bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Knowledge Representation in Pattern Management
Authors: Kamthan Pankaj , Pai Hsueh-Ieng
Published: May 2011

The reliance on past experience and expertise is critical to any development. Patterns are a reusable form of knowledge gained by experts in solving problems that occur repeatedly in a domain. The concept of a pattern was introduced by Christopher Alexander in the 1970s (Alexander, 1979).
Motivation for Knowledge Work
Authors: Hendriks Paul H.J. , Sousa Ce´lio A.A.
Published: May 2011

The importance of motivation in knowledge work is generally acknowledged. With lacking motivation, the quality of the products of knowledge work is bound to drop dramatically. Without work motivation, individual knowledge workers may direct their efforts to their individual needs at the expense of organization goals or decide to leave the firm. Creativity, knowledge teamwork, knowledge sharing, and other knowledge processes depend on the motivation of knowledge workers. Lacking sustained motivation in association with an insufficiently knowledge-friendly culture has often been mentioned as the principal culprit for failed knowledge management (KM) initiatives and programs (Davenport, DeLong, & Beers, 1998; McKenzie, Truc, & Winkelen, 2001). Several traits of knowledge workers explain, so it is argued, why prevailing work motivation programs will not work when applied to knowledge workers: they have high needs for autonomy, their career formation is external to the organization, they are loyal to their networks of peers and to their profession rather than to the organization that employs them, and the exact form and sequence of their work processes cannot be fully predicted (Despres & Hiltrop, 1996).
E-Commerce and Small Business in Regional Australia
Authors: Pease Wayne , Rowe Michelle
Published: May 2011

E-commerce is considered to provide substantial benefits to business, particularly small business. It enables new ways of working to emerge and facilitates an organization’s reengineering. Benefits from e-commerce can be argued to be greater for SMEs (small and medium enterprises) since traditionally they have operated in an uncertain and dynamic environment (Murphy & Daley, 1999; Nooteboom, 1994). Despite this, SMEs generally and especially those in regional areas in Australia, are lagging behind in their adoption of technology, including e-commerce.
Electronic Government in Small Island States
Authors: Toland Janet , Purcell Fuatai , Huff Sid
Published: May 2011

The capabilities provided through electronic government (e-government) opens up the potential for government’s worldwide to improve the services they offer to their citizens. However, a move towards e-government offers particular advantages to developing countries, especially to small island states. Small island states are typically scattered over a wide geographic area, posing unique problems for their governments in coordinating and delivering services to their citizens. Information and communication technologies (ICT) now make it possible to connect a citizen of the remotest island directly to central government services. This article investigates the role of e-government in small countries. The island states of the South Pacific1 have been selected as a case study. Though every small island state has its own particular characteristics, the island nations of the South Pacific exhibit such diversity in terms of culture, language, economic activity and ethnicity as to make this region an ideal laboratory in which to observe developments in e-government. The island states of the South Pacific generally exhibit a low population density, which can be an advantage, as ICT-based strategies can be implemented more quickly than in a larger country. However, a small population often means a lack of appropriate skills to implement such policies (Comnet-IT, 2002).
Government Procurement ICT's Impact on the Sustainability of SMEs and Regional Communities
Authors: Demediuk Peter
Published: May 2011

SMEs (small and medium sized enterprises) are a dynamic force for sustainable economic growth and job creation within developed and developing communities (MFT, 2001; NOIE, 2003; BRTF, 2003). SMEs stimulate private ownership and entrepreneurial skills; they are flexible and can adapt quickly to changing market demand and supply conditions; they generate employment, help diversify economic activities and make significant contributions to export and trade. An economy’s overall economic health and well-being can be measured by the growth of SMEs-so it is vital to enhance the capacity of SMEs to compete domestically, nationally, and internationally (APPC, 1999).
ICT and the Efficient Markets Hypothesis
Authors: Roofe A.J.A.
Published: May 2011

This article represents a preliminary attempt to indentify the variables influencing the relationship between technological development and efficiency in the financial markets of a Caribbean economy. The analysis uses qualitative methods only. From the late 1980s, Kitchen (1988) observed, “… the major inefficiency in the capital market is the lack of information…” (p. 48).
Information Communication for Child Development Service
Authors: Somaiah Malathi , Vijayalakshmi V.
Published: May 2011

Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) is a comprehensive package of services for early childhood care and development, targeted to the poorest areas of the country. The government of India launched the most important, multi-faceted ICDS scheme in 1975 with the main aim of providing integrated pre-school education and nutrition for children (infants up to six years of age), nutrition and health education for women in the age group of 15-45 years. Through this scheme, women and children living below the poverty line scattered in various parts of the country were to be integrated through a common program aiming towards improved nutrition and health.
Measuring the Maturity Level of a Community Portal
Authors: Vrazalic Lejla , Hyland Peter N.
Published: May 2011

Social interaction is a fundamental to human beings. In an effort to facilitate social interaction, various tools and technologies have been designed and developed over the centuries to connect people and create better means of communication. Most recently, this effort has been directed at facilitating the interaction of communities that share a common purpose or interest. These communities are diverse and often involve individuals or groups that are not situated in the same physical context. The World Wide Web (WWW) has become an important tool in facilitating the interaction and communication between such communities. This is evident in the large number of online community Web sites, portals and forums that have proliferated in the last decade. These Web-based tools provide communities with an online space to exchange information, share stories and experiences, solve problems, discuss issues, and socialise regardless of their location. Portals, in particular, have become the most widely used interface for online communities to meet and interact (Lacher et al., 2001).
Mobile Ad Hoc Networks
Authors: Hu Jiankun
Published: May 2011

he history of computer networks can be traced back to the early 1960s, when voice-grade telephone networks dominated the communication networks. With the increasing importance of computers, as well as the ever-increasing expense of centralized mainframe computers that were growing in size, there was a need to decentralize computer systems. This trend also highlighted the need to connect computers together, by means of computer networks, so that their capacity could be shared among geographically distributed users. Unlike the circuit switching telephone networks, where voice is transmitted at a constant rate between sender and receiver, the traffic in computer networks tends to be bursty. To meet the requirements of data communications, people began to invent more efficient and robust networks, i.e., packet switching networks. The first published work on packet-switching techniques was that of Leonard Kleinrock (Kleinrock, 1961, 1964). The first packet-switching computer network called ARPANET was developed in 1969 and then became the ancestor of today’s public Internet (Kurose & Ross, 2001).
Planning for Electronic Government in a Remote Malaysian Site
Authors: Gilbert A. Lee
Published: May 2011

A regional government IT master plan sets out a viable path for the use of information technology (IT) to support local government operations, align local IT use to national initiatives, and build the organizational capacity necessary to take maximum advantage of the future emergence of more advanced tools. It guides IT deployment in three domains: 1. Within and among the various agencies of the local government 2. Among these agencies and organizations in the private sector 3. Among these agencies and members of the general public
Problem-Based Learning and the Design of E-Learning Environments
Authors: Gillani Bijan B.
Published: May 2011

There is tremendous pressure today for faculty in academic environments to use Web-based technologies to deliver online instruction. One reason for such pressure comes from the fact that technology can be an effective tool to deliver online instruction. Regardless of the reason, too often the pressure results in using Web technologies as classroom management tools, such as for e-mail, attendance, and posting syllabi, rather than as an effective online curriculum tool to deliver instruction for courses. These online courses have become known as e-learning, which in its strictest sense covers training, teaching, and learning programs that use networked technologies as the medium of choice to deliver instruction. Unfortunately, a great majority of e-learning sites are designed and developed without much regard for applying pedagogy. The most fundamental step in the design and development of effective e-learning environments is the recognition that they must be based on an effective pedagogical model.
Schools-Based Community Networking in Uganda
Authors: Stern Daniel
Published: May 2011

Our NGO, Uconnect1, is distributing hundreds of refurbished computers to dozens of mostly rural primary and secondary schools in Uganda, training teachers and students to set up their own computer labs, assisting them in getting connected to the Internet and guiding them to open their schools’ labs to the parents and local community after hours on a fee-paying basis. We have attempted to develop each aspect of the project’s operations in such a way that it is sustainable, scalable and reproducible. This article will describe strategies we have used in our quest to make the Internet available to the widest number of people, and point out bottlenecks that challenge us to overcome.
Selling Singapore's E-Lifestyle Initiative to Late Adopters
Authors: Weber Ian , Lim Eric T.K.
Published: May 2011

Singapore’s transformation to a knowledge-based, information and communication technology (ICT) hub in the Asia-Pacific region began in 1992 with A Vision of an Intelligent Island (The IT 2000 Report) initiative. This blueprint for Singapore’s future was initiated by the government “to spread the use of computers in everyday life and ... to have all households ... linked to the Internet” (Kuo et al., 2002, p. 1). To achieve this goal, the government implemented five strategic themes: development of a global hub for business, services and transportation; improvement in the quality of life by using technology to reduce or simplify mundane activities; boosting the economic engine through pursuit of information and knowledge economies; linking communities locally and globally through a comprehensive information and communication technology (ICT) platform to support civic and social networking; and enhancing the potential of individuals through the use of Web-based learning (Chun, 2002).
The South Australian Common Knowledge Community
Authors: Robinson Helen
Published: May 2011

Online communities can have useful international dimensions because of the very nature of the World Wide Web’s networking capabilities. However, while developing our South Australian community services and practice requirements, we have found a definite tendency in people that they “like and stay with their own kind.” Much of the literature examining the uptake of ICT in community has found that local content is a vital issue. Why? It has been widely demonstrated that local Web sites developed locally provide ownership where an international or national Web site often fails. Another key success factor in the local use of Web sites (in fact, any Web site) has been found to align with whether the development was born from “a need” within the community, i.e., the community has the need and requirements and then provides input, takes ownership of output, etc.
Technology Leapfrogging in Thailand
Authors: Sanzogni Louis , Arthur-Gray Heather
Published: May 2011

The phrase “leapfrogging development” reflects the belief, especially in the 1980’s, among policymakers and theoreticians that information technologies, especially telecommunications, can help developing countries accelerate their pace of development or telescope the stages of growth (Singh, 1999).1
Using Virtual Mobility to Alleviate Aspects of Social Exclusion
Authors: Kenyon Susan
Published: May 2011

People’s ability to participate in the activities that are necessary to ensure their economic, political and social participation in the society in which they live is dependent upon the accessibility of the activities. Accessibility has traditionally been perceived as a function of the space, or distance, between the origin of the individual (or community) and the destination of the activity¾the opportunity, service, social network, goods¾alongside the time that it takes to cross this space. Thus, accessibility is dependent upon the individual’s ability to overcome space and time barriers, allowing them to reach the right place or person, at the right time¾and, of course, upon the availability to them of adequate resources to do this (Couclelis, 2000)1.
Web Site Development in Action Research
Authors: Forte Maximilian C.
Published: May 2011

Ethnography has traditionally involved the sustained presence of an anthropologist in a physically fixed field setting, intensively engaged with the everyday life of the inhabitants of a given site, typically, a village or other small community. Conventional notions of the field, especially in anthropology which has been the premiere field-based discipline (see Amit, 2000; Gupta & Ferguson, 1997, 1992), involved basic assumptions of boundedness (the field was a strictly delimited physical place); distance (the field was “away,” and often very far away as well); temporality (one entered the field, stayed for a time, and then left); and otherness (a strict categorical and relational distinction between the outsider/ethnographer and the insider/native informant). The key mode of ethnographic engagement in the field was, and is, that of participant observation. When the Internet enters into ethnography, and when ethnography acquires an online dimension either in the research process or in the production of the documentary outputs of research, we end up facing a situation that leads us to reconsider relationships between the researchers and those who are researched. This is especially true of collaborative, action research projects that involve researchers and activists producing materials for the Web.
Intellectual Property Rights in Software-Justifiable from a Liberalist Position? Free Software Foundation's Position in Comparison to John Locke's Concept of Property
Authors: Kimppa Kai
Published: May 2011

This chapter offers a new view on how justifiable the current liberalist view on intellectual property rights (IPRs) in software actually is if based on Locke’s Second Treatise and especially on Chapter V, “Of Property” (2002), which has traditionally been seen as the starting point of liberalist argument for property — be it immaterial or material. This chapter will show how in Locke, the possibility of property in the immaterial is denounced and how that, in fact, fits the position of the Free Software Foundation for both patents and copyright in software, GNU General Public License (GPL) being the main example of this.
The Nature of Terrorism
Authors: Janczewski Lech J. , Colarik Andrew M.
Published: May 2011

The events surrounding the attacks against the World Trade Center (February 26, 1993 and September 11, 2001) and the Pentagon (September 11, 2001) generated enormous interest in terrorist activities. The global society and, in particular, North America realized how vulnerable they are to the subversive activities of small groups of determined people. President George W. Bush’s announcement of launching the “War on Terror” was an answer to these fears. The steady rebroadcasting of these events terrified most of us to the degree that we now want to find answers to the following questions: Why did this happen? What can we do to keep ourselves safe? What is the future impact of terrorism on our lives?
Physical Security
Authors: Janczewski Lech J. , Colarik Andrew M.
Published: May 2011

The final stage in the execution of the majority of the current waves of terrorist attacks is in the form of an intruder positioning a bomb in the proximity of the target. While terrorists may not directly target IT systems, attacks against computer facilities do happen. These attacks are in addition to telecommunication-based attacks and fall into the realm of physical security.
DNS Attacks
Authors: Janczewski Lech J. , Colarik Andrew M.
Published: May 2011

The Domain Name Service (DNS) is a mechanism for recognizing and translating domain name addresses. These operations are carried out by devices called Domain Name Servers. Thus, DNS attacks are attacks against the Domain Name Servers.
Identity Stealing Attacks
Authors: Janczewski Lech J. , Colarik Andrew M.
Published: May 2011

In recent years, several feature films have been produced based on the concept of stealing an identity. As a result of deliberate or accidental changes to personal records, a person can cease to exist on paper, or someone else can acquire a person’s identity. These film directors’ concepts are not products of their rich imaginations, but are a reflection of reality. Quite often, we read about such accidents happening. Stealing an identity is a favorite step in the preparation of terrorist and cyber-terrorist attacks, and all of us, IT managers in particular, should be vigilant about such possibilities.
Towards a Networked Economy
Authors: Vesa Jarkko
Published: May 2011

This book is about mobile services in a networked economy. For some readers, the term “networked economy” may well be self-evident, but for others the meaning may be somewhat unclear. Therefore, in this chapter I will clarify what the term “network economy” means in the context of mobile services, and particularly in this book.
Web or Chains
Authors: Vesa Jarkko
Published: May 2011

Vertical integration is not the only traditional concept that has been challenged in the current business environment where firm and industry boundaries have blurred, speed of technological change is increasing, and the focus of business has shifted from products to services. The whole concept of value creation is being reevaluated: in the past, value was created sequentially as a product’s value increased as it moved through a chain of activities — a value chain — from raw material to end products. However, today the value is being created constantly and in parallel. The main source of value is no longer in physical goods and products, but increasingly in services, skills, and knowledge. This development has forced researchers and businesspeople to look for new ways of modeling the concept of value creation. In this chapter, we will review some of the models and frameworks that have challenged the old value chain concept. The goal is to find useful frameworks that would help us to understand what is actually happening in the mobile industry today and in the future.
Mobile Services in the UK
Authors: Vesa Jarkko
Published: May 2011

On New Year’s Day 1985, Ernie Wise made Britain’s first cellphone call. Now, less than two decades later, most people in this country have a mobile and every sixth person in the world owns one. They have launched revolutions, saved lives, destroyed relationships and, of course, spawned a whole new genre of utterly pointless communication. (The Guardian, November 11, 2002) The UK mobile market is one of the most advanced — if not the most advanced — mobile market in Europe. This is understandable when keeping in mind the long tradition of wireless communications in the country already in the analog era of mobile telephony. The UK was also among the first countries in Europe to open up the competition for mobile services, and to implement mobile number portability, which was introduced in early 1999 (Oftel, 2001). Mobile telephony services are also widely adopted in the UK. According to official statistics, more than 70 percent of the population used mobile phones in 2002. However, according to more recent estimates, mobile phone penetration is almost 100 percent in the UK (M-Commerce Chasm, Sept 27, 2004, p. 1). The competition in the UK is extremely intense as the five mobile operators (Vodafone, Orange, T-Mobile, mmO2, and the 3G-only operator Hutchison Whampoa) are trying to attract both new customers and to entice customers away from their current operators (Olla and Patel, 2002). Even Oftel, the regulatory authority in the UK, decided to remove the last remaining mobile telecom sector specific regulation in fall 2003, as there was no longer a need for regulation to promote competition in the mobile market: Consumers (due to the intensifying competition) got increasingly better deals and none of the five mobile network operators had significant market power in the UK market. Therefore, Octel removed the restrictions that were imposed on Vodafone and O2 to provide interconnection services (http://www.cellular.co.za, October 15, 2003).
Managing a Virtual Organization
Authors: Jones Robert , Oyung Rob , Pace Lisa Shade
Published: May 2011

In this section, we will discuss best practices for virtual teams. We also will talk about the tools available for use by virtual teams as well as some of the techniques we’ve seen employed for team building within virtual teams. We’ll include a brief discussion of situations where virtual meetings might be preferable to face-to-face interactions.
Evolution of the Groupware Concept
Authors: Jones Robert , Oyung Rob , Pace Lisa Shade
Published: May 2011

In the early 1990s, Lotus created the concept of groupware with its revolutionary (for the time) product, Lotus Notes. For the first time, Lotus Notes tied together into one package various components needed for collaboration (an especially attractive premise for the SMB marketplace)—directories, electronic mail, group calendaring, file sharing, chat rooms, and so forth. This was the first attempt at creating a collaboration environment for teams and organizations to foster a sense of community and improve information sharing and communication. Early versions of Lotus Notes tended to be very top down—a central administrator was needed to set up a chat room, file sharing area, and the like. While Lotus Notes wasn’t very flexible, it was (in a pre-Web, pre-Intranet world) an attempt to improve collaboration at a time when teams were becoming increasingly geographically and organizationally dispersed.
Do Virtual Teams Ever Need to Meet Face-to-Face?
Authors: Jones Robert , Oyung Rob , Pace Lisa Shade
Published: May 2011

In the prologue of this book, we asked the question, “Do virtual teams ever need to meet face-to-face?” Certainly, conventional wisdom has it that successful virtual teams need to meet face-to-face from time to time for things like project kickoffs, milestone meetings, and project celebrations—we’ve captured that viewpoint in earlier chapters of this book. But going forward, is it really a requirement, or as virtual teams become the norm, will the need fade? There is some evidence that in many organizations, meeting face-to-face is no longer a requirement for virtual teams.
Sanitization and Anonymization of Document Repositories
Authors: Saygin Yücel , Hakkini-Tur Dilek , Tur Gökhan
Published: May 2011

Information security and privacy in the context of the World Wide Web (WWW) are important issues that are still being investigated. However, most of the present research is dealing with access control and authentication-based trust. Especially with the popularity of WWW as one of the largest information sources, privacy of individuals is now as important as the security of information. In this chapter, our focus is text, which is probably the most frequently seen data type in the WWW. Our aim is to highlight the possible threats to privacy that exist due to the availability of document repositories and sophisticated tools to browseand analyze these documents. We first identify possible threats to privacy in document repositories. We then discuss a measure for privacy in documents with some possible solutions to avoid or, at least, alleviate these threats.
Policy-Based Management of Web and Information Systems Security
Authors: Perez Gregorio M. , Clemente Félix J.G. , Skarmeta Antonio F.G.
Published: May 2011

Network, service, and application management today faces numerous challenges, ones that older ways of doing things cannot solve. The concept of policy-based management (PBM) addresses some of these problems and offers possible solutions. It provides a system-wide view of the network and its services and applications, and shifts the emphasis of network management and monitoring away from specific devices and interfaces toward users and applications. This chapter describes the technology on the policy-based management paradigm which is consideredrelevant for providing a common base for researchers and practitioners who need to understand the current status of this emerging technology and how it can be applied to the Web and information systems security field.
A Multimedia-Based Threat Management and Information Security Framework
Authors: Joshi James B.D. , Shyu Mei-Ling , Aref Walid , Ghafoor Arif
Published: May 2011

This chapter focuses on the key challenges in the design of multimedia-based scalable techniques for threat management and security of information infrastructures. It brings together several multimedia technologies and presents a conceptual architectural framework for an open, secure distributed multimedia application that is composed of multiple domains employing different security and privacy policies and various data analysis and mining tools for extracting sensitive information. The challenge is to integrate such disparate components to enable large-scale multimedia applications and provide a mechanism for threat management. The proposed framework provides a holistic solution for large-scale distributed multi-domain multimedia application environments.
Privacy-Preserving Data Mining on the Web
Authors: Oliveira Stanley R. , Zaiane Osmar R.
Published: May 2011

Privacy-preserving data mining (PPDM) is one of the newest trends in privacy and security research. It is driven by one of the major policy issues of the information era—the right to privacy. This chapter describes the foundations for further research in PPDM on the Web. In particular, we describe the problems we face in defining what information is private in data mining. We then describe the basis of PPDM including the historical roots, a discussion on how privacy can be violated in data mining, and the definition of privacy preservation in data mining based on users’ personal information and information concerning their collective activities. Subsequently, we introduce a taxonomy of the existing PPDM techniques and a discussion on how these techniques are applicable to Web-based applications. Finally, we suggest some privacy requirements that are related to industrial initiatives and point to some technical challenges as future research trends in PPDM on the Web.
Establishing Identification in Virtual Science Museums
Authors: Jones Billie J.
Published: May 2011

The concept of identification from the field of communication studies is used in this chapter to discuss the ways to, and the benefits of, develop(ing) identification with an audience through the design and arrangement of virtual science sites (i.e., aid in the comprehension of the new, and potentially difficult, content of the site; and help in the creation of regularly returning site visitors/users). The chapter concludes with checklists to aid Web site designers/managers and educators analyzing/using virtual science sites to maximize the benefits of identification.
From the Physical to the Virtual
Authors: Allison-Bunnell Steven , Schaller David T.
Published: May 2011

This chapter proposes a series of strategies for recreating science center exhibits online. It argues that while physical and electronic exhibits share certain common features, electronic science interactives based on physical exhibits must be re-conceived in terms of the strengths of the electronic medium. Like a televised magic show, digital media allow any number of special effects that interfere with the immediacy and raw authenticity of an onsite physical demonstration. This interference is inherent in any mediated experience. Rather than trying to overcome it, we suggest alternate approaches that take online users deeper into the scientific concepts underlying the physical phenomena on exhibit in the physical galleries. We outline several strategies that we have successfully used to engage user’s imaginations and emotions in online science activities, to foster motivation, and to provide an initial conceptual framework that supports the learning process.
An Authentic Online Learning Environment in University Introductory Biology
Authors: Koenders Annette
Published: May 2011

An authentic online collaborative assessment task, implemented in an introductory biology course, posed several challenges for the students. The task required application of knowledge rather than simple summarising and had to be presented in a specific style. It took many students some time to become at ease with the online environment. However, they appreciated the benefits of asynchronous communication and reported feeling more at ease to express opinions. In addition, group work and co-assessment challenged students to develop learning and interpersonal skills. An additional benefit of using online discussion boards was the teacher’s ability to obtain evidence of the way students interacted within groups that is not available in traditional group settings. Students actually found collaborating online difficult but satisfying. The study clearly demonstrates that authentic learning can be achieved by introductory students in a science course. Furthermore, the online environment enhanced the learning experience and student satisfaction.
Using Related Cases to Support Authentic Project Activities
Authors: Bennett Sue
Published: May 2011

This chapter describes the design of a technology-supported learning environment in which small teams of students worked on authentic project tasks to develop a multimedia product for a real client. The students were enrolled in an advanced-level subject offered in a postgraduate education program, with most studying part-time, and many located a distance from the main campus. Jonassen’s (1999) model for a constructivist learning environment was used as the framework for the design of the subject. A key feature of this approach is the use of related cases to support authentic project activities. The specifics of the design were informed by the research and conceptual literature, and by pilot testing with two class groups. The implementation of the subject was the focus of a qualitative case study that investigated learners’ experiences of the environment. A rich set of data was collected, including student assignment work, discussion records and interviews. Analysis of the data provided insights into the role of the cases in supporting the collaborative project work.
An Authentic Appraoch to Facilitating Transfer of Teacher's Pedagogical Knowledge
Authors: Herrington Anthony , Herrington Jan , Glazer Evan
Published: May 2011

The pedagogical knowledge learned by pre-service teachers often fails to transfer to teaching practice. Instead, new teachers revert to instructional strategies they observed as children. This chapter describes design research conducted over four years, where pre-service teachers were immersed in an authentic learning environment using multimedia to learn mathematics assessment strategies. The first study was conducted with pre-service teachers in the second year of their degree, and then the second study followed up with the same people in their second year as practising teachers. The first study revealed several constraints for the participants on professional practice, including limited time and the influence of the supervising teacher. Later, as practising teachers, they faced cultural and practical constraints within the school environment that prevented them from fully operationalising the pedagogical principles they learned as pre-service teachers.
Applying Situated Learning Theory to the Creation Learning Environments to Enhance Socialisation and Self-Regulation
Authors: McLoughlin Catherine , Luca Joe
Published: May 2011

Although much effort is devoted to investigating the use of technology to teach course content, an emerging area of some importance in online teaching is how to enhance the student experience of learning and communicating online. Associated with this is the creation of social and supportive environments for learning when there is little face-to-face contact between distance learners and their teachers. An examination of the literature on authentic learning suggests that there are a variety of frameworks and approaches on how to foster positive learning experiences through online delivery. While there are many frameworks that emphasise the cognitive aspects of learning, it is clear that the socio-affective aspects are of equal importance in creating a positive learning experience for students. Two approaches that balance cognitive and social aspects of learning are: the creation of online knowledge building community, and Social Presence Theory which emphasises interpersonal and social strategies that reduce psychological and physical distance between teachers and students. By synthesising findings from these two areas of research, this chapter provides a framework and a set of strategies that can be used to create an authentic learning climate, and illustrates a range of tasks that create positive social, learning experiences.
Using Online Discussions to Provide an Authentic Learning Experience for Professional Recordkeepers
Authors: Anderson Karen
Published: May 2011

Providing authentic learning in a distance education course that leads to a professional qualification is challenging. However, working in a totally online environment on ill-defined problems provides students with opportunities to seek and evaluate their own learning resources and to collaborate with others in their learning. This chapter provides an example of a performative assessment strategy for students in archives and records management studies, requiring them to find on the Internet, analyse and evaluate examples of policy documents and standards, just as they would in the workplace. Student evaluations of the exercise were unanimously positive. Discussions helped to overcome isolation felt by remote students; depth of knowledge gained was improved and students’ reflections developed awareness about learning through the assessment.
MDA Design Space and Project Planning
Authors: Roussev Boris
Published: May 2011

The change to Model-Driven Architecture (MDA) with Executable UML (xUML) results in changes to the existing object-oriented development practices, techniques, and skills. To use a transformational approach to create objects with Finite State Machines (FSMs), communicating by exchanging signals, adopters of MDA and xUML have to acquire expertise in new areas such as domain modeling, concurrency, non-determinism, precise modeling with FSM, programming in model-manipulation action languages, writing OCL constraints, and clear separation of application from architecture. The much more complex xUML object model presents system analysts with a longer and steeper learning curve. In this chapter, we critically evaluate the opportunities, capabilities, limitations, and challenges of MDA based on xUML. The purpose of our analysis is to aid organizations, software developers, and software product managers in their transition to this new development paradigm, and to assist them in understanding how MDA and xUML change the software design space and project planning.
Web Services in Service-Oriented Architectures
Authors: Miller Gerald N.
Published: May 2011

There is little debate in either corporate or academic circles that Web services comprise a large part of the next technological wave. Clearly, Web services will be instrumental in building service-oriented architectures that integrate disparate systems, both within organizations and across business partners’ firewalls. The question is not if, or even when, to implement Web services—it is how.
The Future of Supply Chain Management
Authors: Vanjara Ketan
Published: May 2011

This chapter initiates the concept of a customer-centric model in supply chain systems. It discusses various constraints of present-day supply chain systems resulting from their roots being in logistics management and suggests an alternative next-level paradigm of a customer-centric matrix model. This chapter further demonstrates how this model would add value to the customer by taking the example of a healthcare information management system. The chapter also delves into the limitations of and anticipated issues and challenges in implementing the suggested model. Finally, the chapter hints at some broad directions for future research and action in the field. Emergent behavior is what happens when an interconnected system of relatively simple elements begins to self-organize to form a more intelligent and more adaptive higher-level system (Johnson, 2001).
Inter-Enterprise Process Integration for E-Supply Chain Business Practices
Authors: Chao Chian-Hsueng
Published: May 2011

For every industry, the demands for optimization and greater efficiency become particularly urgent when the flow of business information goes beyond the borders of organizations. Driven by the need to attain even greater corporate competitive advantages, many organizations already have reengineered their internal processes, and the focus has shifted to their trading partners. With network connectivity, supply chain integration is now the core strategic competence that enables many companies to act as one. he development of an integrated supply chain by way of the Internet is one of the most important business trends in today’s e-business practices. This chapter focuses on the development of an object-oriented enterprise business blueprint for e-supply chain inter-enterprise process integration. The approach described here will illustrate how the enterprise applications can be developed and woven into the very fabric of business practices by using object-oriented techniques. In contrast to an isolated IT system, this approach allows business processes to permeate different organizations, and communication in this system becomes process-to-process oriented.
Determinant of E-Based Succes Attributes for Integrated Supply Chain System
Authors: Chow Wing S.
Published: May 2011

An e-integrated supply chain system is an enabler that enriches the effectiveness of global supply chains. This chapter adopts factor analysis to determine four success factors: work performance quality, system quality, information quality, and service quality. A critical analysis of areas that require improvement is also conducted
Developing Consumer Preference-Profiles as a Basis for Multi-Channel Service Concepts
Authors: Tinnila Markku , Oorni Anssi , Raijas Anu
Published: May 2011

Electronic distribution channels, such as the World Wide Web, mobile terminals, and digital television, have provided new opportunities for the retailing industry by providing consumers with alternative channels with which to buy goods and services. In order to better understand the implications of multi-channel access on electronic retailing, we will highlight the steps of the consumer decision-making process that rely the most on multi-channel access technologies (e.g., information search, comparison of alternatives, purchasing, and paying), describe the different channels, and use segmented groups of Finnish consumers to build sample consumer preference profiles, upon which new services can be developed.
Strategy Turned into Action
Authors: Homqvist Magnus , Pessi Kalevi
Published: May 2011

E-business has been highly debated during the last years, often based on assumptions. This chapter is based on results from several years of collaborative action research. Actual results from implementation projects in the supply chain of the automotive industry are the focus. The objective is to highlight experiences and successful results from business to business integration. The origin is a Volvo initiative with a portal for selling spare parts via a new Web channel. The case presents realized implementation projects as an outcome of a scenario-based strategy. The original scenarios served as a reference, but the development was influenced by actual actions and learnings. The case illustrates that creation of a new platform is challenging, but also that the creation of new business relations is just as difficult. The results indicate that tight follow-up projects can enable valuable innovations. Leverage is high, and rollouts are easier after the initial implementation.
Evaluation Issues
Authors: Khan Badrul
Published: May 2011

Evaluation in e-learning should focus on the people, processes, and products of e-learning. Evaluation issues of e-learning should consider how e-learning and blended learning materials are planned, designed, developed, delivered, and maintained; how well courses are taught and supported; how well program and institutional level services are provided; how e-learning programs are viewed by stakeholders and how well learners learned the materials. To explore theses issues both formative and summative evaluation strategies can be used:
Citizen Participation in Public Administration
Authors: van Duivenboden Hein
Published: May 2011

This chapter is on responsive electronic government services. Various changes in the relationship between government and citizens will be discussed by examining theory and practice of electronic public service delivery initiatives in a broad sense. The increasing complexity of society, individualization, new expectations of citizens and the use of modern ICT all influence the behavior of governments in their relations with citizens. What impact does e-government have on some of the most important principles of good governance — such as principles that safeguard “access and transparency”, “accountability and legitimacy” and “effectiveness of policy- and decision-making”?
The Advancement of Positioning Technologies in Defense Intelligence
Authors: Michael Katina , Masters Amelia
Published: May 2011

The adoption of positioning technologies to supplement, complement and function as defense intelligence applications has become widely accepted within homeland security and military circles. At the core of advancement are four main positioning technologies: the global positioning system (GPS), second generation (2G) and beyond mobile telephone networks (including wireless data networks), radio-frequency identification (RFID) and geographic information systems (GIS). For all positioning technologies, both separately and when combined, it is of primary importance to their continued adoption that the controlling powers have an in-depth understanding of the causality between implementation, usage and flow-on effect. This relies on an alignment of defense strategy, knowledge systems, security requirements and citizen rights within the broader social context. This social context must respond to continuing security breaches, advancements in technology and the ever-changing face of bureaucracy. There is, however, great difficulty in creating an uncompromising foundation for homeland security, which is at all times both void of complexity and suitable to all. Even more difficult, though, is to predict both the events and consequences that will herald from the systems now being created.
Exploring ASP Sourcing Decisions in Small Firms
Authors: Woerndl Maria , Powell Philip , Vidgen Richard
Published: May 2011

This chapter explores application service provision (ASP) in small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Five exploratory case studies among UK SMEs illustrate that SMEs are aware of the ASP concept and its potential. While the uptake of ASP is still low the idea of paying for information systems (IS) services on a monthly basis is gaining ground. A framework mapping the ASP sourcing decision process for SMEs is introduced, highlighting the issues and challenges that SMEs face when evaluating whether to source IS through the ASP renting model rather than building a solution in-house or buying it off the shelf.
An Introduction to Artificial Neural Networks
Authors: Charles Darryl , Fyfe Colin , Livingstone Daniel , McGlinchey Stephen
Published: May 2011

The design of the first computers were influenced by the power of the human brain and attempts to create artificial intelligence, yet modern day digital computers are very different from what we understand about human neural processing. Most computers today are sequential (or only partially parallel) and have no (or very limited) learning capability. We have succeeded in building machines that can reliably store and quickly access information from large databases of data but we have only recently been able to create control mechanisms that enable robots to walk on two legs on flat surfaces. However, as far as image recognition is concerned, and in particular face recognition, our attempts to replicate the power of our own visual systems have been very limited. Our own biological visual systems are still much more advanced than current artificial models.
Reinforcement Learning
Authors: Charles Darryl , Fyfe Colin , Livingstone Daniel , McGlinchey Stephen
Published: May 2011

Just as there are many different types of supervised and unsupervised learning, so there are many different types of reinforcement learning. Reinforcement learning is appropriate for an AI or agent which is actively exploring its environment and also actively exploring what actions are best to take in different situations. Reinforcement learning is so-called because, when an AI performs a beneficial action, it receives some reward which reinforces its tendency to perform that beneficial action again. An excellent overview of reinforcement learning (on which this brief chapter is based) is by Sutton and Barto (1998).
Modern Organizations and Decision-Making Processes
Authors: Marostica Ana , Briano Cesar
Published: May 2011

This chapter explains a hybrid-decision support system (HDSS) in which a heuristic-data mining procedure (a complement of a statistic-data mining) is embedded into the original information system. For the better understanding of these concepts, these tools are presented as hybrid agents interacting in a financial environment. Structures and some important types of decisions that decision makers can adopt in a financial organization (e.g., a commercial bank) and how the suitable information is incorporated in a HDSS, are also discussed.