bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Measurement Issues in Decision Support Systems
Authors: Holstein William K. , Crnkovic Jakov
Published: May 2011

The past decade has seen tremendous progress in systems for information support-flexible and adaptable systems to support decision makers and to accommodate individual needs and preferences. These model- or data-driven or hybrid systems incorporate diverse data drawn from many different internal and external sources. Increasingly, these sources include sophisticated enterprise resource planning systems, data warehouses, and other enterprise-wide systems that contain vast amounts of data and permit relatively easy access to that data by a wide variety of users at many different levels of the organization. Decision support and decision support systems (DSS) have entered our lexicon and are now common topics of discussion and development in large, and even in medium-sized, enterprises. Now that DSS is well established, attention is turning to measurement and the metrics that populate such systems.
MESH Object-Oriented Hypermedia Framework
Authors: Lemahieu Wilfried
Published: May 2011

Hypermedia systems represent data as a network of nodes, interconnected by links. The information embodied within the nodes can be accessed by means of navigation along the links, whereby a user’s current position in the information space determines which information can be accessed in the next navigation step. This property of navigational data access raises hypermedia systems as utterly suitable to support user-driven exploration and learning. The user autonomously determines the way in which he or she will delve into the information, instead of being confined to the rigid “linear” structure of, for example, pages in a book.
Metadata for Electronic Documents Using the Dublin Core
Authors: Hanisch Till
Published: May 2011

The Dublin Core Element Set was developed at the OCLC/NCSA Metadata Workshop in Dublin (Ohio), 1995 (hence the name). It is maintained by the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative (DCMI).
Minorities and the Digital Divide
Authors: Kvasny Lynette , Payton Fay Cobb
Published: May 2011

Information and communication technologies (ICT) such as the World Wide Web, e-mail, and computers have become an integral part of America’s entertainment, communication, and information culture. Since the mid-1990s, ICT has become prevalent in middle- and upper-class American households. Companies and government agencies are increasingly offering products, services, and information online. Educational institutions are integrating ICT in their curriculum and are offering courses from a distance.
Mobile Location Services
Authors: Giaglis George M.
Published: May 2011

The term “mobile era” as a characterization of the 21st century can hardly be considered an exaggeration (Kalakota & Robinson, 2001). Mobile phones are the fastest penetrating technology in the history of mankind, and global mobile phone ownership has surpassed even the ownership of fixed phones. Mobile applications, despite potentially being very different in nature from each other, all share a common characteristic that distinguishes them from their wire-line counterparts: they allow their users to move around while remaining capable of accessing the network and its services. In the mobility era, location identification has naturally become a critical attribute, as it opens the door to a world of applications and services that were unthinkable only a few years ago (May, 2001).
Model-Supported Alignment of IS Architecture
Authors: Opdahl Andreas L.
Published: May 2011

An information system (IS) is a system that communicates, transforms, and preserves information for human users. An information system comprises one or more software applications and databases, and their relationships to their human users, operators, and maintainers.
Multilingual Electronic Commerce in a Global Economy
Authors: Gangopadhyay Aryya , Huang Zhensen
Published: May 2011

One of the major challenges facing organizations involved in electronic commerce (e-commerce) today is to organize and summarize information in such a way that end users can effectively and efficiently search for and analyze relevant information. Users can look for both structured as well as unstructured information in a system designed for electronic commerce. An example of structured information is the price of a specified product. Unstructured information, on the other hand, is information that is not well specified or that has multiple specifications. For example, the user may be looking for spices for cooking a shrimp dish where they can choose from a number of options. The user may have individual preferences1 for the selection of spices and may not know exactly how the information can be found in the system.
Multimedia Content Adaptation
Authors: Knight David , Angelides Marios C.
Published: May 2011

The previous decade has witnessed a wealth of advancements and trends in the field of communications and subsequently, multimedia access. Four main developments from the last few years have opened up the prospect for ubiquitous multimedia consumption: wireless communications and mobility, standardised multimedia content, interactive versus passive consumption and the Internet and the World Wide Web. While individual and isolated developments have produced modest boosts to this existing state of affairs, their combination and cross-fertilisation have resulted in today’s complex but exciting landscape. In particular, we are beginning to see delivery of all types of data for all types of users in all types of conditions (Pereira & Burnett, 2003).
Music Score Watermarking
Authors: Nesi P. , Spinu M.
Published: May 2011

Music publishers, authors and/or distributors have high quantity of music scores in their archives. In classical music, the original music piece is normally kept in paper format, since its production goes back to many years ago. At present, only new light and popular music pieces are in symbolic notation formats. Light and popular music have a limited lifetime when compared with classical music pieces. The duration of the copyrights for that kind of music is about 60-80 years. Content owners are very cautious to transform their classical music pieces in digital format for e-commerce purposes, because they consider it as a highly risky process which could ultimately lose their copyright ownership. The situation is different when it comes to light and popular music, being market life shorter. According to content owners’ opinion, e-commerce for music distribution cannot be accepted, unless adequate protection mechanisms are provided, as highlighted in WEDELMUSIC (www.wedelmusic.org) and MUSICNETWORK (www.interactivemusicnetwork.org). They accept to have their music protected only if it is possible to control while at the same time the users exploit content functionalities according to the established permissions and prices. To cope with these problems, mechanisms for protecting digital musical objects are used (see Table 1).
Networks and Electronic Commerce Adoption in Small Businesses
Authors: Vrazalic Lejla , Bunker Deborah
Published: May 2011

The adoption and diffusion of electronic commerce (e-commerce) in small businesses remains a critical area of investigation in information systems (IS) literature. A number of studies (Miles, Preece, & Baetz, 1999; Overby & Min, 2001) have suggested that in order to accommodate a technologically uncertain and globally focussed economy brought on by the advent of e-commerce, many small businesses are turning toward some form of alliance or network where the locus of the impact of change is interorganisational rather than organisational. Alliances or networks are formed entities that have a defined set of shared values, roles, responsibilities, and governance. Through involvement in such networks, small businesses not only find a ready source of technical and marketing expertise, but the very nature of the network “buffers” the impact of global market turbulence. This would suggest that belonging to a network is an important indicator of successful e-commerce adoption. However, a number of authors (Drakopoulou-Dodd, Jack, & Anderson, 2002; Dennis, 2000; McBer & Company as cited in Dennis, 2000) have found that many small businesses avoid network arrangements. Despite the widespread existence of networks, no research studies to date have formally compared networked and nonnetworked small businesses in relation to e-commerce adoption. This article presents the results of an exploratory study that aims to correct this oversight.
Neural Networks for Retail Sales Forecasting
Authors: Zhang G. Peter
Published: May 2011

Forecasting of the future demand is central to the planning and operation of retail business at both macro and micro levels. At the organizational level, forecasts of sales are needed as the essential inputs to many decision activities in various functional areas such as marketing, sales, production/purchasing, as well as finance and accounting (Mentzer & Bienstock, 1998). Sales forecasts also provide basis for regional and national distribution and replenishment plans. The importance of accurate sales forecasts to efficient inventory management has long been recognized. In addition, accurate forecasts of retail sales can help improve retail supply chain operation, especially for larger retailers who have a significant market share. For profitable retail operations, accurate demand forecasting is crucial in organizing and planning purchasing, production, transportation, labor force, as well as after sales services.
Next-Generation ERP
Authors: Moller Charles
Published: May 2011

“ERP is dead - long live ERP II” is the title of a path breaking research note from Gartner Group (Bond et al., 2000). In this research note Gartner Group envision how the ERP vendors respond to market challenges and how ERP and ERP strategies evolve by 2005. Gartner Group defined ERP II as a transformation of ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) and today the major vendors have adopted this concept in their contemporary ERP packages.
Non-Functional Requirements and UML Stereotypes
Authors: Salazar-Zarate Guadalupe , Botella Pere
Published: May 2011

In Nuseibeh and Easterbrook (2000), an overview of the field of software and systems requirements engineering is presented. Therein is highlighted some key open-research issues for the future of the Requirements Engineering (RE). Some of the major challenges mentioned there, are related with the necessity of richer models for capturing and analyzing non-functional requirements. This paper draws some possible extensions of Unified Modeling Language (UML) (Booch, G., Jacobson, I. and Rumbaugh, J., 1998) in order to include non-functional requirements.
Object-Oriented Software Metrics
Authors: Polgar Jana
Published: May 2011

Software measurement is considered to be an efficient means to monitor the quality of software projects, predict cost of maintenance, assess reusability of components, provide prediction of faults in similar projects, and contribute to improvement of the software development process. This chapter surveys software metrics literature with particular focus on object-oriented metrics, and metrics for measuring code complexity. Furthermore, we provide a critical view of software metrics and their usability.
Online Communities and Community Building
Authors: Kindsmuller Martin C. , Leuchter Sandro , Urbas Leon
Published: May 2011

“Online community” is one of today’s buzzwords. Even though superficially it is not hard to understand, the term has become somewhat vague while being extensively used within the e-commerce business. Within this article, we refer to online community as being a voluntary group of users who partake actively in a certain computer-mediated service. The term “online community” is preferred over the term “virtual community,” as it denotes the character of the community more accurately: community members are interacting online as opposed to face to face. Furthermore, the term “virtual community” seems too unspecific, because it includes other communities that only exist virtually, whereas an online community in our definition is always a real community in the sense that community members know that they are part of the community.
Online Learning as a Form of Accomodation
Authors: Cavannaugh Terence
Published: May 2011

An estimated three billion people, representing approximately half of the planet’s population, are in some way affected by disabilities, which includes an estimated 150 million from the United States of America (Half the Planet, 2001). According to the Twenty-Third Annual Report to Congress on the Implementation of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (U.S. Department of Education, 2002a), concerning students with special needs between the ages of three and 21, the U.S. and its outlying areas are currently serving educationally more than 6,272,000 students classified as having a disability. The inclusion model, in which a special needs student participates in the “regular” classroom, has become the current classroom education standard. Today’s special needs students have increasing impacts on the general education teacher as, during the past 10 years, the percentage of students with disabilities served in schools and classes with their non-disabled peers has gradually grown to over 90% in 1998 (U.S. Department of Education, 2000b). Because of the large and increasing number of special needs students, assistive educational technology is growing in importance. The population of postsecondary students with disabilities has increased over the past two decades, and currently there are approximately one million persons in postsecondary institutions who are classified as having some form of disability (U.S. Department of Education, 2000b). In 1994, approximately 45% of the adult population who reported having a disability had either attended some college or had completed a bachelor’s degree or higher, as compared to only 29% in 1986 (National Center for Educational Statistics, 1999a).
Ontology-Based Query Formation and Information Retrieval
Authors: Guan Sheng-Uei
Published: May 2011

With the introduction of new technologies such as WAP, HSCSD, GPRS, UMTS, and Bluetooth, it is believed that the e-commerce arena will sooner or later merge its applications with handheld devices to create more opportunities for the birth of mobile commerce (m-commerce). However, m-commerce is largely unrealized to date because there still does not exist a single killer application that can attract wireless users to use wireless services. According to a recent survey by Gartner, Inc., besides the importance of coverage of wireless network and pricing issues, the wireless Internet and data services is the next crucial factor that attracts users to use wireless service. As such, there is a need to improve the data services over the wireless network. One of these services is the information retrieval service.
Open Source Software Development Model
Authors: Zhao Luyin , Deek Fadi P.
Published: May 2011

The open source movement can be traced back to the hacker culture in the ’60s and ’70s. In the early 1980s, the tenet of free software for sharing was explicitly raised by Richard Stallman, who was working on developing software systems and invited others to share, contribute, and give back to the community of cooperative hackers. Stallman, together with other volunteers, established the Free Software Foundation to host GNU (Gnu’s Not Unix, a set of UNIX-compatible software system). Eric Raymond, Stallman’s collaborator, is the primary founder of the Open Source Initiative. Both communities are considered the principal drivers of open source movement.
Overcoming Barriers in the Planning of a Virtual Library
Authors: Hanson Ardis
Published: May 2011

The implementation of a university-wide virtual library inevitably causes significant changes within each department across the library and campus. However, real ownership comes about only with a commitment from management to 1) educate and train staff in the new technologies and procedures, 2) manage the change process as candidly as possible, and 3) disseminate information as openly and widely as possible. Each one of these commitments is essential to the change process.
Principles of Advanced Database Integrity Checking
Authors: Decker Hendrik
Published: May 2011

Integrity constraints (hereafter, sometimes simply ‘constraints’) are formal representations of conditions for the semantic correctness of database records. In science, constraints are usually expressed in declarative knowledge representation languages such as datalog or predicate logic. In commercial databases, they are usually expressed by distinguished SQL statements.
Project Management Best Practices to Increase Success
Authors: Brewer Jeffrey L.
Published: May 2011

Utilizing good project management practices has become one of the key differentiators in delivering successful information technology projects. Kerzner (2001) defines project management as “the planning, organizing, directing, and controlling of company resources for a relatively short-term objective that has been established to complete specific goals and objectives” (p. 4). The field of project management has seen explosive growth in the amount of individuals holding a job title such as project manager, in the amount of research being conducted, and in the amount of books and articles being published. This paper explores the reasons for this growth, the reasons why project management has become so important to the on-going success of IT projects and thus the success of organizations and what future directions the field of project management will travel.
Project Management for IT Projects
Authors: Asprey Len
Published: May 2011

The provision of information systems, technology, and communications is a fundamental requisite to support competitive strategies and improve service levels in enterprises. Increasingly, with e-commerce developments using the Internet and World Wide Web (WWW), combined with increased compliance and regulatory requirements, medium to large businesses and governments are relying on IT to support operations and administration. Small to medium businesses also make use of Web, e-mail, and office productivity packages to gain commercial advantage.
Relationship Cardinality Constraints in Relational Database Design
Authors: Cuadra Dolores , Martinez Paloma , Castro Elena
Published: May 2011

Database modelling is a complex task that involves conceiving, understanding, structuring and describing real universes of discourse (UD) through the definition of schemata using abstraction processes and data models. Traditionally, three phases are identified in database design: conceptual, logical and physical design. The conceptual modelling phase represents the most abstract level since it is independent of any database management system (DBMS) and, consequently, it is very close to the user and allows him/her to collect almost completely the semantics of the real world to be modelled.
Social Responsibility and the Technology Paradigm in Latin America
Authors: Ochao-Morales Herberto
Published: May 2011

In Latin America, regional as well as multilateral integration schemes have a predominant role within integration agreements. A representation of this includes MERCOSUR: Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay. The Andean Community of Nations (CAN) is composed of Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia, Peru, and Venezuela and the Group of Three (G3): Colombia, Mexico, and Venezuela. Another regional pact is the CARICOM, composed of English speaking countries within the Caribbean Basin. These organizations have the intent to establish, among other components, free trade areas, customs unions, common markets, and economic unions; all covenants that, in the future, may evolve into a political union (S.C.A. et al., 1998).
Softening the MIS Curriculum for a Technology-Based Profession
Authors: Lowry Glenn , Turner Rodney
Published: May 2011

Information systems1 (IS) professionals help to achieve business and organizational goals through the use of information technology. The information systems profession is team oriented and project based.
Software Requirements Risk and Maintainability
Authors: Schneidewind Norman F.
Published: May 2011

In order to continue to make progress in software measurement, as it pertains to reliability and maintainability, there must be a shift in emphasis from design and code metrics to metrics that characterize the risk of making requirements changes. By doing so, the quality of delivered software can be improved because defects related to problems in requirements specifications will be identified early in the life cycle. An approach is described for identifying requirements change risk factors as predictors of reliability and maintainability problems. This approach can be generalized to other applications with numerical results that would vary according to application. An example is provided that consists of 24 space shuttle change requests, 19 risk factors, and the associated failures and software metrics.
Software Reuse in Hypermedia Applications
Authors: Paiano Roberto
Published: May 2011

Hypermedia applications were, at the beginning, hand-coded pages with “ad-hoc” links. This production method was acceptable until a few pages had to be produced, but it became rapidly unmanageable when several hundreds of pages with complex interactive objects had to be considered. In particular, two interwoven problems rapidly became relevant: how to ensure the “usability” of modern large hypermedia-applications (Garzotto, Matera & Paolini, 1999), and how to improve the efficiency of its production/maintenance process.
Sponsorship in IT Project Management
Authors: Bryde David , Petie David
Published: May 2011

Since the 1970s academics and practitioners in the discipline of project management have sought answers to two inter-related questions: How is project success defined and measured? What are the influences on project success? To answer the first question people have studied project success criteria/key performance indicators. To answer the second, studies have focused on project critical success factors. Daniel (1961) introduced the concept of “success factors,” stating that “in most industries there are usually three to six factors that determine success; these key jobs must be done exceedingly well for a company to be successful” (p.116). Approaches to the management of information have been established using Daniel’s concept. For example, Rockart (1979) developed a Critical Success Factor (CSF) method for meeting the information needs of top executives. This method focused on understanding the objectives and goals of the company and the factors (CSFs) critical to their achievement, and establishing information systems to report on performance in these two areas. A key challenge has been to integrate the definitions and measures of success with CSFs, and in this respect work has been carried out to develop frameworks linking models of success criteria (the measures of success) with CSFs (see, for example, van Veen-Dirks & Wijn, 2002). The concept of CSFs has also been applied to project environments, with project CSFs being “those inputs to the management system that lead directly or indirectly to the success of the project” (Cooke-Davies, 2002, p. 185). Project management theory has also looked for a holistic answer to the questions of “How is project success defined and measured?” and “What are the influences on project success?”, through the development of models linking project success criteria and project CSFs (Westerveld, 2002; Bryde, 2003).
Strategic Alignment of Organizational Strategies
Authors: Lubbe Sam
Published: May 2011

Alignment is important to all organizations. This is confirmed by King (1995) but it is not yet clear how to achieve harmony between business strategy, information technology (IT) and e-commerce and what the impact of this alignment would be on an organization. In the past, the IT department was responsible for planning, development and management of information systems (IS). With the convergence of e-commerce, gaining an understanding of how e-commerce and IT may be jointly employed to support organizational strategies is important for managers (it is acknowledged that some organizations place e-commerce in the IT department, while others have it as a separate department). Good practice will ensure that the organization will find the best place for it. It is, however, good policy to split e-commerce and IT staff while aligning strategies. It is necessary to align the strategy for the e-commerce department as well. This alignment could be either “lawful” (wishes to create and protect) or chaotic (wishes to destroy).
Strategic Vision for Information Technology
Authors: Brabston Mary Elizabeth
Published: May 2011

Today’s dispersal of information technology (IT) decision making across many organizational managers and employees offers the promise of greatly increasing the extent to which IT is applied to the organization’s managerial and operational work systems (Boynton & Zmud, 1987; Jarvenpaa & Ives, 1990). Along with the advantages of distributed action, however, come the potential disadvantages of inappropriate allocations of effort and resources and associated outcomes — chiefly poor investment decisions, lost opportunities, duplicated efforts, and incompatible platforms and applications.
System Development for E-Business
Authors: Steinbach Theresa A. , Knight Linda V.
Published: May 2011

This article first introduces both the technical and business environments in which Web information systems are developed and the unique project variables of these systems. Characteristics are identified where e-business projects differ from traditional information systems projects. The next section presents various system development methodologies, provides a categorization framework and analyzes these categories for situations where each is best utilized. The synthesis of applying the environmental and project variables to the system development methodology categories provides the main contribution of the article. Conclusions are drawn that a project is unlikely to align perfectly with any one methodology. The project manager should select the methodology that is the “best fit” from the model presented here. Finally, the project manager should customize the process based on the unique characteristics of the organization, project, and team.
Tacit Knowledge and Discourse Analysis
Authors: Zappavigna-Lee Michele , Patrick Jon
Published: May 2011

Much of human experience is below-view, unattended to as we operate in the world, but integral to our performance as social creatures. The tacit knowledge involved in our practice allows us the experiential agility to be at once efficient and creative, to assimilate the novel and the familiar: in essence, to develop expertise. The possessors of skilful practice, the artisan, the witchdoctor or the physician, have occupied a position of both importance and mystery in most cultures since ancient times. Our interest over the ages in such hidden knowledge has caused us to mythologise expertise, placing it beyond the common by constructing it as unspeakable. Thus, in contemporary times it is not surprising that the dominant research perspective on tacit knowledge maintains that it is ineffable, that is, tacit knowledge cannot be understood by looking at what and how people communicate verbally. Indeed the word tacit has its origins in the Latin, tacitus, meaning silent.
Tailorable Information Systems
Authors: Stamoulis D. S. , Theotokis D. , Martakos D. I.
Published: May 2011

The quest for the business fit of information systems is as old as the history of computers. In the past, computers used to lag behind the daily needs of the users because they lacked the capabilities of tackling the issues raised by the users. In the late 80’s, the fourth generation of computers was a decisive step toward the acquisition of such system capabilities that allowed powerful software to be developed (O’Brien, 2002), rendering them able to tackle almost any business problem.
Technology's Role in Distance Education
Authors: Turoff Murray , Howard Caroline , Discenza Richard
Published: May 2011

Learning is enhanced by the physical and social technologies typically used in distance education. Students in distance programs typically have access to tools that allow them to repeat lectures and interact with their fellow students and faculty. Students in all classes, including face-to-face and blended courses, benefit from having similar tools and technologies available. This article will review common tools and technologies used in distance education, and demonstrate why they can facilitate learning and expand the educational opportunities for both distant and traditional students.
The Organizational Context in the Use of a Workflow System
Authors: Sarmento Anabela
Published: May 2011

Organizations try to implement technological solutions that will improve the handling of relevant information in order to be able to respond more effectively to the opportunities and challenges presented by the environment, as they are aware of the importance of learning and knowledge management. Among the solutions offered to achieve this improvement are workflow systems (WS). The adoption of a new technology always means change but the implementation of the same information system (IS), by different organizations, does not usually result in the same changes. This implies that there are some factors that mediate the relationship between the adoption of an IS and the organization where it is implemented.
Transferring Technology to the Developing World
Authors: Petter Stacie , Sevcik Galen , Straub Detmar
Published: May 2011

The potential for technology growth in lesser developed countries (LDCs), particularly within the Arab World, is enormous (Loch, Straub, & Kamel, 2003). Within the Middle East, the projected demand for information technology hardware and services will be $8.9 billion by 2005 (Pyramid Research, 2001). Yet, in spite of this significant promise, information technology transfer (ITT) has been slow in this region. Clearly, there is more than money at issue in diffusing computing and the Internet throughout the Arab world, and the less developed world in general.
Triggers, Rules and Constraints in Databases
Authors: Ale Juan M. , Espil Mauricio Minuto
Published: May 2011

Databases are essentially large repositories of data. Since the mid-1980s up to the mid-1990s, considerable effort has been paid to incorporate reactive behavior to the data management facilities available. Reactive behavior is characterized by variants of the event–condition–action model. Applications areas include checking for integrity constraints, system alerts, materialized view maintenance (especially useful in data warehousing), replication of data for audit purposes, data sampling, workflow processing, implementation of business rules, scheduling, and many others. Practically all products offered today in the database marketplace support complex reactive behavior on the client side. Nevertheless, the reactive behavior supported by those products on the server side is poor. Recently, the topic has regained attention because of the inherent reactive nature demanded in Web applications and the necessity of migrating many of the functionalities of browsers to active Web servers (Bonifati, Braga, Campi, & Ceri, 2002).
Trust in B2C E-Commerce for the New Zealand Maori
Authors: Peszynski Konrad J.
Published: May 2011

This study was performed to allow an understanding of some of the elements of trust that are apparent to encourage the Mäori Internet shopper to feel comfortable to shop online. Mäori arrived in New Zealand from the Pacific over 1,000 years ago. Since then, New Zealand was colonised by Europeans in the 19th century. As a result, the Mäori have become a minority (Belich, 1996). That is, their culture, language and values have become secondary to those of the dominant European culture (Liu, Wilson, McClure & Higgins, 1999). Mäori have been defined as including “all those who identify themselves as belonging to the New Zealand Mäori ethnic group, either alone or in combination with any other ethnic group” (Statistics New Zealand, 1998, p. 94).
Trust in Knowledge-Based Organizations
Authors: Huotari Maija-Leena , Iivonen Mirja
Published: May 2011

The knowledge-based society of the 21st century is characterized by knowledge generation as the primary source of wealth and social well-being. As partly intangible in nature, increased understanding of knowledge and information as a resource is critical (Sveiby, 1996; Teece, 1998). Such intangibles are gradually replacing traditional elements of power in states (Rosecrance, 1999), also emphasizing the role of trust in the positive aspect of economic globalization.
Use Cases and the UML
Authors: Dobing Brian , Parsons Jeffrey
Published: May 2011

The Unified Modeling Language, or the UML (Booch, Jacobson & Rumbaugh, 1999), has rapidly emerged as a standard language and notation for object-oriented modeling in systems development, while the accompanying Unified Software Development Process (Jacobson, Booch & Rumbaugh, 1999) has been developed to provide methodological support for application of the UML in software development. The UML is a non-proprietary modeling language managed by the Object Management Group, a not-for-profit consortium, which also manages several related modeling specifications. The UML has evolved from its initial version, with UML 2.0 formally adopted by the OMG in June 2003. This article is based on the UML 1.5 specifications (OMG, 2003), as those for UML 2.0 have not been finalized. However, the role of use cases appears to be essentially unaffected by the changes proposed for UML 2.0.
Web Access by Older Adult Users
Authors: Becker Shirley Ann
Published: May 2011

The older adult population in the U.S. continues to increase at a rapid pace due to aging baby boomers and increased life expectancy. Older Americans, 60 years and older, will comprise about 20% of the total population by 2030, which is more than twice the number of aging adults than in 2000 (Administration on Aging, 2002).
Web-Based Supply Chain Strategy
Authors: Hanebeck Hanns-Christian L.
Published: May 2011

Supply chain management is a fairly new creature and one that has evolved out of a variety of different enterprise functions over the past two decades. Traditionally, the majority of activities within supply chain management were related to the physical transport of goods from one point to another. Today, we understand supply chain management to include a broader range of activities such as demand planning, purchasing, warehousing, and transportation at the very least. Many authors will also throw production, product, and package design as well as marketing into the definition (Dornier et al., 1998; Schary & Skjøtt-Larsen, 2001; Taylor, 1997; Gourdin, 2001). For the context of this article, we refer to supply chain management as activities that are related to the planning and fulfillment of market demand. All of the activities within supply chain management can be performed by one or more than one legal entity. We further understand supply chain management as a business process rather than a function or department within a given company. Figure 1 below illustrates the set of core and potential activities as well as supporting ones such as process, performance, and information management.
Wireless Technologies to Enable Electronic Business
Authors: Nayak Richi
Published: May 2011

Research and practices in electronic business (e-business) have witnessed an exponential growth in the last few years (Liautand & Hammond, 2001). Wireless technology has also evolved from simple analog products designed for business use to emerging radioactive, signal-based wireless communications (Shafi, 2001). The tremendous potential of mobile computing and e-business has created a new concept of mobile e-business or e-business over wireless devices (m-business).
World Wide Web Search Technologies
Authors: Hu Wen-Chen , Yang Hung-Jen , Yeh Jyh-haw , Lee Chung-wei
Published: May 2011

The World Wide Web now holds more than six billion pages covering almost all daily issues. The Web’s fast growing size and lack of structural style present a new challenge for information retrieval (Lawrence & Giles, 1999a). Traditional search techniques are based on users typing in search keywords which the search services can then use to locate the desired Web pages. However, this approach normally retrieves too many documents, of which only a small fraction are relevant to the users’ needs. Furthermore, the most relevant documents do not necessarily appear at the top of the query output list. Numerous search technologies have been applied to Web search engines; however, the dominant search methods have yet to be identified. This article provides an overview of the existing technologies for Web search engines and classifies them into six categories: i) hyperlink exploration, ii) information retrieval, iii) metasearches, iv) SQL approaches, v) content-based multimedia searches, and vi) others. At the end of this article, a comparative study of major commercial and experimental search engines is presented, and some future research directions for Web search engines are suggested. Related Web search technology review can also be found in Arasu, Cho, Garcia-Molina, Paepcke, and Raghavan (2001) and Lawrence and Giles (1999b).
XML Schema Integration and E-Commerce
Authors: Passi Kalpdrum , Lane Louise , Madria Sanjay , Mohania Mukesh
Published: May 2011

XML (eXtensible Markup Language) is used to describe semi-structured data, i.e., irregular or incomplete data whose structure may be subject to unpredictable changes. Unlike traditional semi-structured data, XML documents are self-describing, thus XML provides a platform-independent means to describe data and, therefore, can transport data from one platform to another (Bray, Paoli, & Sperberg-McQueen, 1998). XML documents can be both created and used by applications. The valid content, allowed structure, and metadata properties of XML documents are described by their related schema(s) (Thompson, Beech, Maloney, & Mendelsohn, 2001). An XML document is said to be valid if it conforms to its related schema. A schema also gives additional semantic meaning to the data it is used to tag. The schema is provided independently of the data it describes. Any given data set may rely on multiple schemas for validation. Any given schema may itself refer to multiple schemas.
Achievement in Online vs. Traditional Classes
Authors: Witta E. Lea
Published: May 2011

Universities and colleges constantly attempt to address student needs by offering courses in various time frames. Because it is difficult for teachers to enroll and attend classes during the “normal” two- or three-day format for 15 weeks, graduate classes in education are typically offered as a one evening per week class. In summer, when teachers usually are not working, classes may be offered in an alternative format meeting for longer periods of time in each class session but for fewer weeks. There are, however, questions concerning the changes in class scheduling. Although the seat time in an eight-week extended period class is equivalent to a 15-week class, are the learning outcomes equivalent? According to Rayburn and Rayburn (1999), if only responses on multiple choice Accounting exams were considered, there was no effect of class length. If, however, problem solving was also considered, there was a statistically significant effect based on length of the class.
Adaptive Knowledge Exosomatics for E-Learning
Authors: Liu Xiaoqiang , Koppelaar Henk
Published: May 2011

In this article, e-learning is considered as “learning activities enabled by computer and networks (Internet and Intranet).” The distributed learning environment and especially the Web-enabled technologies make asynchronous learning possible via Internet. With the development of the Internet and the increasing needs of life-long learning, e-learning is becoming one of the most important applications on the Internet.
Administrative Controls in Internet Courses
Authors: Saunders Gary
Published: May 2011

Distance learning is a term used to describe a learning experience in which the instructor is in a location remote from that of the student. For centuries, distance learning has been used to educate students and, in the late 1800s, Penn State University utilized the new “Rural Free Delivery” mail system to offer correspondence courses to students in remote locations (Banas & Emory, 1998). During the 1990s, developments in technology offered a new delivery vehicle for distance learning courses. A student anywhere in the world who has a computer and an Internet connection can now complete an e-course and communicate, on a limited basis, with their instructor online.
Andragogy
Authors: Whitfield Camille
Published: May 2011

Distance education has been on the rise for quite some time now, and it has widened the target audience of traditional younger college students to a more diverse group. Included in the more diverse group are international students. Many international students want to pursue an American education but plan on living outside of the United States. Attending an American college was out of the question for these international students until distance learning was created. Nearly 70% of senior university administrative officials from around the world expect an increase in international students to their schools’ e-learning programs, according to a new survey, which means there is a need for understanding andragogy. The survey, conducted by Acadient, a leading developer and distributor of online education for higher education, shows that administrators expect the increase to come from students in Asia, specifically China, Malaysia, and India. The survey was sent globally to more than 300 senior university and business school administrators and members of the University Continuing Education Association (Newswire, 2004).
Compressed Video for the Global Village
Authors: Mizell Al P.
Published: May 2011

Marshall McLuhan (1964) introduced the concept of the global village that helped us see what was happening with worldwide, inexpensive communication through technology. However, at the time we did not envision that it would result during our lifetimes with our students being able to see and talk with students across the ocean and around the globe. From Nebraska’s statewide video network (Robinson, 2004) to the Florida Virtual School (Johnston, 2000), the use of technology to connect students at distant locations with a central site has become almost commonplace. When students find that a course they need to take is not available at their school site, they can electronically register to complete that course online with students from many other locations—all connected together. If a teacher is presenting a lesson on exotic animals, but lacks in-depth expertise in that topic, he or she can go online and bring in an expert from one of the several online zoos or connect the students to a Webcam set up in the wild where the animals can be viewed in real time around the world. To get even more structured interactions with students in other parts of the nation or the world, and to have high-quality picture and voice exchanges, compressed video systems connected via broad bandwidth ISDN phone lines are being used.
Computer-Assisted Language Learning in East Asia
Authors: Liou Hsien-Chin
Published: May 2011

Recently, there has been an obvious blooming of the manufacturing of computer hardware and peripherals in Asian countries: to illustrate, Korea, Japan, China, Singapore, and Taiwan. Meanwhile, various information and communications technologies (ICT) and computer games are blossoming among adolescents’ entertainment choices that promote their media literacies. Educators have long acknowledged the potential of using ICT to enhance instruction (hereafter referred to as CBL, computer-based learning), and organized conferences and associations to promote academic activities and disseminate updated information about them. In spite of the similar excitement in the East Asian area, at present, there is almost no authoritative scholarly CBL journal available in East Asia. Descriptions of regional academic-conference activities would help the international community understand the development and academic achievements in East Asian areas. The paper is organized with a detailed description about professional associations and conferences of CBL in East Asia with a focus on language learning, followed by the report of a unique project in Taiwan as an example of East Asian cases.
Computer-Mediated Communication
Authors: Erlich Zippy
Published: May 2011

The development of new communication technologies has opened a broad range of options for promoting learning, of which a significant one is CMC—computer-mediated communication. CMC refers to communication that utilizes a combination of telecommunication technologies and computer networks, and enables users to transmit, store, and receive information using synchronous and asynchronous tools.
Consensus Building Using E-Research
Authors: Janes Diane P.
Published: May 2011

Research is a quest driven by a specific question that needs an answer. Leedy (1993) in his book, Practical Research: Planning and Design, lists eight characteristics to define research, as follows. 1. Originates with a question or a problem; 2. Requires a clear articulation of a goal; 3. Follows a specific plan of procedure; 4. Usually divides the principal problem into more manageable sub-problems; 5. Is a specific research problem, question, or hypothesis that will guide research; 6. Accepts certain critical assumptions (these assumptions are underlying theories or ideas about how the world works); 7. Requires the collection and interpretation of data in attempting to resolve the problem that initiated the research; and 8. Is, by its nature, cyclical, or more exactly, spiral or helical.
Constructing Knowledge through Online Bulletin Board Discussions
Authors: Bodomo Adams
Published: May 2011

Within the field of education, and in particular educational technology, dominant paradigms of instruction include active, interactive, constructivist, and student-centered approaches as opposed to passive and teacher-centered approaches to learning and teaching. There is hardly much argument as to the relevance of such constructivist approaches in the contemporary world. It is no more a question of whether we have enough information, but of what critical and analytical skills we need to sift out relevant information from the huge barrage of information churned out of the pervasive information communications technologies (ICTs) of our time, and how to construct meaningful knowledge to enhance human life. Within such constructivist learning environments, digital ICTs are deployed to enhance the best possible methods. This article aims to provide an overview of the meaning and theories of constructivism, and to further illustrate the concept with a case study of using an online bulletin board in a university undergraduate course.