bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Geographical Information System (GIS) Implementation Success
Authors: Nasirin Syed
Published: May 2011

Geographical Information Systems (GISs) are becoming more prevalent for retailers in their use for both day-to-day and strategic long-term decision-making. Given the array of internal and external databases they use, as well as the amount of organizational development, systems implementation is a most opposite picture of how GIS support retailing decision-making. This chapter presents the results of in-depth case studies, reflecting upon the GIS implementation experiences of a key UK food retailer, Highway Stores PLC. The company is one of the strongest contenders in UK food retailing (fourth in rank). More sites throughout the country are being explored and considered for development, and the implementation of GIS has supported Highway in determining locations where new stores can be built-up that fascinate new customers and ensure that existing customers are retained.
Real-Time Disk Scheduling for Multimedia Data Retrieval
Authors: Chang Ray-I. , Shih Wei-Kuan
Published: May 2011

The great progresses in computer and network technologies make applications of distributed multimedia ever more popular. Various commercial products have been presented in these years such as electronic commerce, video-on-demand, teleconferencing, tele-medicine, distance education and digital library. The basic architecture of a distributed multimedia system contains three parts—the server subsystem, the network subsystem and the client subsystem, as shown in Figure 1 (Chang, et al., 1997; Chang, 1996; Gemmell and Han, 1994; Rangan and Vin, 1993). Server subsystem: Media data are stored in the storage devices of server subsystem, such as hard disks and CD-ROM, by data placement schemes (Wang, et al., 1997; Lougher and Shepherd, 1993; Vin and Rangan, 1991). When user requests are presented, media data must be retrieved from storage devices to system buffer under pre-specified timing requirements (Tindell and Burns, 1994).
Representing Symbolic Pictures Using Iconic Indexing
Authors: Chang Chin-Chen , Chan Yung-Kuan , Chou Annie Y.H. , Yang Wei-Pang
Published: May 2011

2D-string and 2D H-string are commonly used to describe the spatial relationships among the objects of a picture. This chapter introduces a new data structure, called N-string, to characterize the spatial information of the objects on a picture. The N-string is isomorphic to the 2D H-string in postfix notation. Algorithms for transformations between symbolic pictures and N-strings are developed as well. In addition, this chapter also provides an efficient method for image matching based on the N-string representation. This chapter shows that in most cases the storage space needed by N-strings is less than that by 2D-strings, too. Besides, the experimental results show that N-strings are superior to 2D-strings. Hence both N-string and 2D H-string in postfix notation are good for representing symbolic pictures. That is, both N-string and 2D H-string in postfix notation are good for iconic indexing of pictures.
Business-to-Business Electronic Commerce
Authors: Kayed Ahmad , Colomb Robert M.
Published: May 2011

While there are many proposals to automate the buying and selling process, there has been no actual attempt to automate the tendering process (sealed auction). This chapter contributes toward the steps to move in this direction. In this chapter, the benefits of an on-line tendering system are clarified, the tendering process is analyzed, the current attempts are surveyed, the competency of EDI and on-line auctions approach is criticized, and a framework solution is proposed.
Software Agent-Mediated Internet Trading Framework
Authors: Yi Xun , Rahman Syed Mahbubhur , Bignall Robert J. , Siew Chee Kheong , Wang Xiao Feng
Published: May 2011

In recent years Internet trading has seen explosive growth and will have a major impact in shaping future markets. It will certainly be very advantageous if Internet trading can be made more automated and secure than is currently the case. This would dramatically reduce the time and energy spent by customers. This chapter focuses on applying software agent technology together with cryptographic technology towards automating and securing the processes of negotiation and payment, which are the principal and most time-consuming steps during Internet trading. A software agent-mediated Internet trading framework integrating negotiation and payment procedures is proposed.
Environmental Informatics - Methods, Tools and Applications in Environmental Information Processing
Authors: Page Bernd , Rautenstrauch Claus
Published: May 2011

The protection of our environment remains one of the greatest challenges in industrialized societies. This challenge is addressing politics, economy as well as technology and research. It is clear that the various problems in environmental protection, environmental planning, research and engineering can be only solved on the ground of a comprehensive and reliable information basis. State and dynamics of the environment are described by biological, physical, chemical, geological, meteorological, and social-economic data. This data is time and space dependent and addresses past or current states. The processing of this data and the production of information on the environment, on its stress factors, and on mutual influence mechanisms are fundamental for any kind of environmental planning and preventive measures. Therefore, environmental problem solving is mainly an information processing activity handling a wide range of environmental data. Solutions to our environmental problems are strongly dependent on the quality of accessible information sources. Certainly, information is a very critical factor in making decisive political actions and in changing people’s attitudes on the environment. This information on environmental aspects is just as important as basis for decisions on actions in environmental protection as for gaining knowledge in environmental research.
A Structured Basket of Models for Global Change
Authors: Ahamer Gilbert
Published: May 2011

This contribution presents four modelling frameworks that can be structured along their level of detail, their geographic coverage and their degree of quantification that are typical for each of these environmental information systems. All four describe a subset of the various aspects affecting global change: • Emissions • Energy • Land Use and Biomass • Economic and Social Parameters. The specific objective of this chapter is to present, discuss and evaluate the usability of the model concepts and their present stage of IT implementation for the target of inter-subjective assessment of the driving forces, mechanisms and effects of global change for the needs of practical planning on a local, national and/or global level. For each presented model, portfolios are displayed that briefly describe their positions and abilities. Target groups are public administrations and bodies representing economy and industry who are motivated to break down the concept of sustainability to practical action options while maintaining the larger scope, as is proposed by the traditions of technology assessment and systems thinking.
Using a Semiotic Framework to Evaluate UML for the Development of Models of High Quality
Authors: Krogstie John
Published: May 2011

Many researchers have evaluated different parts of UML and have come up with suggestions for improvements to different parts of the language. This chapter looks at UML (version 1.3) as a whole, and contains an overview evaluation of UML and how it is supported in the modeling tool Rational Rose as a basis for creating models of high quality. The evaluation is done using a general framework for understanding quality of models and modeling languages in the information systems field. The evaluation is based on both practical experiences and evaluations of UML and Rational Rose made by others. Based on the evaluation, we conclude that, although being an improvement over its predecessors, UML still has many limitations and deficiencies. Also Rational Rose only partly supports the development of information system models of high quality, and provides too limited support for using different modeling techniques in concert within a larger methodological framework.
Mobius Transitions in the Dilemma of Legitimacy
Authors: Wynn Eleanor
Published: May 2011

While qualitative research can be analytic, rational and positivist (Myers ongoing), it tends to be associated within IS with more relativistic, descriptive and phenomenological approaches. This poses something of a problem in contrasting quantitative with qualitative approaches, because there is a contrast among qualitative works just as there are interesting differences amongst quantitative approaches. On the whole in this chapter, I take a position about the future of research that is descriptive and that questions the reification of many constructs upon which much quantitative research within information systems is based.
The Need to Measure the Value of Information Technology
Authors: van der Zee Han
Published: May 2011

Living as we do in the Information Age, an immense amount of information is readily available through high-powered workstations, laptop computers, Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), and other smart devices, connected through high-bandwidth data communication networks, including the Internet, Wide Area Networks (WANs), Local Area Networks (LANs), and upcoming Personal Area Networks (PANs). Evolving technologies are directly changing the speed and shape of competition and how business is done, rewriting the rules of the game in industry after industry. The rate of change in today’s business environment has pushed the need for technologies and acceptance of them to a continuously accelerating pace. The new technologies are enabling organizations to be flatter, networked, and more flexible, redefining our notions about everything from R&D to distribution, and in the processes making possible smarter, more customized products and services. As a result of these forces, organizations spend enormous sums of money on computer hardware, software, communication networks, databases, and specialized personnel, collectively known as Information Technology (IT). Leading-edge companies all over the world in all industries have increased their overall IT expenditures by double-figure percentages annually. Many organizations currently observe that up to 50 percent of their total capital expenditure is for IT.
The Role of IT and Planning for IT Value
Authors: van der Zee Han
Published: May 2011

To determine the value of IT once it has been put into place and used, it is important to understand the context of the application of IT. Basically, the role of IT is to enable strategic change and improve business performance in several dimensions. IT enables the rapid delivery of top-quality, increasingly customized products and services, it supports organizations in meeting high standards in customer care, and it provides the means to compress design and development times in order to be the first to market. IT helps to launch new products more frequently, to explore and enter new markets faster, and to seek new distribution channels. All of these dimensions can give companies a powerful competitive edge, and IT is increasingly woven into them. IT does not stand on its own but contributes to realizing business objectives in today’s competitive, often global environment. To determine the value of IT once it has been put into place and used, it is important to first understand the context of the application of IT since it does not stand on its own but rather contributes to realizing business objectives. The first part of this chapter provides a review of the evolution of the role and application of IT, leading to its role in today’s information-based organization. Secondly, it is obvious that the best value from IT is gained if the “right” investment decisions for IT are made. To make the right decisions about IT in the context of business objectives, organizations need to carry out some form of IT planning. Planning-for-success is therefore the second main subject of this chapter. The evolution of IT planning practices is briefly described, leading to the most important attributes of contemporary, effective IT planning approaches. Finally, the chapter links the distinct roles of IT with the planning and valuation approaches for IT investments in relation to their business purpose.
A Classification Scheme for B2B Exchanges and Implications for Interorganizational eCommerce
Authors: Pavlou Paul A. , El Sawy Omar A.
Published: May 2011

The Internet is transforming and reshaping the nature of interorganizational commerce by enabling many new types of interfirm electronic exchanges. A B2B exchange is defined as a new organizational form residing in digital space that acts as an interfirm intermediary that enables firms to conduct and engage in any-to-any online relations. This chapter proposes a classification scheme for B2B exchanges that attempts to capture the chaos and complexity of today’s online B2B relations. This typology integrates several theories of interfirm relations from the information systems, marketing, and organizational economics literatures to propose a parsimonious but comprehensive taxonomy that encompasses neutral markets (many-to-many) and dyadic relations (few-to-few), and also the concept of biased relations, monopolies (few-to-many) and monopsonies (many-to-few). This chapter discusses the implications of the proposed taxonomy for interorganizational eCommerce that ensue from the alternative types of B2B exchanges. Furthermore, the influence of product, organizational, and market characteristics on B2B eCommerce is discussed, and guidelines for appropriate selection of exchange type and particular B2B exchanges are proposed.
The Role of eServices and Transactions for Integrated Value Chains
Authors: Papazoglou Michael P. , Yang Jian , Tsalgatidou Aphrodite
Published: May 2011

eCommerce has been well established for several years, particularly using Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) over private or value-added networks. The advent of the Internet and the World Wide Web has given a further push to eCommerce and has been dramatically changing the way business is conducted. Enterprises, in order to be competitive, form powerful business alliances that offer services and products by utilizing the autonomous and heterogeneous infrastructure provided by the independent partners. Such extended corporations reach out not only with business relationships. They also integrate their business processes and information systems with company value chains being transformed to integrated value chains for efficiently supporting this new model of extended enterprises. This chapter gives an overview of the technological challenges for B2B eCommerce and integrated value chains. It explains how adaptive business objects and controlled interoperability on one hand, and e-services on the other, are the key enabling technologies to the challenge of integrated value chains and then discusses how business transactions can be combined with eServices to provide flexible electronic business solutions.
The Societal Impact of the World Wide Web - Key Challenges for the 21st Century
Authors: Burn Janice M. , Loch K.aren D.
Published: May 2011

In the first section we document the current state of information technology diffusion and connectivity, and related factors such as GDP, population density, and cultural attitudes. The second section examines more fully the question of who comprises the “haves” and the “have-nots” so frequently mentioned. Across and within country comparisons are made, noting in particular disadvantaged groups, urban vs. rural communities, and women and children as groups that are frequently forgotten, but who are vital to true transformation to a global information society. The third section offers some concrete suggestions as to how the Internet may be used to address the growing gap between those who have and those who don’t. We report some country examples which illustrate both the progress and the magnitude of the challenge as societies, governments, and other key change agents attempt to redress the problem. Finally, we make two observations. One is that for those who don’t have, there is little demand to have, as well. This is in large part explained by the second observation, which is that a multilevel complex challenge must be overcome in order to leverage technology-based services, such as offered by the Internet, as a sociological tool to reduce economic disparity. We challenge the reader to look inward for each one’s individual responsibility in this big picture.
Self-Employed and Small Business Computer Users
Authors: Carter Phil
Published: May 2011

The new convergence of computing, communications, and media are enriching people’s lives in delightful and diverse ways. Increasing numbers of self-employed people and small businesses are taking up the new applications and opportunities to assist them in their work even though the computer is not the main focus of their business. However, these users face many challenges and difficulties. Most are naive to the use of computers and world of IT and they generally differ from computer users within larger organizations because they face IT on their own with the limited resources they can organize and pay for. The main aim of this chapter is to describe interventions and perspectives that help self-employed and small-business computer users to use computers to further their life and work purposes. There are also important and useful messages for computer companies, system designers and developers, and computer sales and support people. But the main orientation here is on the users and what they can do to help themselves given the current situation they face and the probability that from their point of view, system usability, information security, and support will not fundamentally change in the near future.
Retriever
Authors: Joshi Anupam , Jiang Zhihua
Published: May 2011

Web search engines have become increasingly ineffective as the number of documents on the Web have proliferated. Typical queries retrieve hundreds of documents, most of which have no relation with what the user was looking for. The chapter describes a system named Retriever that uses a recently proposed robust fuzzy algorithm RFCMdd to cluster the results of a query from a search engine into groups. These groups and their associated keywords are presented to the user, who can then look into the URLs for the group(s) that s/he finds interesting. This application requires clustering in the presence of a significant amount of noise, which our system can handle efficiently. N-Gram and Vector Space methods are used to create the dissimilarity matrix for clustering. We discuss the performance of our system by comparing it with other state-of-the-art peers, such as Husky search, and present the results from analyzing the effectiveness of the N-Gram and Vector Space methods during the generation of dissimilarity matrices.
The On-Demand Delivery Services Model for eCommerce
Authors: Warkenton Merrill , Bajaj Akhilesh
Published: May 2011

Traditional business models are increasingly being replaced by newer business models based on relationships enabled by information technologies. In this chapter, we survey and categorize many of these new business models enabled by electronic commerce (e-commerce). The main contribution of this chapter is the proposal and analysis of a new business model enabled by e-commerce: the On-Demand Delivery Services (ODDS) model. The ODDS model of e-commerce is one in which the physical products for sale are delivered directly to the customer without the use of a third-party logistics provider, such as a common carrier. For purpose of analysis, we sub-categorize the ODDS model into three submodels: The ODDS Model A applies to business-to-consumer (B2C) online sellers of physical goods who own or control their own delivery vehicles and may provide further services to extend the value proposition for the buyer. The online grocer is a typical example of businesses in this category. The ODDS Model B applies to business-to-business (B2B) sellers of physical goods, who also own a significant portion of their delivery fleet and deliver goods on demand to local distributors or business customers. Office supply eMerchants provide an example of this model. The ODDS Model C applies to businesses that typically provide virtually instantaneous delivery of third-party goods to consumers or businesses. Businesses in this category own or control their own delivery fleet and add value by delivering items within very short periods of time, usually one-hour delivery.
Four Different Types of Classification Models
Authors: Straub Hans Rudolf
Published: May 2011

EDP stands for electronic data processing. Data bear imminent information–but what kind of information? The question becomes particularly apparent when a great deal of data is to be processed. In this case, the data have to be structured in order to give evidence of the information they bear. Thereby it is important: The primary data collected from a series of discrete observations are more comprehensive than any derived interpretation. They carry more information than any subsequent analysis or interpretation requires or can express.
A CSCW with Reduced Bandwidth Requirements Based on a Distributed Processing Discipline Enhanced for Medical Purposes
Authors: Kamilatos Iraklis , Strintzis Michael G.
Published: May 2011

Medical teleconsultation with modern high power workstations can be implemented using distributed computing systems. This chapter presents an open telecooperation architecture for such a system. The resulting medical Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) tool is evaluated experimentally.
Emerging Enterprise Storage Systems
Authors: Khasnabish Bhumip
Published: May 2011

This chapter along with the additional resources given in the references will support the usage of SAN technologies in enterprises. The first half of this chapter develops the new framework needed. The second half of this chapter details the capabilities of fabric topology. To lay the groundwork for a networked storage system, it is important to understand these concepts in order to best plan the first steps of building a new secure and open enterprise storage infrastructure.
Understanding Senior Executives' Use of Information Technology and the Internet
Authors: Pijpers Guus G.M.
Published: May 2011

The Internet and information technology (IT) have received considerable attention from senior executives, yet they still have not committed themselves fully to these technologies. Consequently, they are not reaping the full benefits. Recent studies investigated the factors that influence senior executives’ use of IT and the Internet. Surprisingly, only a few factors had a significant influence on usage, directly or indirectly. A better understanding of these factors can facilitate the design of interventions that address the adoption and acceptance of a new IT tool, an information system or the Internet. This chapter proposes a limited number of interventions aimed at improving usage. The Internet will change the way information is being gathered, evaluated, and communicated. This also applies for senior executives and their main constituencies. Now is the time for senior executives to hone their Internet skills so that they can receive the right information in the right way, leading to enhanced decision-making.
E-commerce System
Authors: Liu Shin-Ping , Tucker Dennis
Published: May 2011

E-commerce offers speed, convenience, and often cost-effectiveness for today’s busy shopper, but most e-commerce sites are still too hard to use. The problem with e-commerce sites is the controls and organization are different for each site. The question is that “Do e-commerce users need a standard navigation system to make e-commerce sites easy to use?” This research investigates how an individual’s perceptions of key beliefs surrounding the use of the e-commerce site with the standard navigation system would influence the individual’s decision to accept these e-commerce sites for online shopping purposes. This study applies the technology acceptance model (TAM), identifying components of usefulness, ease of use, and richness that predict user attitude toward the usage of the standard navigation system. The research uses a Web-based survey and is tested by TAM with path analysis. There are 129 subjects in the pretest samples. The study could identify features of the standard navigation system that might contribute to its usefulness, ease of use, and richness. The study would determine whether the standard navigation system would increase the usability of e-commerce or not. It could thus provide implications about usefulness, ease of use, and richness for e-commerce developers and practitioners.
Factors Affecting Behavior Intentions to Adopt Electronic Shopping on the World Wide Web
Authors: Arinze Bay , Ruth Christopher
Published: May 2011

Searching for and purchasing personal goods and services on the Internet, termed hereafter as “Web shopping,” has seen tremendous growth over the past 2-3 years. With the advent of the Internet and accompanying technologies such as broader bandwidth modems, more robust browsers and multimedia, growth for Web shopping should explode, sustained only by consumers’ perceptions of this new market channel and their subsequent adoption behavior based on these perceptions. Surprisingly, little research has empirically tested an adoption model to this technology to determine critical factors that may influence adoption decisions at the consumer level.
The Measurement of Telecommuting Performance
Authors: Igbaria Magid , Devine Patrick W. , Cheon Eunyoung
Published: May 2011

Telecommuting provides various benefits to a number of constituents. However, the rate of telecommuting implementation is low due to the difficulty of measuring telecommuting performance. A new approach is needed to measure telecommuting activities. This paper analyzes the characteristics of telecommuting in order to establish a clearer understanding of the many facets of telecommuting. Based on this analysis, a conceptual framework for measuring its performance is presented.
The Use of Legal Expert Systems in Administrative Decision Making
Authors: Svensson Jorgen S.
Published: May 2011

The chapter will now start with a short introduction into the Dutch General Assistance Act, its administration and the problems concerned with that administration. Then, I will discuss the idea of expert systems support and present the results of several investigations into the application of expert systems, in this context. Given these results, some have been quick to argue that expert systems are indeed important and valuable tools in the administration of welfare state programs. The next section will present important arguments against too much optimism. Both from a legal scientific as well as from a social scientific perspective, objections against the use of expert systems have been formulated. On the one hand, these objections have to be taken seriously, because they clearly have some validity, and thus require attention when discussing the possibilities of expert systems. On the other, it is important to notice that these objections have not prevented the introduction of these systems in general assistance in the Netherlands. As I will then explain, the fact that expert systems are now accepted by the General Assistance administrations, has to do with several specific factors, which really have promoted the use of expert systems in this field. Factors that have to do with the specific role of national regulation, with the professional status of the bureaucrats and with the increased scrutiny under which the administrations now have to function. In the last section of this chapter, I will draw some conclusions with respect to the general applicability of legal expert systems in service provision and provide some arguments for the idea that expert systems will soon become an important technology in electronic service delivery.
Agent- and Web-Based Employment Marketspaces in the U.S. Department of Defense
Authors: Gates William R. , Nissen Mark E.
Published: May 2011

Two modes of matching people with jobs prevail at present: hierarchical planning and distributed markets. Each has strengths and limitations, but few systems have been designed to exploit strengths corresponding to both. With evolving information technology, the job-matching process could be accomplished far more equitably and efficiently using Web-based markets within the firm. Intelligent agents offer excellent potential to help both potential employees and employers find one another in a distributed, electronic marketplace. But realizing this potential goes well beyond simply changing the rules of internal job matching or making agent technology available to job searchers. Rather, the corresponding markets and technologies must be designed, together, to mutually accomplish the desired results (e.g., efficient and effective matching) and conform to necessary properties (e.g., market clearing). In this chapter, we draw from Game Theory results to assess the feasibility of using two-sided matching algorithms to address this market-design problem. We also draw from current agent research to address the information technology dimension of the problem by implementing a proof-of-concept multi-agent system to enact, automate and support the corresponding market solution. This chapter integrates the key economic and technological elements required to design robust electronic employment markets. This chapter also presents preliminary results from a pilot experiment comparing performance for a human-based job assignment process to alternative market designs. These alternative designs can potentially reduce cycle-time and better match employees to job vacancies. However, the human-based process currently provides better rule conformance. Future research into Web-based internal job markets should address this shortcoming, among others.
The Enschede Virtual Public Counter
Authors: Leenes Ronald E.
Published: May 2011

In 1995 the Dutch Ministry of the Interior and the Association of Dutch Local Governments (VNG) initiated an ambitious program to improve public service delivery. The aim of this so-called Public Counter 2000 (in Dutch: ‘Overheidsloket 2000’ or ‘OL2000’) program was a nation wide network of one-stop government agencies, providing citizens and trade and industry with information and public services. These one-stop government agencies should have both physical and virtual incarnations. The services delivered are primarily those of local government. However, also services of the national level and of (semi-) private agencies may be incorporated. The first phase of the OL2000 program consisted of piloting. Enschede was the host of one of the 15 pilot projects. This chapter describes the background to OL2000, its results and its future plans. It will then focus on the Enschede pilot, Ole 2000. Ole 2000 is a virtual, online public counter for a range of local housing and building services. This chapter discusses the problems encountered in the Ole 2000 pilot and draws out some lessons to be learned from this project.
Improvisational Change Management
Authors: Nilsson Agneta , Ranerup Agneta
Published: May 2011

In Sweden, an increasing number of the municipal administrations are introducing groupware for case and document management. During 1996, the municipal administration in this study began the introduction of a platform for case and document management based on Lotus Notes Domino. This system supports planning and collaboration of common work tasks based on an integrated system for e-mail and shared databases with information. It is obvious that this platform has a potential to change the work and work situations for the employees. More specifically, this platform provides a possibility to introduce more process- and collaborative-oriented work forms. In this chapter, we present experiences from this process of groupware introduction. In the organizational plan, one of the formulated objectives of this change process is to achieve new process and collaborative ways of work (ADB-kontoret, 1997). Therefore, a first focus in this chapter is on to what extent the introduction and use of the information technology has resulted in new work forms.
The Potential Attraction of Online Distance Education
Authors: Dick Geoffrey N.
Published: May 2011

Distance education involves both the student and the instructor in various tasks associated with learning and testing the absorption of that learning. In this chapter, parallels are drawn between educational and workplace tasks–the understanding of prescribed material, assignments, experiences and acquisition of knowledge on one hand and the components of a job on the other. It draws on the telecommuting literature as it relates to telecommuting’s attraction to the worker, the organization and the community, the importance of the task, the technology required, the role of the supervisor and the individual attributes one needs to be a successful teleworker. These are brought together in a model aimed at providing a guide to the possible adoption of distance education and enabling administrators to assess its potential and some of the pitfalls that may be encountered.
Human Factors and e-Commerce
Authors: Wallace Catherine
Published: May 2011

This chapter addresses the lack of attention paid to what is commonly referred to as an organization’s greatest asset, its people, in an increasingly Internet-connected business environment. The literature suggests that Internet usage is growing exponentially and is likely to have a huge impact on the way businesses are run and how they interact with their customers, their suppliers and their business partners. While there has been a range of research done on the profile of online users, types of sites, number of hits and income generated from Internet sales, there is a distinct lack of research about the impact of the Internet on the functioning of organizations and the impact on their systems and processes. Lack of in-depth information about the effect an integrated Internet presence has on an organization has a number of important implications. We are not yet fully aware of the best processes and practices to implement to ensure effective and efficient online organizations. This chapter has relevance for business operators and academics who wish to understand how business principles transfer into an online environment, and what new strategies and techniques are required to realize the potential opportunities and benefits of this medium. Special emphasis is placed on the human factors and communication issues involved.
Networks of SMEs as Virtual Web Organizations
Authors: Tononi Roberto , Amorosi Gianfrancesco
Published: May 2011

ENEA, the Italian public institution for research on energy, new technologies and environment, is conducting a program aimed at supporting networks of small-medium enterprises (SMEs) in depressed regions of Italy. The program focuses on the experimentation of a business model for these networks and on the introduction of advanced tools and methods, mostly of concurrent engineering. The business model, developed within the program, has the basic features of a virtual Web organization. This chapter illustrates the organizational and functional model that has been defined in the framework of a cooperation between ENEA and the SMEs involved in the research program.
Towards the Cross-Fertilization of Multiple Heuristics
Authors: Muruzabal Jorge
Published: May 2011

Evolutionary algorithms are by now well-known and appreciated in a number of disciplines including the emerging field of data mining. In the last couple of decades, Bayesian learning has also experienced enormous growth in the statistical literature. An interesting question refers to the possible synergetic effects between Bayesian and evolutionary ideas, particularly with an eye to large-sample applications. This chapter presents a new approach to classification based on the integration of a simple local Bayesian engine within the learning classifier system rulebased architecture. The new algorithm maintains and evolves a population of classification rules which individually learn to make better predictions on the basis of the data they get to observe. Certain reinforcement policy ensures that adequate teams of these learning rules be available in the population for every single input of interest. Links with related algorithms are established, and experimental results suggesting the parsimony, stability and usefulness of the approach are discussed.
Genetic Programming as a Data-Mining Tool
Authors: Smith Peter W.H.
Published: May 2011

Genetic Programming (GP) has increasingly been used as a data-mining tool. For example, it has successfully been used for decision tree induction (Marmelstein and Lamont, 1998; Choenni, 1999), data fusion (Langdon, 2001) and has also been used for the closely related problem of intelligent text retrieval on the Internet (Bergstrom, Jaksetic and Nordin, 2000). Indeed its ability to induce a program from data makes it a very promising tool for data mining applications. It has been successfully applied in many different fields and has even produced results that have exceeded those produced by other means. For example it has been used to evolve chemical structures (Nachbar, 2000) using a quantitative structure activity relationship model. It has also had success in spacecraft attitude control (Howley, 1996) where near-minimum spacecraft attitude manoeuvres were evolved which outperformed previous hand-coded solutions. It has also been used in quantum computing, where it was used to evolve quantum algorithms (Barnum, Bernstein and Spector, 2000). In this work, it rediscovered known algorithms such as Deutsch’s Early Promise Problem and discovered quantum results that experts did not think could exist, for example, AND-OR query problem. These examples demonstrate the versatility and potential of GP.
The Gamma Test
Authors: Jones Antonia J. , Evans Dafydd , Margetts Steve , Durrant Peter J.
Published: May 2011

The Gamma Test is a non-linear modelling analysis tool that allows us to quantify the extent to which a numerical input/output data set can be expressed as a smooth relationship. In essence, it allows us to efficiently calculate that part of the variance of the output that cannot be accounted for by the existence of any smooth model based on the inputs, even though this model is unknown. A key aspect of this tool is its speed: the Gamma Test has time complexity O(Mlog M), where M is the number of datapoints. For data sets consisting of a few thousand points and a reasonable number of attributes, a single run of the Gamma Test typically takes a few seconds. In this chapter we will show how the Gamma Test can be used in the construction of predictive models and classifiers for numerical data. In doing so, we will demonstrate the use of this technique for feature selection, and for the selection of embedding dimension when dealing with a time-series.
A Three-Tiered Approach to Global E-Commerce
Authors: Paper David , Tingey Kenneth B.
Published: May 2011

Access to the world enabled by the Internet facilitates internationalization as never before. However, lack of a coherent global Internet strategy can relegate any company to a strictly provincial “neighborhood” status. Globalization strategies and tactics should therefore be of central concern to all enterprises. To research the strategic issues involved in Internet-based globalization, we embarked on a case study. Our goal is to explore how the Internet and its related technologies can serve to help organizations better deal with the challenges of conducting global business. Our research enabled us to identify a set of heuristic “rules of thumb” that might be used to support Internet-based globalization efforts. In our study we discuss the many challenges to establishing successful global enterprises. We then introduce a model for understanding global business requirements in the e-commerce age. We conclude by analyzing a case study to initially validate our theoretical model and summarize our findings.
Teaching in the Digital Age
Authors: Fawcett Gay , Juliana Margarete
Published: May 2011

In order to teach effectively in the digital age, teachers must realize that “teaching as you were taught” will no longer work. We believe that teachers will come to this realization when faced with three things: (1) research, (2) instructional models, and (3) success stories. We are creating all three in the Ameritech Electronic University School Classroom at Kent State University. The purpose of this chapter is to share our research, success stories, and instructional model with you as a scaffold to help you look forward and create your own new models of teaching and learning.
Bridging the Semantic Gap in Image Retrieval
Authors: Zhao Rhong , Grosky William I.
Published: May 2011

The emergence of multimedia technology and the rapidly expanding image and video collections on the Internet have attracted significant research efforts in providing tools for effective retrieval and management of visual data. Image retrieval is based on the availability of a representation scheme of image content. Image content descriptors may be visual features such as color, texture, shape, and spatial relationships, or semantic primitives. Conventional information retrieval was based solely on text, and those approaches to textual information retrieval have been transplanted into image retrieval in a variety of ways. However, “a picture is worth a thousand words.” Image content is much more versatile compared with text, and the amount of visual data is already enormous and still expanding very rapidly. Hoping to cope with these special characteristics of visual data, content-based image retrieval methods have been introduced. It has been widely recognized that the family of image retrieval techniques should become an integration of both low-level visual features addressing the more detailed perceptual aspects and high-level semantic features underlying the more general conceptual aspects of visual data. Neither of these two types of features is sufficient to retrieve or manage visual data in an effective or efficient way (Smeulders, et al., 2000). Although efforts have been devoted to combining these two aspects of visual data, the gap between them is still a huge barrier in front of researchers. Intuitive and heuristic approaches do not provide us with satisfactory performance. Therefore, there is an urgent need of finding the latent correlation between low-level features and high-level concepts and merging them from a different perspective. How to find this new perspective and bridge the gap between visual features and semantic features has been a major challenge in this research field. Our chapter addresses these issues.
Embedding Robust Gray-Level Watermark in an Image Using Discrete Cosine Transformation
Authors: Tsai Chwei-Shyong , Chang Chin-Chen
Published: May 2011

Digital watermarking is an effective technique to protect the intellectual property rights of digital images. In general, a gray-level image can provide more perceptual information; moreover, the size of each pixel in the gray-level image is bigger. Commonly, gray-level digital watermarks are more robust. In this chapter, the proposed watermarking scheme adopts a gray-level image as the watermark. In addition, discrete cosine transformation (DCT) technique and quantization method are applied to strengthen the robustness of the watermarking system. Both original image and digital watermark, processed by DCT transformation, can build a quantization table to reduce the information size of the digital watermark. After quantized watermark is embedded into the middle frequency bands of the transformed original image, the quality of the watermarked image is always visually acceptable because of the effectiveness of the quantization technique. The experimental results show that the embedded watermark can resist image cropping, JPEG lossy compression, and destructive processes such as image blurring and sharpening.
Neural Networks for Business
Authors: Smith Kate A.
Published: May 2011

Over the last decade or so, we have witnessed neural networks come of age. The idea of learning to solve complex pattern recognition problems using an intelligent data-driven approach is no longer simply an interesting challenge for academic researchers. Neural networks have proven themselves to be a valuable tool across a wide range of functional areas affecting most businesses. As a critical component of most data mining systems, they are also changing the way organizations view the relationship between their data and their business strategy.
Using Neural Networks to Model Premium Price Sensitivity of Automobile Insurance Customer
Authors: Yeo Ai Cheo , Smith Kate A. , Willis Robert J. , Brooks Malcolm
Published: May 2011

This paper describes a neural network modelling approach to premium price sensitivity of insurance policy holders. Clustering is used to classify policy holders into homogeneous risk groups. Within each cluster a neural network is then used to predict retention rates given demographic and policy information, including the premium change from one year to the next. It is shown that the prediction results are significantly improved by further dividing each cluster according to premium change. This work is part of a larger data mining framework proposed to determine optimal premium prices in a data-driven manner.
Segmentation of the Portuguese Clients of Pousadas de Portugal
Authors: Cardoso Margarida G.M.S. , Moura-Pires Fernando
Published: May 2011

The aim of our work is to perform a market segmentation of the clients of Pousadas de Portugal, a network for over 40 high-end small hotels, ENATUR. The data for this work was provided by a sample of more than 2500 clients that filled in a given questionnaire. The segmentation is based on how often the clients used the hotels, and on the type of stay they were seeking. A few different techniques were used: mixed approaches using a-priori constitution of clusters and/or neural nets (SOM – Self-Organizing Maps) and/or k-means. Profiling the obtained segments adds some new insights about the clients and helps ENATUR managers to better support new marketing decisions.
Prediction of Survival and Attrition of Click-and-Mortar Corporations
Authors: Bose Indranil , Agarwal Anurag
Published: May 2011

The World Wide Web has taken the retail industry by storm. In a short span of 5 to 6 years, millions of users around the globe have been introduced to the Web. Whether shopping for merchandise or simply searching for information, the Web has become the avenue of choice for consumers. According to a recent research report by the Angus Reid Group (www.angusreid.com), as of the end of the year 2000, nearly 120 million of the estimated 300 million worldwide Internet users have already made an online purchase. The Boston Consulting Group (www.bcg.com) estimates the e-tailing market to be about $36 billion by 2001. More than half of all online transactions are still made in the US, with the typical American online shopper making seven purchases over three months with a total spending of $828. Advertising, word of mouth, enhanced security, convenience, and the fun of random surfing are among the various factors frequently cited for the popularity of online shopping. This alternate “shopping mall” has led to a tremendous growth in the number of online companies that have started selling merchandise on the Web, ranging from pet supplies to garden tools to cosmetics. Among these companies, there are some that have a physical presence in retailing, like Barnes and Nobles, Wal-Mart, etc. We call them the brick-and-mortar corporations. There are others which engage solely in online transactions with no physical presence. We call them the click-and-mortar corporations, examples of which are Amazon.com, buy.com, furniture.com, etc.