bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
ICT to Facilitate Emergency Response in The Netherlands
Authors: Wolbers Jeroen , Groenewegen Peter , Wagenaar Pieter
Published: May 2011

The implementation of GMS (Integrated Emergency room System) in the Netherlands has had a tumultuous record. A direct consequence of the governmental decision to hand over the empty basic system to the emergency rooms is that a large deviation in local systems emerged. A case study in one of these emergency rooms explains the consequences of this action and theorises the local construction of these ICT environments. The theoretical perspective that is found most relevant is the emergent perspective. Next to information system development the process of interdisciplinary collaboration started in the emergency room. For the first time all three emergency services (the police, medical services, and the fire department) took place together in de emergency room. In this article the influence of the ICT system on the interdisciplinary collaboration is explicated.
Mobile Telecom System Architectures—IMS an Evolution Path Towards IP Convergence
Authors: Kasimatis Panagiotis , Varla Dimitra
Published: May 2011

This chapter deals with the description of the various applied Mobile System Architectures, showing the evolution path towards the IP Convergence issue, with the introduction of the IP Multimedia Subsystem. It contains the most important networks entities of the different Mobile Networks Systems and their integration to the IMS. Being the core of the Fixed-Mobile Converge, IMS’ operation, functionality and interoperability with the other Telecom platforms are analyzed. Furthermore, aiming in a cost effective high QoS solution, typical performance evaluation strategies of the network manufacturers are described. Its scope is to give an overview of the existing architectures, their network components, their characteristics and their differences, while also show how nearly all traditional Telecom networks can be converged, with the use of the IMS, to an all-IP network, where various applications can be accessed by heterogeneous network platforms.
The Drivers for the Adoption and Use of M-Services
Authors: McManus Patricia , Standing Susan , Standing Craig , Karjaluoto Heikki
Published: May 2011

Mobile services (m-services) have become an important part of the e-commerce landscape. Although research has been conducted on which services people use and the benefits they attach to those services, the values associated with the adoption and use of m-services at the individual level is still unclear. This paper addresses the question of why and how individuals adopt and appropriate m-services with a particular focus on m-communication? In the information systems field various technology adoption models have been proposed and validated in relation to technology adoption within an organisational setting but personal adoption and use of technology is less researched. We propose the use of means-end chains and laddering techniques to determine the basic primitive values that are fulfilled for the individual by using various m-services. The examples presented show that mobile services often fulfil such basic needs as self-esteem, achievement, individuality, belonging and well-being. Exploring the realization of values as a theoretical framework offers researchers a way forward in environments characterised by individual technology decisions.
Applying Pattern Theory in the Effective Management of Virtual Projects
Authors: Zigurs Ilze , Khazanchi Deepak
Published: May 2011

The management of virtual projects is fundamentally different from that of traditional projects. Furthermore, the research in this area comes from different reference disciplines and perspectives, and a unified view or theory of best practices does not yet exist. We use the theoretical frame of patterns to propose a unified view. We focus on three concepts as the underlying theoretical elements for identifying patterns of effectiveness in virtual project management: (a) coordination, (b) communication, and (c) control. As a first step in the identification of specific patterns, we conducted a series of virtual focus groups with participants from industry who had real experience with virtual projects. The brainstorming data from the focus groups were analyzed to develop an initial set of patterns. Based on this first step, we also present a structured process for the discovery and continuing validation of patterns of effectiveness in virtual projects, and discuss the issues involved in applying the process.
Knowledge, Culture, and Society in the Information Age
Authors: Cesare Rivoltella Pier
Published: May 2011

Informational society, mainly after the development of online and mobile devices, is changing the forms with which we build our image of the reality. Speed, virtuality, and networking are three of the factors of this change. Speed means that information is circulating faster and faster, but also that it becomes aged very soon, with the necessity of being updated. Virtuality, after its first conceptualizations like a parallel dimension in the 1990s, is nowadays an integral part of our system of relations. Networking, finally, is becoming the main category for interpreting our culture, made of multiple dimensions of sociability, inside and outside the net. Knowledge, in this context, is not yet a truth authenticated; it is, on the contrary, a social activity, a process quite similar to a conversation where each of the discussants is negotiating a point of view. This is the scenario into which modern teachers, parents, and youngsters are acting.
New Media Literacy in 3-D Virtual Learning Environments
Authors: Qian Yufeng
Published: May 2011

This chapter reviews the use of 3-D virtual learning environments in kindergarten through secondary education in the United States. This emerging new learning environment poses new challenges to learners and requires broader spectrum of media literacy skills. By examining exemplary 3-D virtual learning programs and current state of media literacy education, this chapter reconceptualizes media literacy as integrated learning skills required in the emerging learning environments and identifies new directions to media literacy education to better prepare students to be competent learners and citizens in the digital age.
Understanding Factors that Influence the Effectiveness of Learning Objects in Secondary School Classrooms
Authors: Kay Robin
Published: May 2011

The design, development, reuse, and accessibility of learning objects has been examined in some detail for almost 10 years (Kay & Knaack, 2007c, 2007d), however, research on the effectiveness of learning objects is limited (Kay & Knaack, 2005; Nurmi & Jaakkola, 2006a, 2006b, Sosteric & Hesemeirer, 2004), particularly in the K-12 environment. Until recently, learning objects were solely used in higher education (Haughey & Muirhead, 2005; Kay & Knaack, 2005, 2007c). The purpose of the current chapter is to examine factors that influence the effectiveness of learning objects in secondary school classrooms. These factors will include learning object qualities, gender, self-efficacy, grade, subject area, and teaching strategies.
Wireless Technologies and Multimedia Literacies
Authors: Garland Virginia E.
Published: May 2011

Internet as a new medium offers unlimited opportunities to education and knowledge sharing but it can also shape specific improper attitudes and cultivate erroneous and potentially dangerous ideas. As more kids go online worldwide so do the concern increases about the safeness of the websites they visit. In this chapter a list of potential online risks is presented. Then, the safeness of the favorite Web sites of 270 Greek high school students is assessed in connection with these online risks. Inappropriate content was found in more than 30% of the evaluated Web pages, although specific security policies apply to computer labs of Greek schools. Last, a filtering tool for analyzing and restricting the access to improper Web sites is presented and evaluated. In this chapter, the author analyses advances in wireless technologies and the associated pedagogical shift from traditional to multimedia literacies in K-12 education internationally. The premise is that multimedia, made more accessible with mobile devices, gives students and teachers greater access to the Internet and interactive software for research, communication, and presentations. In particular, the planner, voice, color, graphics, video and text messaging features of smart phones and ultramobile computers, which have been used socially by students of the “Net Generation,” are now being used educationally by administrators and teachers to create media rich schools. With multimedia literacies, the focus is on inquiry, collaboration and project based learning. However, effective integration of wireless technologies in the literacy-based curriculum is dependent on adequate resources and appropriate professional development opportunities for teachers in both economically developed and developing nations.
Concept Mapping as a Mediator of Constructivist Learning
Authors: MacKinnon Gregory
Published: May 2011

This chapter on electronic concept mapping introduces a specific example of a learning technology that has potential for serving and promoting an emerging set of identified literacies in today’s youth. The chapter begins with a discussion of the nature of the modern student and the literacies that are most likely to serve them well as they integrate into an increasingly technological information-based society. A discussion of the historical development of the concept map and its defining characteristics will follow. The range of applications of concept maps in K-12 classrooms will then be discussed with additional comments regarding teacher development both in preservice and inservice settings. The chapter will close with a discussion of the particular literacies served by electronic concept mapping.
A Case Study of Contrasting Approaches to Integrating Technology into the K-5 Classroom
Authors: Brent Rebecca , Brawner Catherine E.
Published: May 2011

Two elementary schools received large three-year grants to support the integration of technology into their curricula. They each followed the same prescribed integration model but made substantially different implementation decisions. The differences are reflected in their responses to two questions: 1. How should limited resources be spent for technology equipment and how should the equipment be deployed in the schools? 2. How can teachers be persuaded to integrate technology into their classes and throughout the curriculum? The authors applied standard qualitative analysis techniques to data that include transcripts of focus groups and interviews with teachers and administrators, field notes from classroom observations, training sessions, and grade level collaborative planning sessions, and responses to three teacher surveys. The contrasting outcomes in each school provide a basis for conclusions and recommendations regarding best practices in technology integration.
Using a Technology Grant to Make Real Changes
Authors: Howell Lyn C.
Published: May 2011

This chapter traces one K-8 school over the course of four and a half years as it went from very limited technology through a three year period of implementing a $300,000 technology grant, through the conclusion of that grant. It details the school’s use of technology before, during, and after receiving the grant. The study supports the suggestion that merely having technology available does not insure that it will be used. It makes recommendations for school-wide technology applications and points out both those things that were done well at this school and those things that might have been done better.
Automated Essay Scoring Systems
Authors: Hutchison Dougal
Published: May 2011

This chapter gives a relatively non-technical introduction to computer programs for marking of essays, generally known as Automated Essay Scoring (AES) systems. It identifies four stages in the process, which may be distinguished as training, summarising mechanical and structural aspects, describing content, and scoring, and describes how these are carried out in a number of commercially available programs. It considers how the validity of the process may be assessed, and reviews some of the evidence on how successful they are. It also discusses some of the ways in which they may fall down and describes some research investigating this. The chapter concludes with a discussion of possible future developments, and offers a number of searching questions for administrators considering the possibility of introducing AES in their own schools.
Inter-Organizational E-Commerce in Healthcare Services
Authors: Kalyanpur Arjun , Latif Firoz , Saini Sanjay , Sarnikar Surendra
Published: May 2011

Advances in healthcare information technology have enabled new models for electronic delivery of healthcare services. In this article, we present the case of electronic delivery of radiological services and describe the market-based and technological factors that have led to the development of Internetbased service models for flexible delivery of radiological services. Specifically, we describe the technical, regulatory, and security issues that affect teleradiology and propose a service delivery model for providing cost-effective and flexible radiological services.
The Distribution of a Management Control System in an Organization
Authors: Reyes A. Alfonso
Published: May 2011

This chapter is concerned with methodological issues. In particular, it addresses the question of how is it possible to align the design of management information systems with the structure of an organization. The method proposed is built upon the Cybersin method developed by Stafford Beer (1975) and Raul Espejo (1992). The chapter shows a way to intersect three complementary organizational fields: management information systems, management control systems, and organizational learning when studied from a systemic perspective; in this case from the point of view of management cybernetics (Beer 1959, 1979, 1981, 1985).
Modeling Customer-Related IT Diffusion
Authors: Dardan Shana L. , Kumar Ram L. , Stylianou Antonis C.
Published: May 2011

This study develops a diffusion model of customer-related IT (CRIT) based on stock market announcements of investments in those technologies. Customer-related IT investments are defined in this work as information technology investments made with the intention of improving or enhancing the customer experience. The diffusion model developed in our study is based on data for the companies of the S&P 500 and S&P MidCap 400 for the years of 1996-2001. We find empirical support for a sigmoid diffusion model. Further, we find that both the size and industry of the company affect the path of CRIT diffusion. Another contribution of this study is to illustrate how data collection techniques typically used for fi- nancial event studies can be used to study information technology diffusion. Finally, the data collected for this study can serve as a Bayesian prior for future diffusion forecasting studies of CRIT.
Towards a Scalable Role and Organization Based Access Control Model with Decentralized Security Administration
Authors: Zhang Zhixiong , Zhang Xinwen , Sandhu Ravi
Published: May 2011

This chapter addresses the problem that traditional role-base access control (RBAC) models do not scale up well for modeling security policies spanning multiple organizations. After reviewing recently proposed Role and Organization Based Access Control (ROBAC) models, an administrative ROBAC model called AROBAC07 is presented and formalized in this chapter. Two examples are used to motivate and demonstrate the usefulness of ROBAC. Comparison between AROBAC07 and other administrative RBAC models are given. We show that ROBAC/AROBAC07 can significantly reduce administration complexity for applications involving a large number of organizational units. Finally, an application compartment-based delegation model is introduced, which provides a method to construct administrative role hierarchy in AROBAC07. We show that the AROBAC07 model provides convenient ways to decentralize administrative tasks for ROBAC systems and scales up well for role-based systems involving a large number of organizational units.
Internet Crime
Authors: Herath Tejaswini
Published: May 2011

It is estimated that over 1 billion people now have access to the Internet. This unprecedented access and use of Internet by individuals around the world, however, is accompanied by malicious and mischievous activities online. With the traditional crimes such as fraud, identity theft, and harassment now being committed with the use of the Internet, and networked home computers being exploited to carry out attacks such as denial of service, spamming, phishing and virus/worm propagation, it has become important to investigate security and privacy issues as they pertain to individual Internet users. To date very little is known about what characteristics of internet users affect their computing and on-line behaviors as they relate to security online. While some attention has been paid to understand the security issues affecting corporations, research investigating security issues as they relate to home users is still in infancy. Drawing from disciplines such as criminology, sociology, consumer fraud, and information security, this study seeks to find the role of computing skills and computer training, social influence, and gender on person’s vulnerability to Internet crimes. Our findings are significant and shed light in this important area of Internet crime contributing to the information security literature.
City Boosterism through Internet Marketing
Authors: Huerta-Carvajal María Isabel , Luna-Reyes Luis Felipe
Published: May 2011

Local governments around the world are becoming aware of the importance of identifying and marketing their local assets to promote economic competitiveness. Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) have proven useful in supporting marketing activities in the private sector, but there is still little exploration on their use in the public sector. However, ICT effectiveness is constrained by institutional arrangements and the coordination of the marketing efforts with other government processes such as urban planning and strategy development. The purpose of this chapter is to discuss the strategic scaffolding for ICT as a key component of a city’s marketing strategy using as an example the city of Puebla in Mexico. Although city marketing efforts and ICT use are still at its initial stages in the city, lessons from current efforts in Puebla are related to the key role of stakeholder networks, ICT interoperability, Geographic Information Systems, and government program continuity.
Developing Patterns for Thinking About City Marketing Initiatives
Authors: Córdoba José-Rodrigo , Jullien Nicolas , Trémenbert Jocelyne
Published: May 2011

This chapter defines three different patterns to understand how city marketing initiatives are designed and implementing, and how information and communication technologies (ICTs) can support the implementation of such patterns. The word pattern is used to characterize particular ways of thinking which embed values and beliefs about city marketing. The first pattern (idealist) assumes that a visionary type of image of cities can be developed to attract people to cities. The second pattern (strategic) emphasizes dialogue and participation in shaping up marketing initiatives by considering the underlying beliefs and values of people and how these can be “branded”. The third pattern (power-based) aims to be inclusive of intended and unintended effects of marketing so as to develop initiatives for the people and by the people. In the chapter, the role(s) of ICTs are discussed. Experience of using these patterns to understand the situation of two cities (Hull,UK, and Brest, France) leads us to suggest the intertwining of these patterns, and hence the importance of people’s engagement to facilitate better use of ICTs in the context of city marketing initiatives.
Marketing the mCity
Authors: Hallin Anette
Published: May 2011

Information and communication technologies (ICTs) cannot only be used practically in marketing efforts, but also as symbols, due to the images and associations they provoke of for example modernity and speed. The marketing of a city through the use of ICT-images however, also involve risks, as ICTs among certain people also bring about negative associations. Therefore, marketers need to be aware of what happens with the marketing material after it has been developed and sent out. The main argument of this chapter is that sense making emerges through a dialogic process. By analyzing semiotically a marketing leaflet for the Stockholm-based ICT-project mCity, and two ads for Nokia phones that appeared in Europe at about the same time as mCity, this chapter challenges the traditional cybernetic sender-receiver model of communication, and proposes that when the sender has sent the message, the message becomes a speaker on its own, interacting with the listener through a dialogic process set in the mind of the lis ener. When understanding this, marketers should benchmark the use of ICTs in other contemporary media in order to ensure the success aimed for with the city marketing material using ICT-imager.
A Comparison of the Inhibitors of Hacking vs. Shoplifting
Authors: Zhang Lixuan , Young Randall , Prybutok Victor
Published: May 2011

The means by which the U.S. justice system attempts to control illegal hacking are practiced under the assumption that hacking is like any other illegal crime. This chapter evaluates this assumption by comparing illegal hacking to shoplifting. Three inhibitors of two illegal behaviors are examined: informal sanction, punishment severity, and punishment certainty. A survey of 136 undergraduate students attending a university and 54 illegal hackers attending the DefCon conference in 2003 was conducted. The results show that both groups perceive a higher level of punishment severity but a lower level of informal sanction for hacking than for shoplifting. Our findings show that hackers perceive a lower level of punishment certainty for hacking than for shoplifting, but students perceive a higher level of punishment certainty for hacking than for shoplifting. The results add to the stream of information security research and provide significant implications for law makers and educators aiming to combat hacking.
Developing Success Measure for Staff Portal Implementation
Authors: Tojib Dewi Rooslani
Published: May 2011

he last decade has seen the proliferation of business-to-employee (B2E) portals as integrated, efficient, and user-friendly technology platform to assist employees to increase their productivity, as well as for organizations to reduce their operating costs. To date, very few studies have focused on determining the extent to which the portal implementations have been successful. Such a study is crucial, considering that organizations have committed large investments to implementing the portals and they would certainly like to see the return on their investments. Our study aims to develop a scale for measuring user satisfaction with B2E portals. The four steps of scale development: conceptual model development, item generation, content validation, and an exploratory study, are reported in this chapter. Evidence about reliability, content validity, criterion-related validity, convergent validity, and discriminant validity is presented.
Exploring the Factors Influencing End Users' Acceptance of Knowledge Management Systems
Authors: Xu Jun , Quaddus Mohammed
Published: May 2011

This chapter develops a model of adoption and continued use of knowledge management systems (KMSs), which is primarily built on Rogers’ (1995) innovation stages model along with two very important social psychology theories—Ajzen and Fishbein’s (1980) theory of reasoned action (TRA) and Davis’s (1986) technology acceptance model (TAM). It presents various factors and variables in detail. Hypotheses are developed which can be tested via empirical study. The proposed model has both theoretical and practical implications. It can be adapted for application in various organizations in national and international arena.
Tapping Tacit Knowledge
Authors: Taylor Hazel
Published: May 2011

This chapter explores the concept of ‘tacit knowledge’ and how organizations can foster the sharing and exchange of tacit knowledge. Various views of tacit knowledge are discussed and a framework is developed distinguishing different conceptualizations of knowledge and how different types of knowledge are acquired, held in memory, and manifested. An understanding of these distinctions can aid in determining the best approach for transferring tacit knowledge and skills at the individual and organizational levels. Finally, I review various tacit knowledge transfer approaches based on the distinctions identified in the framework and discuss their suitability for different aspects of tacit knowledge transfer.
Chinese Culture and Virtual Knowledge Sharing in a Multinational Corporation
Authors: Li Wei , Ardichvili Alexandre , Maurer Martin , Wentling Tim , Stuedemann Reed
Published: May 2011

The goal of this study was to explore how national (Chinese) culture influences knowledge sharing in virtual communities of practice at a large U.S.-based multinational organization. The study involved qualitative interviews with the company’s employees in China, and managers who are involved in managing knowledge-sharing initiatives. The study findings suggest that the influence of the national culture could be less pronounced in online knowledge sharing than what the literature has suggested. Although Chinese employees’ tendency to draw sharp distinctions between in-groups and out-groups, as well as the modesty requirements were barriers to knowledge sharing online, the issue of saving face was less important than expected, and attention paid to power and hierarchy seemed to be less critical than what the literature indicated. A surprising finding was that despite widely assumed collectivistic nature of the Chinese culture, the high degree of competitiveness among employees and job security concerns seemed to override the collectivistic tendencies and resulted in knowledge hoarding. The reasons for these unexpected findings could be associated with differences between face-to-face and online knowledge sharing environments, the influence of the company’s organizational culture, and the recent rapid changes of the overall Chinese cultural patterns.
Helping to Develop Knowledge Management Systems by Using a Multi-Agent Approach
Authors: Vizcaino Aurora , Soto Juan Pablo , Portillo Javier , Piattini Mario
Published: May 2011

Efforts to develop Knowledge Management have increased in recent years. However, many of the systems implanted in companies are still not greatly used by the employees because the knowledge that these systems have is often not valuable or on other occasions, is useful but employees do not know how to search for that which is most suitable. Moreover, employees often receive too many answers when they consult this kind of systems and they need to waste time evaluating all of them in order to find that which is most suitable for their necessities. On the other hand, many technical aspects should also be considered when developing a multi-agent system such as what knowledge representation or retrieval technique is going to be used. To find a balance between both aspects is important if we want to develop a successful system. However, developers often focus on technical aspects giving less importance to knowledge issues. In order to avoid this, we have developed a model to help computer science engineers to develop these kinds of systems. In our proposal, first we define a knowledge life cycle model that, according to literature and our experience, ponders all the stages that a knowledge management system should give support to. Later, we describe the technology (software agents) that we recommend to support the activities of each stage. The chapter explains why we consider that software agents are suitable for this end and how they can work in order to reach their goals. Furthermore, a prototype that uses these agents is also described.
Giving and Taking Offence in a Global Context
Authors: Weckert John
Published: May 2011

This chapter examines the concept of offence, both its giving and taking, and argues that such an examination can shed some light on global ethical issues. It examines the nature of offence, what, if anything, is wrong in giving offence, the obligations on the offended, whether or not offence is objective, and offence in a global setting. It argues for the view that choice and context provide some way of distinguishing between offence which is a serious moral issue and that which is not. It is morally worse to offend those who have no choice in the area of the offence, for example race, than in areas where there is choice. Intermediate cases such as religious belief, choice depends largely on education and exposure to alternatives. Context is important in that offending the vulnerable is morally worse than offending those in more powerful, or privileged groups.
Several Simple Shared Stable Decision Premises for Technochange
Authors: Diamond Richard
Published: May 2011

This study explores decision premises that were used to manage and stabilise a complex technochange programme in a financial institution. Decision premises were extracted from business maxims, principles and rules using linguistic techniques. In the paper, the premises are juxtaposed with their consequences. The evidence of documents, observable practices and software configurations supports the analysis. It is found that decision premises form a hierarchical, self-causal as well as self-contradictory system of reasoning that was applied over any individual situation, particularly a conflict. By virtue of being several but not many, decision premises reinforce the 80-20 rule of many consequences stemming a few causes. In the case firm, decision premises were used in order to make technochange efficient as well as institute cost-saving and business ownership of software development. But there were drawbacks of intensified politics, software development delays, short-sighted capability decisions and work fragmentation for the front-line employees.
A Decision Support System for Trust Formalization
Authors: Meziane Farid
Published: May 2011

Trust is widely recognized as an essential factor for the continual development of business-to-customer (B2C) electronic commerce (EC). Many trust models have been developed, however, most are subjective and do not take into account the vagueness and ambiguity of EC trust and the customers’ intuitions and experience when conducting online transactions. In this chapter, we describe the development and implementation of a model using fuzzy reasoning to evaluate EC trust. This trust model is based on the information customers expect to find on an EC Web site and that is shown from many studies to increase customers trust towards online merchants. We argue that fuzzy logic is suitable for trust evaluation as it takes into account the uncertainties within EC data and like human relationships; it is often expressed by linguistic terms rather then numerical values. The evaluation of the proposed model is illustrated using four case studies and a comparison with two other models is conducted to emphasise the benefits of using fuzzy decision system.
Modeling Buyer-Supplier Relationships in Dynamic Supply Chains
Authors: Jain Vipul
Published: May 2011

The key part of dynamic supply chain management is negotiating with suppliers and with buyers. Designing efficient business processes throughout the supply chain, and controlling their speed, timing, and interaction with one another, is decisive factors in a competitive and dynamic environment. Coordination is essential for successful supply chain management. Therefore, in this chapter, a novel Negotiation-to-Coordinate (N2C) mechanism is proposed to explore the interactive nature of the buyersupplier relationships for dynamic environments. The proposed N2C mechanism uses prioritized fuzzy constraints to represent trade-offs among the different probable values associated with the negotiation issues and to signify how agents should make concessions. Supervisor agent in the N2C mechanism takes into account the conflicts of interest of buyer’s agent and supplier’s agent and the proposal and plan generated by supervisor agents helps in resolving the true and potential conflicts of interests for buyer’s agent and supplier’s agent. The proposed computational framework based on fuzzy constraints is suited for capturing the dynamics by modeling trade-offs between different attributes of a product leading to a fair and equitable deal for both suppliers and buyers. The proposed approach models the intricacies in the face of the imprecise, uncertain and conflicting nature of objectives. The efficacy of the proposed approach is demonstrated through an illustrative example.
The Influence of Constructivist E-Learning System on Student Learning Outcomes
Authors: Wangpipatwong Thanakorn
Published: May 2011

In this article, the study of how a constructivist e-learning system affects students’ learning outcomes was explored and a two-phase study was designed. The first study sought to create a constructivist e-learning environment (CEE) and discover how students expected their learning outcomes under CEE. CEE is composed of three constructs, which are exploration, collaboration, and construction. The statistical results showed the high level of student expectation on every construct. Consequently, constructivist e-learning system (CES) was developed. In the second study, CES was used in the actual classroom environment. The purpose was to compare the learning outcomes and knowledge development of students who studied the course using CES with those of students who learned it under a traditional learning environment. A T-test method was used to analyze the learning outcomes. The results showed that students who used CES had better learning outcomes and knowledge development than students who did not use CES.
Creating an Interactive PowerPoint Lesson for the Lesson
Authors: Tomei Lawrence
Published: May 2011

This article helps classroom teachers create an “Interactive Lesson,” a self-paced, student-controlled, individualized learning opportunity embedded with assessments. These lessons are offered to learners who need individualized instruction; corrective instruction, additional practice, or enrichment activities. Interactive lessons are not new. However, the practical, sequential methodology offered herein provides a practical design model for creating and integrating Microsoft’s PowerPoint for presenting self-paced, personalized lesson content. The presentation can be captured to a floppy diskette, burned onto a CDROM, or sent as an email attachment to students in a classroom, computer lab or at home. The interactive lesson has many practical applications for students needing remedial attention or those attending cyber schools or home-bound students.
Teaching Java™
Authors: Emurian Henry H.
Published: May 2011

Information systems students in a graduate section and an undergraduate section of an introductory Java graphical user interface course completed the following initial assignments to learn a simple program: (1) automated programmed instruction tutoring, (2) hands-on learning with a lecture, and (3) collaborative peer tutoring. Tests of knowledge transfer and software self-efficacy were administered before students began the first assignment and following completion of each one. The results showed progressive improvement in rule test performance and software self-efficacy across the several instructional events. Taken together, the results of these classroom observations extend the generality of previous work to an updated set of instructional materials and assignments, and that outcome shows the reliability of the learning processes with new groups of students. Students who are new to Java had the privilege of exposure to an initial repertoire of teaching tactics that are synergistic and cumulative.
Toward an Increase in Student Web Portfolios in New York Colleges and Universities
Authors: DiMarco John
Published: May 2011

This research project investigated the existence of web portfolios on academic websites in New York State. It cites disappointing results when surveying the websites of New York State Colleges and University for web portfolios. Recognizing the problem of a lack of web portfolios, this chapter also provides a syllabus sample that can be used in technology based classroom environments across disciplines to integrate web portfolios into curriculums. The goal of this project was to promote web portfolios, provide interpretation of the current level of student web portfolio usage and activity within all New York colleges and universities, and suggest a sample syllabus to build web portfolios into curriculums. Major findings were that there is a low quantity of web portfolios in relationship to overall student enrollment, thus providing impetus to study a new phenomenon, lack of web portfolios. The study yielded data providing a breakdown of where and how many web portfolios were found. This study provides a basis for further research by scholars into web portfolios within academic settings.
Synchronous Hybrid E-Learning
Authors: Negash Solomon , Emerson Michelle , Vandegrieft John
Published: May 2011

An empirical analysis was conducted to compare synchronous hybrid e-Learning environment with traditional classrooms. Empirical study with 165 students from eight colleges at a large public university was used. The results show (1) contrary to prior research students taking unfamiliar subjects online, in synchronous format, were satisfied; (2) no statistical difference was found in student satisfaction between synchronous online and traditional face-to-face formats; and (3) overall satisfaction, measured by intent to us the same format again, found no statistical difference between the two formats.
To Connect and Flow in Seoul
Authors: Choi Jaz Hee-Jeong , Greenfield Adam
Published: May 2011

Once a city shaped by the boundary conditions of heavy industrialisation and cheap labour, within a few years Seoul has transformed itself to one of the most connected and creative metropolises in the world, under the influence of a new set of postindustrial prerogatives: consumer choice, instantaneous access to information, and new demands for leisure, luxury, and ecological wholeness. The Korean capital stands out for its spatiotemporally compressed infrastructural development, particularly in the domain of urban informatics. This chapter explores some implications of this compression in relation to Seoulites’ strong desire for perpetual connection—a desire that is realised and reproduced through ubiquitous technologies connecting individuals both with one another and with the urban environment itself. We use the heavily managed urban creek Cheonggyecheon as a metaphor for the technosocial milieu of contemporary Seoul, paying particular attention to what its development might signify for Seoulites both as a constituent node of the city and as an outcropping of networked information technology. We first describe some of the historic, social and economic contexts in which the Cheonggyecheon project is embedded, then proceed to discuss the most pertinent facets of Korean-style everyday informatics engaged by it: ubiquity; control and overspill; government-industry collaboration; lifestyle choice; and condensed development timelines.
An Event-Driven Community in Washington, DC
Authors: Preece Jenny
Published: May 2011

This chapter describes a small networked community in which residents of an apartment building in Washington, D.C., USA supplement their face-to-face social interactions with a Yahoo e-mail listserver. Analysis of over 460 messages that have been archived since July 2000, when the list began, reveals that the issues driving participation on the list also drive participation off the list. Threats to safety, high rent increases, and changes in management practices, such as parking regulations and access to facilities, motivate communication on and offline. Furthermore, those who are most active online are typically most active offline. Activity on the list is strongly fuelled by interest and discussion around local events, hence the term event-driven, and is promoted by activist tenants. Friendly notes about new restaurants, bird observations and other niceties may help a little to create a sense of overall community, but they do little to motivate online participation.
A Visual Approach to Locative Urban Information
Authors: Bedö Viktor
Published: May 2011

This chapter contributes to the ongoing effort to understand the nature of locative urban information by proposing that locative urban information is a kind of problem that necessitates the use of visual instruments, such as maps integrated into spatial annotation systems. The thesis is that the dynamics of the movement and behavior of messages appearing, disappearing, and spreading on the urban maps provide clues as to what extent a specific type of information is dependent on urban space for context, i.e., its level of location-sensitivity. A parallel is drawn between the interpretation of dynamic patterns appearing on urban maps and scientific discovery supported by the use of visual instruments. In order to illustrate how the question of locativity arises when developing technologies for urban life, a short examination of BlueSpot, a locative media project in Budapest, is provided.
Home is Where the Hub Is? Wireless Infrastructures and the Nature of Domestic Culture in Australia
Authors: Jungnickel Katrina , Bell Genevieve
Published: May 2011

From WiFi (802.11b) with its fixed and mobile high-speed wireless broadband Internet connectivity to WiMAX (802.16e), the newest wireless protocol, extending the reach of WiFi across longer distances and more difficult terrain, new wireless technologies are increasingly thought to impact the ways in which we encounter social spaces in public, civic and commercial sites within large urban centers. This chapter explores how and to what extent these new wireless technologies might also be reconfiguring and reorganizing domestic practice and social relations. Drawing on a year-long ethnographic study of WiFi and WiMax provisioned homes in a major Australian metropolitan center, we argue that new wireless infrastructures are impacting how people imagine and use mobile devices, computers and the Internet in and around the home but not in ways wholly anticipated by commercial Internet service providers.
u-City
Authors: Hwang Jong-Sung
Published: May 2011

u-City is South Korea’s answer to urban community challenges leveraging ubiquitous computing technology to deliver state-of-the-art urban services. Korea’s experience designing and constructing u-City may be a useful benchmark for other countries. This chapter defines the concept of u-City and analyzes the needs that led Korea to embark on the u-City project ahead of others. It examines the opportunities and challenges that the nation faces in the transition stage. What has enabled Korea to pioneer the u- City concept is the development of IT infrastructure and the saturation of the IT market on the one hand, and the balanced national development strategy on the other hand. Success of u-City requires a national capability of designing forward-looking institutions to enable better cooperation among stakeholders, the establishment of a supportive legal framework and promotion of technology standardization.
WikiCity
Authors: Calabrese Francesco , Kloeckl Kristian , Ratti Carlo
Published: May 2011

The real-time city is now real! The increasing deployment of sensors and handheld electronic devices in recent years allows for a new approach to the study and exploration of the built environment. The WikiCity project deals with the development of real-time, location-sensitive tools for the city and is concerned with the real-time mapping of city dynamics. This mapping, however, is not limited to representing the city, but also instantly becomes an instrument for city inhabitants to base their actions and decisions upon in a better informed manner, leading to an overall increased efficiency and sustainability in making use of the city environment. While our comprehensive research program considers a larger context, this chapter discusses the WikiCity Rome project, which was the first occasion for implementing some of WikiCity’s elements in a public interface—it was presented on a large screen in a public square in Rome.
Multi-Channel Retailing and Customer Satisfaction
Authors: Warrington Patricia T. , Gangstad Elizabeth , Feinberg Richard , de Ruyter Ko
Published: May 2011

Multi-channel retailers that utilize an e-CRM approach stand to benefit in multiple arenas by providing targeted customer service as well as gaining operational and competitive advantages. To that end, it is inherent that multi-channel retailers better understand how satisfaction—a necessary condition for building customer loyalty—influences consumers’ decisions to shop in one retail channel or another. The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of shopping experience on customers’ future purchase intentions, both for the retailer and for the channel. Using a controlled experimental design, U.S. and European subjects responded to a series of questions regarding the likelihood making a future purchase following either a positive or negative shopping encounter. Results suggest that shopping intentions vary based on the shopping channel as well as cultural differences.
Complementary Role of Website in Business Model Development
Authors: Kuivalainen Olli
Published: May 2011

The aim of this chapter is to provide a holistic exploration of the development of the business model of a magazine Web site, and of the factors behind its success. The discussion is based on an explorative case study of a successful Finnish magazine publisher and its Web site. We use triangulated data (interviews, observation, statistical data, customer feedback, and newspaper articles) to describe and analyze the development of the Web site and the subsequent changes in the e-business model of the magazine from the Web site foundation in 1998 to the situation in fall 2004. Our case illustrates that a magazine’s Web site is linked to all of its functions (editorial, circulation, and advertising), and to the business-model elements that are vital to its success. We suggest that the discussion forums in question (one type of virtual community) benefited from the positive feedback that resulted in positive network effects, and led to the adoption of the service. Moreover, community activities have enhanced customer loyalty and added a more lifelike dimension to the magazine concept. As such, the Web site now complements rather than substitutes the print magazine. Interestingly, although it does not independently fulfill the requirements of a successful business model (cf. e.g., Magretta, 2002), it enhances the customer experience and adds new dimensions to the magazine’s business model.