bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Data Security and Chase
Authors: Ras Zbigniew W. , Im Seunghyun
Published: May 2011

This article describes requirements and approaches necessary for ensuring data confidentiality in knowledge discovery systems. Data mining systems should provide knowledge extracted from their data which can be used to identify underlying trends and patterns, but the knowledge should not be used to compromise data confidentiality. Confidentiality for sensitive data is achieved, in general, by hiding them from unauthorized users in conventional database systems (e.g., data encryption and/or access control methods can be considered as data hiding). However, it is not sufficient to hide the confidential data in knowledge discovery systems (KDSs) due to Chase (Dardzinska & Ras, 2003a, 2003c). Chase is a missing value prediction tool enhanced by data mining technologies. For example, if an attribute is incomplete in an information system, we can use Chase to approximate the missing values to make the attribute more complete. It is also used to answer user queries containing non-local attributes (Ras & Joshi, 1997). If attributes in queries are locally unknown, we search for their definitions from KDSs and use the results to replace the non-local part of the query.
Ethical Concerns in Computer Science Projects
Authors: Irons Alistair , Boyle Roger
Published: May 2011

Many more computer systems do not work in the way they are intended (Sommerville, 2004; Pressman, 2004). Computer systems are also increasingly vulnerable to misuse (Edgar, 1997; Rowe & Thompson, 1996) and crime (Barrett, 1997; NHTCU, 2003; Casey, 2004). The concerns ascribed to the development of computer systems can also be attributed to the development of computer artifacts in undergraduate and postgraduate projects; poor software practice can often be traced back to the education of the practitioner. The main issue addressed here is the steps academics, computing schools, and departments and universities should take in order to address the potential harm that could result from inappropriate projects, and the potential benefits of introducing an ethical approval phase.
Ethics and Security under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act
Authors: Tribunella Thomas J. , Tribunella Heidi R.
Published: May 2011

The role of government, the impact of legislation, and the interaction of public policy with capital markets in the United States will be addressed in this article. In addition, we will review the ethical issues that were encountered by large accounting firms such as Arthur Andersen in their efforts to audit the financial information of clients such as Enron and Global Crossing.
Ethics in the Security of Organizational Information Systems
Authors: Mishra Sushma
Published: May 2011

Organizational security initiatives by corporations have been voted number one for IT project priorities for the year 2006. The increasing concern for the security of information systems is further intensified with the plethora of governmental regulations emphasizing security, both of information systems and of soft data.
Ethics of AI
Authors: Korb Kevin B.
Published: May 2011

The first question concerns the kinds of AI we might achieve moral, immoral, or amoral. The second concerns the ethics of our achieving such an AI. They are more closely related than a first glance might reveal. For much of technology, the National Rifle Association’s neutrality argument might conceivably apply: “guns don’t kill people, people kill people.” But if we build a genuine, autonomous AI, we arguably will have to have built an artificial moral agent, an agent capable of both ethical and unethical behavior. The possibility of one of our artifacts behaving unethically raises moral problems for their development that no other technology can.
Identity Verification using Resting State Brain Signals
Authors: Palaniappan Ramaswamy , Patnaik Lalit M.
Published: May 2011

In the last several decades, computers or automated technologies have been utilized to verify the identity of humans using biometrics (i.e., physical and behavioral characteristics) (Wayman, Jain, Maltoni, & Maio, 2004), as it often surpasses the conventional automatic identity verification measures like passwords and personal identification numbers (PINs) by offering positive human identification. For example, the use of a PIN actually denotes the automatic identification of the PIN, not necessarily identification of the person who has provided it. The same applies with cards and tokens, which could be presented by anyone who successfully steals the card or token. PINs and passwords also have the problem of being compromised by ‘shoulder surfing’ and people picking the obvious choices. Even the recently proposed graphical passwords share similar problems.
Individual and Institutional Responses to Staff Plagiarism
Authors: McNaught Carmel
Published: May 2011

The ‘publish or perish’ syndrome is often mentioned. However, we are now seeing cases of ‘publish and perish’, speaking from an ethical standpoint. The pressures on academics to increase their research publications come from within universities and also externally from government higher education funding bodies. There are also pressures on universities to portray their own academic staff as being scrupulously honest, and this can lead to the protection of academics who plagiarize.
Information Security Policies for Networkable Devices
Authors: Kotlarsky Julia , Oshri Ilan , Hirsch Corey
Published: May 2011

Recent years have seen a surge in the introduction of networkable Windows-based operating system (NWOS) devices. Some examples are home entertainment systems (e.g., Xbox), smart phones (e.g., Motorola i930 and PlamOne’s Treo), and Pocket PC (e.g., Toshiba e850). While NWOS devices present an appealing proposition for both software vendors and buyers in terms of the flexibility to add supplementary software applications, such devices also introduce new challenges in terms of managing information security risks. NWOS devices are particularly vulnerable to information security threats because of the vendors’ and buyers’ lack of awareness of the security risks associated with such devices. In addition to the direct damage to business operations that an infected NWOS device might cause, other consequences may also include alienated customers and a tarnished reputation (Austin & Darby, 2003).
Information Security Policy Research Agenda
Authors: Fulford Heather , Doherty Neil
Published: May 2011

For the past two decades, it has been argued that an ‘information revolution’ is taking place that is having a significant impact upon all aspects of organizational life (e.g., Porter & Millar, 1985; Drucker, 1988). If applied effectively as a strategic resource, investment in information can result in the realization of significant corporate benefits. Indeed it has been contended that “information is the firm’s primary strategic asset” (Glazer, 1993), and elsewhere that it is the “lifeblood of the organization” (CBI, 1992) contributing directly, as it does, to the organization’s operational performance and financial health. (Bowonder & Miyake, 1992; McPherson, 1996). However, information can only be recognized as a vital organizational resource if managers can readily gain access to it when required. Unfortunately, as a consequence of the high incidence of security breaches, many organizations are failing to consistently provide the information resources that their managers require (Angell, 1996; Gaston, 1996).
Internet and Suicide
Authors: Currier Dianne
Published: May 2011

It is now commonly accepted that the appearance and expansion of Internet-based communication has given rise to new possibilities for forging social networks and establishing “communities of interest.” One such ‘interest group’ which has found a community online comprises those who wish to end their lives. This has become a cause for concern to public health officials, governments, and suicide prevention professionals, while on the other hand possibilities for outreach and prevention in the new medium are being explored. The ways in which suicidal individuals have availed themselves of the information resources and connective possibilities of the Internet are outlined below, along with how governments and other parties interested in suicide prevention have responded to this new domain of risk.
Intrusion Detection and Information Security Audits
Authors: Kidd Terry T. , Hiltbrand Robert K.
Published: May 2011

The rapid expansion and dramatic advances in information technology in recent years have without question generated tremendous benefits to business and organizations. At the same time, this expansion has created significant, unprecedented risks to organization operations. Computer security has, in turn, become much more important as organizations utilize information systems and security measures to avoid data tampering, fraud, disruptions in critical operations, and inappropriate disclosure of sensitive information. Such use of computer security is essential in minimizing the risk of malicious attacks from individuals and groups. To be effective in ensuring accountability, management and information technology security personnel must be able to evaluate information systems security and offer recommendations for reducing security risks to an acceptable level. To do so, they must possess the appropriate resources, skills, and knowledge.
Privacy and Online Data Collection
Authors: Gurau Calin
Published: May 2011

Online privacy represents a controversial subject for Internet users and online companies alike. Most Internet- active enterprises are using cookies or subscription forms to collect demographic and behavioral data about the Internet users that visit their sites. In exchange, these companies are promising the personalization of online interaction between company and customer, and therefore better value for clients. In addition to these benefits, many firms promise in their privacy disclaimer to use the collected data only for purposes specifically accepted by clients.
Security Protection for Critical Infrastructure
Authors: Warren M. J.
Published: May 2011

Understanding and managing information infrastructure (II) security risks is a priority to most organizations dealing with information technology and information warfare (IW) scenarios today (Libicki, 2000). Traditional security risk analysis (SRA) was well suited to these tasks within the paradigm of computer security, where the focus was on securing tangible items such as computing and communications equipment (NCS,1996; Cramer, 1998). With the growth of information interchange and reliance on information infrastructure, the ability to understand where vulnerabilities lie within an organization, regardless of size, has become extremely difficult (NIPC, 1996). To place a value on the information that is owned and used by an organization is virtually an impossible task. The suitability of risk analysis to assist in managing IW and information infrastructure-related security risks is unqualified, however studies have been undertaken to build frameworks and methodologies for modeling information warfare attacks (Molander, Riddile, & Wilson, 1996; Johnson, 1997; Hutchinson & Warren, 2001) which will assist greatly in applying risk analysis concepts and methodologies to the burgeoning information technology security paradigm, information warfare.
An Academic Student-Centered Portal
Authors: Falsetti Carla
Published: May 2011

The Università Politecnica delle Marche (UNIVPM) aims to acquire a recognizable “look” of the university to live on the Web. One way to reach this goal is to create a site, “e-Univpm” (Ramazzotti, De Giovanni, L., Battistini, G., & Leo et al., 2005), linked to the institutional university Web portal. The principal feature of this new site is to be a convivial site offering the services online that the students usually look for in everyday life. It is a place where students would meet other students for a personal social growth. It would be a rich environment with spaces for curricula and extra-curricula activities such as concerts, lectures, exhibitions, meetings, sports, and student association activities, opportunities of lodging and trading. It is a place for expressing ideas and emotions, where students can open blog and discussion forum, and have access to Web sites of interest for an active citizenship. For these reasons, the portal “e- Univpm” is named “convivial site.”
Changing the Interface to High School Education
Authors: Gebhart Greg
Published: May 2011

How do you cater to 21st century learners in a secondary school, and how can we personalize learning so that the value of education is enhanced for every student? This was the question that challenged us at our school. With e-learning, e-teaching, and e-everything becoming part of our everyday life, Lowanna College began investigating a range of different software products that might provide a solution to our question. After a number of trials and tests, we decided on Microsoft Share Point Portal to create a portal that would meet our staff, student, and college needs. The portal would need to be a one-stop shop for all our education needs and provide access to educational resources 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Community Geographic Domain Names
Authors: Norris Alison
Published: May 2011

The Australian (.au) Domain Name Authority (auDA) announced the creation of Community Geographic Domain Names (CGDNs) in November, 2002 (auDA, 2005b). This scheme is novel because it restricts licensing and use of the CGDNs to community-based groups running community portals. The community group must demonstrate that they are representative of and inclusive of all local community members. The community portals displayed on CGDNs are required to reflect community interests, and may choose to cover cultural events, tourism, historical information, special interest groups and local business (auDA, 2005b).
Developing Semantic Portals
Authors: Abrahams Brooke
Published: May 2011

A semantic portal is a type of community information portal that exploits semantic Web standards (Berners-Lee, Hendler, & Lassila, 2001) to improve structure, extensibility, customization, and sustainability. They are similar to a traditional cyberspace portal, except that Web resources are indexed using a rich domain ontology (a specification of key domain concepts) as opposed to, for example, a list of keywords, and are based on new Web markup languages such as Resource Description Framework (RDF) (Manola & Miller, 2004) and Ontology Web Language (OWL) (McGuinness & Harmelen, 2004). RDF provides a flexible and extensible format for describing information items and associated metadata, while OWL supports explicit representation of the domain ontologies used to classify and structure the items. Together, these enable a more decentralized approach to portal architectures. This chapter discusses comprehensive, ontology-based approaches for building high-value semantic portals. State of the art development tools and techniques are first presented both from a client-side and server-side perspective. Next, widely used methodologies and tools for building ontologies are discussed. Finally, a tool called Ontoviews is demonstrated, which has been designed to assist semantic portal developers by providing accessibility to search and dynamic linking services.
Digital Rights Protection Management of Web Portals Content
Authors: Evdoridis Theodoros
Published: May 2011

Without doubt one of the most important factors that contributed to the wide acceptance and popularity of Web portals is the potential for users to access a broad spectrum of information from a single access point, the Web portal itself. A Web portal, in such a way, aggregates information from multiple sources and makes that information available to various users. Regardless of whether the offered assets are hosted within the Web portal or whether the latter serves as a gateway to information services and resources located on the rest of the Internet, a Web portal is simultaneously an all-in-one Web site and a browsing guide to all available Internet information worldwide. Even though there is no definite taxonomy of portals, relevant labels such as government, community, enterprise, general and others are offered aiming at defining the Web portal with respect to its content and its target group. Summarizing, it could be assumed that a Web portal offers centralized access to all relevant content and applications (Tatnall, 2005).
Economical Aspects when Deploying Enterprise Portals
Authors: Okujava Shota , Remus Ulrich
Published: May 2011

Enterprise portals have become the backbone for the integration of a large number of different applications, content, and services (Smith, 2004). Nowadays, electronic business can hardly be imagined without the use of these portals as central entry points. At the same time, companies become more and more aware that portal projects are complex, time- and cost-consuming, with a high risk of failing. Costs and benefits to build up and operate an enterprise portal have to be weighed up in a systematic manner, including make-or- buy decisions with regard to packaged portal platforms vs. open source developments, individually developed vs. purchased standard portal components (Hazra, 2002).
Education Portal Strategy
Authors: Neumann Alf , Hanke Henrik
Published: May 2011

Education portals promise to be an integrated point of entry that provides all stakeholders of an education body, frequently referred to as campus or university, with a single, personalized Web interface to all information and application resources in a secure, consistent, and customizable way (Kavavik, 2002) through multiple devices and multiple access methods that can be utilized to retrieve all appropriate information and learning resources anytime, anywhere, with anything. Hence, they allow more interaction and collaboration among students, faculty, staff, and alumni (Barratt, 2003). Properly implemented, portals can be a strategic asset for the institution. In that sense, they do far more than a traditional Web site of static information ever could (Strauss, 2002).
Effort Estimation for the Development of Web Portals
Authors: di Martino Sergio
Published: May 2011

In recent years, the availability of server-side, Web-oriented component technologies, such as Enterprise Java Beans, ASP .NET, SOAP, and so forth, has led to profound changes in the scenario of information systems, allowing developers to create enterprise Web applications, that is, highly-dynamic information systems able to deliver a complex amount of functionalities, while running in a Web browser. Among those Web applications, the Web portals are of special interest. Basically, a portal is a Web site collecting related information and/or services from different sources. It is intended to provide features such as personalization, integration of applications and business intelligence, notification (push technology), and infrastructure functionality (Winkler, 2005). Due to their intrinsic advantages, Web portals are becoming an essential support for the activities of lots of organizations, companies and public institutions.
An Empirical Study of a Corporate E-Learning Portal
Authors: Handzic Meliha , Hur Joon Ho
Published: May 2011

Technological advances, globalisation, changing demographics and privatisation are the main driving forces behind the current transformation of education. Market research firms estimate that electronic learning or e-learning is the fastest growing sector of the global education market with an annual growth rate of 10-15% (Hezel Associates, 2005)
From the Intranet to the Enterprise Knowledge Portal
Authors: Barraclough Carol Ann , Averweg Udo Richard , O’Byrne Spencer Angela Frances
Published: May 2011

The Internet (also called “the Web” or the “World Wide Web”) is a worldwide network that allows organisations to send and receive communication (Gray, 2006). Internet technology is becoming increasingly pervasive within organisations. The terms to describe the resulting access to information and suites of applications through the Web browser are having a multiplying effect: intranet, corporate portal, enterprise portal, and enterprise knowledge portal. Technology facilitates the identification, creation, and diffusion of knowledge among organisational elements within and across organisations. For knowledge management, people (and not technology) solve information and knowledge management problems. Wells, Sheina, and Harris-Jones (2000) indicate that less than 5% of employee knowledge is actually captured and accessible across the organisation.
Investing in Portals for Benefits and Gains
Authors: Paavola Teemu
Published: May 2011

Companies do not always have a rational justification for the choice they make between different IT investment alternatives. One may see the purchase as unavoidable expenditure, while another may see it as an investment and expect a return at least as high as the return on capital employed. There seems to be lack of useful methods to address the benefits and gains of IT investments, including various kinds of portal projects.
KM Cyberary is a Gateway to Knowledge Resources
Authors: Bhojaraju G.
Published: May 2011

The literature about portals or gateways exists in huge volume. However, only a limited number of articles have addressed the topic of knowledge portals applying various concepts of arrangement to organizing the information on the portals. Likewise, not many authors have written about knowledge portals. So, this study helps to understand one such knowledge portal and its features, coverage of subjects, and so forth.
Library Portals and an Evolving Information Legacy
Authors: Stielow Frederick
Published: May 2011

Many authors report uncertainties over the expression Web portal, but nowhere are these more understandable than with library applications. On one hand, the phase library portal is a tautology. In keeping with the traditional role of a doorway to knowledge, much of the library’s Web presence is characterized by portal functions and their continuing role as “trusted” information resources. On the other hand, the library as metaphor appears prominently in the literature of Yahoo, MSN, Google, AOL and other modern innovators to explain their new technologies for personalized information services.
Management Issues in Portlet Development
Authors: Polgar Tony , Polgar Jana
Published: May 2011

Software development methodology refers to a standardised, documented methodology which has been used before on similar projects or one which is used habitually within an choice of software development method, and applying the right method for the job. From this perspective, the portlet development encounters new circumstances which affect the chosen method. A portal development manager must be aware of the technological properties and constraints, because there development and deployment processes. These issues are not well defined yet; there is no proven methodology for driving portal projects. This article provides discussion of practical approaches to the resolution of development issues and risks in portal environment. The discussed topics include implementation of portals in enterprise environment, portlet applications’ high availability, portlet disaster recovery, and cost of portlet deployment. An attempt is made to forecast future trends in portlet technology at the end of the article, as well as suggest the directions for the flexible selection of methodologies and managerial experience suited to the portal development.
Mobile Portals for Knowledge Management
Authors: Lehmann Hans , Remus Ulrich , Berger Stefan
Published: May 2011

More and more people leave their fixed working environment in order to perform their knowledge-intensive tasks at changing locations or while they are on the move. Mobile knowledge workers are often separated from their colleagues, and they have no access to up-to-date knowledge they would have in their offices. Instead, they rely on faxes and messenger services to receive materials from their home bases (Schulte, 1999). In case of time-critical data, this way of communication with their home office is insufficient.
The MP3 Player as a Mobile Digital Music Collection Portal
Authors: Beer David
Published: May 2011

MP3 players are often described as music collections in our pockets or the pocket jukebox. Indeed, it would seem that MP3 players have significantly transformed music collections, music collecting practices, and contemporary understandings of the music collection. The MP3 player may be used to store, retrieve, and reproduce digital music files, and, therefore, it can be described as a portal—if we define the term portal as an entrance, doorway, or gateway—into these simulated (Baudrillard, 1983) mobile music collections. It is an interface between the human body and archives of digitally compressed music. This can perhaps be understood as constituting a kind of musical cyborg, a cybernetic organism, a hybrid of human and machine (Haraway, 1991). The MP3 player, in this hybridised sense, is a gateway into the digital, virtual, or simulated (Baudrillard, 1983) material cultural realm of music, a mobilised cyber-collection. The question then is what becomes of the music collection and the music collector when music shifts from the objectified disc and spool to the digital compression format and MP3 player portal? And, what are the social and cultural implications of the MP3 player portal’s increasing pervasiveness and embeddedness in the flows of everyday life? The purpose of this article is to briefly introduce and discuss these questions alongside some of the technical details of the MP3 player. This article aims to use the material and technical details and definitions of the MP3 player to open up a range of possible questions that may be pursued in future research in this area. I will begin by defining the MP3 and the MP3 player.
Open Access to Scholarly Publications and Web Portals
Authors: Rennard Jean-Philippe
Published: May 2011

“If I have seen further it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants.” The famous statement of Sir Isaac Newton demonstrates that the progress of science relies on the dissemination of discoveries and scientific knowledge. Even though scientific progress is not strictly cumulative (Kuhn, 1970), information sharing is the heart of this progress. Nowadays, scientific knowledge is mainly spread through scholarly journals, that is, highly specialized journals where quality controls and certifications are achieved through peer-review.
Portal Quality Issues
Authors: Moraga Mª Ángeles , Caro Angélica
Published: May 2011

Web portals are emerging Internet-based applications that enable access to different sources (providers). Through portals the organizations develop their businesses within what is a more and more competitive environment. A decisive factor for this competitiveness and for achieving the users’ loyalties is portal quality. In addition, we live in an information society, and the ability to rapidly define and assess data quality of Web portals for decision making provides a potential strategic advantage. With this in mind, our work was focused on quality of Web portals. In this article we present a part of it: a portal quality model and the first phases in the developing of a data quality model for Web portals.
Portals for Knowledge Management
Authors: Uden Lorna , Naaranoja Marja
Published: May 2011

Knowledge is often defined to be meaningful information. Knowledge is derived from information. What makes the difference between data and information is their organisation, and what makes the difference between information and knowledge is their interpretation (Bhatt, 2001). It is defined as a dynamic human process of justifying personal belief towards the truth (Nonaka & Takeuchi, 1995). Knowledge can also be defined as know-why, know-how, and know-who, or an intangible economic resource from which future resources will be derived (Rennie, 1999). Knowledge is built from data, which is first processed into information (i.e., relevant associations and patterns). Information becomes knowledge when it enters the system and when it is validated (collectively or individually) as a relevant and useful piece of knowledge to implement in the system (Carrillo, Anumba, & Kanara, 2000). There are three types of knowledge within any organization, individual, group, and enterprise, and that knowledge can be generally classified along the lines of being explicit, embedded, and tacit. Explicit knowledge is knowledge represented in documents, books, e-mail, and databases. Embedded knowledge is organizational knowledge found in business processes, products, and services. Tacit knowledge is undocumented knowledge that is captured during business processes by knowledge workers.
Service Quality in E-Government Portals
Authors: Bouaziz Fatma , Fakhfakh Rekik
Published: May 2011

In recent years, e-government seems to become a driver of the government modernization in the world. According to Ronaghan (2002) and Musgrave (2004), the use of computers and ICT by government departments becomes a significant part of the service delivery mechanism, and egovernment programs remain at the top of most countries policy agendas.
SMEs and Portals
Authors: Craig Ron
Published: May 2011

This article looks at portals from the perspective of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and those concerned with the success of these firms. First, the importance of SMEs is discussed. Both governments and private firms want SMEs to succeed, and portals can assist. Following this is a discussion of portals and SMEs. How are portals used? Have there been successes and/or failures? Lessons are drawn from this section. The article ends with references and a list of terms.
Standardisation for Electronic Markets
Authors: Jakobs Kai
Published: May 2011

Until not so long ago, electronic business was typically characterised by one-to-one relations—a customer doing business with a vendor. A big vendor would have business relations with a large number of customers, but these were all still individual one-to-one relations. This classic B2B environment may be characterised by longstanding relations, quite frequently between a powerful customer and smaller suppliers. Here, the distribution of benefits was typically fairly uneven, with the big players reaping most of the benefits. Moreover, they would typically require their business partners to use a specific technology, which would suit their needs, but in many cases would be unsuitable for the small suppliers. As a result, there was not such a big need for standardised systems, because the standards were (implicitly) set by the big players for their respective networks anyway.
State Portals as a Framework to Standardize E-Government Services
Authors: Chalekian Paul
Published: May 2011

State portals play a prominent role in the convergence of politics and administration. On November 8, 2000, U.S. voters received conflicting media projections, but the Secretary of State’s Office in Florida was able to provide them with that state’s most timely election counts. With this example, software design factors, such as the use of dynamic Web programming, suddenly sprung to the forefront of attention. For almost all federated entities, the establishment of state portals has become an advanced stage of e-government; most now have them, and they provide a wide variety of services. They can be a gateway or central access point, but to appear coordinated, the use of portals should provide a development framework. This article presents the convergence of advanced software engineering practices with the empowerment of public administration standards and the swift enabling of public policy via state portals.
Strategic Planning Portals
Authors: Osorio Javier
Published: May 2011

The history of strategic planning begins in the military. According to Webster’s New World Dictionary, strategy is the science of planning and directing large-scale military operations, of maneuvering forces into the most advantageous position prior to actual engagement with the enemy (Guralnic, 1986). Although the way we conceive strategy has changed when applied to management, one element remains key: the aim to achieve competitive advantage. Strategic planning in organizations originated in the 1950s and was very popular and widespread from the mid 1960s to mid 1970s, when people believed it was the answer to all problems and corporate America was “obsessed” with strategic planning. Following that “boom,” strategic planning was cast aside and abandoned for over a decade. The 1990s brought the revival of strategic planning as a process with particular benefits in particular contexts (Mintzberg, 1994).
Supporting Pedagogical Strategies for Distance Learning Courses
Authors: Martins Joberto S.B.
Published: May 2011

Educational portals, for distance learning courses, have a broader and more focused set of objectives and requirements that, typically, go well beyond the basic and commonly used portal definition as the gateway to the information, Web services and networks. As a matter of fact, portals, when adopted in distance learning strategies, are among the most important embedded design elements in course methods, have a direct relation with the pedagogical strategy used and, as such, have a set of requirements with concise and frequently customizable specificities in terms of the pedagogical approach used and course model adopted (Martins, 2002, 2004). This article elaborates on the requirements to specify and design portals focused on supporting distance learning courses. The basic design principle adopted consists to consider the portal itself a embedded element in course design and, as such, all the implications concerning its design, technology flexibility, multiple media support, ludic interfaces, among others aspects, are considered.
The Ubiquitous Portal
Authors: Tatnall Arthur
Published: May 2011

The word portal can be used to represent many different things, ranging from the elaborate entranceway to a medieval cathedral to a gateway to information on the Internet. What all the usages have in common, though, is the idea of facilitating access to some place or some thing. In addition to its use in relation to Web portals, the term can also be used more metaphorically to allude to an entranceway to far away places or new ideas, new knowledge, or new ways of doing things. Some new, or different, ideas, knowledge, or ways of doing things have had a beneficial effect on society, while others have had a detrimental affect. A portal can thus lead to various different places, things, or ideas, both good and bad. Before a portal can be used, however, it must be adopted by the individual or organisation concerned, and adoption of technological innovations such as portals is the subject of this article.
Usability Engineering and Research on Shopping Portals
Authors: Gao Yuan , Luo Hua
Published: May 2011

A business-to-consumer (B2C) electronic marketplace (emarketplace) portal helps online shoppers in searching for desired products and services, customizing a user’s shopping experience, and identifying reputable merchants and service providers. These shopping portals provide the ability for a shopper to specify personal preferences, compare prices from multiple vendors, obtain merchant ratings and feedback from other customers, read reviews of products, find featured products and promotion, and create his or her own wish list in a online profile, among others. From an economics perspective, these portals reduce a buyer’s search cost (Bailey & Bakos, 1997). Web sites falling into this category include Yahoo! Shopping, bizrate.com, shopzilla.com, and nextag.com, among others.
Bits and Bytes vs. Bullets and Bombs
Authors: Nugent John H. , Raisinghani Mahesh
Published: May 2011

This chapter examines briefly the history of warfare, and addresses the likelihood that in the future wars may well be fought, and won or lost not so much by traditional armies and/or throw weights; but rather based upon digital offenses and defenses that are not constrained by geographic limitations or necessarily having overwhelming national resources. This changing landscape may well alter how nations or groups heretofore not a major threat to world powers, soon may pose an even larger threat than that posed by conventional weapons, including weapons of mass destruction (WMD), or at least approach parity with the destructive power of such weapons.
Terrorism and the Internet
Authors: Warren M. J.
Published: May 2011

The new millennium has had a major impact, the world in which we live is changing. The information society is becoming a global society, the growth of electronic businesses is developing new industrials markets on a global basis. But the information society is built on a very fragile framework—the Internet. The Internet is at risk from attacks, historically it was sole hackers, but we are now seeing the development of cyber terrorist organisations. This chapter will explore the ways in which terrorist organizations use the Internet and builds upon a number of case studies focusing upon the middle east.
Cryptography
Authors: Curran Kevin , Smyth Niall , McGrory Bryan
Published: May 2011

One of the main methods of security is cryptography encrypting data so that only a person with the right key can decrypt it and make sense of the data. There are many forms of encryption, some more effective than others. Cryptography works by taking the original information and converting it with cipher text, which encrypts the information to an unreadable form. To decrypt the information we simply d the opposite and decipher the unreadable information back into plain text. This enciphering and deciphering of information is done using an algorithm called a cipher. A cipher is basically like a secret code, but the main difference between using a secret code and a cipher is that a secret code will only work at a level of meaning. This chapter discusses a little of the history of cryptography, some popular encryption methods, and also some of the issues regarding encryption, such as government restrictions.
An Introduction to Key Themes in the Economics of Cyber Security
Authors: Gandal Neil
Published: May 2011

Software security is an important concern for vendors, consumers, and regulators since attackers who exploit vulnerabilities can cause significant damage. In this brief paper, I discuss key themes in the budding literature on the economics of cyber-security. My primary focus is on how economics incentives affect the major issues and themes in information security. Two important themes relevant for the economics of cyber security issues are (i) a security externality and (ii) a network effect that arises in the case of computer software. A nascent economics literature has begun to examine the interaction between vulnerability disclosure, patching, product prices and profits.
Electronic Money Management in Modern Online Businesses
Authors: Robotis Konstantinos , Tzouramanis Theodoros
Published: May 2011

This chapter discusses electronic money management via modern payment processing systems. The protocols and architectures of modern payment processing systems are reviewed and the way to identify and eliminate the threats of abuse of an electronic payment system by cyber fraud is discussed. The countermeasures necessary to combat possible depredations are detailed methodically. There is also a brief presentation of the payment processing system of PayPal and the payment gateway service that is provided by VeriSign. While this chapter shows that perceptions of the Web as a dangerous place to operate a business are justified, the main objective is to help e-commerce and online businesses understand the nature of possible threats for the safeguard of their customers’ financial transactions against all risks.
Cyber Stalking
Authors: Mishra Alok , Mishra Deepti
Published: May 2011

Cyber stalking is a relatively new kind of cyber terrorism crime. Although it often receives a lower priority then cyber terrorism it is an important global issue. Due to new technologies, it is striking in different forms. Due to the Internets provision of anonymity and security it is proliferating quickly. Technology and tools available to curb it have many limitations and are not easy to implement. Legal acts to protect people from cyber stalking are geographically limited to the concerned state or country. This chapter reviews cyber stalking, its approaches, impacts, provision of legal acts, and measures to be taken to prevent it. There is an immediate need for research in the various dimensions of cyber stalking to assess this social problem.
EU Tackles Cybercrime
Authors: Kierkegaard Sylvia Mercado
Published: May 2011

The growing importance of information and communication infrastructure opens up new opportunities for criminal activities. The European Union has therefore taken a number of steps to fight harmful and illegal content on the Internet, protect intellectual property and personal data, promote electronic commerce and tighten up the security of transactions. However, in spite of the EU initiatives, many observers believe that cybercrime requires an international response that should include countries that are havens for cybercriminals.
ALBA Cooperative Environment for Scientific Experiments
Authors: Bosin Andrea , Dessì Nicoletta , Fugini Maria Grazia , Liberati Diego , Pes Barbara
Published: May 2011

Scientific experiments are supported by activities that create, use, communicate and distribute information and whose organizational dynamics is similar to processes performed by distributed cooperative enterprise units. The aim of this chapter is to describe the approach undertaken in the Advanced Lab for Bioinformatics Agencies (ALBA) project to the design and management of cooperative scientific experiments (Bosin et al., 2006). A framework is used that defines the responsibility of computational nodes in offering services and the set of rules under which each service can be accessed by networked nodes through invocation mechanisms in the service-oriented style of computing and collaborating (COOPIS, 2005).
Context-Aware Service Discovery in Ubiquitous Computing
Authors: Guo Huaqun , Zhang Daqing , Ngoh Lek-Heng , Zheng Song , Wong Wai-Choong
Published: May 2011

The decreasing cost of networking technology and network-enabled devices is driving the large scale deployment of such networks and devices so as to offer many new and innovative services to users in ubiquitous computing. For example, when you carry your mobile laptop or personal digital assistant (PDA) around, or drive on the road, various services have been made available, ranging from finding a local printer to print a file, to instantaneously knowing about the traffic situation from traffic-cameras and other sensors along a highway.
Creative Information Systems
Authors: Santos Vitor , São Mamede Henrique
Published: May 2011

In this context, the hypothesis to appeal to the capacity of computer systems, based in knowledge or in adaptations of creativity techniques in order to help to produce new combinations and to give unexpected, original, useful and satisfactory answers, focus in one specific context is presented as something extremely challenging. In this article, we consider the concept of "Creative Information System” which introduces us to a proposal of a concrete architecture fact to a Creative Information System based in the technique of creativity named brute thinking (Michalko 1991).
Ethernet to the Doorstep of Metropolitan Area Networks
Authors: Raptis Lampros , Kagklis D. , Patikis Yiorgos
Published: May 2011

Ethernet has become the predominant technology in the Local Area Networks (LANs) due to its simplicity and cost effectiveness. It has been evolved over the past years from a simple shared medium protocol to a full duplex switched networking solution, from which originates almost 90 percent of the overall IP traffic that flows throughout the internet. Its dominance has led many players in the telecommunication market (equipment manufacturers, network and service providers, end users, etc) to consider Ethernet also as a candidate networking solution to the MAN (Metropolitan Area Networks) and WAN (Wide Area Networks) environment Already several efforts are underway by international standardisation bodies and forums like the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), International Telecommunications Union (ITU) and Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF) to extend Ethernet into the MAN environment. The focus of this article is to provide a concise overview of these initiatives and analyze the challenges that must be faced for the transformation of Ethernet into a carrier-class networking solution capable of providing telecommunication services (Ethernet Services) into the MAN.
Extend the Building Automation System through Internet
Authors: Chu Kin Cheong
Published: May 2011

There are several different ways to connect to the remote controller, each being adapted to specific situations, such as location and availability of communications equipment. Among these methods, Internet is one of the best choices for remote control as no telephone line is required, high data transfer rate is possible and technical support from dealer or manufacturer through Internet connection. This paper is going to describe the current BMS and its extension through the Internet.
Java Web Application Frameworks
Authors: Shan Tony C. , Hua Winnie W.
Published: May 2011

In the information systems environment, a framework is a well-defined structural and behavioral model in which applications can be organized and developed. A framework may consist of a variety of artifacts to help design, develop and glue together various components of an application, such as common services, interfaces, reusable modules, code utilities, scripting capability, technology stack, runtime environment, integration, security, platform, process, persistence, storage, communications, and other packages/libraries.
Multicast of Multimedia Data
Authors: Bouras Christos , Gkamas Apostolos , Primpas Dimitris , Stamos Kostas
Published: May 2011

The heterogeneous network environment that Internet provides to real time applications as well as the lack of sufficient QoS (Quality of Service) guarantees, many times forces applications to embody adaptation schemes in order to work efficiently. In addition, any application that transmits data over the Internet should have a friendly behaviour towards the other flows that coexist in today’s Internet and especially towards the TCP flows that comprise the majority of flows. We define as TCP friendly flow, a flow that consumes no more bandwidth than a TCP connection, which is traversing the same path with that flow (Pandhye 1999).
Network-Based Intrusion Detection
Authors: Hosszú Gábor , Czirkos Zoltán
Published: May 2011

As an example of the application for non-conventional purposes a security system is presented in the article that utilizes just the network for protecting the operating system of the computers. The software maintains a database about the experienced intruding attempts. Its entities working on each computer share their experiments among each other on the peer-to-peer (P2P) overlay network created by self organizing on the Internet. In such a way the security of the participants is increased, and then they can take the necessary steps.
Networked Appliances and Home Networking
Authors: Merabti Madjid , Fergus Paul , Abuelma’atti Omar
Published: May 2011

The Internet has revolutionised the way we access and disseminate information and changed the way we communicate with each other. More and more homes are Internet-enabled as people from all walks of life embrace this technology because of the benefits it brings. However, to date Internet usage has predominately focused on personal computing. This said, an interesting technological shift is taking place, whereby any device, irrespective of its capabilities or conventional usage, will form part of the Internet. These devices will reside at the edge of the Internet, thus enabling devices to exploit the power of Internet communications to interoperate devices and utilise the functions they provide.