bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Analysis of Platforms for E-Learning
Authors: Sánchez-Segura Maribel-Isabel
Published: May 2011

Although they are non-educational institutions, financial institutions have specific training needs. The greatest priority in employee training arises when the bank launches a new financial product or service. The difficulty, in such cases, lies in training the employees in all the regional branches so that they can offer good service to meet the clients’ demand for the product. In developing the training program, two factors have to be considered: • The department responsible for developing the new financial product keeps it secret during the development phase. Therefore, the technical details, tax treatment, and other issues relating to the product are known only after it has been designed and is ready to be launched. Consequently, it is impossible to train employees until the new product has been completely developed; and • Traditionally, employee training is pyramidal. First of all, the trainers in each training center are trained. These, in turn, train the managers, in groups, from the most important branches. Finally, these managers are responsible for training the employees in their offices. Considering the specific needs of the employees, and to obtain the maximum profitability from new financial products, we defined the pilot project called Factory to minimize time and cost spent in the development of e-learning courses for financial institutions. This project was conceived to cover the abovementioned weaknesses detected in the training process of an important financial institution. The pilot project goals were: • To improve the spread of knowledge, and • To minimize the course development cost and time. The remainder of this article is structured as follows. A summary of the main concepts around e-learning are analyzed: concepts, definitions, and platforms. After that, we present the results obtained from a project to develop ad hoc e-learning courses with what we call the Factory tool. This pilot project consisted of two main parts: developing the Factory tool, and developing the courses with and without this tool, in order to compare the cost/benefit for the institution.
Audio Streaming to IP-Enabled Bluetooth Devices
Authors: Zeadally Sherali
Published: May 2011

Over the last few years, we have witnessed the emergence of many wireless systems and devices such as cellular phones, personal digital assistants, pagers, and other portable devices. However, they are often used separately, and their applications do not interact. One of the goals of personal area networks (PANs) (Bluetooth SIG, 2002a; Gavrilovska & Prasad, 2001) is to enable such a diverse set of devices to exchange information in a seamless, friendly, and efficient way. The emergence of Bluetooth (Bluetooth SIG, 2001b; Roberts, 2003) wireless technology promises such seamless networking. Bluetooth is an open industry standard that can provide short-range radio communications among small form factor mobile devices. Bluetooth is based on a high-performance, low-cost integrated radio transceiver and has been designed to provide a cable replacement technology with emphasis on robustness and low cost. Bluetooth supports two types of links: the synchronous connection-oriented (SCO) link and the asynchronous connectionless link (ACL). Figure 1 illustrates the Bluetooth protocol stack. The link manager protocol (LMP) performs link setup and configuration functions. The logical link and control adaptation (L2CAP) layer supports protocol multiplexing and connection-oriented/connectionless data services. The host controller interface (HCI) layer provides an interface to access the hardware capabilities of Bluetooth. In this article, we focus on the design and implementation of an architecture that (a) provides interoperability and connectivity of Bluetooth networks with other networks using Internet protocol (IP) technology and (b) enables Bluetooth mobile devices to wirelessly stream high-quality audio (greater bandwidth than toll quality voice) content from other Internet devices. We also investigate the efficiency of different design approaches that can be used by Bluetooth-enabled devices for high-quality audio streaming.
Broadband Solutions for the Last Mile to Malaysian Residential Customers
Authors: Lurudusamy Saravanan Nathan
Published: May 2011

Broadband is a term that describes the Internet as a function of high-speed data connections and large bandwidth. The Federation Communication Commission (FCC) defines broadband service as data transmission speeds exceeding 200 kilobits per second (Kbps), or 200,000 bits per second, in at least one direction, either downstream or upstream. Its fundamental ability to bring about change in the socioeconomic fabric hinges on it being a medium for greater amount of data transmission. Briefly, high capacity bandwidth allows greater amount of information to be transmitted which is the essence of all applications and communications. It is widely predicted that Internet through broadband will quickly penetrate the residential markets that is in line with the National Broadband Plan (NBP) that focuses on infrastructure readiness and market penetration, expediting the rollout of broadband using both fixed and wireless access. The first in the list of 10 National Policy Objectives as stated in the Communications & Multimedia Act (CMA) 1998 reports the aspiration of turning Malaysia into a communications and multimedia global hub. Hashim (2006) states that a secretariat has been formed to roll out the NBP to ensure its success and to achieve the 10% of the population by 2008. Indeed, one of the fundamental strategies to accomplish such a vision is to put in place an efficient broadband network and ensure sufficient subscription to the services. Broadband is different from conventional dial-up services due to its many enhanced capabilities. It provides access to a wide range of Internet services and applications like streaming media, Internet phone, online gaming, and other interactive services. Many of these current and newly developed services are “bandwidth hungry,” thus requiring large amounts of data transfer at excessively fast speed, which may not be technically feasible with dial-up service. Therefore, broadband service may be increasingly necessary to access a full range of services and opportunities beyond what a dial-up service could potentially offer. Many residential customers who have been using traditional dial-up have been migrating to broadband. The constantly connected Internet accessibility remains another lucrative benefit for broadband converts as compared to the dial-up technology. Broadband technology does not block phone lines nor requires one to reconnect to the network after logging off. The dedicated connection for the user translates into less delay in transmission of content. A faster connection speed could allow users to access a wide range of resources, services, and products.
Characteristics, Limitations, and Potential of Advergames
Authors: Gurau Calin
Published: May 2011

Advergames can be defined as online games that incorporate marketing content. Initially, many companies have placed their brands or logos in the virtual environment of computer games launched by specialised gaming firms. However, this form of advergaming is rather static and ineffective, since the player is concentrated on the task required by the game and might not acknowledge the brand image displayed in the background. This limitation has encouraged the firms to create their own advergames, which are developed around a theme or a character directly related with their products and/or brands. In order to ensure a large diffusion of these games, they were made freely available on the Internet. The facilities offered by the Internet platform have increased the interactiveness of the game, and have added a viral marketing dimension. Viral marketing describes any strategy that encourages individuals to pass on a marketing message to others, creating the potential for exponential growth in the message’s exposure and influence. The use of advergames corresponds well to a strategy of viral marketing, which incorporates the following principles: 1. Give away products or services 2. Provide for effortless transfer to others of these products/services 3. Scale easily from a small to a very large audience 4. Exploit common customer motivations and behaviours 5. Utilise existing communication networks to transfer the products/services, or messages about them 6. Take advantage of others’ resources (existing users/customers) The interest in advergames has substantially increased in the last 5 years because of its perceived advantages (FreshGames, 2002; WebResource, 2004): • Low-cost marketing in comparison with the traditional advertising channels, such as TV and radio • A captured audience that can transmit valuable personal information about its demographic profile, behaviour, needs, attitudes, and preferences • Customer retention: the average time spent in an advergame is 7 to 30 minutes, which cannot be reached in the case of a classical TV advertisement • Viral marketing: 81% of the players will e-mail their friends to try a good game All these data demonstrate the huge potential of advergames (Rodgers, 2004). However, despite the hype created by this new advertising method, most of the information describing or debating advergames is professionally-oriented, often written in an advertising style (DeCollibus, 2002; Hartsock, 00 ; Intrapromote, 2004). Very few academic studies have been initiated to investigate the characteristics of advergames, and their influence on consumers’ perceptions and behaviour (Hernandez, Chapa, Minor, Maldonaldo, & Barranzuela, 2004; Nelson, 2002). This article attempts to identify, based on the existent professional literature, the specific characteristics of an efficient advergame, and to verify the existence of these characteristics in 70 advergames that are active online.
Cost Models for Bitstream Access Service
Authors: Hackbarth Klaus D. , Rodríguez de Lope Laura , Kulenkampff Gabriele
Published: May 2011

The European Regulatory Framework requires National Regulatory Authorities (NRAs) to conduct market analysis for a predefined set of markets that used to be subject to ex ante regulation (due to Significant Market Power (SMP) of the incumbent network operator), or that are expected to be associated with SMP. The service under consideration in this article—Bitstream Access— is considered in Market 12 (see ERG, 2003). Depending on the results of the market analysis, NRAs can impose remedies on the SMP operator, like cost accounting, long run incremental cost (LRIC), based ex ante regulation, or other requirements. Many European NRAs foresee price control of bitstream access service (BAS). This contribution provides a cost model for BAS, which takes into account the required bandwidth of a service and QoS parameters, mainly the average delay over the corresponding bitstream access configuration. The contribution shows in the second section the basic ideas of the FL-LRIC model and especially the so-called Total Element Long Run Increment Cost model (TELRIC) and the basic aspects of BAS network architecture. The third section deduces the proper TELRIC model for BAS under QoS differentiation, mainly considering delay limits. The section introduces two applications, one based on assuring QoS under the overengineering concept, and the other on traffic separation over different queues.
Critical Issues and Implications of Digital TV Transition
Authors: Jung In-Sook
Published: May 2011

Since the inception of digital terrestrial TV (DTT) in the United Kingdom on September 23, 1998, many countries have developed keen interests in this changing landscape of digital television. Soon after, the U.S. also started DTT on November 1, 1998, and other countries such as Germany, France, Japan, and Korea would join the technological trend. Most countries are scheduling the transition of analog TV into digital TV by around 2010 (Table 1). In the digitalization process, each government has two main concerns; one is about when the conversion from analog to digital TV (DTV) is scheduled, and the other is about how smoothly the schedule is completed. While the U.S. currently set analog switch-off for February 17, 2009, the European Commission has planned that switchover from analog TV should be completed in Member States by 2012. The spectrum plans of Member States in the EU said to be flexible enough to allow the introduction of other electronic communications services, along with DTT (Indepen, Ovum, & Fathom, 2005). According to EU Directive, the UK is planning to finish the switchover in 2012 and Germany in 2010. In Asia, South Korea is expected to be completed in 2010, Japan in 2011, and China in 2015. Unlike government-announced timetables, each country has some difficulties in keeping for the transition process so that the successful conversion within the scheduled timeline may not be possible. Thus, this article first examines which kinds of problems and alternatives are emerging in the policy process for DTV transition in several countries. Secondly, it attempts to find the global implication from what sorts of DTV transition issues are observed in most countries and from how they are broaching the problems of existing regulation systems and the social conflicts among stockholders, especially in Asian countries.
Distance Education
Authors: Wright Carol
Published: May 2011

The term distance education is used to describe educational initiatives designed to compensate for and diminish distance in geography or distance in time. The introduction of technology to distance education has fundamentally changed the delivery, scope, expectations, and potential of distance education practices. Technology and electronic communications are becoming exponentially more embedded in every facet of daily life, including business, the professions, and education, a normalization which continues to facilitate and enhance distance education delivery. Ubiquitous advertisements for online courses and degree programs are a testament to an expanded audience and increasing enrollments. Components of e-learning first adopted by distance education have since been adopted by the traditional education community. So pervasive are the application of new information and communication technologies to education delivery that the terms distance education, e-learning, and blended learning have become conflated. It is important that the clear distinctions between them are understood. Distance education represents an environment where the student and the instructor are separated; blended learning is any combination of electronic media or tools that supplement but do not replace face-to-face learning; e-learning is the application of technology to an instructional module or lesson. The relationship between these approaches is dynamic and may further blur, but distinctions will always remain. Distance education programs are offered at all levels, including primary, secondary, higher, and professional education. The earliest antecedents of distance education at all levels are found worldwide in programs described most commonly as correspondence study, a print-dependent approach prolific in geographic areas where distance was a formidable obstacle to education. As each new technology over the last century became more commonly available, it was adopted by educational practitioners eager to improve communication and remove barriers between students and teachers.
Guaranteeing Quality of Service in Mobile Ad Hoc Networks
Authors: Kettaf Noureddine , Abouaissa Hafid , VuDuong Thang
Published: May 2011

This article describes how resources are managed in MANETs (mobile ad hoc networks) so that quality of service (QoS) can be achieved to enable service differentiation. The article introduces in detail a QoS routing protocol called admission control enabled on-demand routing (ACOR) protocol. The article also presents the Global framework for functional architecture analysis in telecommunications (GAT) that is used to model ACOR and show its capability to provide different class of service for different mobile customers. For QoS routing protocols, this fashion of modeling is novel and investigates in details the relation between the customer and its provider and the complexity of the domain of MANETs.
Intelligent Personalization Agent for Product Brokering
Authors: Guan Sheng-Uei
Published: May 2011

A good business to consumer environment can be developed through the creation of intelligent software agents (Guan, Zhi, & Maung, 2004; Soltysiak & Crabtree, 1998) to fulfill the needs of consumers patronizing online e-commerce stores (Guan, 2006). This includes intelligent filtering services (Chanan, 2001) and product brokering services (Guan, Ngoo, & Zhu, 2002) to understand a user’s needs before alerting the user of suitable products according to his needs and preference. We present an approach to capture user response toward product attributes, including nonquantifiable ones. The proposed solution does not generalize or stereotype user preference but captures the user’s unique taste and recommends a list of products to the user. Under the proposed approach, the system is able to handle the inclusion of any unaccounted attribute that is not predefined in the system, without reprogramming the system. The system is able to cater to any unaccounted attribute through a general description field found in most product databases. This is useful, as hundreds of new attributes of products emerge each day, making any complex analysis impossible. In addition, the system is selfadjusting in nature and can adapt to changes in user preference.
Internet and E-Business Security
Authors: Tomaševic Violeta , Pantelic Goran , Bojanic Slobodan
Published: May 2011

Originally developed for research and education purposes as Arpanet in 1970s, the Internet has become a worldwide network that offers numerous services to the immense community of users. An everyday progress of the network technology brings also new security risks regarding a lot of sensitive data transferred over the network, especially in banking, commercial, and medical applications. Therefore the Internet security could be in general defined as a set of measures that should prevent vulnerabilities and misuse of data transmitted and used through the network.
Knowledge Management and Information Technology Security Services
Authors: Ratnasingam Pauline
Published: May 2011

With the explosion of the Internet and Web technologies as a medium of exchange, issues such as knowledge coordination problems, knowledge transfer problems, and knowledge reuse problems related in IT security knowledge management have been growing exponentially. These problems arise from the complexities faced by individuals, groups, and organizations in recognizing the nature of knowledge needed to solve problems or make decisions. Knowledge management (KM) provides a formal mechanism for identifying and distributing knowledge. It is the discipline that focuses on capturing, organizing, sharing, and retaining key corporate knowledge as an asset (McManus & Snyder, 2002). KM ensures that the right knowledge is available in the right representation to the right processors (humans or machines) at the right time for the right costs (Holsapple & Singh, 2005). Benefits of proper KM include improved organizational effectiveness, delivery of customer value and satisfaction, and added product and service innovation. There is no reason to believe that IT security will be an exception in the context of KM and IT. It has been recognized that the first step in the KM process is to identify or define knowledge needs. This article aims to discuss the role of knowledge management categories, namely knowledge resources, knowledge characteristics, knowledge dimensions, and stakeholders in IT security and their relationship to security services. We develop a theoretical framework by integrating IT security services pertaining to confidentiality, integrity, authentication, non-repudiation, access controls, and availability of IT systems with the knowledge management categories. The study extends the theory on knowledge management and the importance of maintaining IT security. We conclude the article with the contributions of the framework to theory and practitioners leading to directions for future research. The next section introduces the categories of knowledge management and IT security services. We begin with the definition of knowledge management from previous research. We then provide a discussion of the categories of knowledge management leading to the development of an integrated IT security framework of knowledge management.
Knowledge-Building through Collaborative Web-Based Learning Community or Ecology in Education
Authors: Kwok Percy
Published: May 2011

Because of the ever changing nature of work and society under knowledge-based economy in the 21st century, students and teachers need to develop ways of dealing with complex issues and thorny problems that require new kinds of knowledge that they have not ever learned or taught (Drucker, 1999). Therefore, they need to work and collaborate with others. They also need to be able to learn new things from a variety of resources and people, and to investigate questions and bring their learning back to their dynamic life communities. There have arisen recent learning community approaches (Bereiter, 2002; Bielaczyc & Collins, 1999) and learning ecology (Siemens, 2003) or information ecology approaches (Capurro, 2003) to education. These approaches fit well with the growing emphasis on lifelong, lifewide learning and knowledge-building works. Following this trend, the Internet technologies have been translated into a number of strategies for teaching and learning (Jonassen, Howland, Moore, & Marra, 2003) with supportive development of one-to-one (e.g., e-mail posts), one-to-many (such as e-publications), and many-to-many communications (like video-conferencing). The technologies of computer-mediated communications (CMC) make online instructions possible and have the potential to bring enormous changes to student learning experience of the real world (Rose & Winterfeldt, 1998). It is because individual members of learning communities or ecologies help synthesize learning products via deep information processing processes, mutual negotiation of working strategies, and deep engagement in critical thinking, accompanied by an ownership of team works in those communities or ecologies (Dillenbourg, 1999). In short, technology in communities is essentially a means of creating fluidity between knowledge segments and connecting people in learning communities. However, this Webbased collaborative learning culture is neither currently emphasized in local schools nor explicitly stated out in intended school curriculum guidelines of formal educational systems in most societies. More than this, community ownership or knowledge-construction in learning communities or ecologies may still be infeasible, unless values in learning cultures are necessarily transformed after technical establishment of Web-based learning communities or ecologies.
Managerial Computer Business Games
Authors: Proserpio Luigi
Published: May 2011

Interview with Anthony Davidson, SuperAguri F1 GP Driver (autosport.com, March 2, 2007): Q: Can you actually learn anything from the [F1 videogame] though? AD: Absolutely. When I did the 2004 season, I really relied on having video data from the team and using the PlayStation games as well to learn the circuits. We always deal in corner numbers, we don’t use the proper corner names, so we have a little map in the car with the numbers. For you to visualize it beforehand is a help, because when they talk about a bump in turn three then you know what they are talking about before you have even walked the circuit or seen any onboard footage. You know roughly what the track looks like and when you get out there you smile because it is exactly what you were doing in your living room. And now the graphics have stepped up another level it is so much more realistic. F1 drivers can benefit from computer simulations, with a supplement of training before racing on a newly built circuit, with no consolidated knowledge. Managers (and students, too) can benefit from PC-based simulations that recreate complex business worlds as well. Books contain theories, along with a good number of examples. Computer-based business games can add dynamism and a temporal dimension to the standard managerial theories contained in books. Many researchers think that the potential of the computer as a learning tool is very high if we involve the user in a simulation process, instead of giving him a description of reality. This theory is confirmed by many field examples, as shown before by the Formula 1 pilot, who adopts a particular software in order to learn how to drive on a circuit that he has not tested directly. U.S. Marines play Quake and Unreal to simulate the mission in which they will be involved. Business games, finally, start to be adopted in managerial education as learning support tools. For example, EIS simulation has been developed at Insead Business School in order to simulate organizational change, while FirmReality has been developed at Bocconi University to study the integrated use of organizational capabilities to gain competitive advantage. Scientific and managerial literatures recognize the potential of these instruments for learning purposes (compatible with andragogical and collaborative learning theories), but cannot address their design and the integration within distance-learning practices. The current debate on computer simulations involves the research and the standardization of rules for the project phases, in order to take advantage of the potential attributed to this tool, and enhance the compatibility between managers/students and this form of learning.
Multiplexing Digital Multimedia Data
Authors: Rivas Samuel , Barreiro Miguel , Gulías Víctor M.
Published: May 2011

Multiplexing is the process of combining several independent signals to build another one from which it is possible to recover any of the original signals. This way, several sources of information can share one single transmission channel. The opposite operation is demultiplexing, or demuxing. Multiplexing devices are called multiplexers, or muxers. Demultiplexer devices are called demultiplexers, or demuxers. A multiplexed stream is usually called multiplex. For telecommunications, channel sharing usually aims for using one single physical channel to transmit several data streams. In multimedia, we assume an established digital data path, so a channel is a logical connection. The goal is to divide the complexity of digital multimedia systems in different access levels. For the example in Figure 1a, multiplex 1 hides the individual details of stream 1 and 2, and multiplex 2 adds a new access layer hiding the details of multiplex 1 and stream 3. A typical application of multiplexing is mixing individual audio and video streams to build a new single stream for transmission or storage.
The N-Dimensional Geometry and Kinaesthetic Space of the Internet
Authors: Murphy Peter
Published: May 2011

What does the space created by the Internet look like? One answer to this question is to say that, because this space exists “virtually,” it cannot be represented. The idea of things that cannot be visually represented has a long history, ranging from the Romantic sublime to the Jewish God. A second, more prosaic, answer to the question of what cyberspace looks like is to imagine it as a diagram-like web. This is how it is represented in “maps” of the Internet. It appears as a mix of crosshatching, lattice-like web figures, and hub-and-spoke patterns of intersecting lines. This latter representation, though, tells us little more than that the Internet is a computer-mediated network of data traffic, and that this traffic is concentrated in a handful of global cities and metropolitan centres. A third answer to our question is to say that Internet space looks like its representations in graphical user interfaces (GUIs). Yet GUIs, like all graphical designs, are conventions. Such conventions leave us with the puzzle: Are they adequate representations of the nature of the Net and its deep structures? Let us suppose that Internet space can be visually represented, but that diagrams of network traffic are too naïve in nature to illustrate much more than patterns of data flow, and that GUI conventions may make misleading assumptions about Internet space, the question remains: What does the structure of this space actually look like? This question asks us to consider the intrinsic nature, and not just the representation, of the spatial qualities of the Internet. One powerful way of conceptualising this nature is via the concept of hyperspace. The term hyperspace came into use about a hundred years before the Internet (Greene, 1999; Kaku, 1995; Kline, 1953; Rucker, 1977, 1984; Stewart, 1995; Wertheim, 1999). In the course of the following century, a number of powerful visual schemas were developed, in both science and art, to depict it. These schemas were developed to represent the nature of four-dimensional geometry and tactile-kinetic motion—both central to the distinctive time-space of 20th-century physics and art. When we speak of the Internet as hyperspace, this is not just a flip appropriation of an established scientific or artistic term. The qualities of higher-dimensional geometry and tactile-kinetic space that were crucial to key advances in modern art and science are replicated in the nature and structure of space that is browsed or navigated by Internet users. Notions of higher-dimensional geometry and tactile-kinetic space provide a tacit, but nonetheless powerful, way of conceptualising the multimedia and search technologies that grew up in connection with networked computing in the 1970’s-1990’s.
An Overview of Privilege Management Infrastructure (PMI)
Authors: Mundy Darren P. , Otenko Oleksandr
Published: May 2011

Public key infrastructures (PKI) are now in place in a number of organizations and there is a vast amount of material available that can be used to obtain familiarisation with the concept (Adams & Lloyd, 2002; Raina, 2003). Although related to PKI, privilege management infrastructure (PMI) is a more recent development in the network security field. PMI has been designed to supply the authorization function lacking in the PKI model. This article will provide an overview of PMI, will provide a number of examples of present PMI architectures, such as PERMIS (Chadwick, Zhao, Otenko, Laborde, Su, & Nguyen, 2006), AKENTI (Thompson, Essari, & Mudumbai, 2003), and Shibboleth (Carmody, 2001), and will provide some examples of practical PMI usage.
Peer-to-Peer Usage Analysis
Authors: Masseglia Florent , Poncelet Pascal , Teisseire Maguelonne
Published: May 2011

With the huge number of information sources available on the Internet and the high dynamics of their data, peer-to-peer (P2P) systems propose a communication model in which each party has the same capabilities and can initiate a communication session. These networks allow a group of computer users with the same networking program to connect with each other and directly access resources from one another. P2P architectures also provide a good infrastructure for data and computer intensive operations such as data mining. In this article we consider a new data mining approach for improving resource searching in a dynamic and distributed database such as an unstructured P2P system, that is, in Masseglia, Poncelet, and Teisseire (2006) we call this problem P2P usage analysis. More precisely we aim at discovering frequent behaviors among users of such a system. We will focus on the sequential order between actions performed on each node (requests or downloads) and show how this order has to be taken into account for extracting useful knowledge. For instance, it may be discovered, in a P2P file sharing network that for 77% of nodes from which a request is sent for “Mandriva Linux,” the file “Mandriva Linux 2005 CD1 i585-Limited- Edition-Mini.iso” is chosen and downloaded; then a new request is performed with the possible name of the remaining iso images (i.e., “Mandriva Linux 2005 Limited Edition”), and in the large number of returned results the image corresponding to “Mandriva Linux 2005 CD2 i585-Limited-Edition-Mini.iso” is chosen and downloaded. Such knowledge is very useful for proposing the user with often downloaded or requested files according to a majority of behaviors. It could also be useful in order to avoid extra bandwidth consumption, which is the main cost of P2P queries (Ng, Chu, Rao, Sripanidkulchai, & Zhang, 2003).
Scanning Multimedia Business Environments
Authors: Scholz Sören W. , Wagner Ralf
Published: May 2011

The term environmental scanning (ES) refers to the way in which managers study their relevant business environment. More precisely, we define ES as both looking for and looking at information available in the business environment. These activities embrace all domains of gathering facts from external sources like competitive intelligence (CI) and market research, but take a more holistic, integrative perspective by considering consumers, competitors, and the technological developments in same industry and different industries as well (Scholz & Wagner, 2006). Choo, Detlor, and Turnbull (2001) give an overview of ES and empirical findings supporting the importance of ES activities in business organizations. ES helps managers foresee favorable as well as unfavorable influences and initiate strategies that enable their organizations to adapt to their business environments. This article: • outlines three perspectives on the challenges for environmental scanning arising from information dissemination by multimedia, • discusses opportunities for ES on the World Wide Web (WWW), and • exemplarily describes two software solutions for ES in multimedia. The remainder of the article is organized as follows: the next section discusses challenges for ES arising from the increase of multimedia technologies in the business environment. Then, we discuss the impact of the WWW on ES. Subsequently, we present the state of the art in ES practice as well as the supporting software. The article concludes with a brief outline of future challenges in the field of ES.
Semantic Web Services
Authors: Adán-Coello Juan Manuel
Published: May 2011

Service-oriented computing (SOC) is a new computing paradigm that uses services as building blocks to accelerate the development of distributed applications in heterogeneous computer environments. SOC promises a world of cooperating services where application components are combined with little effort into a network of loosely coupled services for creating flexible and dynamic business processes that can cover many organizations and computing platforms (Chesbrough & Spohrer, 2006; Papazoglou & Georgakopoulos, 2003). From a technical point of view, the efforts to offer services have focused on the development of standards and the creation of the infrastructure necessary to describe, discover, and access services using the Web. This type of service is usually called a Web service. The availability of an abundant number of Web services defines a platform for distributed computing in which information and services are supplied on demand, and new services can be created (composed) using available services. Nevertheless, the composition of Web services involves three fundamental problems (Sycara, Paolucci, Ankolekar, & Srinivasan, 2003): 1. To elaborate a plan that describes how Web services interact, how the functionally they offer can be integrated to provide a solution to the considered problem. 2. To discover Web services that accomplish the tasks required by the plan. 3. To manage the interaction of the chosen services. Problems 2 and 3 are of responsibility of the infrastructure that supports the composition of services, while the first problem is of responsibility of the (software) agents that use the infrastructure. The discovery and interaction of Web services poses two main challenges to the infrastructure: 1. How to represent Web services capabilities and how to recognize the similarities between service capabilities and the required functionalities. 2. How to specify the information a Web service requires and provides, the interaction protocol, and the low-level mechanisms required to service invocation.
The Technological Revolution in Survey Data Collection
Authors: Vehovar Vasja
Published: May 2011

Surveys—data collection based on standardized questionnaires— started with censuses thousands of years ago. However, it was only in the 1930s, following some breakthrough developments in applied statistics, that the sample survey data collection approach was widely acknowledged. The possibility of inferring about the total population from samples of 300 or 1,000 units radically expanded the potential of survey data collection. In addition to sampling, survey data collection procedures also rely on a proper measurement instrument (i.e., a survey questionnaire) as well as effective administrative and managerial activities. Since the 1930s, opinion polling has become a major tool of democratic development (Gallup & Rae, 1968). Official statistics have recognized the enormous potential of survey data collection for the fast estimation of crops, industry outputs, unemployment, and so forth. Further, the marketing and media industries obtained a tool to effectively measure the characteristics of their target groups. The survey industry has therefore become an established activity with its own associations (e.g., ESOMAR, AAPOR), codes of conduct, publications, conferences, professional profiles, and large multinational companies generating annual revenues worth billions of dollars (e.g., A.C. Nielsen). Surveys were traditionally performed as personal interviews, over the telephone or in the form of selfadministrated questionnaires. Information-communication technology (ICT) developments introduced radical changes to the survey data collection processes, particularly because the core of this activity is manipulation with the information itself. The early implementations of ICT in survey data collection are linked to computer developments. Mass computerization started with the emerging PC in the 1980s and enabled computer-assisted survey information collection (CASIC), firstly with the introductionn of computer-assisted telephone interviewing (CATI). In the late 1980s, portable computers started to be used with face-to-face interview data collection, leading to computer-assisted personal interviewing (CAPI). When personal computers started to become the mainstream, computerized self-administered questionnaires (CSAQ) were implemented in various forms. The last crucial milestone came in the 1990s with the rise of the Internet, which enabled e-mail and Web-based types of CSAQ. This started a new stream of ICT development which is radically transforming the entire survey industry. Internet-based data collection will soon become the mainstream survey mode. Studies for 2005 projected that market research organizations worldwide would generate over a billion dollars in revenue on the basis of Internet surveys (Terhanian & Bremer, 2005). In addition, about 40% of research work in the USA in 2003-2004 was conducted on the Internet (E-consultancy, 2004).
Wiki Technology as a Knowledge Management System
Authors: Raman Murali
Published: May 2011

This article presents the use of Wiki technology to support knowledge management efforts in an organizational setting. We begin by providing some background information about knowledge management and knowledge management systems therein. The article then proceeds by examining what Wiki technology means, its benefits as a knowledge management system, and the issues involved for organizations that might consider using this technology to support knowledge management initiatives.
WLAN Security Management
Authors: Pulkkis Göran
Published: May 2011

In a wired local area network (LAN), the network ports and cables are mostly contained inside a building. Therefore, a hacker must defeat physical security measures, such as security personnel, identity cards, and door locks, to be able to physically access the LAN. However, the penetration capability of electromagnetic waves exposes the data transmission medium of a wireless LAN (WLAN) to potential intruders (Potter & Fleck, 2003). The fast development of wireless technologies implies that wireless communications will become ubiquitous in homes, offices, and enterprises. In order to conserve power and frequency spectrum, the wireless device computation overhead is most often reduced. The conventional security design thus uses smaller keys, weak message integrity protocols, and weak or one-way authentication protocols (Hardjono & Dondeti, 2005). WLAN security thus requires a more reliable protection of data communication between WLAN units and strong access management mechanisms.
Technology Product and Service Development in an Enterprise Architecture Service Capability
Authors: Andriole Stephen J.
Published: May 2011

This is an example of an investment in a new technology service. LiquidHub, Inc., assessed the market and its own service capabilities and decided to make an investment in enterprise architecture to better serve their clients. A significant investment was necessary to understand the market, develop an overall go-to-market enterprise architecture strategy, and retool professionals to be able to provide the very best services available. Would the investment pay?
A Multi-Disciplinary Approach to Technoethics
Authors: de Vries Marc J.
Published: May 2011

In this chapter it is argued that a multidisciplinary approach to technoethics is necessary to do justice to the complexity of technology. Normativity pervades all aspects of technology, including technological knowledge. As a consequence, ethical considerations should guide not only the production of artifacts, but also their design and the research that is needed to acquire knowledge about the artifact-in-design. Experts from different disciplines should cooperate to identify relevant ethical issues related to the various aspects of the reality in which the artifact will function.
Ethical Theories and Computer Ethics
Authors: Charlesworth Matthew , Sewry David
Published: May 2011

The development of cybernetics and digital computers prompted the need for a greater exploration of computer ethics. Information ethics, as described by Floridi and Sanders (2003), offers a conceptual basis for such an exploration. This chapter provides an historical perspective on the development of a foundation for the study of computer ethics. A brief explanation is provided of a number of ethical theories (Divine Command; Ethics of Conscience; Ethical Egoism; Ethics of Duty; Ethics of Respect; Ethics of Rights; Utilitarianism; Ethics of Justice; Virtue Ethics) followed by a number of perspectives on the development of computer ethics. The Innovative Approach proposed by Floridi et al concludes the chapter.
Cyber Identity Theft
Authors: Roberts Lynne D.
Published: May 2011

Information and communication technologies (ICTs) provide substantial benefits to governments, organizations and individuals through providing low cost, instantaneous, global communication capabilities. However, an unintended consequence of these new technologies is their use for criminal purposes. The technology can be used as the mechanism for organizing and committing criminal activity and as a means of protecting criminals against detection and punishment. Cyber identity theft is an internationally recognized problem resulting from the introduction of new information technologies. This chapter provides an overview of cyber identity theft and related fraud, describing the impact of cyber identity theft on governments, organizations, law enforcement agencies and individuals. Methods currently being used, or proposed, to combat cyber identity fraud are outlined and the potential impact of these examined. The tension between using technological solutions to reduce cyber identity theft and privacy and civil liberties concerns is explored.
Cyber-Victimization
Authors: Roberts Lynne D.
Published: May 2011

Information and communication technologies (ICTs); while providing a range of benefits to individuals, organisations and governments; also provide new opportunities for criminal activities to emerge. This chapter provides an overview of criminal victimization online. The focus is on the impact of cybercrimes on victims and the associated legal, technical, educational and professional responses to cybervictimization. The focus on cyber-victimization is situated within the broader context of responses to victims of crime in off-line settings. The form of cyber-crimes will continue to change as new ICTs and applications emerge. Continued research into the prevalence, types and impacts of cyber-victimization is required in order to inform victim service provision and effectively address the needs of current and future cyber-victims.
Legal and Ethical Implications of Employee Location Monitoring
Authors: Kaupins Gundars
Published: May 2011

This article summarizes the legal and ethical implications associated with employee location monitoring. It states that few international laws and no American laws directly address this location monitoring. International privacy laws and directives, the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, the USA Patriot Act and other laws and directives involving Internet and e-mail monitoring provide the pattern for future location monitoring laws. It also states that ethical considerations such as productivity, security, goodwill, privacy, accuracy, and discipline fairness affect future laws. Furthermore, the authors hope that the understanding of existing laws and ethical considerations associated with electronic monitoring can lead to practical and reasonable location monitoring policies. Employer and employee interests must be balanced. Location monitoring policies should include a legitimate business purpose, ensure that employees are notified that they are being monitored, provide for adequate storage and dissemination of monitoring data, and provide for consistent evaluation of monitoring effectiveness.
Actor-Network Theory Applied to Information Systems Research
Authors: Tatnall Arthur
Published: May 2011

Building an information system is a difficult task, partly due to the problem of ascertaining the requirements of the intended users, but also because of the complexity of the large number of human-machine interactions (Tatnall & Davey, 2005). This complexity is reflected in the difficulty of building these systems to operate free from error and to perform as intended. The dictionary defines innovation as “the alteration of what is established; something newly introduced” (Macquarie Library, 1981 p. 914). As the introduction or improvement of an information system in an organisation necessarily involves change, information systems research often involves research into technological innovation.