bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Framework for the Experiences in Digital Literacy in the Spanish Market
Authors: Heredero C. DePablos
Published: April 2010

The information society must be considered, above all, a society composed by people. For that reason, a social priority for the information society development should be centered in the acquisition of knowledge. To be included in the digital literacy means to have the technological capabilities that allow a person surviving in the information society. We try to offer real examples for the development of digital literacy in a variety of areas of application: education, social inclusion and firms. For that reason we describe and analyze the contribution of digital literacy to the following Spanish projects: Educared, which promotes the spread of Internet for innovation and pedagogical training amongst teachers, parents and students in primary and secondary schools; the Dana Project, which identifies good practices to reduce the digital gap based in gender; and Competic, a program offers good practices for the promotion of information and communication technologies in small and medium size firms.
Modeling Design Patterns for Semi-Automatic Reuse in System Design
Authors: Shlezinger Galia , Reinhartz-Berger Iris , Dori Dov
Published: April 2010

Design patterns provide reusable solutions for recurring design problems. They constitute an important tool for improving software quality. However, correct usage of design patterns depends to a large extent on the designer. Design patterns often include models that describe the suggested solutions, while other aspects of the patterns are neglected or described informally only in text. Furthermore, design pattern solutions are usually described in an object-oriented fashion that is too close to the implementation, masking the essence of and motivation behind a particular design pattern. We suggest an approach to modeling the different aspects of design patterns and semi-automatically utilizing these models to improve software design. Evaluating our approach on commonly used design patterns and a case study of an automatic application for composing, taking, checking, and grading analysis and design exams, we found that the suggested approach successfully locates the main design problems modeled by the selected design patterns.
Toward a Unified Model of Information Systems Development Success
Authors: Siau Keng , Long Yoanna , Ling Min
Published: April 2010

Information systems development (ISD) is a complex process involving interconnected resources, stake holders, and outcomes. Understanding factors contributing to ISD success has attracted keen interest from both researchers and practitioners, and many research studies have been published in this area. However, most studies focus on one or two factors affecting ISD success. A holistic view of factors impacting ISD success is missing. This paper synthesizes past research on the topic and proposes a unified model on ISD success through a systematic and comprehensive literature review. The unified model highlights that ISD is a complex and interactive process involving individual, team, and organization factors, as well as ISD methodology. These factors impact the ISD process as well as its success.
A Study on the Effect of Application and Resource Characteristics on the QoS in Service Provisioning Environments
Authors: Varvarigou Theodora , Tserpes Konstantinos , Kyriazis Dimosthenis , Silvestri Fabrizio , Psimogiannos Nikolaos
Published: April 2010

This article deals with the problem of quality provisioning in business service-oriented environments, examining the resource selection process as an initial matching of the provided to the demanded QoS. It investigates how the application and resource characteristics affect the provided level of QoS, a relationship that intuitively exists but has not yet being mapped. To do so, it focuses on identifying the application and resource parameters that affect the customer-defined QoS parameters. The article realistically centres upon modeling a data mining application and simple PC nodes in order to study how they affect response times. It moves on, by proving the existence of these specific relations and maps them using simple artificial neural networks so as to be able to wrap them in a single mechanism for resource selection based on customer QoS requirements and real time provider QoS capabilities.
Determinants of E-Commerce Adoption Among Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises in Malaysia
Authors: Hua Sim Chia , Rajesh Modapothala Jashua , Theng Lau Bee
Published: April 2010

With a major proportion of research on Electronic Commerce (EC) undertaken on large corporations, and focused primarily on developed countries, little is known about the determinants of EC in Small and Mediumsized Enterprises (SMEs) of developing nations. This chapter explores the extent of EC use by SMEs, and provides some empirical evidence of how internal factors of firm and owner are influencing EC adoption among smaller businesses in Malaysia. The methodology and results of this study may be applicable to other developing countries. Findings confirm the low level of participation in EC by SMEs. The age of enterprise, as well as the owner’s gender and education were found to be significant in determining the level of EC adoption. Though some of the results contradict those of previous studies, they may have a greater implication for government authorities in drawing up guidelines, approaches, and formulating more effective frameworks to promote EC use among SMEs in developing countries.
The Influence of Quality on E-Commerce Success
Authors: Sharkey Ultan , Scott Murray , Acton Thomas
Published: April 2010

This research addresses difficulties in measuring e-commerce success by implementing the DeLone and McLean (D&M) model of IS success (1992, 2003) in an e-commerce environment. This research considers the influence of quality on e-commerce success by measuring the information quality and system quality attributes of an e-commerce system and the intention to use, user satisfaction and intention to transact from a sample of respondents. This research provides an empirical e-commerce application of the updated IS success model proposed by DeLone and McLean (2003). This paper found significant relationships between Information Quality and System Quality and three success dimensions: intention to use, user satisfaction and intention to transact. It found the following constructs to be most important in predicting success: ease of understanding, personalization and reliability. In particular, that reliability is more important than usability where transactions are concerned and security though important, is not the most important factor.
Collaborative Performance
Authors: Kristensen Kjetil , Kijl Björn
Published: April 2010

Collaboration is gaining attention as a key driver of overall business performance, innovation capabilities and productivity. However, there is a discrepancy between the perceived importance of collaboration and the extent to which companies approach collaboration in a structured manner. Few companies methodically evaluate how well they perform in the area of collaboration, and few have implemented management and leadership principles to systematically improve collaborative performance. This article explains how businesses can benefit from systematic, structured investment in tools and methods supporting collaboration, and concludes with a few governing principles and a list of specific action points for businesses that are interested in improving their collaborative performance and obtaining a higher Return on Investment (ROI) on their collaboration initiatives.
Publicly Available Computers
Authors: Rensel Ann D. , Abbas June M. , Rao H.R.
Published: April 2010

Businesses and governments continue to expand the use of the internet to access and provide a wide range services to consumers. This change in service delivery presents a potential access barrier for people who do not have access to the internet available in their homes. Publicly available computers attempt to bridge this gap; however, it is not clear if people are willing to use computers in these environments to engage in the full range of web-based activities, particularly online transactions. We expand Triandis’ modified TRA model to consider user characteristics and the impact of the physical and virtual environment on public transactional use of websites. Results indicate that people are sensitive to the physical environment surrounding the computer and that Internet self-efficacy supports public transactional use while individual need for privacy deters transactional use in a public environment. In addition, people without personal internet access do complete transactions at other non-public locations and that completing transactions from non-public locations is a strong determinant of public transactional use.
Perception of Barriers to E-Commerce Adoption in SMEs in a Developed and Developing Country
Authors: MacGregor Robert C. , Kartiwi Mira
Published: April 2010

Despite the proven potential of e-commerce in the small business sector, studies have shown that larger businesses have reaped the benefits, with SME adoption remaining relatively low by comparison. This slow growth of e-commerce adoption in SMEs has been attributed to various adoption barriers that are faced by small business owners/managers. These barriers have been well documented in numerous research studies. While these studies have gone some ways to determine the nature and role of barriers to e-commerce adoption, there is a suggestion that as most have been conducted in developed economies, their value for developing economies remains in question. This article compares the perception of barriers to e-commerce adoption in a developed and a developing economy. Two hundred forty-seven non-adopters in Australia are compared to 96 non-adopters in Indonesia. The data shows that the perception of importance of barriers to e-commerce adoption differs across the two locations.
Decision-Making for Location of New Knowledge Intensive Businesses on ICT Sector
Authors: Ferreira João J. , Marques Carla S. , Fernandes Cristina
Published: April 2010

Technological innovation associated with e-business is seen as one of the key drivers of the knowledge economy and innovation performance and is a considerable test of a region’s or nation’s capacity to generate e-entrepreneurship and sustain competitiveness. The importance of the knowledge intensive business services (KIBS) sector to economic growth will increase significantly with the development of the knowledge economy and the rise of e-entrepreneurship. This article identifies different types of new KIBS and recognizes factors influencing their location. A conceptual research model based on the link between KIBS and location attributes is proposed and tested, and a survey was carried out in the Region Centro of Portugal to test a multidimensional approach at the location decision level. The authors’ found many different factors associated with the location of new KIBS, and their findings highlight two profiles of KIBS.
Cancer Cell Image Analysis and Visualization
Authors: Kim Tae-Yun , Hwang Hae-Gil , Choi Heung-Kook
Published: April 2010

We review computerized cancer cell image analysis and visualization research over the past 30 years. Image acquisition, feature extraction, classification, and visualization from two-dimensional to three-dimensional image algorithms are introduced with case studies of bladder, prostate, breast, and renal carcinomas.
A Good Role Model for Ontologies
Authors: Pradel Michael , Henriksson Jakob , Aßmann Uwe
Published: April 2010

Although ontologies are gaining more and more acceptance, they are often not engineered in a componentbased manner due to, among various reasons, a lack of appropriate constructs in current ontology languages. This hampers reuse and makes creating new ontologies from existing building blocks difficult. We propose to apply the notion of roles and role modeling to ontologies and present an extension of the Web Ontology Language OWL for this purpose. Ontological role models allow for clearly separating different concerns of a domain and constitute an intuitive reuse unit.
Integrating Web Portals with Semantic Web Services
Authors: Acuña César J. , Minoli Mariano , Marcos Esperanza
Published: April 2010

Several systems integration proposals have been suggested over the years. However these proposals have mainly focused on data integration, not allowing users to take advantage of services offered by Web portals. Most of the mentioned proposals only provide a set of design principles to build integrated systems and lack in suggesting a systematic way of how to develop systems based on the integration architecture they propose. In previous work we have developed PISA (Web Portal Integration Architecture)—a Web portal integration architecture for data and services—and MIDAS-S, a methodological approach for the development of integrated Web portals, built according to PISA. This work shows, by means of a case study, how both proposals fit together integrating Web portals.
Between Individuality and Collectiveness
Authors: Kavada Anastasia
Published: April 2010

Decentralized and internally diverse, the Global Justice Movement (GJM) is thought to be influenced by its use of the internet. Operating in an environment characterized by the conditions of globalization and late modernity, the movement strives to be a collective that accommodates individual difference. Focusing on the organizing process of the European Social Forum, this article examines the role of email lists and physical meetings in realizing this ‘unity in diversity’. Based on interviews with movement activists and a content analysis of three email lists, this article examines how online and face-to-face communication practices engender different dynamics in terms of individuality and collectiveness. While communication on email lists tends to afford divergence, diversity, and individual autonomy, face-to-face contact enables convergence, unity and the affirmation of the collective. Thus, it is the combination of those two modes of communication that helps the movement to fuse seemingly opposing dynamics.
Embedded Networks in Mobile Devices
Authors: Balandin Sergey , Gillet Michel
Published: April 2010

The concept of a mobile phone has recently transformed into a new concept of mobile multimedia devices capable of performing multiple complex tasks and integrating multiple functionalities. It has resulted in a significant increase of device integration costs and complicated deployment of new technologies. Device integrator companies favor modularity everywhere possible, which results in a new trend toward networked architectures for the mobile devices. However, comparing to the best-known embedded network solutions, e.g., SoC and NoC, these architectures have unique constraints and requirements, which also are significantly different from the wide area networks. The main constraints are power consumption and having a modular architecture to allow reuse of the components. Transition to the new architectures for mobile devices is a time consuming task that requires the analysis of many solutions applied in other contexts, especially for embedded protocols, QoS and resource management. This article reviews the state of the art in embedded networks research and the key assumptions, restrictions and limitations faced by designers of embedded networks architectures for mobile devices.
Parallel Programming and Its Architectures Based on Data Access Separated Algorithm Kernels
Authors: Liu Dake , Sohl Joar , Wang Jian
Published: April 2010

A novel master-multi-SIMD architecture and its kernel (template) based parallel programming flow is introduced as a parallel signal processing platform. The name of the platform is ePUMA (embedded Parallel DSP processor architecture with Unique Memory Access). The essential technology is to separate data accessing kernels from arithmetic computing kernels so that the run-time cost of data access can be minimized by running it in parallel with algorithm computing. The SIMD memory subsystem architecture based on the proposed flow dramatically improves the total computing performance. The hardware system and programming flow introduced in this article will primarily aim at low-power high-performance embedded parallel computing with low silicon cost for communications and similar real-time signal processing.
Analysis of Passive Earth Pressure and Displacements of Retaining Walls Using Pseudo-Dynamic Approach
Authors: Basha B. Munwar , Sivakumar G. L.
Published: April 2010

Using additional dynamic parameters in the pseudo-static method like shear wave and primary wave velocities of soil, phase change in the shear and primary waves, and soil amplification for seismic accelerations, one can benefit from another useful tool called pseudo-dynamic method to solve the problem of earth pressures. In this study, the pseudo-dynamic method is used to compute the seismic passive earth pressures on a rigid gravity retaining wall by considering both the planar failure and composite failure (log-spiral and planar) mechanisms. To validate the present formulation, passive earth pressure computed by the present method are compared with those given by other authors. Seismic passive earth pressure coefficients are provided in tabular form for different parameters. The sliding and rotational displacements are also computed and results of the comparative study showed that the assumption of planar failure mechanism for rough soil-wall interfaces significantly overestimates passive earth pressure and underestimate the sliding and rotational displacements.
Balanced Job Scheduling Based on Ant Algorithm for Grid Network
Authors: Preve Nikolaos
Published: April 2010

Job scheduling in grid computing is a very important problem. To utilize grids efficiently, we need a good job scheduling algorithm to assign jobs to resources in grids. The main scope of this article is to propose a new Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) algorithm for balanced job scheduling in the Grid environment. To achieve the above goal, we will indicate a way to balance the entire system load while minimizing the makespan of a given set of jobs. Based on the experimental results, the proposed algorithm confidently demonstrates its practicability and competitiveness compared with other job scheduling algorithms.
Predictive File Replication on the Data Grids
Authors: Liao ChenHan , Helian Na , Wu Sining , Rashid Mamunur M.
Published: April 2010

Most replication methods either monitor the popularity of files or use complicated functions to calculate the overall cost of whether or not a replication decision or a deletion decision should be issued. However, once the replication decision is issued, the popularity of the files is changed and may have already impacted access latency and resource usage. This article proposes a decision-tree-based predictive file replication strategy that forecasts files’ future popularity based on their characteristics on the Grids. The proposed strategy has shown superb performance in terms of mean job time and effective network usage compared with the other two replication strategies, LRU and Economic under OptorSim simulation environment.
Identifying Technical Competences of IT Professionals
Authors: Colomo-Palacios Ricardo , Tovar-Caro Edmundo , García-Crespo Ángel , Gómez-Berbís Juan Miguel
Published: April 2010

This article aims to identify technical competency levels relevant to Software Engineering in a spectrum of professional profiles which are found in Spain’s main Software Development companies. The research work presents a combination of three initiatives. The first step constitutes a review of the literature related to the characterization of the labor force in the Software Engineering domain. The subsequent step consists of a qualitative study of the practices of a set of organizations, and lastly, this was followed by a quantitative analysis based on investigative surveys administered to a number of representative professionals. The professional career is established from seven consecutive profiles. The pyramidal model for professional careers, identifying one single professional track going from Junior Programmer to IT Director, is still present in the organisations subject to this study. Technical excellence is reached in a determined professional profile, in this case “D”. From this point onwards, other competencies which are not uniquely characteristic of Software Engineering gain importance, and stimulate professional development towards higher levels.
Instructor Satisfaction with Teaching Business Law
Authors: Swartz Louis B. , Cole Michele T. , Shelley Daniel J.
Published: April 2010

Our study presents the results of a satisfaction survey of business law instructors who have taught, or are teaching, online and/or onground. The authors used the framework suggested by Berge to examine the level of instructor satisfaction, using his four role categories: pedagogical, social, technical, and managerial. Their study found that for 73% of the categories’ aspects, instructors were generally satisfied with online instruction. With regard to the classroom experience, instructors were generally satisfied across the board with regard to all aspects. In comparing the level of satisfaction with online and onground instruction, they found statistically significant differences between the two methods of instruction. In all four areas measured, instructors were more satisfied with classroom instruction than they were with online instruction of business law courses.
Perceived Importance and Resource Constraints of Graduate Information Systems Courses in Turkey
Authors: Balaban M. Erdal , Kirlidog Melih , Ayvaz-Reis Zerrin
Published: April 2010

Education is an expensive process and the quality of an education program is largely affected by resources devoted to it. Availability of qualified instructors and physical amenities such as labs are the most important resources that determine the educational quality. Based on the graduate Information Systems curriculum recommendation of Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and Association for Information Systems (AIS) this article investigates the perceived importance of each course taught in graduate Information Systems programs in Turkey. The perceived importance is also compared with the availability of instructor and technological resources for each course to get an insight into educational resources and constraints.
Assessment and Contrast of the Effects of Information and Communication Technology
Authors: Wang John , Zhou Bin , Hsu Jeffrey
Published: April 2010

This article compares the effects of information and communication technology (ICT) on labor productivity growth and human quality of life in industrialized countries. A mathematical evaluation method based on the concept of Pareto-optimal organization is proposed for this study. This method is easy to apply and uses a linear programming model. The weights for various measurements are determined by objective method and are standard. The method is illustrated with real data from 23 developed countries worldwide.
Multiagent Based Selection of Tutor-Subject-Student Paradigm in an Intelligent Tutoring System
Authors: Mishra Kiran , Mishra R.B.
Published: April 2010

Intelligent tutoring systems (ITS) aim at development of two main interconnected modules: pedagogical module and student module .The pedagogical module concerns with the design of a teaching strategy which combines the interest of the student, tutor’s capability and characteristics of subject. Very few effective models have been developed which combine the cognitive, psychological and behavioral components of tutor, student and the characteristics of a subject in ITS. We have developed a tutor-subject-student (TSS) paradigm for the selection of a tutor for a particular subject. A selection index of a tutor is calculated based upon his performance profile, preference, desire, intention, capability and trust. An aptitude of a student is determined based upon his answering to the seven types of subject topic categories such as Analytical, Reasoning, Descriptive, Analytical Reasoning, Analytical Descriptive, Reasoning Descriptive and Analytical Reasoning Descriptive. The selection of a tutor is performed for a particular type of topic in the subject on the basis of a student’s aptitude.
The Transformative Power of Social Media on Emergency and Crisis Management
Authors: For-mukwai Gideon F.
Published: April 2010

There is a wind of transformation blowing across the world today. It is changing the face of emergency management and every field of human endeavor. It is called “social media”. These days, social media is redefining crisis preparedness through the increasing participation of the masses in the creation and distribution of content in ways that surpass the capacity of the mass media and public authorities. Public-generated content has been found to be useful in all phases of preparedness. Unfortunately, most public safety authorities are still suspicious of using social media in engaging and disseminating information. This article examines this new area of transformation that is having significant consequences on public safety and public life. As the scenario unfolds, emergency managers have a tough time choosing between the mass media and social media. Metaphorically, it is a race between a ‘hippo’ (mass media) and cheetah (social media).
Building Community Resilience Through Social Networking Sites
Authors: Belblidia Miriam S.
Published: April 2010

Online Social Networking Sites (SNS) enable collaborative information sharing and help build resilient communities in areas exposed to risk. This article reviews existing research on community vulnerability and resilience, and explores the role of communication in fostering strong community networks. The article draws upon examples of SNS used to share information and explores how such technology may be leveraged more effectively to provide communities with robust communication networks, thereby creating more resilient communities in areas at high risk of natural disasters.
Object-Role Modeling
Authors: Halpin Terry
Published: April 2010

Object-Role Modeling (ORM) is an approach for modeling and querying information at the conceptual level, and for transforming ORM models and queries to or from other representations. Unlike attribute-based approaches such as Entity-Relationship (ER) modeling and class modeling within the Unified Modeling Language (UML), ORM is fact-oriented, where all facts and rules are modeled in terms of natural sentences easily understood and validated by nontechnical business users. ORM’s modeling procedure facilitates validation by verbalization and population with concrete examples. ORM’s graphical notation is far more expressive than that of ER diagrams or UML class diagrams, and its attribute-free nature makes it more stable and adaptable to changing business requirements. This article explains the fundamentals of ORM, illustrates some of its advantages as a data modeling approach, and outlines some recent research to extend ORM, with special attention to mappings to deductive databases.
Cryptographic and Steganographic Approaches to Ensure Multimedia Information Security and Privacy
Authors: Yang Ming , Trifas Monica , Francia III Guillermo , Chen Lei
Published: April 2010

Information security and privacy have traditionally been ensured with data encryption techniques. Generic data encryption standards, such as DES, RSA, AES, are not very efficient in the encryption of multimedia contents due to the large volume. In order to address this issue, different image/video encryption methodologies have been developed. These methodologies encrypt only the key parameters of image/video data instead of encrypting it as a bitstream. Joint compression-encryption is a very promising direction for image/video encryption. Nowadays, researchers start to utilize information hiding techniques to enhance the security level of data encryption methodologies. Information hiding conceals not only the content of the secret message, but also its very existence. In terms of the amount of data to be embedded, information hiding methodologies can be classified into low bitrate and high bitrate algorithms. In terms of the domain for embedding, they can be classified into spatial domain and transform domain algorithms. Different categories of information hiding methodologies, as well as data embedding and watermarking strategies for digital video contents, will be reviewed. A joint cryptograph-steganography methodology, which combines both encryption and information hiding techniques to ensure patient information security and privacy in medical images, is also presented.
Multi-Criteria Spatial Decision Support System DECERNS
Authors: Yatsalo B. , Didenko V. , Tkachuk A. , Gritsyuk G. , Mirzeabasov O. , Slipenkaya V. , Babutski A. , Pichugina I. , Sullivan T. , Linkov I.
Published: April 2010

Land-use planning and environmental management often requires an implementation of both geoyspatial information analysis and value-driven criteria within the decision-making process. DECERNS (Decision Evaluation in Complex Risk Network Systems) is a web-based distributed decision support system for multicriteria analysis of a wide range of spatially-explicit land management alternatives. It integrates mainly basic and some advanced GIS functions and implements several Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) methods and tools. DECERNS can also be integrated with a model server containing generic and site specific models for in-depth analysis of project and environmental risks as well as other decision criteria under consideration. This paper provides an overview of the modeling approaches as well as methods and tools used in DECERNS. Application of the DECERNS WebSDSS (Web-based Spatial Decision Support System) for a housing site selection case study is presented.
Strategies for E-Procurement
Authors: Howard Mickey , Vidgen Richard , Powell Philip
Published: April 2010

Amid the turmoil of the current economic crisis, the wild expectations for business-to-business electronic marketplaces or ‘e-hubs’ as transformative modes of exchange for all industries have subsided. However, e-hubs continue to elicit interest in industries such as car production. Yet, there is little research that investigates firms’ strategies for e-procurement in the automotive industry and the potential benefits of e-hubs to them. This research re-examines the transition from bespoke electronic data interchange to generic electronic procurement, and conflicting motivations and complex barriers at firm and industry level are revealed. The article develops a framework that examines the benefits and barriers to firms joining e-hubs, applies the framework to the car industry, and proposes an e-procurement matrix that offers alternative strategies. Six cases from vehicle manufacturers and component suppliers demonstrate a shallow industry structure that lacks supplier integration, where a particular concern is the emergence of consortium e-hubs that combine a transactional approach for reducing price, with a collaborative approach that requires sharing knowledge. While this dispels the myth of simplistic e-commerce models, the governance of e-procurement across collaborative supply chains is still uncertain.
Hybrid Value Creation in the Sports Industry
Authors: Leimeister Jan Marco , Knebel Uta , Krcmar Helmut
Published: April 2010

Integrated product-service packages (hybrid products) can open new markets and target groups to companies. However, existing approaches to service or product development do not sufficiently address simultaneous development and domain-specific issues. A very promising new field for such bundles is the health and fitness industry. In this research, we designed and built an IT-supported training system for running, the Mobile Sports Companion (MSC), which closely interlocks a product and corresponding services using an iterative development process. We tested the pilot system with 14 recreational athletes. The results of the field test show that the MSC proved to be a promising tool to offer athletes an effective individual, flexible, and mobile training. However, the system, as it is, did not sufficiently represent the human trainer behind it, thus lowering its acceptance and the credibility of its recommendations. Our next step is to integrate features that could strengthen the athlete-trainer relationship. The MSC could turn out to be a promising field for future e-business applications in the sports service industry.
Trust-Based SAODV Protocol with Intrusion Detection, Trust Management and Incentive Cooperation in MANETs
Authors: De Rango Floriano
Published: April 2010

Distributed wireless systems present many security issues, and offering security preserving network resources is often a challenging effort. Offering security through only cryptography is not always a suitable solution if the high dynamic context of MANET is considered and the trust mechanism that reduces the computationally intensive number of security operations becomes strategic. In this work, a well-known routing protocol, called SAODV, has been considered. To improve its performance and offer more resilience to attack from malicious nodes authenticated by the network, some additional features are added. A preventive approach based on a cryptographic mechanism and a reactive approach to detect anomalous and malicious nodes are considered. An extension of SAODV offering an Intrusion Detection Mechanism (IDM) and a Trust-based Mechanism (TBM) to promote the collaboration of the cooperating nodes and penalize the selfish nodes are proposed. Simulation results were performed under a NS-2 simulator to show the effectiveness of our proposal compared with AODV and SAODV. Simulation parameters, such as Normalized Routing Overhead, Data Packet Delivery Ratio, average number of signatures and throughput of collaborating and malicious nodes, have been considered.
Modeling and Simulation of Self-Similar Traffic in Wireless IP Networks
Authors: Radev Dimitar , Lokshina Izabella , Radeva Svetla
Published: April 2010

The article examines self-similar properties of real telecommunications network traffic data over a wide range of time scales. These self-similar properties are very different from the properties of traditional models based on Poisson and Markov-modulated Poisson processes. Simulation with stochastic and long range dependent traffic source models is performed, and the algorithms for buffer overflow simulation for finite buffer single server model under self-similar traffic load SSM/M/1/B are explained. The algorithms for modeling fixedlength sequence generators that are used to simulate self-similar behavior of wireless IP network traffic are developed and applied. Numerical examples are provided, and simulation results are analyzed.
Optimal Crashing and Buffering of Stochastic Serial Projects
Authors: Trietsch Dan
Published: April 2010

Crashing stochastic activities implies changing their distributions to reduce the mean. This can involve changing the variance too. Therefore, crashing can change not only the expected duration of a project but also the necessary size of its safety buffer. We consider optimal crashing of serial projects where the objective is to minimize total costs including crashing cost and expected delay penalty. As part of the solution we determine optimal safety buffers. They allow for activities that are statistically dependent because they share an error element (e.g., when all durations have been estimated by one person, when weather or general economic conditions influence many activities, etc). We show that under plausible conditions the problem is convex and thus it can be solved by standard numerical search procedures. The purpose of the paper is to encourage software development that will include valid stochastic analysis for scheduling and crashing using current estimates and historical performance records.
Software Project Managers under the Team Software Process
Authors: Ruano-Mayoral Marcos , Colomo-Palacios Ricardo , García-Crespo Ángel , Gómez-Berbís Juan Miguel
Published: April 2010

Despite the clear relevance of the Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) market in world economics and the evident lack of success of software projects, organizations devote little effort to the development and maturity of the software project manager profession. This work analyzes the figure of project manager from the perspective of the Team Software Process (TSP), and it considers the required skills, attitudes and knowledge for a software development project. The basis for the study is the analysis of relevant references from the literature for their subsequent categorization into different competency concepts. The results of the analysis are compared with the contributions which the Guide to the SWEBOK® and the PMBOK® Guide models provide of the profiles of the project manager. The results indicate that the literature relating to the Team Software Process is focused on the definitions of skills and attitudes, and to a lesser extent on knowledge components. The lack of the definition of the components which comprise competency constitutes a challenge for software development organizations that use TSP, whose project managers should confront the task with full capacities, and without the help of established and recognized competencies. The current work attempts to establish the competencies for project managers identified in the literature, in the environment of the use of TSP for software development, using a study based on content analysis.
Interorganisational Networks of Pressure and Influence
Authors: Vatanasakdakul Savanid , Aoun Chadi
Published: April 2010

The old paradigm in technology adoption focuses on the technical implementation and uptake of innovation. A new paradigm has emerged that considers the social, cultural, and political context in which innovation is implemented and addresses the enablers and constraints to its effective diffusion and utilisation. To that end, we apply the institutional theory as a social lens to examine the diffusion of B2B technology in Thailand. This study posits that mimetic, coercive and normative pressures may influence B2B technology utilisation and performance. Data were collected from firms that have adopted B2B technology in the tourism industry. The Partial Least Squares method was used for data analysis. Results show that normative and coercive pressures had a significant influence on firms’ utilisation of B2B technology, while normative pressure had a significant influence on performance. We conclude by hypothesising that only through addressing the social factors can innovation achieve ‘real’ diffusion and effectiveness.
New Frontiers in Industrial Organizations
Authors: Nobre Farley Simon , Tobias Andrew M. , Walker David S.
Published: April 2010

This paper proposes the features of future industrial organizations in order to provide them with the abilities to manage high levels of environmental complexity in the 21st century. For such a purpose, it introduces the concept of computational organization management networks.
A Conceptual Tool for Usability Problem Identification in Website Development
Authors: Skov Mikael B. , Stage Jan
Published: April 2010

Techniques and tools that enable website developers without formal training in human-computer interaction to conduct their own usability evaluations would radically advance the integration of usability engineering in website development. This paper presents experiences from usability evaluations conducted by developers in an empirical study of means to support non-experts in identifying usability problems. A group of software developers who were novices in usability engineering analyzed a usability test session with the task of identifying usability problems experienced by the user. When doing this, they employed a simple one-page conceptual tool that supports identification of usability problems. The non-experts were able to conduct a well-organized usability evaluation and identify a reasonable amount of usability problems with a performance that was comparable to usability experts.
Social Research Methods Used in Moving the Traditional Usability Approach Towards a User-Centered Design Approach
Authors: Pitariu Horia D. , Andrei Daniela M. , Guran Adriana M.
Published: April 2010

The present chapter focuses on the idea of rethinking the concept of usability moving from the traditional view of usability expressed in the internal characteristics of the product towards usability understood as deriving from the quality of interactions between humans, their work and the web design product. Usability is not only an add-on or a final result in the design process but it is embedded as a main concern within the design process itself. Related to this perspective on usability, the authors discussed the design models which can support it and argued on the importance of using social research tools for a better understanding of the people and their needs starting with the very first stage of design. Further on the authors have provided a brief description of the most frequently used research methods in user needs analysis (interviews, focus groups and surveys) together with short guidelines in preparing and using these methods. The last part is dedicated to the illustration of user needs analysis taken from two of their research projects.
Increased Popularity Through Compliance with Usability Guidelines in E-Learning Web Sites
Authors: Scowen Greg , Regenbrecht Holger
Published: April 2010

This article identifies and measures correlations between compliance with usability guidelines and the popularity of a Web site. A sample of e-learning Web sites was reviewed and their usability scored using a Web-based evaluation system developed during the study. This usability score was then tested against five different ranking systems using Spearman’s Rank correlation. The results of these tests show a strong correlation between compliance with usability guidelines and Web site popularity. The five ranking systems also showed positive correlations to each-other and to the usability of the sites. The conclusion drawn from these results is that compliance with usability guidelines could be a way to achieve higher Web site popularity and visitor numbers.
Design of an Integrated Web Services Brokering System
Authors: Petry Frederick , Ladner Roy , Gupta Kalyan Moy , Moore Philip , Aha David W.
Published: April 2010

This article describes an Integrated Web Services Brokering System (IWB) to support the automated discovery and application integration of Web Services. In contrast to more static broker approaches that deal with specific data servers, our approach creates a dynamic knowledge base from Web Service interface specifications. This assists with brokering of requests to multiple data providers even when those providers have not implemented a community standard interface or have implemented different versions of a community standard interface. A specific context we illustrate here is the domain of meteorological and oceanographic (MetOc) Web Services. Our approach includes the use of specific domain ontologies and has evaluated the use of case-based classification in the IWB to support automated Web Services discovery. It was also demonstrated that the mediation approach could be extended to OGC Web Coverage Services.
Factors Affecting KM Implementation in the Chinese Community
Authors: Lin Yang , Dalkir Kimiz
Published: April 2010

This paper reviews past research on KM to identify key factors affecting Chinese KM implementation. It begins with a chronological overview of 76 KM related publications, followed by two separate discussions of socio-cultural and non-socio-cultural factors affecting KM implementation within the Chinese community. A preliminary typology of these factors is proposed. In addition to individual factors that have direct impact on how people behave in the process of KM implementation, specific factors that strongly influence Chinese KM implementation are: (1) relationship networks and collectivist thinking, (2) competitiveness and knowledge hoarding, (3) management involvement and support, and (4) organizational culture that encourages knowledge sharing and learning and that minimizes knowledge hoarding. Several directions for future research are also presented.
Supporting Knowledge Evaluation to Increase Quality in Electronic Knowledge Repositories
Authors: Aggestam Lena , Backlund Per , Persson Anne
Published: April 2010

Knowledge forms an important asset in modern organizations. In order to gain and sustain competitive advantage knowledge has to be managed. One aspect of this is to use Electronic Knowledge Repositories (EKR) to enhance knowledge sharing, reuse and learning. The success of an EKR is dependent on the quality of its content. For knowledge to be stored in an EKR, it has to be captured. One crucial part of the capture process is to evaluate whether the identified knowledge should be incorporated in the EKR or not. Therefore, to increase quality in an EKR, the evaluation stage of the capture process must be successfully carried out. Based on an interpretive field study and an extensive literature review, this paper identifies and characterizes Critical Success Factors (CSF) in the evaluation stage and presents guidance aiming to support implementation of the evaluation stage with the purpose to increase the quality of an EKR. In particular, the guidance supports the decision whether identified knowledge should be stored or not and it highlights the importance of performing evaluation addressing correctness, relevance, protection and redundancy. The characterization of the capture process contributes mainly to KM theory, and the guidance to KM practice.
Supporting Awareness in Ubiquitous Learning
Authors: Ogata Hiroaki
Published: April 2010

This article focuses on awareness in computer supported ubiquitous learning environments. In ubiquitous learning, awareness is a key process in individual and/or collaborative learning. Awareness is structured into social, task, concept, workspace, knowledge, and context. This article introduces four systems for supporting various kinds of awareness and concludes with some discussion and proposals for future work.
Transforming Pedagogy Using Mobile Web 2.0
Authors: Cochrane Thomas , Bateman Roger
Published: April 2010

Blogs, wikis, podcasting, and a host of free, easy to use Web 2.0 social software provide opportunities for creating social constructivist learning environments focusing on student-centred learning and end-user content creation and sharing. Building on this foundation, mobile Web 2.0 has emerged as a viable teaching and learning tool, facilitating engaging learning environments that bridge multiple contexts. Today’s dual 3G and wifi-enabled smartphones provide a ubiquitous connection to mobile Web 2.0 social software and the ability to view, create, edit, upload, and share user generated Web 2.0 content. This article outlines how a Product Design course has moved from a traditional face-to-face, studio-based learning environment to one using mobile Web 2.0 technologies to enhance and engage students in a social constructivist learning paradigm.