bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Adoption of Electronic Commerce by Small Businesses
Authors: Cubico Serena , Favretto Giuseppe
Published: May 2011

The role played by small business in economic growth and development in the world is officially recognized, in both the economic literature and in official documents (e.g., Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, European Commission, U.S. Department of State). Information and communication technology connectivity are widespread in all sized businesses, but small businesses seem slower than larger ones to adopt and use ICT and electronic commerce. SMEs (small- to medium-sized enterprises) are independent firms that employ less than 10 (micro), 50 (small), and 250 (medium) employees (European Commission, 2003); the United States includes firms with fewer than 500 employees in the definition of an SME (OECD, 2000a). In Europe, SMEs contribute up to 80% of employment in some industrial sectors (e.g., textiles, construction, furniture), and they are defined as “a major source of entrepreneurial skills, innovation and contribute to economic and social cohesion” (European Commission, 2005, p. 3); in the U.S. economy, small businesses represent 99.7% of all employers and “broaden a base of participation in society, create jobs, decentralize economic power and give people a stake in the future” (U.S. Department of State, 2006, p. 2). To synthesize: more than 95% of OECD enterprises are SMEs, accounting for 60-70% of employment in most countries (OECD, 2000a). The same proportion is indicated by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development; in fact, SMEs account for 60-70% of all employment in developing countries (UNCTAD, 2002).
Anytime, Anywhere Mobility
Authors: Wiberg Mikael
Published: May 2011

Just a couple of years ago several mobile phone operators and others (e.g., Helal, 1999; Galambos, 2002; Ilderem, 2005) pushed forward “anytime, anywhere” as a goal or vision for future mobile services and mobile IT-use. In this article we set out to explore if “anytime, anywhere” mobility is in fact a paradox. Kleinrock (1996, 1998) claims advanced wireless technologies, the Internet, global positioning systems, portable and distributed computing, and so forth, will realize the vision of “anytime, anywhere.” We can today see the first signs of this vision. For example, telework is now possible, remote organizations can be engaged in close cooperation, and people can communicate, collaborate, share digital media, and form communities on the Internet. The world has become a global village, some claim (Preece, 1994, Castells, 1996), where you can interact with anybody independent of time and space. The vision of “anytime, anywhere” describes a situation where people can do tasks wherever they want and without any consideration of time. Related to the vision is the 2x2 matrix often used in the field of computer supported cooperative work (CSCW) to denote different kinds of computer supported collaboration (e.g., Johansen, 1988; Baecker et al., 1993). This model has the dimensions of time and place, where each can be the same or different. The model is shown in Figure 1.
Autopoietic Approach for Information System and Knowledge Management System Development
Authors: Abou-Zeid El-Sayed
Published: May 2011

In the last decade a new generation of information systems (ISs), such as Web-based information systems and knowledge management support systems, have emerged in response to ever-changing organizational needs. Therefore, the need for new “Information System Design Theories” for the emerging ISs is recognized. According to Walls, Widmeyer, and El-Sawy (1992), an “IS design theory” must have two aspects?one dealing with the description of the system and one dealing with the prescription, that is, the process of developing of the system. The prescription aspect includes a description of procedures and guidelines for system development. In addition, these two aspects must be grounded on theories from natural or social sciences (i.e., kernel theories). As information systems are socio-technical phenomena in which social and technical factors interweave the ways in which people work, the issue of “how to integrate the work activity and social context of users into the IS which is being designed” becomes one of the principal problems of IS development (Bai & Lindberg, 1999). Therefore, the development of new IS design theories requires a closer look at the system theories that go beyond the traditional system theory that is based, among other things, on Cartesian dualism (i.e., mind/body or cognition/action) and on a model of cognition as the processing of representational information (Mingers, 2001). One of the candidate theories is the theory of autopoiesis, which can be best viewed as a system-grounded way of thinking with biological foundations, together with its extension into social domain.
Bankruptcy Prediction through Artificial Intelligence
Authors: Goletsis Y. , Papaloukas C. , Exarhos Th. , Katsis C.D.
Published: May 2011

Bankruptcy prediction or corporate failure is considered a classic issue in both, academic and business communities. Bankruptcy risk is one of the most important factors (if not the most important one) to be considered when credit requests are screened or even existing debtors are evaluated. On the other hand, all potential stakeholders (shareholders, suppliers, customers, employees, creditors, auditors, etc.) have potential interest to identify if a company is on a trajectory that is tending towards failure. Commercial banks, public accounting firms and other institutional entities (e.g., bond rating agencies) appear to be the primary beneficiaries of accurate bankruptcy prediction, since they can use research results to minimize exposure to potential client failures. In addition to avoiding potentially troubled obligors, the research can also benefit in other ways. It can help in accurately assessing the credit risk of bank loan portfolios. Credit risk has been the subject of much research activity, since the regulators are acknowledging the need and are urging the banks to assess the credit risk in their portfolios. Measuring the credit risk accurately also allows banks to engineer future lending transactions, so as to achieve targeted return/risk characteristics. The other benefit of the prediction of bankruptcies is for accounting firms. If an accounting firm audits a potentially troubled firm, and misses giving a warning signal then it faces costly lawsuits (Atiya, 2001). A series of techniques have been applied in literature. Econometric / statistical methods have first appeared in literature: In late 1960’s (multiple) discriminant analysis (DA) was the dominant method; during the 1980’s logistic analysis. In the 1990’s artificial intelligence starts appearing in financial literature with neural networks (Odom & Sharda 1990) serving as an alternative to statistical methods demonstrating promising results. The goal of this chapter is therefore two-fold: First, it intends to give an overview of the artificial intelligence techniques successfully applied to the problem, ranging from the first neural network applications to recent applications of biologically inspired algorithms, such as genetic algorithms. Then, two kernel based methods, namely the Radial Basis Function Neural Networks and the Support Vector Machines are applied to the bankruptcy problem.
Benefits Realization through the Treatment of Organizational Issues
Authors: Doherty Neil F. , King Malcolm
Published: May 2011

Information technology is now a ubiquitous and increasingly critical part of the fabric of the modern organization, supporting its day-to-day operations and all aspects of the decision-making process, as well as its strategic positioning. It is therefore not perhaps surprising that the implementation of a new technology or information system is likely to result in a wide array of impacts to the organization as well as the working lives of individual employees. There is a growing consensus within the literature that many such impacts are not deterministic and cannot therefore be easily predicted prior to a system’s implementation (e.g., DeSanctis & Poole, 1994). The corollary of this is that many of the consequences of an information system’s implementation will be unanticipated (Robey & Boudreau, 1999). While some of these unanticipated consequences, or incidental side effects, may be of a positive nature, negative impacts are also quite common, as IT-induced organizational change often results in user resistance and, in extreme cases, possibly even system rejection (Martinsons & Chong, 1999). Information systems projects may not be totally predictable, but it can be argued that many of their organizational impacts only remain unanticipated, because systems developers are reluctant to tackle the human and organizational aspects of IT (Doherty & King, 2005). Systems development projects have typically been viewed as exercises in technical change, rather than socio-technical change; “most investments in IT are technology-led, reflecting too technical an emphasis” (Clegg, 2000, p. 464). This is a dangerous strategy, because unforeseen and unresolved negative impacts may increase the likelihood of systems failure. Moreover, beneficial impacts, of both a planned and incidental nature, may not be fully realized without an appropriate program of organizational change. Indeed, Ward and Daniel (2006) argue convincingly that the unacceptably high levels of IT failures are largely due to the absence of formal “benefits realization” approaches that explicitly target the organizational change needed to deliver business benefits. Consequently, we would argue that if systems development projects are viewed as an exercise in organizational change, in which all potential organizational impacts are proactively and systematically analyzed, then many undesirable impacts could be avoided, while the planned benefits can be more effectively realized (Doherty & King, 2002). The importance of treating organizational issues may now be widely acknowledged (e.g., Clegg, 2000; Eason, 2001), but little progress has been made in the development of practical treatment approaches that have succeeded in making the transition from research laboratory to widespread commercial usage. The primary aim of this article is to present an innovative new benefitsoriented approach for their proactive treatment. However, in advance of this, it is important to establish the importance of treating organizational issues.
Building Wireless Grids
Authors: Littman Marlyn Kemper
Published: May 2011

The accelerating implementation and remarkable popularity of sophisticated mobile devices, including notebook computers, cellular phones, sensors, cameras, portable GPS (Global Positioning System) receivers, and wireless handhelds such as PDAs (personal digital assistants), contribute to development of wireless grids. Wireless grids feature a flexible and adaptable cyberinfrastructure that supports coordinated and economical access to distributed resources and next-generation applications and services. Generally, wireless grids are classified as ad hoc or standalone, and mixed-mode or hybrid. Ad hoc wireless grids enable diverse applications via MANETs (mobile ad hoc networks) and consist of mobile devices that operate in infrastructureless environments. Mobile network nodes process tasks and provide best effort delivery service to support wireless grid applications (Lima, Gomes, Ziviani, Endler, Soares, & Schulze, 2005). In the healthcare environment, for example, ad hoc wireless grids equipped with sensors monitor the status of critically ill patients and track the location of hospital equipment and supplies. Hybrid or mixed-mode wireless grids augment and extend the capabilities of wireline grids to remote locations; facilitate the shared use of resources and processing power; and consist of components ranging from supercomputers to distributed or edge devices such as very small satellite aperture terminals (VSATs) (Harrison & Taylor, 2006). This chapter features an introduction to factors contributing to the development of present-day wireless grids. Wireless grid technical fundamentals, specifications, and operations are examined. Security challenges associated with safeguarding wireless grids are reviewed. Finally, the distinctive characteristics of innovative wireless grid initiatives are explored and research trends in the wireless grid space are described.
Business-to-Consumer Electronic Commerce in Developing Countries
Authors: Toland Janet , Klepper Robert
Published: May 2011

Electronic commerce describes the process of buying, selling, transferring, or exchanging products, services, or information via computer networks including the Internet. In business-to-consumer electronic commerce, the sellers are organisations, and the buyers are individuals (Turban, Leidner, McLean, & Wetherbe, 2005). Business-to-consumer electronic commerce provides opportunities for less-developed countries to reduce transaction costs and bypass some of the intermediary linkages to connect to global supply chains (Molla & Licker, 2005). Though predictions vary, statistics seem to point to significant growth of the use of the Internet among businesses and consumers in developing countries in the next 10 years (Hawk, 2004). The focus here is to explore the potential for business-to-consumer electronic commerce in less-developed countries. The approach taken is to review the current worldwide usage of the Internet; to identify the factors necessary for e-readiness; to explore the barriers to business-to-consumer electronic commerce; and to identify strategies that can be adopted by both the public and private sectors to overcome these barriers. By the end of 2003, developing countries accounted for more than one third of new Internet users worldwide. Though Internet access is rapidly increasing, most residents of developing countries still have no access to the Internet. For example, Internet access in Africa is less than 2% in a population of over 900 million, the lowest rate of access in the world (Dunphy, 2000; UNCTAD, 2004). Businessto- consumer electronic commerce in less-developed countries will grow in the future, but progress will be slowed by technological, cultural, economic, political, and legal problems (Davis, 1999; Enns & Huff, 1999). Differences in e-readiness and related barriers to electronic commerce will sustain substantial differences between regions of the world, between countries within regions, between urban and rural areas within countries, and between the genders and age groups. Despite the difficulties, when the basic communications infrastructure is available, options do exist to undertake business-to-consumer electronic commerce in less-developed countries.
Characteristics and Technologies of Advanced CNC Systems
Authors: Minhat M. , Xu X.W.
Published: May 2011

Computer Numerical Control (CNC) systems are the “backbones” of modern manufacturing industry for over the last 50 years and the machine tools have evolved from simple machines with controllers that had no memory and were driven by punched tape, to today’s highly sophisticated, multiprocess workstations. These CNC systems are still being worked and improved on. The key issues center on autonomous planning, decision making, process monitoring and control systems that can adjust automatically to the changeable requirements. Introduction of CNC systems has made it possible to produce goods with consistent qualities, apart from enabling the industry to enhance productivity with a high degree of flexibility in a manufacturing system. CNC systems sit at the end of the process starting from product design using Computer Aided Design (CAD) tools to the generation of machining instructions that instruct a CNC machine to produce the final product. This process chain also includes Computer Aided Process Planning (CAPP) and Computer Aided Manufacturing (CAM).
A Classical Uncertainty Principle for Organizations
Authors: Wood Joseph , Tung Hui-Lien , Grayson James , Poppeliers Christian , Lawless W.F.
Published: May 2011

After this article introduction, we review the prevailing theory of organizations, and what it means to organizational science and the new discipline of Quantum Interaction to have an uncertainty principle (ir.dcs.gla.ac.uk/qi2008; the corresponding author is one of the organizers). Further into the background, we review control theory for organizations and its importance to machine and human agents; we review the hypothesis for the uncertainty principle; and we review the status of the field and laboratory evidence so far collected to establish the uncertainty principle for organizations. Then we review future trends and provide the conclusion.
Conceptual Commonalities in Modeling of Business and IT Artifacts
Authors: Kilov Haim , Sack Ira
Published: May 2011

The proverbial communication gap between business and IT experts is mostly due to the fact that what is considered obvious to some business experts might not be obvious or even known to IT experts, and might substantially differ from what is considered obvious to other business experts. Thus, different stakeholders may understand the business domain and problems in tacit and quite different ways, and at the same time might be unaware of these differences. This leads to business-IT misalignment, and therefore to many serious information system failures, from life-threatening to financial or simply very annoying (loss of customers’ trust and patience). The article provides a concise overview of the topic, includes definitions of some essential concepts and constructs together with industrial examples of their use in modeling and in fostering business-IT alignment, and shows how a small subset of UML has been successfully used to represent the essential structure of a model.
Contemporary Concerns of Digital Divide in an Information Society
Authors: Ibrahim Yasmin
Published: May 2011

The social issue of the “digital divide” has courted much political and scholarly attention in the last decade. There is, however, less consensus over the origin of the term, even though it is generally associated with the advancement and diffusion of information technology. According to Jan Steyaert and Nick Gould (2004), the concept of the digital divide is believed to have gained media and academic currency in the mid-1990s. In 1998, the United Nations labelled the digital divide as a new type of poverty that was dividing the world (cf. Hubregtse, 2005). A UNDP (United Nations Development Programme) report in 1999 (cf. Norris, 2000) stated that “the network society is creating parallel communications systems” that increase the divisions between rich and poor nations (p.3). The term, in effect, captures the social inequality of access to technology, particularly the Internet, as well as the long-term consequences of this inequality for nations and societies. The significance of the term is embedded within the notion of an information society, where information is an important component of the global economy in terms of production, development, and social enrichment of societies and nations. The diffusion of technologies, such as the Internet, has meant the surfacing of various social issues including technology’s impact on society, its relationship with older media forms, and its immediate impact on people’s social and political lives (Robinson, 2003, p. i). New technologies, such as the Internet, are seen as transforming the globe into an information society with the ability to promote new forms of social identity and social networks while decentralizing power (Castells, 1996, p. 2001). Robin and Webster (1999, p. 91), nevertheless, are of the view that the contextualization of the digital divide debates within the issue of information revolution is misleading, for it “politicises the process of technological development by framing it as a matter of shift in the availability of and access of information.” The term digital divide conveys the broader context of international social and economic relations and in particular, the centre-periphery power configuration marked by American dominance over the rest of the world (Chen & Wellman, 2004, p. 41). In fact, rhetoric and literature on technology and information have always emphasized this divide (see Galtung & Ruge, 1965), not to mention the debates that were sparked in the 1980s by UNESCO’s proclamation of the New World Information Order (cf. Norris, 2000). The term has been analysed both at global and regional levels, and has involved the investigation of socioeconomic contexts, global governance, policy issues, as well as cultural elements. The analysis of the digital divide on a global level may entail comparisons of large regions, between developed and developing countries, and between rural and urban areas. In modern consciousness, the phrase captures the disadvantages and inequalities of those who lack access or refrain from using ICTs in their everyday lives (Cullen, 2003).
Contemporary IT-Assisted Retail Management
Authors: Kotzab Herbert
Published: May 2011

Retailing can be defined in two ways, either as a set of functions that adds value to products/services that are sold to end users (functional understanding of retailing) or as a specific institution within a marketing channel that executes retail functions (institutional understanding). The functional view explains retailing as an exchange activity in order to connect a point of production with a point of consumption. These exchange processes refer to (see Kotzab & Bjerre, 2005): • Marketing processes, including all activities that provide a customized set of products/services as demanded by customers/consumers (which is basically known as offering a customer-oriented assortment in terms of quality and quantity) • Logistics processes, including all activities that help to transfer this specific set of products/services to the markets (such as transportation, breaking bulk and inventory management) • Assisting processes, which refer to all activities that facilitate a purchase (such as credit function, promotion or advice function). The orchestration of these functions leads to various types of retail formats such as store-based retailers (e.g., hypermarkets or category killers), non-store-based retailers (e.g., mail-order retailing or electronic commerce) and hybrid retailers (e.g., home delivery services) (Coughlan et al., 2006). Retailing plays a vital role in today’s economy, but many retailing companies face economic pressure as they operate predominantly in mature and stagnant markets (e.g. Seth & Randall, 2001). In order to face these specific challenges, retailing companies adapt strategies that allow them to gain economies of scale by offering highly customized solutions to their customers (see Table 1). These strategies are built upon the latest developments in information technology (IT) and are therefore called IT-assisted retail management strategies. The following chapter presents an overview to contemporary IT-based retail business models and frameworks that show how IT has created a new mandate for retail management. IT is defined here as the hardware and software that collects, transmits, processes and circulates pictorial, vocal, textual and numerical data/information (e.g., Hansen & Neumann, 2005; Chaffey, 2004).
Content-Based Image Retrieval
Authors: Liew Alan Wee-Chung , Law Ngai-Fong
Published: May 2011

With the rapid growth of Internet and multimedia systems, the use of visual information has increased enormously, such that indexing and retrieval techniques have become important. Historically, images are usually manually annotated with metadata such as captions or keywords (Chang & Hsu, 1992). Image retrieval is then performed by searching images with similar keywords. However, the keywords used may differ from one person to another. Also, many keywords can be used for describing the same image. Consequently, retrieval results are often inconsistent and unreliable. Due to these limitations, there is a growing interest in content-based image retrieval (CBIR). These techniques extract meaningful information or features from an image so that images can be classified and retrieved automatically based on their contents. Existing image retrieval systems such as QBIC and Virage extract the so-called low-level features such as color, texture and shape from an image in the spatial domain for indexing. Low-level features sometimes fail to represent high level semantic image features as they are subjective and depend greatly upon user preferences. To bridge the gap, a top-down retrieval approach involving high level knowledge can complement these low-level features. This articles deals with various aspects of CBIR. This includes bottom-up feature- based image retrieval in both the spatial and compressed domains, as well as top-down task-based image retrieval using prior knowledge.
Creating Software System Context Glossaries
Authors: Hadad Graciela D.S. , Doorn Jorge H.
Published: May 2011

Requirements engineering (RE) is the area of software engineering responsible for the elicitation and definition of the software system requirements. This task implies joining the knowledge of the services that a software system can and cannot provide with the knowledge of clients’ and users’ needs (Jackson, 1995; Katasonov & Sakkinen, 2005; Kotonya & Sommerville, 1998; Sommerville & Sawyer, 1997; Sutcliffe, Fickas, & Sohlberg, 2006; Uchitel, Chatley, Kramer, & Magee, 2006). Frequently, this activity is done by people with a software engineering bias. The underlying hypothesis of this choice is that users’ needs are easier to understand than the software’s possible behaviors. This is not always true; however, this is the metacontext in which most RE heuristics and methodologies have been developed. Understanding clients’ and users’ needs is far more complex than merely interviewing selected clients and user representatives, compiling all gathered information in one document. Defining how to put into service a complex software system within an organization requires envisioning how the business process of the organization will be in the future from both points of view: software organization and business organization. This is the key of the RE commitment: to imagine how the future business process will be. This RE commitment requires a good knowledge about how the business process actually is. Understanding the software system’s preexistent context basically means understanding the clients’ and users’ culture. In other words, this part of the RE is a learning process.
Current Network Security Technology
Authors: Pulkkis Göran , Grahn Kaj , Åström Peik
Published: May 2011

Network security is defined as “a set of procedures, practices and technologies for protecting network servers, network users and their surrounding organizations” (Oppliger, 2000, Preface). The need for network security is caused by the introduction of distributed systems, networks, and facilities for data communication. Improved network security is required because of the rapid development of communication networks. Network security is achieved by using softwareand hardware-based solutions and tools.
Data Mining in Tourism
Authors: Bose Indranil
Published: May 2011

Everyday, millions of people travel around the globe for business, vacations, sightseeing, or other reasons. An astronomical amount of money is spent on tickets, accommodations, food, transportation, and entertainment. According to World Travel and Tourism Council, travel and tourism represents approximately 11% of the worldwide gross domestic product (GDP) (Werthner & Ricci, 2004). Tourism is an information-based business where there are two types of information flow. One flow of information is from the providers to the consumers or tourists. This is information about goods that tourists consume such as tickets, hotel rooms, entertainments, and so forth. The other flow of information which follows a reverse direction consists of aggregate information about tourists to service providers. In this chapter we will discuss the second form of information flow about the behavior of tourists. When the aggregated data about the tourists is presented in the right way, analyzed by the correct algorithm, and put into the right hands, it could be translated into meaningful information for making vital decisions by tourism service providers to boost revenue and profits. Data mining can be a very useful tool for analyzing tourism-related data.
Departure of the Expert Systems Project Champion
Authors: Sipior Janice C.
Published: May 2011

This article discusses the expert system (ES) project champion by examining the experiences of Ciba-Geigy Corporation with an ES project, impeded by the departure of the project champion. The OpBright Expert System, developed to support the identification of appropriate optical brightener products by sales representatives, was intended to provide a competitive advantage through superior customer service. With the promotion and transfer of the vital force committed to the project’s success, the ES encountered a stalemate. The difficulties in maintaining momentum for the ES without a project champion are discussed. Finally, suggestions are presented to guide organizations away from the same fate.
Developing an Effective Online Evaluation System
Authors: Henckell Martha , Kilburn Michelle , Starrett David
Published: May 2011

As with any new program, the chance of failure runs high and distance education, in comparison with the longevity of traditional education, is considered relatively new. Still, distance education appears to be here to stay. In fact, a 2000 market survey found that over 94% of all colleges were either offering or planning to offer distance education courses (Twigg, 2001). With this much interest and popularity, the need for policies to regulate distance education program practices should be recognized by all participating institutions of higher education (Czubaj, 2001). While students appear to be more focused on the conveniences that distance education provides, universities are more attentive to the need for offering a valid learning alternative. Higher education enrollments have shown upward movement and this has, to a degree, been attributed to the adult learners’ interest in, and availability of, distance education (Boettcher, as cited by Worley, 2000). Change in the enrollment demographics and the offering of distance education programs stimulates the need for new decisions by academic administrators for quality and accreditation purposes (Shea, Motiwalla, & Lewis, 2001; Tricker, Rangecroft, Long, & Gilroy, 2001). One of the first steps toward ensuring success of distance education programs is identifying the requirements of all those involved. Student needs are to receive a quality education; faculty needs are to have at their disposal (and to use) the knowledge and means to provide this education; and institution needs are to assess that students receive a quality education and to provide faculty with the resources for student educational needs to be met. One of the problems that could harm distance learning or prevent it from being all that it can be is the lack of a good evaluation system. The focus of this article will be to identify and describe, from the literature, the components of an effective evaluation system. Armed with this information, administrators will be able to make better program decisions.
Developing the Enterprise Architect Perspective
Authors: Cameron Brian H.
Published: May 2011

Enterprise systems design, implementation, and integration are focal points for business and information technology. Businesses must change processes, environments, and technologies as organizations strive to become more integrated and break down traditional silos of information systems and responsibility. These challenges require a new type of technical professional: one with the training and perspective of an enterprise architect with general technical expertise as well as business strategy and planning skills. Some college and university programs have risen to this challenge in recent years, and the joint ACM/Association for Information Systems Task Force developed the MSIS curriculum model to establish the fundamentals of enterprise information systems in response to the increasing demand for university-trained graduates in an information economy (Gorgone, Gray, & Feinstein, 2000). Recently, the Association for Open Group Enterprise Architects called for industry and academia to work together to craft new enterprise systems curricula that are relevant to today’s global business environment and developed from the perspective of an enterprise architect. Today’s globally competitive environment requires technical professionals to move beyond technical expertise and contribute to the strategy and development of dynamic IT systems that are able to support changing business objectives. To be prepared to meet such expectations, IT students must have broad experience in the design, implementation, and integration of such systems. This education is typically offered in a layered fashion, teaching students about databases, networks, and applications in different courses devoted to single topics (Nickerson, 2006). While this method allows universities to assign faculty with specific expertise to particular courses, it does not adequately prepare students for the work environment of the enterprise architect, where all of these different layers must be combined to support and align with business strategy. Students trained in a specific, narrow layer may fail to anticipate certain trends or requirements, such as a database designer overlooking the need for remote replication (Nickerson). To meet this need, many information technology programs are incorporating enterprise systems curricula for senior students. These courses are often referred to as “capstones” in the curriculum, and must focus on a wide variety of educational goals including understanding the enterprise as a whole, understanding how technology can provide a competitive advantage, learning to design complex integrated systems, learning concepts underlying technical systems integration, learning how to assess the requirements of an integrated system, and learning how enterprise architecture design is practiced as a profession.
Digital Game-Based Learning in Higher Education
Authors: Chu Sauman
Published: May 2011

Since the 1970s, computer games have become more and more a part of our culture. For the past 20-30 years, some studies have shown that certain aspects of computer games may have potential benefits in a learning environment. For example, games may increase motivation, collaboration and competition, as well as provide an effective inquiry-based framework (Squire, 2002). With the extreme success of the gaming industry in recent years, the potential for using computer games as a teaching tool in higher education is being increasingly explored. Game-based learning has been used in the military, medicine, and physical education quite successfully. However, the rules and guidelines of incorporating digital game-based learning into education are still quite open and exploration of possibilities is greatly encouraged.
Digital Video Broadcasting Applications for Handhelds
Authors: Georgios Gardikis  , Koumaras Harilaos , Kourtis Anastasios
Published: May 2011

Following the success and wide adoption of the European Digital Video Broadcasting for Terrestrial (DVB-T) standard for digital terrestrial television, numerous coordinated research efforts on digital broadcast technology resulted in the recent standardization of Digital Video Broadcasting for Handeld Devices (DVB-H). The new specification aims at defining the physical and link-layer level of a digital broadcast network for Internet protocol (IP) datacasting services. At its core, DVB-H is based on DVB-T but it is more oriented in mobile and stationary reception by handheld devices. This article attempts a brief though thorough overview of the new technology, its technical aspects, and its new application perspectives.
A Duplicate Chinese Document Image Retrieval System
Authors: Chan Yung-Kuan , Ho Yu-An , Wu Hsien-Chu , Chu Yen-Ping
Published: May 2011

An optical character recognition (OCR) system enables a user to feed an article directly into an electronic computer file and translate the optically scanned bitmaps of text characters into machine-readable codes; that is, ASCII, Chinese GB, as well as Big5 codes, and then edits it by using a word processor. OCR is hence being employed by libraries to digitize and preserve their holdings. Billions of letters are sorted every day by OCR machines, which can considerably speed up mail delivery. The techniques of OCR can be divided into two approaches: template matching and structure analysis (Mori, Suen & Yamamoto, 1992). The template matching approach is to reduce the complexity of matching by projecting from two-dimensional information onto one; the structure analysis approach is to analyze the variation of shapes of characters. The template matching approach is only suitable for recognizing printed characters; however, the structure analysis approach can be applied to recognize handwritten characters. Several OCR techniques have been proposed, based on statistical, matching, transform and shape features (Abdelazim & Hashish, 1989; Papamarkos, Spilioties & Zoumadakis, 1994). Recently, integrated OCR systems have been proposed, and they take advantage of specific character- driven hardware implementations (Pereira & Bourbakis, 1995). OCR generally involves four discrete processes (Khoubyari & Hull, 1996; Liu, Tang & Suen, 1997; Wang, Fan & Wu, 1997): 1. separate the text and the image blocks; then finds columns, paragraphs, text lines, words, and characters; 2. extract the features of characters, and compare their features with a set of rules that can distinguish each character/font from others; 3. correct the incorrect words by using spell checking tools; and 4. translate each symbol into a machine-readable code.
Electronic Payment
Authors: Pasquet Marc , Vernois Sylvain , Aubry Wilfried
Published: May 2011

Money has two main forms nowadays: the fiduciary money (coins, banknotes…) and the scriptural one (electronic or virtual). To pay goods, both are used. The electronic money, one specific form of the scripting money, is more and more used everywhere in the world. Electronic payment has many particularities: specific infrastructure, equipment, and software, new forms of regulations, technical agreements, normalizations, fraud limitations… The objective of this chapter is to present a general overview of electronic payment. The background section presents its historical evolution. In the main thrust, the chapter focuses first on the general architecture of electronic payment. Second, different authorization mechanisms for the processing of the banking transaction and for fraud prevention are detailed. Future trends stress the different research topics that should be investigated, especially concerning the SEPA program (Single Euro Payments Area), which will harmonize bank payment systems in Europe through 2012.
E-Logistics
Authors: Hassall Kim
Published: May 2011

By 1998, arguably some four years after the Internet’s general user beginnings, many commentators did not doubt that Internet based home shopping was on its way to revolutionize our lives. At the margin, it certainly allowed us another purchasing channel and for many retailers some 5% to 12% of differing goods is now done through an “e-store” or “emarketplace”. (Visser & Hassall, 2005). However, by 2001 a range of major e-business summits, perhaps very notable being the 44 nation OECD hosted e-transport and e-logistics summit in Paris (June, 2001), was beginning to demolish the euphoria of B2C. In its basic state, B2C was a very marginal business. But what of B2B? Yes, it is a bigger sector but how were the business rules and logistics strategies shaping up for network design, e-marketplace use, and logistic fulfilment changing when compared to the rapidly evolving B2C environment? The ICT sector rapidly began to assemble a host of B2B applications for Supply Chain Management and despite the “tech wreck” occurring towards the end of 2001, these highly expensive suites of products found some traction over the next three to four years. So, initially, the development of large logistics software packages such as I2, Baan, Descartes, and so forth, were offerings that the B2B sectors availed themselves of. However, besides the ICT developments in the B2B space, the evolution of new logistics strategies would prove themselves to be good, bad, and various shades in between, when examining the full end to end (E2E) e-business operations. Since 2001, a tide of interest has turned towards the adoption of fit for purpose e-logistic models to support the end to end functionality of e-business. Hassall (2003) describes a detailed survey for the international Postal Authorities as to what new e-logistics and e-business strategies should be developed. These ranged from new householder delivery choices, to global e-marketplaces being developed. Why this survey was important was because the global postal authorities are the largest combined B2C operator and also a growing B2B logistics supplier.
Emergence Index in Image Databases
Authors: Deb Sagarmay
Published: May 2011

Images are generated everywhere from various sources. It could be satellite pictures, biomedical, scientific, entertainment, sports and many more, generated through video camera, ordinary camera, x-ray machine, and so on. These images are stored in image databases. Content-based image retrieval (CBIR) technique is being applied to access these vast volumes of images from databases efficiently. Some of the areas, where CBIR is applied, include weather forecasting, scientific database management, art galleries, law enforcement, and fashion design. Initially image representation was based on various attributes of the image like height, length, angle and was accessed using those attributes extracted manually and managed within the framework of conventional database management systems. Queries are specified using these attributes. This entails a high-level of image abstraction (Chen, Li & Wang, 2004). Also there was feature-based object-recognition approach where the process was automated to extract images based on color, shape, texture, and spatial relations among various objects of the image. Recently combining these two approaches, efficient image representation and query-processing algorithms, have been developed to access image databases. Recent CBIR research tries to combine both of these above mentioned approach and has given rise to efficient image representations and data models, query-processing algorithms, intelligent query interfaces and domain-independent system architecture. As we mentioned, image retrieval can be based on lowlevel visual features such as color (Antani, Rodney Long & Thoma, 2004; Deb & Kulkarni, 2007; Deb & Kulkarni, 2007a; Ritter & Cooper, 2007; Srisuk & Kurutach, 2002; Sural, Qian & Pramanik, 2002; Traina, Traina, Jr., Bueno, & Chino, 2003; Verma & Kulkarni, 2004), texture (Antani et al., 2004; Deb & Kulkarni, 2007a; Zhou, Feng & Shi, 2001), shape (Ritter & Cooper, 2007; Safar, Shahabi & Sun, 2000; Shahabi & Safar, 1999; Tao & Grosky, 1999), high-level semantics (Forsyth et al., 1996), or both (Zhao & Grosky, 2001). But most of the works done so far are based on the analysis of explicit meanings of images. But image has implicit meanings as well, which give more and different meanings than only explicit analysis provides. In this paper we provide the concepts of emergence index and analysis of the implicit meanings of the image which we believe should be taken into account in analysis of images of image or multimedia databases.
Entrepreneurship in the Internet
Authors: Serarols-Tarrés Christian
Published: May 2011

The increasing development of information technologies (IT) has significantly affected both firms and markets. IT is currently changing the world in a more permanent and far-reaching way than any other technology in the history of mankind (Carrier, Raymond, & Eltaief, 2004). A new economy, where knowledge is the most important strategic resource, is forcing firms to review their traditional routines and take advantage of the tools able to create new value. Nowadays, there are two types of firms using this new IT. On the one hand, firms with physical presence (traditional companies) use the Internet as a new distribution channel or alternatively as a logical extension of their traditional business. On the other hand, there are dotcoms, Internet start-ups, or cybertraders (European Commission, 1997), which have been specifically conceived to operate in this new environment. A number of scholars have attempted to explain the creation of new ventures from many different theoretical perspectives (economics, psychology, and population ecology among others) and have also offered frameworks for exploring the characteristics of the creation process (Bhave, 1994; Carter, Gartner, & Reynolds, 1996; Gartner, 1985; Shook, Priem, & McGee, 2003; Veciana, 1988; Vesper, 1990; Webster, 1976). However, despite the growing literature in this area, few studies have explored the process of venture creation in dotcom firms. Cyberentrepreneurship is still in its emergent phase, and there is more to know about the phenomenon and the elements of the venture creation process (Carrier et al., 2004; Jiwa, Lavelle, & Rose, 2004; Martin & Wright, 2005). What are the stages they follow to create their firms? This article attempts to answer this question. First, we analyse the entrepreneurial process of a new firm’s creation. Second, we shed some light on how this process is applied by cyberentrepreneurs in starting their businesses based on an in-depth, multiple case study of eight entrepreneurs in Spain.
Ethical Issues in Conducting Online Research
Authors: Roberts Lynne D. , Pollock Smith Leigh M.
Published: May 2011

The rapid growth of the Internet has been accompanied by a growth in the number and types of virtual environments supporting computer-mediated communication. This was soon followed by interest in using these virtual environments for research purposes: the recruitment of research participants, the conduct of research, and the study of virtual environments. Early research using virtual environments raised a number of ethical issues and debates. As early as 1996 a forum in the The Information Society (volume 12, issue 2) was devoted to ethical issues in conducting social science research online. The debate has continued with more recent collaborative attempts to develop guidelines for ethical research online (Ess & AoIR ethics working committee, 2002; Frankel & Siang, 1999). In this article we explore contemporary ethical issues associated with conducting research online.
Evaluating Computer Network Packet Inter-Arrival Distributions
Authors: Guster Dennis , Robinson David , Sundheim Richard
Published: May 2011

The past decade could be classified as the “decade of connectivity”; in fact, it is commonplace for computers to be connected to an LAN, which in turn is connected to a WAN, which provides an Internet connection. On an application level this connectivity allows access to data that even five years earlier were unavailable to the general population. This growth has not occurred without problems, however. The number of users and the complexity/size of their applications continue to mushroom. Many networks are over-subscribed in terms of bandwidth, especially during peak usage periods. Often network growth was not planned for, and these networks suffer from poor design. Also, the explosive growth has often necessitated that crisis management be employed just to keep basic applications running. Whatever the source of the problem, it is clear that proactive design and management strategies need to be employed to optimize available networking resources (Fortier & Desrochers, 1990). This is especially true in today’s world of massive Internet usage (Zhu, Yu, & Doyle, 2001).