bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
IT Portfolio Management
Authors: Ho Luke , Atkins Anthony
Published: May 2011

This chapter provides an introduction to the advent of Information Technology Outsourcing (ITO) and its impact on portfolio management in modern day decision-making. Specifically, it outlines the use of the Application Portfolio Matrix (APM) by companies in formulating their strategic IT direction and why such techniques may be unsuitable for outsourcing decisions, which are inherently complex and multi-faceted in nature. Consequently, there is a need for alternative decision support tools to enable companies to determine how to “best-source” various aspects of their business. This chapter subsequently presents an analysis of ten outsourcing decision-making frameworks, identified from the literature, highlighting their commonalities, strengths, deficiencies and the potential misalignment between the theory and practice of outsourcing as determined by focus group discussions. This chapter gives a background introduction to the practitioner-driven Holistic Approach {Business, Information, Organizational} (HABIO) Framework, which adopts a holistic approach to outsourcing that examines underlying issues from the business, information (i.e. technical) and organizational perspectives. The framework adopts a “card/deck” analogy in its design, allowing for the flexibility and scalability required to accommodate the intricacies of heterogeneous outsourcing decisions in varying industry and context. The chapter outlines its application to two case studies, involving multi-million contracts from the finance and retail sectors, which is of particular interest to academics seeking accounts of current practices and practitioners seeking a systematic guide to ITO portfolio management.
E-Government, Service Transformation, and Procurement Reform in Canada
Authors: Langford John , Roy Jeffrey
Published: May 2011

New organizational arrangements are required to underpin emerging public sector service transformation initiatives with a substantial electronic government (e-government) dimension. These arrangements are both internal to government, involving new collaborative relationships among service delivery agencies and reform of procurement processes, and external, involving the formation and management of strategic relationships between private sector information technology (IT) vendors and public service providers. This article explores the relational context of service transformation by first examining some current initiatives in Canada—at both provincial and federal levels. These case studies reveal the nexus between digital technologies, internal organizational change, and public–private sector interactions. They also reveal the emergence of new collaborative mechanisms between both sectors, especially in the initial phase of relationships where the IT-enabled service transformation is being mutually defined. This heightened level of collaboration also represents a significant departure from traditional government procurement models—where inputs are defined by public authorities and then secured in the marketplace from qualified vendors. E-government—and service transformation initiatives in particular—are consequently driving a rethinking of the role and purpose of procurement mechanisms in an increasingly digital and interdependent environment. Many political and administrative quandaries remain, however, as governments struggle to achieve a balance between traditional public interest principles such as probity, transparency, and accountability, and the rising importance of strategic collaboration. Building on the case studies and a review of current efforts at procurement reform, this article offers and assessment of how this interrelationship between service transformation and public–private collaboration is likely to shape future e-government-based service transformation efforts in Canada.
Managed Services and Changing Workplace Ethics
Authors: Sixsmith Alan
Published: May 2011

Organizations use various types of outsourcing for many reasons, and these have been widely documented in the research literature. However, the impact on both the employees remaining with the organization and those who move to the service provider is often neglected. Prior to the outsourcing arrangement coming into effect, the employees all work for the same organization, but now with two (or more) organizations in place, professionalism and workplace relationships are drastically changed. In this article, the impact of changing workplace relationships on individual professionalism and workplace ethics will be explored.
Risks, Benefits, and Challenges in Global IT Outsourcing
Authors: Dhar Subhankar , Balakrishnan Bindu
Published: May 2011

In the last few years, Web-based surveys have received increased attention given their potential to cut the costs and time associated with paper-based surveys. In this exploratory study, we consider the feasibility of using the Web as a data collection medium in China, which has a current Internet population of 103 million. Following a review of the literature regarding the design, implementation, and application of Web surveys, and the current state of data collection in developing countries in general and China in particular, we describe how we developed a Web-based survey instrument focusing on the ethical values of IT professionals. We e-mailed 5,000 IT professionals in China, inviting them to participate in the survey. Thirty-seven percent of those contacted visited the Web site and 5.8% submitted the survey. The survey data, both qualitative and quantitative, is analysed and discussed with a view to drawing up instructive guidance for researchers interested to use the Web as a data collection tool in China, as well as developing countries more generally. The Web-based survey has great potential in these contexts, if sensitively designed and implemented. We consider the implications of this research and identify areas where future research is necessary.
Outsourced IT Projects from the Vendor Perspective
Authors: Taylor Hazel
Published: May 2011

As outsourced and multinational IT projects become more common, managing risks for these projects is increasingly important. The research reported here examines key risks identified by Hong Kong vendor project managers working on both local and international package implementation projects. In addition to the typical risks that threaten project outcome success, respondents noted location-specific risks on their multinational projects. They also distinguished threats to the satisfactory process of the project, and threats to their own firms from competitors and from potential damage to their reputation arising from customer dissatisfaction with either the outcomes or the process of the project. Using an agency theory perspective, this broader focus is examined in the light of differing definitions of project success for clients and outsource providers.
Project Management Issues in IT Offshore Outsourcing
Authors: Stewart Schwaig Kathy , Leeds Elke , Gillam Stephen H.
Published: May 2011

Global partnerships are forming to take advantage of the cost savings associated with offshoring as well as other strategic benefits. Not all information technology offshoring projects, however, are successful. Cost overruns, increased complexity and defective code cause organizations to rethink their offshoring strategy and their methods for managing these projects. In this paper, project management issues associated with offshore information technology outsourcing projects are identified and specific recommendations for addressing these issues are presented.
High Performance IT as Strategic Partner for HR Management
Authors: Pennarola Ferdinado , Caporarello Leonardo
Published: May 2011

The constant growth of the role that information technology (IT) is playing in business today has led to the development of new business models and new business processes (Cline & Guynes, 2001). In the modern business world, characterized by such things as internationalization and cooperation between organizations from different industries, companies are faced with a great many challenges, including: The integration of data sources, applications, platforms, and businesses; The technological and organizational flexibility needed to respond efficiently to changes in the marketplace; The creation of systems that are reliable, robust, and flexible, and that are able to keep pace with the changing needs of their users; Product and service quality. As such, companies are increasingly recognizing the importance of effective IT management (Broadbent & Weill, 1997).
Protecting Patient Information in Outsourced Telehealth Services
Authors: Logan Patricia Y. , Noles Debra
Published: May 2011

Hospitals have increasingly employed outsourcing to lower the cost of healthcare delivery and improve efficiency and quality, thereby, enabling more focus on core competencies of patient care, teaching, and research. Outsourcing presents a challenge for protecting patient information when new services are implemented or integrated into an existing healthcare information system. Enabling new outsourced telehealth services often requires “bolting on” security to legacy systems rather than “baking” it into the system. This article addresses security practices necessary for healthcare organizations implementing new telehealth services as part of an outsourced relationship. While a number of recommendations are available for security readiness assessments pursuant to HIPAA compliance, none directly addresses the challenge of implementing security for outsourced clinical services. A case study is presented for a recent implementation of teleradiology services within a large regional hospital. Using the case, system vulnerabilities are demonstrated and relevant best practices to mitigate exposing patient information are discussed.
Quality Standardization Patterns in ICT Offshore
Authors: Ruiz Ben Esther
Published: May 2011

In recent years, the ICT branch has experienced new internationalization impulses through the improvement of offshore practices. Particularly the development of modularization and standardization of some production processes have crucially contributed to enabling offshoring in globalized areas of ICT. Competencies as well as innovation sources have increasingly fragmented; resting upon cooperation and trust principles. Quality standards play a crucial role to satisfy and optimize these coordination and regulation needs so to warrant quality outcomes. In this chapter, I will give an overview of the development of quality standards related to offshore projects, focusing particularly on recent practices in Europe. To illustrate the importance of quality standards and quality management for ICT off- and nearshore projects, and moreover for the internationalization of the ICT branch, I present some preliminary results of my work in progress. From the perspective of project managers in large ICT firms, quality standards play a very important role as the internal controlling instrument of working and communication processes; as well as an external mechanism beyond the ICT network in order to get market advantages.
Ensuring Correctness, Completeness, and Freshness for Outsourced Tree-Indexed Data
Authors: Dang Tran Khanh
Published: May 2011

In an outsourced database service model, query assurance takes an important role among wellknown security issues. To the best of our knowledge, however, none of the existing research work has dealt with ensuring the query assurance for outsourced tree-indexed data. To address this issue, the system must prove authenticity and data integrity, completeness, and freshness guarantees for the result set. These objectives imply that data in the result set is originated from the actual data owner and has not been tampered with; the server did not omit any tuples matching the query conditions; and the result set was generated with respect to the most recent snapshot of the database. In this paper, we propose a vanguard solution to provide query assurance for outsourced tree-indexed data on untrusted servers with high query assurance and at reasonable costs. Experimental results with real datasets con?rm the effciency of our approach and theoretical analyses.
Aligning Business Processes with Enterprise Service Computing Infrastructure
Authors: Zhao Wei , Jeng Jun-Jang , An Lianjun , Cao Fei , Bryant Barret R. , Hauser Rainer
Published: May 2011

Multisourced and federated business operations and IT services are the backbone of today’s enterprise. However, in most companies, there exists a natural gap and disconnection between the decision and evaluation at the business level and the execution and metrics at the IT level. This disconnection can lead to end-user dissatisfaction, diminished profit, and missed business objectives. In this chapter, we study the problem of this disconnection and provide the following frameworks and techniques toward bridging the gap: (a) We provide a model-transformation framework that effectively transforms business-level decisions documented as businessprocess models into IT-level executable representations based on service-oriented infrastructure, (b) a framework is described that is able to monitor and synthesize IT-level performance and metrics to meet service-level agreements between business management and end users, and (c) techniques and experiments are discussed that enable dynamic adaptation of IT infrastructure according to business decision changes.
Analysis of a Large-Scale IT Outsourcing "Failure"
Authors: Rouse Anne C. , Corbitt Brian J.
Published: May 2011

Much of the research that has been carried out into outsourcing is based on relatively successful case studies. Yet drawing inferences from case studies when those with largely negative outcomes rarely see the light of day represents a significant problem. When negative cases are systematically unrepresented, there is less opportunity to subject theory to scrutiny. This chapter goes some way towards redressing this trend, by reporting on a large scale “selective” outsourcing arrangement that has been publicly described as a failure — the Australian Federal Government’s “whole of government” IT infrastructure outsourcing initiative. This initiative, originally promoted as likely to lead to a billion dollar saving, was abandoned early in 2001, after a damning public report by the Australian Auditor General. However, a detailed study of the initiative suggests that the “failure” occurred despite the project adhering to many of the recommended guidelines for successful outsourcing that had been derived from earlier case analysis. The findings have important implications for decision makers confronted with outsourcing choices. The study suggests that the risks of outsourcing are often downplayed, or ignored in the rush to reap the expected benefits. The study also suggests that expectations of savings from outsourcing IT are often substantially higher than those that have been empirically confirmed in the field. Decision makers are advised that key assumptions about costs, savings, managerial effort, and the effects of outsourcing on operational performance might be incorrect, and to plan for their outsourcing activity accordingly. They should pay particular attention to coordination and transaction costs, as these tend to be overlooked in the business case. These costs will be magnified if “best in breed” multiple-vendor outsourcing is chosen, and if contracts are kept short. Decision-makers are also warned of the difficulties they are likely to have at the end of an outsourcing contract if there is not a large and robust pool of alternative vendors willing to bid against the incumbent.
The Fifth Perspective
Authors: Goyal Preeti , Metri Bhimaraya A.
Published: May 2011

Today, alliances, collaborations, and networks are synonymous with strategy. Business process outsourcing (BPO) is one such type of alliance. With increasing reliance on outsourcing, the organizational boundaries are blurring. The implications for the client organization can be tremendous, as it now relies on an outside organization to fulfill its operational objectives. Currently, there is no single framework that can effectively measure performance for BPO arrangements. In its present form, the balanced scorecard (BSC) only addresses the performance measurement needs of a single enterprise and any perspective on any external relationships is completely missing. The traditional BSC does not suffice as a performance measurement framework for BPO. While both the client and the vendor can use a BSC for their respective organizations, the strategic objectives of the organizations may not be met. In this article the authors propose a new perspective as an extension to the BSC, namely, the goals alignment perspective. Goals alignment of the two organizations will enable creation of performance measures that will help participating organizations to achieve their respective goals.
Social Impact of Digital Media and Advertising
Authors: O'Toole Gregory
Published: May 2011

Around the world today we have convenient, fingertip access to continual, informational content. At first the free flow of information seems convenient, empowering, and endlessly beneficial for those world citizens with access to it. This chapter takes a closer look at this relationship in terms of today’s consumer and the mediated information they are exposed to and asks the question of whether or not this is necessarily a good thing. The chapter looks at the historical relationship of power and information for guidance in this examination while considering active and inactive audience, corporate and independent media texts, and the possible relationships between Victor Frankl’s ‘existential void’ and mediated messages today.
Convergence, Contradiction and Collaboration
Authors: Sheehan Brian , Young Antony
Published: May 2011

This chapter explores the profound impact of the digital revolution on the advertising business. Specifically, it looks at how advertisers and their agencies are changing the ways they plan media, create advertising ideas, and integrate their campaigns using digital and traditional media. Three key themes are explored: 1) the critical importance of context, which challenges advertisers to fundamentally re-evaluate the relationship between media placement and messaging; 2) the challenge of fragmentation to goals of integration: in the digital scenario, the ability to manage complexity has become a key competitive advantage; 3) the need for a new process to ensure the creative development process is in tune with context and focused on simplicity: this process is called the contextual creative brief. A number of case studies are provided of advertising campaigns that have pioneered in these areas. They are: Mitsubishi’s “Which Car?” campaign, Lexus’ “Mosaic” campaign, Toyota’s “Best in Jest” and “Sketchies” campaigns, Ambien CR’s “Points of Stress” campaign, and the Simpsons Movie launch campaign.
Virtual Identities from Virtual Environments
Authors: Prince Melvin
Published: May 2011

The creation of identities in immersive online digital environments has become commonplace in consumer behavior. Consumers frequently enter into socially networked, computer mediated environments (CME’s) as avatars. A user can design his or her avatar by choosing typologies of facial features, body types and clothing styles. The chapter concerns Avatar analysis as a system for generating and analyzing consumer information of practical value to marketers. Avatar analysis enhances understanding of brand perceptions and meanings, discovers new ways of positioning and differentiating brands, and provides insights for improving the effectiveness of brand communications. Using websites such as Second Life to draw avatars, consumer identity projections are elicited based on consumers’ perceptions and interpretations of their own digital figure drawings i.e., virtual social identities of consumers and brands. These identity projections disclose their real and ideal selves, brand-as-a-person, and imagery of a typical brand user.
Sounds of Web Advertising
Authors: Jessen Iben Bredahl , Graakjaer Nicolai Jørgensgaard
Published: May 2011

Sound seems to be a neglected issue in the study of web ads. Web advertising is predominantly regarded as visual phenomena–commercial messages, as for instance banner ads that we watch, read, and eventually click on–but only rarely as something that we listen to. The present chapter presents an overview of the auditory dimensions in web advertising: Which kinds of sounds do we hear in web ads? What are the conditions and functions of sound in web ads? Moreover, the chapter proposes a theoretical framework in order to analyse the communicative functions of sound in web advertising. The main argument is that an understanding of the auditory dimensions in web advertising must include a reflection on the hypertextual settings of the web ad as well as a perspective on how users engage with web content.
A Performance Comparison between Efficiency and Pheromone Approaches in Dynamic Manufacturing Scheduling
Authors: Renna Paolo
Published: May 2011

This chapter proposes an innovative coordination mechanism in manufacturing systems by pheromone approach in a multi-agent architecture environment. A pheromone-based coordination mechanism can reduce the communication among agents and decision-making complexity. The chapter focuses on job shop scheduling problem in cellular manufacturing systems. The principal aim is the evaluation of the performance of the proposed approaches compared with the approaches proposed in the literature (benchmark) in order to evidence the improvements. A simulation environment developed in ARENA® package was used to investigate the influence of several parameters on the manufacturing performance. The proposed approaches are tested in a dynamic environment; the simulation scenarios are characterized by the following parameters: inter-arrival, machine breakdowns and processing time efficiency. The simulation results highlighted that the performance of the proposed approaches are very competitive to the benchmark.
Impact of E-Government Implementation on Poverty Reduction in Rural India
Authors: Kaur Sandeep , Mathiyalagan N.
Published: May 2011

ICTs in general and e-governance in particular offer tremendous opportunities for improving demanddriven transparent and accountable service delivery targeting the underprivileged. The objective of this chapter is to examine the effects of E-government implementation in the context of widespread poverty in India through an extensive secondary data analysis on selected pro-poor initiatives in reducing poverty and improving rural livelihoods. Analysis also includes various contexts in which these ICT based interventions operate. Specific recommendations are made to involve the socially excluded groups in the design, implementation and access to e-government services. Governments to design appropriate public policies in implementing socially inclusive e-government strategies in the emerging information society draw the conclusion.
Designing Contextualized Interaction for Learning
Authors: Specht Marcus
Published: May 2011

In the following chapter, an overview is given over the experiences and design decisions made in the European project RAFT for enabling live distributed collaboration between learners in the field and in the classroom. Beside a context analysis for defining requirements for service needed as an underlying infrastructure user interface design decisions were essential in the project. As a flexible and powerful approach a widget based design for the user interface enable the project to build clients for a variety of hardware and devices in the learning environment ranging from mobile phones, PDAs, tablet PCs, desktop computers, to electronic whiteboard solutions. Enabling consistent and synchronized access to information streams in such a distributed learning environment can be seen one essential insight of the described research.
A Theoretical Model for Designing Online Education in Support of Lifelong Learning
Authors: Tomei Lawrence A.
Published: May 2011

The escalating infusion of online education to promote lifelong learning has triggered a re-examination of teaching and learning not witnessed since perhaps the advent of the printed textbook. Textbooks changed the landscape of individualized learning as professors added reading to their inventory of instructional strategies. Today, distance education, in all its manifestations from programmed instruction to Web-based courses, requires instructors to employ new strategies in course design and delivery in order to engage students and promote learner-centered activities. The rapid growth of distance education (especially for the adult learner) serves to challenge traditional methodologies in which education is designed, delivered, and assessed. This chapter introduces a new model for designing instruction using this state-of-the-art venue, an archetype for effective instructional design for lifelong learning.
Intelligent Process Planning
Authors: Zhou Zude , Wang Huaiqing , Lou Ping
Published: May 2011

Computer Aided Process Planning is very hot topic in the manufacturing. It uses the geometric information (such as shape, size, etc.) and information technology (such as materials, heat treatment, bulk, etc.) which are input into the computer to output parts of the route of the process and the procedures automatically. Process planning is very important in the manufacturing process. With the continuous development of the manufacturing sector, the traditional manual methods of Process Planning flaws more and more serious. Computer-aided technology can increase their technical capacity effectively. CAPP is an effective means to improve the design. The research of CAPP has got a very huge development, from the search logic structure, Variant, Generative, and Hybrid to Expert System. In the future, the development of the CAPP will focus on the extending of the application scope, depth and level. In this chapter, a general introduction is presented firstly. Then the application of genetic algorithm (GA) to CAPP is introduced. Thirdly implement of ANN in CAPP System is presented. In the fourth part, use of Case-Based Reasoning in CAPP is discussed. Fourthly, CAPP based on Multi-Agent (MAS) system is illustrated.
A Denotational Semantics of Real-Time Process Algebra (RTPA)
Authors: Wang Yingxu , Tan Xinming
Published: May 2011

Real-time process algebra (RTPA) is a form of denotational mathematics for dealing with fundamental system behaviors such as timing, interrupt, concurrency, and event/time/interrupt-driven system dispatching. Because some key RTPA processes cannot be described adequately in conventional denotational semantic paradigms, a new framework for modeling time and processes is sought in order to represent RTPA in denotational semantics. Within this framework, time is modeled by the elapse of process execution. The process environment encompasses states of all variables represented as mathematical maps, which project variables to their corresponding values. Duration is introduced as a pair of time intervals and the environment to represent the changes of the process environment during a time interval. Temporal ordered durations and operations on them are used to denote process executions. On the basis of these means, a comprehensive set of denotational semantics for RTPA are systematically developed and formally expressed.
An Operational Semantics of Real-Time Process Algebra (RTPA)
Authors: Wang Yingxu , Ngolah Cyprian F.
Published: May 2011

The need for new forms of mathematics to express software engineering concepts and entities has been widely recognized. Real-time process algebra (RTPA) is a denotational mathematical structure and a system modeling methodology for describing the architectures and behaviors of real-time and nonrealtime software systems. This article presents an operational semantics of RTPA, which explains how syntactic constructs in RTPA can be reduced to values on an abstract reduction machine. The operational semantics of RTPA provides a comprehensive paradigm of formal semantics that establishes an entire set of operational semantic rules of software. RTPA has been successfully applied in real-world system modeling and code generation for software systems, human cognitive processes, and intelligent systems.
The Impact of Ideology on the Organizational Adoption of Open Source Software
Authors: Ven Kris , Verelst Jan
Published: May 2011

Previous research has shown that the open source movement shares a common ideology. Employees belonging to the open source movement often advocate the use of open source software within their organization. Hence, their belief in the underlying open source software ideology may influence the decision making on the adoption of open source software. This may result in an ideological—rather than pragmatic—decision. A recent study has shown that American organizations are quite pragmatic in their adoption decision. We argue that there may be circumstances in which there is more opportunity for ideological behavior. We therefore investigated the organizational adoption decision in Belgian organizations. Our results indicate that most organizations are pragmatic in their decision making. However, we have found evidence that suggests that the influence of ideology should not be completely disregarded in small organizations.
Implementing Interoperability Standards for Electronic Government
Authors: dos Santos Ernani Marques
Published: May 2011

Interoperability standards play an important role in the integration of systems and information sharing for electronic government. However, these processes do not just mean exchange of data but, mainly, integration of processes and transactions. Therefore, the implementation of these standards depends not only on technological aspects, but also on other variables of the institutional, organizational and economical contexts. Based on this scenery, this chapter discusses the implementation of the standardization process in an electronic government environment. It presents the findings from a case study of the Brazilian interoperability framework (e-PING), based on documents content analysis and face-toface semi-structured interviews. As a result, it points out some aspects that may be conditioning in the setting of these standards.
I-FGM as a Real Time Information Retrieval Tool for E-Governance
Authors: Santos Jr. Eugene , Santos Eunice E. , Nguyen Hien , Pan Long , Korah John
Published: May 2011

Homeland security and disaster relief are some of the critical areas of E-governance that have to deal with vast amounts of dynamic heterogeneous data. Providing rapid real-time search capabilities for such applications is a challenge. Intelligent Foraging, Gathering, and Matching (I-FGM) is an established framework developed to assist users to find information quickly and effectively by incrementally collecting, processing and matching information nuggets. This framework has been successfully used to develop a distributed, unstructured text retrieval application. In this paper, we apply the I-FGM framework to image collections by using a concept-based image retrieval method. We approach this by incrementally processing images, extracting low-level features and mapping them to higher level concepts. Our empirical evaluation shows that our approach performs competitively compared to some existing approaches in terms of retrieving relevant images while offering the speed advantages of distributed and incremental process and unified framework between text and images.
The Information System Strategies of MNC Affiliates
Authors: Lai Vincent S.
Published: May 2011

This article applies a technology-organization-environment framework to evaluate the determinants of the global information systems (GIS) strategies of foreign affiliates. The results indicate that IT maturity, parent resource dependency, cultural distance, restrictive regulations, and local competition are significant determinants of GIS strategy. We also find that the integration-responsiveness model can be applied to explain GIS strategies and their implementation. These findings provide additional insight into the complex relationship between headquarters and affiliates in GIS management. We conclude by discussing the implications of our findings for both research and practice.
A Virtual Laboratory on Natural Computing
Authors: Nunes de Castro Leandro , Yupanqui Julho Muñoz , Rubim de Freitas Leandro , Charbel Niño El-Hani
Published: May 2011

Natural computing is a terminology used to describe computational algorithms developed by taking inspiration from information processing mechanisms in nature, methods to synthesize natural phenomena in computers, and novel computational approaches based on natural materials. The virtual laboratory on natural computing (LVCoN) is a Web environment to support the teaching and learning of natural computing, and whose goal is to provide didactic contents about the main themes in natural computing, in addition to interactive simulations, videos, exercises, links for related sites, forum, and other materials. This article describes an experiment with LVCoN during a School of Computing in Brazil. The results are presented in four parts: Self-Evaluation, Evaluation of LVCoN, Evaluation of the Simulations (Applets), and Interviews. The results allowed us to positively evaluate the structure and contents of LVCoN, in the sense that most students were satisfied with the environment. Besides, most students liked the experience of working with a virtual laboratory, and considered a hybrid teaching approach; that is, one mixing lectures with virtual learning, very appropriate and productive.
WEBCAP
Authors: Sami Habib , Maytham Safar
Published: May 2011

In many web applications, such as the distance learning, the frequency of refreshing multimedia web documents places a heavy burden on the WWW resources. Moreover, the updated web documents may encounter inordinate delays, which make it difficult to retrieve web documents in time. Here, we present an Internet tool called WEBCAP that can schedule the retrieval of multimedia web documents in time while considering the workloads on the WWW resources by applying capacity planning techniques. We have modeled a multimedia web document as a 4-level hierarchy (object, operation, timing, and precedence.) The transformations between levels are performed automatically, followed by the application of Bellman-Ford’s algorithm on the precedence graph to schedule all operations (fetch, transmit, process, and render) while satisfying the in time retrieval and all workload resources constraints. Our results demonstrate how effective WEBCAP is in scheduling the refreshing of multimedia web documents.
Fostering Meaningful Interaction in Health Education Online Courses
Authors: Fuller Richard G. , Kuhne Gary
Published: May 2011

This research study examined the best interactive practices of effective health care education faculty from six major universities that offer online health care programs. Program directors from six major universities identified effective faculty, from which twelve faculty members were interviewed to uncover effective practices and an additional thirty faculty participated in a Delphi study to identify and prioritize effective practices. The findings for this study indicate that different types of facilitation approaches are needed to generate adequate interaction in four distinct types of health care courses, i.e., foundational classes, skills classes, analysis/synthesis classes, and hybrid type courses.
Using PowerPoint to Encourage Active Learning
Authors: Boyas Elise A.
Published: May 2011

Educators have recognized that curricula must become more focused on developing student skills and less focused on memorization of rules. Increasing demands on student time make it necessary for students to access learning support tools on demand. Successful curricula give students opportunities for active learning and opportunities to be self-regulated learners. Teaching students how to be active, self-regulated learners prepares them for careers which will require them to be lifelong learners. The creative use of technology throughout the curriculum can help educators bring active learning experiences to their students. This article describes the development of an interactive PowerPoint module for use in an introductory accounting course in a business school. This use of PowerPoint provides students with immediate, appropriate feedback with explanatory details. This tool is designed to be used outside of the classroom at the student’s own pace and can be used in disciplines other than accounting.
A Critical Discourse Analysis of Students' Anonymous Online Postings
Authors: Ng’ambi Dick
Published: May 2011

It is difficult to understand students’ social practices from artifacts of anonymous online postings. The analysis of text genres and discursive types of online postings has potential for enhancing teaching and learning experiences of students. This article focuses on analysis of students’ anonymous online postings using Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). The article argues that social practices reproduce during online interaction and artifacts embody such reproduction. A study involving more than 300 commerce students at a higher education institution (HEI) using a special purpose anonymous online consultation tool, the Dynamic Frequently Asked Questions (DFAQ), and social practices embodied in the artifacts is analyzed using CDA. The analysis used the three dimensions of CDA—description (text genres), interpretation (discursive type), and explanation (social practice)—and insights into students’ social practices were inferred. The article concludes that CDA of anonymous postings provided insight into social practices of students and, in particular, highlighted the tension between perceptions of inflexibility of traditional teaching practices and student demands for flexible learning. Finally, CDA, as described in this article, could be useful in analyzing e-mail communications, short message service (SMS) interactions, Web blogs, and podcasts.
Risk Management
Authors: Zyngier Suzanne
Published: May 2011

This article develops an argument for and provides case study evidence to demonstrate that knowledge management (KM) governance is a mechanism that strengthens the development and implementation of KM strategies. It achieves this through locating and formalizing risk management as a function of governance, establishing reporting structures and mechanisms to ensure feedback into the ongoing development of organizational KM. We conclude that the operationalization of KM governance formalizes, locates and authorizes risk management as a structured response to the resolution of the cultural and structural risks and obstacles to KM strategy, and that it achieves this through developed capacity for analysis, articulation, strategic alignment and activity to address risks to effective, sustainable KM.
Ambient Intelligence
Authors: Sadri Fariba , Stathis Kostas
Published: May 2011

In recent years much research and development effort has been directed towards the broad field of ambient intelligence (AmI), and this trend is set to continue for the foreseeable future. AmI aims at seamlessly integrating services within smart infrastructures to be used at home, at work, in the car, on the move, and generally in most environments inhabited by people. It is a relatively new paradigm rooted in ubiquitous computing, which calls for the integration and convergence of multiple disciplines, such as sensor networks, portable devices, intelligent systems, humancomputer and social interactions, as well as many techniques within artificial intelligence, such as planning, contextual reasoning, speech recognition, language translation, learning, adaptability and temporal and hypothetical reasoning. The term AmI was coined by the European Commission, when in 2001 one of its Programme Advisory Groups launched the AmI challenge (Ducatel et al., 2001), later updated in 2003 (Ducatel et al., 2003). But although the term AmI originated from Europe, the goals of the work have been adopted worldwide, see for example (The Aware Home, 2007), (The Oxygen Project, 2007), and (The Sony Interaction Lab, 2007). The foundations of AmI infrastructures are based on the impressive progress we are witnessing in wireless technologies, sensor networks, display capabilities, processing speeds and mobile services. These developments help provide much useful (row) information for AmI applications. Further progress is needed in taking full advantage of such information in order to provide the degree of intelligence, flexibility and naturalness envisaged. This is where artificial intelligence and multi-agent techniques have important roles to play. In this paper we will review the progress that has been made in intelligent systems, discuss the role of artificial intelligence and agent technologies and focus on the application of AmI for independent living.
When Ubiquitous Computing Meets Experience Design
Authors: Mulder Ingrid , Terrenghi Lucia
Published: May 2011

In this chapter we provide an overview of the main implications of emerging ubiquitous computing scenarios with respect to the design and evaluation of the user experience. In doing that, we point out how these implications motivate the evolution of the human-computer interaction discipline towards a more interdisciplinary field of research requiring a holistic approach as well as new adequate research methods. We identify challenges for design and evaluation and consider different classes of methods to cope with these challenges. These challenges are illustrated with examples in which ubiquitous technology is used both for its design and for the study of the users’ everyday life. In our discussion we support the idea that ubiquitous technology provides new means for the study of human experiences as well as human deliberate engagement with technology; the latter as an alternative to automation and invisible technology.
Pervasive Computing
Authors: Godara Varuna
Published: May 2011

Pervasive computing is trying to make the dreams of the science fiction writers come true—where you think of some type of convenience and you have it. It appears that pervasive computing is allowing tiny computers, sensors, networking technologies, and human imagination to blend and mould into new products and services. This chapter introduces pervasive computing, grid computing, and ambient intelligence with explanation of how these technologies are merging to create sensor embedded smart environments. Along with description and scope of e-business and m-business, different views of p-business are illustrated. Finally, different smart environments including smart consumer-to-consumer, smart value systems, smart p-education, p-governance, and so forth, are explained.
Convergence Broadcast and Telecommunication Services
Authors: Navarro-Prieto Raquel , Berbegal Nídia
Published: May 2011

The aim of this chapter is to present an example of the user-centered design cycle for the development of innovative convergence services and technology of broadcast and mobile networks. We will describe three main phases that encompass our work. During the first phase, we focused on the validation of the scenarios developed as well as requirements for the services portrayed in the scenarios, taking into consideration cultural differences among countries. Then we studied in-depth requirements for specific services (mobile TV and personalized alerting). Last, we performed a usability test in three countries to test navigational aspects, users’ understanding of icons and menus, and user acceptance of the mock-up. We will explain how combining different methodological approaches (that is, contextual research, experimental studies, and usability tests) have proven to be very useful in gathering and validating user needs, scenarios, and interfaces for these complex services. In general, we would like to highlight that technology developers have to be careful about the amount of information presented, since users are very sensitive to information overload both for mobile TV and for alerting systems. Once again, for mobile services, less is more.
Designing a Ubiquitous Audio-Based Memory Aid
Authors: Patel Shwetak N. , Truong Khai N. , Hayes Gillian R. , Iachello Giovanni , Kientz Julie A. , Abowd Gregory D.
Published: May 2011

The ephemeral nature of sound can be problematic when people cannot recall something they heard. Motivated by everyday conversational breakdowns, a continuous, near-term audio buffering application named the Personal Audio Loop was designed to recover audio content from the recent past using the mobile phone platform. The investigation of the potential usefulness in everyday life, the level of ubiquity and usability required of the service, and the social and legal considerations for long-term adoption is presented. The methods used include a controlled laboratory study, in-situ diary and event-contingent experience sampling studies, examination of legislation, and deployment of the technology over several weeks.
A SCORM Compliant Courseware Authoring Tool for Supporting Pervasive Learning
Authors: Wang Te-Hua , Chang Flora Chia-I
Published: May 2011

The sharable content object reference model (SCORM) includes a representation of distance learning contents and a behavior definition of how users should interact with the contents. Generally, SCORM-compliant systems were based on multimedia and Web technologies on PCs. We further build a pervasive learning environment, which allows users to read SCORM-compliant textbooks with multimodal learning devices. Respecting the learning contents for supporting such learning environment, an efficient authoring tool was developed for serving this goal. Some specific tags were defined to specify the corresponding information or interactions that cannot be performed in the hardcopy books. These tags can be printed in SCORM-compliant textbooks and recognized by Hyper Pen to facilitate the affinity between the physical textbooks and digital world. Therefore, users can read the SCORM-compliant hardcopy textbooks in a traditional manner. The authored course contents will be the same while applying to the multimodal learning devices with different layouts.
Realizing the Promise of RFID
Authors: Thillairajah Velan , Gosain Sanjay , Clarke Dave
Published: May 2011

This chapter touches on some basics on RFID and covers business opportunities as well as some of the relevant challenges to be faced. Although it is a new technology, standard obstacles of organizational and technological barriers still have to be overcome and mediums crossed that were previously not traversed as on warehouse and distribution center floors yield for challenging environments from a business process as well as a technological adoption perspective. It provides a combined outlook sprinkled with key lessons from early adopters and service providers close to some of the emerging trends and implementations happening in the field. A range of benefits will evolve with the adoption of RFID within an organization and especially across the entire supply network. For now, the value is only slowing coming into focus. Various industry segments, like pharmaceutical and military applications, will provide a smoother supply chain trail for others to follow.