bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Data Quality and Work Alignment
Authors: Al-Hakim Latif , Xu Hongjiang
Published: May 2011

Organisational decision-makers have experienced the adverse effects of decisions based on information of inferior quality. Millions of dollars have been spent on information systems to improve data quality (DQ)1 as well as the skills and capacity of IT professionals. It is an important issue that the IT professionals align their work within the expectation of the organization’s vision. This chapter provides some theoretical background to DQ and establishes a link between DQ, performance-importance analysis and work alignment. Four case studies are presented to support the theory developed in this chapter and to answer the question as to whether the IT professionals consider DQ issues differently from other information users.
Issues on Image Authentication
Authors: Lin Ching-Yung
Published: May 2011

Multimedia authentication distinguishes itself from other data integrity security issues because of its unique property of content integrity in several different levels — from signal syntax levels to semantic levels. In this section, we describe several image authentication issues, including the mathematical forms of optimal multimedia authentication systems, a description of robust digital signature, the theoretical bound of information hiding capacity of images, an introduction of the self-authentication-and-recovery image (SARI) system, and a novel technique for image/video authentication in the semantic level. This chapter provides an overview of these image authentication issues.
Computational Intelligence Techniques Driven Intelligent Agents for Web Data Mining and Information Retrieval
Authors: Mohammadian Masoud , Jentzsch Ric
Published: May 2011

The World Wide Web has added an abundance of data and information to the complexity of information for disseminators and users alike. With this complexity has come the problem of finding useful and relevant information. There is a need for improved and intelligent search and retrieval engines. Current search engines are primarily passive tools. To improve the results returned by searches, intelligent agents and other technology have the potential, when used with existing search and retrieval engines, to provide a more comprehensive search with an improved performance. This research provides the building blocks for integrating intelligent agents with current search engines. It shows how an intelligent system can be constructed to assist in better information filtering, gathering and retrieval. The research is unique in the way the intelligent agents are directed and in how computational intelligence techniques (such as evolutionary computing and fuzzy logic) and intelligent agents are combined to improve information filtering and retrieval. Fuzzy logic is used to access the performance of the system and provide evolutionary computing with the necessary information to carry out its search.
How to Use Photoshop to Improve the Gestalt of an Image
Authors: Emme Linda
Published: May 2011

Visual communication through images depends upon the composition of forms within the image having a structure, or Gestalt, to carry the content through the end-user’s perception process to a state of understanding. Looking at an image while squinting the eyes and thus suppressing color information and detail can easily identify composition problems. Visually disruptive problem areas can be selected in Photoshop, and the value and color corrected using Adjustment Layers. Directions are included for cleaning up of distracting visual trash such as dust, hair, scratches or unwanted objects. Step-by-step directions and examples explain the entire process.
Content-Based Video Indexing and Retrieval
Authors: Fan Jianping , Zhu Xingquan , Xiao Jing
Published: May 2011

Recent advances in digital video compression and networks have made videos more accessible than ever. Several content-based video retrieval systems have been proposed in the past.  In this chapter, we first review these existing content-based video retrieval systems and then propose a new framework, called ClassView, to make some advances towards more efficient content-based video retrieval. This framework includes: (a) an efficient video content analysis and representation scheme to support high-level visual concept characterization; (b) a hierarchical video classification technique to bridge the semantic gap between low-level visual features and high-level semantic visual concepts; and (c) a hierarchical video database indexing structure to enable video access over large-scale database. Integrating video access with efficient database indexing tree structures has provided a great opportunity for supporting more powerful video search engines.
A Call to Action
Authors: Kaluzniacky Eugene
Published: May 2011

This book was not written primarily for academic interest (or for entertainment). Given existing interest among IT workers in some psychological factors and calls from respected professionals for further development, the book is intended primarily as a catalyst to further action regarding comprehensive psychological awareness in IT. To this end, specific suggestions for action are now outlined for individual IT workers, employing IT organizations, university academics, and professional IT associations. Possibilities for collaboration on innovative efforts are also presented.
Building Sustainable Communities of Practice
Authors: Stuckey Bronwyn , Smith John D.
Published: May 2011

The authors have both been involved as designers, producers and facilitators of CPsquare’s Foundations of Communities of Practice Workshop (www.cpsquare.com). Through that ongoing exposure to learning and leading in Communities of Practice (CoPs), they became convinced that stories about CoPs play a crucial role in motivation and learning for community leaders. Within communities, the swapping of stories is a means by which local theories of cause and effect are developed and contextualized. These stories provide powerful ways of invoking context, of framing choices and actions and of constructing identity (Bruner, 2002). From the context of a Community of Practice (CoP) concerned with the cultivation of CoPs, (i.e., the Foundations workshop) there is strong anecdotal evidence that stories are of equal value to practitioners and researchers alike. As part of an extended research activity, and parallel to this growing conviction about stories, Stuckey analysed the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) raised over six iterations of the workshop. The ten most frequently asked questions became the basis of semi-structured interviews held with the developers and managers of the communities described in this chapter. The chapter presents the essence of seven community cases and is intended as an enticement to explore the full case descriptions and community stories (which are beyond the limitations of this printed publication) at http://www.cpsquare.org/cases/.
Extending Richness with Reach
Authors: Teigland Robin , Wasko
Published: May 2011

In an effort to replicate Communities of Practice online, organizations are investing in Information Technologies that create intra-organizational electronic networks, or “Electronic Networks of Practice”. These networks are designed to enable the creation of electronic “bridging ties” between geographically dispersed organizational members to provide a communication space in which individuals working on similar problems may quickly ask each other for help on task-related problems. This chapter compares the dynamics of knowledge exchange between Electronic Networks of Practice and traditional Communities of Practice. In addition, this chapter examines why people participate and help others in the network, as well as whether participation has an impact on knowledge outcomes and individual performance. In order to investigate these issues, data were collected from a successful electronic network at one of Europe’s largest consulting companies. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the results and implications for both managers and researchers interested in the dynamics of electronic knowledge exchange.
Double Agents
Authors: Davenport Elisabeth
Published: May 2011

This chapter reflects on work to create computer-supported Communities of Practice among small enterprises in the tourism sector and to establish a knowledge network for destination management. The work was undertaken as part of a project funded by the European Community. The author draws on recent work by Dourish in which he makes a case for an approach to design that takes account of both ‘embodiment’ and ‘embeddedness’. An online knowledge network is embedded in a given domain, but it is also embodied in physical interactors working with machines. Novices who interact in this environment by means of ICTs are thus double agents, working in a domain but also working with artefacts. Where the ‘workings’ of a device are not fully understood, expectations of what may be achieved in an interaction are likely to be unrealistic; this may affect the reach and richness of a knowledge network.
Formulating Policy on E-Commerce and Trade for SMEs in the Asia Pacific Region
Authors: Breen John , Bergin-Seers Suzanne , Burgess Stephen , Campbell Gordon , Mahmood Muhammad , Sims Robert
Published: May 2011

This chapter examines the role that the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) has played in setting government policy to encourage increased trade by SMEs. A study of six “successful” micro and small businesses in APEC economies that was commissioned by APEC examines their attitudes towards trade and e-commerce. The case studies show that e-commerce can be a facilitator to trade for businesses with a propensity towards entrepreneurship and good management practices. To other businesses it may be seen as an inhibitor due to the lack of knowledge associated with its use and its benefits. The chapter shows how APEC used this study and some of its other initiatives to develop its IT and e-commerce policy for SMEs as part of its overall policy for SME development in the region.
Providing Information for Business
Authors: Castleman Tanya , Cavill Marina
Published: May 2011

Governments assume a major role in providing information resources for business as a way of promoting national development. This has proven to be a much more demanding task than one might suppose, given the diversity and complexity of business needs and the limitation of government resources for undertaking the task. This chapter will: (1) identify the challenges posed for government online business information strategies, (2) discuss research relating to the information strategy of one Australian government agency to support export development among small business, and (3) set out a framework for government online information provision in a diverse industry context. Coordination of the many government information services remains a challenge, especially among different levels of government. Well-designed strategies can improve the usability of online information and the efficiency of government information services.
Trust in Virtual Teams
Authors: Bradley Wray E. , Vozikis George S.
Published: May 2011

Discussed in this chapter are the role and importance of trust in virtual teams. It is suggested that the nature and degree of this trust are related to the culture and management philosophies of a firm, the interpersonal skills of management and team leaders, and the psychological characteristics and prior experiences and expectations of the team members. Trust and trust building are examined at three different levels: the firm level, the manager or team leader level, and the individual member level. A better understanding of the dynamics of trust in virtual teams will assist management in developing more efficient and effective virtual collaborative teams.
Motivational Antecedents, Constituents, and Consequents of Virtual Community Identity
Authors: Dholakia Utpal M. , Bagozzi Richard P.
Published: May 2011

In understanding the influence of virtual communities on its members, examined in this chapter is the role of identity — the member’s conscious knowledge of belonging and the emotional and evaluative significance attached to the membership. Drawing from research and analyses across different disciplines, we present an integrative framework considering and elaborating on the motivational antecedents, constituents, and consequents of virtual community identity. We also discuss its implications for virtual community organizers and highlight promising research opportunities in this area.
Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery
Authors: Baritchi Andi
Published: May 2011

In today’s business world, the use of computers for everyday business processes and data recording has become virtually ubiquitous. With the advent of this electronic age comes one priceless by-product — data. As more and more executives are discovering each day, companies can harness data to gain valuable insights into their customer base. Data mining is the process used to take these immense streams of data and reduce them to useful knowledge. Data mining has limitless applications, including sales and marketing, customer support, knowledge-base development, not to mention fraud detection for virtually any field, etc. “Data mining,” a bit of a misnomer, refers to mining the data to find the gems hidden inside the data, and as such it is the most often-used reference to this process. It is important to note, however, that data mining is only one part of the Knowledge Discovery in Databases process, albeit it is the workhorse. In this chapter, we provide a concise description of the Knowledge Discovery process, from domain analysis and data selection, to data preprocessing and transformation, to the data mining itself, and finally the interpretation and evaluation of the results as applied to the domain. We describe the different flavors of data mining, including association rules, classification and prediction, clustering and outlier analysis, customer profiling, and how each of these can be used in practice to improve a business’ understanding of its customers. We introduce the reader to some of today’s hot data mining resources, and then for those that are interested, at the end of the chapter we provide a concise technical overview of how each data-mining technology works.
Bypassing Legacy Systems Obstacles
Authors: Skibo James E.
Published: May 2011

This chapter describes both the nature of trade allowances and the unique approach taken by one major retailer in overcoming legacy system obstacles in its efforts to identify and collect allowances. Trade allowances have the potential for very substantial returns for retailers and they are often used as a bargaining tool between manufacturers and retailers. Also, the nature of the allowances is that they are rarely ever account-specific and, as a result, are collected by organizations on a first-come, first-served basis. In other words, whichever organization manages to claim the allowance first is generally the organization that will get the funds from manufacturers. As a result, there is only a small body of literature on the subject and virtually no literature that describes the systems used for trade allowance identification and collection. It is necessary to understand what trade allowances are in order to fully understand the system employed to identify and collect them, and this chapter provides a brief primer on trade allowances. The chapter then describes the unique approach taken by a major retailer to garner a significant amount of income from these allowances. The approach was novel in that it bypassed the traditional approach that would have been to expend the time and resources to reinvigorate or reinvent its many legacy systems. Starting with less than $700,000 in trade allowances in the years preceding 1997, the system developed by the retailer has netted them in excess of $65 million (USD) in 2002.
Transformation of XML Schema to Object Relational Database
Authors: Widjaya Nathalia Devina , Taniar David , Rahayu Johanna Wenny
Published: May 2011

XML (eXtensible Markup Language) is fast emerging as the dominant standard for describing data and interchanging data between various systems and databases on the Internet. It offers the XML schema definition language as formalism for defining the syntax and structure of XML documents, providing rich facilities for defining and constraining the content of XML documents. Nevertheless, to enable efficient business application development in large-scale e-commerce environments, XML needs to have databases to keep all the data. Hence, it will inevitably be necessary to use methods to describe the XML schema in the Object-Relational Database (ORDB) formats. In this chapter, we present the way to transform the XML encoded format, which can be treated as a logical model, to the ORDB format. The chapter first discusses the modeling of XML and why we need the transformation. Then, a number of transformation steps from the XML schema to the Object-Relational Logical model and XML to ORDB are presented. Three perspectives regarding this conceptual relationship (aggregation, association and inheritance) and their transformations are mainly discussed.
A Knowledge-Based Web Information System for the Fusion of Distributed Classifers
Authors: Tsoumakas Grigorios , Bassiliades Nick , Vlahavas Ioannis
Published: May 2011

This chapter presents the design and development of WebDisC, a knowledge-based web information system for the fusion of classifiers induced at geographically distributed databases. The main features of our system are: (i) a declarative rule language for classifier selection that allows the combination of syntactically heterogeneous distributed classifiers; (ii) a variety of standard methods for fusing the output of distributed classifiers; (iii) a new approach for clustering classifiers in order to deal with the semantic heterogeneity of distributed classifiers, detect their interesting similarities and differences, and enhance their fusion; and (iv) an architecture based on the Web services paradigm that utilizes the open and scalable standards of XML and SOAP.
Theoretical Justification of Critical Success Factors
Authors: Schelin Shannon H. , Garson G. David
Published: May 2011

The ability to more rigorously predict successful projects is critical in the wake of massive technology failures in both private and public settings. These failures, and the trepidation they cause, must be balanced with the new mandate, fostered in both public and private sectors, that organizations operate within new transparent and accessible structures, which are precipitated by Information Technology. These new structures require crosscutting services, which require improved communication and interaction across traditional organizational lines. These new requirements, which fundamentally alter the nature of the organization, are made possible through the strategic use of Information Technology. While idealistic, the fundamental changes in organizations are not easily achieved due to conflicting values, preferences, and objectives. As such, the identification and enactment of critical success factors associated with IT implementation becomes essential in order to mitigate the high failure rates commonly found in public and private sector IT initiatives (see Standish Group, 1995).
Aligning Assurance Requirements, Countermeasures, and Business
Authors: Kaucher Craig E.
Published: May 2011

The latest year-end statistics from the highly regarded CERT Coordination Center (CERT-CC) at Carnegie Mellon University once again demonstrate that there is little evidence of improvement in information assurance. The number of incidents reported to CERT-CC once again nearly doubled from the previous year, and for the first time exceeded the six-figure mark at 137,529 for 2003 (CERT, 2004).
Protecting Customer Provided Information
Authors: Rex IV Charles
Published: May 2011

Protecting customer provided information is crucial to the success of the organization. In order to maintain existing customers and attract new ones, firms must have a strategy to safeguard the information that the customers provide. The burden of responsibility is on the shoulders of the firm. The firm that demonstrates value to the customer and provides the most cost effective means of doing so will win in the competitive market.
Perceptions, User Satisfaction and Success
Authors: McGill Tanya J. , Klobas Jane E. , Hobbs Valerie J.
Published: May 2011

DeLone and McLean’s (1992) model of information systems success has received much attention among researchers. This study applies an adaptation of the full DeLone and McLean model, for the first time, in the user developer domain. Of the nine hypotheses derived from the model, four were found to be significant and the remainder not significant. There was strong support for the proposed relationships between perceived system quality and user satisfaction, perceived information quality and user satisfaction, user satisfaction and intended use, and user satisfaction and perceived individual impact. This study indicates that user perceptions of information systems success play a significant role in the user developed application domain. There was, however, no relationship between user developers’ perceptions of system quality and independent experts’ evaluations, and user ratings of individual impact were not associated with organizational impact measured as company performance in a business simulation. Further research is required to understand the relationship between user perceptions of information systems success and objective measures of success, and to provide a model of information systems success appropriate to end user development.
Demonstrating Value-Added Utilization of Existing Databases for Organizational Decision-Support
Authors: Friedman Nurit L. , Pliskin Nava
Published: May 2011

Managers of healthcare organizations are increasingly aware that the potential of medical information systems exceeds mere support of routine administrative and clinical transaction processing. This chapter describes a case study about Maccabi Health Services, the second largest health maintenance organization in Israel and the first one to computerize clinical records resulting from routine transactions in doctors’ offices, laboratories, and pharmacies. In this case about decision-making support practices, recycling the content of existing databases made it possible to discover patterns of sub-optimal treatment without having to invest time and money in additional data-collection procedures. The case study thus demonstrates value-added utilization of patient data, beyond uses intended at the beginning, for effectively supporting the implementation and evaluation of disease-management programs. Lessons learned about organizational benefits reaped from the organization’s decision-support practices include implications for such initiatives as data warehousing, data mining, and online analytical processing.
Making Knowledge Management System an Effective Tool for Learning and Training
Authors: Leung Albert C.K.
Published: May 2011

In view of the need of using knowledge management (KM) systems for learning and training, this chapter discusses six major design factors of such KM systems based on learning literatures, namely media of representation, multiple perspectives, complexity, user control, online support and navigation aids. Their implications toward learning and training effectiveness as well as various strategies and implementation methods are investigated in four categories: content, motivation, support and accessibility. It is believed that by considering the factors involved and their potential impacts on learning in the design of KM systems, the effectiveness of using these systems for learning, training and problem solving will be significantly improved.
Enterprise Portals and Knowledge Management Processes
Authors: Chaudhry Abdus S.
Published: May 2011

Many portal products have been marketed as knowledge management tools, implying that benefits of knowledge management can be achieved by implementing a portal. Our research suggests that portal products are not able to fully support the requirements of knowledge management functions. Products reviewed were strong in providing personalization, content management, folder-sharing and search or retrieval services. However, they lacked in services such as categorization, workflow, document management, collaboration, and business intelligence. In order to improve on the support for knowledge management, portals should be able to handle multimedia, incorporate metadata or taxonomy into their content and provide tools for workflow and mining. Enterprise portals might not fully support the processes within the knowledge management life cycle, but they remain as the only technology with the most potential to serve as the main infrastructure for knowledge management.
A Method of Assessing Information System Security Controls
Authors: Pattinson Malcolm R.
Published: May 2011

This chapter introduces a method of assessing the state of an organization’s information system security by evaluating the effectiveness of the various IS controls that are in place. It describes how the Goal Attainment Scaling (GAS) methodology (Kiresuk, Smith & Cardillo, 1994) was used within a South Australian Government Agency and summarizes the results of this research. The major purpose of this research was to investigate whether the GAS methodology is a feasible method of assessing the state of security of an organization’s information systems. Additional objectives of this research were to determine the suitability of the GAS methodology as a self-evaluation tool and its usefulness in determining the extent of compliance with a mandated IS security standard.
Multilingual Lyric Modeling and Management
Authors: Bellini Pierfrancesco , Bruno Ivan , Nesi Paolo
Published: May 2011

This chapter presents a new way to model multilingual lyrics within symbolic music scores. This new model allows one to “plug” onto the symbolic score different lyrics depending on the language. This is done by keeping separate the music notation model and the lyrics model. An object-oriented model of music notation and for lyrics representation are presented with many examples. These models have been implemented in the music editor produced within the WEDELMUSIC IST project. A specific language has been developed to associate the lyrics with the score; the language is able to represent syllables, melismas (extended syllables), refrains, etc. Moreover, the most important music notation formats are reviewed focusing on their representation of multilingual lyrics.
Evaluation in the Visual Perception of Music
Authors: George Susan E.
Published: May 2011

This chapter is about the need to evaluate the recognition performed by (i) Optical Music Recognition (OMR) systems, and also by (ii) counterpart on-line systems that directly recognize handwritten music input through a pen-based interface. It presents a summary of reviews that have been performed for commercial OMR systems and addresses some of the issues in evaluation that must be taken into account to enable adequate comparison of recognition performance. A representation language [HEART (HiErARchical Text-Based Representation)] is suggested, such that the semantics of music is captured (including the dynamics of handwritten music) and, hence, a target representation provided for recognition processes. Initial consideration of the range of test data that is needed (MusicBase I and II) is also made. The chapter is motivated by the outstanding need for (i) a greater understanding of how to evaluate the accuracy of music recognition systems, (ii) a widely available database of music test data (potentially automatically generated), (iii) an expression of this test data in a format that permits evaluation (for OMR and on-line systems) and (iv) the proliferation of representation languages — none of which captures the dynamics of handwritten music.
Management and Analysis of Time-Related Data in Internet-Based Healthcare Delivery
Authors: Nugent Chris D. , Augusto Juan C.
Published: May 2011

Technological advancements have and will continue to revolutionize the way healthcare is being delivered and the interaction between patients and healthcare professionals. A key component to these changes will be an extension to the utilization of the Internet, further exploiting the extensible and interoperable features it offers. In addition to providing a distributed communications infrastructure, the ability to incorporate within Internet-based systems a means of intelligent data analysis in supporting healthcare management has now become a reality. In this chapter, we provide the rationale for usage of the Internet as a core infrastructure for a holistic approach to distributed healthcare management and supplement this through the identification of the potential role of temporal reasoning in addressing the time relevance of patient centered clinical information. Our work is exemplified through case studies where Internet-based systems and temporal reasoning may be employed.
Optimal Feedback Production for a Supply Chain
Authors: Wong K. , Lee H. W.J. , Chan Chi Kin
Published: May 2011

In this chapter, we modeled the dynamics of a supply chain considered by several authors. An infinite-horizon, time-delayed, optimal control problem was thus obtained. By approximating the time interval [0, ¥] by [0, Tf ], we obtained an approximated problem (P(Tf )) which could be easily solved by the control parameterization method. Moreover, we could show that the objective function of the approximated problem converged to that of the original problem as Tf ® ¥. Several examples have been solved to illustrate the efficiency of our method. In these examples, some important results relating the production rate to demand rate have been developed.
Life Cycle Considerations for Supply Chain Strategy
Authors: Higuchi Toru , Troutt Marvin D. , Polin Brian A.
Published: May 2011

The goal of this chapter is to propose a framework for the dynamics of supply chains from a life cycles point of view. It is inevitable for supply chains to be affected by the life cycles of the product. There are three important interrelated life cycles that have effects on the dynamics of supply chains and are associated with the product. These are: (i) the innovation (Abernathy & Clark, 1983), (ii) the market (Kotler, 1999), and (iii) the location (Vernon, 1966). The first life cycle related to the innovation illustrates how the product and production process progress. It gives us a hint to consider the feasibility of the location dependent on the degree of innovativeness of the product. The second one related to the market clarifies the marketing objectives in each stage. It suggests the reasonable location strategy. The last one related to the location proposes the relation between the product and the reasonable location of the manufacturing facilities. It is operational because it considers the timing and the reason to shift the manufacturing facilities. In this chapter, we discuss the mission and structure of the supply chain in the different stages of these life cycles. We illustrate the proposed framework using the case of the VCR.
Information Technology and Hegelian Inquiring Organizations
Authors: Chae Bongsug , Courtney James F. , Haynes John D.
Published: May 2011

This chapter demonstrates how Hegelian inquiring systems may be applied to wicked problem situations and knowledge work and how Hegelian inquiring organizations are well suited for the discontinuous environments of the new world of business (Malhotra, 1997, 2000). In addition, the chapter discusses how Hegelian organizations and how emerging information technologies can support Hegelian processes, especially the Hegelian dialectic. We claim that extant information systems (IS) are not suitable for wicked situations due to their rigidity, which stems from a philosophical basis of logical positivism, coupled with the prevailing functionalistic, technology-driven IS development models. The need for a new approach is suggested, based on a multiple perspective pluralistic approach.
Avoiding Epistemological Myopia
Authors: Mason Robert M.
Published: May 2011

Organizational approaches to knowledge management are unlikely to lead to organizational wisdom unless the organization increases its awareness of factors that contribute to epistemological myopia—a nearsightedness that limits what and how the organization knows and how it learns. Contributors to this myopia include organizational learning pathologies, an unquestioning acceptance of fundamental concepts, such as time, and measuring success as the absence of failure. In many instances, the vocabulary, language, and business methods used by an organization, society, or culture reify these pathological factors and thereby further hamper the potential for learning. By raising our awareness of these contributors and the factors that support their reification and continued acceptance, we seek either to avoid these limitations or to develop corrective lenses that can extend the organization’s vision and enable it to resolve issues with greater clarity. The conceptual frameworks used in this chapter are drawn from four distinct areas of study: systems theory, organizational knowledge and learning, the organization as a learning community and community of practice, and linguistic relativity. The underlying theme is the organization as an inquiring system—a system that seeks to learn and become more knowledgeable. Because learning processes are culturally biased, and the bias is reinforced by a culture’s values, language, and vocabulary, the premise is that these biases and values constrain the organization’s epistemological methods and processes. The potential solutions to epistemological myopia include deliberate nurturing of cultural diversity, the institutionalization of Singerian approaches to inquiry, and the fostering of managed risk in experiments that do not guarantee success. While few organizations exhibit all of these desirable characteristics, there are some examples from the literature and practice that provide confidence that organizations can avoid epistemological myopia.
Evolutionary Turing Machines
Authors: Machado Penousal , Pereira Francisco B. , Tavares Jorge , Costa Ernesto , Cardoso Amílcar
Published: May 2011

In this chapter we study the feasibility of using Turing Machines as a model for the evolution of computer programs. To assess this idea we select, as test problem, the Busy Beaver — a well-known theoretical problem of undisputed interest and difficulty proposed by Tibor Rado in 1962. We focus our research on representational issues and on the development of specific genetic operators, proposing alternative ways of encoding and manipulating Turing Machines. The results attained on a comprehensive set of experiments show that the proposed techniques bring significant performance improvements. Moreover, the use of a graph based crossover operator, in conjunction with new representation techniques, allowed us to establish new best candidates for the 6, 7, and 8 states instances of the 4-tuple Busy Beaver problem.
Genetic Programming Using a Turing-Complete Representation
Authors: Yabuki Taro , Iba Hitoshi
Published: May 2011

In this chapter, a new representation scheme for Genetic Programming (GP) is proposed. We need a Turing-complete representation for a general method of generating programs automatically; that is, the representation must be able to express any algorithms. Our representation is a recurrent network consisting of trees (RTN), which is proved to be Turing-complete. In addition, it is applied to the tasks of generating language classifiers and a bit reverser. As a result, RTN is shown to be usable in evolutionary computing.
Integrating Evolutionary Computation Components in Ant Colony Optimization
Authors: Alonso Sergio , Cordon Oscar , de Viana Iñaki Fernández , Herrera Francisco
Published: May 2011

This chapter introduces two different ways to integrate Evolutionary Computation Components in Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) Meta-heuristic. First of all, the ACO meta-heuristic is introduced and compared to Evolutionary Computation to notice their similarities and differences. Then two new models of ACO algorithms that include some Evolutionary Computation concepts (Best-Worst Ant System and exchange of memoristic information in parallel ACO algorithms) are presented with some empirical results that show improvements in the quality of the solutions when compared with more basic and classical approaches.
India
Authors: Banerjee Syagnik (Sy) , Lennon Mark M.
Published: May 2011

This chapter presents our perspective on the evolution of m-commerce in India, where the telecommunications sector was privatized in 1992 and further deregulated in 1999. The chapter introduces the leading mobile telecom players and relates them to the emerging trends. Intertwined with this narrative are descriptions of specific m-commerce cases which deploy SMS in just about every application. These cases are further analyzed using the CLIP framework, illustrating the Indian markets’ adaptive capacity to employ low-end technology to deliver high-end solutions. The chapter concludes with lessons drawn from the Indian experience, and outlines some directions for future research.
An Introduction to Inter-Organizational Information Systems with Selected Bibliography
Authors: Eom Sean B.
Published: May 2011

One of the important roles of information technology is to permit firms to manage organizational interdependence. Over the past two decades, the concept of inter-organizational information systems (IOISs) has emerged as a strategic tool for achieving competitive advantages and IOISs have been a major research theme. Many well-known examples of information systems that provide competitive advantages discussed in the literature are those of IOISs. This chapter provides the readers with a brief overview of foundational concepts, definitions, and the information technology infrastructure of IOIS. Finally, the chapter systematically classifies the IOIS literature of 192 bibliographic items into 10 subspecialties. Therefore, along with this survey of 192 bibliographic items, readers are referred to Ngai and Wat’s recent survey (Ngai & Wat, 2002) to comprehend the big picture of IOISs.
An Examination of Inter-Organizational Decision Support Systems
Authors: Power Daniel J. , Kaparthi Shashidhar
Published: May 2011

A broad range of Inter-Organizational Decision Support Systems (IODSSs) can be built to support external stakeholders of an organization. This article examines recent developments associated with building and deploying such systems. The IODSS concept is defined, and an information technology architecture for such a system is explored. Examples of current implementations are categorized as communication, data, document, knowledge, and model-driven IODSSs. Further, implementations of IODSSs are categorized as customer- and supplier-focused. Advantages, disadvantages, and current issues associated with IODSSs conclude the discussion.
Some Applications of Fuzzy Databases With FSQL
Authors: Galindo Jose , Urrutia Angelica , Piattini Mario
Published: May 2011

The applications of databases are immense. In almost all of them, the advantages of the fuzzy databases can be applied, exploiting their innovative features and possibilities without losing usefulness. Even the model presented here permits an easy use of those advantages in already existing traditional databases. The Type 1 fuzzy attributes are traditional attributes that admit fuzzy queries on them (by using labels, approximate values, fuzzy comparators, etc.). Imprecise information is a common phenomenon in any context, so it is not unusual to receive information in an incomplete or inexact way. In traditional databases, if information other than precise information exists, the value NULL is stored, preventing the storage of any known information, because the facts are not precise.
Objective and Perceived Complexity and Their Impacts on Internet Communication
Authors: Chen Qimei
Published: May 2011

In this chapter, a general framework has been proposed to address the relationship between objective complexity and perceived complexity and their impacts on Internet communication effectiveness. Previous literature on objective complexity, perceived complexity, optimal complexity and cognitive complexity was reviewed. Based on the literature review, feasible measures of objective complexity, perceived complexity and optimal complexity are proposed. Finally, seven propositions are generated to chart the relationship within different types of complexity and between different types of complexity and communication effectiveness. The author hopes that by capturing the objective complexity using a system-centered approach while capturing the perceived complexity using a user-centered approach, a more holistic understanding of the complexity phenomenon will be assured.
Turning Web Surfers into Loyal Customers
Authors: Del Giudice Manlio
Published: May 2011

This chapter focuses on how Web site elements (e.g., interface design, tools provided, usability, information, etc.) can influence customer satisfaction and prevent switching behaviors, acting as positive switching costs. Some switching barriers can be seen as more positive in their nature and others as more negative. Then, psychologically, customers remain loyal to a supplier either because they want to or they have to. Following this approach, the aim of this chapter, therefore, is to highlight the strategic role that positive switching costs, stemming from a well-designed Web site, play both in traditional sectors and in the expanding networked environment. Furthermore, we develop an empirical customer switching cost framework in an effort to improve understanding and management of this phenomenon.
Modeling Development Processes in MGS
Authors: Giavitto Jean-Louis , Michel Olivier
Published: May 2011

Biology has long inspired unconventional models of computation to computer scientists. This chapter focuses on a model inspired by biological development both at the molecular and cellular levels. Such biological processes are particularly interesting for computer science because the dynamic organization emerges from many decentralized and local interactions that occur concurrently at several time and space scales. Thus, they provide a source of inspiration to solve various problems related to mobility, distributed systems, open systems, etc. The fundamental mechanisms of biological development are now understood as changes within a complex dynamical system. This chapter advocates that these fundamental mechanisms, although mainly developed in a continuous framework, can be rephrased in a discrete setting relying on the notion of rewriting in a topological setting. The discrete formulation is as formal as the continuous one, enables the simulation, and opens a way to the systematic study of the behavioral properties of the biological systems. Directly inspired from these developmental processes, the chapter presents an experimental programming language called MGS. MGS is dedicated to the modeling and simulation of dynamical systems with dynamical structures. The chapter illustrates the basic notions of MGS through several algorithmic examples and by sketching various biological models.
Ontology-Driven Method Engineering for Information Systems Development
Authors: Holten Roland , Dreiling Alexander , Becker Jörg
Published: May 2011

Information systems development has to deal with evolving technologies and changing environments. Therefore, the engineering of methods as the problem of creating suitable instruments for new situations is critical to information systems development. The failure of IS development projects shows that method engineering is an open field. The question is if and how research on ontology can contribute to overcome the current situation. We show, based on linguistic and philosophical findings, how ontology can be used as linchpin in method engineering. We found that the language critique approach of Kamlah and Lorenzen (1984) provides the means to create ontologies by linguistic actions and that ontologies are always related to language communities sharing the knowledge of using a common language in communication processes. We present an ontology-driven engineering method for information systems development. Our method helps to create required language constructs to handle new situations. The ontology-driven engineering method is demonstrated using an elaborate example case.
EPE According to ISO 14031
Authors: Seifert Eberhard K.
Published: May 2011

ISO 14031 on “Environmental Performance Evaluation” (EPE) was released in late 1999 and published in Germany by DIN in early 2000 also as DIN EN ISO 14031 in two languages (German and English) as the last standard of the original ISO-14000 family started in 1993 as a follow-up to the UN world summit in Rio 1992. But even before 1999/2000 users had already begun gathering experience with this new instrument for measuring performance, which had proven the standard to be an effective instrument especially for small-to-medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) both for continual improvement processes in operative environmental protection and as a basis for lean reporting to external stakeholders. Once again it was the ecological pioneer KUNERT AG which became the first mover to practically apply and test the standard with a view to improving it in view of the first revision process of the standard planned for 2004.
ORISS
Authors: Giesecke Simon , Reents Gerriet
Published: May 2011

In this chapter, we present the Web-based carpooling system ORISS, which was initially developed by a student project group at University of Oldenburg. It is currently being deployed at Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg with support of the DBU (Federal German Foundation for the Environment). We describe the role of carpools in traffic, particularly in commuter traffic, and show perspectives of an increased usage of carpools. A significant impact on the eco-balance of the university can be expected. We explain how Internet technologies and geographic information systems can be used for the arrangement of carpools, and show advantages over traditional methods of carpooling. The concrete architecture of ORISS and the algorithms used are outlined. We conclude the chapter by describing the circumstances of deployment and propose possible future extensions of the system.
Remote Monitoring of Nuclear Power Plants in Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany
Authors: Hurster Walter , Bieber Klaus , Klahn Bruno , Micheler Reinhard , Wilbois Thomas , Obrecht Roland , Schmidt Fritz
Published: May 2011

The technical implementation of a new remote monitoring system for nuclear power plants is described in this chapter as an example of a modern environmental monitoring and surveillance system. The concept, the architectural design and the user interface of this system had to meet extremely high demands. Fulfilling the imposed requirements, a system solution was developed which is suitable not only for environmental monitoring but also for hazard management and early warning systems. The pilot installation of this system has successfully passed the operational test phase and has been in full operation since August 2001.
The Dimensions of Business Process Change in Electronic Government
Authors: Scholl Hans Jochen
Published: May 2011

Governments at all levels and across all branches have been urged to become leaner and smarter, providing better and faster service at lower cost. Such fundamental change, however, inevitably impacts the business processes governments work by. So far, though, business process change has mostly been studied in the private sector. Electronic government (e-government, e-gov) appears as a potent enabler when reinventing the way government is doing business. According to Layne and Lee (2001), four stages of development can be distinguished in electronic government. This chapter maps the dimensions of business process change into the developmental stages of electronic government, providing a roadmap for business process change through electronic government.