bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Use of a Business Simulation Game in a Management Course
Authors: Martins Hélder Fanha
Published: March 2012

This chapter reflects on the concept of educational simulations and games applied to business and aims at describing how a Web-based competitive management game has helped to achieve that. The authors discuss their objectives and those of the game and outline their reasons for choosing it. They describe the context at ISCAL and the game’s main features, showing how it is played over a semester. The authors consider, as online simulation facilitators of what is predominantly a student-led learning process, that the game helps students to gain a real feel for collaboration, managerial decision-making, and teamwork.
The Three Dimensions of Flexibility in the GameTel Project
Authors: Perez-Rodriguez Roberto , Fontenla-Gonzalez Jorge , Caeiro-Rodriguez Manuel
Published: March 2012

The employment of serious games in educational settings is a hot research topic nowadays. Many research results from a few different research fields are quite promising, and Game Based Learning is thus gaining momentum. This chapter presents the GameTel project, carried out (among other partners) by the University of Vigo, aiming to develop a software system that enables the composition of lesson plans that include serious games. The main focus in GameTel is placed in the flexibility: users may access the GameTel platform to play/learn from different devices (the computer and the digital television so far); the GameTel platform may adapt to different users who have different backgrounds and preferences; and GameTel may integrate different externally hosted games that are online all over the Internet. This chapter goes through these issues, and describes the solutions adopted in GameTel.
Beyond the Technological Dimension of Edutainment
Authors: Rodríguez-Hoyos Carlos , Gomes Maria João
Published: March 2012

In this chapter, the authors propose a framework for carrying out an analysis of edutainment products from a curricular perspective. Although this framework has been developed for undertaking a curricular evaluation of edutainment, the chapter also incorporates some indicators that allow for evaluation of its playful dimension. Firstly, the different fields of research that support the framework are presented, such as the studies on: commercial video games, serious games and edutainment, and curricular materials (e.g. textbooks). This framework comprises four dimensions of analysis - formal, playful, curricular, and ethical - organized as an observation grid of edutainment products and a series of guidelines to use it. In each dimension the authors take into account a variable number of units of analysis, indicators, and evidences. Finally, the chapter offers some general conclusions to the evaluation process of edutainment, focusing on its appropriateness to specific curricular subjects and contexts.
Criteria of Development of Adaptive Didactic Games for People with Intellectual Disability
Authors: Delgado Eduardo César Contreras , González Isis Ivette Contreras
Published: March 2012

Children with intellectual disability have a diminished ability of social intelligence; thus, it is necessary to develop abilities in the area “use of the community” in order to suitably use these resources. An educative alternative is the use of didactic games in order to instruct disabled people. The approach used in this chapter is to propose criteria to developing games for people with intellectual disability. The authors use prototypes of games like for example to describe the proposed criteria applied in the areas of development and the situations of learning towards which the game focuses, in order to obtain the learning, as it is the intention of the game. The result that is expected is to enable these players so that they are self-sufficient to obtain inclusion of these vulnerable groups to the social surroundings. Concluding the chapter is a proposal for the development of a formal game by a company that could commercialize it and make it available for the targeted community.
Motivational and Cognitive Aspects of Applying Educational Games as a Learning Tool
Authors: Minovic Miroslav , Milovanovic Miloš , Kovacevic Ivana , Minovic Jelena , Starcevic Dušan
Published: March 2012

In this chapter, the authors present a study conducted among university students with the purpose of acquiring empirical evidence to support the claim that game design can be used as an effective form of learning. The authors measured the effects of different learning approaches with the respect of individual differences in cognitive styles. Use of game designing opens the ability of better understanding the subject matter. Learning motivation is another relevant factor of learning performance. Since the authors were uncertain if this way of conveying educational process really has a positive impact on learning effect, they decided to observe the effect of different learning contexts both on exam results as the measure of learning outcome and subjectively reported level of motivation. Initial results provide a good argument for use of game design as a student learning tool. In addition, the authors report some influence of cognitive style on effectiveness of using game design.
Human Computation
Authors: Krause Markus , Smeddinck Jan
Published: March 2012

The scientific study of serious games is a recent development, spanning less than two decades. One aspect in this field is human computation with digital games. The core of the paradigm is to outsource problems that are not yet solvable by conventional computational systems to humans. Therefore, these problems are reformulated into tasks that are then integrated into digital games. The players of the game then solve the problem while playing. Different human computation games have been successfully deployed, but tend to provide a relatively narrow gaming experience. This chapter analyzes the differences between game design for human computation and traditional digital game design. An in-depth consideration of these differences shows that it is a viable approach to build human computation games with a wide range of designs. The key issues of human computation game design are illustrated with the game OnToGalaxy.
Interactive Games with Robotic and Augmented Reality Technology in Cognitive and Motor Rehabilitation
Authors: Naranjo-Saucedo Ana Belén , Suárez-Mejías Cristina , Parra-Calderón Carlos L. , González-Aguado Ester , Böckel-Martínez Frida , Yuste-Marco Antoni , Bustos Pablo , Manso Luis , Bachiller Pilar , Plana Sergi , Diaz Jose M , Boniche Ricardo , Marco Adriá
Published: March 2012

Over the years, robotics have become technological service tools in different application domains. This chapter presents a direct application of games and robotics as therapeutic tools in the healthcare of patients. These strategies are used in ACROSS project, involving more than 100 researchers from 13 Spanish entities. The main objective of this project is to modify the current perspective of the therapies, taking advantage of the game properties that will be implemented in social robots, which are blocked in providing predefined services. These new systems are able to self-reconfigure and adapt autonomously. In order to provide an open framework for collaboration between universities, research centres, and the Administration, ACROSS will develop Open Source Services available to everybody. This chapter aims to contribute a new overview of treatment therapies with elderly and paediatric patients that present cognitive and motor impairments as well as present the methodology of evaluation to determine the effect of games and social robots as a means to carry out a therapy.
A Model to Increase the Efficiency of a Competence-Based Collaborative Network
Authors: Baffo Ilaria , Confessore Giuseppe , Galiano Graziano
Published: March 2012

This paper provides a model based on the Multi Agent System (MAS) paradigm that acts as a methodological basis for evaluating the dynamics in a collaborative environment. The model dynamics is strictly driven by the competence concept. In the provided MAS, the agents represent the actors operating on a given area. In particular, the proposed agents are composed of three distinct typologies: (i) the territorial agent, (ii) the enterprise agent, and (iii) the public agent. Each agent has its local information and goals, and interacts with others by using an interaction protocol. The decision-making processes and the competencies characterize in a specific way each one of the different agent typologies working in the system.
Multiagent Based Selection of Tutor-Subject-Student Paradigm in an Intelligent Tutoring System
Authors: Mishra Kiran , Mishra R. B.
Published: March 2012

Intelligent tutoring systems (ITS) aim at development of two main interconnected modules: pedagogical module and student module .The pedagogical module concerns with the design of a teaching strategy which combines the interest of the student, tutor’s capability and characteristics of subject. Very few effective models have been developed which combine the cognitive, psychological and behavioral components of tutor, student and the characteristics of a subject in ITS. We have developed a tutor-subject-student (TSS) paradigm for the selection of a tutor for a particular subject. A selection index of a tutor is calculated based upon his performance profile, preference, desire, intention, capability and trust. An aptitude of a student is determined based upon his answering to the seven types of subject topic categories such as Analytical, Reasoning, Descriptive, Analytical Reasoning, Analytical Descriptive, Reasoning Descriptive and Analytical Reasoning Descriptive. The selection of a tutor is performed for a particular type of topic in the subject on the basis of a student’s aptitude.
Effective Use of Information Systems/Technologies in the Mergers and Acquisitions Environment
Authors: Chu Hung W. , Huynh Minh Q.
Published: March 2012

In this study, the authors examine the effects of information systems/technologies (IS/T) on the performance of firms engaged in growth strategies based on mergers and acquisitions (M&A). A model derived from a resource-based theory of the firm is developed to predict the influence of IS/T on performance of firms. Data on the financial performance of 133 firms are used to gauge the impact of IS/T on various M&A objectives. The results suggest that IS/Ts implement M&A objectives that seek to increase overall efficiency better than those that seek to introduce new products or efforts to increase sales. Future studies to examine the process of introducing new products from resource-based theory are suggested.
Prototyping Robotic Systems
Authors: Goldenberg Andrew
Published: March 2012

This chapter provides an experience-based framework of prototypes development and commissioning. It introduces elements learned directly from the practice that encompass aspects of project management, technology development process, and commercialization in the context of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). The contents of this chapter are based mainly on the author’s practical experience of leading an SME technology developer. The author is also a faculty member working as a researcher and teacher. Because of the interrelationship between research and technology development, his views and perception of the topic may be unique, and they are personal. The chapter presents a general framework for robotic systems prototyping. To back up the points made in the chapter, three case studies of robotic prototyping are included to help the reader perceive the outlined concepts.
Prototyping and Real-Time Implementation of Bipedal Humanoid Robots
Authors: Ugurlu Barkan , Kawamura Atsuo
Published: March 2012

This chapter is aimed at describing a contemporary bipedal humanoid robot prototyping technology, accompanied with a mathematically rigorous method to generate real-time walking, jumping, and running trajectories that can be applied to this type of robots. The main strategy in this method is to maintain the overall dynamic equilibrium and to prevent undesired rotational actions for the purpose of smooth maneuvering capabilities while the robot is in motion. In order to reach this goal, Zero Moment Point criterion is utilized in spherical coordinates, so that it is possible to fully exploit its properties by the help of Euler’s equations of motions. Such a strategy allows for characterization of the rotational inertia and therefore the associated angular momentum rate change terms, so that undesired torso angle fluctuations during walking and running are well suppressed. It enables prevention of backwards-hopping actions during jumping as well. To validate the proposed approach, the authors performed simulations using a precise 3D simulator and conducted experiments on an actual bipedal robot. Results indicated that the method is superior to classical methods in terms of suppressing undesired rotational actions, such as torso angle fluctuations and backwards-hopping.
Medical Robotics
Authors: Azar Ahmad Taher , Eljamel M. Sam
Published: March 2012

Medical robotics is an interdisciplinary field that focuses on developing electromechanical devices for clinical applications. The goal of this field is to enable new medical techniques by providing new capabilities to the physician or by providing assistance during surgical procedures. Medical robotics is a relatively young field, as the first recorded medical application occurred in 1985 for a brain biopsy. It has tremendous potential for improving the precision and capabilities of physicians when performing surgical procedures, and it is believed that the field will continue to grow as improved systems become available. This chapter offers a comprehensive overview about medical robotics field and its applications. It begins with an introduction to robotics, followed by a historical review of their use in medicine. Clinical applications in several different medical specialties are discusssed. The chapter concludes with a discussion of technology challenges and areas for future research.
Prototyping of Robotic Systems in Surgical Procedures and Automated Manufacturing Processes
Authors: Li Zheng (Jeremy)
Published: March 2012

The prototyping and implementation of robotic system is a scientific and technological integrating of robotic system design, development, testing, and application. This chapter describes the recent development and applications of robotic systems to surgery procedures in biomedical engineering and automated manufacturing processes in industry. It includes the design and development, computer-aided modeling and simulation, prototype analysis, and testing of robotic systems in these two different applications.
A Modular Framework to Learn Seed Ontologies from Text
Authors: Eynard Davide , Matteucci Matteo , Marfia Fabio
Published: March 2012

Ontologies are the basic block of modern knowledge-based systems; however, the effort and expertise required to develop them often prevents their widespread adoption. In this chapter, the authors present a tool for the automatic discovery of basic ontologies—they call them seed ontologies—starting from a corpus of documents related to a specific domain of knowledge. These seed ontologies are not meant for direct use, but they can be used to bootstrap the knowledge acquisition process by providing a selection of relevant terms and fundamental relationships. The tool is modular and it allows the integration of different methods/strategies in the indexing of the corpus, selection of relevant terms, discovery of hierarchies, and other relationships among terms. Like any induction process, ontology learning from text is prone to errors, so the authors do not expect a 100% correct ontology; according to their evaluation the result is closer to 80%, but this should be enough for a domain expert to complete the work with limited effort and in a short time.
Mining XML Schemas to Extract Conceptual Knowledge
Authors: Bedini Ivan , Nguyen Benjamin , Matheus Christopher , Patel-Schneider Peter F. , Boran Aidan
Published: March 2012

One of the promises of the Semantic Web is to support applications that easily and seamlessly deal with heterogeneous data. Most data in the Web, however, is in the Extensible Markup Language (XML) format, but using XML requires applications to understand the format of each data source that they access. Achieving the benefits of the Semantic Web involves transforming XML into the Semantic Web languages, OWL (the Web Ontology Language) and RDF (the Resource Description Framework), a process that generally has manual or only semi-automatic components. In this chapter, the authors present a set of patterns that enable the automatic transformation from XML Schema into RDF and OWL, enabling the direct use of much XML data in the Semantic Web. They focus on a possible logical representation of the first language and present an implementation, including a comparison with related works.
Creation and Integration of Reference Ontologies for Efficient LOD Management
Authors: Damova Mariana , Kiryakov Atanas , Grinberg Maurice , Bergman Michael K. , Giasson Frédérick , Simov Kiril
Published: March 2012

The chapter introduces the process of design of two upper-level ontologies—PROTON and UMBEL—into reference ontologies and their integration in the so-called Reference Knowledge Stack (RKS). It is argued that RKS is an important step in the efforts of the Linked Open Data (LOD) project to transform the Web into a global data space with diverse real data, available for review and analysis. RKS is intended to make the interoperability between published datasets much more efficient than it is now. The approach discussed in the chapter consists of developing reference layers of upper-level ontologies by mapping them to certain LOD schemata and assigning instance data to them so they cover a reasonable portion of the LOD datasets. The chapter presents the methods (manual and semi-automatic) used in the creation of the RKS and gives examples that illustrate its advantages for managing highly heterogeneous data and its usefulness in real life knowledge intense applications.
Aggregation and Maintenance of Multilingual Linked Data
Authors: De Luca Ernesto William
Published: March 2012

In this chapter, the author presents his approach to aggregating and maintaining Multilingual Linked Data. He describes Lexical Resources and Lexical Linked Data, presenting a hybridization that ports the largest lexical resource EuroWordNet to the Linked Open Data cloud, interlinking it with other lexical resources. Furthermore, he shows the LexiRes RDF/OWL tool that gives the possibility to navigate this lexical information, helping authors of already available lexical resources in deleting or restructuring concepts using automatic merging methods. The chapter is concluded by a discussion on personalizing information according to user preferences, filtering relevant information while taking into account the multilingual background of the user.
Mining Multiword Terms from Wikipedia
Authors: Hartmann Silvana , Szarvas György , Gurevych Iryna
Published: March 2012

The collection of the specialized vocabulary of a particular domain (terminology) is an important initial step of creating formalized domain knowledge representations (ontologies). Terminology Extraction (TE) aims at automating this process by collecting the relevant domain vocabulary from existing lexical resources or collections of domain texts. In this chapter, the authors address the extraction of multiword terminology, as multiword terms are very frequent in terminology but typically poorly represented in standard lexical resources. They present their method for mining multiword terminology from Wikipedia and the freely available terminology resource that they extracted using the presented method. Terminology extraction based on Wikipedia exploits the advantages of a huge multilingual, domain-transcending knowledge source and large scale structural information that can identify potential multiword units without the need for linguistic processing tools. Thus, while evaluated in English, the proposed method is basically applicable to all languages in Wikipedia.
A General Knowledge Representation Model for the Acquisition of Skills and Concepts
Authors: Ramirez Carlos , Valdes Benjamin
Published: March 2012

A cognitive model for skills and concepts representation as well as a proposal for its computational implementation is presented in this paper. The model is intended to help bridge some of the natural problems that arise in current massive education models through the adaptation and personalization of learning environments. The model is capable of representing rich semantic knowledge, including both skills and concepts, while integrating them through a coherent network of role based associations. The associations build an ontology that integrates on itself different domain taxonomies to represent the knowledge acquired by a student keeping relevant context information. The model is based on a constructivist approach.
Feature Based Rule Learner in Noisy Environment Using Neighbourhood Rough Set Model
Authors: Liu Yang , Jiao Luyang , Bai Guohua , Feng Boqin
Published: March 2012

From the perspective of cognitive informatics, cognition can be viewed as the acquisition of knowledge. In real-world applications, information systems usually contain some degree of noisy data. A new model proposed to deal with the hybrid-feature selection problem combines the neighbourhood approximation and variable precision rough set models. Then rule induction algorithm can learn from selected features in order to reduce the complexity of rule sets. Through proposed integration, the knowledge acquisition process becomes insensitive to the dimensionality of data with a pre-defined tolerance degree of noise and uncertainty for misclassification. When the authors apply the method to a Chinese diabetic diagnosis problem, the hybrid-attribute reduction method selected only five attributes from totally thirty-four measurements. Rule learner produced eight rules with average two attributes in the left part of an IF-THEN rule form, which is a manageable set of rules. The demonstrated experiment shows that the present approach is effective in handling real-world problems.
Cognitive Memory
Authors: Widrow Bernard Carlos , Aragon Juan
Published: March 2012

Taking inspiration from life experience, the authors have devised a new form of computer memory. Certain conjectures about human memory are keys to the central idea. This paper presents a design of a practical and useful “cognitive” memory system in which the new memory does not function like a computer memory where specific data is stored in specific numbered registers; retrieval is done by reading the contents of the specified memory register, or done by matching key words as with a document search. Incoming sensory data would be stored at the next available empty memory location and could be stored redundantly at several empty locations. The stored sensory data would neither have key words nor would it be located in known or specified memory locations. Retrieval would be initiated by a prompt signal from a current set of sensory inputs or patterns. The search would be done by a retrieval system that makes use of auto-associative artificial neural networks. In this paper, the authors present a practical application of this cognitive memory system to human facial recognition.
Multi-Fractal Analysis for Feature Extraction from DNA Sequences
Authors: Kinsner Witold , Zhang Hong
Published: March 2012

This paper presents estimations of multi-scale (multi-fractal) measures for feature extraction from deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) sequences, and demonstrates the intriguing possibility of identifying biological functionality using information contained within the DNA sequence. We have developed a technique that seeks patterns or correlations in the DNA sequence at a higher level than the local base-pair structure. The technique has three main steps: (i) transforms the DNA sequence symbols into a modified Lévy walk, (ii) transforms the Lévy walk into a signal spectrum, and (iii) breaks the spectrum into sub-spectra and treats each of these as an attractor from which the multi-fractal dimension spectrum is estimated. An optimal minimum window size and volume element size are found for estimation of the multi-fractal measures. Experimental results show that DNA is multi-fractal, and that the multi-fractality changes depending upon the location (coding or non-coding region) in the sequence.
Relevant and Non-Redundant Amino Acid Sequence Selection for Protein Functional Site Identification
Authors: Das Chandra , Maji Pradipta
Published: March 2012

In order to apply a powerful pattern recognition algorithm to predict functional sites in proteins, amino acids cannot be used directly as inputs since they are non-numerical variables. Therefore, they need encoding prior to input. In this regard, the bio-basis function maps a non-numerical sequence space to a numerical feature space. One of the important issues for the bio-basis function is how to select a minimum set of bio-basis strings with maximum information. In this paper, an efficient method to select bio-basis strings for the bio-basis function is described integrating the concepts of the Fisher ratio and “degree of resemblance”. The integration enables the method to select a minimum set of most informative bio-basis strings. The “degree of resemblance” enables efficient selection of a set of distinct bio-basis strings. In effect, it reduces the redundant features in numerical feature space. Quantitative indices are proposed for evaluating the quality of selected bio-basis strings. The effectiveness of the proposed bio-basis string selection method, along with a comparison with existing methods, is demonstrated on different data sets.
Role-Based Autonomic Systems
Authors: Zhu Haibin
Published: March 2012

Autonomic Computing is an emerging computing paradigm used to create computer systems capable of self-management in order to overcome the rapidly growing complexity of computing systems management. To possess self-* properties, there must be mechanisms to support self-awareness, that is an autonomic system should be able to perceive the abnormality of its components. After abnormality is checked, processes of self-healing, self-configuration, self-optimization, and self-protection must be completed to guarantee the system works correctly and continuously. In role-based collaboration (RBC), roles are the major media for interaction, coordination, and collaboration. A role can be used to check if a player behaves well or not. This paper investigates the possibility of using roles and their related mechanisms to diagnose the behavior of agents, and facilitate self-* properties of a system.
Perceiving the Social
Authors: Kryssanov Victor V. , Kumokawa Shizuka , Goncharenko Igor , Ogawa Hitoshi
Published: March 2012

This paper describes a system developed to help people explore local communities by providing navigation services in social spaces created by the community members via communication and knowledge sharing. The proposed system utilizes data of a community’s social network to reconstruct the social space, which is otherwise not physically perceptible but imaginary, experiential, yet learnable. The social space is modeled with an agent network, where each agent stands for a member of the community and has knowledge about expertise and personal characteristics of some other members. An agent can gather information, using its social “connections,” to find community members most suitable to communicate to in a specific situation defined by the system’s user. The system then deploys its multimodal interface, which “maps” the social space onto a representation of the relevant physical space, to locate the potential interlocutors and advise the user on an efficient communication strategy for the given community.
CoPBoard
Authors: Sato Gilson Yukio , Barthès Jean-Paul A.
Published: March 2012

Symbiotic computing leads to a proliferation of computing devices that allow linking people, favoring the development of distributed Communities of Practice (CoPs). Their members, being dispersed geographically, have to rely strongly on technological means to interact. In this context, coordinating distributed CoPs is more challenging than coordinating their collocated counterparts. Hence, the increasing role of the coordination should be supported by an adequate set of coordination tools. In this paper, we present an approach based on multi-agent systems for coordinating distributed CoPs. It includes analyzing the exchanges among members and translating this information into a graphical format to help the coordinators to follow the evolution of the participation and the domain of the community.
Remote Conversation Support for People with Aphasia
Authors: Aye Nilar , Ito Takuro , Hattori Fumio , Kuwabara Kazuhiro , Yasuda Kiyoshi
Published: March 2012

This paper proposes a remote conversation support system for people with aphasia. The aim of our system is to improve the quality of lives (QoL) of people suffering cognitive disabilities. In this framework, a topic list is used as a conversation assistant in addition to the video phone. The important feature is sharing the focus of attention on the topic list between a patient and the communication partner over the network to facilitate distant communication. The results of two preliminary experiments indicate the potential of the system.
History of Service Robots
Authors: Teresa Zielinska
Published: March 2012

The short history of service robots with its precursors is given. Next, the definition of service robot is discussed and some statistical data is given. The described history of service robots covers the ancient period with robot precursors, the middle ages, and the period of industrial revolution. The representative examples of different kinds of service robots built in the twentieth century are given. The chapter is concluded with future trends.
Service Robots for Restoration of Goods of Cultural Heritage
Authors: Ceccarelli Marco , Cigola Michela
Published: March 2012

The preservation and benefit of goods of Cultural Heritage need careful surveying and restoration that can be understood as service tasks for suitable robotic systems. New service robots can be conceived once the specificity of the application in the Cultural Heritage area for architectural goods is carefully considered, both with technical aspects and from operators’ viewpoints. In particular, in this chapter no technical aspects are discussed as fundamental for the acceptance and use by operators in the new field of service robot application for survey and restoration of architectonic goods of Cultural Heritage value. Examples are illustrated from authors’ experience with the aim to stress the problems and challenges in applications for service robotic systems in Cultural Heritage frames.
Knowledge Sharing and Collaboration as Indicators of Learning in OER Communities
Authors: Petrides Lisa A. , Jimes Cynthia , Hedgspeth Carol
Published: March 2012

This work specifically sheds light on the ways that OER impacts teacher professional development, knowledge building, and interactive problem solving around teaching practice. Drawing on key findings from several studies, their results reveal the potential of OER to spark new conversations among teachers about how they can be proactive in enhancing their teaching practices. The authors also present a framework for assessing how new teaching practices emerge as a result of collaborative participation in OER. The discussion has implications for engaging teachers in adopting new OER use practices, and for how OER can be integrated as a model for innovation in teaching and in resource development.
Peer-Support and Open Educational Resources
Authors: Fetter Sibren , Berlanga Adriana J. , Sloep Peter B.
Published: March 2012

Traditionally, the Open Educational Resources (OER) movement has focused on the production, distribution, and retrieval of open content. There is, however, more to OER than the resources alone. For OER to function properly, underlying communities are needed to support learners and teachers in the use, development, and dissemination of OER. A central question is how learners and teachers can be supported in their use of OER, while at the same time building up and sustaining the needed community. These support and community formation aspects are especially important in a non-formal context. Peer-support is claimed to be ideal for providing encouragement as well as building up of a community. In this chapter, an explanation is given of peer support in a non-formal learning context, called Ad Hoc Transient Groups. These help to foster collaboration in OER networks. Based on this concept, the chapter presents the design of a stakeholder-validated peer support service. Some related work pointing out how peer support for non-formal learning with OER can be best organized is then given.
Towards a Social Learning Space for Open Educational Resources
Authors: Ferguson Rebecca , Shum Simon Buckingham
Published: March 2012

This chapter examines the meaning of “open” in terms of tools, resources, and education, and goes on to explore the association between open approaches to education and the development of online social learning. It considers why this form of learning is emerging so strongly at this point, what its underlying principles are, and how it can be defined. Openness is identified as one of the motivating rationales for a social media space tuned for learning, called SocialLearn, which is currently being trialed at The Open University in the UK. SocialLearn has been designed to support online social learning by helping users to clarify their intention, ground their learning and engage in learning conversations. The emerging design concept and implementation are described here, with a focus on what personalization means in this context, and on how learning analytics could be used to provide different types of recommendation that support learning.
OERopoly
Authors: Connolly Teresa , Makriyannis Elpida
Published: March 2012

The Open Educational Resources (OER) community supports the belief that knowledge is a public good and, combined with technological advancement, can provide an extraordinary opportunity to help equalize the distribution of high-quality knowledge and educational opportunities for everyone in the world. This chapter’s hypothesis centres on the premise that: “The OER ecology does not seem to be widely adopted or understood and that game-playing has the potential to raise awareness and improve understanding of such relationships in an entertaining manner, while engaging in a deep discussion about OER best practices.” To address this hypothesis, the authors present OERopoly, a game that has been designed and developed to raise awareness about OER. They set out to assess game-playing as a means of improving collaborative learning opportunities around OER projects through this OER ecology: the OER projects themselves, the online communities, and the Web 2.0 technologies used by OER projects.
Why Is Information System Design Interested in Ethnography?
Authors: Fele Giolo
Published: March 2012

The chapter reviews the main stages of the collaboration between ethnographers and information system designers, highlighting the reasons and motives for their mutual relationship. Is it possible to consider the ethnographic approach to information system design a “success story”? How is it that information system design— a field seemingly distant from the concerns, history, or tradition of ethnographic research—is today so interested in the approach, the methods, and the “philosophy” of ethnography? What has ethnography to offer information system designers?
Communities of Practice from a Phenomenological Stance
Authors: De Michelis Giorgio
Published: March 2012

Community (Gemeinschaft in German) has emerged as a relevant concept for understanding the social dimension of human life, at the end of nineteenth century, when in a famous book by Ferdinand Toennies (1925), it was opposed to society (Gesellschaft in German). The debate that accompanied and followed Toennies’ book at the beginning of the twentieth century opposed the irrationality of communities (where no utility value justifies membership) to the rational principle sustaining societies (that are ruled in order to balance costs and benefits of all members). More recently, the concept of community has been again at the center of philosophical debate after its deconstruction by Jean Luc Nancy: it is, therefore, interesting to situate the concept of community of practice within it. What emerges from this analysis offers to designers of ICT-based applications, such as information systems, knowledge management systems, etc., some new hints on the nature of those systems.
“Whatever Works”
Authors: Cabitza Federico , Simone Carla
Published: March 2012

This chapter addresses the general problem of how to design and deploy effective computational tools that support actors of an organization domain in making sense of the information these manage by means of those tools and technologies. To this aim, the chapter recognizes the complementary, but sometimes also diverging, approach of two related disciplines, Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW), and Information Systems (IS). Contributions from both these academic communities are put in a common perspective to discuss a comprehensive solution to the apparently incompatible requirements of different communities of users that use the same information for different purposes. The authors take the theme of quality information standards, requirements, and users’ expectations in information-intensive domains such as healthcare and hospital work as a paradigmatic case to discuss the characteristics of their proposal. This encompasses the conceptualization of a general-purpose architecture that they devised to support adequate exploitation by human actors of informative resources regarding how they perform their job and articulate their actions with others; and a specialized design-oriented construct, called Affording Mechanism (AM). An AM is a dyad composed by an artifact (i.e., the schema of a material information tool) and a dynamic relationship between the context of use and the artifact’s affordances. AM relationships are expressed in terms of computable if-then statements that modulate the affordances conveyed through and by the artifact to evoke a “positive” and knowledgeable reaction in the actors’ behavior. On the basis of observations performed in the hospital domain, the chapter discusses in a coherent constructivist light the role of artifacts and derives a set of general requirements for affording mechanisms that support situated behaviors.
Representations, Institutions, and IS Design
Authors: Viscusi Gianluigi
Published: March 2012

In this chapter, the authors discuss some issues emerging from the phenomenological analyses carried out by Claudio Ciborra, in particular in the Labyrinths of Information. The chapter points out that concepts such as Kairos, Drift, Bricolage, unveil a specific odos for the information systems as a discipline. In their perspective, this odos covers a meth-odos towards new opportunities offered to design by answering the provocation coming from considering information systems as infrastructures (Ge-stell). Furthermore, the authors point out that these opportunities come from a deep understanding of the philosophical background of the work of Claudio Ciborra, namely from the idea of phenomenology of Martin Heidegger, whose position refuses the idea of a subject (no matter how pure or transcendental) as the original foundation of our relationships with reality.
The Role of Management Consultants in Long-Term ERP Customization Trajectories
Authors: Campagnolo Gian Marco
Published: March 2012

This chapter proposes an understanding of the role of management consultants in the implementation of Enterprise Resource Planning Systems in the Public Sector. The analysis is grounded on the case of an Italian Local Government in the course of 10 years. Each period corresponds to a different key client-consultant relationship and Public Sector situation. By using situational maps, the authors have highlighted the deeply contextual reflexivity between consultants and client organizations in configuring consultants’ advice over time. The purpose of the chapter is to replace “guru-istic” accounts with a more relational perspective that describes consultants as existing only in relation with their clients and the evolving Public Sector situation.
Accumulation and Erosion of User Representations or How is Situated Design Interaction Situated
Authors: Hyysalo Sampsa
Published: March 2012

The design process is predominantly presented as the primordial site where creativity of highly talented people flows into material form and results in novel solutions for human concerns. Design-critical views equally place event of design on the pedestal even as they question whether designers’ intuition, creativity, and aesthetic sense is enough and, particularly, whether considerations of the implications of the new technology have sufficiently permeated the process and, through that, determined its outcomes. This latter view has often been condensed into whether designers are guided by appropriate values and/or understandings in their work. There is, however, relatively little detailed research on what actually does take place in the complex and uncertain considerations wherein “design decisions” are made or whatever “design values” are followed. This chapter will contribute to this through the analysis of in-depth video-recorded ethnography of the design process of a monitoring and alarm device for the elderly. At the same time, it aims to raise questions about the centrality of the design process by examining what comprises the situated action taking place in design and examining how design interaction is situated within design-use relations.
IS-Related Organizational Change and the Necessity of Techno-Organizational Co-Design(-In-Use)
Authors: Bassetti Chiara
Published: March 2012

This chapter considers some aspects of an ethnomethodologically oriented ethnography that has been carried out in a medical Emergency Response Centre (ERC) before, during, and after an IS-related organizational change. After a description of the everyday work in the ERC and its larger social arena, the authors discuss the main changes and the users group’s resistance that mediated the new technologies’ transformative potential: the rejection of abandoning ‘old’ cooperative work practices, and the emergence of an innovative one, with its own condition of appropriateness, applicability, and accountability. Finally, starting from the evidence that solutions to problems emerging in a field must be coherent with the endogenous organization of activities of that field, with the configuration of inter-actions that actually sets up that context, the authors discuss the necessity of co-design(-in-use), and the possibilities provided by ethnomethodological ethnography as a tool for action research in IT design and techno-organizational change management.
Organizational Learning and Action Research
Authors: Albano Roberto , Fabbri Tommaso M. , Curzi Ylenia
Published: March 2012

The chapter shows that conflicts may arise in the regulation of empirical organizational processes, due to the incongruence between the existing structure of interdependencies and human needs. Under such circumstances and to the extent that empirical organizational processes are allowed to develop according to those conflicts, organizational learning becomes an actual cause of structural change. However, the chances to overcome conflicts and to identify more satisfying structural choices will be greater if the individuals involved in the analysis of organizational structure, can rely not only on the knowledge drawn from their everyday practice of work, but also on theoretical and methodological knowledge provided by organization theory. A peculiar conception of action research may support the re-composition of the two forms of organizational knowledge, which, to its turn, nurtures organizational learning, thereby positively affecting the relative position of the process/organization with respect to other natural or social processes/organizations.
Mobility Prediction and Mobile-aware Routing Protocols in MANETs
Authors: Khalid Lamiaa , Jaseemmuddin Muhammad , Anpalagan Alagan
Published: March 2012

Ad hoc wireless networks comprise of mobile devices that use wireless transmission for communication without the need for a pre-existing infrastructure. One of the main characteristics of ad hoc networks is that they are self-organizing, which necessitates that all networking functions be performed by the nodes themselves. When designing mobile ad hoc networks, several challenges arise due to the shared nature of the wireless medium, limited transmission range of wireless devices, and node mobility. Node mobility poses a greater challenge as it makes routes more prone to frequent ruptures, which in turn degrades the overall network performance. If the future movement of the node can be predicted in a precise way, the impact of mobility can be decreased, and the overall performance of the network can be improved. This chapter provides an introduction and a critical review on some of the existing mobility prediction models and their effect on the performance of existing routing protocols.
Broadcasting in Wireless Ad hoc Networks
Authors: Ray Niranjan Kumar , Turuk Ashok Kumar
Published: March 2012

Broadcasting is a process of sending message from one node to all other nodes in a network. It is used commonly in ad hoc networks, for route discovery, content distribution, data disseminations, et cetera. Most of the routing protocols in ad hoc networks use broadcasting as the common mechanism to find path between source and destination. Therefore broadcast protocols are the fundamental building block to understand basic functionality of routing in mobile ad hoc network (MANET). Moreover due to the widespread application of MANET in various scientific and military applications, broadcasting in MANET has pulled attention of many researchers in recent time. Considering its importance and growing popularity, the authors discuss different broadcasting protocols commonly used in ad hoc networks. The chapter also analyzes various issues associated with these protocols.
Overview of Temporally Ordered Routing Algorithm and QOS Components in MANETS
Authors: Khan Jahangir , Nauman Abou Bakar
Published: March 2012

TORA is a highly adaptive routing protocol that provides loop free routing of data packets in ad hoc network at every instant. Each node of network has the capability to contain information about its local topology changes and regular coordination with their neighbour nodes in order to detect partitions occurs in network. In Ad-Hoc networks, multicast communication is not ideal due to the frequent nodes mobility and failures. Such problems in transmission of data become reasons for increased delays and decreased throughput, and also sudden changes in delay, traffic, and link breakage occur due to nodes mobility. The network parameters like network size, number of nodes, number of hops per route, traffic patterns (bits/packets), link capacity, mobility trajectory, and frequency of sleeping nodes do have great results on the performance of routing protocols in the mobile ad hoc networks. TORA has three basic route functions: establishment, maintenance, and erasing. In TORA routing protocol, each node has capable to contain a structure of network describing node’s height and status of all connected links. The importance of these heights in TORA routing protocol are that a node in network may only forward data packets downstream instead of upstream. TORA are more appropriate for QOS in ad hoc networks with a higher mobility and data transfer rate.