bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
ICT Exacerbates the Human Side of the Digital Divide
Authors: McKay Elspeth
Published: May 2011

Ethnic and racial tensions are aggravated by social inequities; perhaps it is the media that unwittingly feeds this dilemma. Look at how often we are directed to the Internet for further information. While exploring the Internet may be easy for some computer users, others demonstrate a complete avoidance for this type of knowledge exchange. Moreover, some misunderstandings that occur between cultural communities may be exacerbated by a phenomenon that has become known as the digital divide. There are various definitions of this term. One view takes a purely socio-political focus relating to a socio-economic gap between communities that have access to computer technologies and the Internet and those who do not. Another view covers a broader technological spectrum to include media of any sort, and the information and communications technologies (ICTs). No matter which definition is used, the lack of access to information, for whatever reason, may perpetuate a meaningful gap in cultural differences; the result of which may lead to a more serious communication breakdown throughout the community. This short article argues for more research on measuring the effectiveness of increased opportunities for Web-mediated cross-cultural/intergenerational knowledge sharing that is designed to overcome the ever widening digital divide.
Implementation of Programming Languages Syntax and Semantics
Authors: Wu Xiaoqing , Mernik Marjan , Bryant Barrett R. , Gray Jeff
Published: May 2011

Unlike natural languages, programming languages are strictly stylized entities created to facilitate human communication with computers. In order to make programming languages recognizable by computers, one of the key challenges is to describe and implement language syntax and semantics such that the program can be translated into machine-readable code. This process is normally considered as the front-end of a compiler, which is mainly related to the programming language, but not the target machine. This article will address the most important aspects in building a compiler front-end; that is, syntax and semantic analysis, including related theories, technologies and tools, as well as existing problems and future trends. As the main focus, formal syntax and semantic specifications will be discussed in detail. The article provides the reader with a high-level overview of the language implementation process, as well as some commonly used terms and development practices.
Information Technology in Survey Research
Authors: Berzelak Jernej , Vehovar Vasja
Published: May 2011

Data collection based on standardized questionnaires represents one of the central tools in many research areas. Early surveys date back to the 18th century (de Leeuw, 2005), while a major breakthrough came in the 1930s with the application of probability samples. By using surveys, today governments monitor conditions in the country, social scientists obtain data on social phenomena and managers direct their business by studying the characteristics of their target customers. The importance of survey research stimulates ongoing efforts to achieve higher data quality and optimized costs. Early on researchers recognized the potential of technological advances for the achievement of these goals. In the early 1970s telephone surveys started replacing expensive face-to-face interviews. Computer technology developments soon enabled computer-assisted telephone interviewing (“CATI”). The 1980s brought new approaches based on personal computers. Interviewers started to use laptops and respondents sometimes completed questionnaires on their own computers. Another revolution occurred with the Internet in the subsequent decade. The pervasive availability of Internet access, and the growing number of Internetsupported devices, coupled with the advance of interactive Web technologies (like Ajax) are facilitating developments in contemporary survey research. Internet surveys show the potential to become the leading survey approach in the future. According to the Council of American Survey Research Organizations (“CASRO”), the Internet already represents the primary data collection mode for 39% of research companies in the USA (DeAngelis, 2006). The rate of adoption is slower in academic and official research but it is far from negligible. These technological innovations have, however, created several new methodological challenges.
Innovative Thinking in Software Development
Authors: Aurum Aybüke
Published: May 2011

As we enter the third millennium, organizations have to cope with accelerating rates of change in technology and increased levels of competition on a global scale more than ever before. In order to stay competitive within this changing business environment, organizations are forced to constantly pursue new strategies to differentiate themselves from their competition, such as offering a stream of new products and services (Satzinger et al., 1999). Furthermore, there is growing recognition that an organization’s capability to deal with change, improve services and quality, cut costs, develop new products, and compete in a global market will depend upon the level of creative and innovative thinking of its workforce (Covey, 1989). In short, in order to remain competitive in an era of increasing uncertainty and market globalization, organizations must constantly be creative and innovative with their products and services. Software has been widely considered as central to all sophisticated innovations. In the age of the Internet the challenge is to identify and evaluate new ideas, processes and applications. In many of the fastest growing industries, including computer, entertainment, communications, advertising, logistics and finance, software has been the end product itself, or the highest value component in the end product. In other cases, software has been used to support value creation and innovation processes. The growing importance of software-based innovations suggests the need to improve the creative skills of IT professionals. This need, in turn, requires an appropriate response from the IT education and training sector. Moreover, IT education and training should better nurture students’ creativity, so that they can be successful in their future roles as innovative professionals and business people. It is particularly important that IT students be given an opportunity to develop and apply creative and innovative skills to software processes and products. Given the crucial importance of creativity and innovativeness for success in a knowledge economy, the main purpose of this article is to explore concepts about creativity and how they relate to software development by providing empirical research examples in IT education.
An Intranet within a Knowledge Management Strategy
Authors: Averweg Udo Richard
Published: May 2011

An Intranet (or internal Web) is a network designed to serve the internal informational needs of an organisation (e.g., a municipality) using Internet concepts and tools (Averweg, 2007; Turban, McLean & Wetherbe, 2004). The cost effi- ciency of utilizing Internet technology has opened the door for organizations to use this same technology to share information within the organization (Botha, 2004). Information technology (IT) thus plays an important role in organizations. Given that advances in IT have made it easier to acquire, store and disseminate knowledge than ever before, many organizations are employing IT to facilitate sharing and integration of knowledge (Kankanhalli, Tanudidjaja, Sutanto & Tan, 2003). An Intranet is an application of technology within an organization for the purpose of information dissemination, communication, integration, and collaboration (Telleen, 1997). Knowledge Management (KM) describes “the primary focus of these efforts has been developing new applications of information technology to support digital capture, storage, retrieval and distribution of an organization’s explicitly documented knowledge” (Zack, 1999). In this chapter it is argued that, when aligned, organizational strategy and technical resources (e.g., IT) provide a sound framework to support KM within an organization. However, the question arises as to whether an organization is making the best investment in its IT resources and whether it is managing knowledge in the right way. One technical IT resource in an organization is an Intranet. Every major organizational process should be regularly evaluated and the evaluation should be purposeful and completed (Debowski, 2006). One method of evaluation is a survey. Debowski (2006) suggests that survey “evaluations take a number of forms … and may be conducted via telephone, e-mail or mailouts”. In this study the evaluation selected by the author is e-mail since the purpose and benefits of an e-mail survey justify the cost.
Intrusion Tolerance in Information Systems
Authors: Zhao Wenbing
Published: May 2011

Today’s information systems are expected to be highly available and trustworthy — that is, they are accessible at any time a user wants to, they always provide correct services, and they never reveal confidential information to an unauthorized party. To meet such high expectations, the system must be carefully designed and implemented, and rigorously tested (for intrusion prevention). However, considering the intense pressure for short development cycles and the widespread use of commercial off-the-shelf software components, it is not surprising that software systems are notoriously imperfect. The vulnerabilities due to insufficient design and poor implementation are often exploited by adversaries to cause a variety of damages, for example, crashing of the system, leaking of confidential information, modifying or deleting of critical data, or injecting of erroneous information into a system. This observation prompted the research on intrusion tolerance techniques (Castro & Liskov, 2002; Deswarte, Blain, & Fabre, 1991; Verissimo, Neves, & Correia, 2003; Yin, Martin, Venkataramani, Alvisi, & Dahlin, 2003). Such techniques can tolerate intrusion attacks in two respects: (1) a system continues providing correct services (may be with reduced performance), and (2) no confidential information is revealed to an adversary. The former can be achieved by using the replication techniques, as long as the adversary can only compromise a small number of replicas. The latter is often built on top of secrete sharing and threshold cryptography techniques. Plain replication is often perceived to reduce the confidentiality of a system, because there are more identical copies available for penetration. However, if replication is integrated properly with secrete sharing and threshold cryptography, both availability and confidentiality can be enhanced.
Isochronous Distributed Multimedia Synchronization
Authors: Yang Zhonghua , Yang Yanyan , Gu Yaolin , Gay Robert
Published: May 2011

A multimedia system is characterized by the integrated computer-controlled generation, manipulation, presentation, storage, and communication of independent discrete and continuous media data. The presentation of any data and the synchronization between various kinds of media data are the key issues for this integration (Georganas, Steinmetz, & Nakagawa, 1996). Clearly, multimedia systems have to precisely coordinate the relationships among all media that include temporal and spatial relationships. Temporal relationships are the presentation schedule of media, and spatial relationships are the location arrangements of media. Multimedia synchronization is a process of maintaining these relationships by employing appropriate synchronization mechanisms and algorithms. Multimedia synchronization is traditionally challenging, especially in distributed environments. Three types of multimedia synchronization can be distinguished: intrastream synchronization, interstream synchronization, and intermedia synchronization (Crowcroft, Handley, & Wakeman, 1999). The approaches used for interstream synchronization can also be used for intermedia synchronization. The word synchronization refers to time. The easiest way of synchronizing between streams at different sites is to use a single time reference. There are several ways to provide this time reference. • The network will have a clock serve as a single reference. This approach is used in H.261/ISDN- (integrated services digital network) based systems. A single clock time is propagated around a set of codecs and multipoint control units (MCSs). • The network deploys a clock-synchronization protocol, such as NTP (the network time protocol; Mills, 1993). The time stamps of media packets will be derived from the globally synchronized clocks. The isochronous synchronization approach as described in this article heavily relies on this time reference.
Knowledge Flow Identification
Authors: Rodríguez-Elias Oscar M. , Vizcaíno Aurora , Martínez-García Ana I. , Favela Jesús , Piattini Mario
Published: May 2011

Knowledge management (KM) is an important factor in organizational competitive advantage (Ichijo & Nonaka, 2007). Unfortunately, traditional KM initiatives frequently fail when they are included in the work processes of organizations (Stewart, 2002). One of the factors responsible for this is that these initiatives are not well aligned to the real knowledge needs of the organization’s knowledge workers. Thus, it is important to seek approaches to help to align KM initiatives to the real work processes of organizations (Maier & Remus, 2002), considering what is important for their knowledge workers (Dalkir, 2005; Wiig, 2004). In this chapter, we describe the knowledge flow identification methodology (KoFI), a methodology, based on process engineering techniques, that has been developed to aid in the study of organizational processes from a knowledge flow perspective. The methodology proposes a set of steps and tasks that can be carried out to analyze knowledge flows in business processes; thus, helping to identify issues such as the knowledge workers’ needs, the knowledge (and its sources) that is principally involved in the processes, the working tools that may (positively or negatively) affect the flow of knowledge in the process, or the problems that may be restricting the good flow of knowledge in the process. To exemplify the usefulness of the KoFI methodology, we provide a brief description of some of the results obtained from the application of the methodology, in real settings, in which it was helpful for various purposes, including: the design of a multiagent-based KM system, the development of a knowledge map for a process, the identification of the manner in which to integrate a tool currently used in an organization as a basis for a KM strategy, and for the development of an organizational knowledge portal.
Knowledge Management Systems Acceptance
Authors: Ericsson Fredrik , Avdic Anders
Published: May 2011

Knowledge management is a set of systematic actions that organizations can take to obtain the greatest value from the knowledge available to it (Davenport & Prusak, 1998). Systematic means that knowledge management is made up of intentional actions in an organizational context. Value means that knowledge management is measured according to how knowledge management projects contribute to increased organizational ability (see for example Prieto & Gutiérrez, 2001; see Goldkuhl & Braf, 2002, on the subject of organizational ability). The motivation for knowledge management is that the key to competitive advantage for organizations in today’s business world is organizations’ ability to manage knowledge (Nonaka & Takeuchi, 1995; Davenport & Prusak, 1998). Knowledge management as an intentional and value-adding action is not easy to accomplish in practice (Scarbrough & Swan, 1999). Scarbrough and Swan (1999) present several case studies in knowledge management, successful and unsuccessful in their respective knowledge management projects. A major point and lessons learned from the case studies is that prevalent approaches in knowledge management overstate technology and understate how technology is implemented and applied. To succeed with knowledge management, encompassing development of information technology-based information system, some requirements have to be fulfilled. An important aspect in the development process is system acceptance. Implementation is at large a process of acceptance. Implementation is the process where the system becomes an integrated part of the users’ or workers’ work practice. Therefore implementation is essential to make a knowledge management project successful in order attain an increased organizational ability and to succeed with knowledge management.
Leveraging Complementarity in Creating Business Value for E-Business
Authors: Scupola Ada
Published: May 2011

The rapid developments of Internet and Web-based applications has shaped the era of the digital economy and changed the way enterprises operate. Internet is increasingly becoming part of the basic business model for many companies as organizations around the world are adopting new e-business models and integrated solutions to explore new ways of dealing with customers and business partners, new organizational structures, and adaptable business strategies (Singh & Waddell, 2004). According to Kalakota and Robinson (1999), e-business is the complex fusion of business processes, enterprise applications, and organizational structure necessary to create a high performance business model. E-business is therefore more than just having an Internet presence or conducting e-commerce transactions, it is a new business design that emphasizes a finely tuned integration of customer needs, technology, and processes (Kalakota et al., 1999). When discussing e-business, it is important to make a distinction between physical and digital products. A digital product is defined as a product whose complete value chain can be implemented with the use of electronic networks, for example it can be produced and distributed electronically, and be paid for over digital networks. Examples of digital products are software, news, and journal articles. The companies selling these products are usually Internet-based “digital dot coms” such as Yahoo and Google. On the contrary, a physical product cannot be distributed over electronic networks (e.g., a book, CDs, toys). These products can also be sold on Internet by “physical dot coms,” but they are shipped to the consumers. The corporations adopting e-business are distinguished into “bricks and mortar” companies, hybrid “clicks and mortar” companies (such as Amazon.com) and pure dot coms (Barua & Mukhopadhyay, 2000a). Many studies from the early days of deployment of information technology (IT) in organizations have struggled to measure the business value and profitability of information technology (Barua et al., 2000a). Many of these studies have showed that productivity gains are small or not existent and that the effects of information technology and e-commerce have to be often looked upon from a competitive advantage point of view (Barua, Konana, Whinston, & Yin, 2001; Porter & Miller, 1985; Scupola, 2003). Recent research has argued that to increase the business value of electronic commerce to a corporation is important to shift the focus from whether electronic commerce creates value to a company to “how to create value” and “how to optimize such value” (Barua et al., 2001). This can be achieved by exploring complementary relationships between electronic commerce, strategies and value chain activities (Scupola, 2002, 2003). Here this argument is taken further to show the importance of complementary relationships for the business value of e-business.
Location Information Management in LBS Applications
Authors: de Paiva Anselmo Cardoso , Monteiro Erich Farias , Leal Rocha Jocielma Jerusa , de Souza Baptista Claudio , Silva Aristófanes Corrêa
Published: May 2011

The mobile computing advent brings a set of new applications that benefit from the constant need of information, diminishing communication costs and favoring the popularization of mobile devices, to reach an increasing number of users. The mobility characteristic opens a new area for software applications. Associated to the mobility we have the location identification, which turns into a critical attribute, once it allows the development of a great variety of new services and applications. The systems that benefit from the use of that location information are named locationbased systems (LBS); alternatively, these applications are also known as location-aware, context-aware, or adaptive information systems More precisely, we can define LBS as applications that use the location information to supply services, based on this position context, to their users (Kupper, 2005; Schiller & Voisard, 2004). The user location information makes available completely new and innovative service concepts, offering information to the user based on its own context (e.g., climatic information in the region where the user is located), increasing considerably the utility of these services. We know that location- based applications increase the services effectiveness, as they give a customized access to the data based on the user’s preferences and on its actual position. This enhances the personalization content, giving several benefits to users and to the application developers. In our daily life, several activities may use these services, like the emergency call centers, the car navigation services, and even location-based friend finder. We may verify that, beyond the already cited characteristics and benefits, what also gave the LBS applications a growing perspective were the location techniques modernization and the mobile devices popularization, enabling the offer of more precise, objective, and useful information. In Shiode et al. (Shiode, Li, Batty, Longley, & Maguire, 2002), research shows the trend of LBS market and the market potential reserved to this class of applications that, each year, turns out to be more important to the users, becoming the area that dominates the applications for mobile devices. According to Sayed (2005), the forecast annual revenues for location-based services was estimated in US $3.3 billions for United States in 2006/2007, and in US $11.7 billions on the other countries. In summary, we may say that the positional information has the potential to explore the user’s geographical context as one of the most important variables for content and services personalization for mobile devices users.
Micro and Macro Level Issues in Curriculum Development
Authors: Lammintakanen Johanna , Rissanen Sari
Published: May 2011

It is a well-known fact that an educational paradigm shift occurred in the course of the last decade, with a move from traditional to Web-based education at various educational levels (Harasim, 2000; Karuppan, 2001; Kilby, 2001). Webbased education (WBE) has advanced from the delivery of educational content to Web-based sites with interactive functions (Carty & Philip, 2001). Concurrently, new innovative kinds of pedagogical experiments have shifted the paradigm from teaching to learning (Pahl, 2003). However, there is a greater need for innovation in the area of pedagogy rather than that of technology (Littig, 2006). Indeed, educators have realized, as summarized by Armstrong (2001), that good Web-based educational theory and good educational theory are one and the same, the only difference being that WBE transcends the barriers of space and time. The paradigmatic shift has occurred in both global education (including developing countries) and corporate training. The key impetus for this shift may vary in these areas, but the role of knowledge and intellectual capital, coupled with the needs of organizations and individuals to learn more rapidly, are apparent as the driving forces for WBE (e.g., Bell, Martin, & Clarke, 2004). The growth of WBE has been part of planned educational policy, but at the same time, good international or national experiences have also supported its growth. Furthermore, the cash crises in the western university sector (Bell et al., 2004) and the endeavors towards more coherent and cohesive educational systems and degrees, especially in the European context (Littig, 2006), can be identified as the other galvanizing factors for this shift.
Mobility-Aware Grid Computing
Authors: Katsaros Konstantinos , Polyzos George C.
Published: May 2011

Grid computing has emerged as a paradigm for coordinated resource sharing and problem solving in dynamic, multiinstitutional virtual organizations (Foster, 2001). A grid computing system is essentially a large-scale distributed system designed to aggregate resources from multiple sites, giving to users the opportunity to take advantage of enormous computational, storage, or bandwidth resources that would otherwise be impossible to attain. Current applications of grid computing focus on computational-expensive processing of large volumes of scientific data, for example, for earthquake simulation, signal processing, cancer research, and pattern search in DNA sequences. At the same time, the recent advances in mobile and wireless communications have resulted in the availability of an enormous number of mobile computing devices such as laptop PCs and PDAs (personal digital assistants). Thus, it is natural to extend the idea of resource sharing to mobile and wireless computing environments. Resource-sharing collaboration between mobile users appears as a promising research direction toward the alleviation of the inherent resource constraints present in mobile computing environments. Either in the context of mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) or in wireless networks based on fixed infrastructure (i.e., cellular networks, wireless local area networks (WLANs), small- or large-scale communities of mobile users can form mobile grid systems and collaborate in order to either achieve a common goal (otherwise impossible to achieve) or simply overcome their individual limitations. In the following, we highlight the fundamental issues toward the realization of a computational mobile grid system.
Modeling ERP Academic Deployment via Adaptive Structuration Theory
Authors: Webb Harold W. , LeRouge Cynthia
Published: May 2011

Academic/industry collaboration can change learning processes and improve outcomes by integrating resources and creating opportunities not otherwise attainable (Wohlin & Regnell, 1999). However, each institution’s culture and organizational objectives influence the collaborative relationships developed as advanced information technologies (e.g., computer aided software engineering tools, enterprise resource planning [ERP] systems, and database tools) are adopted. The challenge is to facilitate mutual understanding and acknowledge distinctions in addressing each organization’s goals. The aim of these relationships is the appropriation of ERPs in a manner that enriches educational experiences, while providing industry benefit. There are many quandaries associated with this phenomenon. How does the deployment of ERPs facilitate educational processes? To what degree should these resources be utilized? What tools and methods should be used? What is the role of the ERP vendor? Can academic independence be maintained? Without a framework to identify relevant variables, it is daunting to begin to assess the impact of varying degrees of adoption, identify effective processes of deployment, and move toward assessing costs and benefits. Though some frameworks address academic/industry collaboration (Mead et al., 1999), few have considered the implications of ERPs on the evolution of inter-institutional collaborative relationships. This exposition augments a framework for understanding the forces at work when integrating ERPs into educational settings (LeRouge & Webb, 2002, 2005). We begin our discussion by reviewing adaptive structuration theory (DeSanctis & Poole, 1994) as the foundation for the academic/industry ERP collaboration framework (LeRouge & Webb, 2002). We discuss academic/industry collaboration constructs and their relationships within the context of ERP systems and then integrate examples, findings, and issues from recent research.
Model-Supported Alignment of IS Architecture
Authors: Opdahl Andreas L.
Published: May 2011

An information system (IS) is a system that communicates, transforms, and preserves information for human users. An information system comprises one or more software applications and databases, and their relationships to their human users, operators, and maintainers. A modern enterprise has many information systems that can be related in various ways. For example, information systems can be related by exchange because they exchange data through message passing or shared databases, or because they exchange functions through remote procedure calls or Web services. Information systems can also be related by overlap because they maintain the same data or provide the same functions. Information systems can be related in many other ways too, either directly, such as when one IS controls another, or indirectly, for example, because several ISs depend on the same run-time platforms or because they compete for their users’ attention or for computer resources. In addition to being related to one another, information systems can be related to the surrounding organization in many ways. For example, organization units such as departments, individuals, or roles may be the owners, users, operators, or maintainers of ISs; organizational goals and strategies can be realized by ISs; organizational processes can be supported or automated by ISs; and so on. The information systems (IS) architecture of an enterprise comprises its information systems, the relationships between those information systems, and their relationships to the surrounding organization. In addition to single enterprises, alliances of enterprises and parts of enterprises, such as divisions and departments, can have IS-architectures too. The above definition implies that every enterprise has an ISarchitecture, even if that architecture is not explicitly talked about, described, or managed: ‘IS-architecture’ is a way to look at organizations and their information systems.1 IS-architecture alignment is the process of selecting an IS-architecture vision towards which the architecture should be incrementally but systematically evolved. This article will present a model-supported framework for aligning an IS-architecture with its surrounding organization (Opdahl, 2003a). The framework shows how an enterprise’s current IS-architecture can be represented in an enterprise model, from which candidate architecture visions can then be generated, before one of them is selected as the enterprise’s IS-architecture vision.
Nonlinear Approach to Brain Signal Modeling
Authors: Balli Tugce , Palaniappan Ramaswamy
Published: May 2011

Biological signal is a common term used for time series measurements that are obtained from biological mechanisms and basically represent some form of energy produced by the biological mechanisms. Examples of such signals are electroencephalogram (EEG), which is the electrical activity of brain recorded by electrodes placed on the scalp; electrocardiogram (ECG), which is electrical activity of heart recorded from chest, and electromyogram (EMG), which is recorded from skin as electrical activity generated by skeletal muscles (Akay, 2000). Nowadays, biological signals such as EEG and ECG are analysed extensively for diagnosing conditions like cardiac arrhythmias in the case of ECG and epilepsy, memory impairments, and sleep disorders in case of EEG. Apart from clinical diagnostic purposes, in recent years there have been many developments for utilising EEG for brain computer interface (BCI) designs (Vaughan & Wolpaw, 2006). The field of signal processing provides many methods for analysis of biological signals. One of the most important steps in biological signal processing is the extraction of features from the signals. The assessment of such information can give further insights to the functioning of the biological system. The selection of proper methods and algorithms for feature extraction (i.e., linear/nonlinear methods) are current challenges in the design and application of real time biological signal analysis systems. Traditionally, linear methods are used for the analysis of biological signals (mostly in analysis of EEG). Although the conventional linear analysis methods simplify the implementation, they can only give an approximation to the underlying properties of the signal when the signal is in fact nonlinear. Because of this, there has been an increasing interest for utilising nonlinear analysis techniques in order to obtain a better characterisation of the biological signals. This chapter will lay the backgrounds to linear and nonlinear modeling of EEG signals, and propose a novel nonlinear model based on exponential autoregressive (EAR) process, which proves to be superior to conventional linear modeling techniques.
Object Classification Using CaRBS
Authors: Beynon Malcolm J.
Published: May 2011

The notion of uncertain reasoning has grown relative to the power and intelligence of computers. From sources which are uncertain information and/or imprecise data, it is importantly the ability to represent uncertainty and reason about it (Shafer & Pearl, 1990). A very general problem of uncertain reasoning is how to combine information from independent and partially reliable sources (Haenni & Hartmann,forthcoming). With data mining, understanding the confirming and/or conflicting information from characteristics describing objects classified to given hypotheses is affected by their reliability. Further, the presence of missing values compounds the problem, since the reasons for their presence may be external to the incumbent reliability issues (Olinsky, Chen, & Harlow, 2003; West, 2001). These issues are demonstrated here using the classification technique: Classification and Ranking Belief Simplex (CaRBS), introduced in Beynon and Buchanan (2004) and Beynon (2005). CaRBS operates within the domain of uncertain reasoning, namely in its accommodation of ignorance, due to its mathematical structure based on the Dempster-Shafer theory of evidence (DST) (Srivastava & Mock, 2002). The ignorance here encapsulates incompleteness of the data set (presence of missing values), as well as uncertainty in the evidential support of characteristics to the final classification of the objects. This chapter demonstrates that a technique such as CaRBS, through uncertain reasoning, is able to uniquely manage the presence of missing values by considering them as a manifestation of ignorance, as well as allowing the possible unreliability of characteristics to be inherent. Importantly, the described process removes the need to falsely transform the data set in any way, such as through imputation (Huisman, 2000). The example issue of credit ratings considered here has become increasingly influential since its introduction in around 1900 with the Manual of Industrial and Miscellaneous Securities (Levich, Majnoni, & Reinhart, 2002). The rating agencies shroud their operations in particular secrecy, stating that statistical models cannot be used to replicate their ratings (Singleton & Surkan, 1991), hence advocating the need for alternative analyses, including those utilising uncertain reasoning.
One Organization, One Strategy
Authors: Johnston Kevin
Published: May 2011

Most organizations have multiple levels of strategic plans (de Kluyver & Pearce, 2006), one of which is the Information Technology (IT) strategic plan. The alignment of an organization’s business strategy with its IT strategy has been a concern of CIOs (Benson & Standing, 2008; Croteau & Bergeron, 2001; Johnston, Muganda, & Theys, 2007; Luftman Kempaiah, & Nash, 2006), CEOs (Armstrong, Chamberlain, Moore, & Hart, 2002; O’Brien & Marakas, 2006), academic researchers (Henderson & Venkatraman, 1999; Kangas, 2003; Pearlson & Saunders, 2004; Reich & Benbasat, 2000), and research companies (Broadbent, 2000; Croteau & Bergeron, 2001; Meta Group, 2001) since the age of vacuum tubes. The Society for Information Management (SIM) studies reveal that ‘IT and Business Alignment’ was the number one management concern in 2003, 2004 and 2005, and has been one of the top 10 concerns since 1983(Luftman et al., 2006). IT and business strategies should not be separate or aligned; organizations should simply have one business strategy: one organization, one strategy.
Referential Constraints
Authors: Rivero Laura C.
Published: May 2011

Inclusion dependencies support essential semantic aspects of the standard relational data model. An inclusion dependency is defined as the existence of attributes in a table whose values must be a subset of the values of the corresponding attributes in another table (Codd, 1990; Abiteboul, Hull, & Vianu, 1995; Connolly & Begg, 2004). Formally, it can be expressed as R[X]?S[Z]. R and S are relation names. With X and Z as compatible attributes, R[X] and S[Z] are the inclusion dependency’s left and right sides respectively. When Z is the primary key of S or it is restricted by a unique clause, the inclusion dependency is key-based (also named referential integrity restriction, rir). In this case, X is a foreign key (FK) for R. On the contrary, if Z does not constitute the key of the relation, the inclusion dependency is non-key-based (simply, an inclusion dependency, id). Both rirs and ids are referential constraints. Rirs are important because they contain basic local semantic characteristics, which have been elicited from the Universe of Discourse (UofD). They are sufficient to symbolize many natural semantic links such as the relationships and hierarchies that are captured by semantic models (Abiteboul et al., 1995). Conversely, ids do not appear as a product of the translation ‘conceptual schema?logical schema’, but because of ad-hoc changes made in the phase of detail design, some denormalization degree, or the presence of complex n-ary relationship constructs. In this scenario, ids frequently misrepresent objects and their corresponding inter-object relationships.
A Road Map for the Validation, Verification and Testing of Discrete Event Simulation
Authors: Abu-Taieh Evon M. O. , Rahman El Sheikh Asim Abdel
Published: May 2011

The aim of this chapter is to give an elaborate reasoning for the motivation for Validation, Verification, and Testing (VV&T) in Simulation. Thereby, defining Simulation in its broadest aspect as embodying a certain model to represent the behavior of a system, whether that may be an economic or an engineering one, with which conducting experiments is attainable. Such a technique enables the management, when studying models currently used, to take appropriate measures and make fitting decisions that would further complement today’s growth sustainability efforts, apart from cost decrease, as well as service delivery assurance. As such, the Computer Simulation technique contributed in cost decline; depicting the “cause and effect,” pinpointing task-oriented needs or service delivery assurance, exploring possible alternatives, identifying problems, as well as proposing streamlined, measurable, deliverable, solutions, providing the platform for change strategy introduction, introducing potential prudent investment opportunities, and finally, providing a safety net when conducting training courses. Yet, the simulation development process is hindered due to many reasons. Like a rose, Computer Simulation technique, does not exist without thorns, of which the length, as well as the communication during the development life cycle. Simulation reflects real-life problems; hence, it addresses numerous scenarios with handful of variables. Not only is it costly, as well as liable for human judgment, but also, the results are complicated and can be misinterpreted.
The Role of Business Case Development in the Diffusion of Innovations Theory for Enterprise Information Systems
Authors: Chia Cua Francisco , Garrett Tony C.
Published: May 2011

A successful organisation continually initiates and implements radical innovations. The innovation must not only be new. A radical innovation has a significant impact on how the organisation undertakes its business process. Impacting is different from affecting. The former has a more substantial effect on the organisation. This is precisely why new enterprise information systems represent a radical innovation. To be successful, the organisation undertakes an innovation-decision process to align itself, as much as possible, with the ever-changing external realities. The innovation-decision process dictates selling an idea (the business case) that the new enterprise information systems possess economic value to upper management. This paper depicts a bird’s-eye view of how innovation, in this case, the new enterprise information systems, diffuses (episteme) via business case development (techne) in the innovation-decision process. As shown in Figure 1, the adoption and implementation of new enterprise information systems constitute a radical change (prerequisite F). New enterprise information systems represent radical innovation. An innovation-decision process starts with an initiation phase through which the individuals or decision-making units move from identifying and knowing the new enterprise information systems, to the forming of an attitude toward the different competing software packages, and subsequently to deciding whether to adopt or reject the implementation and use of the new idea. A business case is a formally written document that argues about the adoption to a certain course of action. It contains a point-by-point analysis to making a decision for a set of alternative courses of action to accomplish a specific goal. A business case process walks through the initiation phase of the innovation-decision process and talks about the project plans that concern the implementation phase, which follows the initiation phase. The business case document justifies, in detail, the innovation-decision process: what has transpired in the initiation phase and what will transpire in the implementation phase. It takes into account the innovation-decision process. In short, a business case process develops a detailed business case document of the innovation-decision process. Thus, a business case is both a means and an end.
Satellite Network Security
Authors: Kemper Littman Marlyn
Published: May 2011

Satellite networks play a vital role in enabling essential critical infrastructure services that include public safety; environmental monitoring; maritime disaster recovery and reconnaissance; electronic surveillance; and intelligence operations for law enforcement, the military, and government agencies (Jamalipour & Tung, 2001). As demonstrated by the events following the terrorist attacks in the U.S. on the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. and the World Trade Center in New York City on September 11, 2001, satellite networks also provide redundant communications services when terrestrial networks are disrupted and/or unavailable. Despite their merits, satellite networks are nonetheless vulnerable to cyber attacks that pose threats to national security and the economy. Satellite networks transport voice, video, images, and data through the air as electromagnetic signals, thereby making these transmissions susceptible to interception. Technical advances enable the interconnectivity of satellite systems to public and private wireless and terrestrial networks including the Internet. These advances, however, amplify the risk of cyber attacks that can compromise critical infrastructure functions dependent on satellite networks in sectors that include information technology (IT) and telecommunications; defense; government; banking and finance; utilities; agriculture; emergency services; public health; and transportation (U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), 2003; U.S. Government Accounting Office (GAO), 2004). As a consequence, satellite networks employ an array of security tools and mechanisms for countering costly and widespread cyber incursions and, thereby, ensuring the continuity of critical infrastructure operations. Those cyber attacks that are politically motivated and specifically designed to disrupt essential services are generally attributed to cyber terrorism. This chapter describes the technical fundamentals of satellite networks; examines security vulnerabilities; and explores initiatives for protecting the integrity of satellite network transmissions and operations from cyber incursions and physical attacks. Standards and protocols that safeguard satellite networks from unauthorized use and intentional disruptions and policies, and legislation that facilitate cyberspace asset protection are described. Capabilities of encryption in supporting secure satellite services and the distinctive attributes of the InterPlanetary Internet (IPN), also called the InterPlanetary Network, are explored.
Semantic Web in E-Government
Authors: Koné Mamadou Tadiou , McIver Jr. William
Published: May 2011

Today, in many countries, looking for government information, filing taxes, renewing a driver’s license, obtaining a certificate and notifying of a new address anytime, anywhere are becoming mundane online operations. For the satisfaction of their constituents, local governments are striving to deliver more effective and efficient online services through the use of innovative information and communications technologies. E-government also known as “digital government” can be defined as the civil and political conduct of government using information and communication technologies (ICT) (McIver & Elmagarmid, 2002). The most accepted picture of e-government is that of a provider of online services to citizen (G2C), businesses (G2B) and the administration (G2G). The real value of an e-government rests on the effectiveness of its programs, the broad availability of its enhanced online services, the satisfaction of customers and the tangible savings in time, money and human resources (Koné, 2005). E-government expansion and adoption by communities, citizens, businesses, and public administrations in most countries is generally seen as a four-step process: presence phase, interaction phase, transaction phase, and transformation phase. The goal of the last transformation phase is to integrate several internal services at the vertical and horizontal levels, into a one-stop, whole-of-government with innovative services operating seamlessly across departments, agencies and programs. To address the problems of seamless integration and interoperability (D’Auray, 2001), some actors in e-government are experimenting with the semantic Web promoted by Tim Berners-Lee (Berners-Lee et al., 1999, 2001), Web service technologies (McIlraith et al., 2001) as well as service oriented architecture (SOA) as a means for achieving integration and inter-operation in the service transformation phase. Scope and Structure of the article This chapter aims at presenting the semantic Web technology applied to the transformation and advancement of e-government. After this introduction in the first section, we expose in the second section the nature of the semantic Web and e-government. Then, we explain in the fourth section, how semantic Web technologies can contribute to solving known issues in the transformation of e-government. Given this background, we are able to propose a simple illustration of our ideas: Web services and semantic Web-based architectures within the e-government project of Québec, Canada. We then give a glimpse of some future trends in the fourth section and the conclusion in the fifth and last section.