bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Topological Transformations
Authors: Wenn Andrew
Published: May 2011

This chapter describes some aspects of the development of VICNET, an assemblage of computers, cables, modems, people, texts, libraries, buildings, dreams and images. It is a system that is difficult to characterise, it is dynamic both in geographical and ontological scope, size and usage. I have attempted to capture some of its nature through the use of several vignettes that may give the reader a small insight into parts of its being, then using some of the techniques and explanatory and exploratory mechanisms available from the field of science studies such as heterogeneous engineering and Actor Network Theory (ANT), I reveal some of the ways that VICNET came into existence. Many computer systems are undergoing continual evolution and it is extremely difficult to discern their configuration and what objects have agency at any given point in time; they can be thought of as open systems as described by Hewitt and de Jong (1984). VICNET, an Internet information provider established in 1994 as a joint venture between the State Library of Victoria and Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, is one such system; it is being used by a large number of people and public libraries, yet simultaneously it is evolving and being shaped by the technology, the users and the environment of which it is part. Consider the system, VICNET as it is called, as a node of a much larger network. I have attempted to unfold this node to reveal the social and technical worlds contained therein, but I also fold the VICNET node in itself so that it becomes part of a much larger sociotechnical system – the Internet. This process of folding I refer to as a topological transformation and it is by studying transformations of this type that may help us understand how open systems come into being and evolve. In what follows, I provide a brief background to VICNET and the data collection method I used. Next, I discuss some the analytical techniques that are available for those who wish to study the development of technological systems. Following this all-too-brief comment I then present a selection of vignettes that show the varied nature of this socio-technical system. Presenting these then allows me to develop further the idea of social topologies introduced in the section on analytical techniques. In the final section there is some discussion as to why this way of looking at socio-technical systems may be useful.
Vulnerability and the Aware IS Practitioner
Authors: Bell Simon
Published: May 2011

Information technology (IT) projects regularly fail. IT projects fail rapidly, spectacularly and with monotonous regularity. IT and related information systems (IS) projects seem more prone than other technology-based interventions to prove to be enormously risky ventures for companies and government agencies to invest in. If this phenomenon is pronounced in so-called industrialised economies - the issues and problems around failure multiply when such projects are undertaken in transitional and developing economies. In all this failure the role of the IS practitioner appears invidious. On the one hand there are rapidly developing technologies and opportunities for change while on the other there are organisations often unable to express what change they desire or to articulate the difference between what they would like and what they feel able to cope with. It is little wonder that the IS practitioner—given the responsibility to manage the change process by analysis and design and other mediating strategies, can end up as the victim of technology failure, organisational inability to make up its mind and half-developed applications. In all this muddle the role of the action researcher (AR)—deeply involved with the processes and relationships within the research context is oddly empowered to deal with change while appearing even more vulnerable than his or her more managerialist or technologist colleagues. This chapter, by means of a reflective discourse representing my own learning, attempts to develop the theme of the vulnerability and power of the action research IS practitioner. Using current case study material drawn from working in transitional economies, the chapter indicates lessons learned in the value of the AR approach to analysis and design and the real benefits and powers which can arise from vulnerability such as autonomy and viability.
Information Systems as Wicked Problems
Authors: Mallalieu Gill , Clarke Steve
Published: May 2011

The idea of the ‘wicked problem’ (Churchman, 1967), which advocates a pragmatic oscillation between problem and solution, rather than an attempt to reduce the problem to a series of steps to be followed sequentially, has been particularly helpful to us in conceptualising the relationships between people, organisations and information technology (IT). This conceptualisation was tested in the RAMESES project (Risk Assessment Model: Evaluation Strategy for Existing Systems), using grounded theory (Strauss and Corbin, 1997) as the basis for the methodology. The overall objective of RAMESES is ‘to provide a strategic model for the risk assessment of legacy software systems within SMEs (small-to-medium enterprises) considering business process change.’ Thus the relationship between the organisation, the way its staff carried out its processes, and their legacy IT systems was at the centre of our concerns. This chapter describes how the broad conceptualisation of the problem led to a detailed method to address it and the results available to date.
Rethinking Stakeholder Involvement
Authors: Cordoba Jose Rodrigo , Midgley Gerald , Torres Diego Ricardo
Published: May 2011

Current practice in strategic information systems (IS) planning seems to be focused on surfacing an organisation’s vision and goals, exploring the potential offered by information technology (IT), and designing information systems to support the fulfillment of the stated goals using the most appropriate technology available (García, 1993; Currid, 1994; Lewis, 1994; Andreu et al., 1996). Methodologies for IS planning usually involve the training and participation of individual employees—but only in so far as they contribute to furthering the pre-set organisational agenda. These methodologies also tend to assume a ‘standard’ role for IS experts: providing expertise in IT/IS management. Most of the literature and the practice of IT/IS development in organisations seem to be focused upon technical issues (Davies and Wood-Harper, 1989), where computer science experts play an important role (Winograd and Flores, 1987). They are expected to provide knowledge to solve problems.
Trends in Web-Based Services in Academic Libraries
Authors: Fountain Lynn M.
Published: May 2011

Change is afoot in the academic library world. The World Wide Web has expanded the types of services academic librarians are able to provide their patrons. We can now offer Web-based electronic databases, WebPACS, electronic journals, electronic reserve systems with Web-interfaces and a wide range of specialized digital library collections. Our patrons now have access to a huge variety of information, and they no longer have to leave their offices or homes to obtain it. Future developments include improved information retrieval algorithms, chic user-interfaces, advanced network services and virtual libraries created to serve the growing population of distance and online learners. Academic librarians face a world of exploding digital resources and their assistance in organizing this chaotic web of information is vital.
Subject Access to Quality-Assured World Wide Web Resources
Authors: Newton Robert , Dixon David
Published: May 2011

The development of the Internet, and in particular the World Wide Web, has offered students, teachers and researchers a rich new scholarly resource, allowing unprecedented ease of access to local, national and international information. However, the World Wide Web is badly organized, much of the information found there does not meet the rigor normally expected by academic discourse, and the technologies developed to cope with the vast explosion of online information have proven to be inadequate in a number of ways. Subject catalogues of Internet resources, compiled by information professionals expert in the information retrieval systems which have proven successful in libraries over the last hundred years, are increasingly important in ensuring easy access to high quality WWW resources. After a brief general discussion which expands on the need for well-organized subject gateways to Internet resources and outline some of the problems their development and coordination present, the chapter will examine in some detail three examples of subject gateways, two of which were developed to support teaching and learning by the School of Information and Media at the Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, Scotland. A final section will deal with the implications for information professionals of developing effective Internet subject gateways.
The Growing Support Crisis in Federal STI
Authors: Lankes R. David
Published: May 2011

Federal agencies in the United States federal government that provide Scientific and Technical Information (STI) face a growing support crisis brought on by the Internet. As these organizations use the Internet to provide increased access to databases and automated resources they are finding more users from the general public are asking more questions. These organizations need to be prepared to support an increasingly diverse user group via the Internet. Projects of the National Library of Education (AskERIC and Virtual Reference Desk) are reviewed and used to raise and discuss issues in supporting STI applications in a government setting. Finally a set of recommendations is presented to help plan digital reference services in this context.
Challenges and Issues to Consider When Upgrading Legacy Applications
Authors: Cameron Gerold E.
Published: May 2011

This chapter will focus on the challenges and issues an organization faces when trying to integrate or migrate their legacy applications with more advanced client/server information systems. These applications present a challenge when an organization attempts to integrate its legacy applications with newer technologies due to the rigid binding of the client to the legacy application server. FAIME, is an object oriented methodology that provides the tools to address application interoperation and plug-and-play. These tools open closed legacy applications through legacy applications decomposition and produce executable objects that bridge different operating systems, communication infrastructures, and databases. To convert a COBOL legacy application to an object-oriented application, a complete restructuring of the legacy program is needed. Objects and their inheritance structure must be identified, data usage and data flow must be analyzed, and instructions must be allocated to objects. Dynamic Object Oriented Programming allows parts of an application design that are represented by objects, to be modified dynamically. Integrating or migrating legacy applications with newer more advanced client/server architectures can be a very expensive and time-consuming undertaking.
Building the Information Society from the Bottom Up? EU Public Policy and Community Informatics in North West England
Authors: Cawood John , Simpson Seamus
Published: May 2011

If information and communications technologies are to be used to support community efforts to achieve social and economic development, then policies which link emerging technological opportunities with the social and economic context must be devised. In the European regions, the many organizations which promote community informatics have increasingly taken up the concept of the Information Society as both an objective and a rationale for such policy making. The key player in proselytizing this concept has been the Commission of the European Union and monies from EU Structural Funds have been deployed in a series of community, regional and interregional informatics initiatives which started in the early 1990s. In these initiatives, increasing emphasis has been laid on the devolution of decision making to the community, user access and the empowerment of those who risk exclusion from the potential benefits of ICTs. In brief, the Commission has sought to create a policy environment which encourages local and regional actors to build the “Information Society” from the bottom up.
Communication Shops and Telecenters in Developing Nations
Authors: Colle Royal D.
Published: May 2011

Bai Yuxiong, a farmer from a poor area in northern Shaanxi Province [of China], traveled at least 500 kilometers to Yangling Agroscience town to learn about prices of Qinguan apples and the value of a small pumpkin variety he grew....At Yangling Information Center, for the first time he saw the computers and heard about the Internet. He saw the director of the information center typing some things on a computer. In a short time he got all he wanted from the computer.... He knew the price of the apple. And his small pumpkin was found to be of a very precious kind, an indispensable delicacy for Japanese state banquets....Computers opened his eyes and his new [export] venture. (Li, 1999)
Linking Communities to Global Policymaking
Authors: Lawrence John , Brodman Janice
Published: May 2011

The 1990s have been marked by extraordinary changes in many of the fundamental elements of human existence, among the most powerful, the introduction of a global networking system. Indeed, it is difficult to consider thoughtfully any major aspect of our socio-economic-political circumstances, current and future, that are not in some way profoundly affected by this revolution. For those of us with Internet service, even a few keystrokes on a laptop computer can now put us in touch with friends, family, colleagues, or strangers almost anywhere in the world, certainly on all seven continents including Antarctica. Business can be conducted, money transferred, medical records evaluated, books/papers jointly written and edited, inventions created, ideas shared. The unprecedented ease and speed of access to knowledge and experience, and increasingly commerce, is at the heart of the promise of the new technologies for cyberconnectivity. Communities in all parts of the world are finding ways to make the Internet serve them, and becoming energized, organized and activated as a result. Two factors, however, contribute to a sobering backdrop that frames further exploration of these exciting new frontiers. First, access to the underlying technologies is severely constrained in developing countries, and in poorer communities of industrialized countries. Differential access to key resources, such as capital, electricity, telephone service, exacerbates gaps between the haves and the have-nots. Furthermore, even for those who gain basic access, other constraints, such as predominance of “colonial” languages, limit their ability to take advantage of opportunities offered by the technology. Second, the glitter of cybertechnology tends to divert us from addressing broader problems of inequities in social and economic development, and their associated ecological consequences. These have been sharply documented in the UNDP Human Development Report Series. (The most recent of these 10 annual Human Development Reports, that of July 1999, can be found at: http://www.undp.org/hdro/99.htm.) This chapter presents the results of an experiment to bring together these two contemporary forces — the Internet explosion, and a sense of growing inequality in economic and political power — to create a new channel into global decision making fora, particularly for communities that seem increasingly to be left behind. The context for this effort was the United Nations, and a series of global conferences that focused attention on the major social, environmental, and economic issues of our time. The objective was to explore ways to use new electronic networking to link communities around the world more directly to top level decision makers.
Community Participation in the Design of the Seattle Public Schools' Budget Builder Web Site
Authors: Halaska Chris
Published: May 2011

This chapter provides a case study of the development of an Internet-based budgeting tool for the Seattle Public Schools, known as the Budget Builder. In particular, I describe the ways in which community participation affected the design and final outcome of the system. The Budget Builder project was unusual for a technical project because of its major focus on community participation. Although participation was stymied to some extent, the project can be seen as a success for community access. In the case study, I summarize the use of the Budget Builder over its first two years; describe the community participation and user input present in the design process; examine the social structure surrounding the Budget Builder, especially the division of power among the three main groups working on the project, and how those power relationships affected the final version of the project; and discuss some technical issues that appeared during the course of the project.
The Economics of Community Networking
Authors: Surman Mark
Published: May 2011

It was a special moment. Non-profits were still figuring out the fax machine. No one had heard of the Internet. A few brave souls were stringing computers together, hanging modems and activists off the other end. The information — and the shifting political tide — were beginning to flow. News and passion trickled from the ANC headquarters in London to every nook and cranny of South Africa. Meetings were planned and new social movements dreamed over a few modems and a 286 in Toronto. Lobbying tactics, grand visions and messages home all emanated from a little computer room as thousands of environmentalists converged on Rio. At the center of all this was a band of computer activists calling themselves the Association for Progressive Communications (APC). The APC is a global coalition of nonprofit organizations who supply Internet content and connectivity services to civil society. APC was founded by a group of seven organizations who had all been providing e-mail and on-line discussion forums to non-profits and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) since the mid-1980s. This group included Alternex in Brazil, GreenNet in the UK, Nicarao in Nicaragua, IGC (PeaceNet and EcoNet) in the U.S., NordNet in Sweden, Pegasus in Australia and Web Networks in Canada. APC now includes 25 member networks located on six continents.
Knowledge Age Standards
Authors: Sivan Yesha Y.
Published: May 2011

The diverse uses of “standards” define the goal of this work, namely, to develop a general framework of standards and to reflect on the process and outcome of the development of the framework. My intention is to devise a theoretical framework that may be translated into practice at some future point. The principle outcome is a framework of standards that includes five dimensions: Level, Purpose, Effect, Sponsor, and Stage, each of which contains five categories that together define the dimension. The dimensions show: • how standards can be produced and used by entities from different Levels (individual, organizational, associational, national, and multinational); • how they can have one or more Purposes (simplification, communication, harmonization, protection, and valuation); • how they can cause diverse Effects (constructive, positive, unknown, negative, and destructive); • how they can be developed by different Sponsors (devoid, nonsponsored, unisponsored, multisponsored, and mandated); and • how they can be in different Stages (missing, emerging, existing, declining, and dying). In presenting the framework, the chapter also touches on the roles of standards in the industrial age, their potential roles in the knowledge age, and the current turmoil in the standards community. It includes reflections on designing and judging the framework.
The Standardization Process in IT - Too Slow or Too Fast?
Authors: Mahonen Petri
Published: May 2011

Information Technology is one of the most rapidly developing areas in the technological world. In fact, the classical information technology that has been based on computer technology is now very quickly converging with telecommunication. Wireless networking, especially mobile telecommunications, has been one of the leading areas in business and technology during the last five years. The state-of-the art in mobile telecommunication has reached a point, where new products are introduced within a cycle of one year. The next big step shall be the introduction of wireless multimedia services through next generation wireless networks. The standardization of wireless multimedia systems is a very difficult task, as the standards shall include the crucial points in the two domains, telecommunications and information technology. It is becoming more and more difficult to recruit enough expertise for the technical committees to produce high quality standards in the converging information technology and telecommunication market domain. In this chapter, we will be using this domain as an example for the standardization difficulties of future. The reasons have to be strong for initiating a standardization process, especially concerning industry, due to the fact that it is rather expensive to produce new and extensive standards. It has been estimated that the expenses of developing a single part of the Ethernet standards amount to approx. $10,000,000 (Spring & Weiss, 1994). The main development costs arise from the time, travel and salaries of the committee members. The standardization expenses are usually prohibitive for small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). If the standardization organizations and committees can not guarantee that the investments done towards standardization are worthwhile we will have lots of problems in the future.
Establishing Standards for Business Components
Authors: Turowski Klaus
Published: May 2011

The field of business applications encompassing software for production planning or order management is dominated by some big vendors offering large standardized off-the-shelf application systems, e.g. SAP R/3, BAAN IV, or Oracle Applications. Despite all advantages of selling and buying these large integrated application systems, there are two major shortcomings: Usually only large enterprises can afford to buy, install, customize, and maintain these systems, and the complexity which is inherent to these still growing systems makes it harder and harder for vendors to enlarge and maintain them. Furthermore, markets for these large packaged application systems are almost saturated, because most of the large enterprises have covered their demand. On the other side, there are lots of small and medium enterprises (SME), which demand very specialized application systems together with a broad coverage of common business functionality, as the core of the related business tasks stay the same—independent from a company’s size. However, nearly no SME can afford to purchase or even to maintain these large packaged application systems. This leads to two important problems: SMEs demand on business application systems can not be satisfied, and vendors of large standardized off-the-shelf application systems lose an important market. In addition, small and medium vendors of business application systems, which offer highly specialized applications, have to master high barriers to entry the software market, as they have to offer core business functionality as well, in order to sell their specialized products.
Institutional Constraints in the Initial Deployment of Cellular Telephone Service on Three Continents
Authors: West Joel
Published: May 2011

The influence of institutional pressures on standards and standardization are readily apparent in their most direct form. For example, in the mid-1990s, both the European Union and the United States issued new wireless communications licenses in the 1.8-2.0 GHz band: the EU countries mandated use of their decade-old communications standard, while the U.S. authorized three competing standards not yet widely used in the U.S. (Mehrotra, 1994). However, institutional pressures can also shape standardization efforts in a less direct fashion. For example, in a regulated industry such as telecommunications, existing economic and political institutions constrain the diffusion of a new technology. Such diffusion mediates the impact of product compatibility standards upon society. If producers adopt standards for their goods and services, and if users adopt the products that incorporate such standards, only then such standards can have an economic or social effect upon society at large. Therefore, it is important to understand the impact of institutional pressures on diffusion of the innovation that incorporates a standard if we wish to explain the eventual success or failure of such a standard. Here a particular standards-based innovation, analog cellular telephone service, provides an opportunity to contrast the effects of institutions on diffusion and thus standardization. Over a four year period, three independent design centers deployed mutually incompatible standards in three continents. While the technical solutions were similar, differences in institutional context between the regions influenced both the nature of the respective standards and their corresponding diffusion. In particular, the systems were deployed in a period of shifting telecommunications competition policies and priorities for radio frequency allocation. Prior research has examined the causal links between standards and institutions, both the institutional context of standards development (e.g., Besen, 1990) and also how established standards themselves function as institutions (Kindleberger, 1983). But rarely do we have the opportunity to examine the diffusion of the same innovation in differing institutional contexts. This paper will focus on the most complex institutional context for the deployment of cellular telephone service, the United States, which despite having invented cellular technology, was the third region to deploy cellular service due to regulatory delays. The experience of Japan and Northern Europe are offered as contrasts to highlight the importance of the institutional context in the adoption of both standards and standardized products.
Designing and Implementing a Learning Organization-Oriented Information Technology Planning and Management Process
Authors: Penrod James I. , Harbor Ann F.
Published: May 2011

Higher education is changing. Driven by the need to increase productivity, quality, and access while meeting the challenges of competition, universities, especially state-assisted institutions, are seeking ways to do more with less governmental support. Information Technology (IT) is perhaps the enabling tool that will bring transformative change (Oblinger & Rush, 1997). The organizations that have had primary managerial responsibility for IT implementation on many campuses need to change and be restructured if the technology is to live up to its potential. This case study provides an overview of the process utilized in implementing a broad-based strategy to address the information technology needs of a large public university, the University of Memphis. It deals at length with the planning and creation of an IT governance structure and a strategic planning and management model. In this case, modern theories of organizational change and strategic planning were applied to the creation and improvement of the University’s IT structure.
Policy Processes for Technological Change
Authors: Smith Richard , Lewis Brian , Massey Christine
Published: May 2011

Universities, among the oldest social institutions, are facing enormous pressures to change. There have always been debates about the university, its purpose, its pedagogical program, and its relationship to other social and political structures. Today, these debates have been given renewed vigor and urgency by the availability of advanced information and communication technologies for teaching and learning. These include computers and computer networks, along with the software and telecommunications networks that link them together. When these technologies are used to connect learners at a distance, they are called “telelearning technologies.” When referring to their use more generally, to include local as well as remote teaching innovations, they are sometimes called “technology mediated learning” (TML). Despite much media attention and recent academic criticism, pressures on universities are facilitated, but not caused, by telelearning technologies. Change in universities is not simply a result of forces acting upon universities, but is the result of a complex interaction of internal and external drivers. The use of telelearning technologies intersects with a host of social, political, and economic factors currently influencing university reform. Technology, in this context, has become the catalyst for change, reacting with other elements in a system to spark a reaction and a change in form and structure. This chapter examines policy processes for the introduction of technology-mediated learning at universities and colleges. It is based on the results of a two-year research project to investigate policy issues that arise with the implementation of telelearning technology in universities and colleges. The focus was on Canadian institutions of higher learning, but the issues raised are common to higher educational institutions in other countries. The study scanned a large number of institutions, reviewed documents, and interviewed key actors including government and institutional administrators, faculty, and students, to discover the range of issues raised by the implementation of telelearning technologies. This chapter discusses these issues and findings.
Information Management in Higher Education Administration
Authors: Edirisooriya Gunapala
Published: May 2011

Society has entered a new information age and higher education administration remains far behind its counterparts in the business sector. Educational information management is being drastically underutilized by higher education administration. Databases are used exclusively for record keeping purposes as an end in itself. They are not being effectively used for information management. Thousands of human hours are wasted annually to complete various types of administrative paperwork without using the existing databases as sources of input. This new information age is categorized by ongoing developments in multimedia and information technology that are opening new possibilities and forcing most people to restructure numerous activities in their lives, encompassing personal, professional, social, and institutional spheres. Rapid advancements in quality and versatility of products in information technology bring new challenges to every working environment. While the specialists in electronic technology keep upgrading the hardware, system and application software specialists continue to upgrade existing systems and create new systems and programs to increase access to new technology for the masses. In the computer industry, entrepreneurs who recognized the potential of the market transformed an industry of “computers for computer wizards” into an industry where the computer was destined to become an essential household item. Nevertheless, a great majority of end-users are not up to par with the required repertoire of technical knowledge and skills to exploit the capabilities of available information technology. This is most certainly true in higher education. This case explores the underutilization of information technology in higher education administration and looks at whether higher education administration is ready for the new information age.
Higher Education Culture and the Diffusion of Technology in Classroom Instruction
Authors: Smith Kandis M.
Published: May 2011

The diffusion of an innovation takes, on an average, 25 years in an educational setting. Many factors contribute to this slow acceptance rate. Rogers’ (1995) theory on the diffusion of innovation and the influence of culture on such diffusion is used to shed light on the causes for this slow diffusion. While not a full explanation of this slow rate of change, this case study shows that the academic culture, within which faculty function, has a strong influence on the diffusion of the use of technology in classroom instruction. This case study provides a point of reference for further study of diffusion of technology in classroom instruction. This case focuses on a Research I institution in the Midwest that has made a number of commitments to the integration of technology into the curriculum and has channeled many resources into this campaign. While the institution has invested large sums of money in the development of the infrastructure, the rate at which faculty have adopted the use of technology in their teaching has remained low. In order to determine the perceptions of faculty and develop some framework for understanding why the infusion of technology into classroom instruction was so low, faculty members on the campus were interviewed, focus groups were conducted, and meetings between faculty and administrators concerning technology issues were observed. Because additional issues exist with distance education, the scope of this case study research was limited to on-campus classroom instruction and support.
Electronic Commerce at the Dawn of the Third Millennium
Authors: Raisinghani Mahesh S.
Published: May 2011

At the brink of the new millennium, in global economy and commerce, there has been a dramatic increase in the role of information technology in markets, both in traditional markets and especially in the emergence of the electronic marketplaces. In recent years, the Internet has grown exponentially and is clearly transforming global markets. This chapter analyzes the fundamentals of electronic commerce and discusses the opportunities and challenges that e-commerce presents for global enterprises with relevant examples from the industry where appropriate. Opportunities of e-commerce are improvements in marketing activities such as one-to-one marketing and communication, better management of product/service support and product/value chain, and cost cuttings due to several electronic payment methods. On the other hand, global enterprises face the challenges of e-commerce, such as adjusting to competition in electronic markets, re-engineering/e-engineering distribution channels, addressing security and privacy issues, and applying strategic management to corporate alliance systems. Finally, the future of electronic commerce is discussed.
Electronic Trade Scenario for Global Supply Chains
Authors: Lee Ronald M.
Published: May 2011

This chapter introduces the concept of an electronic trade scenario as an aid to the management of (global) supply chains, and other forms of international, business-to-business electronic commerce. The problem addressed is the following. Competition demands that trade transactions be handled efficiently and securely. However, the same competitive environment also demands flexibility, and the ability to redesign the supply chain as conditions change. Current EDI (electronic data interchange) technologies offer efficiencies, but tend to be quite inflexible, often requiring substantial reprogramming for each modification to the transaction. Furthermore, these revisions need to be made not just for a single company, but for every affected company in the supply chain. In cases where some of the companies in the chain are relatively small, with limited computing staff and skills, such changes are even more difficult and disruptive. Electronic trade scenarios are generic, reusable models of the entire trade transaction. They are stored in a on-line repository, where each member of the supply chain can download the transaction component for their role in the transaction. In our proposed solution, the procedural logic of the transaction is designed using a high level, graphical representation called Documentary Petri Nets (DPN). The InterProcs system is described as a prototyping environment to support the design and execution of such supply chain transaction models using this DPN representation. A key concern will be the development of trustworthy trade scenarios that have sufficient controls and evidentiary documentation. Various directions of further work are described to improve the quality and flexibility of trade scenario designs.
Planning E-Strategies for New Zealand Firms
Authors: Hossain Liaquat
Published: May 2011

This chapter examines the risk factors for firms investing in e-commerce or electronic commerce in New Zealand. The relationships between the intra and extra organisational factors that ensure the success or failure of the electronic commerce projects in New Zealand are discussed. The investment risks for electronic commerce projects may rest on the planning, development, implementation and post-implementation phase. This study analyses the success criteria that are to be considered critical for electronic commerce projects in New Zealand. By using the CSFs criteria for investing in electronic commerce, this study suggests an e-strategy planning framework for New Zealand firms involved in electronic commerce. Future directions identifying the need for this proposed e-strategic framework and the need for empirical validation is also discussed.
Electronic Commerce Based on Software Agent
Authors: Yi Xun , Siew Chee Kheong , Syed Mahbubur Rahman
Published: May 2011

Because electronic commerce provides customers with more convenient and more money-saving services than conventional trading, it has seen explosive growth in recent years and will have a major impact in shaping future markets. Certainly, it will be very advantageous for customers if electronic commerce is capable of being more automated and secure than is currently the case, since the time and energy they spend will be dramatically reduced. This paper focuses on applying software agent technology together with cryptographic technology to automating and securing the information gathering, and payment procedures, which are the principal and most time-consuming steps in electronic commerce, especially on the Internet.
The Design and Architecture of a Secure Agent Transport Protocol for E-Commerce
Authors: Yang Yang , Guan Sheng-Uei
Published: May 2011

With the proliferation of Internet, electronic commerce (e-commerce) is beginning to take the center stage in the commerce world. Transactions via electronic means have been growing rapidly over recent years, both in terms of turnover amount and volume. It is estimated that the trend will continue, as more and more businesses have already started or have plans to put their products/services online. However, the development of e-commerce is hindered by several factors. One of them is the lack of intelligence. Today, there is little intelligence in the World Wide Web. Users cannot delegate jobs to ‘agents’ that autonomously perform the desired tasks for their owners. One way to resolve this is through the introduction of ‘smart software programs’, or intelligent agents. With an agent architecture in place, users can delegate tasks to agents. An agent can help its owner to search for and filter information, negotiate with other agents, and even perform transactions on behalf of its owner. It is predicted that agent usage will become the mainstream in the future, not just in the field of e-commerce, but in the World Wide Web as well (Guilfoyle, 1994; Corley, 1995). Due to the nature of e-commerce, security becomes a primary concern for any architecture under this category. In fact, the threats to e-commerce come mostly from the area of security. Credit card companies lose billions of dollars every year on card frauds. Bank networks are broken into and millions are transferred out without the administration’s immediate knowledge. In order to fight against these electronic crimes, it is necessary to protect our architecture with a solid security framework. Besides the security needs, it is desirable for agents to have roaming capability as well. Roaming extends the agent’s capability well beyond the limitations imposed by its owner’s computer. Agent operations should not be affected by factors such as the availability of network, the limitation on bandwidth, or the lack of computing resources. Roaming agents should be able to physically leave their owners’ machines and perform their operations using the computing resources on hosting machines.
The Use of the Internet by Terrorists and Its Impact Upon Electronic Commerce
Authors: Warren Matthew , Hutchinson William
Published: May 2011

In the developed world, the influence of information systems can now be seen in most operational areas of business. A significant result of these advances is that organizations have become increasingly dependent upon the availability of systems and reliant upon the data that they hold. In recent years the Internet has grown from a solely military/academic network to one that can be used by business or individuals. In the years since the first WWW applications were developed, there has been an explosion in the global use of the Internet. With this growth has come an increasing usage of the medium by criminal and terrorist groups (Rathmell, 1997). The term terrorist or terrorism is a highly emotive term. Generally it is used to denote “revolutionaries who seek to use terror systematically to further their views or to govern a particular area” (Warren, 1998). ‘Cyber-terrorism’ is a different form of terrorism since physical systematic terror does not usually occur (although it can if it causes disruption to a critical system), but a widespread destruction of information resources can. The problem of defining the term ‘terrorist’ relates to the fact that a terrorist group could easily be perceived as a resistance group carrying out lawful or morally legitimate actions. In the context of the chapter the term cyber-terrorist/terrorism will refer to all terrorist/resistance groups in order to give a neutral perception of their activities and aims. Another new term related to the Information Society is ‘electronic commerce.’ The notion of ‘electronic commerce’ is proposed as a means of drawing together a wide range of business support services. It includes such elements as inter-organizational e-mail; on-line directories; trading support systems for commodities, products, customised products and custom-built goods and services; ordering and logistic support systems; settlement support systems; and management information and statistical reporting systems (Warren et al, 1999). Business around the world has become more of a target of cyber terrorism due to the fact that they are increasingly dependent upon information technology (Howard, 1997). Therefore there are many more high technology targets to prey upon. Increasingly in the future, businesses will use electronic commerce and on-line systems as a method of conducting trade. These on-line methods are very vulnerable to attacks. In a recent, informal survey of Australian IT managers (Hutchinson and Warren, 1999), 80% of replies said that their sites had never been attacked, 66% do not feel their competitors would attack their site, and 66% had no policy about dealing with an attack. This chapter will explain why and how cyber-terrorists attack these services. The aims of the chapter are to: • describe the background of cyber-terrorism; • describe what cyber-terrorism is; • describe the vulnerabilities of electronic commerce to cyber-terrorism; • discuss the future of electronic commerce and cyber-terrorism.
Requirements for Web Engineering Methodologies
Authors: Oinas-Kukkonen Harri , Alatalo Toni , Kaasila Jouko , Kivela Henri , Sivunen Sami
Published: May 2011

Web information systems engineering means a collection of sound principles, methods, techniques and tools for developing Web-based information systems, which differ from traditional information systems in their unique technological platform and design philosophy. Key features of Web information systems engineering beyond traditional and object-oriented information systems development include emphasis on user navigation, the multilevel interactivity of the environment, and the advanced hypertext functionality in target information systems. A starting point for designing and modeling Web information systems is that these are essentially hypertext information systems. This chapter will specify requirements for Web information systems engineering methodologies from the viewpoints of hypermedia communication environments, adaptive hypermedia systems, and mobile hypermedia.
Modeling of Customers' Interactive Control of Service Processes
Authors: Ludwig Heiko
Published: May 2011

Providing customers with an electronic means to control a service that is performed on their behalf in an electronic commerce environment requires analysis and description of the service and a customer’s potential interaction with it. Current process and service modeling approaches do not provide adequate means to adequately represent customers’ service management functionality and its effects on the service and service-implementing processes. The CoCS conceptual modeling approach provides a meta-model and a modeling language for this purpose. Using the CoCS approach, service designers can specify a conceptual model of a service and its management by the customer in a consistent way such that it can be used to implement the service management interface for customers.
Integrating Fact-Oriented Modeling with Object-Oriented Modeling
Authors: Halpin Terry
Published: May 2011

Although the Unified Modeling Language (UML) provides deep support for the design of object-oriented applications, it currently lacks a number of features that have proved very valuable for conceptual analysis, especially for modeling of database applications. One promising solution to this problem is to use a fact-oriented approach such as Object Role Modeling (ORM) for the initial conceptual analysis and then transform this to UML. This chapter provides a comparative evaluation of the two approaches, specifically for data modeling and shows how to get the best out of both by using them in combination. Apart from its advantages for conceptual analysis, ORM’s richer and more rigorous constraint specification mechanisms can help to address gaps and inconsistencies in the current UML specification.
Information Systems Security and the Need for Policy
Authors: Whitman Michael E. , Townsend Anthony M. , Aalberts Robert J.
Published: May 2011

As the pervasiveness of networks create a more open set of information systems for the mobile and diverse needs of the organization, increased attention must be paid to the corresponding increase in exposure of those systems to attacks from internal and external sources. The first step to preparing the organization against these threats is the development of a systems security policy which provides instruction for the development and implementation of a security posture, as well as provides guidelines for the acceptable and expected uses of the systems. This chapter provides background support for the need for information security policy, and outlines a sample structure that may be used to develop such a policy.