peter
Published: May 2011

Logan City (population of 400,000) is Queensland’s third largest city and one of the fastest growing in Australia. The population is expected to grow to almost 500,000 by 2011 (Logan City Council, 2001). Other characteristics of the region include its relatively young population profile, and the higher than average proportions of persons from low socio-economic and non-English speaking backgrounds who live in some areas of the region. Further, unemployment rates tend to be high in parts of the region and higher education participation rates are low. Economic activity tends to be based in small and medium business and light industry. The employment profile of the region has a lower proportion of professionals, managers and administrators than the rest of Queensland. Overall, the regional profile has a higher proportion of tradespersons, clerks, plant and machinery operators, and sales and personal services workers than state averages.
Information Literacy for Telecenter Users in Low-Income Regional Mexican Communities
Authors: Santos Antonio
Published: May 2011

The purpose of this article is to propose a methodology to increase information literacy among people who attend telecenters in low-income communities in Mexico. The Mexican government created telecenters, or community technology centers, as part of a national project under which adults lacking basic education who are isolated and living under economically and technologically marginal standards are granted access to educational materials and work training in the form of printed, audiovisual, and electronic media (CONEVyT, 2001). Our research group evaluated the Mexican telecenter program as part of a nationwide qualitative diagnostic study, which represented the initial stage of a three-year research project conducted by the Information and Communication Technologies for Education and Community Development research group at the Universidad de las Americas-Puebla in Mexico for the National Institute for Adult Education. The results of this study combine with the concepts of information literacy and socioconstructivist pedagogy to form the basis for the present proposal.
Information Technology Standards in China
Authors: Rowe Michelle
Published: May 2011

“If you want to access my market, you have to use my standards.” This seems to be the approach adopted by some in China and certainly is the line promoted by the Director of the Ministry of Information Industry’s research institute, Chen Yuping (Chen, 2004, p. B.1). Standards have been seen to be the cards available to China in its negotiations, given the desire of many multinationals to locate or outsource their businesses and operations in the Chinese market.
Sociocultural Animation
Authors: Foth Marcus
Published: May 2011

The emergence of global computer networks and the widespread availability of advanced information communication technology (ICT) since the mid-nineties has given rise to the hope that the traditional disadvantages faced by regional economies and regional communities could be alleviated easily and swiftly. Yet, the experience of both researchers and practitioners in community informatics and community development tells a different tale. Although the potential of ICT is in fact realised in some situations and locations, and does provide a means to ensure sustainability in some regional communities, elsewhere it has not achieved change for the promised better. Too many communities are still faced by a centralised structure in the context of commerce, service provision or governance and by various degrees of digital divides between the connected and disconnected, between the media literate and illiterate, between young and old, between consumers and producers, and between urban and rural.
Trans-Urbanites and Collaborative Environments in Computer Networks
Authors: Rodrígues Matta Alfredo Eurico
Published: May 2011

Since the first manifestations of what was agreed to be called civilization, humanity has been considering cities and urbanity relations the main centers for socialization and political interaction in people’s lives and daily activities. The birth of cities allowed the formation of cooperation groups, which despite being created from shared work and urban social duties, got together for the same objectives in their communities and were interdependent. Nevertheless, many times such groups were under tension and conflict as contingent residence places and shared geographic centers were rarely based on interests in social interaction, or sharing projects and affectivity. Therefore, cities were consolidated as centers for socialization, and manifestations of interests and collective interrelations, as well as privileged stages for social constructions, disputes, conflicts and witnesses of social histories.
Mobile Services in Finland
Authors: Vesa Jarkko
Published: May 2011

“It is therefore dangerous to assume that there would ever be any major opportunities in the field of chargeable end-user services targeted for private customers.” Pursiainen & Leppävuori (2002, p. 53) Finland is one of the leading countries in the world in the use of mobile telephones. This is the traditional way of presenting this small country in the northern part of Europe with a little over five million people. Finland has an excellent track record in developing and commercializing mobile telephone service: the analog NMT network was launched commercially in 1982, the first commercial GSM network was opened in 1991 by Finnish operator Radiolinja, and in 2001, the number of mobile subscriptions exceeded the number of fixed telephone lines. Finland was also one of the first countries were SMS-based text messaging became a huge success. Probably the most interesting thing about Finland, when it comes to mobile business, is, of course, the fact that the world’s largest mobile phone maker Nokia comes from Finland. Thanks to Nokia, the Finnish telecom cluster has grown and prospered for years. However, recently more and more mobile phone manufacturing-related business has moved to Asia, where production costs are lower and end-user markets are closer. The current trend has raised much concern regarding the future of the Finnish telecom cluster if Nokia decides to transfer manufacturing and R&D away from Finland. During the past few years, the Finnish mobile industry has been facing major challenges. As Michael Porter has pointed out in his analysis of the evolution of business clusters (see Chapter VI for a more detailed discussion about clusters), nothing lasts forever: a cluster that was booming may become obsolete as technologies or customer needs change — or when the relative competitive advantage of different countries shifts. But let’s take a few moments to learn more about one possible way of analyzing the mobile industry of Finland.
Establishing Trust
Authors: Jones Robert , Oyung Rob , Pace Lisa Shade
Published: May 2011

Many of the myths and challenges described previously stem from the fact that there is not a strong established trust relationship within a team. If managers feel that their employees can work independently and deliver on their commitments without constant supervision and micromanagement, then people might feel less need to meet face-to-face. If employees feel that their work is visible, that their peers understand and value their contributions, and that their managers provide support and encouragement during all phases of their projects, then the employees might not feel that they have to be sitting next to their bosses in order to climb the corporate ladder and to be successful. One manager, Joe Gerardi, explained the importance of building a trust relationship.
A Virtual Ecosystem
Authors: Jones Robert , Oyung Rob , Pace Lisa Shade
Published: May 2011

Just as e-business began as a specialized and separate operating and delivery model in companies and has since become a standard way of doing business, virtual teams, organizations, and business models will be the way that things are done. Once we reach a fully virtual business ecosystem, we see two major roles emerging: (1) highly specialized, efficient, and optimized content providers, and (2) customer focused, value-added integrators.
Kids of the Internet Generation
Authors: Jones Robert , Oyung Rob , Pace Lisa Shade
Published: May 2011

A few years ago, one of us was at a neighbor’s house watching a member of our future workforce in action. She was about 14, sitting in front of her computer, talking on the phone with a couple of her friends through three-way calling, as they browsed a Web site together. Every few seconds, she would respond to one of the five instant messaging chats that she had open on her screen. I thought to myself, “This girl knows how to work in a virtual team.”
Virtually Meeting Five-Year Vision/Narrative
Authors: Jones Robert , Oyung Rob , Pace Lisa Shade
Published: May 2011

Virtual meetings work pretty well today, using a combination of audiobridges, Web casting, and videoconferencing. But there are still a lot of inconveniences, minor annoyances, and technical limitations. If we look ahead several years, how might the virtual meeting experience be improved? This chapter looks at a possible virtual meeting scenario in the year 2010, where we look at the experiences of various participants in a virtual meeting. All of the technologies that make the following narrative possible are available to some extent today. The meeting is a staff meeting with 16 participants:
Free-Choice Learning Research and the Virtual Science Center
Authors: Goldman Kathryn Haley , Dierking Lynn D.
Published: May 2011

Societies are in the midst of change, witnessing an explosion in out-of-school learning. From the proliferation of educational programming through film, television, museums and science centers, there are more opportunities for free-choice learning, self-directed and voluntary, than ever before. However, most virtual learning research is focused on classroom-based practices with little research on how learning occurs virtually. This chapter describes an appropriate research agenda, suggesting some of the research questions of highest priority. Authors suggest that models such as the Contextual Model of Learning are useful tools to understand the virtual science center experience and frame a research agenda for the future. Better understanding the nature of such virtual experiences and the factors that contribute to learning online will enable the field to better design such science centers, as well as begin to build a body of knowledge about how people in the 21st century engage in free-choice learning online.
Weaving Science Webs
Authors: Hazan Susan
Published: May 2011

Drawing on Bruno Latour, this chapter argues that science and technology need to be replaced into social context dissolving the artificial boundaries between art, culture and science inscribed in institutional activities.
From Information Dissemination to Information Gathering
Authors: Nordbotten Joan C.
Published: May 2011

Concurrently, large multimedia databases, termed content databases, are being created to store and manage digital representations of a museum’s physical collections, such as scanned images, text documents and videos. These databases can also provide valuable information and data for use in the development of e-learning centers1 for tasks ranging from presentation of information about the museum’s educational resources to providing a full interactive learning experience for students and casual information seekers. There are at least three ways an e-learning center can support learning: first, by providing information on a given set of topics, second, by providing educational activities to reinforce learning, and third, by supporting information gathering. In this chapter, we will present and discuss how different e-learning center architectures support these different forms of learning.
Challenges in Virtual Environment Design
Authors: Piazzalunga Renata , Almeida Barretto Saulo Faria
Published: May 2011

In this chapter we will discuss some fundamental questions concerning creation and development of interfaces searching for the best way to promote interaction between the subject and information/interface. It starts from the fact that the fundamental and most revolutionary aspect introduced by the Internet is based on its sophisticated technological mechanisms that enhance substantially the concepts of space, time, perception, representation, limits, distance, presence, etc. Our everyday practices gain access to a new realm, cyberspace, which enables us to embrace multiple experiences where we exist in the propagation of our “Id.” This condition represents a huge challenge, for example, the necessity to (re)design the image we have from the world in its physical and virtual spaces. We discuss the imagined trends related to the conception and development of virtual environments, addressing the issue of virtual environments in three levels of complexity: realized spaces, possible spaces and imagined spaces.
Reusable Resources and Authentic Learning Environments
Authors: Oliver Ron
Published: May 2011

There is currently a high degree of energy and enthusiasm in the e-learning world being given to developing strategies and systems that support the reuse of digital learning resources. The activity involves a number of processes including the development of specifications and standards for the design and development of reusable learning resources, the storage and access of these resources, and systems for delivering the resources to students. This chapter explores the potential impact this area will have for teachers developing authentic learning environments, and argues the advantages that teachers employing such learning settings will derive from the developments. The chapter suggests design and development strategies that are needed to ensure that potential advantages are realised.
User Requirements Validation and Architecture Discovery through Use Case Invariants and Model Animation
Authors: Roussev Boris , Rousseva Yvonna
Published: May 2011

This work proposes a technique for requirements validation and logical structure discovery, compatible with evolutionary process models. The technique is based on a conservation law, called business value invariant, which quantifies the exchange of business objects between a system and its environment. With the invariant, the logical class structure of the designed system is algorithmically derived from its use case model. To validate that the modeled requirements and derived structure faithfully reflect the user requirements, the behavior of the constructed prototype is projected on the business objects exchanged on the system’s boundary, and the projected behavior is animated with a labeled transition system analyzer. The model animation approach explicitly describes the interface between the system and its environment, and through OCL pre- and post-conditions, it distinguishes between system and environment responsibilities. The animated prototype links the outwardly visible “interobject” behavior to the information structures and the behaviors of the comprising parts, or “intraobject” behavior. Unlike formal notations based on logic, the proposed approach does not preclude the owners of the problem from taking part in the problem-solving process, that is, the knowledge locked in the prototype can be validated. The proposed prototyping technique acts as a discursive communication instrument, bringing the worlds of clients and developers a step closer.
Business Continuity Challenges in Global Supply Chains
Authors: Cartland Steve
Published: May 2011

This chapter examines the relevance of business continuity to supply chain management. Business continuity has focused on the business processes of individual organizations. A business process in a supply chain can involve multiple discrete organizations. This chapter draws on the approaches used by individual organizations to implement continuity and apply them to a supply chain. Typically, supply chains are dependent on IT and workplace for staff. Both can be impacted in a disaster. If one member of a supply chain is affected, this will affect other organizations in the supply chain, magnifying the impact of the initial disaster. The chapter also examines the issues of service supply chains as well as physical goods. A practical outline plan for the development, auditing, and testing of a continuity plan for a supply chain and its management within an overall supply chain governance is proposed as a starting point for supply chain managers.
Case Study in Globalization of Hospitals
Authors: Lan Yi-chen , Unhelkar Bhuvan
Published: May 2011

This chapter demonstrates the application of the GET process in the area of Tele-health, to a hospital. The reason for selecting the domain of Tele-health for this exercise is significant. In the modern communication age, there are still many situations where people who are in pain and/or have an acute need for help have to travel hundreds of miles just to be close to a physician or a healthcare specialist. This scenario is exacerbated by overworked physicians and surgeons, and ever shrinking funds for health care from governments and other funding bodies. Thus the need for, and the value of, being able to provide medical facilities and support by utilizing technology is at its highest leading us to believe in the extreme importance of Tele-health in today’s world. Tele-health is all about the use of technology to ease the ability to provide medical care beyond physical distances, especially in rural areas. Tele-health is also about alleviating the routine pressures on doctors beyond the needs of their own specialist or generalist skills. Tele-health goes further beyond patients and doctors, and also involves education, research and administration in the field of medicine. Given this tremendous importance of Tele-health, it is appropriate that the concepts of globalization discussed in this book, in all its previous chapters, are applied to a case study that deals with a hospital. In this chapter, we have appropriately considered the area of hospital management and patient access to care, in demonstrating the concepts of the GET process, as applied to a hospital. Needless to say, this remains a relatively small part of the overall effort required in globalizing a hospital. Nonetheless, we believe this is an excellent demonstration of most of the concepts discussed here. This chapter results from our attempts at verifying in practice the principles discussed in this book. Therefore, although the entire case study is hypothetical, it has its roots in a real life hospital, with real doctors, nurses, administrative staff, and of course, real patients. By considering the application of GET to Tele-health, we hope we will not only demonstrate the process to our readers, but also show how this process will come in handy in the health domain where globalization is going to become extremely important.
E-Government as Collaborative Governance
Authors: Allen Barbara A. , Juillet Luc , Paquet Gilles , Roy Jeffrey
Published: May 2011

In discussions on e-government, terms such as “seamless” and “joined-up” are often deployed in reference to restructuring the public sector for more effective performance. There is a critical link between delivering services online in a more client-centric fashion and government organization. This critical link often involves new coordinating mechanisms (i.e., new forms of governance) that are more collaborative than before — thus, e-government becomes collaborative government — and as such, many challenges present themselves. In government, however, collaborating is both complex and contentious, as much of public management has traditionally been premised on a command and control regime, where clear structures and rules dictate the behavior of public servants. The contentious nature of collaboration is also amplified by the political nature of government activity, and the difficulties in coordinating activities horizontally across traditional organizational units: there are structural, accountability and cultural dimensions of such coordination. E-government must be built on a fluid and constantly adapting of collaborative governance systems that respond to the twin challenges of external alignment and internal integration and cooperation.
E-Government and Organizational Change
Authors: Culbertson Stuart
Published: May 2011

At varying paces, governments are aggressively pursuing e-government strategies with the expressed objective of capturing the efficiency that ICTs can provide. However, more often than not these strategies are being implemented within the existing organizational structures and practices of governments, which can, by their nature, thwart rather than advance the objectives. This chapter examines some key aspects of organizational change required by governments to make their e-government strategies successful. The change imperative entails a hard look at many of the structures, processes, cultural issues and management practices prevailing within the public sector. This chapter identifies government success factors for several organizational entities involved in e-government and assesses the implications for organizational change on government structures, work practices and culture.
Measuring and Evaluating E-Government
Authors: Holland Christiaan , Bongers Frank , Vandeberg Rens , Keller Wouter , te Velde Robbin
Published: May 2011

In this chapter we describe research we have conducted on measuring e-government in the Netherlands. This research was commissioned by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and the Ministry of the Interior in the Netherlands. There are many aspects and benefits of e-government which are missing in existing measuring tools and concepts. Existing benchmark studies lack a theoretical basis and merely look at the supply side of electronic government: the availability of electronic services. Actual use or the impact of electronic public services is not captured. We therefore have developed a new concept and measuring tool for e-government. This tool is being used in a benchmarking study, the results of which will be published by the end of this year.* For this reason we have only described the methodological aspects of our approach here. We believe our experience in this research project and this measuring tool can contribute to the discussion on new ways to measure and evaluate e-government from an international perspective.
Distributed Intrusion Detection Systems
Authors: Abraham Ajith , Thomas Johnson
Published: May 2011

Computer security is defined as the protection of computing systems against threats to confidentiality, integrity and availability. An intrusion is defined as any set of actions that attempt to compromise the integrity, confidentiality or availability of a resource. The process of monitoring the events occurring in a computer system or network and analyzing them for sign of intrusions is known as Intrusion Detection System (IDS). A Distributed IDS (DIDS) consists of several IDS over a large network (s), all of which communicate with each other, or with a central server that facilitates advanced network monitoring. In a distributed environment, DIDS are implemented using co-operative intelligent agents distributed across the network(s). This chapter presents a framework for a DIDS comprised of a multi-agent framework with computational intelligent techniques, to reduce the data features to create lightweight detection systems and a hybrid-intelligent system approach to improve detection accuracy.
The Development of Web Sites
Authors: Huang Xueli , Leong Elaine K.F.
Published: May 2011

Setting objectives precedes strategic planning and evaluation. Given the importance of setting objectives prior to any other marketing campaign planning and evaluation tasks, research into the objectives of Web sites is a necessary precursor of Web site planning and evaluation. This chapter seeks to gain insights into the Web site objectives of Australian SMEs and to provide a typology of the SMEs based on their Web objectives. The results of multivariate analyses, based on 139 Perth-based SMEs, have revealed that these businesses are motivated to develop their Web site to achieve three fundamental objectives: promoting corporate image or product branding, building customer relationships, and enhancing financial performance. At this early stage of Web site development, the most important objective for SMEs is to promote corporate image. Using the factor scores of these three dimensions as input, a further cluster analysis revealed four different segments in terms of SMEs’ Web site objectives. These four segments are image builder, harvester, servant, and optimistic explorer. The characteristics of SMEs in each segment are described and the reasons explained.
Predictive Indicators of Electronic Commerce Adoption in Regional Small and Medium Enterprises
Authors: Seyal Afzaal H. , Rahman Mohd N.A.
Published: May 2011

This chapter introduces electronic commerce or e-commerce (EC) in the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Brunei Darussalam which has dramatically altered the way businesses are conducted. The advent of EC has changed the trading and buying pattern of consumers behavior. The present research investigates 71% of SMEs EC adoption and study the determinant factors. Several organizational factors such as nature, size, and type of business along with organizational culture and management support were studied. The study also includes technological factors such as perceived benefits and task variety and one environmental factor of government role and support towards EC adoption. This study has concluded on the basis of various statistical tests that there exists a significant difference of EC adoption among SMEs. For small enterprises task variety and favorable top management support remain significant. Whereas, for medium-sized enterprises the study support the organizational, environmental and technological variables toward EC adoption. This is mainly due to the fact that medium-sized enterprises are better resource-driven as compared to the small business. This study also discusses the reasons why 29% of the organizations did not adopt EC. The most common reasons of non-adopters include: high cost of Internet service provider, a major time wasting activity for the staff, and lack of overall staff computer literacy. Based upon our findings, some recommendations were made to the policy makers and relevant authorities for devising and implementing a strategic plan to enhance the EC adoption among SMEs.
Case Study
Authors: Charles Darryl , Fyfe Colin , Livingstone Daniel , McGlinchey Stephen
Published: May 2011

In this short chapter we present a case study of the use of ANN in a video game type situation. The example is one of duelling robots, a problem which, as we will see, lends itself to a range of different solutions – and where we can demonstrate the efficacy of a biologically inspired AI approach.
Pricing Basket Options with Optimum Wavelet Correlation Measures
Authors: Zapart Christopher , Kishino Satoshi , Mishina Tsutomu
Published: May 2011

This chapter describes a new procedure for designing optimum correlation measures for financial time series. The technique attempts to overcome some of the limitations in existing methods by looking at correlations among wavelet features extracted at different time scales from the underlying time series. New correlation coefficients are further optimised with help of artificial neural networks and genetic algorithms using a nonparametric adaptive wavelet thresholding scheme. The approach is applied to the problem of pricing basket options for which the pricing formula depends on accurate measurements of correlations between portfolio constituents. When compared with standard linear approaches (i.e., RiskMetrics™), an optimised predictive wavelet correlation measure offers potentially large reductions (over 50% in some cases) in static delta-hedging errors.
A Physics of Organizational Uncertainty
Authors: Lawless W. F. , Bergman M. , Feltovich N.
Published: May 2011

This chapter constructs a dynamic model of a multinational enterprise (MNE) to quantify the effects of various capital control policies on a firm’s debt and equity positions, innovations, and outputs at the headquarters and subsidiary. The model is calibrated to the US Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) Benchmark Survey and the IMF’s Exchange Arrangements and Exchange Restrictions so that it reproduces the average US FDI and technology flows to foreign subsidiaries. Both steady-state and transition analyses suggest a significant impact of capital controls on an MNE’s operations. Lifting capital restrictions produces an inflow of capital and technology into the less developed countries, leading to an increase in the steady-state FDI position and production. Simulation experiments reveal that even short-term capital controls have long-lasting negative effects.
DWFIST
Authors: Monteiro Rodrigo Salvador , Zimbrao Geraldo , Schwarz Holger , Mitschang Bernhard , Moreira de Souza Jano
Published: May 2011

This chapter presents the core of the DWFIST approach, which is concerned with supporting the analysis and exploration of frequent itemsets and derived patterns, e.g., association rules in transactional datasets. The goal of this new approach is to provide: (1) flexible pattern-retrieval capabilities without requiring the original data during the analysis phase; and (2) a standard modeling for data warehouses of frequent itemsets, allowing an easier development and reuse of tools for analysis and exploration of itemset-based patterns. Instead of storing the original datasets, our approach organizes frequent itemsets holding on different partitions of the original transactions in a data warehouse that retains sufficient information for future analysis. A running example for mining calendar-based patterns on data streams is presented. Staging area tasks are discussed and standard conceptual and logical schemas are presented. Properties of this standard modeling allow retrieval of frequent itemsets holding on any set of partitions, along with upper and lower bounds on their frequency counts. Furthermore, precision guarantees for some interestingness measures of association rules are provided as well.