bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Institutional Dimensions of Information Systems Evaluation
Authors: Serafeimidis Vassilis
Published: May 2011

Information systems evaluation is embedded in many social and organisational processes, and thus is a particularly complex decision process. Evaluation happens in many ways (e.g. formally, informally), uses diverse criteria (e.g. financial, technical, social), follows rigorous methodologies or gut feelings and often becomes a political instrument which influences the balance of organisational power. The existing literature (Ballantine et al., 1995; Farbey et al. 1992; Willcocks and Lester 1994; Ward et al. 1996) identifies noticeable gaps between academic theories, commercially available methodologies, and actual evaluation practice within organisations. Such gaps between theory and practice are not unusual and they have been reported in other research areas. Hsia (1993 p.14) for example argues: “The truth is that most companies have two sets of practices; one real, the other recommended.” In other words there are the formal evaluation practices promoted by organisational rules and structures, the informal practices implemented by stakeholders involved, and finally the academic recommendations which in many cases recognise the delicate nature of evaluation and suggest more interpretive considerations. The better theories tend to emphasise the complexity and richness of the evaluation problem situation or context while the available methodologies tend to oversimplify the process through cookbooks that focus on the more measurable aspects of the outcome of IT/IS investment. Meanwhile, the actual use of such methodologies in practice is often largely determined by the subjective views of individual stakeholders facing a combination of business, organisational and technological pressures.
Evaluating IS Quality
Authors: Wilkin Carla , Carr Rodney , Hewett Bill
Published: May 2011

IT Evaluation is essential, given that the value of investment in the IT industry is currently almost $2 trillion US. There is no doubt that an effective organisation will try to evaluate IT effectiveness, by linking performance measures with a financial perspective (i.e. a shareholders’ view); an internal business perspective (i.e. company planning for excellence); a customer perspective; and the innovation and learning perspective (i.e. the means to improve and create value), in order to move consistently forward. The last three perspectives are at times derived by using the same measures/instruments, via an interpretive approach based upon views of different tiers of stakeholders. Such an approach reflects a movement away from the more technical measures like benchmarking. Instead, IT effectiveness is evaluated in terms of the use of IT, or success of IT outcomes, through seeking to understand the effectiveness of the delivered IT application to the job performance of stakeholders. The merit of this interpretive approach is increasingly applicable to sectors like ecommerce, where it is very apparent that customers are concerned with the effectiveness of such IT applications. With regard to IT research, the interpretive approach was initially crystallised in the Success Model formulated by DeLone and McLean (1992). Their evaluative tools were Use and User Satisfaction. However, if research in related industries is considered, it rapidly becomes apparent that evaluation of quality is a more highly regarded approach. In seeking to adapt this approach to IT, it is important to consider the key components of an IT system, for which effectiveness would be measured in terms of quality; what quality means in an IT context; and how stakeholders internally derive an evaluation of such quality. In summary, this chapter reports on research which has produced a redefined IS Success Model, in which quality is the key to effectiveness. It also reports results of a related empirical study, which reaffirmed this IS Success Model and then investigated whether quality was better measured in terms of stakeholders’ expectations for IS performance and their perceptions of actual performance, or whether measurement of perceptions alone provided sufficient understanding of IS quality/effectiveness.
Evaluating Evolutionary Information Systems
Authors: Patel Nandish V.
Published: May 2011

Until the beginning of the 1990s, information systems (IS) were generally viewed as largely a support for business activity and were justified using cost accounting techniques. A proposed system would be developed if it could be shown that it would reduce operating costs or result in other productivity increases. No consideration was given to other benefits of an intangible or even strategic nature. As the deployment of information technology (IT) spread from operational to tactical support, the need to assess or evaluate its contribution to organisational performance and organisational reconfiguration attracted researchers’ interests. Yet the same genre of cost accounting based evaluation techniques were used. Now, as we enter the new century, IS are regarded as an essential feature of doing business, and many new kinds of businesses, such as Web-based ones, organise their business activity around IT, rather than organise the IT around the business. Executives especially regard IS as strategic tools. We are in an era of Internet-based businesses, reconfiguration of business processes with integrated IT/IS, and traditional businesses which now have to use the World Wide Web to remain viable. In this new era, the approach to IT/IS evaluation is still typically controlled using budgets and year-to-year comparisons, and by comparisons with other business costs such as human resource or production costs. With this plethora of IT/IS deployment, the actual benefits to business of introducing and using IS are proving inherently difficult to measure.
A Balanced Analysis Approach to Strategic Electronic Commerce Decisions
Authors: Raisinghani Mahesh S.
Published: May 2011

This chapter presents a comprehensive model for optimal electronic commerce strategy and extends the relatively novel Analytic Network Process (ANP) approach to solving quantitative and qualitative complex decisions in electronic commerce strategy. A systematic framework for the identification, classification and evaluation of electronic commerce (e-commerce) strategy using the Internet as an information, communication, distribution, or transaction channel that is interdependent with generic business strategies is proposed. The proposed methodology could help researchers and practitioners understand the relation between the benefits organizations seek from an information technology and the strategies they attempt to accomplish with the technology. As companies all over the world come out of restructuring, downsizing and business process re-engineering, many are realizing that in order to achieve a competitive edge they must formulate and implement strategies based on innovation and development of e-commerce. This chapter identifies and analyzes the methodology for synergistic integration of business and Internet domain strategies.
Information Technology Governance through the Balanced Scorecard
Authors: Van Grembergen Wim , Saull Ronald
Published: May 2011

The balanced scorecard (BSC) initially developed by Kaplan and Norton, is a performance management system that enables businesses to drive strategies based on measurement and follow-up. In recent years, the BSC has been applied to information technology (IT). The IT BSC is becoming a popular tool with its concepts widely supported and dispersed by international consultant groups such as GartnerGroup, Renaissance Systems, Nolan Norton Institute, and others. Purcciafelli et al. (1999) predict that “by 2003, 60 percent of large enterprises and 30 percent of midsize enterprises will adopt a balanced set of metrics to guide business-oriented IT decisions (0.7 probability).” In this chapter, a generic IT BSC is proposed and its relationship with the business balanced scorecard (BU BSC) is established. It is shown how a cascade of balanced scorecards can support the IT governance process and its related business/IT alignment process. Further, the development and implementation of an IT BSC is discussed and an IT BSC Maturity Model is introduced. The chapter concludes with the findings of a real-life case.
Going Virtual
Authors: Igbaria Magid , Shayo Conrad , Olfman Lorne
Published: May 2011

In this chapter we examine the driving forces behind the growth of virtual societies and discuss existing arrangements and practices at the individual, group, organization, and community levels. We also examine the implications of how people will live and work in societies where these arrangements and practices are widespread and mixed with face-to-face relationships. Our discussion follows the model of virtual society presented in Figure 1. Figure 1 describes an evolutionary model conceptualizing an entire hierarchy for studying the virtual society and summarizes both the driving forces and arrangements that are critical components of this proposed framework. Specifically, this chapter is organized as follows: We first discuss the driving forces which include global economics, policies and politics, enlightened population, and information technology; second we describe existing arrangements and practices at the individual, group, organization, and community levels. Finally, we examine the dilemmas and implications of the virtual society on peoples’ lives and work.
Online Recreation and Play in Organizational Life
Authors: Oravec Jo Ann
Published: May 2011

This chapter analyzes the emerging forms of online recreation and play in the workplace and addresses how their benefits and drawbacks are being defined. It discusses how online work and play are often becoming seamlessly melded and sometimes confused, as predicted by Orwell in the epigraph. Managers are responding to online recreation in a wide spectrum of ways, from restricting all “personal” uses of computing to openly encouraging them (often as a means of keeping employees at their desks for long hours).
The Formalization of CAME Architecture
Authors: Dahanayake Ajantha
Published: May 2011

An informal description of a CAME framework based on the service object concept is presented in Chapter 3. Now the focus will be on the representational formalism of a CAME environment that can be used to implement a CAME environment to provide flexible modeling support for information systems design activities. A conceptual framework for a CAME environment using building blocks specification or a meta-meta model will be the main concentration in this chapter. The modeling techniques that are used to design information architectures of modeling techniques are popularly known as meta modeling techniques. To formalize the informal architectural building blocks of a CAME environment given in Chapter 3, one needs a uniform meta modeling technique capable of specifying the CAME service object primitives. Many examples of such techniques can be found in the literature; therefore, first the arguments for using PSM, task structure and LISA-D (Hofstede, 1993) base modeling technique as the meta modeling technique are stated. The architectural building blocks of the meta-meta model, which represent the service object based theory for CAME environments that can be used to provide a flexible modeling support for information systems design activities are presented in the remainder of the chapter. In this meta meta model the transaction service is not formally specified in order to keep the presentation limited to the method engineering needs. A formal and descriptive specifications of all these basic CAME services are available in Dahanayake (1997). The notational convention of PSM modeling technique is given in Appendix A.
Macroeconomic Implications of Virtual Shopping
Authors: Yetkiner I. Hakan , Horvath Csilla
Published: May 2011

Recently, parallel to developments in the communication technology, on-line shopping has become increasingly popular for many products, like books, CDs, software and computers. Most analysts conjecture that the future will witness a wider basket of products and a higher trade volume via the Internet. This chapter investigates the economic implications of Internet shopping in a Ricardian equilibrium framework. First, it shows the necessary and sufficient condition for the shift to Internet shopping. Next, it indicates that macroeconomic variables like consumption and income rise when this shift takes place. Thus, this shows that the economic implications of Internet shopping will be higher than the current experience, and Internet shopping will become an important element of the ‘new economy’ when the bulky part of the shopping is done via the Internet.
Management Challenges in Broadbend Networking
Authors: Venkatesh Murali
Published: May 2011

This paper examines the implications of technological discontinuity for organizations in six communities in New York State. From the network manager’s perspective, two broad sets of challenges are presented: technological – including specific issues such as bandwidth management and access and backbone issues, and applications–and those related to acquisition of technical support services. Applications prototyping is presented as a response to the technological challenges. The action research project (and the broader research program of which it is a part) underlying this chapter is focused on the public, nonprofit—including government and healthcare institutions, so-called social sector nonprofits, K-12 and higher education—and small business sectors, but lessons learned are broadly applicable.
Organizational Impacts of New Communication Technology
Authors: Carlson Patricia J. , Kahn Beverly K. , Rowe Frantz
Published: May 2011

This study tests the multicultural applicability of Huber’s technological imperative framework by comparing the effects of the adoption of a new telecommunication technology, cellular phones, on the behavior of the sales force in several industry sectors in France and the U.S. The study investigates three areas of interest. First, the study finds that, though the sales strategies are the same in both countries, the actual behavior of the sales force to attain these strategic goals differs. Second, a comparison of these differences with the variables in Huber’s theory shows that the differences in the variables are consistent with the sales representative behavior in the two countries. Third, the study asks what effect the use of cell phones has had on sales force behavior. Analysis on all the data combined shows the predicted results of new technology adoption—a shortening of decision-making time occurs in both countries. When the data is stratified by country, however, changes in variables in the U.S. support Huber’s theory, those from France do not. These results indicate a cultural bias in the generation of theory that has important implications for cross-cultural research.
Positioning in Cyberspace
Authors: Berthon Pierre , Pitt Leyland , Ewing Michael , Jayaratna Nimal , Ramaseshan B.
Published: May 2011

The growth of presence in the marketspace of the Web has been exponential, both in general and within specific industries. While the academic literature on the phenomena is still in its infancy, there exists a pressing need to establish methodologies to evaluate and map Web sites within and between industries. With the exception of a few notable papers little or no theoretical, descriptive, or normative research has been conducted into the evaluation of Web site market positioning. This chapter goes a little towards addressing this lacuna. Specifically, Web sites from the telecom industry are evaluated and mapped using correspondence analysis. The technique of correspondence analysis and the interpretation of the maps produced are described in detail. The implications for management are discussed.
The Australasian Food Products Co-Op
Authors: Lehmann Hans
Published: May 2011

This chapter tells the case story of a Food Products Co-op from ‘Australasia’1 and their attempt to create a global information system. The Co-op is among the 20 largest food enterprises in the world, and international information systems (IIS) have taken on increasing importance as the organization expanded rapidly during the 1980s and even more so as the enterprise refined their global operations in the last decade. Set in the six years since 1995, the story demonstrates the many pitfalls in the process of evolving an IIS as it follows the Co-op’s global business development. Two key findings stood out among the many lessons that can be drawn from the case: first, the notion of an “information system migration” following the development of the Global Business Strategy of the Multi-National enterprise through various stages; second, the failure of the IIS to adapt to the organization’s strategy changes set up a field of antagonistic forces, in which business resistance summarily killed all attempts by the information technology department to install a standard global information system.
The Role of Virtual Organizations in Post-Graduate Education in Egypt
Authors: Kamel Sherif
Published: May 2011

Learning, education and training using traditional class methods and/or emerging online techniques are all leading to improved ways to investing in people, leveraging their capacities and reaching out to remote masses while cutting down on cost, time and efforts. Thus, the role of virtual organizations and virtual teams is rapidly spreading worldwide in the related aspects to learning and human resources development. This has led to the establishment of a large number of regional and global learning consortiums and networks aiming to provide quality knowledge and information dissemination vehicles to an ever-growing community of seekers that is online, active and eager to increasingly learn more. However, most of the publications address the theoretical foundations of virtual organizations; as for the actual practices, they are not extensively reported in the literature. This case addresses the experience of Egypt’s Regional IT Institute in the field of education and training. Today, the learning process is becoming a vital factor in business and socioeconomic growth where the role of information and communication technology is having a growing and an innovative impact. The Regional IT Institute was established in 1992 targeting the formulation of partnerships and strategic alliances to jointly deliver degree (academic) and non-degree (executive) programs for the local community capitalizing on the enabled processes and techniques of virtual organizations. The case provides many lessons to be replicated that demonstrate the opportunity to expand in exchanging the wealth of knowledge across societies using a hybrid of forms for virtual organizations and virtual teams.
Review of Fuzzy Image Segmentation Techniques
Authors: Karmakar Gour C. , Dooley Laurence , Syed Mahbubhur Rahman
Published: May 2011

This chapter provides a comprehensive overview of various methods of fuzzy logic-based image segmentation techniques. Fuzzy image segmentation techniques outperform conventional techniques, as they are able to evaluate imprecise data as well as being more robust in noisy environment. Fuzzy clustering methods need to set the number of clusters prior to segmentation and are sensitive to the initialization of cluster centers. Fuzzy rule-based segmentation techniques can incorporate the domain expert knowledge and manipulate numerical as well as linguistic data. It is also capable of drawing partial inference using fuzzy IF-THEN rules. It has been also intensively applied in medical imaging. These rules are, however, application-domain specific and very difficult to define either manually or automatically that can complete the segmentation alone. Fuzzy geometry and thresholding-based image segmentation techniques are suitable only for bimodal images and can be applied in multimodal images, but they don’t produce a good result for the images that contain a significant amount of overlapping pixels between background and foreground regions. A few techniques on image segmentation based on fuzzy integral and soft computing techniques have been published and appear to offer considerable promise.
Cheap Production of Multimedia Programs
Authors: Slavik Pavel , Kulvejt Marek , Hromas David , Novak Josef
Published: May 2011

The importance of multimedia in distance education has increased steadily over the last few years. This fact implies a growing need for the production of large quantities of multimedia programs with a high level of user interaction. As the production of sophisticated multimedia programs is rather expensive, the question can be asked if it is possible to produce educational multimedia programs in a cheaper way. This could be achieved in two ways: either by simplifying the educational contents in such a way that there would be no high demands for graphics, videos and a high level of interaction, or to use some existing products that could be modified into a multimedia form. Two systems will be presented that will allow us to create interactive multimedia programs both in a CD-ROM environment and in a network environment as well. These multimedia programs have been created from already existing videotapes that were digitized and enhanced with interactive features.
Customised Electronic Commerce with Intelligent Software Agents
Authors: Cheung William K. , Li C. H. , Lam Ernest C.M. , Liu Jiming
Published: May 2011

This chapter describes a conceptual framework for designing and developing software agents that will enable customized electronic commerce (CEC) and highlights several important constructs as well as their interrelationships within the framework. In particular, it examines the enabling technologies under two categories, namely, on-line cataloging and recommendation. In order to demonstrate some of the key characteristics of customized electronic commerce, this chapter also presents three prototyped software agents, namely, ETA (Electronic Tour Agent), EPA (Electronic Property Agent), and EAA (Electronic Auction Agent).
Land Evaluation - An Artificial Intelligence Approach
Authors: Tsoumakas G. , Vlahavas I.
Published: May 2011

A major environmental concern of today’s scientists is the inefficient exploitation of natural resources. The land is the ultimate source of wealth and the foundation on which civilization is constructed. Inappropriate land use, leads to destruction of the land resource, poverty and other social problems, and even to the destruction of civilization. To avoid such phenomena, land evaluation is employed, for rational land use planning and appropriate and sustainable use of natural and human resources (Rossiter, 1994). The management of land use is an interdisciplinary activity that relies on large amounts of information from different sources. Land evaluators need to collect information from soil surveyors, climatologists and census takers on land resource. They also need the expert knowledge of soil scientists, agronomists and economists on land use. In addition, land evaluators must select and apply the most appropriate analytical methods to evaluate land qualities and to combine these into overall physical and/or economic suitability. This evaluation is then calibrated against expert judgement and related experience. Finally they must present the results of the evaluation with reports and maps. This output has to be dynamic, considering the continuous refinement of the whole land evaluation process. The above characteristics of land evaluation denote that the management of such a process definitely requires the support of computer systems, especially expert systems, remote sensing and image processing systems, and geographical information systems (GIS). Such systems exist, but they are usually stand-alone units, hence human intervention (land evaluators) for the flow of information from one system towards the other is indispensable. Therefore, integrated systems are highly desirable. The latest research and development trends in this area progressively encompass Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques to a greater extent, in order to achieve an optimal performance in the analysis of the vast geographical data. Expert systems were included early on, in an effort to model the domain knowledge of land evaluation from experts. Now, such systems introduce fuzzy logic to cope with uncertainty within the data sources and the inference procedure. Machine learning techniques are also included to model the land evaluation procedures when expert knowledge is insufficient or even absent. In general, there exists an amount of both symbolic and non-symbolic AI techniques, which scientists are keen on combining and integrating with traditional land information systems. This chapter is structured as follows. An overview of three of the most used AI techniques in land evaluation problems is given. Following that, the next section introduces ISLE (Tsoumakas and Vlahavas, 1999), an Intelligent System for Land Evaluation that is designed as a framework for the integration of AI techniques with a geographical information system. The final section discusses conclusions and future trends in this field.
Meta Information System for Environmental Chemicals
Authors: Voigt Kristina , Welzl Gerhard , Benz Joachim
Published: May 2011

Chemistry and the environmental sciences are scientific disciplines with an enormous output of and demand for data. As of June 8th, 2000, 16,813,792 organic and inorganic substances have been registered in the Registry File of Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS, 2000). Since there is no indication that the increase in information in these fields will slow down within the foreseeable future, we shall have to cope with a growing flood of chemical and environmental information. A scientific approach is urgently needed to deal with this information abundance (Luckenbach, 1996). The enormous increase in chemical and environmental information implies a rise in on-line databases, CD-ROMs and Internet resources in these fields. With the estimated number of 304 million Internet users worldwide in March 2000 (NUA, 2000), many people have the tools to use these datasources. In contrast to that citizens of the European Union do not feel well informed about environmental affairs – despite the fact that environmental problems are an issue they are concerned about (Europäische Umweltagentur, 1999). This is a problem of availability and accessibility. The Internet and the World Wide Web offer a suitable platform for the dissemination of information, but in contrast to other information sources the Internet is still too unstructured, and searches lead to unpredictable, sometimes unusable results (Streuff, 2000).
Environmental Reporting in Print and Electronic Media
Authors: Tochtermann Klaus , Keitel Andree , Schutz Thomas
Published: May 2011

Reporting to and providing the public with information on the environment is becoming increasingly important for governmental environmental agencies at the regional, national and international levels. In the private sector, a growing number of companies are now voluntarily disclosing environmental information, both as stand-alone corporate reports and as special environmental or sustainability sections within corporate annual reports. An environmental report of a public administration serves the purpose to inform the public about the state of the environment in their country or region. While formerly such reports were structured along environmental objects, such as air, forests, water resources and traffic, one can observe a new trend towards a structure along environmental topics such as climate change, mobility and biodiversity.
Foundations and Applications of Computer Based Material Flow Networks for Environmental Management
Authors: Moller Andreas , Page Bernd , Rolf Arno , Wohlgemuth Volker
Published: May 2011

This chapter describes the foundations of Material Flow Networks for environmental management and gives an overview about their application fields. Material Flow Networks describe the flow of materials and energy within a defined system. The representation and evaluation of these material flows - especially when these flows have an impact on our environment and are caused by human business activities - has become one of the most important tasks of the so-called environmental management. The more familiar we become with the material and energy flows, the more we come to understand the relationship between human activities and our natural environment. The kind of techniques and tools required for material and energy flow analysis focuses on understanding the underlying material and energy transformations and the environmental impact of the resulting material and energy flows. Given the above, a possible definition of material and energy flow analysis is the process of collecting material and energy flow data and of computing derived values from the collection of data. The resulting material and energy flow model is a representation of the underlying system. The model must allow the user to evaluate different aspects of a system (see also, Schmidt, 1997): In input/output balances of companies, plants or production processes within the system refers to a site-specific view and a certain period of time, whereas in a life cycle assessment (LCA) a product or service is the item of interest, which usually is far beyond the temporal and spatial dimension of a common input/output balance. In fact, the same system is modelled in both cases, but interpreted with regard to different perspectives and boundaries.
UML Modeling Support for Early Reuse Decisions in Component-Based Development
Authors: Sykes J. A. , Gupta P.
Published: May 2011

Component-based development is the software industry’s latest answer to some long-standing problems in software development. Its aim is to make actual reuse of existing software units (components) a widespread reality. We argue that significant reuse decisions can occur in the early stages of system development. Using a theory of the modeling process, we show that choice of abstractions and notations is critical. We investigate the kinds of models that would support early reuse decisions. We show that easily composable, business-oriented abstractions about software behaviour and a functional mental model are necessary. Evaluation of the UML in these terms emphasizes its bias towards structural mental models and abstractions derived from the software domain.
Rational Unified Process and Unified Modeling Language - A GOMS Analysis
Authors: Siau Keng
Published: May 2011

GOMS is a model that analyzes knowledge of how to do a task in terms of Goals, Operators, Methods and Selection rules. GOMS is one of the most popular theoretical models in the field of human-computer interaction. Since its introduction, the GOMS model has been extended, enhanced and applied to areas outside human-computer interaction. The goal of this chapter is to discuss the use of the GOMS model for the design and evaluation of modeling techniques. In this chapter, we introduce the GOMS concepts, discuss the applicability of GOMS for modeling and describe how GOMS can be used to analyze Rational Unified Process and Unified Modeling Language.
The Whole-Part Relationship in the Unified Modeling Language
Authors: Barbier Franck , Henderson-Sellers Brian , Opdahl Andreas L. , Gogolla Martin
Published: May 2011

This study of the semantics of the Whole-Part relationship in OO modeling is based upon, extends and, specifically, formalizes earlier analyses of the semantics of UML’s Aggregation and Composition (white and black diamonds, also called shared aggregation and composite aggregation). Although UML is nowadays regarded as a standard and is widely used as an OO modeling language, the way the Whole-Part relationship is formalized is unsatisfactory. Here, we provide a rigorous specification of various forms of the Whole-Part relationship using OCL (Object Constraint Language). The first part of the specification is based on the differentiation between primary characteristics (applicable to all Whole-Part relationships) assigned to a new Whole-Part metatype in the UML and secondary features, which are possessed by subtypes of this metatype and permit the representation of several “flavors” of the Whole-Part relationship. This UML-compliant style of specification, based on the use of OCL as well as metamodeling, allows us to directly incorporate our results into the UML metamodel, in particular revising UML’s definition of Composition.
B2B Applications to Support Business Transactions
Authors: Archer Norm , Gebauer Judith
Published: May 2011

The use of Internet and Web technologies between organizations has gained much attention in recent years. Termed business-to-business (B2B) electronic commerce, the linking and integration of inter-organizational business processes and systems promises cost and time savings, as well as new business opportunities. The many examples of B2B applications cover a broad range of sales and purchasing processes, business models, industries, and products and services. Complexity ranges from simple message switchboards to sophisticated marketplaces handling a multitude of real-time transactions, integrated closely with the backend systems of the participants. Using information technology (IT) to connect organizations is by no means a new phenomenon, but reaches back several decades to include electronic data interchange (EDI) systems and remote terminal applications. Still, systems based on Internet standards seem to be easier to set up technically and cheaper to interconnect. They might thus reach wider adoption and acceptance than many of the earlier initiatives, and as a result give smaller players a realistic opportunity to join in and reap benefits similar to their larger partners.
Creating Virtual Alliances Through Value Chain Management
Authors: Burn Janice M. , Hackney Ray
Published: May 2011

This chapter proposes a new approach to strategic planning for eBusiness systems which incorporates a three-stage investigation using value, supply and demand chain models. The resulting analysis can define the strategy and structure for an eBusiness enterprise as a value alliance network with a robust approach to evolutionary eBusiness development and the management of change. Initially an overview of the characteristics of virtual markets are presented and the opportunities for IT-enabled intermediation are examined. The chapter reviews the concepts of supply chain management (SCM), demand chains and value chains in the context of electronically networked organizations and then relates these to the evolution of a virtual value chain. The virtual value chain is used as a basis for the development of an effective organizational structure and the value alliance model in a virtual networked environment. Finally, this is reviewed in the context of the retail market and interactive home shopping systems (IAHS) and illustrated by a case study within the e-grocery business.
Electronic Payment Systems
Authors: Finnegan Pat , Kilmartin John
Published: May 2011

The advantages of electronic trading are numerous, with benefits for both users and merchants. However for electronic trading to reach its full potential, factors such as ease of use and improving customer confidence will have to be addressed in relation to many aspects of electronic business. Indeed an important stumbling block for widespread adoption of electronic trading, from a convenience perspective, is the ability to complete transactions electronically at payment and delivery stages. The delivery stage is dependent on the type of product or service, but electronic payments are possible even if many payment options are not widely used. Conventional payment instruments are not well equipped for the speed and cost effectiveness required by electronic commerce. The marketing ploy of the Internet is its ease of use and convenience. Many therefore deem it unacceptable that customers have to utilize conventional payment mechanisms due either to the complexity of existing payment systems or the customer’s fear of conducting financial payments electronically.
Cyber Shopping and Privacy
Authors: Gupta Jatinder N.D. , Sharma Sushil K.
Published: May 2011

At times, privacy issues are perceived as a part of security issues, therefore, let us differentiate them. Security refers to the integrity of the data storage, processing and transmitting system and includes concerns about the reliability of hardware and software, the protection against intrusion or infiltration by unauthorized users. Privacy, on the other hand, refers to controlling the dissemination and use of data, including information that is knowingly or unknowingly disclosed. Privacy could also be the by-product of the information technologies themselves (Cate, 1997). Over the past decade, numerous surveys conducted around the world have found consistently high levels of concern about privacy. Many studies (Dorney, 1997; Allard, 1998; Harris and Westin, 1999) found that more than 80% of Net users are concerned about threats to their privacy while online. The Federal Trade Commission discovered (Privacy online: A report to Congress/Federal Trade Commission, United States, Federal Trade Commission, 1998) that many Web sites collect personal information and release the same without the users’ knowledge and permission. There are methods (Adam et al., 1996; Verton, 2000; Wen, 2001; McGuire, 2000; Feghhi, 1999) that make cyber shopping secure, although consumers may still have concerns about security aspects of cyber shopping. How can one keep information about his/her Internet browsing habits to oneself? It’s a challenge in this era of technological advancements. In this chapter, we focus exclusively on privacy issues that arise in cyber shopping. In the recent past, many articles on privacy have appeared in journals. In this chapter, we review these publications on privacy.
Experience with a Functional-Logic Multi-Agent Architecture for Medical Problem Solving
Authors: Lanzola Giordano , Boley Harold
Published: May 2011

The present paper reports on our experience with applying RELFUN (Boley, 1999) to problems in distributed medical care. This application arose “externally” in the original sense of the word: Massimiliano Campagnoli, working with the LISP-based expert-system shell KEE, supporting frames as well as forward and backward rules, noticed RELFUN on the net and switched to it, since frames are mappable into clauses and RELFUN’s rules offer more versatility than KEE’s. After his initial implementation of a RELFUN-based distributed medical-care system, he contacted the second author, further developing RELFUN, and the Pavia/Kaiserslautern teams joined forces, with the first author also being the expert in the medical domain.
Towards a Secure Web-Based Healthcare Application
Authors: Knorr Konstantin , Rohrig Susanne
Published: May 2011

In healthcare a lot of data are generated that in turn will have to be accessed from several departments of a hospital. The information kept within the information system of a hospital includes sensitive personal data that reveal the most intimate aspects of an individual’s life. Therefore, it is extremely important to regard data protection laws, privacy regulations, and other security requirements. When designing information systems for healthcare purposes, it is an imperative to implement appropriate access control mechanisms and other safeguards. Furthermore, a tendency to use the Internet as a communications media can be observed. As the Internet is an insecure transmission media, the security requirements that must be met by the overall system are high.
Secure Internet Access to Medical Data
Authors: Ultes-Nitsche Ulrich , Teufel Stephanie
Published: May 2011

In Holbein et al. (1997) and previous papers (Holbein & Teufel, 1995; Holbein et al., 1996), the concept of a context-dependent access control has been introduced and discussed exhaustively. A prototype implementation of the concept is described in Nitsche et al. (1998). The prototype implementation is for local use only and would reveal many security holes if used over an open network: The dynamic link library (DLL) that handles the access control, for instance, would be publicly accessible. In Nitsche et al. (1998), by spying out the DLL code, one could obtain information about the database’s administrator log-in procedure, possibly leaving the entire database unprotected. However, using technology different from that presented in Nitsche et al. (1998) allows one to come up with a secure distributed solution to context-dependent access control over the Internet.
The Medical Journal Club - A Tool for Knowledge Refinement and Transfer in Healthcare
Authors: Khan Kahild S. , Bachmann Lucas M. , Steurer Johann
Published: May 2011

The information base for healthcare is rapidly expanding. There are more than 20,000 biomedical journals. Approximately 17,000 new biomedical books were published in 1990, and these were projected to increase by annually up to 7% (Sackett et al., 1996; Siegel, Cummings, & Woodsmall, 1990). With such an exponential increase in information, there is a need for effective and efficient strategies to keep up-to-date with clinically relevant new knowledge. Without current best evidence, medical practice risks becoming out-of-date, to the detriment of patients.
Network Dimensioning for MPEG-2 Video Communications Using ATM
Authors: Khasnabish Bhumip
Published: May 2011

This chapter discusses various issues related to the shaping of Motion Picture Experts Group (MPEG) video for generating constrained or controlled variable bit rate (VBR) data streams. MPEG-2 defines a set of standards for coding and compression of digital video. VBR video can offer constant picture quality without incorporating too much processing overhead in the network or transmission system’s architecture. In addition, they can offer substantial (20% to 50%) savings in both storage and transmission bandwidth requirements compared to constant bit rate (CBR) video. Either source coding or encoder’s output shaping or a combination of both can be used for adapting the MPEG-2 video streams for transmission over real-time VBR (rt-VBR)-type asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) channel.
Collaboration and Virtual Early Prototyping Using the Distributed Building Site Metaphor
Authors: Costantini Fabien , Toinard Christian
Published: May 2011

The case study is derived into a set of general requirements for a VEP tool. Thus, the major functional services are identified. Afterwards, the chapter presents a new solution to satisfy the VEP requirements. It proposes new collaboration services that can be used to distribute a virtual scene between the designers. Our solution, called the Distributed Building Site Metaphor, enables project management, meeting management, parallel working, disconnected work and meeting work, real-time validation, real-time modification, real-time conciliation, real-time awareness, easy motion between these styles of work, consistency, security and persistency. In contrast with the other solutions, our services enable parallel work while preserving consistency. These services do not require or implement a reliable multicasting. They are fully distributed and do not require any specific quality of service from the under laying network. DBSM can add collaboration to any stand-alone application.
Mobile Multimedia over Wireless Network
Authors: Stauder Jurgen , Erbas Fazli
Published: May 2011

In the last few years the rapidly growing Internet has pushed new multimedia applications in the field of entertainment, communication and electronic commerce. The next step in the information age is the mobile access to multimedia applications: everything everywhere any time! This tutorial chapter addresses a key point of this development: data transmission for mobile multimedia applications in wireless cellular networks. Addressed networks are existing standardized terrestrial wireless systems such as GSM, D-AMPS, IS-95 and PDC, including their evolutions HSCSD, GRPS, HDR, IS-136+ and IS-136HS. Furthermore, proprietary satellite networks like Orbcomm, Globalstar, ICO, Ellipso and Courier are considered. Finally, future high bandwidth terrestrial/satellite third-generation systems based on the UMTS standard, as well as future proprietary systems like Astra-Net, Skybridge, Teledesic and Spaceway, are discussed. For each of these networks, an overview on the data channels is given with respect to their capacity, temporal organization, error characteristic, delay and availability. Further, the architecture, the functions and the capacities of the mobile terminals are reviewed. Having studied this chapter, the reader is able to answer questions like: · Which network will be capable to transmit real-time video? · Does a rainfall interrupt my mobile satellite Internet connection? · When will high bandwidth, wireless networks be operational? · How to tune existing multimedia applications to be efficient in wireless networks? The chapter is closed by a glossary of terms, a reference list to in-detail literature and a list of Web sites of companies and organizations providing useful information.
Web Switching
Authors: Sharma Vishal , Sharma Rakhi
Published: May 2011

Web switching may be viewed as an optimized combination of networking functions, such as load balancing, bandwidth and traffic management, cache switching, and site-level security, that are implemented on a single device and are specifically designed to address the unique requirements of World Wide Web (or simply, Web) traffic; for example, efficient management of Web traffic, simplified website management, and fast, reliable, and error-free website operation. More precisely, “Web switches are network devices that can be used to construct a ‘user- and content-aware’ network infrastructure, which has the explicit objective of seamless and high-performance routing of specific user requests for specific Web content to the best server containing that content, irrespective of its physical location (Johnson, 1999a).” A web switch, therefore, is an extremely fast and “intelligent” LAN switch that switches traffic based on content, rather than just addresses (Passmore, 1999), and integrates the traffic management and control functions that have traditionally run on a number of separate devices. These include sophisticated URL load balancing capabilities via local and global server load balancing, bandwidth control, network address translation (NAT), packet filtering, cache redirection, and policies to manage and speed the flow of web traffic.
Internet Gambling in the Workplace
Authors: Griffiths Mark
Published: May 2011

According to a recent report carried out by the company SurfControl (Snoddy, 2000), office workers who while away one hour a day at work on various nonwork activities (e.g., trading shares, booking holidays, shopping online, etc.) could be costing businesses as much as $35 million a year. Their survey found that 59% of office Internet use was not work-related and that those who traded in shares, played sport, shopped, and bought holidays cost companies the most. One activity that may play an ever-increasing part of Internet use at work is Internet gambling. Most gamblers are what might be termed “normal” or “social” gamblers who occasionally bet on a horse race, play bingo or buy a lottery ticket. However, for a small proportion of the population, gambling is an activity that takes over their whole life and can cause major problems. A new area of potential concern is Internet gambling--particularly in the workplace. Many people believe the future lies in the Internet, and the gaming industry—like most other companies with a service to sell—is itself starting to go online. Technology is the future and electronic gambling is where the action is and will continue to be. No one is really sure how the Internet will develop over the next 5 to 10 years but Internet gambling as a commercial activity has the potential for large financial rewards for the operators.