bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Instructions for Design and Designs for Conversation
Authors: Pangaro Paul
Published: May 2011

Effective conversation occurs when beliefs are negotiated through interaction and evolve via goals. Concurrently, goals are negotiated and evolve through interaction. Such conversations are processes of design. Similarly, design—where proposed constructions are negotiated and evolve toward goals, while goals for the design are negotiated and evolve—is a process of conversation. Outcomes from such activities are greatly facilitated, in my view, from an understanding of Pask’s two main frameworks from conversation theory: a structure for the architecture of conversations and a schema for modeling the evolution of conversations. My conviction is that these can be used to mirror how design happens. This begs the question, can it help designers design? Yes, I believe it can. This paper offers a review of Pask’s frameworks and discusses their application in theory and practice.
Conversation Theory
Authors: Leung Kit Hang
Published: May 2011

This chapter focuses on the design of conversations in online education. The central feature, conversation design, is presented as a continuous process that takes place not only during the preparatory phases but also during the emerging conversation, which is best understood as dialogue. We see dialogue as a useful way of understanding the principal task of the online tutor; the facilitation of the construction of knowledge by the learner within a framework of significant interaction. Furthermore, the developmental nature of this process requires a process in which the tutor, instead of implementing a series of actions designed previously, must adopt a role similar to that of the action researcher, continually observing, reflecting and adapting the process. The chapter proposes a range of theoretical considerations and practical techniques for structuring and facilitating these online learning dialogues. The aim is to offer theoretical and methodological approaches to the design of learning conversations (dialogue) as a mode of learning and constructing knowledge.
Making Online Bulletin Board Dialogues Work
Authors: Kurubacak Gülsün
Published: May 2011

This chapter introduces Online Bulletin Board Dialogues (OBBDs). It focuses on how to making dialogues work. Besides, in this study, the strategies and principles of conversation design based on Media Richness Theory is discussed to generate a theoretical framework that conversation design. This framework shows that the new ways of adjusting democratic conversations to contemporaneous realities. OBBDs are influenced of several things, such as political pressures, personal aspirations, etc., the desire to exercise power, the overriding issues of global need and ambition. On the other hand, OBBDs build on shifting sands or unfirm earth of feelings and interests. The author hopes that making OBBDs work can help online communication workers find the diverse resources, multicultural experiences, and egalitarian opportunities that open their minds and broaden their perspectives. Furthermore, discussing the main characteristics of bulletin boards for building knowledge networks can construct very powerful paradigm shifts to build online communities with new communication technologies.
Designing Online Conversations to Engage Local Practice
Authors: Wise Alyssa , Duffy Thomas M.
Published: May 2011

In this chapter we present a model for the design of a conversation space to support knowledge-building. While we focus on online environments, the model has much greater generality. The model, an expansion and adaptation of Nonaka’s work, considers knowledge as consisting of complementary explicit and tacit dimensions. It argues that these two dimensions of knowledge are mutually reinforcing, inseparable and irreducible and thus in order to build robust knowledge we must attend to both dimensions and, most critically, the relationship between them. Our model conceptualizes the development of knowledge as a spiral between the complementary processes of Externalization (through collective online reflection) and Internalization (through conscientious local practice) and discusses eight principles for designing online conversations to foster effective Externalization, thus promoting the knowledge-building spiral. The broader message of this chapter is that designers need to expand their frame for thinking about “online” learning to include not only the virtual space but also the local spaces which learners inhabit in order to create useful and engaging learning experiences. All of the eight design principles presented here support this consideration.
A Conversational Framework for Self-Organised Learning
Authors: Harri-Augstein Sheila , Thomas Laurie
Published: May 2011

People learn by making sense of the world for themselves, thereby constructing personal meaning. Effective learners are aware of how they do this and can actively organize this process for themselves. They engage in a reflective conversational process called Self-Organised-Learning (SOL). In Western Cultures the education system inhibits SOL because it is founded on the outmoded belief that all knowledge is objective and that learners are expected to absorb what is given. Teachers and trainers are expected to treat learners as ‘objects’ to be manipulated and they are prevented from developing their capacity to learn. They become ‘other-organized-learners’ and often suffer from life-long learning pathologies, which constrain their growth. This chapter describes conversational techniques for supporting SOL, plus the science and philosophy behind them. The techniques are practiced within a Learning Conversation Methodology designed to empower individual, team, and organizational growth, and have been proven effective in many educational and commercial situations. Fundamental changes and a paradigm shift is essential in education policy to enable many more to become life-long Self-Organized-Learners and through their effective activities transform our cultures. SOL empowers personal skill, competence and creativity and is of value in tutoring, coaching, team learning, e-learning, and distance learning. SOL has implications for teacher training, management development, and organizational learning.
Technology Enhanced Learning Tools
Authors: Shimic Goran
Published: May 2011

This chapter emphasizes the variety of today’s e-learning systems. They have both positive and negative characteristics. Several useful tools are common for these systems. The main part of this chapter contains a detailed description of e-learning systems and their tools. If a system is appropriate for the needs of the learner then it has more intelligent behavior and its tools are more specialized. Some systems have separate tools that act as standalone applications. Others contain built in tools. In this chapter, the e-learning tools are grouped by their functions. Owing to standardization efforts, the differences between the e-learning tools become their advantages, and the e-learning systems become interoperable. The intelligent learning management systems (ILMS) become a new way to integrate the benefits of the different e-learning systems. At the end of the chapter there is a short description of an ILMS named Multitutor. This represents a possible way of future e-learning systems development.
TEL Practices in Preschool and Kindergarten Education
Authors: Morgado Leonel
Published: May 2011

The explosion in the use of computing in learning holds great potential for preschool education, and yet information on common educational practices with computers at the level of preschool education is scarce. This chapter shares two distinct goals: first, to provide context for the practitioner by providing a panorama of the information available on actual field practices and recommendations by official bodies from several countries regarding the inclusion of computing technology in the educational practice at the preschool and kindergarten levels; and second, to present a hands-on technical perspective on the matter of immersion of the computer in the daily practice of preschools in the form of a four-way guide, including the use of computer programming in this manner. At the end, a list of readings and activity suggestions is provided to help the reader put these ideas into practice.
Collaborative Online Learning and Accessibility
Authors: Beer Martin D. , Crowther Paul , Uruchurtu Elizabth
Published: May 2011

This chapter looks at how the issues of accessibility have developed over a number of collaborative learning projects that have investigated the use of various technologies to provide effective communication mechanisms between students in various virtual learning scenarios: 1. Occupational Therapy Internet School (OTIS) investigated the use of a graphical virtual college environment to allow occupational therapy students to discover how practice differed in various European Union countries. 2. MOBIlearn investigated the new opportunities offered by mobile devices to develop a new paradigm of mobile learning. 3. The Health Informatics module allows Foundation Degree students working in Health Informatics to discover the different aspects of their various roles and to reflect on the way in which they interface with clinical and other professionals and their role within the wider National Health Service (NHS) agenda. The use of different technologies has raised various accessibility issues that need to be addressed if this type of learning is to be adopted more widely and accepted best practices are to be followed. These are discussed and indicators are given as to how they may be addressed systematically to provide an effective learning experience for all.
The Future of Technology Enhanced Active Learning
Authors: Pahl Claus , Kenny Claire
Published: May 2011

The notion of active learning refers to the active involvement of learner in the learning process, capturing ideas of learning-by-doing and the fact that active participation and knowledge construction leads to deeper and more sustained learning. Interactivity, in particular learner-content interaction, is a central aspect of technology- enhanced active learning. In this roadmap, the pedagogical background is discussed, the essential dimensions of technology-enhanced active learning systems are outlined, and the factors that are expected to influence these systems currently and in the future are identified. A central aim is to address this promising field from a best practices perspective, clarifying central issues and formulating an agenda for future developments in the form of a roadmap.
Knowledge Management Strategies for Web 2.0 Integration
Authors: Stephens R. Todd
Published: May 2011

This chapter examines the elements of the new Web 2.0 technology base and discusses a framework for implementing into the typical knowledge store. The collaborative environment opens the door to move away from the traditional command and control of information that exists through out the organization to a more collaborative environment based on trust. The rapid growth of information and the advancements in knowledge store technology has created an environment where organizations can expand the value and utility generated by integrating the Web 2.0 technologies. While the definition of web 2.0 varies, the basic idea of user contributed content dynamically alters the lifecycle of knowledge itself. This analysis should present the reader with several different integration techniques including component integration and complete application replacement.
Enterprise Knowlegde Management for Emergent Organizations
Authors: Ale Mariel Alejandra , Chiotti Omar , Galli Maria Rosa
Published: May 2011

Lately, some Knowledge Management (KM) solutions suggest strategies to identify and acquire the invaluable organizational knowledge. These statements seem especially true in the case of emergent organizational forms for which the beginning of the new century has brought about a paradigm change in which capital and work are no longer the only fundamental bases for successful management. Although this has caught the attention of both the industrialists and researchers, an important gap exists between these two domains, mainly, due to the lack of understanding of the KM concept and the activities that it implies by organizational managers. Several KM models have appeared in the research field, but none of them includes all the necessary aspects for an effective KM. This chapter presents a Distributed Knowledge Management Conceptual Model that encompasses the key factors for KM in emergent organizations and proposes the means to implement them. Moreover, to address heterogeneity, documentation overload and lack of context we propose Onto-DOM, a question-answering ontology-based strategy within a Distributed Organizational Memory.
Breaking Through Barriers in New Technological Initiatives
Authors: Ariza Montes José Antonio , Morales Gutiérrez Alfonso Carlos , Molina Alfredo Romeo
Published: May 2011

This work analyzes different factors in the entrepreneuring process in a company based in business opportunities advantages through the usage of free software in a technological context. Blobject connects opportunities for local development, usage of open source technologies, and new social trends in many consumers; tourists, in this case, as a example of respect for the environment and the desired “freedom and autonomy”. This company offers different products and services using ecologic vehicles (electric energy), ease-to-use, such as GEM Cars -equipped with a touch screen computer- and Tours in Segways. The studied case shows the integration process from different technologies that connect through digital infrastructure. In this way, GEM cars use the GPS technology for location within a digital assistant, multimedia power (touch screen computer and audios and videos) to show the tourist opportunities in an specific place, and the needed adaptation for the language diversity.
Data Integration Through Protein Ontology
Authors: Sidhu Amandeep S. , Dillon Tharam S. , Chang Elizabeth
Published: May 2011

Traditional approaches to integrate protein data generally involved keyword searches, which immediately excludes unannotated or poorly annotated data. An alternative protein annotation approach is to rely on sequence identity, or structural similarity, or functional identification. Some proteins have high degree of sequence identity, or structural similarity, or similarity in functions that are unique to members of that family alone. Consequently, this approach can’t be generalized to integrate the protein data. Clearly, these traditional approaches have limitations in capturing and integrating data for Protein Annotation. For these reasons, we have adopted an alternative method that does not rely on keywords or similarity metrics, but instead uses ontology. In this chapter we discuss conceptual framework of Protein Ontology that has a hierarchical classification of concepts represented as classes, from general to specific; a list of attributes related to each concept, for each class; a set of relations between classes to link concepts in ontology in more complicated ways then implied by the hierarchy, to promote reuse of concepts in the ontology; and a set of algebraic operators for querying protein ontology instances.
Ontology-Based Data Warehousing and Mining Approaches in Petroleum Industries
Authors: Nimmagadda Shastri L. , Dreher Heinz
Published: May 2011

Several issues of database organization of petroleum industries have been highlighted. Complex geo-spatial heterogeneous data structures complicate the accessibility and presentation of data in petroleum industries. Objectives of the current research are to integrate the data from different sources and connecting them intelligently. Data warehousing approach supported by ontology, has been described for effective data mining of petroleum data sources. Petroleum ontology framework, narrating the conceptualization of petroleum ontology and methodological architectural views, has been described. Ontology based data warehousing with fine-grained multidimensional data structures, facilitate to mining and visualization of data patterns, trends, and correlations, hidden under massive volumes of data. Data structural designs and implementations deduced, through ontology supportive data warehousing approaches, will enable the researchers in commercial organizations, such as, the one of Western Australian petroleum industries, for knowledge mapping and thus interpret knowledge models for making million dollar financial decisions.
Using Space Technology For Natural Resource Management
Authors: Rao N. Raghavendra
Published: May 2011

Deliberate exploitation of natural resources and excessive use of environmentally abhorrent materials have resulted in environmental disruptions threatening the life support systems. Human centric approach of development has already damaged nature to a large extent. This has attracted the attention of environmental specialists and policy makers. It has also led to discussions at various national and international conventions. The objective of protecting natural resources cannot be achieved without the involvement of professionals from multidisciplinary areas. This chapter recommends a model for the creation of knowledge based system for natural resources management. Further it describes making use of unique capabilities of remote sensing satellites for conserving natural resources and managing natural disasters. It is exclusively for the people who are not familiar with the technology and who are given the task of framing policies.
Constructing The European Space Policy
Authors: Smith Lesley Jane , Hörl Kay-Uwe
Published: May 2011

This chapter examines the development and progress of European space policy from its beginnings over a decade ago up to today’s perspectives for a European space policy. By outlining the institutional structures and responsibilities between the differing communities of the EU and ESA, it demonstrates the financial parameters behind the European space programmes and highlights accompanying structural difficulties between the institutions. Current European space efforts and the solutions adopted for cooperation are then highlighted within the background of the structures developing in the EU on security issues for Europe. The paper concludes with a prognosis and summary of Europe’s efforts to create a strong European space policy.
Commercialisation Of Space Technology For Tomorrow's Space Missions
Authors: Tkatchova Stella , van Pelt Michel
Published: May 2011

This chapter presents an initial identification of direct and indirect benefits for space agencies and space and non-space companies from new markets development, creation of new collaborations and an analysis of the costs and financing of future human interplanetary exploration. Commercialization of space technology is the process by which private companies commercially exploit space technology, without being its owners. Commercialization of space technology for future interplanetary missions is considered as a primary focus and principle benefit in this vision. Before private companies invest in commercial projects for interplanetary missions they will have to perform cost benefit analysis for their commercial projects for future interplanetary missions.
Commerce in Space
Authors: Robinson Chris
Published: May 2011

It is hard to track the history and meaning of space art because it holds such widely varied meanings for differing constituencies and, compared with other disciplines, has diverse participation, but little formal history in space development. However we all seem to be interested in following the exploration and discovery of space, largely through the powerful images that characterize its progress. There are two major constituencies that are worlds apart: the usually consistent formal and popular visual documentation of the development of space and the intermittent and reluctant interest of the fine or academic arts.
Artificial Mind
Authors: Pizzi Rita M.R.
Published: May 2011

The advances of artificial intelligence (AI) have renewed the interest in the mind-body problem, the ancient philosophical debate on the nature of mind and its relationship with the brain. The new version of the mind-body problem concerns the relationship between computational complexity and self-aware thought. The traditional controversy between strong and weak AI will not be settled until we are able in the future to build a robot so evolved to give us the possibility to verify its perceptions, its qualitative sensations, and its introspective thoughts. However, an alternative way can be followed: The progresses of micro-, nano-, and biotechnologies allow us to create the first bionic creatures, composed of biological cells connected to electronic devices. Creating an artificial brain with a biological structure could allow verifying if it possesses peculiar properties with respect to an electronic one, comparing them at the same level of complexity.
Urban and Architectural 3-D Fast Processing
Authors: Lunazzi Renato Saleri
Published: May 2011

The main goal of this chapter is to present a research project that consists of applying automatic generative methods in design processes. The initial approach briefly explores early theoretical conjectures, starting with form and function balance within former conceptual investigations. The following experiments describe original techniques introducing integrated 2-D and 3-D generators for the enhancement of recent 3-D Earth browsers (Virtual Terrain©, MSN Virtual Earth©, or Google Earth©) and cellularautomata processes for architectural programmatic optimization.
Developing a Global CRM Strategy
Authors: Shumanov M.
Published: May 2011

While the managerial rationale for adopting customer relationship management (CRM) has been fairly well articulated in the literature, research on strategy development is scant. Moreover, reports of “CRM failures” in the popular business press have done little to inspire confidence. To date, what little research has been conducted in the area of CRM strategy development has been confined to a single country (often the U.S.). Global CRM strategy development issues have yet to be specifically addressed, particularly which elements of CRM strategy should be centralised/decentralised. The present study examines the complexities of global CRM strategy using the case of a leading financial services company. Interviews are conducted in 20 countries. Global Head Office and external IT consultant perspectives are also considered. Our findings confirm that a hybrid approach has wide practical appeal and that subsidiary orientation towards centralisation/decentralisation is moderated by firm/market size and sophistication.
Architectures of Existing and Conceptual Applications of Podcasting in E-learning Systems
Authors: Chastain Stephen R. , Caudill Jason
Published: May 2011

Podcasting has quickly emerged as a leading technology in the new field of mobile learning. Tracing this new technology’s history over the past two years reveals just how broadly the use of digital audio files may become in the fields of education and training. The ease of use, low cost of creation and hosting, and most importantly pervasiveness of user access to compatible hardware combine to make podcasting a major force in both traditional and distance education. This chapter explores the history, technology, and application of podcasting as an instructional tool.
A Step towards a Pattern Language for e-Learning Systems
Authors: Harrer Andreas , Martens Alke
Published: May 2011

Computer based teaching and training systems in general, and Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITSs) in particular, are usually based on similar fundamental structures. In contrast to this, analyses of the state of the art of teaching and training system development have revealed that software engineering techniques are seldom used for realizing those systems. In the last years, some approaches tried to change this: pattern mining took place; methods covering the specifics of ITS project development have been deployed. These approaches usually focus on a specific system type or on a certain application domain, thus re-usability is often not possible. What is missing is a combination of different approaches in a pattern language or a pattern catalogue for ITS. The purpose of such a pattern catalogue is to provide pattern for different types of software and to support the software development starting from design and ending with the implementation. A step towards a pattern language for ITS is described in this paper.
Impact of context-awareness on the architecture of learning support systems
Authors: Schmidt Andreas
Published: May 2011

Recently, the situatedness of learning has come to the center of attention in both research and practice, also a result of the insight that traditional learning methods in the form of large decontextualized courses lead to inert knowledge; i.e., knowledge that can be reproduced, but not applied to real-world problem solving. In order to avoid the inertness, pedagogy tries to set up authentic learning settings, an approach increasingly shared in e-learning domain. If we consider professional training, it is the immediacy of purpose and context that makes it largely different to learning in schools or academic education. This immediacy has the benefit that we actually have an authentic context that we need to preserve. The majority of current e-learning approaches, however, ignores this context and provides decontextualized forms of learning as a multimedia copy of traditional presence seminars. We show how making learning solutions aware of the context actually affects their architecture and present a showcase solution in the form of the Learning in Process service-oriented architecture.
Innovation and B2B E-Commerce
Authors: New Steve
Published: May 2011

B2B E-commerce was expected to change the way buyers and sellers did business. In the face of the dot.com boom, many believed that this would be a fundamental change in business. Many expected that the internet as a disruptive technology would lead to real-time internet-based trading with implications for changes in the nature of buyer-supplier relationships, pricing, and industrial capacity.
Multi-attribute Auctions
Authors: Gwebu Kholekile L. , Wang Jing
Published: May 2011

This chapter highlights the promise and importance of reverse multi-attribute auctions (RMAA). It outlines the major benefits of RMAAs over other traditional auction mechanisms, such as reverse single attribute auctions, and then presents a structured and critical assessment of the current state of RMAA research. The intention of this chapter is not only to review both experimental and theoretical studies that have been conducted on RMAAs, but also to provide a starting point and specific recommendations for future research directions on RMAAs.
Do Reverse Auctions Violate Professional Standards and Codes of Conduct?
Authors: Muscatello Joseph R. , Emens Susan
Published: May 2011

During the e-business boom of the 1990’s, reverse auctions became a new business tool for purchasing/procurement that promised increased reductions in supplier costs. The benefits of reverse auctions have been substantiated but not without debate. One of the debates is the ethical considerations inherent with these new business processes. Our study investigates whether reverse auctions violate corporate or professional standards of conduct. This chapter examines some of the professional standards/codes of ethics available including the Institute of Supply Chain Management (ISM) and a selected number of organizations including Dell and GE. Further, the chapter presents a framework that can help an organization determine if reverse auctions, and the way they run them, are ethical.
A Reverse Auction Case Study
Authors: Stein Andrew , Hawking Paul , Wyld David C.
Published: May 2011

The reverse auction tool has evolved to take advantage of Internet technology and has been identified by many large organisations as a tool to achieve substantial procurement savings. As companies adopt this technology it is important for them to understand the implications of this type of procurement. This chapter re-visits a reverse auction event and discusses the impacts the reverse auction format had upon all participants involved in the auction. In late 2001 a small Australian supplier of transport and logistics services was asked to participate in a reverse auction for services they had provided for 5 years to a multi-national organisation. They were not successful in retaining their contract position and this chapter looks at the reverse auction and its business impacts 2 years after the initial auction. The case study is viewed through the eyes of the winning supplier, losing supplier, auction vendor, and buyer. The main outcomes show that the reverse auction struggles to adapt to fluid business conditions and is limited if it is used as only a price fixing mechanism. It did not engender co-operative supply chains or win-win situations between the auction players.
A Retrospective on the Development of Web Service Specifications
Authors: Pallickara Shrideep , Fox Geoffrey , Aktas Mehmet , Gadgil Harshawardhan , Yildiz Beytullah , Oh Sangyoon , Patel Sima , Pierce Marlon , Yemme Damodar
Published: May 2011

In this chapter we present a discussion on our experiences with the development of Web Service specifications. Web Services, and the Service Oriented Architecture model engendered therein, have gained significant traction in recent years with deployments in ever increasing domains. In this chapter we describe our experiences with several Web Service specifications. In general lessons learnt, and design decisions made, during these implementations would be applicable to several other specifications. The authors hope that their insights and experiences with the development of Web Service specifications would be beneficial to other researchers in this area in formulating a strategy for the development of systems based on Web Services.
Approaches and Best Practices in Web Service Style, XML Data Binding and Validation – Implications to Securing Web Services
Authors: Akram Asif , Meredith David
Published: May 2011

This chapter shows how the WSDL interface style (RPC / Document), strength of data typing and approach to data binding and validation have important implications on application security (and interoperability). This is because some (common) bad-practices and poor implementation choices can render a service vulnerable to the consequences of propagating loosely bound or poorly constrained data. The chosen Web service style and strength of data typing dictate how SOAP messages are constructed and serialized, and to what extent SOAP messages can be constrained and secured during validation. The chosen approach to binding and validation dictates how and where the SOAP-body and SOAP-header (which includes the security constructs) are handled in the application, and also determines the reliability of message parsing. The authors show how these Web service styles and implementation choices must be carefully considered and applied correctly by providing implementation examples and best practice recommendations.
Software Life Cycle
Authors: Rada Roy
Published: May 2011

The traditional software life cycle defined in ISO 12207 (Rada & Moore, 1997) begins with requirements capture and ends with retirement. The system development life cycle remains largely unchanged over the years, though it calls increasingly for end-user involvement. The system development life cycle is basically the same in healthcare as in numerous other industries. However, what to expect in implementing the life cycle in a health environment is different from what to expect in other environments. The assessment of healthcare information systems requires subjective or qualitative methods as well as objective or quantitative methods (Heathfield et al., 1997):
Payers
Authors: Rada Roy
Published: May 2011

Most of what has been discussed in this book focuses on the provider and its relation to the patient as regards information systems. However, in the American health care system the connection between the provider and payer is critical to the smooth functioning of the system (Starr, 1997). This chapter focuses on the payer (or health plan). In many other countries, the operation would be different, but some way is always used to track the expenditure of resources and to pay health care workers.
Information Networks
Authors: Rada Roy
Published: May 2011

The connection of components of the healthcare system is a major step in improvement of the healthcare system. Through networking, different entities can better coordinate their efforts. This chapter on information networks examines some of the human, organizational aspects of networking and begins with e-commerce networks, goes to supply chain management, and then goes to community and consumer networks. Consumerism is often touted as a way that patients can improve the efficacy of the healthcare system by becoming proactive. Some national governments are trying to improve healthcare by creating national information networks.
Strategy Development
Authors: Lodhi Suleman Aziz
Published: May 2011

Trade globalization and advancement in ICT may be considered as the two major forces that will be directing economic growth of a country in the coming years. Policy makers have realized the importance of ICT in achieving national goals in the digital era. The developing and underdeveloped countries generally lack research capacity and standard policy development processes that are critical for developing a successful ICT policy. Cause of policy failure in these countries can most of the time, be traced to flaws in policy development process rather than environmental complexity. The chapter provides an insight on policy development process from strategic management perspective to highlight critical issues, which are sometimes overlooked by policy makers. The purpose is to assist the policy makers in developing successful ICT Policy for their countries.
Strategies for Virtual Learning and E-Entrepreneurship in Higher Education
Authors: Kettunen Juha
Published: May 2011

This chapter presents the strategies of higher education institutions and how they can be described using the balanced scorecard approach. The pedagogical ICT strategy describes the virtual learning and e-entrepreneurship in higher education. Strategic themes are presented to describe what management believes must be done to succeed and achieve the desired outcomes in virtual learning and e-entrepreneurship. Strategy maps are used to describe the strategy in a graphical representation. In addition, the study presents an example of the cooperation between a higher education institution and a spin-off company. This chapter helps the educational administrators to better describe and implement strategies for virtual learning and e-entrepreneurship.
Computer-Based Assessment for Academic Evaluation
Authors: Govender Devan
Published: May 2011

As student numbers and lecturer workloads increase, traditional methods of assessment make it rather difficult to undertake effective assessment and provide students with in-depth, relevant, specific and speedy feedback. It is thus incumbent on tertiary academic institutions, more especially distance education providers, to consider alternative ways, means and strategies towards the incorporation of computer-based assessment (CBA) methods. This automation can be easily realised by the ever-growing field of computer aided assessment (CAA) software that is currently permeating the educational landscape of the world. While some individuals may argue that CBA software has been proven in only limited situations and that it is very costly to develop, it nevertheless remains a viable alternative technology that is beginning to challenge many traditional and out-dated modes of assessment. In this chapter the rationale for developing CBA has been discussed and thereafter pertinent issues around the types of CBA, advantages of CBA, proprietary and non proprietary software have been analysed. The chapter concludes by firstly, highlighting strategic planning issues for consideration in engaging computer based assessment and secondly it provides modalities for future research directions within the arena of computer based assessment. These two components are key in designing ICT strategies for continuous academic evaluation
Integration Strategies and Tactics for Information Technology Governance
Authors: Peterson Ryan R.
Published: May 2011

Amidst the challenges and changes of the 21st century, involving hyper competitive market spaces, electronically-enabled global network businesses, and corporate governance reform, IT governance has become a fundamental business imperative. IT governance is a top management priority, and rightfully so, because it is the single most important determinant of IT value realization. IT governance is the system by which an organization’s IT portfolio is directed and controlled. IT governance describes (a) the distribution of IT decision-making rights and responsibilities among different stakeholders in the organization, and (b) the rules and procedures for making and monitoring decisions on strategic IT concerns. The objective of this chapter is threefold. First of all, to describe past developments and current challenges complex organizations are facing in governing the IT portfolio of IT applications, IT development, IT operations and IT platforms. Based upon the lessons we’ve learned from the past, one of the key objectives is to move beyond ‘descriptives’, and discuss how organizations can diagnose and design IT governance architectures for future performance improvement and sustained business growth. The final objective of this chapter is to provide a thorough understanding and holistic picture of effective IT governance practices, and present a new organizing logic for IT governance
What Role is "Business Intelligence" Playing in Developing Countries? A Picture of Brazilian Companies
Authors: Petrini Maira , Pozzebon Marlei
Published: May 2011

Constant technological innovation and increasing competitiveness make the management of information a considerable challenge, requiring decision-making processes built on reliable and timely information from internal and external sources. Although available information increases, this does not mean that people automatically derive value from it. After years of significant investment to establish a technological platform that supports all business processes and strengthens the operational structure’s efficiency, most organizations are supposed to have reached a point where the implementation of information technology (IT) solutions for strategic purposes becomes possible and necessary. This explains the emergence of “business intelligence” (BI); a response to information needs for decision-making through intensive IT use. This chapter looks at BI projects in developing countries – specifically, in Brazil. If the management of IT is a challenge for companies in developed countries, what can be said about organizations struggling in unstable contexts such as those often prevailing in developing countries?
Aristotelian Ontologies and OWL Modeling
Authors: Spies Marcus , Roche Christophe
Published: May 2011

This chapter shows how the Aristotelian or epistemological approach to ontologies can be understood in the framework of recent domain ontology modeling languages like the Web ontology language (OWL). After a short introduction to the specific properties of the Aristotelian approach to ontological modelling, we discuss one detailed example of a reformulation of such an ontology with OWL. In the final discussion, we give some indications concerning the differences in applying an epistemological vs. a more common object oriented approach to domain knowledge engineering in practice.
Towards a Meta-Model for Socio-Instrumental Pragmatism
Authors: Rittgen Peter
Published: May 2011

We claim that a general conceptual framework for the IS field should provide some kind of common upper-level ontology to describe and explain artifact-mediated social interaction. Such an ontology, socio-instrumental pragmatism (SIP), has been suggested. Our aim is to refine and formalize this ontology by providing a meta-model in the form of a unified modeling language (UML) class diagram. We discuss the implications of such a model as well as its relation to other ontologies. The meta-model is validated by using it in the evaluation of an existing business modeling language.
Towards Adaptive Business Networks
Authors: Weiß Peter
Published: May 2011

This chapter proposes a new approach for business partner management with ontologies in large business communities. The often postulated adaptiveness and intelligence of new collaborative structures, foremost collaborative networks, require new approaches to deal with the increasing difficulty in handling the resulting complexity of relational ties in communities and business networks. With a growing number of business entities involved in the system, the network management starts to lose overview and control concerning the entities in the pool of partners. Then it seems asked too much establishing, promoting, and maintaining relational ties on a personal basis. A possible solution seems to be support through adequate services of the information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure. Ontologies offer support for communication processes and complex interactions of business entities in collaborative spaces.
Ontology-Based Partner Selection in Business Interaction
Authors: Huang Jingshan , Dang Jiangbo , Huhns Michael N.
Published: May 2011

Traditional businesses are finding great advantages from the incorporation of e-business capabilities, especially for participation in the global economy, which is inherently open and dynamic. This imposes a requirement that businesses must coordinate with each other if they are to be most efficient and successful. To aid in this coordination and achieve seamless and autonomic interoperation, e-business partners are chosen to be represented by service agents. However, before agents are able to coordinate well with each other, they need to understand each others’ service descriptions. Ontologies developed by service providers to describe their service can render help. Unfortunately, due to the heterogeneity implicit in independently designed ontologies, distributed e-businesses will encounter semantic mismatches and misunderstandings. We introduce a compatibility vector system, created upon a schema-based ontology-merging algorithm, to determine and maintain ontology compatibility, which can be used as a basis for businesses to select candidate partners with which to interoperate.
An Expert System Devoted to Automated Music Identification and Recognition
Authors: Fernández de Sevilla María Ángeles , Laita Luis M. , Roanes-Lozano Eugenio
Published: May 2011

This chapter describes a logic and computer algebra based Expert System that automates identification and recognition of the cult music styles of the period XVII century - beginnings of the XX century. It uses a table that contains a list of characteristics (identifiers) of the music styles of the epoch, developed after interacting with a panel of experts. The user, while or after analysing a score, introduces the identifiers and the expert system returns the score’s style. These tentative identifications and recognitions could be interactively compared with those of experts. Therefore it may be a useful tool for teaching and learning history of music. The objectives are to organize the musical knowledge in an way admissible by the inference engine, to adapt and implement the inference engine (based on a powerful tool for effective polynomial computations named Gröbner bases) and to implement a GUI.
Tools for Music Information Retrieval and Playing
Authors: D’Aguanno Antonello
Published: May 2011

State-of-the-art MIR issues are presented and discussed both from the symbolic and audio points of view. As for the symbolic aspects, different approaches are presented in order to provide an overview of the different available solutions for particular MIR tasks. This section ends with an overview of MX, the IEEE standard XML language specifically designed to support interchange between musical notation, performance, analysis, and retrieval applications. As for the audio level, first we focus on blind tasks like beat and tempo tracking, pitch tracking and automatic recognition of musical instruments. Then we present algorithms that work both on compressed and uncompressed data. We analyze the relationships between MIR and feature extraction presenting examples of possible applications. Finally we focus on automatic music synchronization and we introduce a new audio player that supports the MX logic layer and allows to play both score and audio coherently.
Collaborative Use of Features in a Distributed System for the Organization of Music Collections
Authors: Mierswa Ingo
Published: May 2011

Today, large audio collections are stored at computers. Their organization can be supported by machine learning. This demands a more abstract representation than is the time series of audio values. We have developed a unifying framework which decomposes the complex extraction methods into their building blocks. This allows us to move beyond the manual composition of feature extraction methods. Several of the well-known features as well as some new ones have been composed automatically by a genetic learning algorithm. While this has delivered good classifications it needs long training times. Hence, we additionally follow a meta-learning approach. We have developed a method of feature transfer which exploits the similarity of learning tasks to retrieve similar feature extractions. This method achieves almost optimal accuracies while it is very efficient. Nemoz, an intelligent media management system, incorporates adaptive feature extraction and feature transfer which allows for personalized services in peer-to-peer settings.
Music Representation of Score, Sound, MIDI, Structure and Metadata All Integrated in a Single Multilayer Environment Based on XML
Authors: Baratè Adriano , Haus Goffredo , Ludovico Luca A.
Published: May 2011

In this chapter, we will analyze the heterogeneous contents involved in a comprehensive description of music, organizing them according to a multilayer structure. Each layer we can identify corresponds to a different degree of abstraction in music information. In particular, our approach arranges music contents in six layers: General, Music Logic, Structural, Notational, Performance, and Audio. In order to reflect such organization, we will introduce a new XML-based format, called MX, which is currently undergoing the IEEE standardization process (IEEE SA PAR1599). In an MX file, music symbols, printed scores, audio tracks, computer-driven performances, catalogue metadata, and graphic contents related to a single music piece can be linked and mutually synchronized within the same encoding. The aforementioned multilayer structure allows us to gather and organize heterogeneous contents, leaving them encoded in well-known and commonly used formats aimed at music description.
Customer Acceptance of Internet Banking Services in Greece
Authors: Makris Miltiadis , Koumaras Harilaos , Konstantopoulou Anastasia , Konidis Sotiris , Kostakis Spyros
Published: May 2011

This chapter deals with the factors that affect the Internet Banking customer acceptance. More specifically, it is examined the case of ALPHA Bank branch in Greece, which is a pioneer in introducing and applying e-banking services in Greece. In this framework, the chapter performs a factor analysis based on the gathered results provided by customer-questionnaires in order to quantify the various parameters that affect the use of an Internet Banking System. The findings of the analysis show that although IBS in Greece is steadily increasing its penetration, factors like security, ease of use and perceived usefulness of a system continue to play a major role on the final decision of the customer to adopt an Internet Banking System.