bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Verification and Validation of Nonfunctional Aspects in Enterprise Modeling
Authors: Pataricza András , Balogh András , Gonczy Lazlos
Published: May 2011

This chapter introduces the main notions related to the dependability of applications in a self-contained way in order to bring the topic near to non-experts, the modeling aspects including requirement formulation in UML, the evolving UML profiles, design patterns for the best practice and basic means for testing and formal methods based validation and verification of designs. We also introduce a method that relies on the introduced standards and model transformation techniques that allows the QoS-driven optimization of enterprise systems architecture. The methods and techniques are illustrated with practical example models and problems.
State of Wisconsin IT
Authors: Miszewski Matt
Published: May 2011

Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle inherited a $3.2 billion de?cit when he took of?ce in January 2003. His plans to institute a meaningful, long-term ?x to the state’s budget problems included using technology to streamline state government and build the foundation for ongoing cost savings. State CIO Matt Miszewski assumed he would have to carry out the governor’s directive without any additional funds for information technology (IT), but then the legislature pushed through an additional $40 million cut to IT funding across state agencies. This case study describes the strategies Miszewski and his colleagues in the state’s Division of Enterprise Technology devised, and are in the process of implementing, to deal with having to do much more with considerably less.
Cutting the Red Tape to Go Paperless
Authors: Boglioli III J. Louis
Published: May 2011

A small team of skilled, motivated employees made a sweeping change in their organization for the betterment of all. Management empowered them by enabling their talents and reliable decision making to have a “free hand” in the process. The task at hand was not one that could favor some department or function over others, so the process was not hindered by internal strife, but only ignorance. As we have learned to say there was a classic PEBCAK to blame: Problem Exists Between Chair And Keyboard. By eliminating the barriers and pushing positive innovation on traditional entrenched processes, the organization eliminated its own bottlenecks without the assistance of any outside ef?ciency experts or consultants. The little City of Stuart has what larger cities can only try and buy because the investment is made at the employee level. When you have the tools and the talent, all goals can be achieved.
Implementation of a Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS) for the City of Naperville Department of Public Utilities
Authors: Gunderson Lawrence E.
Published: May 2011

This case study reviews the process that the City of Naperville Information Technology Department undertook to implement a Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS) for the city’s Department of Public Utilities–Water. A CMMS is a software system for managing infrastructure with tools for creating and tracking maintenance activities associated with physical assets. Typical requirements for a CMMS include the ability to handle requests for service, process work orders, plan preventive maintenance, provide for tests and inspections, and enable ad hoc searching and reporting. The software that the Naperville Water Utility chose for a CMMS was selected for its tight integration with its Geographic Information System (GIS), the computerized mapping database that contained a spatial model of the department’s water distribution and wastewater collection assets. Many of the challenges that the IT Department had in implementing the CMMS related to issues with the GIS data. In addition, several of the city’s ?nancial systems, such as accounting, utility billing, customer information systems, and inventory required integration with the CMMS. The case study will cover the complexities of integration with these disparate data sources that have both a technical and organizational basis. Finally, as with all implementations of software systems, the element of organizational change needed to be addressed. For that reason, business process mapping and re-engineering practices were employed to support the deployment of the software.
YerelNet (Local Network)
Authors: Yildiz Mete
Published: May 2011

This chapter presents the case study of YerelNet (Local Network, in Turkish), which is a Web portal and a Web-enabled communication platform for local governments in Turkey. The project was initiated for gathering reliable, complete, and updated data about Turkish local governments. The chapter ?rst describes the background of the case, the Turkish administrative system, brie?y. Then, it presents the nature and important actors of, as well as the strategic decisions made within the project, together with problems experienced and solutions found by the project staff. The chapter ends with the critical evaluation of the case as an interesting application e-government in a developing nation, with small IT budgets and particular cultural challenges.
The New York State Web Site
Authors: Gil-Garcia J. Ramon , Dawes Sharon S.
Published: May 2011

How does a very large and diverse state government with a long history of decentralized IT management go about creating a high-quality state-wide Web site? This case describes New York State’s distributed approach to Web site development as well as the strategies, bene?ts, weaknesses, and continuing challenges of a distributed Web management structure.
The Techonomic Divide
Authors: Pettit Alex , Caranna Anthony
Published: May 2011

Much has been written on the digital divide, whereby less af?uent citizens are (or will be) left out of the “next wave” of progress due to the ?nancial costs prohibiting their participation in the broadband society being formed. Little has been written about the transformation of the electronic payment receipt process, and how participation in e-payment requires a credit card or MasterCard/Visa debit card to complete online transactions. This has the effect of excluding the cash and check-based society from participation, and directly impacts not only the digital divide but also the ROI of these e-payment solutions to the government entity providing them. The City of Denton has worked
Service Portfolio Measurment (SPM)
Authors: vom Brocke Jan
Published: May 2011

This chapter addresses service-oriented information systems from a management perspective. It is evident that running a service-oriented enterprise brings up new challenges for management. Given the technological opportunities, the challenge lies essentially in choosing the right mix of services on the basis of an appropriate architecture. For this purpose, strategic considerations regarding, for example, the company’s flexibility have to be justified by financial performance measures. This is particularly evident as long-term economic consequences result from decisions on the service portfolio. Thus, evidence is required about the fact that these decisions are in alignment with the company’s financial situation. The total costs of ownership (TCO) caused by a particular service-oriented information system, as well as the return on investment (ROI) gained by it, give examples for appropriate financial performance measures. In this chapter, a measurement system is presented that facilitates the assessment of the various financial consequences within a comprehensive framework. The system is grounded in decision theory and capital budgeting, and it is illustrated by its application within practical examples.
Enterprise Metadata for Reliable Web Applications
Authors: Stephens R.Todd
Published: May 2011

This chapter examines the critical task of governing the Web application environment with enterprise metadata methodologies. As organizations move to higher levels of maturity, the ability to manage and understand the entire environment is one of the most critical aspects of the architecture. Metadata can be defined as information pertaining to the Web application environment that the organization defines as critical to the business. Successful metadata management requires a comprehensive strategy and framework which will be presented through historical, current-state, and future perspectives The author expects that by understanding the role of metadata within the Web application environment, researchers will continue to expand the body of knowledge around asset management and overall architecture governance.
Architecture of an Information System for Personal Financial Planning
Authors: Braun Oliver , Schmidt Günter
Published: May 2011

We present a reliable application architecture and a corresponding system architecture of a system for personal financial planning. The application architecture is related to the business requirements, and the system architecture is related to information technology. We will present an analysis model as part of the application architecture, showing the granularity of an industry model. An intrinsic part of the proposed system architecture is the usage of Web technologies.
A Security Solution for Web-Services Based Grid Application
Authors: Lee Yih-Jiun
Published: May 2011

This chapter introduces a Web services-based virtual organization solution, which is designed to enhance the security performance of WSGrid. WSGrid is a “Web services” based application for composing computational grids. A WSGrid environment involves WSGrid-enabled nodes as servers. The virtual organizations are formed by the joint of users and nodes. There is no central component in the system, so every node is individual and has equal position. WSGrid releases full access right to the users, so they can manage their resources. In order to prevent the misuse of flexibility, GateService is proposed. Firstly, a user should be able to access his resources if he can prove his identity. Secondly, he is able to access another’s resources under owner’s permission. Thirdly, long-running processes or crossing-nodes processes should be allowed and executed with only being authenticated at initiation. Finally, Shibboleth no matter cross-domain long-running processes or dynamic delegation should not affect the user’s privacy, the host’s security, and the system’s flexibility. This chapter proposes a security solution for a Web services-based grid application.
Information System Development Failure and Complexity
Authors: Nauman Abou Bakar , Aziz Romana , Ishaq A. F.M
Published: May 2011

This chapter examines the causes of failure in a Web-based information system development project and finds out how complexity can lead a project towards failure. Learning from an Information System Development Project (ISDP) failure plays a key role in the long-term success of any organization desirous of continuous improvement via evaluation and monitoring of its information systems (IS) development efforts. This study reports on a seemingly simple (but only deceptively so) failed ISDP to inform the reader about the various complexities involved in ISDPs in general, and in developing countries in particular. An existing framework from contemporary research is adopted to map the complexities found in the project under study and the critical areas, which lead to the decreased reliability and failure in Web-based information system development, are highlighted.
SLA Monitoring of Presence-Enabled Services
Authors: Bandopadhyay Tapati , Kumar Pradeep
Published: May 2011

The concept of presence was initially associated with an instant messaging service, allowing an end user to recognize the presence of a peer online to send or receive messages. Now the technology has grown up to include various services like monitoring performance of any type of end user device, and services are accessible from anywhere, any time. The need for enhanced value remains the driving force behind these services, for example, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services, which is drawing tremendous research interest in services performance evaluation, measurement, benchmarking, and monitoring. Monitoring service level parameters happens to be one of the most interesting application-oriented research issues because various service consumers at the customer companies/end users’ level are finding it very difficult to design and monitor an effective SLA (Service Level Agreement) with the presence-enabled service providers. This chapter focuses on to these specific issues and presents a new approach of SLA monitoring through Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). This extreme point approach actually can work much better in the context of SLA monitoring than general central-tendency-based statistical tools, a fact which has been corroborated by similar application examples of DEA presented in this chapter and has therefore it acts as the primary motivation to propose this new approach. Towards this end, this chapter first builds up the context of presence-enabled services (Day, Rosenburg, & Sugano, 2000), its SLA and SLA parameters, and the monitoring requirements. Then it explains the basics of DEA and its application in various other engineering and services context. Ultimately, a DEA application framework for monitoring an SLA of presence-enabled services is proposed which can serve as a clear guideline for the customers of presence-enabled services, not only for SLA monitoring but also at various other stages of implementing presence-enabled services frameworks. This approach exploits the definitive suitability of the application of DEA methods to presence-enabled service monitoring problems, and can be easily implemented by the industry practitioners.
Strategies for the Cooperation of Higher Education Institutions in ICT
Authors: Kettunen Juha
Published: May 2011

This study analyzes the strategic planning of the ICT center, which is a joint venture of three higher education institutions. The strategies of focus and operations excellence are natural choices to define the strategic outlines for the center, which aims to increase the economic growth of the region. The selected strategies are described in this study using the balanced scorecard approach. It allows the network of organizations to articulate and communicate their strategy to their employees and stakeholders. The concept of the strategy map is used to describe the strategy. The decentralized efforts of separate organizational units would most likely fail without the network strategy and cooperation.
Cultural Knowledge Management and Broadband Content in Development
Authors: Rooney David , Ferrier Elizabeth , Graham Phil , Jones Ashley
Published: May 2011

This chapter examines the possibility of creating online creative production archives with which to make locally and internationally sourced high quality video, audio, graphics, and other broadband content available to grassroots producers in developing economies. In particular, the possibility of Cultural Knowledge Management Systems and the use of innovative Creative Commons copyright licenses are explored. It is argued that in a global knowledge economy, cultural production is a major driver of economic growth. The creativity and culture needed for cultural production are plentiful in developing countries indicating that if technical and institutional conditions are right there is significant potential for developing economies to compete in the global economy. It is, therefore, desirable for local groups to be able to acquire, store, and distribute locally and internationally sourced content to stimulate local-level cultural production.
Discovering and Modelling Enterprise Engineering Project Processes
Authors: Noran O.
Published: May 2011

Often, in an enterprise engineering (EE) project, it is quite difficult to figure out what exactly needs to be done due to the rather generic (and often proprietary) character of the EE methods available. In addition, selecting appropriate elements from the multitude of available and emerging architecture frameworks (AFs) in order to model and manage the given EE undertaking is a non-trivial task. This chapter proposes a way to assist the inference of processes and to facilitate the selection and use of AF elements needed to accomplish EE projects. This is accomplished by assessing and organising AF elements into a structured repository (SR) using a generalised architecture framework (ISO15704:2000 Annex A) and by providing a “method to create methods” (a meta-methodology) for specific EE tasks that also guides the selection of AF elements from the SR. A brief introduction outlining the previously mentioned EE problems is followed by the description of the meta-methodology principle and of the assessment reference used. Next, a case study presents a sample application of the meta-methodology for a real EE project. The chapter closes with conclusions on the presented approach and a description of further work to refine and enrich the meta-methodology.
Business Process Modeling as a Blueprint for Enterprise Architecture
Authors: Barjis J. , Barjis I.
Published: May 2011

For a successful study, design and development of the enterprise architecture, a thorough insight into the essence of the work and operation of an enterprise, is a crucial factor. As the well-known Zachman and other modern frameworks illustrate, enterprise processes and process modeling are one of the fundamental components of enterprise architecture for providing such an insight. Like building construction in which construction drawings or blueprints play crucial roles, enterprise process models are critical in developing enterprise architecture. Moreover, one may argue that the role of business process modeling in enterprise architecture is similar to the floor plan that defines the boundaries of a building to be constructed. Therefore, a suitable enterprise process modeling approach that could capture the essential operations and reflect the cross-enterprise (cross-departmental) processes is a needed component to complement enterprise architecture. In this chapter, authors study, discuss, and review the practical role of enterprise process modeling in enterprise architecture using a real life organization-based case study. Authors introduce a modeling methodology that captures essential activities not only within a process but also from the enterprise perspective where cross departmental or enterprise processes are represented.
Understanding and Communicating with Enterprise Architecture Users
Authors: Thornton S.
Published: May 2011

The objective of this chapter is to educate chief information officers (CIO), information technology (IT) managers, and IT architects on the role of communications planning in implementing an enterprise architecture (EA) and its supporting programs and the applicability of user-centered analysis in effectively constructing the EA and communicating the organization’s EA to the users of EA products and content.
The Role of Change Management in IT Systems Implementation
Authors: Kenett R. , Lombardo S.
Published: May 2011

Implementation of IT enterprise systems triggers an inevitable organizational change. Managing an IT driven change requires a holistic approach to IT implementation. Such changes require an integration of best practices in project management, risk management, HR management, business process modelling, knowledge management, and software development. This chapter provides an introduction to the role of change management in IT systems implementation and describes the BEST methodology with three case studies from Norway and Israel.
The Use of GERAM for Design of a Virtual Enterprise for a Ship Maintenance Consortium
Authors: Mo J.
Published: May 2011

This chapter describes the key elements in the application of GERAM to the analysis of the virtual enterprise of a ship maintenance consortium, the ANZAC ship alliance. The ANZAC ship project built 10 ANZAC class guided missile frigates for the Royal Australian Navy and the Royal New Zealand Navy. The ships have a service life of 25 to 30 years in which changes are required to keep up-to-date with latest warfare. In this study, VERA was adopted as the generic enterprise reference architecture to guide the systematic study of the anatomy of the virtual enterprise. The issues of creating and managing the logistics and information infrastructure that are necessary to support successful operation of the virtual enterprise are examined. Particular models were created according to GERAM for the timely support of the projects as the virtual enterprise grew.
Business Networking with Web Services
Authors: Ferreira D.
Published: May 2011

This chapter describes how the latest advances in Web services technology are paving the way toward dynamic B2B integration. It begins by distinguishing between three kinds of life cycles: the operational life cycle, the B2B trading life cycle, and the business networking life cycle. In the past, most B2B integration solutions have been designed to support the operational life cycle by specifying a set of predefined B2B conversations. We will show that Web services can be used to settle those conversations at run-time, and that they can support the B2B trading life cycle all the way from partner search to contracting, operation, and evaluation. In general, though, the B2B trading life cycle may change across different markets, which requires mechanisms for a company to retrieve information about how it should proceed once it enters a new market. These mechanisms belong to the business networking life cycle, and they can be supported by Web services as well. The conclusion is that Web services provide the required features to support the full life cycle of business collaborations.
Enterprise Integration Architecture for Harmonized Messaging
Authors: Ma D.
Published: May 2011

Integrating business processes across disparate systems of partner organizations is known to be one of the biggest challenges facing enterprise systems development. Recent developments in service technologies and advanced middleware solutions, together with efforts toward standard interfaces, have helped overcome some of the difficulties. However, managing the rules that govern the interactions between cross-organizational business processes is still under developed. In this chapter, we present an approach for enterprise integration facilitated through a rule based messaging technology. In particular, we will present insights into rule specification, verification, and execution for such an enterprise integration architecture.
A Basis for the Semantic Web and E-Business
Authors: Li Changqing , Ling Tok W.
Published: May 2011

This chapter introduces how to effectively organize ontology languages and ontologies and how to efficiently process semantic information based on ontologies. In this chapter we propose the hierarchies to organize ontology languages and ontologies. Based on the hierarchy of ontology languages, the ontology designers need not bear in mind which ontology language the primitives exactly come from, also we can automatically and seamlessly use the ontologies defined with different ontology languages in an integrated environment. Based on the hierarchy of ontologies, the conflicts in different ontologies are resolved, thus the semantics in different ontologies are clear without ambiguities. Also, these semantic-clear ontologies can be used to efficiently process the semantic information in Semantic Web and e-business.
Methodologies and Approaches in Discrete Event Simulation
Authors: Abu-Taieh Evon M. O. , Rahman El Sheikh Asim Abdel
Published: May 2011

This chapter aims to give a comprehensive explanatory platform of simulation background. As this chapter comprises of four sections, it reviews simulation definitions, forms of models, the need for simulation, simulation approaches and modeling notations. Simulation definition is essential in order to set research boundaries. Moreover, the chapter discusses forms of models: scale model of the real system, or discrete and continuous models. Subsequently, the chapter states documentation of several reasons by different authors pertaining to the question of “why simulate?,” followed by a thorough discussion of modeling approaches in respect to general considerations. Simulation modeling approaches are discussed with special emphasis on the discrete events type only: process-interaction, event scheduling, and activity scanning, yet, a slight comparison is made between the different approaches. Furthermore, the chapter discusses modeling notations activity cycle diagram (ACD) with different versions of the ACD. Furthermore, the chapter discusses petri nets, which handle concurrent discrete events dynamic systems simulation. In addition, Monte Carlo simulation is discussed due to its important applications. Finally, the fourth section of this chapter reviews Web-based simulation, along with all three different types of object-oriented simulation and modeling.
Information Feedback Appraoch for the Simulation of Service Quality in the Inter-Object Communications
Authors: Manjunath R.
Published: May 2011

Simulation of a system with limited data is challenging. It calls for a certain degree of intelligence built into the system. This chapter provides a new model-based simulation methodology that may be customized and used in the simulation of a wide variety of problems involving multiple source-destination flows with intermediate agents. It explains the model based on a new class of neural networks called differentially fed artificial neural networks and the system level performance of the same. Next, as an example, the impact of system level differential feedback on multiple flows and the application of the concept are presented, followed by the simulation results. The author hopes that a variety of real life problems that involve multiple flows may be mapped onto this simulation model and optimal performance may be obtained. The model serves as a reference design that may be fine-tuned based on the application.
Mapping Class Diagrams to Relational Schemas
Authors: Shoval Peretz
Published: May 2011

This chapter first explains the need to map a class diagram to a relational schema. Then, most of the chapter is dedicated to presenting and demonstrating the mapping rules based on which a relational schema (made of normalized relations) is created. The mapping process is demonstrated with several comprehensive examples.
Detailed Design of the Transactions and Class Methods
Authors: Shoval Peretz
Published: May 2011

This chapter describes how to map a top-level description of a transaction into a detailed description, and then how to “decompose” a detailed description of a transaction into various methods which are then attached to proper classes. Two equivalent techniques for describing methods are provided: pseudo code and message charts. The chapter ends with a review on the products of the design phase, which serve as input to the system construction (programming) phase.
E-Business Process Management and Intellectual Property
Authors: Mykytyn Kathleen , Mykytyn Peter
Published: May 2011

The emergence of e-business as a viable business model is unquestioned and global in its involvement and impact. Further, the value that intellectual property (IP) in the form of trademarks, copyrights, and patents plays in that medium of doing business impacts businesses, information technology (IT) professionals, academics responsible for IT coursework and programs, and, of course, the legal community. This chapter reviews these IP types with particular emphasis on their relationship and impact on e-business. Relevant legal cases are cited and discussed to provide additional foundation to the e-business community. The chapter also provides appropriate recommendations for e-business in light of these IP issues, and identifies some possible future trends and research issues.
Developing and Delivering Online Courses
Authors: Sounderpandian Jayavel , Madan Manohar
Published: May 2011

Distance education, which started out with closed circuit TV technology, has evolved into completely online courses. Not surprisingly, online education has emerged as a major form of e-business. This chapter offers helpful suggestions for those who are planning to develop and deliver online courses, either as part of an existing degree program or as a new totally online degree program. Wherever needed, an online MBA program is used as an example. The chapter considers such things as mission, curriculum planning, curriculum control, marketing, scheduling, course development, expectations from students and faculty, and strengths and weaknesses of online education.
User-Centric Identity, Trust and Privacy
Authors: Seigneur Jean-Marc , Jensen Christian Damsgaard
Published: May 2011

This chapter introduces entification as a means of allowing the users of e-services to create and manage multiple pseudonyms in a decentralized way; thereby limiting the ability to link transactions and users, whilst mitigating attacks due to the ownership of multiple identities. The entification framework fills the gap between the identity and the computational trust/reputation layers. It is difficult to safely assess linked evidence about multiple virtual identities because there might be overcounting of overlapping trust pieces of evidence. The entification framework uses a new mechanism, called trust transfer, to mitigate this issue, and allows the users to trade privacy for trust. Such a framework is essential in a world where more and more e-services want to rely on user-centric identity management.
The Migration of Public Administrations Towards Open Source Desktop Software
Authors: Ven Kris , Van Nuffel Dieter , Verelst Jan
Published: May 2011

Several public administrations (PA) have expressed an increasing interest in open source software in the past few years and are currently migrating to open source software on the desktop. Given the large impact such a migration has on the organization, there is a need for learning from the experiences of previous migrations. In this chapter, we deduct a number of recommendations and lessons learned from previous research conducted on the migration of PAs to open source desktop software. Next, we describe a case study on the migration of the Brussels-Capital Region towards OpenOffice.org, and compare their experiences to these recommendations. In general, our results are quite consistent with previous findings, but also indicate that additional research is still required in order to create a set of best practices—based on empirical research—for the migration towards open source software on the desktop.
Toward a GNU/Linux Distribution for Corporate Environments
Authors: Di Cerbo Francesco , Scotto Marco , Sillitti Alberto , Succi Giancarlo , Vernazza Tullio
Published: May 2011

The introduction of a GNU/Linux-based desktop system in a large company is often problematic. In literature, several crucial issues represent such a burden, which is often cost effective for SMEs and public administrations. Some of these are technical issues; the others are related to the training costs for the employees. Mainly, the technical obstacles are represented by different hardware configurations that might require several adhoc activities to adapt a standard GNU/Linux distribution to the specific environment, including the applications profile of the company. On the other hand, to lower the learning curve of employers, we decided to work toward adopting some GNU/Linux live distributions features. In this way, we added to our project specific functionalities, which provide new and interesting capabilities to our community of users, such as self-configuration and better usability, without losing compatibility with original distributions, which is too costly in a professional scenario for its greater maintenance cost. DSS1 (debased scripts set) tries to address the issues we mentioned above. It is a next-generation hybrid (both live and regular) distribution that includes an unmodified Debian-based GNU/Linux release and a modular-designed file system with some extended features, which we will describe in this chapter. We will also discuss the interactions with other open source communities and the positive mutual influence on DSS development process.
Assessing the Health of an Open Source Ecosystem
Authors: Wynn Jr. Donald
Published: May 2011

This study examines the concept of an ecosystem as originated in the field of ecology and applied to open source software projects. Additionally, a framework for assessing the three dimensions of ecosystem health is defined and explained using examples from a specific open source ecosystem. The conceptual framework is explained in the context of a case study for a sponsored open source ecosystem. The framework and case study highlight a number of characteristics and aspects of these ecosystems which can be evaluated by existing and potential members to gauge the health and sustainability of open source projects and the products and services they produce.
Web Sites and the Law
Authors: Kelly K. , Jones J.
Published: May 2011

By adhering to cultural expectations, a Web site can build ethos with an intercultural audience. Those who create successful intercultural Web sites and Web site content must understand the laws and legal systems of the target country to create Web sites that the target audience will view as trustworthy. Laws create certain expectations in audiences, and when a seller violates such laws or even appears to violate such laws, it can create a loss of consumer confidence. This chapter examines certain legal and cultural issues that will instantly brand a Web site as unreliable, because part of developing a successful international Internet business is developing an ethos that potential customers can trust. The ideas and opinions presented here should be viewed as a means for raising awareness of diverse legal cultures and reduce the need to make costly changes as a result of legal advice given outside of an appropriate cultural context.
E-Learning and the Global Workforce
Authors: Remtulla K.
Published: May 2011

Workplaces are transforming in the global age. Jobs are expanding and varying. Workers are more and more participating in a global workforce comprising people who are socially and demographically diverse, multicultural, multifaceted, and whose views on workplace priorities, accountabilities, performance, and productivity may be socially and culturally very different from one another. Ultimately, these trends infer that how workers are educated and trained in the workplace must also evolve to meet a dynamic cohort of employees with a progressively complex profile of learning needs. To make matters more interesting, one of the most noticeable trends in the workplace today is ‘e-learning,’ which is frequently upheld as the panacea for workplace adult education and training needs. This chapter is about e-learning, the global workforce, and their social and cultural implications for workplace adult education and training in the global age.
Spine
Authors: Blewitt Alex
Published: May 2011

Patterns are often described in terms of concrete examples in specific programming languages in catalogues (Gamma, Helm, Johnson, & Vlissides, 1995). The description is worded such that a practitioner in an object-oriented programming language will be able to understand the key points of the pattern and translate it into a programming language of their choice.This abstract description of patterns is well suited for intelligent readers, but less suited for automated tasks that must process pattern information. Furthermore, the way in which the pattern information is encoded is often strongly influenced by the type of processing that is being performed on the pattern. In this chapter, the Spine language will be presented as a way of representing Design patterns in a suitable manner for performing verification of a pattern’s implementation in a particular source language. It is used by a proof engine
Intent-Oriented Design Pattern Formalization Using SPQR
Authors: Smith Jason , Stotts David
Published: May 2011

This chapter introduces the system for pattern query and recognition, a collection of formalisms, definitions, and concepts that provides a means for formally describing Design patterns from the viewpoint of design intent. These descriptions enable efficient and effective searching for instances of Design patterns in source code, for purposes of discovery, documentation, validation, or refactoring. SPQR is composed of ?-calculus, a formal denotation semantics for defining relationships between programmatic entities, elemental Design patterns, a collection of binary relationships that define the basis for software design principles, and isotopes, a flexible approach to combining formal design definitions so that they retain their conceptual integrity. It is our intent that the reader be better equipped to contemplate the hierarchical nature of the concepts of programming, and to come away from this discussion with a clearer view of how software is designed, from the small to the large.
Formalising Design Patterns as Model Transformations
Authors: Lano Kevin
Published: May 2011

This chapter describes techniques for the verification of refactorings or transformations of UML models which introduce Design patterns. The techniques use a semantics of object-oriented systems defined by the object calculus (Fiadeiro & Maibaum, 1991; Lano, 1998), and the pattern transformations are proved to be refinements using this semantics.
The Applications and Enhancement of LePUS for Specifying Design Patterns
Authors: Raje Rajeev R. , Chinnasamy Sivakumar , Olson Andew M. , Hidgon William
Published: May 2011

Standardized pattern representations have become a popular way to capture, classify, and communicate the essential characteristics of software designs. Both books and large Web sites serve as pattern repositories for use by software design engineers. Because they are usually expressed in verbal and diagrammatic form using, say, UML, they are susceptible to ambiguities and the consequent misinterpretation. The goal of this chapter is to illustrate how to represent rigorously Design patterns, in order to avoid this problem, and to analyze the capabilities of this technique. It describes a more formal, logic-based language for representing pattern structure and an extension that can also represent other aspects of patterns, such as intent, applicability, and collaboration. This mathematical basis serves to eliminate ambiguities. The chapter explains the concepts underlying the languages and shows their utility by representing two classical patterns, some concurrent patterns, and various aspects of a few other patterns.
A Pattern Enforcing Compiler (PEC) for Java
Authors: Lovatt Howard , Sloane Anthony M. , Verity Dominic R.
Published: May 2011

This chapter describes an extended compiler that formalizes patterns, which we call a pattern enforcing compiler (PEC). Developers use standard Java syntax to mark their classes as implementations of particular Design patterns. The compiler is then able to use reflection to check whether the classes do in fact adhere to the constraints of the patterns. The checking possible with our compiler starts with the obvious static adherence to constraints such as method presence, visibility, and naming. However, we go much further and support dynamic testing to check the runtime behavior of classes and code generation to assist in the implementation of complex patterns. The chapter gives examples of using the patterns supplied with our PEC and also examples of how to write your own patterns and have our PEC enforce these.
LePUS
Authors: Gasparis Epameinondas
Published: May 2011

We present LePUS, a formal language for modeling object oriented (O-O) Design patterns. We demonstrate the language’s unique efficacy in producing precise, concise, generic, and appropriately abstract specifications that effectively model the Gang of Four’s Design patterns. Mathematical logic is used as a main frame of reference: LePUS is defined as a subset of first-order predicate calculus and implementations (programs) are modeled as finite structures in model theory. We also demonstrate the conceptual framework in which the verification of implementations against pattern specifications is possible and our ongoing endeavour to develop effective tool support for LePUS.
Multimedia Information
Authors: Tse Phillip K.C.
Published: May 2011

To start this book, I shall first describe the characteristics of multimedia data. Then, some multimedia applications are listed. After these, I shall explain the representations of multimedia data. Lastly, the multimedia requests are presented as streams.
Memory Caching Methods
Authors: Tse Phillip K.C.
Published: May 2011

The objective of data caching and object caching is to improve the performance in accessing multimedia objects from their storage. An efficient cache storage method can have many benefits: First, caching can increase server capacity in serving more streams. Since the cache may satisfy some requests before they arrive at the server, the server will receive fewer requests to its data. Thus, the workload on the data server can be reduced. As a result, the server can serve more streams. Second, it can reduce access latency when a recently accessed object is being accessed again. When an object is accessed again, the first copy of the accessed object in the cache can already satisfy the request. Since the cache can often access objects with smaller delay, the latency on accessing the objects is thus smaller.
Clustering Web Information Services
Authors: Vakali Athena , Pallis George , Angelis Lefteris
Published: May 2011

The explosive growth of the Web scale has drastically increased information circulation and dissemination rates. As the number of both Web users and Web sources grows significantly everyday, crucial data management issues, such as clustering on the Web, should be addressed and analyzed. Clustering has been proposed towards improving both the information availability and the Web users’ personalization. Clusters on the Web are either users’ sessions or Web information sources, which are managed in a variation of applications and implementations testbeds. This chapter focuses on the topic of clustering information over the Web, in an effort to overview and survey on the theoretical background and the adopted practices of most popular emerging and challenging clustering research efforts. An up-to-date survey of the existing clustering schemes is given, to be of use for both researchers and practitioners interested in the area of Web data mining.
Mining Association Rules from XML Documents
Authors: Rusu Laura Irina , Rahayu Wenny , Taniar David
Published: May 2011

This chapter presents some of the existing mining techniques for extracting association rules out of XML documents, in the context of rapid changes in the Web knowledge discovery area. The initiative of this study was driven by the fast emergence of XML (eXtensible Markup Language) as a standard language for representing semi-structured data and as a new standard of exchanging information between different applications. The data exchanged as XML documents becomes every day richer and richer, so the necessity to not only store these large volume of XML data for later use, but to mine them as well, to discover interesting information, has became obvious. The hidden knowledge can be used in various ways, for example to decide on a business issue or to make predictions about future e-customer behaviour in a web-application. One type of knowledge which can be discovered in a collection of XML documents relates to association rules between parts of the document, and this chapter presents some of the top techniques for extracting them.
Information-Theoretic Methods for Prediction in the Wireless and Wired Web
Authors: Katsaros Dimitrios
Published: May 2011

Discrete sequence modeling and prediction is an important goal and a challenge for Web environments, both wired and wireless. Web client’s data request forecasting and mobile location tracking in wireless cellular networks are characteristic application areas of sequence prediction in such environments. Accurate data request prediction results in effective data prefetching which combined with a caching mechanism can reduce user-preceived latencies as well as server and network loads. Also, effective solutions to the mobility tracking/prediction problem can reduce the update and paging costs, freeing the network from exceesive signaling traffic. Therefore, sequence prediction comprises a very important study and development area . This article presents information-theoretic techniques for discrete sequence prediction. It surveys, classifies, and compares the state-of-the-art solutions, suggesting routes for further research by discussing the critical issues and challenges of prediction in wired and wireless networks
Factors Affecting Inter-Organisational Information Management Systems in Australian Food Processor Chains
Authors: Storer Christine
Published: May 2011

It is agreed that good communication systems between organisations increase customer satisfaction and relationship behaviour and are important issues in chain collaboration and competition. However, less is known about the details of how information is used to manage relationships and coordinate customers and suppliers in chains. In earlier stages of the research, a dynamic model of interorganisational information management systems (IOIMS) and relationships was developed. This chapter presents an evaluation of this model based on a survey of Australian food processors and a green life industry case study and an evaluation of a revised version of this model. It was found that a strategic-oriented IOIMS were positively associated with IOIMS satisfaction that was, in turn, positively associated with perceived current outcomes (satisfaction with performance, perceived responsiveness, and strength of relationship trust). However, (attitudinal) commitment to develop long-term customer/supplier relationships was not significantly associated with the IOIMS, IOIMS satisfaction, or current outcomes. Results were moderated by the nature of the business environment—power/dependency, experience, and market uncertainty. These findings are discussed along with implications for management and suggestions for future research.
Propagating the Ideal
Authors: de Vries Imar
Published: May 2011

In this chapter, visions of mobile communication are explored by focussing on idealised concepts surrounding wireless technology. By examining sources on the development, marketing, and use of wireless technology, I contextualise these visions within earlier accounts of ideal communication found in media history and isolate the regularities that are part of these accounts. On close examination, a paradox reveals itself in these regularities, one that can be described as resulting from an uneasiness in the human communication psyche: an unfulfilled desire for divine togetherness that clashes with individual communication needs. While the exact nature of this paradox—innate and hardwired into our brains, or culturally fostered—remains unknown, however, I assert that the paradox will continue to fuel idealised ideas about future communication technology. I conclude with the observation that not all use of mobile technology can immediately be interpreted as transcendental, and that built-in locational awareness balances the mobile communication act.
Beauty and the Nerd
Authors: Wildenbos Gaby Anne , Washida Yuichi
Published: May 2011

This chapter focuses on the Japanese usage of digital products. Both the consumer and production side are addressed, whereby emphasizing the mobile phone industry on the basis of two consumer groups otakus and kogals. First, key characteristics of each consumer group are described. Second, social and cultural aspects related to consumption behavior of the otakus and kogals are examined—that is, collectivism, individualism and kawaiiness (cuteness or coolness). This is followed by the production side of digital products in Japan, highlighting two major companies involved in mobile telephony: NTT DoCoMo and Label Mobile, which in their turn, are linked to the consumption cultures of otaku and kogals.