bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
What is Intellectual Capital?
Authors: Marr B.
Published: May 2011

Today, intellectual capital is widely acknowledged as a principal driver of performance and a core differentiator for both private enterprises and governments. This interest in the topic has caused a flurry of activities across many disciplines from accountants, to HR professionals, to strategists. Where this has raised the profile of intellectual capital, it has also caused significant confusion about what intellectual capital is. What is often not clearly understood is that intellectual capital is a truly multidisciplinary field. This chapter outlines how intellectual capital as a theme has evolved in different academic disciplines and discusses interdisciplinary views on intellectual capital. It also outlines some of the major issues to be addressed as well as some possible avenues of how to take this important field forward.
The Intellectual Capital Statement
Authors: Bueno Campos E. , Ordóñez de Pablos Patricia
Published: May 2011

The aim of this chapter is to examine how firms measure and report their knowledge-based resources. In the first section of the chapter we analyze the intellectual capital construct and its sub-constructs. In the second section, we review basic models for measuring intellectual capital. The third section examines guidelines for measuring and reporting intellectual capital. Based on the analysis of intellectual capital statements published by 28 pioneering firms from Europe and India, section four explores key issues on building this innovative report. Finally we present major conclusions and implications for management.
Evolutionary Seismic Design for Optimal Performance
Authors: Alimoradi Arzhang , Pezeshk Shahram , Foley Christopher
Published: May 2011

The chapter provides an overview of optimal structural design procedures for seismic performance. Structural analysis and design for earthquake effects is an evolving area of science; many design philosophies and concepts have been proposed, investigated, and practiced in the past three decades. The chapter briefly introduces some of these advancements first, as their understanding is essential in a successful application of optimal seismic design for performance. An emerging trend in seismic design for optimal performance is speculated next. Finally, a state-of-the-art application of evolutionary algorithms in probabilistic performance-based seismic design of steel moment frame buildings is described through an example. In order to follow the concepts of this chapter, the reader is assumed equipped with a basic knowledge of structural mechanics, dynamics of structures, and design optimizations.
Optimal Reliability-Based Design Using Support Vector Machines and Artificial Life Algorithms
Authors: Hurtado Jorge
Published: May 2011

Reliability-based optimization is considered by many authors as the most rigorous approach to structural design, because the search for the optimal solution is performed with consideration of the uncertainties present in the structural and load variables. The practical application of this idea, however, is hindered by the computational difficulties associated to the minimisation of cost functions with probabilistic constraints involving the computation of very small probabilities computed over implicit threshold functions, that is, those given by numerical models such as finite elements. In this chapter, a procedure intended to perform this task with a minimal amount of calls of the finite element code is proposed. It is based on the combination of a computational learning method (the support vector machines) and an artificial life technique (particle swarm optimisation). The former is selected because of its information encoding properties as well as for its elitist procedures that complement hose of the a-life optimisation method. The later has been chosen du to its advantages over classical genetic algorithms. The practical application of the procedure is demonstrated with earthquake engineering examples.
Neural Network-Based Identification of Structural Parameters in Multistory Buildings
Authors: Chakraverty Snehashish
Published: May 2011

A detailed study of the capabilities and powerfulness of soft computing techniques such as artificial neural network with respect to the identification of structural parameters and structural responses are presented. This chapter includes the definition of neural architectures and system identification of multistory structure. An efficient identification algorithm for the multistory structure subject to initial condition and ground displacement is presented. Response identification subject to real earthquake data has also been discussed. Several example problems are incorporated to show the efficiency and reliability of the proposed algorithm.
Developing Electronic Content for the Support of the European Cultural Inclusion
Authors: Chochliouros Ioannis , Bougos Ioannis , Chochliouros Stergios
Published: May 2011

Various European initiatives and appropriate policies have been deployed (and are still in progress) to promote the creation and the distribution of new forms of electronically available content, aiming to support the “European cultural inclusion,” which constitutes a high-priority societal issue. The present works investigates diverse potential opportunities for realizing and offering innovative services, applications, and/or related facilities in the market through the proper use of modern electronic communications, especially for the promotion of cultural and social targets. Such options implicate vigorous participation both of state authorities and market industry players to launch dynamic business partnerships in parallel with efforts to improve quality of life and social cohesion in order to forward new ways of participating in society and to advance the European diversity and rich cultural heritage.
The Role of Information and Communication Technology in Managing Cultural Diversity in the Modern Workforce
Authors: Nataatmadja Indrawati , Dyson Laurel
Published: May 2011

This chapter demonstrates how managers can use information and communication technology (ICT) more effectively in culturally diverse workforces. Basing our analysis on the cultural dimensions of Hofstede and Hall, we compare a range of ICTs and provide a chart summarizing their strengths and weaknesses. In addition, a framework for developing ICT is proposed, and an example of its application to a global organization is presented. The study shows that none of the existing ICT tools is perfect in all situations and all cultural contexts. Therefore, managers need to provide a variety of ICTs to their employees, and developers should build flexibility into their ICT designs.
Electronic Policing
Authors: Boondao R.
Published: May 2011

This chapter examines electronic policing (e-policing), which has played an increasing role in government-management reform and has become an important area for e-government research. Firstly, the strategic framework and development of e-policing are reviewed. A framework of mobile policing is introduced that is derived from the system requirements of both police and citizens. We examine how an e-policing system is implementing this framework for improving the effectiveness and efficiency of crime control and also providing services to citizens. The system not only simplifies the collection, storage and retrieval of crime data but also uses Bayesian analysis to give constantly refined predictions of the risks of crime in different localities, along with the factors influencing the risk levels. Finally, evaluations of the system are discussed. User evaluations of the system allowed us to study the potential of the system for crime control and citizen services.
Benchmarking the Usability and Content Usefulness of Web Sites
Authors: Hassan S. , Li F.
Published: May 2011

Although the benchmarking technique has been widely used in various aspects of organizations and businesses, there is no clear framework on how the technique can be applied for Web evaluation. This article presents a framework for measuring the usability and content usefulness of Web sites by using the benchmarking approach. It describes the purpose of evaluation, metrics to be used and processes through which Web benchmarking can be performed. Several methods were used in the development of the framework, which include content analysis of literature and expert review. A total of 46 criteria were identified to be used as the benchmarking metrics. The framework was tested for its applicability by evaluating four political Web sites in Malaysia. The results proved that the framework is easy to follow and implement, and would be particularly useful for those who intend to benchmark the overall usability and content usefulness of Web sites against competitors.
A Social Shaping Perspective of the Digital Divide
Authors: Genus A.
Published: May 2011

The digital divide is a phenomenon associated with disparities among groups and societies in the adoption and diffusion of electronic information and communications technology (ICTs) and electronic-business (e-business) practice. The chapter argues that, in rhetoric, at least, the innovation, adoption and diffusion of ICTs bear the hallmark of technological determinism (i.e., that of a technical imperative) in which social, economic and political factors are underplayed. By way of contrast, the chapter considers the merits of a social-shaping approach to the analysis of innovation in ICTs to assess the prospects for ameliorating the digital divide between developed and developing countries and for stimulating economic development in the latter through the promotion of e-business. The chapter suggests how future research on the social shaping of ICTs, e-business and the digital divide between developed and developing nations can meet the challenges discussed herein.
Coalition Formation Among Agents in Complex Problems Based on a Combinational Auction Perspective
Authors: Hattori Hiromitsu
Published: May 2011

This chapter focuses on a scheduling problem that considers various constraints as a complex real world problem. Constraints on scheduling can be expressed as combinations of items (time slots) in a combinatorial auction. Agents bid for necessary combinations of time slots to satisfy users’ preferences. We formalize a combinatorial auction for scheduling as an MIP (mixed integer programming) problem, which integrates the constraints on items and bids to express complex problems. This integration solves the trade-off between the computation time to find the solution and the expressiveness to represent a scheduling problem. This chapter presents a new formalization of a combinatorial auction with constraints. We have experimentally confirmed that our method can obtain a socially preferable schedule in practical time.
Designing a Foundation for Mobile Agents in Peer-to-Peer Networks
Authors: Lübke Daniel , Gómez Jorge Marx
Published: May 2011

Within this chapter, we present the requirements and a possible conception of a framework, which provides a platform and starting point for the development of mobile agents in peer-to-peer networks. Peer-to-peer networks like Kazaa, Gnutella, and so forth have reached a widespread use on the Internet. By deploying mobile agents that can travel between network nodes to a large P2P network, one could embrace the peer-to-peer technology and use it for all kinds of services like making network traffic anonymous, distributing storage of documents, replicating contents of heavily accessed Internet sites, trading of information, and so forth. For many of these things there are solutions available, but by using a common framework and moving the logic into the agents, there is the opportunity to access all kinds of information through a common API, which guarantees extensibility and widespread use.
Aligning Learning with Industry Requirements
Authors: Armarego Jocelyn
Published: May 2011

A review of studies of practitioners of software development reveals a depth of mismatch between their needs and formal education. The conclusion to be drawn is that industry has made a long-term shift in its requirements of graduates from technical subjects, laying emphasis on personal and affective attributes. Concern has been expressed that the underlying “socialisation” requirement for a graduate to achieve “working professional” status is very poorly addressed in formal education. After establishing a framework for comparison between information technology (IT) formal education and industry requirements, this chapter discusses an action research study based on applying nontraditional and innovative learning models to address mismatches identified. Results suggest that models which focus on independent learning and soft skills prepare students to enter industry with the ability to engage in the career-long, professional learning required for success in professional practice.
Enhancing Decision Support Systems with Spatial Capabilities
Authors: Sampaio Marcus Costa , de Souza Baptita Cláudio , de Sousa André Gomes , do Nascimento Fabiana Ferreira
Published: May 2011

This chapter introduces spatial dimensions and measures as a means of enhancing decision support systems with spatial capabilities. By some way or other, spatial related data has been used for a long time; however, spatial dimensions have not been fully exploited. It is presented a data model that tightly integrates data warehouse and geographical information systems — so characterizing a spatial data warehouse (SDW) — ; more precisely, the focus is on a formalization of SDW concepts, on a spatial-aware data cube using object-relational technology, and on issues underlying a SDW — specially regarding spatial data aggregation operations. Finally, the MapWarehouse prototype is presented aiming to validate the ideas proposed. The authors believe that SDW allows for the efficient processing of queries that use, jointly, spatial and numerical temporal data (e.g., temporal series from summarized spatial and numerical measures).
Application of Decision Tree as a Data mining Tool in a Manufacturing System
Authors: Oke S.A.
Published: May 2011

This work demonstrates the application of decision tree, a data mining tool, in the manufacturing system. Data mining has the capability for classification, prediction, estimation, and pattern recognition by using manufacturing databases. Databases of manufacturing systems contain significant information for decision making, which could be properly revealed with the application of appropriate data mining techniques. Decision trees are employed for identifying valuable information in manufacturing databases. Practically, industrial managers would be able to make better use of manufacturing data at little or no extra investment in data manipulation cost. The work shows that it is valuable for managers to mine data for better and more effective decision making. This work is therefore new in that it is the first time that proper documentation would be made in the direction of the current research activity.
An Implemented Representation and Reasoning Systems for Creating and Exploiting Large Knowledge Bases of Narrative Information
Authors: Zarri Gian Piero
Published: May 2011

In this chapter, we evoke first the ubiquity and the importance of the so-called ‘narrative’ information, showing that the usual ontological tools are unable to offer complete and reliable solutions for representing and exploiting this type of information. We then supply some details about NKRL (Narrative Knowledge Representation Language), a fully implemented knowledge representation and inferencing environment especially created for an ‘intelligent’ exploitation of narrative knowledge. The main innovation of NKRL consists in associating with the traditional ontologies of concepts an ‘ontology of events’, in other words, a new sort of hierarchical organization where the nodes correspond to n-ary structures representing formally generic classes of elementary events like ‘move a physical object’, ‘be present in a place’, or ‘send/receive a message’. More complex, second order tools based on the ‘reification’ principle allow one to encode the ‘connectivity phenomena’ like causality, goal, indirect speech, coordination, and subordination that, in narrative information, link together ‘elementary events’. The chapter includes a description of the inference techniques proper to NKRL, and some information about the last developments of this language.
Web Effort Estimation Usiing Regression Analysis
Authors: Mendes Emilia
Published: May 2011

Software effort models and estimates help project managers allocate resources, control costs, and schedule and improve current practices, leading to projects that are finished on time and within budget. In the context of Web development and maintenance, these issues are also crucial, and very challenging, given that Web projects have short schedules and a highly fluidic scope. Therefore, this chapter presents a case study where a real effort prediction model based on data from completed industrial Web projects is constructed step by step using a statistical technique called regression analysis.
How to Improve Your Company's Effort Estimation Practices
Authors: Mendes Emilia
Published: May 2011

Numerous Web development companies worldwide do not employ formal techniques to estimate effort for new projects, thus relying on expert-based opinion (McDonald & Welland, 2001; Mendes, Mosley, & Counsell, 2005). In addition, many Web companies do not gather any data on past projects, which can later be used to estimate effort for new projects, and as a consequence they are not aware of how effort is used throughout their projects and if it could be used more effectively. This chapter provides a set of guidelines we believe can be of benefit to Web companies to help them improve their effort estimation practices. Our guidelines are particularly targeted at small Web development companies.
The Need for Empirical Web Engineering
Authors: Mendes Emilia
Published: May 2011

The objective of this chapter is to motivate the need for empirical investigations in Web engineering, and additionally to describe the three main types of empirical investigations that can be used by Web companies to understand, control, and improve the products they develop and the processes they use. These three main types of empirical investigations are surveys, case studies, and formal experiments. Although all these three types are described in this chapter, we focused our attention on formal experiments as these are the most difficult type of investigation to plan and execute.
Secure Online Metering for a Liberalized Energy Market
Authors: Ruland Christoph
Published: May 2011

The liberalization of the energy market requires frequent online access to metering devices. That is not only necessary for exchanging meter data, but also for management reasons. The integration of strong security mechanisms is an essential requirement for the introduction of online meter device access. The project SELMA (Secure Electronic Exchange of Metering Data) supported the development of a concept, the implementation and a field trial test of prototypes of such metering devices. This paper focuses on the security aspects. It describes the security analysis, the required security services and the security concept. The security concept includes the security mechanisms and cryptographic techniques applied to the metering data as well as the security management.
Requirements on Cross-Agency Processes in E-Government
Authors: Gortmaker Jeffrey , Janssen Marijn , Wagenaar Rene W.
Published: May 2011

A big challenge for governments all over the world is to deliver secure, reliable, transparent and accountable services to their citizens and businesses. Effective and efficient service delivery requires the orchestration of business processes going beyond the border of single agencies. Little is known about how to orchestrate these cross-agency service-delivery processes, and consequently governmental decision-makers are looking for support in designing such processes. This paper investigates the applicability of two existing reference models, the Workflow Reference Model and the extended SOA reference model, to guide the development of cross-agency process orchestration. Although these reference models contain important elements, we found that these models they do not provide support for issues like ensuring correct and in-time service-delivery processes, secure information sharing and transparent and accountable processes.
Service-Oriented Architecture for Seamless and Interoperable Service Delivery
Authors: Mugellini Elena , Khaled Omar Abou , Pettenati Maria Chiara
Published: May 2011

The delivery of seamless services is an essential feature of e-government applications. Offering seamless services presents several operational implications; a flexible and interoperable architecture is needed in order to provide some facilities to refer to, invoke and com-bine e-government services in a standard way, within the context of cross-organizational workflows. This chapter presents an e-government architecture (eGovSM) that eases the cooperation among applications of different government agencies in order to supply new added value services. Moreover it promotes reuse of existing systems by integrating governmental legacy applications. The eGovSM (eGovernment Service Marketplace) is a service oriented architecture based on Web Services and XML technology.
Bayesian Networks for Image Understanding
Authors: Savaki Andreas , Luo Jiebo , Kane Michael
Published: May 2011

Image understanding deals with extracting and interpreting scene content for use in various applications. In this chapter, we illustrate that Bayesian networks are particularly well-suited for image understanding problems, and present case studies in indoor-outdoor scene classification and parts-based object detection. First, improved scene classification is accomplished using both low-level features, such as color and texture, and semantic features, such as the presence of sky and grass. Integration of low-level and semantic features is achieved using a Bayesian network framework. The network structure can be determined by expert opinion or by automated structure learning methods. Second, object detection at multiple views relies on a parts-based approach, where specialized detectors locate object parts and a Bayesian network acts as the arbitrator in order to determine the object presence. In general, Bayesian networks are found to be powerful integrators of different features and help improve the performance of image understanding systems.
DBN Models for Visual Tracking and Prediction
Authors: Diao Qian , Lu Jianye , Hu Wei , Zhang Yimin , Bradski Gary
Published: May 2011

In a visual tracking task, the object may exhibit rich dynamic behavior in complex environments that can corrupt target observations via background clutter and occlusion. Such dynamics and background induce nonlinear, nonGaussian and multimodal observation densities. These densities are difficult to model with traditional methods such as Kalman filter models (KFMs) due to their Gaussian assumptions. Dynamic Bayesian networks (DBNs) provide a more general framework in which to solve these problems. DBNs generalize KFMs by allowing arbitrary probability distributions, not just (unimodal) linear-Gaussian. Under the DBN umbrella, a broad class of learning and inference algorithms for time-series models can be used in visual tracking. Furthermore, DBNs provide a natural way to combine multiple vision cues. In this chapter, we describe some DBN models for tracking in nonlinear, nonGaussian and multimodal situations, and present a prediction method to assist feature extraction part by making a hypothesis for the new observations.
A Methodology to Develop Secure Systems Using Patterns
Authors: Fernandez E. B. , Larrondo-Petrie M. M. , Sorgente T. , Vanhilst M.
Published: May 2011

We are developing a methodology to build secure software for complex applications and its related support. This methodology considers the whole software lifecycle, uses security patterns, and is applied at all the architectural levels of the system. A main idea is that security principles should be applied at every stage and that each stage can be tested for compliance with security principles. Patterns help apply security principles. This chapter presents the current status of our work.
Modelling Security Patterns Using NFR Analysis
Authors: Weiss M.
Published: May 2011

While many theoretical approaches to security engineering exist, they are often limited to systems of a certain complexity, and require security expertise that is not widely available. Additionally, in the practice of information system development security is but one of many concerns that needs to be addressed, and security concerns are often dealt with in an ad hoc manner. Security patterns promise to ?ll this gap. Patterns enable an ef?cient transfer of experience and skills. However, representing and selecting security patterns remains largely an empirical task. This becomes the more of a challenge as the number of security patterns documented in the literature grows, and as the patterns proposed by different authors often overlap in scope. Our contribution is to use a more explicit representation of the forces addressed by a pattern in the description of security patterns, which is based on non-functional requirements analysis. This representation helps us decide which patterns to ap-ply in a given design context, and anticipate the effect of using several patterns in combination. Speci?cally this chapter describes an approach for selecting security patterns, and exploring the impact of applying these patterns individually, and in concert with other patterns.
Optical Music Recognition
Authors: Bellini Pierfrancesco , Bruno Ivan , Nesi Paolo
Published: May 2011

Optical music recognition is a key problem for coding western music sheets in the digital world. This problem has been addressed in several manners obtaining suitable results only when simple music constructs are processed. To this end, several different strategies have been followed, to pass from the simple music sheet image to a complete and consistent representation of music notation symbols (symbolic music notation or representation). Typically, image processing, pattern recognition and symbolic reconstruction are the technologies that have to be considered and applied in several manners the architecture of the so called OMR (Optical Music Recognition) systems. In this chapter, the O3MR (Object Oriented Optical Music Recognition) system is presented. It allows producing from the image of a music sheet the symbolic representation and save it in XML format (WEDELMUSIC XML and MUSICXML). The algorithms used in this process are those of the image processing, image segmentation, neural network pattern recognition, and symbolic reconstruction and reasoning. Most of the solutions can be applied in other field of image understanding. The development of the O3MR solution with all its algorithms has been partially supported by the European Commission, in the IMUTUS Research and Development project, while the related music notation editor has been partially funded by the research and development WEDELMUSIC project of the European Commission. The paper also includes a methodology for the assessment of other OMR systems. The set of metrics proposed has been used to assess the quality of results produce by the O3MR with respect the best OMR on market.
Alternative Design Goals for a General Music Markup Language
Authors: Steyn Jacques
Published: May 2011

Design goals determine the particular structure of a markup language, while the philosophy of what markup languages are about determine the framework within which its structure is developed. Most existing markup languages for music reflect low level design strategies compared to design that adheres to the high level philosophy of markup languages. An approach to an XML-based music markup language from the perspective of SGML would differ from an approach from a markup language such as HTML. An ideal structure for a general markup language for music is proposed that follows a purist approach and which results in a different kind of XML-based music markup language than most present music markup languages offer.
Interactive Systems for Multimedia Opera
Authors: Olivia Michael
Published: May 2011

This chapter considers the development of systems to deliver multimedia content for new opera. After a short overview of the history of multimedia in opera, the specific requirements of opera are analysed, with emphasis of the fundamental musicality of operatic performance. Having considered the place of multimedia elements in the narrative and acting space, the relevance of previous practice in electroacoustic music and Vjing is considered as a model for a working approach. Several software and hardware configurations explored, including the use of gestural control by the actors themselves. The creation of a keyboard based “video instrument” with a dedicated performer, capable of integration into the pre- existing musical ensemble, is recommended as the most effective and practical solution.
Web-Based Music Intelligent Tutoring Systems
Authors: Phon-Amnuaisuk Somnuk , Siong Chee Keh
Published: May 2011

Our work bridges two interesting topics: the research in the area of web-based applications and the area of learning technologies. We give an overall picture of the current development in web-based music intelligent tutoring system (WMITS). The term WMITS is coined by us to describe the two main areas in our focus. In this chapter, we address the following issues: (i) the pedagogical aspect of teaching and learning music, (ii) the background of music intelligent tutoring system and (iii) our WMITS system for teaching music theories. A web-based environment offers strengths in terms of accessibility and self-paced learning. However, the environment has a great drawback in terms of inter-activities between the users and the system. Our design addresses this issue by developing a specialised client tool. The client tool provides an interactive environment for score editing which is crucial for learning music theories. The system incorporates three major inference techniques (i.e. Deductive, Inductive, and Bayesian Inference) in dealing with music theories and uncertain knowledge such as students’ understanding.
Possibilities, Limitations, and the Future of Audiovisual Content Protection
Authors: Schmucker Martin
Published: May 2011

This chapter explains the fundamental principles of audiovisual content protection. It explains the basic knowledge that is needed to understand the fundamentals of digital rights management (DRM) systems and their problems. Starting with a general introduction about copyright and content protection, available protection technologies are described and analyzed. The basic concepts of DRM solutions are explained and problems discussed. Potentials and practical limitations are analysed based on the digital music industry value chain. An outlook is given on solutions that are under development and that stronger consider the needs of the customers. In the conclusion, future solutions are discussed.
ICT Adoption in Firms by Using Endogenous Metrics
Authors: Serrecchia Michela , Serrecchia Irma , Martinelli Maurizio
Published: May 2011

This chapter analyzes the digital divide in Italy and the factors contributing to this situation at both the regional and provincial levels. To do this, we used the registration of Internet domains under the “.it” Country Code Top Level Domain as a proxy. In particular, we analyzed domain names registered by firms. The analysis produced interesting results: The distribution of domains registered by firms in Italian provinces is more concentrated than the distribution related to income and the number of firms, suggesting a diffusive effect. Furthermore, in order to analyze the factors that may contribute to the presence of a digital divide at the regional level, a regression analysis was performed using demographic, social, economic, and infrastructure indicators. The results show that Internet technology, far from being an “equalizer,” follows and possibly intensifies existing differences in economic opportunity in industrialized countries like Italy.
Is this the Global Village?
Authors: Hanson J.
Published: May 2011

A long-held desire on the part of many concerned technologists and social scientists has been the creation of a system that would allow individuals in the remotest regions of the globe to have access to communications technologies. Today, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) allows individuals in regions formerly restricted by economic, geographic or cultural reasons to communicate on a broader scale at a reasonable financial cost, through convergent systems and wireless means, for purposes defined by themselves. This analysis explains the core components of VoIP and how it facilitates communication, considers the social and cultural impact of VoIP on a global scale and examines whether we are entering a truly “global village” through greater use of VoIP technologies.
Developing Visual Tourism Recommender Systems
Authors: Ponnada Mohan , Jakkilinki Roopa , Sharda Nalin
Published: May 2011

Tourism recommender systems (TRS) have become popular in recent years; however, most lack visual means of presenting the recommendations. This paper presents ways of developing visual travel recommender systems (V-TRS). The two popular travel recommender systems being used today are the TripMatcher™ and Me-Print™. Tour recommendation using image-based planning using SCORM (TRIPS) is a system that aims to make the presentation more visual. It uses SCORM and CORDRA standards. Sharable content object reference model (SCORM) is a standard that collates content from various Web sites, and content object repository discovery and registration/resolution architecture (CORDRA) aims to locate and reference SCORM repositories throughout the Internet. The information collected is stored in the form of an XML file. This XML file can be visualised by either converting it into a Flash movie or into a synchronized multimedia integration language (SMIL) presentation. A case study demonstrating the operation of current travel recommender systems also is presented. Further research in this area should aim to improve user interaction and provide more control functions within a V-TRS to make tour-planning simple, fun and more interactive.
Offshoring
Authors: Beaumont Nicholas
Published: May 2011

This chapter describes the emergence of offshoring. It defines relevant concepts, and documents its rapid growth. The factors differentiating offshoring from outsourcing are discussed, especially access to markedly lower costs, extra risks, and cultural differences. A methodology for deciding what processes to offshore, and establishing, maintaining, and renewing offshoring projects is proposed. Offshoring is no longer the preserve of organizations; individuals can obtain an increasing variety of services from overseas. Offshoring is contentious because it threatens to replace high-paid jobs in First World countries with less well-paid Third World jobs. Most outsourcing depends on organizations’ ability to transfer data instantly, accurately, and at nearly zero marginal cost. This chapter suggests that the ramifications for individuals, organizations, and societies of this technical advance are underestimated. Further research, especially on the ramifications, is suggested. The difficulty of researching offshoring, a sensitive topic for many organizations, is noted.
Integrating Business Processes and Information Systems in an Interorganizational Context
Authors: Rittgen Peter
Published: May 2011

When organizations engage in close cooperation they usually need to reorganize the business processes that serve the interface between them. This reorganization is often done with the help of business process models. As a result, the underlying information systems have to be adapted, too. The changes to the latter can be supported by information system models which are typically “written” in a different language from that of the business processes. Here we suggest an approach to facilitate the development of information system models based on the models of the respective business processes. This is achieved by mapping a suitable business process language to the Unified Modeling Language. We apply this approach in the context of an interorganizational business process.
Process-Driven Business Integration Management for Collaboration Networks
Authors: Vanderhaeghen Dominik , Hofer Anja , Kupsch Florian
Published: May 2011

In the chapter, a framework for cross-enterprise business integration management addressing the organizational and technical dimension is developed. Firstly, the authors identify basic characteristics of cross-organizational business processes whose complexity results in the need for an efficient and effective business integration management. Therefore, a holistic framework is focused, consisting of a view concept for knowledge management in collaboration networks, a three-tier architecture, and a process-oriented life-cycle model. The framework for business integration management offers the required methods to set up enterprise processes and ICT-support in collaboration networks. It proposes a management guideline for collaboration participants defining what, why, when, and how they might manage their business integration intra- and cross-organizationally.
Mobile Code and Security Issues
Authors: Samundeeswari E. S. , Jane F. Mary Magdalene
Published: May 2011

Over the years, computer systems have evolved from centralized monolithic computing devices supporting static applications, into client-server environments that allow complex forms of distributed computing. Throughout this evolution, limited forms of code mobility have existed. The explosion in the use of the World Wide Web, coupled with the rapid evolution of the platform-independent programming languages, has promoted the use of mobile code and, at the same time, raised some important security issues. This chapter introduces mobile code technology and discusses the related security issues. The first part of the chapter deals with the need for mobile codes and the various methods of categorising them. One method of categorising the mobile code is based on code mobility. Different forms of code mobility, like code on demand, remote evaluation, and mobile agents, are explained in detail. The other method is based on the type of code distributed. Various types of codes, like source code, intermediate code, platform-dependent binary code, and just-in-time compilation, are explained. Mobile agents, as autonomously migrating software entities, present great challenges to the design and implementation of security mechanisms. The second part of this chapter deals with the security issues. These issues are broadly divided into code-related issues and host-related issues. Techniques, like sandboxing, code signing, and proof-carrying code, are widely applied to protect the hosts. Execution tracing, mobile cryptography, obfuscated code, and cooperating agents are used to protect the code from harmful agents. The security mechanisms, like language support for safety, OS level security, and safety policies, are discussed in the last section. In order to make the mobile code approach practical, it is essential to understand mobile code technology. Advanced and innovative solutions are to be developed to restrict the operations that mobile code can perform, but without unduly restricting its functionality. It is also necessary to develop formal, extremely easy-to-use safety measures.
Security Risk Management Strategy of Financial Services Institutions
Authors: Lao Guoling , Wang Liping
Published: May 2011

This chapter is about a new security risk management strategy for financial services institutions. The proper strategy presented here takes the systematic and cybernetics theory as the instruction, regards the risk analysis process, the management strategy implementation, and the monitor and audit as an organic security management system. Thus the strategy is an auto adapted open system to defeat various safety threats dynamically. By comparing management of electronic commerce (e-commerce) security risks with that of traditional financial risks, this chapter suggests accurate security risk measurement using quantitative analysis and further integration of the e-commerce security risk with traditional financial risks.
New Technologies in E-Banking
Authors: Jørgensen Niels
Published: May 2011

In e-banking, user authentication with mobile phones and special-purpose cryptographic tokens is a promising alternative to conventional approaches, such as digital signatures on a personal computer (PC). Special-purpose tokens that do not have external connections avoid viruses transmitted via the Internet. Moreover, phones and tokens are mobile. The chapter assesses the potential of new technologies for user authentication (verification of the user’s identity) on the basis of a practical test and an analysis of trust. The practical test comprises a password generator, mobile phones with short message service (SMS), wireless application protocol (WAP), and third generation (3G), and (conventional) PC-based authentication, using digital signatures—all as used by a Danish e-bank. On the one hand, the test indicates that in some ways the hardware-based technologies are indeed easier to use. On the other hand, the trust analysis indicates that the secrecy of the new approaches may be a weakness, since there is no publicly available analysis of their security. The secrecy of the hardware-based technologies may be justified by the need to prevent various attacks, such as physically opening a password generator to determine its secret key. A prerequisite for consumer trust in the hardware-based technologies may be the introduction of security evaluation methods that do not disclose the secret parts of the technologies to the public and are conducted by public authorities or independent third parties.
Stronger Authentication
Authors: Yeo Alvin Y.C.
Published: May 2011

Authentication is a prime challenge for banks today as end users’ digital identities are being compromised through increasingly sophisticated means. This chapter provides a timely review of the authentication concept and key authentication technologies, namely password tokens, biometrics, smart cards, smart tokens, and out-of-band authentication. An integrative model is proposed, which frames three key considerations in choosing an authentication solution—cyber threat types, regulatory requirements, and business considerations. Each of the implications is considered in turn. Finally, to guide future deployments of authentication solutions, the chapter concludes with pragmatic suggestions by proposing a set of evaluation criteria for choosing authentication solutions and key legal considerations.
Enterprise modeling with the Joint Use of User Requirements Notation and UML
Authors: Medve Anna
Published: May 2011

This chapter introduces the User Requirements Notation (URN) standardized formal methods and its joint use with Unified Modeling Language (UML) in enterprise modeling. It argues that the joint use of URN and UML can enhance enterprise models and co-evolve with enterprise engineering processes. URN combines goals and scenarios to help reasoning and to capture user requirements prior to detailed design. Furthermore, URN can be integrated partially or entirely into an existing business process modeling approach, without replace current ways of creating and analyzing models in order to be useful. Modelled in the UML, a URN model may be incorporated into the rest of a system’s UML design documentation, seamlessly linking the documentation for the requirements elicitation part of a project to the whole and an be fully integrated with the rest of the design documentation for a software system.
Enterprise Modeling with ODP and UML
Authors: Tyndale-Biscoe Sandy , Vallecillo Antonio , Wood Bryan
Published: May 2011

RM-ODP is a standard defining a framework for the specification of large distributed systems that is based on solid foundations, and that defines five generic and complementary viewpoints for structuring the system specifications in order to deal with their inherent complexity. One of these viewpoints, the enterprise viewpoint, focuses on the purpose, scope and policies for the system and its environment. This viewpoint is independent from any computational and platform-specific concerns, and provides a well-defined approach to enterprise modelling. However, the fact that RM-ODP does not define any notation for describing its viewpoint languages has traditionally hampered its wide adoption by many industrial sectors. On the other hand, UML is a widely accepted notation for system specification, but lacks formal semantics and has limited structuring mechanisms for dealing with large and complex system specifications. In this paper we describe how ODP and UML can be combined for enterprise modelling, showing how enterprise viewpoint specifications can be written in UML to obtain the major benefits of both approaches. The work described here is part of an ISO/IEC and ITU-T initiative to define the use of UML for ODP system specifications.
A Language-Action Approach to the Design of UML Models
Authors: Rittgen Peter
Published: May 2011

The Language-Action Perspective provides a communicative view on the organization. In it an organization is characterized as a system of interacting agents. This view is helpful in understanding how the organization works and it can also contribute to the design of information systems in support of it. This design is often done in UML, a language that views an information system as a system of message-passing objects. We suggest an approach to support this design by mapping action models onto UML models
Merging and Outsourcing Information Systems with UML
Authors: Balsters Herman
Published: May 2011

Businesses can change their business structure by merging with other companies or, on the other end of the spectrum, by smoothly outsourcing some of their business processes to other more specialized parties. In this paper we will concentrate on conceptual modelling of merging and outsourcing information systems. Merging of a collection of information systems will be defined as the construction of a global information system that contains exactly the functionality of the original collection of systems. Such global information systems are called federated information systems, when we wish to address the situation where the component systems are so-called legacy systems; i.e. systems that are given beforehand and which are to interoperate in an integrated single framework in which the legacy systems are to maintain as much as possible their respective autonomy. Two major problems in constructing federated information systems concern achieving and maintaining consistency and a uniform representation of the data on the global level of the federation. The process of creation of uniform representations of data is known as data extraction, whereas data reconciliation is concerned with resolving data inconsistencies. Outsourcing of an information system, on the other hand, will be defined as the handing over of part of the functionality of the original system to an outside party (the supplier). Such functionality typically involves one or more operations, where each operation satisfies certain input- and output requirements. These requirements will be defined in terms of the ruling service level agreements (SLAs). We will provide a formal means to ensure that the outsourcing relationship between outsourcing party and supplier, determined by a SLA, satisfies specific correctness criteria. Formal specifications as offered in this paper can prove their value in the setup and evaluation of outsourcing contracts. We shall describe a uniform semantic framework for specification of both federated and outsourced information systems based on the UML/OCL data model. In particular, we will show that we can represent so-called exact views in UML/OCL, providing the means to capture the duality relation between federating and outsourcing.