bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
General Strategy for Querying Web Sources in a Data Federation Environment
Authors: Firat Aykut , Wu Lynn , Madnick Stuart
Published: May 2011

Modern database management systems are supporting the inclusion and querying of nonrelational sources within a data federation environment via wrappers. Wrapper development for Web sources, however, is a convolution of code with extraction and query planning knowledge and becomes a daunting task. We use IBM DB2 federation engine to demonstrate the challenges of incorporating Web sources into a data federation. We, then, present a practical and general strategy for the inclusion and querying of Web sources without requiring any changes in the underlying data federation technology. This strategy separates the code and knowledge in wrapper development by introducing a general-purpose capabilities-aware mini query-planner and a data extraction engine. As a result, Web sources can be included in a data federation system faster, and maintained easier.
Social Influence and Human Interaction with Technology
Authors: Friedman Robert S. , Roberts Desiree M. , Linton Jonathan D.
Published: May 2011

This chapter discusses how information that supports innovation flows throughout an organization, the construction and effects of team composition, the innovative processes that teams employ, and the development, implementation, and evaluation of systems used to manage the flow and distribution of information. As Allen and Cohen (1969) point out, effective communicators rise in their organizations as a result of their willingness to engage information—by reading and conversing outside of their immediate settings, but as Tushman (1977) explains, that kind of outreach precipitates special boundary roles, which come about to satisfy an organization’s communication network’s role of bridging an internal information network to external sources of information. Thompson (1965) investigates the conditions necessary to move an organization from a single-minded focus on productivity to one of those that facilitate innovation. At times, that means engaging rival firms, and von Hippel (1987) demonstrates that information sharing is economically beneficial to the organizations doing the trading. Freeman’s (1991) finding that information regarding innovative processes entails the development of effective information networks confirms how important it is for successful innovation that there exist effective external and internal communication networks, and that individuals collaborate to share information. von Hippel (1994) returns later in the chapter to qualify this point by showing that there is a direct correlation between the level of stickiness and the expense related to moving that information to a location where it can be applied to solving a problem.
Towards Learning ‘Self' and Emotional Knowledge in Social and Cultural Human-Agent Interactions
Authors: Ho Wan Ching , Dautenhahn Kerstin , Lim Meiyii , Enz Sibylle , Zoll Carsten , Watson Scott
Published: May 2011

This article presents research towards the development of a virtual learning environment (VLE) inhabited by intelligent virtual agents (IVAs) and modelling a scenario of inter-cultural interactions. The ultimate aim of this VLE is to allow users to reflect upon and learn about intercultural communication and collaboration. Rather than predefining the interactions among the virtual agents and scripting the possible interactions afforded by this environment, we pursue a bottom-up approach whereby inter-cultural communication emerges from interactions with and among autonomous agents and the user(s). The intelligent virtual agents that are inhabiting this environment are expected to be able to broaden their knowledge about the world and other agents, which may be of different cultural backgrounds, through interactions. This work is part of a collaborative effort within a European research project called eCIRCUS. Specifically, this article focuses on our continuing research concerned with emotional knowledge learning in autobiographic social agents.
The Use of Social Interaction Technologies in E-Portfolios
Authors: Pelliccione Lina , Pocknee Catherine , Mulvany Julie
Published: May 2011

The chapter focuses on the potential of electronic portfolios (e-portfolios) to engage and motivate the learners and presents a framework for the informed inclusion and adoption of social interaction technologies as a means to increase the effective use of e-portfolios. Electronic portfolios are a Web-based format for providing genuine evidence of student performance, self-reflection, competence, career planning and leadership. The e-portfolios meet the needs of the digital learner in the knowledge society. The collaboratively constructed artifacts enable the articulation of shared knowledge building and selfreflective practice, further confirming the status of e-portfolios as living documents. By their electronic nature, e-portfolios open promising opportunities for the assimilation of social interaction technologies such as blogs, wikis, podcasts, video, and photo sharing. The authors trace the development and use of e-portfolios within the context of higher education. Various e-portfolio tools are discussed along with their educational potential and the associated challenges.
Personal Digital Libraries
Authors: Lavariega Juan C. , Gomez Lorena G. , Sordia-Salinas Martha , Garza-Salazar David A.
Published: May 2011

This chapter presents the services and functionality that a personal digital library (PDL) system should provide. The chapter includes a reference architecture for supporting the characteristics and functionality of the personal digital library. In particular, a currently available project called PDLib is used as an example of this type of system. The authors address some of the particular problems that personal libraries impose with respect to the overall administration of personal collections of digital documents and how personal libraries may become a commodity and a way of social interaction. The chapter objective is to increase the research interests on personalized digital libraries and their usability in our daily live.
Cityware
Authors: Kostakos Vassilis , O’Neill Eamonn
Published: May 2011

In this paper, we describe a platform that enables us to systematically study online social networks alongside their real-world counterparts. Our system, entitled Cityware, merges users’ online social data, made available through Facebook, with mobility traces captured via Bluetooth scanning. Furthermore, our system enables users to contribute their own mobility traces, thus allowing users to form and participate in a community. In addition to describing Cityware’s architecture, we discuss the type of data we are collecting, and the analyses our platform enables, as well as users’ reactions and thoughts.
Getting to Know Social Television
Authors: Harboe Gunnar , Huang Elaine , Massey Noel , Metcalf Crysta , Novak Ashley , Romano Guy , Tullio Joe
Published: May 2011

This chapter presents results from an ongoing social television project, in the context of other research in the field. The authors give a detailed description of the STV prototype used in their research, and summarize their studies, which provide the findings explained in the rest of the chapter. Three major research focuses are identified, namely evaluation and validation of Social TV systems, communication modality comparison, and detailed observation of user behaviors. Based on the findings in these areas, the authors list three major open questions and challenges for the field: multi-user support, new equipment requirements, and the creation of distinct and unique social television experiences. Finally, the chapter suggests that the emphasis within social television may be moving from research to design, implementation and deployment.
Creative Waves
Authors: Polaine Andy
Published: May 2011

The past few years have seen the promise of online collaboration vastly augmented by developments in online technologies and emerging creative practices. Through our work with the Omnium Research Group, the authors argue that design should never be a solitary activity and benefits from many levels of collaboration - never more so than when dealing with complex issues facing today’s world. The highly connected global society in which many of us now live frequently uses web-technologies to enhance nearly every facet of day-to-day life. The authors strongly believe that design education should not isolate itself from such communal and collaborative potential. This chapter explores what happens when online creative collaboration is applied to a realworld design project tackling critical health issues affecting local communities in Africa. It offers an account of the most recent, fully-online Creative Waves project - Visualising Issues in Pharmacy (VIP) that saw over 100 graphic designers join forces with a similar number of pharmacists from over 40 countries worldwide to produce graphic proposals for public awareness campaigns about six health issues seriously affecting the people of a village community in Kenya. The three-month VIP project is explained in relation to its aims, objectives and graphic outcomes, as well as the online environment in which it took place. Creative Waves is a concept created in 2005 by the Omnium Research Group, based at The University of New South Wales in Australia, to form online communities of design students from many institutions around the globe. Consisting an array of enthusiastic students, teaching staff, professional practitioners and luminaries invited as special guests, these online creative communities have proved that amazing results can be produced through careful facilitation between distanced individuals who will most likely never meet. The Creative Waves concept has to date been offered twice in collaboration with Icograda and the Icograda Education Network.
Publishing with Friends
Authors: Roush Paula , Brown Ruth
Published: May 2011

Publishing with friends is the account of an action research cycle in which a print-on-demand Web site, Lulu.com, became a classroom for second and third year digital photography students to publish their photobooks. Building on the earlier use of a blogging platform as a personal learning environment, this narrative explores the pedagogical prospects of the read/write Web, and illustrates the way in which students use social networks for creative produsage (Bruns, 2008). Students were positive about the pedagogical approach, and the opportunities to gain valuable hands-on experience in their chosen field of study.
Social Computing
Authors: Joseph Rhoda C. , Esteves Jose
Published: May 2011

This article examines the area of social computing and its implications for electronic government (e-government). Social computing is a broad term that refers to different products and services that supports human interaction in a computer mediated environment. Terms such as online communities, peer networking, and social software have overlapping meanings with social computing (Parameswaran and Whinston, 2007). E-government refers to the delivery of government services via information and communications technology to citizens, businesses, employees, government agencies and special interest groups. In this article we present a theoretical model for the application of social computing in the area of e-government and we use an analysis of state websites to assess the extent of social computing development in the e-government domain. Our findings indicate that social computing is in its infancy in e-government applications. We make recommendations and analyze the potential value and challenges of social computing in e-government.
The Usability of Social Software
Authors: Uden Lorna , Eardley Alan
Published: May 2011

Emergent Web 2.0 technologies and applications (such as blogs, wikis, podcasts, mashups, and folksonomies) present a range of opportunities and benefits and are increasingly used by people to interact with each other. Despite the growing popularity of social software, there is a lack of research on the usability of these tools. This chapter focuses on how users interact with Web 2.0 technology, discusses a conceptual framework for a usability evaluation of social software, describes the different types of social software applications, and offers guidelines for their usability evaluation. The argument advanced is that social software usability should be viewed as a set of principles and practices aimed to deliver more service-orientated Web 2.0-based applications.
Developing Social Skills through an On-Line Learning Environment
Authors: Phillips Niki , Karatza Marianthi , Tzikopoulos Argiris
Published: May 2011

The rapid pace of social change deriving from technological and financial revolution and globalization, effects greatly people’s lives. Adults nowadays need to stay relevant with their environment, to be proactive and to take important decisions that affect their personal and professional future. Thus, they need to be equipped with advanced social skills such as time management, leadership, communication, teamwork, problem solving, flexibility etc. Such skills can be developed through training programs, designed and delivered upon the Adult Education and Experiential Learning theories and principles. A central aim of this chapter is to highlight the methods through which e-learning can contribute to the development of social skills, implementing at the same time the above mentioned principles, in the context of a large organization.
On the Effectiveness of Social Tagging for Resource Discovery
Authors: Goh Dion Hoe-Lian , Razikin Khasfariyati , Chua Alton Y.K. , Lee Chei Sian , Foo Schubert
Published: May 2011

Social tagging is the process of assigning and sharing among users freely selected terms of resources. This approach enables users to annotate/ describe resources, and also allows users to locate new resources through the collective intelligence of other users. Social tagging offers a new avenue for resource discovery as compared to taxonomies and subject directories created by experts. This chapter investigates the effectiveness of tags as resource descriptors and is achieved using text categorization via support vector machines (SVM). Two text categorization experiments were done for this research, and tags and Web pages from del.icio. us were used. The first study concentrated on the use of terms as its features while the second used both terms and its tags as part of its feature set. The experiments yielded a macroaveraged precision, recall, and F-measure scores of 52.66%, 54.86%, and 52.05%, respectively. In terms of microaveraged values, the experiments obtained 64.76% for precision, 54.40% for recall, and 59.14% for F-measure. The results suggest that the tags were not always reliable indicators of the resource contents. At the same time, the results from the terms-only experiment were better compared to the experiment with both terms and tags. Implications of our work and opportunities for future work are also discussed.
Anomaly Detection for Inferring Social Structure
Authors: Friedland Lisa
Published: May 2011

In traditional data analysis, data points lie in a Cartesian space, and an analyst asks certain questions: (1) What distribution can I fit to the data? (2) Which points are outliers? (3) Are there distinct clusters or substructure? Today, data mining treats richer and richer types of data. Social networks encode information about people and their communities; relational data sets incorporate multiple types of entities and links; and temporal information describes the dynamics of these systems. With such semantically complex data sets, a greater variety of patterns can be described and views constructed of the data. This article describes a specific social structure that may be present in such data sources and presents a framework for detecting it. The goal is to identify tribes, or small groups of individuals that intentionally coordinate their behavior—individuals with enough in common that they are unlikely to be acting independently. While this task can only be conceived of in a domain of interacting entities, the solution techniques return to the traditional data analysis questions. In order to find hidden structure (3), we use an anomaly detection approach: develop a model to describe the data (1), then identify outliers (2).
Digital Energy
Authors: Simonov Mikhail , Mussetta Marco , Zich Riccardo
Published: May 2011

Since energy use is a type of consumer behavior reflecting the interests to maximize some objective function, the human being activities seen in energy terms might be used to create the social aggregations or groups. Electric energy generated from ecologic sources brings some unpredictability. Authors model the unpredictability of the distributed generation in order to create a tool for minimization. Authors propose the novel method to build real life smart micro grids in the distributed generation context characterized by zero emissions. The proposed tool becomes an instrument to create the social aggregation of users and negotiate locally the “social” energy in real time, strengthening and mastering a virtual neighborhood of the local community.
The Social Semantic Desktop
Authors: Bernardi Ansgar , Decker Stefan , van Elst Ludger , Grimnes Gunnar Aastrand , Groza Tudor , Handschuh Siegfried , Jazayeri Mehdi , Mesnage Cédric , Möller Knud , Reif Gerald , Sintek Michael , Sauermann Leo
Published: May 2011

This chapter introduces the general vision of the Social Semantic Desktop (SSD) and details it in the context of the NEPOMUK project. It outlines the typical SSD requirements and functionalities that were identified from real world scenarios. In addition, it provides the design of the standard SSD architecture together with the ontology pyramid developed to support it. Finally, the chapter gives an overview of some of the technical challenges that arise from the actual development process of the SSD.
Convergence of the Internet and Telecommunications
Authors: Meisel John B. , Sullivan Timothy S.
Published: May 2011

The local exchange telephone market is no longer considered to be a natural monopoly as a result of technological advancements. In particular, the power, versatility, and adaptability of digital technology has enabled traditional telecommunications companies to transition their network architecture from one based on copper wires and circuit switches dedicated to the provision of high quality transmission of point-to-point voice signals to a multi-faceted, general network based on fiber optic cables and packet switches capable of providing an array of voice, data, and video services. A network layers model is introduced to conceptualize the process of convergence to the Internet model. Convergence is fundamentally changing the nature of what it means to be a telecommunications company and promises to alter the market structure of many voice, data, and video markets. Convergence has pitted wireline telecommunications companies in a fierce rivalry with cable companies for voice, data, and, increasingly, video services. More generally, this research provides a framework to explain the convergence of communications networks and identifies and analyzes key issues that confront public policymakers. One key competition issue, termed network neutrality, addresses the concern that the evolving broadband network architecture will enable network providers to favor the provider’s services or affiliated services at the expense of independent rivals.
Dark Optical Fiber Models for Broadband Networked Cities
Authors: Chochliouros Ioannis , Spiliopoulou Anastasia S. , Lalopoulos George K. , Chochliouros Stergios P.
Published: May 2011

The world economy is currently moving in transition from the industrial age to a new set of rules, that of the so-called “Information Society,” which is rapidly taking shape in different multiple aspects of the everyday life. In fact, the exponential growth of the Internet, the penetration of mobile communications, the rapid emergence of electronic commerce, the restructuring of various forms of businesses in all sectors of the economic activity, the contribution of digital industries to growth and employment, and so forth, are among the current features of the new global reality, and they are all considered significant dynamic factors for further evolution and development (Commission of the European Communities, 2005). Changes are usually underpinned by technological progress and globalization, while the combination of worldwide competition and digital technologies is having a crucial sweeping effect. Digital technologies facilitate transmission and storing of information, while they offer multiple access facilities, in most cases without implying subsequent extra costs. As digital information may be easily transformed into economic and social value, this can offer huge opportunities for the development of new products-offerings, services, or applications. Thus, information becomes the “keyresource” and the prime “engine” of the new e-economy (Crandall, Jackson, & Singer, 2003). Companies in different sectors have already started to adapt to the new economic situation in order to become e-businesses (Commission of the European Communities, 2001c). In addition, the full competitiveness of the state in the current high-tech digitally converging environment is strongly related to the existence of modern digital infrastructures of high capacity and of high performance, rationally deployed and properly priced, capable of providing easy, cost-effective, secure, and uninterrupted access to the international “digital web” of knowledge and commerce without imposing any artificial barriers and/or restrictions (Wallsten, 2005). Broadband development is nowadays an essential strategic priority (Chochliouros & Spiliopoulou, 2005), not only for the European Union (EU) but for the global environment. More specifically, broadband can be considered an “absolutely necessary prerequisite” in order to materialize all potential benefits from information society facilities and so to improve living standards (Commission of the European Communities, 2001b). The availability, access, and ultimate use of broadband in both business and residential settings are critical issues. Both businesses and consumers can derive increased benefits from the availability of broadband connection to the Internet, as the technology speeds up some applications and creates entirely new possibilities (Hu & Prieger, 2007).
Design and the Virtual Organization
Authors: Rodrigues Paula
Published: May 2011

The word design is of English origin and it is linked to the concept of plan or project, to ideas such as draw, intention, or configuration. The term implies the conjugation of two levels in permanent dynamic tension, the abstract level of conceiving/projecting and a more concrete, of giving form, materializing the idea. Furthermore the term does not refer only to manufactured objects; it can be used to refer to the design of a molecule, a structural arrangement, or the construction of curricula (Denis, 2000). It is also considered that a universal definition of design, valid independently of historical and socio cultural contexts, does not exist (Barnard, 1998). But, even if designing, as any other activity, is constrained by the social and cultural role assigned to the designer in a given society (Dormer, 1990; Downton, 2003; Manzini, 1993), that does not mean that we cannot present a general definition of design. So, although there are different areas of intervention for the designer, from common objects, to visual and verbal communications, services, systems, and environments, we can consider design as the conception and planning of the artificial (Margolin, 1995), having in mind the direct consequences for the consumer/user of this way of given material form to an idea (Bonsiepe,1999).
Data Dissemination and Query Routing in Mobile Peer-to-Peer Networks
Authors: Repantis Thomas , Kalogeraki Vana
Published: May 2011

In this chapter the authors study the problems of data dissemination and query routing in mobile peerto- peer networks. They provide a taxonomy and discussion of existing literature, spanning overlay topologies, query routing, and data propagation. They proceed by proposing content-driven routing and adaptive data dissemination algorithms for intelligently routing search queries in a peer-to-peer network that supports mobile users. In the authors’ mechanism, nodes build content synopses of their data and adaptively disseminate them to their most appropriate peers. Based on the content synopses, a routing mechanism is being built, to forward the queries to those peers that have a high probability of providing the desired results. The authors provide an experimental evaluation of different dissemination strategies, which shows that content-driven routing and adaptive data dissemination is highly scalable and significantly improves resource usage.
Open Infrastructure for a Nationwide Emergency Services Network
Authors: Gaynor Mark , Brander Scott , Pearce Alan , Post Ken
Published: May 2011

The article suggests and supports a public policy in which the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) should seize a unique opportunity to resolve some of the nation’s critical communications problems in times of crises with the allocation of a portion of the spectrum at 700 MHz for the deployment of a nationwide interoperable emergency broadband wireless network built by a public-private partnership. It then presents a convincing theoretical model that advocates that an open and/or neutral, as opposed to a closed, network will add greater efficiency, greater choice, while advancing public safety along with the deployment of new and valuable technologies, applications and services.
An Introduction to Optical Access Networks
Authors: Chochliouros Ioannis P. , Heliotis George A. , Spiliopoulou Anastasia S.
Published: May 2011

With the current continuously growing bandwidth demand, it is apparent that conventional broadband access solutions will quickly become bottlenecks in terms of bandwidth provision. In this chapter, the authors analyze the present global challenge for extended bandwidth provision in the scope of the fast developing electronic communications sector, creating a fully converged environment. In particular, first the authors examine several potential options imposed by distinct technologies, as they are currently applied in the marketplace. Then they present a comprehensive review of the emerging optical access solutions, focusing mainly on passive optical network (PON) technologies that promise to efficiently meet the anticipated growth in bandwidth demand and at the same time be economically viable and future-proof from an operator’s perspective, and evaluate their capabilities to the conventional copperbased broadband solutions. They also survey the current deployment efforts and relevant policies in the European Community area, as well as discuss why Europe is lagging with regard to deployment pace when compared to Asia and the USA. Specific and detailed analysis is given for recent developments performed in the European Union, where the authors identify current trends, potential hurdles and/or difficulties, as well as perspectives for further growth and development.
A Wireless Mesh Network Platform for Vehicle Positioning and Location Tracking
Authors: EL-Darieby Mohamed , Ahmed Hazem , Halfawy Mahmoud , Amer Ahmed , Abdulhai Baher
Published: May 2011

Large urban areas in North America as well as many other parts of the world are experiencing unprecedented and soaring congestion problems. It is imperative that modern societies upgrade their transportation systems in order to remain competitive, and maintain the high quality of life and social wellbeing. Current practices in Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) data gathering are dominated by the use of point detectors for surveillance, and wire-line communication networks for data transmission. Reliance on point detectors is losing appeal due to detector reliability issues, the cost of building and maintaining detector networks, and potential traffic disruption during construction and maintenance of these networks. This chapter describes a novel wireless mesh network platform for traffic monitoring. The platform uses traveling cars as data collection probes and uses wireless municipal mesh networks to transport sensed data. The platform assumes that cars or drivers’ mobile devices are equipped with the widely adopted low-cost Bluetooth wireless technology. Field trials of the proposed platform demonstrated its capability to track cars traveling at speeds of 0 to 70 km/hour. The platform was able to track cars as they travel and turn on a typical road network. In addition, the platform was used to approximate car speeds through determining the change in position in a time period. The preliminary results indicated an accuracy of ± 10%- 15%. The chapter describes the architecture, implementation, and field-testing of the proposed platform. It also discusses aspects of large-scale deployment of the proposed platform to cover large geographic areas.
Testbed Implementation of a Pollution Monitoring System Using Wireless Sensor Network for the Protection of Public Spaces
Authors: Roy Siuli , D Anurag , Bandyopadhyay Somprakash
Published: May 2011

Air pollution is an important environmental issue that has a direct effect on human health and ecological balance. Factories, power plants, vehicles, windblown dust and wildfires are some of the contributors of to pollution. Reasonable simulation tools exist for evaluating large scale sensor networks, ; however, they fail to capture significant details of node operation or practical aspects of wireless communication. Real life testbeds, capture the realism and bring out important aspects for further research. In this paper, we present an implementation of a wireless sensor network testbed for automatic and real-time monitoring of environmental pollution for the protection of public spaces. The paper describes the physical setup, the sensor node hardware and software architecture for “anytime, anywhere” monitoring and management of pollution data through a single, Web-based graphical user interface. The paper presents practical issues in the integration of sensors, actual power consumption rates and develops a practical hierarchical routing methodology.
Localization, Culture, and Global Communication
Authors: Chroust Gerhard
Published: May 2011

The ‘native language’ (the mother tongue) is one of the most decisive identity factors of a nation. Besides being of political importance, it carries a high emotional value and is strongly related to culture. Due to technology, particularly the Internet and due to individual ownership of computers people have more opportunities to interact and cooperate with others outside their local community (Nakakoji, 1996). As a consequence, software products must be used in different countries. As early as 1960, the first technological steps were made by IBM (Hensch, 2005) in order to find ways of processing and displaying Japanese characters. Initially, the prime concern was an adequate representation of national characters (including diacritical characters of European languages), typically called national language support. In the meantime, an ever increasing number of people are in need of using software products. Technological progress allows communication via pictures and also via colorful, animated displays showing people in their natural surroundings, resulting in software products becoming a part of their daily environment. Computers today execute more complex tasks in closer imitation of human behavior. As a consequence people expect the computer to adapt to their individual culture.
Evaluating Virtual Organisational Preparedness
Authors: Gall Peter , Burn Janice
Published: May 2011

As organisations enter an era of information superhighways, expanded electronic commerce, and “virtualness,” executives increasingly realise that in addition to business strategy influencing IT, IT now influences business strategy (Rockart et al., 1996). Hirschheim and Sabherwal (2001) confirmed the validity of previous findings and determined that it is important for organisations to understand the dynamic and emergent nature of business-information systems alignment. Recent perspectives on strategy argue that the basis for achieving competitive advantage, even short term advantage, lies in the configuration of resources that enable value creation through a sustained dynamic and continuous process of adaptation and change (Wheeler, 2002; Zahra & George, 2002; Breu & Peppard, 2001). Alignment competencies are created by leveraging the organisation’s specific resources and processes, structures and practices (Cumps et al., 2006).
Network Cooperation
Authors: Acevedo Manuel
Published: May 2011

Trends in international development cooperation point to the increasing networking of initiatives and programmes, facilitated by information and communications technology (ICT). This allows many more people and organizations from around the world to contribute to a given project, as with the case of online volunteers. There are various types of networks active in development cooperation, but network management needs to be incorporated by involved organizations in order to extract the expected benefits from their involvement. Network analysis practices will help determine if they are set up and managed ppropriately.
Electronic Intermediaries Managing and Orchestrating Organizational Networks Using E-Services
Authors: Janssen Marijn
Published: May 2011

Organizations increasingly cooperate in organizational networks. Electronic intermediaries can provide all kinds of e-services to support the creation and management of such networks. While there has been substantial discussion on intermediaries matching demand and supply, there has been little analysis in relation to the management and orchestration of organizational networks. In this article we analyze an intermediary that uses e-services for orchestrating a network in the consumer electronics industry. The empirical results show that the coordination and management of networks requires specific expertise and skills which result in the rise of intermediary specialized in orchestrating such organizational networks. The primary value creation activity of the intermediary is leveraging the products, activities and knowledge of the specialized companies and providing e-services for orchestrating the organizational network to create short lead times, improve customer responsiveness and ensure adaptability.
Application of Parametric Cost Estimation Model to Telecommunication Networks
Authors: Samanta Swadesh Kumar , Woods John , Ghanbari Mohammed
Published: May 2011

The parametric cost estimation approach has proved to be an efficient method for analyzing complex systems such as spacecraft, missiles, ships, buildings, etc where cost varies according to a number of parameters. The cost to provision a telecom network also depends on a number of parameters; but little research effort has been applied to estimate cost using this approach. In estimating the cost of a telecom network, most published research has considered two parameters; distance and bandwidth of a link and ignored the effects of other parameters. We have modeled the cost based on distance, bandwidth, geographical terrain and technology simultaneously using a parametric cost estimation methodology applied to real data obtained from the Indian Telecom Company, BSNL. Using the model, we show how a cost optimized network can be designed given the real world constraints. The applicability of our model to determine revenue sharing mechanism for an international call is also demonstrated.
An Exploratory, Longitudinal Study of Factors Influencing Development of a Networked Company
Authors: Hardy Bednar Deborah , Godkin Lynn
Published: May 2011

In 1901 the Gulf Refining Company was chartered to provide refining and sales support to the Spindletop oil field in southeast Texas (Gulf Oil History, 2003). A refinery was built immediately after on a 4,000 acre site. The facility was acquired in 1985 by Chevron as a part of a merger with Gulf (‘Congratulations Premcor 100 Years,’ 2001). In February 1995, Chevron sold the Port Arthur plant with an important proviso. Chevron agreed to perform any environmental remediation required by the United States Environmental Protection agency (U.S.-EPA) or the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission (TNRCC) after sale was complete. Chevron assumed responsibility for contamination associated with the site since 1901. A total of US$500 million was placed in reserve. Chevron was ultimately required to “make good” on the agreement, and Chevron established a networked company fulfill the obligation. This longitudinal study of that networked company reports the factors found to have positive, negative, and neutral effects on the project.
Management of Distributed Project Teams in Networks
Authors: van Fenema Paul C. , Oshri Ilan , Kotlarsky Julia
Published: May 2011

Today’s global economy depends on intra- and interorganizational distributed teams consisting of diversely specialized professionals for creating value in networks (DeSanctis & Fulk, 1999; Gerwin & Ferris, 2004), relying on accessible information and communication technologies (ICT) and infrastructures (Sobol & Apte, 1995). Distributed project teams represent a common organizational form for developing, connecting, and deploying diverse sources of expertise (Kotlarsky & Oshri, 2005). Resources in newly developed economies such as China and India are connected with those in developed countries in industries like software development, car manufacturing, electronics, transportation, pharmaceutical research, and business services. Noncommercial examples of distributed projects include education (Cramton, 2001), disaster response, global disease control, and (regional) policy development.
On Peer-to-Peer Location Management in Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks
Authors: Mo Zhaomin , Zhu Hao , Makki Kia , Pissinou Niki , Karimi Masoumeh
Published: May 2011

Vehicular ad-hoc networks (VANETs) have been gained importance for the inter-vehicle communication that supports local communication between vehicles without any expensive infrastructure and considerable configuration efforts. How to provide light-weight and scalable location management service which facilitates geographic routing in VANETs remains a fundamental issue. In this paper we will present a novel peer-to-peer location management protocol, called PLM, to provide location management service in VANETs. PLM makes use of high mobility in VANETs to disseminate vehicles’ historical location information over the network. A vehicle is able to predict current location of other vehicles with Kalman filtering technique. Our theoretical analysis shows that PLM is able to achieve high location information availability with a low protocol overhead and latency. The simulation results indicate that PLM can provide fairly accurate location information with quite low communication overhead in VANETs
Evaluating QoS in a Multi-Access Wireless Network
Authors: Skehill Ronan , Kent William , Picovici Dorel , Barry Michael , McGrath Sean
Published: May 2011

This chapter introduces quality of service in multi-access wireless networks. Specifically it demonstrates how QoS is implemented in IEEE 802.11 and UMTS. The chapter explains how these complementary technologies, when coupled together, provide a network that is greater than its individual parts. Combining these networks brings new network management challenges. To this end, the impact of joint admission control strategies on quality of service is evaluated. The evaluation is performed on an advanced test platform that replicates an integrated Release 4 UMTS network and standard IEEE 802.11b network. The results show that when UMTS and WLAN are tightly coupled, the end user enjoys a higher level of quality of service.
Ad Hoc Networks Testbed Using a Practice Smart Antenna with IEEE802.15.4 Wireless Modules
Authors: Watanabe Masahiro , Obana Sadao , Watanabe Takashi
Published: May 2011

Recent studies on directional media access protocols (MACs) using smart antennas for wireless ad hoc networks have shown that directional MACs outperform against traditional omini-directional MACs. Those studies evaluate the performance mainly on simulations, where antenna beam is assumed to be ideal, i.e., with neither side-lobes nor back-lobes. Propagation conditions are also assumed to be mathematical model without realistic fading. In this paper, we develop at first a testbed for directional MAC protocols which enables to investigate performance of MAC protocols in the real environment. It incorporates ESPAR as a practical smart antenna, IEEE802.15.4/ZigBee, GPS and gyro modules to allow easy installment of different MAC protocols. To our knowledge, it is the first compact testbed with a practical smart antenna for directional MACs. We implement a directional MAC protocol called SWAMP to evaluate it in the real environment. The empirical discussion based on the experimental results shows that the degradation of the protocol with ideal antennas, and that the protocol still achieves the SDMA effect of spatial reuse and the effect of communication range extension.
On the Impact of Network Dynamics on a Discovery Protocol for Ad-Hoc Networks
Authors: Liu Fei , Heijenk Geert
Published: May 2011

A very promising approach to discovering services and context information in ad-hoc networks is based on the use of Attenuated Bloom filters. In this paper we analyze the impact of changes in the connectivity of an ad-hoc network on this approach. We evaluate the performance of the discovery protocol while nodes appear, disappear, and move, through analytical and simulative analysis. The analytical results are shown to be accurate when node density is high. We show that an almost linear relation exists between the density of the network and the number of update messages to be exchanged. Further, in case of nodes moving, the number of messages exchanged does not increase with the speed of movement.
A Ranging Process in IEEE 802.16 Relay System
Authors: Lee Doo Hwan , Morikawa Hiroyuki
Published: May 2011

With the introduction of relay networks in IEEE 802.16 systems, modifications of the conventional system configuration are necessary. Although the standardization work of IEEE 802.16 relay systems is ongoing by the IEEE 802.16 relay task group, a few problems to be solved and optimized still exist. Among them, this article addresses a problem of ranging processes in the existing draft standard, and provides the solution. First, a thorough study of IEEE 802.16 relay systems and ranging processes is provided. Second, a problem of the existing ranging algorithm is stated, which considers the ranging transmit power control algorithm and the effect of the interference between MS-BS ranging (i.e. ranging between mobile station and base station), and MS-RS ranging (i.e. ranging between mobile station and relay station). Third, a solution of the described problem is provided, and modifications of the existing draft standard are proposed. Fourth, the performance of both existing and proposed ranging algorithms are analyzed and evaluated. A benefit of this article will be the provision of a guideline for the design of IEEE 802.16 relay systems.
Next-Generation Strategic Business Model for the U.S. Internet Service Providers
Authors: Willow Charles C.
Published: May 2011

The (information digital) network bandwidth and its usage through Internet subscription, by far, is perhaps the only uni-modal commodity provided to today’s consumers at a flat rate. Regardless of his/her actual bandwidth usage, a consumer is charged a uniform subscription fee by the Internet Service Providers (ISP). Meanwhile, the ISPs have a considerable stake in the overall infrastructure which supports the local perimeters of the Internet. This article presents a rigorous statistical analysis with the objective of determining the optimal billing or pricing policy for the ISPs of the U.S. on the basis of the proposed ‘variable subscription-rate’ business model. Two leading global consumer profiles were selected for data comparison on a cardinal scale; NYC, NY, U.S.A. and Seoul, South Korea.
Digital Rights Management for Untrusted Peer-to-Peer Networks
Authors: Priyadarshini Pallavi , Stamp Mark
Published: May 2011

Peer-to-peer (P2P) networks have proliferated and become ubiquitous. A school of thought has emerged that harnessing the established user-base and ease of content dissemination of such networks presents a potentially lucrative opportunity. However, content creators have been reluctant to adopt P2P networks as a distribution vehicle since these networks are plagued with piracy. This chapter focuses on developing a solution for distributing digital content in P2P networks in a way that established businesses and amateur artists alike can profit. We propose a content distribution system that employs Digital Rights Management (DRM) technologies and is independent of the underlying P2P network. Our system relies on innovative uses of security technologies to deter piracy. In addition, we include various non-technical features that encourage users to “play by the rules”.
Ontologies in the Health Field
Authors: Simonet Michel , Messai Radja , Diallo Gayo
Published: May 2011

Health data and knowledge had been structured through medical classifications and taxonomies long before ontologies had acquired their pivot status of the Semantic Web. Although there is no consensus on a common definition of an ontology, it is necessary to understand their main features to be able to use them in a pertinent and efficient manner for data mining purposes. This chapter introduces the basic notions about ontologies, presents a survey of their use in medicine and explores some related issues: knowledge bases, terminology, and information retrieval. It also addresses the issues of ontology design, ontology representation, and the possible interaction between data mining and ontologies.
A Classification Analysis of the Success of Open Source Health Information Technology Projects
Authors: Katsamakas Evangelos , Janamanchi Balaji , Raghupathi Wullianallur , Gao Wei
Published: May 2011

As the number of open source software (OSS) projects in healthcare grows rapidly, researchers are faced with the challenge of understanding and explaining the success of the open source phenomenon. This article proposes a research framework that examines the roles of project sponsorship, license type, development status and technological complements in the success of open source health information technology (HIT) projects and it develops a systematic method for classifying projects based on their success potential. Drawing from economic theory, a novel proposition in the authors’ framework suggests that higher project-license restrictiveness will increase OSS adoption, because organizations will be more confident that the OSS project will remain open source in the future. Applying the framework to a sample of open source software projects in healthcare, the authors find that although project sponsorship and license restrictiveness influence project metrics, they are not significant predictors of project success categorization. On the other hand, development status, operating system and programming language are significant predictors of an OSS project’s success categorization. Application implications and future research directions are discussed.